Advent Day 5: Challenging Jesus

TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (Mt 7:21, 24-27)

From Matthew 7:21:

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

From The Navarre Bible: St Matthew, page 84:

“To be genuine, prayer must be accompanied by a persevering effort to do God’s will. Similarly, in order to do his will it is not enough to speak about the things of God: there must be a consistency between what one preaches — what one says — and what one does: ‘The kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power’ (1 Cor 4:20); ‘Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves’ (Jas 1:22).

“To enter the Kingdom of heaven, to be holy, it is not enough, then, to speak eloquently about holiness. One has to practise what one preaches, to produce fruit which accords with one’s words. Fray Luis de León puts it very graphically: ‘Notice that to be a good Christian it is not enough just to pray and fast and hear Mass: God must find you faithful, like another Job or Abraham, in times of tribulation’ (Guide for Sinners, book 1, part 2, chap. 21).”

From Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Matthew, page 121:

“The point is that religious confession is no substitute for a personal relationship with Jesus and the obligation to obey his Father’s will. If our creed and our conduct are out of alignment, then our profession of Jesus as Lord is not a true submission to his lordship.”

My take

Particularly, as a teacher, this passage and the associated commentary really hit home for me. Day in and day out, I endeavor to faithfully and clearly expound on the truths of Catholicism. But it requires frequent prayer, penance, reflection, spiritual reading, and of course recourse to the Sacraments, to even come close to practicing what I teach and preach — and not without a struggle and frequent stumbles. I especially appreciated the nod in Navarre to the letter of James, my favorite New Testament epistle due to its practicality. James, again:

So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (Jas 2:17)

A message I find plenty of opportunities to convey to my students is that with the Catholic Faith there is no “easy-believism.” Saying, “I believe in Jesus,” and thinking that is enough to be saved, is poppycock. Jesus did not spend years teaching for nothing. He speaks of hell often, letting us know how one can find himself there, and what it takes to avoid it. The message of our Lord is not for lightweights; it is a challenge that we face daily. Only with the grace of God can we overcome the lure of sin and gain perseverance during trials so as to maintain a right relationship with the Lord.

Are you ready to meet the Lord should He come calling today? Am I?

ADVENT RESOURCES

ADVENT/CHRISTMAS READING

Christ Enthroned (1505) by Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano

God bless!

Are you “incredulous for joy and…amazed” that “the author of life” is “expiation for our sins and..for those of the whole world”? “O Lord, you put gladness into my heart.”

TODAY’S READINGS

It struck me in hearing the readings proclaimed at Mass that, while Sunday readings are always purposeful in connecting the first reading and the Gospel reading, all four Scriptures fit together in a profound way. Let’s take a closer look at each reading, in particular the phrases in question.

Today’s first reading (Acts 3:13-15, 17-19) has Peter remonstrating his Jewish hearers for what they did to Jesus.

“The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.”
(v. 15)

We cooperate with this “author” to make new humans and He provides the soul. He gives the life of grace to that soul in Baptism, gives life back to that soul through Confessions, and strengthens the life of that soul through the Eucharist. This Author writes beautifully, don’t ever forget when you look around and when you look in the mirror.

The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9) is overwhelming in its delight of the Lord:

O LORD, let the light of your countenance shine upon us!
You put gladness into my heart.
(vv. 7b-8a)

Wow! When our heart is full in earthly matters, we never want to lose that feeling, but inevitably it fades or is jarred away. But the gladness God brings to the heart can never be taken away if we hold it close. Never let earthly distractions, no matter how severe, disturb your peace, knowing that God is with you when you stay in His good graces.

Then John (1 Jn 2:1-5a) tells us how we honor Jesus Christ for doing the following for us:

He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.
(v. 2)

Thank God! This is truly Good News! This great benefit we have received in knowing Christ and having been initiated into the Catholic faith should be made known to “the whole world.” There is no human that is not a beneficiary of Christ’s sacrifice. We are under obligation to make it known to every soul. What could ever stop us from winning over brothers and sisters to Christ? We must follow the Lord’s commandments and share this requirement with others.

The Gospel has Jesus appearing to the apostles and His Road to Emmaus companions in the Upper Room:

[Jesus] showed them his hands and his feet…
[T]hey were…incredulous for joy and were amazed
… (vv. 40-41a)

When was the last time you were “incredulous for joy and…amazed” at what Jesus has done for you and every person who ever has come into existence or who will be conceived? It is far too easy to become complacent in our faith. Let us renew ourselves in the Lord daily , finding joy and amazement in what He has done for us and for everyone. Let us exude the joy of knowing Jesus and share our amazement in how He saved wretches like us, so more wretches will come to the Faith..

BP BARRON SERMON

Christ Appearing to His Disciples After the Resurrection (c. 1795) by William Blake

God bless.

Easter: “He saw and believed.”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s Gospel reading for Easter (Jn 20:1-9) gives us John’s version of the scene at Jesus’ tomb. Peter and John race to the tomb after Mary Magdalene’s witness:

“When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.”
(vv. 6-8)

“The disciple whom Jesus loved followed Peter into the tomb ‘and he saw and believed.’ What did he see, and what did he believe? He saw that the body of Jesus was not in the tomb, and he saw the cloths that he had been buried in. If his mind worked quickly, he might have deduced that whatever had happened, it was not the work of robbers. But simply seeing that Jesus was no longer in the tomb and that his burial cloths had been left behind could have in itself triggered a surge of faith, a joyful conviction that Jesus had somehow triumphed over death. He did not understand yet how Jesus had done so (verse 9), but he believed with all his heart that Jesus was alive. Perhaps words of Jesus popped into his mind, words about having the power to take up his life again (10:18) or about his going ahead of them to prepare a place for them (14:2-3). Perhaps, though, his belief was not something he could easily have put into words but was nevertheless an unshakable faith that Jesus had broken the hold of death.” (Bringing the Gospel of John to Life, 551)

Or, as some speculate, John may have noted something unusual about the wrapping. There is much on the internet about the shroud but let me direct you to a podcast that I found particularly interesting (here).

Of course, no one then, or today, actually witnessed Jesus arising. I recall the words of Jesus to Thomas a little further on in this chapter:

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” (Jn 20:29b)

As yesterday’s post laid out, no resurrection -> faith unwarranted. But since we are blessed with so wonderful a Savior, we have hope to go along with faith if we remain in God’s love.

BP BARRON’S HOMILY

A FINAL NOTE

Happy Easter! May this holy season be especially blessed for you and your loved ones.

The Two Disciples at the Tomb (c. 1906) by Henry Ossawa Tanner

God bless.

Lent Day 44: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s Gospel reading for the Chrism Mass (Lk 4:16-21) has Jesus returning to His hometown of Nazareth. He stuns His synagogue listeners (undoubtedly including many friends, relatives, and acquaintances) by declaring Himself the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 61:

”“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” (v. 21)

“Christ’s words…show us the authenticity with which he preached and explained the Scriptures…Jesus teaches that this prophecy, like the other main prophecies of the Old Testament, refers to him and finds its fulfillment in him (cf. Luke 24:44ff). Thus, the Old Testament can be rightly understood only in the light of the New — as the risen Christ showed the Apostles when he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (cf. Luke 24:45), an understanding which the Holy Spirit perfected on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:4).” (The Navarre Bible: St Luke, 78)

“Jesus make a bombshell announcement…With Jesus, the time of waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises in Scriptures is over (see 24:27, 44). The messianic jubilee announced by Isaiah is at hand! ‘Behold, now is the acceptable time’ (2 Cor 6:2 RSV).” (The Gospel of Luke [Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture], 100)

“In the Greek of Luke’s Gospel, ‘today’ is emphatic. ‘Today,’ right now, even as you listen, ‘this scripture passage is fulfilled’…Isaiah’s prophecy serves as Jesus’ job description as he begins his ministry. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plans, bringing salvation to his people.” (Bringing the Gospel of Luke to Life, 118)

What is the job description, per Isaiah?

[T]o bring glad tidings to the lowly,
to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
To announce a year of favor from the LORD
and a day of vindication by our God,
to comfort all who mourn;
To place on those who mourn in Zion
a diadem instead of ashes,
To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning,
a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit.
(vv. 61:1-3)

Who are the lowly? All of us sinners. The brokenhearted? All of us, at one time or another, sometimes for a long time? Prisoners? Those enslaved to habitual sin and all who place some created thing ahead of the Lord. Mourners? Those who have experienced loss, particularly loss of the grace of God through serious sin. How do these return to gladness? A return to God through Reconciliation.

Thank you Jesus for freeing us from slavery to sin and providing us the Church and the means of salvation through her, namely the Sacraments. Two we commemorate as being instituted today: Holy Orders and the Eucharist. Let us have recourse to the Eucharist and Reconciliation often and never let us spurn these great gifts.

For a dramatization of this episode in the synagogue, watch here.

God bless.

Lent Day 40: Speaking, listening, enduring, persevering

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s Old Testament reading (Is 50:4-7), as we begin Holy Week is Isaiah’s third servant song, vividly prophesying what the future Messiah would endure. The commentary following deals with the entire reading and beyond (through v. 11). The passage starts off this way:

The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue…”

“The third ‘Servant Song’ in Isaiah. Here the Servant is a prophet who speaks God’s word, even as he suffers at the hands of his persecutors. Again, he represents the people of Israel and yet is distinct from them: unlike Israel in exile, whose ‘ear has not been opened’ and who continues to be a ‘rebel’ ()48:8), the servant says that ‘God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious (50:5).

“Christian tradition sees these verses fulfilled in the Passion of Jesus…When the savior was struck, he endured it patiently; when he was reviled, he did not revile; when he suffered, he did not threaten. Instead, he gave his back to those who beat him, his cheeks to their blows, and his face he did not turn from their spitting. Finally, he accepted death, giving us an image of virtue and an example for conducting ourselves (St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Festal Epistles 10, 7).” (Isaiah [Ignatius Catholic Study Bible], 87-88)

This short passage is a wonderful model for the evangelist (that should be all of us). The Lord gives each of us certain talents.to “rouse” the weary (including us, if applicable) from a slumber of indifference, doubt, despair, or unbelief. We are to listen daily for God’s voice, that our hearts will be moved and our mission will be clear (dialogue with God in prayer and by reading Scripture to hear Him speaking to you and to help train that tongue).

In responding to the Lord’s call in this way, we can count on persecution. Maybe not physically, as Isaiah has it, but certainly psychologically and emotionally. Do we humbly and patiently endure the blows, the slaps, the shame, the spitting that come our way? If we are like Christ (and no servant is greater than his Master then we may well find it necessary to deal with all these difficulties and more.

Our response? We are to be resolute in being convicted of the truth and making sure that we persevere in spreading it far and wide. Counting on the Lord God to help us, as he promises, we will not be put to shame with the One who matters, despite what the world thinks. Jesus constantly has us looking above and beyond this mortal coil for true fulfillment and happiness. We can count on it for eternity if we stay faithful.

Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach that he bore.
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.
(Heb 13:13-14)

Isaiah (1838) by Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier

God bless.

Lent Day 39: None for one and one for all

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s Gospel reading (Jn 11:45-56), coming immediately after the astonishing event of Jesus resuscitating Lazarus, shows the extremely heightened concerns of the Jewish religious leaders about Jesus and His popularity are significantly ramping up, so much so that the whole Sanhedrin convenes to discuss what to do about the situation. The high priest, Caiaphas, speaks:

“You know nothing,
nor do you consider that it is better for you
that one man should die instead of the people,
so that the whole nation may not perish.”
(vv. 49-50)

“Caiaphas unwittingly announces that Jesus will die for the salvation of the nation. This is not his own insight, but the grace of prophecy speaking through him in virtue of his priestly office and position as chief teacher of Israel.” (The Gospel of John [Ignatius Catholic Study Bible], 40)

“Here Caiaphas’ words have a dual meaning: one, Caiaphas’ meaning, is that he wants to put Christ to death, on the pretext that that will ensure the political peace and survival of Israel; the other, the meaning intended by the Holy Spirit, is the announcement of the foundation of the new Israel, the Church, through the death of Christ on the cross (Caiaphas is unaware of this meaning). And so it happens that the last high priest of the Old Alliance prophesies the investiture of the High Priest of the New Alliance, which will be sealed in his own blood.” (The Navarre Bible: St John. 160)

Caiaphas did not realize the half of it. In his position as high priest, given to him by God, he could declare prophetic utterances, even if he did not understand their full import. Recall Jesus saying:

Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. (Mt 23:3b)

I wonder if Caiaphas realized how soon they would meet again (see Jn 18:14, 24, 28) and how he will be instrumental in seeing through his prophetic words (Mt 26: 57-68).

Yes, one man would die for the nation…and all nations and peoples for all time. Even a despicable man like this high priest can be used by God for good (Friday).

Christ Before Caiaphas (1630) by Matthias Stom

God bless.

Lent Day 37: “I AM”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s Gospel reading (Jn 8:51-59) continues Jesus dialogue with the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus makes a startling claim to the Jews inquiry:

“So the Jews said to him…
‘Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Jesus answered,…“Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
(v. 53b-54a, 58)

“Jesus takes for himself the divine name of Yahweh, ‘I AM’ (Ex 3:14). He thus claims to be one with God (10:30), whose life in eternity has neither beginning nor end. The Pharisees hear this claim loud and clear and, thinking it outrageous, stand ready to stone him for blasphemy (8:59; Lev 24:16) (CCC 590).” (The Gospel of John [Ignatius Catholic Study Bible], 36)

Jesus makes no bones about who He is. It eventually gets Him killed. But He backs up His claim by raising Himself from the dead proving that He is God, having the power over life and death.

Check out this article that does a fine job of running through the many times Jesus uses “I am” to refer to Himself. We hearken back to the burning bush episode (Ex 3) when Moses asks the name of the voice of his interlocutor emanating from this wondrous site.

Are you a believer? I am.

God bless.

Lent Day 36: What is truth? And can you handle it?

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s Gospel reading (Jn 8:31-42) continues Jesus dialogue with the Jewish religious leaders. It begins this way:

“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
(vv. 31b-32)

“Jesus embodies divine truth (14:6) and has come to bear witness to the truth (18:37). Acceptance of him liberates us from the slavery of sin, ignorance, and deception (8:12; CCC 2466).” (The Gospel of John [Ignatius Catholic Study Bible], 34)

“In Jesus Christ, the whole of God’s truth has been made manifest. ‘Full of grace and truth,’ he came as the ‘light of the world,’ he is the Truth. ‘Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.’ The disciple of Jesus continues in his word so as to know ‘the truth [that] will make you free’ and that sanctifies. To follow Jesus is to live in ‘the Spirit of truth,’ whom the Father sends in his name and who leads ‘into all the truth.’ To his disciples Jesus teaches the unconditional love of truth: ‘Let what you say be simply “Yes or No.”” (CCC 2466)

“The knowledge of the truth which Christ is speaking about is not just intellectual knowledge; it is rather the maturing in the soul of the seed of divine Revelation. That Revelation’s climax is to be found in Christ’s teaching, and it constitutes a genuine communication of supernatural life (cf. Jn 5;24): he who believes in Jesus, and through him in the Father, receives the wonderful gift of eternal life. Knowing the truth is, in the last analysis, knowing Christ himself, God become man to save us; it means realizing that the inaccessible God has become man, our Friend, our Life.

“This is the only kind of knowledge which really sets us free, because it removes us from a position of alienation from God — the state of sin and therefore of slavery to the devil and to all the attachments of our fallen nature — and puts us on the path of friendship with God, the path of grace, of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, the liberation we obtain is not just light which shows the way; it is grace, which empowers us to keep to that way despite our limitations.” (The Navarre Bible: St John, 127-28)

“[N]otice how Jesus says that human freedom follows upon and presupposes knowledge of the truth. In order to be truly free, a person must first know what is true.” (The Gospel of John [Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture] , 161)

Two lines come to mind, as I reflect on the highlighted verses of this passage:

1. “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38)

Pilate’s famous words while looking Truth right in the eyes. Echoed today by seemingly millions. Can we really know the truth? Cardinal Ratzinger bemoaned the “dictatorship of relativism” today. Most clear thinking folks nodded their heads in agreement in that homily nearly twenty years ago. Not so many folks would have believed that it didn’t even take twenty years till concepts like “mother,” “marriage,” and “gender” were up for grabs. This twisting of truth and reality itself is the work of the devil, as Jesus tells the Pharisees a little further on in the same interaction we heard proclaimed today:

“You belong to your father the devil and you willingly carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” (Jn 8:44)

And what does Satan “inspire” people to do?

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator. (Rom 1:25)

Wow. Doesn’t that encapsulate perfectly the state of our world today? With no eternal anchor, the crashing waves of self-focus toss us about. When anything goes, nothing stays firm.

Let us cling to the Rock that is Peter and the Church Christ founded as if our life depended on it (and it does, here and hereafter). A sure “light”house in the stormy weather of our modern confused age.

2. “You can’t handle the truth!” — Col. Nathan R. Jessup

Certainly, the Gospel message is a challenging one. Hearing the truth and living it out can be painful at times. But it is the antidote to what ails us in a time of cultural sickness and even death. It seems that in our day, maybe more than ever, we can’t handle the Truth that is Jesus and His message, preferring “my truth.” To be fully and authentically human, stick with “the Truth.”

God bless.

Lent Day 32: Impressive Jesus

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s Gospel reading (Jn 7:40-53) has Jesus impressing the crowds and the Pharisees hoping to arrest Him. The guards sent to do the job came away impressed with this Galilean:

“Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” (v. 46)

“Like the crowds who are ‘amazed’ at Jesus’ teaching (7:15) and miracles (7:21), the guards are awed at his teaching: there is something unprecedented about Jesus.” (The Gospel of John [Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture], 45)

“The truth begins to influence the straightforward souls of the servants of the Sanhedrin but it cannot make headway against the obstinacy of the Pharisees. ‘Notice that the Pharisees and scribe derive no benefit either from witnessing miracles or reading the Scriptures; whereas their servants, without these helps, were captivated by a single discourse, and those who set out to arrest Jesus went back under the influence of hi authority,. And they did not say, “We cannot arrest him, the people will not let us’; instead they extolled Christ’s wisdom. Not only is the their prudence admirable, for they did not need signs; it is also impressive that they were won over by his teaching on its own; they did not say, in effect, “No man has ever worked such miracles,” but “No man ever spoke like this man.” Their conviction also is worthy of admiration: they go to the Pharisees, who were opposed to Christ, and address them in the way the do (St John Chrysostom, Hom. on St. John, 9).” (The Navarre Bible: St John, 119)

“Never before had anyone spoken the word of God as did the Word become flesh; never before did God reveal himself as he does in Jesus.” (Bringing the Gospel of John to Life, 221)

Anyone who takes the Gospel seriously must come to the same conclusion as the guards. Anyone who takes the Gospel seriously must come away feeling either as the guards do or as the Pharisees do. There can be no fence-sitters when dealing with the message of Jesus. Jesus said:

“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” (Lk 12:51)

Scripture also says:

Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. (Heb 4:12)

In what follows, woe to those who do not take the Word (that is, Jesus) seriously:

No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account. (Heb 4:13)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church drives home the message:

“Christianity is the religion of the ‘Word’ of God, a word which is ‘not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living’ (St. Bernard, S. missus est hom. 4,11:PL 183,86.) (CCC 108)

If it has been a while since Jesus’ words have moved you, or if you have been away awhile, I encourage you to make Bible reading a daily part of your life. A chapter a day is a good practice. Or you may follow the Church’s daily readings (ideally, hearing them proclaimed at Mass on weekdays and certainly on Sundays) here.

Which side of the divide are you on?

The Pharisees (1912) by Karl Schmidt-Rottluf

God bless.

Lent Day 31: Obnoxious Jesus

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading (Wis 2:1a, 12-22) gives us a striking prophecy of the ultimate and perfect “just one,” Jesus Christ. It begins with these troubling words:

“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.”
(v. 12)

“The reasoning of the ungodly has progressed from a reflection of the finality of death, to an embrace of hedonism, to a rejection of the weak, and now finally to active persecution of the righteous man precisely because of his righteousness. He is inconvenient because he opposes, reproaches, and accuses the wayward for their sins. While the author is not drawing a direct line of connection, one cannot avoid thinking of the biblical prophets here. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets consistently rebuke the nation for their disobedience to God’s law and their straying from his ways. Here, Wisdom highlights two types of moral error: ‘sins against the law’ and ‘sins against our training,’ which perfectly match the priorities of Hellenistic Judaism. On the one hand, ‘sins against the law’ refers to transgressions of the law of Moses, the ancient ancestral law of the Jews. On the other hand, ‘sins against out training [paideia]’ refers to rejecting the lessons learned in the context of family and, more precisely, Greek education. The erring ones have strayed from both the Jewish ideal of law observance and from the Greek educational idea of paideia.” (Wisdom of Solomon [Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture], 45)

“Their words are echoed in the insults offered by the scribes and Pharisees to Jesus when he was on the cross (cf. Mt 27:40-43; Mk 15:31-32; Lk 23:35-37). (The Navarre Bible: Wisdom Books , 312)

I immediately think how Jesus is found so “obnoxious” to so many today (even self-proclaimed Christians, including Catholics — some in very high positions in society). The Word of God, who is Jesus, is ignored, spurned, or even deemed “hate speech” when it (He) goes against the “enlightened” “progress” we have purportedly made now well into the twenty-first century. And Scripture says:

“[I]f the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.” (Mt 6:23)

The devil is the black light. We surely can know that when a culture of death predominates and every manner of perversion is hailed as good and proper and normal that the prince of this world is delighting in his influence over weak and stupid mortals.

Let us all work to exorcise Satan and his minions by standing up for the Truth no matter the cost and, above all, praying to Jesus through Mary for deliverance from this pervasive and growing evil. We were promised by the Lord from the very beginning of their ultimate triumph:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
They will strike at your head,
while you strike at their heel.
” (Gen 3:15)

May it occur soon. Thy kingdom come!

NEW BOOK IN THE CATHOLIC COMMENTARY ON SACRED SCRIPTURE SERIES!

I’m excited to quote above from the first entry in the Old Testament series from the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series. Check it out!

God bless.