. . . Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
—2 Timothy 4:2 (ESV)
The Feast of All Saints Revelation 7:9–17; Matthew 5:1–12 + IN NOMINE IESU + A saint’s life is nothing other than the Beatitudes in action (Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace, Vol. 5, 320). This is what St. John saw in his vision. He saw a great multitude, which only God could number, of the…
The Lord of Hosts is with us. He is our refuge and strength. And we, we are His people, His church, over which the gates of hell shall never prevail.
The Lord is into weddings. He arranged the first one in Paradise and He performed His first miracle at one in Cana. He is into gatherings around food, into wine and laughter, and celebrations.
That His coming to earth, becoming a Man, should be likened to a wedding should be no surprise, nor should it be a surprise that this be celebrated with a feast.
Our Lord preaches the Law to the lawyer, not to debate, but so that he would see his need for the Christ who is David’s son and David’s Lord.
The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Luke 14:1–11 + IN NOMINE IESU + The man with dropsy stood as a living picture of the Pharisees because they had a similar disease. Dropsy is a disease that causes the retention of water in the extremities, the stomach, and around the heart. The similarity is found not in…
The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Luke 7:11–17 + IN NOMINE IESU + We get emotional at weddings not simply because we’re happy for the newly wed couple. This is part of it but not all of it. We get emotional at weddings because we think of our own weddings, those we’ve been in and a…
The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity Matthew 6:24–34 Audio only.
The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Luke 17:11–17 Audio only.
God’s Law is always good. His Word is always trustworthy. Sometimes, to our fallen reason, it seems contrary to what is good. We are like the friends of the healed man. We think, “What could be wrong with telling people about Jesus healing this deaf man?” When God’s Law seems contrary to what is good, we do best to repent and submit. When we don’t, when we insist on our way, we hurt ourselves and we hurt others. There are no victimless sins. That means white lies and choosing the lesser evil and whatever other things we use to cover up our sins, are dangerous and hurtful.
This parable was spoken to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and despised others. Beware! We’ve heard this parable so many times we might be tempted to despise the pharisee, to think, “Oh, he is so arrogant and self-righteous. What a jerk!” Despise him and you’ve become him. Our Lord died also for him.