The Inaugural "Word of God Sunday"

Last fall, on the feast of St. Jerome, Pope Francis declared that the 3rd Sunday of the Year shall be designated as "Word of God Sunday". This is more like World Mission Sunday or The World Day of Prayer for the Sick, rather than an additional liturgical feast like Divine Mercy Sunday or Christ the King were. But anyway, as a word nerd and a Word nerd it's pretty exciting. So here's the homily, which was mostly quotes from the Pope's document Aperuit Illis, i.e. "He open for them", quoting Luke about the risen Jesus opening the Scriptures to the two on the way to Emmaus.

What Lambs Don't Do

We were all taught wrongly about Jesus as the Lamb. John the Baptist wasn't invoking existing language about sacrificial lambs and a removal of sin. There was none. The O.T. never shows sin taken away by sacrificing a lamb (and Hebrews would say it's not by any sacrifice). John was presenting something utterly unheard of: that for the first time ever, something could take away sin, —someone.

Discovering Your Own Family

1) It's kinda tough that most of us don't remember our baptisms. 2) But then again, we figured out our natural families and identities without remembering our birth. 3) What family we have, is chance. Learning to be part of that particular family, is choice.

What Matthew Thinks Epiphany Means

For millennia, we have focused on the Epiphany as being the moment that God's light has been revealed to the Gentiles. And it is. But looking at its context in Matthew's Gospel, and especially in the context of the Hebrew Scriptures (including the two readings for today), we see that Matthew sees it as proof that God's kingdom on earth has begun. All the prophecies that someday the nations will worship the one true God are now going to be fulfilled, even if that kingdom must start small, grow in pain, and still not be perfect today—it still has been revealed as happening.