Author: jcgosj

“HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR CHOICES?” (Lk 5:27-32): 09 February 2008 (Saturday after Ash Wednesday)

Today’s Readings

Today’s reading is about God’s choices, the type of people that God chooses and uses to do his work.

In the Gospel, our Lord chooses Matthew–a tax collector.  Tax collectors have never been anybody’s favorite characters.  Today, as before, they continue to be associated with graft and corruption.  However, at the time of our Lord, they were hated by the Jews for an additional reason:  Not only were they notorious for cheating the people that they taxed; but also, because the taxes they collected went to a foreign power, they were branded as traitors, as collaborators with Rome.

“CAN YOU BLAME US?” (Lk 9:22-25):  07 February 2008 (Thursday after Ash Wednesday)

Today’s Readings

The TV series “Smallville” is, of course, about Clark Kent (played by Tom Welling) before he discovers his superpowers and becomes Superman.   It’s already on its 7th season, but I’ve only watched the first season back in 2002.  As it sometimes happens to some successful shows, the second season got a little too weird for me (Think “Lost”) although I’m told that the later seasons are actually quite good.  

“WHY SMEAR OURSELVES WITH ASHES?” (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18):  06 February 2008 (Ash Wednesday)

Today’s Readings

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter—later made into a movie starring Demi Moore—opens with the leading character, Hester, being led to the scaffold where she is to be publicly humiliated for committing the sin of adultery.  There she is forced to wear the letter “A” on her gown at all times as a sign of her sin.  By wearing this letter, she is identified and labeled as a sinner.  By wearing this label of her sin, she is ostracized and excluded from society.

“ARE WE DESPERATE FOR MIRACLES?” (Mk 5:21-43): 05 February 2008 (Tuesday)

Today’s Readings

Today’s Gospel reading is about desperate people—two desperate people:  One a synagogue official named Jairus; another an unnamed woman who has been ill for twelve years.  For each one of them, our Lord performs an extraordinary miracle.

“DOES THE DEVIL REALLY WEAR PRADA?” (Mk 5:1-20): 04 February 2008 (Monday)

Today’s Readings

Once in a while a movie comes along that scares the hell out of you and–at least for a while–changes your sleeping habits.  I saw one such movie back in 1973 when I was only twelve years old.  The movie was “The Exorcist,” a horror classic that usually lands on the top 5 of almost any “Scariest Movies of All Time” list you can find.  You may have seen the Director’s Cut when it was released in 2004.