Category: Sunday’s Gospel
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Decision to follow Jesus can shatter family allegiances
By Glen Argan Many who join the Catholic Church or who commit their lives as priests or consecrated persons face stiff resistance from their families. This resistance comes not because the person called to a deep faith has developed a private devotion to Jesus or to one of the saints. Rather, it is when they…
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Splitting an inheritance can reveal our inner darkness
By Glen Argan Few things provoke more greed, anger and mistrust in families than the dividing of an estate. I have seen a will used as a spiteful father’s final stab of vengeance against his least-favoured son. I have seen the surviving children manoeuvre to exclude the descendants of their deceased sibling from receiving any…
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How Luke’s ‘Our Father’ challenges patriarchal society
By Glen Argan It is a common today for people to say they are unable to pray to God as Father. Perhaps such people have suffered through a childhood dominated by an overly strict, even abusive father. Or perhaps they see the identity of God and Father as but another feature of a patriarchal society.…
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Action and contemplation go together like hand in glove
By Glen Argan Perhaps it is coincidence that St. Luke chose to relate the story of Mary and Martha immediately following the parable of the good Samaritan. But I don’t think so. Rather, Luke wants us to know that holy actions find their origin in holy meditation. The parable is a story of action, of…
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Good Samaritan parable represents call to action
By Glen Argan The parable of the good Samaritan is so familiar that it may lose its impact through our having heard it many times. Yet, it is a story on which we should never fail to meditate because it brings us face-to-face with our deepest identity. Confronted by suffering and injustice, do we talk,…
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The 70 disciples play key role in overthrowing worldly powers
By Glen Argan Empowered by Jesus, 70 disciples – that is, all of us – head out in pairs into “the midst of wolves” to prepare the way for Jesus and to proclaim, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” They return later, giddy with the success of their mission: “Lord, in your…
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Are we able to slaughter the oxen?
By Glen Argan For Elisha, turning back was no longer an option. A wealthy man who received a call from the prophet Elijah, Elisha slaughtered his twelve yoke of oxen, boiled the flesh and fed the people. He closed the door on his past and became Elijah’s servant. His possessions and his material security were…
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Offering of bread and wine represents call to give deeply of ourselves
By Glen Argan The choice of the Gospel for Sunday’s celebration of Corpus Christi – the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – is slightly perplexing. Here we celebrate Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist, and the Gospel provided is that of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. Look more closely,…
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Trinity Sunday an opportunity to jettison authoritarian notion of God
By Glen Argan Trinity Sunday is an invitation to get our understanding of God right. This may seem like an abstract, intellectual exercise, but it is not. It has enormous ramifications for our lives and for our world. The 20th century theologian Karl Rahner once wrote that although most Christians profess a belief in the…
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Jesus transforms fear, abolishes sin by sending his Spirit
By Glen Argan It is not human to desire suffering. We recoil from any experience of suffering, whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual. Yet our redemption is founded on Christ’s suffering and death. Sunday’s Gospel tells of “the disciples” cowering behind locked doors on Easter Sunday out of fear of “the Jews.” Jesus enters…
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