What’s indicated by the letters YHWH in reference to God? In the book of Exodus 3:14 (NABRE), God tells Moses his name: “I am who I am.” God’s name in future Hebrew literature derives from this statement. The exact pronunciation and meaning of this name is uncertain, though it very …

The Gospel According to Luke 9:28–36 (NABRE) depicts Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain and his conversation with Moses and Elijah, who describe Jesus’ coming Passion, death, and Resurrection as his exodus. This description calls us to connect this act of Jesus with the Exodus of the Old Testament, though at …

In the book of Deuteronomy, the Israelites are asked upon entering the Promised Land to give back to God the first of the fruits of the land as a sign of their indebtedness to God. This sign then also becomes a perpetual obligation, though it’s possible to see how the …

The First Letter to the Corinthians 15:54–58 (NABRE) highlights the victory won by Christ over death and our share in it. Paul uses the image of the corrupt being clothed with incorruptibility and the mortal being clothed with immortality. While the notion of immortality is essential to the Christian message, …

The Gospel According to Luke 6:27–38 (NABRE) looks at the golden rule, which focuses on the relationship between wanting and doing. “Do to others as you would have them do to you” is a statement we frequently hear, perhaps so often that some of the emphasis is dulled. While typical …

The word beatitude is synonymous with the word “blessed.” In the Beatitudes in the Gospel According to Luke 6:20–26 (NABRE), we encounter Jesus describing the conditions that need to be met in order for a person to be blessed. The idea of being blessed is common to Christianity, so much …

The Gospel According to Luke 5:1–11 (NABRE) describes Jesus’ call of his disciples and includes the wonderful passage: “from now on you will be catching men,” which sometimes is translated elsewhere as “I will make you fishers of men.” While the English pun fishers of men is clever and catchy, …

This week we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, which commemorates the occasion in which Jesus was taken to Jerusalem to be dedicated in the Temple according to the Law. This precedent originated with the tenth plague in Egypt in which God doomed all the firstborn and …

The Church annually celebrates Sunday of the Word of God in late January to reflect on the extraordinary gift of God’s word. The Bible or the Scriptures make up a central part of Christian worship because they uniquely reveal God to us through God’s own inspiration. While these writings are …

The Gospel According to John 2:1–11 (NABRE) features the wedding at Cana and an odd exchange between Jesus and his mother. In this exchange, Mary comes to Jesus with a problem, Jesus seems to be dismissive of her concern, and then ultimately he does what she asks with no further …