Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians 5:17–21 (NABRE) looks at the work of Christ as one of reconciliation. Due to the common Church contexts in which we hear this word and its association with the sacrament of Confession, it’s easy to begin to see this as a removing of sin …

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, …

The Book of Jeremiah 1:4–5 (NABRE) highlights that God called the prophet even before creating him and setting him apart for his task. This idea of being set apart in order to be dedicated to God appears throughout the Old and New Testaments and is one of the most important …

Although most people are familiar with the prophet Micah’s foretelling where the Messiah would be born, the same prophecy also has something important to say about the temporal nature of the new king. The fifth chapter in the Book of Micah (NABRE) contains a powerful prophecy about the coming Messiah …