Study of the Readings
Ed. by
Joyce Ann Zimmerman,
et al
• Words, Phrases
• To the point
• First Two Readings
• Experience
Dennis
Hamm, SJ
Like John the Baptist, who lost his head by confronting Herod Antipas about his unlawful marriage, Jesus fit the traditional Hebrew role of prophet. People were amazed that he spoke not as the scribes and Pharisees but as one having authority.
John Kavanaugh, SJ
The reason we reject our own heroic and prophetic possibilities, if we are honest with ourselves, is that we know how weak and inadequate we are.
John J. Pilch
In the Middle East, a son is expected to take up his father’s occupation or profession. There is no expectation of “doing better than one’s parents” or “getting ahead in life.”
The formless and invisible God, without change or alteration, assumed a human form and showed himself to be a normal human being. He ate, he drank, he slept, he sweated, and he grew weary.
Reginald H. Fuller
Paul had been unfavorably contrasted with the false prophets, who boasted of their ecstasies, visions, miracles, etc. The Apostle replies that whenever he was tempted to preen himself like his opponents he was pulled up short by a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him from being elated.