Mary M. McGlone

Scripture for Life: One of the core Gospel conundrums is that one cannot save oneself. Whenever we strive to be perfect or focus on sin and forgiveness, we remain the center of our attention. 

Scripture for Life: When we ask what these readings say to us today, we might take Jesus' opening line in combination with a phrase from the Letter to the Hebrews. Jesus said, "I have come to set the earth on fire." 

Scripture for Life: Today, we are invited into the future we long for at the deepest level of our being. We will get there only by leaving behind our fears and pessimism. 

Scripture for Life: When we pray with and in and through Christ, we come to know God's presence with and among us in everything. God may not keep us from all harm, but because God's love is expressed in the Spirit and through others, we will never face harm alone.

Scripture for Life: Today, if we want to enjoy the company of Christ, we need to find the balance between action and contemplation. This will allow us to join in Jesus' rejection of roles, rules and regulations that demean others. 

Scripture for Life: Here, in the middle of Luke's Gospel, we get the parable that explains the motive of Jesus' mission. When God sees suffering and need, the divine response is intimate, unbounded solidarity.

Scripture for Life: We need to pay attention to how countercultural our Gospel is. We may live in the "most powerful nation on earth," but the might of our country has very little to do with the vulnerable, noncoercive character of divine power.

Scripture for Life: We must not forget that while Jesus said he had no place to lay his head, he also said that those who leave home for him and the Gospel will find themselves enjoying hundreds of homes.

Scripture for Life: To remember Jesus in the breaking of the bread involves a promise St. Augustine described as an act of receiving what we are so that we can be what we receive, the body of Christ. 

Scripture for Life: God's Trinitarian being is a mystery in the deepest sense of the word, a reality that fascinates us, draws us toward God, and is too deep for our thought and prayer to exhaust.

Scripture for Life: The feast of Pentecost challenges our hope and faith. Each week we proclaim, "I believe in the Holy Spirit." Pentecost asks how deeply we mean that. Are we willing to let Christ's Spirit impassion and empower us?

Scripture for Life: When the disciples gathered to debate and pray in Acts 15, their commitment only grew deeper as they recognized the Spirit forming them into a community more attached to Christ than to their opinions.

Scripture for Life: When we listen deeply to people who suffer, we become one family; their struggles become our own and we will be impelled to join them in confronting the evil that foments such suffering. 

Scripture for Life: Today, in this moment of history, these readings take on a radical character and describe the demanding depth of our Christian vocation. We remember that following our shepherd will lead us where he goes: into the heart of conflict and suffering.

Scripture for Life: John really wants us to look to the call of the first disciples and, in light of that, to understand that the Gospel ends with our call to discipleship.

Scripture for Life: Thomas reminds us that honestly facing our doubts can open us to greater faith. The courage Thomas showed in doubting allowed the risen Christ to reveal God's face in a new and fuller way.

Scripture for Life: God’s plan in Jesus is far bigger than our imaginations. Today, let us not be afraid to face the tomb of old certainties and become thoroughly confused and, naturally, even a bit afraid.

Scripture for Life: The church's prayer this week leads us through a long and difficult process of watching Jesus be stripped of human power so that we can learn something about what divine power is.

Scripture for Life: In effect, the crowd who brings the woman to Jesus has acted like the people who carried their sick to be healed; in the attempt to damn her, they introduced her into the realm of grace.

Scripture for Life: The parable we call the prodigal son describes an incurably philanthropic God who responds to a little love with overwhelming, unrelenting, unrepayable generosity and joy.