Jesus explains how God will always welcome us home even when we sin!

Gospel Reflection for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells a story about a man who had two sons. The father asked his sons to help in the vineyard. One of his sons said he would not help, but then he went to the vineyard anyway. The other son told his father he would help, but he did not.

In our lives we can be like these two sons. We tell Jesus we love Him, but then we do bad things and turn away from Him. Jesus wants us to be like the first son. When we turn away from Jesus, we can change our minds, ask for forgiveness, and receive His love and mercy. Jesus knows that we are human and that we will make mistakes, so we should never be afraid to turn to him when we have a change of heart. He is always waiting for us.

Jesus teaches that there is no limit to the generosity of God!

Gospel Reflection for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells his disciples a parable about a man who went out five different times to hire people to work for him. The man agrees to pay all of his workers “the usual daily wage,” and at the end of the day, all of the workers are paid the same amount. The ones who worked most were upset. They thought it was unfair that those who worked less were paid the same as those who worked more.

The man in the parable is like God. The man was generous and kind to all of his workers – those who worked longer and those who worked less. God is the same. He loves all of us very much, and we are all made for Eternal Life. Heaven is not just for priests, or nuns, or really holy people. Just like the man in the parable gave all of the workers a chance to earn the same payment, God wants us all to live good, holy lives so that one day we can live with Him forever in Heaven.

Jesus shows us that forgiveness will bring us closer to loving as deeply as Jesus does for us!

Gospel Reflection for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches us about forgiveness. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus tells Peter that we must always forgive. We cannot limit the number of times we forgive others. Everyone deserves a second chance.

In the parable, the king forgives his servant, but the servant does not forgive his fellow servant. Jesus forgives us over and over again, and we have to do the same to the people around us – our friends and family. Forgiving people is hard, but when we forgive others, we are setting ourselves free to love like Jesus.

Jesus wants us to forgive anyone who might hurt us, just as God continuously forgives us.

Gospel Reflection for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Jesus encourages us to be understanding of others. We do not always know why someone acts the way they do, and it would be wrong for us to judge them when we might not understand the whole story.

Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.” We should never spread rumors about others. However, if something is serious, we can tell the right people like our parents, a priest, or someone who understands. Jesus wants us to understand, forgive, and help others find the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

Jesus explains that God will always be with us through good and hard times!

Gospel Reflection for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells his disciples about his passion and death. This scared the disciples, and they did not want to hear about it because they loved Jesus, and did not want Him to die. Peter was only human, and when he tries to argue with Jesus, Jesus tells him, “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Jesus then reminds us, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” If we want to follow Jesus, we have to accept our sufferings and offer them to Jesus.  Following Jesus is hard, but we have to accept the good times and the hard times. We will never suffer alone.

Peter becomes the first pope after proving his faith in Jesus!

Gospel Reflection for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The disciples tell Him, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Then Jesus asked them another question: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter is very brave, and he says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Because Peter was not afraid to believe in Jesus, he became the head of the new Church – our very first Pope! In today’s gospel, Jesus also gave His disciples the power to forgive sins, and this gift has been passed down to all the priests ever since that day.

Jesus also said, “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against [the kingdom of Heaven]”. Even though bad things happen and life is never easy, evil will never win because Jesus is with us.

Jesus saves a woman’s daughter after a great show of faith in Him!

Gospel Reflection for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, a Canaanite woman speaks to Jesus and says, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is tormented by a demon.”  When Jesus did not reply, the woman said, “Lord, help me.”  Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the food of children and throw it to the dogs.”  The woman said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their master.”

Jesus is not being mean to the woman.  He knows she has faith in Him, but He is testing her faith.  It would be easy to trust Jesus if we knew He was going to answer all of our prayers all of the time.  When our faith is tested, our faith grows stronger.  Jesus answers the woman’s prayer because He saw her faith was strong and that she was humble.

Jesus saves Peter from drowning in a storm at sea!

Gospel Reflection for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, the disciples are in a boat on the water during a storm.  Then, Jesus came to them walking on the water, and He said to them, “Take courage.  It is I.  Do not be afraid.” Peter starts walking to Jesus on the water. As long as He stays focused on Jesus, Peter could walk on the water, but then he saw the waves and the storm, and he was scared. Then he started sinking, but he said, “Lord, save me,” and Jesus saved him.

After he rescued Peter, Jesus says, “Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus knows that we’re weak and that bad things happen that scare us, but He wants us to trust Him. He wants us to keep our eyes on Him even when life is difficult. Jesus is always walking beside us, and when we are scared we can always pray to Him, “Lord, save me,” and He will be right there to save us just like He saved Peter.

Jesus performs the miracle of loaves and fishes, feeding many people following him!

Gospel Reflection for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, we hear about the miracle of five loaves and two fish. Jesus asked the disciples if they had any food to feed the many people that had been listening to Jesus. The disciples told Jesus that they only had five loaves and two fish, but then Jesus made a miracle; the five loaves of bread and the two fishes became enough to feed thousands of people.

Jesus asked his disciples and all the people who were there to trust Him. He knew He could feed the people who were there, but He wanted them to believe in Him too. Also, in this gospel, we hear, “Taking the five loaves and the two fish, looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples….” This reminds us of the Last Supper when Jesus broke bread and gave it to his disciples.

This gospel reminds us that we should give God everything: our talents, our gifts, our prayers, our sacrifices, and everything we do. Even if we are small and we feel like we don’t matter or can’t do much, Jesus helps us grow and makes what we do matter just like he multiplied the five loaves of bread and the two fish.

Jesus’ will reward good behavior with heaven!

Gospel Reflection for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells his disciples three more parables about the kingdom of Heaven. In the first parable, Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.” Our faith in Jesus is like this treasure. We have to take the time to listen to Jesus, to love Him, and pray to Him just as the person in the parable took the time to dig for treasure.

In the second parable, Jesus says, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.” Our faith in Jesus is like a pearl, but there are also many things that distract us from Jesus. These are like the fake pearls that distract us from the real treasure.

Then, in the last parable, Jesus tells his disciples, ““Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.” This reminds us that every person in the world is different. We each help to make the world a different and special place. We all grow together – some of us do good things and some of us do bad. In the end, Jesus will reward those who do good and punish those who do bad just as the fisherman keeps the good fish and throws away the bad ones.