My favorite word in the gospel for this Sunday is the conjunction “but.” I love the part where the apostles say to Jesus, “Jesus, we have worked all night. We have caught nothing. But at your command, we will lower the nets.” The word “but” is so powerful because it shows the relationship with Jesus. A lot of the time, we don’t use that word. All we ask is the question, “Why?” “Jesus, why am I suffering like this?” “Why would the Catholic Church teach something like this?” Whatever it is, we stop there and don’t use the word “but.”
“Jesus, I am suffering now, but I love and trust you.” “Jesus, I keep falling into the same sin over and over, but you are mercy, compassion, and my Lord.” “Jesus, I don’t understand this teaching of the Catholic Church, but I trust you, I love you, and I adore you.” So don’t be afraid of the word “but”. This is Spirit Juice. Peace.
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Six Words To Describe Jesus
If you had to describe Jesus in six words or less, what would you say? In this Sunday’s Gospel, John the Baptist does exactly that. At the beginning, he calls Jesus the Lamb of God. At the end, he proclaims Him the Son of God. In just six words, John reveals everything: Jesus is equal with the Father, eternal, Lord, and King and at the same time the sacrifice who saves us. Fully divine. Fully given. That leaves us with one essential question: Who do you say that Jesus is?
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Afraid of Death?
Okay, so have you ever seen a Samoan war chant? One of the most intimidating things you will ever see in your life. The war chant is taunting the other team, taunting the enemy, saying, we’re not afraid of you. There’s nothing about you that makes us scared. We are confident. We are not scared of you at all. This is precisely what St. Paul is doing in the second reading for this Sunday. He is saying directly to death…
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Unique and Irrepeatable
Did you know that there are 108 billion people that ever existed? That is a lot. If I wanted to count from zero to 108 billion, that would take me 3,429 years. So it seems like it would be so much easier for God just to name us a generic name. So if God is talking to anyone, he would just say, hello, generic human beings. In the gospel, Jesus calls on Bartimaeus, saying that Bartimaeus is not one among…
