Reflections of a beloved son

" What are you willing to give me? " was the question Judas asked the chief priests if he were to hand Jesus over to them (Mt. 26:15).  I wonder how that encounter played out.  What was going through Judas' mind?  What was he feeling?  Why did he even go to chief priests?  How did he feel when he was given the 30 pieces of silver?  As for the chief priests - what were they feeling?  Did they feel excited?  Relieved?  Did they have a meeting after Judas left with the money? With 30 pieces of silver Judas betrayed Jesus.  With his very own person Jesus redeemed all man.  Jesus knew that Judas had betrayed Him, and that he was going to hand Him over when the appointed time had come, yet Jesus never acted coldly towards him.  "When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve " (Mt. 26:20).  Jesus still loved Judas and counted him among His family .  To share a meal and to break bread together is something that ...

We are called to love.  Notice that we are not asked to love or encouraged to love or even recommended  to love.  We are called  to love.  What does that mean? In today's Gospel reading , a Scribe asked Jesus "Which is the first of all the commandments?"  Jesus replied by quoting Scripture (Deuteronomy and Leviticus), " The first is this:  Hear, O Israel!  The Lord our God is Lord alone!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.   The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself .  There is no other commandment greater than these" (Mk. 12:28-31).  Jesus tells the Scribe and all of us that to love God and to love neighbor are the most important things.  There is nothing else you can do that will replace these two commands.  In order to love God and others we must first learn how to receive love.  It is God who loved ...

Pride.  Power.  Position. What is it that drives us and that makes us do the things that we do?  For Joseph's brothers it was jealousy, pride, and hatred that moved them to want to kill him (Gen. 37:3-4).  " When his brothers saw that their father loved him the best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him ."  It was this jealousy and envy that plagued the brothers.  Perhaps it was jealousy that was somewhat "justified."  Favoritism, at least overt favoritism and when outwardly displayed, will always lead to discord and pain.   As wrong as it was for the brothers to act out of jealousy, the father was also in the wrong.  As a father, Israel should have known better than to love one child over the others and to make it so obvious, putting not only the other sons in a jealous state, but also putting Joseph in an awkward position.  Joseph himself may also have taken advantage of this favoritism and failed ...