SUNDAY REFLECTIONS with FR. FRANCIS

Exodus 19: 2-6a; Romans 5: 6-11; Matthew 9: 36 –10: 8 Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah Today's Gospel Reading, the sending of the twelve disciples, is the big "WHAT NOW?" that concludes the first two readings. We have received God's promise. We have faith in Christ. We have been baptized. We have been justified. We have been admitted into the Body of Christ, the spiritual Kingdom of God. We have continuously received the Sacrament of Confession to maintain our righteousness. And w

Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 4b-6a; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17, John 6: 51-58 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Today is the Solemnity of “The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, " which is mostly referred to as Corpus Christi.” In a way, we have already celebrated this feast. We did so on Holy Thursday in Holy Week. On that occasion, the emphasis was on the institution, the gift of the Eucharist to us as one of Jesus’ last acts before his suffering and death. It was, moreover, to be an endu

Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of the Christian faith, comprehensible not with our heads but with our hearts. It teaches us that there are three distinct Persons in one God, sharing the same Divine nature. Here, we are dealing not just with some dreadfully theoretica

Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13; John 20: 19-23 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Dearly Beloved in Christ, we all know how difficult it is to learn another language. We all know how difficult it is to speak and write in another language. It takes years of listening to the phonetics and exercising the composition structures of a language before we feel at ease in another language. Yet we are told that the Apostles, these illiterates, spoke, and people from various nat

eadings: Acts 6: 1-7; 1 Peter 2: 2: 4-9; John 14: 1-12 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) In today’s Gospel account, Jesus gives several assurances, and He also puts us in the proper setting. In it, we find Jesus at the Last Supper giving His final thoughts to His apostles just before He was about to suffer and die. He was saying goodbye to them, and they were confused and upset. Having told them He was going away in the previous Chapter of John 13: 33-38, Peter said, “Lord, where

Acts 8: 5-8, 14-17; 1 Peter 3: 15-18; John 14: 15-21 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Dearly Beloved in Christ, the Easter season will soon come to an end. In a few days, we will celebrate the Ascension of the Lord into Heaven. And soon, the feast of Pentecost will remind us of the wonderful event that is the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. For Jesus will leave us and go to Heaven, and the Spirit of God will come and dwell in us: a mysterious exchange will take plac

Acts 2: 14, 22-28; 1 Peter 1: 17-21; Luke24: 13-25 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Dearly beloved in Christ, today’s Gospel offers us a strong reminder that the Lord Jesus is with us on every journey of our life, during good times and bad times. The two disciples in the Gospel were walking along the road to Emmaus. It had only been a few days since they had been with Jesus. They had great hope in Him, but their hopes were ruined. Not only was Jesus arrested, but he was publicly

Readings: Acts 6: 1-7; 1 Peter 2: 2: 4-9; John 14: 1-12 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) In today’s Gospel account, Jesus gives several assurances and places us in the proper setting. In it, we find Jesus at the Last Supper giving His final thoughts to His apostles just before He was about to suffer and die. He was saying goodbye to them, and they were confused and upset. Having told them He was going away in the previous Chapter of John 13: 33-38, Peter said, “Lord, where are

Readings: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, a day on which the church recalls the relationship between God and his people as described in the image of the Shepherd and the Sheep. In Ezekiel 34, God addresses the leaders of Israel as shepherds, takes responsibility for caring for the sheep, and becomes the shepherd of the flock of his people. In Psalm 23, David now addresses him as the Shepherd of h

Acts 2: 42-47; 1 Peter 1: 3-9; John 20: 19-31 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) To make us more conscious of God’s mercy, the Church calls today “Divine Mercy” Sunday, enabling us to celebrate the mercy of God that called us out of darkness. The Church still reminds us of the inexhaustibility of God’s mercy. This mercy confirms our hope in God. In today's Gospel, we read about the risen Lord's appearance to the apostles' assembly on the day of resurrection and a second appearance

Acts 10: 34a, 37-43; Colossians 3: 1-4; John 20: 1-9 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!! Alleluia!!! What joy we have today as we celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection. Today is Easter Sunday, and on this feast day, we joyfully celebrate the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the greatest, and the most solemn feast in the Church, for the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest of all miracles – it proves that Jesus Chri

A Reflection on the Journey of Faith (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) At long last, today, we have reached the last stage of our forty-day Lenten faith journey. Palm Sunday, which we celebrate today, inaugurates Holy Week, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We mark the beginning of the holiest week of the Church year. In the first gospel proclaimed at the beginning of this Mass, Jesus sets out for a journey; a triumphal entry amidst the pomp and pagea

Ezekiel 37: 12-14; Romans 8: 8-11, John 11: 1-45 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Today, in the first reading, God pictures the exile of the Israelites from their homeland to Babylon as living in bondage to sin. The reading describes the Prophet Ezekiel's contemplation of a valley of dry bones. The dry bones represented the people of Israel, brought low by their own sins. Before God could raise them, they had to face the reality of what they had done. Looking at the First Readi

1 Samuel 16: 1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Ephesians 5: 8-14; John 9: 1-41 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) The verse preceding today's Gospel introduces the central point of our celebration. "I am the light of the world, anyone who follows me will have the light of life" (John 8:12). The entire liturgy therefore celebrates the mystery of Christ - the light of the world; the light which dispels the darkness of our minds and our hearts. We celebrate Christ, who heals our spiritual blindness.

Exodus 17: 3-7; Romans 5: 1-2, 5-8; John 4: 5-42 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) In our First Reading from the Book of Exodus, the Israelites, tormented by thirst in the wilderness, cry out for water. They remember Egypt, where they had plenty of water for themselves and their livestock. Have they come into the desert to die? In the face of their mistrust, Moses believes in God’s power to save; in the face of their grumbling, he lifts his hands in prayer; in answer to their tes

Genesis 12: 1-4a; 2 Timothy 1: 8b-10; Matthew 17: 1-9 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Today, as we continue our faith journey in this Lenten period, let us take note of God’s call to Abraham; note that God clearly "calls" Abraham. God doesn't simply suggest to Abraham that he might consider joining God's great work. God gives Abraham a clear imperative: "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father's house to a land that I will show you." God takes the initiativ

Genesis 2: 7-9, 3: 1-7; Romans 5: 12-19 or 5: 12, 17-19; Matthew 4: 1-11 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) Last Wednesday, we began the season of Lent, which is our preparation for the Easter celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. It is a period in imitation of Jesus spending forty days in the desert. Jesus fasted in the desert and overcame the devil’s temptations. Jesus never sinned, but in the desert he was tempted. During these forty days of Lent, we remember Jesus in the desert

Sirach 15: 16-21; 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10; Matthew 5: 17-37 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) On this Sunday, we heard Jesus telling us: “Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.” Now, how could anyone be holier than the scribes and the Pharisees? They dressed in numerous images of their religion — phylacteries, or miniature lists of the Ten Commandments hung from their headbands — so that whenever they turned th

Isaiah 58: 7-10; 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5; Matthew 5: 13-16 (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) On this Sunday we are reminded by our Lord Jesus that we are the salt of the earth and a light of the world and as such we need to demonstrate for others to see these qualities that we possess. To be successful in achieving a goal we must take care at the beginning to determine the correct direction, which of course, is obvious. What is not so obvious is to ask the right questions, the quest

Zephaniah 2: 3; 3: 12-13; 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31; Matthew 5: 1-12a (Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah) On this Sunday, we hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which includes the Beatitudes. These Beatitudes are the blueprints of our Christian journey and the most basic and important concepts of our faith, of our attitude toward God and our attitude toward one another. The Beatitudes are clear, focused pictures of what Christ expects from us, his followers. We are challenged to place th