Peter emphasizes Jesus’ ministry, Passion, and bodily Resurrection, such that they “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” This stubborn insistence of the Apostles that a dead man came back to life–and not just the same kind of life he had before death but to a new way of existing with a human body–is the central and definitive claim of Christianity.

As we mark another Passion Sunday, the Church presents to us one of the clearest prophecies of the death of the Messiah in the third Servant Song of Isaiah.

The Lord says I will keep my promises even if I have to drag you out of your graves to do so! No low point in history, no persecution, not even death can stand in the way of the Lord’s purposes.

The Spirit descended and remained upon David, like he did at Jesus’ Baptism (see John 1:33), and at your Baptism. It is only because of this indwelling of the Spirit that David is able to fulfill his mission to lead God’s people as their king

We are not much different than our spiritual parents in the wilderness. That cynical, forgetful hardness of heart creeps in asking, “Is the LORD in our midst or not?”

Abraham’s life typifies a life lived walking with the Lord. In these early days of our journey through Lent, the Spirit is holding up the blessings of Abraham as our destination.

Creation, testing, fall, and redemption. These events happened at the dawn of human history, they happened two thousand years ago, and they are happening right now in your own heart.

You and I actually can be saints. Sirach maintains that keeping the commandments is the surest way to a full and happy life while violating them ruins our lives and those around us.

Today, the Spirit calls us to glow brighter, to show greater love through concrete, corporeal actions. The Lord wants to heal our wounded hearts, to be our rearguard. The remedy, as always, is to live more like Jesus.

This week the Spirit is challenging us to consider whether we are part of the remnant at the core of the restoration or if we are standing in its way.

When the “great light,” Jesus the Messiah, came to restore Israel, he began the restoration right where it all first fell apart. When you look back over your life and notice the moments of spiritual unfaithfulness that we all have, where does it all start to fall apart for you? Perhaps that is just the place where the Lord wants to begin restoring you.

The Spirit invites us to be servants of the Lord “through whom I show my glory.”

The Lord’s message through Isaiah has clear echoes in the baptism and ministry of Jesus recorded in the Gospels.

This week, the Spirit invites us, through the voice of Isaiah, to let the glory of the Lord shine upon us and shine through us. You do not have to leave this nation to be a light to the nations.

Honor for parents is so important to the Lord that he attaches some remarkable blessings to it. In addition to atoning for sins it also results in a fruitful prayer life and makes for a happy family life.

The Word of God is living and active (see Hebrews 4:12), and God has a track record of saying something new with the same old words.

On this Gaudete Sunday, the Lord has more joy planned for you than you realize!

With Jesus’ advent in Bethlehem, the shoot finally sprouted from the stump of Jesse

There will come a day when people will stream to Jerusalem, not the physical city but the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church. Instruction shall go forth from this New Jerusalem, as when the Apostles began carrying the good news to Jerusalem and Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, and as when the Church teaches authoritatively today on faith and morals.

In so many ways, King David points ahead to his most famous descendant to be authoritatively declared the King of the Jews: Jesus of Nazareth.