God Time: Daily Gospel reflections for those who want to be Saints!

GOSPEL - John 11:45-56Many of the Jews who had come to Maryand seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.But some of them went to the Phariseesand told them what Jesus had done.So the chief priests and the Phariseesconvened the Sanhedrin and said,“What are we going to do?This man is performing many signs.If we leave him alone, all will believe in him,and the Romans will comeand take away both our land and our nation.”But one of them, Caiaphas,who was high priest that year, said to them,“You know nothing,nor do you consider that it is better for youthat one man should die instead of the people,so that the whole nation may not perish.”He did not say this on his own,but since he was high priest for that year,he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,and not only for the nation,but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.So from that day on they planned to kill him.So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews,but he left for the region near the desert,to a town called Ephraim,and there he remained with his disciples.Now the Passover of the Jews was near,and many went up from the country to Jerusalembefore Passover to purify themselves.They looked for Jesus and said to one anotheras they were in the temple area, “What do you think?That he will not come to the feast?”

GOSPEL - John 10:31-42The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father.For which of these are you trying to stone me?”The Jews answered him,“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.You, a man, are making yourself God.”Jesus answered them,“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,and Scripture cannot be set aside,can you say that the onewhom the Father has consecrated and sent into the worldblasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,believe the works, so that you may realize and understandthat the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”Then they tried again to arrest him;but he escaped from their power.He went back across the Jordanto the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.Many came to him and said,“John performed no sign,but everything John said about this man was true.”And many there began to believe in him.

GOSPEL - Luke 1:26-38The angel Gabriel was sent from Godto a town of Galilee called Nazareth,to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,of the house of David,and the virgin’s name was Mary.And coming to her, he said,“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”But she was greatly troubled at what was saidand pondered what sort of greeting this might be.Then the angel said to her,“Do not be afraid, Mary,for you have found favor with God.Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,and you shall name him Jesus.He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”But Mary said to the angel,“How can this be,since I have no relations with a man?”And the angel said to her in reply,“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.Therefore the child to be bornwill be called holy, the Son of God.And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,has also conceived a son in her old age,and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;for nothing will be impossible for God.”Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.May it be done to me according to your word.”Then the angel departed from her.

GOSPEL - John 8:21-30Jesus said to the Pharisees:“I am going away and you will look for me,but you will die in your sin.Where I am going you cannot come.”So the Jews said,“He is not going to kill himself, is he,because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”He said to them, “You belong to what is below,I belong to what is above.You belong to this world,but I do not belong to this world.That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.For if you do not believe that I AM,you will die in your sins.”So they said to him, “Who are you?”Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.I have much to say about you in condemnation.But the one who sent me is true,and what I heard from him I tell the world.”They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.So Jesus said to them,“When you lift up the Son of Man,then you will realize that I AM,and that I do nothing on my own,but I say only what the Father taught me.The one who sent me is with me.He has not left me alone,because I always do what is pleasing to him.”Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

GOSPEL - John 8:1-11Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them.Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.They said to him,“Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.So what do you say?”They said this to test him,so that they could have some charge to bring against him.Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.But when they continued asking him,he straightened up and said to them,“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.And in response, they went away one by one,beginning with the elders.So he was left alone with the woman before him.Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,“Woman, where are they?Has no one condemned you?”She replied, “No one, sir.”Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

GOSPEL - John 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.”When Jesus heard this he said,“This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.Then after this he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea.”When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here,my brother would not have died.But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,God will give you.”Jesus said to her,“Your brother will rise.”Martha said,“I know he will rise,in the resurrection on the last day.”Jesus told her,“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.Do you believe this?”She said to him, “Yes, Lord.I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,the one who is coming into the world.”He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?”They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”And Jesus wept.So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”Jesus said to her,“Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”So they took away the stone.And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me.I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”And when he had said this,He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”The dead man came out,tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth.So Jesus said to them,“Untie him and let him go.”Now many of the Jews who had come to Maryand seen what he had done began to believe in him.

GOSPEL - John 7:40-53Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,"This is truly the Prophet."Others said, "This is the Christ."But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's familyand come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.Some of them even wanted to arrest him,but no one laid hands on him.So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, "Does our law condemn a man before it first hears himand finds out what he is doing?"They answered and said to him,"You are not from Galilee also, are you?Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."Then each went to his own house.

GOSPEL - John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30Jesus moved about within Galilee;he did not wish to travel in Judea,because the Jews were trying to kill him.But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,"Is he not the one they are trying to kill?And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?But we know where he is from.When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,"You know me and also know where I am from.Yet I did not come on my own,but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."So they tried to arrest him,but no one laid a hand upon him,because his hour had not yet come. 

GOSPEL - Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24aJacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,but before they lived together,she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,yet unwilling to expose her to shame,decided to divorce her quietly.Such was his intention when, behold,the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,“Joseph, son of David,do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.For it is through the Holy Spiritthat this child has been conceived in her.She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,because he will save his people from their sins.”When Joseph awoke,he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded himand took his wife into his home.

GOSPEL - John 5:17-30Jesus answered the Jews: "My Father is at work until now, so I am at work."For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,because he not only broke the sabbathbut he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.Jesus answered and said to them,"Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,but only what he sees the Father doing;for what he does, the Son will do also.For the Father loves the Sonand shows him everything that he himself does,and he will show him greater works than these,so that you may be amazed.For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.Nor does the Father judge anyone,but he has given all judgment to the Son,so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.Whoever does not honor the Sondoes not honor the Father who sent him.Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my wordand believes in the one who sent mehas eternal life and will not come to condemnation,but has passed from death to life.Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now herewhen the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,and those who hear will live.For just as the Father has life in himself,so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.And he gave him power to exercise judgment,because he is the Son of Man.Do not be amazed at this,because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombswill hear his voice and will come out,those who have done good deedsto the resurrection of life,but those who have done wicked deedsto the resurrection of condemnation."I cannot do anything on my own;I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,because I do not seek my own willbut the will of the one who sent me." 

GOSPEL - John 5:1-16There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gatea pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.When Jesus saw him lying thereand knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,"Do you want to be well?"The sick man answered him,"Sir, I have no one to put me into the poolwhen the water is stirred up;while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me."Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk."Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.Now that day was a sabbath.So the Jews said to the man who was cured,"It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." He answered them, "The man who made me well told me,'Take up your mat and walk.'"They asked him,"Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and walk'?"The man who was healed did not know who it was,for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,"Look, you are well; do not sin any more,so that nothing worse may happen to you."The man went and told the Jewsthat Jesus was the one who had made him well.Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesusbecause he did this on a sabbath.

GOSPEL - John 4:43-54At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.For Jesus himself testifiedthat a prophet has no honor in his native place.When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;for they themselves had gone to the feast.Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,where he had made the water wine.Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,he went to him and asked him to come downand heal his son, who was near death.Jesus said to him,“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”The royal official said to him,“Sir, come down before my child dies.”Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.While the man was on his way back,his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.He asked them when he began to recover.They told him,“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,“Your son will live,”and he and his whole household came to believe.Now this was the second sign Jesus didwhen he came to Galilee from Judea. 

GOSPEL - John 9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva,and smeared the clay on his eyes,and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” — which means Sent —.So he went and washed, and came back able to see.His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?”Some said, “It is, “but others said, “No, he just looks like him.”He said, “I am.”They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees.Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath.So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see.He said to them,“He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”So some of the Pharisees said,“This man is not from God,because he does not keep the sabbath.”But others said,“How can a sinful man do such signs?”And there was a division among them.So they said to the blind man again, “What do you have to say about him,since he opened your eyes?”He said, “He is a prophet.”They answered and said to him,“You were born totally in sin,and are you trying to teach us?”Then they threw him out.When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out,he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”He answered and said, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”Jesus said to him,“You have seen him, andthe one speaking with you is he.”He said,“I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him.

GOSPEL - Luke 18:9-14Jesus addressed this parableto those who were convinced of their own righteousnessand despised everyone else.“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity —greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.I fast twice a week,and I pay tithes on my whole income.’But the tax collector stood off at a distanceand would not even raise his eyes to heavenbut beat his breast and prayed,‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

GOSPEL - Mark 12:28-34One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,"Which is the first of all the commandments?"Jesus replied, "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."The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.You are right in saying,He is One and there is no other than he.And to love him with all your heart,with all your understanding, with all your strength,and to love your neighbor as yourselfis worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,he said to him,"You are not far from the Kingdom of God."And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

GOSPEL - Luke 11:14-23Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute,and when the demon had gone out,the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.Some of them said, "By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,he drives out demons."Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.But he knew their thoughts and said to them,"Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid wasteand house will fall against house.And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,by whom do your own people drive them out?Therefore they will be your judges.But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.When a strong man fully armed guards his palace,his possessions are safe.But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,he takes away the armor on which he reliedand distributes the spoils.Whoever is not with me is against me,and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

GOSPEL - Matthew 5:17-19Jesus said to his disciples:“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letterwill pass from the law,until all things have taken place.Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandmentsand teaches others to do sowill be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.But whoever obeys and teaches these commandmentswill be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

GOSPEL - Matthew 18:21-35Peter approached Jesus and asked him,“Lord, if my brother sins against me,how often must I forgive him?As many as seven times?”Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a kingwho decided to settle accounts with his servants.When he began the accounting,a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.Since he had no way of paying it back,his master ordered him to be sold,along with his wife, his children, and all his property,in payment of the debt.At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’Moved with compassion the master of that servantlet him go and forgave him the loan.When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servantswho owed him a much smaller amount.He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,‘Pay back what you owe.’Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’But he refused.Instead, he had him put in prisonuntil he paid back the debt.Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,they were deeply disturbed, and went to their masterand reported the whole affair.His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,as I had pity on you?’Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturersuntil he should pay back the whole debt.So will my heavenly Father do to you,unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”

GOSPEL - Luke 4:24-30Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:“Amen, I say to you,no prophet is accepted in his own native place.Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israelin the days of Elijahwhen the sky was closed for three and a half yearsand a severe famine spread over the entire land.It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.Again, there were many lepers in Israelduring the time of Elisha the prophet;yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”When the people in the synagogue heard this,they were all filled with fury.They rose up, drove him out of the town,and led him to the brow of the hillon which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

GOSPEL - John 4:5-42Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.Jacob’s well was there.Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.It was about noon.A woman of Samaria came to draw water.Jesus said to her,“Give me a drink.”His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.The Samaritan woman said to him,“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—Jesus answered and said to her,“If you knew the gift of Godand who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water?Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in hima spring of water welling up to eternal life.”The woman said to him,“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”