PaddlingPadre

Today’s feast, as has often been remarked, is a feast that presents a bit of a puzzle. Even John seems confused, at least in St. Matthew’s account, as he asks Jesus, I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me? To which our Lord replies, with a reply that perhaps…

La fiesta de hoy es una fiesta que plantea un pequeño enigma. Incluso Juan parece confundido, al menos en el relato de San Mateo, cuando le pregunta a Jesús: Yo soy quien debe ser bautizado por ti, ¿y tú vienes a que yo te bautice? A lo que nuestro Señor responde, con una respuesta que…

In the Book of Genesis, after God had stayed the hand of Abraham as he prepared to sacrifice his son, the Lord spoke to Abraham and said: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as…

En el Libro del Génesis, después de que Dios detuviera la mano de Abraham cuando estaba a punto de sacrificar a su hijo, el Señor le dijo: Porque has hecho esto, y no me has negado a tu hijo, tu único hijo, te bendeciré y haré que tu descendencia sea tan numerosa como las estrellas…

A little over 2000 years ago, the near east, and Judaea in particular, was in a state of nervous agitation. For some thirty years by this point, Herod the Great, an Edomite who had been appointed as King of the Jews by the Roman Senate, had ruled with great brutality, his reign bringing to an…

Hace poco más de 2000 años, la tierra de Judea se encontraba en un estado de agitación nerviosa. Durante unos treinta años, Herodes el Grande, un edomita que había sido nombrado rey de los judíos por el Senado romano, había gobernado con gran brutalidad, poniendo fin a cien años de dominio macabeo, una familia que,…

What did you go out to the desert to see? In asking this question of the crowds, with reference to John, Jesus is effectively asking them where their minds and hearts are. Because this is something we must keep in mind: that when it comes to our perceiving something, our hearing or seeing something, whether…

¿Qué fueron ustedes a ver en el desierto? Al hacer esta pregunta a la multitud, refiriéndose a Juan, Jesús les está preguntando en realidad dónde están sus mentes y sus corazones. Porque hay algo que debemos tener presente: cuando se trata de percibir algo, de oír o ver algo, ya sea un objeto, una idea,…

In days to come, the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills, and all nations shall stream toward it. So speaks the prophet Isaiah in our first reading, and if we would understand this prophecy rightly, we must first understand what it is to which…