Our Gospel on this day, the fifth Sunday of Lent, is again taken from the Gospel according to John. The reading from John continues the break from Cycle A’s focus on the Gospel of Matthew. Today’s Gospel reading recounts another sign, or miracle, found in John’s Gospel, the raising of Lazarus. As our catechumens move closer to the celebration of their Baptisms at the Triduum, today’s reading invites us to reflect upon what it means to call Jesus the Resurrection and the life.

As with last week’s Gospel about the Samaritan woman who encounters Jesus unexpectedly, the key person in today’s reading is met by Jesus. Both are people with needs who progress throughout stages of deepening faith. In this the Fourth Sunday of Lent, a man blind from birth is healed by Jesus, the healing of the man born blind invites us to focus on the physical and spiritual aspects of sight and light. In the first part of today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus’ response to a prevalent belief of his time: that misfortune and disability were the result of sin. That belief is why Jesus is asked the question of whose sin caused the man’s blindness his own or his parents’. Jesus does not answer directly, but instead gives the question an entirely different dimension through this man’s disability, God’s power will be made manifest. Jesus then heals the man.

In today’s Gospel, the dialogue between Jesus and a woman from Samaria is among the most lengthy and most theological found in Scripture. The most startling aspect of the conversation is that it happens at all. Jesus, an observant Jew of that time, was expected to avoid conversation with women in public. The animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans should have prevented the conversation as well. The woman herself alludes to the break from tradition: “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” Yet Jesus not only converses with the woman, he also asks to share her drinking vessel, an action that makes him unclean according to Jewish law.

For the second Sunday of Lent, we move from Jesus’ retreat in the desert to his Transfiguration. Each year on the first Sunday of Lent, our Gospel tells the story of Jesus‘ temptation in the desert. On the second Sunday of Lent each year, we hear the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration.

In each of the three Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke), after Jesus’ baptism by John, Jesus is reported to have gone to the desert to fast and pray for 40 days. In each case, while in the desert, Jesus is tempted by the devil.

   For this last Sunday before beginning the Lenten season, we are again reflecting on reversals or antitheses of codes of conduct which Jesus’ audience considered to be required of them. The call to love one's enemies was completely foreign to them.

This Sunday’s Gospel, as for the last two Sundays, is from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5. The focus today is on the Law. Jesus’ teaching may have been hard to swallow for this followers, because he was talking about change. What he would explain would involve going deeper into the law. It would mean intensifying the way the commandments would be lived day today.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the now familiar metaphors of salt and light to describe the life of discipleship. We take salt and light for granted in our society, but these commodities were more precious in ancient cultures. Just as now, salt was used in Jesus’ time for flavoring, as a preservative, and as a healing agent.

Today’s reading is the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which is found in Matthew’s Gospel. The form of the Beatitudes found here is not unique to Jesus. Beatitudes are a way to teach about who will find favor with God.

Today’s Gospel describes the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. In the Gospels of Matthew, Jesus’ public ministry begins after his baptism by John the Baptist and after his retreat to the desert where he was tempted by the devil. When Jesus returns from the desert, he hears that John has been arrested.

Today, the Octave Day of Chrismas, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, our Lady's greatest title. Exactly what are we celebrating? It is Mary’s role in the mystery of salvation brought to fruition through the Incarnation, death, and resurrection of her son, Jesus Christ. "Mary, the all-holy ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time. For the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men. This Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, invites us to marvel at the God who comes to us in loving vulnerability and dependence. Following Mary, we are called to do nothing less than repeat her words: "May it be done in me according to your will." Christ is always needing to be born in and among us, and that calls for every year to be a New Year.

The Gospel for the Christmas Mass during the day is taken from the beginning of John’s Gospel, but this part of John’s Gospel is not an infancy narrative like those found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Instead, John’s Gospel starts at the very beginning and presents the Creation story as the framework for announcing the Incarnation. John’s opening words echo the first verse in the Book of Genesis. This framework invites us to view Jesus’ birth from God’s perspective. John’s Gospel,  emphasizes that Jesus’ birth was the divine intention from the moment of Creation.

Finally, on this the Fourth Sunday of Advent, our Gospel Reading permits us to begin our contemplation of the mystery of the Incarnation, which we celebrate at Christmas: “Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about”. The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of the birth of Jesus from Joseph's perspective. In the preceding verses of the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel, the Evangelist has listed the genealogy of Jesus, tracing his lineage. Beginning with Abraham, coming down through generations forty-two in all! And “Jacob the Father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.” All to prove that Joseph was the decedent of Abraham and of King David. The Angel tells Joseph to name this Child. In the naming, he can thereby claim fatherhood of Jesus, for legal purposes and to satisfy curious people in the community and culture. All of this fulfills the promises of the Covenant.

The third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete. Gaudete is the Latin word meaning “rejoice.” This Sunday is so named because the Entrance Antiphon calls us to “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near.”  Phil. 4:4-5.

In the Gospel Reading, for the Second Sunday of Advent, we are invited to consider John the Baptist and his relationship to Jesus. Matthew describes the work and preaching of John the Baptist. John the Baptist appears in the tradition of the great prophets of Israel, preaching repentance and reform to the people of Israel. In this reading, John directs a particularly pointed call to repentance to the Pharisees and Sadducees, parties within the Jewish community of the first century.....

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, which is also the first Sunday of a new liturgical year for the Church, year A. The Advent season includes the four Sundays that precede Christmas. It is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. In this season, we recall two central elements of our faith: the final coming of the Lord in glory and the incarnation of the Lord in the birth of Jesus. Key themes of the Advent season are watchful waiting, preparation, and justice.