Today's Gospel gives us one of the most well-known of all verses: John 3:16.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son...".  To know the Son is to have eternal life.  How do we know him?  By being born again through water and the Holy Spirit.  Lent is a privileged time for us to renew the grace that is given to us in baptism, so that we can stand with our brothers and sisters who will be baptized at Easter and boldly make our profession of faith.

"A leper approached Jesus, fell down on his knees, and said, 'Lord, if you will it, you can heal me.'"

This man is the model disciple.  Even though we do not have leprosy  (thanks be to God), we are all sinners, and thus are all "unclean".  May we approach the Lord, give him glory, and believe that he has the power to forgive us and to make us clean again.

Today's Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is part of what we call the Epiphany; a manifestation of Our Lord to the whole world.  Jesus Christ, true God from true God, did not need to be baptized for the forgiveness of sin; rather he was baptized in order to give us the Sacrament of Baptism, that we may be united to him.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and he has established the sacraments in the Catholic Church as the means for us to know, serve, and follow him.

Today's feast of the Holy Family, situated within the season of Christmas, helps us to understand and appreciate the mystery of the Incarnation.  We have much to learn from the Holy Family -- namely: 1) That we, too, should practice our faith daily, for this is pleasing to God; and 2) That our faith compels us to serve, teach, forgive, comfort, and share the love of God with the world.

At Christmas we celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation.  We profess what we can scarcely understand: God became flesh for our sake, so that we could become like God one day.  God's Presence abides with us always, especially in the Holy Eucharist.  At every Mass God is present to us in the Word and in the Eucharist -- not symbolically but really and truly present.  We are called to take that Presence to a weary world.

"Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother?  7 times?"  Jesus answer's St. Peter's question in such a way as to do at least two things: First, he shows us that God's love and mercy are infinite; there is no limit to the times that God will forgive those who approach Him with sorrow and contrition.  Secondly, Jesus is once again teaching us that we should strive to be like God in this way - to forgive our brother or sister "seven times seventy times" -- in other words, without limit.  Thus we will heed the command as found throughout the Bible:  "Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy."

"God's ways are not our ways."  To that we say, "Thanks be to God!"  The parable of the landowner and the hired hands may go against our understanding of 'fairness' or 'justice', but it shows God's abundance and His desire for each one of us.  Even though God's ways are not our ways, our ways should be more and more like God's way.

It is clear in all of the Gospels that Jesus intends that his disciples do what he did.  In fact, he summed this up well during the Last Supper, after washing his disciples' feet: "What I have done was give you an example; as I have done, so you must also do."  This entails not only the ministry of service, it includes the passing on of the Truth that has been handed on to us through St. Peter and his successors.

Imagine if God were to give you a blank check.  "As me for anything and I will give it to you."  

What would you ask for?  What is your request of God?

Today's Gospel gives us a couple of parables, with the focus on the first, the story of the wheat and the weeds.  Jesus explains what we already knew: God is the sower, the weeds are sown by the devil, and we are all called to be wheat (i.e., to bear good fruit).  Whereas we, like the workers in Jesus' story, want God to come down here and pull up all the weeds, we must recognize that God delays because He is so merciful.  God wants all to be converted and live.