This Sunday’s Gospel (John Chapter 9), Jesus’ healing of the man born blind, is my favorite passage of the whole Bible. I love the way this scene in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth captures the story’s full range of emotions and contrasts the self-absorbed pharisees with the exuberant joy everyone else feels, and should be feeling, over the blind man’s miraculous healing. This scene highlights the essence of Laetare Sunday Joy by juxtaposing it with the type of attitude we must overcome to experience the joy Christ wants for us. More…
Tag Archives: joy
The Advent of Joy 5

Desert Rose, a Sign of Contradiction, expresses the meaning and color of Gaudete Sunday
As I’m going over tomorrow’s readings for Gaudete Sunday, I find myself asking with John the Baptist, am I looking for the right thing?
The first words of the first reading: the desert and the parched land…
Second reading, first words: Be Patient…
In the first line of the Gospel reading we learn: John the Baptist is in prison…. More…