Sunday Bible Reflections

This Sunday

The Road Home: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Second Sunday of Advent

Today’s Psalm paints a dreamlike scene—a road filled with liberated captives heading home to Zion (Jerusalem), mouths filled with laughter, tongues rejoicing.

It’s a glorious picture from Israel’s past, a “new exodus,” the deliverance from exile in Babylon. It’s being recalled in a moment of obvious uncertainty and anxiety. But the psalmist isn’t waxing nostalgic.

Download Audio File

Read More

The Gathering of the Manna

Endurance Test: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The journey of discipleship is a lifelong exodus from the slavery of sin and death to the holiness of truth on Mount Zion, the promised land of eternal life.

The road can get rough. And when it does, we can be tempted to complain like the Israelites in this week’s First Reading.

We have to see these times of hardship as a test of what is in our hearts, a call to trust God more and to purify the motives for our faith (Deuteronomy 8:2–3).

Listen Now

The Feeding of the Multitude

Bread Left Over: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s liturgy brings together several strands of Old Testament expectation to reveal Jesus as Israel’s promised Messiah and King, the Lord who comes to feed His people.

Notice the parallels between today’s Gospel and First Reading. Both Elisha and Jesus face a crowd of hungry people with only a few “barley” loaves. We hear similar words about how impossible it will be to feed the crowd with so little. And in both the miraculous multiplication of bread satisfies the hungry and leaves food left over.

Listen Now

The Good Shepherd

One Flock: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

As the Twelve return from their first missionary journey in today’s Gospel, our readings continue to reflect on the authority and mission of the Church.

Jeremiah says in the First Reading that Israel’s leaders, through godlessness and fanciful teachings, had misled and scattered God’s people. He promises God will send a shepherd, a king and son of David, to gather the lost sheep and appoint for them new shepherds (see Ezekiel 34:23).

Listen Now

Appearance on the Mountain in Galilee

The Church’s Mission: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In commissioning the Apostles in today’s Gospel, Jesus gives them, and us, a preview of His Church’s mission after the Resurrection.

His instructions to the Twelve echo those of God to the twelve tribes of Israel on the eve of their exodus from Egypt. The Israelites likewise were sent out with no bread and only one set of clothes, wearing sandals and carrying a staff (see Exodus 12:11; Deuteronomy 8:2–4). Like the Israelites, the Apostles are to rely solely on the providence of God and His grace.

Listen Now

L'Innocence, William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Son of Mary: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

As we've walked with the apostles in the Gospels in recent weeks, we've witnessed Jesus command the wind and sea, and order a little girl to arise from the dead. But He seems to meet His match in His hometown of Nazareth. Today's Gospel is blunt: “He was not able to perform any mighty deed there.

Listen Now

Jesus Raises Jairus’ Daughter from the Dead

Arise!: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God, who formed us in His imperishable image, did not intend for us to die, we hear in today’s First Reading. Death entered the world through the devil’s envy and Adam and Eve’s sin; as a result, we are all bound to die.

But in the moving story in today’s Gospel, we see Jesus liberate a little girl from the possession of death.

Listen Now

Sign up to receive Scott Hahn’s Weekly Sunday Bible Reflections

Archives