Thomas Gumbleton

The Peace Pulpit: "We listen to God's word deeply and obey that word and follow Jesus faithfully. That is what we're called to do now during this season of Lent."

The Peace Pulpit: It is so clear to me that what we need to do is accept that call to be the light of the world and carry it out mostly by listening to that first lesson today

The Peace Pulpit: We say so easily, "Yes, I believe Jesus is God," but do you really act on that belief by listening to him deeply and trying faithfully to follow what he teaches?

The Peace Pulpit: "He will not cry out or shout or raise his voice in the streets." In biblical terms, calling out in the street means a call to arms, to go to war. This servant will not do that.

The Peace Pulpit: As we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate with joy and with hope, but also with some determination to bring about change in our life as we listen to Jesus and follow his way.

The Peace Pulpit: "Isaiah is talking about our planet. It's a very timely message for us now. In the reign of God, our planet will be restored. Right now, we're damaging it to the point where it may not be able to recover."

The Peace Pulpit: "People are desperately in need and we need to remind ourselves that Jesus ... identifies himself with those people and asks us to welcome him by welcoming them."

The Peace Pulpit: We want to know God, don't we? We want to come to have some awareness of God in our lives. Here's how it works in today's lessons.

The Peace Pulpit: We have no right to feel superior. We must refrain from judging others. We must try to love every person and welcome them as God loves the poor, the vulnerable.

The Peace Pulpit: Who of us hasn't come up to an intersection and seen a poor person with a cup, a hungry person, a homeless person? What's our attitude when that happens? Do you really see Jesus?

The Peace Pulpit: Jesus asked us to be prudent in regard to our very planet, to save it. It’s time that we listen to the young people, who are listening to Jesus and following him.

The Peace Pulpit: Think about another way of being a disciple that isn't so popular in our country. That is reaching out to those refugees at our border and loving them, welcoming them.

The Peace Pulpit: Humility is an attempt to see ourselves as gifted people made by God with virtues and gifts that we can nurture and develop. We must remember: Whatever gifts we have, they are from God.

The Peace Pulpit: As we try to reflect on these two different images — what Jesus says and what Isaiah says — clearly it's easier to listen to Isaiah. God is going to bring everybody into the fullness of life in God's reign.

The Peace Pulpit: Avoid greed in all its forms. Do not pile up material possessions thinking that you can always guard against whatever might happen. Try to remember that everything we have is a gift.

The Peace Pulpit: It must have been an extraordinary experience to see Jesus in prayer. That's why the disciples said, "Teach us how to pray. We need to be able to find God within us as you do."

The Peace Pulpit: With the timely parable of the good Samaritan, this is God speaking to us, trying to show us how we build the reign of God in our world.

The Peace Pulpit: Probably the most extraordinary of all the teachings of Jesus is where he tells us to love one another as I have loved you without limit, without condition.

The Peace Pulpit: We have to ask ourselves how well we are living out what Jesus intends by the Eucharist, how well we are living out that part of the Last Supper where Jesus made himself the slave, the servant of all?

The Peace Pulpit: We're called to enter into that mystery because we're made in the image of God, so we're called to be people who love. The only way we grow into our fullness as a human person is by loving, loving one another.