This Gospel reminds us that the way we see best, is through the eyes of faith, for then we see the world the way God sees it. But first we have to recognize that without Jesus, we are truly blind.

We tend to believe good times will last forever. While it's nice to be optimistic in that respect, we tend to worry that the bad times will last forever as well. The truth is that life is a series of contrasts—mountaintop experiences followed by deep valleys.

We begin our Lenten readings in a most appropriate place: the desert. In the desert, life is stripped to basics and everything, including our weakness, is exposed. We are forced to stand alone and vulnerable before God. Our faith is put to the test. Little wonder, then, that Jesus went to the desert to fast and pray before plunging into his public works. It's there, amid the rocks and reptiles, that the devil comes to him with three temptations.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays out many of his basic life teachings. Several of them are extraordinarily difficult for us to understand, much less put into practice. Two of these are the famous "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemy" admonitions. To understand what Jesus is saying and what it means to us today, we first need to understand the context in which Jesus is speaking.

This week's Gospel is all about the Law. It starts with the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, which contains Jesus's teaching about loving your enemies, as well as the Beatitudes. We may never have given any thought as to why Jesus gave these teachings on the side of a mountain, but the time and place matter if we are to truly understand how radical Jesus's message was in his time.

In order to understand what Jesus is telling us in today's Gospel, we need to consider what salt and light meant in his time. Because we can buy all the salt we could ever need at our local grocery and we have light anytime we want at the flick of a switch, we may not realize how special both were in ancient Israel. Salt was so valuable it was part of the pay of Roman soldiers. Light came only in the form of fire or small oil lamps. In both cases, salt and light were valuable.

When Joseph and Mary came to the Temple forty days after Jesus was born in order to fulfill the ritual of the presentation of the firstborn, Mary was adjusting to life with a new baby and a husband. She probably wasn’t thinking about all the struggles and hard times that would lie ahead for her baby boy.

In today's Gospel, we see Jesus's reaction to the news that his cousin John has been arrested: he goes into seclusion back at home in Galilee, maybe for one last visit home with Mary, and then begins gathering the band of followers who will become his apostles.

When we say the words of the Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God, during Mass, we are directly quoting John the Baptist. The scene is set on the banks of the Jordan River. John has been gathering disciples by powerfully calling for repentance in light of the coming kingdom of God. One day, as he sees Jesus, he cries out, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!"

On this first Sunday of Ordinary Time, we recall the Baptism of the Lord. But, in addition to remembering this historical event, we also are asked to call to mind our own baptism. Why? Because our baptism isn't just an event from the past, but a present reality that impacts every aspect of our lives.

The story of the magi, the three wise men, who traveled from the East to pay homage to Jesus as the King of the Jews, is part of our Christmas tradition. The magi, after a detour to see King Herod, brought their most valuable possessions to lay at the feet of the newborn King.

The first two readings today focus on the relationships with our family. We are told that honoring and respecting our father is of the highest importance and, if we are faithful to this call, we will be blessed by God. When we read the Gospel, the theme changes from focusing on our earthly family to being faithful to God, our Heavenly Father. If we ought to respect our earthly father and spend so much time and energy making our earthly home virtuous and holy, how much more ought we work to have a relationship with our Heavenly Father? How often do we take the time to talk with God, or honor him by serving him or making sacrifices for him? Let us remember the words of Sirach and St. Paul this week, not just in relation to how we treat our earthly fathers, but, most importantly, in how we relate to God the Father.

This week’s Gospel tells us how the “birth of Jesus Christ came about.” More specifically, it tells us how an angel appeared to Joseph, explaining to him that Mary’s son would save the people from their sins. While Joseph might not have understood it at the time, we know that Jesus is the fulfillment of the great prophecy of Isaiah 7:14ff, that the Messiah would come from the line of David and be born of a Virgin. In our readings this week, we first read that prophecy and then see its fulfillment in the Gospel.

Who hasn’t felt discouraged at some point in life? We all know how it feels when things don't go the way we want or expect. John the Baptist was feeling that way in today’s Gospel. He is languishing in prison, wondering if all that he said and did had any meaning. Jesus didn’t look like the common image of the Messiah. He wasn’t a great political leader who would overthrow the Roman oppressors and restore Israel to glory. John’s faith is shaken and so he tells his followers to seek out Jesus and ask him, “Are you the one?”

It may seem odd that, just as the secular world begins to celebrate peace and joy during the holiday season, we are asked in this week’s Gospel to consider our sinfulness. The words of John the Baptist echo across the centuries: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Isn’t John’s talk about sin, God’s wrath, and the need for repentance a bit of a downer as we prepare for Christmas?

Happy New Year! If this strikes you as a bit premature, it isn’t really because this Sunday marks the start of the new Church year. In the Catholic Church, the first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the cycle of readings, holy days, and holidays for roughly the next 365 days. It’s also the time of year not only when we are called to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, but also when we are asked to examine our lives and take stock, spiritually speaking.

The first-century Jews had very specific expectations concerning their coming messiah, the anointed king, about whom the prophets spoke. He would come in glory, vanquish the oppressors, and correct all the wrongs in the world. So we can imagine what they were thinking when a sign proclaiming “King of the Jews” is placed above the head of Jesus hanging on the cross. They laughed and sneered. This was not the king they expected. And yet, only a few years later, the Apostle Paul, who had rejected Jesus and his followers, would write that “every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord” (Phil 2:10-11).

Wars, famines, persecution, plagues, earthquakes, and signs falling from the skies are the warnings Jesus gives his listeners. How and when these times will come, only God knows. It is enough for Jesus to exhort his disciples — and all believers — to remember: “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus proclaims that the Lord is “not God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38). This may seem obvious to us now, but Jesus’s words affirmed what we as Catholics believe about the Communion of the Saints. To be physically dead is not the same as being dead and annihilated. To be in God is to be alive forevermore.

Zacchaeus, the short, wealthy chief tax collector, was one of the most despised men in his community. Often corrupt and greedy, the tax collectors in Israel worked for the oppressive Roman regime, not only collecting taxes, but also adding their own fees to the total. Yet, Zacchaeus encountered Jesus and became a changed man. He was spiritually changed, and immediately righted the wrong he’d done to his fellow citizens. This is the power an encounter with Christ can have on all of us.