You are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets. In our creeds we name ourselves an “apostolic” faith. That is to say, the faith that we have in Jesus is the one which the apostles shared with us. Jesus himself… Read More »

Once upon a time a man found a magic lamp, rubbed it and a genii came out.  “You get three wishes.”  He knew the first thing he wanted – he asked that his wife would die so that he could marry a sweet, young thing.  Poof, it was done.  Well, at his wife’s funeral his… Read More »

I think it was the TV show Maude which had the recurring line, “God will get you for that.” When we see something unjust happening we easily imagine God with a thunderbolt about to smite someone. But God is not Zeus, as Jesus reminds us: “Do you think they were more guilty  than everyone else… Read More »

Jesus challenges us: You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time? When we look at the signs of the present time what do we see? Division, conflict, violence, hatred. The task we have as Christians is to bring gospel… Read More »

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”  Have we lost the sense of urgency that Jesus felt? Think of St. Francis Xavier and other missionaries who left home and family never to see them again because they felt the need… Read More »

“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” This saying of Jesus caused a friend of mine a great deal of anxiety. He felt like God had given him so much — intelligence, an excellent education, good health — and he… Read More »

When astronauts talk about their experience of seeing the earth from space they comment on the interconnectedness of everything. The borders and divisions which are so important in the political realm have no place in the big picture of the life of the planet. St. Paul also is urging us to have a big picture… Read More »

The student radical in the play, Fiddler on the Roof, says the riches are a curse. The poor milkman exclaims, “May the Lord curse me with it and may I never recover.” The relationship between riches and poverty has a convulted relationship in the Bible. If you think of it, the sin of Adam was… Read More »

I wonder if we face the mystery of the Incarnation — that Jesus was fully a human being while at the same time remaining fully the Son of God — in all its implications. Do we think of Jesus as possessing the complex set of emotions and feelings that characterize us as human beings or… Read More »

Don’t you love this saying from St. Paul: May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened. The “eyes of the your hearts” gives us the image of seeing beyond the surface, the obvious, and instead seeing what love reveals.  There is a similar thought in The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.“And now here is… Read More »