“Blessed are you who are poor … But woe to you who are rich.” The Eight Beatitudes that St. Matthew records in the Sermon on the Mount look different in St. Luke’s version. There are only four, first of all. Instead of saying “blessed are they” as in Matthew’s gospel in Luke they are personally… Read More »

In a book called Good to Great Jim Collins says that the first step in making an organization great is having the right people on the bus. You can imagine that as Jesus spent the night in prayer preparing to choose his twelve apostles he was seeking divine guidance in getting the right people. You… Read More »

Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil?” Of course, no one would suggest doing evil on the sabbath. What Our Lord wanted his hearers to understand is that sometimes NOT doing something is evil. When we see the troubles and difficulties… Read More »

Philemon had a problem. In the epistle for today St. Paul wrote his old friend about an escaped slave, Onesimus. Somehow Onesimus had found his way to Paul and there he became a Christian due to his preaching. As a result, Paul felt close to this escaped slave, even calling him “my child.” However, St.… Read More »

Have you ever joined a committee or became part of a group that has been meeting for awhile? You can be sure that you are going to have a hard time fitting in if every suggestion is met with: “But we’ve always done it this way.” Jesus experienced something like that. He was working to… Read More »

The usual narrative in thinking of salvation history goes something like this: God created the garden of Eden for human happiness but we broke the plan God had for the world with original sin. God came up with Plan B and sent Jesus to fix what we had broken and we now strive to re-enter… Read More »

Matthew, Mark and Luke all describe the call of the two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Only Luke recounts what that encounter looked like. The evangelist describes a multi-step process of coming to follow Jesus that all disciples share. First, interest — Jesus asks Peter… Read More »

St. Paul begins his letter to the church in Colossae with a word of affirmation. “We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.” The Apostle praises their faith, the love that they have and their hope. Of course further on in the letter he “corrects,… Read More »

Jesus centered his ministry at the village on the Sea of Galilee named Capernaum. St. Luke showed Jesus as having the power to drive out the unclean spirits. The Bible portrays the demons as knowing about God. “I know who you are -– the Holy One of God!” Which tells us, that knowing about God… Read More »

From now until Advent the daily gospel will be taken from St. Luke’s Gospel. Today we hear the story of Jesus inaugurating his ministry at his home town of Nazareth. He read from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me …” He concluded with a personal word: “Today this Scripture passage… Read More »