Have you noticed how Jesus seldom answered a question directly? Who is my neighbor? Well, a man was walking down to Jericho….  How often must I forgive? There was a man who owed a huge amount…. “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  “The master of the house has arisen and locked the door…” This style… Read More »

In his Gospel, St. Luke typically paired a story about a man with one about a woman. When Jesus told the story of the man who sowed a mustard seed he immediately added a story of a woman who mixed yeast with flour. You can imagine Mrs. Luke saying to him while he was writing,… Read More »

Does St. Paul ask the impossible when he instructs us: “Be imitators of God?” How can the likes of me be an imitator of God! I am acutely aware of my limitations. Happily the Apostle gives us three concrete actions to take in order to imitate God: “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one… Read More »

Were you watching the news leading up to the drawing for the billion dollar plus lottery? The reporters would stick a microphone in front of someone who just bought a ticket and ask what they would do if they won. “I’d take a cruise around the world.” “I’d buy a sixty-two room mansion with a… Read More »

St. Paul provides our goal:  “living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ.” As we remember from the trial of Jesus before Pilate “what is truth?” remains the key question. The truth is that all of us are sinners. Our lives are filled with mistakes, misjudgments,… Read More »

Again and again in his letters St. Paul stresses the theme of unity. He does so because staying united in community is hard. Whenever you have two people there is the giving and the taking of wounds as we rub up against one another. Those differences and disagreements can blind us to the fact that… Read More »

St. Paul was not reluctant to chide the early Christian communities he addressed in his letters. They received his admonitions because they knew that what he said to them came out of love.  Before correcting the Ephesians he reminded them that they are “rooted and grounded in love.” The Apostle had experienced God’s love for him… Read More »

“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” These words of Jesus have always challenged me since I feel I have been “entrusted with much” — good education, blessed vocation, excellent health, etc. But I remember a Peanuts strip where Lucy was complaining… Read More »

St. Paul wrestled with the great crisis in the early church — how to integrate Jews and non-Jews into “one body.” He believed and taught that such unity was possible when it is founded on Christ. Christ “is our peace, he made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity.” What seemed like… Read More »

Jesus told a parable about the man who after a successful harvest was deciding where to store his crop. ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.’ In the story, the man didn’t consider his mortality — that we should look at things from the perspective of… Read More »