Even the best of human beings tend to be annoying. It starts in childhood and develops from there. Take a typical 12-year-old boy. He tends to be self-centered, mouthy, and ignorant of the consequences of his actions—all of which describes young Jesus in today’s gospel. Sure, he was doing God’s will by visiting the temple […]

Here it is, the Sunday before Christmas, and we can all feel secure knowing we survived the Mayan curse that was to end the world as we know it. Actually, I don’t think most people believed the Mayan calendar predicted the end of the world would happen on December 21, 2012. But enough people believed […]

It’s almost Christmas. To share joy with their fellow citizens, an atheist group purchased a billboard in the heart of midtown Manhattan stating “Keep the MERRY! Dump the MYTH!” Of course, this message wasn’t intended to spread joy but to anger believers. The best response to such an outrageous provocation? It’s in today’s reading from […]

John the Baptist was identified as a lone voice crying out in the desert, “Make straight the way of the Lord.” The key word here is “lone.” He didn’t have disciples to help him spread this message—at least while he was alive. He seemed to know the heavy lifting was going to happen when Christ […]

Today’s readings span a wide range of human feelings…happiness, love, fear and courage. The common denominator is the coming of Jesus, which will elicit all of these emotions when time’s up and we have to account for how we’ve lived. I love Luke’s advice in today’s gospel. If you read it out loud with the […]