Jesus calls us sheep in this Sunday’s gospel reading (Jn 10:11-18). From anybody else this would be an insult, but it actually says more about him and his role as our shepherd than about us being among the dumbest animals alive. “A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” Jesus explains. “A hired […]

On the first few Sundays after Easter Sunday we are treated to a variety of cases of mistaken identity. Jesus appears to various people after returning from the dead and nobody recognizes him—at least right away. As holy as these reintroductions were, Jesus must have been having at least a little fun with his loved […]

Non-Christians have a lot in common with my saintly namesake, St. Thomas—the Doubter. Even he converted to all-in Christianity reluctantly, as we read in this Sunday’s gospel account. It took the risen Christ himself to accomplish that hands-on conversion. Thomas had to get his hands on Jesus’s formerly mortal wounds to buy into this concept […]

Last Sunday we all played a bit part in the reading of Christ’s Passion—and it wasn’t a very sympathetic role, either. We were the angry rabble, and our big line of dialog was easy to memorize: “Crucify him!” The good news is we are actually understudies in that production. We were created to play a […]