Many of us in this hyper-political world see everything through partisan glasses. Depending on your political philosophy, our society’s greatest faults require either controlling or taxing. Human bureaucracy to the rescue. From that perspective, people of the early Church (after Jesus’ resurrection) might be seen as Communists for their practices. There was no needy person […]
There are dozens of Easter songs about rising and resurrection. All of them have spiritually uplifting messages about Christ’s—and therefore OUR—rising from the dead. One inspirational song about rising is about flood waters. Johnny Cash wrote “How High’s the Water, Momma” about a 1937 Mississippi flood that drove him and his family out of their […]
The Passion that we read on Palm Sunday is like a jazz score. Its truth is perceived between the notes and beyond the words. The key moments feature people doing seemingly senseless things in response to God’s call. This kind of “Call and response” is akin to the patterns often found in jazz music, with […]
Sunday’s gospel reading (Jn 12:20-33) shows Jesus at a crucial time in his ministry, and we’re reading it at a crucial time in our history. Toward the end of his earthly life, Jesus’ message was reaching far beyond its original target audience. John tells us that even Greeks were being inspired to observe Passover. John’s […]
We can learn much from Barney Fife of the old Andy Griffith Show. This hapless deputy who continuously lived in the shadow of his boss, Sheriff Andy Taylor, wore the uniform of a lawman, but not well. He was the show’s comedy relief, and the audience was encouraged to look beneath his uniform and see […]
Throughout history, where you saw leprosy, you were also likely to see God. That’s because God is love, and anyone with enough love to serve the needs of those afflicted with this body-disfiguring disease embodied God’s presence among them. That love was returned, too, as Bishop Fulton Sheen told an audience of Kansas State University […]
In Sunday’s account of Jesus’ transfiguration (Mk 9:2-10), his disciples witness long-dead prophets conversing with their soon-to-be-dead master. After this vision, the Master instructs them not to tell anyone about this until he rises from the dead. The reading ends with these disciples discussing what rising from the dead means. Ever since that rising, faith […]
The web-spun unrest that caught politicians in a wild debate about the threat of hate speech to our democratic republic inspired one congressman to announce his official boycott of social media. This representative announced last month via the Wall Street Journal that he was leaving all social media forums. “I haven’t decided whether this will […]
In some ways, Covid 19 is the 21st century’s version of first-century leprosy. People with Covid may feel like lepers of old because they’re forced to isolate themselves. Our modern world’s leaders are like Moses in this Sunday’s first mass reading (Lv 13:1-2, 44-46), prescribing actions for their citizens to keep others safe: “As long […]
The recent announcement of a beloved local priest’s retirement was like a call to action on his parish’s Facebook page. Underneath his photo soon appeared hundreds of posts from people whose lives he touched in some way. All of them recognized his early call to service and thanked him for the sacrifices that came with […]