The Call of God’s Jazz
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…
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The Saint in Our Smile
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…
Embrace Your Inner Barney Fife
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…
Curing Our Soul’s Leprosy
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…
Faith: Science’s Undiscovered Element
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…
Lent: Where the Wild Things Are
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…
Resurrected from the Grave of Our Skin
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…
Just when I thought I was out…
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…
Leverage Your Faith and Move the World
The most accomplished people prove the hardest work is done in our heart. Finding the proper leverage to move immovable obstacles to wisdom starts there. The goal of many in that effort is to find their true selves. For others,…
Repentance is Mine, Sayeth the Lord
Many 21st century people believe the Bible is filled with silly and outmoded beliefs. They often mockingly describe God as the great punisher in the sky, striking us down for our evil deeds. He jealously guards his vengeance, too. “Vengeance…