After the trials and tortures they saw their crucified Master suffer as a result of his public ministry, you can imagine Christ’s disciples yearning for a more cloistered life of solitary prayer. Such a life could have sheltered them from…
One of the last things Jesus said before dying was “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” That “them” might have included his disciples. Maybe that’s why, before his ascension, Jesus came back to have a few more…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…