Hell’s Tenants Watch Judge Judy 24/7

If you’ve ever channel surfed in the afternoon, chances are you found an episode of Judge Judy. Chances are also good that the case you landed on involved a landlord vs. a tenant from hell. These cases usually have a…

Celebrate the Extraordinarily Ordinary

Something bittersweet happens amidst the blood and guts that fill the nightly local news reports about murder and accident victims. Eulogies. These are stories of ordinary people who never made headlines before, but in their sudden exit from this life…

Empathy, the Spiritual Super Power

Many 4- and 5-year-old girls were captivated by the movie “Frozen.” It’s the story of a girl whose newly discovered power to create ice and snow nearly kills her little sister, causing the big sister to isolate herself from the…

Worthless but Redeemable

Only two years ago, U.S. customs and border officials seized counterfeit goods worth around $1.26 billion. By 2016 counterfeiting is expected to be a $1.7 trillion industry. Human beings have thrived on phoniness since Adam and Eve donned fig leaves…

Jesus Christ: Life of the Party

This Sunday’s gospel made me think of Homer Simpson. Picture this paunchy, self-satisfied ignoramus sitting in his man cave watching football, and his wife comes in and says “Ned Flanders invited us over for a get together with some friends…

Plant God’s Word, Don’t Bury It

The word of God is a powerful seed. The Bible is the history of its cultivation and the distribution of its fruit. It’s also a manual offering instruction on how to keep that crop viable. Humanity has not always been…

God’s Prayer to Us

The following headline made Section A of last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal : “Mass Shootings on the Rise” The report said the mindset of the shooters in these incidents is often the same: “a real or perceived deeply held personal…

The Kaizen of Being Christian

Pete, the manager of Kingdom Enterprises, sat in his office pondering his future. It was midnight, but time on the job hasn’t mattered since the Boss tore out all the time clocks and instituted a new “continuous improvement” program. He…

Which God is Ours?

God may be part of a trinity, but this Sunday’s readings make Him look two-faced. There’s the Old Testament God depicted as mean and vengeful in our first reading (nm 21:4b-9), striking swiftly after Moses’ flock complains about their conditions…

Souls Don’t Need Skeletons

“If your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.” This is Jesus’ advice, taken straight from this Sunday’s gospel reading (mt…