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…
Face it. We’re ALL Millennials.
If there’s one thing Jesus and Satan had in common, it was their low estimation of Millennials. That was Jesus’ generation (Millennials of the FIRST Millennium), and repeatedly throughout the gospels Jesus is quoted saying some pretty harsh things about…
Maybe the Terrorists are Doing Us a Favor
I don’t know what’s worse: saying you understand the mind of God or not even bothering to try. In this Sunday’s second reading (rom 11:33-36), Paul tells the Romans: “How inscrutable are [God’s] judgments and how unsearchable his ways! For…
In God’s Kingdom, the only foreigner is Evil
Anyone who’s flummoxed by the mystery of the Holy Trinity might get some relief from this Sunday’s readings—especially the gospel passage from Matthew (mt 15:21-28). We get to see the Son and the Spirit converge into a miraculous act of…
There’s Nothing Magical about a Miracle
My older brother and I came home one night in 1967 to an empty house. I was 11, my brother 18. No one there but a cop who told us our mother had a heart attack and was taken to the…
Millions of Basket Cases
“Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. … I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.” (is 55:1-3) If we didn’t know this was a quote from the prophet…