Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Even a great prophet who had powerful experiences of God from his youth is entitled to a pity party every now and then. All of his efforts to get the people to reform, to avoid the coming threat seem to have come to… Read More »

In the prophet Jeremiah there are three distinct voices. The one we notice first is Jeremiah preaching fire and brimstone to the people.  We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers; that we have sinned against you. The second is the voice of God: “Thus says the Lord…” God lays out to… Read More »

The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. Each of us have, like Mrs. Zebedee, asked God for something. Frequently God says a polite “no” to us just as Jesus did to the mother of James and John. How Jesus responded… Read More »

A few years ago (well, a few decades ago…) there was a Gatorade ad campaign with the slogan “Be Like Mike.” (I won’t sing you the jingle because it will become an ear worm for the rest of the day.) The logic of the commercial: since Michael Jordan was, arguably, the greatest basketball player of… Read More »

Almost sixty years ago Bob Dylan wrote a scathing anti-war song, “With God on our side.”  People justify war, destruction, even genocide by supposing that God is on their side, not that of the enemy. He ends the song by suggesting that Judas Iscariot probably thought he had God on his side. Jeremiah warns the… Read More »

Pope Francis has elevated the celebration of Saint Mary Magdalene to that of a “feast.” Most saints are remembered in a memorial. Major saints, like the apostles are given the status of a feast. Since Mary Magdalene is considered the “apostle to the apostles” — the one who first announced the good news of the… Read More »

Much of the Book of Jeremiah is the prophet yelling at the people. When I brought you into the garden land  to eat its goodly fruits, You entered and defiled my land, you made my heritage loathsome. Certainly chiding the nation was a common prophetic practice, up to and including Jesus. Most people do not… Read More »

We continue our whirlwind tour through the Old Testament prophets by turning toward Jeremiah. Some have called him the first recognizable person because of the deep introspection which characterized his writing. His book begins with the call to be a prophet. He resists but God insists: To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever… Read More »

There is a famous story that when Fr. Flanagan was gathering the so called “street urchins” into what would become Boys’ Town one boy came up who was carrying another piggy back. Fr. Flanagan asked if he wanted to put the other boy down. The young man answered, “Nah, he ain’t heavy. He’s my brother.”… Read More »

You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. This word of the prophet Micah has become the refrain of a popular hymn. The true power of the saying is only found… Read More »