Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM.” English is like the Greek in that the word translated as “lifted up” can have dual meanings. It means the physically act of raising something. It also can mean to praise or to exalt. St. John… Read More »

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  Jesus as the light of the world is part of a long biblical tradition. At the very first moment of creation God said, “Let there be light.” This was even before the creation… Read More »

The Cecil B. DeMille movie, King of Kings, portrays the scene of the woman caught in adultery very dramatically. Her accusers bring her to Jesus demanding that he condemn her. He bends down and writes in the sand various sins — pride, lust, gluttony — and at each word one of the Chief Priests looks… Read More »

Often in St. John’s Gospel there are seemingly throw away lines. After a contentious confrontation between Jesus and the “chief priests and Pharisees” we read:  Then each went to his own house. Maybe we could better translate that by using a boxing analogy: then each retired to their respective corners. St. John want us to… Read More »

The Book of Wisdom was probably written less than 100 years before the birth of Jesus. Its description of how “the just one” will be treated (or better, mistreated) is prophetic. The motivation for the mistreatment is instructive. He is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us. In other… Read More »

“If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor,” according to Voltaire. That is a waggish way of observing that the making of idols is not limited to fashioning a golden calf. God told Moses that the people “have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,… Read More »

Jesus was criticized because of the personal, intimate way he spoke of God as Father. Jesus also called God his own father, making himself equal to God. The Prophet Isaiah picks up a different Biblical theme and uses maternal images for God. Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of… Read More »

I have a cartoon on the bulletin board in my office. Two monks are walking together and one says to the other “I could be a saint if I really wanted to.” The story of the man born blind in St. John’s gospel reminded me of that when Jesus said to him “Do you want… Read More »

Karl Rahner, a German Jesuit theologian who was one of the architects of Vatican II, had an image of God as the horizon. It is really there. You are attracted toward it. But you can never reach it. That image helps us understand God’s  word from the Prophet Isaiah:  I am about to create new… Read More »

Politicians name things trying to shape how you think about them. When some in Congress were doing away with inheritance taxes which were designed so that the children of multi-millionaires earned wealth instead of just receiving it, they called it a “death tax.”  The Republican National Committee showed a picture of Judge Jackson during her… Read More »