Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of a mega-church in California makes this confession. He was challenged why his church didn’t do more for the poor so he went back to the Bible.  “I found those 2,000 verses on the poor. How did I miss that? I went to Bible college,… Read More »

During Lent the two daily readings are chosen to comment on each other. The Old Testament lesson from the book of Deuteronomy says, Choose life. Jesus in the gospel of Luke that a disciple must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. These readings tell us is that when we choose… Read More »

When I worked at LSU we rented an outdoor theater on Ash Wednesday to accomodate the hundreds of students wanting ashes. The opening song was always “Dust in the Wind.” The song captured the usual way we think of Lent — our own fragile nature and the need to reform. Interestingly, in the gospel setting… Read More »

Today is the last day of “ordinary” (counted) time until after Pentecost. In ordinary time the scripture readings are what are known as a Lectio continuo, starting a particular book of the Bible and reading it chapter by chapter. (In Lent/Easter the readings are particular for each day.) It is unfortunate that we won’t hear… Read More »

Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” It strikes us as odd that Jesus would object to being called “good.” Not just us, but Matthew re-writes the scene as Mark tells it and has Jesus say “what do you ask me about what is good.” As… Read More »

I received an advertisement the other day “How to plant a Church.” They had four easy steps one could take in order to start up a Church. I was glad to throw that right into the circular file. Happily we don’t have to plant a church. All we need do is prune, fertilize, water, nourish… Read More »

“Whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Anyone who has raised a child will testify that children are not always commendable. Jesus holds up children today as a model for a particular way they operate — they know how to receive a gift. No child ever thinks… Read More »

One of the great things about reading the Bible is the vivid reminder that people are people. The admonitions of St. James, the description of marital difficulties by Jesus, could have been written today. Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another. Current events? The distance of two thousand years, the differences in culture,… Read More »

When my mother would say “I’ve told you a thousand times” we would object, “not a thousand.” To which she would respond, “Hyperbole added for emphasis.” Jesus was using hyperbole for emphasis when he said, If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. His point was that we should avoid those people, places,… Read More »

As the Archdiocese has been going through its renewal process one recurring question has centered around numbers: how many parishioners are on the books, how many are in  the pews. While those can be a legitimate concerns the gospel suggests that other factors should have priority. “Whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus… Read More »