One of the moving moments in the Seder meal, the sacred meal held by each Jewish family at Passover, comes in telling the story of the Exodus. “When WE were slaves in Egypt, God led US to freedom.” The story told in a personal way fulfills the Biblical command:  on this same night all the… Read More »

If you follow Catholic news you might have heard that the US bishops are considering writing a letter to the faithful on the Holy Eucharist. This is actually a good idea — after we have not be able to receive the sacrament for so many months we need to recover the centrality that the Eucharist… Read More »

When Moses encountered God in the Burning Bush they talked. “If they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what  am I to tell them?” God replied, “I am who am.” A scripture scholar told me that what we translate as “I am who am” could just as easily be translated as “I am the one… Read More »

The first movie I ever saw was The Ten Commandments. The scene at the Burning Bush was memorable with God’s booming voice and the overwhelming sense of the sacred. However, Cecil B. DeMille missed the key aspect of the scene. Moses said to God, “Who am I” … God answered, “I will be with you.”… Read More »

In Jerusalem the Yad Vashem Museum memorializes the victims of the Holocaust. Part of the museum is dedicated to the “righteous of the nations” — those non-Jews who resisted the Shoah and helped their Jewish neighbors escape destruction. Even in those dark times there were small flickers of light. Exodus reports an earlier holocaust against… Read More »

We read from the Book of Exodus for the next few weeks. It begins reminding us of the human ability to find any excuse to do what we want to do. The Hebrew children had come to Egypt as refugees but pharaoh needed workers so he justified enslaving them for some bogus reason.  “In time… Read More »

The tragedy of the building collapse in Florida has dominated the news for the past weeks. Dozens of people dead and dozens more missing. Your heart goes out to the families who are lingering in the limbo of hope and despair. One mother’s comment about the efforts of the first responders to a reporter was… Read More »

Over 70 times in the gospels Jesus told his disciples some variant of “do not be afraid.” He knew how fear-filled their, and our, lives were/are. We are afraid of getting sick, afraid of the violence in our city, afraid that we don’t measure up, afraid that love will die. Jesus assures us that at… Read More »

Lots of twists and turns in the book of Genesis. Abram was brought into the promised land with the assurance that his descendants would be given the land as an eternal inheritance. Then Abram’s grandson gets a new message. God, called, “Jacob! Jacob! I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid… Read More »

“I am your brother Joseph.” This statement from the Book of Genesis has resonated throughout the ages.  In its original context it speaks of forgiveness and reconciliation. Joseph had been abused and misused by his brothers but in claiming his fraternity he let them know that a renewed relationship was possible. Pope John XXIII used… Read More »