Sometimes a word you ordinarily wouldn’t notice makes all the difference. In the story of the Paralyzed Man in the Gospel of Mark we are told when Jesus saw their faith he forgave and healed. It was not the faith of the paralyzed man that moved Jesus but the faith of the four friends who brought… Read More »

You could entitle the first chapter of St. Mark “What a week with Jesus.” He begins his preaching ministry calling for repentance, He calls the first disciples, he heals those who are sick, he attracts vast crowds. That last experience seems to have worried him a bit. He told the cured leper, “See that you… Read More »

At the heart of the Christian mystery is that Jesus, the Son of God born of Mary had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way. Jesus was a genuine human being will all the limitations implied while at the same time the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity. The gap… Read More »

The narrative that has dominated Christian thinking for the past few centuries goes something like this. God created the world good. Adam and Eve messed everything up. God decided to send the divine repair man to mend a broken creation. And since the offense was against God only God could atone for the offense. There… Read More »

The way St. Mark tells the story of Jesus conveys a sense of urgency. Chapter One starts off with John the Baptist preaching about the “coming one.” Jesus is baptized by John, goes out to be tested in the desert and After John had been arrested, Jesus came proclaiming the Gospel of God: “This is… Read More »

The political events of the past few days reminded me of a book I read when I was in school entitled The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller. Dr. Miller describes how often parents impose great expectations on their children. They do so for the best of reasons, wanting the child to excel.… Read More »

The words of John the Baptist, “He must increase; I must decrease,” provide excellent guidance in the spiritual life but they can also be misinterpreted. To understand it properly think of a saying of St. Paul: “It is now no longer I that live but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). What the Apostle, what… Read More »

St. John’s epistle: I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life. The key word there is “know.” What we have as people of faith is the knowledge of God’s unconditional love, God’s infinite compassion, God’s limitless forgiveness. It’s not that believers have God’s love and mercy to… Read More »

We all today probably did some soul searching on how we are to respond to the anarchy manifest in our country. The story of the inauguration of the public ministry of Jesus in his home town of Nazareth might provide a model. He used as his “mission statement” the passage for Isaiah: the Spirit of… Read More »

God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in them. This passage from St. John’s first epistle is both a consolation and a challenge. We are consoled by this passage because it reminds us that family and friends we are close to who do not practice the faith have a… Read More »