My favorite book of all time is Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. There is a scene where Franny, about age 10, tells her brother that she doesn’t like Jesus anymore.  His saying, “You are worth more than many sparrows,” doesn’t seem true to her. What about her Easter chick or her pet cat. They a worth… Read More »

Some scholars wonder if St. Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians (although it is certainly in the Pauline tradition.) For one thing, he had spent considerable time there but the letter does not reflect an intimate knowledge of the Church you would expect. More than that it is the shift in tone from epistles… Read More »

If you were to ask the average individual what constitutes sin they would probably say things like “immorality, impurity, drinking bouts, orgies.” St. Paul would not disagree with that. However. when he provides a list of sins besides including those things he seems to be more worried about the irascible side of human nature:  “hatreds,… Read More »

One of my professors was a member of the Roman Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue. He found that when people stopped yelling at each other and actually listened they could find common ground. For example, the Lutheran emphasis on “faith alone’ and the Catholic reminder of the necessity of living out the faith was bridged by using the… Read More »

If you would ask the typical Christian what a life in Christ means I doubt that many would answer: freedom. Yet, that was the vision of St. Paul. For freedom Christ set us free. Our initial reaction is the being a Christian limits our freedom because we can’t do all the good things the bad boys… Read More »

The gospels tell us a lot about Jesus. He spoke in parables. He healed the sick. He welcomed sinners. He liked going to dinner parties. AND, he preached about the kingdom of God, or in Matthew’s gospel, the kingdom of heaven. It is clear that when Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven is not… Read More »

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. When we hear St. Paul’s admonition it makes us wonder why the Church is so adamant about the impossibility of women’s ordination. After all, Jesus stressed that it was… Read More »

St. Paul claims Abraham as the father of the Christian faith as well as the Jewish:  It is those who have faith who are children of Abraham. Later Islam will also look on Abraham as their father in the faith.  The idea of the Abrahamic religions has recently been coopted even to describe a political accord.… Read More »

My scripture professor said that if we could swap the four gospels for a video tape of everything Jesus said and did, we wouldn’t make the trade. The gospels as written not only report the actions and words of Jesus but we can also discern in them how those words impacted the early Church and… Read More »

As any child who has played “telephone” can report an initial message can be dramatically changed the more often it is repeated. We can learn about the early church as it repeats the similar stories. St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians tells of a meeting with the “pillars of the Church” in Jerusalem.… Read More »