The story of Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary has been used to say that prayer is better than action. Martha, the woman of action, is told that Mary, the woman of prayer (according to this interpretation) has chosen the better part.  Is that really what the scene teaches? Imagine if Mary had been… Read More »

For the next two weeks we will read from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians. They were a Celtic people who settled in what is now central Turkey. In almost all of Paul’s epistles he begins by giving thanks to God for his correspondents. Not for the Galatians — he starts right off chiding them.… Read More »

A recent trend in Biblical studies has been to look at the book through a socio-scientific lens. What were the political, social, economic realities the lay behind the Biblical stories? Take, for example, Jesus’ parable of the landowner who planted a vineyard. It reflects that condition of absentee landlordism that was common during  first century… Read More »

“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” The wise and the learned know how things operate, what is possible, have realistic expectations. The little children imagine a new way of being, dream of what is impossible, and… Read More »

It is a providence that on the feast of the Guardian Angels the Old Testament lesson is from Job 38. Up to that point in the book, Job and his companions have been trying to make sense of suffering. In that chapter God answers, basically saying that the ways of God are deeper, wider, more… Read More »

In 1925 Pope Pius XI canonized St. Therese of Lisieux and named her co-patron of the missions. How could a nun who never left her Carmel be considered a missionary? The founder of my religious congregation, Fr. Thomas Judge, C.M., saw this as particularly apt. His motto was every Catholic is called to be an… Read More »

The Israelites were leery that the nature gods of their neighbors would infect their religion. They were a people of history — God acting in Abraham, Moses, King David. By the time Job was written history seems to have failed them with no nation and no king. The Book of Job, therefore, turns back to… Read More »

Angels in the Bible exist because God is so far above humanity that intermediaries are needed to communicate special messages from God. Even Moses is told that he can’t see God “face to face” or it would kill him. Angels remain anonymous messengers until the time of the Babylonian Exile when the Jewish people encounter… Read More »

The Book of Job wrestles with a most basic human question: why suffering? If someone wins the lottery they will often comment that “the Lord is blessing me.” What happens when tragedy strikes? Does that mean that the Lord does not bless me? These questions took on existential importance when the Jewish people lost their… Read More »

The thoughts of a sufi master: When I was young my prayer was, “Lord, give me the energy to change the world.” As I reached middle age and saw how futile my initial prayer was I changed the prayer to, “Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come in contact with me… Read More »