Hananiah was a prophet. However, his message was directly contrary to the message of the prophet Jeremiah. He said everything is going to be hunky-dory. Jeremiah warns of destruction and woe. Jeremiah said he wished that he could believe in the up beat  message but that was not what God was revealing to him. He… Read More »

“I am convinced,” says St. Paul in the epistle to the Romans, “that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Not the coronavirus, that’s for sure! We know that St. Paul had troubles and difficulties.  He enumerates some of them in his second epistle to… Read More »

In the US the “separation of church and state” has become such a sacred mantra that we seldom stop to examine its ambiguity. The state will always try to use the church for its own ends. It was the state in the person of the princes wrestling for power who protected the prophet Jeremiah after… Read More »

“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” The prophetic word of both Jeremiah and Jesus was rejected. The people realized that if they heeded that word, if they listened to what the prophet was telling them of what God required, they would have to change. The… Read More »

There is an old Bruce Hornsby song with the lyric: “that’s just the way it is; some things will never change.” The Me Too movement and Black Lives Matter are testimony that things can change, that we can make society a little more just and peaceful. Change is also possible in our own lives. The… Read More »

The image of Martha as the “doer” and Mary as the “thinker” or “pray-er” might be one way of looking at the story of Jesus receiving hospitality in their home. However, when you look at what Jesus says to her another interpretation presents itself: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There… Read More »

Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, Over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over her incurable wound. The Jewish nation had the misfortune of being between the two superpowers of its day — Babylon and Egypt. It was constantly caught in the cross-fire and by… Read More »

To convey the prophetic message dramatically, Jeremiah would engage in parabolic action. The most famous of these (we’ll tell the story later this week) concerns his visit to the potter’s shed. God as the potter and we as the clay is a powerful image that we remember in song. What is less well know is… Read More »

I don’t know if it’s true in Chicago, but in New Jersey almost all of the mom and pop stores sold what was called a “dream book.” These books were designed to help you win the lottery. When you dreamed something at night – say a cat – you’d look up in the dream book… Read More »

Ours is an apostolic faith, a faith proclaimed by the apostles. We have the message of Jesus today because the men and women who were his followers told his story. As the saint of today, our patron, Saint James, illustrates ,the apostles were as limited and flawed as we are. We only get flashes of… Read More »