In a movie about Gale Sayers (the prototypical male weepie) the great Chicago Bear said: “God is first. My family and friends are second. I am third.” That is not the typical value system in our culture. We are told to “look out for #1.” The contemporary psychological emphasis on self-actualization makes the individual the… Read More »

“So there are three who testify, the Spirit, the water, and the Blood, and the three are of one accord.” This passage from the first epistle of St. John has been commented on and wrestled with throughout the ages. During the times in which the epistle was written there was a great controversy over the incarnation… Read More »

The number of young adults leaving the Church has become a flood — perhaps as high as 85% both Catholic and Protestant no longer practice the faith. In a recent report on this phenomenon entitled Going, Going, Gone one of the authors, Robert McCarty, observed that many of these young adults have a greater sense of responsibility… Read More »

The Bible does not look at things in the same way we do. For example, in the Bible the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty. Faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin but certainty is something altogether different. In the first epistle of St. John we are given another set… Read More »

Taking a selfie is the perfect metaphor for our culture. The modern person places themselves in the center of the picture. The metaphor in the Bible is different. God is at the center of the picture. Even our spiritual lives can be influenced by the spirit of this age as we strive to “improve” our… Read More »

My guess is that if you asked his contemporaries what they thought about Jesus they would answer, “He’s the miracle worker from Galilee.” The Gospel writers are careful to point out that miraculous healing was only part of the ministry of Jesus. “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel… Read More »

Slaves in the American South used to sing “Following the drinking gourd” as a code for escape from bondage. The “drinking gourd” was what we call the “Big Dipper” which points toward Polaris, the North Star. By following the drinking gourd they were going north, away from slavery. So Jiminey Cricket had it half right.… Read More »

Perhaps the perfect metaphor for our contemporary culture is the “selfie.” No matter what is going on I want to be in the picture. However, that is not the way the Bible looks at things. Our focus should not be on our selves but on the other. Ask any parent and they will tell you… Read More »

As St. John tells the story, John the Baptist introduced Andrew to Jesus and Andrew introduced his brother Simon, re-named Peter, to Jesus. A good model of evangelization — no fancy programs just one person inviting another to “come and see.” But what about the other guy? Andrew was not alone in going to see… Read More »

The divine indicative always precedes the divine imperative. Which is just a fancy way of saying that what we do reflects who we are. We already are the children of God. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.” We don’t need… Read More »