It is hard for modern Christians to appreciate what a big deal it was that Gentiles were welcomed unconditionally into the Jesus movement. They were the “others” who the Jewish Christians had a hard time accepting as equal members of the Body of Christ. Maybe an analogy to the current political situation applies. Some in… Read More »

The Gospels are written on several levels. At the core, of course, the gospels relate what Jesus said and did. But since Jesus did not leave any written record, the Gospels reflect the memory of the followers of Jesus who passed on the stories and reflected the message of Jesus. When these memories were written… Read More »

The early Christians passed on the message of Jesus orally for fifty or so years before committing it to writing. Over time different communities remembered things differently. One example of that is the variations in the Lord’s Prayer according to Matthew and Luke. Again, the report about the so-called Council of Jerusalem that St. Paul… Read More »

The story of Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary is rich in meaning. One way of looking at the story: Jesus reminded Martha that who we are is more important than what we do. St. Paul knew that instinctively. After his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus he didn’t immediately start… Read More »

Who is my neighbor? That question addressed to Jesus is just as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago. The human tendency is to divide the world up: men are not women, blacks are not white, Spanish-speaking are not English-speaking. Jesus does not notice differences but commonalities. We are all children of God.… Read More »

When you live in Chicago every night on the news there is another mother or father lamenting the loss of their child. When is it going to stop, they cry? What can we do to end the gun violence? Why does our society put up with throwing away the lives of these children so casually?… Read More »

I was stationed in California when Saigon fell and many refugees came through Camp Pendleton. The parish helped to re-settle the Ky family who had a young girl, maybe five years old. Her parents Anglicized her name to Spring. Her parents and older brother seemed lost and confused much of the time. Spring seemed to… Read More »

The first part of the Book of Job is a series of arguments about God. Going through a great difficulty can make one question God’s justice, God’s fairness. As we might say it today, why do bad things happen to good people. The end of the book God speaks out of the whirlwind to Job.… Read More »

We read in the Book of Revelation: “War broke out in heaven.” What a scary concept. How can this be? Heaven is supposed to be about joy and peace and happiness, not war. Maybe the lesson from our point of view: knowing God is not enough. The angels knew God. Lucifer was the light-bearer and… Read More »

The Book of Job is not about a historical person. The book begins with the Biblical equivalent of “long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.” We should look on the book as the equivalent to a novel, a story designed to make a point. The book seems to have been written as the… Read More »