It is easy to forget the fact that Salvation History does not occur in a bubble but must be understood as occurring in secular history. The Books of the Maccabees (two of which are in the Catholic Bible) tell the story of how the Greek conquest of the Middle East impacted the Chosen People in… Read More »

Last week the Church commemorated the dedication of a temple, the Lateran Basilcia in Rome. This week Jesus talks about the destruction of a temple, the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Both of these events – construction and destruction – are framed as part of the plan of God. Birth and death, growth and decay,… Read More »

Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land, bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree.As he alighted, he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth. For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew. One of the theological architects of Vatican… Read More »

For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen. We know about God because of revelation, because God has spoken to us. In particular we know of God in the Word made Flesh, in the coming of Jesus into the world. But the Bible reminds us that… Read More »

The coming of Jesus has broken the barrier that separates heaven and earth. “The Kingdom of God is among you.” Since God chose to share a human existence, we human being have access to divinity. We need to have the eyes to recognize God’s presence, in particular to recognize the presence of the Triune God.… Read More »

Divisions in the Church have a long and complicated history. While in the United States we are most familiar with the separation between Catholics and Protestants there  more ancient divisions which separated the Western and Eastern halves of the Church. Over the centuries there have been many attempts to heal those divisions. One of the… Read More »

One of the happy chores a pastor must do is thank those who make the parish work. Usually on feast days or special events I take the opportunity to thank those who made the day possible. However, I always have a sense of dread when I launch into the words of gratitude because inevitably I’ll… Read More »

We reading today from the Book of Wisdom. The book is written late in Israel’s history — perhaps as recently as 100BC and in Greek. For this reason it never made it into the Jewish Bible — and since that was the basis for Martin Luther’s translation — not in Bible used by Protestants to… Read More »

And now, a word from our sponsor. In place of our usual programming, we interrupt this program for the following special announcement. The feast for today kind of feels like that. We’ve been rolling along since June doing the readings in Ordinary Time Sunday after Sunday and then last week and this, we take a… Read More »

Dostoevsky tells a parable about the Grand Inquisitor. Jesus had come back to earth and is once again imprisoned and condemned. The Inquisitor says that Jesus has misjudged human nature. He does not believe that the vast majority of humanity can tolerate the freedom that Jesus has given to them.  Jesus, in giving humans freedom… Read More »