Forgiving is one of the demands of the Christian life. Jesus stressed forgiveness in his preaching, even weaving the theme into the Lord’s prayer. But forgiving is not easy. Once I met with a victim of sexual abuse. The first words out of his mouth, “Don’t expect me to forgive.” As we talked about his… Read More »

Even though St. Joseph’s feast day is assigned to March 19, this year (since March 19 was a Sunday) we celebrate the feast today. Joseph bears the name of the Old Testament patriarch who is called “the master dreamer.” Joseph was also a dreamer, divine dreams sent to him to guide his actions in life.… Read More »

The people of Israel grumbled. They complained because there was no water. They were hurting. They were thirsty. They were in need. It made them question if God had forgotten them. “Is the Lord in our midst or not?” Perhaps something similar happened to you. Have you ever been hurting so much you felt abandoned… Read More »

The latest data shows that in the USA one-third of young adults (people in the 20s and 30s) have moved back home with their parents — almost always for economic reasons. Certainly that was the case with the Prodigal Son. In the parable as Jesus tells it the younger son was completely selfish, not caring… Read More »

“Let us kill the master dreamer and see what becomes of his dreams.” This threat issued by Joseph’s brothers in the book of Genesis was used during the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Apparently the hope of the killers is that by killing the dreamer, you kill the dream. That was not the… Read More »

I find the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus chilling. The way Jesus tells the parable the Rich Man was not a bad person. He at least cared for his brothers. But he ended up in hell because he ignored Lazarus at his door. He just took it for granted that he would be… Read More »

When the people of Judah and Jerusalem were thinking about what they wanted from their religion they listed “instruction from the priests, counsel from the wise, messages from the prophets.” They didn’t feel Jeremiah provided those things so they would be free to get rid of him. The problem with this understanding is that it… Read More »

Isaiah begins his book by invoking Sodom and Gomorrah, the proverbial sin cities of the Old Testament. Their sins were like scarlet, they were crimson red. But when the prophet lists the sins they are not the ones that we expect. There is not even one mention of sexual transgressions. Instead Isaiah says, “Wash yourselves… Read More »

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.” Or as we might say nowadays, cut me some slack. It is impossible for us to know what another is going through, why they did what they did. We cannot judge their hearts. We can. however, judge their actions. We can say that this, that or the… Read More »

In the Bible, the phrase, “do not fear” appears 57 times and “do not be afraid” 46 times. I guess the Bible knows that we live in a scary world. We’re afraid about the world our children and grandchildren will grow up in. We’re afraid about what the doctor is going to tell us. We’re… Read More »