After the Resurrection Peter and six other disciples go back to Galilee, to where it all began. Peter wants to go fishing. He is a fisherman, after all. One thing he knows is how to fish. Alas, nothing went right until he saw a distant figure on the shore who was, in fact, the Risen… Read More »

Certain times reading the Bible can bring you up short. Take these words of St. Peter to the people of Jerusalem after the crucifixion: “Now I know, brothers and sisters, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did.” In other words, you can commit the most horrible of acts and not even… Read More »

“I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you.” In the early days after Vatican II the liturgy in English did not have many worthy hymns. We compensated by importing popular songs into the Mass. One memorable St. Joseph day we used a Bobby Darin song with the lyrics: “If… Read More »

In the days after Vatican Council II the seminary held a series of workshops to help the priests and religious who were in active ministry learn what the Council was teaching about what it meant to be Catholic. Some of the changes were difficult for people of a given mindset to take and one older… Read More »

God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Jesus left us no book or writings. All that we know of him is what others said about him and did because of him. The most important mission in the history of the world depends on frail, fallible human beings to bring it to the… Read More »

Whenever trouble would threaten Israel Rabbi Baal Shem Tov would go to the sacred place, light the holy fire, say the special prayer and trouble would be averted. His disciple was not the man his teacher was and he forgot how to make the holy fire. When trouble would threaten Israel he would go to… Read More »

Holy Saturday provides the occasion to reflect on the strange line from the creed: “He descended into hell.” The traditional explanation is that since the sin of Adam the gates of heaven were closed. All those who deserved to enter heaven had to wait for the triumph of Christ over sin and death to re-open… Read More »

Jesus answered, “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”  The Pilates of the world have taken over. Alternate facts, truthiness, the admission that a claim is made… Read More »

Jesus poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. Jesus was on the most important mission in the history of the world — eternal salvation. He was at the crucial moment of his life. He was facing the supreme sacrifice. Yet he… Read More »

Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” St. Matthew goes on to say that when Judas realized what he had done he committed suicide. He could not forgive himself and could not imagine that God could forgive him. There is a scene in the movie, Gandhi, where, during the… Read More »