I was taking a walk in rural Hidalgo, Mexico when I came across a shepherd with a flock of sheep – not 99 but, perhaps, four or five dozen. What surprised me was that the shepherd was not leading the flock to those green pastures. Instead, he was behind the flock. The sheep were kind… Read More »
SEPTEMBER142019
St. Paul contrasted the first Adam with Christ as the “new Adam.” The first Adam grasped after that apple. He wanted what he wanted and was determined to satisfy himself. Jesus did not look on even his “equality with God” as “something to be grasped.” Instead of fulfilling his own desires he “emptied himself.” We… Read More »
SEPTEMBER132019
When you talk with people about why they have been turned off by the Church one answer stands out: I did not want to feel judged. The experience of feeling judged created a sense of whose in and whose out, of who belongs and who doesn’t. Of course, in the Church everyone belongs, everyone is… Read More »
SEPTEMBER122019
Jesus gave instruction on how to live as his follower: be compassionate, forgiving, generous, etc. St. Paul picked up those themes in his epistle to the Colossians summarizing these admonitions by adding “and over all these put on love.” The Apostle then proposed the overarching attitude we must have in order to live the virtuous… Read More »
SEPTEMBER112019
“Blessed are you who are poor … But woe to you who are rich.” The Eight Beatitudes that St. Matthew records in the Sermon on the Mount look different in St. Luke’s version. There are only four, first of all. Instead of saying “blessed are they” as in Matthew’s gospel in Luke they are personally… Read More »
SEPTEMBER102019
In a book called Good to Great Jim Collins says that the first step in making an organization great is having the right people on the bus. You can imagine that as Jesus spent the night in prayer preparing to choose his twelve apostles he was seeking divine guidance in getting the right people. You… Read More »
SEPTEMBER92019
Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil?” Of course, no one would suggest doing evil on the sabbath. What Our Lord wanted his hearers to understand is that sometimes NOT doing something is evil. When we see the troubles and difficulties… Read More »
SEPTEMBER82019
Philemon had a problem. In the epistle for today St. Paul wrote his old friend about an escaped slave, Onesimus. Somehow Onesimus had found his way to Paul and there he became a Christian due to his preaching. As a result, Paul felt close to this escaped slave, even calling him “my child.” However, St.… Read More »
SEPTEMBER72019
Have you ever joined a committee or became part of a group that has been meeting for awhile? You can be sure that you are going to have a hard time fitting in if every suggestion is met with: “But we’ve always done it this way.” Jesus experienced something like that. He was working to… Read More »
SEPTEMBER62019
The usual narrative in thinking of salvation history goes something like this: God created the garden of Eden for human happiness but we broke the plan God had for the world with original sin. God came up with Plan B and sent Jesus to fix what we had broken and we now strive to re-enter… Read More »
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