“We’ve come this far by faith.”  Old timers might recognize that song. There is a church on 45th and Princeton called Fellowship Missionary Baptist. In 1956 the music minister there, Albert Goodson, wrote the hymn which quickly became popular and was, eventually, included in the Lead Me, Guide Me hymnal and, hence, into Catholic worship.… Read More »

There are some modern parents who do not raise their children in any religious tradition. Let the child choose for him/herself, they say. I want them to be free to be themselves. This is not the way the Bible thinks. After the instruction to love God Moses concludes: Take to heart these words which I… Read More »

St. Matthew structures chapter 16 as something of a lesson on what it means to be a follower of Christ. It starts with the recognition of Jesus identity as “the Messiah, the son of God.” Faith begins with an encounter with Jesus which confesses him as the One sent on a mission from God for… Read More »

“You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” These words of Jesus which challenge St. Peter (and us) to think differently are vividly illustrated in the story of the Chosen People at Meribah. The Hebrew children thought (as we all tend to do) “What’s in in for me?” After God had… Read More »

The story of the Transfiguration is told by Matthew, Mark and Luke. Whenever an incident from the life of Jesus is told by multiple sources you learn not only what happened originally but how the story shaped the church and what the author wanted us to know about Jesus.  There are two differences in Luke’s… Read More »

Sometimes the Bible leaves you with an unanswerable question. For example, where did Cain’s wife come from? In the book of Numbers we find another poser. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the marriage he had contracted with a Cushite woman. Where did Moses find and woo and Cushite? Cush was… Read More »

The famine in Gaza where people are actually starving to death serves as a reminder that for most of human history getting enough food to eat was a major pre-occupation. Advances in human history parallel the growth of food supply. Biblical people were obsessed with food. The book of Numbers: Now we are famished. And… Read More »

In the Sci-Fi novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula LeGuin the hero comes to a planet where they can predict the future. He is impressed. The natives are not. They say to him, “What is the one thing that we can say we certainty about the future, yours and mine?” “That we shall… Read More »

This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you. The Bible describes how every fifty years a jubilee or holy year occurs when debts are forgiven, faith is renewed and people return to their own land. This beautiful idea was, as… Read More »

I have a brother who is twenty years younger than I am. Since he was always “a kid” when I was already an adult I have had to adjust my thinking over time to realize he is as fully a mature adult as I am with many life experiences that have shaped and formed him.… Read More »