“Every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” St. Matthew’s gospel seems to have as its target audience Jewish Christians. This saying of Jesus affirms the continuity that exists between the Old and New… Read More »

Who wouldn’t want to find a treasure buried in a field? Who wouldn’t like to possess a pearl of great price? Jesus challenges us in these parables to look for what is truly valuable. When you talk with young people their goals seem admirable — to have a fulfiiling job, to raise a good family,… Read More »

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Martha’s challenge to Jesus is one we can relate to. Lord, where were you when I was going through this abuse, when grief was overwhelming me, when a tsunami of troubles washed over me. You have promised to be… Read More »

There are 2,865 separate entries in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You want an answer, you can look it up. However, Jesus did not teach via the catechism. All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables. What is it about parables that made it the… Read More »

“Lord, teach us to pray.” That request made to Jesus has been made time and again in every land, in every culture, in every religion. We want to learn how to pray. We seek a teacher who will help us pray. We want to know what prayer is. The catechism definition, prayer as a lifting… Read More »

The Chosen People were sincere when they said to Moses: “We will do everything that the LORD has told us.” Of course, the entire rest of the Bible contains stories of how they didn’t live up to that commitment. Their reality is not unique to them but is the human condition writ large. We all… Read More »

Since the sixth century the Pope in Rome has called himself the “servant of the servants of God.” Even popes who ruled as renaissance princes used the title. In doing so they were imitating the words of Jesus:  “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his… Read More »

I was the sort of obnoxious child who asked “why?” Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? My father was wise enough not to answer those questions but to take me to the library where I could look up the answers for myself. Since I found the answers for myself instead of… Read More »

The children of Israel said, “Would that we had died in Egypt as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!” Of course, when the children of Israel were sitting by those fleshpots they were complaining about their lives as slaves. One thing about human beings, we are never happy. Whatever we… Read More »

As St. John tells us in the Gospel Mary Magdalene did not recognize the Risen Jesus at first. She had an expectation of what she was looking for and the one in front of her wasn’t it. It was only after Jesus called her by name that she saw him for who he truly was.… Read More »