When Saul, the Pharisee, encountered the Risen Jesus on the road to Damascus he asked, “Who are you?” Jesus did not answer, “I am the Messiah” or “I am the Son of God” or “I am the Word made Flesh.” He answered, I’m the guy sitting next to you on the bus. Of all the… Read More »

David felt pretty good about himself. He had conquered his enemies, he had established his capital, he resided in a palace. So he told the prophet Nathan he was going to do something for God. He was going to give God a house. The prophetic message he gets in return rebuked that idea. God told… Read More »

Yesterday there was a news item about a doctor in Michigan who had been in the USA for forty years and was arrested by the immigration service. He was threatened with deportation because of a shop-lifting conviction when he was a teen. This absurd application of the law is all too frequent in today’s environment.… Read More »

During the more than two hundred years that the Hebrews had occupied the promised land after the exodus Jerusalem had remained in Canaanite hands. Thus, not one of the twelve tribes had been able to claim it as its own territory. The old tribal loyalties were still operative when David was anointed King. Saul, the… Read More »

There are lots of paired opposites that characterize the world: darkness and light, good and evil, past and future.  One such pair is animate and inanimate.  We call something animate when it is alive and does all those things animate creatures do – eat, breathe, reproduce — including buffaloes and bugs, trees and tarantulas, fish… Read More »

Jesus’ relatives said, “He is out of his mind.” We are tempted to dismiss those who don’t think like other people think, who don’t look at things the way other people do. “That dude is crazy, man.” But the life Jesus demonstrates that there are times that the conventional wisdom is flat out wrong. What is… Read More »

Jesus appointed the Apostles “that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” The three apostolic tasks — to be with Jesus, to preach, to drive out demons — are not limited the the original twelve. All Catholics are called to be apostles… Read More »

There is a scene in the Man of La Mancha where Aldonza confronts Sancho Panza about his relationship with Don Quixote. “What do you get out of it,” she wants to know. He can only sputter in answer, “I like him. I really like him.” When King Saul told his son Jonathan to cease his relationship… Read More »

Often in the Bible there is a refrain similar to the one that David issued to Goliath: “Today the LORD shall deliver you into my hand.” He hear things like: the battle is the Lord’s, the Lord gives the victory, trust not in horses but in the Lord. Even though David trusted that God would… Read More »

Jesus teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount, “Judge not, lest you be judged.” Behind that teaching lies the truth we read in 1 Samuel: “Not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.” But the reality his that human beings make judgments all… Read More »