Because of the parable of Jesus we tend to think of our goal as attaining the pearl of great price even if it costs us everything. While that seems like a worthy goal did you notice that the parable as Jesus tells it begins, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching….” It is… Read More »
AUGUST12017
Moses prayed: “Do come along in our company… and receive us as your own.” This prayer occurs after so much has happened — the ten plagues, the escape from Egypt, the passage through the Red Sea, the passage through the desert, repentance after making of the Golden Calf. You would think after that it would… Read More »
JULY312017
“They gave [the gold] to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.” Aaron’s answer to Moses about the origin of the golden calf sounds a lot like a modern politician saying “mistakes were made.” I remember in school someone went to the teacher holding the shattered glass, “It broke.”… Read More »
JULY302017
Jesus said in St. Matthew’s gospel that “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.” (Was he describing himself?) One of the excesses of the post-Vatican II era was to imagine that only the… Read More »
JULY292017
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” You and I have heard many sermons on these words that say something to the effect that prayer is better than work. Mary is taken as… Read More »
JULY282017
The Ten Commandments have become a political football. Certain public officials want to feature them in government buildings. Others object that doing so violates the separation of church and state. What would really be controversial would be to display publicly some of the commandments of Jesus. “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate… Read More »
JULY272017
The fancy word that Biblical scholars use for an encounter with God is “theophany.” In the book of Exodus 19 there is a dramatic theophany at Mt. Sinai involving the whole Israelite community accompanied by earthquakes, smoke and fire, thunder and trumpet blast. In contrast, in the First Kings 19 Elijah has a theophany which… Read More »
JULY262017
There is an ad on TV where some celebrity is acting cranky until they are given a candy bar. They calm down and become a “normal” person. The message — you’re not yourself when you are hungry. That seems to be the case with the Hebrew children in the desert. After all that God had… Read More »
JULY252017
If you remember the story, after Judas was dead the eleven remaining apostles felt the need to replace him so that their symbolic number of twelve would remain. After a discernment process, Matthias was chosen. St. James was the next of the twelve to die — martyred ten or so years after the death of… Read More »
JULY242017
The escaping Hebrew slaves trapped between the Red Sea and the advancing Egyptian army was vividly portrayed by Cecil B. DeMille in The Ten Commandments. Who can forget Edward G. Robinson giving Charleton Heston a hard time! What is striking about the scene in the Bible is the astonishment of God at the lack of faith… Read More »
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