Philemon has a problem. His friend, Paul, has written a letter. The one bringing the letter is Philemon’s runaway slave, Onesimus. The letter discloses that Onesimus has become a Christian while he stayed with Paul. In returning Onesimus to his owner, Paul says that his status as a Christian changes the relationship between Philemon and… Read More »

At a recent meeting of priests of the Archdiocese I was asked how are people coping with the destruction of St. James Church. My answer was: many still miss it deeply and they don’t understand why it was taken away from them. The early Jewish Christians no doubt had very strong feelings when the Temple,… Read More »

You sense in the early letters of St. Paul a sense of urgency. He supposes that the second coming of Jesus is imminent and proposes a lifestyle of eager expectation. The latter letters in the Pauline corpus possess a different tone. They suggest that Christians need to learn to live “in the meantime.” The epistle… Read More »

It seems like an “non sequitur” at first. Jesus talked about the need to forgive and the apostles responded, “Increase our faith.” On further thought it does take a lot of faith to forgive. When we have been hurt, our natural instinct is to protect ourselves from being hurt again. That can lead to building… Read More »

During the month of November Catholics remember the Faithful Departed. This ancient practice is limited by our inability to penetrate the other side of death. Jesus tells us the two things we need to know: that “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob … is not God of the… Read More »

“God won’t give you any more than you can handle.” You hear this phrase often so it is easy to assume that it is in the Bible. It is not. The sad truth is that many people get overwhelmed by what life dishes out to them — loss, grief, abuse, depression. What the Bible does… Read More »

When I first read St. Paul telling the people of Philippi, “Join with others in being imitators of me” it struck me as pretty arrogant. Like, “I’ve got it together and you don’t.” But the more I thought, it struck me that the Apostle was challenging what we call today the “celebrity culture.” Society holds… Read More »

One of the highlights of my life was the opportunity to meet Pope Francis. Yet, when I look at the Gospel for today I feel challenged to look again at what I value. Jesus was criticized because of who he hung around with. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” The Lord responds to… Read More »

St. Augustine in his Confessions famously mused about time. He said that he has an instinct of what time is but when he tries to describe it he gets lost. Several centuries later Albert Einstein provided a scientific definition of time and concluded that time is relative, that it is a component of the “space-time… Read More »

We’re not supposed to admire the saints; we’re supposed to become saints. The saints are not presented for our admiration but for our imitation. But we must be cautious in saying we should “imitate” the saints. We don’t become saints by doing what the saints did — giving away our possessions like St. Francis of… Read More »