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 »

President Kennedy is famous for saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” No politician says anything remotely like that nowadays. They promise how much people are going to get if they are elected. St. Paul, on the other hand, echoes the challenge of… Read More »

“Welcome to my house.” Can’t you just picture the excitement of Zacchaeus as Jesus entered his front door? I’m sure that he wanted to show off by putting out the best china and cloth napkins. He made sure everything was clean and tidy. Maybe he even put an arrangement of flowers on the table to… Read More »

There was an episode in the old TV show M.A.S.H. where Hawkeye, while operating on a severely wounded soldier, is muttering to himself, “I can’t let him win. I can’t let him win.” A visiting doctor asks what he is talking about. BJ answers that for Hawkeye death is the enemy and the role of… Read More »

“You are … members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles.” For St. Paul, the apostolic foundation is necessary for the Church to be Church. In our creeds we confess that we are an apostolic church. Yet we know so little about the apostles except their names. While the apostles… Read More »

The feast of the Guardian Angels provides an opportunity to reflect on those times when we have felt a particular divine presence — protection, guidance, consolation. But the Bible presumes that besides the benign presence of angels there also exists the malevolent presence of “principalities and powers and evil spirits.” Instead of protection, the evil… Read More »

St. Paul does not challenge the status quo of society but instead lays out principles to guide the Christian life in the midst of a pagan world. Thus, he simply presumes that slavery exists and seeks to provide guidelines for Christians in a world which condoned slavery. Throughout the centuries the Church has wrestled with… Read More »