As we prepare for the Nativity of our Lord the issues that surround us this Advent season are enormous. Once more this year, we struggle to find peace – peace among the nations and among ethnic groups, peace in our own homeland, and peace between civilizations. Drug problem still plagues...
It can be hard for us to understand John the Baptist today as hard for us now as it was for the people who gathered in the wilderness to hear his words some 2000 years ago. Few people then really comprehended what he meant when he declared his mission was ...
Penance, Preparation, Patience, Perseverance… Advent – It blends together a penitential spirit, very similar to Lent, a liturgical theme of preparation for the Second and Final Coming of the Lord, called the Parousia, and a joyful theme of patience as we get ready to re-live the birth in Bethlehem. And...
Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, stands face-to-face with the Lord of the universe. Pilate is agitated by the circumstances, but thinking clearly because it’s still early. Jesus is exhausted from the first twelve hours of his passion, but his eyes glow with the love and determination that had...
Among the many memories of my youth I clearly remember the moment when it first dawned on me that when I died the world would go on happily without me. The thought came as an unpleasant shock, which no one else seemed particularly interested in sharing with me. ‘When I...
Every week, in our Liturgy of the Word, we meet new people. We see them interacting with one another, we listen to them speak, we admire them, pity them, are attracted to them or repulsed by them. Some are close to God, some are far from him, some repent, and...
The Book of Genesis tells us that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). The New Testament book of 1 John tells us that “God loved us first that we might love Him.” (1...
In today’s gospel account we find Jesus at the threshold of Jerusalem. He was about to climb on a donkey and ride into Jerusalem, an event we celebrate every Palm Sunday. Bar-Timaeus, the son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting begging along the way. We don’t know for how...
In the Gospel we hear today – as we have been hearing these past few weeks – a story of Disciples behaving badly, of Disciples not getting it, of Disciples missing the point that seems so obvious to us who listen with well trained ears. Can you believe it? These...
A rich young man who had the best the world could offer – wealth and security – came to Jesus because he lacked one thing (Mark 10:17-27). There was something essential, something in his heart, that material wealth couldn’t satisfy. He had many possessions, but he didn’t have “eternal life”;...