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”;...
As I read this Sunday’s gospel, I wondered how divorced people feel to hear what Jesus is saying. It’s no secret that all of our communities are made up of people who have for one reason or another, divorced or annulled their marriage. In many cases these people have remarried. ...
In today’s gospel Jesus’ follows his dreadful parable about scandal in the Church and millstones around the neck with a thoroughly rational but breathtakingly radical teaching, “Cut it off!” Too often I see in the hospital men with red, swollen feet, and blackened toes. Obesity, alcohol, diabetes and tobacco, take...