Last weekend, you may recall, we had John the Baptist telling us to prepare the way of the Lord. He told us—in broad, general terms–to make the Lord’s path straight, fill in the valleys, and flatten the mountains. The scriptures are often deliberately left open-ended like that, encouraging us to determine concretely what filling in the valleys and flattening the mountains actually means in our particular lives and in the life of the world. This time, however, John the …
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Between 1962 and 1965, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and Pope John XXIII, the Church underwent its greatest reform. We call it the Second Vatican Council. Even though it was the Roman Catholic bishops of the world who voted on final outcomes, it nonetheless sought out the opinion of other scholars and various experts, thereby making it an “ecumenical” council. Because it is 60 years in the rearview mirror, we tend to forget what a big deal …
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Back in 2008, I remember being on a retreat in the foothills of California. Before being sent off to spend 8 hours by ourselves in nature, we were given a few instructions the night before. Since this was supposed to be solitary time, we were to go far enough into the forest and mountains that we couldn’t see another person. We were to draw a circle in the dirt with the heel of our shoe or with a stick, …
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On this last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year, the Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe, we have a couple of readings that are as bizarre as last Sunday’s readings. The first reading from the Book of Daniel and the second reading from the Book of Revelation fall under the category of “apocalyptic” readings. You may have heard the word “apocalypse”; it means revelations. Some truth, hidden until now, is about to be revealed. The word “epiphany”, one …
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I don’t know about you, but I find the Scripture readings we just heard obscure and cryptic, very hard to get my head into. They’re not the typical stories that I can easily place myself in the middle of. Readings about the end time tend to be that way.
It reminds me of a “Peanuts” cartoon. Many of us grew up as kids reading only the cartoon section of the newspaper. In this one episode, Charlie …
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Back in 2003, while on a sabbatical year, I drove from Toronto to Tucson, Arizona to go on a retreat. What spurred me on to drive the 3600 km was the title of the retreat: “The Soul Tells A Story.” It was a retreat for writers, editors, publishers and, if you happened to be a priest, you could come too. So I went. Ever since then, I’ve had a secret passion to write. From that time on, I’ve discovered …
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Scholars still don’t know who wrote The Letter to the Hebrews, that second reading we heard. But what they do know is that, like all the other books of the Bible, The Letter to the Hebrews is inspired by God. What I find inspirational, personally, is the part where the author says, “We have a great high priest (referring to Jesus) who, although he was in heaven, was never content with remaining there ruling the world from a distance. …
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Without having the text right in front of you, as I do, it’s hard for you to remember a word or a line that may have stuck with you in one of today’s scripture readings. However, the last line of that second reading, the Letter to the Hebrews, stands out for me. It went like this: “Everyone is one in God, therefore he (Jesus) is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” That text was written almost 2, …
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I am no mind reader. However, I know that questions do swirl around in the minds of many people who form the Church, questions like, “Who’s who and what’s what? Who has the right to say or to do what, when and where? Who’s in and who’s out? These are questions in today’s scripture passages and, as petty as it may sound, are still being asked today. I think a lot of it has to do with control and …
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This competing for power, this desire to be recognized by Jesus as the most important or the greatest Apostle among the twelve is spun out a little differently in the various gospels. It must have been a real problem, though, because it’s mentioned six times in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Because human nature is human nature, what Jesus has to say to them he also has to say to us.
When these ancient …
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