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All four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, have their own version of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s rendition of the story, a voice from heaven—the voice of God—says to the crowd, “This is my beloved Son,” or Jesus himself hears the voice say, “You are my beloved Son.” The version we heard today, from John’s Gospel, is not a story about Jesus or the crowd hearing the voice of God, …

When I hear the word Epiphany, I automatically think of the Feast of Epiphany, the story of the Wisemen who came from the East to seek and to pay homage to the newborn king, Jesus. In secular terms, the word epiphany means a moment of sudden revelation or insight. We’ve all had epiphanies of one kind or another. (One day you looked in the mirror and realized you weren’t 22 anymore and had lost the ability to turn people’s …

That very first Christmas has a little bit of detective work built into it. It’s not a “who did it?” as much as it is a treasure hunt. The treasure is, obviously, Jesus. He is not playing hard-to-get, but the shepherds still have to unravel the clues the Angel of the Lord gave them if they are to find the Messiah. At this point, they don’t know that their lives and the life of the world will be forever …

Once again, the first reading is interesting.  The Prophet Isaiah has something to offer us on our faith journey, but like all Old Testament readings, this reading needs some explaining, some context. 

It’s a story about Ahaz, the king of Judah, and it take place about 730 years before the birth of Jesus.  Israel to the north and Judah to the south (where Ahaz is king) are sister countries.  Between these two countries is where you find God’s Chosen …

Back in 14th century Persia (Iran today), there was a famous poet named Hafiz. Not only was he a poet, but he was also a very well-respected man because of his wisdom. Although he lived 700 years ago, his poetry has once again become popular. This is my favorite Hafiz poem, and it reminds me of John the Baptist who is perishing in prison. It reminds me even more of Jesus, the liberator of everything that imprisons us.  It goes like …

There are a number of spiritual masters who see that there is clearly a spirituality for the first half of our lives and a spirituality for the second half of our lives. But it’s not necessarily chronological. In other words, just because you hit the midway point in your life (and we never know when that will be), doesn’t mean you automatically transition into a second half of life spirituality. I’ve met some young people who, because of suffering …

Here we are in Advent once again.  One of the characteristics of this season is that it invites us to look forward, to imagine a new world, and then to offer ourselves to God as co-creators of that new world.  Advent also gets us looking forward to the Parousia, the return of Jesus signaling the end of time. Jesus told his followers—and by extension, us—that the return of the Son of Man will happen, but the timeline is only known by …

As I mentioned over the last two weekends, as the liturgical year draws to an end the readings, themselves, were getting darker and heavier. They were pointing us to the end times. After much talk about the end times, Jesus faces, in today’s gospel, the end time of his human life as he hangs on the cross to die. We are told that during the three hours Jesus hung on the Cross, darkness covered all the land. Before the crucifixion, when …

In the homily last weekend, I mentioned that as the liturgical year draws to an end, the readings seem to get darker and heavier.  That’s certainly the case with today’s readings. Malachi, in that first reading, is speaking about evil doers being burned up while Jesus is mentioning earthquakes, famines, plagues, arrests, persecutions and family members betraying you.  Yet in the middle of all this darkness, Jesus says this will be your opportunity to testify.  Testify to what?  To light — a light …

As we inch closer to the end of the current church year (liturgical year) and will soon be entering a new church year, with the Season of Advent, you will notice the Scripture readings naturally speak about the end times. As you hear them, they may even come across as dark or heavy. 

I don’t think most of us give too much time or energy thinking about the end of all time, but we have all …