The Sunday Gospel Jer 31:7-9 Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6 Heb 5:1-6 Mk 10:46-52 Like so much of the gospels, Jesus’ encounter with a blind beggar this Sunday boils down to one simple question: “What do you want me to do for you?” If we met Jesus along the road, would we be able to…

On borders everywhere in the world today we find refugees, millions of them. They’re easily demonised, seen as a nuisance, a threat, as invaders, as criminals fleeing justice in their homelands. But mostly they are decent, honest people fleeing poverty, hunger, victimisation, and violence. And these reasons for fleeing their homelands strongly suggest that most of…

The Sunday Gospel Is 53:10-11 Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22 Heb 4:14-16 Mk 10:35-45 or 10:42-45 Fr Joshua J. Whitfield Simone Weil, that strange yet beautiful soul, once wrote that genuine love of neighbour meant being able to ask the question, “What are you going through?” What she meant was that neighbourly love demands sympathy…

In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable we come to understand that here, in this life, all symphonies remain unfinished.” Karl Rahner wrote those words and to not understand them is to risk letting restlessness become a cancer in our lives. What does it mean to be tormented by the insufficiency of everything…

Sunday Gospel Wis 7:7-11 Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17 Heb 4:12-13 Mk 10:17-30 or 10:17-27 Think it’s easy to gain eternal life? Think again. That message lies at the heart of this Sunday’s Gospel, the familiar story from St Mark about a rich young man who approached Jesus with a sincere question – but who got…

Why don’t we preach hellfire anymore? That’s a question asked frequently by a lot of sincere religious people who worry that too many churches, priests, and ministers have gone soft on sin and are over-generous in speaking about God’s mercy. The belief here is that more people would come to Church and obey the commandments…

The Sunday Gospel Gn 2:18-24 Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6 Heb 2:9-11 Mk 10:2-16 or 10:2-12 Fr Joshua J. Whitfield As Eve to Adam in the purity of Eden, as bride to groom in the joy of a wedding: it is a primeval holiness, the holiness of a woman in love with a man in…

Several years ago, I went with another priest to visit a mutual friend. Our friend, a successful businessman, was living on the top floor of a very expensive apartment overlooking the river valley in the city of Edmonton. At one point during our visit, he took us out on his balcony to show us the…

The Sunday Gospel Nm 11:25-29 Ps 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14 Jas 5:1-6 Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 In our divided and divisive times, this weekend’s Gospel should give all of us pause. It poses some hard questions about how we judge others – and asks us to look more closely at how we judge – or…

Several years ago, at a time when the national news was much fixated on a high-profile case of sexual harassment, I asked three women colleagues: “what constitutes sexual harassment? What’s the line here that may not be crossed? What’s innocent behavior and what’s harassment?” They answered to this effect. It’s not so much a question…