At the end of the day, all of us, believers and non-believers, pious and impious, share one common humanity and all end up on the same road. This has many implications. It’s no secret that today religious practice is plummeting radically everywhere in the secular world. Those who are opting out don’t all look the…
The Sunday Gospel Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. Last Sunday, we heard him say that he had come to bring fire to the earth and that he would have to plunge into the sea of suffering, a prospect that caused him great distress. Somebody came up to him and asked, “Sir, will there…
In a particularly poignant passage in her poem, The Leaf and the Cloud, Mary Oliver pictures herself standing at the gravesite of her mother and father, reflecting on their lives. They were far from perfect and she doesn’t sugarcoat their faults. She openly names her mother’s heaviness of soul and her father’s immature faith. She…
The Sunday Gospel My inspiration this week takes the Second Reading (Hebrews 12:1-4) as a lead in to the Gospel of the day (Luke 12: 49-53). “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection.” I have often taken this sentence as the theme of…
After his first arrest, the peace activist Daniel Berrigan went into hiding. After four months, he was captured, but during those months underground, although a threat to no one, he was put on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. There’s an irony here that did not go unnoticed. Someone put up a poster of him…
The Sunday Gospel “Character, like a photograph, is developed in darkness.” So said Yousuf Karsh, the great portrait photographer, who had extraordinary ability in balancing light and darkness to portray not only the outer visage but also the inner character of his subject. All three readings on this Sunday touch on the theme of faith…
The Belgian theologian Jan Walgrave, who directed my doctoral thesis, was a true intellectual and a rare one. True, in that his thought naturally, instinctually gravitated towards the huge philosophical questions of essence and existence. Why are we here? Who are we really? Moreover, he was also a rare intellectual in that he was an uncommon…
The Sunday Gospel A man in the crowd asked Jesus to plead with his brother over sharing an inheritance. Jesus replied, “my friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?” (Luke 12:13). Jesus heard not only his plea but also the inner voice of a soul too concerned about material possessions. “Watch, and be on…
Many of us are familiar with an often-quoted line from T.S. Eliot: “The last temptation is the greatest treason; to do the right deed for the wrong reason.” This, he suggests, is the temptation of the good person. What’s the temptation? In John’s Gospel, Jesus asks his listeners this question, “How can you believe who…
The Sunday Gospel If you want to know what to believe, study the creed. If you want to know how to behave, study the Sermon on the Mount. And if you want to know how to pray, contemplate the Our Father, today’s Gospel (Luke 11:1-13). The disciples were deeply impressed by the prayerfulness of Jesus.…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser