We do not see as God sees. We see the appearance, but God looks into the heart. That message came home to the prophet Samuel, as he looked down the row of Jesse's fine and handsome sons. He was on a quest for the next leader of Israel. Israel's first king, Saul, was large and powerful, charismatic and courageous in battle. But in fact Saul had made . . .  More...

One of the funniest movies of the 2002 season was My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This warm and loving story of a family’s efforts to maintain their Greek heritage is punctuated throughout with the family patriarch’s insistence that every single word in the English language can be traced back to a Greek word or expression. He even manages at one point, with some hilarious mental . . .  More...

THE NOTION OF “CALL” is not peripheral to scripture but fundamental to the Bible’s understanding of human existence before God. Who can forget in the opening chapters of Mark and Matthew’s gospels those encounters by the Sea of Galilee? Fishermen, Simon and Andrew casting their nets in the sea; James, son of Zebedee and John his brother, sitting in their boat mending . . .  More...

My family and I strolled down beautiful Michigan Avenue in Chicago a few years ago. Approaching the Congress Plaza Hotel, we saw about a dozen people marching around in front of the hotel, chanting, “We don’t eat, you don’t sleep!” Their picket signs indicated they were hotel workers on strike. The hotel has been paying its workers far below what other workers . . .  More...

She was a day laborer, working 10 hours at a factory and spending another two on the bus to and from work. All she wanted was to read and write well enough to fill out a job application so she could get a full-time job with a company that offered benefits. It was a simple goal, made difficult by the fact that she was 55, her eyesight was failing, and her mind and memory . . .  More...

We use the word so easily, so flippantly, so casually: love. A word, like the word God, that has had its prickly wild edges rubbed off from such common and daily use over the long millennia that human beings have prowled the planet. Yet love, like God, is a thing of unimaginable complexity, a subject to spend a lifetime wondering at openmouthed; and God’s love . . .  More...

Christian pastor and theologian Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) experienced the poverty and hopelessness of people living in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York. He is one of the “saints” Robert Ellsberg writes about in his book All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time (Crossroad, 1997). Ellsberg says: “Under these circumstances . . .  More...

What can be more powerful than the Word of God? My friends, what other force on this earth or beyond it has the ability to create and transform the world like the initiating, sustaining divine Word? God spoke—and worlds came into being. When God speaks, the Bible tells us, mountains move, valleys are filled, and highways appear in the desert. Once God calls a thing . . .  More...

Ask people what Americans celebrate on Independence Day, and most would say freedom. After all, we call our country the “land of the free.” And the Declaration of Independence, ratified on this day more than two centuries ago, reminds us we are endowed by our Creator “with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” . . .  More...

Joanne died of cancer at 70 years old. She grew up in a small town and went away to the big city to work. She never married, and after a while she came home to be near her mother, Jessie, who worked in a factory until she was 83 years old. After her mother had a stroke and the small business Joanne worked for closed down, she spent most of her days . . .  More...

Does God want you to be prudent? At first glance, that would seem to be Jesus’ message. But look a little more closely at the context. Just last week we heard of the prodigal son who returned home destitute and in disgrace. His father responded very imprudently, as the older son pointed out. In the first reading today, the grain sellers seem to be acting prudently, looking for ways . . .  More...

The common theme running through all three of today's readings is faith: enduring, abiding, hope-sustaining faith. In Luke's gospel the apostles ask Jesus to "increase our faith." And Jesus responds that with faith the size of a mustard seed one could command a bush to uproot and be cast into the sea, and it would be done. To the traditional lament "O ye of little faith" . . .  More...

Some years ago a young U.S. Marine appeared on morning television and told of the ordeal of having been in an explosion, pinned under rubble and debris. The desperate cries from other soldiers shouting for help shattered the smoke-filled pit. He suddenly remembered saying, when he enlisted in the Marines, that he was not afraid to die. Now, he had different thoughts . . .  More...

I don't know if it happened again this Christmas season, but for many years in the Kansas City area a "Secret Santa" has sought out people who are down on their luck and quietly slipped them an envelope with a crisp $100 bill tucked inside. The people are usually astonished at this unmerited act of generosity. Many stand there with tears in their eyes, wondering . . .  More...

I moved to a desert town some time ago, for reasons that had less to do with the desert than with the city. Urban life had become too expensive, loud, complicated, and distracting. I decided to look for life in the slow lane. After hunting through various communities near the beach, in the mountains, and on the back roads, I wound up on the edge of the Mojave Desert . . .  More...

It was July 1992, and I was on a three-week study tour-pilgrimage in the Holy Land. In the middle of a long hike on a scorching day, we came across two shepherds, smoking and chatting in a patch of shade. Their two flocks were all mixed together, hundreds of sheep, lazily rambling the hillsides. The two shepherds were happy to see us, and we began to visit. We asked . . .  More...

"For to me life is Christ and death is gain," Paul writes to the Philippians from prison. He is facing a very real possibility of being put to death for preaching the gospel. Paul muses whether it is better for him to die and have the joy of being with Christ, or to continue living and to work for the gospel. He concludes it is better to remain in the flesh and to labor for the Philippians! . . .  More...

During an autumn break from college, three friends and I traveled up the East Coast to see the sights. We spent a day in Manhattan visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Empire State Building, Fifth Avenue, and Central Park. It was twilight and we stopped to purchase roasted chestnuts and soft pretzels from a street vendor in Times Square. I was just about to bite into my pretzel . . .  More...

We've all heard people say things like, "Oh, that's my little retreat; it's where I go to get away from it all." They may be referring to their workshop, the corner of a room, or even their car where they have their own private space. It's a quiet place to settle down and regroup. We Americans really need such a place, for it has been said that in America we invented the rocking chair . . .  More...

God does not delight in death but in life, the Book of Wisdom tells us. God wants creation to live. If we have faith in our life-giving God, the world and all who dwell in it will be made well and live. It is the mission of the church and those who belong to it to cooperate with God's desire to bring life and wholeness to the world. We participate in this mission in many ways . . .  More...

When I was a kid, my sisters, cousins, and I liked to shout in wide, empty spaces, from the top of a mountain, or in a tunnel, in order to hear an echo. We found it fascinating that our own voices could sound so funny, as if they regained strength-at least for a while. It seemed as if someone else, down there, were responding, returning the sound to us. Sound experts tell us . . .  More...

On Halloween strangers will come to our doors begging for goodies. It's a particularly fun way, during this season of All Saints and All Souls, to remember our departed loved ones and our obligation to help them with our prayers and good works. They are, in a way, strangers who have crossed the borders of death into a new world filled with the promise . . .  More...

The Danish film Babette's Feast won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1987. Set in the bleak Danish terrain of the Jutland Peninsula in the 1870s, the movie tells the story of Babette, a 19th-century political refugee from Paris, who shows up at the doorstep of two elderly sisters who have devoted their life to an austere Christian congregation their late father founded . . .  More...

IT’S ALMOST FUNNY to read the author of Timothy saying he received mercy because he was ignorant—on a day we celebrate catechists and teachers! Because of their work, may none of us be able to make the same excuse. But seriously. We have chosen this day to celebrate the teaching and learning of our faith as well as those who do the teaching and learning . . .  More...

It all hinges on the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is about how to fight and not become a casualty yourself. The cross is about being the victory instead of just winning a victory. It is a way of winning that tries to bring along your opponents with you. The cross is about refusing the simplistic win-lose scenario and holding out for a possible win-win scenario. The cross is . . .  More...

When trouble comes and we seem powerless to deal with it, we cry out, "O God, I have reached the end of my resources." That sentence is the key to the life God is offering us in and through Jesus Christ. If we want to know who Jesus is we must understand him as the One who at every moment of his life emptied himself and threw himself in absolute dependence . . .  More...

We hear a lot about sacrifice in today’s readings. Isaiah speaks of a servant who gives his life as an offering for sin. The Letter to the Hebrews talks about Jesus the high priest who sacrificed himself for human sins but who also knows our humanity. This sacrifice does not happen only at some hidden heavenly altar; it has a human face, Hebrews says. Jesus gave himself . . .  More...

When the People of God assemble in a church, as we are assembled here today to celebrate the quince años of N., it is sometimes announced that we should silence our cell phones. That is a good idea because we wouldn't want our funny ring tones to interrupt this important ceremony. If someone is calling us, they will just have to wait. But the word of God can never . . .  More...

All of us need to share something of ourselves and our gifts of time, talent, and treasure. Here are a few words about why doing so is so important—both for each of us individually and for the life of our parish. When we talk about treasure, what do we mean? The word treasure is not a common part of our everyday speech. When I hear it, it conjures up images . . .  More...

The sky awash with color at sunset. A field covered in spring flowers. These exquisite elements of nature's design are instinctive places we might go to catch a glimpse of glory. But there are others: a moment of public honor, the spotlight on artistic ability, intellectual achievement, or scientific invention. Or how about the common miracles of life: being chosen in love . . .  More...

Some things really irritated Jesus, like the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees of his time and the arrogance of political leaders who lorded it over their subjects. Ingratitude was also something that set Jesus off, and we have a vivid example of that in today's reading from Luke’s gospel. Jesus tells the ten lepers who beg for his help to go and show themselves to the priests . . .  More...

In reflecting on “right relationship,” we must begin with God. Throughout salvation history we see God in relationship with us. The metaphors scripture uses to describe the sacred relationship between God and God’s people belong to those of betrothal and marriage. It is a relationship God initiated; what followed was a drama in which the people God had chosen accepted . . .  More...

BECAUSE OF WHAT WE HEAR in the scripture readings today, this day is also known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” It is also World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Each of us through Baptism is called to follow the Good Shepherd and proclaim his gospel. We each have this vocation, but today we focus on vocations to ordained ministry and consecrated life . . .  More...