You might say that today’s Gospel text is a face full of ice-cold water! This message is an example of challenging those who are comfortable with the uncomfortable reality of the Christian vocation. Jesus did not come to enhance the status quo. His message entails uprooting the entrenched spiritual weeds and upending the unbalanced cultural mores found in the ancient Near East.
The...
With rather short parables, St. Luke describes growth in the Kingdom of God. I’m sure that we all realize that Christianity began with just a few people preaching the nearness of the Kingdom of God. With what began with a handful of followers, Jesus inaugurated a movement that would grow into an astounding community. Today about 2.4 billion people call themselves Christian. This means...
The Gospels tell us that toward the end of his life Jesus walked to Jerusalem from the region of Israel known as Galilee. The text that we read today from St. Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus has reached Jericho which sits at the base of the mountain on which Jerusalem is built. It is frequently called Mount Zion. Jesus began his journey to Jerusalem in Bethsaida where Jesus had healed...
It is fairly obvious that the man who owned the orchard expected to find fruit on the fig tree of which we hear in today’s Gospel text. However, the gardener asks the owner to allow him to cultivate and fertilize the soil in the hopes that the tree will bear fruit in the following year. Apparently, the evangelists understood some things about fig trees that we might not fully...
Distracted by what’s happening in our world, how do I pay attention to what’s in front of me – my work, my family, my friends, the people with whom I share a neighborhood, a church and a family life? In today’s Gospel, Jesus is telling all of us to pay attention. We know how. We can read the signs of a friend’s distress, a colleague happy about a good meeting, a...