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The Face of the Poor Is the Face of Jesus

The last judgment scene in Matthew 25 seems surely to be a perfect Gospel for the “Feast of Christ the King.” The “Son of Man” (a designation for the Messiah and indeed for Jesus himself in his suffering as well as his glory) is in this parable imagined... Read more about The Face of the Poor Is the Face of Jesus

Your Talents: Waste Them or Use Them, They Are for God's Kingdom

talents Sunday is the 33^rd Sunday of the Church’s year (November 15). We continue reading Matthew 25: last week, the young women waiting in the night (25.1-13...

On the Five Foolish Young Women: Lamp Oil Was Never Their Problem

wise and foolish virgins As the Church year comes to a close, this Sunday (the 32^nd week in Ordinary Time...

To Be a Saint: In Suffering, in Service, in Wisdom

saints This Sunday would normally have been the 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, but this year that is preempted by All Saints Day. This is of course a major feast in the Church calendar, and a feast of special...

When They Cry Out to Me, I Will Hear Them

The Torah "Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”...

Caesar’s Coin — the Least of Our Problems

Caesar's coin Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and...

Loving Kindness Is What Matters

This is the fourth and final Sunday on which we can hear and delight in sections of St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. Last week was surely my own favorite, since we heard his magnificent invitation to honor all that is...

The Yoga of St. Paul (and St. Francis)

Paul in meditation I have been teaching a course on the ...

Reckless Love as a Way of Life

after the vows It was on September 27, 1970 — fifty years ago this Sunday — that I took my first vows as a Jesuit, pronouncing, along with one fellow novice, Daniel G. O’Hare, SJ (currently a professor of medical ethics in NYC who also consults widely...

Six Months Into Our Confinement: Taking Stock, Beginning Anew

Gandhi in prison It is hard to believe that more than six months have passed since Covid 19 began to shut down our ordinary lives, disrupt work and school, and bring sickness and death to so many near and far. We don’t have to...