Deep Calls to Deep Christ Reigns – The Mystery of Our (Hidden) Resistance Revealed…
On this great feast, the Church proclaims that Jesus Christ reigns over all, and rules from the Cross (INRI). Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne… This proclamation can be so potent that it could elicit adolescent responses from you and me: “Whatever you say, Jesus, I’m all for it.” And, “You talking […]
Christ Reigns! – “Yes, I will be good.” “So What?”
Sharon Parks book, The Critical Years, provides ‘snapshots’ of faith development from adolescent faith to post-adolescent faith to young adult faith and concludes with a well-informed wager on what adult faith development looks like. I put her definitions of adolescent faith development to work in this post to offer a depiction of what I perceive many […]
Christ the King – “I have come to testify to the Truth.” “What is Truth?”
There IS absolute Truth. And, there are many and varied interpretations of Truth. Witness the 24,000+ Christian churches (not denominations) in the U.S. which claim absolute truth. However, Truth, in John’s gospel, is NOT propositional. In John’s gospel, Truth is a person. Truth is the Word who is Jesus Christ. Truth is on the Cross and […]
Christ the King 2018 – Really? A King? Are You Serious?
A friend of mine replied to my post yesterday. And he nailed it! I always have trouble liturgically celebrating this feast… In the Gospel, Christ never acknowledged to Pilate his being a king, although he did say his kingdom “was not of this world”. “You say I am a King”- presumably because the High Priests […]
Christ the King – And the End of the World as We Know It…
Christ the KING? A problem here? Yes, we do not have a king or queen in the United States. It’s especially true since the deaths of Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin. We have no king. If we did, he would wear only “new clothes.” Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the […]
33rd Sunday Ordinary Time – End Times & Black Friday
Happy day after Thanksgiving & Black Friday. ‘Tis a fine day to reflect on the End Times picture given us in Mark’s gospel last Sunday… way back then. Let’s especially consider the contrast between the scribes and the widow Jesus points his disciples toward. What a day for it! Two questions: What ‘world’ needs to […]
33rd Sunday Ordinary Time – End Times at the Thanksgiving Table…
Yup. This year I have heard many more expressions of worry about conflict at the Thanksgiving table. Certainly it’s been there in the past, but we are a nation so palpably divided, a church so notably wounded, that it could be that anything someone says one way or another might provoke a major outbreak of shouting […]
33rd Sunday Ordinary Time – End Times & Advent…
Notice the similarities in the gospels for this past Sunday and for the First Sunday of Advent. What are they getting at in their similarity? What are they pointing to? Mark 13: Jesus said to his disciples: “In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its […]
32nd Sunday Ordinary Time – Scribes-as-Foil
The gospel of Mark reflects theologically on the life of Jesus through, especially, his encounter with his disciples and the Twelve, the scribes and the Pharisees, the chief priests and elders, the crowd and those whom he healed – all for the sake of inviting us to walk with him more closely toward his cross and […]
31st Sunday Ordinary Time – On Hearing the Word of God [4]
A Fourth time: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength! And your neighbor as yourself. Overview: Moses proposes this commandment. Our honest and uncensored response to it discloses processes taking place in our […]
Deep Calls to Deep 