“’Hoping against hope, he believed he would become ‘the father of many nations’” (Rom. 4:18). When it comes to hope, people have all sorts of ideas. Some see hope as a form of optimism: people are hopeful when […]
Learn more“’Let there be light’; and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). We take life for granted: it’s the air we breathe and the water we drink. To imagine nothing in the place of our universe is to imagine ourselves […]
Learn more“As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water’” (Jo. 7:38). Ancient Israel had what is now called a “semi-arid” climate, which means that in many places things were pretty dry […]
Learn more“[Jesus] replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority’” (Acts 1:7). Time is famously allusive, and hard to pin down. It can be calculated in […]
Learn more“If you love me you will keep my commandments” (Jo. 14:15). There’s a conditional quality to the word “if” in our Gospel today. “If” is a dependent word: it points to a certain situation that may or may […]
Learn more“I go to prepare a place for you” (Jo. 14:2). Some of you will remember the HBO series The Sopranos, which had its final episode in the early 2000s. Over six seasons viewers followed mob boss Tony Soprano […]
Learn more“Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:38). St. Francis of Assisi is supposed to have gotten his start when he heard the […]
Learn more“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk. 1:1). The gospels are called “the gospels” because of St. Mark the Evangelist, whose feast we celebrate today, and who describes the life, death, […]
Learn more“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven” (Acts 2:38). Each of us has a “life story”: that is, a narrative we tell ourselves of […]
Learn more“This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses” (Acts 2:32). If you’re a witness in court, there are two things going on. First, you know something that’s pertinent to the matter at hand, […]
Learn more“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed” (Jo. 20:1). There’s a quality of mystery to the story of […]
Learn more“When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom” (Lk. 4:16). The Gospel writer Luke catches Jesus on the move today, in the […]
Learn more“He kept saying, “I am the man’” (Jo. 9:9). So, who is the “man born blind”? We’re told over and over again that he was born blind: in fact it gets repeated six times in the course of […]
Learn more“A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’ (Jo. 4:7). In the ancient world, a lot of business got done at the local equivalent of the water fountain. People went […]
Learn more“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you’” (Gen. 12:1). When God called Abram to leave his father’s family (in our first reading today), […]
Learn more“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4; cf. Deut. 8:3). In our Gospel today, the fencing match between Jesus and the devil is purely verbal: […]
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