If you would like to catch up on some recent posts, here is a place where you can easily access some posts you might have missed. I hope it helps… enjoy.
Continue readingA quick look back
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On the borderline
When I was in seminary, our homiletics professor had lots of advice and pointers for the Sunday homily. The professor was pretty adamant about not explaining theology. And I mostly agree with his point – it can make a homily really dry and fill it with language that needs its own explanation. The professor’s final point was that your explanation was likely to cross the borderline of orthodoxy and give an inaccurate or heretical version of the underlying theology. Best to just keep it simple and well clear of the border. Continue reading
Joy
From time to time, Sacred Scripture contains verses that give us pause: “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials” (Jame 1:2) I will admit that while encountering tests and trials, joy is not my instinctual response. Of course, that verse continues: “for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (James 1:3) It is a good thing that through trials and testing we gain experience and come to an understanding of our ability to persevere, endure and hope. But I can’t say joy is in the mix. But then perhaps I am a bit confused about what joy truly is, at least in the Biblical sense and am more given to equate joy with the way I am feeling or responding to something in my life. Continue reading
The Ascension
This coming Sunday in the Solemnity of the Ascension taken from the Gospel of Mark: 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. 20 But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.” Continue reading
Whatever we ask
In today’s gospel we read: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” (John 16:23). It seemed like a “blank check” for our prayers and the intercession of Jesus. What is the context, what are the limits, and are there any caveats? Continue reading
What gives us pause
This coming Sunday in the Solemnity of the Ascension taken from the Gospel of Mark. It is verse 18 that gives modern day Christians pause – not the second half: “They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” Disciples healed in the course of their evangelism. First, Peter and John healed a lame beggar (Acts 3:1–10). Soon after, the Holy Spirit became so present that apparently even people who crossed Peter’s shadow were healed (Acts 5:12–16). Later, the Holy Spirit validated Paul’s ministry by healing those who touched an apron or handkerchief that Paul had touched (Acts 19:11–12). Continue reading
Talking in Circles
If you are following the daily gospels for Mass, you will have noticed that we are relying on Jesus’ Farewell Discourse presented in Chapters 13 through 17. The context is the eve of the crucifixion, and Jesus knows he will be leaving his disciples shortly. In that context, he offers them departing instructions and words of farewell – four chapters and more. It is in John 13:33 he says, “My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.” Immediately the protests against their abandonment begin and they continue in different ways and forms – right into today’s reading (John 16; the Diocese of Arlington celebrates Ascension on Sunday). As you continue to read through the Discourse people often comment: (a) these apostles and disciples are not the brightest bulbs in the box because (b) Jesus keeps repeating the same things and they don’t get it. Continue reading
The Gospel Reading
This coming Sunday in the Solemnity of the Ascension taken from the Gospel of Mark: “15 He said to them, ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. 18 They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’ 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. 20 But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.” Continue reading
Why are there other endings?
This coming Sunday in the Solemnity of the Ascension taken from the Gospel of Mark. Although virtually all of today’s scholars of the Bible believe that Mark had a purpose in ending his Gospel abruptly at 16:8, this was not always the case. Some first- or second-century Christians tried to “complete” his Gospel drama by adding scenes that they thought Mark should have added himself. Continue reading
The Culture
Today’s first reading is the well known account of St. Paul at the Areopagus, the academic meeting place in Athens. While Athens was no longer a center for political power, it remained the center of the very wide-spread Hellenistic culture. Paul’s speech sounds quite different from speeches he gave in synagogues which argued from Hebrew Scripture. In this different setting Paul’s remarks are addressed to Greek philosophers, nevertheless, it too is steeped in Scripture, but sticks to the parts that sound like philosophy and natural theology, that is, evidence from nature pointing to the God who created it. Continue reading
The other “other” endings
This coming Sunday in the Solemnity of the Ascension taken from the Gospel of Mark.
The shorter ending – This ending is found after Mk 16:8 before the Longer Ending (vv. 9-20) in four seventh-to-ninth-century Greek manuscripts as well as in one Old Latin version, where it appears alone without the Longer Ending: Continue reading
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