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The word: “Fiat” The Word: God become flesh. The word: “Flee.” The word: “You yourself shall be pierced with a sword.” The Word: “Why did you search for me?” The word: Silent compassion The Word: “There is your mother.” The word: Silent grief The word: Silent faith.

On Good Friday I reflect on the suffering of Jesus as an individual, as one person stumbling to Calvary and hanging on a cross.  However, I need to reflect more on Jesus’ solidarity with all the suffering and powerless people of the world before and after the first Good Friday. Jesus is with his people,…

When eaten, food becomes us. Once external and on a table or in a garden or on a grocery shelf, food is internalized as nutrients. At the Last Supper Jesus gave to his apostles his very self, and this continues in the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharistic Sacrifice. How profoundly self-giving is the life-sharing that Jesus…

Jesus said that by their fruits we can know them.  We know God by what God does. And what does God do? In Jesus we see God giving food and life and healing and forgiveness. We see the God-Man taking on the sins of the world, actually becoming sin. Could there have been any greater…

In Lent we read John 5 when Jesus speaks about testifying to the truth. Jesus praises John the Baptist for his testimony, but says that his own testimony is “greater than John’s.”  Jesus claims that his works testify on his behalf. And, above all, God the Father testifies on his Son’s behalf. The context is…

What doe God do for a living? Well, God is always on mission.  How do I know?  When we see the Son, we know the Father. After spending about 30 years in obscurity, Jesus is in the synagogue when his friends and neighbors ask him to read. This was his moment. He found the place…

Throughout Scripture God habitually claims “I will be your God and you shall be my people.” Yes, God has chosen his people of old, and he chooses us now. God promises to be just (sedegah), faithful (amunah) and kind (hesed). And God lets us hold him to his part of the bargain! We’re held to…

Reader, don’t think I’m fixated on bingo. The only time bingo entered my brain cells occurred a few weeks ago when our parish had Brown Bag Bingo after the Saturday evening Mass. (Just so you know, our parish does not endorse bingo. This was just a fun night without money involved and candy prizes.) So…

In his book The Bible Makes Sense Walter Brueggemann writes: “Conversion, the decision to be God’s holy people, is the entry into alternative consciousness which distances itself from the ways of the culture in which it is placed.” Our American culture is quite individualistic—a Lone Ranger culture. Lent is a time to make a decision…

The Book of Daniel and other Biblical books refer to God as a “great and awesome God,” who keeps his merciful covenant toward those who love him and observe his commandments. God has an enduring commitment to us, an obligation to us, and we to God. God and we are Covenant Partners. How are we…