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Articles
Eighteenth Sunday: Earthly and Heavenly Eutopia
The feast described by the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading, with its “wine, milk and rich food,” was for the Jews a symbol of the messianic era in which Solomon’s kingdom would be...
Articles
A Meditation for Good Friday: How To Undo the Effects of Sin?
Cardinal Newman, now Saint John Henry Newman, was a towering figure of nineteenth-century Catholicism who is almost universally admired. I say “almost” because not everyone likes him. I knew a priest once, Arthur Caulkins,...
Articles
Second Sunday of Lent, and Seeing Beyond Our Eyes
Are old people wise? Have they learned anything from experience? Or are they all curmudgeons, continually grumbling about the young generation and contrasting it unfavourably with the way things used to be? Well, as...
Saints
Paul Miki and Companion Martyrs of Japan
Today, 6 February, is the feast of Saint Paul Miki and his (twenty-five) companions who were tortured and executed in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1597. “After Christ’s example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not...
Articles
Saint Mark and the Resurrection
At Easter Sunday Mass, you heard the closing verses of Saint Mark’s Gospel, or almost so. I say “almost” because our lectionary omits the final verse. That is unfortunate, for those few words are...
Articles
Luke’s Passion and Compassion
Last year on Palm Sunday we heard the passion from Saint Mark’s Gospel, and next year it will be from Saint Matthew. Each is different in detail from the other, and that holds for...
Articles
Seventh Sunday and Forgiving What Seems Unforgiveable
I’ve been hearing confessions now for over fifty years, and I have noticed that there is one sin that comes up more than any other; it’s connected to today’s Gospel, about loving your enemy,...
Articles
The Cleansing Power of Baptism
A biblical text can become so familiar that we simply bypass statements that would ordinarily puzzle us. I’m thinking of an aspect of the Gospel you have just now heard, viz., John’s baptizing at...
