Today’s Liturgy of the Word – where God reveals himself to us – starts out with the Israelites and Moses in the desert.  After gladly accepting God’s invitation to abandon slavery for freedom, the people quickly started complaining.  They missed the food the Egyptians let them have, they feared they would die of thirst … and on and on.  Acting as if God had made no plans and was incapable of providing for them, they groused so much that Moses feared for his life.  In response, and to show how […]

Our world is awash with calls for change.  We are called to change our diets, to change our kitchens or bathrooms, to transform our nation’s health insurance plan and our political parties.  I don’t know about you, but I receive lots of mail and email every day asking me to help the world change.  The change is always linked to a promise of a better tomorrow; all I have to do is trust the new diet or the new health plan or the new political agenda.

Our first reading tells of […]

As we begin another season of Lent, our readings speak powerfully about temptation.  But, I’d like to first call your attention to the beginning of today’s first reading from the Book of Genesis where we hear a beautiful story of our creation.  Using three very touching images, we hear about God forming us out of the clay of the ground, breathing life into us and placing us into his lush, fruitful garden.  It’s a very endearing account.  We are invited to see God, the almighty creator of the universe, bend […]

“Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.”  “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Today’s readings, which present sermons from both Moses and our Lord, are very challenging, aren’t they?  The law of our land seems so often to be an expression of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” – but we hear our Lord, Jesus, tell us that this is not good enough.  He calls us to take no revenge and cherish no grudge against anyone.  We hear Moses […]