We have certainly experienced a real change in season over these past few days, haven’t we?  We’re clearly into fall now and, with all of the beautiful trees in our neighborhood losing their leaves, we experience, once again, nature shutting down for winter; it’s the natural cycle of life here on earth.  That seems to be the way of this world: life, death and life and death once again.  For us Christians, however – we who believe in an eternal and all-loving God – there is an important break in […]

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

What is truth?  We hear Pontius Pilate ask Jesus that question as Jesus stands before him in judgment.  And Jesus answers by dying on the cross, demonstrating a very dramatic and fundamental truth of our faith: God loves us so much that he would send his Son to die for us. 

In today’s gospel, we hear a Pharisee and a tax collector both stand before God, each expressing his own truth.  On one level, the Pharisee is correct in his self-analysis.  By all the […]

As we look around our world today – whether it is the ongoing war in Ukraine, the fragile peace that has already been shattered in the Middle East or the increasing tension between our nation and so many others over tariffs or the political tension in our own country over a wide variety of issues, we see so much violence and injustice that plagues the world around us.  And, there is no earthly reason to believe that it can change.  If you examine human history, you will find that it’s […]

“Please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth, for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the Lord.”  Did you catch that last line in today’s first reading?  What a curious request: two mule-loads of earth.  Why would Naaman, who had just been miraculously cured of leprosy, want this pile of dirt?  The explanation is really very interesting.  Many of the people at that time believed in local gods.  They believed that local gods ruled over particular lands.  That’s why we […]