Reflections for Ordinary Time

So here we have Salvation 101, or “How to Lead a Good Life; in 4 Easy Steps” (Don’t lie, cheat, steal or kill!) Pretty much any religion, or even those without a religion, would agree on that. The young man in today’s gospel (Mk 10:17-30) knows that. He’d been brought up knowing it. But he […]

Last week’s readings were challenging – with hands and feet being cut off! This week we may also struggle – how do we reconcile Jesus’ apparently uncompromising words (Mk 10:2-10) with the reality of marriage and married life as many people experience it? As we seek to understand what Jesus may be saying to us,

In this week’s readings we have two topics, which seem unrelated. In the story from the Book of Numbers (Nm 11:25-29) and the first part of the Gospel (Mk 9:38-40) we hear how both Moses and Jesus have no problem accepting that “other people” can preach about God, and don’t feel the need to define

I’m sure there are times when we have all felt confused. Confusion can be frustrating and maybe irritating – for others or for ourselves. But confusion can be worse than that. When confusion affects our sense of what is real or unreal it verges into mental illness. When it affects our understanding of what is

Isaiah says:  The Lord GOD opens my ear that I may hear (Is 50:5). If the Lord opens your ears what might you hear? Angelic voices; the sounds of peace and harmony; words of comfort and consolation? Isaiah didn’t hear those things. What he heard was harsh and unpleasant. He tells us what an effort

The whole Bible is an account of how everything that exists is based on God, a God we call our Father. Everything from the creation of the cosmos, to the sparrows in the sky, to each of us individually. In that sense everything belongs to God and everything is under His power. So where does

OK, we have to talk about sin. Given today’s readings it seems we don’t have much choice. These readings all start in different places but end up with sin: Peter speaking to the Jews who had witnessed Jesus’ death says: “Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away” Luke has Jesus say

As we know, John’s gospel is by far the longest, including lengthy theological passages included in the account of The Last Supper. But after the resurrection it’s as if he can’t wait to get finished. There are only two chapters and one of those seems to have been added as a postscript. There is no

The story we hear today of Jesus curing the leper shows both his power, but also his limitations. His power because he can cure one of the most feared diseases in the ancient world. But his limitation because despite his strict warning to the cured man not to publicize what has happened, the man does

Most of us live most of our lives between the two extremes illustrated in our readings today. On the one hand we have Job in the depths of despair, a state that looks much like major depression to our eyes, a demon in both ancient and modern thought. On the other we have the disciples