Reflections for Ordinary Time

I wish it were easy. Be good and be kind to people. That’s it, isn’t it?  No, it isn’t.  In our readings today we are warned it is a battle. Jeremiah suffers as a result of an arbitrary and weak-willed ruler who seems to favor the last person who spoke to him (Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10). […]

Faith, Hope, and Charity – the three great virtues, as Paul enumerates them (1 Cor 13), are often considered as three distinct things. Paul’s treatment of Charity (or Love) as somehow superior could lead us to think of maybe choosing between them, that one is more important than the others.  Today’s readings give a very different

All of the great world religions have a strong emphasis on the need for detachment, avoiding getting caught up in the possessions and acquisitiveness that seem to be a common feature of humanity. The preacher Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23) could just as well be found in Buddhist scripture or in the writings of the pagan

The story we hear today of Abraham negotiating with God always strikes me as somewhere between comical and extraordinary (Genesis 18:20-32). Is God really prepared to haggle like some market trader? Aren’t we more used to the idea that we bring our petitions to the Lord and then we wait (and maybe wait some more)

Sometimes the people we hear about in scripture can seem very distant and very different from us. Not so Martha. I can identify immediately with her state of mind – really trying her best to make everything nice for everyone but really not getting the support she needs and deserves. Have you never felt like

Love God and love your neighbor. It’s not complicated. Moses pointed this out thousands of years ago (Deuteronomy 30:10-14). Jesus did the same (Luke 10:25-37).  But Jesus went further. He took the effort to tell a story to make the point clear. He accepts that even the obvious may need spelling out, and does so

Our readings today may leave us feeling conflicted. “Rejoice!” (Isaiah 66:10-14c) Really?  There seems little to rejoice about as we look out at a world racked by war and poverty. We know this is “normal”, violence and hate are not unusual over human history. What perhaps hurts more is that attitudes of hate and violence,

Although it’s often repeated, no one knows where the phrase “the eyes are the windows of the soul” originated. The sentiment is carried through in the belief that looking (deeply) into someone’s eyes will tell you whether they love you, or can be trusted in a business deal, or are a “good person”.  Today’s readings

Last week we were asked to recognize that the starting point for our Christian life is our relationship with God. This week Jesus spells out what that relationship implies (Luke 6:27-38).  At present there are many people who claim to live a Christian life but there seem to be a very wide range of ideas

Faith, hope and charity – the traditional formulation of the three cardinal virtues. Like the four classical elements, earth, air, fire and water, which were thought to make up the physical world, the Christian life was built from faith, hope, and charity. And just as the elements are bound together to make up the world,