The Good Word

To Luke we owe the story of the criminal who was crucified with Jesus and who asked Jesus to remember him when he entered his Jesus kingdom nbsp The import of this story is found not only its moment in the Passion Narrative but in its joining many other stories of the same nature that very muc

Last Palm Sunday I wrote Christ began his preparation for Palm Sunday and for Easter by taking on human being and then humbling himself becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross as Paul tells us in Philippians 2 8 a part of Palm Sunday rsquo s Second Reading The second

nbsp Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord only nine months from Christmas This is an interesting time-out in the midst of Lent as we prepare for Easter to concentrate on the coming of the Lord as an infant I used to wonder about all this talk of Jesus coming to earth as a l

Here and unusually in all three readings we can find a common crucial focus How Jesus mdash or the Isaian servant or any of us mdash will meet and engage suffering whether it is imposed by others directly or comes more remotely from human ill-will nbsp Also of course we are challenged to th

As we come to the end of Lent Paul rsquo s soaring passage from Philippians 3 8-14 reminds us beautifully of the quot surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord quot 3 8 Paul imprisoned as he writes to the Philippians speaks of having quot suffered the loss of all things quot 3 8 s

In this continuation of Jesus in Boulder I want to look at the claim that Jesus did on occasion turn people away as Fr Breslin writes in a recent Lenten meditation Then I want to discuss whether if Jesus turned people away nbsp did he turn away their children in addition First we must dete

There are still a few biblical issues in my mind regarding the recent decision to exclude two schoolchildren from the Catholic school at the Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Boulder Colorado They are as follows is it for the children rsquo s benefit to turn them away from school in order that th

The Gospel passage for the Wednesday of the Fourth week of Lent John 5 17-30 seems on first reading to be like so much of John ethereal and other-worldly It might be that as well but it is one of the most down-to-earth passages in the Gospels Some years ago the British New Testament scholar C

It was less than a month ago Ash Wednesday that I wrote on 2 Corinthians 5 20-6 2 The second reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent 2 Corinthians 5 17-21 overlaps with the Ash Wednesday passage in a substantial manner I wrote then that Paul is indeed making an official offer a guaranteed of

The Prodigal Son parable has many notable aspects to it nbsp I wish to point up two of them First the figure of the prodigal presents less than what we might hope for nbsp That is the motive for his return to his father is simply getting something good to eat regularly nbsp His motive is no