I suspect that we have all experienced shame for some of the things we have done in our lives. Shame, like embarrassment, is to be distinguished from guilt or sorrow for sin. Shame is primarily self-focused, whereas guilt typically incorporates those we have sinned against. And although shame and embarrassment seem to be the opposite […]

Visions and other mystical phenomena are sometimes construed as proofs of holiness and being specially favored by God. Today’s feast gives us pause, however, when we consider Peter, James, and John at the time of their privileged witnessing of Christ’s transfiguration. Although much would change after the resurrection and the Pentecost event, these were still […]

In theory, theocracies should be the ideal way of ordering our political and societal lives. In reality, attempts at setting up a country or nation with God as its head fail, and often end up being oppressive, intolerant, and thereby seriously marring the true face of our loving God. Even God himself seems to have […]

Immersing ourselves in the superficial and passing things of this world has a way of coarsening the human spirit and rendering us spiritually deaf and thus incapable of hearing God’s voice. This is epitomized in Amos’ description of those who ask: When will the new moon be over, that we may sell our grain, and […]

The indispensability of grace and the insufficiency of the works of the law is a teaching that is virtually synonymous with Paul; and yet, in writing to Timothy, Paul sounds as though he is boasting and even being presumptuous: I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now […]

Although it is undeniably the greatest honor to be chosen by Christ to be his friend, we might be a little concerned by his additional assertion that in choosing us he has also appointed us to go and bear fruit that will remain. This is especially so when our lives of discipleship seem devoid of […]

As we know, procrastinating because we don’t wish to make a decision is, in actual fact, a decision. Similarly, as Jesus insisted, whoever is not for him is against him—there can be no neutral position in relation to Christ. And in today’s gospel Jesus explains that if anyone hears my words and does not observe […]

In our Christian tradition those who, under the influence of the Spirit, speak in the name of the Lord, are not mere mouthpieces or passive conduits of the divine message—the message they speak is transformative, not only for those who hear their message, but for the speakers themselves. Thus, those who speak in the Lord’s […]

Keep your hopes high and your expectations low is advice that, initially, seems counterintuitive. Surely, there should be a close correlation between hope and expectation? Can you have high expectations without hope, or can you have low expectations with hope? Well, if we consider that the dictionary defines the word “expect” as regarding something as […]

It is, perhaps, relatively easy to dismiss an unwelcome message or difficult teaching, when the teacher’s life is clearly at variance with what he/she propounds. This is what so frustrated Jesus’ opponents—his life unfailingly mirrored the truth of the words he spoke. Accordingly, they were left to try and discredit his teaching and, in today’s […]