In the passion account of Saint Luke, we are told that in the course of his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, an angel was sent to strengthen and comfort Jesus as his undependable friends lay asleep a stone’s throw away. There is no record of any similar heavenly consolation during the actual crucifixion as […]

Just as Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, so we have to enter into the depths of our hearts (through ever-deepening self-knowledge) so that we can drive out from our hearts all that still desecrates this temple of the Holy Spirit. A central means for doing […]

For many of us, our search for God takes us out of ourselves in search of a “god” out there. In doing so we are actually distancing ourselves from the God who already dwells within our hearts—a God who is closer to us than we are to ourselves—to paraphrase Saint Augustine. And so, Jesus comes […]

The charge of turning the God’s house into a marketplace is one that Jesus levels not just at the Jews of his time but also at us. Through baptism we have become living temples of the Holy Spirit and thus God’s house. And, alas, we too, all in varying degrees, bring into our hearts much […]

Many—if not most—of those who sought out Jesus were in search of a physical cure or some other self-serving need or request. In contrast, the tax collectors and so-called “sinners” were all drawing near to listen to Jesus—to quote today’s gospel. In other words, they were seeking the person of Jesus and not merely some […]

A casual reading of the gospels would suggest that all the Pharisees were opposed to Jesus and were intent upon killing him. And yet we know that this is not true: Nicodemus, a Pharisee, was a secret disciple of Jesus, and Gamaliel, another Pharisee, defended Jesus’ apostles before the Sanhedrin. So too, we have just […]

As Saint Paul reminds the Galatians, it is through faith that we receive the Spirt, while in relation to today’s gospel, faith assures us that if we ask we will receive, and if we knock the door will be opened. In a somewhat paradoxical fashion, faith is also what we exercise in asking for a […]

It is well to remember that monastic asceticism is less about denying oneself pleasure and embracing hardship, and more about reestablishing that original God-intended harmony between the body and the soul, and the spirit and the flesh. Our reading from Proverbs expresses this goal in terms of seeking neither poverty nor riches, but only the […]

There are times in our lives when, with the best of intentions, we foolishly reassure a suffering friend that we understand his/her pain and misery even though we have had no similar experience. And when the cause of a friend’s suffering is extremely traumatic or bears no similarity to anything we have undergone, we have […]

Jesus’ quoting of the “Golden Rule” according to which we are to do to others as we would have them do to us, is usually the opposite of what we are inclined to do—that is, treat others as they treat us. Thus, a strike on the cheek, is reciprocated in kind, and a curse is […]