In describing his own dramatic conversion from being a persecutor of Christ to becoming his zealous disciple, Paul was also detailing some of the inspiration for his later teaching on the Mystical Body of Christ. This great mystery affirms an ineffable and complete union of Christ with his disciples. Thus, his protest: Saul, Saul, why […]

As Saint Paul reminded us, God has no favorites, and does not parcel out his love according to the nature of our relationship with Christ—be that mother, sister, or brother. Instead, it is solely our capacity to accept and receive God’s love that determines the degree of God’s love poured into our hearts. Doing the […]

Although theologians and religious thinkers have sought to illustrate the compatibility of faith and reason, there are instances when reason must be suspended (or at least live with still unresolved questions) while faith nevertheless embraces the deeper reality those questions address. Similarly, in our journey of faith, reason sometimes has to yield to blind faith […]

Like the sun that God causes to rise on the good and the bad, so too good health is experienced by both the good and the bad. Similarly, sickness—sometimes believed to be a punishment for sin—is also the lot of both good and bad alike. However, although this suggests that illness and disease cannot be […]

Although Saint Mark describes Jesus as preaching and driving out demons as if these were separate and distinct functions, in many instances these are one and the same thing. For with Jesus preaching is always synonymous with the Truth and when the Truth is preached and heard, falsehood and ignorance—those hiding places of the demons—are […]

According to Jesus, doing the will of God the Father is the prerequisite for entering the Kingdom of Heaven. This entering of the kingdom can be understood in two complementary ways: The first is that heaven we presently long for and hope awaits us as the end of our long earthly pilgrimage. The second is […]

In affirming that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed to us, Paul is not trivializing our present sufferings—especially the sufferings of those who suffer much. Suffering, as we know, is one of the great challenges to faith in a loving and caring God. Certain approaches […]

Much of our growth in self-knowledge, and understanding the full extent of our estrangement from God, comes from our daily interactions with one another in the give-and-take of community life. And whereas the self-knowledge hereby acquired certainly includes positive and noble aspects of our identity, it more frequently reveals what is negative, sinful, unflattering, and […]

 A crucial aspect of our growing union with Christ is becoming aware of, and breaking, our unhealthy attachments—usually to the passing things and values of this present world. Perhaps someone may wonder if God can ever become an unhealthy attachment? The crowds, described in today’s gospel, offer a clue: We are told that they sought […]

The greater our deficits in true self-knowledge, the greater our tendency to judge and harshly condemn others. This tendency underscores the fact that true self-knowledge includes a deep awareness of our own inherent weaknesses and propensity for sin—either by offending against love of God and/or love of neighbor. Accordingly, the deeper we know ourselves, the […]