Chapter 13 of the Gospel of St Matthew is a treasury of parables. Several of them have to do with seeds and plants. I’d like to reflect a bit on the parable of the weeds and the wheat (vv. 24-30 and 36-43). This is a parable that has at times perplexed many (myself included). The [...]
What is it that everyone flees from yet never succeeds in doing so, that everyone hates but ends up doing anyway, that the more one avoids the more one runs into, that becomes harder when resisted and easier when accepted, that is in some ways the worst and in other ways the best thing that [...]
In the father’s explanation to the servants of why there should be a banquet on this occasion we come to the heart of the story, the essence of the mystery: “for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” Let us linger on the power and significance of [...]
Jesus told a story about a wealthy father who had two sons. The younger son, in an act of selfishness and impudence, insisted upon receiving his inheritance while his father was still alive. In that time and culture, such a demand would have been considered a grave insult to his father. Then, to add injury [...]
There’s some good news and bad news in the first chapter of the First Letter of Peter. In addition, there’s more good news and bad news and good news and bad news. We’ll take a brief look at it here, and hopefully discover that the bad news isn’t really bad after all, and that the [...]
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). This seems to be, for many, one of the favorites among the Beatitudes. Perhaps it is because it begins to rouse the innate longing to see God that lies (even if dormant) in every human heart. It may also be because most [...]
This Sunday the Lord gives us a striking lesson in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31). But the lesson is not primarily about riches and poverty—it’s more about Heaven and Hell, and about what we need to do to enter the former and avoid the latter. Even though we might get [...]
We may think sometimes that the Lord is asleep in the boat as the storms rage around us, but we tend not to realize that there are things going on “behind the scenes” that we really don’t and can’t know. The Lord may have to ask us as He asked his terrified disciples: “Where is [...]
I recently received a little testimony from a friend of mine who is devoted to the Divine Mercy. She read my post “Save a Soul Today!” and responded with a beautiful example from her own experience in this regard. If you’ve already forgotten about it, go back and read it again, and start praying the [...]
I’m not questioning the reality of the Holy Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Christ. But after reading something by the Coptic monk Matthew the Poor in The Communion of Love, I have to wonder if what happens when we receive the Eucharist is always a real union. The fault for this lies, of [...]
