Our curiosity is piqued when we are told that someone has the “inside story.” In Washington, DC, the famous Georgetown University has a School of Foreign Affairs. In the autumn semester of 2005, I taught a course there on papal diplomacy. I remember one student saying to me that he...
Kept in its place, money can serve the good of the human heart. Think of your own generosity to the appeals I make all the year round for good causes of all sorts. Our parishes are filled with good and generous hearts and it is a wonderful thing to see....
For some reason, the story of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” came to mind when I was preparing something to say for this evening. It was not so much because of Snow White herself, or the Seven Dwarfs, but because of the “wicked witch” or was it the “wicked...
Lent and Pentecost have something in common: the Holy Spirit. We think of Pentecost as the time of the coming of the Spirit with all his wonderful gifts and graces, but of Lent as all this drudgery about giving things up and pessimism about sin and penance, feeling bad and...
Towards the beginning of the first lockdown last March, I was out walking round the little circle in front of the church. One of our older parishioners was passing by and I went up to greet her, stopping of course at a “safe distance” as we are told to do...
We saw last Sunday how the power of Jesus’ preaching in the synagogue of Capernaum discombobulated those who heard him. It claimed an absolute authority over them. It even chased an unclean spirit out of one of their number. Today, the scene changes from a public one, a synagogue, to...
The Gospel today highlights the authority of Jesus. He does not get his authority by virtue of a job in senior management, as if in losing the job he would lose his authority. His authority proceeds from who he is. To speak of Christ’s authority is really to speak of...
On this Word of God Sunday, what a gift to hear the first proclamation of the Gospel by the Word of God in person: “The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom is near. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” These words sum up the entire preaching of Jesus. “The time...
The first and second Sundays of Ordinary Time tell us about two beginnings which are related to each other. Last Sunday was the baptism of Jesus, the beginning of his public ministry. This Sunday is about our beginning, our call to discipleship seen both in the call of Samuel, who...
At Christmas, the Son of God took on our very flesh so as to be one with us through that flesh. At his Baptism in the Jordan, he takes on the sins of our souls so as to be one with us in our souls. Ever since man left...
