Immediately after feeding a multitude with five loaves and two fish, Jesus makes the disciples get into a boat. “Make” is almost too gentle a word. The Greek verb suggests that Jesus compelled them, constrained them, practically forced them into the boat. This is not a pleasant invitation to take an evening cruise. Jesus puts […]
Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus trying to get away. Matthew tells us that Jesus withdrew by boat to a deserted place. He had just learned that John the Baptist had been murdered by Herod. John—Jesus’ cousin, teacher, baptizer, and fellow prophet—had been executed because he dared to speak truth to power. Jesus must have been […]
“The kingdom of heaven is like…” Again and again, Jesus begins with those words. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast hidden in flour. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure buried in a field. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine […]
There is blood on the ground in Biddeford. On Monday morning, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero left his home to go to work. He was a young Colombian immigrant. A husband. A father. A man working two jobs to care for his family. He had authorization to work in this country and a Social Security number […]
Abraham is the father of three great religious traditions. We know him as the faithful man who, at the age of 75, answered God’s call to leave his native land and to journey with his wife to a place he had never seen. We know him as the man who became a father long after […]
“Do not be afraid.” Jesus says it three times in this passage. And whenever Scripture repeats itself, we should probably pay attention. “Do not be afraid.” It sounds comforting. It belongs on a greeting card, perhaps, or embroidered on a pillow. But in this chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is not speaking to people whose […]
Matthew tells us that Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. It is a sweeping sentence, almost like a refrain. This is what Jesus does. He teaches, proclaims and heals. But then Matthew slows down. Jesus […]
Jesus is walking along when he sees a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. That is how the story begins: with a man sitting. Matthew is not sitting in a neutral place. He is sitting at the tax booth, a place where money is taken, where empire reaches into ordinary households, where the […]
There are some conversations we are not meant to overhear: a whispered exchange in a hospital hallway, a late-night phone call, a prayer murmured at a bedside. And yet sometimes, by accident or by grace, we do overhear something. And what we hear changes us, because in hearing it we discover what someone truly carries […]
“I will not leave you orphaned,” Jesus says. “I am coming to you.” It is one of the tenderest promises in John’s Gospel. And it comes at a moment when tenderness is desperately needed. Jesus is speaking to his friends on the night before he dies. The table has been shared. Feet have been washed. […]