28th Sunday Ordinary Time It can be comforting to treat today’s Gospel as another of Jesus’s hyperboles about the call to discipleship. However, we should not avoid its truth. The man in the Gospel seeking eternal life had observed all … Read More
26th Sunday Ordinary Time Today, Jesus’s disciples complain about an outsider driving out demons, something they had failed at earlier in the chapter. But their complaint is not that this person was healing or does so in Jesus’s name. They … Read More
19th Sunday Ordinary Time – B A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. The knowledge itself is not dangerous—we should always strive to grow in knowledge—but relying on our knowledge alone is. That’s how today’s Gospel begins, with … Read More
16th Sunday Ordinary Time – B Last week Jesus sent out the disciples two by two on mission, and today they return with news of everything they did. But the Sunday lectionary omits an important subplot that takes place between … Read More
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B If we’re in this for fame and glory, then today’s Gospel should set us straight. Earlier in Jesus’s ministry, his family tried an intervention because “he is out of his mind” (Mark 3:21). … Read More
12th Sunday Ordinary Time – B “Let us cross to the other side,” Jesus says to his disciples after a long day of teaching the crowds. This wasn’t just for a change of scenery. They were crossing the border into … Read More
The 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B Around the corner from where I live is a farm right in the middle of the city. I know spring has come when everything from cars to sidewalks is coated in yellow … Read More
Pentecost Sunday – B Last year on Pentecost, protests broke out in Minneapolis and around the world in response to the torturous eight minute and 46 second recorded murder of George Floyd by a police officer. We all heard the … Read More
Seventh Sunday of Easter – B It’s not unusual to hear some version of “I come to Mass to get away from the world for one hour.” It comes sometimes as homiletic critique: “We shouldn’t be hearing about politics or … Read More
Sixth Sunday of Easter – B Anne Lamott’s priest friend Tom told her, “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do” (Bird by Bird, … Read More