Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner? 22nd Sunday in OT

In 2005, a quasi-remake of the famous 1967 movie “Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner” was released.  Entitled “Guess Who?” it starred Bernie Mac as an African-American father who struggled to deal with his daughter’s Caucasian fiancé (played by Ashton Kutcher).  Much of the (sometimes rude) comedy of the film revolved around the clash of cultures at the dinner table.  Usually we only share meals with people like us: family members or friends from our own “circle.”  When someone from “outside” comes in, it upsets the balance. 

The Wedding Banquet & the Resurrection of the Righteous: Mass Readings Explained (The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time)

My latest video on the Sunday Mass readings is now out.  Check it out and please Like and Share. 

Thanks!

SWIDS 2016

I'm happy to be doing some continuing ed for the permanent deacons in driving distance of Austin, Texas, this weekend.  It's the South West Institute of Diaconal Studies, 2016: SWIDS for short.  They are great men.  I visited with them in 2014. This year we are tackling the Gospel of John.  Here's the link: http://www.swidsonline.com/

Catholic Introduction to the Old Testament Can Be Pre-Ordered!

If anyone has been wondering why Brant Pitre and I haven't been writing and doing more than we have for the past four or five years, it's because a lot of our time has been taken up quietly working on a massive project which Ignatius Press has now rolled out on Amazon: A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: Old Testament.

There are good Catholic introductory texts on the OT out there (those by Boadt and Jensen come to mind), but there has been a need for some time for a more recent and thorough treatment of the Old Testament which takes advantage, from the ground up, of recent developments in Old Testament interpretation from the 1990's on, especially the growth in literary studies like narrative and canonical criticism, the impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and new archeological discoveries.

Will Many Be Saved? 21st Sunday in OT

 

If Jesus was walking through your town and you had ten seconds as he passed to ask any question you wished, what would it be?  “Why is there evil in the world?” “How can I be saved?” “What is heaven like?”

In this Sunday’s Gospel, an anonymous bystander gets his chance to ask Jesus one of the “big questions”: “Will only a few people be saved?”  Jesus’ answer is complex, indirect, and very well worth examining!  The Readings leading up to the Gospel help prepare us to understand Jesus’ response.

Will Many Be Saved? 21st Sunday in OT

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If Jesus was walking through your town and you had ten seconds as he passed to ask any question you wished, what would it be?  “Why is there evil in the world?” “How can I be saved?” “What is heaven like?”

In this Sunday’s Gospel, an anonymous bystander gets his chance to ask Jesus one of the “big questions”: “Will only a few people be saved?”  Jesus’ answer is complex, indirect, and very well worth examining!  The Readings leading up to the Gospel help prepare us to understand Jesus’ response.

Will Only a Few People be Saved?: Mass Readings Explained (The 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time)

My latest video on this Sunday's Mass readings is now out.  Check it out and please Like and Share!

Thanks!

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI Signs New Book Deal with Bloomsbury

Indeed, it's official. Bloomsbury is announcing that Pope Benedict has a new book coming in November 2016, entitled, The Last Testament. It appears to be 224 pages.

Ever since Bloomsbury merged ("bought out?") T & T Clark, they have been emerging as a major academic press. In fact, I love what they have done with the Library of New Testament Studies Series (formerly Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series published with Sheffield Academic Press). 

But back to the major headline: Benedict XVI "breaks his silence." 

I Did not Come to Bring Peace but Division: Mass Readings Explained (The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

I hope my latest video will help you on Sunday.  Thank you, and please Like and Share!

Jesus' Take on Family Values: 20th Sunday in OT

In recent decades, the term “family values” has almost become a code word for “Christian culture” in American society.  Influential Christian organizations have adopted names like “Focus on the Family,” “American Family Association,” the “Family Research Council”; and on the Catholic side of things we have “Catholic Family Land,” “Tradition, Family and Property,” or “The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute,” better known as “C-FAM.”  The natural family unit—based on a husband and wife who have made an exclusive, permanent, public commitment to share a common life and raise children together—has been under such political and social pressure that at times we almost identify Christianity as a social movement to promote family life.

In this context, this Sunday’s Mass Readings can be unsettling.  Jesus says he has “not come to bring peace but division.”  Come again?  Lord, with due respect, isn’t one of your messianic titles “Prince of Peace?”  Then again, the Lord speaks of causing division and struggle within families—strife in the family unit caused by Jesus!  How can this be?  Doesn’t Jesus believe in “family values”?

1.  Our First Reading is Jer 38:4-6, 8-10:

Be Ready! The Master is Coming Back: Mass Readings Explained (The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

My latest video on this Sunday's Mass readings is now out.  Check it out after reading John's contribution below.

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Always Prepared: Readings for the 19th Sunday in OT

My father once served as the chaplain for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.  (U.S. Navy chaplains also serve the Marines and the Coast Guard).  I have fond memories of that beautiful seaside city.  In any event, perhaps the only bit of Coast Guard culture that I absorbed during my dad’s tour of duty was the motto: Semper Paratus, “Always Prepared,” which seems an appropriate summation of the theme of this Sunday’s Readings, which stress vigilance in the Christian life.  In fact, these Readings feel like something we might get in November, closer to the Solemnity of Christ the King, but here they are coming to us in the middle of Ordinary Time.  Yet perhaps that’s appropriate, because it is not just at the end of our lives (or the liturgical year) that we need to be vigilant, but at all times—even and especially when its literally or metaphorically “summertime, and the livin’ is easy …”

1.  Our First Reading is Wisdom 18:6-9: