To coincide with the release of my new book on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jesus and the Scrolls: The Jewish Roots of the Church (Random House; April 2019), I'll be leading a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with special attention to Qumran and the Scrolls. The specifics are here. I hope to have an electronic sign-up form available soon. Till then, you can contact me for a pilgrimage application.
Saturday, June 30, 2018
The Goodness of Life: The 13th Sunday of OT
The readings
for this Sunday focus on the theme of death, and God’s power over it. They discuss God’s relationship with, and
intentions for, the natural world: topics that resonate with Pope Francis’ encyclical
on the environment Laudato Si. The first reading poses some issues that
have to be discussed:
Monday, June 25, 2018
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Birth of a Glorious Failure: The Nativity of John the Baptist
This Sunday we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist,
a great saint and biblical character who led a very difficult life and
ministry.
In hindsight, the conflict that led to his demise
and martyrdom has a strangely modern ring to it: he was jailed by Herod Antipas
for speaking out on marriage (Mark 6:17-18).
Specifically, John the Baptist held to the principle of one man, one
woman, for life—a theology of marriage founded in Scripture (Mal. 2:13-16) and
reflected in the Essene movement at Qumran (CD 4:19–5:2) and in the teachings
of Our Lord (Matt 19:3-12). This got him
into trouble with the nation’s chief executive, Herod Antipas, whose own views
on marriage had evolved: he had wed Herodias, his divorced ex-sister-in-law,
who was also his niece. John the Baptist
said the marriage was unlawful. Herod
invoked executive privilege to have John arrested and detained for expressing
his intolerant views on marriage in public. Eventually, Herod had him beheaded at the
request of his wife Herodias’ daughter Salome, who gave a “hot” hip-hop
performance for the king and his cabinet that earned her a political favor
(Mark 6:14-29).
Monday, June 18, 2018
The Nativity of John the Baptist (The Mass Readings Explained)
This week's video is now out for The Mass Readings Explained on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Now Seeds, START GROWING!: The Readings for the 11 Sunday of OT
In this
week’s Mass readings, Jesus teaches us about himself and the Church using
agricultural images.
We have to
get re-oriented to what is going on in Ordinary Time of Year B. The Gospel is moving ad seriatim (sequentially) through
Mark. We are going to read a substantial
amount of Mark this year by the end of November, with the exception of the
Passion and Resurrection accounts (Mark 14-16), which were already read at Palm/Passion
Sunday and Easter.
The second
reading is moving through Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians.
The first
readings for the rest of the year are selections from the Old Testament chosen
to complement the Gospel reading.
Monday, June 11, 2018
The Parables of the Growing Seed & the Mustard Seed (The Mass Readings Explained)
My video for this Sunday's Mass Readings is now out. Check it out below, or if you are not a subscriber yet, you can get your 14 day free trial here.
Thursday, June 07, 2018
The Reality of Satan: 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time
This
Sunday we return to Ordinary Time for the first time since February 11. That was the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time,
but the seventh, eighth, and ninth Sundays were overridden by Pentecost,
Trinity, and Corpus Christi. So we pick
up with the Tenth Sunday in Year B on this Lord’s Day. We are still near the beginning of the Gospel
of Mark, following Our Lord’s early ministry.
On this Sunday, the readings are tied together by the theme of defeating
Satan.
1. Our First Reading
recalls the sorry introduction of Satan’s influence into human history: Gn 3:9-15:
Monday, June 04, 2018
The Unforgivable Sin against the Holy Spirit (The Mass Readings Explained)
This week's Mass Readings Explained takes up the famous passage of the "Unforgivable Sin." Hope it is helpful!
Saturday, June 02, 2018
Scandal of Divine Intimacy: The Readings for Corpus Christi
This is a
truly joyful time of the Church year as we conclude the long sequence from
Advent to Pentecost with these great feasts celebrating central truths of our
faith: the Trinity last Sunday, and the Eucharist this week, followed by the
Sacred Heart on Friday.
One might
ask, What is the relationship between the Trinity and the Eucharist? Why does the one feast follow the other?
There is, of
course, a strong inner unity between the doctrine of the Trinity and the
doctrine of the Eucharist. It is
striking, for example, that Jesus’ clearest teaching on the Trinity—the
relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is all delivered
during the Last Supper Discourse (John 13–17), in the context of the
institution of the Eucharist. In a
sense, it is in the Eucharist that the reality of the Trinity becomes most
personal to us, and is applied to each one of us. Yes, we speak of receiving Jesus “body,
blood, soul, and divinity” in the Eucharist, but we must remember that in
Christ we also receive the Father, for “the Father is in me and I am in the
Father” (John 10:38), and the Spirit, who is the bond of love between the
Father and Son. So there is a sense in
which the whole Trinity comes to live within us through the Eucharist: “If a
man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with
him” and, “the Spirit of Truth … dwells with you, and will be in you” (John
4:23 and 4:16).
The readings
show us that the Eucharistic meal is the culmination of a tradition of sacred
covenant meals throughout salvation history.
1. The first reading is Exodus 24:3-8:
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