Dear Friends in Christ, In the challenging and confusing journey of three years with Jesus, the apostles had all kinds of startling experiences. Yet, nothing prepared them for the final seventy two hours that found them locked in the room “for fear of the Jews.” (Jn 20:19)No one was on the roller-coaster of emotions more than Peter. First, we hear his protest at the Last Supper: “You will never wash my feet.” Then in an immediate reversal: “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and face as well.” (Jn 13:8-9) Right after that: “I will lay down my life for you.” (Jn...

The Gospel of Matthew offers us a message that is far from a Hollywood ending where all is peace, goodness and love. In Matthew, the Resurrection is not a guarantee that all are problems will pass away. It is not an easy solution to the burden of life’s relentless encounter with sin...

Down through history we have had numerous distortions of the gospel message. When I was young, our celebration of Lent had clearly lost its focus. The emphasis was on personal sacrifice. Lent was an endurance contest. At noon on Holy Saturday Lent was declared over. It became a moment...

John 11:1-45 On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we have the beautiful story of Lazarus. This is the third story of our Lenten message from John’s Gospel. The Samaritan woman, the man born blind and Lazarus are stand-ins for us. In these very special engagements with Jesus, we witness an underlying message of sinful humankind’s salvation. We are invited to see our call to new life in their encounter with Christ.Water, light and life in these three stories are the basic elements that Jesus uses to draw us into the depths of the saving mystery. These stories unveil our...

John 9:1-41 Dear Friends, Once again, we have a story of conversion from St. John on our Lenten journey. Jesus is the Light of the World calling us out of the darkness of the blindness of the spirit.I like to call the story of the blind man the Catholic way of conversion. Unlike last week where the Samaritan woman fought Jesus at every step until the final cave in, today’s blind man begins with the beautiful encounter with Jesus in the restoration of his sight.In the Catholic way of conversion, we begin with what we think is the true faith, the true knowledge of...