Until you hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not be able to hear him say “I thirst” in the heart of the poor.
00164 – Love My Religion?
The only clear line I draw these days is this: When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. …Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.
00159 – What Jesus Never Said
What Jesus never said: “Feed the hungry only if they have papers.” “Clothe the naked only if they’re from your country.” “Welcome the stranger only if there’s zero risk.” “Help the poor only if it’s convenient.” “Love your neighbor only if they look like...
00127 – My Life is About God
My life is not about me. It is about God. It is about a willing participation in a larger mystery. At this time, we do this by not rejecting or running from what is happening but by accepting our current situation and asking God to be with us in it. Paul of Tarsus...
00123 – Dying Before You Die
What is the wisdom that matters now? For me, it’s the Paschal Mystery [the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Christ]. . . . Simply, the one who would save his life or her life will lose it and the one who’s willing to lose it, will save it. In...
00107 – Grace: What God Has Done
Jesus forgave a thief dangling on a cross, knowing full well the thief had converted out of plain fear. That thief would never study the Bible, never attend synagogue or church, and never make amends to those he had wronged. He simply said, “Jesus, remember me,” and...
00105 – Followers, Not Admirers
It is well known that Christ consistently used the expression “follower.” He never asks for admirers, worshipers, or adherents. No, he calls disciples. It is not adherents of a teaching but followers of a life Christ is looking for.
00103 – Hell Cannot Prevail
As long as Christians are breaking the bread and pouring the wine, as long as we are anointing the sick and baptizing sinners, as long as we are preaching the Word and paying attention, the church lives, and Jesus says the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.
00093 – Drawing People to Christ
We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.
00084 – Christ’s Living Presence
But the fact of the matter is that in a way it hardly matters how the body of Jesus came to be missing because in the last analysis what convinced people that he had risen from the dead was not the absence of his corpse but his living presence. And so it has been ever...