Relentless generosity
28th Sunday Ordinary Time – A – September 24, 2023 This Sunday’s parable of the wedding feast is a difficult one to preach. If we take the parable to be an allegory about God (the king) and who gets invited … Read More
What belongs to God
27th Sunday Ordinary Time – A – September 24, 2023 Jesus turns up the heat this week, recounting another parable to confront the chief priests and elders of Jerusalem. Because the lectionary pairs it with Isaiah’s song of the vineyard, … Read More
Who are we to judge
26th Sunday Ordinary Time – A – September 24, 2023 Jesus has finally arrived in Jerusalem, where he predicted he will suffer and die. Now he has overtaken the temple area, the center of commercial, political, and religious life. Amid … Read More
What will there be for us?
25th Sunday Ordinary Time – A – September 24, 2023 The parable of the workers in the vineyard and the generous landowner, found only in Matthew, is addressed first to Jesus’s disciples. In the scene right before it, Peter laments, … Read More
A generous heart
24th Sunday Ordinary Time – A – September 17, 2023 Some struggle with the Ignatian “Prayer for Generosity”: “Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous . . . to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not … Read More
Nothing is lost with God
23rd Sunday Ordinary Time – A – September 10, 2023 There comes a time in almost every relationship when you have to decide if it’s worth fighting for, because if you’re fighting, at least you’re engaging. The end is certain … Read More
The Turning Point
22nd Sunday Ordinary Time – A – September 3, 2023 Today’s Gospel passage is part two of last week’s and is the turning point for Matthew’s entire Gospel. From here on, the way leads directly to Jerusalem and the cross. … Read More
The Hidden Path
21st Sunday Ordinary Time – A – August 27, 2023 Today and the last two Sundays make up a Matthean story arc that begins and ends with parables about separating wheat from weeds and desirable fish from everything else caught … Read More
Great faith and determination
20th Sunday Ordinary Time – A – August 20, 2023 Although the unnamed Canaanite woman says little, it is enough to expand Jesus’s perspective. Matthew’s Gospel was originally written for a Jewish Christian community that was becoming more Gentile in … Read More
The promise given to all God’s children
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – A – August 15, 2023 Many paintings and sculptures depict a seated Mary and, on her lap, the child Jesus, no longer an infant at her breast but a man-child … Read More