Life is unpredictable. There are probably few people who need to be reminded of that. There are probably few people who have not felt the effects of an unpredictability that sometimes brings tragic consequences. No matter how well people try to plan their lives, there remains the possibility that at any moment something could happen…

“They did not understand about the loaves.” The Gospel narrative that we heard today is the conclusion to the story that began with last Sunday’s Gospel. In that narrative, Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. Immediately following the miracle of the loaves, Jesus dismissed the crowd who had just been fed,…

As [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Back from a long trip, exhausted yet exhilarated, eager to report to their master, the disciples leap at Jesus’ offer to give them a day off in a relaxing spot with no…

He was just a boy from Nazareth, when all was said and done. It wasn’t the greatest place to be from. The people there knew that. They knew what people from more important places said. “Can anything good come out of Galilee?” And Nazareth wasn’t even the best place in Galilee to come from. It…

A commentary on our Gospel lesson, the story of Jesus’ raising of Jairus’ daughter, suggests that “stories like this one seem to promise too much.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII, page 590.) One is tempted to ask, “How much is too much?” In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “I came that they may have life, and…

Bill was in his late 20’s, a single, handsome fellow a little over six feet in height with wavy black hair and green eyes. He worked in health care as an x-ray technician and was very good at his profession. Bill’s life was hard growing up and he had little use for his parents and…