I first met today’s Gospel a long time ago in a children’s story by C. S. Lewis, part of his famous Chronicles of Narnia. Reepicheep, the bravest mouse of all Narnia, loses his tail in battle. As he bows to Aslan, the Great Lion, the King of Narnia, he realizes the terrifying absence of something…

Do you believe in Santa Claus?How about the Easter Bunny?The Tooth Fairy? Children do. They have tremendous, unquestioning faith. If they are told that Santa exists, they will believe, and their belief will be reinforced year after year by the presents under the tree, In the case of the Easter Bunny, the eggs in a…

This account of the feeding of the multitude occurs in all four Gospels, each with its own emphasis. In today’s Gospel it helps us to understand the impact of this event by contrasting it with what has just occurred. Matthew precedes this account with the sordid story of the beheading of John the Baptist at…

Have you ever tried to explain to a friend, who has never visited, about your home town? It can be a bit disconcerting when you start to describe what for you is so familiar and heart warming, and you look up to see descending over your friend’s eyes a haze, the eyelids starting to droop,…

Have you had any trouble with darnel lately? It seems to me that this inquiry might bring a big question to our mind. What is it? What does it look like? Does it itch? Will “Head and Shoulders” get rid of it? When we read the Gospel lesson for today, it is difficult for us….

The “parable of the sower” is one of the special parables in the New Testament because Jesus interprets it for us himself. A sower went out to sow grain, presumably wheat, and the seeds were broadcast by hand. So, once the seeds were thrown, there was no controlling where they would land. The seed fell…

For all the talk recently in our country about “family values,” we find ourselves in a distressingly uncomfortable situation listening to Jesus’ teachings today. How much more startling this Gospel lesson must have seemed to the ancient people to whom Jesus was preaching. They didn’t argue about “family values” as we do. They lived them….

A seminarian, returning from his weekend duties one Sunday afternoon, gave a lift to a hitchhiker and received a theology lesson in return. The hitchhiker, an older man, asked about the seminarian’s clerical collar and interpreted the answer he got to mean that he was, “some kind of preacher.” The hitchhiker then commented that the…

In this text Jesus is filled with compassion and then he puts in a prayer request. For those of us who have years and years of life as serious Christians, this is the most normal of patterns. We are moved to compassion. Then we pray. At the first opportunity we call for prayers from our…