When visiting someone’s home, we are often invited in, offered a place to sit, a refreshment, and when the purpose of the visit is complete, we are thanked and escorted to the door. There is something wonderfully different in being welcomed into someone’s home; truly...
What is your image of God? Is God Santa Claus or the Bogeyman? While the true God is neither he is more the giver of good gifts than someone out to scare us. In today’s first reading Paul describes God as “rich in mercy.” “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of...
Today we see Jesus invited to dinner with one of the town’s Pharisees or religious leaders and other important neighbors. While they were dining, a woman appears and washes Jesus’ feet. The whole story and event is centered around washing of the feet. This may seem...
Woe to you who build memorials to the prophets! Woe to you, scholars of the law! Hard words today that Jesus directs at the religious leaders, scribes, Pharisees, and scholars of the religious laws. After this public chastisement in the temple, things changed. The...
“Woe to you Pharisees!” Today’s gospel gets right to it! In our 21st century experience, we understand the phrase as one of condemnation, or at least as a warning of the coming condemnation. The phrase calls to mind the evangelical preacher admonishing the...
