There is a lot going on in today’s Gospel reading, especially in the background. At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus goes to the synagogue at Capernaum which was a city located at a crossroads and was a social, cultural, and economic center. The synagogue...
All this week between the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord, the readings concentrate on who Jesus is. Who is this Prince of Peace, this Christmas Christ Child born rejected, persecuted, and poor in a barn and placed to sleep in a feeding trough for animals? The...
Jesus is the manifestation of God’s love and compassion for all of us. God showed himself to Israel and to us constantly through indirect means: through the council and word of the prophets, judges, or kings; through occurrences in our personal lives or in historical...
Zechariah was the father of John the Baptist. He was born into the clan of temple priests who served in the temple in Jerusalem according to shifts. He and his wife, Elizabeth, did not have a son. This was a disaster for a family during that time in Israel – no one to...
I don’t know if any of you have had the opportunity to live in a desert. When I was 25, I went to live in the friars’ Navajo mission along the New Mexico and Arizona border for two consecutive summers. The Chuska Mountains were right in our backyard. Lukachukai is...
