Faith and Encounter

Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”  And her daughter was healed from that hour. Matthew 15: 28 In today’s gospel of the encounter of Jesus with the Canaanite woman, we have described the “Culture of Encounter” that Christians, according[read more]

Redemptive Suffering

Unless one lives in total illusion, it will cross one’s mind and heart more often than seldom that life is difficult. Of course, it is also blessed and joyful, but in the course of life each of us will find ourselves confronting the painful reality that human life is fragile and, in some foundational way, broken. We experience this in sickness, in natural and human made disasters, and especially in the way we live out our relationships and commitments to each other. In today’s gospel, then, the disciples hear from Jesus a very painful, although truthful, teaching. “It is necessary[read more]

Fixing In Our Hearts

When he was campaigning for President in 2000, George W. Bush issued a values critique of the Clinton administration by saying: “Our generation has a chance to reclaim some essential values, to show we have grown up before we grow old.” Politics aside, as a member of Bush’s generation I found myself pondering his words.[read more]