
Episodes

Wednesday Oct 31, 2018
Hear, O Israel
Wednesday Oct 31, 2018
Wednesday Oct 31, 2018
Our first reading for Mass this week contains the defining prayer of the Jewish tradition: the “Sh’ma.” In the Gospel, when asked which commandment is the greatest, Jesus, a pious Jew, recites this prayer from the book of Deuteronomy. We Christians too claim—or better, are claimed by—this great prayer. But what does it mean?

Wednesday Oct 24, 2018
Coming Home from Exile
Wednesday Oct 24, 2018
Wednesday Oct 24, 2018
Our first reading from the prophet Jeremiah treats of a theme that is basic throughout the Bible: the motif of the return from exile. Like two great hinges on which the Old Testament turns are the stories of Exodus and Exile. Israel finds itself enslaved in Egypt, but God liberates the people; later, the northern tribes are carried off by the Assyrians; and later still, the southern tribes are carried off by the Babylonians. But exile was also a kind of spiritual metaphor, a trope for having wandered far from the Lord.

Wednesday Oct 17, 2018
Substitutionary Sacrifice
Wednesday Oct 17, 2018
Wednesday Oct 17, 2018
Friends, all three readings for this weekend center around a theme that was very familiar to the ancient audiences who first took them in but that is rather alien to us. I’m talking about the theme of substitutionary sacrifice. A very basic problem that we have when we seek to understand this idea is that we are marked, through and through, by a strong individualism: everyone acts and speaks for himself and takes responsibility for his own actions. But ancient people lived within a far more collective or corporate consciousness.

Wednesday Oct 10, 2018
Riches and Wisdom
Wednesday Oct 10, 2018
Wednesday Oct 10, 2018
The first reading for this weekend and the Gospel, which are meant to be read in tandem, are very good examples of what I’ve called principles of spiritual physics. They lay out some ideas and relationships that are fundamental to the spiritual order—laws, if you will. And both readings have a good deal to say about riches.

Wednesday Oct 03, 2018
The Biblical View of Marriage
Wednesday Oct 03, 2018
Wednesday Oct 03, 2018
Our first reading for this weekend is of pivotal significance in the Bible, for it lays out some of the fundamentals of human anthropology and the Christian vision of marriage. It behooves us to take a careful and attentive walk through this brief but highly significant passage from the second chapter of the book of Genesis.

Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
Would That Everyone Could Be a Prophet
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
Our first reading from the Book of Numbers and the Gospel reading from Mark both highlight a very interesting spiritual predicament, one that is presented numerous times throughout the Bible. It might be summed up as the inclination for members of the Church to subvert the mission of the Church because of their own ego-driven desires and preoccupations.

Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
The Undoing of Original Sin
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
One of the most important doctrines of the Church is the doctrine of original sin, which asserts that something it off with us. We see the effects of it everywhere, and we also see many attempts to solve the problem of sin on our own. The only way to be healed, however, is to give ourselves over to Jesus, like the little child in today’s Gospel reading.

Wednesday Sep 12, 2018
Faith Perfected by Love
Wednesday Sep 12, 2018
Wednesday Sep 12, 2018
Today's second reading from the letter of James discusses the relationship between faith and love. We need a strong faith, but faith without love is lifeless so we must respond to grace and faith with acts of love.

Wednesday Sep 05, 2018
Ephphatha
Wednesday Sep 05, 2018
Wednesday Sep 05, 2018
In this week's Gospel, Jesus heals a man who is deaf and dumb. When we read this account at the spiritual level, we see that he cures those who are deaf to the Word of God and hence unable to speak it clearly. How relevant this message is to our own time!

Wednesday Aug 29, 2018
Laws and Laws
Wednesday Aug 29, 2018
Wednesday Aug 29, 2018
All of today's readings pertain to law. We Americans are a fairly litigious society. Lawyers are thick on the ground and many of our Founding Fathers were students of law. We have a kind of love-hate relationship with the law, like most people in history. Today's readings offer a key lesson: whenever we reverence something, we surround it with laws. Laws protect the integrity of good things. And for the saints, the law of God is planted within their hearts.