“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). With these words, Jesus makes sacrificial suffering a condition of Christian discipleship. He says this right after his first passion prediction: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly Read more…
We are all familiar with the manger scene. Mary and Joseph kneel by the baby Jesus in the manger with the ox and ass in the stable. They are surrounded by shepherds below and angels above with magi approaching and the star shining in the sky. It is the scene Read more…
The season of Advent, and Gaudete Sunday in particular, invites us to rejoice. In Year C, our readings on Gaudete Sunday include a passage from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians in which he exhorts his readers, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again, Rejoice! . . Read more…
May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. This is a prayer we Catholics pray frequently, especially on All Souls Day and throughout the month of November. It is a prayer we pray at funerals and burials and at bedsides in hospitals Read more…
The fourth chapter of Saint Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians is awash with paradox. He says in verse 18 that “we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen.” What is the unseen reality to which we look? Saint Paul says it is the “eternal weight Read more…
You probably know the story of Joseph and his brothers that is told in chapters 37-50 of the Book of Genesis. Still, allow me to recount it in summary: Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob, “the child of his old age” (Genesis 37:3) and his favorite. Out of envy Read more…
Saint Paul is Pro Life. He clearly affirms the goodness of all God’s creation and the goodness of enjoying the good things God has made. He condemns those who “forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving” while telling Saint Timothy that “everything Read more…
“You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). Saint Paul writes this to mostly non-Jewish Ephesian Christians who were not accustomed to being included in the family of Israel’s God. Saint Paul says Read more…
“The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” So says Saint Paul to the Christians of Corinth (1 Cor 1:18). The message of the cross is the power of God because God acts Read more…
Yes! God always answers our prayers. Jesus assures us of this over and over again. “Ask and it will be given to you, he says, Seek and you will find . . . For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds . . . If you, who Read more…
There are many good, true, and important answers that one could give in response to questions about the mystery of suffering in our lives. However, the best, most complete answer to all our questions about human suffering is found in the suffering of Jesus Christ. The suffering of Jesus – Read more…
The Old Testament Book of Job is about a good man whom God allows to suffer. The first verse introduces the title character, “a blameless and upright man named Job, who feared God and avoided evil” (Job 1:1). God Himself declares, “There is no one on earth like [my servant Read more…
Jesus Christ, in his earthly lifetime, showed himself to be the divine physician, healing bodies and spirits by his power and goodness, as God shining through his fully human heart. Jesus shared this healing ministry with his disciples both during his public ministry and after his death, resurrection, and ascension Read more…
Jesus performed innumerable healing miracles during his brief public ministry. Jesus’ healings demonstrated the power and tender love of God at work within him. They also demonstrated Jesus’ human love and heart-felt compassion for his sisters and brothers in distress. On a deeper level, Jesus’ works of bodily healing manifested Read more…
The health care ministry of the Church’s ordained and commissioned ministers, as well as that of the Christian faithful who are devoted to work of health care, continues and extends the health care ministry of Jesus Christ. In this series of reflections, we consider the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, Read more…
The health care ministry of the Catholic Church is – or at least ought to be – an extension of the health care ministry of Jesus Christ. In this reflection and in those to follow, we will look at the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, how that ministry is continued Read more…
Every year we celebrate Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. We hear the account of the Lord’s Passion from one of the four gospels. As we listen to this account of the agony, arrest, torture, crucifixion, death and burial of the Lord Jesus, we are, as people of faith, aware Read more…
In the gospels, there are dozens of stories in which people personally encounter Jesus and are transformed by the experience. In many of these stories, people are brought to Jesus through the witness and intercession of others. We find this especially in the early chapters of the Gospel of John. Read more…
According to the Gospel of John, Lazarus of Bethany, the brother of Martha and Mary, was ill, and his sisters sent word to inform Jesus. “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,” the gospel tells us. Still, Jesus stayed where he was for two days before journeying with his Read more…
Most, if not all, of the ethical problems in the world of health care come from a failure to grasp that health care as an interaction between human persons. Health care, as the name suggests, is the act of one person (or persons) caring for the health of another person Read more…
Bringing Holy Communion to the sick is an important part of Catholic health care ministry. In this reflection, we will consider the gospel accounts of Jesus feeding the multitude in order to deepen our understanding of what this ministry is all about. The Gospel of John makes a profound connection Read more…
Everybody wants to be home for Christmas. Everybody wants to spend Christmas with family. But some people can’t be home or don’t have family. Some people are homeless or feel homeless, especially at Christmas time. Some people are sick and estranged from home at a hospital or nursing care facility. Read more…
Like all human beings, patients receiving medical care can be identified with Jesus Christ by virtue of the Incarnation, the mystery of God becoming man.. This mystery is expressed by the angel Gabriel’s words to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of Read more…
The patients I encounter in my health care ministry are not, for the most part, runners. Many of them can walk, others have hopes of walking or even running again, and some, sadly, must accept that their ambulatory days are behind them. For all these people, however, and for every Read more…
There are great joys that people in health care get to experience. Patients get well, receive favorable diagnoses, overcome difficult bouts of illness, and emerge from sickness with deepened gratitude and fresh perspective. Those who care for those patients feel that joy too, along with the satisfaction of having helped Read more…
I am writing this on September 29, the feast day of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. They are the three angels who are named in the Bible, whom God sent to his people for specific purposes. Those purposes are revealed in the meaning of their names: Michael means “Who Read more…
I have set before you life and death . . . choose life! The choice that Moses set before the Israelites as they prepared to pass into the Promised Land (Deut 30:19) is a choice that is set before us today in a variety of ways. The exhortation to choose Read more…
Every year at Pentecost the Church commemorates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary as they gathered in Jerusalem awaiting the “promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4): the gift of the Holy Spirit that continues to be poured out upon the disciples of Jesus. Read more…
In recounting the events of Easter Sunday, The Gospel of Luke presents us with the beautiful narrative in which Jesus walks with the two disciples travelling on the road to Emmaus. The disciples were speaking to each other about their sorrow and disappointment about what had happened to Jesus. They Read more…
On Easter Sunday the Church is full of rejoicing! That rejoicing is expressed in many ways, but never more beautifully than in the Exultet, the Easter Proclamation, which is sung at the solemn beginning of the Easter Vigil. In the Exultet, Mother Church unites with all heaven and earth in Read more…
Throughout our lives, and most especially in the season of Lent, the Church invites us to reflect upon and more fully share in the sufferings of Jesus. The practice of praying the Stations of the Cross is a characteristic of this Christian reflection. As we pray the Stations of the Read more…
The ninth chapter of the Gospel of John relates a healing encounter between Jesus and a man born blind. Let us consider some key passages from this chapter and what they tell us about our healing encounters with Jesus. As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth Read more…
Proponents of physician-assisted suicide have used the term “death with dignity” to present their cause in a positive way. The Catholic Church uses the word “dignity” to articulate the exact opposite view about assisted suicide. According to the Church’s official teaching, “An act or omission which, of itself or by Read more…
We have already considered how the ethics of the Christian gospel embrace both rigorous moral standards and extravagant forgiveness of sin. Let us now consider another both/and of gospel ethics: its moral precepts are both commandments and promises. The precepts of the gospel, like “Bless those who curse you” (Luke Read more…
Throughout the forty days of Lent, the Church invites us to practice penance by praying, fasting, and giving alms. As the gospel reading for Ash Wednesday (see Matt 6:1-6, 16-18) reminds us, that penance is not meant to be a matter of merely external observances, but is to proceed from Read more…
G. K. Chesterton, the early 20th century Christian apologist, wrote that, while “paganism declared that virtue was in a balance; Christianity declared it was in a conflict: the conflict of two passions apparently opposite. Of course they were not really inconsistent; but they were such that it was hard to Read more…
“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” These are the first words of the Apostles Creed, articulating the first article of Christian faith: belief in the creator God. And what did God create? “Heaven and earth” is the Christian’s answer. In other words, “everything.” But Read more…
“We hold these treasures in earthen vessels,” Saint Paul says (2 Cor 4:7). These “earthen vessels” are human bodies, which like earthen vessels or clay pots are subject to decay and destruction. The “treasure” is the human heart that is being transformed by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus (see Read more…
“Hope” is a word that can mean different things. It can mean looking forward to something good that might happen in the future. One might hope for good weather on the day of an upcoming picnic. It can mean thinking that something good is likely to happen. One might be Read more…
Christmas is a time of giving. It is the celebration of the greatest gift of all: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us at his birth on Christmas day. One of the ways we celebrate that great gift is by the giving and receiving of lesser gifts. Christmas Read more…
For he assumed at his first coming the lowliness of human flesh, and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago, and opened the way to eternal salvation, that, when he comes again in glory and majesty and all is at last made manifest, we who watch for that day Read more…
I was ill and you cared for me. (Matt 25:36) So the king will say, seated on his glorious throne with all his angels in attendance and all the nations assembled before him: some on his right and some on his left. The king will speak these words to those Read more…