A little girl and her father were walking on a clear, starry night. She turned to him and asked, "If the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what will the right side be like?" When it comes to answering that question, we'll just have to leave it up to God, won't we?
Since the day we were born, we have encountered societies scarred by selfishness, self-condemnation, and sin. One of its worst results is our assumption that a social order is inevitably like this. We live in a moral and spiritual madhouse, and assume it to be normal.
A continuation of this life is not the Gospel message. What Jesus teaches is a new life. What Jesus experiences in his death and resurrection is a new life. What Jesus makes possible for us is a new life. Not resuscitation for more of the same, but resurrection for something different!
Why the blessing of God upon those who are discarded and shoved aside? Because this is where God's heart is. These are the ones with whom Jesus fundamentally identifies. This is who God welcomes and honors. It's scandalous really. God is prejudiced...for the poor.
This is one of those rare times when the meaning of a parable is immediately crystal clear to its hearers. It is crystal clear and it is terrifying. The people respond in horror, "May it never be!" The scribes and the chief priests were also horrified.
(This sermon was delivered to a group recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.) Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, had an alcoholic patient who just couldn't get sober. Jung finally told the guy that his only hope, his very last chance for recovery, was for him to undergo a spiritual conversion.
You will be happy only in God. If you take a goldfish out of the water so that you can sing a song to it will it be happy? No. But if you put the fish back in the water it will be happy. It is the same with us. We will be happy only in God.
DEACON ROD AMON was born in 1949 to parents who owned a hardware store. He thinks that he was born and raised in that store. It was there that he learned to listen to people so that he could help them to solve their problems. Rod came to the Catholic Church in 1990 after marrying [...]
One feature of growing older especially deserves our attention. It does not happen automatically, but comes as a gift to crown an entire lifetime. What I refer to us is the rebirth that can happen in old age--what Emerson meant when he said that "As we grow old, the beauty steals inward."
Let's make no mistake about it: There's more to the hanging of the greens than decorating the sanctuary. What we're about is nothing less than preparing for the coming of the Lord. Company's coming! That's the word for the day.