Jesus heals the daughter of the Canaanite woman because her faith was so great. He rebuked the disciples because their faith was too little. Matthew's gospel here is teaching us something very important about the nature of the faith that moves mountains....
How does the Kingdom of God relate to conservative versus liberal values? Should those seeking the pearl of great price look for it in realms that are more traditionalist and old or more progressive and new?...
The multiplication of the loaves and fishes is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four gospels. John calls it a sign, a symbolic event with many hidden meanings. It points beyond itself back to Old Testament persons and events and forward...
Here Augustine reflects on hishat famous incident, recorded in Luke 10, when the Lord comes to the home of Martha and Mary. Martha busies herself with the details of hospitality, anxious and troubled about many things. In the Catholic tradition, Mary, seated at the Lord's...
The parable of the wheat and the weeds is Jesus' response to those who want to cleanse the Christian community of the impure and imperfect. The Church, in this world, is more a hospital for sinners than a club for saints....
When we think about the Pope, we often think of the Vatican. But the roots of the Papacy are in the Old Testament as well as in the Gospel story of Jesus changing Simon's name to Peter and giving him the keys of the...
No sooner does Jesus praise Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi and dub him "the Rock" than he rebukes him as the devil or Satan. Peter had confessed Jesus to be the Messiah. But his idea of what it meant to be the Christ...
The gospel story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter sinking has much to teach us about the difference between fear, little faith, and the kind of trust that endures waves and storms, trials and crisis....
The Parable of the Sower and the Seed needs to be viewed from two different perspectives in order to unlock its meaning - from that of the sower and that of the seed. Whether sowing or growing - the point is a plentiful harvest...
In Matthew's gospel, Jesus makes the statement "my yoke is easy, my burden light." For many of us who follow him, this does not seem to square with our experience. This post discusses the reasons for this....