When his enemies quiz him about what commandment is the greatest, Jesus reveals just how radical he really is. His answer goes to the very root of every single one of the 613 commandments found in the law of the Old Testament - the distinct...
All Saints Day gives us the opportunity to honor and celebrate the multitudes of Christians who are in heaven yet who don't appear on the list of canonized saints or have a feast day in their honor. But it also provides us the chance...
How did the Pharisees, who were God's champions in the days of the Maccabees, become the villains who sought the death of God's son? They were deformed by an insidious spiritual disease that is the deadliest of the seven deadly or capital sins - pride....
Why would people decline a royal invitation to a wedding feast fit for a king? This parable of Jesus describes a situation we see around us everyday - pervasive apathy in the face of the offer of salvation and eternal life in the Kingdom of...
There is a cost of discipleship -- Jesus sometimes calls us to leave behind professions, friends, even family. Does that mean that work and human relationships are at odds with growing in our relationship with God?...
St. Bede the Venerable on the call of Matthew, Tax Collector turned disciple, apostle & evangelist. Matthew, originally called Levi, was, as a publican, excommunicated from the life of the synagogue and shunned in Jewish society....
The Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes challenge us all. When Jesus praises the poor in spirit and those hungry for righteousness, he is also condemning the self-satisfaction that leads to sloth, a deadly disease that's risen to epic proportions in the Western...
Robert Bellarmine, reflecting on Jesus' statement in Matthew 11:30 that "my yoke is easy, my burden light," explains it in terms of love of God and the joy and happiness that it produces, in this life, and eternally. For September 17, his feast day....
Leo the Great here comments on the right use of earthly treasure to store up heavenly riches. True wealth consists in the possession of God, the source of all delight. We store it up through mercy and compassion. ...
The parable of the merciless servant illustrates the meaning of "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," a petition included in the Lord's Prayer. Anger can be righteous, but when we let it harden into resentment it becomes...