Mary of Magdala and the other Mary go to visit the tomb of Jesus. Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t say why because the reason doesn’t matter. Are they going to anoint the body of Jesus or to complete some funeral rite? The fact that they just go is beautiful to me. Their simple act, which can be…
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The crowds spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them along the route.We must return to loving our roads: those roads that enable us to take steps towards Life; those roads that offer possibilities for relationships; those roads that savor and anticipate the promise of a…
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When Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick, he remains right where he is for another two days. He does not race to the side of his friend. He is the Lord of time, so it is he who decides when to move. When he reaches the tomb of Lazarus, Martha says sorrowfully: Lord, if you…
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He’s such an annoying man. There he sits by the side of the road: a blind beggar who is nevertheless terribly alive, so alive that he pierces our gaze, so alive that he forces us to respond, so alive that it makes us hurt. Why is he like that? Jesus, however, sees the mendicant in …
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In the warm midday silence, a solitary woman slips toward the town well, a site depicted in the Bible as a place for meeting and socializing with others. But at this point in the life of the Samaritan woman, the local well is simply a place to fill her water pitcher at a time when …
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I Dream of a Poetic Church And he was transfigured before them, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I am always struck by the simplicity of transfiguration, which seems to me to be the height of poetic expression and reminds me of the touching experience of the “art”… Read more »
To die out of Love “No, you will not die!” hisses the serpent in the Garden of Eden, but its human inhabitants do not understand and are seduced. Beginning with the first pages of Genesis, that demonic hissing has never ceased to tempt our human nature. As if not dying is the solution to… Read more »
Jesus does not need the baptism John is administering, but he goes to the banks of the Jordan anyway, where people’s sins are being removed like clots dissolved in running water; where sinners overcome their fear of revealing themselves for what they are: persons who need to rediscover their humanity. So Jesus joins the line …
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God is born in Bethlehem–even the stars indicate this. The Gospel seems to suggest that simply doing one’s job with commitment is enough to begin the journey of drawing closer to Jesus. Even though the Magi take a wrong road as they travel, it turns out to be the right road because through this…
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The shepherds set out for Bethlehem without delay. We admire and envy them because their haste is behavior typical of young people or idealists. It is typical of free people–those who have nothing to lose and everything to gain. To set forth without delay has nostalgic overtones: it harks back to a time when…
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