Ut Aliis Tradere

With news like this around us, perhaps even directly affecting us, how can we even begin to rejoice?

My dear ones in Christ, we should not fear judgement, but we should recognize that there will indeed be a judgement, both the judgement of our choice either to embrace eternal life or to persist in death, as well as the examination of our actions.

We tried our level best, but human ability to predict is notoriously wobbly at best and downright deceptive and delusional at worst, just like the predictions we have been hearing lately about the date of the return of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

...the copy of the Temple was what was destroyed in 70 CE. The true Temple had been destroyed almost forty years earlier...

Now, instead of asking a question about the law, that is, what do we do about the fact that NONE of these men left heirs, or instead of questioning after husband number two just why these men were kicking off (I have watched way too many true crime shows), the Sadducees ask Jesus, "In the Resurrection, whose wife will she be?" never mind the fact that the Sadducees did not even believe that there would be a resurrection in the first place.

What we see in the Zacchaeus story is one of the dishonourable who has heard Our Lord's message and took it to heart and chose the path of God's honour, disavowing the path that won him honour in the eyes of the rich and powerful.

If God is anything, He is the summit of all truth. Pretense and play-acting and self-promotion are ineffective with Him because He always sees to the heart of the person before Him.

Persistence, not losing heart, not succumbing to despair all revolve around keeping faith. We talk about faith all the time. We “keep the faith,” we “practice the faith,” we “walk by faith,” we are “saved by faith,” we are “members of the faith,” we “live by faith,” but do we really understand faith?

What is noteworthy, and Jesus points this out in several places, a saving faith can be found outside the context of a favoured people. Indeed, Jesus spent much of His ministry debunking the concept of a favoured people...

Did you ever notice that rich people do not fare very well in Holy Scripture?...Perhaps preachers of a prosperity Gospel should take earnest note.

After all, the statement seems so antithetical to everything Our Lord preached and taught.

[A reflection on the Gospel reading for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Sunday, September 14, 2025. This and the other readings may be...

Welcome to the philosophy of the shock statement, that introduction meant to stun listeners out of their preoccupation and in appalled fascination listen for the follow-up.

As always, Jesus is teaching His listeners, us included, fundamentals of life in the Kingdom of God in the context with which His followers were familiar.

How are we to fulfil the promises we made at our baptism if we have no idea to Whom we have made these promises?