Affirmation feels different when it's public, out loud and in front of everyone — as at the Baptism of Christ and the Transfiguration, where God audibly affirmed Jesus as his beloved Son. That affirmation becomes the foundation that allows Jesus to be free; to weep and be compassionate and angry, to be a revelation... For 30 years, Jesus lived quietly in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph; his "hidden" years. Through his normal day-to-day living of going to school and having friends and putting in a hard day’s work, Jesus made sacred the hidden space. That hidden space is where most of us live most of our lives — out of the public eye...

Affirmation feels different when it's public, out loud and in front of everyone — as at the Baptism of Christ and the Transfiguration, where God audibly affirmed Jesus as his beloved Son. That affirmation becomes the foundation that allows Jesus to be free; to weep and be compassionate and angry, to be a revelation...

You see a different side of someone when you see what makes him or her cry. Seeing a person weep, and knowing why — the thing he or she cares about so deeply as to be moved to tears — is a deep insight. Lazarus. Jerusalem. Sin. Jesus weeps at these. That tells us something important, for a man who weeps...

"Nobody has ever been for me like this before." That's the difference it can make to receive someone as gift. Jesus looked at the disciples and thanked the Father for the gift of them. He looked around at the faces of people he loved and received each of them and all of them as a gift. In their goodness and...

Jesus always chose his words carefully. There was great meaning and intention behind each word, part of which we can only begin to understand by listening carefully. How much more, then, should we pay attention to Jesus's very last words? The ones he painfully uttered as he was dying on the cross? What do...

There's an intense vulnerability to letting people into your most tender moments. Allowing someone to witness a private, cherished part of life is no small thing, and being a witness to one of these moments is an honor. There's a particular part of Jesus's life for which we get to be these witnesses only a few times...

Sometimes we need someone to fight for us, to respond forcefully to injustice in our lives. Jesus does this, as he did in the temple - He's not afraid to clean house. The Divine Physician heals us, though the medicine isn't always tender and gentle. The medicine that's needed is tougher, and the only way to remove...

Compassion: it means "to suffer with." Recall those times when you've been suffering, alone, and someone has come into that isolation with you. It's powerful! Now, don't skip the fact that God became man so he could suffer with us. God is the prodigal son's father, spending every day looking at the horizon with longing...

This episode starts a new series: The Heart of God. The Sacred Heart. This is a series about the goodness of God; not only the reality that he is, but that he is good, with a human face and a human heart that rejoices. A deeper encounter with his heart; that it may be the remedy that heals the wounds of our hearts...