Hungry for Jesus
Okay, so let’s talk about sushi. It is a common experience that when people eat sushi, they feel more hungry afterward. There are so many factors to this. White rice is quickly digestible. There is very little protein within sushi. The salty soy sauce that we consume also makes us really, really thirsty and really, really hungry. All these factors combined do not satisfy us. In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus…
Relationship, Identity, Mission
“Who Is God” and “Who am I?” This is what we’re attempting to answer when we talk about living in the proper order of relationship, identity, and mission. We are living in a time where we’re going through an identity crisis. In the very foundation, a lot of us are forgetting who we are. We forget that we are sons and daughters…
Done or Half-Baked
So, the bottom line is that you are never a done muffin. You are always half-baked. In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” He doesn’t say to the scribe, “You made it. You did it. Success.” He says, yeah, you’ve said all the right things, but still, you have some work to do. Still, I want to go deeper with you. This is the beautiful reality that Jesus…
It’s True
Did you know that the sun is 400 times larger than the moon? It may not look like it, but it’s true. Did you know that a typical cloud in the sky weighs 1.1 million pounds? It may not look like it, but it’s true. Did you know that Jesus is Lord and God to his people as he is dying on the cross? It may not look like it, but it’s true. And in the gospel for the Sunday, Jesus Christ gives us his flesh to eat, his blood to drink…
Embracing Shame
Defensiveness, denial, rationalization, avoidance. What do these things have in common? It’s what we do when we avoid shame. None of us like to experience shame. None of us like to experience suffering. And we love to avoid. We love to deny. We love to distract ourselves because shame does not feel good. Here is the gospel, though, where Saint Peter does the same thing. He tells Jesus…
Something That Lasts
I recently took my college kids on a pilgrimage to Orvieto, Italy. Orvieto is the home to a Eucharistic Miracle, and I could talk about the Eucharistic Miracle all day. What is so crazy is that St. Thomas Aquinas lived during the time of this Eucharistic Miracle. St. Thomas Aquinas fell so deeply in love with Jesus and the Eucharist that he wrote “The Tantum Ergo.” “The Tantum Ergo” is sung every day around the world…