At times I’ve wondered what it would have been like to be on the receiving end of one of Paul’s epistles. I imagine a variety of responses: the flurry of excitement and anticipation over what […]
Category: Jesus Christ
The Transfiguration: Eyes to See and Ears to Hear
Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? Mark 8:18 On this Feast of the Transfiguration, the readings are attention-grabbing: they aim to capture our internal sight by tapping into our external […]
Why did the crowd turn on Jesus?
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the Highest!” We know how the rest of the story goes. Jesus—acclaimed as the one who is to save his people—enters Jerusalem […]
Jesus is Outside
He was scandalously conceived outside of a proper marriage, born outside of his society’s attention, and immediately a refugee outside his homeland as he fled brutal political power. He brought contempt and rejection upon himself […]
Quarantining Our Fears
By Tony Alonso “Do not be afraid.” “Do not fear, little flock.” “Have no anxiety at all.” These, and dozens like them, are the phrases softly spoken by a radical rabbi from Nazareth in the […]
Reading John with John P. Meier: Some Insights
I once had the good fortune to learn about the Gospel of John with the world-renowned Biblical scholar and prominent “historical Jesus” expert, John P. Meier. Despite our semester-long engagement with this one gospel, my […]
Returning to Israel and Its King: Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew
The stereotype about most Catholics is true: we don’t know our Bible, especially the Hebrew Bible. Because of this, the Gospel of Matthew poses a challenge, because it depends so explicitly upon the history, narrative conventions, […]
“The Canticle of the Turning”: The Gospel of Luke and Radical Imagination
If I had an opportunity to sit down and chat with one of the four evangelists, I’d pick Luke. I just find his gospel so riveting and his characters so compelling. Any child somewhat familiar […]
Fear or Faith?
At my first communion, I received a picture Bible. All the stories were told through comic strips, like the Bible version of Rex Morgan, M.D. Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, Isaac, Leah, Rachel, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, […]
When Disciples Fail
Mark’s gospel, long overlooked in early Christian tradition, experienced something of a resurgence in the late nineteenth century when biblical scholars came to the conclusion that Mark, long believed to be the second gospel written, […]
