Loving Our Enemies
A long, long time ago, long before I was baptized in my 40s, I thought that I wanted to be a saint. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, of course, but I had some inkling that it meant more than simply being good. In Luke’s version of the beatitudes,* Jesus gives a list of […]
Where We Belong
I’ve just returned from a work trip to southern Kenya to celebrate 20 years of service of an organization transforming Maasai warriors who kill lions into Lion Guardians who protect lions. Their work is to promote peaceful coexistence between Maasai communities and lion communities sharing land. Lion killing is a deeply embedded rite of passage […]
God’s Constancy
In this Sunday’s gospel parable, I have to hand it to the seemingly powerless widow for being so persistent in her cries for justice before a powerful authority who seemingly couldn’t care less.* What propels her day in and day out to make her case before a judge “who neither feared God nor had respect […]
The Great Eraser
Borders are, all too often, contentious places. You can probably name a handful of current conflicts just off the top of your head: India-Pakistan, Ukraine-Russia, Eritrea-Ethiopia, and so on. Sometimes the closest neighbors make for the bitterest enemies. This was true back in Jesus’ day too, although the reciprocal acts of violence and destruction between […]