Some may see a contradiction in praying to a God you have just put on trial, but, in fact, this is in line with the Jewish tradition of being completely devoted to God while feeling totally frustrated by God’s silence and inaction. The Psalms are full of such questions: “How long, O Lord?”; “Why have

In the Gospel parable today, Jesus shows how in the reign of God there is a reversal of what we might be used to. The kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom. In our world, who is recognized by name? The rich and powerful. Well, in the parable, the rich man has no name –

In the days of His public life, Jesus also used stories as His favored method of helping people to see the truth. Today’s story is an intriguing tale of master and servant, and money and sly dealing, and the lesson is clear. As Jesus tells it, the servant who loses his job knows exactly what

The father in the story is really God our Father. And the boy who comes home is you or me. It is a tale of forgiveness. God is so anxious to forgive us. We are tempted to think that surely God’s forgiveness cannot work quite like that; we’d expect that a repentant sinner would have

When Jesus goes to dine at the house of the Pharisee, He notices how all the other guests have made sure of their own positions. The atmosphere of the evening is not relaxed. Everyone there is scrutinising this young preacher. What will He do? What will He say? Jesus decides to not disappoint them. He

In the eyes of Jesus, every person is of infinite worth whatever his or her ethnicity, culture or religion. The beautiful prophetic imagery of Isaiah in the first reading, proclaiming that people from every language and nation will be brought to God’s holy mountain in Jerusalem, finds fulfilment in the Gospel when Jesus declares that

In the lead-up to the Olympic Games held in London last year, a flame was kindled at Olympia, the site of the original games in ancient Greece. This flame was then transported to Britain where it was carried in a relay, which brought that flame within 10 miles of every inhabitant of the UK, before