Written On Our Hearts

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." ~ Matthew 28:19  The Parable of the Lost Sheep is recorded in two different Gospel accounts; Matthew (18:10-14) and Luke (15:1-7). The central story of the shepherd leaving ninety-nine and searching for only one stray is the familiar common denominator, but the contexts which surround this story in each Gospel are very different and help us to learn different aspects about caring for those who are lost. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is teaching his disciples lessons about leadership, sin and how they should approach dealing with tough issues that arise in their ministry. It is for these reasons biblical scholars often call the eighteenth chapter of Matthew the “discourse on the church” or the “ecclesiastical discourse” (The Navarre Bible Standard Edition: Saint Matthew’s Gospel, 126). Jesus begins the parable saying, “ See that you do not...

I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world. ~ John 16:33 As human beings we are constantly competing to win or gain something. Whether it is a game, a job, a new possession or relationship we are continuously attempting to reach a goal whatever it may be for us at any particular moment in our lives. Competition is good, having goals are important but losing often strengthens our will and our resolve. Some losses are greater than others, watching your favorite sports team lose year-after-year pales in comparison to losing your job. Some loss we have no control over and other kinds of loss we had influence in the circumstances and situations that contributed to the outcome. Either way, losing doesn’t feel very good, because we have been created to be champions and conquerors, following in the footsteps of Jesus. Christ promises us in the Book of Revelation, “ I will give the victor the rig...

You know, I think the first Commandment doesn’t get enough attention. We find ways to gloss over this commandment as a “given” in our prayer life. Most Catholics I know, myself included say “I know that one...I am the Lord your God, you shall not make any graven image of me...yadda, yadda, yadda...good I’ve done that...now moving on to the more interesting things I’ve done or not done on the list of ten.” I mean after all, even if we wanted to do so, most of us don’t have enough precious metal laying around the house to make a molten calf. It is a pretty safe bet though that God didn’t deliver the first commandment to Moses and his chosen people with a “Seinfeld-esque” attitude, therefore we too shouldn’t approach it lackadaisically, but we at times can be lazy and fall into this trap. I think the issue is two fold. First, we believers take God’s love, power and grace for granted (I mean He is always present and knows everything...maybe if He wasn’t constantly hanging around with us we...