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out of their mind? “Coming to his senses at last…” —Luke 15:17 Jesus mentions that the prodigal son came “to his senses at last” when his situation reached its lowest point. Jesus also forgave His persecutors from the cross, saying “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). Through these two passages, Jesus is teaching us that it is quite possible that those who trespass against us might not be in their right mind.  Jesus pleads with His heavenly Father to forgive His tormentors because of this very reason. He sees the best in each person and ask...

in god we trust? “God put Abraham to the test.” —Genesis 22:1 Lent is a season of being put to the test (see Mt 4:1; Gn 22:1). God, “the Tester of our hearts” (1 Thes 2:4), brings us to obedience school this Lent. He is testing us to see if we trust His promises or if our hearts are far from Him and we’ve just been giving Him “lip service” (Mk 7:6). Three days ago, the Church proclaimed Jesus’ promise that God wants to provide our needs (Mt 7:7-11). Tomorrow Jesus promises us that if we give, God will provide for us lavishly (Lk 6:38). Do we believe God and His promises? O...

bent on lent “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life.” —Deuteronomy 30:19 On this second day of Lent, the Church challenges us to choose life, Lent, and salvation. If we don’t want Lent, we can easily ignore it. If we don’t want life and salvation, we can refuse them. We can either lose our life but gain everlasting life, or gain the whole world and lose our soul (Lk 9:24-25). The choice is ours, whether or not we want to choose. Many Christians don’t reject Lent but don’t accept it either. They’re neither hot nor cold about Lent, but luk...

work force “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.” —Genesis 2:15 Work was part of paradise. Man cultivated and cared for the garden of Eden before he sinned. We still experience glimpses of fulfillment and creativity in work. Yet, after the fall of man, work has been warped by sin, and our experience of work is often closer to Hell than Paradise. The good news is that when Jesus redeemed us, He saved every aspect of our lives, including work. We no longer must earn our bread by the sweat of our brows (Gn 3:19). We have a lovi...

“separate yourselves” (2 cor 6:17) “God then separated...” —Genesis 1:4 God’s original creation involved multiple acts of separation (Gn 1:4, 6, 7, 14, 18). God’s separations were “good” (Gn 1:12, 18). God’s new creation in Christ also involves multiple acts of separation. In His new creation, the Lord separates us from: • original sin and its loss of intimacy with God through the Sacrament of Baptism (Gn 3:23; Catechism, 1263), • our sins through the ministry of Jesus (Mt 1:21), • those who would lead us away from Him, even if it might be a member of our own family ...