Jesus

January 23, 2021

Column: Listening Better to the Blues

Listen to B.B. King’s “Why I Sing the Blues.” This time, really listen: his soulful singing, Lucille’s crying. They belie the lyrics.
November 23, 2020

Column: COVID-19 and Character

“Tell me,” Albert Camus’ Clamence asks, “doesn’t shame sting a little?”
November 19, 2020

Column: Catholics and Presidents

What to make of a Catholic president?
October 31, 2020

Column: Fire and Brimstone: Tips for Preaching the End Times

Dwight Moody, the great revivalist, appreciated fire and brimstone. He knew nothing better, he said, than the notion “that Our Lord is coming again” to “take the men of this world out of their stocks and bonds.” As a preacher, he knew it worked, that it moved souls.
May 14, 2020

Column: What If We Lose Touch?

Making readers like me of George Orwell or Yevgeny Zamyatin highly uncomfortable, a San Diego company has developed a technology to monitor social distance. Already in use in some places, it’s called Active Distance Alert and Monitoring, or ADAM, eerily, for short. The technology maps signals emitted by phones, so that crowded areas like grocery stores […]
April 10, 2020

Column: The Poor are the Altar of God

The poor are the altar of God.
August 18, 2019

Homily: The Christianity We Want Nothing Of (Lk 12:49-53)

Click here to listen to this homily! Ten years ago I wrote a book on martyrdom, Christian martyrdom, on how Christianity can neither be understood or practiced without also understanding martyrdom, without also, at least in principle, being open to it for oneself.[1] I also suggested that if we wanted to know how to behave as […]
August 23, 2019

Saved, How Many?

The question is ancient. Will only a few be saved?
August 25, 2019

Homily: The Knowledge We Can’t Fake (Lk 13:22-30)

Click here to listen to this homily! Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
August 30, 2019

Against the Arrogance Doomed to Ignorance

It’s the plain teaching of the Gospel, and the whole Christian tradition, that to find truth one must first find humility. That arrogance is doomed to ignorance is the wisdom of Scripture and the saints.
September 1, 2019

Homily: The Courage of Awkwardness (Lk 14:1, 7-14)

We should accept that it is awkward being a Christian.
September 6, 2019

The Cross and the Power of God

What does it mean to take up the cross?