February 2012

All our lives are characterized by the ups and downs of our daily experience and the range of our emotional responses to them. There is a temptation to treat Lent as a sort of liturgical low point when we concentrate primarly on the struggle and our sinfulness. But there is another possible approach, which may […]

The great promise of life, the desire of every human heart, was the clear concern of the people who crowded around the house where Jesus was staying in Capernaum. The great preacher was back in town, and “nobody speaks like this man”. People wanted to listen to Him. What He said was inspiring. He was

Human beings are rational animals, and our reason and our feelings, our passions, are meant to be integrated in life to reach a certain goal. For us, of course, that goal is eternal life with God. So it is right that we should have passions such as love, anger, fear, joy, sadness and desire –

In the Gospel today there is no attempt to answer the question, “Why suffering?” In other passages Jesus emphasises that it is not the consequence of sin, refuting this commonly accepted belief among His contemporaries, but more than that He does not say. When confronted with human suffering, He chooses to heal rather than philosophise.