Reading Francis

More in the “Florida Man trashes Fourth Evangelist” saga tonight. John 6:16-21 is a little story that kind of seems like a joke your 9-year old niece is retelling from Saturday Night Live. It probably made some sense at the time, but some significant elements must have been lost in the retelling. Jesus walking on…

Maybe we’ve got the wrong GUY. John 6 is known for its discourse on the Eucharist, which we’ll get to. But there’s a bridge verse early in the chapter that is super-relevant right now that we should talk about. So John 6 starts with Jesus multiplying loaves and fishes. There are a lot of similarities…

As I understand it, 80s music is back in fashion, which is great, because that’s what I grew up with. Modern English, a-ha, Tears for Fears, Yaz – I promise that these are all actual band names of groups that had hits in the 80s that I LOVED. And, listening to them again, I realize…

What does it mean to be grateful for a gift that wasn’t what you asked for? In my defense, I have been on both ends of the story I’m about to tell. My beloved, in an act of angelic generosity, went to get me coffee recently. But it wasn’t made the way I would have…

In the Jim Carrey version of “The Grinch,” he has a throwaway line that sticks with me. Cindy Lou Who has just said something sweet about the Grinch, and as he pats her off the screen he says, “Cute kid. BAD judge of character,” before indulging in some shenanigans. Was Jesus a bad judge of…

Fathers, man. At the end of John 4, there’s a weird little section headlined in verses 46-54 by a father, a royal official, whose son is sick. I honestly thought it was maybe one of the few stories that shows up in all four gospels, but it turns out that it’s unique to John, though…

What is it that we need, really? I was at a (secular) conference this week, and one of the speakers, a distinguished 93-year old “aging rebel,” talked about what older people need, using a term born from research that began with juvenile delinquents: Mattering.  We need to feel like we matter. Whether we are a…

Peace is the word. I’m not able to tie this up in a pretty bow at this point, but maybe because this Sunday’s gospel reading was the one where Jesus says he’s here not to bring peace, but division, I wanted to share this thing from our retreat this summer even if it’s unfinished. Do…

We should be more surprising. My hope is that at some point I’ll be able to reflect on the Gospel of John without complaining. We’re only on chapter 3, so I’ve got time, which is good, because this is not that reflection. I happened to be watching Oceans 12, which was not as good as…