“You brood of vipers” – nobody’s Christmas card conveys that message. And yet everyone’s does. John’s indictment echoes God’s appraisal of his people – all people. It’s a judgment Jesus would share: “If you, though you are evil…” Our text reminds: there is need for peace on earth and in our souls because we have sown war. God draws near not only out of his own overflowing love but our radical need. And his coming takes the fleshly shape it does because from our hearts of stone God would raise true children of Abraham. It is a baptism of the Holy Spirit, a circumcision of the heart, that is required, for the fruit of our repentance is, time and again, rotten. He whom John proclaims will bear the fruit we could not, not extorting but emptying himself of riches for our sakes, not bearing false witness but enduring it, not seeking his due but becoming servant of all, sharing his clothes with all us naked; his body with all us hungry.

This, Luke and the prophets tell us, is good news. It is good news. Brood of vipers, we may be, but we have not been abandoned to our own grasping, evil devices, God has come, in our midst. Lifted up, bearing our wretched, serpentine form and the cost of our empty penitence, for this he came into the world. By this we might bear new fruit from our new hearts. Our fortunes restored – and more – before our eyes and the eyes of a doubtful world.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel / and ransom captive Israel / that mourns in lonely exile…

“Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.” Baruch 5:1

Our lectionary readings for Advent 2 deal with two themes: comfort and proclamation. In Baruch 5, the Lord’s comfort comes to the Israelites as divine glory. Jerusalem is to trade the garments of sorry and affliction for the garment and diadem of glory. The comfort of glory is also a comfort of peace, for God will give Jerusalem the name of “Righteous Peace,” a peace that is marked by the return of the exiles. Even creation is brought into this peace by obeying God’s command making the path for the exiles straight and level. Continue reading →

Our inaugural MTS class was featured recently in the Loyola College Update. The Theology Dept is really proud of our cohort, and very pleased to see them get some recognition here.

Prof. David Decosimo has recently published an article, entitled “Intrinsic Goodness and Contingency, Resemblance and Particularity: Two Criticisms of Robert Adams’s Finite and Infinite Goods” in Studies in Christian Ethics 25.4 (November 2012): 418-441.

Here’s an abstract:
Robert Adams’s Finite and Infinite Goods is one of the most important and innovative contributions to Christian ethics in recent memory. This article identifies two major flaws at the heart of Adams’s theory: his notion of intrinsic value and his claim that ‘excellence’ or finite goodness is constituted by resemblance to God. I first elucidate Adams’s complex, frequently misunderstood claims concerning intrinsic value and Godlikeness. I then contend that Adams’s notion of intrinsic value cannot explain what it could mean for countless finite goods to be intrinsically valuable. Next, I articulate a criticism of his Godlikeness thesis altogether unlike those he has previously addressed: I show that, on Adams’s own account of Godlikeness, a diverse myriad of excellences could not possibly count as resembling God. His theory thus fails to account for a whole world of finite goods. I defend my two criticisms against objections and briefly sketch a more Aristotelian and Christian way forward.

2 Sam 23:1-7; Dan 7:9-10; Rev 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37
Cathedral of the Incarnation, Baltimore

This is the final Sunday of the church’s liturgical year. It is the Feast of Christ the King. All of the passages for today reflect on kingship, David’s, God’s, Jesus’. Although Christians in America are far removed from direct experience of a king, there is much these passages can teach us about our own political life. I don’t simply mean political life in the U.S. This reading also can teach us about how we live together here in this particular manifestation of the body of Christ in Baltimore. Continue reading →

This Sunday’s texts from Daniel and Mark (and, perhaps, Hebrews) are quite apocalyptic in their outlook.  This may lead most preachers to focus their attentions elsewhere.

Jesus, too, lived in apocalyptic times.  Many of his fellow Jews, including his relative John the Baptist, were convinced that the world was on the verge of a great apocalyptic judgment.  In the gospel reading for this Sunday Jesus, himself, has just predicted the destruction of the Temple also hinting at the immanent onset of the end of the world as we know it. Continue reading →

“The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow…” (Psalm 146:9).

This verse reads like the banner headline of today’s lectionary texts. The book of Ruth follows the story of two resourceful widows: Naomi, an Israelite, and Ruth, who is a “stranger,” a foreigner. Through God’s providence and Naomi’s quick thinking, a son is born – the grandfather of King David. In 1 Kings 17, an unnamed widow receives the prophet Elijah into her home and courageously feeds him her very last bit of flour and oil. God rewards her costly hospitality with miraculous abundance. Truly God upholds the widows, who have no one else to bear them up.

Mark 12 begins not with a widow but with Jesus’ indictment of the scribes – teachers of the law and leaders in the Temple. Continue reading →

THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS

Today we celebrate the great multitude of saints who have gone before us, who are now living, and who are to come. We celebrate the saints who live in Christ because they did not fear to die with Him. We celebrate those blessed men and women who conquered the world and conquered themselves. The saints of the first three centuries of the Church were principally martyrs, and the Feast of All Saints was originally the feast of the dedication of the Pantheon, the Roman temple of Agrippa that had been previously been dedicated to the pagan gods. In the first decade of the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV translated the relics of several martyrs from the catacombs to the Pantheon and on May 14, A.D. 610 dedicated it as a new basilica to St. Mary and the Martyrs. As several churches commemorated All Saints Day on other days of the year, Pope Gregory IV fixed the date of the feast to November 1 in A.D. 835.

We see in our readings this great multitude of saints but, what is more important, we see what makes them great in the sight of the Lord. We see with St. John the Revelator those marked with the Tau on their foreheads, of every nation and tribe, of every people and tongue, standing before the throne of God with the Lamb in their midst. Continue reading →

via Faith and Leadership blog.

If you’ve been wondering what happened to our lectionary reflection series, never fear! We return this week with commentary by Loyola prof. Fr. Joseph Rossi, SJ.