The drunken oath of a king with a shallow sense of honor, a seductive dance and the hateful heart of a queen combined to bring about the martyrdom of John the Baptist.  The greatest of prophets suffered the fate of so many Old Testament prophets before him: rejection and martyrdom. The “voice crying in the desert” did not hesitate to accuse the guilty, did not hesitate to speak the truth.  But why?  What possesses a man that he would give up his very life? (Read more…)

Pope Pius XII established this feast in 1954.  But Mary’s queenship has roots in Scripture.  At the Annunciation, Gabriel announced that Mary’s Son would receive the throne of David and rule forever.  At the Visitation, Elizabeth calls Mary “mother of my Lord.”  As in all the mysteries of Mary’s life, she is closely associated with Jesus: Her queenship is a share in Jesus’ kingship.  We can also recall that in the Old Testament the mother of the king has great influence in court. (Read more…)

The church has always held to the belief that Mary was assumed, body and soul, into a heavenly state, even though the belief was not declared as dogmatic until 1950.  The early church had a robust tradition of revering relics from the saints of the day, and their complete lack of relics from the Mother of Jesus was seen as evidence of this Marian belief.  The celebration of the event as a feast dates back to the fourth century in the East and the seventh century in the West. (Read more…)

All three Synoptic Gospels tell the story of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-9; Luke 9:28-36). With remarkable agreement, all three place the event shortly after Peter’s confession of faith that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus’ first prediction of his passion and death. Peter’s eagerness to erect tents or booths on the spot suggests it occurred during the week-long Jewish Feast of Booths in the fall.

According to Scripture scholars, in spite of the texts’ agreement it is difficult to reconstruct the disciples’ experience, because the Gospels draw heavily on Old Testament descriptions of the Sinai encounter with God, and prophetic visions of the Son of Man. (Read more…)

“Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus.”  This unique statement in John’s gospel tells us of the special relationship Jesus had with Martha, her sister, and her brother.  Apparently Jesus was a frequent guest at Martha’s home in Bethany, a small village two miles from Jerusalem.  We read of three visits in Luke 10:38-42, John 11:1-53, and John 12:1-9.

Martha welcomes Jesus and his disciples into her home and immediately goes to work to serve them.  (Read more…)

Saints Joachim (sometimes spelled “Joaquin,” pronounced “wal-keem”) and Anne, are the parents of the Virgin Mary.  There are no mentions of them in the Bible or Gospels, what we know comes from Catholic legend and the Gospel of James, which is an unsanctioned, apocryphal writing from the second century AD.  We do know from scholarship that the Gospel of James was not written by James, the Brother of Jesus, despite its claim to be so authored. (Read more…)