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Sometimes, it seems theologians love to write circles around the average Christian. Sometimes words merely complicate the simplicity of the inexplicable. Othertimes, theologians can laugh at themselves. I rarely remember even the simplest joke but I have never forgotten this intellectual, theological joke told 30 years ago by a Jesuit priest in front of a University New Testament class. Jesus was walking alongside of the Sea of Galilee when he turned to Simon Peter and asked him,“Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Why you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus was pleased with his answer. So, Jesus turns to the modern-day theologian and asks,“Who do you say that I am?” The modern-day theologian answers,“Why you are the eschatological manifestation in the ground of our being.The kerygma, which finds its fulfillment in interpersonal relationships.” And Jesus replies,“What?” continue reading 

A Grove of Cedars of Lebanon  [ W ikipedia ] On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar (Ezekiel 17:23 -  First Reading ). Gospel  Mark 4:26-34  ( New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Editio n Jesus said to the crowds:  “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,   and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.   The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.   But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?   It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;   yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so th