Reflections

As Christians, we believe that God entered human history in a very forceful and dramatic way through the Incarnation. Yet He did so in a way that did not destroy or overturn human history, but rather that was based on human history at the same time that it transcended it. St. Matthew begins his Gospel…

“Have we forgotten how to weep?” Pope Francis asked that question in his July 2013 visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a major port of entry for migrants and asylum seekers from North Africa and the Mideast, to commemorate those who perished when crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa. Unfortunately, as if to emphasize…

That the two creation stories appear to differ in defining humankind’s relationship to God’s creation has sparked endless debate about precisely what role humankind plays in managing God’s creation. In the first creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:3), humankind is given dominion over God’s earthly creation (Genesis 1:26,28). In the second (Genesis 2:4-2:25), the mandate given to…

In the midst of the human crisis currently unfolding in the Ukraine, it is perhaps useful to reflect on another, and potentially far more deadly, one that underlies it. While the United States has banned the import of Russian oil and natural gas, EU members have only agreed to significantly curtail the consumption of Russian…

Modern American culture is distinguished by its sharp focus on the individual. One of the great myths of our time is that we are free agents; that is, that society is merely a collection of individuals who make rational choices as they pursue their individual self-interest. Sometimes, this spirit of individualism is even more prevalent…

In the missionary discourse, Jesus tells us that a disciple “who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:38) In part, Jesus was speaking literally of the many Christian martyrs who were to follow Jesus to their deaths. But he was also speaking figuratively. The Last Supper helps…

With the return of some semblance of “normal” life amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, almost all animal rescue organizations have noted a troubling trend: animals adopted during the pandemic are now being returned, with the result that shelters are overwhelmed and often have more animals than they can realistically hope to adopt. This is a…

We’ve now been writing these weekly blog posts for half a year (or, more precisely, for 28 weeks, although who’s counting?). This seems like an appropriate time to summarize six months of posts, including both our practical calls to action and our reflections on science and faith. Despite the severity of the environmental and human…

A common argument that Christians advance to refute climate change is either that it is a politically fashionable dogma that remains unproven, or that climate change is real but unrelated to human activity. In any case, the argument goes, as Christians we believe in the word of God, and in Genesis, God promised to “never…

Pope Francis writes that “Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain” (Laudato Si, 161). What does he mean by that? Does he mean that the end of the world and the second coming of Christ are at hand? That attempts to determine when Christ is coming are no longer misplaced or…