INTRODUCTION: The first Easter occurred at the time of Passover, which is when the first fruits of the barley crop were presented to the Lord. Pentecost, soon to follow, is when the first fruits of the wheat harvest were presented. As we consider the importance of the resurrection, we need to think of it in …
Penitential Seasons
INTRODUCTION: We are nearing the conclusion of the historic season of Lent, the preparation season for the celebration of Easter. This is Palm Sunday, the day in which we mark and celebrate the Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. As we are trying to orient ourselves by and with a Christian year, instead of the secularized …
Christmas Irony
At Christmas time, we are privileged to reflect on how God in His wisdom has taken human sophistication and urbanity, and folded it back over itself, turning everything around. The first Christmas was the time in history when God began announcing His mastery of irony—and it is also the time when the worldly wise began …
Greater Works
INTRODUCTION: The celebration of Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation. The Incarnation of the eternal Word is the miracle of miracles, the first wonder of a series of wonders. The Incarnation was the foundation, the Crucifixion and Resurrection the capstone and roof, and the Ascension the great steeple. But there is another wonder beyond …
Thanksgiving 2007 and the New Atheism
If it were not so clunky, Thanksgiving should actually be subtitled National Apologetics Day. The apostle Paul tells us that there are two things that the unbeliever wants to suppress, and those two things are the Godness of God, and our consequent responsibility to render thanks to Him. Thanksgiving is really the central epistemological duty …
St. Alphonse the Lesser
This is Trinity Sunday, the beginning of the backstretch of the church year. From Advent through Pentecost, we commemorate the life of Christ our Lord, marking His arrival in our midst, His life, His death and resurrection, His ascension into heaven, and His outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon His people. Our observance of these …
The Center of the World
This is the day of Pentecost, in the year of our Lord 2007. We rejoice in this day, and we mark it, and we call upon our God to continue the work in His Church which He so wonderfully began in the second chapter of Acts. Over the course of time, the word Pentecost has …
Pentecost and American Empire
INTRODUCTION: The giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is thought by many Christians to be the birthday of the Church. But because the Church existed throughout the Old Testament, perhaps it would be better to think of it as the Church’s wedding day, or better yet, as the day of her betrothal. Her wedding …
Easter 2007
This is April 8, Resurrection Sunday, 2007, anno Domini, year of our Lord. This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it! When a man comes back from the dead, everything in all history must eventually center on that man. When a man is executed by the most …
Holy Friday 2007
In the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus, we see that God the Father in His infinite wisdom determined to have the eternal Logos take on human flesh. In this, the universal Word became a particular Word, without ceasing to be the everlasting and infinite expression of the Father’s wisdom. This, of course, was all done …