Mercy always costs somebody something. Sometimes it costs time. Sometimes pride. Sometimes the ache of being taken for granted. The ten lepers cry out, and the plea is familiar to our lips at the start of every mass, in a slightly different translation: Lord, have mercy. Their illness has pushed them to the edges—forced to live apart, forced to warn others away. They are not simply unwell; they are unwelcome.
Read MoreTwenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
The request from the apostles is disarmingly simple: “Increase our faith.” Yet the response they receive is startling—vivid images and a story with a demanding master. At first hearing, the tone feels harsh. That is on purpose. Jesus leans on exaggeration to uncover an essential truth: the Christian life is not a part-time hobby. It is non-stop. It is all-consuming. It touches everything we do because it is about everything being made new in Christ.
Read MoreTwenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This parable sketches two worlds divided by a gate: a banquet inside, a wounded neighbor outside. Step by step, a life is constructed around that gate—habits, choices, comforts, and blind spots harden into architecture. When death comes, the architecture holds. As Abraham says, “a great chasm is established.” The tragedy is not only punishment; it is permanence. A man who would not cross toward communion discovers he can no longer cross at all.
Read More