The word “perfect” occurs only twice in the Gospel accounts, and both times it is St. Matthew who employs this superlative. In the account of the rich young man given a chance at discipleship, Jesus offers this challenge: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” In this coming Sunday’s Gospel passage from the celebrated Sermon on the Mount, Jesus urges his disciples, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” St. Luke for his part does include this last quote from Jesus, but in a slightly modified form. St. Luke recalls Jesus saying, “Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful,” or, as another translation reads, “Be compassionate, as your heavenly Father is compassionate.” Assessing all these quotations together, the reader may easily conclude that perfection consists in sensitivity toward the poor. Here the poor indicates not only the financially and materially impoverished, but also the emotionally and socially deprived. more

Just about every culture on the face of the earth accepts some sort of Divinity. Christians happily acknowledge the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the one true God, creator, redeemer and sanctifier. The Jewish community joins the Christian community in embracing the one, eternal God, revealed initially to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Islamic world recognizes this common Semitic heritage when it worships Allah as the supreme and perfect being. more

This coming Sunday’s three Scripture readings combine the forceful words of the prophet Isaiah, the insightful phrases of the apostle Paul and the homely expressions of the Master Himself to communicate broadly the richness of the Gospel message. more

Forty-eight years ago, within weeks of my ordination to the priesthood, I offered a Sunday Mass in my home parish of St. Charles Borromeo in Woonsocket. After Mass, a young mother presented herself to me and asked to be “churched.” This was the only request for churching in my half-century of priestly ministry. more

Startled by the imprisonment of St. John the Baptist, Jesus leaves behind the religiously top-heavy area around Jerusalem with its temple liturgies, periodic pilgrimages, priestly ministrations and pious commercialism. Instead, Jesus returns home to Galilee, to the northern region of his youth, an area rich with both Greek and Jewish tradition. more

The nurse at the head desk at an area hospital said that there was a young lady who wanted to see a priest should one pass by. The young woman was not seriously ill, but rather somewhat apprehensive about a procedure that she was to undergo the following day. more

In a broad-ranging and now celebrated 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a weeklong visit to Brazil, Pope Francis said that the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on women priests was definitive, although he would like women to have more leadership roles in administration and in pastoral activities. Citing the authoritative statements of his predecessors, Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the pope closed any discussion on Catholic female clergy but opened widely and repeatedly further consideration on the role of women in the Church. more

The vilification of the bishop of Providence in news items, through published letters and over the Internet for his untiring defense of unborn life has been fostered by inter-faith clergy and by so-called “faithful Catholics” alike. The bishop’s defense of life along with other candid statements on moral issues has drawn attention from the New England regional press as well. While the pro-life and the pro-traditional marriage constituencies have cheered his Excellency’s observations on social issues, a number of commentators on local Web pages have accused Bishop Tobin of being “obsessed” with the topic of abortion. more

Following the lead of his predecessor, Blessed Pope John XXIII, our current Pontiff, Pope Francis, has determined that the name of St. Joseph should be included in all four standard Eucharistic prayers read at Mass. more

The season of Advent rightly draws the attention of the believer toward the second coming of Christ, the final judgment and the world to come. These eschatological moments in salvation history are integral to a full appreciation of the Gospel message. Christians profess Sunday after Sunday that Jesus Christ “…will come again in glory to judge the living the dead.” Worshippers regularly profess that “…of his kingdom there will be no end.” They roundly acknowledge that they “…look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Rightly then does the Church reserve the four weeks preceding Christmas as a time to ponder and appreciate the final event of history: the dawn of the Daystar, the rising of the Sun of Justice, the return of Christ in glory. more

A recent Inter-Faith convocation concluded with the familiar seasonal hymn, “We Gather Together.” The chorus began, “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing, To live in community seeking God’s Will.” more

The ancient Jews understood that God’s fidelity in the past was an assurance of his faithfulness in the future. The Jews had cried out from the anguish of Egyptian slavery and the Lord God heard their plea. Through Moses, God led the Jews safely if arduously through the wilderness for 40 years. more

National Public Radio featured a discussion of religion among millennials, young adults born just before the turn of this century. One speaker decided to wait before introducing her own children to any specific religious tradition, allowing them to be exposed to diverse spiritual experiences and then arriving at their own religious conclusions as they approached adulthood. The Catholic practice of infant baptism seemed presumptuous to the speaker, coopting a believer’s opportunity to make an informed and mature choice regarding one’s eternal destiny. Millennials are certainly not alone in this thinking. more

“God has strange ways of sweeping his threshing floor,” was how St. John Vianney summed up France’s revolutionary years and their tumultuous effects on the Church. Recent productions of the musical drama “Les Miserables” at the Ocean State Theatre in Warwick and the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket have reminded Rhode Islanders of the tempestuous times in France during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. more

A few Sundays ago, the Gospel featured Jesus’ disciples asking, “Increase our faith.” Happily Pope Francis’ first encyclical, “The Light of Faith,” celebrates faith’s Scriptural, spiritual, ecclesial and social consequences. In our era when the Christian faith at the heart of Catholicism is so misunderstood, mocked or ignored, the pontiffs’ words are most welcomed. Amid the secular considerations that preoccupy today’s unbelieving society, the pope insists that Christians “profess their faith in God’s tangible and powerful love, which really does act in history and determines its final destiny: a love that can be encountered, a love fully revealed in Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.” more

Pope Francis’ celebrated remarks on the return air flight from Brazil’s World Youth Day included a profound observation on the Blessed Virgin Mary: “Our Lady is more important than the Apostles! She is more important!” Our Holy Father offered this same observation later to the in flight reporters: “But I’d like to say something about this. I’ve said it, but I repeat it. Our Lady, Mary, was more important than the Apostles, than bishops, deacons and priests.” This second papal response answered a not unexpected question about women in the priesthood. more

In concluding his recent encyclical, The Light of Faith, Pope Francis observes that the faith life of the Christian is not only a journey, as recalled when the nomadic Abraham and Israelites were considered, but the life of faith is also a process of building. more

Certainly one of the saddest lines in Sacred Scripture is the conclusion to this Sunday’s Gospel: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Jesus who will labor, preach, sacrifice, suffer and die for the salvation of mankind wonders whether his life work will come to naught. And well might Jesus worry. more

Although separated by centuries in time, Naaman the Syrian healed of leprosy and the thankful Samaritan also healed of leprosy both experienced an inner transformation that began with faith and evolved into love. more

Although separated by centuries in time, Naaman the Syrian healed of leprosy and the thankful Samaritan also healed of leprosy both experienced an inner transformation that began with faith and evolved into love. more