Mark 10:36-52; 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time “As far as the eye can see” is an expression of long and wide distances. And yet it also suggests limits of our vision. Pondering the future, Karen Dinesen (Baroness Blixen) in her memoir, “Out of Africa”, writes, “Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth…
Category: Author: Jett Villarin, SJ
Pure – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time I do not know what pure virgin coconut oil or olive oil is but just the sound of it makes me want to choose it over the non-virgin one. We do not want things adulterated with other so-called lesser ingredients. We prefer pure breeds to mongrels….
Bounty – Jett Villarin, SJ
John 6:1-15; 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time Is it not wondrous that from one seed alone you can get more seeds later? Is it not a miracle that this one seed can grow to become a plant which flowers into fruit that bears even more seeds? We can sort of explain away this biological miracle…
Trinity – Jett Villarin, SJ
Matthew 28:16-20, Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity We commonly think of an object as either here or there. It cannot be here and there and everywhere at the same time. In the quantum world of the very small however, things get weird. Surprisingly, a single particle (such as an electron) can bi-locate. It can…
Air – Jett Villarin, SJ
John 20:19-23; Pentecost Sunday The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins once compared the Blessed Virgin to the air we breathe. Today, Pentecost, in celebration of the Holy Spirit coming into our lives, we will compare the Holy Spirit to the air that surrounds and sustains us. Like the atmosphere, the Holy Spirit helps us listen,…
Vine – Jett Villarin SJ
John 15:1-8, 5th Sunday of Easter I’ve always wondered about seedless grapes or seedless watermelons. I mean, they’re convenient and nice, but how do you keep them going? It must be by some biological magic that they keep showing up on our tables. I would think that seedless fruit are like celibates. They’re a dead…
Palms – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 14:1-39, Palm Sunday It was a head-turner. This scene of Jesus entering Jerusalem. The people were there for the big feast and they had heard that Jesus was coming. They had heard about Lazarus. They wanted to see Jesus. Even the Greeks who had come for the feast went to Philip, asking him, “Sir,…
Sun – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 9:2-10, 2nd Sunday of Lent Eclipses used to be a dreadful thing. Ancient cultures saw omens in them, portending evil and tragedy. Imagining some dark monster eating the sun, they took fright. Now we know an eclipse is just the same moon we see at night, making its way during the day and crossing…
Voice – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 1:21-28, Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Are you afraid of God? Israel was. They were deathly afraid of God, afraid to hear his voice directly, afraid to see the “great fire” of his presence. They had had enough of these direct encounters and they somehow sensed that any more face-to-face meetings with the divinity…
FOMO – Jett Villarin, SJ
John 1:35-42; 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time This little phone in our pockets reminds us that we are always on call. It need not always be a person that wants our attention. It can be news or pictures or short movies or whatever. It is hard to resist the buzz that signals a call. Hard…
Grow – Jett Villarin, SJ
Luke 2:22-40; Feast of the Holy Family The first 20 years of our life is the time of foundations and roots. We do not lay those foundations ourselves. We learn to eat and walk and talk from others. We are trained for toilet and manners and autonomy by someone else. This is the time we…
Power – Jett Villarin, SJ
Matthew 25:31-46, Solemnity of Christ the King In electricity, power is energy per unit time. It is usually measured in watts. A two horsepower air conditioner, for example, is about 1500 watts or 1.5 kilowatts (kw). The electricity we pay for however does not depend on power. It depends on energy, which is power multiplied…
One Lost Sheep 