All Episodes
No Security Blankets
When a person experiences cognitive dissonance, that is, when they find themselves in a situation where exposure to conflicting ideas and information becomes too stres...
I Gave Them Statutes That Were Not Good
In today’s program, Fr. Paul reads from the text of Ezekiel to illustrate how hearers of the Bible misconstrue the Book of Exodus. (Episode 277)
Heritage is Not Ancestral
As in the story of Genesis, for each generation of Luke’s genealogy, the functional names outline the literary framework of a recurring biblical dilemma: without God’s...
Set Free From You
This week, Fr. Paul explains that rest is assigned by God on the Sabbath and in the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, not for the sake of man but for the benefit of the ad...
Understanding Irrelevance
When we set out to start a business, a project, a book, or an endeavor of any kind, most of us begin by asking ourselves, who is my audience, and how can I make my wor...
For I Am Compassionate
This week Fr. Paul explains that those who are called sons and daughters of God — the insiders, so to speak — are special. Yes, you heard me correctly. You are specia...
A Mental Vacancy
For years on this program, in homilies and personal discussions with parishioners, family, and friends — I have explained that there is no such thing as progress. That...
First and Foremost
This week Fr. Paul notes that the subject of the biblical text is determined by the story’s content and not by the sensibilities of those hearing the story. In Genesi...
I Believe in One God
According to the rule of the Lukan genealogy, the recent coronation of the English king was uncanny in its egregious assault on the biblical proclamation of the Resurr...
You May Not Sin Toward the Ox or the Ass
This week Fr. Paul highlights examples from the biblical text that deal with humans and animals on the same level, noting that animals are also called to repentance. (...
Cowardice
If you are fortunate to live under the pressure of the Gospel, sooner or later, your life will be reduced to a showdown with the Scriptural God. You will have the oppo...
God is the Only Melech
This week, Fr. Paul explains that in the Bible, God is the only King and the owner of his children, not his children the owners one of another. (Episode 272)
Sin is Crouching at the Door
Nothing is more painful than watching young parents explain their intention to raise their children differently than their parents or observing young mothers hovering ...
Fear the Judge
This week, Fr. Paul stresses the importance of fearing God not as an awesome or impressive character but in his function as judge. (Episode 271)
King, Priest, and Oppression
When hearing the Lukan genealogy of Jesus in English, it's easy for people to adopt anti-scriptural notions of "king" and "priest,” developing incorrect expectations f...
The Disrespect of God
This week, Fr. Paul explains how the practice of honoring all mothers or all fathers, as we do on national holidays, undermines the biblical admonition that each perso...
Son of Man, Son of David
The New Testament storyline places considerable emphasis and tension on the question of Jesus's title. The Gospel of Matthew stresses that Jesus is an ordinary Ben Ada...
Into Nothingness
This week, Fr. Paul explains that the prohibition, “you may not take the name of God in vain,” is a warning that you may not speak of God as though he exists only as a...
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In the first chapters of Luke, just as the Spirit moves from womb to womb, beginning with the angel Gabriel, the commandment moves from person to person, ensuring that...
Steadfast Love
This week Fr. Paul laments the way we shortchange the biblical function “steadfast love” in which the scriptural God, a jealous God, who visits the iniquity of the fat...
The Ties That Corrupt
Sorting out one's personal priorities is the most difficult aspect of committing to anything of value. Well, let’s qualify that statement. Committing to your prioritie...
Ten Statements
In today’s episode, Fr. Paul offers a practical tip to pastors and teachers: as in the case of the specific example of the Decalogue, when someone says, “I know what t...
Judgment As Hope
When Christians emphasize the deep spiritual meaning or transformative power of human suffering, they unwittingly transgress the authority of the scriptural God. Yes, ...
Unto the Age
This week Fr. Paul calls out the standard error of rendering “unto the age” as “eternal” in English translations of the Bible. (Episode 266)
Bow or Walk Away
Theologians love to philosophize about the darkness in the world because, like politicians, they fancy the work of their own hands as a city of light set upon a hill. ...
The Sinai Covenant
This week, Fr. Paul emphasizes from Exodus what the Apostle Paul underscores in Galatians and people of all religions systematically ignore: “if you will indeed obey m...
Ruling Your Illusions
When coming across a word, a phrase, or a passage in the Bible, our natural tendency as modern disciples is to interrogate a text and then assign meaning to it. If we ...
You Have it in the Text
This week Fr. Paul deftly points out that in the story of the Bible, the personal and singular primacy of Moses is the individual and singular primacy of the five book...