The healing of a man blind from birth is an archetypal story of coming to spiritual vision. Sin prevents us from seeing clearly. Christ is the light and he wants us to walk in his light. But we resist. Fortunately, if we stop resisting, Christ will enable us, like Adam in Eden, to walk in easy fellowship with God.

The story of Christ's encounter with the Samaritan woman is a kind of template by which we can understand our own encounter with the Lord.

"Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the rest will be given to you." Make God the center of your life, and you will be spiritually ordered in Christ's image. If you make wealth and security your center, you will be empty. You make the choice: will God be your center?

Jesus calls us to love. But few consider the radical nature of this calling. It entails loving the other, even our enemies, regardless of the response of the one who is loved. If you fail, and you often will, turn to God for the grace to live out this strange way of Christ.

Like a good healer, Jesus has not come simply to behaviorally modify us; he has come to heal us at the root of our being, eradicating all dysfunction from our most basic core.

The Beatitudes reveal the true path of joy is found not in grasping at power but in the willing surrender to God's mysterious grace.

All of us want to live to the fullest. However, most of us never find the one thing that will inspire us to dedicate our whole lives to it. It is amazing to hear of how the first people who responded to Christ dedicated their whole lives to him. Their encounter with Christ sent them on a path they never dreamed of. Paradoxically, this path was marked by great joy and suffering; but, nevertheless, they lived life to the fullest.

In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he highlights the beauty of baptism and how it sweeps the baptized person into God's great theo-drama. God calls us out of the world of our narrow egos to partake in his redeeming plan of love of which the Church is the vehicle. Follow Christ, and peace will be given to you.

It seems as if those in worldly power rule the day. King Herod tyrannically ruled his territory, making sure he was always the most powerful. Any apparent threat to his power was quickly squashed. Herod represents all who assert themselves over and against others. He seeks the death of the other. Joseph represents those who support the other and do not see Him as a threat. By basing themselves in God, other people are not threats but brothers and sisters. Christianity will always be foolish to those who aspire to power.

The problem with our world is that most people do not dream big. In experiencing hardship, we have a tendency to assume the worst, thinking narrowly. The Biblical vision is the opposite of this. Biblical figures see the world through the infinite possibility of God - based in their faith in the Lord. Ahaz refused to be surprised by God's possibility. Isaiah was ready to be surprised. This confidence in God allowed him to dream big.