The Baptist’s question from prison speaks to his prophet’s faith: the one for whom John is waiting is no less than the Christ of God, whom he believes will clearly identify himself. That is a justifiable position. All through his life with his own parents and then in the wilderness as hermit and master of disciples, John has been expecting the Christ. His natural gifts and the Holy Spirit’s presence in his life have led him to this crucial point: this may be the Christ. Jo

“Swords into ploughshares and spears into sickles” is such a familiar trope as to be cliché. But times when the Hebrew people prepared for war were indeed many, lengthy, and varied. Abraham had a standing army, which he used in Genesis 14 to rescue his kidnapped nephew, Lot. Joshua gave his men three whole days to gather sufficient provisions for their next great campaign. And the Maccabees’ rebellion was able to organise itself to such a degree that they retook the walle

Of all the things that the Good Thief could want, the one thing he asks for is Christ's Kingdom. He didn't ask for a reprieve or redemption from his present fate; nor was his freedom or some privilege in mind. He simply asks to be remembered by Christ when his Kingdom is established. That is, even in the depths of his own suffering, the Good Thief nonetheless has sight of the eternal Kingdom. That’s where we need to get to: no misadventure or misery should block out for u

Well might we wonder whether the Lord’s words about persecution came to mind as the martyrs met their fate: persecuted and seized, betrayed and tried, hated and killed. During the English Reformation, there was a woman to whom all of that happened and more. We call her Saint Margaret Clitherow. St Margaret married a widower with two sons, and with him had three children. At the age of 18 Margaret converted to Catholicism. Her new faith brought her difficulties almost from

St John Lateran wasn’t the first church in Rome. By the time of Constantine, there were about forty Christian churches dotted through the city. They were often associated with the lives of martyrs: one was a patron’s old house before he and his family were done in; another was the bishop’s urban hide out; another was where heroes were buried. Excavations of these sites revealed houses with internal walls removed: large indoor spaces were needed to accommodate all the peopl

Gospel episodes like this one prompt an important question: if the dead can be raised to life again with us, what happened to them between death and their revival? It’s important to consider, because the dead who were raised by Jesus weren’t newborns or zombies: they were the same person. The youth whom Jesus raised started talking, just one of the signs that he was his old self again. No doubt, his first words were: “What’s all the fuss about, Mum?” So, what happens after