Foot-washer

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062826.cfm Today, I am going to preach about an incredible religious experience that Kate and I had while visiting Peru ten years ago.  I am going to start by speaking about the Peruvian custom of mummifying the dead that was practiced during the Incan Empire before the Spanish conquistadors arrived.  I will then apply those customs to Christian beliefs about the resurrection, okay? Got that: Peru, mummies, resurrection.  Here we go. Most of us learned about mummies when we studied ancient Egypt as kids.   You can go to the Louisville Science Center and see a couple of examples on display here in town.  But the Egyptians are only the most famous of dozens of cultures that mummified their dead.   In the days of the Inca Empire (the 1400s) in what is now Peru, the Incan emperors were believed to be descendants of the sun god Inti.  When they died, the emperors were taken up t...

Easter Sunday https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040526.cfm Good morning and Happy Easter. The whole world, it seems, celebrates Christmas, even non-Christians and atheists. In the lead-up to December 25th, Christmas songs, decorations, trees, and Santa Claus are inescapable.  And the whole world stops for Christmas.  In our country, schools and many workplaces offer extended breaks for the holiday season, and there is a strong cultural expectation to be home for Christmas with family and loved ones. Easter, on the other hand, is easy to miss.  A few weeks ago, Kroger put out chocolate bunnies, egg-dyeing kits, Peeps, and jelly beans.  That may have led shoppers to ask themselves, “When is that coming up again?” The calendar certainly doesn’t help: Easter can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25—a 35-day period.  Jesus’ resurrection happened during the Jewish celebration of Passover, and the Church has always kept Easter during the same period.  ...

What does the resurrection of Jesus tell us about the relationship between science and faith?     The answer is in the baked fish that Jesus ate in the presence of his amazed disciples.     But first, a story.       A few years ago, I was out fossil hunting with my wife and a group of other paleontologists in Northern Kentucky.  You may not know this, but the Cincinnati area contains an incredible trove of fossils from an age of natural history called the “Ordovician Period.” My wife, Dr. Kate Bulinski, is a paleontologist who specializes in this period and the invertebrates that populated it.   Fossil hunting often involves going to “road cuts,” which are places where hills or other rises have been blasted and dug out to allow a road to pass through.  This exposes a wide cross section of rocks and, in some places, fossils.     After a long day of visiting several of these cuts, I remember standing next...