Safe Haven

Philip was from Bethsaida, in Galilee. Jesus found him and called him, and Philip found Nathanael. Nathanael said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" which is basically saying Nazareth is the hick town where nobody visits, and nobody admits to being from there. Notice that Philip answered in the same way that Jesus did, when they asked him where he was staying. Nathanael was given that same spiritual invitation as the first ones had received. When we give each other that same spiritual invitation--whether to go deeper, or to know Jesus for the first time--it is Jesus who is actually doing the inviting. Now Nathanael knows where the power comes from, because Jesus looked at him, and he knew him. The way Jesus knows us is so intensely personal, and so loving at the deepest core of our being, that we will eventually do anything, simply to let Jesus look at us like that again. Jesus of course saw him under the fig tree, before Philip called him, and that's not very nor...

 I was in the neighborhood of eight years old when David Souter was nominated to the Supreme Court. If you look back in the record, the progressive and Democratic-aligned interest groups believed that Souter was anti-Roe, and anti-choice. Republican and conservative-aligned interest groups believed precisely the same thing. The partisan political actors that are our elected officials acted accordingly, but he was eventually confirmed. You'll recall, of course, that Souter became one of the most reliable defenders of Roe that has ever sat on the Supreme Court. This goes for Anthony Kennedy as well. The list of Republican-appointed judges that became defenders of that judicial decision is not a short one. This poses a problem for the argument that because of the gravity of abortion, and its absolute immorality, Catholics and other Christians must always support the Republican nominee for president, because of the promise to appoint judges who will overrule Roe. As another interesting...

 John the Baptist says, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" again, and two more of his own disciples follow Jesus. A less humble man would be troubled by this, but he knows exactly who he is, and what he is there to do. He told us there in verse 31: he is baptizing so that the Lamb of God would be revealed to Israel. Many students would follow rabbis in those days literally everywhere, which is why the two men ask Jesus where he was staying. We might imagine on another occasion that John the Baptist had told his followers, "When I point out the Lamb of God to you, follow him instead of me." He will say very similar things in the actual biblical text later on. "The tenth hour" is about 4 o'clock, in a 12-hour workday. There is a spiritual invitation in that, "come and see" from Jesus. Curiosity is one of the ways God uses to draw us closer to Him. Andrew brings Peter, whose name is actually Simon. "Messiah" in Hebrew means "anointed one,...

 I watched 60 Minutes last night. I do that a lot; it's still a great show. Speaker Pelosi was on, talking about the attacks, and what she intended to do next. To be honest, never in my life have I felt such tenderness and affection for Nancy Pelosi. I always wanted to triumph over her politically; I don't want anything bad to happen to her, and I never did. That's the interesting part of an early young adulthood spent dabbling in politics: on the one hand, you treat it like a sport. Win or lose, you come back and fight tomorrow. As it turned out, every question and its consequences was much more grave than a Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal Wimbledon final. On the other hand, it was never meant to be a blood sport in any case. Our loss of epistemological realism and our lack of virtue now means that a great many people can't fight it out in good faith in the political arena, and come back and do it again tomorrow. Our political system was never meant to bear the weight of th...