David Henson

Typically, when we enter into the season of Lent, we are confronted with our mortality with the imposition of ashes and the stark reminder that we are but dust and to dust we will return. Throughout the penitent season, we remind ourselves of our dependence on God by fasting, by giving up things, and byContinue reading

What happens to old man Zebedee after everyone leaves? There he is, holding the dropped and half-mended nets as his sons and their friends leave without so much a second thought. When he finally returns home, he’ll find that his wife, too, has left with his sons, to whirl about them and attempt to curryContinue reading

The Call to Humanize

To Jesus, angry, contemptuous name-calling is a form of violence on par with murder itself. It’s the seeds of dehumanization, and any time we see this kind of awful rhetoric leveled against entire groups of people we are in danger again of being thrown into the raging fires of hell on earth. Dehumanization is the volatile and dangerous fuel on which the engines of war, violence, bigotry, and exploitation run, until at last and inevitably, it catches fire and consumes itself and everything in its vicinity.

A Holy Trilogy: Experience the Drama of the Paschal Mystery

It’s fair to say that even though there are three distinct films, the original Star Wars trilogy tells one unified and complete story. They are dramatic acts in one play. Missing even one of the installments leaves a huge gaping hole in understanding the full arc of the narrative, and it robs the conclusion of all its emotional punch. The same can be said of the three primary services of Holy Week — Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. Like the original Star Wars series, these worship services are a trilogy, distinct episodes or acts in a three-part drama telling a single, unified story of salvation. In fact, Christian tradition bears the analogy out; historically, it has considered these three services in just this way as a trilogy called the Paschal Triduum.