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Etymology after the Prodigal Son of the Biblical parable (Luke 15:11–32), who squandered his father's moneyEtymologyafter the Prodigal Son of the Biblical parable (Luke 15:11–32), who squandered his father's money

You Knew I Was a Snake" A fable that is told with many variations: The Farmer and the Snake One winter day, a farmer found a snake by the roadside, stiff and motionless with cold. "If you put me inside your shirt," the snake said, "your body will make me warm and I won't freeze to death." "Oh, I know your kind," replied the farmer. "If I pick you up, you will bite me." "Oh no," the snake objected. "Why would I do such a thing, if you are good enough to help me?" So the farmer had compassion on...

How do you explain America in simple terms: to a teenager, to a person whose English ability is limited, or to people who are work with their hands not by manipulate words? Toward the end of Dinesh D'Souza's wonderful 16-minute speech to the Candace Owens' Blexit patriots in March 2019, he gives a beautiful and memorable parable on what the American Dream is about. Actually as part of the penance for my sins against the Obama administration, I was sentenced to teach English to immigrants.  And one time a woman in my class said, "Dinesh, since you're into politics and...

My wife returns this evening from a week-long holiday in Italy. It was my Mother’s Day gift to the mother of our son and five grandchildren. In the meantime, I attended Mother’s Day church services yesterday. And in the message, the pastor recounted the soul-stirring story of a mother and son. The tale took the form of the son’s first-person testimony: “My mother only had one eye. All my life, I hated her because she was such an embarrassment to me. My mom ran a small shop at a flea market. She collected little weeds and such to sell. Anything...

Question: "What is the meaning of the Parable of the Wedding Feast?" Answer: Jesus told the Parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:1-14. This parable is similar in some ways to the Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24), but the occasion is different, and it has some important distinctions. To better understand the context of this story, it is important to know some basic facts about weddings in Jesus’ day. In Jewish society, the parents of the betrothed generally drew up the marriage contract. The bride and groom would meet, perhaps for the first time, when this contract...

Parable of the Wedding Feast by Charles S. Meek Christians are easily inclined to misinterpret the Bible because of their ingrained presuppositions. Even trained theologians are subject to this error. Here’s an example: I recently heard a sermon on the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14). You remember the story. Jesus was discussing the kingdom of heaven and the refusal of those invited to the wedding feast to attend. To make matters worse, those invited killed the king’s servants! The king was obviously greatly perturbed and administered his justice by destroying their city and casting the perpetrators into “outer...

He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.(Luke 13:7-9)The Messiah, Jesus,...

A Powerful Parable Against the Premises of Unbelief Msgr. Charles Pope • June 21, 2015 • There are many reasons for the unbelief rampant in our times. Among them is the claim by some that because they do not see or hear evidence of God or an afterlife, our belief in these is just wishful thinking on our part so as to avoid the conclusion that everything ends with our death, that this world is all there is. A parable currently circulating on the Internet addresses this sort of unbelief. A Facebook friend (Vicki) called it to my attention. I...

A Reflection on Perhaps the “Meanest” and Most Shocking Thing Jesus Ever Said By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe Gospel from today’s Mass (Wed. of the 33rd Week – Luke 19:11-27) is known as the “Parable of the Ten Gold Coins.” It is similar to Matthew’s “Parable of the Talents” from Sunday, but with certain significant differences and an ending so shocking that, when I read it at daily Mass some years ago, a young child said audibly to her mother, “Wow, that’s mean!”I’d like to take a look at it and ponder its shocking ending.As I said, the parable is similar...

We usually think of distractions or interruptions as coming form the world around us. But is that really the most common source? Consider the following parable drawn from the stories of the early Desert Fathers and from monastic experience: Sometimes there would be a rush of noisy visitors and the silence of the monastery would be shattered.This would upset the disciples; not the Master, who seemed just as content with the noise as with the silence.To his protesting disciples he said one day, “Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self.” The fact is, our greatest...

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the...

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the...

We are reading the parable of the Sower in Daily Mass. Someone asked me a question: Since the sower is the Son of Man, Jesus himself, why would the Lord, who knows everything ahead of time, sow seed he knew would not bear fruit?First, let’s review the text:“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and...

The Gospel from Thursday’s Mass contains one of the most shocking parables Jesus ever told. It is the Parable of the Wedding Banquet a King gives for his Son. Most know it well, but in case you want to review it, the full text of the Gospel is here: Parable of the Wedding FeastIt does not take a degree in biblical theology to understand that the Parable is an allegory. The “King” is God the Father, the “Son” is Jesus, and the Wedding feast is the Great Wedding Feast of the Lamb further described in Revelation:Then I heard what sounded...

Trapping Feral Pigs and Other Parables of Modern Life by Matt Bracken Professional trappers don't catch fast-breeding and destructive feral pigs using hunting dogs and guns, or in little traps one or two at a time. The wily pigs quickly learn to evade humans after such fleeting contacts. So how do the pros trap entire feral pig herds, eliminating them all, from granddads to piglets, in one go? They feed them, most generously. They kill them with kindness. First, in a clearing in the woods, the trappers build an enclosure about twenty feet on a side and four feet high,...

Topher tells a bed time story to the American people, from the perspective of the American government. The poor American government just wanted to grow up to be big and strong like the governments in Europe, but his mean Fathers wouldn't let him. Follow this happy tale of how a little government made his dreams come true...

Suppose on some sunny afternoon in a large city somewhere in the western world, a man discovers on awaking from a two-hour nap that several hundred car accidents had occurred in the city while he slept. He wonders why. First he considers the possibility that the weather was the cause, but the gorgeous afternoon sun pushes that thought aside. The odds of many hundreds of cars having simultaneous mechanical problems seems infinitesimally small, so he rules that out as well. He ponders the question further and eventually asks himself whether the drivers in that fair city just had a...

The movie begins inside a small 10 foot by 16 foot one-room shanty or shack with a dirt floor. There is a pot-bellied stove in the shack for heating and cooking. There are three beds in the shack: one for the father, one for the mother, and one for their 12-year old daughter. snip He tells his family that the bank has accepted their life savings as a partial deposit on a small farm about twenty miles from the city. They will have to grow corn as a cash crop and use the money from the sale of that corn...

SNIP SNIP So I would like to offer my family and others a little "Conservatism 101." Let us begin with a parable. Tale of Two Dads -- School Is Difficult and Little Johnny Wishes to Stay Home. Little Johnny says, "Dad, I don't want to go to school. The kids are mean and the work is too hard!" Liberal Dad replies, "I know just how you feel, son. School was no picnic for me, either. Stay home today." Conservative Dad replies, "Boy, you had better get your butt out of that bed and get ready for school. I'll talk to...

November 1989, Moscow During the Polish anti-Communist revolt, spearheaded by the workers, a joke swept through Poland. According to the story, the Communist dictator couldn’t figure out what to do in order to put down the uprising. So he went to Moscow to visit Lenin’s tomb for inspiration and the Soviet authorities closed it down to let him meditate there. “Oh Lenin,” said President Wojciech Jaruzelski, the situation is terrible. Thecountry is in turmoil; the economy is collapsing; counterrevolutionaries are everywhere, the imperialists are subverting Poland, and the church is backing the revolt. What should I do? Suddenly, Lenin, mummified...