Bringing bad news to desperate people has to be the worst gig in the world.

Stuck neck-deep in muck of my own making, God’s answer to my prayers may be Let me alone, but I’m too wrapped up in my own wrath to hear it.

This is the endless circle of love: God first loves us, and we respond, loving God directly and loving our neighbor.

This is the season for listening to God’s voice, a time to read the signs of the times and look for ways we can gather, not scatter.

He counts him worthy of the divine feast and gives him the precious garment he once wore.

When we look on the crucified love that is holding us we can get some idea of what human life is all about.

These words and stories and lives spun a foundation of faith within me . . . an ever-renewing crop of fruit that to this day is always in season, in good times or bad.

We become what we eat . . . spiritually as well as physically. Eat soured bitter bread and become a disgruntled bitter person.

So were these the demons Jesus kept casting out wherever he went? If so, then we twenty-first-century folks might conclude that that was then, and this is now.

Sometimes Jesus’ teachings are like sirens and thunderous applause, beckoning us to pay closer attention and to become better aware of the signs of the times.