Several years ago, I sat and watched my father die. There’s not much we can do for the people we love in this hour but pray and be present. I recited all the mysteries of the Rosary, all the mysteries of life and love and suffering, during the weeks before his death. But after he was gone, I sat with his body and prayed only the Glorious Mysteries.

Interesting things happen when Jesus gets near water. It may turn into wine as it did at Cana, though that was atypical. A voice from heaven could make declarations of his favored status, as occurred near the Jordan. Healings might take place, as at the pools of Bethesda, or disciples could be made, as in Galilee.

There may be two main ways to get religion wrong. One is to presume it has nothing to do with the material world. So forget political and social realities, pray harder, and concentrate on the spiritual life because it’s the only forum that counts.

I promise if you expose yourself to the news today, you’ll learn the same thing Genesis warns about. There’s trouble in Paradise. Things aren’t as they should be, and someone (or lots of someones) will pay a bitter price for this.

Thirty years ago I spent some time volunteering at Covenant House, a child welfare organization in New York. As you can imagine, the concept of the covenant was a big thing there. “One thing you gotta know about covenants,” our spiritual director used to say. “They’re bloody. They cost something.”

Forever is a long time. Ask the couple who promises fidelity for only one lifetime! Or the celibate who takes vows for the long haul. Or the parents of a child who will occupy their concerns for the next 18 years and counting.

If the riveting movie Doubt taught us nothing else, it’s that there’s always room for being dead wrong. We don’t like to entertain that notion even in the privacy of our midnight thoughts.

The narratives about Jesus by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John fit nicely into a classic American genre: the road story.

Religious claims are a dime a dozen. You think Hindus and Mormons believe some outrageous things? Try Catholics. Virgin Birth, heaven and hell, the resurrection of the dead—none of that has a shred of “evidence” to back it up.

It’s always instructive to see what the world does with reformed criminals. Saul of Tarsus, formerly waging a zealot’s war against Christianity, seeks to join the ranks of the enemy in whole-souled conversion to Christ. They won’t have him!