God Shows Up With Surprises.

To Use A Telling Phrase Of The Reverend Martin Luther King, We Can Say That We Have Defaulted On A Promissory Note And Now Is The Time To Honor It.

The Cross Of Christ Bears The Suffering And The Sin Of Mankind, Including Our Own. Jesus Accepts All This With Open Arms, Bearing On His Shoulders Our Crosses And Saying To Us: 'have Courage! You Do Not Carry Your Cross Alone! I Carry It With You. I Have Overcome Death And I Have Come To Give You Hope, To Give You Life' (john 3:16).

Preparation For Marriage Is Very Important. It's Very, Very Important Because I Believe It Is Something That In The Church, In Common Pastoral Ministry, At Least In My Country, In South America, The Church It Has Not Valued Much.

When I Confess A Couple Who Have Kids, A Married Couple, I Ask, 'how Many Children Do You Have?' Some Get Worried And Think The Priest Will Ask Why I Don't Have More. I Would Make A Second Question, 'do You Play With Your Children?' The Majority Say, 'but Father, I Have No Time. I Work All Day.'

Sometimes We Are Tempted To Be That Kind Of Christian Who Keeps The Lord’s Wounds At Arm’s Length. Yet Jesus Wants Us To Touch Human Misery, To Touch The Suffering Flesh Of Others. He Hopes That We Will Stop Looking For Those Personal Or Communal Niches Which Shelter Us From The Maelstrom Of Human Misfortune And Instead Enter Into The Reality Of Other People’s Lives And Know The Power Of Tenderness. Whenever We Do So, Our Lives Become Wonderfully Complicated And We Experience Intensely What It Is To Be A People, To Be Part Of A People.