As we meditate on the Gospels, it’s only natural that we would try to imagine what the various biblical figures looked like, beginning with Our Lord Himself. One character I find especially intriguing is Zacchaeus, whose encounter with our Lord is recorded in Luke 19:1-10.

Whenever I think of Zacchaeus, I picture Louie De Palma, Danny DeVito’s character in the popular 1980s television series Taxi. We know that Zacchaeus was not only short, but also dishonest, despised, and resourceful. He was hardly the sort of character we might choose to emulate, any more than we would aspire to be like Louie De Palma. Yet I’d suggest that Catholic laymen do well to meditate on the call and conversion of Zacchaeus. More...

Yesterday I reprinted a 2008 commentary on the phenomenon of seemingly good spiritual fruit coming from questionable sources in the Church. Today, I would like to offer a few biblical observations to help us make more sense of this situation as lay Catholics. More...

My algebra textbook in ninth grade had an answer key in the back that enabled me to check my answers upon completing my homework assignment. Most of the time, the answer key simply served to verify that I had in fact arrived at the correct answer. Sometimes, however, the answer given in the book was different from my answer. What did I do?

I realized that 99.99 percent of the time the book was right. The book didn’t have to change--I did. I would rework the problem a little more carefully and eventually I would discover my error and correct it. There were still times that I didn’t get the right answer. In those cases I had to admit that maybe I didn’t quite understand the material well enough, and I needed to consult the teacher. I had a fundamental trust in the reliability of the answer key, as I was humble enough (barely) to recognize that the professional mathematicians who wrote the book were probably right, and I, a cocky adolescent, was probably wrong.

In a real sense, God’s Word is our answer key, providing answers to our most basic, essential questions. Who made us? What is the purpose of our existence? What good must we do to attain eternal life?

I must admit that every so often there was a typo in the answer key of my algebra book, and I would rather proudly point it out to my teacher and classmates. But God’s Word is even more reliable. It is utterly free from error. As we say in the Act of Faith, God can neither deceive nor be deceived. His Word surely will not lead us astray.

And that’s not all. More...