UCA News Podcast

Once again, faith is what triggers Jesus miraculous action and the mighty deed of cleansing is there to show something more of just who Jesus is and what his message is. But this cleansing has something more to say: it is an act that reaches to an outsider - to a Samaritan. In that, the evangelist is emphasizing the reach of God’s grace beyond the confines of race, ethnicity and even the borders o...

Poland’s bishops were recently in Rome for their ad limina visit that bishops make every five years. While there they complained about the rigor with which the Vatican now deals with bishops who have been derelict in their duty by failing to respond properly and promptly to sexual abuse by clergy. They are learning how the real world responds to dereliction. Father William Grimm, who lives in Japa...

Today’s Gospel is not as simple as it might appear to be. It can’t just about having trading and worship compete because offering the animals is considered an appropriate sacrifice and can’t be dismissed out of hand as an unwarranted degradation of worship. The important consideration clearly is purpose and intention. We are buying off Good’s attention. We are simply giving back to God what he fir...

At this stage in Luke’s Gospel, we are being introduced to a series of stories teaching us simple wisdom about how we grow in the love of and avoid the ways we can take people own the wrong path into darkness. Underlying this story today is the testimony to God’s relentless determination to fog, renew and restore us to God’s love. About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and Engl...

Sunday Gospel Reflection by Father Bill Grimm The woman knew better. She knew that what she had was nothing compared to what God offers. God offers me eternity. Can I, in gratitude, find ways to offer up my treasure of time? About the Speaker: Father William J Grimm is a Maryknoll Missioner of 40 year’s experience in Asia-mostly Japan, Hong Kong and Cambodia. For news in and about the Church in As...

This is one of the most profound and moving stories from Jesus about just what generosity really means - surrendering all we have to live on and trusting that God will supply whatever it is we need. That is the heart of this story - trust. It means trust in God and trust in others and together God and the others supply all we need. About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and Eng...

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes. The meeting of Narendra Modi and Pope Francis as well as the Indian PM’s invitation to visit his country made global headlines. Religious leaders have appealed for peace and unity amid repression and abuses.  Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John Laurenso...

Jesus commends the pragmatism of the cunning servant and suggests that his followers should be just as pragmatic when it comes to their own dealings and negotiations with God so that they aren’t trapped in their own deviousness. This pragmatism is yet another instance in the Gospels of the lack of any obsession with perfectionism. Why? Because perfectionism is something humans seek without any ref...

Jesus finds immense depth in a moment of deep bigotry and prejudice among those seeking to find fault with him and he puts it to good use in taking his message even deeper into the lives of the people of his time. He uses the exclusive judgment his critics put on him to emphasize something essential to his meaning and message - forgiveness that results in the inclusion of people seen to be not goo...

Luke’s gospel is very strong and consistent in emphasizing that faith begins with God’s invitation. But then the evangelist is very insistent that the invitation requires our response if anything is to be made of the the invitation. And that is very much to the fore in today’s text: Jesus is emphasizing the response to his invitation and the costly nature that response. And the cost of response is...

Remembering our dead - what we do today, on All Souls Day - is a deeply mysterious event. It’s mysterious not simply because it is a direct engagement with something that all of us face and will face though we know nothing about what will become of us as such. But as well, it is an event we already are engaged in and have many intimations of “the next life” because we are engaged with it in memory...

The Feast of all Saints today is both a solemn celebration of the destiny of us all and the actual condition of so many simply not recognized in the formal lists of those welcomed by God into everlasting life. But the presence of the Beatitudes as the Gospel for today’s Mass also reminds us of how we are all empowered to get to the saintly state - by God’s grace meeting us in all the ordinary even...

Being a Christian is not about behaving toward others in a certain way. It is about having a special kind of relationship with God. All else follows from that. About the Speaker: Father William J Grimm is a Maryknoll Missioner of 40 year’s experience in Asia-mostly Japan, Hong Kong and Cambodia. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asi...

Here Jesus summarizes in simple and direct terms what is at the heart of his message - God is above all and for all and self-sacrificing love is our way of responding to God’s love for us. About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica.   For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.c...

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes. The battle between the underground and state-sanctioned churches continues in China after a bishop was detained for the sixth time. Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John Laurenson, background score by Andre Louis and produced by Binu Alex for ucanews.com...

We could read this Gospel as an encouragement to adopt an attitude of “enlightened self-interest” when it comes to management of our engagements with others. That is a kind way to interpret it. But really what’s going on is that Jesus is recommending something absolutely basic to the attitude we need to adopt in the following of Jesus every day: putting others before us so that hey may prosper and...

Today’s Gospel has two important messages: first of all, being bound and inhibited by the Law is a disservice to faith and love but, secondly, that is especially because Jesus as the Son of God, is Master of the Sabbath. Love and faith. Need recognition and following always. But that is made so important because our following of Jesus makes all compliance with laws and customs a very relative matt...

Today is the Feast of two Apostles - Simon and Jude. So today’s Gospel is one account of the call and commissioning of the Apostles who are given their rolling the early Christian community as the initial and principal witnesses to Jesus’ Resurrection. About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica....

We are seeing more and more each day the impact of human-caused damage to the environment. We need a familial sense of our connection with the rest of creation. It may be too late to head off even more problems. However, the present crisis may cause us to reflect upon our relationship with all of life and, as the Japanese bishops say, “Protect All Life.”Father William Grimm, who lives in Japan,  s...

Not surprisingly, there are some followers of Jesus who want to know whether all their efforts and sacrifice will yield them any benefit with their standing in God’s eyes. What does Jesus do when asked that question? He replies by suggesting his followers should not concern themselves about that, put themselves in God’s hands and that will see their prospects are safeguarded. About the Speaker: Fa...

Once again, Luke the Evangelist comes to the fore as vivid story teller, providing pictures and images so that weight grasp something more of the deep mystery of the Kingdom and God’s transforming power at work in us - the transforming yeast that works in with the flour to produce the satisfying fulfillment of a batch of bread and the mustard seed that grows into a tree to provide cover and safety...

What today’s Gospel underlines is God will not be imprisoned by human laws, conventions or constraints. God and God’s spirit at work in us “can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Hypocrites are those who invoke the name of God and then contain God’s work by the limitations that human restraints place on it. What are we to do? Open ourselves to God and pray “Come Lord Jesus!” About the...

The Gospels do not hesitate to put us followers of Jesus in a bad light. We, represented by the disciples, can be so dense that we miss something that evil demons know and that even a blind man can see. That is, that Jesus is the presence of the Reign of God among us. About the Speaker: Father William J Grimm is a Maryknoll Missioner of 40 year’s experience in Asia-mostly Japan, Hong Kong and Camb...

This healing story is a classical one - it is healing by Jesus in response to the faith Bartimaeus has in Jesus. It is classic not only in the sense it fits everything the healing miracles display - they are all in response to the faith of the person seeking the miracle of Jesus. It is classic in that it highlights what Jesus can and does do - open our eyes and show us the way to see life as God w...

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes. Religious minorities face hard times amid rising intolerance and anti-minority sentiment in Asian nations.    Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John Laurenson, background score by Andre Louis and produced by Binu Alex for ucanews.com For news in and about...