We must ask ourselves: Is my ambition driven by the desire serve, or do I simply want a better seat at the table?

Our list of sins may be long; but God’s forgiveness is limitless, and in today’s Gospel, he has given us the key to receiving his mercy: “Forgive and you will be forgiven.”

One way of repenting during Lent is to acknowledge our narrow attitudes about who is “in” and who is “out.” Jesus’ message is emphatically that everyone is in.

This week has brought us all into close contact with human suffering. We are all like the man on the side of the road in the story of the Good Samaritan, beaten and bloody.

Jesus did not choose Peter because of his righteousness and courage. He chose Peter because he was imperfect, complicated, a sinner.

Life is just a very terrible thing at times, and Christ knew it and we know it and the church seems to know it. The church is something that deals, quite unflinchingly, in reality.