Jesus often spoke in parables and metaphors, describing God, God’s action in the world, and our own journey of discipleship in images and words that engaged and challenged the imaginations of his listeners... and us. A metaphor is a figure of speech— a word or phrase that describes one kind of object in place of another kind of object, suggesting a likeness; a connection; a similarity. A pretty girl is like a melody. He has a heart like a stone. She’s as happy as a clam. They are as alike as...

The landscape of our childhood shapes us, in deep and often surprising ways. The exact color of green on the hillside, the way sunlight slants across the yard in winter, the very soil beneath our feet teaches us as profoundly as any textbook. I grew up in a land of red clay. Not brown soil. Not black dirt. Not ruddy hued earth, but Red. Red clay. Now, this was no timid soil, content to blend into the background or be taken for granted. No, this red menace was an entity— a...

At this point in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus offers a prayer to the Father giving thanks for revealing all things to the Son. After Jesus completes his fervent prayer, he turns to the crowd and his disciples and opens his most moving invitation. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Those who are worn down with the cares of the world—and even with the many laws of the Pharisees—are offered relief and rest. There are burdens that we bump into in life and...