Emmaus Blog

Monday,    March 31, 2025: The seventy-two returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. Jesus wasn't just a teacher — he was a movement builder, a grassroots organizer and a radical leader of nonviolent resistance to injustice and empire. On this week's episode of "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," John Dear takes a deep dive into Luke 10, where Jesus sends out 72 disciples in pairs — not to conquer, oppress or kill, but to disarm, heal and dismantle the empire through radical peacemaking. Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two 10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5...

Sunday, March 30, 2025 Dare to dance! Leave embarrassment at home.  Our friend Jim Fredericks writes this homily for young people in middle school and high school – (and I find it equally compelling for our Emmaus Community). What I want to say to you is this:  Dare to dance! Leave embarrassment at home. This is the advice Mary Pukui used to give to her students in Hawaii. She was an elder among the Hawaiian people and revered as a teacher.  I agree: Dare to dance! Leave embarrassment at home.  This is a good message for young people. You are not little kids any longer and, I assure you, you are not yet adults either.  But the time has come to dance leave embarrassment at home. This is what Jesus is teaching us in the parable of the prodigal son. A man had two sons. Most people think the story is about the younger son. I think the story is really about the older son. The younger son is a screw-up. He demands his inheritance up front from his father. Then he goes...

Saturday, March 29, 2025:  Contemporary Interpretation of the Beatitudes inspired by Laudato Si’ Contemporary Interpretation of the Beatitudes inspired by Laudato Si’ Blessed are those who heal the wounded earth for they will be restored to right relationship with all of creation. Blessed are those who hold the space for dialogue with the natural world, God, and each other, for they will hear the fullness of life. Blessed are those who repent for life lost at human hands, for they will be forgiven by the Cosmic Christ. Blessed are those who enter into relationship with the natural world, for they will know the intrinsic value of all of God’s Creation. Blessed are those who discern the voice of Creation for they will receive the will of God in a language not our own. Blessed are those who see with the eyes of their heart for their vision will imagine the potential for new life to emerge. Blessed are those who nurture the needs of the living and nonliving world, for they will be nour...

Wednesday, March 26,2025: Announcements and a Reflection Christians for a Free Palestine – A community meeting with I Witness Silwan Start: Saturday, March 29, 2025 11:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00) Announcement #1: I Witness ilwan is an international public art project in support of Silwan’s longstanding fight against dispossession. Murals depicting the eyes of local and international leaders, activists, workers, and more, are scattered across the hills of Silwan and East Jerusalem  East Jerusalem, which includes the neighborhood of Silwan, population 55,000, has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Israel renamed Silwan “The City of David,” a Jewish heritage site that is visited by more than a million people each year. Brutal dispossession by religious settler “nonprofits” such as El-Ad and Ateret Cohanim aim to dispossess all of Silwan’s Palestinian residents to move in Jewish settlers, build up tourist centers, and conduct controversial archeological e...

Monday, March 24, 2025:  Faith groups blast 'evil' EPA rollback plans climate change religion comment Faith groups sharply denounced sweeping deregulation plans for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as "morally depraved" and prioritizing polluters over public health and nature. But they directed some of their most pointed criticism at EPA administrator Lee Zeldin's comments about "the climate change religion," which they said mocked religion and beliefs compelling them to act on behalf of creation. Zeldin unveiled the Trump administration's blueprints for remaking EPA on March 12, outlining 31 regulations to eliminate or significantly scale back. Among those targeted are rules to limit industrial and vehicle pollution as well as the bedrock policy giving EPA authority to regulate heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. EPA has also moved to fire thousands of scientists and shutter environmental justice offices and oth...