These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

Monday, Week XIII, Ordinary Time—Saint Irenaeus, bishop and martyr, June 28

Still Abraham went on,
“Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord,
what if there are no more than twenty?”
He answered, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
But he still persisted:
“Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time.
What if there are at least ten there?”
He replied, “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it.”
(Gen 18:16-33)

Abraham bargaining with God appears quite humorous, but, of course, it didn’t save the cities of the Plain. Saint Irenaeus is famous as the first Christian Apologist. He said, “The glory of God is man, woman, fully alive!”