Like his predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II, Pope Francis often introduces the theme of his writings by way of a spiritual exegesis of an event in the ministry of Jesus or a biblical text.

"Jesus got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore” (Matt 13:2). Jer 1:1, 4-10; Mt 13:1-9 The setting of Jesus’ parables in Matthew 13 is itself a parable. Jesus chooses as ...

John Everett Millais' "The Unjust Judge and the Importunate Widow" is almost as intriguing as Jesus' parable on which the image is based: A persistent widow unrelentingly demands justice from an ...

The importance of the parables can hardly be overestimated. They comprise a substantial part of the recorded preaching of Jesus. The parables are generally regarded by scholars as among the sayings ...