Month: May 2021

Proud to profess it

A homily for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, May 30, 2021

Dt 4:32-34, 39-40, Rom 8:14-17, Mt 28:16-20

For years, I thought shamrocks were the size of ping-pong paddles. The decorations that covered every wall and shop window in mid-March made it seem as if St. Patrick held up something visible from the cheap seats when he explained the Holy Trinity to the early Irish. Even classroom posters that portrayed the Missionary to the Celts often pictured him with a hefty tri-lobed green thing that looked more like broccoli than theology.

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C’est vrai

A homily for Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021

Acts 2:1-11, 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13, Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15

Today is about Truth.

(Actually, every day should be about truth, but today is special.)

Today is about speaking the Truth.

Today is about recognizing Truth when we hear it.

Today is about acting in support of Truth.

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Blinkers off

A homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, May 16, 2021

Acts 1:1-11, Eph 1:17-23, Mk 16:15-20

… as they were looking on, [Jesus] was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.

Gone.

The Apostles couldn’t see their teacher and friend anymore. The man they had followed from town to town, the Messiah who had risen from the dead and broken bread with them just like the old days, was nowhere to be found.

Where did he go?

To hear Mark tell it:

… then the Lord Jesus … was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.

Up there. In Heaven, ruling The Kingdom.

But is that the end of the story? Is that the whole story?

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It’s an active verb

A homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 9, 2021

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48, 1 Jn 4:7-10, Jn 15:9-17

If you are a fellow believer in the notion that coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous, then having today’s Scriptures’ overarching theme about Love with a capital L be proclaimed on Mother’s Day is Heaven-sent.

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Answering the call

A homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 2, 2021

Acts 9:26-31, 1 Jn 3:18-24, Jn 15:1-8

You might think that, considering I have made my living with words for just shy of five decades (yikes!), I’d know every acronym or abbreviation or piece of jargon in circulation.

Nope. Hardly the case.

In fact, the first time I heard “CTA,” I thought someone was taking public transportation in Chicago, or that they had heard “Color My World” at somebody’s wedding and the song got stuck in their head.

Then “call to action” was ’splained to me, and I had a huge Aha moment.

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