Month: March 2023

To life

A homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 26, 2023

Ez 37:12-14, Rom 8:8-11, Jn 11:1-45

In one of the big production numbers in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye the milkman and wedding guests get rowdy and sing l’chaim — to life!

To life, to life, l’chaim.
L’chaim, l’chaim, to life.
Life has a way of confusing us,
Blessing and bruising us.
Drink, l’chaim, to life!

Every day, most of us raise a glass of something — wine, coffee, Gatorade, water — to life.

We’re grateful for a new day, another day, and we’re grateful for the people, places and things in our lives. Grateful to be sharing the day with them.

We’re grateful to be on this side of the daisies, as the sassy expression goes.

Continue reading To life

Embossed

A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 19, 2023

1 Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a, Eph 5:8-14, Jn 9:1-41

Every place I’ve ever lived had shelves full of books, sometimes to the point of making the floorboards creak or sag.

When my Uncle Richard lived with us, my dad bought him a set of paperbacks that Time-Life considered to be the essential modern literature. I remember one being the “Ox-Box Incident,” which even to this day I have yet to read. The other essentials? Long forgotten. Shame on me.

Continue reading Embossed

H 2 … Oh!

A homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, March 12, 2023

Ex 17:3-7, Rom 5:1-2, 5-8, Jn 4:5-42

Water has been in the news a lot lately.

California has too much of it — in the form of unimaginably deep snow as well as downpours that would have challenged Noah — even as the state’s drought has yet to be solved.

The Great Salt Lake is drying up because the rivers that flow into it are drying up, and scientists and politicians are trying to engineer a way to save it.

Closer to home, March is coming in like a lion after a warm and dry winter. Slush and rain and flooded roads.

Yes, water has been newsworthy a lot lately.

Continue reading H 2 … Oh!

Divine smiles

A homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, March 5, 2023

Gn 12:1-4a, 2 Tm 1:8b-10, Mt 17:1-9

Years ago, when I was on a religious retreat, our main speaker became deeply theological and clearly logical on the significance of the voice from the clouds as chronicled in today’s passage from the Gospel of Matthew.

Continue reading Divine smiles