A homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 30, 2023
1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12, Rom 8:28-30, Mt 13:44-52
It all started with Classics Illustrated.
As all good parents do, my folks always brought my brothers and me some small gifts from their Florida vacations away from us — usually orange marmalade, stuffed baby alligators (cool at the time; not so much now), tropical candies and, for me, a Classics Illustrated version of some novel I hadn’t yet read.
A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 23, 2023
Wis 12:13, 16-19, Rom 8:26-27, Mt 13:24-43
The Bible is amazing and awesome.
First of all, it’s a book of books. We Catholics believe that the Old Testament comprises 46 books, and the New Testament, 27.
And Christians and Jews alike believe that these books contain the Word of God, faithfully recorded by women and men whom the Holy Spirit inspired.
We of the Judeo-Christian faith traditions believe that these books contain Truth, with a capital T.
That doesn’t mean these books aren’t head-scratchers sometimes.
A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 16, 2023
Is 55:10-11, Rom 8:18-23, Mt 13:1-23
Late in my freshman year in college, I was persuaded to give Army ROTC a try. It didn’t stick, but that’s another story. And from my buddies in khaki, I first heard about The Rack Monster.
No, this wasn’t/isn’t the rack of medieval torture infamy. In military slang, a rack is a bed, a bunk, a cot, and, occasionally, a couch.
Thus, The Rack Monster hangs onto you and clamps your backside to the bed when reveille sounds.
A homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 9, 2023
Zec 9:9-10, Rom 8:9, 11-13, Mt 11:25-30
It’s been said there are two kinds of jobs, the ones you bathe before and the ones you bathe after. I’ve held both.
It’s also been said that we learn more through our fingers than we do through our eyes and ears, and I agree.
A homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 2, 2023
2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a, Rom 6:3-4, 8-11, Mt 10:37-42
In the wacky 1992 comedy movie “Wayne’s World,” based on the “Saturday Night Live” skits by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, and often in those skits, the Wayne and Garth characters bow down in adulation before their musician idols and chant, “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”
In the wacky spring and summer of 2023, far more than two young people are screaming and waving and jumping up and down before their musical idols. Those fans, worthy or not, could cause Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour to gross $1.4 billion.
We humans do get excited when we’re in the presence of our favorite celebrities.
And we react in a host of different ways.
