A homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, May 26, 2024
Dt 4:32-34, 39-40, Rom 8:14-17, Mt 28:16-20
When I was in the seventh grade at St. Leo’s in Lincroft, I had it all figured out.
No, not the meaning of life, or how to avoid taxes, or even how to win the lottery.
A homily for Pentecost, May 19, 2024
Mass During the Day: Acts 2:1-11, 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13, Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15
I suffer from writer’s block about as often as I suffer from allergies. Sometimes the attacks of either are stay-in-bed level; other times, I can power through. But like most of us, I do not relish either.
I have eye drops and antihistamine pills for my allergies, so their flare-ups qualify as annoyances and inconveniences.
But there’s no pill I can pop or lotion I can drop to cure writer’s block, especially when I’m dealing with a religious or spiritual or scriptural topic. And I consider that far more than an annoyance or an inconvenience. Especially as Sunday approaches.
A homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, May 12, 2024
Acts 1:1-11, Eph 1:17-23, Mk 16:15-20
Souvenez vous que nous sommes dans le sancte présence de Dieu.
A Christian meme made its way around social media recently, depicting Jesus ascending to Heaven on a cloud, with the caption “Ascension Thursday: When Jesus Christ started working from home.”
I have it on good authority he has great bandwidth at his place.
But even as we acknowledge through this holy day that the Son is where he belongs — on his throne at the right hand of the Father — we also must recognize that God is not far, never far from us.
A homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 5, 2024
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48, 1 Jn 4:7-10, Jn 15:9-17
Not everybody is a hugger, and that’s OK.
Whether it’s trees or teammates, cheek-pinching aunts or long-lost buddies, hugging just isn’t for everyone. And with so-called social distancing the rule during the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of us migrated toward social isolation.
Hugging correctly takes skill and emotion, regardless if we actually make physical contact or merely exchange sentiments from a few feet or even a dozen time zones away. Done right, a hug is a two-way sharing, a simultaneous giving and receiving.
For a hug to be done right, we have to take a huge chance and expose ourselves, our true selves, our inner selves.
