A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, with the Scrutiny Year A Readings, March 30, 2025
1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41
Our eyes are the windows to our souls.
I’ve heard that a zillion times, and I believe it.
Our eyes reveal exactly who we are, and they empower us to see clearly just who and what other people are.
A homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, with the Scrutiny Year A Readings, March 23, 2025
Exodus 17:3-7, Romans 5:1-2, 5-8, John 4:5-42
Doubting Thomas, meet The Woman at the Well.
Two experiences, one same revelation.
A homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, March 16, 2025
Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18, Philippians 3:17—4:1, Luke 9:28b-36
In James Cameron’s “Avatar” movies, the tall blue Na’vi people greet each other, and especially greet their loved ones, with “I see you.”
To the fictional Na’vi, “I see you” means a wide variety of things: “I see into you,” “I understand you,” “I respect you,” or “I love you.”
All of which intersect at “I know who you truly are.”
A homily for the First Sunday of Lent, March 9, 2025
Deuteronomy 26:4-10, Romans 10:8-13, Luke 4:1-13
From the mid-1960s until the mid-1970s, my family and I were blessed to be members of the Stephen’s Point Fishing Club and the owners of a roughly 1930s-vintage cabin overlooking the Walpack Bend of the Delaware River in Flatbrookville, New Jersey.
The sign on westbound Interstate 80 pointing to Flatbrookville, by the way, is almost bigger than the historic hamlet itself.
And even though we lived (still live) at the Jersey Shore, and in those days headed to a beach club in Sea Bright almost every weekday in the summer, we spent many summer weekends up in the Kittatinny Mountains.
A homily for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, March 2, 2025
Sirach 27:4-7, 1 Corinthians 15:54-58, Luke 6:39-45
One of the most important things an actor learns is not to play the end of a scene.
What that means is, even though actors know how the scene will end, because they have read and learned the script, they can’t display any inappropriate emotions or in any other way show they know what’s going to happen next. They can’t do or say anything — no matter how small — that telegraphs the ending. That would ruin the scene.
It’s a difficult skill to master.
