Month: March 2026

Merci for mercy

A homily for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, March 29, 2026

Matthew 21:1-11, Isaiah 50:4-7, Philippians 2:6-11, Matthew 26:14—27:66

I’m spoiled. Not rotten, as far as I’ve ever been able to determine (though some people may disagree). But definitely spoiled. So is my wife, my children and daughter-in-law, my brothers and sisters-in-law, and our cats.

Our parents spoiled us, and we, in turn, spoiled the ensuing generations.

Yeah, we have it pretty good.

Our parents and we did it out of love, and because we as children and our children in turn appreciated what went into the spoiling — the time shared, the places visited, the money spent, the sacrifices made — none of us turned out all that rotten.

Yes, it all came down, it all comes down to appreciating what we’ve been given abundantly.

To gratitude. To saying thanks. Often. Sincerely.

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AI or JC?

A homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 22, 2026

Ezekiel 37:12-14, Romans 8:8-11, John 11:1-45

Val Kilmer, who died a year ago, is co-starring in a new movie now being shot. The film’s producers aren’t using footage of Kilmer they had from before he died. No, the scenes with Kilmer will be new, generated by artificial intelligence, with the approval of Kilmer’s estate.

For almost 50 years, video games have offered players the option, the purported ability, to play with a string of lives. If a ghost gobbles up Pac-Man, then reset, start again. New life. Even the most sophisticated, intricately detailed first-person games today have a reset button, a rebirth option.

If the game is essentially rigged so that nobody ever really dies, if popular and political culture gives everyone second and third and infinite next chances, is resurrection that big a deal?

If Jesus of Nazareth were to revive a public official’s child today, let alone coax his dead friend Lazarus out of the tomb after a long weekend of decomposing, would we be amazed?

After all, CGI and AI and deepfakes and broadband and Xbox, right?

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Beeswax

A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent — Laetare Sunday, March 15, 2026

1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41

This may end up being more cliché than creative, more borrowed than original, but it’s nonetheless heartfelt and sincere. 

Let’s consider candles for a moment.

Candles come in all shapes and sizes, from tea lights and tapers to Muppet heads and madonnas. Some are designed to light a room; others, to infuse a scent.

The wicks-in-wax we know as candles have been traced back 2,500 years, and their forebears go back another 2,500.

As this winter winds down (don’t jinx it, Bill!), we remember stocking up on candles and flashlights in case the storms knocked out power. Even after 5,000 years, we rely on candles as our No. 1 source of emergency illumination. So that we don’t curse the dark.

As long as we don’t burn down the house.

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Expectations

A homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, March 8, 2026

Exodus 17:3-7, Romans 5:1-2, 5-8, John 4:5-42

In the second episode of their second season a half-century ago, the highly irreverent British comedy troupe Monty Python carved a phrase into popular culture forever:

“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

The rest of their loony sketch was loaded with other unexpected ideas and items.

A Google search on “expect the unexpected” turns up a who’s who of people known for adopting some variation of the phrase as their personal mantras. There’s a millennia-old history of wisdom in being prepared for anything, even the unknown unknowns.

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