Tag: Apostles

Prioritizing

A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 20, 2025

Genesis 18:1-10a, Colossians 1:24-28, Luke 10:38-42

Most of us have compiled or received (or both) a honey-do list, a tally of all the stuff that needs to be done around the house. The list challenges us (nags us?) to get off our duffs and wash the windows, schedule the car maintenance, call the exterminator and, oh yeah, give Rover a long-overdue bath.

Without making the house smell like wet dog.

Quite often, the lists grow more like zucchini in a New Jersey summer than basketball-size green melons. In fact, mine qualifies as a watermelon list.

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Delivery people

A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 13, 2025

Deuteronomy 30:10-14, Colossians 1:15-20, Luke 10:25-37

It’s something of an urban legend that Amazon delivery drivers go undetected by Ring doorbell cameras. They place packages on our doorsteps, photograph them and email those photos to us as confirmation of safe deliveries.

Invisibly, somehow.

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To, from

A homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 6, 2025

Isaiah 66:10-14c, Galatians 6:14-18, Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 

This steamy, sultry time of the year, two things are clear (even if thunderstorm-laden skies are not):

Shorter homilies are preferable, depending on the nearest HVAC system, and we pay more attention to summertime events and holidays than to theology. Especially those of us who live in tourist-y locales.

So how ’bout we try mixing church and state briefly but sincerely…

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Heavy lift

A homily for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles, June 29, 2025

Readings from the Mass During the Day: Acts 12:1-11, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18, Matthew 16:13-19

Anyone who’s ever been laid off or received a buyout from a company — especially after a long period of service — knows the flood of emotions the pink slip or fat envelope brings.

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Do what?

A homily for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, June 22, 2025

Genesis 14:18-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Luke 9:11b-17

Many folks know I’m a retired journalist, which means I made my living for four decades through the careful use of words. So let’s take a moment today to think about an important word. A word that’s important today and every day.

The word is “this.”

T-H-I-S.

Continue reading Do what?

All in all

A brief thought for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 15, 2025

Proverbs 8:22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15

Our belief that the almighty, omniscient, omnipresent deity we call “God” is one Supreme Being in three distinct Persons usually makes our brains hurt.

Makes them explode.

Makes us do that thing when we flip the sides of our index fingers against our lips to make that wubba-bubba sound to indicate we’ve gone crackers.

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Multilingual

A homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost, June 8, 2025

Acts 2:1-11, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13, John 14:15-16, 23b-26

Back when I was a sophomore at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, I was struggling to learn French. (I didn’t do much better in the years that followed, but that’s a story for another day.) My accent was horrendous, my memory of numbers was awful, and I failed miserably at determining which person, place or thing was a le and which was a la.

But one night as she was doing bed checks, Mom heard me talking in my sleep, in what she swore was flawless Français. I scoffed. So the next time she thought I was doing my best Maurice Chevalier, she recorded it, to play back in the morning.

I sounded more like the “pardon my French” you might hear on a golf course but never in church.

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Meet and greet

A homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 25, 2025

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29, Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20, John 17:20-26

(proclaiming the second reading and Gospel from the Seventh Sunday of Easter)

Irish poet William Butler Yeats said, “There are no strangers here, only friends you haven’t yet met.”

And dozens, maybe thousands, of notable people have said the same thing, sometimes adding their own little twists to it.

If I may be so bold, here’s my little variation:

There are no strangers, only sisters and brothers we haven’t met yet.

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Reciprocal

A homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 18, 2025

Acts 14:21-27, Revelation 21:1-5a, John 13:31-33a, 34-35

None of us can love ice cream, no matter how vigorously or energetically foot-stompingly any of us insists we absolutely do.

Not vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. Not cookie dough or coconut or fudge ripple or key lime pie. Not even chocolate chip mint!

None of us can love ice cream, though any and all of us can really, really like it.

We can’t love ice cream because ice cream can’t love us back.

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Woolen

A homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 11, 2025

Acts 13:14, 43-52, Revelation 7:9, 14b-17, John 10:27-30

In the incredibly long-running BBC science fiction show “Doctor Who,” The Doctor’s space- and time-travel vessel is bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Yes, that’s a key plot point.

Today’s passage from John’s Gospel has that same characteristic. Its messages — and there are several — are far larger than the 62 words proclaimed. It’s bigger on the inside than on the outside. No alien technology required.

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