Tag: Commandments

Rules and rules

A homily for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2025

Malachi 3:1-4, Hebrews 2:14-18, Luke 2:22-40 or 2:22-32

In the brilliant and sorely missed comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes,” the imp and his stuffed tiger who comes to life often play Calvinball.

There is only one permanent rule in Calvinball: players cannot play it the same way twice.

That either confirms or directly conflicts with a child psychologist’s observation that, quite often, kids spend so much time picking teams and hashing out the rules of whatever game they’re about to play that they wind up not having time to play it.

There’s no doubt, however, that we live in a world of rules and rulers. Humankind always has.

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Observant

A homily for the First Sunday of Advent, December 1, 2024

Jer 33:14-16, 1 Thes 3:12—4:2, Lk 21:25-28, 34-36

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Ferris Bueller

It started with Black Friday, this fast-moving season of life, and this year, the December 25 deadline seems even sooner, because it is. A late Thanksgiving has compressed the frenetic shopping season to its second-shortest-possible iteration.

If we don’t buy, buy, buy, our big holiday may pass by, by, by. And yule be sorry (couldn’t resist).

Oh, wait.

What? Wait?

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Change

A homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 10, 2024

1 Kgs 17:10-16, Heb 9:24-28, Mk 12:38-44 or 12:41-44

The other day, I was at the bank to trade in my coins for a couple of greenbacks, but I had to wait behind a couple who were emptying two water-cooler jugs filled with coins.

Well, actually, the jugs had been filled at one point; I luckily arrived as the duo was down to the last third of the second jug and the bank teller had snapped empty coin bags into the sorting machine.

As I stood there with my quart-size Ziploc, I wondered what the couple might use the money for (it turned out to be a lot). Mortgage payment? Vacation? A new car or repairs on their old one? Bet MGM Casino on a new iPhone?

But then, years of hearing MYOB from my mother and the teachers at St. Leo the Great kicked in, and instead I wondered what I’d do with the 20-ish dollars I’d walk out with.

I must confess that a work of charity wasn’t the first thing that came to mind.

Shame on me.

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Two’s the charm

A homily for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 3, 2024

Dt 6:2-6, Heb 7:23-28, Mk 12:28b-34

It’s bumper sticker season. 

Likewise, it’s lawn sign season, and billboard season, and the season for enough political ads on TV that we probably welcome the commercials for Medicare Advantage and the little pill with the big story to tell.

For now, though, let’s stick with stickers.

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Re: action

A homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 15, 2024

Is 50:5-9a, Jas 2:14-18, Mk 8:27-35

Wise people have embraced the maxim that we may not be able to control certain situations, but we can control how we react to them.

Thank you to whoever said that first, and to everyone else who has spread the word. Truer words were never said (to coin a cliché).

And we all, all too frequently, can find ourselves in situations that are — or may seem — grossly unfair. Especially situations we consider to be insanely unfair to us.

What is it about these happenstances that bring out the 2- or 3-year-old in us? Why is our first impulse to flail about and whine and act mortally wounded?

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Hugly

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.

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Long view

A homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 29, 2023

Ex 22:20-26, 1 Thes 1:5c-10, Mt 22:34-40

The long and the short of it — literally and figuratively — is that how we live our lives depends on our perspectives.

Every one of us is different, even identical siblings. Each of us was born at a different time, in a different place (even if your mom and mine were side-by-side in the maternity ward). We have different body types, in every way that can be possible. 

And through the sheer laws of physics, none of us can see and experience precisely what another of us sees and hears and feels because none of us can exist in the same space as somebody else simultaneously.

Eight billion of us today. Billions who came before us. And, God willing, billions and trillions yet to come after us.

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