Tag: Easter

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.

Continue reading Reciprocal

Context

A homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, May 4, 2025

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41, Revelation 5:11-14, John 21:1-19 

Remember, back when we were in grammar school, especially back in the first, second or third grade, how weird it was to see a teacher away from the classroom? Remember how incredibly weird it was to see a Franciscan sister, or the whole convent, in the Acme Market?

Remember how we didn’t always recognize them right away because they were out of the classroom? That’s where they live all the time, right?

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Rent-free space

A homily for the Second Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2025

Acts 5:12-16, Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19, John 20:19-31

It seems like forever that people have disagreed on whether it’s better to forgive and forget or forgive and remember whenever someone — or some institution — has done wrong by us.

Both sides make strong cases.

Those who’d forgive and forget wipe the slate clean. You’re sorry; I forgive you; let’s pretend the whole thing never happened. It’s a lot less to carry around when we’re all bearing crosses of some sort.

Then again, those who forgive and remember choose to watch out for the same thing happening again. Yes, I forgive you, but I also have my eye on you. You say you’re sorry, and I mostly believe you, but I’m on guard. My radar is on. I’m wearing armor. Fool me once, etc.

Definitely an either-or proposition.

Continue reading Rent-free space

He did what?

A homily for The Resurrection of the Lord (Easter), April 20, 2025

Acts 10:34a, 37-43, Colossians 3:1-4, John 20:1-9

Sometimes, I just don’t get it.

Every now and then, there are things I “should” understand, but don’t.

Every now and then, the harder I think about certain things, the more my brain hurts, and I still don’t understand.

Yet the biggest challenges are the things I kinda-sorta understand. Those can be incredibly nettlesome. I’ll bet we all have some of those buzzing around our brains.

Continue reading He did what?

Expect the unexpected

A homily for the Second Sunday of Easter, April 7, 2024

Acts 4:32-35, 1 Jn 5:1-6, Jn 20:19-31

The night our daughter was born, Andrea and I attended my 10-year reunion at Christian Brothers Academy. As we sat nibbling on dessert, a tall, powerfully built man I did not recognize ambled over to our table and introduced himself in a basso-profundo voice. 

He was a CBA classmate I remembered as being short, a little pudgy, with a squeaky voice. 

“Yeah,” he said with a wide grin, “I’ve been getting that reaction all night. I shot up in college and bulked up at Quantico during FBI training.”

I did not expect that.

I saw him again at another class reunion. This time, though still tall, he was rail-thin. He’d left the Bureau and started running marathons.

I did not expect that, either.

Continue reading Expect the unexpected

Reset

A homily for The Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Sunday), March 31, 2024

Acts 10:34a, 37-43, Col 3:1-4, Jn 20:1-9

It’s been more than 30 years since videogame systems went from curiosities to must-have additions to nearly every household, at least here in America.

Children and parents alike learned about levels and bosses and cheat codes, especially how left-left-down-A-A-C-up-B-C could give a player extra lives.

Extra lives.

Before cheat codes and game-reset buttons, the only notion of extra lives revolved around cats and their supposed nine of them.

Continue reading Reset