Tag: Epistle

Families we choose

No homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 23, 2026

Isaiah 22:19-23, Romans 11:33-36, Matthew 16:13-20

When I was in formation to become a deacon, our mentors repeated early and often that, after God, family comes first. The families we’re born into, and the families we assemble as we journey through this life and the next.

This weekend, my family has come first.

Today’s passages from Scripture, fortunately, are profound, with self-evident messages.

I’ll be back next week (is that a promise or a threat?).

Family, a Prayer

A homily (sort of) for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 16, 2026

Isaiah 56:1, 6-7, Romans 11:13-15, 29-32, Matthew 15:21-28

I have a confession to make. Two, actually.

First, this may qualify more as a sermon or as a ponderance or as a freestanding prayer than as a homily for this weekend. I’m sharing what I remember of what I hope was a meaningful contribution to an ecumenical Day of Prayer, and these words may not be directly reflective of the Scripture passages cited in the links above.

Second confession: I failed Show and Tell.

Kindergarten, first grade, second … either I had an interesting item to show the class but no great story to tell, or I tried to hype a dull item with a fantastic story. I never found the balance way back then, which is why I never use props when I preach or lead prayers.

Except for today. Today, at the Tinton Falls Community Day of Prayer, I used a prop.

Continue reading Family, a Prayer

Upright

A homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 9, 2026

1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:22-33

There’s a point in all children’s lives when they transform, butterfly-like, from babies to toddlers.

They haul themselves up, stand wobbily, and then … toddle. They walk. Not well at first, and not far, but they walk. They tumble, sometimes cry, then hoist themselves and set off again. And again.

And…

Again…

Walking evolves into running. Running morphs into dancing.

All this frenetic movement leads to exhausted, but proud, parents.

Continue reading Upright

Crumbs

A homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 2, 2026

Isaiah 55:1-3, Romans 8:35, 37-39, Matthew 14:13-21

Almost 100 years ago (holy cow!), The New Yorker magazine published a cartoon in which a fussy eater’s mother tells her, “It’s broccoli, dear.” The young girl famously snaps back, “I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it.”

In most households of the 1920s, and probably right up to the present, the mom’s next line might be, “There are starving children in [XYZ land],” and the zippy retort to that usually is, “Fine; they can have my stupid broccoli.”

The tragedy is, they can’t. Though they’d love to.

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Gray matter

A homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 26, 2026

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12, Romans 8:28-30, Matthew 13:44-52

If we count all the noses in the world, we discover that there are 8.3 billion-with-a-B people on Earth. Here in the USA, we make up almost 350 million members of our human family. We’re quite a crowd.

Every one of the 8.3 billion of us — North and South Americans, Africans, Europeans, Asians, Australians and even Antarcticans — has a brain. It’s been that way for tens of thousands of years, maybe even millions.

That’s quite a gift. Thank you, God!

Continue reading Gray matter

Stew

A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 19, 2026

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19, Romans 8:26-27, Matthew 13:24-43

Some people can be fussy about what they eat and how. Some picky eaters insist that certain foods cannot touch other items on their plates. No gravy near their peas and carrots, no syrup near their eggs. And no pickles, ever.

Semi-fussy folks may eat one item at a time, clearing away the broccoli before the beef, even when they’ve been wokked together.

And there’s a good argument to be made for this: Individual flavors and textures deserve to be savored, remembered for their uniqueness.

But we also know that great chefs devote immense and intense time and skill to craft recipes that pair complementary or contrasting ingredients to create something new, fascinating and even more memorable than Harvard beets. A concoction to be experienced in its entirety, a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

God is the greatest chef of all.

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Whatever it takes

A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 12, 2026

Isaiah 55:10-11, Romans 8:18-23, Matthew 13:1-23

We don’t often see the parallels between stained-glass windows and comic books/graphic novels. And Dr. Seuss and Scripture? Sam, I am not seeing it.

We accept the notion that the Psalms are poetry, but we don’t hear King David gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. No, nevermore.

God stuff? Church-y stuff? Regular people stuff? Do they, can they really mix? Can they blend smoothly into a unified way of life?

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Almost there

A homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 14, 2026

Exodus 19:2-6a, Romans 5:6-11, Matthew 9:36—10:8

The other day, a motorcyclist was doing laps around a traffic circle on an older highway that crosses New Jersey’s waist like a belt. He — of course it was a he — zipped around the roundabout at least three times as I approached, and then he zoomed east through a small business district.

I caught up with him about a mile farther as he was lapping another circle. After these jumbo doughnuts, he headed west, as young men are advised to go.

The list of possible reasons for this biker’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is long and indeed wild. A real head-scratcher. What I take away, though, is that his journey was at least as important as his destination. If not more so.

Continue reading Almost there

To have and to hold

A homily for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), June 7, 2026

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, John 6:51-58

We are tactile people. When we say, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” whatever “it” turns out to be, what we really mean is we’ll use all of our available senses to determine if something is real.

All five senses, if we’re so blessed, and a little bit of imagination, too.

That’s why, in the early days of Amazon.com and other online shops, many of us would visit traditional brick-and-mortar stores first to check out this item or that. To hold it, shake it, listen to it, smell it, maybe try it on for size. And then we’d whip out our smartphones or head home to our computers and order the item for delivery tomorrow for 30 percent less than the other guys were charging.

Because we saw it and felt it, we believed.

Which is why the Eucharist is such an extraordinary gift.

Continue reading To have and to hold

Service

A homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2026

Acts 6:1-7, 1 Peter 2:4-9, John 14:1-12

In early June 1973, barely 12 hours after flinging a mortarboard into the air on the lawn at CBA, I was about to wade into a newly dumped pile of steaming asphalt.

“All right, men, let’s git it!” Joe Romeo, the foreman, hollered, and we attacked the hot asphalt with our short-handled square-point shovels.

Within minutes, my new white T-shirt was transparent with sweat and my even newer Sears blue jeans were sliding down my skinny backside. I didn’t notice if my feet were hot in my boots as I danced through the blacktop, pretty much making a mess.

Then I felt a powerful hand yank me by my belt loops and toss me off the pile. “Get outta there,” Romeo growled. I snapped back, “What’s your problem, man? I’m working my ass off!”

He then said the words that shaped the rest of my life:

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