Tag: Epistle

Desertion

A homily for the First Sunday of Lent, March 9, 2025

Deuteronomy 26:4-10, Romans 10:8-13, Luke 4:1-13

From the mid-1960s until the mid-1970s, my family and I were blessed to be members of the Stephen’s Point Fishing Club and the owners of a roughly 1930s-vintage cabin overlooking the Walpack Bend of the Delaware River in Flatbrookville, New Jersey.

The sign on westbound Interstate 80 pointing to Flatbrookville, by the way, is almost bigger than the historic hamlet itself.

And even though we lived (still live) at the Jersey Shore, and in those days headed to a beach club in Sea Bright almost every weekday in the summer, we spent many summer weekends up in the Kittatinny Mountains.

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Next

A homily for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, March 2, 2025

Sirach 27:4-7, 1 Corinthians 15:54-58, Luke 6:39-45

One of the most important things an actor learns is not to play the end of a scene.

What that means is, even though actors know how the scene will end, because they have read and learned the script, they can’t display any inappropriate emotions or in any other way show they know what’s going to happen next. They can’t do or say anything — no matter how small — that telegraphs the ending. That would ruin the scene.

It’s a difficult skill to master.

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Upside down

A homily for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 23, 2025

1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23, 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, Luke 6:27-38

A few days ago, 80 people miraculously survived a plane crash in Toronto. As the jetliner was landing, it suddenly tipped over onto its right side, snapped off its wing, and rolled onto its roof, skidding down the runway.

CNN reported:

After the aircraft came to a standstill, “we were upside down hanging like bats,” passenger Peter Koukov said. He was able to unbuckle himself and stand upright on the ceiling of the plane, but some people needed help getting down from their seats.

Their world had turned upside down.

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Nonsensical

A homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 9, 2025

Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11

Anyone among us who is or used to be a child knows all too well the reason we’re given for doing something that seems utterly absurd to us:

“Because I Said So.”

In the great arsenal of weapons … uh, tools … uh, gifts … every parent receives when their children draw their first breaths, “Because I Said So” is the last line of defense, the “Break Glass in Case of Emergency” reason.

Even though we parents whip it out of its holster as our first (and only) option all too often.

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Proclaimed

A homily — or perhaps a sermon — for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 26, 2025

Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:12-30, Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

Many of us grew up when Catholics weren’t supposed to read the Bible. We heard passages from Scripture at Mass, and the priest — always a priest in those days — would share some insights and his learned interpretations, and we’d be enlightened by the Word of God.

‘Nuff said.

Most, if not all, of us had Bibles at home, but those stayed on the shelf, pretty much. If that Bible was a family heirloom, its inner front and back covers held the kind of birth and baptism and marriage and death information that Ancestry.com would drool over.

The pages in between, though … those didn’t get much of a looky-see. Sad to say, some of those family Bibles wound up being used as door stops or tools for pressing dried flowers.

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Inventory

A homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 19, 2025

Isaiah 62:1-5, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, John 2:1-11

There’s a little door in our hallway that opens to something called a linen closet. 

The closet hasn’t held linens in about 30 years.

In it are various cleaning supplies, paper goods, soaps and shampoos, dental-care items, COVID-19 tests, and prescription and over-the-counter medicines.

Definitely no sheets or towels.

And every year around this time, in the cold of mid-January, I’ll haul out the closet’s contents and keep what we’ll actually use in the coming 12 months and toss or find a home for the unneeded or expired stuff. (Expired! Expired! Expired!) 

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Yule wisdom from E.T.

A wish for Christmas, December 25, 2024

Is 52:7-10, Heb 1:1-6, Jn 1:1-18

This Christmas, if the only gifts we give and receive are justice and fairness, hope and kindness, that will be enough. More than enough.

Oh, and throw in a bountiful measure of joy, and the present of our presence with other people, and our day and our season will overflow.

At the end of the classic movie “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” just before the alien botanist goes home, he gives little sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore) some powerful advice, in his scratchy-mechanical voice:

“Be good.”

Jesus, born this Christmas Day, said it first.

Be good.

Be kind.

Be loving, as God is love and God loves.

Yes: Be good.

Brilliant.

Merry Christmas!

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen!

Home stretch

A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 22, 2024

Mi 5:1-4a, Heb 10:5-10, Lk 1:39-45

Hope.

Peace.

Joy.

Love.

All four candles of our Advent wreath are glowing today, the candles symbolizing hope, peace, joy and love. Our season of preparation to celebrate the Nativity of the Prince of Peace is nearly complete.

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LED

A homily for the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete), December 15, 2024

Zep 3:14-18a, Phil 4:4-7, Lk 3:10-18

One winter holiday evening about 30 years ago, our extended family decided to go out light-peeping. As my sister-in-law suggested a few nearby places to check out, her son asked, “Can we go see The Hinges?”

The Hinges?

Kathy laughed and explained that, when she first saw how one house was decorated, she said it was lit up like the Hinges of Hell.

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Linear

A homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024

Bar 5:1-9, Phil 1:4-6, 8-11, Lk 3:1-6

It’s been said that God doesn’t create in straight lines, and anyone who’s ever taken more than a second to look at the shapes of ocean beaches, lakefronts, leaves and flowers and trees and and and … realizes that.

Even the wind gets the twisties.

So what’s the big deal with straightening roads and flattening the landscape? If God created this world all curvy-hilly-bumpy, why do the prophets make such a big deal about paving some sort of interstate highway system over God’s handiwork?

What’s wrong with leaving it as is?
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