Tag: Epistle

Insistent

A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 14, 2024

Am 7:12-15, Eph 1:3-14 or 1:3-10, Mk 6:7-13

Let’s start with a story about how not to evangelize.

When I was in the third grade at St. Leo the Great School in Lincroft, our teachers told us of the great rewards that awaited us in the afterlife if we brought other people into the faith. If we made converts.

Most of us, myself included, expected a shorter stay in Purgatory or, better yet, coconut cream and key lime pies for dessert at every meal in the Heavenly banquet.

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Instant messaging

A homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 7, 2024

Ez 2:2-5, 2 Cor 12:7-10, Mk 6:1-6

“That’s amazing.”

We’ve all probably seen the Consumer Cellular ad in which the lady in the kitchen is talking with the sales rep while the gentleman is jumping into a pool, doing little tricks.

Yet what amazes her, according to the ad, is not the man’s Olympic wannabe diving prowess but the mobile phone’s features and the company’s service.

Apparently proving, once again, that we 21st-century Americans love our high-tech flashy-sparkly-shiny things.

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Not a heavy lift

A homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 23, 2024

Jb 38:1, 8-11, 2 Cor 5:14-17, Mk 4:35-41

The young people among us, and those of us who think we’re still sorta young, know this riddle:

If God is so powerful, can he make a rock so big even he can’t lift it?

I’m pretty sure the answer is yes.

I’m pretty sure the answer is yes — even though it seems confusing — because there’s nothing God can’t do.

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Suspenders

A homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 16, 2024

Ez 17:22-24, 2 Cor 5:6-10, Mk 4:26-34

Years ago, to help a friend produce her dance school students’ recital, I agreed to appear onstage as a magician — “The Great Badini.” Emphasis on “bad,” as in stumblebum. She sent me to a shop where the proprietor set me up with a few basic tricks and props, tricks even I couldn’t foul up.

I didn’t pull any rabbits out of my hat, but I did learn to pass a massive needle and thread completely and safely through a balloon before intentionally popping it.  And there was this gizmo I held behind my teeth so I could pull yards upon yards of colored handkerchiefs out of my mouth.

As “The Great Badini,” I learned the secrets of making people believe the otherwise unbelievable. And I can still do those tricks.

These days, lots of people can. Make people suspend disbelief, I mean.

Unfortunately, these days it’s more a case of fooling people than persuading people to believe in what’s true and right and good.

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Akin

A homily for the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 9, 2024

Gn 3:9-15, 2 Cor 4:13—5:1, Mk 3:20-35

The first time I saw someone talking on a cellphone wearing wireless earbuds, I thought the person was … uh … possibly mentally ill. You see, they weren’t merely having what looked like a conversation with their self; they were arguing.

Loudly. Passionately. Did I mention loudly?

With vigorous hand gestures to no one in sight, some of them NSFW.

As were many of the loud words.

The earbuds were so small that I didn’t spot them right away.

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Unblocked

A homily for Pentecost, May 19, 2024

Mass During the Day: Acts 2:1-11, 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13, Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15

I suffer from writer’s block about as often as I suffer from allergies. Sometimes the attacks of either are stay-in-bed level; other times, I can power through. But like most of us, I do not relish either.

I have eye drops and antihistamine pills for my allergies, so their flare-ups qualify as annoyances and inconveniences.

But there’s no pill I can pop or lotion I can drop to cure writer’s block, especially when I’m dealing with a religious or spiritual or scriptural topic. And I consider that far more than an annoyance or an inconvenience. Especially as Sunday approaches.

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Here and now

A homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, May 12, 2024

Acts 1:1-11, Eph 1:17-23, Mk 16:15-20

Souvenez vous que nous sommes dans le sancte présence de Dieu.

A Christian meme made its way around social media recently, depicting Jesus ascending to Heaven on a cloud, with the caption “Ascension Thursday: When Jesus Christ started working from home.”

I have it on good authority he has great bandwidth at his place.

But even as we acknowledge through this holy day that the Son is where he belongs — on his throne at the right hand of the Father — we also must recognize that God is not far, never far from us.

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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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Barn raising

A homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 28, 2024

Acts 9:26-31, 1 Jn 3:18-24, Jn 15:1-8

My brother Steve has lived in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, area for at least two decades, and while his neighborhood can be described as all-American middle class, he and his family do encounter Amish people fairly often.

The Amish, also known as the Anabaptists or, more widely, the Pennsylvania Dutch, live in a closed society, pretty much. These descendants of German Protestant immigrants avoid most modern technologies. They travel in horse-drawn buggies and till their fields with horse-drawn plows. Actual horsepower, lubricated with elbow grease.

And because these Christians are so close-knit, their belief in all for one and one for all leaves The Three Musketeers in the dust.

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Vantage

A (brief) homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 21, 2024

Acts 4:8-12, 1 Jn 3:1-2, Jn 10:11-18

Thank you for bearing with me while I’m out of town on personal business this weekend. A fuller homily — which I will preach at all Masses next weekend — will be here as usual.

A few years ago, I started having trouble with glare while driving at night. Headlights, streetlights, traffic lights: I saw them as stars, or as beams with rays shooting out in several directions.

The experience was jarring.

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