Tag: Evangelize

On our way

A homily for the First Sunday of Lent, February 22, 2026

Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-19, Matthew 4:1-11

“Are we there yet?”

Talk about four words that can send chills up and down a parent’s spine.

And then there was the silly song version, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? No, we’re not! No, we’re not!”

Which was almost always followed by the driver of the minivan or SUV hollering, “If you don’t stop that racket, I’m gonna turn this car around!”

Because whenever we go somewhere, our minds are usually focused on where we’ve come from or where we’re going, not on the journey itself.

Lent is a journey.

Continue reading On our way

Its own reward

A homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 1, 2026

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13, 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, Matthew 5:1-12a

Sometimes, a passage from Scripture is so clear, so powerful, so iconic that we might be tempted to smile and say, “Yes, I know that one. It’s so, so inspiring; I love it. I refer to it all the time.”

And whatever we’ve ever thought about those words from Jesus or a letter-writing Apostle or an Old Testament prophet pretty much sticks with us the way we interpreted them the first time.

And maybe that’s OK. We cling to words of comfort and hope; we stay energized by grace whenever God calls us to action.

Yet some passages are so profound that they deserve — they demand! — revisiting. They order us to deepen our understanding of them, commanding us to add to our interpretation more than reinterpreting them.

The passage we know as The Beatitudes, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount as recorded by Matthew, demands that we break it open again and again.

Continue reading Its own reward

Career change

A homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 25, 2026

Isaiah 8:23—9:3, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17, Matthew 4:12-23

For many of us, a change in our work situation happens because of one of two scenarios. Either we seek a new job, a new boss, a new location, or any combination of those, or the change is imposed on us by outside forces like the company closing or downsizing or relocating.

Résumé and interviews vs. pink slip or transfer papers.

Something we sought vs. ol’ Damocles and his stupid sword.

Continue reading Career change

Misteak?

A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 21, 2025

Isaiah 7:10-14, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-24

We imperfect humans ask a lot of questions about our perfect Deity.

Many of them compare God’s persons and unlimited … everything … to our own limitations.

Nope; God is unnnnn-limited

Continue reading Misteak?

Count on it

A homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 7, 2025

Isaiah 11:1-10, Romans 15:4-9, Matthew 3:1-12

Dictionary.com recently made a lot of people shake their heads in disbelief when the organization chose a number as the Word of the Year for 2025. Not even a number, really; it’s more of a number phrase, because it’s not pronounced in the familiar way it appears.

Continue reading Count on it

When?

A homily for the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2025

Isaiah 2:1-5, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:37-44

The folks who run Starbucks, Burger King, movie theaters and especially Cinnabon, among thousands of similar outfits, are geniuses.

They have made it impossible for even the most strong-willed among us to pass by their kiosks and shops without pining — yearning! — for their products. Regardless of how bad they may be for us.

Continue reading When?

Plowshares

A homily for The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, November 23, 2025

2 Samuel 5:1-3, Colossians 1:12-20, Luke 23:35-43

In first-century Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth …

… Jesus, the descendant of David who was born in a Bethlehem stable …

… Jesus, the Son of God and son of Mary …

was a terrible king.

Horrible.

Incredibly bad.

At least, that’s what a lot of Israelites believed.

Continue reading Plowshares

Terrestrial, but extra

A homily for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 16, 2025

Malachi 3:19-20a, 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12, Luke 21:5-19

In one of Hollywood’s greatest tear-jerking farewell sequences, E.T. admonishes young Gertie, “Be good.” Then, in his raspy, almost robotic voice, the little alien botanist points to Elliott’s forehead and says, “I’ll be right here.”

The spaceship ascends to the heavens, and the Extra-Terrestrial lives on in the hearts and minds of the people whose lives he’s touched.

And in those of movie fans worldwide.

Continue reading Terrestrial, but extra

Here and there

A (belated and brief) homily for the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, November 9, 2025

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12, 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17, John 2:13-22

In every city and village worldwide, we’ll find houses of worship: temples, synagogues, mosques, churches, and more. Even storefronts and basements and tents and, yes, caves serve as gathering places for members of the human family to acknowledge in their culturally and religiously appropriate way that somebody somewhere loves us enough to give us our little blue marble in the sky.

To give us our own lives.

To give us our own unique lives, with our own unique abundance of gifts.

Continue reading Here and there

Avoiding a fall

A homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 26, 2025

Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18, Luke 18:9-14

About 600 years before Jesus called out the Pharisees and other leaders of the people as hypocrites, the Greek moralist Aesop told a fable about a frog and an ox.

Continue reading Avoiding a fall