Tag: Faith

Empty nests

A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare), Cycle C, March 27, 2022

Jos 5:9a, 10-12, 2 Cor 5:17-21, Lk 15:1-3, 11-32

The well-known parable of the Prodigal Son is a story of gifts, but not necessarily the ones we’re fully conversant in.

There’s the fattened calf (I prefer the old-school “fatted calf,” but this is the current translation, sigh) and the welcome-home party for the repentant son, plus the ring on his finger and the hug from his father, who greets this ne’er-do-well as if he had risen from the grave.

And we recognize the gift of God’s eternal mercy toward everyone who repents, as echoed by the actions of the young man’s father. That, in fact, is the traditional and simplest Occam’s Razor interpretation of this sizable passage from Luke’s Gospel. And it’s a totally valid understanding of the passage: Jesus intended the forgiving father in the parable to represent The Forgiving Father of All Creation.

But wait, there’s more:

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Outlook

A homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, March 20, 2022, Cycle C

Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15, 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12, Lk 13:1-9

If patience is a virtue, then a whole lotta Americans are far from virtuous. Especially New Jerseyans.

We proudly list the dozens — hundreds, even — of things we jam into every day, and at the (actual) end of the day, we mourn what we didn’t do rather than celebrate what we did.

Yeah, we’re a little warped that way.

Continue reading Outlook

Fame unfortunately

A homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, March 13, 2022

Gn 15:5-12, 17-18, Phil 3:17—4:1, Lk 9:28b-36

Celebrity is a strange concept, especially how it’s practiced today.

We have the self-declared so-called Influencers, who use TikTok and other social media du jour to dictate what their followers must say, think and do. Influencers actively promote themselves incessantly and shamelessly. They preen so that they can be seen. And they attract millions of disciples.

We have the Reality Stars, who broadcast and stream from their Los Angeles Kompounds and from their Real Houses all over the world and from the Jersey Shore, and whose lives and loves and fun and faults are laid bare, similarly shamelessly. And millions more kan’t take their eyes off them.

We have Traditional Stars, who mesmerize us on massive movie screens (remember those?) and in our home theaters. Off-screen, they project a public persona that mirrors or dovetails with the characters they play, but they work equally as hard to shield their true private lives from the public’s prying eyes. They, too, have millions in their thrall.

Why, then, would Jesus not want to be in any of those groups? Think what he could have done with all those beliebers.

Continue reading Fame unfortunately

Who are you?

A sermon* for the First Sunday of Lent, March 6, 2022

Dt 26:4-10, Rom 10:8-13, Lk 4:1-13

It’s easy to give up chocolate for Lent if you don’t like chocolate or if it gives you zits.

It’s easy to abstain from meat on Fridays if you love Chilean sea bass.

It’s easy to be kind to other people if you don’t come in contact with anyone while isolating because of COVID.

But is Lent supposed to be easy?

Continue reading Who are you?

Ash Wednesday, a reflection

Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.

Each Ash Wednesday during my eight years at St. Leo the Great School, we were marched up the center aisle of church, class by class, a single file of boys alongside a single file of girls, to be reminded of our mortality.

For the first four or five years, we knelt on the red velvet cushion at the Communion altar rail; after Vatican II dictated the rail’s removal, we inched forward in that same center aisle in those same single-file lines.

It was years before I realized the black schmutz that was being absolutely mashed into my forehead with that scary prayer was supposed to be in the shape of a cross, not merely the pastor’s thumbprint, and that the blessed ashes came from the burning of the previous year’s palms, not what we emptied out of the pencil sharpener.

It was years before I understood why we were being reminded that life is short: 

We have only so much time to do good, to care for each other and to care for all of Creation as a sign of God’s Spirit within us. So get cracking!

It was even longer before I fully understood that this prayer leaves out the best part: 

Through his painful crucifixion and glorious Resurrection, Jesus conquered sin and death and made a home for us in Heaven. 

When to dust our mortal bodies return, to our loving Almighty Creator our immortal souls return.

May this Lent offer us all 40 days of quiet times and thin places to meet our loving God.

MYOB

A homily for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 27, 2022

Sir 27:4-7, 1 Cor 15:54-58, Lk 6:39-45

I’ve been blessed — or cursed — with good peripheral vision, as well as a really quirky ability to see certain things really quickly. It manifests as words or phrases literally jumping off a bulletin board or something similar when I pass, and then I have to stop and read the whole poster or memo to find out where “Donald Duck” or “#6 Sub” was referenced.

And when I say “I have to stop,” I mean this phenomenon literally freezes me in my tracks. I can’t resist.

Training back in my Boy Scout days added to this. Long before “See something, say something” became the American mantra, we Scouts were taught to be highly aware of our surroundings. I recall our scoutmasters actually brought in experts from Fort Monmouth to run the workshops. The military chant is “Stay alert — stay alive!”

I must concede that being highly aware of your surroundings is a great skill to have on the Parkway at 80 mph at 8 a.m.

But back in Catholic school, during the other hours of my day, Sister Raphael Marie browbeat us nonstop with a totally opposite message:

MYOB

Mind. Your. Own. Business. (or Beeswax, when somebody was going for “cute”)

Don’t stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong.

And MYOB seemed diametrically opposed to WWJD.

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Yorktown

A homily for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 20, 2022

1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23, 1 Cor 15:45-49, Lk 6:27-38

According to legend, Lord Cornwallis, the British general whose troops lost to George Washington and his forces at the Battle of Yorktown, ordered his regimental musicians to play a satirical song during the formal surrender ceremony, and not a tune honoring the Colonists’ victory.

Instead of an American melody like “Yankee Doodle” or some military march long since lost to history, the Redcoats played “The World Turned Upside Down.”

Though the song — composed in England originally as a protest against bans on making merry at Christmas — was written in the 1640s, it could have been written by or for Jesus in the First Century.

Because it’s clear the Messiah’s ministry came from the Land of Topsy-Turvy.

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Yin and yang

A homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 13, 2022

Jer 17:5-8, 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20, Lk 6:17, 20-26

When we think back to a banquet or an awards dinner or a wedding, what do we remember right off the bat?

Probably the dessert.

And there’s a scientific reason why we remember the wedding cake. Psychologists call it the serial position effect.

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Somebody’s gotta do it

A homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 6, 2022

Is 6:1-2a, 3-8, 1 Cor 15:3-8, 11, Lk 5:1-11

We who used to be children probably grew up with Dad Jokes and Mom-isms.

(There were Dad-isms too, but they mostly were some variation of “Listen to your mother!”)

Mom-isms were deeply concerned with what kind of underwear to wear and when, where to cross the street and when, who to play with and when, and homework.

And Mom-isms weren’t always straightforward or direct. For example, when Mom might happen upon a filled-up kitchen sink, she’d say, “Those dishes aren’t going to wash themselves.”

And we got the hint.

Continue reading Somebody’s gotta do it

Infamy

A homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 30, 2022

Jer 1:4-5, 17-19, 1 Cor 12:31—13:13, Lk 4:21-30

The Rock and Roll and Country Music halls of fame. New Jersey Hall of Fame. Halls of fame for every sport imaginable, at every level conceivable: pro, college, amateur and more.

In fact, there probably are halls of fame for every endeavor in which more than three people participate.

And if an inductee is somebody local, then every family member and every neighbor and every teacher and preacher and the mayor and fire chief and three marching bands parade down Main Street to hail the Hometown Hero.

So why did Jesus have to slip away from his home village to avoid being run out of town on a rail?

Didn’t he qualify as a Hometown Hero? 

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