Tag: Faith

Yard sale

A homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 4, 2022

Wis 9:13-18b, Phmn 9-10, 12-17, Lk 14:25-33

The late great George Carlin had a bit in which he lampooned Americans’ obsessive materialism. Everything, he would say, was about stuff.

We go to work to make money to buy stuff. We buy houses to keep our stuff in. When we’ve bought more stuff than our houses can hold, we buy bigger houses.

And then someone invented storage units.

Meanwhile, the bumper sticker reminds us: Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live.

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Aw, shucks

A homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 28, 2022

Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29, Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a, Lk 14:1, 7-14

Imagine for a second that you’re a top-flight horseback rider and you’ve just won a coveted blue ribbon.

Or maybe you’re a quilter, and you’ve won a blue ribbon.

Or a chef, and you’ve achieved Cordon Bleu.

The applause is deafening. Your family and friends and total strangers are cheering for you, clapping for you, patting you on the back, maybe asking for your autograph.

Then it’s time to say a few words.

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Best unkept secret

A homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 21, 2022

Is 66:18-21, Heb 12:5-7, 11-13, Lk 13:22-30

When we come across something fascinating or exciting or uplifting, do we keep it to ourselves?

Or do we share it with our families and friends — the old “you tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on…” from the shampoo commercial? Do we start the fire of exponential growth?

What if something we find fascinating or exciting or uplifting flips the status quo on its head? Does that change what we decide to do?

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Dues

A homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 14, 2022

Jer 38:4-6, 8-10, Heb 12:1-4, Lk 12:49-53

We’ve all seen the photos and TV coverage of people waiting in line to buy the newest iPhone.

We’ve all seen the photos and TV coverage of people breaking down the doors at stores as they open on so-called Black Friday.

We’ve all seen the photos and TV coverage of people sleeping on the sidewalk outside the box office to buy Springsteen tickets.

We’ve all heard the stories and seen the TV coverage of how Beyonce concert tickets sold out online in 30 seconds.

And how ’bout them $70,000+ Super Bowl tickets!

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Make the leap

A homily for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 7, 2022

Wis 18:6-9, Heb 11:1-2, 8-19, Lk 12:32-48

Flo wants us to bundle our homeowners’ insurance with our other policies.

The Property Brothers say our burglar alarm system should be fully integrated with our electronic house-management system.

And the Geico Gecko … well, he/it does have that cute British-ish accent.

We spend a lot of money protecting the things we spent a lot of money on.

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Two worlds

A homily for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 31, 2022

Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23, Col 3:1-5, 9-11, Lk 12:13-21

Remember when we were young and boisterous and our parents admonished us to use our “inside” voices?

Remember going to a fancy place for a special dinner and being told we were on our best behavior, that we had to use “country club” manners?

Remember having to change clothes from too casual to dressy?

We could never be fully ourselves. Not really fully, not just plain us.

Our lives were sliced up, boxed up, compartmentalized. School life. Play life. Sports life. Home life.

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Not to be missed

A homily for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 17, 2022

Gn 18:1-10a, Col 1:24-28, Lk 10:38-42

This is not a rant about people (especially motorists) whose faces are buried in their phones and digital devices nonstop (although it could be).

This is more of an observation about what they’re missing.

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Pocket change

A homily for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 10, 2022

Dt 30:10-14, Col1:15-20, Lk 10:25-37

What’s in your pocket?

If this were a TV commercial, you’d answer one way.

If this were “Let’s Make A Deal,” you’d answer another.

If you were being frisked, your answer would be something else entirely.

But this is none of those situations.

What’s in your pocket?

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This way

A homily for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 26, 2022

1 Kgs 19:16b, 19-21, Gal 5:1, 13-18, Lk 9:51-62

In 1966, Walt Disney produced a movie called “Follow Me, Boys!” about a man who settles down in a small town and becomes a scoutmaster. It starred Fred MacMurray, best known to the TV generation as the father in “My Three Sons” and to the Turner Classic Movies generation as the star of “Double Indemnity.”

In one scene in “Follow Me, Boys!” MacMurray stumbles into a restricted area and is questioned by the Army. After he explains he’s a scoutmaster, the soldiers challenge him to tie a sheepshank, a complicated knot he never got the hang of.

Had he tied it, the knot would have been incontrovertible proof that he was a troop leader.

Oops.

(His identity did eventually get clarified.)

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