A homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 16, 2022
Is 62:1-5, 1 Cor 12:4-11, Jn 2:1-11
Rubik’s Cube. Jenga. Pick-Up Sticks. Checkers and chess. Jigsaw puzzles. Even Hungry Hungry Hippos.
Success in every one of these pastimes and many others depends on having the right pieces in the right place at the right time and, very often, having many pieces precisely where they need to be simultaneously.
A homily for the Baptism of the Lord, January 9, 2022
Is 42:1-4, 6-7, Ti 2:11-14; 3:4-7, Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
So: God in Heaven is well pleased with Jesus.
Duh.
Could anyone expect anything else?
Even though his ministry was still in its infancy, Jesus was living the right way, working the right way, teaching the right way and following the Law and the Prophets as any observant Jew of his age should.
Simply put, he was doing everything that a man of his time and place believed would please God.
And God literally said as much.
Jesus, son of God, got high praise.
So where does that leave us?
A homily for the Feast of the Epiphany, January 2, 2022
Is 60:1-6, Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6, Mt 2:1-12
The calendar of events for seniors in a Central Jersey local newspaper, now defunct, used to occasionally include a listing for a “mystery trip.” The Old Age Club — yes, that’s what they called themselves back in the 1980s — would rent a bus and sell tickets, and the participants would find out where they were going once they were underway.
These trips were so popular that every one of them had a waiting list. Obviously, the Old Age Clubbers were the adventurous sort and, obviously, they were pleased with how their adventure turned out, or they wouldn’t have gone again. And again.
Obviously, the participants had faith in the organizers.
As did the Magi.
A homily for the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, December 26, 2021
Sir 3:2-6, 12-14, Col 3:12-21, Lk 2:41-52
A little girl is watching one of the dozens of rerun channels on TV and asks her parents, “When you were my age, were you in black and white?”
Because, of course, before Adam West appeared IN COLOR twice a week at the same bat-time on the same bat-channel, everything indeed was black and white.
Maybe not visually, but definitely in society.
A homily for The Nativity of the Lord — Christmas, December 25, 2021
Readings from the Mass at Night: Is 9:1-6, Ti 2:11-14, Lk 2:1-14
‘Tis better to give than receive.
Every child knows that. Every adult says that.
Every person of faith, justice and charity tries to live up to that.
So what’s the best gift to give today and every day?
A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 19, 2021
Mi 5:1-4a, Heb 10:5-10, Lk 1:39-45
As the Advent season of waiting nears its end for 2021, one key question remains:
What are we waiting for? Or for whom?
Certainly not Godot.
A homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, December 12, 2021
Zep 3:14-18a, Phil 4:4-7, Lk 3:10-18
They go together like Snap, Crackle and Pop:
Faith, Hope and Charity (or Love).
And they’re both the best way to start the day, every day.
Of course, one of these indispensable triads is a lot holier than the other.
A homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 5, 2021
Bar 5:1-9, Phil 1:4-6, 8-11, Lk 3:1-6
Sometimes a twisty road is the one to take.
A twisty road might hug a riverbank or an ocean shoreline. It might wrap around the side of a mountain or follow the contours of a valley. It may be twisty because it’s zig-zag terraced up the side of a hill, and that was the safest way to get the path to the other side.
More simply put, a road with plentiful curves often hews to the reality that nature — and God — laid out.
A homily for the First Sunday of Advent, November 28, 2021
Jer 33:14-16, 1 Thes 3:12—4:2, Lk 21:25-28, 34-36
In 1965, John McPhee’s book profiling Bill Bradley, “A Sense of Where You Are,” hit the shelves. In it, the then-student athlete at Princeton University explained how he was able to accurately fire a basketball through the hoop by maintaining, literally, a sense of where he was on the court.
Bradley, who distinguished himself as an Olympian, a New York Knick, a U.S. senator from New Jersey and a true statesman — among innumerable accomplishments — has kept that sense of where he is not only physically but emotionally, psychologically and spiritually throughout his life and career.
Advent challenges us to do the same.
A homily for The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Dn 7:13-14, Rv 1:5-8, Jn 18:33b-37
If human kings throughout history had been one scintilla of the kind of king Jesus is, we Americans would not cringe at the thought of following a crowned head of state, let alone revering one.
But they weren’t, and we rebelled 2½ centuries ago, and we’re still a rebellious bunch. Empty seats in church are only one sign of many to make that point.
