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.
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.
A homily for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 24, 2022
Gn 18:20-32, Col 2:12-14, Lk 11:1-13
Can we talk?
Can we take a minute or three to talk about talking? Because there’s a lot to say.
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.
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?
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.)
A homily for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, June 19, 2022
Gn 14:18-20, 1 Cor 11:23-26, Lk 9:11b-17
Our news flashes and history books are filled with accounts of women and men — heroes, we call them — risking their lives or even making the ultimate sacrifice for the good of others.
Often, these heroes act for the benefit of absolute strangers. Sometimes those strangers are right there where the act of heroism takes place. Many times, the strangers are thousands of miles away, across oceans on another continent.
That’s the case, of course, in world wars.
And sometimes the strangers who will benefit the most have not yet been born, because the act of heroism has a history-making or civilization-changing impact.
Risking their lives. Making the ultimate sacrifice. Smothering a grenade with their body. Spilling their blood.
A homily for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 12, 2022
Prv 8:22-31, Rom 5:1-5, Jn 16:12-15
Everything.
Everything for everyone, everywhere.
A homily for Pentecost, June 5, 2022
Acts 2:1-11, 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13, Jn 20:19-23
Inhale.
Exhale.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Take a deep breath.
Let it out slowly.
The process is called respiration.
Respiration keeps us alive.
A homily for the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, May 29, 2022
Acts 1:1-11, Heb 9:24-28; 10:19-23, Lk 24:46-53
Years ago, in an episode of St. Elsewhere, the doctor played by Howie Mandel dies on the operating table and opens his eyes in Heaven, where he sees former patients celebrating in a beautiful countryside.
He asks one of the patients when he would see God, and then Howie Mandel taps Howie Mandel on the shoulder, introducing himself as The Almighty.
“Everyone sees me differently,” God explains, “because I created each of you in my image and likeness, and to you, I look like you.”
Fascinating interpretation, yes?
Then, back on Earth, the surgeons at St. Eligius Hospital revive Howie’s character and he leaves Heaven. For the time being.
