Tag: Father

Yule wisdom from E.T.

A wish for Christmas, December 25, 2024

Is 52:7-10, Heb 1:1-6, Jn 1:1-18

This Christmas, if the only gifts we give and receive are justice and fairness, hope and kindness, that will be enough. More than enough.

Oh, and throw in a bountiful measure of joy, and the present of our presence with other people, and our day and our season will overflow.

At the end of the classic movie “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” just before the alien botanist goes home, he gives little sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore) some powerful advice, in his scratchy-mechanical voice:

“Be good.”

Jesus, born this Christmas Day, said it first.

Be good.

Be kind.

Be loving, as God is love and God loves.

Yes: Be good.

Brilliant.

Merry Christmas!

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen!

Uniquely unique

A homily for The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, November 24, 2024

Dn 7:13-14, Rv 1:5-8, Jn 18:33b-37

Way back in 1776, the British colonists in the New World decided they’d had enough of a bad king who was making their lives miserable. So they declared their independence from George and any other first son of a first son wearing a shiny tin hat. The Americans were done with jewel-encrusted dictators acting like spoiled brats sitting in highchairs.

Ever since then, our rugged individualism has made us turn a cold shoulder to monarchs, except when there’s a royal wedding or coronation or anything else on TV that involves Cinderella-style horse-drawn carriages. 

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Work boots

A (belated) homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 20, 2024

Is 53:10-11, Heb 4:14-16, Mk 10:35-45 or 10:42-45

Twelve hours after I saw my Christian Brothers Academy mortarboard soar into the evening sky (against the orders of the assistant principal my classmates and I detested), I was standing in a pile of newly dumped asphalt, with a foreman hollering, “Let’s git it!”

In other words, shovel the smoking hot blacktop onto the end of a driveway that had been chopped up to widen a neighborhood street in Oceanport, New Jersey.

Within minutes on that June morning in 1973, I had sweated through my white T-shirt, and my new blue jeans were starting to droop near my butt crack. 

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Akin

A homily for the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 9, 2024

Gn 3:9-15, 2 Cor 4:13—5:1, Mk 3:20-35

The first time I saw someone talking on a cellphone wearing wireless earbuds, I thought the person was … uh … possibly mentally ill. You see, they weren’t merely having what looked like a conversation with their self; they were arguing.

Loudly. Passionately. Did I mention loudly?

With vigorous hand gestures to no one in sight, some of them NSFW.

As were many of the loud words.

The earbuds were so small that I didn’t spot them right away.

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Trio

A homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, May 26, 2024

Dt 4:32-34, 39-40, Rom 8:14-17, Mt 28:16-20

When I was in the seventh grade at St. Leo’s in Lincroft, I had it all figured out.

No, not the meaning of life, or how to avoid taxes, or even how to win the lottery.

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Unblocked

A homily for Pentecost, May 19, 2024

Mass During the Day: Acts 2:1-11, 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13, Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15

I suffer from writer’s block about as often as I suffer from allergies. Sometimes the attacks of either are stay-in-bed level; other times, I can power through. But like most of us, I do not relish either.

I have eye drops and antihistamine pills for my allergies, so their flare-ups qualify as annoyances and inconveniences.

But there’s no pill I can pop or lotion I can drop to cure writer’s block, especially when I’m dealing with a religious or spiritual or scriptural topic. And I consider that far more than an annoyance or an inconvenience. Especially as Sunday approaches.

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Hugly

A homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 5, 2024

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48, 1 Jn 4:7-10, Jn 15:9-17

Not everybody is a hugger, and that’s OK.

Whether it’s trees or teammates, cheek-pinching aunts or long-lost buddies, hugging just isn’t for everyone. And with so-called social distancing the rule during the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of us migrated toward social isolation.

Hugging correctly takes skill and emotion, regardless if we actually make physical contact or merely exchange sentiments from a few feet or even a dozen time zones away. Done right, a hug is a two-way sharing, a simultaneous giving and receiving.

For a hug to be done right, we have to take a huge chance and expose ourselves, our true selves, our inner selves.

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A-plus

A homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, April 14, 2024

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19, 1 Jn 2:1-5a, Lk 24:35-48

I was a guest at a wedding reception at a Jersey Shore restaurant on the Atlantic Ocean boardwalk. The sun-dappled waves were breaking almost under our feet; the food was delicious and plentiful; the other guests were fascinating and friendly.

A good time was had by all, to coin a phrase.

One element that truly elevated the evening, though, was the extraordinary service. The brigade of men and women attended to all our requests promptly and, in particular, delivered and removed the multiple courses of the meal cheerfully, seamlessly and efficiently. Not a detail was overlooked.

A+ service. A+++.

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Long view

A homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 29, 2023

Ex 22:20-26, 1 Thes 1:5c-10, Mt 22:34-40

The long and the short of it — literally and figuratively — is that how we live our lives depends on our perspectives.

Every one of us is different, even identical siblings. Each of us was born at a different time, in a different place (even if your mom and mine were side-by-side in the maternity ward). We have different body types, in every way that can be possible. 

And through the sheer laws of physics, none of us can see and experience precisely what another of us sees and hears and feels because none of us can exist in the same space as somebody else simultaneously.

Eight billion of us today. Billions who came before us. And, God willing, billions and trillions yet to come after us.

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Capital

A homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 22, 2023

Is 45:1, 4-6, 1 Thes 1:1-5b, Mt 22:15-21

“What’s in your wallet?”

Every time I hear Samuel L. Jackson ask that in the credit card commercial, I actually stop and think and try to remember what’s in my wallet.

For the record, none of what I carry is that particular card.

Continue reading Capital