Tag: Father

Merci beaucoup

A homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 1, 2021

Ex 16:2-4, 12-15, Eph 4:17, 20-24, Jn 6:24-35

If ever there were a time to be grateful, it’s now.

Even amid the ongoing-and-reviving pandemic, climate crises, unemployment, and civil and racial strife, we have much to be thankful for.

We are alive; we’ve lived to see another day. God’s Creation is beautiful (what we humans haven’t trashed, that is). Someone in Heaven loves us. Someone here on Earth does, too, even if we don’t know that person or persons personally.

And we are saved.

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All this and then some

A homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 20, 2021

Jb 38:1, 8-11, 2 Cor 5:14-17, Mk 4:35-41

This is a great time of the year to be awed by God.

And it’s so easy.

After the sun goes down, lean back wherever you are and look at the starry sky. If you’re privileged to live near a body of water or, better yet, the ocean, spread out your blanket on the shoreline and gaze at the splendor of the constellations while listening to the water gently lapping or crashing in waves.

God created it. All of it. The stars. The breeze. The relentless seas. The life-giving water.

God gave it to us.

Thank you, God!

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Proud to profess it

A homily for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, May 30, 2021

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

For years, I thought shamrocks were the size of ping-pong paddles. The decorations that covered every wall and shop window in mid-March made it seem as if St. Patrick held up something visible from the cheap seats when he explained the Holy Trinity to the early Irish. Even classroom posters that portrayed the Missionary to the Celts often pictured him with a hefty tri-lobed green thing that looked more like broccoli than theology.

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Awesome and awe-inspiring

A homily for Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of the Lord, April 4, 2021

Acts 10:34a, 37-43, Col 3:1-4, Jn 20:1-9

Did our jaws drop this morning? They should have.

Did we shout “Alleluia!” for its own sake, not just because it was in a prayer we had to say at church? We should have.

Did we greet each other with “Christos anesti! Alethos anesti!” or another culturally appropriate way of saying Christ is risen; truly, he is risen? We must.

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Like father…

A homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 21, 2021

Jer 31:31-34, Heb 5:7-9, Jn 12:20-33

We were reminded in last week’s Gospel of the great gift of God’s love — Emmanuel, God With Us, Jesus the Christ, God’s only-begotten Son — and this week our Gospel lays out in blunt, almost harsh, terms just how far Jesus is willing to go to save us from ourselves.

His divine perfection vs. our human imperfection.

His freedom from sin vs. our perpetual sliding into sin.

His laying down his life vs. our running from the slightest hint of danger.

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Cat’s eyes

A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 14, 2021

2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23, Eph 2:4-10, Jn 3:14-21

Whenever some people hear this Gospel proclaimed or read it for themselves, they quickly jump to the second paragraph, known popularly by its chapter and verse: John 3:16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.

And that is a beautiful, powerful verse from John, perhaps the essence of John’s Gospel. That verse encompasses faith, hope and love, the bedrock virtues of our relationship with our Creator.

What it has to do with rainbow wigs and clown makeup at pro football games, I’ll never know.

But it’s the verse at the end of today’s selection from Scripture that’s worth exploring today.

[W]hoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

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What’s in your … toolkit?

A homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jan. 17, 2021

1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19, 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20, Jn 1:35-42

In Matthew 22:14 — not among today’s selections from Scripture but relevant — Jesus ends a parable with

Many are invited, but few are chosen.

A more familiar translation is “Many are called, but few are chosen,” but “invited” does make it clearer that an outstretched hand is welcoming the many to a Big Event.

Today, our first reading and our Gospel interweave Choice and Call: of the prophet and of the first Apostles. And of us.

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The right thing to do

A homily for the Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 10, 2021

Is 42:1-4, 6-7, Acts 10:34-38, Mk 1:7-11

What would you do if, on any given day, the clouds parted, a blinding sunbeam spotlighted you, and a thundering shout — or a barely perceptible whisper — said, “I love you. You rock!”?

You’re not crazy. It’s not a practical joke. It’s not “Candid Camera” or “Punk’d.” It can — and should — be an everyday occurrence for each of us. We just need to understand that we have a role to play in the scenario.

Our role is a lot like Jesus’s role as he was baptized by John in the River Jordan: to serve and not be served, to lead our brothers and sisters to God by example from within the flock. To do the right thing at the right time, even if other people don’t think it’s necessary.

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Wrapped up in our lives

A homily for The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas), Dec. 25, 2020

Is 9:1-6, Ti 2:11-14, Lk 2:1-14

This time of year, a couple of cable channels run a holiday favorite film nonstop for 24 hours. You know the one. 

And even though “A Christmas Story” pales in significance when compared with The Christmas Story, the movie ends with a remembrance that could be scriptural:

The greatest Christmas gift I had ever received, or would ever receive.

That’s the core of The Christmas Story, the story we retell today and every December 25 and, we hope, every day of the year in words and actions as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, Our Newborn King.

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