Tag: Father

Assembly required

A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Dec. 20, 2020

2 Sm 7:1-5, 8B-12, 14A, 16, Rom 16:25-27, Lk 1:26-38

Have you ever given or received a present marked “Some Assembly Required”?

Or, more accurately: How many times have you given or received a gift marked “Some Assembly Required”?

When we’re the recipient, we’ll sigh, make a snarky joke about “the gift that keeps on giving,” and then set to work putting all the pieces together. Sometimes we’ll even follow the instructions. And sometimes — sometimes — it goes together easily, correctly, with no pieces left over.

In any case, a gift that requires some — or much — assembly also requires some — or, often, much — commitment.

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It’s not cod-liver oil

A homily for The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Nov. 22, 2020

Ez 34:11-12, 15-17, 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28, Mt 25:31-46

My mom grew up in a row house in the Logan section of Philadelphia, where everyone had a front porch and there was no separation among them except for a three-foot-tall brick divider.

On one hand, back in the first half of the 20th Century, it engendered a sense of neighborliness we’re missing in the suburbs these days. On the other hand, privacy was in short supply.

Which meant that everybody knew when her neighbors three houses down got their nightly outdoor checkups on their porch and had to choke down their foul, fishy-tasting medicine.

All because it was good for them.

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When bigger is better

A homily for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Nov. 15, 2020

Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31, 1 Thes 5:1-6, Mt 25:14-30

The best way to check if something — or someone, or you — is alive is to make sure it’s growing.

If it is, it’s alive.

But if someone is already 6-foot-7, and that’s the tallest they’re going to get, are they still growing?

If someone is truly alive, the answer is yes, because people have the God-given ability to grow intellectually, emotionally and spiritually every day of their lives. Which means, of course, that someone needs to grow in these areas to be more than merely existing.

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It’s a virtue

A homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Nov. 8, 2020

Wis 6:12-16, 1 Thes 4:13-18, Mt 25:1-13

Imagine, if you will, that you’re standing at the train station waiting for the 5:14 to New York, and it’s 5:12 p.m. Where are you looking? At your watch or smartphone? Randomly, all around?

Maybe.

But the odds are good that you’re looking up the tracks in the direction your train will be coming from. You want to see the train coming. You want to be ready when it arrives … as if you weren’t already ready to climb aboard.

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Holier than whom?

A homily for the Solemnity of All Saints, Nov. 1, 2020

Rv 7:2-4, 9-14, 1 Jn 3:1-3, Mt 5:1-12A

The notion of “holy” gets some people all knotted up, because to some folks, “holy” is the first two syllables of a phrase that ends with “er than thou,” and like almost everything else in American culture, achieving a level of holiness can become a competition, cynical or otherwise.

It’s not.

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Red-carpet couture

A homily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Oct. 11, 2020

Is 25:6-10A, Phil 4:12-14, 19-20, Mt. 22:1-14

Every so often, the Lectionary — the book we use at Mass with selections from the Law and the Prophets, the Letters of Peter and Paul, the Gospels of the Four Evangelists, and other New Testament books — gives us a short version and a longer version of a reading, usually the Gospel. This is one of those occasions.

It’s notable this weekend because the impact of each of the versions can be felt in opposite ways, and that makes choosing between the two a head-scratcher.

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Interstate 80 at 80 mph

A homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sept. 27, 2020

Ez 18:25-28, Phil 2:1-11, Mt 21:28-32

As you may or may not know, I was a deadline editor at newspapers for 40 years, and several times during my career I was part of a team whose task was to (a) transform the look and feel of the newspaper, (b) add the news to websites and apps, (c) revise the look and feel of the newspaper again, and so on. And on and on.

Also, as you likely know, the news never stops. So all of these transformations had to be engineered and accomplished while we reported, fact-checked, re-reported, re-fact-checked, edited, illustrated, designed and published the newspaper and website.

We did not get to stop what we were doing to rip apart, tear down, gather materials and rebuild.

We realized we had to work as if we were changing the tires on Interstate 80 at 80 miles per hour.

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I I U R, I I U B

A homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 26, 2020

1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12, Rom 8:28-30, Mt 13:44-52

Have you ever asked for something? Asked Mom or Dad or Uncle Mike or Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny?

Did you get it? After you got it, was it really what you wanted? And even if you thought it was, did you get tired of it after a while? Or, after a long while, did you realize that, no, it really wasn’t what you wanted after all?

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How ordinary is Ordinary?

A homily for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 21, 2020

Jer 20:10-13, Rom 5:12-15, Mt 10:26-33

It’s officially summer. It’s Father’s Day. The Church has returned — for a long stretch — to Ordinary Time, a quieter time in the liturgical calendar. The green vestments are back indoors, just as green leaves are back outdoors. (The pollen too, but oh well.)

All’s right with the world. There’s joy in Heaven and on Earth.

Oh, wait.

These are not ordinary Ordinary times.

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The ultimate relationship

A homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 7, 2020

Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9, 2 Cor 13:11-13, Jn 3:16-18

We bless ourselves in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And then we lock it in with a solid “Amen.” “It is so.” “Truly.”

We baptize this way. Confirm this way. The Trinitarian way.

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