Some brief thoughts in lieu of a homily* for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 25, 2022
Am 6:1a, 4-7, 1 Tm 6:11-16, Lk 16:19-31
Everything we have is a gift, even if we are convinced otherwise, even if we are convinced that we did it all ourselves.
Even if we supposedly earned or won everything we have on this Earth, we earned it or won it with innate skills or talents or intellect or sheer dumb luck that themselves were gifts.
A homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 18, 2022
Am 8:4-7, 1 Tm 2:1-8, Lk 16:10-13
Trust.
It’s at the heart of every relationship: personal, business or governmental. It underpins every transaction.
It’s the first byword of the Boy Scout Law: A Scout is trustworthy.
A trust — a structure that manages finances for someone or some group — ensures stability and security in perpetuity.
And speaking of finances, even our money says simply, “In God We Trust.”
Trust is an absolute.
A homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 11, 2022
Ex 32:7-11, 13-14, 1 Tm 1:12-17, Lk 15:1-32
A news article about the cleanup of a toxic-waste dump quoted an environmental scientist about the contaminated soil.
It’s like a kitchen sponge, he said. You can rinse a sponge and squeeze it again and again, but you never get all the soap or dirt out of it, no matter how many times you try, no matter how hard you try.
You can get really close, but that’s it.
Which is exactly what happens when we seek forgiveness.
A homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 4, 2022
Wis 9:13-18b, Phmn 9-10, 12-17, Lk 14:25-33
The late great George Carlin had a bit in which he lampooned Americans’ obsessive materialism. Everything, he would say, was about stuff.
We go to work to make money to buy stuff. We buy houses to keep our stuff in. When we’ve bought more stuff than our houses can hold, we buy bigger houses.
And then someone invented storage units.
Meanwhile, the bumper sticker reminds us: Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live.
A homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 28, 2022
Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29, Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a, Lk 14:1, 7-14
Imagine for a second that you’re a top-flight horseback rider and you’ve just won a coveted blue ribbon.
Or maybe you’re a quilter, and you’ve won a blue ribbon.
Or a chef, and you’ve achieved Cordon Bleu.
The applause is deafening. Your family and friends and total strangers are cheering for you, clapping for you, patting you on the back, maybe asking for your autograph.
Then it’s time to say a few words.
A homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 14, 2022
Jer 38:4-6, 8-10, Heb 12:1-4, Lk 12:49-53
We’ve all seen the photos and TV coverage of people waiting in line to buy the newest iPhone.
We’ve all seen the photos and TV coverage of people breaking down the doors at stores as they open on so-called Black Friday.
We’ve all seen the photos and TV coverage of people sleeping on the sidewalk outside the box office to buy Springsteen tickets.
We’ve all heard the stories and seen the TV coverage of how Beyonce concert tickets sold out online in 30 seconds.
And how ’bout them $70,000+ Super Bowl tickets!
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.
