Tag: Holy Spirit

Miraculous

A homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 5, 2021

Is 35:4-7a, Jas 2:1-5, Mk 7:31-37

Every day is a day for miracles. And every day is a miracle in itself.

The sun rose today (well, actually, the Earth rotated so that we could see more and more of the Sun, but let’s not get too astrophysical …). Out there in the east, cruising through the south toward the west, with or without clouds, Sol is shining on Terra Firma.

A miracle.

God loves us and showers us with gifts, often when we don’t realize it.

More miracles.

Miracles for today and every day of our lives.

But what happens when we start to take miracles for granted and, more to the point, when we remove the role of the Almighty from miracles?

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The boss of me

A homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 29, 2021

Dt 4:1-2, 6-8, Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27, Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

When we think of gifts, we usually imagine big boxes wrapped in colorful paper tied up with shiny ribbons and a big bow. And as we tear into them, first ripping through the wrapping and then digging through the tissue paper to find the surprises inside, we try to imagine what toys we’ve been dreaming of could be inside.

Unless, of course, the gift is a pony. Then we just try to figure out how Mom and Dad got it into the box.

Regardless of the occasion — birthday, Christmas, First Holy Communion — we expect any gift we receive to be fun, or pretty, or at least something to keep our feet warm in the winter.

We don’t expect gifts to be stone tablets that tell us “No!”

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Decisions, decisions

A homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 22, 2021

Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b, Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32, Jn 6:60-69

As we break open today’s Gospel, we can be tempted to consider The Rock’s reply to Jesus’s question to be rhetorical:

“Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

To whom, indeed.

The answer seems to be such a “Well, yeah, of course,” quip that it does seem rhetorical.

But this was a make-or-break situation for Simon Peter and the rest of The Twelve. There was nothing rhetorical about their reply.

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The real thing

A homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 8, 2021

1 Kgs 19:4-8, Eph 4:30—5:2, Jn 6:41-51

My dad owned a few copies of “The Imitation of Christ,” by Thomas à Kempis, a guide to living in the footsteps of Jesus that, according to Wikipedia, was composed in Medieval Latin circa 1418–1427. That’s way back there.

I first noticed a copy prominently displayed on the bookcase in our living room about 530 years after its publication, when I had learned to read chapter books with big words and, as a good Catholic school second- or third-grader, when I was in desperate fear and hatred of the Antichrist.

You see, my vocabulary at that time grasped big words but not nuances, and I thought the book was about a fake messiah, the way imitation vanilla was fake and tasted fake. I wanted nothing to do with an imitation Christ. I wanted The Real Jesus.

I didn’t realize the title meant how to imitate Christ. So it was years before I attempted to open the book and take in its message.

Ah, youth.

Continue reading The real thing

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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C’est vrai

A homily for Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021

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

Today is about Truth.

(Actually, every day should be about truth, but today is special.)

Today is about speaking the Truth.

Today is about recognizing Truth when we hear it.

Today is about acting in support of Truth.

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Be it, do it

A homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, April 18, 2021

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

“Witness” is an odd word.

It’s a noun, and a vivid one at that.

It’s a verb, and it can be transitive or intransitive.

Frankly, it’s a miracle “witness” isn’t every other part of speech as well.

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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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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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Get out!

A homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jan. 31, 2021

Dt 18:15-20, 1 Cor 7:32-35, Mk 1:21-28

How many demons have you seen lately? Have you gone to the neighborhood exorcist for your unclean spirit problem recently?

Among our many challenges as 21st Century Christians is finding the deeper truths in First Century Scripture or, especially, in The Law and the Prophets that were compiled millennia before that.

We are challenged to see through the eyes of the Apostles and other early disciples when we usually see things through our more scientifically educated eyes, our eyes that have seen and experienced far more than simple fisherman and shepherds who rarely traveled far from their home villages. Who were educated by oral tradition, by word of mouth, and who passed along that knowledge to the next generation orally as well. Who were not exposed to the men who counted the stars or examined anatomy.

To understand, we are challenged to walk in their sandals.

Continue reading Get out!