Tag: Homily

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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Fair’s fair

A homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sept. 20, 2020

Is 55:6-9, Phil 1:20C-24, 27A, Mt 20:1-16A

For some people steeped in timeclocks, hourly wages, collective bargaining and labor law, this Gospel has always been a head-scratcher.

If the worker who was employed from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. gets, let’s say, 75 bucks but then the worker who started at 6 a.m. also gets 75 bucks, how is that remotely fair? The late-starter is getting $75 an hour while the guy from the Dawn Patrol is getting $6.25. What should the hourly rate be? Shouldn’t it be the same for everybody?

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Better than new

A homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sept. 13, 2020

Sir 27:30 – 28:7, Rom 14:7-9. Mt 18:21-35

My late father used to say, “I’ll forgive, but I won’t forget.”

He wasn’t the only person I ever heard say that. In fact, he ran with quite a big crowd on that sentiment.

“I’ll forgive, but I won’t forget.”

I never understood that. I still don’t.

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You must be kidding

A homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 30, 2020

Jer 20:7-9,  Rom 12:1-2, Mt. 16:21-27

Let’s start with a little confession: I don’t talk about Jesus all that much. Not really.

I’ll say “Praise God!” or “Praise Jesus!” sometimes when some little good thing happens in my life, but it’s almost a reflex and not a reflection.

No, I won’t start a conversation about any person of the Holy Trinity, though I will talk at length if I’m asked or otherwise engaged in a conversation.

That may seem strange, when you point out I’m an ordained clergy member, a preacher and teacher and online (and occasionally live) homilist. But it’s true.

Continue reading You must be kidding

A cup of sugar

A homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 16, 2020

Is 56:1, 6-7, Rom 11:13-15, 29-32 , Mt 15:21-28

When we embrace The Way that Jesus blazed, we recognize that almost everything he preached was countercultural. Then and now.

Dining and bunking in with tax collectors and prostitutes, and forgiving their sins when they repented and promised to go and sin no more: Jesus was able to reconcile these dregs of society with the God of mercy, even if First Century Hebrew society left them at the margins.

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Tougher than the SAT

A homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 9, 2020

1 Kgs 19:9A, 11-13A, Rom 9: 1-5,  Mt 14:22-33

Like St. Peter’s, our faith is being tested right now.

Now, to be clear, I don’t believe the coronavirus is a punishment from God or an act of the devil. It’s not caused by demonic possession or the wrath of the Almighty for some transgression by our parents or grandparents. We’re long past those notions as a community of believers, or at least we should be.

Yes, COVID is testing our faith right now.

And it’s a hard test.

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Got it, got it, need it, need it

A homily for the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Aug. 2, 2020

Is 55:1-3, Rom 8:35, 37-39, Mt 14:13-21

On many Sundays, of our three Scripture passages, only the first reading and the Gospel are actually related. Often, if the first reading is from one of the prophets, our Gospel passage proclaims how Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy. In those cases, the prophet foreshadows the work and message of Jesus, not precisely in a fortune-telling way, but in a way the recognizes how the people of God B.C. were not quite following his rules and spiritual guidance. And the Gospel makes clear how Jesus came to complete the Law, not destroy it.

On those Sundays, the second reading — usually a letter from St. Paul — gently or firmly steers a group of believers back onto The Way of Christ. We humans do slip back into bad habits sometimes. The letters were written to Christian flocks in far-off places, and they were written to us. Hence their value.

Today, all three readings center around receiving and paying forward, and that blesses every one of us mightily.

Continue reading Got it, got it, need it, need it