Tag: Insight

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?

Continue reading Fair’s fair

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.

Continue reading Better than new

Seasonally affected

A little over 45 years ago, I stood in the living room of my college advisor, a beautifully wild man with wild hair and a creative spirit that had lit a fire in me and under me.

I was helping him pack.

He had not been granted tenure, and his contract was up, so he and his young family were heading out to his wife’s family home to work on their next steps.

It was, I recall him saying, the first time in 32 years that he would not be going back to school on Labor Day.

Back to school.

Continue reading Seasonally affected

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?

Continue reading I I U R, I I U B

Turf wars

A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 19, 2020

Wis 12:13, 16-19, Rom 8:26-27, Mt 13:24-43

Crabgrass. Goosegrass. Chickweed. Dandelions. Clover. Those tall spiky things with the leaves every two inches up the stem: Whatever they are.

For those of us with lawns, keeping weeds under control can be a never-ending struggle. Because, at best, we control weeds. We never defeat them. They’re stubborn and invasive and pervasive.

One weed becomes two becomes four becomes 16 becomes 256 becomes a math problem and that’s less fun than the weeds themselves. If only we can rid our lawns of that first one, we’ll be spared the outbreak. But how often does that happen?

Continue reading Turf wars

Speak truth to …

A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 12, 2020

Is 55:10-11, Rom 8:18-23, Mt 13:1-23

Back in the days of “Children should be seen and not heard” and “Because I said so,” Mom always justified those neanderthal rules with so-called “biological math”: 

“You have two eyes and two ears but only one mouth. Which do you think are more important?”

And she, like all mothers, made a good point. If we don’t see and hear, if we don’t watch and listen, we don’t learn. If we don’t learn, we live in the dark.

Continue reading Speak truth to …

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.

Continue reading How ordinary is Ordinary?

Can’t live without it

A homily for the Feast of Pentecost, Sunday, May 31, 2020

Acts 2:1-11 , 1 Cor 12:3B-7, 12-13,  Jn 20:19-23

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Take a deep breath. Let it out slowly.

Breathe deeply through your nose, yoga-style, then hold it for a count of 10.

Let it out slowly through your pursed lips, as if you were going to whistle. And whistle softly if you want; it’s optional.

Now let your breathing go back to automatic. It’s not that easy, is it? Not after doing controlled breathing exercises.

Continue reading Can’t live without it

Abby Somebody

A homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2020

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17, 1 Pt 3:15-18, Jn 14:15-21

When it became clear, two or three months or so ago, that the novel coronavirus was becoming dangerous, then really dangerous, then life-threatening, most of us bugged out à la M*A*S*H from our places of work or school. Quickly. Messily.

Very quickly. Very messily.

We grabbed the essentials to continue as essential workers; we powered down everything else; we scooted out of wherever with barely a “See ya” or a “Take care.”

Unlike mobile Army surgical hospitals, we never had bug-out drills. We never practiced shutting it all down and setting it all up somewhere else. We exited without a playbook, making it up as we went along. Some things we got right. Too many things, we got wrong.

Continue reading Abby Somebody