Tag: Jesus

Rechargeable

A homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 5, 2023

Is 58:7-10, 1 Cor 2:1-5, Mt 5:13-16

There are three little bins on a shelf in our basement with batteries in them: double-A, triple-A, and some random C, D and 9-volt types. We go through the double-As fairly often, and I reload the bin whenever it gets low, whenever a couple of them leak, or whenever Costco puts the 40-pack on sale.

There’s another, smaller bin on a shelf built into my desk at home, and it has a bunch of rechargeable double-As and a four-battery charger. They’re collecting dust.

They shouldn’t be.

They are, however, symbolic.

Continue reading Rechargeable

Solo? No.

A homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 29, 2023

Zep 2:3; 3:12-13, 1 Cor 1:26-31, Mt 5:1-12a

After 9/11, the phrase was everywhere. On bumper stickers and license plates. On flags and posters. On lapel pins and T-shirts. Spray-painted as graffiti.

United We Stand.

United.

We.

Stand.

Only we didn’t. We don’t.

Continue reading Solo? No.

The right angle

A homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 22, 2023

Is 8:23—9:3, 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17, Mt 4:12-23

There are a couple of ways to go fishing, and each is vastly different from the other, but in the end, both catch fish.

One method, which the Apostles used in their day jobs, and which modern commercial fishermen still use, drags a net through the water, catching fish by the boatloads. The crew then usually dumps the entire catch onto the deck of the boat and culls out any unsuitable fish or trash. If it’s a responsible crew, they toss the undersized fish or unwanted species back into the water, and head for home with what they kept.

A mass catch.

Another method, pretty much the other main method, involves a rod and reel, bait or lures, and a skillful solo angler. The fisherman casts into what he hopes is a school of fish and reels them in one at a time. If he knows what he is doing, he’ll reel in only the type of fish he wants, at the right size. After a good day fishing, the angler takes home a freezer’s worth of bass.

A selective catch.

Continue reading The right angle

Shine on

A homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 15, 2023

Is 49:3, 5-6, 1 Cor 1:1-3, Jn 1:29-34

I’ve written and spoken before about my “unchurched” years in college and thereafter, about how I was not being nourished spiritually at the parish of my youth when all I could take away from my weekly 50 minutes in the pew was the knowledge that Group No. 2 was working bingo that Wednesday.

Incessant reminders about seat collections, collections for the parish administration and overdue grammar school tuition drove me away from organized religion after high school at Christian Brothers Academy.

What kept me away was the very thing some people were convinced attracted people to Christianity.

Proselytizing.

Continue reading Shine on

How far?

A homily for The Epiphany of the Lord, January 8, 2023

Is 60:1-6, Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6, Mt 2:1-12

These are the days of miracle and wonder…
… The way we look to a distant constellation
That’s dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder

In 1986, Paul Simon opened his “Graceland” album with the song “The Boy in the Bubble.” In it, his lyrics rattled off a list of technological marvels the world was only starting to learn about. Lasers in the jungle transmitting information. The baby with the baboon heart. The boy with no immune system who had to live in a germ-free bubble.

Fast-forward to now, and with the James Webb Space Telescope, we indeed are looking to distant constellations.

Miraculous.

Wonderful.

Amazing.

So what are we going to do about it?

Continue reading How far?

Awesome. Really.

A homily for the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas), December 25, 2022

Is 9:1-6, Ti 2:11-14, Lk 2:1-14 (the Mass at Night; for all Scripture options, click here)

This is the time of the year for us to be awestruck.

By Santa Claus? By 50 percent off and free delivery? By Jimmy Choo on consignment at The Real Real?

By our own ability to find a parking space right next to the front of the ShopRite, and then, for getting out of there with everything we went in to buy and with all of our limbs intact?

Uh, no.

To be sure: We can be happy this time of the year. Excited. Relieved, maybe, but not awestruck, despite what the solid-gold electric Cadillac commercials would have us believe.

None of that is awesome. Sorry not sorry, Madison Avenue.

Continue reading Awesome. Really.

Doing the right thing

A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 18, 2022

Is 7:10-14, Rom 1:1-7, Mt 1:18-24

Let’s imagine for a minute that it’s 3:15 in the morning and we’re driving home after work. We pulled a double shift at the hospital and “exhausted” doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of how we feel.

It’s a quiet night on the highway, compared with the absolute chaos in the emergency department, and we’re forcing our dog-tired selves not to nod off as we ease the car onto the ramp off the highway that leads to our street.

And then: You’ve got to be kidding! Red light. Not tonight … uh … this morning! This light takes forever, especially when there’s no line of cars for its radar to detect. This light takes forever, and our warm, cozy bed is calling our name.

We look right, then left, then right again, and try to decide: Do we run the light?

Continue reading Doing the right thing

Warmup acts

A homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, December 11, 2022

Is 35:1-6a, 10, Jas 5:7-10, Mt 11:2-11

Back in the 1970s, my brother Steve and I scored tickets to a dress rehearsal for “Saturday Night Live” in an attempt to impress two lady friends of his from college. They were visiting New York from Tennessee, and after the show, it became painfully clear they were impressed with everything except us.

But that’s a sad story for another day.

Meanwhile, I was unimpressed with that week’s show, except for the warmup. As I recall, I laughed until my ribs hurt. I was all ready to laugh my way until the closing theme, even though it turned out I didn’t.

Most TV shows with a live audience get a warmup before the taping or the live airing begins. If it’s a scripted sitcom or sketch comedy show, the warmup performer usually is a standup comedian. If the show is more serious, the warmup might be a member of the writing or production staff, or possibly the game show host or lead actor(s), answering questions about the show overall and perhaps hinting at what the audience will see in the episode about to unfold.

Even the opening act at a concert is a kind of warmup. A good opening band or some other performer sets the mood for the headliner coming next.

Continue reading Warmup acts

But they’re cousins (not identical…)

A homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 4, 2022

Is 11:1-10, Rom 15:4-9, Mt 3:1-12

A while ago, I took the Ancestry DNA test, a thoughtful gift from my wife, who’s been tracing her family tree (it’s become almost a forest). There were no surprises in my results, no hidden contributors to my cellular structure from far-flung places, no clear ties to Genghis Khan or Michelangelo or Einstein.

Nope, all was as expected: Celtic on Mom’s side, Eastern and Central European on Dad’s. No surprises.

The surprise arrived a couple of months after I received my results. First, Ancestry emailed me to say the test revealed that I had potential relatives and, then, a long-lost — and until then, unknown — cousin emailed me.

It turns out, she and I share a great-grandmother.

Continue reading But they’re cousins (not identical…)

No snooze button

A homily for the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2022

Is 2:1-5, Rom 13:11-14, Mt 24:37-44

Long before 9/11, long before we all were told that if we see something we must say something, people in the armed forces had a profound call-and-response:

Stay alert!
Stay alive!

Because, of course, sleepwalking through the day can lead to disastrous consequences.

Continue reading No snooze button