Tag: Jesus

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.

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Merci beaucoup

A homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 1, 2021

Ex 16:2-4, 12-15, Eph 4:17, 20-24, Jn 6:24-35

If ever there were a time to be grateful, it’s now.

Even amid the ongoing-and-reviving pandemic, climate crises, unemployment, and civil and racial strife, we have much to be thankful for.

We are alive; we’ve lived to see another day. God’s Creation is beautiful (what we humans haven’t trashed, that is). Someone in Heaven loves us. Someone here on Earth does, too, even if we don’t know that person or persons personally.

And we are saved.

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Just one more, Lord

A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 18, 2021

Jer 23:1-6, Eph 2:13-18, Mk 6:30-34

In the movie “Hacksaw Ridge” — the brutal, bloody retelling of a critical battle in World War II’s Pacific Theater — Army medic Desmond Doss drags one wounded soldier after another to safety while flames and bullets rage around him.

Doss, a conscientious objector who volunteered to save lives on the front lines, prays for strength as he continues his mission all night.

“Just one more, Lord; just one more.”

It’s a true story.

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Oh, yeah: That guy

A homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 4, 2021

Ez 2:2-5, 2 Cor 12:7-10, Mk 6:1-6

In the fall of 1976, as the Jesus Movement — or “Jesus Freak” movement — was winding down, my then-girlfriend and I attended an outdoor concert in New York City. As we exited onto Central Park South in the twilight, she squeezed my arm and said, “I think that man is going to mug us,” motioning to someone shuffling toward me on the left.

For reasons I still don’t completely understand, I pried loose from her and strode briskly toward the suspicious person, reaching into my jacket pocket for the program from the show.

Wild-eyed and staring him in the face, waving the paper, I enthusiastically and energetically said, “Do you know Jesus? Jesus is your personal Lord and Savior! I have a tract right here that…”

He took off like a shot, and I rejoined my friend unmolested.

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Reset button

A homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 27, 2021

Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24, 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15, Mk 5:21-43 or 5:21-24, 35b-43

Ever since video games evolved beyond Pong and Space Invaders, they’ve had a feature that every player has counted on:

The reset button.

Bang-bang! You’re dead.

Game over?

No, just hit the reset button and you get a new life.

Wow. Talk about a statement chock-full of theological, philosophical, psychological and practical significance!

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All this and then some

A homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 20, 2021

Jb 38:1, 8-11, 2 Cor 5:14-17, Mk 4:35-41

This is a great time of the year to be awed by God.

And it’s so easy.

After the sun goes down, lean back wherever you are and look at the starry sky. If you’re privileged to live near a body of water or, better yet, the ocean, spread out your blanket on the shoreline and gaze at the splendor of the constellations while listening to the water gently lapping or crashing in waves.

God created it. All of it. The stars. The breeze. The relentless seas. The life-giving water.

God gave it to us.

Thank you, God!

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Nine yards and much more

A homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, June 6, 2021

Ex 24:3-8, Heb 9:11-15, Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

Today’s solemn feast — and yes, “solemn” is right there in its name — is as joyous an occasion as it is a serious one.

Today we venerate the gift to humanity of the Holy Eucharist, body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus the Christ, who commanded all of God’s children to “do this in remembrance of me.”

In his holy name and through his divine power, the substance of bread and wine transforms into the real presence of Emmanuel.

So today’s solemnity, then, indeed is powerful, heavy, heady. Mysterious.

But we also celebrate, because Our Lord and Savior is with us physically, tangibly, and we are reminded of all of his gifts that nourish us and sustain us spiritually.

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