Tag: Parable

Gray matter

A homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 26, 2026

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12, Romans 8:28-30, Matthew 13:44-52

If we count all the noses in the world, we discover that there are 8.3 billion-with-a-B people on Earth. Here in the USA, we make up almost 350 million members of our human family. We’re quite a crowd.

Every one of the 8.3 billion of us — North and South Americans, Africans, Europeans, Asians, Australians and even Antarcticans — has a brain. It’s been that way for tens of thousands of years, maybe even millions.

That’s quite a gift. Thank you, God!

Continue reading Gray matter

Stew

A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 19, 2026

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19, Romans 8:26-27, Matthew 13:24-43

Some people can be fussy about what they eat and how. Some picky eaters insist that certain foods cannot touch other items on their plates. No gravy near their peas and carrots, no syrup near their eggs. And no pickles, ever.

Semi-fussy folks may eat one item at a time, clearing away the broccoli before the beef, even when they’ve been wokked together.

And there’s a good argument to be made for this: Individual flavors and textures deserve to be savored, remembered for their uniqueness.

But we also know that great chefs devote immense and intense time and skill to craft recipes that pair complementary or contrasting ingredients to create something new, fascinating and even more memorable than Harvard beets. A concoction to be experienced in its entirety, a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

God is the greatest chef of all.

Continue reading Stew

Whatever it takes

A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 12, 2026

Isaiah 55:10-11, Romans 8:18-23, Matthew 13:1-23

We don’t often see the parallels between stained-glass windows and comic books/graphic novels. And Dr. Seuss and Scripture? Sam, I am not seeing it.

We accept the notion that the Psalms are poetry, but we don’t hear King David gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. No, nevermore.

God stuff? Church-y stuff? Regular people stuff? Do they, can they really mix? Can they blend smoothly into a unified way of life?

Continue reading Whatever it takes

Patience

A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 26, 2026

Acts 2:14a, 36-41, 1 Peter 2:20b-25, John 10:1-10

About 15 years ago, our front lawn was green and lush. For about three weeks. A legitimate showpiece, just begging for us to walk barefoot and let the silky blades tickle our toes. Woohoo! We even sorta-kinda played badminton, until we lost all the birdies.

In the 23 years before that, and in the 15 years since, our postage-stamp-size patch of earth has looked more like the fur on a dog with mange.

So this year, I hired someone to rip out the crabgrass, sprinkle some topsoil and starter fertilizer, and scatter some grass seed. In March. After the snow, but only shortly afterward. Yeah, with all that crazy weather.

Even so, I watered it faithfully according to the landscaper’s instructions.

Ya know that cliché about how boring it is to watch grass grow? It’s even more boring to watch grass not grow.

Continue reading Patience

NaCl

A homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 8, 2026

Isaiah 58:7-10, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Matthew 5:13-16

A few weeks ago, just as Jack Frost started to flex his icy tentacles, the big story in the news was the shortage of salt.

After years of mild winters, many towns’ stockpiles of road salt ran low or completely out. And because recent demand for rock salt had been so-so, several suppliers had cut back on production. It didn’t make sense to manufacture stuff nobody was buying.

Then — whoosh! — the polar vortex and below-zero wind-chill factors and cross-country monster snow-and-ice storms came roaring down from The Great White North. And many of us weren’t getting out of our driveways onto streets that were barely passable anyway.

When we did, we found ourselves at the end of lines at hardware stores that announced they’d just received a shipment of ice melter. Which sold out in minutes. Often while we were still in line, hoping. Sigh.

Salt has a lot more going for it than flavor.

Continue reading NaCl

What’s Next?

A homily for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed:
All Souls, November 2, 2025

Wisdom 3:1-9, Romans 5:5-11, John 6:37-40

Please forgive me if I’ve recounted this before…

When I was 12, three of my classmates’ fathers died in a fairly rapid sequence, including the dad of my best friend. Mr. M was in his mid-30s, a rugged National Guard officer, and his abrupt death seemed to come as far more of a shock than the other two. Those gents were older and ill, though all losses are sad.

The three deaths terrified me, but I wasn’t afraid that my father would be next. No: I was convinced that my time was almost up.

Continue reading What’s Next?

Faith in Faith

A homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 5, 2025

Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4, 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14, Luke 17:5-10

We’re slowly edging into autumn. It’s more than a month old, meteorologically, and a little over a week old astronomically. The trees are starting to show their fall colors (though this looks like a dull season), and not long from now the leaves of brown will come tumblin’ down (to steal some lyrics).

It’s the annual cycle of seasons here in the Northeast.

It’s the circle of life, to borrow some other lyrics.

And because all life on God’s Green Earth is interconnected, because every singular aspect of life — our lives — contributes to the whole of Creation, there’s a spiritual aspect to the very physical cycle of death and rebirth. A metaphor.

As witnessed by all the plants we refer to as deciduous or annuals.

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Sez who?

A homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 28, 2025

Amos 6:1a, 4-7, 1 Timothy 6:11-16, Luke 16:19-31

George Booth was a cartoonist, mostly for The New Yorker magazine, and he was famous for his detailed line drawings of wacky people and their even-wackier pets. His trademark character was a skittish bull terrier, and he once drew a cartoon with 86 cats and 74 dogs, along with a bunch of people and a cloud of buzzing flies.

George Booth’s cartoons were hilarious.

But he could be profound.

Continue reading Sez who?

Stuff it

A homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 7, 2025

Wisdom 9:13-18b, Philemon 9-10, 12-17, Luke 14:25-33

Amid all the news recently about wars and famines and the melting of the Earth’s biggest iceberg, one item stood out.

A young man named Doogie Sandtiger was awarded the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of Crocs. The Connecticut resident owns more than 3,800 pairs of the shoes, and he is still collecting. He hopes they will form the basis of a Crocs museum.

A fascinating human interest story, or just a crock?

How we view our own stuff will determine which side we come down on.

Continue reading Stuff it

Seedlings

A homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 10, 2025

Wisdom 18:6-9, Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19, Luke 12:32-48

As it turns out, most of the stories about Johnny Appleseed were true, and only mildly embellished.

Here are a couple of salient paragraphs from the Wikipedia entry on this American folk hero:

Johnny Appleseed (born John Chapman; September 26, 1774 – March 18, 1845) was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced trees grown with apple seeds (as opposed to trees grown with grafting) to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Ontario, as well as the northern counties of West Virginia. He became an American icon while still alive, due to his kind, generous ways, his leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance that he attributed to apples. …

The popular image is of Johnny Appleseed spreading apple seeds randomly everywhere he went. In fact, he planted nurseries rather than orchards, built fences around them to protect them from livestock and wildlife, left the nurseries in the care of a neighbor who sold trees on shares, and returned every year or two to tend the nursery. … Continue reading Seedlings