A homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 24, 2021
Jer 31:7-9, Heb 5:1-6, Mk 10:46-52
What makes a good photo?
Composition, yes. Lighting, indeed. The right subject, absolutely.
Focus? Essential.
The same is true when we look. Look, and not merely see. Because the act of looking adds focus to all the visual inputs that can bombard us when we open our eyes.
A homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 17, 2021
Is 53:10-11, Heb 4:14-16, Mk 10:35-45
It’s such a cliché: “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” The activity is supposed to give us a sense of what it’s like to be that person, or a person of that person’s ethnicity, or socioeconomic situation, or belief system, but it’s a fundamentally flawed exercise.
I am not, and never will be, anything but a white male human descended from Irish-Welsh-French-Alsatian-Croatian-Slovak stock, raised in the suburban dead center of New Jersey, educated at Catholic grammar and boys prep schools in that aforementioned Central Jersey and at a small, private liberal arts college in the rural dead center of Pennsylvania.
Put me in Manolo Blahnik shoes and I will not be a supermodel. Put me again in work boots atop a pile of hot asphalt and I may labor but I will not be a laborer. Put me in moccasins and — at best — I am guilty of cultural appropriation.
We may try, we may try with every fiber of our being, to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, but in the end, the most we can hope for is partial enlightenment.
A homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 26, 2021
Nm 11:25-29, Jas 5:1-6, Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
Let’s imagine a 3- or 4-year-old is playing in the yard some morning when firetrucks race by, lights flashing and sirens wailing. The child looks down the street, sees that the house where the emergency crews are headed is on fire, and then rushes inside to tell Mom or Dad what’s happening.
This child has become a prophet.
S/he sees the facts (firetrucks driving to the house that’s aflame), she understands the truth (a burning house is dangerous to life and property), she knows what must be done (douse the blaze) and she anticipates what the best result will be (fire extinguished, no one hurt, little damage).
This is not soothsaying or Nostradamus-like fortunetelling. Prophecy is extensive observation, critical thinking, action-planning and well-formed prediction, and we all can do it.
A homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 5, 2021
Is 35:4-7a, Jas 2:1-5, Mk 7:31-37
Every day is a day for miracles. And every day is a miracle in itself.
The sun rose today (well, actually, the Earth rotated so that we could see more and more of the Sun, but let’s not get too astrophysical …). Out there in the east, cruising through the south toward the west, with or without clouds, Sol is shining on Terra Firma.
A miracle.
God loves us and showers us with gifts, often when we don’t realize it.
More miracles.
Miracles for today and every day of our lives.
But what happens when we start to take miracles for granted and, more to the point, when we remove the role of the Almighty from miracles?
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!”
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.
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.
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!
A homily for Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021
Acts 2:1-11, 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13, Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15
Today is about Truth.
(Actually, every day should be about truth, but today is special.)
Today is about speaking the Truth.
Today is about recognizing Truth when we hear it.
Today is about acting in support of Truth.
A homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, April 18, 2021
Acts 3:13-15, 17-19, 1 Jn 2:1-5a, Lk 24:35-48
“Witness” is an odd word.
It’s a noun, and a vivid one at that.
It’s a verb, and it can be transitive or intransitive.
Frankly, it’s a miracle “witness” isn’t every other part of speech as well.
