A homily for the First Sunday of Advent, December 3, 2023
Is 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7, 1 Cor 1:3-9, Mk 13:33-37
During the 50-some-odd years Dad practiced as a family physician, his office hours started at 8:30 a.m. and ended in the evening when his waiting room was empty. Mom never knew exactly when to put dinner on the table, but Dad’s patients always felt cared for.
A homily for The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, November 26, 2023
Ez 34:11-12, 15-17, 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28, Mt 25:31-46
We have a lot of kings here in America, and unlike anywhere else in the world, in America, our kings are people, places and things.
A homily for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 5, 2023
Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10, 1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13, Mt 23:1-12
The DoorDash food-delivery service made somewhat unwanted headlines recently when its app started nudging customers to leave its drivers a tip with the extortion-like suggestion that, if the customer didn’t pay a gratuity, their food might arrive late and cold.
Frankly, I think the suggestion was cold.
A homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 29, 2023
Ex 22:20-26, 1 Thes 1:5c-10, Mt 22:34-40
The long and the short of it — literally and figuratively — is that how we live our lives depends on our perspectives.
Every one of us is different, even identical siblings. Each of us was born at a different time, in a different place (even if your mom and mine were side-by-side in the maternity ward). We have different body types, in every way that can be possible.
And through the sheer laws of physics, none of us can see and experience precisely what another of us sees and hears and feels because none of us can exist in the same space as somebody else simultaneously.
Eight billion of us today. Billions who came before us. And, God willing, billions and trillions yet to come after us.
A homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 17, 2023
Sir 27:30—28:7, Rom 14:7-9, Mt 18:21-35
When angry, count four. When very angry, swear.
Mark Twain
We all get angry; it’s a basic human emotion. For some of us, anger is one of the most powerful emotions, if not the most overwhelming. Anger’s power makes it difficult to contain or cool down from. When anger overwhelms us, it provokes action.
A homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 3, 2023
Jer 20:7-9, Rom 12:1-2, Mt 16:21-27
What if maybe, just maybe, Linus was right?
What if, even just once, Linus Van Pelt’s pumpkin patch was the most sincere in the whole world?
What if everything the “Peanuts” character believed about The Great Pumpkin was not a cockamamie fairy tale?
Would the kids have stopped laughing? Would the adults have stopped making the muted cornet “waa-waa” sounds?
Would everyone everywhere have started to believe?
A somewhat brief homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 20, 2023
Is 56:1, 6-7, Rom 11:13-15, 29-32, Mt 15:21-28
E.T. has phoned home and the spaceship has returned to Earth to pick him up.
As the cultural touchstone film nears its end, the little alien botanist does two things that turn out to be profoundly theological.
He wags his index finger in mischievous Gertie’s face and says, “Be good,” stretching out the two syllables in that scratchy voice.
He then touches Elliott’s chest over his heart, and in a similarly elongated rasp, says, “I’ll be right here.”
The movie script could have come from today’s passages from Scripture.
A homily for the Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6, 2023
Dn 7:9-10, 13-14, 2 Pt 1:16-19, Mt 17:1-9
I always wanted a time machine. Between the H.G. Wells novel and the cheesy but omnipresent sci-fi shows of the 1960s (thank you, Irwin Allen), the notion of traveling to the future to see what humankind would do and design and build was irrepressible.
When anyone asked me the standard adult-to-child question — “What do you want to be when you grow up?” — I usually answered with some variation of “somebody who’s concerned with the future.”
And I still am. Deeply, almost desperately so.
A homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 30, 2023
1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12, Rom 8:28-30, Mt 13:44-52
It all started with Classics Illustrated.
As all good parents do, my folks always brought my brothers and me some small gifts from their Florida vacations away from us — usually orange marmalade, stuffed baby alligators (cool at the time; not so much now), tropical candies and, for me, a Classics Illustrated version of some novel I hadn’t yet read.
A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 23, 2023
Wis 12:13, 16-19, Rom 8:26-27, Mt 13:24-43
The Bible is amazing and awesome.
First of all, it’s a book of books. We Catholics believe that the Old Testament comprises 46 books, and the New Testament, 27.
And Christians and Jews alike believe that these books contain the Word of God, faithfully recorded by women and men whom the Holy Spirit inspired.
We of the Judeo-Christian faith traditions believe that these books contain Truth, with a capital T.
That doesn’t mean these books aren’t head-scratchers sometimes.
