Tag: Scripture

Long view

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.

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Capital

A homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 22, 2023

Is 45:1, 4-6, 1 Thes 1:1-5b, Mt 22:15-21

“What’s in your wallet?”

Every time I hear Samuel L. Jackson ask that in the credit card commercial, I actually stop and think and try to remember what’s in my wallet.

For the record, none of what I carry is that particular card.

Continue reading Capital

Rainout

My apologies: No online homily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 15, 2023

Is 25:6-10a, Phil 4:12-14, 19-20, Mt 22:1-10

Occasionally — fortunately, rarely — my plate gets a little too full, and I needed to pause this weekend.

So, as did the king, I invite you to feast on the Word from today’s Scripture selections, and likewise I invite you to hear me preach in person next Sunday, October 22.

Or watch for the online version next weekend.

Thank you for reading.

Peace and blessings,
Bill

Acidic

A homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 8, 2023

Is 5:1-7, Phil 4:6-9, Mt 21:33-43

John Steinbeck’s prizewinning book, The Grapes of Wrath, has come to symbolize everything that was — still is — wrong with tenant farming in the United States and elsewhere. Even the book’s title sparks passionate feelings in anyone who hears it, even if they have never read the novel or seen the movie or listened to Bruce Springsteen.

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Recalculating

A homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 1, 2023

Ez 18:25-28, Phil 2:1-11, Mt 21:28-32

There’s a TV commercial for a company that makes promotional items, the “for certain” people, and in it a woman driving a car filled with tchotchkes for a client is taken on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride over hill and dale and rail and through a cornfield until she comes face-to-face with a Holstein cow. The sadly mistaken GPS tells her she’s arrived at her destination.

Uh, not quite.

Continue reading Recalculating

Baker’s dozen

A homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 24, 2023

Is 55:6-9, Phil 1:20c-24, 27a, Mt 20:1-16a

You’ve probably heard a rumor that I enjoy an occasional cup of coffee every now and then. I’d like to set the record straight.

I drink many cups of coffee almost constantly, and I’ve done so for decades.

In fact, I even subscribe to a service that sends me enough recyclable and compostable pods to make 90 cups a month. Which I supplement with, yes, trips to Wawa, where they know my face if not my name.

Continue reading Baker’s dozen

Seeing red

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.

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Able like Abel

A homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 10, 2023

Ez 33:7-9, Rom 13:8-10, Mt 18:15-20

When I was in my late teens and early 20s, in the last quarter of the 20th century, I was a high-paid babysitter, maybe the highest-paid in New Jersey. It had little to do with me or some spectacular talent I may have had, and pretty much everything to do with my clientele.

I looked after the children of many one-percenters who knew the family whose name was on the side of the trucks of the construction company I worked for during my college summer breaks. Whose owner was one of my dad’s best friends. Thus, I was vouched for. And to them, I was William. Never Bill or Billy or Will or Willy.

Wow, that was a long trip for a setup. I hope that made sense.

Continue reading Able like Abel

Solid

A homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 27, 2023

Is 22:19-23, Rom 11:33-36, Mt 16:13-20

Back in 1977, a silly little film called “Rocky” defied all odds and won the Best Picture Oscar as well as a bunch of other awards.

The movie told the tale of a ne’er-do-well second- or third-tier boxer who was given a shot at the world championship as a publicity stunt for the current champ. Rocky Balboa was a simple guy, not credited with a lot of smarts other than street smarts, and he had zero chance of winning. 

Except he almost did win, defying all odds, because he worked hard and believed in himself. And maybe he almost won because he wasn’t savvy enough to understand that he was just supposed to be a punching bag, a laughingstock.

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Wisdom from space

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.

Continue reading Wisdom from space