Tag: Scripture

A stitch in time

A homily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 10, 2021

Wis 7:7-11, Heb 4:12-13, Mk 10:17-30

It’s still possible to buy a needle threader, an incredibly brilliant yet simple tool that helps people with unsteady hands or so-so eyesight — or without the patience and tolerance for frustration — to pass a thread through the eye of a needle.

The fine wire goes through the eye first, and then the thread gets slipped through the lasso-like diamond on the other side.

A quick tug on the handle — or whatever it’s called — and the fine wire lasso hauls the thread through the eye.

Of course, you have to get the needle threader’s wire lasso through the eye first, but pound for pound that’s a far smaller challenge than jabbing a limp, frayed string through a tiny metal oval.

And, no, using a tool is not cheating.

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The bigger they are

A homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 3, 2021

Gn 2:18-24, Heb 2:9-11, Mk 10:2-16

We’ve all heard the old saw “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” And history has proven that true time and again.

But what about “The bigger they are, the more humble they become”?

Doesn’t sound familiar.

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Truth in action

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.

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Now what?

A homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 19, 2021

Wis 2:12, 17-20, Jas 3:16—4:3, Mk 9:30-37

The core of our faith — the core of our relationship with our Creator and all of Creation — is the Two Great Commandments: Love God and Love Neighbor.

So beautifully simple and pure that even a child can understand them, to paraphrase a slogan, which is part of why Jesus is so often chronicled as embracing children, who in his day were considered replaceable chattel the same way women were.

So we have two radical ideas: Love can be uncomplicated and children and women are people with worth in God’s eyes.

Now what?

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Actions speak louder…

A delayed and brief homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 12, 2021

Is 50:5-9a, Jas 2:14-18, Mk 8:27-35

Though we believe the Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God, not all of them are easily understood or digested. Not all of them have an immediately obvious application to modern life. Some can be serious head-scratchers.

Which is why we have homilies, among other reasons.

Occasionally, though, we hear a segment of Scripture that is perfectly simple and simply perfect.

And a long or tedious homily, as The Bard said in “King John,”

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily / To throw a perfume on the violet. . .. / Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

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Miraculous

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?

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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.

Continue reading Merci beaucoup