Sermon 27 - Unpaid Bill

Tougher than the SAT

A homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 9, 2020

1 Kgs 19:9A, 11-13A, Rom 9: 1-5, Mt 14:22-33

Like St. Peter’s, our faith is being tested right now.

Now, to be clear, I don’t believe the coronavirus is a punishment from God or an act of the devil. It’s not caused by demonic possession or the wrath of the Almighty for some transgression by our parents or grandparents. We’re long past those notions as a community of believers, or at least we should be.

Yes, COVID is testing our faith right now.

And it’s a hard test.

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I I U R, I I U B

A homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 26, 2020

1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12, Rom 8:28-30, Mt 13:44-52

Have you ever asked for something? Asked Mom or Dad or Uncle Mike or Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny?

Did you get it? After you got it, was it really what you wanted? And even if you thought it was, did you get tired of it after a while? Or, after a long while, did you realize that, no, it really wasn’t what you wanted after all?

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Turf wars

A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 19, 2020

Wis 12:13, 16-19, Rom 8:26-27, Mt 13:24-43

Crabgrass. Goosegrass. Chickweed. Dandelions. Clover. Those tall spiky things with the leaves every two inches up the stem: Whatever they are.

For those of us with lawns, keeping weeds under control can be a never-ending struggle. Because, at best, we control weeds. We never defeat them. They’re stubborn and invasive and pervasive.

One weed becomes two becomes four becomes 16 becomes 256 becomes a math problem and that’s less fun than the weeds themselves. If only we can rid our lawns of that first one, we’ll be spared the outbreak. But how often does that happen?

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Speak truth to …

A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 12, 2020

Is 55:10-11, Rom 8:18-23, Mt 13:1-23

Back in the days of “Children should be seen and not heard” and “Because I said so,” Mom always justified those neanderthal rules with so-called “biological math”:

“You have two eyes and two ears but only one mouth. Which do you think are more important?”

And she, like all mothers, made a good point. If we don’t see and hear, if we don’t watch and listen, we don’t learn. If we don’t learn, we live in the dark.

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The mouths of babes

A homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 5, 2020

Zec 9:9-10, Rom 8:9, 11-13, Mt 11:25-30

There’s something to be said for bumper-sticker theology. Not a lot, mind you, but definitely something to be said, and it’s this:

Most of what Jesus preached does not need over-thinking.

Which means that much of what he preached — and what he expects us to incorporate into our lives every day — can fit on the back of a Chevy.

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Open-door policy

A homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 28, 2020

2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a, Rom 6:3-4, 8-11, Mt 10:37-42

We know that Scripture, the Word of God as written down by (mostly) men inspired by the Holy Spirit, has gone through numerous translations. Countless translations, actually, from the original. With tweaks to keep certain images and references understandable if not totally relevant to the day in which they’re proclaimed or read.

And although we believe that not much has been lost in translation, and definitely none of the underlying interwoven truth, there can be no doubt that approximations have crept in when one highly nuanced language has 15 words while another squishes them all into one.

Which is why today’s Gospel is challenging to hear, let alone absorb. Because, in the version we heard, Jesus seems to be demanding an either-or rather than a both-and, and that’s not what we’ve come to expect from him.

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How ordinary is Ordinary?

A homily for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 21, 2020

Jer 20:10-13, Rom 5:12-15, Mt 10:26-33

It’s officially summer. It’s Father’s Day. The Church has returned — for a long stretch — to Ordinary Time, a quieter time in the liturgical calendar. The green vestments are back indoors, just as green leaves are back outdoors. (The pollen too, but oh well.)

All’s right with the world. There’s joy in Heaven and on Earth.

Oh, wait.

These are not ordinary Ordinary times.

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Soul and divinity

A homily for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, June 14, 2020

Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a, 1 Cor 10:16-17, Jn 6:51-58

Our solemnity today of the Body and Blood of Christ — Corpus Christi, in popular parlance — is a profound veneration of God’s gift of the Son to humanity as our Savior. Jesus gave us his literal body and blood as a sacrifice for our sins — those already committed and those yet to be committed — and he gave us his body and blood in the Eucharist so that we could do likewise in memory of him.

Now, if he were here with us today, and told us we had to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and we’d never heard that before, would we freak out as much as the Jews did in today’s Gospel?

Probably.

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