Tag: WWJD

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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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 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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Just one more, Lord

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.

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Reset button

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!

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Nine yards and much more

A homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, June 6, 2021

Ex 24:3-8, Heb 9:11-15, Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

Today’s solemn feast — and yes, “solemn” is right there in its name — is as joyous an occasion as it is a serious one.

Today we venerate the gift to humanity of the Holy Eucharist, body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus the Christ, who commanded all of God’s children to “do this in remembrance of me.”

In his holy name and through his divine power, the substance of bread and wine transforms into the real presence of Emmanuel.

So today’s solemnity, then, indeed is powerful, heavy, heady. Mysterious.

But we also celebrate, because Our Lord and Savior is with us physically, tangibly, and we are reminded of all of his gifts that nourish us and sustain us spiritually.

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Blinkers off

A homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, May 16, 2021

Acts 1:1-11, Eph 1:17-23, Mk 16:15-20

… as they were looking on, [Jesus] was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.

Gone.

The Apostles couldn’t see their teacher and friend anymore. The man they had followed from town to town, the Messiah who had risen from the dead and broken bread with them just like the old days, was nowhere to be found.

Where did he go?

To hear Mark tell it:

… then the Lord Jesus … was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.

Up there. In Heaven, ruling The Kingdom.

But is that the end of the story? Is that the whole story?

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It’s an active verb

A homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 9, 2021

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48, 1 Jn 4:7-10, Jn 15:9-17

If you are a fellow believer in the notion that coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous, then having today’s Scriptures’ overarching theme about Love with a capital L be proclaimed on Mother’s Day is Heaven-sent.

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Answering the call

A homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 2, 2021

Acts 9:26-31, 1 Jn 3:18-24, Jn 15:1-8

You might think that, considering I have made my living with words for just shy of five decades (yikes!), I’d know every acronym or abbreviation or piece of jargon in circulation.

Nope. Hardly the case.

In fact, the first time I heard “CTA,” I thought someone was taking public transportation in Chicago, or that they had heard “Color My World” at somebody’s wedding and the song got stuck in their head.

Then “call to action” was ’splained to me, and I had a huge Aha moment.

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