A homily for the First Sunday of Advent, Nov. 29, 2020
Is 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7, 1 Cor 1:3-9, Mk 13:33-37
When Andrea and I were newlyweds in North Jersey, a priest at our parish up there preached a homily that has stuck with us all these years.
I’ve adapted it and updated it a bit, but it’s still Father Frank’s, and I’m thankful for it.
I hope you will be, too.
A homily for the Solemnity of All Saints, Nov. 1, 2020
Rv 7:2-4, 9-14, 1 Jn 3:1-3, Mt 5:1-12A
The notion of “holy” gets some people all knotted up, because to some folks, “holy” is the first two syllables of a phrase that ends with “er than thou,” and like almost everything else in American culture, achieving a level of holiness can become a competition, cynical or otherwise.
It’s not.
A homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Oct. 25, 2020
Ex 22:20-26, 1 Thes 1:5C-10, Mt 22:34-40
Sorry, Robert Frost. In the crusty, taciturn New England of your era, good fences may have made good neighbors, but in today’s social climate, we can’t afford any more walls between ourselves.
Six feet, masks and plexiglass are intense enough as it is. We don’t need stone or steel. We definitely don’t need hearts of stone steeled against charity and justice.
We need Love.
A homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Oct. 18, 2020
Is 45:1, 4-6, 1 Thes 1:1-5B, Mt 22:15-21
Today’s Gospel is well-known, most likely among the Top 5 for people of faith to cite when they list WWJD.
And because of its familiarity, this passage is usually interpreted as an either-or.
Choose the things of the world or choose the Ways of God.
But that arguably barely scrapes the surface.
A homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sept. 20, 2020
Is 55:6-9, Phil 1:20C-24, 27A, Mt 20:1-16A
For some people steeped in timeclocks, hourly wages, collective bargaining and labor law, this Gospel has always been a head-scratcher.
If the worker who was employed from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. gets, let’s say, 75 bucks but then the worker who started at 6 a.m. also gets 75 bucks, how is that remotely fair? The late-starter is getting $75 an hour while the guy from the Dawn Patrol is getting $6.25. What should the hourly rate be? Shouldn’t it be the same for everybody?
A homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sept. 13, 2020
Sir 27:30 – 28:7, Rom 14:7-9. Mt 18:21-35
My late father used to say, “I’ll forgive, but I won’t forget.”
He wasn’t the only person I ever heard say that. In fact, he ran with quite a big crowd on that sentiment.
“I’ll forgive, but I won’t forget.”
I never understood that. I still don’t.
A homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sept. 6, 2020
Ez 33:7-9, Rom 13:8-10, Mt 18:15-20
Our Gospel passage today concludes with one of the greatest promises Jesus ever made to us:
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Jesus’s promise — to be truly present anytime we gather in remembrance of him — invokes and evokes faith, hope and love. All three.
A homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 16, 2020
Is 56:1, 6-7, Rom 11:13-15, 29-32 , Mt 15:21-28
When we embrace The Way that Jesus blazed, we recognize that almost everything he preached was countercultural. Then and now.
Dining and bunking in with tax collectors and prostitutes, and forgiving their sins when they repented and promised to go and sin no more: Jesus was able to reconcile these dregs of society with the God of mercy, even if First Century Hebrew society left them at the margins.
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.
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?
