Tag: WWJD

Hand up

A homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 22, 2024

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

When our daughter was first breaking into the entertainment business, she did as many of her fellow performers did: She waited tables and worked other jobs at restaurants and bars.

She often covered the Early Bird shifts when she was working at Macaroni Grill. Early Birds … we all know what that means, right? Gaggles of Golden Agers.

Back then, Macaroni Grill was trying to shore up its bona fides as an Italian eatery by serving their pre-meal bread with seasoned olive oil, as legit ristorantes do. So Erin would bring out the crusty loaves and plunk them down alongside the olio d’oliva, and then head back to her station. She rarely was more than a step or two away before a patron would holler over to her: “Waitress, you forgot the butter for the bread.”

She learned quickly, really quickly, to carry a big stash of those little butter briquets in her apron.

Continue reading Hand up

Re: action

A homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 15, 2024

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

Wise people have embraced the maxim that we may not be able to control certain situations, but we can control how we react to them.

Thank you to whoever said that first, and to everyone else who has spread the word. Truer words were never said (to coin a cliché).

And we all, all too frequently, can find ourselves in situations that are — or may seem — grossly unfair. Especially situations we consider to be insanely unfair to us.

What is it about these happenstances that bring out the 2- or 3-year-old in us? Why is our first impulse to flail about and whine and act mortally wounded?

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Say aah

A homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 8, 2024

Is 35:4-7a, Jas 2:1-5, Mk 7:31-37

My father, a family physician who practiced quirky but scientifically sound medicine for more than 50 years, was his own worst patient.

His family members came in second, but we’ll get to that later.

This physician not only could not heal himself, he did not even try, as far as my brothers and sisters-in-law and I could ever determine.

Continue reading Say aah

W, X…

A homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 1, 2024

Dt 4:1-2, 6-8, Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27, Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

The Sisters of St. Francis from the Glen Riddle, PA, mother house who taught us at St. Leo the Great School in the 1960s were an enlightened bunch. They clarified the difference between nationalism and patriotism, framing the former as potentially sinful. They instructed us in single-gender classes about sex and love and how both are gifts from God, with only minimal blushing. (Yes, I know the joke.)

And they believed in buy-in. They knew that people older than 3 deserved to know “why” for them to follow rules. So the sisters took the time to explain, for example, why we were forbidden to talk during a fire drill (the person in front of us might turn around to listen, might trip, and then everyone would tumble over them, disastrously).

Rules, we learned, were for our well-being. Even the annoying ones … which weren’t as annoying once we understood the “why” they were built on.

Continue reading W, X…

Trussed

A homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 25, 2024

Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b, Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32, Jn 6:60-69

Many of us who worked in a corporate environment at one time or another probably remember team-building exercises.

A group of folks who work together — or who were going to work together — would trot off to a conference room and play Trivial Pursuit or some variation of Bingo to learn things about each other.

Or maybe we’d scoot over to a local park and have a three-legged race or scatter in twos in a scavenger hunt.

Then there was Do You Trust Me.

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Smorgas

A homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 4, 2024

Ex 16:2-4, 12-15, Eph 4:17, 20-24, Jn 6:24-35

All-you-can-eat buffets are among the most popular topics for cartoonists, animators and stand-up comedians. There probably are a thousand jokes for every item on the line at Golden Corral or China Palace (though I don’t think Red Lobster’s bankruptcy lawyers were laughing at the TikTokers who videoed themselves tossing back 100-plus “unlimited” shrimp).

Usually, the punch line is a variation on a Copious Consumer being shown the door while complaining, “But it says ‘All You Can Eat’!” and the proprietor replying, “That’s right. And I say you’ve eaten all you can eat.”

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More than sum

A homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 28, 2024

2 Kgs 4:42-44, Eph 4:1-6, Jn 6:1-15

Let’s think about numbers for a moment.

Not the Old Testament Book of Numbers; that’s for another day.

No, I’m thinking about how numbers — mathematics and all that — are a big part of our relationship with God.

Because, of course, God created math and science and the laws of nature.

And miracles.

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Insistent

A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 14, 2024

Am 7:12-15, Eph 1:3-14 or 1:3-10, Mk 6:7-13

Let’s start with a story about how not to evangelize.

When I was in the third grade at St. Leo the Great School in Lincroft, our teachers told us of the great rewards that awaited us in the afterlife if we brought other people into the faith. If we made converts.

Most of us, myself included, expected a shorter stay in Purgatory or, better yet, coconut cream and key lime pies for dessert at every meal in the Heavenly banquet.

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Holy Utility Belt…

A homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 30, 2024

Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24, 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15, Mk 5:21-43 or 5:21-24, 35b-43

When I searched Google for the phrase “God helps those who help themselves,” the search engine yielded about 71,600,000 results in 0.37 seconds. Which, among other things, suggests to me that God helps those who look things up on search engines.

Furthermore, I read in a few citations that, despite the popular belief that this is a biblical quotation, the phrase originated from English politician-philosopher Algernon Sydney in 1698 in an article titled “Discourses Concerning Government.” Never heard of him. Oh, well.

OK, so it’s not in the Bible. Nonetheless, does God help those who help themselves?

Continue reading Holy Utility Belt…