Sunday Homilies

This somewhat windy homily takes the image of the man hammering his sword into a plowshare and applies it to the dream of the parish's becoming more completely a faith community.

Let's get past the reflexive response, "We're Americans -- we don't need kings!"  There is a great richness in the concepts of kingship and kingdom, and we can enrich ourselves by considering these concepts.  Jesus, truly God and truly human, subjected himself to ultimate degradation and made the cross his throne.  If we are in the midst of degradation, his presence there can mean everything to us.

This recording is close to an hour and a half.  I provide explanations of the various parts of the Mass.  We must conduct our lives remembering that we are the ancestors of the people of the future.  Will they be able to look back upon us with gratitude?

I received some highly gratifying positive feedback on this one.  I was happy to hear from people who said that it made them think!  That's what we must do if we are going to have an adequate appreciation of our relationship with God and what time and timelessness have to do with it.  We must rouse ourselves out of a "pie in the sky when you die" mentality.

After two weekends on vacation and some hassles with keeping my account activated, I am back with Sunday homilies.  We all appreciate a quiet, loving hint so that we can be informed of a need to change something.  We don't appreciate it when this need becomes a topic of common conversation and we end up being the last to know.  Jesus was giving Zacchaeus that quiet, loving hint that leads to conversion.

Does the internet make place irrelevant?  Our deepest feelings say no.  Each of us is from somewhere.  We have a lot invested in particular places.  It is taking believers a long time to work through these feelings.

"How long, O Lord?"  This cry from the sixth century B.C. resounds in every age, wherever human beings are.  We experience time now as dragging, now as racing.  We are challenged to understand that God is drawing us from time into the timeless.  If we wonder about the virtue of patience, let us consider the patience of Jesus in casting his lot with humanity.

A somewhat different take on the rich man and Lazarus.  I consider what it means to take anyone's name in vain.  How do people instrumentalize each other?

Jesus' parable of the devious steward is not teaching us to be devious!  Rather, we find here an invitation to "work" a "system" as this man worked the economic system, which was all he could see.  Our "system" to "work" is creation itself.  We are to develop a sense of wonder toward God who, in his creation, constantly expresses his love for us.

Self-righteousness is hard to get rid of; after all, it feels so good!  But we can trade it in for something better.  May we confront ourselves in a healthy manner so as to accept the sense of peace which is far better than self-righteousness.

The death of Madeleine L'Engle; the ideas of C.S. Lewis regarding heaven; our upcoming parish feast day (Friday, September 14) and the prioritizing that occurs when we take up our cross.

Might heaven be boring?; a mistranslation of Hebrews; one of Jesus' least important parables; Mother Teresa couldn't control God.

I have to apologize for the strange appearance of this page.  I have to scroll down quite a bit through blank space to see the latest posts.  Libsyn has sent me some advice on how to correct this, but I don't have it figured out yet. Apparently Libsyn has been having some problems over the last few days with access to their site. Anyway, here's my first theology-bite on heaven, and my thought on responding to what is ultimately a meaningless question.  Accept discipline and stand up straight!

After two weekends away doing ecumenical training, the crusty old pastor is back.  This homily starts from a reflection on the practice of dueling.

Due to technical difficulties, this homily is appearing rather late.  The Scriptures give us a lot to consider regarding prayer.  It is most important to note the communal nature of prayer (even when we think we're "alone") and to take confidence in the strength of praying liturgically with people all over the world.  Does it help to tell people that the Tridentine Mass was never abrogated?  Does it help to treat the Christians of the Reformation as some virus in a test tube, on which you hope to put the right label?

We finish our reflection on the meaning of hell.  We also consider the virtue of hospitality, acknowledging that activity (of whatever kind) can get in the way of our focus on why we engage in various activities.

Treatment of eschatology continues with a consideration of hell, where jokes fall flat.  There has been a lot of name-calling in state government lately; we must consider the fact that labeling people is a foolish excuse for not responding to people spontaneously with love.

Today is my fiftieth birthday.  It's a time somewhat like Dante's mezzo del cammin di nostra vita (the middle of the walk of our life) and it was then that he looked into the "last things" in writing The Divine Comedy.  Today I complete my look at Purgatorio.  We also consider the meaning of fulfillment in life.  -- Well, I found an English translation of yesterday's motu proprio of Pope Benedict XVI and I can tell you that I don't like it one bit.

Freedom is the opportunity to choose a direction for one's life.  Jesus knew that he was proceeding resolutely to Jerusalem and an appointment with a cross.  Our challenge is freely to embrace everything that comes with the path of holiness.

Zechariah was unable to speak.  That doesn't mean he was unable to hear.  So why are the good fellows around him communicating in some sort of sign language?  Self-consciousness in difficult social situations can lead us to to do strange things (may I say "dumb" things?).  We recognize the un-self-consciousness of John the Baptist, whose vocation was to point to Jesus, Messiah and Savior.