Homilies

You may recall last Sunday, when we heard from the prophet Jeremiah. He was at the end of his rope, in fulfilling the responsibility God had entrusted to him, to speak a difficult message to the people. This Sunday, we hear from the prophet Ezekiel, who likewise was told by God to proclaim a message of warning to the people, telling them to reform their lives. God warned Ezekiel that if he did not proclaim this message, and the people suffer consequences, that Ezekiel himself

When I teach about the sacraments, such as Baptism or the Eucharist, seeking to help us understand what they are, I believe it’s important to ask: What is God’s purpose for this sacrament? Why is he giving it to me? How does he intend it to bear effect in me? These questions came to mind as I prayed over the Gospel we hear today, specifically where Jesus says, “Upon this rock I will build my church”. I remember hearing a lecture by biblical scholar Dr. Tim Gray in which he ze

In today’s Gospel, we hear a rather curious encounter. Jesus is confronted by a non-Jew, who apparently, had heard of his reputation as a healer and exorcist. She pleaded with him: “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon." Let this be a reminder to us that demons actually exist and no amount of sophisticated, modern thinking renders them extinct. Despite her clear request, Jesus seems to simply ignore her. Kind of rude, we might t

Today’s Gospel reading begins by telling us that after Jesus learned of John the Baptist’s death, he got in a boat to be alone. We might wonder, was he grieving or perhaps even fearful? We feel those things, but we would say that those feelings come from an incomplete faith. But Jesus did not have an incomplete faith as we do. So, why did news of the Baptist’s death effect Jesus this way? In any case, as we hear, Jesus wasn’t given the chance to be alone. The people, unaware

In this lengthy parable, Jesus speaks of seed that is sown. The seed symbolizes the Gospel, the Good News, the Word of God, which is Christ himself, while the soil is the human heart. He explains that there are some who are unable to receive the Good News, prompting the question, “Why?”. It's because some soil is not well prepared to receive him.[1] There’s a famous expression: "Nemo dat quod non habet", meaning "no one can give what they do not have". Considering

In the first hundred years that followed our nation’s birth 250 years ago, the Catholic bishops formally convened 10 times, in what were called the Provincial Councils of Baltimore, to set the pattern for the Catholic Church of the United States of America. At the sixth of these councils, the 23 bishops in attendance declared on May 13, 1846, the Blessed Virgin Mary as patroness of this nation, which at that time consisted of 30 states. They invoked Mary under her

Maybe you’ve asked yourself, “Why am I the way I am?” On this Father’s Day, I suspect that most all of us identify personal characteristics that came by virtue of our fathers, whether it’s your appearance, your mannerisms, your aptitudes, interests or other genetic dispositions. And they may not all be qualities or characteristics you necessarily wanted. Our second reading tells us that the father of the human family—Adam—passed onto us the condition of Original Sin, althou

Most of you are aware that I am a convert to Catholicism. So, what’s at the core of today’s solemnity was not a part of any experience I had attending Sunday church services. Nobody ever suggested to me that the wafers and tiny glasses of juice that were being passed from person to person in the pews were sacred and certainly not that it was Jesus himself. I’m sure I’ve shared at some point, that although I accompanied others to Catholic Mass a handful of times in my life, in

The Gospels describe two moments when the disciples experienced the movement of the Holy Spirit. We hear the first in today’s (Sunday’s) Gospel: on the evening of the Resurrection, Jesus suddenly appeared to his disciples and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In that moment they received the Holy Spirit, though they likely did not yet understand what they had received—similar to our Baptism as children, when we first rece

In our second reading, Peter declares: “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises’ of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light”. Much of the letter, from which this come, seems to speak to those who are newly baptized, and so it’s fitting for us to hear in this Season of Easter. When I think of Peter, I can’t help but recall being on pilgrimage in Rome. Possibly the most powerful m

Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd and that his sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. But sheep, even as there is a sweetness about them, are pretty stupid animals. They are not prone to recognizing a voice and inherently trusting, in the way that a dog or a cat does. Sheep have to be coerced, forced, by fear. Sheepdogs move them by chasing them from behind and nipping at their heels. Without that imposed and fear-based guidance, they would otherwise be just pass

We’re a week removed from Holy Week, from all that went wrong: Jesus’ friends abandoning him, his arrest, suffering and death. Today’s Gospel follows that mess, as Jesus suddenly appears to his friends, gathered like frightened bunnies. Instead of anger or assigning guilt, he simply says, “Peace be with you….Receive the Holy Spirit”. This is the definition of mercy: receiving something good, even when it’s not deserved. It’s a curious thing that Jesus shows them his wounds. T

The Gospel story we hear today, takes place at a place called the Pool of Siloam, located in Jesus’ time, in the southernmost part of Jerusalem. The pool was an engineering feat in its time and the aqueduct that supplied its water was formed through solid rock. As we heard, Siloam means ‘sent’, because the water was sent from the Kidron Valley, just to the east of the city’s ancient walls, through the aqueduct, into the pool. But unlike last week's gospel, this story is not p

There are several things that we can relate to in this Gospel. First is that like this woman, we all are thirsting for something beyond our reach, something we believe we don't yet have, and as is often times the case, we don’t even know what it is that’s missing from our lives. So often we seek to satisfy this thirst through things that money can buy. Other times, like the woman Jesus encountered, we hope that a relationship will solve the problem. What we inevitably find

I recall speaking with someone about the idea of meditating upon the crucifix as a means of trying to help her deal with a sort of suffering. This prompted her to ask why we Catholics so prominently display the suffering and crucified Jesus, considering the good news that followed his crucifixion: that he was raised from the dead. Why this fixation on such a morbid image, especially when it’s not the end of the story? Undoubtedly, you’ve noticed how most Catholic

Having just been baptized, what followed, as we heard today, is Jesus went to the desert for forty-days of spiritual training, to prepare and strengthen himself, so that he could begin to wage war against Satan’s stronghold over the earth. At the end of this forty-day training, as he had become physically weakened and hungry, Satan came to do battle against Jesus. His tactic was to tempt Jesus in his physical weakness, and he did so in three ways. First, to tempt Jesus to use

In today’s Gospel, Jesus references three of the 10 Commandments: the 5 th ( You shall not kill ); the 6 th ( You shall not commit adultery ); and the 8 th ( You shall not bear false oath )–all to illustrate a point about who he is and his purpose. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill”. To paraphrase, I have come to help you live this beautiful law in a spirit of truth. Rather than this Law being limit

Today we hear Jesus declare that we are to be salt for the earth. That sounds odd. Scientifically, we know many things about mineral salt that people of Jesus’ time wouldn’t have known. On the other hand, they understood it and used in ways that we no longer understand. For example, in Jesus’ time, salt was a precious and expensive commodity. It was traded by caravans, the way one traded gems or gold. The Romans valued it so much that part of a legionnaire’s pay was a ration

As we hear the Beatitudes today, it seems odd that the word beatitude is sometimes translated as ‘happy’. They don't seem to fit our definition of happiness. As you might know, the word beatitude comes from the Greek word makarios , meaning fortunate or blessed. If you were to ask the average person to describe how they would like to be blessed in life, they would likely include things like: 1) to have money and things money can buy; 2) to avoid pain; 3) to be a winn

The formal name for today’s solemnity is the Epiphany of the Lord , but it’s commonly called the Feast of the Three Kings. So, were these mysterious figures actually kings, wise men, or magi? The Greek word used for them was magoi , or in Latin, magi ab oriente , magi from the east. The tradition that they were kings developed as way of bringing fulfillment to references in the Old Testament. Psalm 72 declares: “May the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute, the kin