Fifth Sunday of the Year
10 February 2019 It was a gift, maybe payment for using the boat from which he preached. Jesus had seen a large school of fish not far from where they were moored– not at all uncommon in the sea of Galilee. And so he tells Peter–who had not caught anything all night, the best time for fishing during that season to lower the nets. We read this story and think, oh, what great faith Peter must have had in Jesus –to do that since he knew they wouldn’t catch anything. But there is another way to read this story. While Jesus had been preaching, Luke tells us, he had...
Read MoreFourth Sunday of the Year
3 February 2019 Jesus, it seems, was not a home town favorite.The people who watched him grow up, the people who knew him best–today decide, not only do they not want to hear any more of his preaching, they just want to get rid of him completely. Several years ago I was talking with one of our student leaders. When I hired him he warned me, “I’m not very churchy,” so I was surprised when he said: “You know I’ve been thinking, and I’d like to think if I was alive and lived in Nazareth, I would have liked Jesus and followed him.” Then he went on and said, “I know you always say that most of us...
Read MoreThird Sunday of the Year
About two years after I was ordained I was sitting alone in St. Patrick’s Church in Eau Claire. I was off to one side in the dark. Suddenly the side door from our school playground opened. Two little heads poked in and took a quick look around. It was noon recess. They didn’t see me and marched right in. I recognized them as two of our second graders. They began to speak, argue really. They had decided to play church and what better place to do it then in the real thing. They argued about who was going to be the priest. Finally, they settled on a compromise. The little boy said to the...
Read MoreFirst Sunday of Advewnt Homily
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2 December 20 18 Homily In 1916 Sir Edward Shackleton and 27 men set out from England with the goal of sailing across the Antarctic continent. Shortly into their trip, their wooden ship, aptly named “Endurance,” was caught in pack ice and crushed. The crew was stranded with no way to get home. Shackleton came up with a daring plan. He would lead several of his men across hundreds of miles of pack ice, stormy Polar seas in a small boat and over the mountainous peaks of South Georgia to what he hoped would be civilization where he would pick up supplies and help...
Read MoreFeast of Christ the King Homily
FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING 25 November 2018 Homily Over the years while I was at Newman, I would take groups of students on short tours of the Twin Cities. One time I took a student who was always a bit cocky. He hadn’t seen much of the world, but had a kind of attitude. He also wasn’t really sure he wanted to be a Catholic or a Christian. He said, “I don’t think Jesus is someone for the modern world. He may have been okay for Palestine, but not for the complicated world we live in.” One of the stops we made was at the Cathedral in Saint Paul. I pointed out at as we walked in that Archbishop...
Read MoreThirty Second Sunday of the Year Homily
THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 11 November 2018 Homily This story of the widow’s mite is troubling to me. It’s troubling because if that widow were here, and if the collection basket were going around, and if it truly were her last two cents– I’d say, “Keep it for God’s sake.” Don’t you have the same reaction? And, I find it hard to believe that Jesus wouldn’t have stopped her. Certainly the person who fed the hungry, urged us to take care of the needy, would have wanted her to keep that two cents. I thought about this for a long time, wondering why I had such a...
Read MoreThirty-First Sunday of the Year Homily
THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 4 November 2018 Homily About fifteen years ago, I spent a couple of weeks in Door County. One morning I got up early and sat on a dock to watch the sun rise. It was a prayerful, reflective time. As I sat there I focused on the horizon–somewhere way out there where Lake Michigan met the sky. I had a nearly irresistible urge to go out to that point. There were a few problems of course. The first being that I didn’t have a boat. So I didn’t go, but I did spend some time thinking about it. I knew in my head that that point way off was someplace I would...
Read MoreThirtieth Sunday of the Year Homily
THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 28 October 2018 Homily During my first week as a priest I was sitting in the front office of St. Pat’s watching the people go by. I had spent all this time preparing to be a priest but when I finally go to be one I didn’t know exactly what I was supposed to do every day. I watched a lady come up to the front door of the rectory, hesitate, and then around and walk away. Frankly I was relieved she walked away. I went across the hall to the secretary’s office and told her what I had just seen. I was speaking and the doorbell rang. It was the lady who I had...
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