Twenty-Ninth Sunday of the Year Homily
TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 21 October 2018 Homily There are days that I think if I had been Jesus, I would have just given up. It seems so fruitless, so futile, even his friends, the ones he expected to carry on don’t understand. You see this is the second time the disciples go daydreaming about being on top of the heap. James and John, the ones who were so excited to join Jesus that they left their father sitting in his boat. James and John who jump in with both feet before they know what they’re getting themselves into. By this time in Mark’s story however, they are beginning...
Read MoreTwenty-Sixth Sunday of the Year Homily
TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 30 September 2018 Homily The summer after my first year in college I lived in St. Paul I was fortunate to find a really good paying job working for United Van Lines. Well, the truth is that I didn’t find this job. An extended family adopted me. They found me the job, found me a place to live, and gave me a 55 Ford to drive. I’d fallen into the butter tub. I’d done nothing to deserve their care for me and their kindness to me. At the end of the summer, I returned the furniture they’d lent me and on the last day, returned the car to Grandpa and...
Read MoreTwenty-Fifth Sunday of the Year Homily
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 23 September 2018 Homily As you all know my friend Mike was hospitalized with Guillian Barre for three months. Especially at the beginning, things did not look good. My friend Vicki and I who were caring for him began buying lottery tickets. Our logic: It looked like Mike would need a lot of expensive care forever. We calculated how much we would actually g et if we won, how we would apportion it, what we would be able to do for him with it. These were noble things. As Mike got better, and there was that...
Read MoreTwenty-Fourth Sunday of the Year Homily
TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 16 September 2018 Homily I’m not a big fan of horror flicks, or Si-Fi movies. I don’t go in for spooky stuff, never have. I’m also not a big believer in alien abduction, or watch “In Search Of.” So you can imagine my discomfort then onr summer when in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, I was driving down a dirt road to see the, “mystery light.” It’s just outside Watersmeet, MI, 4 miles from the casino, down an old railroad right of way that’s been taken over by the power company for a high line. They call the place “Dog Meadow.” I was...
Read MoreTwenthy-Third Sunday of the year Homily
TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 9 SEPTEMBER 2018 Homily One of the former student employees at Newman had a house not far from my friend Mike’s house. I ‘d go over there often when I was in the Cities, usually just for a few minutes to visit his children–which were a hoot. When I’d go, I usually brought the children cookies. Toward the end of one summer I had brought cookies over and as I was preparing to leave, I said to Max, the oldest who is going into Second Grade “Max, I don’t know when I’m going to see you again?” Max thought for a moment and said, “Oh George, you can come back...
Read MoreTwenty-First Sunday of the Year Homily
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 26 August 2018 Homily This weekend we complete a six week series of readings from John, slipped into the Marcan cycle because Mark’s gospel is shorter than Matthew or Luke. Throughout the past six weeks we have watched the rise and fall of Jesus in popular opinion. The crunch comes today after the large crowds have already given up on him, will the disciples, his intimates also break away from him? Can you imagine how heart-breaking it must have been for Jesus to ask the question of Peter and the Twelve: Do you want to leave me as well? Have I so...
Read MoreTwentieth Sunday of the Year Homily
TWENTIETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 19 August 2018 Homily It was the first words of the gospel which struck me last weekend. Does anyone remember what those words were? The crowds began to complain about Jesus–“murmuring” was what we got in our translation. They began to talk under their breaths. “This guy is a nut.” Mostly, at this point in John’s Gospel the crowds become very disappointed in him. They had such great hopes for him, and he tells them goofy things. He tells them they are to “feed on him,” in today’s gospel. This really bothered the crowds. They couldn’t figure out how his...
Read MoreFifteenth Sunday of the Year Homily
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 15 July 2018 Homily In the film, Jakob the Liar (based on the novel by Jurek Becker), Robin Williams portrays Jakob Heym, a café owner in Nazi occupied Poland in 1944. Jakob and his Jewish neighbors have been herded into a rat infested ghetto to await transport to the death camps. One night, taken into custody for breaking curfew Jakob accidently overhears a radio transmission at German headquarters that Russian troops will soon be liberating Poland. When Jakob is released he shares the news with his two closest friends swearing them to secrecy. It...
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