THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
24 January 2021 I’ve often wondered why some of the stories we’re told about the calling of the disciples, Have to do with the calling of fishermen. Why fishermen? I don’t have a lot of experience with fishing. I always tell people who ask if I fish–I like to sit in a boat on a nice sunny day once a summer. I like to hang the line over the edge of the boat with a bobber, and I don’t care if I fall asleep and the bobber goes under. That’s my idea of fishing. It wasn’t my father’s though. My father was a serious fisherman. He never got to go much when he was young. It was the...
Read MoreSECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
17 January 2021 I would not be here today, standing in front of you, were it not for my parents, who chose over and over, to teach me about God, to make me do what was right or good, when my childish or adolescent desires would have chosen differently. I would not be here today, had not the sisters at St. Florians, had the goodness to sacrifice their lives and come to a one horse backwater village, who choose over and over to love us enough to teach us, and to teach us about God by the example of their own lives. I would not be here today, standing in front of you, had not one of those...
Read MoreBAPTISM OF THE LORD
10 January 2021 In the last scene of the movie “Rag Time,” the central character, a black man who has fought for dignity throughout the movie, sits with his head in his hands, crying, and shouts to God, “Tell me what to do, tell me what to do. All along I kept waiting for a sign, sure that you would make known to me what I should do. I can’t wait any longer, tell me.” Those of us who are bystanders to this man’s agony do not hear any message, do not see any sign, we know only that the man in the end does what he thinks is best. That scene in...
Read MoreFEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY
27 December 2020 They had been married for 7 years and had a four year old son. He was busy working and pursuing an MBA. She was consumed with caring for their child and holding down a part time job. On Christmas morning as they were going to Mass, she slipped on the icy driveway and shattered the bones in her shin. They spent the day in the hospital. Some Christmas. But that wasn’t he worst of it. Because her leg was so badly broken she was confined to bed rest for a week. For her it was a prison sentence, for him, well he became Mr. Mom. Cooking, cleaning, caring for their son, caring for...
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FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
20 December 2020 A story: There was once a monk who wanted to make a pilgrimage to Bethlehem. He wanted to go there because he had heard of miracles occurring there. Miracles which made new women and men of the people who came there. All they had to do was walk three times around the birth stable of Jesus, pray to be turned into new people, and they would return home new people. For the rest of his life his whole focus was on his pilgrimage. Eventually, when he was an old man, he finally had enough money to go on the pilgrimage. He opened the gates of his monastery and staff in hand set out...
Read MoreTHIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
13 December 2020 A friend of mine who has been a newspaper reporter for years says that he never just writes a story, he always writes it for someone. In his case he always writes his articles for his mother-in-law. I have a similar stance. I always write my homilies with someone in mind—My father. If it wouldn’t make sense to him, or he thought I was just mouthing pious piffle he’d let me know. Today when I hear the Isaian proclamation I have just the edge of an image that the author knew what he was talking about. You see, I don’t believe the Isaian author was writing...
Read MoreFIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
29 November 2020 Where does Mark’s gospel begin? I know you might be tempted to say, “At the beginning.” And, that’s true to some extent. But, where does it start? It starts with a voice crying out in the desert. We don’t hear the beginning of Mark’s gospel until next weekend. Even though this is the beginning of the church year we don’t start at the beginning of the gospel, we start at the beginning of the Passion narrative–the end. Mark’s gospel has no infancy narrative. Either the stories which are so familiar to us about angels and shepherds and inn keepers were unknown to the author,...
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