SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
17 May 2020 “If you love me…..” Aren’t those some of the clearest words which put all of us on our guard? We know we’re either about to disappoint someone we care about, or we’re going to feel manipulated into doing something we don’t want to do, or we’re going to agree to do something we have no intention of doing but in the face of “love” just can’t say “No,” –right now. These words are a combination: threat and fact of impending disappointment. The exact words aren’t always used, but they are implied. They come from our spouses: “If you love me, you would……” From...
Read MoreFIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
10 May 2020 I didn’t intend to wake up to watch John Paul II’s funeral in the middle of the night. I did though. Accidently. Like many people I was moved by the simplicity of his casket sitting there on the ground in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. This man used to be the most powerful person in the church. There he was, in a simple wooden box, on the ground. His funeral in the end, even though it was attended by the great and powerful, was really not much different than the funeral that anyone of us might have. There is a lesson there. It’s a hard lesson for me. As I’ve said in many...
Read MoreFOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
3 May 2020 I have a friend who moved into a “gentrified” neighborhood in St. Paul. The neighborhood had fallen apart and the government came in and claimed the properties either for back taxes, or bought them up. Then the government sold these houses and apartments to people offering low interest loans for their repair. There was a catch though–you had to live in them. My friend who is a college professor bought one of these homes. It was still a “bad” neighborhood when she moved in and started fixing up her home. It was an attractive place when she got through with it. And it was the...
Read MoreTHIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
26 APRIL 2020 The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus has always intrigued me. Two things about this story. First these two disciples had given up on two things—Jesus and the community. They decided to leave. Second, once the disciples leave it is very hard for them to come back—to recognize Jesus again. The problem for so many of us is that it is easy to leave—the church, our relationships, families, And it is very hard often times to come back. When I was the pastor at Newman is received a letter one day from someone I never knew. This person had given up on the Lord and the...
Read MoreSECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
19 April 2020 I’ve always been struck by the physicalness of this Gospel. Jesus enters a locked room, shows the disciples his wounds, breathes on them. He returns again and Thomas puts his hand in his wounds—Touches him. We are bodily people. We know there is more to us than our bodies. Ironically, we know that because of our bodies. This is a hard gospel to hear as we are practicing social distancing. We cannot touch each other. We cannot even come...
Read MoreEASTER
12 April 2020 Like many of you I have been taken by all the news reports about the Corona Virus. Each day I listen to Andrew Cuomo—the governor of New York. He provides a daily briefing. A Catholic, Cuomo tends to end each briefing with a sermon. He knows that this virus doesn’t just affect our bodies. It affects our souls. Governor Cuomo said in one of his briefings that this virus was transformative— That it is not just changing us, it is transforming us....
Read MoreHOLY THURSDAY
9 April 2020 On a brilliantly sunny September day I sat in a dark nursing home room with my father. It was just the two of us for the first time since his fall in my parents’ home. “I don’t think you can ever go back to the way things were,” I said finally. And then to make it clear, “I think this is where you should stay……..” Silence for the longest time.And then my father spoke, “I’m not good for anything any more, just sitting here waiting to die. Just a worthless old man, just waiting to die.” And then he hung his head; so defeated. Behind that statement was a question he...
Read MorePALM/PASSION SUNDAY
5 April 2020 Are there ever any words that can match the experience of death? Are there ever enough tears to wash away what we cannot understand? Are there not already enough times in life when we have to face what is tragic—this pandemic, uncalled for, bitter? Why this story? Why do we hear it year after year–how Jesus comes to his death. Wouldn’t it be enough to say, “he died.” Couldn’t it be cleaner? More objective? Do we have to get all the gory details? Step by step we are drawn into this death. We find ourselves in an upper room, Standing in the cool...
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