Is 63: 16-19; Cor 1:3-9; Mk 13: 33-37 A Christmas Carol “Wake Up!” This Sunday is your wake up call. Last year on this Sunday, I told you about my cousin Lorenzo at the burial of a relative. It bears repeating. When Lorenzo raised his head from prayer, he saw his own name on the […]
Ez 34:11-12, 15-17; 1Cor 15:20-26,28; Matt 25: 31-46 Today we proclaim Christ as King of the Universe. Viva Cristo Rey! This recalls the crowds waving palms on Palm Sunday. Christ is a king who comes to save all. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. St. Andrew of Crete says: “Let […]
We all called to be saints! That’s what we celebrate today. The church celebrates the multitude of those who have gone before us who now already behold the face of God. Today’s feast recognizes specially those who are not yet canonized. They are your family members lived lives of love and service even in small […]
Is 45:1, 4-6; Thes 1:1-5; Matt 22:15-21. What does God want? This is the question that Jesus is posing implicitly to the Pharisees and Herodians. What does God want? The answer is simple: Everything. God wants everything – all of who we are. Jesus is making the point that it’s not so much what we […]
Is 25:6-10A; Ps 23:1-3A;3B-4,5,6; Phil 4:12-14, 19-20; Matt 22:1-14 We might call it overreaction—both the King’s disappointment to his royal invitation and the recipients’ blasé response to this royal invitation, White House dinner or Papal Audience. It’s exaggerated to make us sit up and take notice. That’s what a parable does. The King has gone […]
Ez 18: 25-28; Ps 25; Phil 2: 1-11.; Matt 21: 28-32 St. Paul, in this classic letter to the Philippians, says: “Do nothing out of selfishness…; rather, humbly regard others …, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others. Have in you the same attitude that is also in […]
Is 55: 6-9; Phil 1: 20-24, 27; Matt 20: 1-16 All parables reveal something about the nature of God. This one reveals that “The Lord’s ways are not our ways, nor are his thoughts our thoughts.” In this parable, the vineyard owner is God. Those who come to work early in the morning are the […]
Ez 33: 7-9; Rom 13:8-10; Matt 18:15-20 Loving is “the fulfillment of the law,” Paul says in Romans today. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is forming his disciples for leading his church. He is forming us too. To Love — as best we can: in this particular situation, or that particular issue, on a given particular […]
I Kings 19:9a, 11-13a; Rom 9: 1-5; Matt 14: 22-33 “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters” (Gen 1:1-2). We all recognize this as the opening of the Bible, the first lines […]
Pioneer Days, Fort Harrod, Harrodsburg, KY Sunday, August 20, 2017, 10:00 AM Under the Osage Tree Text: Matthew 15:21-28 The Canaanite woman comes as a beggar. Notice she has no name. When I was a professor of drama at Berea College, I used to tell students that when a character has no name in a […]