Daily Archives: November 21, 2025

The List

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Note: seems that I did not post last Sunday’s homily…. so here it is.

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch (Mal 3:19)

That brings back memories of growing up in the South. I would sneak off to summer tent revivals and listen to the pastors preach up a holy firestorm of hell and damnation. There was such passion, rhythm, and vitality. It was a preaching that left no doubt that the end was near, and time to get right with God.

We may not know when the end of time is coming, but we know the end of the Liturgical Year is upon us when the readings are ever more apocalyptic, reminding us to “get right with God. We know that in our hearts, but the ever practical mind sighs and adds as another thing on our growing list of things to do. We are a people beset with things to do.  Good, holy and true things; necessary things – obligatory things, things we promised. We continually review the checklist. Earlier parents were thinking of all the steps necessary to prepare, organize and get a household of young children off to Mass. Check, we got the family here. Now the goal is to try to be fully present at Mass. Our heart reaches up to God at the same time as our mind keeps interrupting with a list of all the things we have to do before the end of the weekend. We are busy people and that is just in the “now.”  But folks, what about the list more suited to the readings of the end time? What about your “bucket list?” That list of things you want to do before the end of your earthly time.

Years ago HBO produced a documentary: “Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops from the Battlefields of Iraq.”  The show featured letters written by soldiers to their families – written as it were, in the end of days. Some were letters to be opened “just in case.” Others were just part of a regular series of letters that happened to be the last letter. Those were the days when most of us heard about wars and the rumors of war; they were thrust into the middle of what, some days, seemed like the end of days. But in such times, the mind gives way to the wisdom of the heart. 

Many of the letters contained insights when soldiers discovered within them a depth of love and gratitude heretofore unknown. What is remarkable about the individual letters, or the series of letters, is the increasing depth of their thoughts – the revelation of the beauty of the inner temple built by God’s grace. These letters expressed the soldiers’ love of family members, love of God, and their hope for healing and redemption.  In the midst of war, nation rising against nation, and among all their struggles, as the gospel says, I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking .  Their letters speak of that Spirit-given wisdom. It was their bucket list. And it is a list – not of what they wanted to do, see or enjoy – but a list, an expression of what they wanted to be, to become.

I was privileged to meet Ed Dils of Parkersburg, WVa. He was the father-in-law of my business partner. In Christmas 1944, Ed was with the US Army on the front line of the Battle of the Bulge. It was a critical juncture in the war when the entire strength of the German army was amassed against a thin and thinning US front line. Without the aid of the US Army Air Corp because of the weather, the onslaught of German tanks and artillery were frightful. Shells burst through the forest, exploding and raining down shrapnel, burning branches and logs, and death. Surely the end was near. Like the soldiers of every war, this moment brought Ed Dils to the depth of his being. There on the battlefield of the Belgian forest, Ed wrote his bucket list.  

  1. To be more tolerant, but at the same time more firm in my convictions of right & wrong.
  2. To do all in my power to hold fast my belief in the God-given goodness of human nature.
  3. To keep aglow my faith in the future, the hope for a brighter tomorrow … even when all may seem hopeless
  4. To be ever mindful of my many blessings – helping others to see theirs.
  5. To be neighbor and to love my neighbor no matter how difficult at times it may be.
  6. To be ever grateful for my family and my wife.
  7. To accept cheerfully and willingly the hard things that come, but not to assume a passive attitude and maintain my drive to bring about the good and worthwhile.
  8. To realize faults and human frailty in myself and others, but to try to respond with helpful compassion
  9. To be proud of my accomplishments, yet humble in my thoughts and beliefs. 
  10. To keep myself physically, morally, and spiritually worthy 
  11. To integrate into my being – “All things happen for good to those who love GOD.”

Ed carried that list in his pocket every day of his life for the next 65 years until his death in 2010.  The list gave evidence of having been opened and unfolded many times, its edges and creases worn, frayed and torn in places. Clearly he consulted his list of who he wanted to be, to become. And although he likely never checked off a single item in his own mind, he fulfilled his bucket list before the end of his life. He became a beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He quietly went about his life, spreading hope, love, compassion, and joy. If you needed help in life, everyone knew you could go to see Ed Dils.  And everyone went to Ed Dils.

He was humble, tolerant, hopeful, mindful, grateful, aglow with faith, and held that what he was before God, he was that and no more. By the grace of God, he became a saint in his own time.

He prepared for life, the end of life and the life to come.

Not by doing, but by being aware of who he was, what he was becoming, and who God was calling him to be.

In the midst of our busy lives and complicated lives, with our to-do lists and the wonderment of how it will ever get done, the end times are indeed coming. These last days are upon us… So.. what is on your bucket list?

May the grace of God lead you to know who you are, what you are becoming, and give you to the wisdom to know who God is calling you to be.

The Presentation of Mary

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The Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple recalls – according to the apocryphal gospels, the day on which Mary, while still a child, was brought to the temple in Jerusalem to be offered to God. The Church wants to emphasize not so much the historical event in itself, of which there is no trace in the Gospels, but the total gift that Mary made of herself, by listening: “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observe it” (Lk. 11:28). This experience prepared the young girl from Nazareth to become the “temple of the Son of God”.

The celebration of this feast dates back to the 6th century in the East with the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary the New built by the Emperor Justinian I near the ruins of the temple in Jerusalem. There is evidence that various monasteries in Italy celebrated the feast in the 9th century. It was not until the 15th century that it was included in the Roman Missal.

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop
(Sermo 25, 7-8: PL 46, 937-938)
She who believed by faith, conceived by faith 

Stretching out his hand over his disciples, the Lord Christ declared: Here are my mother and my brothers; anyone who does the will of my Father who sent me is my brother and sister and my mother. I would urge you to ponder these words. Did the Virgin Mary, who believed by faith and conceived by faith, who was the chosen one from whom our Savior was born among men, who was created by Christ before Christ was created in her—did she not do the will of the Father? Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father ’s will, and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ’s disciple than to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood. Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master. 

Now listen and see if the words of Scripture do not agree with what I have said. The Lord was passing by and crowds were following him. His miracles gave proof of divine power, and a woman cried out: Happy is the womb that bore you, blessed is that womb! But the Lord, not wishing people to seek happiness in a purely physical relationship, replied: More blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Mary heard God’s word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God’s truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb. The truth and the body were both Christ: he was kept in Mary’s mind insofar as he is truth, he was carried in her womb insofar as he is man; but what is kept in the mind is of a higher order than what is carried in the womb. 

The Virgin Mary is both holy and blessed, and yet the Church is greater than she. Mary is a part of the Church, a member of the Church, a holy, an eminent—the most eminent— member, but still only a member of the entire body. The body undoubtedly is greater than she, one of its members. This body has the Lord for its head, and the head and body together make up the whole Christ. In other words, our head is divine—our head is God. 

Now, beloved, give me your whole attention, for you also are members of Christ; you also are the body of Christ. Consider how you yourselves can be among those of whom the Lord said: Here are my mother and my brothers. Do you wonder how you can be the mother of Christ? He himself said: Whoever hears and fulfills the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother. As for our being the brothers and sisters of Christ, we can understand this because although there is only one inheritance and Christ is the only Son, his mercy would not allow him to remain alone. It was his wish that we too should be heirs of the Father, and co-heirs with himself. Now having said that all of you are brothers of Christ, shall I not dare to call you his mother? Much less would I dare to deny his own words. Tell me how Mary became the mother of Christ, if it was not by giving birth to the members of Christ? You, to whom I am speaking, are the members of Christ. Of whom were you born? “Of Mother Church,” I hear the reply of your hearts. You became sons of this mother at your baptism, you came to birth then as members of Christ. Now you in your turn must draw to the font of baptism as many as you possibly can. You became sons when you were born there yourselves, and now by bringing others to birth in the same way, you have it in your power to become the mothers of Christ.

Image credit: Courtesy of Vatican News | CC-BY 4.0

The Penitent Thief

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This coming Sunday is the celebration of the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. In yesterday’s post we explored those people and leaders who mocked and condemned Jesus. Today we consider those executed alongside him – the two thieves – an account only in the Gospel of Luke

While one of the criminals, already crucified, began to revile “Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” The word “revile” is eblasphēmei, literally “blaspheme.” It is then we hear the words from the one we know as “the penitent thief.”  Luke does not describe the criminal in such terms. His crime is never described and his penitence is conveyed only by his acknowledgement of his guilt and Jesus’ innocence, and his request that Jesus remember him.

The other criminal reprimanded the other, saying “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? 41 And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.”  The criminal adds his own proclamation of innocence to those of Pilate, Herod and later the centurion at the foot of the cross. He also fulfills Jesus’ instructions in 17:3 – “If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.” 

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