Category Archives: Sunday Morning

Once we have seen…

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adventHappy Thanksgiving! I hope that many of you have just enjoyed the gathering and comfort of family and Thanksgiving. And just as we are in that soft afterglow of family and friends, with Christmas scenery and music serenading our senses, we hope this good spirit can be sustained for the next 30 days. If only we could jump straight to Christmas. I mean, why not? All the stores have made the jump, the malls are decorated, and everything about our secular world tells us to race ahead to the finish line, get it all done, get ready for Christmas, buy your gifts – the finish line is there for the crossing. Continue reading →

The Same Question

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judgmentHere on the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year, as we celebrate Christ the King, the first image we are presented is that of the shepherd and his sheep. The Prophet Ezekiel proclaims: “Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep…I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered.” (Ez 34:11-12) It’s good that God is looking out for us, for the lost sheep, for the strays, and the ones who have lost their way. Isn’t good that God is looking for them! What about us? We’re here in church. Aren’t we one of the faithful, a spiritual seekers, the ones paying attention to our life in God? Yes? Well that is how we see ourselves, yet Ezekiel insists that it is God who seeks out all of us. OK…that’s good, but can’t we prize the spiritual maturity we possess? Can’t we get a little credit here? Continue reading →

What’s yours is yours…

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Talents4“To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one – each according to his abilities.”

Let me paraphrase the opening of our gospel to make a point or two. “A man going on a journey call in his servants and handed over to them his possessions. To one he gave five pounds of $1,000 bills. To another, two pounds of $1,000 bills, and to a third, one pound of $1,000 bills – to each according to their gifts, talents and abilities – he did not give one them more than he or she could handle.” Continue reading →

The House We’re Building

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1109lateran2The Lateran Basilica in Rome is not the oldest church in Rome – that honor seems to belong Santi Quattro Coronati (314); but then that depends on what sources you believe. Old St. Peter’s, the original church on the spot where the current St. Peter’s stands dates to 324, the same year as St. Lorenzo and St. John Lateran. In fact, the Lateran Basilica is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome – the place from where the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, leads his diocese even as he leads the church universal. Continue reading →

Bless their heart

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wheatPart of the blessing being a parish priest is that you are invited into some of the most intimate moments of a family’s life. There is perhaps none more intimate and intense than the moments when illness passes through uncertain diagnosis, to one which blurs into the final days of a life. It is part of a life of ministry to be into a family whose loved one’s days are numbered. It is a privilege to journey with the family are they prepare for the loss that surely and steadily this way comes. In those times, Hope can seem more tentative, more distant; perhaps hovering on the edge of disappointment. Continue reading →

Standing Idle

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workers-in-vineyardCertainly, this parable is about the generosity of God and a good preacher would do well to develop that thought. Me? I’ll do something else. I was captured by the scene when the landowner goes into the marketplace and finds people there and asks them: “Why do you stand here idle all day?” Too often we assume they got up late or were not industrious enough, or did not want it bad enough. Certainly our recent and current financial times can help us re-imagine the scene. We all know friends, family members and associated who are “idle all day,” unemployed or underemployed, unable to use their gifts and talents because there is no opportunity available, or apparent – and they are just waiting, hoping that a generous “landowner” will come and give them an opportunity. Just the chance to use their experience, their God-given talents. Continue reading →

A Posture in Life

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Nicodemus and JesusWho among us wants to be known as a condescending person? I suspect that the likely answer is “no one among us.” In modern American English usage it has an almost exclusively negative connotation. Merriam-Webster definition of condescending is “showing or characterized by a patronizing or superior attitude toward others; showing that you believe you are more intelligent or better than other people.” In other words, a condescending person probably thinks that we should be considered honored that they would stoop from their position of power, privilege, and prestige to speak to us. I mean, really, is there a world in which being condescending is something we would want to imitate? Continue reading →

How will we win them?

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“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.” (Matthew 18:15-17)

AgnusDay0907 Continue reading →

Being Transformed

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romans-12Will you be transformed? At one level that is the most basic question that is being asked of you each time you encounter the Word of God – proclaimed here in Church or in that still small whisper at the edge of your life or in the well of your soul. Will you be transformed?

Transformation is the very work of the Word of God. “In the beginning was the Word…. All things came to be through him… What came to be through him was life.” Transformation from nothingness to a world created, a world filled and teeming with life. Such is the power one encounters in the Word of God: creative, transforming, bestowing life to the fullest. Continue reading →

Binding and Loosing Rightly

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JesusServingDid you know you are a priest? It is part of Catholic teaching that because of your baptism you share in a universal priesthood. Although having a different implication of such a priesthood, the German protestant Martin Luther described it this way: “The fact that we are all priests… means that each of us Christians may go before God and intercede for the other, If I notice that you have no faith or a weak faith, I can ask God to give you a strong faith.” Cardinal George, speaking about service, says a similar thing when he wrote: “Every Christian is someone else’s priest, and we are all priests to one another.” It seems to me that these notions of service as part of the universal priesthood very well fit the very readings on Holy Thursday, when we celebrate the sacramental priesthood, as Jesus takes off his cloak, puts on an apron and serves the disciples in the most menial of tasks: washing feet. The sacramental priesthood rests upon the more intrinsic foundation of the universal priesthood in which we all have the call to service because we are impelled by the love of God. Continue reading →