2016

Fifteen years ago I was scheduled to preach on the weekend following September 11. On Thursday of that week my pastor asked if I wanted him to take my place. I said no and hold him I had been revising my homily. By the way, today’s readings are the very same readings as 15 years ago.

I guess it was understandable that I focused on loss—the anger, the sadness, the loss of innocence, the loss of so much life and the nation in mourning. It was and still is painful. What got me through that weekend and those Masses was the opportunity, actually the grace, of baptizing two cousins born just a week apart—Isabella and Matthew. In the midst of a nation in mourning, two sisters brought their families together with a profound sense of hope and love. Fifteen years later, those kids are now teenagers and maybe only vaguely aware of the significance of 911.

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24th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

I love my father and my mother. In fact, I love my wife, my brothers and sisters and all my relatives. So why is Jesus saying, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple”?

I was so disturbed by this reading that I had to call my mother to tell her, I love her. This is a human response to the words of Jesus, however, the meaning is not what we think! Jesus would never expect us to hate anyone for Jesus was sent to us out of love.

I believe that in Jesus’ time hate meant to like something less than something else. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus says, “He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me!” Jesus, in today’s scripture passage is saying that putting anything before him is wrong, even ourselves. …

23rd Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

When running for re-election in 1954, Governor Christian Herter of Massachusetts arrived late one evening for a barbeque fundraiser. He had eaten very little that day and was famished. When he was being served, the woman serving the chicken gave him one piece. He said, “Excuse me, but I’m starving. May I have another piece?”

The woman explained that she was sorry, but her orders were to give each person only one piece of chicken. The governor replied, “But I’m starved!”  The woman said, “Sorry, only one piece of chicken per person!”

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22nd Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

There is a tendency among some people who believe in a religion to feel that they are a privileged group, that they carry with them some cast-iron guarantee that their spiritual future is absolutely secure. The understanding of a “chosen people” is not really confined to the Jews. Even among Christians there are disagreements about who is chosen and on the right path. For us Catholics, the notion about “outside the Church there is no salvation” was a rallying cry for centuries and still is for a few today.

Perhaps this was what Jesus’ questioner had in mind when – in today’s Gospel passage –he asked, “Will there be only a few saved?” The question reflected the belief of many Jews in Jesus’ time that they and only they were God’s “Chosen People”.

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21st Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Pulling no punches, Jesus warnshis disciples that followinghim will not be easy. One of Robert Frost’s better-known poems, The Road Not Taken, comes to mind as I pondered this rather strange uneasy gospel. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth…”

How often have we found ourselves, needing to render a choice that could make a real difference, not only in our lives but also in the lives of others? Before taking that next step, we ponder the outcome and the cost. After we have thought out the first option, we then consider the alternative.

“Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear; though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same.”

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20th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »