Homilies

While on retreat years ago some priests and I saw the movie, Babette’s Feast, based on a short story by a Danish author, Karen Blixen. Driven from her home by bloody uprisings in Paris, Babette Hersant comes to a remote fishing village along Denmark’s northern coast. For 14 years she works as a maid and cook without complaint for two pious Lutheran sisters, who lived strict lives of prayer, good works, and asceticism. The sisters and the members of their village church have an austere view of God’s creation: they believe that we should “cleanse our tongues of all taste and purify them of all delight, preserving them for the higher things of praise and thanksgiving.”

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20th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

In 1885, Vincent Van Gogh visited a museum in Amsterdam in order to see Rembrandt’s famous painting, “The Jewish Bride.” Having seen it he said, “I would give 10 years of my life if I could sit before this picture for a fortnight, (14 Days), with nothing but a crust of bread for food. My first hunger is not for food, though I have fasted ever so long. The desire for painting is so much stronger that when I receive some money, I start at once hunting for models until all the money is gone.”

It is not only the body that needs its hunger fed. The heart and the soul need to be fed also. The bread of material things can never satisfy the heart of a human being. You see, we have many hungers.

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18th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Years ago, I read about a man who survived one of the most brutal settings of WWII as a prisoner of war in Thailand on the banks of the Kwa Noi River. If you ever saw the movie, Bridge Over the River Kwai, then you may recognize his story. Ernest Gordon worked on what was known as the infamous “railway of death,” which the Japanese were building to advance their drive into India and Burma.

Over 12,000 allied prisoners died of starvation or brutality building that railway. Toiling from dawn to dusk, they worked bareheaded and barefooted in temperatures as high as 120 degrees in the sun. Men staggered to their assignments burning with fever. If they dropped in their tracks, their comrades left them behind to be picked up at day’s end to be carried back to the camp.

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17th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Let’s step back a few weeks…Jesus’ ministry is rejected in his own home town of Nazareth, but he continues his preaching in surrounding villages; he has sent his apostles out in twos giving them “authority over unclean spirits.”  His apostles are returning and Jesus himself is gathering larger crowds each day.  You can imagine those feelings—the excitement of the returning apostles, the hopeful expectations of Jesus, the exhilaration of the crowds who have witnessed Jesus’ words.  And, we can appreciate the weariness of the apostles and Jesus, and understand their desire to “get away by themselves for a few days.”  (pause)

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16th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

What is the mission of the church today? Some say it is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Others say it is to preserve truth, while others say the mission is to gather people together. The mission of the church seems to be a vague and multi-faceted reality.  We can lose focus on the church’s mission by reducing it to any one aspect.

The opening line of today’s gospel provides a reminder of the fundamental nature of the mission of the church today; summoning his disciples, Jesus sent them out, giving them authority over unclean spirits.

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15th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »