Homily – Divine Mercy Sunday – April 16th, 2023

This gospel reading is one of the more familiar gospel stories for all of us. I’ve read books and heard homilies–commentaries you might say–about the “Doubting Thomas” story. After hearing these commentaries, sometimes I felt not so bad in my own faith, especially when I compared myself with the sad state of Thomas at the beginning of the story. Contrastingly, at other times, I felt my faith needed a lot of stretching and growing, especially when I compared myself to ...

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Reflection – An Indescribable Inheritance

This week’s readings are very encouraging to all of us who have our faith and who listen to our teachings.  

The statement in the second reading makes you feel an unbelievable love and joy that is being revealed in the resurrection of our Lord.  He suffered to give us a second chance in being with him in heaven.

With this overwhelming joy we feel in our hearts, it is our total belief that somebody would care for us so much.  We still ...

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Homily – Easter Sunday Morning – April 9th, 2023

A boy goes up to his father and says, “Daddy, how does the sun, the moon, and the stars stay up in the sky without falling to earth?” The father answered, “I don’t know, son. “Daddy,” asked the son a second time, “How does winter turn into spring and spring turn into summer?” “I have no idea how that works, son.” “Daddy, how does a bear know it’s time to hibernate in the winter? And how does it know when ...

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Homily – Easter Vigil – April 8th, 2023

The last part of the first line of today’s gospel says, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.” That’s what they went to see, a tomb. We know the rest of the story in ways these two could not possibly have known. If we were in their shoes, we probably would have gone to see a tomb as well. Yet, something shakes them. Something wakes them up.

Because we are humans, we can only describe and give ...

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Homily – Good Friday – April 7th, 2023

Within five days, we have heard two, long passion readings—Matthew’s version on Palm Sunday and John’s version today. It doesn’t really matter which version of the four I read, I always come away with a feeling of inadequacy. It’s the feeling that I could and should be a better follower of Christ, and that I’m probably no better than those who showed such disdain towards him 2000 years ago. I sincerely want to be a better disciple of Christ, but ...

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Homily – Maundy Thursday – April 6th, 2023

We have begun the Triduum, the three holiest days of our lives. The Gospel begins with, “Jesus knew his hour had come.” Over the next three days we do not simply follow Jesus with our eyes. Rather, we see the meaning of our own lives as reliving what he lived. The hour of our lives has also come.

The first reading, from the Book of Exodus, is a story of our ancestors in faith, the Hebrew people, who also knew their hour had come. That reading is ...

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Reflection – Easter: A Season of Savoring

Christmas and Easter are the high points of the liturgical year for Christians.  No doubt about it.  Yet, they are not stand-alone holidays.  Christmas and Easter are part of a pattern which looks like this: prepare-celebrate-savor.

In Advent, we prepare for the birth of Christ.  At Christmas we celebrate Jesus’ coming.  And since the coming of Christ into our world is so important, we need to savor it until the last day of the Christmas Season, that is, until the Feast ...

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Homily – Passion Sunday – April 2nd, 2023

There is a sentence spoken at the end of that long gospel reading that, in my mind, seems to be misplaced for a couple of reasons. After Jesus breathes his last on the cross, the centurion says, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” It seems misplaced firstly because this profound truth was not spoken by one of Jesus’ closest followers, that is, by one of the Apostles or one of the women.  It was spoken by a soldier, who certainly ...

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Reflection – At the end of the day, it’s all about love

How quickly life can change.  That is never more apparent than in the two readings we hear this morning from Matthew’s Gospel.  In the first, Jesus is the toast of the town as he enters Jerusalem.  Crowds are gathering to offer praise, going so far as to spread their cloaks on the road.  By the time we get to the second Gospel, crowds have again gathered (probably a lot of the same people), but for an entirely different purpose.  The ...

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Homily – 5th Sunday of Lent – March 26th, 2023

I mentioned last weekend how you could not become a member of the Early Church unless you had some knowledge of the story of the Woman at the Well (two Sundays ago), the story of the Man Born Blind (last Sunday), and the story of the Raising of Lazarus (today’s story). Catechists, those who were a little bit more adept, led those who were inept into these stories, led them out of these stories, and help them to apply these ...

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