Reflections on the Sunday readings from the Catholic Lectionary for Mass. Includes homilies, sermons, and other thoughts.
We begin this new year somewhat where we left last week, focused on the coming of Jesus. The message today is to be vigilant and be ready.
Thanksgiving Has Two Parts There are two parts of thanksgiving, and I’m not referring to food and football. On this national civic holiday of Thanksgiving you will often hear people …
Giving Jesus His Proper Place Today’s feast marks the last Sunday of our liturgical year. It comes at the end to remind us where things are headed. Jesus Christ is …
Mary Said Yes Many Times On this Memorial of the Presentation of Mary, the Gospel has an interesting connection. While not chosen specifically for this feast day, the Gospel speaks …
Compromising the Faith Brings False Unity Our first reading today tells the sad tale of how many of the Israelites abandoned the practice of their faith in order to fit …
Winning in the 4th Quarter of Life The football team at the high school where I am chaplain has the tradition at the end of the third quarter of raising …
A “Chair” Man in Service of Unity Many people think a cathedral is just a really big or beautiful church. Actually, any church could be a cathedral. A cathedral gets its …
Finding the Joy in Giving Today’s readings present us with the tale of two widows. In biblical times, widows were some of the most vulnerable in society. With no husband …
Stewardship is Serious Business Today’s Gospel tells us of the “unjust steward” who gets in trouble with his master for not doing a good job with his stewardship. This reading …
Judging When We Should Judge St. Paul cautions us today about judging our brothers and sisters. If you’ve ever tried to help someone who was doing something harmful to themselves, …
Recognizing Death as Our Enemy that We Might Rejoice in Victory Sometimes we try to pretend that death isn’t really all that bad. When a loved one dies we may …
One with our Heavenly Friends Description to come…
Christians and Jews in God’s Plan In our first reading at Mass today, St. Paul shows clearly that he never saw himself as having given up being a Jew to …
The Virtue of Hope The theological virtue of hope is the virtue that causes us to desire heaven. St. Paul reminds us that no one hopes for something that he …
Keeping Holy the Sabbath There is a lot of debate about the Sabbath in Scripture as we see in today’s readings. Today, we have almost lost the concept of the …
Blindness to the Members of God’s Family After a long exile in Babylon, the prophet Jeremiah brings good news to the Israelites in our first reading today. It’s was time …
Living with a Longing to See God In our struggle to do good and avoid evil as we go through life, we can sometimes start to think that God is …
Why King Wenceslas Was Good St. Wenceslas died a martyr in the early 10th century, being killed by his own brother. Wenceslas used his authority as king of Bohemia to …
Unity in the Love of Christ Our first reading and gospel today recount unfortunate stories in which people are performing good works in the name of God and yet are …
Grace is Given According to the Plan of Christ Matthew himself thought that he was an unlikely choice to be an apostle. Yet, the words of the first reading remind …
Competing Well Competition can be a good thing. St. Paul himself urges us to “compete well for the faith” and likens the whole of Christian life to the competition of …
The Seven Sorrows of Mary Today’s memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows reminds us that Mary shared intimately in every aspect of the life of Jesus. This means that she …
A Heavenly Peace…and Justice Jesus gives us many difficult examples in the Gospel today. “Turn the other cheek” best sums up all of them. He tells us when someone wrongs …
Be Open to Hear the Word of God We all know that Jesus performed many healings in his public ministry, most of which were not recorded anywhere. Why then, among …
Being With Jesus In today’s Gospel the Pharisees criticize the apostles for picking heads of grain and eating them on the Sabbath. Jesus responds by reminding them of the time …
The Image of the Love of God We often hear that “God is love.” Yet, this can be a hard thing to understand in the abstract. Love is a concrete …
Catholic Rapture Perhaps you’ve heard various Protestant groups refer to something they call “The Rapture.” It can all be rather confusing as they speak of hoping to be “raptured” away …
The Uncomfortable Call of the Prophet We often think of a prophet as someone who foretells the future. Yet, the primary job of a prophet is to speak not about …
Learning from the Life of St. Augustine Today we celebrate a saint that had perhaps the most famous conversion in the history of the Church. Yet, there were many other …
Lessons from the Lunar Landing [The following homily was given at the opening all-school Mass at Hayden High School in Topeka. It represents a summary of three talks given the …