First Sunday of Advent • Year C
The season of Advent is a time of waiting, which traditionally is defined as preparation. It’s normal to begin to plan the menu, shop for gifts or write and address the annual holiday cards. These are the usual ways to prepare for Christmas. One important part is left out. Jesus tells his disciples, “Be vigilant. . .pray that you have strength.”
Solemnity of Christ the King • Year B
In the musical, 1776, there is a scene in which John Adams is standing all alone in the darkness of night in Independence Hall. Adams is greatly worried about the outcome of the deliberations that are taking place. In the musical, John Adams begins to sing a song, asking, “Is anyone out there? Does anyone care? Does anyone see what I see?” Isn’t this what Jesus is asking us today, in this time and in this place? Will you join me in my cause? Will you join me in my mission and my work of changing a very broken world into a place of faith and hope and love in the hearts of people everywhere?
Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
When we think of preparing for the coming Church Year, let us think how we can blossom like fig trees and shine like bright lights for others. We don’t need to leave Saint Michael on the battlefield, we can call on him to guide and guard us on our journeys. Pope Benedict saw Saint Michael as a Guardian Angel for all of us. When he was ordaining bishops he prayed, that they should be like Saint Michael “true guardian angels.”
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
In today’s Gospel, Jesus notices a widow at the temple. She’s almost invisible among the crowd; no one else would think twice about her. But He sees her for who she truly is – a woman of deep faith and radical generosity. Though she is poor, she places two small coins into the treasury. These coins don’t amount to much in value, yet Jesus tells us they mean everything, because in giving them, she gives her entire livelihood. It’s a remarkable act of faith: trusting that God will care for her even as she gives her last bit of money.
Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
There is a great saying attributed to the Greek philosopher Epictetus: “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” I think the advice to listen is both precise and beautiful and why the greatest commandment begins with this word:
Listen: Close the mouth
Listen: Open the ears.
Listen: the word is Shema in Hebrew. Shema Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
During the course of his public ministry, Jesus would time and again turn convention upside down. Today’s Gospel is one of those occasions. During the past few weeks, we’ve heard Jesus talk to his disciples about his identity and the requirements for discipleship. The disciples didn’t quite grasp the implications of that discipleship. This culminated in last week’s Gospel, when James and John shot right past the challenges which would be involved to ask Jesus for the two places of honor in his kingdom, one on his right and one on his left. The call to service and the call to take up the cross didn’t seem to matter.
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
If we call ourselves disciples of Jesus, then we must be totally in. We cannot follow the Lord half-heartedly. We will experience suffering in our walk with the Lord through our lives of faith. Discipleship is not easy; it costs us something! It can make us unpopular, make us experience mockery and rejection from the world. We are to be servants to those who are on the margins of our society, those who count for nothing in the eyes of the world. As Jesus’ disciples, we are to be their advocates!
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
God is patient with us, but we are often afraid, self-absorbed or stubborn. The great spiritual writers and mystics have told us that, while it is a little scary, when we allow ourselves to be emptied God will fill us up again with Himself. He will make whole what is broken, He will heal wounds, He will soften hearts, He will forgive sins. How can this be? In today’s gospel Jesus responds his disciples similarly incredulous question…
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
I often share in a wedding homily my hope that the couple about to exchange vows will be open to the possibility of many “awakenings” that God might have in store for them which can lead to a deepening of their love for one another. What about us? God continually invites us to be awakened to God’s love and goodness, so often revealed to us in the many relationships that are part of our lives. Are we open to experiencing and receiving that love, especially in and through those who might think differently from us?
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
Jesus gives us a very simple but beautiful example of doing great deeds even in a small way in his name when he says, “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.” What little it takes, what little it demands of us to accept the challenge of Jesus to live as he calls us in faith.