TV Mass Homily

We tend to be bottom line people. We want to cut through all the rules and regulations, the explanations and rhetoric and get to the point. What’s it going to cost? What does it really take - to lose weight, to be successful, to get to heaven?  The scribe asked Jesus which of all the commandments, laws and interpretations of them is the most important. What’s the bottom line? The response of Jesus to the question which is the greatest commandment is both simple and hard. He quotes from the Old Testament: ‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the second, that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ These are…

Today we welcome the Knights and Ladies of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. The last Sunday in October is set aside as the memorial of Our Lady of Palestine, Queen of Peace. We are called to seek the intercession of Our Lady for those Christians being persecuted, those refugees forced from their homes and those whose religious freedom is denied in the Holy Land and throughout the world. We pray to the God of love, of justice and of hope. Our Lady of Palestine, prays for them and for us. Our readings this day are filled with hope. Shout with joy the prophet Jeremiah declares. The Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy the psalm response sings. The blind man Bartimaeus…

October is Respect Life month and today we celebrate Respect Life Sunday. Every year the Church asks us to raise up in a very direct way the sanctity of all human life. This year’s theme is ‘Every Life: Cherished, Chosen, Sent’. When Respect Life Sunday was first established many years ago, the focus was on abortion. Over the years the focus has broadened as we see life attacked in many other ways. Abortion remains the number one focus because without life all other concerns are moot. Abortion robs children of their God given fundamental right to life. Sadly in our day some see the unborn as vehicles for sale and profit. Embryonic stem cell research involves destroying living human beings for speculative medical research and for profit. Euthanasia and assisted…

‘Who do others say that I am’ Jesus asked the disciples. They responded some say John the Baptist, or Elijah or one of the prophets. If Jesus had been John the Baptist he would have been limited as an instructor in moral living, as Elijah only a mystical leader though close to God, and as one of the prophets, simply a spokesman and not the second person of the Holy Trinity and therefore God. Then he asks, ‘who do you say that I am?’ How would you answer him? Others in our day say that he is a prophet, a teacher, a radical, a politician, a myth. But who is he for us? Is he the Christ as Peter declared? It is important that we honestly answer the question for…

‘Who do others say that I am’ Jesus asked the disciples. They responded some say John the Baptist, or Elijah or one of the prophets. If Jesus had been John the Baptist he would have been limited as an instructor in moral living, as Elijah only a mystical leader though close to God, and as one of the prophets, simply a spokesman and not the second person of the Holy Trinity and therefore God. Then he asks, ‘who do you say that I am?’ How would you answer him? Others in our day say that he is a prophet, a teacher, a radical, a politician, a myth. But who is he for us? Is he the Christ as Peter declared? It is important that we honestly answer the question for…

That’s quite a list of evil things Jesus identifies as coming from within. It reads like a script for a soap opera or one of the reality shows. In fact, though, today’s readings reflect the human condition, the challenge we face in keeping focused on our relationship with God and on our call to holiness. It is a lesson we in the Church need to be reminded of in a special way these days. Jesus called the Pharisees to account because their external ritual observances became ends in themselves not true worship of God. That can happen to us. We need rules and regulations, norms and principles to guide us, as reference points to direct us beyond our human frailty.  But if they become ends in themselves they become about…

“Do you also want to leave?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Many of their friends had wandered away because they could not accept his hard teaching on the Holy Eucharist. I suspect that those who wandered away also found his teachings on moral living hard to accept since he was challenging them to a higher standard than that of the then culture. Faced with the hard teachings of Christ and his Church some in our families and among our friends have wandered away or become lukewarm in the faith. We too are asked: do you also want to leave? Peter answered as we all would wish to answer: “Master, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life.” Easy to say, hard to live. Among those twelve were…

“Forsake foolishness that you may live”, our first reading advises. St. Paul in the 2nd reading cautions, “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons, but as wise, making the most of the opportunity because the days are evil.” It is interesting that these two readings both use the term foolish, not a common biblical word. To be foolish is to be without caution or foresight. St. Paul goes on to advise: “Therefore do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand the will of the Lord.” Times have not changed; foolishness or poor choices in the use of time and creation are common. These days with the attacks on life at all stages, the threats to religious and other freedoms, random violence, the violation of trust and vows…

These next several weeks our Gospel readings will be from what is called The Bread of Life discourse of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of John. The words of Jesus can seem a bit obscure; yet Jesus as the Bread of Life is core to who we are and whose we can become as Catholics – responding to all our hungers. The significant question is whether we are hungry for what is on the menu offered by Christ through His Church: the word of God and the Body and Blood of Christ. Many of us when we are physically hungry tend to mumble and grumble, even talk to ourselves – what shall I eat, why is it taking so long. We can be like the Israelites in the first…