Homily: Corpus Christi – 6.2.13

I’m not sure we can say that behind every good feast there’s a strong and holy woman, but we can certainly say it of today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.  For it was one holy woman, Juliana of Liege, a religious whose order we don’t even remember, who labored for some 40 years to get the feast instituted as part of our Church calendar. Orphaned and placed in the convent at an early age, Juliana developed a deep devotion for the Blessed Sacrament, and began to long for a feast day exclusively given to its honor.  She became convinced that...

Homily: Trinity Sunday – 5.26.13

In a sermon given at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Brompton, England, Graham Tomlin told the story of a friend who visited a very traditional church in Northern Ireland.  During the service the congregation recited the Athanasian Creed – one of the ancient creeds of the church which focuses on the doctrine of the Trinity.  And as the congregation recited the line: ‘The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible’ Tomlin’s friend heard an elderly farmer mutter behind him, “The whole damn thing’s incomprehensible if...

Homily: Pentecost – 5.19.13

Breath is a strange and wondrous thing.  Because it is controlled by our autonomic nervous system – the same one that also keeps our heart beating – most of the time breath never even crosses our minds.  But interfere with our breathing the least little bit – say, by filling the air with an abundance of spring tree pollens – and we suddenly become acutely aware of our breathing.  And deprive us completely of life-giving oxygen-rich air for a few minutes, and we are soon panicking, literally gasping for life. The poet C. Joybell C. has put it this way: “I am...

Homily: Easter VII – 5.12.13

I must confess that around this time every year, I get tired of the resurrection.  Not the fact of it, mind you – it is, after all, the central truth of our faith and the ground for our hope.  I just get weary of trying to talk about it for seven long weeks, since it is obviously an inexhaustible mystery which we will never fully grasp until we experience it first-hand.  In the meanwhile, all we can do is believe it with all our hearts, and look for the traces of it which break through in the events of our everyday lives. Unfortunately, not all of us are as lucky as...

Homily: Ascension – 5.9.13

In The Once and Future King, T. H. White’s classic retelling of the Arthurian legend, Merlyn, Arthur’s boyhood tutor, confers at one point with the idealistic young king.  Merlyn is aware that he will soon be enchanted by a beautiful young nymph named Nimue, and that he will no longer be at Arthur’s side to offer counsel and advice.  In any case, the old magician is fretting because he can’t remember something important which he ought to have told his young protégé.  He runs down a list, but can’t quite access the missing memory; he knows only what his gut...

Homily: Easter VI – 5.5.13

In his best-seller, Tuesdays with Morrie, inspirational author Mitch Albom recounts how, 16 years after his graduation from Brandeis, he reconnects with a favorite professor named Morrie Schwartz.  Disillusioned with his professional life, and unsure of what he wants or where he is headed, Mitch enters into a kind of independent study, visiting Morrie every Tuesday to hear the professor’s “lessons on life.”  The drama is heightened by the fact that Morrie has contracted Lou Gehrig’s disease, and his health is deteriorating, so that both teacher and student are...

Homily: Easter V – 4.28.13 (Evenin...

Eastertide is flying by.  In just 10 days, we will celebrate the feast of the Ascension of the Lord; and three weeks from today, we will celebrate the coming of the Spirit on the feast of Pentecost.  You and I, of course, are disciples living in the Church after the first Ascension and Pentecost.  The Jesus we know is the one St. Paul new – risen, alive, glorified, and always with us, but not in human flesh as he once was in Palestine.  And we are already infused with his Holy Spirit – we received him first in baptism, and we received an additional outpouring of...

Homily: Easter V – 4.28.13 (First ...

Today is a very special day for 20 of our young men and women here this morning.  At this Mass, after long preparation, they will receive their First Communion.  So I want to talk to them especially for a moment.  How many of you first communicants have big family dinners for Thanksgiving?  How many people get together for the meal (mom or dad can help with numbers)?  So does everyone fit at one table?  And does anybody’s family have a separate table for the kids?  When or how do you get to move up to the grown-ups table? Now you are already part of the family...

Homily: Easter IV – 4.21.13

Do you know what it says in the verse which follows immediately after the Gospel passage which we just heard?  It says that Jesus’ listeners “again picked up rocks to stone him.”  The reason, of course, is Jesus’ claim, “The Father and I are one.”  Their fury is because devout Jews – and Jesus himself professed to be one of them – very clearly understood that the Shepherd of Israel was none other than God himself – their God who is One, the Creator of All.  Think, for instance, of that most famous and well beloved of psalms, Psalm 23, which begins:...

Homily: Easter III – 4.14.13

During this Easter season, we find the disciples of Jesus in a confusing and awkward place.  They know that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and they sense that this has changed everything for them, and indeed, for the world.  But they have not yet received the Holy Spirit, who will come to them on Pentecost, so they don’t quite know how to put the pieces together.  They are torn, having one foot in the world of grace and glory, light and life; while the other foot remains in the world of dirty laundry, office cubicles, and stubbed toes.  And so, they struggle. ...