We are given very powerful readings today, powerful individually and powerful collectively. And at the heart of them all is a line by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans: “…be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” So today we’re given three challenges: transformation, renewal, and discernment. First Paul says, be transformed. This is what Jesus is trying to help Peter do in today’s...

It’s a sad fact of history that the largest religious community that ever lived together in the same place in the history of the Catholic Church was at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany during World War II. Over 2,500 Catholic priests became prisoners in Dachau, in Cellblock 26, known as the Priestblock. They were from 144 dioceses and 25 countries, and they made up about a third of Dachau’s total population. While they were there at Dachau, the priests ministered to the...

The feast of the Epiphany commemorates the arrival of the magi, and their journey to find Christ can inspire us to reflect on our own journey to encounter Christ in our lives. Each of our journeys is unique, and no one finds Christ in the quite the same way as anyone else. The magi in the Gospel of Matthew found Jesus in their own way. The names and numbers of the magi are not given in Matthew’s gospel, but we think of them as a group of three, probably because of the three gifts of...

Once upon a time there were two towers. Both towers began to be constructed about the same time, in the late 1800s. Both were constructed in Europe and designed by European architects, and both of them were ambitious projects, with plans for multiple levels, huge arches, and decorative statues. Each structure was designed to reach high into the sky, and to be built of sturdy stone. And both of these towers are unfinished to this day. Both architects died during their...

On this Solemnity of Pentecost the red vestments and red altar cloths are reminiscent of the fire that descended on the disciples. We see this color more and more in our own lives as the weather heats up and the fire season begins. As we know so well from the fires that typically begin to plague us in the summer, fire can be destructive and deadly. That’s one of the reasons pop singer Billy Joel used fire as a metaphor for chaos, crime, and war in his 1989 song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”...

If you have been listening to the Bible in a Year podcast and are still on schedule, then you probably finished listening to the Gospel of John on Good Friday. Don’t worry if you’re not on schedule, my family and I are a little behind, too. But if you are on schedule, then during Holy Week you heard John describe all the many signs and wonders that Jesus worked: He turned water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana. He cured the official’s son from a distance. He healed the man who...

Jesus “was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.” Each year on the first Sunday of Lent we enter into this significant moment at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He has just emerged from his baptism in the Jordan river only to be sent into the testing ground of the desert. As we accompany him into the wilderness, Jesus shows us how to live a life of Gospel conversion, how to begin anew. Today, as we begin the first full week of the Lenten...

About five or six years ago there was a poll to discover the world’s greatest love letter. After all the votes were tallied, the overwhelming favorite among all the love letters ever written, was a letter from country music singer Johnny Cash to his wife June Carter Cash for her 65th birthday. The letter was published in a book by their son about ten years ago, and it’s just a beautiful letter, brief, simple, and heartfelt, and it goes like this: Happy Birthday Princess, We get old...

Today is the feast of the Holy Family, and as we look at the gospel reading today we might be reminded of a similar story, a more modern story. A story of a family taking a long trip during the holiday season who suddenly realize that they’ve left their young son home alone. I’m speaking of course of that 1990 movie Home Alone, where young Kevin McAllister believes he is being bullied by his older brothers and sisters, and ignored by his parents, so he wishes his family would just...

There is no text for my homily this past weekend, just the audio. But here is the video for “If You Eat Each Day” by Bryan Sirchio, from which I quoted:  

A terrible storm came into a town and local officials sent out an emergency warning that the riverbanks would soon overflow and flood the nearby homes. They ordered everyone in the town to evacuate immediately. There was a certain man in the town who heard the warning, so he looked out his window at the gathering storm and saw his next-door neighbors parked outside in front of his yard. They were concerned about him and so they had come by his house and said to him, “We’re leaving...

I wonder if anyone here has ever felt under-appreciated, overlooked, or even forgotten. If so, then this homily is for you. Today we’re going to sing the praises of one of the most under-appreciated and over-looked parts of the Mass. Everyone always talks about how the scripture readings spoke to them, or how great the music is, or even sometimes how the homily touched them. But no one ever walks out of Mass saying, “Wow, that dismissal, it really hit me today.” The dismissal is...

Today we see the beautiful roses and the rose vestments, and the rose colored candle that represent the third Sunday of Advent. These are visible reminders that no matter what we are going through, no matter what is happening around us, as Christians we are always people of Good News. And when we receive good news, how do we react? We rejoice. And that’s why this Sunday is dedicated to rejoicing. Why? Because we now know that the one we long for, the one our soul longs to...

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. On the surface that seems so barbaric. And yet that law, known as the Law of Retaliation, was one of the most civilizing acts in human history. In the ancient world, before there were any laws, if a person was hurt or offended, then they would round up their clan and go after the person who caused the injury and their revenge would often be worse than the original crime, perhaps even leading to death. The Law of Retaliation was intended to...

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the last Sunday of our Church year. Today all of the themes of Jesus’ life and ministry come together in this one culminating feast here at the end of the year. Each liturgical year has its own particular character because of the fact that we read from one particular gospel. This year it’s been the Gospel according to Luke, and it’s good for us to look back over the year and try to see the entirety of...

Back around 1995 or 1996, I was teaching my 8th grade class about vocations and the different religious orders. Their assignment was to research a particular religious order and write a report to share with the class. Now this was around 1996 B.G. Before Google. There was no Internet, no search engines, no Wikipedia, no email, and so I had given them a magazine that listed addresses for all the different religious orders in the United States. They got into groups, chose a religious...

Being a parent or grandparent can be really strange. And one of the strangest things about it is when the kids start to imitate you. At first its kind of funny and cute, the way you make faces at them and they try to make faces back. They dress up as mommy or daddy, pretending to do grown up things. But it’s not so funny when they start imitating your bad habits or repeating certain words. As they get older they begin to admire other people and try to imitate them. And it...

I read recently that filming is going to begin next year on the fifth Indiana Jones movie. I guess everybody knows who Indiana Jones is, the swashbuckling archaeologist, who goes in search of artifacts like the Ark of the Covenant. Well there’s a scene in the third Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade, that can speak to us today as we celebrate Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. In The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones has spent the entire movie searching for the Holy...

One of the most useful apps on a smart phone is the Maps app. You type in an address of the place you want to go and you’re instantly given not only written directions for how to get there, but you also get a map that shows a path for how to get to your destination. You don’t even have to know the name or even the address of a place you’re trying to get to. You can simply type in “food near me” or “shopping near me.” and you’ll get a list of places you’re looking for along...

All three readings today speak of the rhythm of the spiritual life. We see it at work in the lives of Isaiah, Paul, and Peter, each in a different context, but it’s the same rhythm. It’s a rhythm of dialogue, of back and forth, like a conversation. And it begins as all things spiritual begin, with God’s initiative. God is always seeking us out, God is always trying to engage us in his divine life, and God always meets us where we are. God comes to Isaiah as a member of the royal family who...

Here is the audio from my homily for the Christmas Eve Children’s Mass, December 24, 2018.

Once upon a time, in the early ages of the world, people believed that storms and droughts and sickness were sent by angry gods and goddesses. To the ancient people, the universe was a fearful place, a place of chaos, a place of danger, and the only way to stay safe was to offer sacrifices to try and please the gods. Ancient peoples would sacrifice a portion of the crops, they would sacrifice animals, and in some cases, they even sacrificed humans. But then came a people...

The other day I was driving home from work, coming up Freya hill, and I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me. People put bumper stickers on their cars for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because they have something to say to the world. “Vote for this or that candidate.” “Work for world peace.” “Support my kid’s school.” Well, this particular driver had a different message. It was a big, red rectangular sticker, and in white letters it read, “No Gods....

Many of you know that Les Misérables is one of my favorite books, but it’s a long one, almost 1500 pages, so reading it takes a while. Last year I found out that it has exactly 365 chapters, so I decided that in 2018 I would read one chapter a day, starting on January 1st and going to December 31st. They’re short chapters, about 5 pages or so, and I I thought it would be kind of a meditation and exercise in patience and delayed gratification to read it so slowly. I also...