Homilies

The virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall name him Emmanuel. This prophecy is mentioned twice in today’s readings, and so it seems that we are invited in today’s Mass to think about God’s providence in speaking this message. The events of our first reading from Isaiah the prophet take place in the […]

I had a happy experience yesterday. I ran into one of our alumni who told me about his son, who now at age three, is able to be filled with excitement about Santa, and asks every day, “Is he coming?!” His father keeps telling him, “No. We have to light all the candles first” [on […]

Prepare the way of the Lord. Those words almost precisely encapsulate for us the purpose of this season of Advent. Today, as we are called to continue to prepare the way of the Lord, we are presented the testimony of St. John the Baptist, a reminder for us that a significant part of our preparation […]

Today’s Feast of Christ the King brings to a close the annual cycle of the church’s liturgy. It fittingly focuses our attention on Jesus Christ and brings alive once again in our hearts the words spoken at the great Easter Vigil last spring while inscribing the paschal candle, the symbol of the risen Christ: “Christ […]

The Gospel today seems harsh, does it not? Jesus has just told us If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. What is this!? Obviously, the same Lord who commanded us to honor our father and […]

I suspect we all spend a good amount of time and energy wondering what others think about us – our friends, supervisors, teachers, coaches, neighbors – and try to present ourselves in the best way possible so that these people think well of us. There is a whole advertising and fashion industry built on convincing […]

The Word of God by which we have been instructed today is difficult, for it is a word of judgment which calls us to account. The words of Jesus speak of division and opposition. We must approach them carefully. The danger is a superficial approach which sees Jesus as wanting to divide people and set […]

We celebrate today the day the church has set aside to contemplate the great mystery of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ. It might seem strange that we have a feast set aside precisely to celebrate the Holy Eucharist. After all, the church gathers each Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist. And yet it […]

We have come to the day of Pentecost, the third great Easter Feast which now brings our fifty days of rejoicing in the Lord’s resurrection to a close for this year. Having completed the mission for which the Father had sent him to live among us in our human nature, the Lord Jesus Christ ascended […]

With Palm Sunday, we arrive at the closing days of Lent and draw near to the Easter Triduum in which we will make present this year the suffering, death and glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We can, therefore, ask ourselves how fruitful our Lenten observance has been this year. At the […]