HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 06 – Year II Isaiah’s Offering of Hope and Healing: Optional Memorial of St. Ambrose (Is 30:19-26; Ps 147; Mt 9:35 – 10:8) **************************************************** Are you shocked at the number of drug-related deaths due to the opioid crisis in our society today (2,500 in BC alone in 2023)? Could that be […]
St. Nicholas
HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 05 – Year II Seeing with the Eyes of Faith: Optional Memorial of St. Nicholas (Isaiah 29:17-24; Ps 27; Mt 9:27-31) *********************************************** “Do you see what I see?” This line from a familiar Christmas Carol, along with today’s readings, invites us to see Jesus with the eyes of faith, and come […]
Humble Obedient Faith
HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 04 – Year II Humble and Obedient Faith in God (Isaiah 26:1-6; Ps 118; Mt 7:21, 24-27) *************************************************** “Only the ones who do the will of my Father in heaven will enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus could not be clearer or more direct than this teaching: “Not everyone who says […]
St. John Damascene
HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 03 – Year II Realized Eschatology and Abundant Grace: Optional Memorial of St. John Damascene (Is 25:6-10; Ps 23; Mt 15:29-37) ************************************************* Did you realize that we are to be immersed in realized eschatology? Christian life is all about both living in the graced reign of God here and now, while […]
Faith and Love
HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 01- Year II Faith and Love (Is 2:1-5; Ps 122; Mt 8:5-11, 13) ********************************************** “Many will come from the east and the west and will recline … at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11). Today’s readings for this first weekday of Advent invite us to place our complete […]
Holiness and Justice
HOMILY ADVENT SUNDAY 01 – C Stand Secure; Be Holy; Work for Justice and Pray Always (Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25; 1 Thes 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36) ************************************************************* Happy New Year! Today, the first Sunday of Advent is the first Sunday of the liturgical year C. So again, Happy New Year. Strangely, as we begin a […]
HOMILY WEEK 34 06 – Year II Feast of St Andrew: Kerygma and Didache (Rm 10:9-18; Ps 19; Mt 4:18-22) *************************************************** “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” This message of Paul to the Romans succinctly […]
HOMILY WEEK 34 05 – Year II Experiencing the Newness of the Kingdom of God (Rev 20:1-21:2; Ps 84; Lk 21:29-33) ********************************************** There is a scene in Mel Gibson’s movie Passion of the Christ in which Jesus, bloodied and battered from his torture and carrying the cross, meets his mother Mary and, to the viewer’s […]
HOMILY WEEK 34 04 – Year II Invited to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Rev 18:1-23, 19:1-3; Ps 100; Lk 21:20-28) *********************************************** On the last day of our stay in Jerusalem, our group of pilgrims went to the Western Wall. It happened to be a Thursday when Bar-mitzvahs are celebrated. Even before reaching the […]
HOMILY WEEK 34 03 – Year II Worship and Witness (Rev 15:1-4; Ps 98; Lk 21:12-19) ********************************************** During this last week of the liturgical year, the readings continue an apocalyptic theme and present us with two scenes – a heavenly one and an earthly one, and the connection between the two. These two scenes invite […]
