HOMILY WEEK 31 01 – YEAR I God’s Great Gift of Mercy: Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo (Rm 11:29-36; Ps 69; Lk 14:12-14) *************************************** Have you ever received an unexpected gift that touched you deeply, and even had an effect on your life? The liturgy today invites us to reflect on gift-giving – God’s gifts […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 31-C Zacchaeus – Son of Abraham (Wisdom 11:23-12:2; Psalm 145; 2 Thes 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10) ********************************************************* What were the first words the Jesus preached? “Repent; believe, the kingdom of heaven is near.” Do this and salvation will be yours. Zacchaeus lived those first words of Jesus. He was a tax collector unsatisfied with […]

HOMILY – ALL SOUL’S DAY Living the Paschal Mystery (Job 19:1, 23-27; Ps 103; 1Cor 15:20-23; Jn 12:23-26) ***************************************************** “Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.” Both the readings and today’s commemoration of All Souls Day invite us to follow Jesus in living the Paschal Mystery. Jesus, in the […]

SOLEMNITY: ALL SAINTS DAY Living In the Reign as Servants and Children of God (Rev 7:2-4, 9-14; Ps 24; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12) ******************************************************** “It is heaven all the way to heaven.” This statement from St. Catherine of Sienna, and the All Saints Liturgy today, invite us to live in the reign of God […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 04 – Year I A Tale of Two Kingdoms (Rm 3:21-30; Ps 130; Lk 11:47-54) ********************************************* The Dominus Flevit Church overlooking Jerusalem commemorates the incident in today’s gospel when Jesus wept over the rejection of his message by especially the religious leaders of his day, in collusion with the political rules symbolized […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 03 – Year I Humble Faith, Lively Hope and Genuine Love (Rm 8:26-30; Ps 13; Lk 13:22-30) ****************************************** Two questions arise out of the readings today for us to consider: one, do we really believe St. Paul when he claims that “all things work together for good for those who love God”? […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 02 – Year I Groaning with Transformative Hope     (Rm 8:18-25; Ps 126; Lk 13:18-21) ************************************ A woman, who had lost her wedding ring while gardening, found it decades later encircling a carrot that she pulled up. Apparently, the tiny carrot seed that she planted grew through the ring that fit snugly around […]

SAINTS SIMON AND JUDE Our Identity and Life in Christ: Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude (Eph 2:19-22; Ps 19; Lk 6:12-19) ***************************************** A bartender told two strings who went into a bar for a drink the bar did not serve strings and kicked them out. One of the strings asked the other string […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 30 – C The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Sirach 35:15-17, 20-22; Ps 34; 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14) *********************************************************** A member of the Mafia approached a priest one day with a request to do a funeral for his brother who was a known crook. He offered a huge sum of money […]

HOMILY WEEK 29 06 – Year I Repent, and Live in the Spirit (Rm 8:1-11; Ps 24; Lk 13:1-9) ************************************ A dishonest painter thinned the paint with water and painted a church. As long as it didn’t rain right away he thought he would be okay. That night there was a big storm. He ran […]