Why are you troubled? In tonight’s Gospel passage, Jesus asks that question in a very particular context.  Jesus had been unjustly tried, horrifically tortured, even more grotesquely crucified, abandoned, and left dead in a tomb.  Three days later, risen from the dead, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, the disciples in the Upper Room, the two on the road to Emmaus, and now again, He appears amid the disciples.  This roller-coaster course of events has got to be a lot to take in.  Yet He simply appears in their midst ..read more

Have you ever noticed how fascinated people are, to the point that it sometimes becomes headline news when someone famous becomes Catholic?   In our celebrity-obsessed culture, that might not be surprising.  Movie producers will go out of their way to get a professional athlete to attend a film’s premiere.  Restaurant owners proudly display pictures of famous actors or political figures dining with them.  The attention these celebrities receive, these individuals hope, will provide free advertising or word of mouth, drawing their fans to these places, which often has ..read more

One of the things that I’ve learned working with college students over the past 16 years is how often they are ahead of the rest of the culture and the rest of the world.  In 2007, there was this thing called “MySpace” (which most people under the age of 20 have probably never even heard of) – that was at the peak of its popularity as one of (if not the) first of its kind, social media sites.  Being new to working with college students and clueless about where to start, I dutifully created my own Myspace page, only to learn within a couple of weeks from my new parishioners: “No one ..read more

We know this story. We’ve heard it, variations of it, some of us many, many times. Yet you can feel something different.  How transcendent is the proclamation of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, especially this day, this week? The beautiful yet haunting African-American hymn asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord? – and on Palm Sunday, during Holy Week every year, our senses are heightened, and our spirits are attuned in a particular way that we can answer:  We were there – We are there. Thanks so much for stopping by to read this homily for PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASS ..read more

This Sunday marks a shift in the season of Lent.  We start to hear and feel the intensity in the scriptures being proclaimed at Masses starting today of Jesus fixing his eyes on the hills of Jerusalem.  The sermons, teachings, signs, and miracles that have characterized his 3 years of ministry will take on a raw, shocking intensity as He enters into His passion.  This is why these last two weeks of Lent are often referred to as “Passiontide” – and you even see the crucifix, statues, and beautiful images of our chapel meant to raise our hearts and minds to God covered – veiled ..read more

Believe it or not, this talk was a lot harder for me to prepare than I ever imagined it would be when I agreed to talk a few months ago.  Mainly because I’m so used to homily preparation where the Church has chosen the scriptures, and I have to read, pray, wrestle, and listen to them.  The Holy Spirit guides me in writing and delivering those words.  When we settled on tonight’s topic, forgiveness – sure, that’s something that has come up a few times – there are plenty of scriptures about it.  But I’m not used to the freedom of being able to pick from anywhere in the Old a ..read more

A 19-year-old who was homeless, living in Hawaii, describes the night his entire life changed.  He was finished working for the night at one of the Bubba Gump-chain restaurants on the island and was waiting for his two friends when this stranger came up to him and said, “What are you doing tonight?” The young man responded, “I dunno.” So the stranger said, “Will you fornicate tonight?” to which the guy answered, “I hope so.” ‘And drugs and drinking?’ the stranger asked – to which the kid said, “Most likely, yeah.  Probably all three of those things.  I mean, at least two of the ..read more

A priest friend shared in one of his homilies how a television show that he used to watch pretty regularly, laugh at, and dismiss as just kind of this harmless thing, years later, now having been a priest for some time and just growing deeper in his faith, how taken aback he was when he happened to be home on a day off turned it on with family and friends.  That the show, the characters, the storylines all left him feeling wildly uncomfortable.  He now felt this sense of embarrassment and guilt over things that he had laughed off and didn’t think much about in the past.  I had ..read more

Only a few miles from here, in the Church of St. Stephen in Kearny, there’s a unique and historic place.  It’s called the Sanctuary of the Four Chaplains, which was only dedicated in 2016 but recalls a remarkable story from over 80 years ago.  At what was the height of the Second World War, an Army Transport Ship carrying close to 1,000 soldiers and civilian workers was traveling the icy waters of the Northern Atlantic en route to an American base in Greenland when a German submarine fired a torpedo at the ship causing the nearly 6,000-ton vessel to sink below the surface in 20 minu ..read more

Paint me as un-American; I didn’t watch a minute of the Super Bowl.  I know… I know…I was tired, fighting off a head cold a few days out from Ash Wednesday, and honestly, I really couldn’t care less.  I don’t usually anyway, but with all that was going on, I was maxed out from trying to pretend this year.  That being said, even without watching it, though, it’s everywhere so you can’t escape knowing what happened: the close game that went into overtime, resulting in the Chiefs winning back-to-back Super Bowls; the Taylor Swift sightings; and what commercials were the best.  ..read more