May 5, 2024; John 15:9-17; Sixth Sunday of Easter We all know that we are called to love God. Those of us who take our faith seriously try to demonstrate that love in the way that we live. We come to mass. We pray. We follow God’s commands. We serve those who are in need. All of this is good and appropriate. But sometimes because of the time and concern we focus on our actions, we can begin to believe that what we do is more important than it is. Today’s Second Reading from the First Letter of John provides a healthy corrective to this imbalance. The Letter says, “In this is love: not that we ..read more

April 28, 2024; John 15: 1-8; 5th Sunday of Easter We cannot adequately describe God. God is greater than us and different from us. God cannot be seen or examined. Therefore, the only way we can speak of God is by using images. We take something we know from our own experience and apply it to God, saying God is like this. The Bible does this all the time. The Bible says God is “my rock.” Well of course God is not a rock, but our experience of rock allows us to say something about God’s strengths and endurance. The Bible says God is “father.” God is unlike any father that we know, but our expe ..read more

April 7, 2024; John 20:19-31; Second Sunday of Easter There are some people who will not give you a second chance. You might know them from your own experience. They could be those you worked with pleasantly for years, those you vacationed with, those you considered a good friends. But when you made a big mistake, when you were grossly selfish or indifferent, when you hurt them in a way that was without excuse, they were through with you. Even though you apologized and pleaded for forgiveness and a chance to try again, they made it very clear that their relationship with you was over. Today’s ..read more

Mar 31, 2023; Mark 16:1-7; Easter Sunday If you were to go home after mass today and look in your bibles to find the gospel passage that Deacon Greg just proclaimed to us, you would find it in the Gospel of Mark. But it would have a different ending. The passage that we just heard ends with the words of the young man at the tomb to the women: “Go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.’” But in the bible there is another verse. It gives us the reaction of the women. It says, “They went out and fled from the tomb, seized wit ..read more

March 17, 2023; John 11: 1-45; 5th Sunday of Lent “Jesus wept.” This statement from today’s gospel is possibly the shortest sentence in the New Testament. But what does it mean? Why did Jesus weep? Jesus knew that in a few minutes he would call Lazarus out of the tomb, so it is not likely that his weeping was because he lost his friend. What were Jesus’ tears for? They were for compassion. Jesus saw the grief of Mary and Martha and those that had gathered to console them, and he knew that their pain and loss were real. So, he identified with them. He not only felt sorry for them, he grieved w ..read more

March 3, 2024; John 2:13-25; Third Sunday of Lent The Jewish temple at the time of Jesus, was being rebuilt by Herod the Great. It was an architectural marvel of the ancient world. The historian Josephus says that as you approached the temple from afar, it appeared like a mountain covered in snow, because every part of the temple that was not embellished with gold was made out of pure white stone. Knowing this, it is understandable that those who saw Herod’s temple were mesmerized by it. This is the case in today’s gospel. After Jesus drives out the merchants and the money changers, he says t ..read more

February 11, 2024; Mark 1:40-45; 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.” Jesus touches a man with leprosy. It was something that most people would never do. People at the time of Jesus did not know what caused leprosy. They were unaware that a bacteria infected the body and deformed it. Because they did not understand leprosy, they kept lepers away. Lepers had to stand apart. People would not approach them. Jesus did, and the leper was healed. Jesus touches the leper to give us an example. He knows that in our lives there are people whom we do not understan ..read more

Dec 31, 2023; Luke 2:22-40; Feast of the Holy Family If you were to look over the Christmas cards you received this year, what images would you find? I am sure you would see decorated trees, poinsettias, and silver bells in the snow. There would also be some religious cards: the shepherds at the manger, the Madonna and child, the wise men following the star. But I would be willing to bet you that none of us here received a Christmas card with an image from today’s gospel: the image of Simeon blessing the Christ child in the temple. That is unfortunate, because of all the characters in the Chr ..read more

December 25, 2023; John 1:1-18; Christmas So…it’s Christmas. Now what? The tree is trimmed. Gifts have been bought and wrapped. Cookies have been baked. We have a few more hours in which we will gather with our family and friends. Then what? Then, the tree will be taken down, gifts will be enjoyed or returned, and we will work to lose the pounds we put on from eating the cookies. Is that it? Is Christmas merely putting up and taking down, wrapping and unwrapping, gaining weight and losing it? Today’s gospel says it is not. Today’s gospel tells us that Christmas is about the Word becoming fles ..read more

December 24, 2023; Luke 1: 26-38; Fourth Sunday of Advent The time is short. Now we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and in a few hours it will be Christmas Eve. So, I will be brief. Here is one simple idea from today’s gospel: Mary said yes to what she did not understand. When the angel told her she was to bear a son without any contact with a human father, Mary asked, “How can this be?” The angel told her that the power of God would overshadow her. But as to how this would happen or what this might look like, no explanation was given. But Mary said yes, not because she understood what ..read more