A hundred years ago, the world was a very different place. That’s true in lots of ways, but I’m thinking of one way specifically. It wasn’t until 1928 that a Scottish scientist discovered by accident what would become the world’s first broadly effective antibiotic: penicillin. Suddenly, because of penicillin, diseases that had often been a death sentence – like strep throat or pneumonia – became curable, basically overnight. Our readings today give us an insight into what things were like before penicillin and before modern medicine generally. Specifically, we hear about a disease that is sti ..read more

This past Thursday, I went to another parish not far from here to help with the last of our deanery’s Advent penance services. Afterward, the pastor invited me and the other priests over to the rectory for a bite to eat. I got there a little earlier than everyone else, and so I spent a few minutes marveling at the beautiful Christmas decorations that filled the living room. Most impressive to me were the various representations of the Nativity scene. They came in all shapes and sizes, classic and modern, lifelike and abstract. I asked the pastor about his collection later, and he told me it's ..read more

For the last three weeks, our Gospel has given us accounts of conversations between Jesus and members of other Jewish groups. Two weeks ago, Jesus spoke with the Pharisees and Herodians about whether it was lawful to pay Caesar’s tax. Last week, Jesus discussed with a scholar of the law which commandment is the greatest. And now, this Sunday, Jesus is in a sort of dialogue with the scribes and Pharisees – not directly, but via his preaching to the crowds and to his disciples. All of these conversations in St. Matthew’s Gospel serve to highlight the rising tensions between Jesus and the religi ..read more

Here’s a list of seemingly unrelated things: coffee, the light bulb, refrigeration, the forward pass. What do each of these things have in common? Believe it or not, each of these inventions was at one time opposed by those who wanted to keep the status quo. I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine a morning without a cup of coffee, or living indoors without air conditioning, or watching football without wide receivers, but people actually were against those things at one point in time. Change, even change for the better, is sometimes resisted simply because it is new. In the Gospel today ..read more

One of the first songs that I remember learning is the classic spiritual, “When the Saints Go Marching In.” If you’re like me, just saying the title immediately brings to mind the tune, and it’s hard not to start singing it. I must have first heard it when I was very young, perhaps in preschool, or perhaps as one of the songs that my grandmother taught me. But wherever I learned it, I remember how the song conjures up for me a particular mental image – a great crowd of people, clothed in white, marching on clouds into the sunlit gates of heaven. In today’s Gospel, Jesus describes this same sc ..read more

Once in a while, someone will say to me, “Father, I want to read the Bible more. Where should I start?” While there are lots of responses to that question – lots of great places to begin reading more Scripture – often I will say, “Read the psalms.” Why? Because unlike other parts of the Bible that recount a story or expound on a theological point, the psalms immediately show us how to pray to God. The Book of Psalms contains 150 prayer-hymns that fit every kind of human circumstance. Joy, sorrow, praise, fear, indignation, gratitude – there’s a psalm for every condition of the human heart. And ..read more

Our Catholic faith uses a lot of big words. For example, after this homily, we will recite the Creed, during which we will use words like “only-begotten,” “consubstantial,” and “incarnate.” And in our broader tradition, there are even bigger words like “hypostasis,” “perichoresis,” and “transubstantiation.” These words might seem unwieldy or confusing, but learning what they mean helps us to understand what we believe. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Lord’s Transfiguration – another big word. We probably know “transfiguration” refers to the event in Jesus’s life that we just heard about i ..read more

I have had the privilege of celebrating Mass here various times over the last year, but as the lector mentioned at the beginning of Mass, I’m happy to be here today as your associate pastor, assisting Fr. Greg with the care of the parish. I began that responsibility at the beginning of this month, so it is a nice to finally be able to be here with you for Holy Mass. It is also nice to be with you on this particular Sunday, the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, a Sunday that has had some significance for me through the years. It was on this Sunday eleven years ago that I celebrated my first Mass a ..read more

When I was a teenager, there were a few clothing brands that it seemed like all the cool kids wore. I was not a particularly cool kid, but I still was able to convince my mom to buy me one or two of those T-shirts that I thought would make me cool. I remember the first one I ever got was from the brand No Fear, and it had some pithy, slightly ridiculous saying on it about not being afraid. I look back on that with a smile and a shake of the head; 14-year-old me didn’t really know what fear was. In many ways, perhaps I still don’t, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize that there are ..read more

The green vestments I am wearing indicate, if we weren’t already aware, that we are now back in Ordinary Time. In fact, we’ve been in Ordinary Time for a few weeks, ever since Pentecost Sunday. We’re only now switching to green vestments though because on the last few Sundays we’ve celebrated some special feasts that come this time of year: the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity two weeks ago, and the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ last Sunday. There’s one more special feast that often gets overlooked, and that’s because it’s celebrated on a Friday – the Friday of this past week, i ..read more