Last Sunday, we heard about the incredible mission that Christ invites us to share in as members of His body the Church, His mission to preach the good news to the spiritually poor. Today, in the Gospel, we continue right where we left off. The results of our Lord’s invitation are not quite what we […]
Read more "The Commercialization of Anger vs. Authentic Love"“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. … Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” The people listening to our Lord must have been shocked to hear Him say these words. St. Luke tells us that, “the eyes of all […]
Read more "Bringing Glad Tidings to the Spiritually Poor"Over the course of the year, through the Church’s different celebrations, we get to live the entire earthly life of our Lord. Actually, we really do so in a matter of five months between Christmas and the Ascension. After Christmas, we fast-forwarded to when He was 12 years old for the finding in the Temple, […]
Read more "God’s Love Cannot Be Earned"Why do you all think that Christmas is such a big deal? We can imagine this question being posed by someone who doesn’t know much about Christianity – maybe someone from China, Iran, or North Korea. But that same question would actually be posed to us by the earliest Christians themselves! To them, today’s feast […]
Read more "The Gifts of the Magi"Most of us are probably familiar with the word “liturgy.” It refers to any public worship of the Church. Normally that means the Holy Mass, but all the sacraments have their liturgies – their official rites that they must follow (the words of absolution pronounced by the priest, the prayers said at a baptism, etc.). […]
Read more "The Priority of God in Christian Worship"Christmas is the most unlikely of events. That is probably why it has captured our hearts and imaginations for centuries – that God would break into our world not as a warrior king but as a small, vulnerable baby born into the poverty of a stable, laid in a feeding trough surrounded by straw. You […]
Read more "Interrupted by the Christchild"Something incredible is about to happen! On this fourth and final Sunday of Advent, this year just the day before Christmas Eve, we are filled with expectation and longing for the coming of the Messiah. We listen as the prophet Micah foretells that Bethlehem of Judea, the lowliest of towns, will be the place from […]
Read more "Behold, I Come to Do Thy Will!"“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.” Have you ever had the experience of being tired and not understanding why? I remember when I was in college I would come home for Christmas break […]
Read more "Planning for Christ’s Coming"One hundred years ago today, at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, the Germans and Allies signed the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I, which left 37 million dead in its wake. It was the deadliest conflict in this history of Christendom. In response, Pope Benedict XV […]
Read more "Considering our own Mortality"“Jesus … has a priesthood that does not pass away. Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.” Last week, towards the end of my sermon, I talked about how Jesus is a priest in the line of Melchizedek instead of […]
Read more "The Temple in Your Pocket"
