“Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!”           The prophets were misunderstood people. By our Lord’s time, they were held in great reverence, but in their own day they were persecuted, reviled, and even killed – like the just man we […]

Read more "“To Be a Prophet” — Sermon for the XXVI Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXIV"

“The wicked say: Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us … let us find out what will happen to him.”           There is a deep crisis of faith in our world, a crisis of faith precisely in whether or not there exists a God who made it so that, “three […]

Read more "“Not a solution, but a victory” — Sermon for the XXIV Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXIV"

You’ve probably felt that sharp pain from time to time, the one that happens when you’re trying to chew really quickly so you can tell your son to stop hitting his sister at the dinner table (just a hypothetical example), and all of a sudden your teeth close on the side of your cheek, and […]

Read more "“The Judgement of God is Nigh” — Sermon for the XXIII Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXIV"

“Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, ‘This saying is hard; who can accept it?’”           After hearing St. Paul’s teaching on marriage – perhaps the most difficult reading of the entire three-year lectionary cycle, at least to our post-modern ears – we jump back to the Bread of Life Discourse and our Lord’s […]

Read more "“He has the words of eternal life” — Sermon for the XXI Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXIV"

Dominica XX per annum, B 18 August, A.D. MMXXIV             Last Sunday, we saw how there are two “this is my Body”s – the “this is my body” of Holy Thursday, when Christ gave His body in the Eucharist to His Apostles for the first time, and the “this is my body” of Good Friday, […]

Read more "“A Person, not a Thing” — Sermon for the XX Sunday through the Year, 18 August, A.D. MMXXIV"

“You are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”           We’ve mentioned the past couple of weeks that we are beginning the beautiful “Bread of Life Discourse” from St. John’s Gospel – the most complete and direct teaching on the Eucharist that our Lord gives […]

Read more "“The Food that Perishes” — Sermon for the XVIII Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXIV"

          Amidst the powerful yet familiar story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes are two easily overlooked but very important details that St. John includes. The first is when the miracle takes place: “The Jewish feast of Passover was near.” John’s Gospel particularly takes account of time. It is John, for example, who […]

Read more "The Passover and Giving Thanks — Sermon for the XVII Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXIV"

“His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”           The people coming in search of our Lord today were probably not primarily interested in learning. Most likely, they are sick and hungry. They have heard about the miracles worked […]

Read more "“Christian Docility” — Sermon for the XVI Sunday through the Year, MMXXIV"

          The Lord sends out twelve men today, men each with his own complicated history, his own trials and ways the Lord still needs him to grow. One particularly comes to mind, the ex-tax collector Matthew. When the tax collectors went out to John the Baptist and asked what they needed to do to truly […]

Read more "Forming a True Culture"