Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C. If you’ve ever walked face-first into a spider web, or had a bug fly straight into your eye, your reaction was probably quite comical. Not comical to you, of course, but to anyone who happened to be watching. To the casual observer, it probably appeared that …
The One Who Knows You
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C. Sometimes it feels like no one really knows you. I’m sure all of us, young and old alike, have felt that way at some point in our life. It’s easy in junior high and high school to feel that no one really knows you. Even if …
Back at the Scene of the Crime
Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Year C. If you’ve ever had to take care of someone else, you know that it’s easy to become so consumed with taking care of that other person, that you forget to take care of yourself. And if you do this for long enough, it eventually catches up …
Disappointment and Divine Mercy
Homily for Divine Mercy Sunday 2022. The summer after my second year in seminary, I had the opportunity to go on an eight-day silent retreat. It was exactly what I needed at the time, because the past two years had been extremely challenging. While the months leading up to my decision to enter seminary had …
At the Starting Line
Homily for Easter 2022, Year C. When I was in college, the first day of class was always “syllabus day.” The professor would outline what we’d be learning that semester, and then go over the various expectations and requirements for the class: the number of tests and assignments, when each of them was due, and …
Participate, Don’t Anticipate or Imitate
Homily for Holy Thursday 2022. As many of you know, today, Holy Thursday, is also known as “Maundy Thursday,” after the Latin word, “mandatum,” meaning “mandate” or “command.” Jesus gave two commands to His disciples at the Last Supper: one about celebrating the Eucharist and the second about loving one another. “Do this in remembrance …
Go, and Sin No More
Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C. One of the things we try to work on in the seminary, in preparation for becoming priests, is what we call “fraternal correction.” If we notice a behavior that is unbecoming of a future priest, we try to sit down with our fellow seminarian and, in …
The Extravagance of the Father’s Mercy
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C. If familiarity breeds contempt, it’s surprising that this parable can still captivate and move us. It is, after all, the most familiar parable in all the gospels. And we may be tempted, having heard it so often, to think that there is no new insight we …
Come Home
Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, Year C. About two and a half years ago, I spent a week in the desert at Joshua Tree National Park in California. It was technically a vacation, but it ended up being more like a retreat. Each day I went for a long hike by myself, which …
Desert Temptations
Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, Year C. For the first three-hundred years after the birth of Christ, it was a risky business being a follower of Jesus. To practice your faith openly, or even to gather in private in someone’s home to celebrate Mass, was to take your life into your hands. Martyrdom …
Isaiah Forty-Three 