Episodes
Friday Apr 19, 2024
Homily for Friday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Friday Apr 19, 2024
Friday Apr 19, 2024
Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
The refrain from our Responsorial Psalm today is the basic command to all the Baptized: go forth to the world and share with others the Good News of our salvation in Christ, the Good News of the Gospel, and the Good News of our mission as ambassadors of Jesus's healing presence in the world.
Our first reading tells us the well-known story of Saul (later Paul) on the road to Damascus. He has a terrifying encounter with Jesus that leaves him traumatized. In his recovery, he hears everything about Jesus, and as soon as he feels better, he begins to tell the Good News with great zeal, and he will do so for the rest of his life.
May we, too, fulfill that call with energy, dedication, and faithfulness to our responsibility as Baptized members of Christ’s Body, the Church.
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
Homily for Thursday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
Today's readings focus on the role of God's Word, Baptism, and Eucharist in nurturing the followers of Jesus. In the first reading, a pilgrim from Ethiopia, who had just returned from a pilgrimage to the Jerusalem temple, was moved by a passage in Isaiah and asked questions. This led to his Baptism into the Church by Philip. In the Gospel passage, Jesus promised to give bread for the life of the world, which refers to the Eucharist.
In most parishes, the usual sequence is Baptism, followed by the introduction to Jesus through the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul's letters, and Jewish Scriptures. This leads to the receiving of Holy Communion. The connection between the Word and the Eucharist remains strong for the baptized.
During Mass, there is first the Liturgy of the Word, which nourishes our faith, and then the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which we come to out of our nourished faith. The bread of the Word prepares us for the bread of the Eucharist.
Wednesday Apr 17, 2024
Homily for Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Wednesday Apr 17, 2024
Wednesday Apr 17, 2024
The deacon Philip shared the Gospel with the people of Samaria and received a warm welcome. In Luke's first volume, Jesus attempted to speak to the Samaritans, but they rejected Him because He was on His way to Jerusalem. However, after hearing the Gospel from the lips of the cheerful and open-hearted Philip, they welcomed it with great joy. This shows that God's word can flourish even where it was initially rejected. Even if we sometimes turn away from the Lord, He never turns His back on us. In fact, we have Jesus' word that He will not reject anyone who turns to Him.
Easter celebrates God's complete faithfulness to His Son, Jesus, and to us all. This encourages us to trust in Him. Even after we have rejected Him in some ways, He will never reject us. Although we often fail to respond to the grace of Jesus Christ, He still offers Himself to us as the Bread of Life. He continues to promise that if we come to Him, we will never hunger; if we believe in Him, we will never thirst.
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
Homily for Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
As Jesus said, "Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit," Stephen also prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He then prayed and asked the Lord not to hold the sin against them. The message is that Jesus' followers should adopt His attitudes.
Today, the Risen Lord continues to live in and through us, His followers. He invites us to receive Him as our Bread of Life and live by the guidance of His Spirit.
When we come to Him in the Eucharist, we receive spiritual nourishment and strength to live by His example. Jesus says, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger."
Monday Apr 15, 2024
Homily for Monday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Monday Apr 15, 2024
Monday Apr 15, 2024
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus distinguishes between bread that quickly grows stale and the bread, the food, that lasts into eternal life. He had fed the people with bread and fish since physical hunger had to be satisfied. Still, as they continued looking for more food, He invited them to think of spiritual food to satisfy their deeper desires. He came not just to feed people physically but to give them the spiritually nourishing food of God’s presence.
Jesus reminds us that while we need material things because we are material beings, our search must go deeper. There is more to life than satisfying our physical needs. We have a deeper, spiritual hunger that must be satisfied to live our lives fully and be at peace with ourselves and others.
Jesus Himself offers us the food of eternal life, satisfying the deepest hunger of our hearts. Our quest for fulfillment must ultimately lead us to God; as St. Augustine eloquently put it, “Our hearts cannot find true rest until they rest in God.”
Sunday Apr 14, 2024
Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter
Sunday Apr 14, 2024
Sunday Apr 14, 2024
The message we receive in our Scripture readings today is that before Jesus could rise to glory on Easter, He first had to suffer and die. Peter puts it this way in our first reading today: “God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through… all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer [before being raised to glory].”
Jesus refers to this in our Gospel reading today. He adds elsewhere in the Gospel that what has happened to Him must also happen to us when He says, “Remember, no slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”
The Gospel says that if we are to rise to glory as Jesus did, we must also suffer as He did. When this happens, we may beg God to take it away as Jesus begged His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, but in the end, we will cry for joy just as Jesus did.
St. Augustine expressed this same message in a sermon over 1,500 years ago. He said, “You are like a piece of pottery, shaped by instruction, fired by tribulation. When you are put in the oven, therefore, keep your thoughts on the time when you will be taken out again; for God is faithful and will guard both your going in and your coming out.”
Back in 1954, the great French painter Henri Matisse died at 86. In the last years of his life, arthritis crippled and deformed his hands, making it painful for him to hold a paintbrush. Yet, he continued to paint, placing a cloth between his fingers and the brush to keep the brush from slipping.
One day, someone asked Matisse why he submitted his body to such suffering. Why did he continue to paint in the face of such great physical pain? Matisse replied, “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”
Similarly, the pain you and I experience being shaped into something useful and beautiful for God will pass. But the beauty of what we become in the process will remain forever.
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Homily for Saturday of the 2nd Week of Easter
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
As Jesus retreated to the hills for prayer, His disciples went to cross the lake in their boat. Despite His solitude, Jesus was not oblivious to His friends' plight. He was acutely aware of their struggle against the wind and exhaustion from rowing, demonstrating the power of prayer in maintaining connection and awareness.
If genuine prayer sharpens our awareness of other people's needs. If our prayer opens us up to God, it leaves us more open to others struggling with life's stresses and storms.
As Jesus is invited into the boat with his disciples, the wind drops, and they find themselves in a calmer space at their destination. This is a powerful reminder that we, too, can ask for the Lord's calming presence during the many stresses and storms that threaten to overwhelm us. His grace enables us to share our trust in His saving presence with others.
Friday Apr 12, 2024
Homily for Friday of the 2nd Week of Easter
Friday Apr 12, 2024
Friday Apr 12, 2024
Today's Gospel tells a well-known story of Jesus feeding a large crowd with just five barley loaves and two fish and having twelve wicker baskets of leftovers when it was all done.
There's a rather important detail to this story that is often overlooked. Where did Jesus get the five loaves and two fish with which he performed the miracle?
He got them from a small boy. The boy didn't have much but gave what he had, and the LORD did all the rest.
There is an essential truth in that detail: God relies on our cooperation for His will to be carried out. We need to offer our gifts, as meager as they may seem. God will take our actions, talents, and efforts and make great things of them, especially when it comes to feeding the poor, finding shelter for the homeless, caring for the sick, standing up for the oppressed, and bringing God's love, mercy, and providence to those who need it the most.
As we reflect on this story, let us remember that our mission on earth is not accomplished through our own strength alone. Through God's grace, our efforts are multiplied, and our mission is completed. Let us, therefore, pray that we will always be willing to use our gifts and talents for the good of others, trusting in God's grace to bring about His will.
Thursday Apr 11, 2024
Homily for the Memorial of St. Stanislaus
Thursday Apr 11, 2024
Thursday Apr 11, 2024
Our first reading today presents us with a challenge that we face every day: the challenge to turn away from the world's expectations and, instead, follow God's expectations, to obey God's will rather than the impulses of humanity.
The apostles served as a beacon of courage in their unwavering commitment to Jesus' teachings. They stood their ground even when their safety and lives were at stake, a testament to their unyielding faith.
Our challenge, too, is to stand firm in our obedience to God and proclaim the truth of God's love and our redemption in Christ, even when the world doesn't want to hear it.
Let us pray that we will have the same courage as the Apostles and keep our eyes fixed firmly on heaven.
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Homily for Wednesday of the 2nd Week of Easter
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
The evenings are getting longer, with daylight extending beyond 7:30 PM. Most of us are happy that daylight is increasing daily at this time of year. Our hearts sink later in the year when the days grow shorter. Even though most of us like light, the Gospel passage from John notes that sometimes people prefer darkness to light.
However, John is not referring to natural light but to the One who is the "Light of the World": Jesus Himself.
Jesus declares that anyone who lives by the truth, who seeks the truth with sincerity of heart, will come out into the light. They are already standing in the light of God's grace, even if they may not be fully aware of it. This is the light that people of faith, those who seek to be guided by the light of Christ, will always have in common with all who seek the truth.