Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Last week I administered the Sacraments for the last time to Mary Cronin. She has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. She has been given only a few more days. I gathered with the whole family - her husband, siblings, children, and grandchildren to pray. There were about 20 people in the room, including three-month-old baby Jules. Mary was very aware and responsive to the power of the sacraments. But something else drew my attention. The entire time it took to administer the Sacraments and pronounce the words of Christian farewell, baby Jules was making the cutest baby sounds. The paradox of the moment was stupendous. The cycle of birth and death being played out in the room was so apparent. We Catholics call this the Paschal Mystery.
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
We have two stories in the first and gospel readings today, and they are both stories of poor widows. In the Biblical times, widows occupied the lowest rung of society. They were counted among the aliens, the gypsies, the poor and the orphans. Generally, they were objects of other people’s charity. For this reason, the Law provided for their sustenance, allowed them special privileges, and cursed everyone who exploited them (Deut 24:17–27:26).
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Something is happening within Catholicism in the United States. On the one hand, over the past few decades, many people have disaffiliated themselves from organized religion, and Catholicism has been particularly affected. On the other hand, there is a movement from a section of Catholics who find new energy in the more traditional Catholicism characterized by the Latin Mass, mantillas, Communion rails, Communion on the tongue, a heightened emphasis on doctrine, rituals, vestments, incense etc. People who think this way are convinced that Catholics disaffiliated themselves from Catholicism because of the loss of Catholic identity and the dilution of Catholic rituals and doctrines since Vatican II.
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Can the blind lead the blind? If we go by today’s gospel reading, perhaps, the answer is yes. Was Bartimaeus blind? Sure, he was. Are we blind? It depends. Mark has a unique way of understanding blindness. His definition of blindness depends not on what people can see with their eyes but on their relationship with Jesus, the Christ.
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Where could you go and say, “I want you to do for us whatever I ask of you?” Tell me one place where life works like that. Yet, that is exactly what James and John said to Jesus. They said, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you" (Mk 10:
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
After a gap of a few years, I am now back to facilitating the Confirmation program for our teens. I am in need respite from all the administrative stuff. At the first meeting with the candidates last Tuesday, I gave them a questionnaire. One of the questions that I asked the teens was, “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?” There are some truly spectacular answers. I am not sharing them because I don’t have the permission. But today, I am going to ask you the same question. “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?”
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
I am the least qualified to preach about today’s scripture. I am not married. I do not have children, and I have never experienced divorce. I am not going to pretend to know either. Hence, this homily is a theological reflection on the human person, on human relationships, particularly marriage.
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Everybody needs money. We have all heard that money may not make us happy but it certainly makes life a little easy. Money will not buy us salvation but does get us groceries. There is money, there are riches, and there is wealth. All of us have some money, some are wealthy, some are rich, and there are those few who are scandalously rich. Money, riches, and wealth comes with its share of challenges. Because of the uncertainty of life and our lifespan, for example, it is difficult to know how much money is enough. Contentment is hard when it comes to money, riches, and wealth. But we also know that greed and exploitation is rampant and has created staggering global economic inequalities.
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We have seen images of the earth taken from space. From up there, the world looks very different from down here. There is even that Bette Midler hit, “From a Distance.” But even more inspiring for me is the sketch of the crucified Christ by John of the Cross. This is the sketch that inspired Salvador Dali’s “The crucifixion of Christ.” Since I wrote my homily last week, a thought has been ruminating in my mind – that there are two world views: one from down here and one from the cross. Things look different from up there. Everything has to look different from up there. Otherwise, the cross has no meaning.
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I have titled my homily, “The Good, The Bad, and The Paradox.’ As I read today’s gospel, I see three parts. The first part goes really well. The second half goes really bad. In the third part, we have a paradox. In my three points for today’s homily, I would like to focus on “the good, the bad, and the paradox”.
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The details in the story of the healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment in today’s gospel (Mk 7:31-37) are truly interesting. We can either read this healing as another one of Jesus’ healings or pay attention to these details and discover the deeper realities at in play. Lets take the latter approach
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
There is a common phrase these days, “I believe in God but not in organized religion.” Or, I have heard people say, “I am a spiritual person but not religious.” More and more people are finding this to be an attractive alternative.
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Finally, after four weekends, we have reached the end the Bread of Life discourse. We could only wish that the discourse ended well. But it does not. It ends letting the readers know that many of Jesus’ disciples “returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (Jn 6:66).
John’s conclusion to the Bread of Life discourse is not merely a conclusion to the discourse. It the end of this section of John and the beginning of a new. Now the plot thickens. The dice is thrown. People will make choices regarding Jesus. That choice will disrupt life. That choice will determine eternity.
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This is the fourth week of our reflection on the Bread of Life discourse. In my introductory homily, I remember saying that there is a movement in the discourse – from physical bread, to the more spiritual Bread of Life, to the Bread of Life as flesh, and then back again to the realism of true food. The Bread of Life discourse begins with physical bread and ends with Jesus saying, “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink”(Jn 6:55).
That the bread and wine at every Eucharist is truly the body of blood of Jesus is one of the most challenging beliefs of Catholic doctrine. Perhaps, we can find some consolation in the fact that we are not alone in our difficulty. In the early church, John’s community dealt with the same issue. Last week we reflected on Jesus’ words, “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51). The people were quick to ask, “"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" (Jn 6:52).
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” That is the question I am dealing with today. How can the bread of life be body and blood? Is the bread and wine at Mass indeed the Body and Blood of Christ? How does mere bread and wine become the real presence of Christ?
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We are in the third week of the five-week-series on the Bread of Life discourse. We began two weeks back with the multiplication of loaves. Last week, Jesus invited people to transcend the barley loaves and “work for the bread that endures up to eternal life” (Jn 6:27) - the Bread of Life.” In today’s gospel reading, there is yet another transition – from Bread of life to “flesh”. Jesus says, “…the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51).
Today, I would like to reflect on this transition from bread to “flesh.” Here are my three points.
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We are in the second week of our five-week series of the Bread of Life discourse. We began with the multiplication of loaves last Sunday. Today, Jesus takes us beyond the multiplication to “the food that endure to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you" (Jn 6:27). The multiplied loaves was also given by the Son of Man. But there is something different about “the food that endures up to eternal life.”
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(This Sunday am beginning a five-week series of homilies. For the next five weeks we will hear from the Bread of Life discourse in the gospel of John. Since the name of our Family of Parishes is "Bread of Life/Pan de Vida" Family of Parishes, across all the five churches, I will focus on this Eucharistic theme and draw some practical implications as a Family of Parishes).
The parallels between the stories of the multiplication of bread in today first reading from 2 Kgs 4:42-44 and the gospel of John 6:1-15 are truly stunning, especially since the two books were written about 650 years apart. 2 Kings was written around 550 BC and the gospel of John was written around 95-100 AD.
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Emotions are an important part of human life. Sometimes when I come before God or even celebrate Mass, I am not looking for greater understanding, or an increase in my faith, or an answer to my questions, or an answer to a prayer, or forgiveness of sins. Sometimes, my need is purely emotional. I just want to feel God’s presence. I understand that faith is not mere emotions and emotions are not the most reliable test of faith, but sometimes my spiritual need IS emotional.
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
They call him “God’s influencer,” and the “patron saint of the internet.” I am talking about Carlo Acutis. He was merely fifteen years old. He was born on May 3, 1991, in London, England and died of leukemia on October 12, 2006. In 2020, Pope Francis beatified him in Assisi, and very recently cleared his way for canonization in 2025 during the upcoming Jubilee year. He is hailed as the first millennial saint.
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Right at the outset, I would like to create the link between the first reading and the gospel reading, because it gives us the theme for reflection. God says to Ezekiel, “I am sending you to the Israelites…. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you” (Ez 2:2-5). The gospel reading has Jesus among his own people and God’s words to Ezekiel comes true yet again. Even though Mark ends his gospel by saying that Jesus “… was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mk 6:6), the passage seems to indicate that people were refusing to believe even though they had seen “mighty deeds brought about by his [Jesus’] hands. The people were being, as God said to Ezekiel, “hard of face and obstinate of heart.”