Homilies

Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinal Time, October 2nd, 2022

In the Our Father we learned to pray: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” A better translation would be: Do not subject us to the test. I have yet to find a single person on the face of the earth who likes to take tests, and exams. They can all be unforeseeable, unpredictable, and unpleasant. The prophet Habakkuk (1:2-3; 2:2-4) knew a thing or two about the tests of life and how they can weigh us down, even crush us at times: How long, O LORD? I cry for help, but you do not listen! I cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not intervene. 3 Why

Homilies

Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinal Time, September 25th, 2022

When Jesus told this story of the rich man and Lazarus, his audience must have cringed in disbelief and shock. The reason was simple: his contemporaries were convinced that prosperity was clearly God’s reward for a good life and, vice versa: they thought that a miserable life in straits and poverty was the result of dissolute living. Hence, what is the message of Life that Jesus wants to convey to us by retelling this shocking story? One thing is for sure: that no one of us here present lives the caricature life of decadence and self-indulgence described in t

Homilies

Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinal Time, September 18th, 2022

I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9 What could possibly be the meaning of such an obscure phrase? Evidently both back then and nowadays, dishonest, and heartless people are not heeding Jesus’ advice. They are totally focused on making money in any possible way, unmindful of how many people’s lives they might destroy in the process. In today’s gospel passage we are confronted by an unusual way of creating a relationship with others. We receive a strange sugges

Homilies

Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinal Time, September 11th, 2022

Today’s readings, obviously, deal with losses: how we handle our losses vis-à-vis how God handles his losses. Personally, my heart breaks whenever I see on TV the anguished faces of those struck suddenly by natural calamities, or fire. Perhaps clenching a few pictures in their hands, they face the camera and say something like: “We lost everything. This is all we have left of our life.” What we feel in similar circumstances is compounded by our ability to do very little to help them. We feel almost as powerless as when we are confronted with a mother who has just

Homilies

Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinal Time, September 4th, 2022

Today’s gospel passage illustrates plainly how the Bible needs to be interpreted correctly by the Magisterium (teaching authority) of the Church and how fundamentalism, prevents people from learning what God is truly revealing us through Holy Scripture. Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:33 In the same way anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple. Concerning the 1st statement: What about the fo

Homilies

Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinal Time, August 20th, 2022

The image of a grandiose, endless banquet is the most common image used in Holy Scripture to describe heaven. It is the lavish wedding feast of Christ, the Lamb of God, and his Bride, the Church. It is meant to have all nations and all peoples as wedding guests. And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. Luke 13:29 With hope-filled hearts we should long incessantly for admission into that heavenly banquet hall. Yet, we need to be deeply startled by the warning which Jesu

Homilies

Homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinal Time, August 13th, 2022

Chances are that today’s gospel passage forces us to toss aside any syrupy picture of Jesus and, consequently, it might take awhile for us to come up with a more accurate one. For starters: we have to accept the fact that the glorified body of Jesus, as he made himself present among his disciples locked in the Upper Room on Easter Day and which was taken up to heaven on Ascension Day was, still is, and will forever be the body of a Jewish man. No blue eyes, no flowing blond locks, no sugary, (bordering on effeminate) features and no weakling affected by a langui

Homilies

Homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinal Time, August 6th, 2022

He will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. Luke 12:37 As promised, in heaven, our triumphant and most glorious Lord Jesus will wait on us!  Scholars call this the eschatological reversal. It is God serving his people, or more precisely, Christ serving his Body. Heaven is all about love and service, eternally, with infinite care, without growing tired, without being bored, without fear that something will go wrong. The author, whom we call Luke, wrote his gospel for the grandchildren of those who had physically seen Jesu