Homilies

November 30, 2025

In The Rule for his monastic community, St. Benedict wrote, “Always, we begin again.” Likewise, the first day of anything—the first day of school, the first day on a new job or in a new home—is a time for a…

November 23, 2025

Like the soldiers and rulers sneering and jeering at Jesus, we too may wonder, why doesn’t he do something? When will wars and insurrections, the daily nightmares suffered on this planet, all this dying, end? When will humanity…

November 16, 2025

Wars and insurrections; famines, plagues, and earthquakes; persecution and imprisonment. All in today’s New York Times. Despite the menacing signs of the times, today’s Scriptures tell us not to panic, but to persevere. They remind us that the…

November 9, 2026

The inscription above the door of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, reads, “Most Holy Lateran Church, of all the churches in the city and the world, the mother and head.” The 4th-century basilica is the cathedral church…

November 2, 2025

In 1939, workers were digging a grave for Pope Pius XI in the grotto under the floor of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome when they ran into ancient ruins—not uncommon in Rome. Further excavations revealed a cemetery on which the…

October 26, 2025

The upstanding Pharisee in today’s gospel did everything right. But he also had the annoying habit of letting God and everybody know about it. The tax collector was equally off-putting, cooperating as he did with the Romans to…

October 19, 2025

I, for one, am confused with Jesus’ comparison of God with a stubborn, dishonest judge who ultimately gives us what we want if we badger him enough. It raises age-old, impossible-to-answer questions about the “squeaky wheel” method of…

October 12, 2025

Perhaps the nine who forgot to say “thank you” weren’t so much ungrateful as unsurprised. They were Jewish—familiar with prophets and healings, and with this rabbi Jesus who had been making news from Galilee to Jerusalem. Perhaps they’d…

September 28, 2025

Last week we heard the prophet and fig farmer Amos declare, Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! Never will I forget…

September 21, 2025

The gutsy shepherd and fig harvester, Amos, declares today, Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! Never will I forget a thing [you] have done! In a…

September 14, 2025

It’s called “The Problem of Evil.” It’s the question of how to reconcile the existence of an all-powerful and all-loving God with the reality of evil in the world. How can a good God permit the…

August 31, 2025

“When they come for the innocent without crossing over your body, cursed be your religion and your life.” Among the aspects of Wednesday’s nightmare that especially pierced me was hearing that not only teachers lay on top their students…

August 17, 2025

In the late 1970s, Archbishop Oscar Romero was branded a left-wing Marxist by political authorities as well as by fellow bishops and other Catholics due to his opposition to the actions of the Salvadoran government. He was further…

August 10, 2025

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called…He went out, not knowing where he was to go. Get this: Abraham didn’t know where he was going. Sarah likely urged him to stop and ask for…

August 3, 2025

If only. If only he, she, or they were different. If only I had that person, or that title, or that waistline, or that kitchen countertop, or just a teeny bit more: that’s all I need.

July 20, 2025

I was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago and stopped in at Holy Name Cathedral. It happened to be their weekly day of Eucharistic Adoration. I went into a pew intending to do what one does during…

July 13, 2025

I spoke recently with someone who cheered the demise of government diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. I attempted to support such initiatives on biblical grounds—I Corinthians 12:12: Christ’s body of many diverse parts, all necessary and equal—but…

July 6, 2025

There’s no indication that these 72 disciples received any special training for their mission—other than, of course, their apprenticeship under the Master himself, formed by all that he said and did. Now, they were being sent into foreign territory, hostile…

June 29, 2025

Responding to a letter from a nun who had managed to get a message to him while he was imprisoned and being tortured, 16th-century Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross writes, Do not let what is happening…

June 1, 2025

The Ascension of the Lord has forever been a favorite subject of religious artists. It’s a familiar image: Jesus, looking up and heading into the heavens, a few feet off the ground, surrounded by stunned onlookers. In one…

May 25, 2025

Of the million or so memories I have of my mother, I especially cherish a conversation with her at the end of a three-week hospitalization when she’d received two serious diagnoses. Although she was facing a demanding regimen…

May 18, 2025

At the beginning of the song, Protector, by Beyoncé, her daughter, Rumi, asks, “Mom, can I hear the lullaby? Please?” Providing the voice that soothes her child, holding her in the arms in which she is safe, her…

May 11, 2025

Some “leading men of the city” and “women of prominence” are a little peeved at Pope Leo XIV. Already. I’ve come across words like, “outrage” and “disgust.” In a social media post this week, a woman of some…

May 4, 2025

I made my First Communion on May 22, 1965—60 years ago. There are a lot of things I remember: the procession down the long aisle, my new white shirt and new black shoes, really tight and uncomfortable; the party in…

April 27, 2025

On this eighth day in Easter’s Octave, Jesus’ “Resurrection Tour” is underway. The venue for today’s appearance is the Upper Room. Like others who saw him, his disciple and dear friend, Thomas, didn’t recognize the Risen Christ. Clearly…

Easter 2025

A funny thing happened on my way to becoming a concert pianist. And here I am. Each of us has a plan—the way our life is supposed to go: security, health that holds, love that lasts. But, as…

Good Friday 2025

On the cross, Jesus traveled to the darkest corner of human experience—excruciating, soul-killing heartache—and sat with us there, stayed with us. He knows your hidden wounds, your private pain. He knows what it’s like to be you. Psychiatrist…

Holy Thursday 2025

In his homily at my mother’s funeral nearly 22 years ago, Fr. Greg Tolaas, her favorite priest, spoke of the two altars at St. Philip’s that my mom regularly stood at: the altar before us in the sanctuary, and the…

April 13, 2025

Today’s story ends with Jesus’ heroic mission collapsing on a cross: an apparent and abject failure. Given the state of the world and society, or the state of our lives, we might come to the same judgment about…

April 6, 2025

Although she wasn’t caught in the act of committing adultery alone, she was made to stand there alone, in the middle, in front of everyone. They stripped her of her dignity, belittling and humiliating her. Paradoxically, that evisceration,…

March 30, 2025

I have spoken more than a few times of my eldest brother, George, whom I never knew. Georgie was killed in 1948 at the age of 13 months, when the car my father was driving was broadsided. My…

March 23, 2025

Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes, Earth’s crammed with heaven And every common bush afire with God. But only he who sees takes off his shoes The rest sit ‘round it and pluck blackberries. “Remove the…

March 16, 2025

In a 2015 speech in Bolivia, Pope Francis said: When we look into the eyes of the suffering, when we see the faces of the endangered campesino, the poor laborer, the downtrodden native, the homeless family, the persecuted…

March 9, 2025

How many Ash Wednesdays have we had a cross of ashes, a symbol of death, casually imposed on our heads? And how often has our mind drifted as we heard yet again the story of Jesus’ stumbling to Calvary, as…

March 2, 2025

With all the shouting going on these days, it’s hard to be heard. The only solution is to shout louder. But I don’t think before I shout, and consequently my loud talking is usually not only thoughtless but…

February 23, 2025

Whenever my friend Ben and I argue, he remains collected and serene. He refuses to raise his voice. It’s very annoying. Ben lives out of a mash-up of pacifism, socialism, Buddhism, and radical Christianity. Abhorring expressions of violence in the…

February 16, 2025

St. Paul says today that if we’re satisfied with life as it is, “we are the most pitiable people of all.” Pitiable if we, in our time, grow accustomed to and increasingly tolerant of indifference, meanness, cruelty, and…

February 9, 2025

I was with one of our First Communion classes yesterday, and the lesson was about being made in God’s image. It included a short video on Rosa Parks, a hero in the Civil Rights movement. These days, whether…

February 2, 2025

Prior to 1962 and the reform of the liturgy, the Christmas season only came to an end today, giving us 40 days of Christmas, not a measly 12, to ponder the great mystery of the Incarnation. Today, the prophet Simeon…

January 26, 2025

The old adage, “There but for the grace of God go I,” really bugs me. I’m annoyed whenever someone says it, and ashamed when I catch myself thinking it. When someone else suffers, yes, I count my blessings,…

January 19, 2025

The Reverend Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., says her father was indeed a freedom fighter and civil rights leader. But at his core, she says, “He was a pastor. He was a prophet. He…

January 12, 2025

I read a woman’s reminiscence about her anguished days as a teen when she felt unable to leave the house because of severe acne on her face. One day her father asked if he might offer a suggestion.

January 5, 2025

In her sermon for the feast of the Epiphany, Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor says, Once upon a time there are three…very wise scholars of the natural sciences…They are sitting around in their own countries minding their own business when a…

December 29, 2024

Some years ago, I traveled with my father to Slovakia to visit his family and the home from which he had emigrated some 50 years prior. Ten days of pierogi and vodka, and hugs and kisses connected me…

Christmas, Dec. 25, 2024

In his poem, “Saint Francis and the Sow,” Galway Kinnell tells of St. Francis putting his hand on the creased forehead of a sow, touching her, blessing her, all down her thick length “from her earthen snout all the way…

December 22, 2024

Christmas is about finding life where you don’t expect to find life. Unexpected life in Elizabeth: they called her “sterile” and “barren.” Unexpected life in Bethlehem: an out-of-the-way hick town. Unexpected, astonishing life in Mary: a 15-year-old peasant,…

December 15, 2024

The African American spiritual, “Ain’t Got Time to Die,” declares, “Lord, I keep so busy praisin’ my Jesus, I ain’t got time to die. When I’m healin’ the sick, when I’m feedin’ the poor, I’m praisin’ my Jesus.

December 8, 2024

According to one wag, More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom…

December 1, 2024

There are nine hours and one minute of daylight today. That’s 14 hours and 59 minutes of darkness. As Advent begins, we may find ourselves more than ever “in the dark,” a darkness that leaves us vulnerable to…

November 30, 2024

November 23, 2024

In 1925, the world was rebuilding after World War I. Mussolini and fascism were on the rise, while the Church had lost its political power. As a reminder to Christians that their allegiance was not to earthly kings, potentates, or…

November 17, 2024

When it comes to predictions about the end of the world, I really don’t care to know when it’s going to happen. Whenever it comes, it’ll be hard to miss. And as for fearing it, I, for one,…

November 10, 2024

Please allow me more-than-the-usual self-disclosure today to provide some context. The past few weeks have been a workout for me as I’ve been experiencing some significant grief: some the result of recent situations, some related to…

November 3, 2024

I know it will jeopardize our tax-exempt status but, what the heck, I’m just going to tell you who to vote for. And then I’m going to run out that door. Patty can deal with the IRS tomorrow.

October 27, 2024

In a 1959 letter to a friend, Flannery O’Connor wrote, My cousin’s husband [became a Catholic] last week. He had been going to Mass…but never showed any interest. We asked how he got interested and his…

October 20, 2024

I wonder if other religious professionals are as uneasy as I am with today’s gospel. Jesus’ scene with James and John raises for me the question of whether I do what I do in order to get some…

October 13, 2024

I’ve spoken frequently of my devotion to St. Ignatius of Loyola, captivated as I am by his remarkable and instructive conversion story. As a soldier in the Battle of Pamplona, Ignatius was struck by a cannonball. During his…

October 6, 2024

Marriage, I’m told, is not for wimps, as evidenced in Jesus’ serious stand on divorce. Notably, the all-important context of Jesus’ response to the Pharisees is the patriarchy of his first century culture. It permitted a man to…

September 29, 2024

“Xenophobia” is the fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners. Journalist Brian Resnick writes that there’s a reason every country with immigration has pockets of xenophobia. We instinctively are distrustful of those we perceive to be “them” rather…

September 22, 2024

Monday, December 8, 2008: I was driving down Upton Avenue South near 47th Street that gray winter afternoon, heading home for a quick nap before an evening Mass. Especially tired after getting up early that morning to anoint…

September 15, 2024

If you’ve watched the TV series, The Chosen, the drama based on the life of Jesus, you will recall the episode that includes the raising of Lazarus. It’s intense. After an eternal lead-up, Jesus stands before the tomb,…

September 8, 2024

An “impediment” is something, literally, that gets in the way of our feet—our “pedi,” in Latin (pedicure, pedal, pedestrian). Jesus’ healing ministry consisted of clearing away impediments, stumbling blocks, that got in the way of people making their…

August 18, 2024

I have a tee-shirt that reads, “Sorry I’m late. I didn’t want to come.” I’m not the most social guy. Being relatively shy, having to go to things like wedding receptions, Christmas parties, or gatherings that involve a…

August 11, 2024

Stanley Hauerwas writes, “If Christianity [makes] any sense, it must be because of something to do with eating that meal.” I’d go even further to say that if anything makes any sense, it must have something to do with eating.

July 28, 2024

“May you live in interesting times.” While sounding like a blessing, this proverb was written as a curse. One presumes that most of us long for less interesting times: those terribly tedious and tiresome stretches of peace, prosperity…

July 21, 2024

Frederick Buechner says that “compassion is the sometimes-fatal capacity for feeling what it’s like to live inside somebody else’s skin.” As much as anyone could, Jesus felt and knew the cost of living inside another’s skin. When he…

July 7, 2024

Biblical scholars, and those who think they are, have forever speculated on just what was St. Paul’s famed “thorn in the flesh,” that “angel of Satan” which he begged God to rid him of. Was it a physical…

June 30, 2024

When valedictorian Bryce Dershem stepped to the lectern at his Voorhees, New Jersey high school graduation, he wanted to share how his mental health challenges worsened when school was interrupted by the pandemic. He began with the customary thank-yous, then…

Homilies

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