Homilies

Christmas 2019

I. Nearly thirty years ago now, it was a moment that redirected the course of my life. In 1991, I was hospitalized for depression. The stigma that surrounds mental health issues today was even greater then, and I found the…

December 22, 2019

I. A few years ago, some Kindergarteners shared with me their take on the story of Jesus’ birth. Maggie wrote, The angel came to Joseph and said, “You will be Mary’s husband.” He was scared at first because he…

December 15, 2019

I. “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Here’s an Advent story: The abbot was greatly distraught at the decline of the monastery. He had prayed and pondered over the situation, and admonished…

December 1, 2019

I. Among the most evocative of the sacred sites I visited in El Salvador was St. Óscar Romero’s residence at the Divine Providence Hospital – the “Hospitalito,” the “Little Hospital” – where he lived with a community of Carmelite Sisters.

November 24, 2019

I. I spent two weeks in El Salvador. It will take a long time – a lifetime, perhaps – to absorb all that I experienced in this land of intense suffering. I was worn down by the stories of assassinations,…

October 27, 2019

I. Last weekend began with our regular Friday morning Mass at the Visitation Monastery. Later, at 1:00, we had a quinceañera and a baptism. On Saturday morning, we celebrated four baptisms, and in the afternoon the wedding of one…

October 20, 2019

I. At a gathering some years ago, a woman, clearly distraught, approached now-deceased Archbishop Harry Flynn. Someone who witnessed the encounter said that the woman began to tell the archbishop the story of an abortion she had had a few…

October 13, 2019

I. Growing up, I was a good boy. I was Mommy’s boy, and Grandma’s boy. I was straight-A smart, every teacher’s pet, chief of the Junior Fire League in fifth grade and captain of the School Safety Patrol in sixth.

October 6 2019

I. Habakkuk, the exasperated prophet, roars today, How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not intervene. Why do…

September 22, 2019

I. I find myself pulling out this quote and sharing it with you about once a year. It seems timely again. From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period was…

September 15, 2019

I. In São Paulo, Brazil, a minister who worked with children living on the street introduced them to Bible stories and helped them to reflect on them. One day she told them today’s story of the prodigal son. She stopped…

September 8, 2019

I. The Italian language (like Italians themselves) is expressive and florid. But it can also be precise, even blunt. When, for example, Italians are posed a question, they may respond so lyrically that the listener is overcome by the sheer…

Sept. 1, 2019

I. Social convention dictates who sits where and with whom at dinner parties. The table is a miniature model for rules of association. Of course, we like to sit with people we know – our own kind. Jesus’ table arrangements…

August 25, 2019

I. For most of his life, St. Óscar Romero, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador was a respectable, hard-working, church-going man. Everything changed on March 12, 1977, when his friend, Father Rutilio Grande was assassinated by rich landowners for his…

August 18, 2019

I. When Antonio Basco’s wife, Margie, was killed in the El Paso shooting two weeks ago, he lost his only relative. Worried that he might have to bury her alone, Mr. Basco asked the funeral home to invite the public…

August 11, 2019

In order to discern the direction of his future ministry, a priest went to work at Mother Teresa’s home for the dying in Calcutta. When Mother greeted him, she asked, “What can I do for you?” He asked…

July 28, 2019

I. A couple of days ago I spoke with a young woman who lived for two gut-wrenching years at a Christian mission in Bangladesh. She prayed all the time, with all her heart, for the children: that they be freed…

July 21, 2019

I. When it came to feeding people, my Polish mother followed the dictum, “Whatever’s worth doing, is worth overdoing.” Abraham and Sarah may have been Polish. In today’s first reading, Abraham says to his guests, “Let me bring you a…

July 14, 2019

I. It’s a nice story with a nice moral. Typically, a “Good Samaritan” is the guy who stops to help someone whose car has broken down. Or the one who shovels snow for their elderly neighbor. It’s good to be…

July 7, 2019

I. “Do I have to draw you a picture?” These days, if you’re putting together a piece of furniture, technology, or toy, the assembly instructions are not given in words, but pictures. Usually, I find the drawings entirely clear. Sometimes,…

June 30, 2019

I. The Fourth of July celebrates, of course, the independence and freedom on which this country was founded. Our First Amendment rights guarantee freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, and the freedom to…

June 23, 2019

I. On Thursday’s drive home from the Priests’ Assembly in Rochester, I took a detour through Mankato, where I stopped at the motherhouse of the School Sisters of Notre Dame to have lunch with Sister Mary Benno, my first-grade teacher.

June 16, 2019

I. Twice now, I’ve been to Mexico for month-long visits to study Spanish. I’ve stayed in Cuernavaca, at the home of Silvano and Lucy Velasco. They are people of modest means: I know they stretched their budget to house me,…

Pentecost June 9, 2019

I. A year after his conversion, St. Francis was praying before a large cross in Assisi’s Church of San Damiano, when he heard Christ say to him, “Francis, repair my house.” Being rather literal-minded, Francis took up the task of…

June 2, 2019

I. After she was sexually abused at the age of seven, the poet and activist, Maya Angelou, was unable to speak for nearly ten years. Out of that silence and devastation, Dr. Angelou rose to become a woman of rare…

May 26, 2019

I. Of the infinite memories I have of my mother, one is among my most cherished. It is a conversation that came at the end of a three-week hospitalization when she’d received two serious diagnoses. Being the strong-willed, single-minded Pole…

May 12, 2019

I. Jean Vanier died on Tuesday at the age of 90. He was the founder of L’Arche – “The Ark,” in French, as in “Noah’s Ark.” L’Arche is a network of faith communities where people with and without developmental disabilities…

May 5, 2019

I. Some questions make me squirm, like, “How’s that diet going?” or, “Are you saved?” Or, “Do you love me?” Jesus poses that last awkward one to Peter not once, but three times – not because of insecurity on Jesus’…

April 28, 2019

I. Essayist Andre Dubus, writes, …At seven-fifteen the priest elevated the host, then the chalice, and spoke the words of the ritual, and the bread became flesh, the wine became blood, and minutes later I placed on my tongue the…

Easter, April 21, 2019

I. “Explain Resurrection.” Google that, and you’ll get 27,300,000 attempts to describe the greatest mystery in the history of the world, even though it seems that we don’t have much to gao on. We have that empty tomb, and Mary…

April 14, 2019

“Trust the down,” Richard Rohr writes, “and God will take care of the up.” We hear today in the letter to the Philippians an ancient Christian hymn that sings of Jesus’ descent from his divine platform: being born in human…

April 7, 2019

I. I spent a few hours yesterday with a couple of friends who are helping me to declutter my condo: a spring purging. These women are ruthless. It’s so hard letting go of all that stuff, all those things that…

March 31, 2019

I. As kids, my brothers and I played Wiffle ball in front of our garage door, despite my dad’s continued warnings. There were four windows across the top of that door – a hazard for a pitcher, since our plastic…

March 24, 2018

I. A few weeks ago, I sat in a courtroom at Fort Snelling for an immigration hearing of the 28-year-old son of one of our parishioners: his name, we’ll say, is Pedro. The room was sterile, silent and tense. Pedro…

March 10, 2019

I. The desert is a place I’d rather not go: I sweat too much. Especially in the desert of Lent. The 40-day stay there requires that we travel without our usual props – no sunscreen, no tequila, no painkillers. Just…

February 10, 2019

I. I was in the Phoenix airport Friday, waiting out a three-hour flight delay, when I realized that I’d better get going on this weekend’s homily. So, I started. But while meditating on the scriptures, I also made trips to…

December 23, 2018

I. Traveling while pregnant is not for wimps. I know this not from personal experience, but from a reliable female source. Traveling while pregnant is especially difficult on a donkey. But Mary went “in haste” to see Elizabeth, whom she…

December 30, 2018

I. Back when I was growing up, it seemed that we had one, two, three, seven feet of snow every Christmas, and we didn’t complain—because Dad did all the driving and shoveling. The snow always made for a dizzying Christmas…

Christmas 2018

I. What do you want Christmas to look like? That question was posed to kids at a California Boys and Girls Club. One little girl said she wanted Santa to have a blue beard. Another thought the reindeer should have…

December 16, 2018

I. A well-known Native American legend goes something like this: A Cherokee elder said to his young grandchild, “My child, a battle goes on inside everyone. The battle is between two wolves. One is the wolf of anger, envy,…

December 9, 2018

I. You’ve heard it said that, here in Minnesota, we have two seasons: winter and road construction. But this winter, you’ll still find blocked roadways, detours, and orange cones—and John the Baptist, building his highway. Juan eases our passage by…

December 2, 2018

I. I drove to a conference in Chicago this week: seven hours of uninterrupted alone time in my car. It was ample time to navel-gaze, while keeping my eyes on the road: time to review my relationships, ponder family problems…

November 25, 2018

I. Last Monday, someone looked me square in the eye and told me to, (quote) “Cheer up.” There is no phrase in the English language less likely to cheer me up than that. I’m not quite sure what I might…

November 18, 2018

I. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! This weekend’s scripture readings lead us into the end times, so I was led to revisit and revise a file on my computer titled, “In Case of My Death.” I’ve planned the music, the…

November 11, 2018

I. They say that, “Death comes in threes.” At least, that’s what my Grandma said. Of course, it does happen—all we need to do is wait for the third death to happen. But death doesn’t only come in threes: it…

November 4, 2018

I. When someone who was considering becoming a Jew asked the great first-century rabbi, Hillel the Elder, for a concise summary of Judaism, Hillel told him, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is…

October 28, 2018

In a 1959 letter to a friend known only as “A,” 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…

October 14, 2018

I. More than once, I’ve heard someone say that getting cancer, or losing a job, or the loss of a love, was the best thing that ever happened to them, a blessing, that they’d never been better than after having…

October 7, 2018

I. Marriage isn’t for wimps. That may explain why I’m unmarried. Yet, I have the audacity to preach about marriage. At hundreds and hundreds of weddings in my celibate career. And today. So here goes… First, some historical context.

September 30, 2018

I. As many of you know, I spent my seminary years, five of them, in Rome, spitting distance from the Vatican. I will always be grateful for the countless times I was privileged to stand in St. Peter’s Basilica, built…

September 23, 2018

I. One of my favorite YouTube videos comes from a Philadelphia Phillies game. A fan leans over a railing and nabs a foul ball. He was thrilled. He hands the ball to his three-year-old daughter. To his amazement, the little…

September 16, 2018

I. I spent October of 1991 on Unit 6-A of St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul. I was hospitalized for depression. I was embarrassed to be there, especially because the others who were there were obviously in much worse shape…

September 9, 2018

I. An “impediment” is, literally, something that gets in the way of our feet—our “pedi,” in Latin (pedal, pedestrian, pedicure). Jesus poked, spat, and groaned to heal the man with hearing and speech impediments. Back in the olden days, when…

September 2, 2018

I. I was on retreat last week at St. Mary’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Morristown, New Jersey—safely tucked away when the clergy sex abuse scandal in this country became an even sorrier spectacle with the Pennsylvania revelations, the discoveries…

August 19, 2018

I. Some years ago, a group of American sisters traveled to Guatemala to begin work as missionaries there. Upon arriving, they were overwhelmed by the poverty and the violence that they encountered. Its effect on them was apparent to those…

August 12, 2018

A few years ago, on the backroads of San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala, I witnessed the women of that town, with their babies bundled on their backs, go to the mission’s pick-up truck to collect a sack of grain. Occasionally, a…

August 5, 2018

I. It’s called “Glamour Shots.” You’ve seen them in malls: portrait photography, as their website states, of, “you being the best version of yourself”—“you” with chicer clothes, bigger hair, and more makeup than you’ve ever imagined—with some digital touchups. They…

July 22, 2018

I. Frederick Buechner writes, Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it’s like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there…

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