Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Jer 20:7-9, Ps 63, Rom 12:1-2, Matt 16:21-27. You made it. Some Sundays that is a minor miracle and should be listed among the corporal works of mercy. Somebody found the car keys under a pile of permission slips. Somebody squeezed into last spot next to the minivan … Continue reading The Living Sacrifice (And Other Things Nobody RSVPs To)
Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) Isaiah 56:1, 6–7 | Psalm 67 | Romans 11:13–15, 29–32 | Matthew 15:21–28 A few years ago, a bishop in Missouri looked at one of the most popular hymns in American Catholicism and decided it had to go. The hymn was “All Are Welcome.” Actually, the hymn … Continue reading Welcome to What?
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A: Isa 55:1-3, Ps 145, Rom 8:35/37-39, Matt 14:13-21 There are certain moments when I begin to wonder if the internet was a mistake. A friend sent me a YouTube video and asked for my honest opinion. After watching it, I’m reconsidering both the video and the friendship.T he … Continue reading Come to me, not within yourself
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 There is an uncomfortable fact underneath today’s first reading. Insight doesn’t guarantee fidelity. Truth doesn’t guarantee love. You can pray exactly the right prayer at twenty and still lose it by sixty. Solomon is a young king when God appears to him in a … Continue reading The Wisdom That Didn’t Last
Homily: Fifteenth Sunday Ordinary Time. Rom 8:18-23 I can still vividly remember from the hazy recollection of my youth a particular Sunday morning in the summer of 1975. The sunlight pouring through the stained-glass windows, the water cascading off of Mr. Wallacavage. He had no choice but to march all the way to the front … Continue reading Diagnosing the Wrong Patient
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time — June 14, 2026 (Year A) Ex 19:2-6a; Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5; Rom 5:6-11; Matt 9:36—10:8 Some years ago psychologists ran a famous experiment. They showed people a video of students passing basketballs and asked them to count the passes. Halfway through, a man in a gorilla suit walks straight … Continue reading Counting Passes
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Sunday, June 7, 2026 Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; 1Cor10:16-17; Jn 6:51-58 The Catholic philosopher Joseph Pieper, writing in the years after World War II, warned that modern society increasingly judges things by their usefulness alone. Food becomes useful. Work becomes … Continue reading What Food Is For
Sunday, May 31, 2026 — The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Year A) Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9; Dan 3:52-56; 2Cor 13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18 A few years ago, a doctor named Vivek Murthy was treating a patient he calls James. James had high blood pressure and diabetes. His body was beginning to fail him. During one … Continue reading The God Who Has a Face
May 24, 2026: Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104; 1Cor12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn 20:19-23 Note an interesting feature in Luke’s writing. Of all the people in the room, only one other person besides the apostles is named. Mary. He writes: "All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus." What … Continue reading Mary at Pentecost
The Joy of the Gospel 