I half expected to see everyone show up for Mass today in Seahawk blue, praying for the Hawks to win what is likely to be a close game against the Patriots in Superbowl XLIX.

Today’s gospel is very fitting for Super Bowl Sunday. The scene we encounter could be named the original super bowl, a contest of strength and strategy between the two most powerful opponents in the world: the Capernaum Demons, known also as the unclean spirits against the Holy Ones of Nazareth, led by Jesus and his disciples.

This spiritual super bowl began much like any super bowl does, with much jeering, hollering and screaming. The unclean spirits are shouting out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” Their aim is simple: they want to frighten and intimidate their opponent and his fans but ultimately they are unable to.

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4th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Do you make up your mind once and for all when it comes to making commitments or do you tend to vacillate? When he was a boy, Ronald Reagan’s aunt took him to a shoe cobbler to get him a pair of custom shoes. When the cobbler asked, “Do you want square toes or round toes on the shoes?” Reagan hem-hawed around; he didn’t know what he wanted. The cobbler then said, “That’s all right, see me in a couple of days and tell me and I’ll make them for you.”

A couple of days later, the cobbler saw him and asked, “Do you want square toes or do you want round toes on your shoes?” And Ronald said, “I don’t know.” The cobbler replied, “Well, come back in a couple of days…your shoes will be ready.” When Reagan picked up his shoes, one shoe was square-toed and one was round-toed. The cobbler looked at him and said, “This will teach you never to let people make your decisions for you from this time on.”

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3rd Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Moments ago, you either sang or heard others sing, “Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.”

Did you resonate with the message of this song? Did you imagine that God is calling you? And if you did, would you reply in the same way that Samuel did? “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

Don’t dismiss the notion that God is calling you. God calls every person ever created but many don’t listen. Are you willing to listen to what God has to say to you? By your presence here, I assume that like Samuel, you have responded, “Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will.” After all, we make that pledge every time we say the Lord’s Prayer and say, “they kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That is not just a plea; it’s a promise as well.

The sad truth is that for many Christians, these are empty promises. If they were carried out by every follower of Christ, then Paul would have had no need to speak as he did to the Christian community at Corinth. As we heard, he told them that the body isn’t for immorality but for the Lord, which makes sense for we were created in the image of God.

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2nd Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

At Christmas we celebrated the birth of Jesus. The gospel narrative of Jesus’ birth is not just a story. The gospel contains a deep message in Jesus. We learn something vital about the identity of Jesus through the way he was shown through the circumstances of his birth.

In the grotto in Bethlehem, Jesus was born into this world through Mary and Joseph and then first manifested to poor shepherds in the humility of a simple manger. The key to understanding the identity of this new born child was first indicated not to the powerful and influential but the poor.

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Baptism of the LordRead More »

We call today’s feast the “Epiphany” but it is really just one of three ‘epiphanies’ we celebrate in our faith tradition. ‘Epiphany’ means a ‘showing’ or ‘revelation’ or ‘manifestation’–a moment of insight—something comes to light. The Church celebrates three ‘revelations’ of God—the adoration of the Magi, the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River and the miracle at Cana when Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding feast. 

And, of the four Gospels, only Matthew and Luke include the Christmas story—the birth of Jesus. Today’s Gospel with the magi is Matthew’s Christmas story, just as the shepherds coming to the stable is Luke’s Christmas story heard on Christmas day.  The two accounts are quite distinct from each other and have a different thrust or emphasis.  In Luke, the stress is on Jesus being God’s revelation to the poor and the rejected (the shepherds).  In Matthew, the emphasis is on the universality of Jesus’ mission (the visitation of foreigners, the magi).

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EpiphanyRead More »