At their last semiannual meeting, the Catholic Bishops of the United States discussed the Eucharist. The topic of “Eucharistic coherence” was raised by some and interpreted by many as whether President Biden and other Catholic politicians who support legal abortion should receive communion. The Vatican informed them that this decision belonged to individual bishops and that it was beyond the competence of the conference. This was not, however, the only concern they had about the Eucharist. They were particularly concerned that most American Catholics did not believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. They voted to prepare a statement on this and will discuss it in greater depth at their next meeting. As we see in todays’ gospel reading Jesus’ teaching that “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” has been a stumbling block for many since the beginning of the Church. The difference is that we moderns often reject it because we do not understand it and the ancients, particularly the Jews, rejected it because they understood it all too well.
Continue reading “21st Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)”Category: Homilies
Assumption of Mary – Homily (Fr. Gribowich)
Good morning, everyone. Always a great joy being able to be with you here at St. Charles Borromeo. I think some of you probably know by now that my Sundays are numbered. I’m going to be heading up to the Trappist monastery of the lady of Getz. I’m sorry, Our Lady of Genesee – hope I know where I’m going – The Abbey of Our Lady of Genesee https://www.geneseeabbey.org, which is in upstate New York, about 45 minutes south of Rochester. And I’ll be planning on entering the Trappist community there. So I do cherish these last remaining Sundays with you here.
So today is the feast of the Assumption, the solemnity of the Assumption, a great Marian feast. And whenever we celebrate a Marian feast, I think maybe two things, as a priest, come to mind.
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The Eucharist makes us Catholic Christians, but we can only understand the Eucharist by thinking like Jews. We see this very clearly in today’s Gospel.
The great insight of the Jews was that God loved them. This runs throughout the entire Old Testament. At the very beginning they understood that creation was not an accident or a cruel joke as most ancient peoples believed but the act of an all loving and all-powerful deity. The first humans did not find themselves in a wasteland but rather in Paradise, a place of perfection. They saw as well the meaning of Sin. God forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for then they would die. They are in paradise, what would they know of evil? The sin of Adam and Eve, as ours, is to think we at we can do better than God. Our creation would be better than his. They ate and died.
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We in Brooklyn Heights are experts in nonverbal communication. Living here requires communicating with dogs and babies. After 5 years on Sidney place, I am proud to say that I have mastered puppy and infant and progressing nicely with dog and toddler. It is amazing how effectively both groups can express basic instincts most particularly hunger without saying a word. A dog will look at you with the saddest eyes and an infant after a few warning signs will start crying. As we emerge from Covid we have seen that many people have discovered that they are hungry but are not certain for what and don’t have the language to express it. Luckily, St John wishes to teach us this language.
Continue reading “18th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)”17th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)
The section from Mark’s Gospel last week brought us up to the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. This week we continue this story, but we switch to St. John’s gospel. St. Mark is the shortest gospel and in order to have readings until the end of the year we need to supplement them with St. John for this month. This is the easiest place to do this. The multiplication of the loaves and the fish is the one miracle which can be found in all 4 gospels. That itself is very important. None of the gospel writers could conceive of the church without the Eucharist. We need to ask ourselves this month: can we?
Continue reading “17th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)”16th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)
Many of us hear the scriptures only at Mass and thus in relatively short sections. The Sunday gospel readings are designed to be heard over a 3-year cycle it is often difficult to see how one weeks reading relates to the former or next passage or indeed the entire Gospel. This is particularly true with Mark, and we will need to locate where today’s reading falls in his gospel to see how to bring it to life in today’s world.
Last week Jesus sent his disciples on mission. Most of us would have found his timing inauspicious. For several chapters that we read for several weeks Jesus moved from one triumph to another. He cured the sick, cast out demons even raised the dead. He seemed unstoppable but then he went home to Nazareth, and he could do almost nothing. He was rejected by his own people. It was then that he sent out his followers. We will see today that he calls them apostles, Greek for one who is sent. They performed many miracles and preached the good news of repentance and forgiveness. They too seemed unstoppable.
Today Jesus stops them. He greets them on their return but before we look at that should remember that the lectionary, the book of the scriptures which we use in church, skips over the story of the death of John the Baptist.
Continue reading “16th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)”15th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Gribowich)
Good morning, everyone.
Great joy to be with you here at the 11:15 mass and plus there’s even a greater joy that we get to welcome Sister Lilia, who’s here from the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, who will be speaking to us in a few moments about the important missionary work that she does and give us a window into really the challenges that exist with our brothers and sisters in other places around the world, just taken by the fact that when Jesus gives authority to the disciples or really to anyone, to anyone who is a missionary disciple, it comes with a certain type of cost.
Now, this is kind of a little surprising because usually when we think of people who have authority, they have somehow earned it, meaning that they have the proper amount of education, the proper amount of skills.
They may even have a certain type of social status or financial status that gives them street creds, credibility to have authority over others.
Continue reading “15th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Gribowich)”