The only thing I know about plants is that they tend to die when I get close to them. I understand little botany, and, in this case, that is a good thing. Like the people who first heard this Gospel, I stand in unmediated awe before the God who is the Lord of nature. Awe is a good teacher.
Continue reading “11th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)”Category: Homilies
Corpus Christi – Homily (Fr. Smith)
Today’s Gospel is a perfect choice for today’s feast: The Body and Blood of Christ, popularly called “Corpus Christi”. It is especially important for this year. To understand why, we will need to look at what Jesus was doing and why he was doing it at the Passover.
Continue reading “Corpus Christi – Homily (Fr. Smith)”Trinity Sunday – Homily (Fr. Smith)
There are many things I will appreciate more post-Covid. Already, I have enjoyed seeing people’s teeth, especially their smiles. It is amazing how much a smile can bring to life. I appreciate what we are doing now: coming together to celebrate Mass, live, in person and able to exchange pleasantries on the church steps, something I would have taken for granted only a year ago. However, more important than these has been my greater appreciation of the Trinity.
Continue reading “Trinity Sunday – Homily (Fr. Smith)”Pentecost – Sequence & Homily (Msgr. LoPinto)
Today, we come to celebrate the great feast of Pentecost.
It is, in a sense, the end of the great feast that make up the Paschal mystery.
First being the passion and death and resurrection of the Lord, second being the Lord’s ascension in heaven, and the third being Pentecost for the soul of the spirit and all of these which take place over a 50 day period, all of them have a purpose.
Continue reading “Pentecost – Sequence & Homily (Msgr. LoPinto)”7th Sunday of Easter – Homily (Fr. Smith)
There is nothing more important in life than who we love, yet it has been well said that we cannot explain why we love someone. If a husband were to say that he loved his wife because she was beautiful, she might indignantly answer “What happens if I lost my beauty?” “Would you still love me?” If she however told her husband that she loved him because he was a good provider he could well respond, “Would you still love me if I lost my job?” Why we love is a mystery because there is simply too much meaning to express in questions and answers. It is the stuff of poetry and drama not philosophy and science and the best even the most subline literature can accomplish is the hinting at the fullness.
Continue reading “7th Sunday of Easter – Homily (Fr. Smith)”6th Sunday of Easter – Homily (Msgr. LoPinto)
As we mentioned at the beginning of today’s liturgy, it is the sixth Sunday of Easter.
And so for six, seven weeks we have been singing alleluia, yes.
And I wonder sometimes since we do these things almost out of practice or what you might say habit.
Whether we ever really stop to think.
Why are we using this one word so frequently?
Continue reading “6th Sunday of Easter – Homily (Msgr. LoPinto)”5th Sunday of Easter – Homily (Fr. Smith)
Jesus walked before he talked. By this I mean that he saw his world up close and slow before he began his preaching and teaching. His use of biblical imagery is particularly effective because he knew the physical realities of growth and rot, care and neglect, competence and incompetence from personal experience. This is particularly important for understanding today’s gospel.
Jesus lived in Nazareth but as a general contractor – a better choice for the Greek word we usually translate as carpenter – he would have worked mostly in the Greek speaking town of Sepphoris It was about a 4 mile walk and there were many fields with sheep and many vineyards with grapes and olives. When he calls himself the good shepherd, he has seen the dedication of good shepherds but understands why the scriptures use bad, self-serving, shepherds as the most potent image of corrupt leadership. He brings his experience to give this image greater effect. So too today with the vineyard.
Jesus saw vineyards grow or decline on his walk to and from work. After an evening storm he would have seen branches that were separated from the trunk of the tree looking good and healthy on the morning walk to Sepphoris but they would have been obviously decaying on the way back to Nazareth and dead the next day. They were fit only to burn.