Good afternoon, everyone – I think it’s past, no it’s not past noon yet, right? That’s good morning everyone, and it’s great to be, of course, here with you again. Hopefully you can hear us all right. I know that this still gets a little complicated when we’re trying to balance moving so many different moving parts here, with the video and everything. But it’s great to be here with you, even though it’s virtual.

So today, we hear the great story of the discovery of Jesus on the way to Emmaus, and the story makes me think of a lot of things, but I think perhaps it particularly makes me think about coming from Pennsylvania, actually from Allentown. There’s a town close by called Emmaus, and of course the town is used in light of the biblical reference, and so there’s different places that are kind of named after the biblical town. So for example, there’s a religious goods store and they call the store The Way to Emmaus, and then there is a store that sells running shoes and other types of things and they call it the Run-Inn, so I-N-N like the inn where Jesus stayed with these disciples, and whenever I’d like to go home to Allentown, I like to stop into Emmaus, because I do go to the Run-Inn because that’s where I’ll buy my running shoes and I’ve been doing it for years, because I was teaching at Central Catholic High School in Allentown for many, many years and working with the track team and the cross-country team, and we would always go there to buy our running shoes. So I still go there every now and then when I’m back home, and I like going there picking out my shoes and then right when I bring them up to the counter to pay for them I’ll just kind of slightly say oh you know I used to work for Central Catholic and then BOOM, that’s when the eyes open up and like oh you worked for Central, we’ll give you a discount and so it’s a nice little perk that we have. Well going to the Run-Inn, where you get a Central Catholic discount even though I’m not even working in there anymore. Continue reading “3rd Sunday of Easter – Fr. Gribowich Homily” →

When I was growing up in Jackson Heights, many of my friends and neighbors were from India. They were slightly older and certainly more mature than I was, and I tried to keep up with them. Yet sometimes I did not understand what they were saying. They constantly used words like bowler – which I thought was a hat – wicket – which I thought was a kind of small bush, and popping crease which totally mystified me. I finally realized that they lived and breathe that most inscrutable sport, Cricket, and these were all technical terms. After I read an article from Encyclopedia Britannica – for younger people, this is what we had before Wikipedia – I could at least navigate the  conversation. 

This is the case with today’s Gospel passage. Unless we realize that everyone speaking about the resurrection is a Pharisee we will be, at very least, very confused and possibly miss what Jesus is proclaiming.   Continue reading “5th Sunday of Lent – Fr. Smith Homily” →

Good morning, once again. I know this is so unusual for many of us to have to be experiencing that this way, so thank you for being patient with us and we’re learning as we go here, as well.

And of course I haven’t seen you in a long time – and I still don’t see you now –  so I can kind of empathize with the blind man that we hear in our gospel today. So to be back in Brooklyn, to be able to be part of the St. Charles community is always a very great blessing for me ,and to not actually have you in the same physical spaces, of course a very trying thing for me, and I’m sure it is for you, too.

So we are together, united through what may take place here at this Mass through the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ comes to us in three ways: of course, we experience the Body of Christ by meditating upon the body that was nailed to the cross and rose from the dead. Continue reading “4th Sunday Lent – Fr. Gribowich Homily” →

The scripture readings for Lenten Masses are well chosen and effective. They are listed in the parish bulletin and I suggest that you read them beforehand. This is a wonderful way to enrich your experience of Mass. The prayers, however, are also beautiful and can teach us a great deal. Today in the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, that is the prayer said immediately before the Holy, Holy, Holy, we will hear: ‘for after he had told his disciples of his coming death, on the holy mountain he manifested himself to them in his glory… to show that the Passion leads to the glory of the Resurrection”. This refers to the passage before today’s selection. They are connected by a common theme, the same characters but also by the experience of fear. Let us look at the last item. 

We come upon Jesus and the disciples at a rather frustrating time for Jesus.  He has been preaching to large crowds, but they have failed to understand his message. This is understandable. I doubt I would have understood Him in their place. Jesus was self-consciously fulfilling all the requirements of the Messiah but in completely unexpected and for most people incomprehensible ways. It is therefore remarkable that when he asked the disciples who they thought He was Peter, always the spokesman, responded “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” Jesus recognized that this insight came from the Father and told his disciples that he “must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised”. (Mt 16: 21)   Continue reading “2nd Sunday Lent – Fr. Smith Homily” →