Videos from selected homilists; Transcript excerpts from Fr. Hawkswell, Fr. Fleming, Fr. Chama, Msgr. Pellegrino, Fr. Sigma, Fr. Kavanaugh’s homilies; Bishop Barron podcasts; Life Issues; Doctrinal Homily Outlines
KUALA LUMPUR | 2015
Many believe that a perfect world looks much like a Benetton advertisement. Multicultural children holding hands wearing ethnic clothes singing together in peace and harmony. Wouldn’t it be just wonderful if the world worked that way? How do we get there? There are many today who believe that the answer lies with tolerance.
It is no wonder that tolerance is depicted as the most noble goal in life, the greatest virtue one can possess. Many Christians easily equate tolerance with our Christian idea of mercy. Though there may be similarities, the differences are considerable. Tolerance is seen as the ability to accept the right of others to hold differing opinions, have different lifestyles, and be different from you. It is regarded as the cement that holds together a politically, religiously, economically and ethnically diverse society. In the new religion of Diversity, tolerance has become its paramount dogma. Translated into a working ethos, it issues forth a new commandment that sounds like this – “you must never, ever, speak out against beliefs you disagree with. If you do, you will be labelled as intolerant and hateful.”
A CONCORD PASTOR COMMENTS | 2015
Two really big questions staring us right in the face here: Joshua asks his people: Whom are you going to serve? Jesus asks his disciples: Whom are you going to follow? These are questions for us, too, and a good way to get at them might be to rephrase them just a bit and ask: “Well, whom DO I serve? Whom DO I follow?”
My guess is that most of us serve many masters. The masters we serve are those who become our priority, our focus; those who eat up our time; those who consume our worry, our sweat and our energy; For some , the master is the job; for some, family; for many it’s school. For some it’s a drink or a drug, sports or sex, a wager or the Internet. For others their master is their fear, anxiety, greed, envy, grief, loneliness or guilt. And most of us, whether we have a lot of it or just a little, most of us are servants of money. We all have many masters, and our masters have a leash on us and often manage our lives in ways we don’t even notice.
HOMILETIC DIAKONIA | 2018
SINGLE HUMANITY | 2018
This Sunday’s readings send me back to the choice I have made in my life; most especially to check how I’m living them out. I suppose, you too, you have made several choices in your life. How are you living them? Let’s profit from this Sunday and see how we can gain a new momentum in living fully our choices.
If we do the recap of chapter 6 of the Gospel according to John, that we have been reading the past few Sundays, it all began with the multiplication of five bread and two fish and over five thousand persons ate to their satisfaction, and there were leftovers. Excited, the people thought of Jesus as the promised messiah, so why hesitate? They wanted to make him their king. Euphoria! Jesus sneaked away, but the people went searching for him. Realising that they had missed the point of this gesture, Jesus took time to explain. His intention was not just to give bread for the bellies, but he was himself the bread from heaven who came to give lasting life, by his own body and bread. Intolerable!
Fr. Chama’s homily is divided into the following sections:
From Euphoria to Deception
Popularity?Numbers?
This is Inaceptable.
Choice Founded on Trust in Jesus
Go Back to Your Sichem
DIOCESE OF ST. PETERSBURG | 2021
In the second book of his science fiction trilogy, Perelandra, C. S. Lewis presents a Paradise being tempted by evil. But instead of painting a lush Garden of Eden, as the Book of Genesis paints, C. S. Lewis presents a planet with a huge sea on which there are floating islands. The waves on that planet are so large that the floating islands go up and down with the swell. Sometimes an entire island is on the bottom of the swell and the ocean is a wall. Anyone on the island would not be able to see anything other than the island or the sea. Sometimes an entire island is on top of the waves, and an inhabitant of the island cold look out and see the world just as someone here on earth might see the world from the top of Pike’s Peak or Mount Everest. Everything on Perelandra is beautiful. There are dolphin like fish in the sea that spout water the colors of the rainbow. The floating islands are lush and green. The fruit on the islands is so delicious that the first inclination one has after he or she takes a bite, is to eat some and then pick and hoard as much as possible.
Related Homilies
CATHOLIC PREACHING | 2015
Today’s readings could not be possibly more dramatic — or more relevant for us. They bring us face-to-face with the fact that each of us, like the Israelites in Shechem and the disciples in Capharnaum, are called to make a choice, a choice for or against the God who has already chosen us, for or against the God who created us, loved us from the beginning, revealed himself to us, save us over and over again, sent his only Son to die for us, blessed us in innumerable ways and prepared a place for us in heaven. In theory, the choice is simple: Who would choose against God? But in practice, such a choice is challenging and hard, because by its nature, it demands fidelity each day, in each decision, in all the various aspects of our life. Today’s readings are a gift to help us to choose well.
BUILDING ON THE WORD | 2003
Do we follow Christ out of obligation or out of self-interest? It’s surprising to note that we follow Christ for both reasons. Christ is our Master and Lord, and so the things that he teaches us are things that we as disciples are obliged to obey. Yet, we would be seriously misled to imagine that the teachings of Christ are some arbitrary set of rules set out to measure our fidelity. Christ’s teachings are not some hurdle that we are meant to jump over or some obstacle that we are meant to get around. In fact, the very things that Christ asks us to do are the means to goodness and joy. Christ does not direct us to do one thing or another just to make our lives difficult, but rather so that we might become whole and healthy people. The teachings of Jesus are given to us for our own good.
When I was in the fifth grade my teacher was Sr. Philomena and she had a very strong interest in promoting the scapular. I don’t know if all of you know what a scapular is. It is a religious article that you wear like a medal, but it’s made out of cloth in order to mirror the habit of a religious brother or sister. There are different kinds of scapulars, but Sr. Philomena was particularly attached to the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. She told us that Mary had promised St. Simon Stock that those who wore the scapular would never die without first having access to a priest who could hear their confession and forgive them of their sins.
THE REASON FOR OUR HOPE | 2009
I love when I walk into houses and sometimes it is sad because you see this in a lot of Protestant houses, but I don’t see it in a lot of Catholic houses. You know, here is Joshua. Now Joshua of course is there in the First Reading. Moses is dead. And all the Commandments have been given and not just the Ten Commandments but all the Commandments of Leviticus, all these things are out there. And so you know Joshua just has had it. And he goes and calls all the assembly together and says, “Listen, choose now. Choose. If you want to serve the Balaam and those other gods, go for it. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” And so often, they even have door markers that say that, you know. Or if you walk into a house and it is the first thing you see when you walk into someone’s house, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” We come and explicitly say this is what this house does. This is what this family does. We serve, “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” And of course the way you serve the Lord is by serving each other. By giving your life.
SUNDAY WEB SITE | 1997
Clearly there is a hierarchical context for Paul’s words to the Ephesians. Christ is compared to the husband, the church to the wife. The man is the head; the woman the body. This analogy has been acclaimed by some, who want to legitimate the privileged imaging of the male for Christ. But it has been roundly condemned by others, who see it as a devaluation of women. Both positions are worth examining, but what is the real theme of the Ephesians text? “Subordination” and “reverence” are its context. All the rest is application. We must all defer to and revere one another. Then Paul provides applications that may or may not be historically bound.
But it is subordination we have trouble with, “submission.” It sticks in the craw. Why should any of us have to submit to another or put someone else first? What is worse, Paul seems to commend obedience only to the woman. He tells the wives to be submissive. What about the men?
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS | 2021
Faith, a gift of God, serves to lift up our soul and spirit above material and corporeal contingencies. It is to this supernatural attitude that Jesus tries to lead his disciples. Faith is a supernatural virtue which resides in our intellect: faith requires some human support, that of our human knowledge, a knowledge which may consist of simple ideas, but which is often made up of more or less elaborate judgments. Faith is always a matter of choice. We choose to believe in persons, in institutions, in values and causes. All our real and good relationships, our good commitments arise out of such choices. This process of faith invariably involves certain amount of risk. To believe in nothing and go ahead as if nothing exists is the end of the path and thus a type of death. Our life in order to progress demands a risk of each one of us. We read in the book of Joshua today that he invites the tribe of Israel to choose faith and commitment to each other and to God. Their passage from slavery to freedom is well in the past and new generations need to make this story their own. They are given now a challenge by Joshua to reconsider their common history and recommit to their faith in the new land. In the Gospel we have Peter who makes the choice and the commitment on behalf of the disciples in a time of change and tension. He sees the wavering of their faith and commitment to Jesus and moving away from him and speaks boldly on behalf of the twelve of their loyalty and faith in him. In the second reading Paul tells the members of the church to be subordinate to one another. The directive is especially realized in the mutual love of spouses in marriage.
Photo above will be replaced by video when sermon is available. Check below for a list of Bishop’s most recent sermons.
LORD, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?by Bishop Robert Barron . August 26, 2018 .
In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus’ followers reacting to his shocking teaching about eating his flesh and drinking his blood by saying, “This is a hard saying; who can accept it?” To understand Jesus’ meaning, we must understand that he’s not using symbolic or metaphorical language. He’s speaking words of “Spirit and life” which bring into being precisely what they signal.
REALLY, TRULY, AND SUBSTANTIALLY PRESENTby Bishop Robert Barron . August 26, 2012
The Lord Jesus is not speaking metaphorically about eating his flesh and drinking his blood – he has come to make of his own Body and Blood real food and drink. This revelation was and continues to be a stumbling block for many, but the faithful accept the mystery of the gift of Christ’s Real Presence that is given to the Church in the Blessed Sacrament.
YOU GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODYby Bishop Robert Barron . August 23, 2009
The Book of Joshua provokes us to consider one of the most important questions of the spiritual life- whom will you serve? Will it be the Lord or some other concern? Making something finite the ultimate concern of one’s life is a grave spiritual predicament. Only is the Lord is ultimate and it is only when we recognize this truth that the other concerns of our life can be properly ordered and become spiritually fruitful.
MANY WENT AWAYby Bishop Robert Barron . August 27, 2006
The Eucharist has been, from the beginning, a source of conflict and division. This is, of course, not Christ’s will, for the eucharist is supposed to be the great unifier. Nevertheless, for the past two thousand years, the radical doctrine of the real presence has compelled some to rebel. Why is this? Take a listen.
Let us pray that peoples and their governments will always be on the side of life (pro life) rather than on the side of death (pro choice) vis-a-vis the moral issues related to the “right to choose”, because like the twelve apostles, we have made Peter’s words also our own, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
There continue to be people in the world today who find that the teachings of Christ are hard. Many even them refuse even to believe in Jesus. It could be that, sometimes, we also have moments of doubt and of crisis in our faith. If we have moments of incertitude, we should ask ourselves, as Saint Peter did, “To whom can we go?”
Christianity will flourish when people come to realize that we are a welcoming, kind and accepting community. There will only be peace in our communities when we can act humbly without trying to impose our own will on others, in a word, when we stop trying to dominate everyone and everything.
Choosing Jesus and living according to His way is more than just waiting for a future heaven to come. It is to make heaven present at the now moment. Christian living becomes more challenging and exciting if we see life as bringing some bit of heaven on earth.
The faith of the Church is expressed in Peter’s words: “To whom shall we go?” If Christ is God, then there is no one to whom we can go who has anything but a human word and a passing life to impart. Outside of Christ, there is nothing, nowhere to go. Wherever you have the Church, you have that faith; for that is the faith of the Church.
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