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
BC CATHOLIC | 2021
If your hand, foot, or eye “causes you to stumble, cut it off” or “tear it out,” Jesus said in this Sunday’s Gospel Reading; “it is better for you to enter life maimed” than to have a whole body and end up in hell.
The Second Reading implies the same: if your wealth causes you to stumble, give it away; it is better for you to enter life poor than to be rich and to go to hell. As Jesus warned, “it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Jesus is not commanding self-mutilation. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, the Fifth Commandment forbids amputation and mutilation (including sterilization) except for strictly therapeutic reasons. To understand what Jesus said, recall that after baptism, we live with two kinds of life: natural and supernatural. Natural life is the kind we get from our parents by birth. Supernatural life is the kind God lives in the Holy Trinity. By birth, we have only natural life. To acquire supernatural life, we must be born again, this time with God as our Father and the Church as our mother, so that we become Jesus’ siblings.
KUALA LUMPUR | 2018
Some have called it a schism (a sin that breaks the unity of the Church). Others have called it a civil war. Call it what you may, it is quite clear to many, both within and outside the Catholic Church, that she is deeply split and fragmented with not just a binary but a multifaceted factionalism, made out of various factions who often adopt irreconcilable positions that are diagonally opposed to each other. Modern and secular commentators often see it as a rift between left and right, liberal and conservative. To those who believe that they are defending the Sacred Tradition of the Church and her Magisterium, it is a fight between orthodoxy and heresy, plain and simple. To progressives, it boils down to either supporting or opposing the reform of Vatican II. It is indeed painful and saddening to witness the Body of Christ wounded by this, a Body that has been further scarred by the sexual abuse scandal, with various camps blaming the other for the mess.
Some say that it all boils down to the question of what can or should be tolerated and what is intolerable. Now the word “tolerance,” though quite common in modern parlance, is hardly featured in any official Church teaching. Furthermore, the modern concept of tolerance is also problematic, being a kind of oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. For example, tolerance seems to suggest accepting without judgment “all and sundry”, but that isn’t the case. Tolerance stops at the point where someone else disagrees with my idea of tolerance. Thus, the many factions within the Church often tolerate a great deal of nonsense by those whom they judge as either allies or who share their own ideological positions, but would tolerate nothing from the other camp even though the “other” side is capable of doing something objectively good. It is not too far from the truth to state that the Gospel of Tolerance is often quite intolerant, especially to those who do not share similar sentiments, preferences, and theological positions.
A CONCORD PASTOR COMMENTS | 2009
You have probably read or heard about the recent discovery of a scrap of papyrus, believed to be from the 4th century, on which is a partially legible text, described by experts as clumsy handwriting, penned with a blunt instrument.
This fragment of ancient paper is smaller than a standard business card, and on it can be read only these broken phrases:
not to me. My mother gave to me life…
The disciples said to Jesus…
deny. Mary is worthy of it…
Jesus said to them, “My wife…
Let the wicked people swell up…
As for me, I dwell with her in order to…
my mother… three… forth which…
And for many, and certainly for the media, these words are enough to raise again the question of whether or not Jesus was married.
Material like this teases and tickles the imagination of believers and non-believers alike. For some it’s a matter of curiosity, for others it feeds the doubt and mistrust they already have for the church.
DIOCESE OF ST. PETERSBURG | 2021
Today’s readings lead us to a discussion of a topic that is pertinent to our present times in the United States. Although the media tries to paint a different picture, the fact is that many people in our country go to a Church or worship in a synagogue, mosque or temple, etc. The media may be agnostic or even atheistic, but the vast majority of the people are not. Just look at the area where you come from, North Pinellas or South Pasco. Consider how many places of worship you passed as you came to Mass this morning.
The plurality of various faith traditions leads us to a deeper consideration of the first reading from Numbers 11 and the first part of today’s Gospel from Mark 9. In Numbers Moses was told to summon 70 leaders to the Meeting tent to receive a portion of the Spirit he had been given. 68 did go to that Tent, received the Spirit, and began prophesying. However, the other two leaders, Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp and were not in the tent. Still they also received the Spirit and began to prophesy. So, they were not among those with Moses in the Tent but still received the Spirit of prophecy. When this was brought to Joshua’s attention, he wanted Moses to stop them. Moses wouldn’t because he could see that their preaching was authentic, they had the power, the authority of the Spirit of God.
In the same way in our own times, there are many people of many faiths whose preaching is authentic. They may not be part of the Catholic Church, they may not even be Christian, but they still have a share of the Holy Spirit.
BUILDING ON THE WORD | 2003
Sometimes the things that most endanger us appear to us as normal and acceptable. Sometimes the greatest threats to our lives are the things that seem a part of our very selves. Therefore the thought of leaving those things behind is unthinkable, impossible for us to imagine. It is for this reason that Jesus uses such shocking language in today’s Gospel. He suggests that we cut off our hand or our foot or pluck out our eye. Jesus knows that at times there are things in our life that need to end. And even though it seems like we are cutting off a piece of ourselves, refusing to take that step would endanger something of even greater value.
We might love our work. We might thrill to the excitement of accomplishing things and finding success in our job. But if the energy and time that we put into our work begins to strangle our relationship with our spouse and our children, then we might need to change our job or at least the way that we do it. That possibility might seem like eliminating a very part of ourselves. Yet it would be better to do that than to continue to work full throttle and lose our family in the process. There may be somebody in our life who consistently manipulates us and tears us down. It could be a relative, a friend, perhaps even a parent. If, after repeated attempts to correct that relationship, we realize that this person will never change, we might have to sever ties with the one who hurts us. Although that might seem like tearing out the fabric of our lives, it would be worse to find ourselves sinking into depression or losing our mental health. We might recognize that we have an addiction to alcohol, to drugs, to excessive overeating. It might become clear that if we are to remain healthy we need to stop the addiction. To stop, however, might seem impossible, like cutting off our hand. Yet it would worse to let that addiction control us and possibly destroy us.
SUNDAY WEB SITE | 1997
The problem of riches is one of the great secrets in capitalist Christianity. The truth would be too hard to bear. Popes and bishops might he padded in comfort, surrounded by silver and gold. And we ourselves are probably members of the wealthiest church in the most dazzling culture of the world.
Our television evangelizers are so intent on our money, they dare not condemn it. In fact, if you spend a month of Sundays listening to the preachers, it would seem as if Jesus never said a mumblin’ word about money. Proclaimers of the gospel are easily trapped. As one very wealthy man once said to me: “You better not love the poor too much. If you do, who’s going to give you the money to keep going?”
Money may be our biggest difficulty. Marx called it our “jealous god,” who can tolerate no other deity. “Only in money will my soul be at rest, in cash is my hope and salvation. It alone is my rock of safety, my stronghold, my glory.”
Money has immense power. It is almost sacramental. It gets us acceptance into the real world. It seems to clean the most vile acts. The very possession of it sanitizes us. The most loathsome behaviors are rendered “cool,” if not splendid. Whether we are murderers, usurers, abusers of women and children, dope pushers, money can still get us limousines and drivers. No matter what we have done, hangers-on will mouth their “yes” to us, hoping for a tip, a nod of beneficence. It provides entry into the most select of clubs. It buys life and death, bodies and body parts. It purchases persons.
Homily for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time preached by Father David Abernethy, C.O. at The Pittsburgh Oratory.
WEBSITE: Fides Nostra
PLAYLIST: Year Cycle B – Sunday Gospel Reflections
Homily for 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2021 by Fr Emmanuel Ochigbo
WOULD THAT EVERYONE COULD BE A PROPHETby Bishop Robert Barron . September 30, 2018
Our first reading from the Book of Numbers and the Gospel reading from Mark both highlight a very interesting spiritual predicament, one that is presented numerous times throughout the Bible. It might be summed up as the inclination for members of the Church to subvert the mission of the Church because of their own ego-driven desires and preoccupations.
CUT IT OFF OR CUT IT OUTby Bishop Robert Barron . October 1, 2006
Jesus certainly manages to get our attention in this week’s Gospel. Don’t literalize his language, but feel its power. Are you willing to eliminate certain things from your life–ways of grasping, ways of walking, ways of seeing–that are compromising your friendship with God? What, precisely, are you willing to sacrifice?
GOD’S GRACE AND THE STRUCTURES OF THE CHURCHby Bishop Robert Barron . September 28, 2003
The structures of the Catholic religion are deeply rooted in the tradition and flow, ultimately, from the will of God. They are the ordinary channels through which the divine grace flows. However, as the Gospel for today clearly indicates, God is not restricted by the institutions and structures that he himself established, and so his grace can operate even outside of the official church. Whatever is good, true, and beautiful in culture, society or other religions is, indirectly related to Christ and thus should not be suppressed or despised.
We’re all hyper-distracted, pulled in so many directions from our phones, to TV, to social media. We’re plagued by notifications, texts, pings, and alerts. Why do we put up with all these distractions? How can we avoid them? Bishop Barron shares how to fight back and find pleasure in “useless things.”
Friends, in today’s Gospel, we hear the marvelous story of the healing of blind Bartimaeus—an icon of tremendous power and a sacred picture of the spiritual life and the process of salvation. We all find ourselves, in our need of Christ, in this image, as our own blindness distorts our vision of spiritual reality and the meaning of life.
The Spirit of God blows where it chooses. No individual or religious leader, civic or religious organization, has a monopoly of good. And the sooner we realize this and get out of our exclusivist shells, the sooner we can all work together to make this world a better place to live in.
In order not to pronounce the name of God in vain, the Israelites substitute other appellations for the sacred name such as the Lord or the Most High. We have to recover the sacredness of the name of divinity. In cultures where vulgarity is employed as cheap substitute for linguistic propriety, it is a form of counter-cultural witness to honor and protect the name of the Lord.
Using the semitic forceful rhetorical device of hyperbole to bring home His point, His words are unforgettable. If anyone causes these little ones to sin, better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God maimed than to go to hell (Gehenna) complete.
Synopsis: Hell is one of the greatest signs of God’s love for us. He loves us so much that He will allow us to reject Him for all eternity.
Parents can find help raising their children in the faith outside the usual sources. All it takes is determination and faith.
When the apostle John catches others healing others in the name of Jesus, he tries to put a stop to it, but Jesus will have none of it. We are on the same side. God’s audacious aim is to save the whole world. Therefore, whoever is not against us is for us. Isn’t it just like God to be merciful and hopeful about everyone? Including us.
The only lectionary translation approved for Mass in the United States; also used in Catholic dioceses of the Philippines.
This lectionary translation is used for Mass in dioceses for the majority of the English-speaking world outside the U.S. and Canada.
The Revised Common Lectionary NRSV translation is used in Christian worship. Text provided by Vanderbilt Divinity School.
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