Curated preaching illustrations and anecdotes from Fr. Tony Kadavil. NEW! Now with videos; Also includes Fr. Tony’s commentary, and Children illustrations/object sermons.
Cocoon is a 1985 American science fiction fantasy comedy drama film directed by Ron Howard about a group of elderly people rejuvenated by aliens.( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoon_(film). In the movie Cocoon, a group of senior citizens experienced a return to their youth when they bathed in a swimming pool used by aliens from another planet. Their exciting experience prompted them to accept an invitation from the aliens to go back with them to their planet. The senior citizens were told that once they reached the alien planet, they would live forever.
During the winter of 1610, the population of British immigrants to Jamestown, in the U.S. (the Pilgrims) went from about 500 people to about 60. While disease and American Indians took some lives, most of the settlers simply starved. There were plentiful supplies of fish, oysters, frogs, fowl, and deer all around them. But these settlers from the city were not accustomed to obtaining food from the land. Hence, they starved! [Cullen, Joseph P. “James’ Towne,” American History Illustrated (October 1972).]
St. Pope John Paul II (2003)
“The Eucharist is the Sacrament of the Presence of Christ, who gives himself to us because he loves us. He loves each one of us in a unique and personal way in our practical daily lives: in our families, among our friends, at study and work, in rest and relaxation. He loves us when he fills our days with freshness, and also when, in times of suffering, he allows trials to weigh upon us: even in the most severe trials, he lets us hear his voice. To celebrate the Eucharist, ‘to eat his Flesh and drink his Blood,’ means to accept the wisdom of the Cross and the path of service. It means that we signal our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others, as Christ has done” Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (Holy Thursday, April 17, 2003).
Next to the Bible, my favorite book is Harper Lee’s award-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. I love both the book and the movie. The main character, the one who tells the story, is a little girl named Jean Louise Finch, who goes by the name of Scout. Her father, Atticus Finch, is the town’s lawyer and a man of deep principles and integrity. I always wanted to grow up and be like Atticus Finch. One day, Scout came home from school and told her father about some problems she was having with the teacher and several other students. In an effort to help her get along better with others, Atticus gave her this advice: “First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
(Billy D. Strayhorn, Beyond Skin Deep)
During Operation Desert Storm, Al and Barbara Davis, a retired Virginia couple, read that soldier in the field weren’t getting enough potassium and protein. One problem was that banana, an excellent source of potassium, spoiled before they could get to the soldiers. So Al and Barbara had an idea: why not make banana-nut bread and send it to the soldiers overseas? Their bread-making operation became a daily task: they made 100 loaves every morning, which they mailed to soldiers in the Middle East. Since 1991 when they first began their bread-baking, Al and Barbara Davis have made and mailed over 35,000 loaves of bread to U.S. troops.
Based on sound tradition and the centuries-long teaching of the Magisterium, the Roman Catholic Church has consistently held fast to the belief in the Real Presence. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the other sacraments as the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all sacraments tend.” In this most blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist we receive “the Body and Blood, together with the soul and Divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ, is truly, really, and substantially contained” (CCC #1374). The Fathers of the Church explain that, while ordinary food is assimilated into man, the very opposite takes place in Holy Communion. Here, man is assimilated into the Bread of Life. Hence, let us learn to receive Jesus, really present in the Eucharist, with due reverence, true repentance, proper preparation and grateful hearts. Let us remember that Holy Communion a) increases our intimate union with Christ; b) preserves, increases, and renews the Sanctifying Grace received at Baptism; c) cleanses us from past sin and preserves us from future sins; d) strengthens the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, thus enabling us to be separated from our disordered attachments and to be rooted in Christ; and e) unites us more deeply to the Mystery of the Church.
View More Homily Starter Anecdotes compiled by Fr. Tony
We are living in a world where people of all races and creeds hunger more for spiritual sustenance than for physical food. In response to the spiritual hunger of people in his own day, Jesus, in today’s Gospel passage from John 6, proclaims Himself to be “the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven.” It is through Jesus, the Bread of Life, that we have access to the Divine life during our earthly pilgrimage to God. The sixth chapter of the Gospel of John which contains Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist begins with Jesus’ miraculous feeding of five thousand hungry listeners in a deserted place to satisfy their bodily hunger.
Today’s Gospel describes Jesus’ discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum a day after miraculously feeding five thousand in the wilderness. During the discourse, Jesus reveals that he is the true “Bread of Life that came down from Heaven,” to give life to the world. “Manna” was God’s gift rained down “from Heaven” upon the Chosen People; Jesus, however, is the new and perfect manna as the Incarnate Son of God, literally “come down from Heaven.” This means that the Bread we consume in the Eucharist is more than just a guarantee that one day we’ll have eternal life. This Bread actually gives us a share of that eternal life while we are still on earth. But some of those who had just witnessed Jesus’ ability to supply them with earthly food turned away when Jesus identified His Heavenly Origin as the Divine Source of His miraculous powers.
The first reading describes the physical and spiritual hungers experienced by the prophet Elijah. In this reading, the Bread of Life Jesus speaks about is prefigured by the miraculous food with which the angel nourished the Prophet Elijah in the desert to which he had fled from the soldiers Queen Jezebel had sent to kill him. After being nourished by the Lord, Elijah was strengthened for the long journey of “forty days and forty nights” to Mount Horeb [Mt. Sinai], the place where God had given Moses the Ten Commandments.
In today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 34) Refrain, the Holy Spirit has us sing, “Taste, and see the Goodness of the Lord,” the Goodness the Psalm verses themselves spell out. The second reading presents Christ Jesus, the “Bread of Life,” as a “sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.”
In the Second Reading, Paul reminds the Ephesian Christians that, instead of seeking satisfaction in anger, slander, bitterness and malice, they are to nourish one another with compassion, kindness and mutual forgiveness. It is Faith that strengthens us to live in this way, doing the right thing in our relationships with others, in a world filled with terror and violence and in a Church marked by betrayal and disillusionment.
Meeting John Malkovich
Pentecost, C
Passing the Baton
Ascension of the Lord, C
Peace of Mind and Heart
6th Sunday of Easter, C
“I wouldn’t do that
for a million dollars”
5th Sunday of Easter, C
Whatever Happens, Don’t Let Go
4th Sunday of Easter, C
Do You Love Me?
3rd Sunday of Easter, C
Divine Mercy
2nd Sunday of Easter, C
The Butterfly and the Cocoon
Easter Sunday
Veronica Wipes Face of Jesus
6th Sunday of Lent, C
The Scarlet Letter
5th Sunday of Lent, C
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