I preached this homily on Tuesday, June 14, 2016, at St. Edward Church in Nashville, Tennessee. The Gospel of the day was Matthew 5:43-48. For this homily, I focused in on what it means to follow Jesus’ command to “Be perfect.”
* Sorry this one is a little out of order. I was not able to get around to preparing the audio files before the next Mass for which I had the homily.
Catholics are all about sacraments. Perhaps this is a surprise to you, but it’s true. Theologically, we believe that the sacraments are the ordinary way that God dispenses his grace to mankind. With that in mind, take a moment to reflect on the fact that every sacrament we celebrate as Catholics has a material component. Water is used in baptism, oil in confirmation and anointing of the sick, bread and wine in communion; the physical world expresses things – it’s just part of human nature that we see symbols in the world around us. Also, each of the material elements we use in these sacraments points to the sacramental reality being created. Take baptism, for example. We use water to clean ourselves; in baptism, we are washed of our sins. On top of that, water is a (I’m told rather messy) part of childbirth; in the sacrament, we are reborn (of water and spirit) as adopted children of God. It’s an important part of sacramentality that the normal material usage of something is raised so that the normal usage can point to the reality being conveyed. Continue reading “The sacramentality of the USPSA Lament on the demise of old fashioned mail“
The Baptism of Christ by the Circle of Francesco Albani
This homily was delivered in class at Notre Dame Seminary on Friday, September 4, 2015. This one is shorter than most because we were asked to prepare a 3 minute homily to use for a baptism liturgy. Aubree is actually the daughter of a friend I used since I wanted to have a name to include in the homily. Continue reading “The God of the UnexpectedA homily for baptism of an infant“
As a rule, when someone picks a career path, they have a reasonable expectation – or at least a hope of success. On top of that, the systems to train and prepare people for some of the more difficult careers are designed in such a way that those who would be unable to successfully practice those professions are either weeded out during the preparation or denied entry in the first place. Continue reading “Doomed to failand I’m happy about that“