deacon's corner

Loved Into Existence

29. October 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

Guess who’s coming to dinner

Seldom, I have observed, do we pause to consider of what the human body is comprised. Certainly if you are a physician, especially a surgeon, you will have studied and learned of the various components of our physical nature. Through modern science we have probed and examined in exacting detail, down to the subatomic level our DNA, the fundamental structures with which are constructed the physical manifestation and attributes which make each of us uniquely human. Should we compare the smallest definable component of our physical makeup to our full self we most assuredly must conclude that we are more than giants to the smallest element of all of which we are comprised.

Pray, Be Not Proud

21. October 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

where the heart rests

What do we hear, what thoughts invade our minds, what imagery appears when we encounter the poetic wisdom of Sirach. Today we heard these words:

Pray Always

15. October 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

How long must I wait?

Hearing of the plight of Moses in the first reading brings to mind a similar plight once experienced by a young altar server attending to an aging visiting priest presiding at Mass. It fell upon the young server—no more than eight years old—to hold the large heavy missal for the priest at the prayer following the Gloria.

The Gift Of Gratitude

09. October 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

giving thanks for the gift of life

Shakespeare once observed: “Blow, blow, thou winder wind thou are not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.” It is perhaps the most common of all human failings: ingratitude. How often an underserved gift grants no favor in return; a gift received, no gratitude expressed.

A Slave Of Christ Jesus

02. October 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

to whom nothing is owed

Our understanding of the inherent value of the human person informs us that as children of God, made in his image and likeness, we are not to be considered property to be bought and sold, use, abused, and then discarded when no longer useful, wanted or needed. We know that to be slavery and a grave moral evil perpetrated against God’s creation.

Just Like Me

26. September 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

the chasm that divides

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is an intriguing one for while what we would surmise of it as important and true, we seldom gaze upon the jewel hidden behind its more obvious facade. On the face of it, the message sings a common song, of rich and poor and the chasm that divides one from the other. What is to be made of this? What moral connotations may we discern which through countless episodes have yet to learn? What have we never heard before? Let us venture toward the new by first beginning with the old.

Rich Or Poor

18. September 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

saving for eternity

We are used to hearing idioms such as “money is the root of all evil” or “no matter how much you have, you can’t take it with you.” Week after week, Sunday after Sunday, we are reminded by the readings of the necessity to “sell what you have and give to the poor;”¹ that “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”² The message is clear enough but whether we are listening is a question.

Finding The Way Home

11. September 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

like deja-vu, all over again

The great baseball hall-of-fame catcher and manager Yogi Berra was well-known as a master of malapropisms. One of my favorites has always been “It’s like deja-vu, all over again,” for despite its obvious tautological phrasing, in a very real sense it evokes a light-hearted metaphor for our tendency to make mistakes, too often the same ones over and over again. It would appear that we seldom learn from our mistakes, no matter how often we make them; it is indeed “like deja-vu, all over again.”

A Place Of Honor

27. August 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

a beauty yet unseen

There is a country song popular some thirty-five years ago, written and sung by Mac Davis which begins ”Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way. I can’t wait to look in the mirror cause I get better looking each day.” We may laugh, but the truth is that there are far too many who would unhesitatingly agree and add, “Now, ain’t that the truth!”

The Narrow Gate

20. August 2016 · Write a comment · Categories: Homilies

It’s your choice: all or nothing

C. S. Lewis wrote in the preface to The Great Divorce, his classic allegorical tale of a bus ride from hell to heaven:

“I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot ’develop’ into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, ’with backward mutters of dissevering power’—or else not. It is still ’either-or’. If we insist on keeping Hell (or even Earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.” ¹