SOURCE: The Jesuit Post
SOURCE: Archdiocese of Brisbane Homilies
SOURCE: Fr. Kevin’s Homilies
“Whoever receives a child in my name receives me.” There are many ways of receiving the Christ, and some are quite powerful. Josephine Baker, an iconic African-American performer and civil rights advocate, created a diverse family of adopted children from various backgrounds to promote unity and combat racism, embodying her vision of a compassionate and harmonious world.
Bishop Robert Barron
Deacon Peter McCulloch
Being Different
Wis.2:12, 17-20; Jas.3:16-4.3; Mk.9:30-37
2024 EXCERPT: Most people don’t like being different. They’d rather fit in than stand out from the crowd.
That’s because our society values sameness. It loves the familiar. Early in life, we all learn that if you’re too different you’ll be teased, ridiculed or excluded in some way. So, most of us try hard to fit in, and we do this by adopting the fashions and culture of the time.
On the Road to Greatness
2021 EXCERPT: ‘The world offers you comfort,’ Pope Benedict XVI once said, ‘But you weren’t born for comfort. You were born for greatness.’
What, then, is greatness? Most people today would probably use words like visionary, courageous and famous to describe it, but they’re unlikely to mention humility. Yet, so many of the world’s greatest leaders were humble. Just think of Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.
Fr. Andrew Ricci
The Disciple’s Path is Marked with Service
2021 PODCAST: The Scripture readings reveal how often our lives are disrupted by evil from the inside and the outside of our hearts. How do we proceed? How do we find our way? The Lord teaches that the disciple’s path is marked with service, putting the needs of others ahead of one’s own.
Fr. Austin Fleming
Who is This in My Life? Who am I in Others’ Lives?
2015 EXCERPT: Who would be the person in your life, either now or maybe some time ago, who would be the person in your life who best fits the description we find in the Letter of James? Who’s the person in your life who is, or who was:
- gentle, not rough
- peaceable, not irksome,
- compliant, not cantankerous,
- merciful, not resentful,
- constant, not fickle,
- sincere, not deceptive
- a source of goodness, not of harm?
There’s only one thing better than having such a person in your life and that’s being such a person in the lives of others. And that’s precisely the message James offers in this passage. And James doesn’t fail to point out that such gifts are not naturally ours to give and receive but rather are cultivated and harvested when, with God’s help, we engage the conflicts within us, the inner wars of our desires, needs and self-interest, in our own hearts, and allow the wisdom of God’s grace to bring order to our chaos and peace to our passions.
Dominican Blackfriars
2021 EXCERPT: The problem with the disciples, St Mark suggests, is that there was a much more worldly competition at work. They were debating ‘which one of them was the greatest’ and it was not greatness in virtue they had in mind. Like the sons of Zebedee in Matthew’s Gospel they are jockeying for position.
There is, though, something quite ‘innocent’ in this transparent jockeying for prestige. A French priest, preaching in an English church, once mistranslated these words from his French bible as ‘they were arguing which of them was the tallest’! It was a happy mistake because only children argue about who is the tallest and the disciples are in fact acting just like children. Perhaps that is why Jesus uses the example of the child he sets in front of them. Certainly the lesson that Jesus gives them is a gentle one. He understands them, he loves them. They are his family.
It is in serving each other and seeing each other as ‘family’ that we are not only vindicated in our trust in God but in fact become the hands, the arms, the very heart of an all-loving, all-merciful Father.
Fr. Charles E. Irvin
The Imperial Self
EXCERPT: After we were born our parents found days and months of sheer delight as they cuddled us, held us, played with us, and watched us become little persons. Each boasted of the characteristics they saw in us that they were sure came from their own genes. In generous moments they gave attribution to the other parent or the other parent’s family.
It was not long, however, that our parents had to begin dealing with something within us that I can only describe as “The Imperial Self.” We all had one, you know – and still do! And what is amazing is how soon that Imperial Self asserts itself after we’ve been given life. The darling, lovable baby soon strives to become self-willed and demanding. In that emergence the words “I,” “me,” and “mine” become no longer descriptive, they become imperious. Our parents soon became more willing to break the wills of those little wild horses by trying to put bit and bridle on their willful little egos.
Then came middle and later childhood. Once again our parents were given days and years of delight, happiness, and exchanged love in those pre-teen years. Ah, those were the days! But then came the teen years.
Fr. George Smiga
Peter Pan or the Kingdom of God?
2006 EXCERPT: All of us have heard of Peter Pan and the magical place where he lived, called Never Never Land. It was a place where children never had to grow up or assume any responsibility, where they could do what they wanted to do whenever they chose to do it. Occasionally you’d have to deal with a pesky pirate, but all the needs and pleasures of life were magically available.
What would Never Never Land look like if we tried to update it to our own times? It might be a place where we could watch any TV program or movie we wanted twenty four hours a day; a place where, if we decided, we could fly to the other side of the world or move across town in a few minutes; a place where every kind of food was available, from steaks to pizza, from capers to cantaloupe, and we could eat as much as we wanted, even if it made us sick; a place where if we wanted to play golf, we would not have just one beautiful golf course to choose from, but maybe ten or twenty; a place where we could watch it football games from all parts of the country; a place that had malls full of merchandise, more than we could ever buy or need, and where we could shop until we became bored with doing so.
Could it be that our lifestyle has much in common with Peter Pan’s magic place? Could it be that America is in some sense a Never Never Land?
Fr. Anthony Ekpunobi, C.M.
2021 EXCERPT: Today in the gospel, the secret ambitions of the apostles are revealed when they journeyed secretly with Jesus Christ into the region of Galilee. The imminent death of Jesus Christ presupposes that a successor will be appointed in his place. As such the apostles argued among themselves of who is the greatest and possible heir to the seat of leadership. Jesus Christ turns the table against them when he described the leadership duty rather the leadership position. Contrary to popular opinion, leadership in the kingdom is of service rather than to control or to rule. The choice is to serve or to control!
Msgr. Joseph Pellegrino
Arrogance Has No Place
in the Life of a Christian
2024 EXCERPT: Who are the best people at work? Who are the best students in a school? Who are the best people in our families? Who are the best people in our society? The best people are those who are kind, compassionate, just, full of mercy and all those good things that James wrote about in today’s second reading.
Maybe we need to think about some of those grudges we still hold on to so tightly. So many of our grudges come from our conviction that we were not treated with the respect we felt we had a right to, be that from a boss, a neighbor, a distant relative or even a member of our immediate family.
This is wrong, very wrong. The way of the Christian is not the way of being concerned with what others think. We are Christians. The basic attitude of our relationship with others must be that of Jesus Christ. His way was the way of service. Christianity is not a popularity contest. It is a contest of service. The Christian is not concerned with getting respect. He is concerned with giving respect.
Msgr. Charles Pope
Asking a Crucial Question
2018 EXCERPT: In the Sunday Gospel, the Lord Jesus is asking a crucial question. The word crucial here is selected carefully; it comes from the Latin cruces, meaning “cross.” Indeed, looming over this entire gospel reading is the cross. In it, Jesus makes the second prediction of His passion, death, and resurrection. It is in the context of this teaching that the Lord asks the “crucial” question of us: What is most central in your life? Let’s look at this gospel passage in five stages.
I. The Processional Picture
II. The Pain that is Proclaimed
III. Their Pretentious Pride
IV. The Probing Point
V. The Paradoxical Prescription
Bishop John Louis
2021 EXCERPT: According to today’s first reading (taken from the Book of Wisdom), the wicked planned to end the life of the righteous man. They said: ‘let us condemn him to a shameful death’ (Wisdom 2:20). Similarly, about 2,000 years ago, some wicked religious leaders planned to end the life of the most holy person who ever lived – our Lord Jesus Christ. In both cases, the wicked persons thought that death was the end of every person. However, Jesus Christ, both in last Sunday’s and this Sunday’s gospel readings, mentioned his resurrection when he predicted his death. Beloved, in Jesus Christ, death is not our end.
This notwithstanding, there are still people who kill others thinking that death ends the life of a person. Thus, we have cases of a worker killing his colleague either through a physical or spiritual means, a politician contracting a gang to assassinate a fellow politician, a businessman eliminating a competitor, etc. All these people act thinking that death ends one’s life. This is, however, far from the truth; for there is life and, indeed, everlasting life after death.
Fr. Michael Chua
2021 EXCERPT: The behaviour of the Lord’s disciples, is both pitiful and amusing. Once again, He attempts to prepare them for what lies ahead by spelling it out clearly: “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.” This is the second time our Lord speaks to them of His passion and yet, they remain confounded but were too ashamed to seek clarification. Perhaps, they did not want a repeat of what happened to Peter when our Lord publicly and harshly rebuked him. Or perhaps they were terrified that their worst fears might be confirmed – that our Lord will die as He had predicted.
There is deep irony in the disciples’ misplaced attention. Our Lord had barely finished describing His humiliating and excruciating death, and they are already conspiring to grab some glory of their own. We can only imagine what they were thinking as our Lord repeated His disturbing prediction. “We healed people in your name. We hung with you when others rejected you. We handed out the bread and fish to the 5,000. Don’t we deserve a little more than everyone else?” It’s ironic, foolish, and entitled thinking but it’s also outrageous and tragic.
Fr. Vincent Hawkswell
2024 EXCERPT: “Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, who makes life inconvenient for us and opposes our actions,” the godless say.
The late Archbishop Adam Exner, OMI, told me that when he came to Vancouver, in 1991, the secular media were neutral, but by the time he retired, in 2004, they were hostile.
How should we react?
“The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits,” St. James says.
Fr. Tommy Lane
Living united with Jesus
2021 EXCERPT: The way Jesus lived his life led to his passion, death, and resurrection and we see a similar example in the first reading. In that reading from a couple of centuries before Jesus, people feel challenged by someone living a just and honest life, so they gang up against him. They said God would deliver him from his enemies and the reading concluded with them even condemning him to death. They wanted to silence the good man simply because he was good. So, the first reading is really a prophecy of Jesus’ passion and death which is why this first reading was chosen for today because there is always a link between the first reading and the Gospel. They jeered at the good man in the first reading, and we read in the gospels that while Jesus was on the cross three different groups or individuals mocked and jeered at Jesus. They tried to silence and kill Goodness itself, to silence the Gospel, to silence God. We see various attempts today also to silence Goodness, to silence the Gospel, to silence God. They might appear to succeed for a time, but God cannot be silenced. Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday and God’s kingdom will succeed even if for a time it appears smaller in this world and looks as if it has lost a lot. So, in the face of attempts to drown out the Gospel, even if God’s kingdom will appear to continue to shrink and lose, we simply continue to witness to Jesus, trusting in God.
Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J.
Perils of Power
EXCERPT: Anyone whose faith is radically Christian is at a terrible disadvantage. Everything, even our deepest attachments, is put at risk—especially when we confront a monstrous threat. “With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” So the wicked plot, Wisdom reminds us.
And so it would be with Jesus, who was “delivered into the hands of men to put him to death.” Ultimately Christ refused the logic of power and self-preservation. He entrusted his entire being into the hands of the One who sent him. And three days after his death, he rose.
Bishop Frank Schuster
Discipleship and Service
2021 EXCERPT: Do you want the quickest method to make sure everyone around you hates you? Make yourself more important than them. If you want people to dislike you, just talk about yourself and your accomplishments ad nauseum whenever you are around them and be disinterested in other people’s lives. This will guarantee that no one will like you. Who wants to be around people like that, raise your hand?
Do you want the surest way to have a lot of friends and people who love you? Make other people more important than yourself. Celebrate other people’s successes rather than your own. Become more interested in other people’s lives. Make other people’s needs more important than your own. You will end up with more friendships than sand on the seashore. There is a lot of wisdom in Jesus’ words today, “If anyone wishes to be first, they shall be the last of all and the servant of all”. He led by example by placing us as more important than himself. This is why the greatest of us all is the one who does the same.
Authenticity
2021 EXCERPT: If I were to stop you and ask you to describe a successful person, I dare say most of you would think in terms of income. Success for most of us means income and wealth, and financial prosperity means success in our society. Nine out of ten people would say that success in life has something to do with making money; that is the popular thinking of the world.
But today we are in Church where a different set of values supposedly prevails. This is the time and place for us to reconsider the concept of success. Let’s face it, no one wants to fail, all of us want to succeed. Most of us would agree that the greatest expert on life is Jesus. That was His specialty, He knew how to live. In just a few short years He built a life that made a lasting impact upon the world. What did success mean to Him?
Our Gospel reading tells about a day when he talked to His disciples on this all-important subject. They were as confused about it as we are. Their goal in life was to gain prominence and prestige, every one of them aspired to that position. Jesus overheard that argument and told them how to settle it. He said if anyone wishes to rank first, he must be the last of all and servant to all.
