Father Kevin A. Codd

Jesus' encounter with the beggar born blind in John's Gospel reminds us that there are a variety of "blindnesses" among us. There is the physical blindness of the beggar himself, then there is the economic and social poverty that is the consequence of that disability, and then there is spiritual poverty of being known for all time as a sinner, someone punished by God for some great sin. The beggar...

Miracles in the gospels come in two types: those that bend the laws of nature and those that bend the laws of society, culture, and in the end, the human heart. Today's reading from John's gospel is of the second type: a miracle of the heart that leads a Samaritan woman of rather dubious repute to life as a kind of neo-apostle proclaiming Jesus as the messiah to her neighbors. All this because Jes...

The "real world" is not always so easy to live in. It is one that is marked by all the afflictions mentioned in the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve even into our own age. It would be easy to say with some existentialist philosophers of the 20th century, that there is nothing more than the life we know here...and death...so just buck up and accept it. Jesus and his disciples had just had a b...

The story of Adam and Eve's original sin is a sin of hubris: striving to become gods themselves by knowing what God knows. The consequenses of that sin reverberate to the present day. God's response to our human inclination to make ourselves gods is to come to humanity, God in flesh here with us, so we don't need to be gods. Jesus' fundamental temptation in the desert, then? To shortcut his humani...

The decision of a young priest to "sprinkle" ashes over the crown of the faithfuls' heads rather than smudge a cross on their forehead was met with some annoyance. Who, according to today's Gospel passage was "right"?  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador. 

The segment of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount that we here today (Matthew's version) is a lot to chew on. He affirms his fidelity to the Law of Moses in no uncertain terms, then shifts into a kind of "turbo" gear as he blasts the leaders of his people for their heartless enforcement of the Law.  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador. 

The clear, direct, and convicting words from the late chapters of the Book of Isaiah are shaking. What makes Israel a "light" in the darkness and a people pleasing to God isn't the adormnents of the Temple nor its animal sacrifices. The hungry, the naked, and the oppressed come first. Loving them is what gains God's love for Israel. As it was then, so it is now...to be a light in the darkness of o...

Having just returned from an eight-day visit to the small village in the mountains of Guatemala where I once served, I offer some reflections on the virtue supporting all the Beatitudes in today's Gospel reading from Matthew...and how that virtue, humility, is being actually lived in the small village of Antigua Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan.  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in...

The Gospel of John begins with a mystical reflection on the Word...even before time, but eventually "made flesh and dwelt among us." Woven into this magnificent poem is John's version of the encounter between John the Baptist and Jesus. The baptist's role in John's gospel is not to baptize Jesus, but to proclaim him as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Let us reflect on this...

Matthew's account of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River by John raises a perplexing question; as John himself asks, "should not I be baptized by you?" Indeed, why would Jesus need to be baptized since he he needs no repentence and is the very object of John's preparing of the people for the coming messiah? Let's see if we can make sense of this from Jesus' own point of view...or more accurately, b...

Oh, what a dizzyingly hectic year! Not 2025, but perhaps 6 AD. What a dizzyingly hectic year for young Mary! In the midst of all that had happened around her and within her in the previous months, Luke tells us, "She kept all these things and reflected upon them in her heart." Her contemplative heart is a model for us as we begin a new year.  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community...

Being deeply ensconced in the heart of the Christmas season, today's feast of the Holy Family almost always leads us to focus on the images of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in Bethlehem. We highlight, in paraticular, their docility before God's will and their great love for one another. But the place in the gospels where Jesus himself actually teaches us something about "family life" is found elsewhere,...

Our God is one of great surprises! With the creation of the Univserse, we stand surprised. With his choice of an enslaved and impoverished people as his beloved, we stand surprised. And most of all, in his choice to come to us in flesh and blood, touch us with hands like our own and speak to us in words we understand, he surprises us in the most stunning way possible! This is the God we celebrate...

This Fourth Sunday of Advent gives us an opportunity to reflect on the quiet presence of Joseph in Matthew's Nativity story. It is easy to let him fall into the background of the story with little thought...and indeed, his very silence throughout the narrative makes that too easy. Yet, his very silence speaks deeply about the spirit of this man.  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Commu...

Our usual image of the prophets of old is as purveyors of doom and gloom, so what then do we make of old Isaiah in today's first reading as he positively exudes joy in proclaiming the coming of Israel's salvation? What kind of "joy" is that of Isaiah, not to mention that of the Baptist and Jesus himself (in today's Gospel reading)? It is certainly distinct from pleasure, contentment, and even self...

Martin Luther King's famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial repeated over and over the refrain: "I have a dream..." In  a very real, he and the prophet Isaiah shared the vision of a better future rooted in justice and human fraternity so eloquently expressed in the words, "I have a dream..." In Isaiah's case, the dream was founded in the hope that the living God would come to save his...

Our usual experience of the passing of time is like a straight line moving from creation to the present moment. The biblical experience of time is formed by an understanding that with God, there is no past, present or future: all of it remains present. Time is not a straight line so much as a revolving series of ovals! On this First Sunday of Advent, the notion of "time" comes up often in the read...

La imagen de Jesús crucificado y la de los reyes de este mundo con sus riquezas, ejércitos, y poder absoluto no se combinan bien. ¿Entonces, porque celebramos hoy un rey humillado, sin poder ni riquezas, muriendo en desgracia? ¿En que sentido es este Jesús un rey? Vamos a ver… Homilia compartida en la Iglesia de San Francisco, Cuenca, Ecuador.

The image of Jesus dying on the cross and that of our worldly kings seem to be polar opposites, yet this day we proclaim this humble, defeated, and dying man a king. How is this possible?  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community, Cuenca, Ecuador.

Al acabar el año litúrgico, las lecturas de las misas dominicales se enfocan más y más en cómo se acaban las cosas hecho por las manos humanas, y lo más importante, la esperanza que Jesús nos ofrece en medio de las tribulaciones de los últimos días.  Esta homilía es un poco improvisa porque Padre Kevin no tuve la oportunidad de prepararla con anticipación.  Homilía compartida en la Iglesia de San...

As the Church year draws to a close, our Sunday readings become ever more preocupied with the end of things. Today, the great Temple of Jerusalem offers a starting point in understanding Jesus' pragmatic understanding of just how fragile are the things made of human hands...and his great hope in God's promises of eventual victory over all that is evil.  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholi...

On a feast-day dedicated to Christianity's first great church, the Roman cathedral of Saint John Lateran, we pause to reflect on why we love our churches and what The Church most truly is.  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador. 

Even the best of prayers, perfect in form and eloquent in speech, can be perverted from the inside out by human hubris and spiritual pride. Arrogance and judgementalism are the enemies of true prayer, as Jesus teaches in today's parable of the two men who went up to the temple to pray: one a tax-collector and the other a Pharisee.  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community of Cuenca,...

The "message" in today's parable is easy to grasp...no head scratching required: pray persistently! Nevertheless, the final words of Jesus in this reading are more perplexing: "But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" So what does this have to do with the parable he just told about the persistent widow and the hard-hearted judge? Maybe Jesus is applying the principle of persist...

The very word "leper" for most of human history would have evoked revulsion in most people. The disease had terrible consequences for those who contracted it almost everyone deeply feared it. Somewhat the same, the word "Samaritan" would have evoked among many Jewish people in the 1st century a similar reaction of deep disdain. Both words play prominent roles in today's gospel story and give this...