Father Kevin A. Codd

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...

Perhaps we read Jesus' words to his apostles responding to a request to "increase our faith" in a scolding tone, when, in fact, he may be speaking to them with a bit of comic exaggeration...and even more with affection and delight.  Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community, Cuenca, Ecuador

Yet another parable to consider! This time, Jesus is speaking directly to a group of religious big-shots and this parable of the unnamed rich man and the poor, hungry Lazarus is for them. As we get deeper into the story, Jesus pulls the old gospel switcheroo of the " the first shall be last and the last shall be first" type. By the end of the parable, it is clear that this is a story about himself...

Today's parable is a most head-scratching one! And the commentaries by Jesus that follow the story itself don't help any. What to make of this strange story in which at first sight Jesus seems to approve of a sketchy steward who plays fast and easy with his boss's money? Maybe this is one of those stories that needs some "creative color" added to it so it makes sense to us in our times. That "crea...

Today's feast of the Holy Cross preempts the ordinary Sunday, giving us an opportunity to take a good look at this "gibbet of shame" that has become the preeminent symbol of Christianity. Though we now love our crosses, in the time of Jesus, they were anything but lovely; they were the great sign of Roman cruelty towards those who threatened their empire. It is only in understanding this that we c...