Four minute homilies

Increase our faith              Today we go to Jesus like the apostles and we ask him to increase our faith. Like them we have witnessed miracles, we have experienced things beyond our power, we have seen God’s grace, but we feel that our faith weak. We cannot do what Jesus is asking us to do, because Jesus normally asks for faith before he gives us a hand. After the transfiguration, coming down f...

Parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus             We are both the men in the parable, whether we like or not, the rich man and the poor man Lazarus, with both their weakness and their strengths, with their aspirations and desires. Both lived parallel lives, clearly related to each other but completely opposite, in this life and the next in eternity, crossing each other at life’s intersections;...

Parable of the unjust steward               This is a parable about stewardship. We have been given a bit of God’s harvest and Jesus is asking us today to examine ourselves how we are looking after it. We are at his service and we could be a bit easygoing, complacent or indifferent. It doesn’t matter if we are in charge of a big field, or we are only responsible for a small part of God’s vineyard....

Our Lady of Sorrows             Standing at the foot of the Cross is our mother. She is standing, not crying or fainting; she is there supporting her son with her presence. Silent tears run down her cheeks. And Saint John is also there, the celibate apostle, the one Jesus loved. Other women are there too. Women are stronger than men. Many artists tried to capture this moment but with different res...

Parables of the lost sheep and the coin             Sinners were attracted to Jesus and the Pharisees complained. Sinners followed Jesus because they saw an opportunity to leave their sinful life behind. That’s why we too are attracted to Jesus. We need him; without him we are nothing. The more we see ourselves as sinners, the more we feel Jesus’ attraction. Like a magnet; the closer it is to the...

Conditions for following Jesus             Today in the Gospel Jesus gets very serious. He looks at the people following him and he realises that many of them were there for human reasons. They were following him because they wanted to experience miracles, because they were fed with tasty bread and fish, because that man spoke very well, because he had a go at the Pharisees, or he defended the poo...

Parable of the first places             Jesus was having a meal with his apostles. We see often Jesus in the Gospels sitting at the table. It is important to spend time with others, and meals are great occasions to do so. People nowadays spend their time with their phones, just watching screens. These were moments when Jesus took advantage to pass on to them his message; he used these opportunitie...

The narrow gate               Today in the Gospel we see a fellow coming up to Jesus and asking an important question: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” We are still asking this question nowadays. How many are going to be saved? Is anybody in hell? It is based in a truth of our faith: we all need salvation. Few years ago we had a debate about this topic when we had to change the words of th...

Set the earth on fire             Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.” In the Bible, fire is often used to describe God’s burning love for men. This divine love is what made the Word become man: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”. Jesus voluntarily gave up his life on the Cross: “Greater love has no man...

The Assumption             Today we celebrate the feast day of the Assumption of our Mother to heaven. What can we say about what happened on that day? We haven’t got much information. Saint John witnessed it and didn’t tell us anything. John, you told us all about the life of Jesus, with plenty of details, but you didn’t want to tell us about our Lady leaving earth. She is our Mother too, and we...

Waiting for the Lord               “Gird your loins and light your lamps”, Jesus is telling us today. Fasten your seat belt and start the engine, would be a modern way of saying the same. These are the two attitudes the Gospel is asking us to have. First, be ready for the journey, and then turn on the lights outside, to welcome the guest who is coming. The same expression from the parable of the f...

Parable of the rich fool             Today in the Gospel Jesus gives us the parable of the rich fool. This is how he calls him. We are the person in this parable. We are him because we normally act like this man. Jesus calls us fools because we are silly, because we won’t learn. We keep thinking that we are going to make a difference, that we are going to do something important, that will engrave...

Teach us to pray             Have you ever been jealous of someone else’s ability to pray? I’ve been a few times, when I have witnessed holy people praying. The same happened to Jesus’ disciples. They have seen him praying early in the morning, spending the whole night in prayer, immersing himself in his relationship with his Father God. They found it very difficult to imitate him. They couldn’t w...

Martha and Mary             Bethany is only two miles from Jerusalem. Jesus used to stay there when he came to the holy city, to find a peaceful place where he could rest and spend time with his friends. Beth means home, an appropriate name for a place where Jesus felt at ease. Jesus used to love to go to Bethany, to spend time with Martha, Mary and Lazarus. As a human being he needed friends. He...

The Good Samaritan             It all started with a question a lawyer asked, to catch Jesus, to see how wise he was. He wasn’t sincerely interested in the answer. As a good lawyer he wanted to score a point. But it was a good question, maybe the most important question in our lives: What do I have to do to go to heaven? Or in a more personal way: God, are you happy with me? Jesus took advantage o...

72 Disciples             Today our Lord is sending us ahead of him. That’s the reason why we are here on earth. We are here for a purpose. We didn’t choose to be here. He chose us before the beginning of the world. This is our time here. We only have few years to go. Let us take advantage of the time we have and don’t get distracted or side tracked. Last week Jesus told us to follow him. Now he te...

Saint Peter and Saint Paul          Today we celebrate a double feast, the two most important apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul. We have two other feasts for each saint, the conversion of saint Paul and the chair of saint Peter. Why do we put them together in one feast? Because some people wanted to separate them, to oppose one against the other, to create a conflict. The devil loves confussion...

Corpus Christi           Today we celebrate the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. We look at the amazing miracle that happens every day, when the priest pronounces the words of consecration during the Mass, and transforms the substances of bread and wine into the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We will never be able to comprehend totally the mystery we are contemplating.          I...

Holy Trinity              Nowadays sciences have grown exponentially. The desire to know our world, to comprehend the laws of nature, has pushed our knowledge to limits never experienced before. We have an intellectual curiosity that has filled the internet with almost an infinite amount of information. AI is using all this data to challenge us, to produce better outcomes, to simulate our brains....

Pentecost              Today the Holy Spirit is coming to us. We want him to remain with us. But, How do we know that he is with us? Where do we find him? There are signs to check his presence among us. He is very discreet, trying to pass unnoticed, but there are some clues that reveal his action in our souls. The first one is goodness. A person with the Holy Spirit tries to do good. You notice wh...

Ascension               The Acts of the Apostles say that when Jesus was lifted up “a cloud took him from their sight.” It means that they couldn’t see him anymore because he was obscured by a cloud. It doesn’t mean that he is not there anymore. He is still there behind the cloud until the end of time. The book of Revelation says that Jesus will come sitting on a cloud to judge the living and the...

Peace             When John Paul II was elected Pope and came out on the balcony above Saint Peter’s square, to salute the crowd, he began his speech saying: Be not afraid. I didn’t understand at that time why he said that. I was young and I wasn’t afraid of the future. Life was open to me. Later on I understood his words. In our modern society we are afraid of the future. We spend a lot of money...

The New Commandment             The New Commandment is still new. It is always going to be new. It is new every day for each one of us. We all need to struggle in two areas that begin with CH: charity and chastity. It has to do with our bodies and people’s bodies. We are not pure spirits, we are not angels. We have bodies and we bump into each other, for good or for bad. We rub against each other,...

The Good Shepherd              The main task of the Good Shepherd is to bring us to good pastures. What are the good pastures for us? We have the wrong idea where to find them or what they are. We think that they are wealth, honours, health, entertainment, food, beauty, pleasurable things, love, gadgets, adventure, travelling; all sort of different things, depending on our age and circumstances. I...

Second miraculous catch of fish             Peter said: “I am going fishing.” The other apostles agreed: “We are going with you.” That night they caught nothing. It was a good idea to have a break, make a bit of money and get some food, but they spent the whole night casting the net and all they caught was an old boot and a broken amphora. Last time they went fishing was the first miraculous catch...