Four minute homilies

Epiphany             Pope Francis in one of his homilies talks about the three actions the Magi undertook to reach the baby Jesus: seeing, setting out and bringing. Those three actions can guide our journey towards the Lord this year. We need the three of them. One or two are not enough. We need to see, we need to move and we need to bring ourselves. If we don’t see, we don’t move; if we don’t mov...

Holy Family B               The first Sunday after Christmas we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. Once we have a baby, we have a family. Before we had a couple, Mary and Joseph, just married. Now we have three persons, and this constitutes a family. It reminds us of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, of which the family is a reflection. Marriage, the love of husband and wife, is geared to havi...

Fourth Sunday of Advent B             The three most important events in history are the conception, birth and death of Jesus Christ. Today we witness the first one, what we call the incarnation, the taking of the flesh, God becoming man. It happened in a most natural, quiet and discreet way. God began his human existence, like each one of us, as a little, tiny embryo. All started with an angel ap...

Christmas             The life of Jesus is an open book from the beginning to the end, from his birth at Bethlehem until his death on the cross. We can learn from every page, from every sentence. He teaches us graphic lessons through his words and his actions; everything in his life has a meaning for us. Today we contemplate him as a baby, his first professorial chair.             The first lesson...

Third Sunday of Advent B             Today in our second reading, from the letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians, we read: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks.” They say that this letter is the earliest New Testament text we have. These words are placed at the very end of the letter, as final words of encouragement. If Saint Paul tends to go over the top, he...

Second Sunday of Advent             On the second Sunday of Advent the Church presents to us Saint John the Baptist as a preparation for Christmas. He began to follow his vocation within his mother’s womb. Benedict XVI says that you find your goodness following the plan God has prepared for you. Nowadays people are afraid of discovering God’s plan for them. They think that their lives are too prec...

First Sunday of Advent             The Advent wreath is a Christian tradition that symbolises the passage of the four weeks of Advent. It is a reminder that time passes, every Sunday a new candle, and we need to be ready for when Our Lord is born in our soul on Christmas Day. The lighting of a candle can be accompanied by a Scripture reading, some prayers and reflections. By the lighting of the ca...

Christ the King             We arrive today at the end of the liturgical year. In the Church we have, in a sense, two years, the normal year, which follows the feast days of Jesus, Mary, angels and saints, and the year that follows the liturgical seasons, Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. We finish the ordinary time with this beautiful feast day of Christ the King. The Gospel of today’s Mass bri...

Parable of the talents             At the end of the year, the Church brings to our consideration the parable of the talents. It is not easy for us to grasp what a talent is. A talent was not a coin but a measure of value, a unit of account, worth about fifty kilos of silver. It was a lot of wealth. With a talent, a family could live for 30 years. It is so much that it doesn’t matter if it is five...

Parable of the foolish virgins              It is difficult for us to understand this parable because we are not familiar with the customs of Jewish weddings. The bridegroom would go to the bride’s house to fetch her and take her to his home. The bride would be accompanied by her maiden friends with their lamps on, to light the way. To be waiting for the bridegroom with lamps and no oil was silly....

All Saints             Once a year in November the Church on earth as a good mother helps us to remember our brothers and sisters who have made it into eternity. On the first of this month, the saints in heaven; on the second, the souls in purgatory. They say there are around 10.000 saints recognised by the Church. It is impossible to count all the saints in heaven. We don’t have time to canonise...

The first Commandment              Chapter twenty two of Matthew’s Gospel is question time. We saw last week about the tribute to Caesar, then a question about the resurrection of the dead and today about the greatest commandment. It is a lawyer who asks to test him. He wanted to know how much Jesus knew about the law. Be careful with lawyers. Don’t forget Jesus is the one who made the law. The Ph...

Giving to Caesar             The Pharisees wanted to catch Jesus. They planned a clever trap. How silly! Sometimes we think that we can fool God. Other times we get upset with Him. We blame Him for things that are our own doing. We bring God down to our level to wrestle with Him. If we knew the infinite difference between us and God, we wouldn’t dare to mention even his name. When we place God in...

Parable of the marriage feast             God has invited us to a wedding banquet in the kingdom of heaven. We are all invited; he wants all us to be saved, to be with him. No one is left out of his invitation. But He respects our freedom; it’s only an invitation, it is not compulsory to accept, even though it is for our own good. It is a wedding banquet. For the Jews it was the highest degree of...

Parable of the wicked tenants              Today’s readings talk about how much God has done for us and our failure to correspond to his love. The first reading from the book of Isaiah is a song exulting the vineyard. An orchard with vines was very precious in the Mediterranean area. It produced grapes, fruit for the time, wine, a good healthy drink with no bugs, and dried fruit, raisins, for the...

Parable of the two sons             Last Sunday, today and next Sunday we have the parables of the vineyard. Israel is described in the Old Testament as the vineyard of the Lord. It represents the care God has for his people. A vineyard demands a lot of work to produce the right wine. The first miracle Jesus performed was to convert water into wine. Wine is compared to the grace God gives us to ma...

Labourers in the vineyard              We can relate to this parable in South Africa. So many people looking for work. Often you see them at roundabouts, with a sign announcing their skills: electrician, plumber, carpenter, painter. All waiting for somebody to hire them for the day. We can pray for these people that they find work to feed their families. And pray for the corruption to go away, gre...

Parable of the unforgiving servant             The parable of the unforgiving servant is at the heart of the Gospel. It is an example for us to learn how to forgive and forget. We know by experience that it is not easy. Until we forgive the other person from the heart, we won’t be able to forget. If the grudge keeps coming back to our mind, it is a sign that we haven’t managed to forgive. It is on...

Fraternal correction             Today Jesus talks to us in the Gospel about fraternal correction. We are all brothers and sisters in the faith and we need to help each other. Last week we saw Jesus correcting Peter. You could say that during his life with us he actually spent three years correcting his apostles, forming them, passing the Gospel on to them, preparing them for their mission. From a...

Take up his Cross             Last week Jesus told Peter that he was the rock on which he was going to build his Church. Today he calls him Satan. What happened? Last week Peter called Jesus the Christ, the anointed one; today he tries to discourage him from suffering and dying on the cross. Last week he was inspired by God; today he looks at things as we humans normally do. Jesus took advantage o...

Upon this rock             Jesus today in the Gospel is asking questions to his apostles: What do people say about me? There was a lot of gossip about who Jesus was. The apostles were keen to tell him all the conspiracy theories going around. Then Jesus confronted them asking a direct question: Who am I for you? They were all silent. It is a good question for all of us. Who is Jesus for me? What i...

The Assumption             Today is a day of joy, of great celebration, with a big welcoming feast happening in eternity. At last Jesus brings his mother with him, body and soul, up to heaven. During his Ascension, he went up to heaven by his own power. Today he lends his rockets to his mother, for her to be able to be with him together for ever. Jesus couldn’t wait for her any longer. He loves he...

Walking on water             After a busy day, attending the crowd, healing the sick, comforting the troubled and feeding them, Jesus goes on to pray. While he dismisses the people, the apostles sail to the other side of the lake. None of his apostles accompany him. They wanted to get away from the crowd. They were very tired, and they knew Jesus was going to pray for the whole night. Jesus wanted...

Multiplication of the loaves and the fish             From time to time Jesus used to take his apostles to a deserted place to be alone by themselves. There were so many people coming and going that they needed to be on their own, for Jesus to spend time with them and teach them his message without interruptions. When they arrived to the solitary place, they found a great crowd of people waiting f...

Parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value             Today Jesus in the Gospel presents us two parables about the kingdom of heaven: the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value. Both are very similar; they show us the supreme value of God’s kingdom and what we should do to reach it. But they have some differences: the treasure points towards an abundance of gifts, and the...