Fr. Joe Dailey

Send us Fan Mail Advent begins in the dark.  In this dark landscape, we are invited to describe life “on earth as it is," to name the seeming  absence of God. We sit in darkness, longing for light.  We sit in exile, longing for home.  We sit with aching, empty arms, waiting to cradle a life that’s still unformed, still hidden, still in process.   frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,” Jesus said. And Pilate asked Jesus, in a line that is omitted from today’s reading: “What is truth?” The Greek word for truth literally means, “Remember not to forget.” frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail Last week Jesus was in the Temple, sitting opposite the Treasury. Now Jesus is  opposite the Temple mount, on the Mount of Olives. The prophet Zechariah declared that the last days will begin at the Mount of Olives. Jesus takes his place on the mountain  long foretold to be where that new day will begin. frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail The widow says nothing, and yet her actions speak volumes. The Greek word for her "giving her whole life" prefigures the sacrifice Jesus is about to make.  It is both a judgment on the temple cult  -  that demanded giving that so impoverished the widow  -  and as prelude to Christ giving his whole life for the life of the world. frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail Rabbi Rami Shapiro points out that the four-letter Hebrew Name of God -  Y-H-V-H, yod-hey-vav-hey - when written vertically, takes on the shape of a human being.  Each one of us is the Name of God incarnate. frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail Pope Francis, who has been reading these same passages in Mark’s Gospel, had a close encounter with this Gospel during his papal audience this past Wednesday.

Send us Fan Mail James Carroll, in his new memoir, “The Truth at the Heart of the Lie,” recalls this experience.  On his first visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, he was taken aback by the rudely jostling pilgrims fighting for the best places. When he returned a few days later, he saw it with new eyes: “I saw for the first time what it actually meant that Jesus Christ was a human being, in...

Send us Fan Mail The prohibitions are like the bottom of a glass. If the glass does not have a bottom, everything just spills out; it can’t hold anything. The prohibitions create a boundary or container -the bottom in the glass -but there is nothing in it yet. To fill up the glass, then, is not merely not doing something;  it actually demands doing something positive. frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail The children are at the center of the three passion predictions.  Jesus is teaching us what it means to follow the Messiah and therefore, what it means to be church. I am presiding at the 5 pm Sunday mass at St. Andrew Rochester.  frjoedailey@gmail.com 

Send us Fan Mail Whenever you want to draw lines in order to mark who is outside the kingdom and who is inside, always remember: Jesus is on the other side of the line!  frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail Jesus calls them into a circle around him - we infer the circle from the placing of the child in the middle - and teaches by word and deed. 

Send us Fan Mail Both narratively and geographically, today’s Gospel stands at a crossroads. It’s right in the middle of Mark, almost exactly halfway through the story. 

Send us Fan Mail As if he could understand Hebrew, Jesus said to the man Ephphetha. "Be opened" is not addressed to the ears; it is a command to the heart. When the heart opens, immediately the ears are unplugged and the tongue is loosed.

Send us Fan Mail Pope Francis quotes the 19th-century composer Gustav Mahler, who said, "Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."

Send us Fan Mail I have Mass on Sunday at Church of the Holy Spirit in Highland, MI. This is revised version of the homily for the parish Mass.

Send us Fan Mail The protesting disciples do not rightly perceive the flesh of which Jesus speaks. They see only Jesus' flesh; they do not see "the Word become flesh," the Good News of God dwelling among us.

Send us Fan Mail As Mary proclaimed in the Magnificat, “God has remembered his promise of mercy.”This promise is being fulfilled in Mary.

Send us Fan Mail "No one has ever seen God," (John 1:18)  but in Jesus we see the human face of God who desires to gather us.  Jesus is coming into our midst as the one who is giving himself away so that we might have life and have it abundantly.

Send us Fan Mail Jesus identifies the bread of God with himself: “I am the bread of life.” In that deepest descent into the world of flesh, suffering and death, a new order of love, healing and life is unfolding.

Send us Fan Mail Taking the loaves and giving thanks, Jesus rejoices in the abundance that God has given and distributes the bread to all until they are satisfied. 

Send us Fan Mail “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” Jesus is  physically moving the disciples - getting into the boat symbolizes the journey - to a new place, to a new way of seeing and understanding.

Send us Fan Mail "They went out and proclaimed that all should repent"  The twelve, symboliz­ing the twelve tribes of Israel, are sent out primarily to create an alter­native community based on a new teaching about divine holiness.

Send us Fan Mail Jesus is calling his own family to remember that they are part of a larger family; they are children of Abraham. Jesus does not find the faith of Abraham in the synagogue at Nazareth. He is amazed at their unbelief.

Send us Fan Mail In combining the saving/healing of these two daughters, as a story within a story,  Mark is teaching us that our lives are all connected.

Send us Fan Mail Perhaps Mark is showing us that no matter what stands against him, Jesus’ faith is not based on what is happening around him, but rests secure in the knowledge that he is the beloved one of God.