Shawn The Baptist - Sunday Scriptures

Lessons from the Lunar Landing [The following homily was given at the opening all-school Mass at Hayden High School in Topeka. It represents a summary of three talks given the they Hayden faculty retreat on August 10th. Those talks can be found at the following links:] http://www.shawnthebaptist.org/2009/08/hayden-faculty-retreat-2009-talk-1/ http://www.shawnthebaptist.org/2009/08/hayden-faculty-r...

God Sees Us The Apostle Bartholomew is believed to be the same Apostle also called Nathaniel. Today's gospel speaks of how Philip brought Nathaniel to Jesus just as we all need to bring others to know Jesus. Nathaniel has a powerful encounter with Jesus that leads to him becoming one of The Twelve. Perhaps Nathaniel was feeling down and wondering if God heard his prayers. "Do you see me?" he might...

Finding Freedom Through Commitment We are so blessed in this country to have many choices. We have the freedom to choose everything from where we worship, where we live, and even what we eat. Yet, all these choices can lead us to a sort of paralysis of decision. What should I choose? We are experiencing in our society what might be called a crisis of commitment. Some people think that maintaining...

God Works Through the Unexpected Today and tomorrow our first readings are taken from the Old Testament book of Ruth. This short book tells the story of a very important person in God's plan of salvation. Every year during Advent we read what seems to be that rather long and boring geneology of Jesus. "So and so begat so and so" and on and on and on until we are finally relieved to arrive at Jesus...

The Need for Personal Lawncare The classic 1954 movie "On the Waterfront" with Marlon Brando has a scene that is very similar to today's gospel. All the longshoremen show up at the docks in the morning hoping to get work. The foreman comes out and picks from all those present. Some are chosen for work that day and others have to go home perhaps with no food with which to feed their families, hopin...

Making the Right Choice One of the things we Americans love most is our freedom and our ability to make choices. Yet, sometimes having to make choices can be very difficult. The rich young man in yesterday's gospel is given the special call to leave everything an follow Jesus and yet he chooses to hang on to his worldly possessions instead. What a tragic choice. Jesus tells us in today's gospel th...

The Sadness of Being Ordinary When the Israelites finally enter the promised land, their mission was to be an example to the pagan people they encounter (or else, in some scriptures, kill them all less they become a temptation). They are supposed to show them the worship of the true God. However, they soon give in to the temptation that keeps so many from achieving the greatness to which they are...

How can this man give us his flesh to eat? In today's gospel, Jesus commands us to eat his body and drink his blood. He tells us that his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. This seems to be such a strange teaching. We often ask, as those in the gospel did, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Perhaps a better question to consider first is, "Why would Jesus give us his flesh to...

Our Bodies Are Holy and Destined for Heaven [This homily was given at the archdiocesan Pro-Life Mass held each month at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church in Kansas City, KS] After the tragedy of World War II, many people were rightly shaken by the images taken upon the liberation of the concentration camps. Pictures of piles of human corpses and mass graves led many to despair and question, "Is this...

Tending Well the Fire of God The antiphon for today's psalm exclaims, "Blessed be God who filled my soul with fire!" We often used this image of fire to describe the presence and love of God. Jesus tells us that he came to set the world on fire. The Holy Spirit came in tongues of flame at Pentecost. In today's first reading we see the the eyes of Moses remained undimmed at the age of 120, still fi...

Cheerfully Knowing Where You're Going The words of Jesus in today's Gospel can sound harsh as he tells us, "Whoever hates is life in this world will preserve it for eternal life." Jesus is reminding us to have our priorities straight and to know where we are going. When you consider eternal life in heaven, it is true that this life pales in comparison. St. Lawrence knew his goal was heaven. This f...

Another New Evangelization The story of the early Church is filled withthe tales of the apostles going out and spreading the faith all over the world. Little by little, the faithspreads and even entire lands become "Christian." Unfortunately, things don't stay this way forever. Over times, the lands once famously converted by St. Paul fell away from the faith, came back again, and fell away again,...

Glimpses of God to Keep Us Going Jesus gave Peter, James, and John a great gift on Mt. Tabor. For a brief moment, they saw the divinity of Jesus as clearly as any human eye can on this earth. We might wonder why Jesus didn't reveal himself this clearly to everyone. He reserved this special moment not even for the 12 apostles, but only a chosen 3. Ultimately, the lesson is that God has never acted...

Mother of God and Our Mother The Council of Ephesus in the year 431 officially affirmed what the Church had always believed, that Mary is rightly called Theotokos or "Mother of God." There was great celebration in the city of Ephesus and in Rome a certain nobleman decided to give his entire estate to the building of a grand church in honor of the Mother of God. When deciding where to build the chu...

I Saw God in a Man When Peter sees Jesus walking on the sea, he briefly forgets all the trouble they are in on account of the storm. Instead, he is consumed with one thought; he wants to do what Jesus does. He goes out on the sea to meet Jesus, but more importantly, to be like Jesus. This is our call as Christians, to become "another Christ." St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, did this so well tha...

Moses Learns How to Lead Moses takes on the weight of leading God's people and finds it too heavy. God reminds him that he's not supposed to be carrying it by himself. Both Moses and the apostles in today's gospel learn that if we try to do everything by ourselves, we are bound to get frustrated and fail. Yet, when we allow God to lead, there is no difficulty that can't be overcome.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass Last week in part 1 of a 4 part series on the Eucharist, I spoke of the Mass in the context of the traditional "family meal." Jesus wants to share an intimate meal with us and to build up our family, the body of Christ. This week I offer the image of the Mass as sacrifice. What do we mean when we refer to the "Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?" God spent thousands of years...

We Need a Jubilee...Especially for Marriage St. Alphonsus is one of the 33 doctors of the Church and is known for his teachings on the Eucharist, Mary, and the moral law.