Shawn The Baptist - Sunday Scriptures

Our readings today call attention to several issues of false business practices. In short, we're dealing with a bunch of greedy cheaters. In the first reading, the prophet Amos is criticizing those who are fudging the numbers on the fair value of trades. If you want to sell a bushel of something, well, they're using a bushel basket that is just a bit bigger than it ought to be. If you've trying to...

"Why do bad things happen to good people?" Whenever there is some tragedy we often find ourselves questioning God, wondering "Where was God?" Where was God in the midst of this shooting, or hurricane, or fill in the blank with whatever suffering you find unjust. Sometimes, the answer is that this world is just fallen and imperfect and not meant to be our lasting home. At this week's "Adult Convers...

The Washington Monument is one of the most recognizable structures in the world. At 555 feet in height, it was the tallest structure in the world until the construction of the Eiffel Tower. While most people look to the top of the monument soaring into the sky, there’s an even greater story to be found just 150 feet off the ground. About a quarter of the way up the monument, if you look carefully,...

Today's Gospel describes the social intricacies of who gets invited to the best parties and where certain people have a seat at the table. It all seem so contrived. Everyone is out to move up "higher." It reminds me of the title of an old book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People." The point of book is helping people learn how to get ahead. You have to make the "right" friends so that they ca...

When it gets to be over 100 degrees in Kansas in the summer, I like to go Alaska. For most of the last eight years I've volunteered to serve as Chaplain on a cruise ship heading to the northernmost state in the union (and westernmost... and easternmost... look that one up). In addition to the incredible beauty, I also find God lurking everywhere. This homily was given at the end of a two-week itin...

Paul Harvey was a famous reporter and political commentator who is perhaps best known for his weekly segment entitled, "The Rest of the Story." In these short clips, Harvey would profile some famous person or incredible invention. But, here's the twist, he wouldn't tell you who or what he was describing until the very end. The story would often begin with some fairly unlikely difficulties, or obsc...

“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” So the psalmist urges us in today’s Mass. Changing our hearts is important, but did you ever stop to think about the first part, hearing God’s voice? Even people who say they believe in God often think of him as some distant power. Perhaps he is like a clockmaker who spun up the world at the time of creation like a big clock and then just let...

Sometimes people will confess that they "didn't get their prayers in" on certain occasions. When you think of "saying your prayers," what come to mind? How to you pray? Probably a lot of people would naturally think of prayers they memorized as children, like the Our Father from today's gospel. As good as these memorized prayers are, there's a lot more to prayer this. Prayer is ultimately about a...

The following homily was given to Scouts gathered at the Chapel of the Twelve Apostles on the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation in Osceola, Missouri. "Do a good turn daily" - that's the lesser known "slogan" of the Boy Scouts. It goes back to the founding of the Boy Scout of America when one "unknown scout" did a simple "good turn" of helping the eventual founder of the BSA to find his way in a fog....

"You crazy Catholics... you have so many rules!" Have you ever heard that? It makes it seem like following God's plan is some kind of kill joy that takes all the fun out of life. Society has accepted the notion that to be really free and maximize pleasure you have to do away with "the rules." Our readings today give us a very different picture. The biblical view has always been that God's law is a...

This homily was given at Masses on the first weekend at my new parish of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Kansas City, Kansas. Today's homily is kind of part three in the series of the last two weekends considering our baptismal call to be priests and prophets. Today we consider our commission to share in the kingly office of Jesus. Perhaps we think of a king as a tyrant, a dictator. Especially in A...

We often think of a prophet as someone who foretells the future. Sometimes they do that. But in the biblical sense, a prophet is someone who speaks on behalf of God. Maybe it's a blessing or maybe a curse. The most important thing about being a prophet is speaking what God wants you to speak. Last week, we talked about how we are all called to be priests in our baptism. Today, we see how we are al...

By the late 17th century, Catholics had become so convinced of their own unworthiness that they thought no one was worthy to receive the sacraments or be loved by God. We were supposedly too sinful. Into this misplaced understanding of human weakness, Jesus himself came and appeared to St. Margaret Mary. He revealed the devotion to the love of his Sacred Heart. Jesus did not want to distance himse...

We can't evangelize the culture by simply blending in. John the Baptist was strange. The Church and her worship should also seem strange.

Today we celebrate the the Solemnity of the Body and Blood and Christ, Corpus Christi in Latin. We might expect to find readings like our second reading from St. Paul. He describes the institution of the Eucharist. But who is this strange Melchizedek guy who is the star of our first reading and psalm? What does he have to do with the Eucharist? Well, there's some bad news. We don't really know who...

Sometimes we think of the Trinity as an obscure theological dogma that was probably invented sometime long after Jesus. While it may have taken a couple hundred years to figure out the language used to talk about God, our readings today show us the work of the Trinity in the very act of creation "in the beginning." If we want to understand the Trinity, just looking around at creation is a good pla...

In the Bible, if you want to meet God, you go to a mountain. Todays' homily considers why we climb mountains and what we might find.

Just as a Philmont Ranger leaves his crew, so Jesus eventually left his apostles. Now it's time to go do what we've been trained to do.

I really don't think there are many atheists at Philmont. But there are a lot of people who could use an introduction to the "unknown god."

On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus tells his apostles, "I give you a new commandment: love one another." We use the word love to mean so many things. I love God. Love my family and friends. I love dogs. I love pizza. That's a pretty wide range of meanings for the same word. But what does Jesus mean? That's the important questions. Fortunately, Jesus gives us some interpretive help in his very...

Do you want to be filled with joy even in the midst of suffering? Then you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit like in today's readings.

On Holy Thursday, Peter denied Jesus three times. Today, he gets to go to confession face to face with Jesus and finds freedom to keep going.

Mary of Magdala and the other women, Peter, John... they all have their stories of Easter morning. What's your story?

Today's homily considers the story of three great disciples of Jesus who showed heroic love for the body of Christ.

Tonight we tell the great stories salvation: The Passover, the New Covenant... and find help for the story we're living right now.