Teach What You Believe

This Sunday we hear the familiar Gospel of the woman who was caught in adultery and about to be stoned. Meanwhile the Scribes and the Pharisees, keepers of the Jewish Law, are not very happy with all the attention Jesus is getting, so they a lay trap for him. Sin or shame? See how a Jesuit working with the gangs in LA sheds light on what is this Gospel is really all about.

Instead of focusing on the meaning of this Sunday’s Gospel of the Transfiguration, what happens when you take the time to just focus on the God encounter which occurs at the end of the story? Have you ever noticed how many of the God encounters in the Bible involves a cloud that overshadows and obscures the light? So take a few minutes to listen to stories of a newborn baby, a blind hiker and wise...

Today we celebrate the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles in the presence of the Magi. But where is Christ for you? God cannot be found 'out there' until God is found 'in here', within yourself. So are you in a place where change is needed? Is what was once working, not feeling comfortable any longer? Perhaps you are ready to start your New Year in a different fashion? Thi...

I love how the lectionary uses the story of two parents who lost track of their son during a Passover Festival as the Gospel for this Feast of the Holy Family. It does reminds us never to equate ‘holy’ parents with ‘perfect’ parents! I also like the fact this feast day is celebrated so close to Christmas for it allows us to really look at how this God Emmanuel who is with and among us – has a dire...

This past Sunday we celebrated the 3rd Sunday of Advent which is also known as Gaudete Sunday. The name is taken from the Latin word, guadete, which means – rejoice! And we are told to rejoice! Rejoice always! Really? But just turn on the news and listen for ten minutes and you could walk away wondering what is there to rejoice about. But, indeed, all three readings given us reason to proclaim, Re...

This morning we come to the end of our Liturgical Year with the celebration of the Feast of Christ the King as the Church reminds us that Christ is King of all things. But we cannot forget that we, too, are baptized into Christ’s kingship. But with all this talk about ‘kings,’ when Pilate asked Jesus if he was the 'King of the Jews,' Jesus sidesteps that question and says that he came to...

Today is the 33rd and final Sunday in Ordinary Time. We call these Sunday’s “ordinary,” because they are simply numbered – or, ordinal. But by calling them ordinary, I think we may have tendency to sweep them aside in deference to the other liturgical seasons and thus forget that each of these numbered Sunday’s provide us a critical piece of the road map for our spiritual journey. So how does one...

In October 1974 I was a freshman at Oratory Prep in Summit, NJ and my Dad accompanied me to my first Father and Son Breakfast mass. Fast forward 41 years later and today I was honored to have preached at the same annual breakfast! Today’s Gospel story gives us Jesus trying, once again to initiate his disciples so that they gain insight about the paradox of life. What is that paradox? Why is initia...

Over the past few weeks our Sunday Gospels have given us this ongoing dialogue of Christ with his disciples and his patient efforts in trying to teach them what it means to be fully alive. This past week, as he travelled through our country, Pope Francis was actually doing the same thing. So what does it look like when the Gospels and Francis come together to teach us how to live? Check it out….

In reviewing the readings for the weekend I had wondered why, beginning three weeks ago, that our Sunday lectionary interrupted the Gospel of Mark, in order to insert the 6th chapter of John – a sermon often called: “The Bread of Life Discourse.” Instead of following the earlier Gospel writers and recollecting the Last Supper, John talks about Eucharist in a different way. Why did John make this s...

This past Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that it is legal for all Americans, no matter their gender or sexual orientation, to marry the people they love. The controversial decision is a historic victory for the LGBT Community who have fought for years in the lower courts. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia already recognize marriage equality. The remaining 13 states ban the...

For six weeks we have listened to post resurrection Gospel stories, which when woven together give us great insight into Christ’s explanation of what it is like to be in relationship with him - to be fed by him, to be in communion with him. Two thousand years later, our problem is that I think we make it more complicated, more ego-centered, and more difficult than it really is. So what do you have...

So we moved from Lent into Easter, singing our alleluias, with the church bells pealing, rejoicing that Jesus Christ is risen indeed – but what do we do now? How does this Easter Season change us? How do we live differently than we did before? In this week’s readings we hear a word repeated twice which leading linguistics experts say is a, “linguistic and theological tragedy and the worst translat...

As we come into the final weeks of our Lenten journey– the question on my mind is: How well do we see? Has Christ vanished from our sight? Unfortunately I think many people miss the opening line in this week’s Gospel which starts out saying some Greeks came to worship at the Passover Feast and they asked to see Jesus - and their query seems to be more than just star-crazed gentiles looking to get...

Based on today’s Gospel it would seem that before Christ could begin his ministry, a time of desert wilderness was necessary. This 1st Sunday of Lent reminds us of the need for time in our own desert experience…but one which is deeper than just pledging renewed New Year’s resolutions. What does that looks like? The answer is brought to light by what the Mayan Indians did 1,000 years ago on an isla...

In yesterday’s Gospel, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan by John and when he comes out of the waters he hears the words that should echo in each of our hearts and souls every day. It is core to our baptisms – core to our life. The problem is that we have forgotten the sounds of those words…and thus can be headed in the wrong direction when it comes to our own spirituality. What are those words? And...

Here in the metro New York area we woke this morning to find that two NYPD officers were executed last night by a crazed man who, before he killed himself, made statements on social media suggesting that he planned to kill police officers and was angered about the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases. This Advent has been filled with stories of school shootings, racial unrest, the violation of wome...

This morning I was invited to be a guest homilist at the Princeton Ecumenical Thanksgiving Prayer Service at the Princeton University Chapel. Here is the reflection I gave on the paradox of gratitude. Check it out.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. That is some title for the Feast Day which we celebrate on this last Sunday of the Liturgical Year. But was Christ all about kingship and ruling and thrones and laws? Or was it really something else? Is this really what the Franciscans had in mind, in the early 20th century, when they asked Rome for a Feast day to honor the Cosmic Christ? So what is thi...

This Sunday’s Gospel ends on a wrenching note. “Many are invited, but few are chosen” That doesn’t sound too Christ-like to me. And unfortunately it is one of those lines in the Bible that is often misread, misunderstood and misused. So how is this Good News? Is it true that only a few are “chosen?” And what is meaning behind this parable that calls us to make a choice in our lives? Check it out!

Catechetical Sunday….Parable of the Vineyard Laborers….Alicia Keys and Richard Rohr. How do they all come together in order to shed light on your salvation and a new found focus on your life? Well, check it out!

After the disciples have spent so much time with Jesus watching him heal and teach and forgive it seems that Jesus feels it is time to give his disciples a ‘midterm test.’ He wants to see what they have learned after spending so much time watching him minister to others. But before he asks them the one and only question on the test he has them hike 25 miles to the region of Caesarea Philippi. Why...

This weekend we hear a gospel from Matthew which is broken into three basic parts: the parable of the sower…Jesus’s reasoning for using parables… and then lastly, the explanation Jesus gave his 1st century followers of what this parable was all about. But there is something so obvious to see in this story that even Jesus omitted it from his explanation. What did Jesus leave out of his elucidation...

Through the centuries countless volumes have been written on this doctrine of three beings in one God. But due to the limits of our own language we have been forced to use metaphors when trying to describe the Trinity. But what if we took some time and stopped looking at God as a noun…and considered God as a verb? Could the mystery of the Trinity make more sense if we considered God more like some...

But why are we still celebrating Easter? Fifty days seems like a long time to be singing Alleluia - and we are only half way through the season. And so, it is at this midway point, that we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday – a title taken from the today’s famous gospel passage. So why do we call Christ the Good Shepherd? And how can insight from a New Mexico shepherd help us to use all of our senses...