The Post-Game

Happy Corpus Christi. This week we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ, and Msgr. Tom keeps it simple with two English words: God provides. He walks through the manna in the desert, the bread that came down from heaven, and the moment Jesus told a room full of first-century Jews to eat his flesh and drink his blood. A lot of them were horrified. A lot of them walked away. And Jesus didn't softe...

This episode begins with a Greek word you've probably never heard and a dance floor you didn't expect to find in church. Trinity Sunday, and Msgr. Tom introduces perichoresis, an ancient Eastern idea of the Trinity as a divine dance, three persons circling in love, and the circle is open. He walks through how God keeps coming to us throughout scripture, what Paul says our "dance moves" should look...

Eight weeks. One question. Are you ready to go? On Pentecost Sunday, Msgr. Tom flips the script. We're not just ready. We've already gone. Every step in holiness, every work for justice, every prayer whispered, that's the Spirit at work. And the Church's birthday isn't just about what happened that first Pentecost. It's about the life it's lived since. Also, Msgr. Tom compares the Holy Spirit to t...

Jesus had to go. And it's actually better that he did. Ascension Sunday, and Msgr. Tom makes the case that the disciples needed Jesus to leave so the mission could continue. He had to return to the Father to complete what started at his birth, and he had to send the Holy Spirit so the rest of us could pick up where he left off. But first, the apostles did something very human: they just stood ther...

Six weeks. One question. Are you ready to go? This week wraps the Easter message series, and Msgr. Tom introduces the one who's been behind everything: the Advocate. The Holy Spirit. He starts with a contradiction: Philip and Stephen were appointed to serve at tables, so why are they out preaching and performing signs? Then he unpacks the Greek word parakletos, called to the side of, defense attor...

Last week it was time to go. This week, Msgr. Tom gets specific about what that actually means. Who goes? You do. You're reputable, you're filled with the Spirit, you're a living stone. What does the goer do? The works Jesus did, and greater ones. He said it to a church full of lifelong parishioners and seven kids receiving their first communion on the same morning. In the conversation, we get int...

Four weeks. Four times Msgr. Tom asked "are you ready to go?" Four times the answer was no. This week, it's finally time. This Fourth Sunday of Easter, and the message shifts. The gate swings both ways and Msgr. Tom tells the congregation something he doesn't usually say out loud: after 33 years, he's still nervous every single time he steps up to preach. In the conversation, we get into why he ch...

Happy Easter, week three. The disciples still aren't ready to go, but this time Msgr. Tom says it's not on them. It's on the Lord. This week's homily goes to the road to Emmaus, two disciples walking away from Jerusalem, hearts broken, until a stranger starts connecting dots they'd heard their whole lives but never understood. Then he breaks bread, and they see it. And he's gone. In the conversati...

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday. This week, Msgr. Tom asks the question that opens our new message series. Are you ready to go? The disciples weren't. A week after the resurrection, they're still locked in the same room. Thomas isn't even there the first time Jesus shows up. And yet this is the group Jesus sends out to change the world. In the conversation, Msgr. Tom and I get into why Catholics sometim...

Happy Easter. We're kicking off The Post-Game with Easter Sunday's homily from Msgr. Tom Nydegger, and then sticking around to dig into it a little more. This week: a fourth grade field day, a kid named Billy Madison, and what it means that Mary Magdalene went running from the tomb. Msgr. Tom unpacks the urgency of the resurrection, what "Jesus Christ IS risen" in the present tense actually means,...