Category: Reflections

THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021) Readings:1 Kings 1:10-16Psalms 146:7-10Hebrews 9:24-28Mark 12:41-44 To speak of one’s own generosity is generally not done in polite company. Generosity is the kind of virtue which most often needs to be judged by others. To speak of one’s own generosity turns a virtue into a sin of pride, a sin… Continue reading THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021)

THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021) Readings:Deuteronomy 6:2-6Psalms 18:2-4, 47, 51Hebrews 7:23-28Mark 12:28-34 Oliver Twist, in the 1968 movie musical “Oliver,” plaintively sings: “Where is love? Does it fall from skies above?…. Who can say where she may hide? Must I travel far and wide?…. Where, where is love?” We might be tempted to echo… Continue reading THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021)

READINGS:Jeremiah 31:7-9Psalms 126:1-6Hebrews 5:1-6Mark 10:46-52 Few of us, blessedly, would know what it is like to be blind at the time of Jesus. With no social safety nets, it would reduce you to abject poverty, and make you completely dependent on the generosity of others. Whether he was blind from birth, or whether it happened… Continue reading THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021)

TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021) Readings:Isaiah 53:10-11Psalms 33:4-5, 18-20, 22Hebrews 4:14-16Mark 10:35-45 The ambition of the disciples was not unknown to Jesus. You will recall a recent gospel when the disciples were “arguing among themselves about who was the greatest.” One could imagine that by this point Jesus’ patience would be wearing very thin. After… Continue reading TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021)

A Homily for Respect Life Sunday Respect Life Sunday occurs each year in the United States on the first full weekend of October, or any of the Sundays during Right to Life Month. If there was any real benefit to the chaos that surrounded the last president’s final days, it was the postponement of the… Continue reading A Homily for Respect Life Sunday

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (2021) Readings:Genesis 2:18-24Psalms 128:1-6Hebrews 2:9-11Mark 10:2-16 After a discourse about the lawfulness of divorce, purely contrived by the Pharisees, in what is an optional section of today’s gospel (which means, it does not have to be read at Mass), Jesus returns to a theme we heard proclaimed on the twenty-fifth… Continue reading Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (2021)

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2021) Readings: Numbers  11:25-29 Psalms  18:8, 10, 12-14 James  5:1-6 Mark 9:38-48 If any of us, at a certain preordained time, were told to go out and choose twelve people who you want to spend every waking moment with for the next three years, I think we would find our powers of insight… Continue reading Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2021)

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021) Readings:Isaiah 50:4-9Psalms 116:1-6, 8-9James 2:14-18Mark 8:27-35 The structure of Mark’s short gospel is important, and so the placing of Peter’s confession of faith at Caesarea Philippi in the very middle of his gospel is no accident. That any of the disciples given their obtuseness, let alone Peter, could get… Continue reading TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021)

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021) Readings:Isaiah 35:4-7Psalms 146:7-10James 2:1-5Mark 7:31-37 For the past two weeks we were back to our regular reading of Mark’s gospel, after our month long diversion with the Bread of Life discourse from John, during this Year B of Ordinary time. All will recall that Mark’s gospel is the shortest… Continue reading TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021)

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021) Readings:Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8Psalms 15:2-5James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Life everywhere is governed and conditioned by laws and precepts and traditions. It is obvious that these laws and precepts and traditions vary from place to place, something so clearly obvious as we watched the Taliban take over Afganistan… Continue reading TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2021)