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Homily themes

22 Jan 2012 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee. In describing Jesus "passing by," Mark uses an expression similar to the one used to describe the passing by of the Divine Presence in Hebrew scripture. In Exodus, God tells Moses, "I will make all my goodness pass before you . . . . While my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by" (Exodus 33:19, 22). Jesus, Mark makes clear at the beginning of his gospel, not only announces the Good News but is the Good News. His passing by galvanizes people to believe, repent, and respond to his call and his proclamation of the kingdom of God. Homily points The process of conversion is not simple or convenient, but it is necessary for Christian discipleship. Jonah wouldn't turn, so he got turned, but his heart wasn't in it. His story is ours. We face Jonah's question: Will we turn while there's still time to do so? Conversion isn't easy, but it is possible, and the opportunities to make a U-turn come regularly.

good news

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Homily themes

08 Apr 2012 - Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Sunday), Cycle B

"You know what has happened all over Judea.” Repeatedly in the early church Christians were called upon to defend their beliefs—and thereby themselves—and some of these explanations, like Saint Peter’s speech in Acts in this weekend’s readings, sound a lot like a creed. God, Peter reminds his audience, gave Jesus the Spirit and was with him. While this power allowed Christ to heal and do good, he was still put to death. Yet God raised him to life and he appeared to those who believed in him, a presence especially visible when the disciples “ate and drank with him.” Before his final glorification to judge of the world, he commanded the apostles to go out and preach his gospel. Faith in Jesus and his message still offers healing. He remains the just judge, and believers can still eat and drink with him. Just as important, he continues to call his followers to spread the Good News about him.

Authors Joel Schorn

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Who's listening?

26 Feb 2012 - First Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

The Gospel of Mark's terse account of Jesus' temptation in the desert--a story Matthew and Luke tell at greater length and with more detail--ends with the essence of the message Jesus preached and literally embodied in the flesh: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." The rest of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension would be the unfolding of this Good News, and it is a revelation that should get everyone's the attention. Jesus has opened and made available the very life of God. All people have to do, then, is open themselves to Jesus and follow his way of love and service.

Temptation message revelation good news follow Love Service

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Homily stories

22 May 2016 - Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Cycle C

A mother, desperate to offer her teenage daughter consolation could do nothing more than listen as her daughter sobbed at the kitchen table, brokenhearted that the boy she was crazy about, who had been her best friend since grade school, finally decided to ask a girl out—some other girl! Not the girl who knew him inside and out, who got his jokes and made him laugh, who appreciated how smart, sensitive, and hardworking he was. The young woman’s mother wanted to assure her daughter that all would be well in the end, but she knew that it was a message her suffering daughter was incapable of hearing at the moment. Her sorrow was too all-consuming. We’ve all been there in the throes of loss and disappointment: More information, good or bad, is too much to take in when we are processing grief. As Jesus tells his disciples as he leaves them after Pentecost: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.” He knows his followers are filled with sorrow, fear, and confusion. He also knows there is so much more joy to come. But they are not prepared. Even good news must wait for the appropriate time. But rest assured, the appropriate time will come for each of us. Are you ready to embrace God’s Good News?

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

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Homily themes

08 May 2011 - Third Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. The gospel very nearly presents the eucharistic celebration in story form. The two disciples are speaking together on the "first day of the week," just as Christians gather on Sunday. When queried by the hidden Jesus about what has taken place, they tell of the "things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word"--a retelling that sounds a lot like a creed, a statement reflecting what they understand. In response, Jesus, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets . . . interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures": a proclamation and exposition of the Word. They all sit down to eat, and "while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him"; Christ's presence becomes real in the breaking of bread--a eucharistic moment. Finally, after all this has happened, the disciples "set out at once" like the faithful who go forth from the Mass to proclaim and witness to the Good News. Homily points The couple journeying to Emmaus is moving in the wrong direction. They need to take the journey of faith back to the community of faith. They need to see "the way" as more than creeds, facts, and hearsay--as an encounter of generosity and hospitality of Jesus. We all have that encounter, and our eyes are opened in the breaking of the bread.

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Homily themes

31 Jan 2010 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his native place. The gospel reading picks up where last week’s left off, and we get the “rest of the story.” The Nazareth congregation was impressed, but their suspicion starts to rise when they remember that the portentous words “today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” comes from the local boy, Jesus. But what really sends them into a murderous rage is Jesus’ mention of Elijah and Elisha: prophets whose people rejected them and who then took their message to outsiders, others more receptive to them. The gospels from the past two weeks present the story of Christ in miniature. Jesus, the Messiah and greatest of prophets, announces the good news fulfilled in himself. This proclamation, however, after some initial enthusiasm, leads to rejection, violence, and the prospect of death, both in Nazareth and, at the end, in Jerusalem. But Christ passes through—one might say passes over—to glory. When Jesus comes to us with his gospel, we can nod but hold our reservations on the inside. Or we walk with him to life everlasting. Homily points Most of us don’t like to hear the truth about ourselves, because at least some of it is going to be disappointing and hard to take. Authentic leaders tell the truth, but almost always from outside so as to “speak truth to power” without a conflict of interest. Jesus proclaimed the truth in Nazareth, but the demons of comfortable lies already had claim to the people, who rejected him and his message. We may not be popular if we preach “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” in our assemblies, but we will serve them well if we do.

Authors Joel Schorn

Truth good news rejection Violence

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Homily stories

24 Jan 2010 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

In this passage describing Jesus’ return to Galilee, Jesus is in a take-charge, electric mood. Imagine sitting in church and an altar boy from years ago walks up to the podium, reads from scripture about the coming of the Messiah, and then proclaims to the congregation that “this scripture is fulfilled this very day in me.” Wow, how exciting! Yet for most of us we’d actually be thinking: how misguided. In fact we’d probably boot the guy right out of church, and if he continued to blaspheme and claim authority that only God can rightfully claim, we’d probably have him locked away for life, which would be only a slightly better fate than Jesus actually received at the hands of his countrymen and women. Today act as if you truly believe this gospel—that God is here among us loving us unconditionally. It’s impossible not to want to do great things out of sheer gratitude that God chose to be with us. Take time to spread the good news today: Assure a grieving friend that they will be comforted; remind a loved one in pain that their suffering will be redeemed; muster the courage to ask someone you hurt for forgiveness. Like Jesus, speak and act with confidence that God’s promises to us will be fulfilled and that your best self is who you were meant to be.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

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Homily stories

05 Jul 2009 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

A friend of mine told me he wasn’t going to his high- school reunion. “Why not?” I asked. “Back then everybody thought I was a loser. I’ve put together a very happy and satisfying life where people respect me, and I don’t want to return to being the butt of their jokes.” In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus returns to his hometown to proclaim the message that’s begun to be well received far and wide. But the hometown folks can’t get past their preconceived notions of Jesus. “Hey, we know all there is to know about this guy. Who does he think he is?” Because of their shortsightedness, they missed out on the Good News that Jesus embodies. Sometimes families pull this same trick on one another. We lock one of our family members into a role he or she played long ago, and we lack the ability to welcome all that he or she might have become. This is not only a disservice to the person who is locked in, but to everyone, because then we miss out on the good news of the gifts they have to offer. There was more to Jesus than met the eye. There’s more to each of us than meets the eye. Look at those around you with fresh and expectant eyes. Be ready to be surprised.

Authors Tom McGrath

good news Jesus returns to hometown families

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The inner word

25 Apr 2010 - Fourth Sunday of Easter; Good Shepherd Sunday, Cycle C

As a preacher, you, like Paul and the other apostles, can bring people to faith. Think about how you relate to the great themes of today’s readings—hearing, accepting, and following the Word of God; being in God’s hands; sometimes suffering to be a Christian—and how you can help your hearers enter more deeply into these realities: Who are the people in my life through whom I hear and believe the Good News? Where do I especially hear the voice of Jesus? How does that voice challenge me to follow it? How does God shepherd me? Do I feel myself to be in God’s hands? How does my faith strengthen me to face the difficulties of living a Christian vocation?

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Exploring the word

15 Feb 2009 - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

So here you are, moving through life cheerfully in the midst of family, community, career. And one day you wake up with a mark on your skin. It itches. Maybe in a day or two it starts to peel, crack, bleed, or ooze. The hairs around the affected patch whiten or fall out. People start pointing and whispering, falling silent when you come near. Then the priest comes to your house and declares you unclean. With that single word, it’s the end of the world as you know it. Unclean means you can’t live at home anymore. You say good-bye to your family. You can’t live in town anymore, so you take a blanket and supplies and make a tent in the hills with a view of your old house. Your front door is just a small dark spot from here. People come and go there. But not you. You can’t provide for your spouse anymore, can’t care for your kids. You wonder how long before they make plans that don’t include you. Charitable folk sometimes carry old bread and maybe spoiling vegetables to the edge of town and leave it there—for you or for the other lepers, whoever gets there first. You’re still itching, oozing, and hoping this thing will clear up on its own. It’s not like you can see a doctor; and with a poor diet and this harsh environment, chances are the condition gets worse before it gets better. And then Jesus comes to town, and you remember hearing amazing things about him, and so you decide to take the chance and force an audience when he comes close to the edge of the community. “You can make me clean,” you insist. “If you want to,” you add. And he does. And he says, “Don’t tell anybody. Just see the priest to pronounce you cured.” What would you do? Not telling is simply not possible, it seems to me. Even if Jesus asks you, not telling that you’ve gotten your life back—your health and family and home and livelihood—is out of the question. When the news is this good, you simply have to tell. You have to shout, sing, dance, and do performance art describing what happened. You have to occupy the village square for the next five years and deliver the story from the top. It has to become a fixture in your identity: the lady or guy who got cured of leprosy by Jesus. And this is what the gospel writers mean by proclaiming the kingdom of God. If this good news comes to you, if your life is restored and renewed as a result of meeting Jesus, you’ll talk about it. You have to. You have no choice. Related scripture links Other laws regarding leprosy and uncleanness: Lev. 14:33-53; 15 Naaman the leper: 2 Kings 5:1-19 Lepers and Jesus: Luke 5:12-16; 7:22; 17:11-19; Matt. 8:1-4; 10:8; 11:5 Fear is useless: Mark 5:36 (Unrevised NAB translation) Catechism links Our place: CCC 225; 299; 340; 344; 355-361; 374-379; 2407; 2809 Exile: CCC 714; 1608; 2443-2449 Faith in healing: CCC 2616

Authors Alice Camille

leprosy jesus proclaiming the kingdom good news

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