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Homily themes

17 May 2009 - Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle B

Love one another as I love you. The lectionary readings this week offer a very interconnected message. God shows no partiality—just as Peter showed none when he crossed a religious boundary line to enter the house of Cornelius, and just as the Holy Spirit showed none in being poured out on the Gentiles. The love of God goes out to all, in the form of God’s Son who saves us and gives us life. In response, we are to love as God loves, that is, sacrificially. We also show this love in keeping the commandments and becoming friends of the Lord. Homily points Joy is an uncommon trait in human beings, perhaps because we go about attaining it in the wrong ways. Like other spiritual qualities, joy is most readily received through surrender, not acquisition. The kingdom paradox teaches us that surrender is the only way to possess what’s worth having. God initiates love, and participating in divine love makes our joy possible.

Authors Joel Schorn

love one another joy surrender

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Homily themes

22 Feb 2009 - Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

See, I am doing something new! The prophet puts a “current” event in the context of a “past” one: The freeing of the Israelites from Babylon and the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. God is freeing God’s people again and forgiving their sins, which caused so much damage. In fact God not only liberates but recreates: Just as the Exodus was in a way the birth of the Israelites as a people, so their delivery from Babylon is a rebirth. Along with the psalm and the gospel, this reading tells of the power of God to forgive the transgressions and renew the lives of those who seek God in faith. Homily points The past is good; it tells us who we are and can be. The past is also a problem: It keeps us from being who we were born to be. God cannot give us something new unless we are prepared to surrender something old: our present reality. Paralysis is both a reality and a metaphor of spiritual immobility in the Bible. Jesus wants to heal us of whatever prevents us from being free children of God.

Authors Joel Schorn

past surrender paralysis israelites

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Homily stories

22 Feb 2026 - First Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

It happened too fast to pray for help. Semis in front of me, behind me, on both sides of me—on a congested, fast-moving stretch of winter highway just outside Chicago. Brake lights flared ahead. I had plenty of space to slow. But the truck behind me didn’t. The impact slammed me forward into the truck ahead, and suddenly the world was sirens, shattered calm, and strangers opening my door. EMTs whisked me to their ambulance, then to the ER. Nurses and doctors moved me from scan to scan, room to room. Eventually my family arrived to take me home. My niece, blunt and wise as 6-year-olds can be: “At least you’re not dead.” Thank God. And the injuries could have been far worse. What stayed with me most was the strangeness of being utterly passive in such a drama—of having no control, no plan, no ability to “manage” anything. After years of living alone and handling nearly every part of my life independently, I was suddenly being carried and tended to by what felt like one angel after another. In that vulnerable position, I found myself wondering whether this experience was saying to me, rather abruptly: stop. Let yourself be cared for. In this instance, I had no choice but to surrender to reliance. When I’m better, I plan to work on it willingly.

Authors Jennifer Tomshack

surrender

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