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The inner word

06 Sep 2015 - Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

In the Letter of James this week we hear of the importance of showing the same impartiality to others that God shows to us. If God doesn’t make distinctions between rich and poor, neither should we. In fact, if there is to be any partiality, it should for the poor whom God chose to be the people through whom the kingdom of God is passed on to the rest of humanity. Jesus did the same. Look whom he not only attracted but also invited to be with him: the poor, social outcasts, the sick. It’s understandable to want life to be prosperous and neat and tidy and full of agreeable people, but what do you do when other things happen and other folks show up—the same kinds of marginal situations and people Jesus himself welcomed? What do you do when you encounter Christ, as Mother Teresa once said, “in his most distressing disguise”?

impartiality the poor

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The inner word

29 Sep 2013 - Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

In both the first reading and the gospel we hear of rich men, but in both cases their sin is not their wealth but their lack of awareness. In the Amos reading the “complacent . . . . are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph,” that is, they don’t care about the rest of Israel, their people. As those with the most to lose, they are the first to lose everything. For his part, the rich man of the gospel ignored the poor man at his door and ended up trading places and himself becoming the forgotten outcast. All of them cashiered their futures not through riches but by lack of concern for others less fortunate, which ultimately resulted in lack of concern for their own eternal fate. Where can you be more attentive to others, especially those most in need now, before it’s too late?

Wealth the poor

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Sign & sacrament

11 Nov 2012 - Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

In praising the widow who gave her last two coins to the temple treasury, Jesus is not suggesting that you and I need to give away our last penny. Rather, Jesus acknowledges that it is often the poorest of the poor who show the greatest charity, who risk the most to be loving. Jesus criticized the scribes and priests not only because of their apparent stinginess in donating to the Temple, but also because people such as the widow were often made poor by those in power who laid religious taxes and excessive expectations upon them. It is the responsibility of governments, churches, and individuals not only to come to the relief of the poor but to prevent them from being crushed in the first place.

widows Charity relief of the poor

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Who's listening?

29 Aug 2010 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

The keys to the word you have to offer the assembly this week are humility, lowliness, and generosity. Those who humble themselves will be exalted. The ones who take the lowest place move up. Scripture also tells us this week about inviting the poor and giving them a place, a home. Those who give alms atone for their sins. Note how these messages fit together: To welcome the poor, we become poor. We show others the mercy God shows us. Invite people this week into God's spacious love and grace.

Humility Generosity the poor

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Martyred archbishop hailed by pope

08 Feb 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

All that Saint Paul does he does “for the sake of the gospel,” we hear in this Sunday’s reading from 1st Corinthians. Pope Francis Tuesday affirmed that assassinated Salvadoran Archbishop Romero died for the sake of gospel values, not political ideology. The designation of Romero’s martyrdom opens the door toward beatification and possible sainthood for the iconic figure of the bloody civil wars that tore Central America apart and deeply divided the Catholic Church in Latin America a generation ago. Homily hint: Monseñor Romero, as he was affectionately known by his flock, led a deeply divided church and nation that suffered great violence and repression. He lost his life standing up for gospel values and speaking out for the poor in his charge. He serves as an inspiration for pastoral leaders everywhere. For more on Romero’s martyrdom, see: Pope Francis Declares Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero A Martyr; Archbishop Oscar Romero declared a martyr by Pope Francis

the poor martyrdom gospel values archbishop oscar romero

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Homily stories

23 Oct 2011 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

I met a community organizer at a number of meetings in the neighborhood. I liked her style, so one day I asked her how she had gotten into her profession. She spoke of her idealism in college, but that it was mostly talk and little action. A trip to India radicalized her as she experienced the sheer enormity of the poverty that she found all around her. So she decided when she came home that she would try to make a difference with her life by working for justice for the homeless, the elderly, and the poor. What made her different from the others with whom she worked was her ability to listen to people and to help them feel they were all that was important to her at that moment. She never spoke to me of her religious beliefs, but she clearly exhibited a genuine faith, a gospel faith put into action. The world in which we live is political, like it or not. The politics she practiced was based on a respect for the dignity of each person. We are called as Christians to share that same perspective, to see the dignity in everyone. But we are also called to take it a step further. We are called to love all others as our neighbors and in that way show our love for God. That is our political action. Justice flows from that love like a river through a canyon.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

homeless the poor Faith politics eldery india

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Homily stories

19 Apr 2009 - Solemnity of the Second Sunday of Easter; Divine Mercy Sunday, Cycle B

If you want your children and grandchildren to grow up generous, let them watch you be generous. In the first reading this weekend we hear how the first Christians shared all they had, with the ultimate result that “there was no needy person among them.” In our country, where the chasm between the wealthy and the many more who are poor continues to grow at an alarmingly rapid rate, every Christian family should respond in ways that are both direct and indirect. Directly, you can involve your children in donating food, clothing, toys, or money to people in need. Deliver meals to a soup kitchen, sponsor a child in a poor country, visit a nursing home. Every parish has some outreach program you can tap into. If not, get together with friends from the parish and start one based on the needs you see around you. If you can, get your children directly involved with the people you are helping so they realize that those in need are not “them” but members of our one extended family. Indirectly, before you vote in the next election, become aware of how public policy decisions end up affecting families who are poor. Demand that public representatives take into consideration the dignity of the poor. Learn the facts and speak your mind on issues like healthcare benefits, welfare payments, unemployment coverage, and job training programs.

Authors Tom McGrath

income gap needy the poor

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Homily themes

16 Nov 2008 - Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

You yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come. In the Hebrew scriptures, the “day of the Lord” points to the time when God’s final manifestation will bring an end to the world, salvation for those who do justice, and judgment upon those who do evil. In the New Testament, the “day” marks the coming of the Son of Man, the time the resurrected Jesus will judge the world and salvation history will be completed. For some New Testament writers, the “last days” are still to come (Matthew 25:31: “When the Son of Man comes in glory . . . .”), while for others they already began with Jesus’ earthly life (Hebrews 1:2: “In these last days, [God] spoke to us through a son . . . .”). The day of fulfillment and judgment is neither so far distant as to demoralize us, nor able to be predicted so as to drive us to fear. Scripture’s message of watchfulness counsels us to be ready regardless of when or how the world will end. Bulletin insert Correspondent Barry Hillenbrand writes of the childhood of his uncle, the Catholic social action pioneer Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand, and in particular Reynold’s mother Eleanor, who sounds very much like the woman in Proverbs who “reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy”: Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Eleanor cared for a succession of hoboes, vagabonds, and bums who called at the back door of the large house the family owned on Hamond Street in Chicago. The back fence off the alley, it was said, carried a secret mark used by those forsaken men to identify a house where food, warm clothes, and even some cash were handed out. Stories of “Eleanor’s boys” sleeping in the basement, smoking my grandfather’s cigar stubs, and wearing his discarded coats during cold winters were part of family lore. —Commonweal, March 10, 2000

Authors Joel Schorn

son of man judgment the poor the needy Reynold Hillenbrand

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Homily stories

20 Nov 2016 - Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Cycle C

Soon after Pope Francis was elected, it was reported that he sometimes went out at night in clerical—but not papal—garb to minister to the poor of Rome. “Vatican sources” said it wasn’t true, but there is something thrilling about a person of power who steps out of their usual role in order to experience a marginalized human condition. Mark Twain’s 1880 novel, The Prince and the Pauper, is a tale of two boys, one the Prince of Wales, the other a poor child who look remarkably alike and decide to exchange clothes to see the other’s way of life. This generates many harrowing and comic adventures, but Twain’s focus was serious: The prince, looking like a beggar, discovers the reality of what it is to be poor in his own kingdom. As a beggar, he is abused and scorned. In the end, the prince regains the throne and sets about bringing justice to the poor. The Holy Father does not need to go out secretly at night; in clear daylight, each day, he seeks out the poor to serve them. Neither was Jesus “disguised” as a human being when he went among the unclean and rejected—he was one of us. A fresh memory of Jesus is found in Philippians: “Though [Jesus] was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” Is there part of you that could use emptying? Make some room this season for the Prince who is to come.

Authors Father Larry Janowski O.F.M.

Pope Francis serving the poor Servant

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Quote of the week

23 Oct 2016 - Preaching the News for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

“We all have to think if we can become a little poorer, all of us have to do this. How can I become a little poorer in order to be more like Jesus, who was the poor Teacher?” --Pope Francis

Pope Francis the poor

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