02/23/14 Living Wisely

Homily from the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.

"So Jesus comes along and He says, 'Be téleios [Greek-adj-perfect or full-grown], like God is téleios. Be perfect as God is perfect. What that means in the context, how is God perfect? "He makes the sun shine on the good and the bad, God makes the rain fall on the just and on the unjust. Here is the deal: God's perfection is He is benevolent to everyone; God is gracious to people. God blesses people. Jesus says, 'Therefore, you be the same.' To be téleios is simply to be the kind of person that you're oriented toward, the person that your télos [Greek-n-end goal] is. And the reality is, all of you, just because you've been made in God's image and likeness, you're meant to be a saint."
Mass Readings from February 23, 2014:
Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18
1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Matthew 5:38-48

02/16/14 "I Do What I Want"

Homily from the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

"If my morality is just, 'Well I want to be able to do what I want, whatever I want, as long as nobody gets hurt,' my world has become the size of me."

Mass Readings from February 16, 2014:
Sirach 15:15-20
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Matthew 5:17-37

02/09/14 Like Everyone Else

Homily from the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

"Imagine Paul walking up to one of these women (prostitutes) who had been used to being used, that's all they ever knew in their whole life, and Paul walking up to them and saying, 'Listen, there is this intellectual argument for the existence of God and that Jesus Christ is Him.' What would that do to them? Nothing. But when Paul walks up to one of these women who has just--all of her life, all she's ever known, is just, 'Men want to use you. And actually, your goddess Aphrodite? She doesn't care. She wants men to use you.' Imagine being one of those women and Paul walks up to you and says, 'Actually, the True God doesn't want anyone to use you, the True God was willing to die for you. And He did die for you. Imagine that kind of power of that kind of preaching: it's not like anyone else! And that is the preaching and that is the Word and that is the decision that changed EVERYTHING."

Mass Readings from February 9, 2014:
Isaiah 58:7-10
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Matthew 5:13-16

02/02/14 Consumer or Disciple?

Homily from the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

"What flows out of relationship? Obligation. And if you're going to have an incredible relationship, that no one could've ever hoped for in the past, through Baptism with the true and living God, that means there might be some obligations that are placed on you and some obligations that are placed on me. So the question is: how do we live like this? How do we break out of the mentality that we are mere consumers when it comes to the Catholic Church?"

Mass Readings from February 2, 2014:
Malachi 3:1-4
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40