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