Deep Calls to Deep Roc Homily – Twenty-Second Sunday Ordinary Time 2016
Humility is about being right-sized & compassionate… There’s a little less chance to living as self-absorbed when humble. More chance of being compassionate. This passage left out the front end of a bookend: Jesus asked, “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not?” Pharisees were silent. Jesus cured. The back end of the […]
Ignatian Spirituality #1
“16 things for which I’m grateful to Ignatius of Loyola” by Dennis Hamm, SJ, Faculty of Theology (emeritus) Creighton University Homily on the Feast of St. Ignatius – July 30, 2016 – Saturday Vigil Mass, St. John’s Parish @ Creighton University St. Ignatius heard that same gospel reading as a young man, along with the voices of […]
Roc Homily – Twenty-First Sunday Ordinary Time 2016
How might we hear this gospel as a catalyst to increase the amount of change going on in our lives so as to be conformed to Christ? And who really likes change? You? I don’t much. Good intentions don’t help us, really. “I need to… I should… I ought to…” pretty much doesn’t work all […]
Roc Homily Prequel #2 – Twenty-First Sunday Ordinary Time 2016
In the meantime… Jesus seems to address disciples and followers by answering the question, “Will only a few be saved?” And his answer resembles what happened earlier in Luke, chapter 4, in the synagogue. There, Jesus applied the ol’ 2by4 to the forehead to get the attention of his countrymen. Effectively he said, “In the time of […]
Roc Homily Prequel – Twenty-First Sunday Ordinary Time 2016
I didn’t work in any word-study this time… So, let me add this curious discovery concerning “enter through the narrow door…” The NRSV translates the Greek, stenos, as narrow in only two instances. Otherwise, it uses “distress.” Funky, right? Here are the sources: **********Numbers 22:26f (NRSV) — 26 Then the angel of the Lord went ahead, and stood […]
Roc Homily – Twentieth Sunday Ordinary Time 2016-Troisieme
one more thing… When fire comes upon the earth, what might conversion look like? Here’s what I perceive: More and more, I have grown in appreciation of the story of St. Francis and the leper (and for Pope Francis with the poor). They found Christ in those whom otherwise were despised. Seems to me that […]
Roc Homily – Twentieth Sunday Ordinary Time 2016-Part Deux
“I have come not for peace but for division…” No, not long division, but “two against three & three against two and the whole famdam’ly against each other…” It seems to me: that though this passage concerns followers of Jesus in opposition to others, my burden of idealism tells me I don’t know very many […]
Roc Homily – Twentieth Sunday Ordinary Time 2016
“I have come to cast fire on the earth…” The passage in Acts 2 serves as the backdrop for understanding this gospel passage – “tongues of fire divided.” It seems to me that the fire of the Spirit purified the disciples (as gold in the fire) and created a union between them, a oneness not […]
St. Clare – a prophet for our times
Today’s first reading, Ezekiel 12:1-11, gives us a picture of the prophetic action Ezekiel was told to act out. It sounds crazy. I have tended to domesticate the great saints in order to ward off the impact of their prophetic deeds and saying. St. Clare, I realized today, is one of them. With Francis, Clare […]
Roc Homily – Seventeenth Sunday Ordinary Time 2016
“This gospel is not about prayer in general…” The Lord’s Prayer seems to be “designed” for disciples who seek a path of purification and mission. Asking and seeking and knocking have to do with persistence in asking for the Holy Spirit whose purifying fire made the disciples ready for mission. That’s why we “dare to […]
Deep Calls to Deep 