Deep Calls to Deep 2nd SUN LENT – back to the same mountain?
Jesus was tempted on a high mountain. He was transfigured on a high mountain. Hmmm. Matthew 17:1 (NRSV) — 1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. Matthew 4:8 (NRSV) — 8 Again, the devil took him to a […]
1st SUN LENT – Homily #2 / audio
The Third Temptation – Our daydreams about our/my greatness, to control for every outcome, can help us be situated with Christ in Lent. So, “How did you Marquette University fans prepare for the game against Creighton, to prepare against loss?” Should I wear my lucky Creighton sweatshirt or not? I was seeking a way of managing […]
1st SUN LENT – Homily #1 audio
Jesus fasted. He was hungry. Implications? My first homily explored what I wrote about the last couple days. Perhaps you will find it helpful for your Lent. –roc,sj
1st SUN LENT – “Jesus fasted…”
It’s my sense that the temptations/tests Jesus faced called into question his fidelity in the midst of the deepest hungers of the human heart he experienced from fasting. He did not shield himself from those very hungers that drive us to fill ourselves. Rather, he embraced our hungers without acting out. It seems to me, then, that […]
1st SUN LENT – Basic Temptation
Jesus hungered in the wilderness. He was tempted there and in that state – ‘make stone bread’. Actually, the Greek says, “Say this stone is bread.” He wasn’t tempted to exercise divine power or to perform magic. He faced the fundamental temptation we all face: Make something be what it isn’t. A stone isn’t […]
1st SUN LENT – A Time of Testing…
The Greek, peirazo, can be translated “to tempt” or “to test.” There are lots of reasons to render it “to test.” In which category would you put Jesus’ temptation/testing? Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. God tested Abraham. Genesis 22:1f After these […]
Kind Post Friday
Fr. John Staudenmaier, SJ of the University Detroit-Mercy sends out poetry to friends and family daily. Here is the one he sent today – about kindness tested by the kind of suffering that connects self with God and others. He always suggests we read the poem aloud and deliberately. (I added the line breaks to […]
Ash Wednesday Homily
How long do your Lenten resolutions hold? Three weeks? Two? One? All the way until Holy Thursday? Yeah, me too. What So, why fast? Why give alms? Why pray in hiddenness? We fast to notice what drives us to give up on fasting. We fast to come to claim whatever urges us to break our […]
8th SUN ORD – Audio homily
This just in… As per request, here is the audio version of my homily for the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time. Think of it as another preparation for the joyful season of Lent.
8th SUN ORD – “Mammon…”
Hmmmm, food for thought. So, what the heck is mammon? The Gr. μαμωνᾶς is a rendering of the status emphaticus מָמוֹנָא of the current Aram. noun מָמוֹן. The derivation is uncertain, though it most likely comes from אמן == “that in which one trusts” [Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. 4, 388] In what […]
Deep Calls to Deep 