Deep Calls to Deep The Place & the Case – Audio Homily for Transfiguration
[Three booths at the base of Denali, 2013 – Roc O’Connor, SJ photographer] This first homily summarizes broadly what you saw here Monday & Wednesday – the place and the case. How cool is that! Tomorrow I will post homily #2 which deals with The Face and The Case. Blessings today! –roc,sj
The Place, The Face, & The Case – Transfiguration…
Jesus took the three disciples (what happened to Andrew?) up the mountain… The key is that Jesus claims all of it as his own ‘turf’ – the good and the bad. He makes it all his own! The Hebrew Bible characterizes “mountain” thus: It’s the place where Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice… Genesis 22:2f […]
The Transfiguration – The Case, The Place, & The Face I
I never thought I’d come up with a catchy title for a homily, but there it is. The Case has to do with Peter, James, John, you, and me. The Place is the mountain. The Face… well, you get that. The Case: Peter, James, & John are a case. Yep. Why did Jesus take them […]
Parables of the Kingdom – Finding Treasure in a Field…
People didn’t have banks in Jesus’ day, so they hid money wherever they believed it would be safe. Somehow our intrepid “finder” found a treasure in a field and, as we know, sold all he had for joy and bought the whole field. Here is the audio homily plus a couple observations… What kind of […]
The Parables of the Kingdom II – The Weeds and Wheat
Punch line: “How do we pray in a divided world in a divided country with divided hearts?” Another way to put it is, “Why don’t ‘they’ resist the gospel?” Better, “Why do we hesitate to receive the gospel fully? Why do we hold back?” This parable in chapter thirteen of Matthew deals with all these […]
Parables of the Kingdom I – The Sower and the Seed…
I thought I’d try this: to publish my three homilies this week on the parables of the Reign of God from chapter thirteen in the gospel of Matthew. Here is the first. “The Parable of the Sower and its Explanation”
16th Sunday Ordinary Time – Bear Fruit!
This parable points to the fruit-bearing mission of disciples. Really, it’s like the Parable of the Sower in a lot of ways. There, we see fruitful and unfruitful earth. In this parable, we see wheat (karpós, fruit) and weeds (unfruitful growth). “Can’t have one without the other,” as the old song goes. So, what kind […]
16th Sunday Ordinary Time – Let’s talk about Enemies, part I
There’s something going on in Matthew’s gospel that has to do with family. Just sayin’. And it has to do with this major parable. Of all things! Take what I offer here today with about a beaker of salt. It’s exploratory. Here’s the beginning of the parable: He put before them another parable: “The kingdom […]
16th Sunday Ordinary Time – An Hospitable Beginning
This week’s gospel will challenge gardeners who compulsively pull weeds and perfectionists who obsess about ordering every inch of space. Killjoy warning: It’s about not pulling up weeds. So, let’s ease into it all. The Greek verb that introduces the parable of the weeds & wheat (plus two others) literally sets the table for us […]
15th Sunday Ordinary Time – “Sown on the Path…”
The parable of the sower deals with discipleship as it is in terms of gain and loss, ‘win some, lose some’. On the one hand, this interpretation speaks to the demands of perfectionism – “Get over it.” On the other, it does not suggest laxity, rather a view of the regular and ongoing challenges to […]
Deep Calls to Deep 