Ez 9:1-7; 10:18-22 Mt 18:15-20 We can often be impressed by numbers, and that is true even within the context of the church. We look to see how many are coming to Mass or how many are signing up to this event or to that ministry. Jesus’ way of looking at things is somewhat different from ours. Numbers did not seem to be an issue for him. He understood the value of the one; he spoke of the shepherd who left the ninety-nine sheep to go in the search of the one who was lost. In this morning’s gospel reading…
Homily for Saturday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Hb 1:12—2:4 Mt 17:14-20 We sometimes find ourselves helpless before a particular situation. Try as we might, the issue or problem is more than we can manage or deal with. That is the situation in which we find the disciples in today’s gospel reading. A father brought his seriously ill boy to the disciples for them to heal him, but as the father says, ‘they were unable to cure him,’ even though Jesus had earlier given them the power to do so. Jesus succeeds where the disciples failed, curing the boy of his illness, which seems to have been a…
Homily for Friday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Na 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7 Mt 16:24-28 Jesus asks a thought-provoking question in this morning’s gospel reading, ‘What will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life?’ Jesus is suggesting that we can gain a great deal of what the world has to offer and values, and, yet, lose out at some more fundamental level of our being. We can gain the whole world and, at the same time, lose our life, lose that which makes us truly alive with the life of God. Jesus declares that the opposite is also true. People can lose…
Homily for the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Dn 7:9-10 Mt 17:1-9 Peter’s comment in this morning’s gospel reading, ‘Master, it is wonderful for us to be here’, can find an echo in our own lives. It can remind us of those moments in our lives when we too felt it is wonderful to be here. Each of us is likely to have at least one experience when we could have said with Peter, ‘Lord, it is wonderful for us to be here’. The experience that moved Peter to say this was the vision of Jesus transfigured on the mountain. The gospel reading says that Peter and the…
Homily for Wednesday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Jer 31:1-7 Mt 15: 21-28 The pagan woman in this morning’s gospel reading has been described as one of the great heroes of the gospel tradition. She displays a mother’s identification with her child. Although it is her daughter who is in need, her prayer to Jesus is ‘take pity on me… help me’. Her daughter’s distress is her distress; her daughter’s need is her need. Twice she appeared to be rebuffed by Jesus. On the first occasion, he responded to her plea with silence. On the second occasion, Jesus declared to her that his mission was to the people…
The Saint of the Day: St. John Mary Vianney
Patron of priests, known as the “Curé of Ars”. Saint John Mary Vianney, born during the days of the French Revolution, was ordained a priest in 1815. Three years later he was made parish priest of Ars, a remote French hamlet, where his reputation as a confessor and director of souls made him known throughout the Christian world. His life was one of extreme mortification. Accustomed to the most severe austerities, beleaguered by swarms of penitents, and besieged by the devil, this great mystic manifested a imperturbable patience. He was a wonderworker loved by the crowds, but he retained a…
