Fr. Thom's Homilies

On this Second Sunday of Lent, we are presented with some very powerful and thought provoking readings.   I would like to look especially at that first reading from Genesis because I think it is so perplexing. Abraham is asked by God to take his own beloved son up the mountain to offer him in sacrifice.   Backing up a little, we need to remember that this son, Isaac, is the son that God promised to Abraham .   This is the son, through whom God promised to make of Abraham “a great nation.”   This is the son that Abraham thought he could never have because Sarah was barren for so long and was now too old to have a child.   So, how could God now ask Abraham to offer this son of his in sacrifice ?   I think it is good for us to think of this story from Genesis not as a story about a capricious God who one day lets a barren woman conceive a son, and the next day decides to take his life—but as a story of unshakeable faith .   God is looking for f...

          Of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), Mark is by far the shortest.   It has a kind of cutting simplicity to it.   It gets right to the point.   And so, very often the passages we read from Mark’s Gospel are like today’s passage: very brief, relatively free of detail or literary flourish, and yet they “pack a wallop.”   For this reason, if you resolved to try to spend some more time reading the Bible during this Lenten season, I would recommend you start with Mark’s Gospel, because of its brevity, its accessibility and its potency.   Also, we happen to be in the “year of Mark” in three year cycle of the Lectionary, so it’s a good way to prepare for and follow along with the Sunday Gospel readings.           In the passage we heard today we have the preparation for and beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.   Up until now, He has been somethin...

“Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them…when you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you…to win the praise of others”…but be sure to pick up your Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl and display it in a prominent place in your dorm room, so that others will know what a nice thing you’re doing for Lent. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites who love to stand and pray in synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them”…but it is good to see so many of you here in the Chapel today, even if today is not technically a holy day of obligation. “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.   They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to be fasting...anoint your head, wash your face”…but be sure when you come forward to get your ashes in a few moments to brush aside your hair, so that we can make a good, dark smudge on your forehead for all to see. Every Ash Wednesday it seems like we do exactly ...

          What a drastic contrast between our first reading and the Gospel!   Of course, these readings were paired, no doubt, precisely to show that contrast – between how illness (and specifically leprosy) was looked upon under the old law and how it is dealt with under the new law of Christ.   But before we cast too many stones at the old law, as recorded here in the Book of Leviticus, we should remember a few things.   We know how seriously we take illness is in our own time, and yet we have more tools at our disposal than we have ever had in the history of humanity to diagnose, prevent and even to cure all manner of illness, and we are developing more tools by the minute.   We have seen a steady increase in life expectancies across the globe, but particularly in developed nations, such as our own.   Compare this to that famous and somber line from Psalm 90 that reads: “Our years are seventy or eighty for th...

          Anyone with little or no exposure to Christianity and to Catholicism in particular, and who might have walked in to hear that first reading from Job would undoubtedly say, “See! I told you this was a religion of gloom and doom.”   “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?   Are not his days those of hirelings?   He is a slave who longs for the shade…I shall not see happiness again.”   But we have to remember Job’s situation.   If you recall the story, he has, after all, just lost everything , his riches, his home, his children, and his health.   So, he’s not just being overly dramatic here.   He’s not being a “whiner.”   He is really hurting .   And he is pouring his heart out to God.   He is lamenting , which is something of a “lost art” in time.   We are culturally trained to keep up a “stiff upper lip,” or to “pick ourselves up” and carry on.   We numb ourselves with...

          “What is this?  A new teaching with authority .”  We are told in the Gospel today that Jesus taught “as one having authority,” and yet this word, “authority,” is for many an ugly word.  For many it is synonymous with the corruption of power.  Perhaps for us as Americans this is a particularly loaded word because it is a part of our history to celebrate the toppling of authority.  We hold on to our revolutionary spirit.  Of course, it doesn’t help that some who wield authority, at least worldly authority, do not always command our respect.  But I think we have to get at this term, “authority,” as it is meant in this context.  After all, Jesus is no tyrant to be brought down, but the benevolent king and shepherd of our souls.           So what is this “authority” that the people in the synagogue sense in Him?  Well, it can’t be the kind of a...

          “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed!”  “I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out…For the world in its present form is passing way.”  “This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  Maybe not the most cheerful way to begin the New Year or the new semester.  This feels more like the end of Ordinary Time, as the readings in the cycle of the lectionary at that time of year always become a little darker in tone, a little more apocalyptic.  Either that, or all this talk of repentance might make us feel like we have “jumped the gun” on Lent, which is still a few weeks away.  But I would submit that despite the initial gloomy tone of these readings, there is good news here.  In fact, it’s not hard to find at all. Let’s start with that passage from the prophet Jonah.  We need to be reminded of a little backstor...