Fr. Thom's Homilies

           In light of the message from Bishop Zinkula that I read just before Mass and all of the news that has been swirling around the Church these past few weeks regarding the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal, I feel like I can’t not address this.  I can’t simply pretend that this is not happening and just focus on happier things.  It also occurred to me in a conversation with a student this past week that is a very fresh wound for most of our students.  Our students, by and large, were too young to remember when as a Church we went through all of this some sixteen years ago, when in 2002 “the first domino fell” with the breaking of the scandal in Boston.  These latest reports also hit home for me more personally, as now Archbishop McCarrick ordained me a transitional deacon my last year of seminary along with twenty or so of my classmates from various dioceses throughout the United States in 2003.  At the time he was sti...

          We pick up right where we left off last week in the “Bread of Life Discourse” from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel.   But this week, we get this lovely “preface” of sorts in the first reading from the Book of Proverbs.   We hear about the “banquet” that wisdom (always personified in the feminine in the Old Testament) has prepared for us.   And so, we heard these words: “Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns; she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table,” and invited us, “Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed!   Forsake foolishness and advance in the way of understanding.”           “Advance in the way of understanding.”   Could there be a more perfect reading for our Masses this weekend right before the start of a new academic year?   This is why we are here after all.   This ...

           “I am the living bread that comes down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world .”   If we are somewhat taken aback or confused or even scandalized by what Jesus is saying in this [second] installment of the “bread of life discourse” from John’s Gospel, we should not feel alone.   Apparently, so were those who listened to Him that day in the synagogue in Capernaum almost two-thousand years ago.   This included, I expect, the Pharisees and the scholars of the law, the leading religious authorities of Jesus’ time and His usual rivals, but also probably many good Jews just trying to make sense of what this rabbi from Nazareth was saying.   Likely, Jesus’ closest disciples, “the Twelve,” were also greatly perplexed, if not themselves scandalized by these statements. And yet, it always strikes me that Jesus never backs down from or tries to ...

          Before we knew that Bishop Zinkula would be our commencement speaker, he was to be the homilist for this Commencement Mass, as is our custom here.   You may have noticed that in your worship aids.   But given that we will get to hear from him a little later today, we thought we would lighten his load at least a little bit.   And so, I’m afraid you’ll have to settle for me this morning.           “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”           The Gospel passage that we just heard is very familiar to us.   If you’re thinking that you just heard that somewhere recently, you did !   This was the Gospel for just this past Sunday, the Sixth Sunday of Easter.   But in looking for possible readings for this Commencement Mass, my fellow campus mi...

          There is a story about an American Cardinal who in some of those topsy-turvy years immediately following the Second Vatican Council (in the late 60’s or early 70’s) was presiding at a Mass, but was not the homilist.   Rather, the priest who was preaching got up and began his homily by saying: “Love…love, love, love.”   Just that far into it and the Cardinal had apparently had enough, so he stood up and began to chant, “ Credo in unum Deum ,” skipping right over the homily and immediately intoning the Creed, in Latin no less.   Who knows what the content of that homily might have been, but apparently the Cardinal felt the “love” that this priest was peddling was more of the “ooey-gooey” variety, and he was having none of it.           I mention this because, of course, in the Gospel this Sunday we hear a lot about love.   In fact, we have and will continue to hear...

          “I am the vine, you are the branches.”   If we are careful students at all of our Lord, we know that He often uses these kind of earthy, agrarian images to get His point across – whether He’s talking about sheep and shepherds (as we heard last week), sowers and seeds, vineyards, fig trees, mustard seeds, harvesting wheat, or about a vine and branches.   Sadly, these are images that might not “translate” quite as well to us as they did to Jesus’ original audience, many of whom would have understood these images readily from their daily lives.   I have managed to keep a few plants alive at my house and in my office, and the past couple of summers have had a small garden, but that’s about the extent of my agricultural “know how.”   Unless perhaps you grew up on a farm, we have lost something of our access to these images in our modern, very technology-driven world.         ...

           “A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own…leaves the sheep and runs away…This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.”           There is a saying, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”   And I think there is a lot of truth to this statement.   We are all looking for that thing that gives ultimate meaning and purpose to our lives; that thing we feel we can’t not do because it’s just so in our bones; that thing that we love so much that even to toil at it feels more like a blessing than a burden.   You students, especially, are here at St. Ambrose hopefully not just to get an education so that you can get a good paying job, but to discover that thing about which you are so passionate that you would devote your whole self, your whole life to it...