Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
Sunday Homilies
2025 Jun 29 SUN: PETER AND PAUL, APS S Vigil: Acts 3: 1-10/ Ps 19: 2-3. 4-5/ Gal 1: 11-20/ Jn 21: 15-19. Day: Acts 12: 1-11/ Ps 34: 2-3.4-5. 6-7. 8-9/ 2 Tm 4: 6-8. 17-18/ Mt 16: 13-19 When we think of Peter and Paul, we think of their leadership in the early Church. They did different things. They both found themselves in Rome, we believe somewhere between the years 64 and 67, and they were martyred while Nero was emperor. They had differing personalities and they did different things. And it is instructive for us to consider how they led the earliest believers in Jesus. We see, of...
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The Body and Blood of Christ, June 22, 2025
Sunday Homilies
2025 Jun 22 SUN: THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST S Gn 14: 18-20/ Ps 110: 1. 2. 3. 4/ 1 Cor 11: 23-26/ Optional Sequence Lauda, Sion/ Lk 9: 11b-17 This solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ was instituted in the 13th century. There were people at that time who said, "There needs to be a celebration of the Holy Eucharist which is apart from Holy Thursday." Apparently they had the idea that celebrating the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, the day it was instituted, made things too somber because Jesus' betrayal and arrest and condemnation and crucifixion immediately followed. ...
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The Most Holy Trinity, June 15, 2025
Sunday Homilies
2025 Jun 15 SUN: THE HOLY TRINITY S Prv 8: 22-31/ Ps 8: 4-5. 6-7. 8-9 (2a)/ Rom 5: 1-5/ Jn 16: 12-15 Last evening I spoke about current events and I'm not sure that everybody got the context. And the context is this. There were shootings in the Minneapolis area early yesterday morning. A state representative and her husband were killed. A state senator and his wife were badly injured but it is believed that they will survive. You know I've talked in the past about my sister Kathy. Kathy lives in Minneapolis and teaches at a Catholic school, three blocks from where George Floyd was...
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Pentecost, June 8, 2025
Sunday Homilies
2025 Jun 8 SUN: PENTECOST S Acts 2: 1-11/ Ps 104: 1. 24. 29-30. 31. 34/ 1 Cor 12: 3b-7. 12-13 or Rom 8: 8-17/ Sequence Veni Creator Spiritus/ Jn 20: 19-23 or Jn 14: 15-16. 23b-26 We come today to the conclusion, and you might say the crown, of the season of Easter: Pentecost -- what we also refer to as the Birthday of the Church. And if you were following in Breaking Bread, you may have found it somewhat difficult because of a variety of options for our Scriptures. In fact, there are a variety of options both today on Pentecost itself and also yesterday on the Vigil of Pentecost. Because there...
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Ascension of the Lord (Seventh Sunday of Easter), June 1, 2025
Sunday Homilies
2025 Jun 1 SUN: ASCENSION OF THE LORD S (Seventh Sunday of Easter) Acts 1: 1-11/ Ps 47: 2-3. 6-7. 8-9 (6)/ Heb 9: 24-28; 10: 19-23/ Lk 24: 46-53 As I mentioned last week, I am intending to concentrate through the 15th of June on God the Holy Spirit. And we have another help today in the passage from the letter to the Hebrews. He is asking us to imagine the heavenly sanctuary itself, which of course is beyond imagining. I know it exists. It is the proper place for the blessed Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are to picture God the Son returning to that heavenly...
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Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 25, 2025
Sunday Homilies
2025 May 25 SUN: SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 15: 1-2. 22-29/ Ps 67: 2-3. 5. 6. 8 (4)/ Rv 21: 10-14. 22-23/ Jn 14: 23-29 (In the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, the Ascension of the Lord supersedes the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Therefore, the following second reading and gospel may be substituted today: Rv 22:12-14. 16-17. 20/ Jn 17: 20-26) Given that today is the fifth anniversary of the murder of a man named George Floyd in Minneapolis, we do need to keep in mind all of the ways in which humanity must keep growing. And that includes growing out of cruelty, growing out of race-based...
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Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 18, 2025
Sunday Homilies
2025 May 18 SUN: FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 14: 21-27/ Ps 145: 8-9. 10-11. 12-13 (see 1)/ Rv 21: 1-5a/ Jn 13: 31-33a. 34-35 The word "love" is sort of tricky. We have to consider that we give two main meanings to the word "love." And one of them really is a starting point, whereas the other is the goal. We use the word "love" to refer to a simple attraction, such as, "I love ice cream." And that's what we're saying, that ice cream is an object which is desirable to us. It doesn't do anything for the ice cream, so it's not relational. The ice cream has its own fate, which does not build it up...
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Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 11, 2025
Sunday Homilies
2025 May 11 SUN: FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 13: 14. 43-52/ Ps 100: 1-2. 3. 5/ Rv 7: 9. 14b-17/ Jn 10: 27-30 In my junior year of high school at Decatur St. Teresa, I was in a religion course called Social Justice. And in that course I learned about the social teaching of the Catholic Church, which began in 1891 with a writing called Rerum Novarum, that is, "of new things." And in this document, the new things being treated were the changes in society having come about as the result of the Industrial Revolution. And this writing championed the rights of workers so that they might not find...
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Third Sunday of Easter, May 4, 2025
Sunday Homilies
2025 May 4 SUN: THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 5: 27-32. 40b-41/ Ps 30: 2. 4. 5-6. 11-12. 13 (2a)/ Rv 5: 11-14/ Jn 21: 1-19 Many people look upon the Book of Revelation as a rather forbidding sort of writing, full of things that can cause terror in people's hearts. But today we have an utterly joyful passage from Revelation. We have a description of heaven itself. And there is mention of the creatures of earth, all creatures, on land and in the sea. And in the center of it all is the Lamb that was slain. We need to think about this. The reason for the great joy is that the Lamb, who is Jesus, was...
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Second Sunday of Easter (or, Sunday of the Divine Mercy), April 27, 2025
Sunday Homilies
2025 Apr 27 SUN: SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 5: 12-16/ Ps 118: 2-4. 13-15. 22-24/ Rv 1: 9-11a. 12-13. 17-19/ Jn 20: 19-31 Well, a week ago was Easter Sunday, and after Holy Week and the Easter Triduum, I was ready to get away for a few days. That's exactly what I did. And awakening Monday morning and learning that Pope Francis had died, I was shocked. Now, we all knew that his health was precarious. We had heard from his doctors that he needed at least two months of recovery. In other words, not doing very much. And at least I had a prediction that came true, and that was that he did not do...
info_outline2025 May 18 SUN: FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 14: 21-27/ Ps 145: 8-9. 10-11. 12-13 (see 1)/ Rv 21: 1-5a/ Jn 13: 31-33a. 34-35
The word "love" is sort of tricky. We have to consider that we give two main meanings to the word "love." And one of them really is a starting point, whereas the other is the goal. We use the word "love" to refer to a simple attraction, such as, "I love ice cream." And that's what we're saying, that ice cream is an object which is desirable to us. It doesn't do anything for the ice cream, so it's not relational. The ice cream has its own fate, which does not build it up in any way. So we have to consider that that is a starting point. There's nothing wrong with it, but we have to build on it.
We find with experience and with, above all, the grace of God, that love is a virtue which recognizes the dignity and worth of all the people in our life. And we respond with love as we say, "Yes, God has given me this dignity, and I want others to respect me and therefore I respect them." And in fact, if I have a responsibility to a particular person, I am utterly committed to that person, and I accept that person even with his or her faults. This is difficult, and we know we need a lot of practice. And we know we need to make mistakes, and the mistakes teach us very well what the opposite of love is.
I think of some history that I am listening to right now. This has to do with the civil rights movement, and in particular I was listening to people who were known as "freedom riders" back in 1961. They confronted unjust segregation laws, witnessing to the injustice, but acting with love, non-violently confronting people. And of course, if we think about that, to respond to violence with non-violence is to cause the violent person to have many, many questions. To ask, "What does this mean? That these people are, first of all, standing up to us, and then not even responding to our force with force." This was a powerful witness in those days, and we see that this applies to our own lives and our own situations, even today.
This requires a lot of practice and a lot of discipline to be so focused on the virtue of love. And this is what Paul and Barnabas were attempting to do. We read today about their visits to various cities along the Mediterranean Sea. They found that there were many people who accepted the good news of Jesus, and there were those who quite flatly rejected them, but they kept at it. They kept going, and we know that that sort of persistence is necessary for us as well.
We have again a beautiful image from the Book of Revelation of the new Jerusalem coming down from the heavens. We may be puzzled by a statement of John that the sea was no more. We have a reference to this actually in the opening hymn today, which refers to God as the master of the sea. And we may wonder, "Why is the sea no more?" It is because the sea was looked upon as the source, a source at least, of chaos, and it was supposed that there were great sea monsters in the deep.
So "the sea was no more" simply means that God is doing away with chaos and threats. And we ourselves must consider what is chaotic or what is monstrous in the ways in which we respond to one another. And as we reflect and as we accept the grace of God, we will find that we can live out this command: Love one another.