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Breaking open the Word of God …Applying it to the lived experiences of daily lifeIn the busyness of modern life, it is sometimes difficult to see and experience God in our lives. Through his homilies, Fr. Brendan challenges and invites us to take a break focus on what the Lord is saying. God is not only present but is opening up the divine story in each of us.
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Homily for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe - Follow Christ Not Chase The Squirrel
8:34
Here is a photo taken by the James Webb telescope. Now, where are we in this universe? We are a tiny little point in the middle of that tiny place, we are so far away that you can not even see it. What is illustrated here is that the universe is massive! There are over 200 billion galaxies in the universe, and each of those galaxies has billions of…
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Life is transient. One minute you are driving along, next minute, boom, the car flies off the road and you are taken out and your life could be gone. Never take life for granted. And we do. What today’s reading is trying to do is to wake us up. It says, ‘Listen, look, stop, take it. Pay attention.” Jesus is saying, “Wake up, wake up. I am always he…
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May God take all our loved ones to himself for all eternity. And one day, we will join him as well. Together we will be one in heaven. Until then, we will ask those clouds of witnesses to witness to us their love and help us to carry our grief and each other’s grief. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary time. Ple…
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Every time we come to the Eucharist God says that he loves us completely. So much so that he gives us Jesus Christ in his person. I want to quote Thomas Merton. Let me explain first. When the sun is shining bright, you can take a magnifying glass, focus the sun and you can set a piece of paper even on fire. Thomas Merton says that Jesus Christ is t…
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We should understand the context of today’s reading. This is Mark’s gospel, the very first gospel to be written. And remember it is a continuation from last week’s gospel, where the rich young man comes up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit kingdom of of heaven?” And he says to him, “Give away everything.” Then James and John come along.…
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We should understand the context of today’s reading. This is Mark’s gospel, the very first gospel to be written. And remember it is a continuation from last week’s gospel, where the rich young man comes up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit kingdom of of heaven?” And he says to him, “Give away everything.” Then James and John come along.…
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Today there are so many things that draw our attention, distract us from even our own goodwill. We may not even want to be a certain way, but because we send so much time with those things. The question is what do we treasure the most? If somebody were to take away something, we would go, “Oh, no, no, no, no. Not that.” (Read more…) Here is my homi…
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Homily for the Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time - ACL, Awe, Curiosity and Love for Christ
10:19
I just returned last night from our pilgrimage and I had a long trip home. I finished the pilgrimage in Greece and Turkey and then I flew to Vienna for a Stanford class reunion. Then I flew from Vienna to San Francisco last night. One of the things I love to see while traveling is how children and parents interact. God bless the parents; it is a lo…
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You are not going to win every hand in your plan, in your life. That is just the way it is. You get some really doozy hands sometimes when you are sick and when you are suffering and you have gotten a bad hand, you still have to play the hand. Pick up your cross and come and follow me. You can not just fold the hand every single time. And that is w…
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In today’s gospel, Jesus moves in close with this deaf and mute man. He moves in real close. And Jesus just does not say be healed or be opened in this case, he sticks his fingers in his ears. He puts his spittle on his tongue. I mean, that is moving in pretty close. He is intimately engaged. It is ultimately what Jesus did in becoming human. (Read…
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Henry Nouwen, the great Catholic priest and theologian of modern times, explains this reconnection concept using four words: taken, blest, broken and given. These connects us back to God as his beloved. When we truly discover that we are the beloved of God, that changes everything. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Twenty- Second Sunday of Or…
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We come to church not just for ourselves. We come for the sake of others. If there was only one person here, it would not be a celebration. It is a celebration because so many of us have made the decision to come here. That is what makes church. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to share …
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I want us to understand what we need to do because the whole world needs this nourishment so desperately. We are the remnant few who come to church. We need to be the bread of life for the world. If we do not do it, then who is going to do it? There is no one else out here. It is just us guys. It is up to us to live what Christ gave to us and to be…
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Watching the Olympics was such a wonderful counterpoint to so much we listen to in the news. It is such a relief for the human spirit. Because all we ever seem to see or hear is all bad news. But it is such a relief to watch this, the best of humanity. And it is such a relief and joy to watch. I cannot help but think of that phrase from St. Ireneus…
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What we can do is share the nourishment we receive from here. And what does that mean? It is exactly what Paul says in the letter to the Ephesians. He said, “We shed the old self and we put on new self.” We need to become different when we come back from here. We need in some way to be nourishment for the world. We need to be the bread of life for …
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Jesus sent out the apostles, the twelve. In Mark's gospel, it depicts as just the twelve. But in the other gospels he sends out all his disciples. He sends all of us out to share the good news of the gospel with others. How we do that is incredibly important, but more important is that we do something to spread the good news. (Read more…) Here is m…
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Let us open our eyes and see what is among us and see if we can participate. At least recognize them for the gifts that are here, that are the ordinary being turned into extraordinary. That we can be grateful for the gift among us and be part of it, maybe to be willing to step in and to help in some way. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Thir…
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What does it mean then for us to be faith-filled? And what does it mean for us to be humble as disciples? The lesson of the woman with the hemorrhages gives us is to reach out and touch his garments, if I could just reach out and touch God. Our constant sort of mode is to always be looking to touch God in our lives. (Read more…) Here is my homily f…
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There is something consoling about knowing when the storms will come and go. It does not take away from the fact that storms are there and they are coming and the damage that they are going to do, But it does sort of help to get ready for it. That is kind of the way it works. I find it very helpful, very consoling. (Read more…) Here is my homily fr…
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It is true that the little things are what matter in our own lives as well. It is the little things we will become known for. The little things that we do or say that matter the most. That is what Christ is saying in today's gospel with this parable of the kingdom of God. A mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, but yet when it grows, it becomes th…
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Today, I do not want to focus on the fall of humanity. I want to focus on the rise of humanity that will return to being fully human, fully alive, by seeing with new eyes, by hearing with new ears, by tasting and touching and smelling with new vitality so that we want to drink in the whole world and give glory to God. (Read more…) Here is my homily…
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Henry Nouwen, the great theologian and Catholic priest wrote in a book called Open Hands, Open Heart, “Most Catholics, when we come to church on Sunday, in fact, do not have open hands or an open heart. When we come, our hands and our hearts are full of many other things, and they are not open.” He challenged us in a very strong way. He said, “many…
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A lot of ink has been spilled over the mystery of the Holy Trinity for the past many years. Indeed, actually sadly, even more blood has been spilled over it. Even now, the East and the West Church are still split over a single word called the Filioque. This means that the spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The gospel today brings us back …
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The message is God loves us. The good news is that God loves you completely. The bad news, he loves everyone else completely too. But it is not really bad news. Of course, it is good news all around. The challenge then is, where we are called to be the church in the world where we are called to share this love where we are called to witness this lo…
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God loves us not for what we have or what we do, what we own or what we look like. God loves us for who we are. We know that intellectually, I guess we know that, but we need reminders of it. And in this world, there is so much coming at us that we need reminders often for that purpose. Sometimes there are things in our life that will illustrate th…
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“I looked out upon my window and I saw the leaves and the flowers falling from my beautiful tree outside my window. And I lamented as I saw the barren branches appear, and I lamented the beautiful flowers and leaves I had. And then I noticed, as I looked through the tree with its barren branches, the stunning mountains behind the tree that I had no…
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Over the last few weeks, we have been reading from the Gospel of John and it hammers away at this metaphor of the Good Shepherd. And today’s version is a powerful one about how a good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That is the image, a good shepherd. But I sometimes wonder if we really internalize that message? Do we really understand w…
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Our faith is all about God as love and how we are called to be love to one another. And we are called to bring that story alive. We gather every Sunday to tell this story but sometimes I fear that we do not really believe the story, I am not sure we are convinced about the story we tell. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Third Sunday of Easte…
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We often name the gospel from this Sunday as “Doubting Thomas." One of the things that has always struck me about this particular gospel passage is that Jesus has now risen from the dead, glorious victory over death and he has wounds. Why does he have wounds? Is this what it will be like when we all are raised? We will have all our wounds or broken…
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Our role is to witness to love in the world so that others will come to know and experience the joy of eternal life. In the gospel t we get a hint of what the disciples found it hard to do it. Jesus says, “Go to Galilee.” Galilee was not just a physical location, it was much more. It was where they first met Jesus, where they first fell in love wit…
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When we witness something that is powerful, we tend to want to immediately mirror it. Our brains wire immediately to repeat it. If we witness a young person helping an elderly person we will typically say, “Wow, that is really wonderful. ” Our brain is now rewiring to repeat something like that for ourselves within the next twenty four hours. We wi…
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We look upon Jesus on the cross and we take all our suffering wherever we have been, whether we have witnessed it, whether we are currently in the middle of it or when we are indifferent to it. We talk to Christ and accept his invitation of the cross to move beyond the cross. (Read more…) Here is my homily from Good Friday. Please feel free to shar…
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We tend to think there are good people in the world and there are bad people in the world. Of course, we are part of good people, right? I mean, we do not ever consider ourselves bad, so we are the good ones. And they, whoever they are, are the bad ones. The challenge with that is that it is simply not reality as much as we want to believe it. (Rea…
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There is something inside of us that we have to let go for something new to grow within us. We have to surrender to it for new growth to happen. In fact, we believe in it so much that we have a whole season dedicated called Lent. We must die to so much of ourselves and let something new grow, but it is cooperation with the grace of God that we can …
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Every action needs to ooze and come forward from that very sight that we want peace. Because peace is the loving relationship and right relationship with God. Because we know that is so hard to do, we come to receive the peace here with the body and blood of Christ. We come here to receive what we promise to become out in the world. (Read more…) He…
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Sabbath became a way to understand and treasure people's time and leisure. It enhanced the people's relationship with God while intensifying their shared identity. Keeping the Sabbath holy was another way that Israel better appreciated the sacredness surrounding them and highlighted places and practices that sharpened their awareness of the presenc…
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Sometimes we underestimate the power of the faith of the disciples as they go up the mountain with Jesus because they already believed in Jesus. They did not go up the mountain to see and believe. It was the other way around. They already believed. They went up the mountain believing in Jesus. And when they saw, they were confirmed in their faith. …
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What is the purpose of a test to evaluate your ability? A teacher gives you a test to validate that you already know something. It is not to teach you something. A test only evaluates or confirms what you already know. Jesus was driven into the desert by the Spirit to be tested, to confirm what he already knew. (Read more…) Here is my homily for th…
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Lent is the time for us to turn back and to come home and follow the way back to the Lord. How are we going to find our way? Every year the church gives us three bright lights to take us home. The first light is prayer. The second one is fasting. And the third one is almsgiving. They may not seem obvious as lights, but once we start to understand w…
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We need to see, again, with eyes of faith and to act on what we see, which requires some discipline; that is what the root word of discipleship is. What does that discipline look like for us? For Lent, we do it for 40 days. And we talk about extra prayer, we talk about fasting, and we talk about alms giving. That all integrates into the same thing,…
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Contagious! Contagious! Good behavior is actually neurologically contagious in our brains! This is very good news! We need more of this and we need to be around more of this for it to stick. That is why community is so important because when we witness morally good behavior, we tend to want more of it and replicate more of it. (Read more…) Here is …
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We are called to be men and women of love, of gentleness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of healing, of truth and beauty. It requires of us to light a lamp of goodness, of love in people's lives. May we seek to be lamplighters that leave a legacy and a trail of love behind us for all to see. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ord…
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What makes a Catholic parish and a Catholic school is the involvement of the parents and the community. That is what binds us together. It is a testimony not just of our faith, but it is who we believe in. We believe and follow Jesus. We are not just fans but we follow him. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. Pleas…
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We need to do some work learning to steady and slow our soul down. To just be with the Lord and to learn to listen for his voice. To be able to say what Samuel says, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” We have got some work to do, my friends, because the busyness of our lives with the number of inputs that we are getting, it is hard to sort it…
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Homily for the Epiphany of the Lord - Follow the Model of the Magi; Follow the Star to Jesus
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We can learn a lot from the Magi, and we can learn a lot from this particular passage from Matthew's gospel. It is very rich with meaning and symbols. Let us listen to this challenge that we are called to follow the light that brings us to Christ. We are called to offer our gifts to Christ and the world in service to his kingdom. And we are called …
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Your love matters in this world, and we want it not just for our nuclear family, but for the whole human family. It is important that we love one another because love matters to our last day, to our last breath from child to parent, from parent to child. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Feast of the Holy Family. Please feel free to share with…
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The Jewish people were in the desert for 40 years. So they lived in tents. Pitching your tent was a common phrase and the idea that Jesus pitched his tent with us was the way that he became vulnerable alongside us as a human being. That he was all in, if you would, with humanity. And then the question we have is why is that so important? Why did Go…
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The first reading tonight was dramatic, deliberately dramatic to get our attention to ensure that we are called to be the light of Christ. The ultimate message of Christmas is that we will be judged, not on how well we have lived, but on how well we have loved. This Christmas, let us love well and let us let our light shine for all to see. (Read mo…
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Awe is an under spoken response to life because we know that which is beautiful but it is often a projection of what we want, what we desire, what we like. But awe is something we do not expect. For example, when we even just think about the idea that no two snowflakes are the same, no two snowflakes are the same. Just even thinking about that is a…
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The advent season is all about seeing with eyes of faith, to see deeper and to see and to recognize the Christ who is among us. The temptation is to allow our eyes of our faith to get dirty. They get dirty with busyness and tiredness and the hustle and the bustle of the season. It is very easy just to get carried away with it all and lose the reaso…
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