Homilies

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent, March 15th, 2026

Considering the last blistering words coming straight from Jesus’ mouth today, we might want to take a second look at our spiritual condition, perhaps decades, ages, after we received the light of Christ at our Baptism.   I am referring of course to these words: “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see’, so your sin remains.”  Since Christ, as we so readily claim, is present at our assembly, these searing words are directed also at us.  We

Homilies

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, March 8th, 2026

The details of the narrative about the Samaritan woman are designed to bring us comfort and reassurance as we try to live out our Christian calling during Lent and throughout the year. (Jn 4:5-15,19b-26,39a,40-42)  Even those among us who rely ever more heavily on technology and on scientific progress are painfully aware of how fragile and insignificant we truly are.   Even as we benefit from the advancements of science and medicine, we keep experiencing, deep inside our heart,&nb

Homilies

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, March 1st, 2026

Today, the very fact that we are called upon to reflect on the familiar page of the Gospel describing the Transfiguration, should prompt us to reflect on OUR Transfiguration as the Body of Christ meant to glow with majestic brightness and glory.  We should turn very sad if we realize that our spiritual journey stalled or reversed its course due to a crucial oversight: that the only reality in which all believers are called to live is the Mystical Body of Christ.   Accordingly, whenever we hear or rea

Homilies

Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent, February 22nd, 2026

We need to start our reflection on temptations with some solid good news: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15  The gospel passage of every first Sunday of Lent describes how Jesus was tested by Satan at the beginning of his public ministry. However, Satan continued to put Jesus to the test throughout his public ministry and up to his weakest point as he was dying on the

Homilies

Homily for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 15th, 2026

In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus speaks at length to us with examples that are plain, ordinary, familiar and, therefore, too direct and too personal to be easily dismissed. (Matthew 5: 17-37)  As he teaches about the action of the Holy Spirit in minds and hearts that are receptive, we begin to regret the opportunities we missed to be transformed by his divine teachings.  “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Mat. 5:17.  The Spirit of l

Homilies

Homily for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 8th, 2026

On the feast of the Presentation of the Lord Jesus in the Temple, (February 2) we reflected upon our lofty call to be the light of the world; a light which is expected to shine amid the darkness all around it.  Today, we reflect also on the other lofty call: the call to be the salt of the earth, giving flavor to this world of ours.  Be sure of this, either we give taste and meaning to the world around us or we, too, become flat, aloof, thus, part of the

Homilies

Homily for the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 1st, 2026

But I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD. Zephaniah 3:12  Are we humble and lowly? Do we take refuge in the name of the Lord or not?  To answer these two questions, I like to share with you what Pope Benedict XVI teaches us in his book on Jesus of Nazareth about the Beatitudes.  For Pope Benedict XVI, the Beatitudes are a high-definition photograph of Jesus’ hea

Homilies

Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 25th, 2026

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. (Matthew 4:16)  When will this miracle of light happen again and illumine our world?   We need it NOW!  Darkness is spreading everywhere. We knew that we could not trust politicians and preowned-cars salesmen. But now whom can we trust, so that we go on living?   Since our life and our mental sanity depend on the answer we give, let us take all the time we ne

Homilies

Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 18th, 2026

Biblical scholars tell us that for Orientals, eyewitnesses had to report much more than simply what they saw about an event or a person.  They were expected not to be objective (the way we westerners are required to be) but rather partial to, and report also how they felt about someone and how that person affected their life.   All three readings offer us images of genuinely oriental, passionate witnessing a

Homilies

Homily for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, January 11th, 2026

When I was a kid, I thought that nuns, priests, bishops and, naturally, the pope, were sinless. They did not need to go to confession.  Of course, now, as a priest ordained 53 years ago, I can assure you that we are as beset by miseries and sins as you are. We priests are not an elitist group when it comes to slavery to sin and all the devastation that even minor sins create.  There is, indeed, “sin solidarity.” We can pick the holiest person we can find and state with certainty: “there goes a sinner.” And b