Homilies

Sometimes we imagine that we can separate ourselves from others without any consequence to ourselves. But the gospel understands that when we choose to build walls, they are just as likely to hurt us as to protect us.

What is an unclean spirit doing in a synagogue? We can certainly presume that he did not come to listen to Jesus’ teaching!

My prayer for all of us is that we would celebrate this Christmas not as tourists but as pilgrims. And what is a pilgrim? There are two possible definitions, and both of them apply.

The movement by which we open ourselves to love is the same movement by which we open ourselves to pain. You can’t have one without the other. Both thrive in family.

We must take God’s affirmation in. We are always inclined to look at the negative parts of our life. But there is no power in our failures.

Unless we are growing, we are slipping back. We are either coming closer or falling away from God.

The great commandment according to Jesus is the triple commandment of love: to embrace God’s love for us, so that we can come to an adequate love of self, so that we can extend that love to others.

Once we believe in God, we realize that all we have is not our own. Everything has been entrusted to us to be used for God’s purposes.

The truth which underlies the Parable of the Workers is that life is unfair. There is no way to insure that each person receives what they deserve.

Ronald Rolheiser has suggested around the age of 40 the lines of most people’s faces are set. From that age onward, every face betrays a certain character, a certain personality, and a certain kind of beauty.