Word on Fire

“Word on Fire” is a program of Catholic evangelical preaching. It is evangelical in the measure that it proclaims Jesus Christ boldly in the hopes of bringing men and women to conversion and new life in Him. It is Catholic inasmuch as it utilizes the tremendous resources of the Roman Catholic tradition – art, architecture, poetry, philosophy, theology, and the lives of the saints – in order to explain and interpret the event of Jesus Christ. It is my hope that this radio outreach can draw people into the body of Christ, which is the Church, and thereby give them access to all the gifts that Jesus wants his people to enjoy. Please right click on the links below and select "save target as" to download the homilies to your computer. -Fr. Robert Barron

Subscribe to this feed using this address: www.archchicago.org/radioshows/programs/wof/podcast.asp

Sermon 576: The Spritual Drama of Jonah: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

A divine calling, whether the meaning is revealed in this life or the next, always requires our biblical heroes to do more than they feel they are capable. But all of us must answer, regardless of the call. Jonah provides a very "human" example of how difficult the work may be, and how the result might not be what we anticipate, but that it is always worthwhile and reflects God's will that we enact the purpose that brings our life to its proper fulfillment.

Aired: 1/22/2012   Download Show

Sermon 575: Staying With the Lord: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

When we witness something beautiful, something important, we desire to share it with others, just as St. John did when he said to his disciples, "Behold the Lamb of God—and just as those disciples did when they spread the good news of the Messiah. We quest to know God, to follow God, but more important is God's quest for us and our willingness to heed his call.

Aired: 1/15/2012   Download Show

Sermon 574: Herod and the Magi: Feast of the Epiphany

Herod sees all from the confines of his ego, trying to make the world conform to his plans. The Magi look outside of themselves, looking for an order that they will conform to. By focusing their attention away from themselves, they are spiritually liberated to follow the star of Bethlehem. This is the liberation that Christ grants us. He allows us to escape the jail cell of our egos to join the liberating current of his love, leading us closer to eternal life.

Aired: 1/8/2012   Download Show

Sermon 573: The Face of the Living God: Mary, Mother of God

Looking into the face of another is a very intimate experience. It evokes many strong feelings: shame, liberation, joy, etc. Like Adam and Eve, we typically hide from the face of God fearing his anger. But Jesus, the Face of God, first appears as a baby. A baby’s face is a non-threatening face. It is the peaceful face of God.

Aired: 1/1/2012   Download Show

Sermon 572: In The Beginning Was the Word: Christmas

The Prologue of the Gospel of John sums up the whole of the Christian message. It tells the story of a re-creation through the Word made flesh. All will be restored to union with the Godhead. This is the good news Christians continue to proclaim.

Aired: 12/25/2011   Download Show

Sermon 571: Adam, David, and Jesus: Three Kings: Fourth Sunday of Advent

Adam had a kingly mission. However, he became a bad king. David was meant to restore kingship to its proper form. However, he failed too. But Christ, the Lord, is the King who sets everything aright and restores creation. His kingdom rivals all others.

Aired: 12/18/2011   Download Show

Sermon 570: A Not Very Cozy Advent: The True King is Coming: Third Sunday of Advent

Christ proclaims himself as the King of everything. This is a bold claim for it puts everything under him. However, he is a very different King than what we typically expect. So with the arrival of this King, we must change all our expectations.

Aired: 12/11/2011   Download Show

Sermon 569: Second Sunday of Advent : Prepare the Way of the Lord

The theme of preparing a highway for the Lord emerges from the time of the exile. When the Babylonian captivity was coming to a close, the prophet Isaiah envisioned God making a highway in the desert to facilitate the return of his people to Jerusalem. From what captivity of ours is God leading us this Advent?

Aired: 12/4/2011   Download Show

Sermon 568 : First Sunday of Advent : The Potter and the Clay

Our first reading for this first Sunday of Advent gives us the master image of God as the potter and we, his creatures, as clay. St. Irenaeus said that God's provident direction of our lives is easy as long as the clay of our hearts remains supple and moist. Trouble comes only when we allow the clay to harden.

Aired: 11/27/2011   Download Show

Sermon 567: 34th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Language Fit for a King

Fr. Barron comments on the new Roman Missal. This new translation is more fit for the celebration of the liturgy because it helps us address Christ in language befitting a King.

Aired: 11/20/2011   Download Show

Sermon 566: 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time: The Great Spiritual Law

The great spiritual law is the law of the gift. Although counter-intuitive, it is the way of the Spirit. Giving your life away for love increases life within you. You partake in the flow of the divine life. Hence, happiness is found in loving acts.

Aired: 11/13/2011   Download Show

Sermon 565: 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: The Wise and the Foolish Virgins

How do we wait? That is the question addressed by Jesus' parable for today. While we wait for the second coming of the Lord, we should keep our lamps stocked with oil, that is to say, we should pray, study, love, do the works of mercy, and keep vigil. In so doing, we are ready for the arrival of the Bridegroom.

Aired: 11/6/2011   Download Show

Sermon 564: 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time: Darkness and Light

The reading from the Book of the Prophet Malachi is an address to all priests, especially when they go bad. What causes this corruption? When they stop giving glory to God. God places a curse on wicked priests. We see this happen throughout Church history, especially today. But the only remedy to this is walking in the ways of Christ and allowing God to make you into a gift for all peoples.

Aired: 10/30/2011   Download Show

Sermon 563: 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Three Tasks of the Church

Christ calls us to worship the Father, teach and evangelize in his name, and serve and care for him in the poor. The Church is the Body through, in and with which we do these things. But the meaning of this all is placing God at the center of our lives.

Aired: 10/23/2011   Download Show

Sermon 562: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Ceaser and God

Jesus places everything in its proper relationship to God. But he also chastises those who are involved in power games. God is ultimately in charge and rules over even Caesar.

Aired: 10/16/2011   Download Show

Sermon 561: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Wedding Feast

Jesus tells the story of a King who is inviting people to the wedding banquet for his Son. Some ignore it. Some actively kill the messengers. But this does not deter the King from inviting all to the banquet. Listen to the invitation of the Lord and actively respond to it. That is a decision you will not regret.

Aired: 10/9/2011   Download Show

Sermon 560: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Parable of the Tenants

The parable of the tenants is an allegory that presents the relationship of Israel to Christ, but more than this it reveals a necessary truth about the spiritual life: that we are "tenants" in regards to the gifts that God has given us, and when we construe our relationship to God's gifts as being that of "owners", rather than "tenants", the consequences can be quite dire.

Aired: 10/2/2011   Download Show

Sermon 559: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: To Let Go Rather Than To Grasp

The magnificent hymn in the Letter to the Philippians reveals that at the heart of the Gospel is the mystery that the Lord Jesus did not grasp or cling to the prerogatives that properly belonged to him as God, but emptied his divine glory into our humanity so that we might share in his divine life.

Aired: 9/25/2011   Download Show

Sermon 558: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Seeing the World from God's Perspective

Sometimes Christ does not seem fair. The Parable of the Day Laborers evokes this sense of injustice. Those who do not work as long and hard as the others get the same reward. However, Christ wants us to move beyond our sense of justice and see all according to love, God's perspective. Gratitude for the gift transforms our natural disposition to judge who deserves what into a disposition of thanksgiving.

Aired: 9/18/2011   Download Show

Sermon 557: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Anger and Forgiveness

While we are justified in our anger at perpetrators of 9/11, we must ultimately move to a stance of forgiveness. Christians must always remember Christ's command to forgive always. Forgiveness is the act by which you bring the other into the matrix of love. It is very difficult but necessary. Hopefully we can do this for those who committed the grievous crimes of 9/11.

Aired: 9/11/2011   Download Show

Sermon 556: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: If Your Brother Sins Against You…

Catholics are always called to confront sin, even the sins of those closest to them. But they should never spread gossip about other's sins. Rather, they should go directly to the person who is sinning and try to get them on the right path. The Catholic way of handling problems is by always doing as much to directly fix the problem instead of announcing the problem to the world before fixing it.

Aired: 9/4/2011   Download Show

Sermon 555: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: "But For Wales…"

All must be aware of the possibility of losing one's soul in pursuit of gaining the world. One will inevitably face opposition from the world. Will you give in? Christ's demand of love is difficult and many do not want to follow it because it entails suffering. But in order to follow Christ you must consciously and purposely walk the path of suffering love.

Aired: 8/28/2011   Download Show

Sermon 554: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Gates of Hell

In the eyes of the world, the Christian way of being is strange. All Christians are called out of the world and into a new way: Christ's way. Christians must be very clear about how they are different from the world and confidently proclaim it. They must stop trying to fit into the ways of the world and rather tell the world to conform to Christ. Christ will break down the Gates of Hell and invade all that resist his Love.

Aired: 8/21/2011   Download Show

Sermon 553: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Strength Through Resistance

Discipleship is not easy. It takes focus, a strong will, and the willingness to undergo training. Christ is the spiritual master and we must be ready to die to self in order to apprentice to him.

Aired: 8/14/2011   Download Show

Sermon 552: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Elijah and Peter

Elijah is a contemplative who has the eyes to see and the ears to listen. God does not appear in the glory of the world. Rather, he appears in a silent way. Weed out of your heart all of those fears and desires that prevent you from discerning the silent presence of God.

Aired: 8/7/2011   Download Show

Sermon 551: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Grace

Our readings for this weekend are filled with grace, the free gift that God is. Our relationship with God gets off on the wrong foot the moment we see it in an "economic" or calculating way. God, who needs nothing from us, simply wants to share his life with us. And this is why he says, through the prophet Isaiah, "All you who are thirsty, come to the water!"

Aired: 7/31/2011   Download Show

Sermon 550: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: What Do You Want?

God says to Solomon in our first reading, "Ask for anything, and I will give it to you." What would you say if you heard that invitation? Solomon asks for wisdom and not for wealth or power or victory. Find out why that answer is so pleasing to God

Aired: 7/24/2011   Download Show

Sermon 549: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Three Parables; Three Spiritual Lessons.

Jesus' parables in today's Gospel tell us how and why the Kingdom of God emerges. It does so often through struggle, quietly and clandestinely, and through infiltration rather than direct confrontation

Aired: 7/17/2011   Download Show

Sermon 548: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Prodigal Sower

God sows his Word into each of our hearts liberally. He does not solely give his grace to those he knows will bear fruit. He sows the Word in everyone, but it doesn¹t flourish for each person due to circumstances (secularism, anxiety, the allurement of the world), but strive to counter that by letting the Word open you to the implications of his Lordship. God is always giving himself to you, listen and act.

Aired: 7/10/2011   Download Show

Sermon 547: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Little Ones

The purpose of Jesus¹ teachings is that we allow the divine life to surge through us so that we become transformed in Christ, making us more like Him. All our knowledge should serve this end. However, some learned people can use their knowledge to puff up their egos and put others down. The ³Little Ones² are the people whose entire life is about helping others participate in the divine life so they may fully flourish.

Aired: 7/3/2011   Download Show

Sermon 546: Feast of Corpus Christi: Bread in the Desert

All of us are on a spiritual journey from sin to salvation. Like the Israelites longing for a return to Egypt, many of us occasionally desire our old addictions, providing the anxious ego with comfort and security. Far from Egypt, the Promised Land is the spiritual space of complete dependence upon God. But the Israelites are not there yet. They need to eat the manna from heaven. For Catholics, this is the Eucharist. It is the means to getting God¹s divine life within us.

Aired: 6/26/2011   Download Show

Sermon 545: Trinity Sunday: The God Who is Love

God is Trinity. He is fundamentally a relationship: a lover, a beloved and the love between them. In other words, God is a complete openness and receptivity to the other. He is love. Now, we believe we are made in the image of God. Thus, we become fully alive to the degree that we imitate God.

Aired: 6/19/2011   Download Show

Sermon 544: Pentecost: Drink of the Holy Spirit

Everyone thirsts for the divine life. No one is content without it, even proclaimed secularists. Christ has come to give us that life and he calls us to seek it in him. Although no one will be fully satisfied in this life, the more we partake in the person of Christ, the more we will be fulfilled.

Aired: 6/12/2011   Download Show

Sermon 543: Ascension: The Meeting of Heaven and Earth

The mysterious and wonderful feast of the Ascension of the Lord which celebrates Christ glorified "at the right hand of the Father". The key to unlocking the marvels of this event is to recover a specifically Biblical understanding of the relationship of heaven and earth.

Aired: 6/5/2011   Download Show

Sermon 542: 6th Sunday of Easter: The Spirit of Power and Truth

The Scriptures for this Sunday offer some glimpse of the Holy Spirit in advance of the great feast of Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit is the heavenly grace that enlivens the Church in all aspects of its mission.

Aired: 5/29/2011   Download Show

Sermon 541: 5th Sunday of Easter: The Co-Inherence of the Mystical Body

No man is an island. One of the messages of the Gospel is that all reality is interconnected. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. How organic the Bible is! This view of reality is the exact opposite of the American individualism that currently pervades our culture.

Aired: 5/22/2011   Download Show

Sermon 540: 4th Sunday of Easter: The Shepherd's Voice

God speaks to us in many ways, especially though the conscience. Since God is a Person, his voice will reach our consciences and lure us to conform our lives to the life of his Son, Jesus Christ. In addition to listening to Christ thought the scriptures, through the teachings of the Church, through the lives of the saints, and through the liturgy, listen to Him speaking to your conscience. He will set you free.

Aired: 5/15/2011   Download Show

Sermon 539: 3rd Sunday of Easter: The Road to Emmaus

Like the two disciples walking towards Emmaus, a symbol of worldly power and security, and away from Jerusalem, the center of sacrifice, we need to be stopped in our tracks. Christ appears to them, but they do not recognize him. They do not recognize him because they are walking the wrong way. The recognition of the pattern of Christ’s life does come until the Eucharistic act which presents the pattern of sacrificial love. Then they immediately go back to Jerusalem, the place of suffering love.

Aired: 5/8/2011   Download Show

Sermon 538: 2nd Sunday of Easter: The Risen Christ in the Midst of His Church

Jesus has come to bring us the divine life. Under his influence we become peaceful, unafraid, evangelizing, and forgiving. Through the Church, saints are made. This is because Christ is at the very center of the Church.

Aired: 5/1/2011   Download Show

Sermon 537: Easter Sunday: He Is Risen!

Our first reading for this Easter day is Peter's great kerygmatic speech on Pentecost morning. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter addresses the Jerusalem crowd, telling them the impossibly good news that Jesus of Nazareth, a man who moved through their ordinary towns and villages, has been raised from the dead. The Easter faith of the Church is not an abstraction, not a vague claim about God's fidelity or our hope for immortality. Rather, it is the startling assertion that God has brought this man Jesus back from the dead. May we bask in the glow of this still surprising revelation.

Aired: 4/24/2011   Download Show

Sermon 536: Palm Sunday: The Passion of the Christ

Matthew shows us that, as Jesus resolutely does his Father's will, myriad forms of human dysfunction--betrayal, sloth, stupidity, violence, scapegoating, corruption--break out around him. This is the salvation story: God's compassionate embrace of sinners.

Aired: 4/17/2011   Download Show

Sermon 535: Fifth Sunday in Lent: Lazarus and the Power of Death

Death is not a condition God desires for us . Rather, God wants us to have life. However, death is a reality; but it is not the final word. Christ is the final Word - namely, the life-giving Word. Christ brings Lazarus back to life. He desires to do the same for us.

Aired: 4/10/2011   Download Show

Sermon 534: Fourth Sunday in Lent: Coming to Spiritual Vision

The healing of a man blind from birth is an archetypal story of coming to spiritual vision. Sin prevents us from seeing clearly. Christ is the light and he wants us to walk in his light. But we resist. Fortunately, if we stop resisting, Christ will enable us, like Adam in Eden, to walk in easy fellowship with God.

Aired: 4/3/2011   Download Show

Sermon 533: Third Sunday in Lent: One Who Is Greater Than Our Father, Jacob

The story of Christ's encounter with the Samaritan woman is a kind of template by which we can understand our own encounter with the Lord.

Aired: 3/27/2011   Download Show

Sermon 532: Second Sunday in Lent: Christ's Metamorphosis

The story of the Transfiguration has beguiled artists, poets, spiritual masters and the faithful for centuries. The meaning of this extraordinary revelation is in the haunting details that the Gospel presents.

Aired: 3/20/2011   Download Show

Sermon 531: First Sunday in Lent: The Lord your God Shall You Worship and Him Alone Shall You Serve

The source of our greatest suffering is the deification of the will. We make ourselves God. However, once this move is made everyone else, in a self-defensive stance, tries to be God. The product of all of this is isolation, self-consciousness and self-protectiveness. Do not put up walls of self-protection, but become servants of the will of God.

Aired: 3/13/2011   Download Show

Sermon 530: Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Building on Rock

Christ does not desire merely admirers of his word; he wants practitioners of his word. If we do not practice his teachings we will be like those who build their houses on sand. In order to build your house (self) on rock, act upon love. Your life will not flourish if it is not grounded in love.

Aired: 3/6/2011   Download Show

Sermon 529: Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Seek Ye First

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the rest will be given to you.” Make God the center of your life, and you will be spiritually ordered in Christ’s image. If you make wealth and security your center, you will be empty. You make the choice: will God be your center?

Aired: 2/27/2011   Download Show

Sermon 528: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: Be Perfect

Jesus calls us to love. But few consider the radical nature of this calling. It entails loving the other, even our enemies, regardless of the response of the one who is loved. If you fail, and you often will, turn to God for the grace to live out this strange way of Christ.

Aired: 2/20/2011   Download Show

Sermon 527: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Preaching the Radical Word

Like a good healer, Jesus has not come simply to behaviorally modify us; he has come to heal us at the root of our being, eradicating all dysfunction from our most basic core.

Aired: 2/13/2011   Download Show

Sermon 526: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Salt and Light

Christ's apt use of the metaphors of salt and light as images of the spiritual life help us to appropriate and understand the expectations of discipleship.

Aired: 2/6/2011   Download Show

Sermon 525: Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Blessed Are We…

The Beatitudes reveal the true path of joy is found not in grasping at power but in the willing surrender to God's mysterious grace.

Aired: 1/30/2011   Download Show

Sermon 524: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: Following the Lord

All of us want to live to the fullest. However, most of us never find the one thing that will inspire us to dedicate our whole lives to it. It is amazing to hear of how the first people who responded to Christ dedicated their whole lives to him. Their encounter with Christ sent them on a path they never dreamed of. Paradoxically, this path was marked by great joy and suffering; but, nevertheless, they lived life to the fullest.

Aired: 1/23/2011   Download Show

Sermon 523: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Paul's Opening Words to the Corinthians

In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he highlights the beauty of baptism and how it sweeps the baptized person into God's great theo-drama. God calls us out of the world of our narrow egos to partake in his redeeming plan of love of which the Church is the vehicle. Follow Christ, and peace will be given to you.

Aired: 1/16/2011   Download Show

Sermon 522: Baptism of the Lord: Priest, Prophet and King

All the baptized participate in Christ. Since Christ is the fulfillment of the priest, prophet, and king that means that all the baptized are those as well. Although this statement may seem odd since we do not naturally think of ourselves this way, we must become more conscious of what it means to be grafted onto Christ. Our baptism grafts us onto the Body of Christ, making us all share in His Person. If his Person is priest, prophet, and king, then so are we.

Aired: 1/9/2011   Download Show

Sermon 521: Feast of the Epiphany: Herod and the Magi

Herod sees all from the confines of his ego, trying to make the world conform to his plans. The Magi look outside of themselves, looking for an order that they will conform to. By focusing their attention away from themselves, they are spiritually liberated to follow the star of Bethlehem. This is the liberation that Christ grants us. He allows us to escape the jail cell of our egos to join the liberating current of his love, leading us closer to eternal life.

Aired: 1/2/2011   Download Show

Sermon 520: Feast of the Holy Family: Herod and Joseph

It seems as if those in worldly power rule the day. King Herod tyrannically ruled his territory, making sure he was always the most powerful. Any apparent threat to his power was quickly squashed. Herod represents all who assert themselves over and against others. He seeks the death of the other. Joseph represents those who support the other and do not see Him as a threat. By basing themselves in God, other people are not threats but brothers and sisters. Christianity will always be foolish to those who aspire to power.

Aired: 12/26/2010   Download Show

Sermon 519: Fourth Sunday in Advent: Ahaz, Isaiah, and Joseph: Dreaming Big

The problem with our world is that most people do not dream big. In experiencing hardship, we have a tendency to assume the worst, thinking narrowly. The Biblical vision is the opposite of this. Biblical figures see the world through the infinite possibility of God - based in their faith in the Lord. Ahaz refused to be surprised by God's possibility. Isaiah was ready to be surprised. This confidence in God allowed him to dream big.

Aired: 12/19/2010   Download Show

Sermon 518: Third Sunday in Advent: The Virtue of Hope

Hope is not this-worldly optimism. In fact, from a purely natural perspective, pessimism is the right attitude. Hope is that supernatural virtue which orders our desire toward heaven and the things of heaven. What Isaiah talks about in our first reading is not an expectation that will be realized here below, but only in a transfigured world on high.

Aired: 12/12/2010   Download Show

Sermon 517: Second Sunday in Advent: The Bracing Figure of John the Baptist

The first step in the spiritual life is simple: you must see your life not as your own project but as a vehicle for God's purposes. However, we are all absorbed in our own lives, forgetting that the road to God is one of self-forgetfulness. This disposition helps us to focus on Christ and his mission. But in order for us to do this we must be cleansed of all attachments and baptized in the fiery love of God.

Aired: 12/5/2010   Download Show

Sermon 516: First Sunday in Advent: God's Holy Mountain

Thomas Merton once wrote, "Man is not at peace with his fellow man because he is not at peace with himself. And he is not at peace with himself because he is not at peace with God." Only when we are in communion with God will we be in communion with ourselves and our fellowman. This simple formula summarizes Israel's mission of gathering all peoples in right praise to God on Mt. Zion. Although the world is divided in countless ways, Israel's gathering mission is realistic because Christ, the Messiah, is Lord, and all things will be gathered in himself. For this we wait in joyful hope.

Aired: 11/28/2010   Download Show

Sermon 515: Solemnity: Christ The King

Our first reading for Mass this Sunday is taken from the opening chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians. There is no stronger statement of the absolute primacy, centrality, and importance of Jesus Christ in the entire New Testament. Jesus, Paul tells us, is the beginning and the end, the icon of the invisible God, the one in whom all things exist and for whom they are destined. And then the Gospel shows us this cosmic King nailed to the cross. This wonderful irony is at the heart of the Christian proclamation: the King of the Universe is a crucified criminal, who utterly spends himself in love.

Aired: 11/21/2010   Download Show

Sermon 514: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: What Remains?

All things pass away. Political and religious institutions, the family, bodily health; nothing lasts. Everything dies. So often we seek our fulfillment and salvation in these things. But Christ is telling us not to. He is telling us to seek the one thing that will last: Himself. So long as we cling to Him will our lives be secure. He is the rock of our salvation.

Aired: 11/14/2010   Download Show

Sermon 513: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Eternal Life

Today's Gospel reading tells us about the Sadducees trying to lead Jesus into a ridiculous conclusion. To them the Jewish teaching on marriage seems irrational. However, Jesus shows us that not everything that appears cloudy to our intellect is sub-rational. Rather, some times it may be supra-rational - beyond the finite intellect - making it rational, but the rationality of another dimension. The claims of Faith may not be comprehensible to our intellects now, but we believe that they will once we are in his eternal presence.

Aired: 11/7/2010   Download Show

Sermon 512: 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time: Salvation Has Come to this House

Zacchaeus is a man who has wandered far from God. But, often enough, people like Zacchaeus come back, again and again, to God because they cannot eliminate their hunger for Him. Once they open themselves to Christ he places himself in the most intimate parts of themselves, living there. Christ does not enter just a fragment of your life; he enters the whole thing! This is salvation. Let Christ shake and transform you.

Aired: 10/31/2010   Download Show

Sermon 511: Finding Justification: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Religion serves a unitive purpose. In uniting the person to God, religion unites people together. However, many religious people forget religion's purpose. They like to puff up their egos, reveling in their ability to live according to the Law. Seeing themselves as better than the rest, they forget that grace only comes to those who realize they are sinners. The tax collector, realizing he is a sinful man, does not focus on himself, but focuses his gaze and hunger on God - the source of salvation. Justification comes to those who do likewise.

Aired: 10/24/2010   Download Show

Sermon 510: Moses and Amalek: An Icon of the Church: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The church militant is the church at war with all the destructive powers that want to undermine its unity. The Israelites battle the people of Amalek, a battle that symbolizes the spiritual warfare that each of us, as members of the church, personally undergoes. There is no escaping this reality, and so we must fight. But our fighting is unusual: we fight with peacemaking, forgiveness, education, etc. Our fighting is only sustained through prayer and the prayers of others. Please pray that the Church is strengthened in its fight against evil in the world.

Aired: 10/17/2010   Download Show

Sermon 509: Naaman the Syrian: From Pride to Praise: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

From the worldly perspective, the worst thing a powerful person can do is admit his/her weaknesses to others. If done so, the person loses his/her position of power. Naaman the Syrian, a man of power, is an example of humility. He does not let embarrassment stand in the way of admitting to his weakness. By doing so, he is healed and offers right praise to God. Like Naaman, admitting one's weaknesses is the first step to proper worship.

Aired: 10/10/2010   Download Show

Sermon 508: 27th Sunday in OT: The Lament of Habbakuk

The prophet Habbakuk expresses what most of us feel at some point in our lives: how can God be so indifferent to suffering? Listen carefully to the answer he receives from the Lord

Aired: 10/3/2010   Download Show

Sermon 507: 26th Week in OT: Rich Man, Poor Man

Most of us find the homeless to be unnerving and annoying, telling ourselves not to give them money because they might use it for drinks or drugs. But think of the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and did they have different fates! Lazarus was carried to Abraham's bosom and the rich man to the nether world, where he was tormented. The torment for the rich man began by locking himself in his narrow ego, going against his calling to give. As Catholic social teaching remind us, we cannot remain indifferent to the poor. They must always be taken into consideration or else we go to hell.

Aired: 9/26/2010   Download Show

Sermon 506: 25th week in OT: A Warning Bell in the Night

Most of us spur into action when we believe that our financial state is in dire straits. Why don't we act in the same way in regards to our spiritual state? Today people need the same spiritual concern that people had in the past. They need to want to establish a relationship with God, that which is of paramount importance. So wake up, and place God at the center of your life!

Aired: 9/19/2010   Download Show

Sermon 505: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Logic of Justice, The Logic of Grace

The God Jesus describes does not operate according to the same logic we do. In fact, He seems to be crazy. If God is supposed to be like the Shepard who abandons the ninety-nine to find the lost one and the woman who diligently searches her whole house for a penny, then he must be crazy. But that is not so. God operates according to the logic of grace, defying our logic of justice. Being a Christian is learning how to operate according to God’s logic.

Aired: 9/12/2010   Download Show

Sermon 504: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Cost of Discipleship

Let’s move beyond playing with religion and take up the tough work of following Christ. He desires disciples who are completely devoted to God’s kingdom. This entails living in the way of non-violence, forgiveness, self-gift, and other-orientation. This way is counter to the way of the world and will be met with resistance. Are you ready to walk this way?

Aired: 9/5/2010   Download Show

Sermon 503: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Hopeful Vision of the Mass

The Letter to the Hebrews is a sustained reflection on the Mass as the source and summit of the Christian life and the pivot around which history turns. Writing from a developed understanding the Temple, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews shows how Christ's sacrifice on the Cross is the sacrifice that has and will restore the communion between God and creation. As a re-presentation of this act, the Mass makes present to us our final destiny: communion with God through Christ.

Aired: 8/29/2010   Download Show

Sermon 502: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Narrow Gate

To gain eternal life is to participate to the fullest degree possible in the very life of God. It is to walk the path of love, surrendering to grace and allowing this grace to flow through you to the wider world. Is this an easy task? No. The Gospel of Luke tells reminds us that the gate is narrow precisely because it is in the very shape of Jesus Himself, and entrance through the gate involves conformity to his state of being. The path of love is traveled by taking up one's cross every day.

Aired: 8/22/2010   Download Show

Sermon 501: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mary The Warrior

In contrast to our conventional view of the Virgin Mary as a shrinking violet, the book of Revelation presents her as a warrior who has brought into the world a new way of dealing with worldly power: Christ (i.e. Love itself). If we do not approach the world as a battlefield between love and violence, we will become spiritually blind. But the Virgin Mary, as warrior, helps us see this reality while assuring us that her Son has already conquered.

Aired: 8/15/2010   Download Show

Sermon 500: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Giving and Receiving

In the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Christ assures us not to be afraid. Fear is a spiritual state that causes us not to trust in the lordship of God and to play master of our lives. However, with the awareness that God has given all to us, we'll realize that we are basically a gift. Gifts are meant to be given, so confidently give yourself away. Do not fear that you will become nothing by giving yourself away for by doing this the divine life fills you anew.

Aired: 8/8/2010   Download Show

Sermon 499: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: To Have and To Be

Maturity comes in facing the reality of death and the transient nature of the world. In this regard, the Book of Ecclesiastes is full of wisdom: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Everyone who thinks they are going to find their happiness in possessing the goods of the world will eventually have to face the truth that they will not. All passes away. Therefore, spend your time building a good spiritual disposition for you never know when your life will be demanded of you. My advice: devote yourself to love.

Aired: 8/1/2010   Download Show

Sermon 498: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Jesus' Kingdom Prayer

How central is the Lord’s Prayer to Christianity! Basically this prayer is about ordering ourselves to God and letting his way of being order all levels of our lives. But we must not think that we will easily orientate ourselves to God. There are powerful forces that resist this, and we must not be naïve about them. The Lord’s Prayer is the itinerary for our spiritual journey.

Aired: 7/25/2010   Download Show

Sermon 497: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Martha, Mary and the Attitude of Discipleship

Although the little story of Martha and Mary has been interpreted throughout the centuries as a parable dealing with the “active” and “contemplative” approach to the spiritual life, it can be read as Christ’s invitation to all people to partake in his inner circle of discipleship. Christ overturned the social conventions of his time by summoning all people to discipleship. Thus, we must remove all barriers to discipleship for all people.

Aired: 7/18/2010   Download Show

Sermon 496: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Hearing the Voice of God

During the 20th century moral relativism was in vogue in elite cultural circles, but now it is the dominant moral outlook of the broader culture. Against this, C.S. Lewis argued for “the universality and inescapability of the moral law.” Although there are subtle moral differences between cultures, if we look close enough, we can discern fundamental moral agreements. The Catholic tradition says that this moral bedrock is a reflection of the Eternal Law in the mind of God. It is the voice of God within us. Listen to that voice.

Aired: 7/11/2010   Download Show

Sermon 495: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Being American, Being Catholic

We Americans embrace freedom. However, a proper understanding of freedom must inform our celebration of it. In both classical philosophy and the Bible, "freedom is not so much individual choice as the disciplining of desire so as to make the achievement of the good, first possible, then effortless." This freedom may seem confining, but it is actually liberating for it aligns oneself to the truth. In Christ, by whom we are created equal in dignity, we become free. As Catholics, we can embrace America's protection of equal rights, but we must be critical of modern interpretations of freedom

Aired: 7/4/2010   Download Show

Sermon 494: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Elisha and the Nature of True Freedom

Freedom is not self-determination, but finding and doing what God wants you to do. Biblical figures did not choose their God-given role; God chose it for them. Thus, in order for us to fulfill our mission perfectly we have to get rid of all obstacles to freely following Christ. This means that we have to get rid of all that prevents us from perfectly loving God, neighbor, and self.

Aired: 6/27/2010   Download Show

Sermon 493: 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Christ's Identity and Mission

Today's Gospel presents Luke's version of the famous conversation that the Lord Jesus had with his disciples concerning his identity and mission. Authentic acceptance of Christ's identity and mission engenders in us a willingness to accept in our own lives the necessity and saving power of the cross.

Aired: 6/20/2010   Download Show

Sermon 492: 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Sin And Grace

The Gospel present two tales of sin and grace, Christ's encounter with a repentant woman and the parable of the two debtors. Both illuminate for us not only the necessity of personal conversion, but our willingness to forgive those who have sinned.

Aired: 6/13/2010   Download Show

Sermon 491: Corpus Christi

The Church comes from the Eucharist for it is the sacrifice that makes saints. The Eucharist is essentially the fullest act of gratitude prefigured in Melchizedek finding its fulfillment in the sacrifice of Christ. Every Mass is a participation in and celebration of this sacrifice, but the feast of Corpus Christi is a time to be especially aware of the gift of the Eucharist.

Aired: 6/6/2010   Download Show

Sermon 490: Trinity Sunday

Karl Barth said, "The central claim of Christianity is that God has spoken." The uniqueness of this claim has lead Christians to refer to God as a Trinity. The Trinity denotes God as speaker (i.e. Father), the Word spoken (i.e. Christ) and the interpreter of the Word (i.e. Holy Spirit). As many of us know, it is always better to have the author interpret his word for you when reading his works. Similarly, this is how the Church understands the Holy Spirit in helping her understand God's Word

Aired: 5/30/2010   Download Show

Sermon 487: 6th Sunday of Easter: The Guidance of the Hly Spirit

The first reading for this Sunday, taken from the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, is about the Council of Jerusalem that allowed Gentiles into the Church. This Council, like all councils, is full of disputes. But it must never be forgotten that the Holy Spirit is guiding and directing the Church.

Aired: 5/9/2010   Download Show

Sermon 486: 5th Sunday of Easter: A New Heaven and a New Earth

The second reading for this Sunday, taken from the twenty-first chapter of the Book of Revelation, completes the Biblical story. The Bible tells us that the world will be transformed into a new heaven and a new earth through the One who "makes all things new."

Aired: 5/2/2010   Download Show

Sermon 485: 4th Sunday of Easter: The Lordship of Jesus

The first reading for this Sunday, taken from the thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, recounts the expulsion of Paul and Barnabas from Antioch. Paul's radical message of the Lordship of Jesus subverts all other power and authority. It is a public proclamation that is a challenge to all.

Aired: 4/25/2010   Download Show

Sermon 482: Easter Sunday: The Impossibly Good News of Easter

The Church's Easter proclamation is the strangest message ever delivered: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. His resurrection is not merely a symbolic statement about Christ's historical importance or the affirmation that his cause goes on. Nor is the resurrection simply about some change in the the apostle's minds in regards to Christ after his death. The resurrection is about the real body of Jesus.

Aired: 4/4/2010   Download Show

Sermon 481: Palm Sunday: Which King? Whose Kingdom?

Today the Church proclaims the Passion of Christ. The story of the Lord's suffering and death haunted the minds of the first Christians. All the Gospels center around it and find their fulfillment in it. The special emphasis in this years account, taken from the Gospel of Luke, is Christ's struggle with the false kingdoms of the world.

Aired: 3/28/2010   Download Show

Sermon 480: Fifth Sunday of Lent: All Is Loss

In our second reading for this Sunday, St. Paul lays out his resumé. In terms of the Judaism of his time, Paul was about as accomplished as one could hope to be: he was a defender of the tradition, steeped in the wisdom of his people, and blameless under the law. But after seeing Jesus risen from the dead, Paul said that he counted all of those achievements as loss and refuse. So we, he implies, should not base our lives on our accomplishments, degrees, social status--but rather on Christ crucified and risen.

Aired: 3/21/2010   Download Show

Sermon 479: Fourth Sunday of Lent: The Father and the Sons

The parable of the prodigal son is a portrait of God's gracious love and two negative responses to that love. Both sons, in their own ways, indicate the disposition of the soul in estrangement from God.

Aired: 3/14/2010   Download Show

Sermon 478: Third Sunday of Lent: A Tale of Two Trees

Today's scriptures present stories of two trees: the burning bush, that represents the reality of a soul that is receptive to God's presence, and the fig tree, which represents God's presence resisted and refused.

Aired: 3/7/2010   Download Show

Sermon 477: Second Sunday of Lent: Transfigured Prayer

The startling event of the Transfiguration displays a model of prayer. The mountain represents the place of Divine encounter, the radiance of the Lord displays the interior life of the soul in relationship to the Divine life, the conversation with the prophets is a symbol of the communion of saints. All this culminates is a sending forth in mission.

Aired: 2/28/2010   Download Show

Sermon 476: First Sunday of Lent: The True and the False Messiah

Today's Gospel presents the dramatic scene of the Lord Jesus' confrontation with the evil one. The evil one attempts to frustrate the Lord's mission by tempting him to become a "false" messiah by succumbing to sensual desire, exercising worldly power, and using the power of God for ego driven purposes. These temptations are intended, not just to frustrate the Lord in his mission, but our own mission as well.

Aired: 2/21/2010   Download Show

Sermon 475: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Whom Will You Trust?

Our life takes shape in relation to that which we are willing to trust. What then is worthy of our trust? Worldly powers can disappoint and will all ultimately fail us. The Scriptures insist that we trust in the Lord's promises, promises that are proved to be true through the Resurrection of Jesus from dead.

Aired: 2/14/2010   Download Show

Sermon 474: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Shaking the Foundations

Grace shakes us to the foundations, provoking in us a keen awareness of our own sinfulness, and offering us the liberating power of the forgiveness of our sins. Once transformed by God's grace, we are sent out on mission and through our mission, we share with others the Grace that we have received.

Aired: 2/7/2010   Download Show

Sermon 473: Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: A Messiah For All The Nations

Today's scriptures clarify that the mission of the Messiah will not just be for the benefit of Israel, but for all the nations. Through the Jesus the Messiah, the Lord offers all peoples a share in his own divine life.

Aired: 1/31/2010   Download Show

Sermon 472: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: Learning Who We Are

The dramatic scene presented in the Book of Nehemiah presents a people who had forgotten their identity and learning, as if for the first time, who they really are. It is the mission of all those who remain invested in the Faith of the Church to give testimony to their brothers and sisters in Christ, reminding all, that in Christ, we have received a unique and wonderful identity- and it is only when we know who we are that will be able to find our purpose and accomplish the mission that Christ has given to us.

Aired: 1/24/2010   Download Show

Sermon 471: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: The First of the Signs

The communion of humanity and divinity in Christ's divine person can be likened to a marriage. Sin effects a kind of divorce between God and humanity, a break up of the marriage of God and his people. How wonderful, therefore, when the Messiah offers the first sign of his identity and mission that it as at wedding. This is an indication that the relationship of God and humanity will be transformed, reconciled and renewed in Jesus Christ.

Aired: 1/17/2010   Download Show

Sermon 470: The Baptism of the Lord: Christ and the World's Religions

Although Christianity is the fullness of Truth, other religions, to a certain degree, participate in that Truth. The Magi, coming from Gentile cultures, seek the truth and find it in Christ.

Aired: 1/10/2010   Download Show

Sermon 469: Feast of the Epiphany: Religion, Science, and the Journey of the Magi

The story of the Magi illuminates important dynamics in the relationship of religious conviction and scientific investigation. There need not be any necessary conflict between the religion and science, as wise men of every age are drawn, not only to investigate the wonders of creation, but to draw closer to Christ, through whom all things have been made.

Aired: 1/3/2010   Download Show

Sermon 468: Feast of the Holy Family: What Makes a Family Holy?

Today the Church calls our attention to not simply the importance of family life, but the necessity that our families be holy. Holiness is discovered in the realization that our lives are not about ourselves, but are meant as a gift for others. The families that embody this radical gift of self to each other imitate the Holy Family of Christ

Aired: 12/27/2009   Download Show

Sermon 467: Fourth Sunday of Advent: Joy Before the Ark of God

The image of John the Baptist leaping in joy in the womb of his mother at the sound of the greeting of the Blessed Virgin Mary hearkens back to the Old Testament image of David, leaping and dancing before the Ark of of Covenant. The New Testament is properly understood when one references patterns or events that are described in the Old Testament.

Aired: 12/20/2009   Download Show

Sermon 466: Third Sunday of Advent: The Message of John

John the Baptist insists that preparation for the coming of the Messiah entails moral transformation. When the Messiah comes, all will face his judgment, but oddly enough, this judgment will be good news.

Aired: 12/13/2009   Download Show

Sermon 465: Second Sunday of Advent: Be Ready!!

The prophecy of Baruch finds its fulfillment in the revelation of Christ, who brings the troubled history of God's people to its fulfillment and reveals God's eternal purpose for Jerusalem, the Temple, the Messiah and for Israel itself.

Aired: 12/6/2009   Download Show

Sermon 464: First Sunday of Advent: The End of the World As We Know It!!

The apocalyptic imagery of this Sunday's scriptures directs us to appreciate the finite nature of all worldly things and the truth that the only reality that endures in this world of inevitable change and loss is the Lordship of God in Christ.

Aired: 11/29/2009   Download Show

Sermon 463: The Solemnity of Christ the King: There's a New King in Town!

Christ's kingship cannot be properly understood outside Israel's expectations for the Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth fulfills these expectations, yet in surprising and unexpected way

Aired: 11/22/2009   Download Show

Sermon 462: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Last Battle

The scriptures for this Sunday represent a biblical genre called "apocalyptic", which means "unveiling" or "revelation." The extraordinary revelation of these particular scriptures is that in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the battle against the fallen powers of heaven and earth has been won and a new age has begun, the age of the Church.

Aired: 11/15/2009   Download Show

Sermon 461: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: A Tale of Two Widows

Today's scriptures highlight two widows and two very important biblical principles: God reveals himself precisely at that moment of our greatest vulnerability and need, and that the grace in your life will increase in the measure that you give it away.

Aired: 11/8/2009   Download Show

Sermon 460: Solemnity of All Saints: The Communion of Saints

The magnificent diversity of the Saints indicates to us that we have been called to holiness. Holiness is about more than a kind of humanisn, but a deliberate and sincere discipline of life by which we imitate Christ and accept his presence in all the circumstances of our lives.

Aired: 11/1/2009   Download Show

Sermon 459: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Called From Darkness into His Light

The story of Bartimeaus is a model of the spiritual journey. The desire for Christ engenders in us spiritual healing, which is delivered in a profound illumination of Christ's identity, the acceptance of which leads us into the Church.

Aired: 10/25/2009   Download Show

Sermon 458: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Suffering Servant

This Sunday's readings highlight the idea of redemptive suffering. The revelation of Christ changes our disposition towards the difficulties of life, filling these experiences with the potential for goodness. In his Incarnation, Christ did not evade the often harsh realities of human experience, but he accepted them, knowing that he would be with us in all things. The challenge for us is that in the face of the inevitable challenges of life is this: will we accept hardship as an occasion to grow in holiness and deepen our relationship with the Lord.

Aired: 10/18/2009   Download Show

Sermon 457: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Necessity of Spiritual Heroism

Today's Gospel identifies the spiritual itinerary of discipleship, the movement from living out the Faith in accord with merely what is basic and the challenge of applying oneself to the demands of spiritual heroism.. Christ does not let us remain comfortable with what amounts to only an adequate response to his call, he asks for more, and our relationship with him is expressed in our response.

Aired: 10/11/2009   Download Show

Sermon 456: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Theology of Marriage

Marriage is not just some secular act or social arrangement. Rather, it is brought about by God for God's purposes. Marriage is properly understood, first and foremost, as a theological act. The purpose and meaning of marriage is revealed in the mystery of God's own life (the Trinity) , in God's relationship to creation, and in Christ's relationship with the Church.

Aired: 10/4/2009   Download Show

Sermon 455: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Would That Everyone Could Be A Prophet

Our first reading from the Book of Numbers and the Gospel reading from Mark both highlight a very interesting spiritual predicament, one that is presented numerous times throughout the Bible. It might be summed up as the inclination for members of the Church to subvert the mission of the Church because of their own ego driven desires and pre-occupations.

Aired: 9/27/2009   Download Show

Sermon 454: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Way of the Child

The gesture of the Lord in today's Gospel calls to mind the spirituality of Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose "little way" is essentially a disposition of child-like trust in the Lord. This trust might be likened to the capacity of children to find profound joy in the simplest experiences of life. There are few better models to describe the soul's relationship with Christ that this "little way" of St. Therese.

Aired: 9/20/2009   Download Show

Sermon 453: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Way of the One

Peter's magnificent confession of faith in the Lord Jesus illuminates, not only his divine identity, but it provides for us a great spiritual lesson in regards to how necessary it is to curtail the self striving of the ego in its need comfort and glory. In this regard, Christ invites, not only Peter, but all of us, into a new way of being in which negation of the ego and the practice of self denial enable us to grow in our capacity for love.

Aired: 9/13/2009   Download Show

Sermon 452: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Deafness of Secular Man

The healing of the deaf mute indicates not only a display of Christ's divine power to heal, but provides an image of how ideological secularism dulls our spiritual senses and inhibits our capacity to receive God's life and presence. Faith in Christ empowers us to become sensitive to the life and presence of God as he makes himself known in our lives and in the world.

Aired: 9/6/2009   Download Show

Sermon 451: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Dilemma of the Law

One of the great tensions in the spiritual life is between loving the law and being free of the law. I argue in this homily that learning to swing a golf club is a very good analogy in this regard. Listen and find out why

Aired: 8/30/2009   Download Show

Sermon 450: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time: You Gotta Serve Somebody

The Book of Joshua provokes us to consider one of the most important questions of the spiritual life- whom will you serve? Will it be the Lord or some other concern? Making something finite the ultimate concern of one's life is a grave spiritual predicament. Only is the Lord is ultimate and it is only when we recognize this truth that the other concerns of our life can be properly ordered and become spiritually fruitful.

Aired: 8/23/2009   Download Show

Sermon 449: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Wisdom Has Built Herself a House

The Book of Proverbs features a fascinating image of God's wisdom setting before humanity a sumptuous banquet. This is an image of the Church, who sets before the world the life and presence of Christ, a source of nourishment and renewal for the world. The wisdom of Christ is not merely a matter of mind, but a way of life that must be practiced if it is to be appreciated and understood.

Aired: 8/16/2009   Download Show

Sermon 448: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Remaining Attentive to the Lord

The first reading for this Sunday is taken from the Old Testament Book of Kings. In this reading we are introduced to the Prophet Elijah, who is nearing the end of his mission. This particular scripture has much wisdom to share with us in regards to our own passage through the mid point of our lives and the necessity of remaining attentive to the Lord and open to his purposes.

Aired: 8/9/2009   Download Show

Sermon 447: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Bread of Life

Again, the Church's Gospel is taken from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. The principle concern of this Gospel is to provide testimony to the enduring presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This presence is foreshadowed in the mysterious "showbread' of the ancient temple of Israel. The promise that is symbolized in the "showbread" is fulfilled in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, the Church partakes of the its own "showbread", though no longer merely a symbol, it is the "Bread of Life"- the life and presence of Christ

Aired: 8/2/2009   Download Show

Sermon 446: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Mystery of the Mass

The sixth chapter of John's Gospel, from which we will be reading these next several weeks, is a sustained meditation on the meaning of the Mass and the Eucharist. Our passage for today, when read symbolically, illumines the major movements of the Mass.

Aired: 7/26/2009   Download Show

Sermon 445: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time: A New Shepherd; A New Kingdom

We should never seek our final security in the things that worldly rulers and kings can provide. It is only through the shepherding of Christ that we find our way to good pasture.

Aired: 7/19/2009   Download Show

Sermon 444: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Way of the Prophet

If you walk the path of the prophet, you will abandon your own "career" and learn to follow the promptings of the Spirit. Also, you will be opposed. Once you accept and internalize those two lessons, you are ready to be a bearer of God's word.

Aired: 7/12/2009   Download Show

Sermon 443: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Mission of a Prophet

This week's scriptures illuminate the identity and mission of a prophet- a calling that belongs to all the baptized by virtue of our Baptism. God appoints the prophets to a specific mission. This mission is to speak God's word of truth. God's word of truth is not a private or personal opinion, but the Word of God communicated through human words. The prophet speaks God's word of truth to those within and those outside the Church. Prophets do not seek to proclaim a message that is easy to be accepted, but seek to speak God's word of truth, no matter how hard it might be to hear and accept. Christ is the paradigmatic example of the identity and mission of the prophet.

Aired: 7/5/2009   Download Show

Sermon 442: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: God Did Not Make Death

The Book of Wisdom offers us the strange assertion that God did not make death, but formed humanity to be imperishable. This revelation directs us towards the truth that death is much more than merely the dissolution of the body, but is the full impact of the power of sin over our lives. This power is especially evident in our fear of death. The dormition of the Mother of God offers us a sign that Christ has given to humanity a way, that takes us, not only beyond our fear of death, but beyond death itself. The way of Christ enables us to face the power of death with trust, rather than fear.

Aired: 6/28/2009   Download Show

Sermon 441: Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Storm at Sea

The story of Jesus calming the storm at sea is an archetypal description of the church down through the ages. We find ourselves in the midst of storms, but as long as Christ sails with us, we can find peace.

Aired: 6/21/2009   Download Show

Sermon 440: Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: Corpus Christi

The Eucharist is the holy meal that God wants to share with his people. It is also the sacrifice that makes that meal possible in the midst of a fallen world. To understand the eucharist, we have to keep these two dimensions in mind.

Aired: 6/14/2009   Download Show

Sermon 439: Trinity Sunday: Trinity: The Center of Our Faith

The Trinity is not simply a theological connundrum for scholars to fuss about. It stands at the very heart of our faith, since it expresses the fact that God is love. Our whole salvation depends on this great truth

Aired: 6/7/2009   Download Show

Sermon 438: Pentecost Sunday

The gift of the Holy Spirit leads us to the Truth and Holiness of Christ as mediated by the Church.

Aired: 5/31/2009   Download Show

Sermon 437: Feast of the Ascension

The Ascension of the Lord empowers the Church to fulfill its messianic mission: to gather the nations of the world into a relationship with the God of Israel.

Aired: 5/24/2009   Download Show

Sermon 436: Sixth Sunday of Easter: God's Marvelous Choice

Today's Gospel present the distinction between a generic spirituality which emphasizes our decision for God, and authentic Christian Faith, which is the recognition that God has chosen us in Christ. It is God's choice, his election of us in Christ, as not only his followers, but his friends, that matters most.

Aired: 5/17/2009   Download Show

Sermon 435: Fifth Sunday of Easter: The Vine and the Branches

The image of the vine and the branches indicates that our relationship with Christ is greater than that of merely a teacher to his students. Instead, we are related to him on all levels of our existence because Christ is the eternal Logos through whom all things are made.

Aired: 5/10/2009   Download Show

Sermon 434: Fourth Sunday of Easter: The Shepherd's Voice

Jesus identifies himself with the figure prophesied long before by Ezekiel, the one who would definitively gather the scattered tribes of Israel. The good shepherd is the one who brings Israel together so that it might fulfill its mission of gathering the other nations of the world to the praise of Yahweh.

Aired: 5/3/2009   Download Show

Sermon 433: Third Sunday of Easter: Resurrection and Metanoia

The readings for today effect a correlation between the resurrection of Jesus and conversion. The biblical word for conversion is "metanoia" which has the sense of "going beyond the mind that you have." What would it be like to move from a death-haunted consciousness to resurrection-haunted one? It would involve a conversion

Aired: 4/25/2009   Download Show

Sermon 432: Second Sunday of Easter: Resurrection and the Love of This World

From the time of Marx, Feuerbach and Freud, we've heard the critique that religion is a wish-fulfilling fantasy, a game of "pie in the sky when you die." The readings for this second Sunday of Easter give the lie to this criticism, for they show how those who were convinced of Jesus' resurrection were also deeply commited to a more just society

Aired: 4/18/2009   Download Show

Sermon 431: Easter Sunday: The Ressurrection of Jesus is Not a Myth!

"There are some debunkers of religion around today who want us to believe that the story of the resurrection is just another iteration of the myth of the dying and rising god that can be found in many ancient cultures. Nothing could be further from the truth. A careful reading of the Easter accounts shows that they have to do with a very particular, historical individual and with a very particular, unrepeatable event."

Aired: 4/11/2009   Download Show

Sermon 430: Palm Sunday: Dealing with the Mess

"Life is grim. It is marked by conflict, division, inextricably difficult situations. And brooding over all of it is the fact of death. How do we deal with this mess? We can't, but God can. In Christ, he takes on the dysfunction and sin of the world and takes it away through the divine mercy. walk through the Passion narrative with this idea in mind."

Aired: 4/4/2009   Download Show

Sermon 429: Fifth Sunday of Lent: Planting the Law Within Us

Jeremiah 31:31 is the great prophecy that the Lord will one day place his law within our hearts. In the Old Testament, God's law was written on stone and often appreciated as an imposition, a burden. But Jesus is the Law incarnate, the Torah made flesh. Therefore, when we eat his body and drink his blood, we take the law into our hearts, and thus we realize the prophecy of Jeremiah.

Aired: 3/29/2009   Download Show

Sermon 428: Fourth Sunday of Lent: Reading the Signs of the Times

How do we know what's 'going on?' How do we read the signs of the times? We could do so politically, sociologically, culturally, or economically. But the Bible insists that the world should be read theologically. What precisely is God doing and why? This sermon is about how to do this.

Aired: 3/22/2009   Download Show

Sermon 427: Third Sunday of Lent: The Ten Commandments

Scott Hahn refers to these famous laws as 'our declaration of dependence.' They teach us how to center our lives radically around God and his demands. They signal our total dependence upon the Lord. How wonderful that we meditate on them in the midst of Lent.

Aired: 3/15/2009   Download Show

Sermon 426: Second Sunday of Lent: The Terrible Aqedah

The story of the Aqedah, the Binding of Isaac, haunted the Israelite religious imagination. In it is contained one of the most important spiritual lessons in the Bible: everything we are and everything we have belongs, finally, to God. Knowing this is our liberation

Aired: 3/8/2009   Download Show

Sermon 425: First Sunday of Lent: Get On the Ark

As Lent commences, we are given the great image of Noah's Ark. This story is not just a charming tale that we tell to the kids; in it is contained the whole message of salvation, if we but know how to decipher the symbolism

Aired: 3/1/2009   Download Show

Sermon 424: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: God's Great Yes

Paul tells us that with Jesus Christ it was never yes and no, but only yes. This means that in Jesus all the promises made to Israel have come true. I will tell you why this great Yes of Jesus still matters for us.

Aired: 2/22/2009   Download Show

Sermon 423: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Becoming Fit for Worship

In our Gospel for today, a leper comes to Jesus and asks to be healed. He is suffering, not only from a physical malady, but from ritual uncleanness, rendering him incapable of worship. Jesus the Messiah has come to gather the scattered tribes of Israel to the worship of the true God and so he reaches out to the leper. That same Christ seeks to gather so many of us who have wandered away from the worship of the true God

Aired: 2/15/2009   Download Show

Sermon 422: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Spirituality of Pain

Why would an all-powerful and all-loving God allow his people to suffer so much? That's one of the oldest and most difficult theological questions. Our first reading from Job and our Gospel from Mark provide some fascinating answers.

Aired: 2/8/2009   Download Show

Sermon 421: Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: A Prophet Like Moses

Moses promised that a prophet like himself would one day arise among the Israelites and that he would have the very authority of God. It is precisely this authority that Jesus claims. And this is why, in his regard, we have to make a choice.

Aired: 2/1/2009   Download Show

Sermon 420: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Time of Fulfillment

We hear in today’s Gospel Jesus’ inaugural address. He tells us that the time of fulfillment is now. This means that the whole of Israelite history is summed up in his person. He is the new Temple, the true prophet, the everlasting covenant, and the definitive Torah. And this means that all people must make a decision about him.”

Aired: 1/25/2009   Download Show

Sermon 419: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Call of Samuel

The story of the call of Samuel is illuminating for our time of corruption and cleansing. I argue that the sex abuse scandal in the church should be read through the lens of this narrative

Aired: 1/18/2009   Download Show

Sermon 418: Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

The Gospel compels us to come to grips with the fascinating figure of John the Baptist. John was the son of Zechariah, a temple priest. And John, baptizing in the desert, acts as a priest, cleansing the people for entry into the new temple

Aired: 1/11/2009   Download Show

Sermon 417: Feast of Epiphany: Epiphany

The feast of Epiphany gives us the occasion to reflect on a distinction that is much in vogue today between spirituality on the one hand and faith on the other. The Magi represent all that is good and true and beautiful in religious seeking. But they come to the tradition of Israel to find the right focus for their spiritual quest

Aired: 1/4/2009   Download Show

Sermon 416: Feast of the Holy Family: What Makes a Family Holy?

The Bible is not particularly sentimental about families. What makes a family holy, as far as the biblical writers are concerned, is its willingness to surrender to the purpose of God. We see this in a number of key figures, including Joseph, Anna, and Simeon."

Aired: 12/28/2008   Download Show

Sermon 415: Fourth Sunday of Advent: Reading the New Testament in Light of the Old

Aired: 12/21/2008   Download Show

Sermon 414: Third Sunday of Advent: Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks

In our second reading from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, we hear the strange recommendation to pray always, rejoice in every circumstance, and give thanks at all times. How is this possible? Only when our lives have been radically reconfigured around Jesus Christ.

Aired: 12/14/2008   Download Show

Sermon 413: Second Sunday of Advent: Prepare the Way of the Lord

The theme of preparing a highway for the Lord emerges from the time of the exile. When the Babylonian captivity was coming to a close, the prophet Isaiah envisioned God making a highway in the desert to facilitate the return of his people to Jerusalem. From what captivity of ours is God leading us this Advent?

Aired: 12/7/2008   Download Show

Sermon 412: First Sunday of Advent: The Potter and the Clay

Our first reading for this first Sunday of Advent gives us the master image of God as the potter and we, his creatures, as clay. St. Irenaeus said that God's provident direction of our lives is easy as long as the clay of our hearts remains supple and moist. Trouble comes only when we allow the clay to harden.

Aired: 11/30/2008   Download Show

Sermon 411: Christ the King

Our readings for Christ the King focus on the shepherding function of the king. Jesus calls the tribes of Israel together--and he also separates the sheep from the goats. We would do well to attend to both of these dimensions of his shepherding work.

Aired: 11/23/2008   Download Show

Sermon 410: Parable of the Talents

Your being increases in the measure that you give it away. That's the law of the gift, and it can be found from end to end of the Bible. One application of this law has to do with faith itself. Your faith will grow only in the measure that you give it away, sharing it with others.

Aired: 11/16/2008   Download Show

Sermon 409: Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran

We celebrate today the feast of the dedication of St. John Lateran, the Pope's cathedral church as bishop of Rome. This gives us the occasion to speak of the importance of all church buildings, images of the temple in Jerusalem."

Aired: 11/9/2008   Download Show

Sermon 408: All Souls Day

Why do we speak of the “soul?” We do so because there is something in us that links us to the eternal. Though the body fades away, the core of the person does not. And therefore, we remain connected to those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. We should pray for them in the hopes that one day we might live in communion with them.

Aired: 11/2/2008   Download Show

Sermon 407: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Three Tasks of the Church”

“Pope Benedict has said that the church has three basic jobs: to care for the poor, to evangelize, and to worship. These three are on clear display in our three readings for the weekend.”

Aired: 10/26/2008   Download Show

Sermon 405: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Sacred Banquet

“One of the most powerful and enduring symbols of God’s intention toward the world is the sacred banquet. God wants his life to flow into us and through us to one another. The result of this is life and life to the full. The question posed by the Gospel is this: when the invitation to this banquet comes, do we answer yes or no?”

Aired: 10/12/2008   Download Show

Sermon 404: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Vineyard

“In both the prophet Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew, we find the image of the vineyard as a symbol of Israel. As Jesus develops this image, we see both the glory and the tragedy of Israel—as well as the promise that the church will emerge as the bearer of the God of Israel to the nations.”

Aired: 10/5/2008   Download Show

Sermon 403: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Old Adam or New Adam

"Our second reading contains one of the most precious texts in the Christian tradition, Paul's description of the mind of Christ. While the old Adam clung to godliness and hence fell, the new Adam let go of his divinity and hence reversed the momentum of the fall. What does it mean to be conformed to God? It means to embrace the path of self-emptying love. Which Adam do we choose? The Old or the New?"

Aired: 9/28/2008   Download Show

Sermon 402: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time: As High as the Heavens..."

"The Biblical manner of dealing with the problem of evil is neither to deny the fact of evil nor the fact of God's existence. Rather, it is to stress the transcendence and inscrutability of God's ways. What looks like pure evil or dumb suffering to us finds its place within the providential plan of a mysterious God."

Aired: 9/21/2008   Download Show

Sermon 401: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Triumph of the Cross

"We will understand the power of this feast only when we grasp how very strange it is to speak of the cross as a triumph. Paul's great hymn in his letter to the Phillipians helps us to grasp how the cross fits into the narrative of God's salvation."

Aired: 9/14/2008   Download Show

Sermon 400: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Fraternal Correction

"The command to love compels us to engage in the difficult task of fraternal correction, but it enjoins us to do so carefully, always aware that it can slide easily enough into a game of ego-inflation. The Gospel gives us some very practical advice in this regard."

Aired: 9/7/2008   Download Show

Sermon 399: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Problem of Suffering

Most of the great religions and philosophies of the world center around the issue of suffering. Stoicism, Buddhism, Platonism all propose different paths to overcome suffering. Jesus proposes to his disciples the distinctively Christian path of embracing suffering in the act of self-sacrificial love.

Aired: 8/31/2008   Download Show

Sermon 398: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time: Ekklesia

Jesus tells Peter that he will build his ekklesia on the rock of Peter's confession. The word ekklesia means "called out from." To be a member of the church is to be called personally by Christ out of the world and into a new way of being

Aired: 8/24/2008   Download Show

Sermon 397: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time: How Great Is Your Faith?

"The story of the persistent Canaanite woman has intrigued and puzzled Christians for two thousand years. Why would Jesus treat this pious woman with what seems like indifference, even hostility? Why does he refuse (it seems) to answer our own prayers? The solution can be found in the very Biblical category of testing."

Aired: 8/17/2008   Download Show

Sermon 396: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Christ, the Son of God

"The Church never tires of confessing the divinity of Jesus, for in that confession, the Church finds its whole identity. Over the centuries--and in the present day--many have tried to portray Jesus as no more than an inspired teacher. But the disciples who witnessed Christ walking on the water know better. They confess "truly, you are the Son of God."

Aired: 8/10/2008   Download Show

Sermon 395: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Grace

"Our readings for this weekend are filled with grace, the free gift that God is. Our relationship with God gets off on the wrong foot the moment we see it in an "economic" or calculating way. God, who needs nothing from us, simply wants to share his life with us. And this is why he says, through the prophet Isaiah, "All you who are thirsty, come to the water!"

Aired: 8/3/2008   Download Show

Sermon 394: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: What Do You Want?

God says to Solomon in our first reading, "Ask for anything, and I will give it to you." What would you say if you heard that invitation? Solomon asks for wisdom and not for wealth or power or victory. Find out why that answer is so pleasing to God.

Aired: 7/27/2008   Download Show

Sermon 393: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Three Parables, Three Spiritual Lessons

Jesus' parables in today's Gospel tell us how and why the Kingdom of God emerges. It does so often through struggle, quietly and clandestinely, and through infiltration rather than direct confrontation.

Aired: 7/20/2008   Download Show

Sermon 392: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Sower

We have the special privilege of hearing Jesus himself interpret one of his parables. He tells us the three basic reasons why the Word is not accepted into our hearts: lack of understanding, lack of discipline, and lack of prioritization."

Aired: 7/13/2008   Download Show

Sermon 391: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Take My Yoke Upon You

The Gospel for today allows us to overhear a conversation between the Father and the Son. We learn that the Son receives everything from his Father, that he is, in a word, yoked to the Father. When the Lord tells us to take his yoke, he is inviting us to pull with him, receiving through him the life that he receives from the Father."

Aired: 7/6/2008   Download Show

Sermon 390: The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul

"Peter and Paul were the greatest "christophers," Christ-bearers in the early days of the church. Though they were very different, they came together in their love for Jesus and their conviction that he was Lord. It is largely because of their witness that we gather still today in the name of Jesus."

Aired: 6/29/2008   Download Show

Sermon 389: 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Old Adam, New Adam

"In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that Jesus is the new Adam or the second Adam. He means that Christ sums up the history of Israel and renews the human race."

Aired: 6/22/2008   Download Show

Sermon 388: 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Elected

"One of the key themes of the Bible is the divine election, the fact that God chooses. But God chooses, not on the basis of merit, but simply through and because of his grace. And he chooses, not to glorify those whom he elects, but rather to give them a mission of love. Accordingly, he chose Israel so that it might be a priestly nation; and he chose the twelve so that they might proclaim the kingdom, and he chose us the baptized that we might be conduits of his grace to the world."

Aired: 6/15/2008   Download Show

Sermon 387: 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Getting Straightened Out

"Paul's letter to the Romans explores the great theme of justification, the process by which we become rectified or straightened out in regard to God. Key to this process, says Paul, is faith, that is to say, trust in the Lord. What has thrown us off-kilter is precisely a tendency to rely on our own powers. But when we, like Abraham our father in faith, learn to trust, then the divine life can flow into us and through us to the world."

Aired: 6/8/2008   Download Show

Sermon 386: 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Rock or Sand?

"What is the foundation of your life? How goes it with your heart? Are you building your spiritual house on sand or on rock? These are the fundamental questions that both the book of Deuteronomy and the Gospel of Matthew pose for us as we return to Ordinary Time."

Aired: 6/1/2008   Download Show

Sermon 385: Feast of Corpus Christi: Panis Angelicus

"In 1264, Pope Urban IV asked Thomas Aquinas to compose the office for the newly established feast of Corpus Christi. Thomas's texts are both beautiful and profound. By studying them, we can learn much of the Church's theology of the eucharist. He tells us that Christ serves us, with his own hands, the bread of angels."

Aired: 5/25/2008   Download Show

Sermon 384: Holy Trinity Sunday: Why the Trinity Matters

"There is no question more important than this one: who is God? The doctrine of the Trinity is the Christian answer to that question. The Trinity is simply a doctrinally exact way of stating the belief that God is love. If love is what God is, then in the very being of God there must be lover, beloved, and love."

Aired: 5/18/2008   Download Show

Sermon 383: Pentecost: One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic

"The feast of Pentecost is the birthday of the church. Our readings show us the four major features of the church: it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. What do these four things mean? Listen to the sermon!"

Aired: 5/11/2008   Download Show

Sermon 382: Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Dangerous Spirit

"Jesus assures his disciples that, if they pray for it, the Holy Spirit will definitely come upon them with great power. At the same time, he reminds them that the presence of the Spirit always awakens opposition and persecution. So ask for the Holy Spirit, but be prepared to suffer on his account."

Aired: 5/4/2008   Download Show

Sermon 381: Sixth Sunday of Easter: Five Signs of the Spirit

"As Pentecost approaches, the church gives us readings redolent of the Holy Spirit. Our passages for this Sunday speak in various ways of the presence of the Holy Spirit: bold speech, signs and wonders, joy, intellectual curiosity, and love."

Aired: 4/27/2008   Download Show

Sermon 380: Fifth Sunday of Easter

"All the readings for today are, directly or indirectly, about the priesthood, that office that all of the baptized share. To be a priest is to be a mediator between God and human beings and to be a person who offers right praise. This identity should play itself out in all that you do."

Aired: 4/20/2008   Download Show

Sermon 379: Fourth Sunday of Easter

"Peter's sermon on Pentecost morning is the model for all evangelical proclamation. He declares that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah, and this straightforward, unambiguous confession leads to conversion on the part of the people. When our preaching about Jesus is wishy-washy, unclear, tentative, we shouldn't be surprised that no one listens."

Aired: 4/13/2008   Download Show

Sermon 378: Third Sunday of Easter

"The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus teaches us how to see. When we listen to Christ explain the Scriptures to us, we understand the pattern of his life and death. And when we eat his body and drink his blood, we see precisely who he is: God's love made flesh."

Aired: 4/6/2008   Download Show

Sermon 377: Second Sunday of Easter

"Essential to the Easter message is mission: we are sent by the risen Jesus to do his work in the world. It is never enough that we contemplate his risen splendor; we must become his forgiveness-bearing presence to those around us."

Aired: 3/30/2008   Download Show

Sermon 376: Easter Sunday: He Is Risen!!

Our first reading for this Easter day is Peter's great kerygmatic speech on Pentecost morning. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter addresses the Jerusalem crowd, telling them the impossibly good news that Jesus of Nazareth, a man who moved through their ordinary towns and villages, has been raised from the dead. The Easter faith of the Church is not an abstraction, not a vague claim about God's fidelity or our hope for immortality. Rather, it is the startling assertion that God has brought this man Jesus back from the dead. May we bask in the glow of this still surprising revelation.

Aired: 3/23/2008   Download Show

Sermon 375: Palm Sunday: The Passion of the Christ

Every Palm Sunday, we hear the passion narrative from one of the synoptic Gospels. This year, we are immersed in Matthew's version. Matthew shows us that, as Jesus resolutely does the will of his Father, myriad forms of human dysfunction--betrayal, sloth, stupidity, violence, scapegoating, corruption, cruelty--break out around him. This is the story of salvation: God's healing confrontation with sin; God's compassionate embrace of the sinner.

Aired: 3/16/2008   Download Show

Sermon 374: Fifth Sunday of Lent: Lazarus, Come Forth

Our God hates death. Through the prophet Ezekiel, he said, "I will open your graves and have you rise from them." Jesus came to end the reign of death, to wrestle death to the ground. In the raising of Lazarus--which anticipates his own even more glorious resurrection--he fulfills the prophecy of Ezekiel, calling the dead man from his grave.

Aired: 3/9/2008   Download Show

Sermon 373: Fourth Sunday of Lent: The Man Born Blind

Blindness is a great Biblical symbol of spiritual blindness, the darkening and distortion of our vision. Jesus salves and washes the blind man in John's Gospel in order to restore his sight. In the same way, he washes us (in Baptism) and salves us (in the other sacraments) so that we might see with his eyes.

Aired: 3/2/2008   Download Show

Sermon 372: Third Sunday of Lent: The Infinite Thirst

We are made for God, and therefore our hearts are restless until they rest in him. This longing is symbolized in the thirst of the woman at the well. Directing her away from all earthly goods, Jesus draws her to himself: "I will give you water springing up to eternal life." We hear the same invitation to the font of grace.

Aired: 2/24/2008   Download Show

Sermon 371: Second Sunday of Lent: The Mystery of Light

On his way to Jerusalem, where he will be crucified, Jesus is transfigured before three of his disciples. This manifestation of glory, says Thomas Aquinas, was designed to encourage the disciples during the difficult days that would follow. It gives hope to us too. On the sometimes painful journey through this life, we see in the Transfiguration of the Lord a sign of what awaits us: a glorified life with God.

Aired: 2/17/2008   Download Show

Sermon 370: First Sunday of Lent: Back To The Basics

"For the first Sunday of Lent, the church brings us back to spiritual training camp and encourages us to review the basics. We are in the garden with Adam and Eve and in the desert with Jesus. When the devil approaches us, do we respond as they did, or as he did? Everything else will flow from that decision."

Aired: 2/10/2008   Download Show

Sermon 369: Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: How To Be Happy

In the beatitudes, the Son of God tells us what every one of us, deep down, wants to know: how to be happy. So we must listen with great attentiveness. At the heart of the program is the beatitude: blessed are the merciful. This is because mercy is a participation in the divine life itself. All of the other beatitudes center around and relate to this one.

Aired: 2/3/2008   Download Show

Sermon 368: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Work of the Messiah

Our Gospel passage from the 4th chapter of Matthew's Gospel tells us, in very short compass, what the work of the Messiah was. Jesus proclaims the kingdom, commences the gathering of the tribes of Israel, and takes on God's enemies. We who are grafted on to him must do the same.

Aired: 1/27/2008   Download Show

Sermon 367: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Behold the Lamb of God

"John the Baptist's designation of Jesus as Lamb of God is, I submit, largely misunderstood. It has little to do with Jesus' meekness, mildness, or humility and everything to do with his being the victim of a sacrifice. To find out why this is such good news, listen to the sermon!"

Aired: 1/20/2008   Download Show

Sermon 366: The Baptism of the Lord: The Bending Low of the Son of God

The feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a celebration of God’s great humility. In order to rescue us sinners, God the Son bent low and stood with us in the muck and mud of our dysfuction. This was so that he could draw us up to his glory.

Aired: 1/13/2008   Download Show

Sermon 365: The Feast of the Epiphany: Faith, the Friend of Reason

"One of the truths that is manifested on Epiphany (that's what the word "epiphania" means) is the compatibility of faith and reason, of religion and science. The Magi were scientists, astronomers interested in tracking and measuring the heavenly bodies. But they also saw in the orderliness of the universe evidence of God. Their search for Christ symbolizes the fact that all of science leads finally to God."

Aired: 1/6/2008   Download Show

Sermon 364: The Feast of Holy Family: Holy Family Values

"Paul lays out for the Colossians (and us) the virtues that make a family healthy. They include compassion, patience, bearing the burden of the other and, above all, love. To find out precisely what these terms mean, listen to the sermon!"

Aired: 12/30/2007   Download Show

Sermon 363 : 4th Sunday of Advent: Ahaz and Joseph

Both Ahaz and Joseph are being summoned out of a narrow perspective and encouraged to dream big, to think of their lives within the context of God's purposes and plans. This makes them prime Advent figures

Aired: 12/23/2007   Download Show

Sermon 362: Third Sunday in Advent: The Virtue of Hope

Hope is not this-worldly optimism. In fact, from a purely natural perspective, pessimism is the right attitude. Hope is that supernatural virtue which orders our desire toward heaven and the things of heaven. What Isaiah talks about in our first reading is not an expectation that will be realized here below, but only in a transfigured world on high

Aired: 12/16/2007   Download Show

Sermon 361: Second Sunday in Advent: Repent!!

John the Baptist sums up the Advent season. He lives in the desert, the place of no distraction, and he speaks a message of repentance and the confession of sin. Advent is a great time to clear away all that separates us from Christ. It is a time of repentance.

Aired: 12/9/2007   Download Show

Sermon 360: First Sunday in Advent: Incoming!!

"Advent is from the latin word adventus, which means coming or arrival. Some arrivals are positive; others are downright threatening. The Gospel for today paints a somewhat dark picture of the coming of the Son of Man, likening it to the flood of Noah. When Christ comes, we have to change, and that's often wrenching."

Aired: 12/2/2007   Download Show

Sermon 359: 34th Sunday in OT: David and Jesus

Along with Moses and Abraham, David is the most important figure in the Old Testament. The first Christians read Jesus in light of these heroes of the Old Testament. They saw Christ as the new David, the one who would gather the tribes of Israel and through them the nations.

Aired: 11/25/2007   Download Show

Sermon 358: 33rd Sunday in OT: The Birth Pangs of the Messiah

Our readings for today are apocalyptic, which means that they describe the end of an old world and the beginning of a new one. The new world in question is the world of Christ’s lordship. To enter into that spiritual space, we have to go through earthquake, famine, and war. But this is, finally good news!

Aired: 11/18/2007   Download Show

Sermon 357: 32nd Sunday in OT: Resurrection of the Body

Both our first reading and Gospel for today present the distinctively Biblical view of what happens to us after we die. We do not so much escapte from the body as begin to live in a transformed and transfigured body, what Paul calls a "spiritual body".

Aired: 11/11/2007   Download Show

Sermon 356:31st Sunday in OT: Zacchaeus

The story of Zacchaeus in the Gospel of Luke is a kind of spiritual itinerary. If we attend to it carefully, we will learn the essentials of the life of grace.

Aired: 11/4/2007   Download Show

Sermon 355: 30th Sunday in OT: Paul's Farewell Discourse

The second letter to Timothy is Paul’s parting advice to his young colleague and spiritual son. He speaks of being poured out like a libation, of being ready for a great journey, of having fought the good fight and run the successful race. All of these images are illuminating for us as well.

Aired: 10/28/2007   Download Show

Sermon 354: 29th Sunday in OT: The Struggle With Amalek

An awful lot of people probably find our first reading for this week offensive. We hear that Israel mowed the Amalekites down with the sword. How can this terrible story of conquest be a revelation of God’s intentions? Listen as I offer the surprising interpretation that Origen of Alexandria offers.

Aired: 10/21/2007   Download Show

Sermon 353: 28th Sunday in OT: The Lesson of Naaman

The story of Naaman the Syrian is not terribly well-known, but it contains some marvelous spiritual lessons for all of us. It tells us of the importance of patience, humility, perseverance, prayer--and above all following our weakness as it leads us to God

Aired: 10/14/2007   Download Show

Sermon 352: 27th Sunday in OT: The Lament of Habbakuk

The prophet Habbakuk expresses what most of us feel at some point in our lives: how can God be so indifferent to suffering? Listen carefully to the answer he receives from the Lord.

Aired: 10/7/2007   Download Show

Sermon 351: 26th Sunday in OT

Summary to Come

Aired: 9/30/2007   Download Show

Sermon 350: 25th Sunday in OT

Summary to come

Aired: 9/23/2007   Download Show

Sermon 349: 24th Sunday in OT: The Reckless Abandon Of God's Love

God does not love as we do, in a calculating manner. He makes his sun to shine on the good and the bad alike and his rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. This means that he is like the Good Shepherd who seeks even the one sheep who is lost and like the father who welcomes back even the prodigal.

Aired: 9/16/2007   Download Show

Sermon 348 : 23nd Sunday in OT : The Path of Dispossession

Jesus tells us that we must get rid of all of our possessions, including the people that we have turned into possessions. It is in this sense that he encourages us to hate our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. In the measure that these nearest and dearest are possessions of one's ego, they are a block to salvation.

Aired: 9/9/2007   Download Show

Sermon 347 : 22nd Sunday in OT : The Addiction of Honor

The lust for honor interrupts the great banquet that God wants us to enjoy. This is why Jesus interrupts the interruption in today’s Gospel, urging people purposely to take the lowest place and to entertain only those who cannot repay the favor. We must free ourselves of the addiction to honor!

Aired: 9/2/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 346: 21st Sunday in OT : Jacob Neusner, Benedict XVI, and the Vocation of Israel

In his new book, Pope Benedict engages in a fascinating dialogue with the American rabbi Jacob Neusner on the identity and meaning of Jesus. In this sermon, I will tease out the implications of this debate, especially in regard to the vocation of Israel.

Aired: 8/26/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 345: 20th Sunday in OT : I Have Come to Cast a Fire Upon the Earth.

Jesus’ words from our Gospel this week inspired the name for my program, Word on Fire. Jesus speaks of the divine judgment that will fall like a cleansing fire on the earth. This is not opposed to God’s love, but is rather what God’s love looks like to a fallen world

Aired: 8/19/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 344: 19th Sunday in OT : Trusting the Darkness

Authentic faith has nothing to do with credulity or intellectual naivte. It has everything to do with placing one’s trust in the God whom we cannot, even in principle, know with clarity. It is the willingness to follow the promptings of God, even when we don’t see where they might lead.

Aired: 8/12/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 343: Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Qoheleth and the Foolish Rich Man

Both our first reading and Gospel function as a slap in the face, cold water, a wake-up call. They show how passing, ephemeral, and unreliable are the goods of this world. The idea is to set our hearts, as Paul says, on the higher things, rooting our lives in God.

Aired: 8/5/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 342: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Lord's Prayer

Our Gospel for this week is of the utmost importance, for we hear the Son of God himself teaching us to pray. In this homily, I walk rather carefully through the major petitions of the Our Father, noting how central this prayer is to Christian life and spirituality

Aired: 7/29/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 341: Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: "Making Up What Is Lacking in the Suffering of Christ"

Paul says in our second reading that he "makes up in his own sufferings what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ." This means that Paul-and all of us-have the enormous privilege of participating in the act by which Christ saved the world, an act of suffering love. How do you interpret your own pain? Might it be a participation in the salvation of Christ?

Aired: 7/22/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 340: Fifthteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: "The Natural Law"

What the church calls "the natural law" is, as Moses suggests in our first reading, close to us, in fact, written on our hearts. Thomas Aquinas said that this natural, moral law is a reflection of the eternal law of God and is, in turn, the ground for all of our positive laws. When the relationship between God's law, the moral law, and political law is lost, our society suffers.

Aired: 7/15/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 339: Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Boasting in the Cross

St. Paul tells us in our second reading that he boasts in the cross of Jesus. To any of his hearers in the first century this would have sounded like madness. Paul can boast in this shameful thing precisely because God has raised Jesus from death and thereby placed the world-the realm of hatred, violence, and division-under judgment. Now we must have the courage to leave the world and enter into the new creation which is the body of Christ.

Aired: 7/8/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 338: Thirteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time

Our readings for this weekend are completely counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. We put a huge premium on freedom and self-determination in regard to choosing our careers. But this is not the Biblical perspective. Elisha accepts the mantle of prophecy, simply because God commands him, and he leaves everything behind. Jesus tells a man to follow him, even if that means not attending his own father's funeral. In the determination of the meaning of your life, what, or better who, finally matters?

Aired: 7/1/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 337: Twelveth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Summary to come

Aired: 6/24/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 336: Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time : They Shall Look on Him Whom They Have Pierced

Summary to come

Aired: 6/17/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 335: Corpus Christi

Paul tells us that whenever we eat the body and drink the blood of the Lord, we proclaim his death until he comes. This means that the Eucharist involves a wonderful compression of time, past and future meeting dynamically in the present. When we gather around the Lord's table now, we call to mind the breakthrough moment of the Paschal Mystery and we anticipate the culminating moment of the end of time. In doing this, we charge the present with meaning and purpose

Aired: 6/10/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 334: The Holy Trinity-Solemnity

This weekend, we celebrate the Trinity, a mystery which stands at the very heart of the faith. The doctrine of the Trinity is a technical way of stating what St. John said in his first letter, viz. that God is love. If God is love, then there must be within God a play of lover, beloved, and love. This is the relationality that obtains among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Aired: 6/3/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 333: Pentecost

The two great symbols of the descent of the Holy Spirit are wind and tongues of fire. Wind is powerful, unpredictable, destructive, like the Spirit which seizes us and takes us where we would rather not go. Tongues of fire signal impassioned speech on behalf of the Good News, a willingness to announce the Gospel publicly and even in the face of opposition. With the whole church around the world, we pray on this great feast of Pentecost for the coming of that troublesome and wonderful Holy Spirit.

Aired: 5/27/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 332: Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Ascension of the Lord

The feast of the Ascension is meant to awaken hope. In Jesus, risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, our lowly human nature participates in the very life of God. In the light of the ascension, therefore, we are permitted to hope for a way of being, elevated and perfected beyond our imagining.

Aired: 5/20/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 331: Sixth Sunday of Easter: Paul's Basic Message, Part II

Last week we explored the central teaching of St. Paul: to live in Christ Jesus. This week, we draw out four implications from this teaching: the corporate nature of the church, a sacramental imagination, the gifts of the Spirit, and the acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord. In emphasizing these themes, Paul gave shape to the whole of Christian theology through the ages.

Aired: 5/13/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 330: Fifth Sunday of Easter: Paul's Message

Last week we looked at the life and times of Paul, the person who, after Jesus himself, is the most influential figure in the formation of the Christian church. In this week's sermon, I look briefly at Paul's central teaching, which I identify as "being in Christ." The phrase "en Christo," in Christ, appears 83 times in the letters of Paul, indicating how central it is to the Apostle's teaching and preaching. Christ Jesus is a new energy field, a new power, a new way of being, and the idea, as far as Paul is concerned, is to get into it--so that ultimately you can say, with him, "it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me

Aired: 5/6/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 329: Fourth Sunday of Easter: Paul the Apostle

During the Easter season, we are reading from the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Though John, Philip, Peter, and James are all featured in Acts, the "star" of the text is clearly Paul, missionary and evangelist. Who was this extraordinarily important figure, the man that many say, after Jesus himself, was most influential on the development of Christianity? For the next three weeks, I will be exploring the life, thought, and work of Paul the Apostle.

Aired: 4/29/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 328: Third Sunday of Easter: The Structure of Discipleship

Our Gospel for today, taken from the wonderful 21st chapter of St. John's Gospel, is filled with mystical and symbolic allusions. The disciples in the boat are evocative of the church; Jesus on the shore calls to mind the eschatological fulfillment toward which the church is journeying; Peter calls to mind both sinful Adam and the promise of redemption. In all of it, we see a picture of discipleship.

Aired: 4/22/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 327: Second Sunday of Easter: My Lord and My God

Despite the locked doors, the risen Jesus stands in the midst of the disciples. This is a beautiful icon of the Church, the community gathered around Jesus and filled with his spirit. When the Lord, first appears, Thomas is not there and hence does not believe. Only when he returns to the apostolic circle does he encounter Jesus and make his great confession. This detail reminds us that we see the risen Lord only in the church and through its mediation.

Aired: 4/15/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 326: Easter Sunday: A New Creation

Easter is the dawn of a new creation. St. John tells us that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early on the morning of the first day of the week. This is meant to call to mind the first day of creation, when God said, "Let there be light" and brought order out of chaos. From the meaninglessness of death, God brings eternal life. This is the central and revolutionary message of Easter.

Aired: 4/8/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 325: Palm Sunday: The Passion of the Christ

In St. Luke's account of the Passion, we see what real kingship looks like. Jesus gives his entire self away in love--and in that he is Lord. The supreme irony is the sign placed by Pontius Pilate over the cross: This is the King of the Jews. Real power is not a function of money, pleasure, domination, and self-aggrandizement. Real power is self-forgetting love.

Aired: 4/1/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 324: 5th Sunday of Lent: All is Loss

In our second reading for this Sunday, St. Paul lays out his resumé. In terms of the Judaism of his time, Paul was about as accomplished as one could hope to be: he was a defender of the tradition, steeped in the wisdom of his people, and blameless under the law. But after seeing Jesus risen from the dead, Paul said that he counted all of those achievements as loss and refuse. So we, he implies, should not base our lives on our accomplishments, degrees, social status--but rather on Christ crucified and risen.

Aired: 3/25/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 323: 4th Sunday of Lent: The Greatest Story Ever Told

Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most memorable, carefully crafted, and inspiring stories ever told. In some ways, the whole of the Christian "thing" is summed up in this narrative. We have a God who invites us into the dynamism of his own life, and who relentlessly pursues us even when, in our stupidity and sin, we refuse to respond to the invitation.

Aired: 3/18/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 322: 3rd Sunday of Lent: The Burning Bush

Moses sees a bush that burns but is not consumed. This is a lovely symbolic expression of the way God relates to the world. The closer God gets, the more we become radiant with his presence. God's proximity does not mean our destruction or the compromising of our integrity; rather it is the means by which we become fully ourselves.

Aired: 3/11/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 321: 2nd Sunday of Lent: The Father in Faith

Abraham was chosen by God as the founder of a people who would be the means by which God would save the world. His great mark is faith, that is to say, trust. Faith is what Adam and Eve couldn't muster (they grasped at godliness) and from this followed the agony of the world. God commenced a rescue operation by setting Abraham in quest of a promised land.

Aired: 3/4/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 320: 1st Sunday of Lent: The Three Temptations

As we once again commence the penitential season of Lent, it is good to get back to basics. We journey with Jesus into the desert, and with him, we confront the three basic temptations: sensual pleasure, power, and glory. Only when we set aside our obsessions with these three things can we be free to serve the Lord

Aired: 2/25/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 319: 7th Sunday in OT: Enemy Love

The most troubling and challenging of Jesus' teaching is the command to love our enemies. In this homily, I explore four good reasons why it is so important to engage in this most difficult act of love.

Aired: 2/18/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 318: 6th Sunday in OT: Where Do You Put Your Faith?

The readings for this weekend pose a blunt question: whom, finally, do you trust? "Trust" is meant here in an absolute sense. Where do you base your life? In God or in the things of this world? How you answer that question determines pretty much everything else.

Aired: 2/11/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 317 : 5th Sunday in OT : Isaiah and Peter

The Church invites us to read together the stories of Isaiah's call and Peter's call. Both are addressed by the God of gracious surprises; both are shown marvellous things; both become more not less aware of their sins; and both are sent on mission. So it goes with all of us who are addressed by the living God.

Aired: 2/4/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 316 : 4th Sunday in OT : What is Love?

In the thirteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul sings a hymn to love. He tells us that love is "patient, gentle, kind, not snobbish" and that it "never fails." Love, after all, is what God is: willing the good of the other as other. When we love, therefore, we are sharing in the very life of God.

Aired: 1/28/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 315 : 3rd Sunday in OT : The Strength in Differentiation

Nehemiah, the 5th century governor of Judea, has an important spiritual lesson for us today. Nehemiah led the project of re-building the walls of Jerusalem after the return from exile. Walls, which set a community apart, are essential for identity and clarity of purpose. If the church is to be a world-transforming agent, it must, first, know clearly who she is and what makes her distinctive.

Aired: 1/21/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 314 : 2nd Sunday in OT : The Task of the Church

As we enter into ordinary time, we reflect with St. Paul on the ordinary task of the church: the discernment and exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. How do we use the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, healing, and faith?

Aired: 1/14/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 313 : Baptism of the Lord-Feast : Universal Significance of Jesus

The visit of the Magi to the Christ child signals the universal significance of Jesus. At its best, Christ's church has always been a trans-national and trans-cultural force, overcoming the political and national divisions that so bedevil us. This is why the journey of the Magi is ground for hope.

Aired: 1/7/2007   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 312 : The Holy Family - Feast : Biblical Family Values

There are family values in the Bible, but they might not be the ones you'd expect. The Biblical authors--both Old Testament and New--put a stress, not on sentiment and personal connection, but rather on mission. They see the family as a place where one's vocation from God is prioritized and cultivated. We see this theme on clear display in both the Hannah story and the account of the finding in the Temple.

Aired: 12/31/2006   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 311: 4th Sunday of Advent : Inexhaustibly Fascinating Figure of Mary

On the final Sunday of Advent, the Church invites us to consider the inexhaustibly fascinating figure of Mary. The Mother of God is a figure of faithful Israel, the people who for so many centuries waited for the coming of the Messiah. She is, accordingly, the new Eve, the new Moses, the true Isaiah and Ezekiel. In meditating upon her, we come to a deeper appreciation of the Christ she bore

Aired: 12/24/2006   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 310: 3rd Sunday of Advent: What Should We Do?

Our Gospel for today centers around a question that is bracing in its directness and simplicity. A group of people come to the Baptist and ask "what should we do?" The spiritual life is about a set of behaviors and practices, focused, as John the Baptist specifies, around the work of justice.

Aired: 12/17/2006   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 309: 2nd Sunday of Advent : Return Home

In our first reading for this week, we hear the prophet Baruch predicting the return of the children of Israel to Zion. God will level the mountains and fill in the valleys so as to make a highway for them. In the Gospel, John the Baptist announces a similar preparation for a similar return, but this time it is the return of Israel from the exile of sin and death, facilitated by the coming of the Messiah.

Aired: 12/10/2006   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 308: The Second Coming

The readings for this first Sunday of Advent focus, not on the historical coming of Jesus at Bethlehem, but rather at his eschatological coming at the end of time. Knowing that all of history tends toward and culminates in Jesus changes radically the way we live now.

Aired: 12/3/2006   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 307: Christ the King - Solemnity : Pilate and Jesus

In the confrontation between Pilate and Jesus we see, according to Benedict XVI, a clash of two visions of politics. Pilate, who cynically dismisses any claim to know the truth, allows Jesus' fate to be determined by the will of the majority. But Jesus reminds Pilate that his legitimate political authority comes to him, not from the people, but "from above," that is to say, from certain moral values rooted in God.

Aired: 11/26/2006   Download Show

Word on Fire Sermon 306: God's Great Cleansing Operation

For centuries, Biblical people have been puzzled/fascinated by apocalyptic language. Plagues, floods, earthquakes, the closing down of time itself: what does it mean? God is always, throughout the Scripture, in the business of cleansing and purifying a fallen world so as to make way for a new world. The ultimate apocalypse, therefore, is the dying and rising of Jesus. The cross and resurrection represent the end of an old world and the beginning of a new creation.

Aired: 11/19/2006   Download Show

Sermon 305: Christ the High Priest

For the past several weeks, we have been reading from the extraordinary letter to the Hebrews, the principal theme of which is the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Jesus can be the ultimate bridge-builder between God and us, precisely because in his own person he reconciles divinity and humanity. True God and true man, Christ is true priest.

Aired: 11/12/2006   Download Show

Sermon 304: "Hear, O Israel"

Our first reading for Mass this week contains the most sacred prayer in the Jewish tradition, the "Sh'ma." In the Gospel, when asked which commandment is the greatest, Jesus, a pious Jew, recites this prayer from the book of Deuteronomy. Listen as I explicate this central and decisive statement of Biblical faith.

Aired: 11/5/2006   Download Show

Sermon 303: The Chief of the Nations

In our first reading, Jeremiah the prophet tells the Israelite people to rejoice because they are the chief of the nations. This would have struck his listeners as something of a joke. They had just returned from the Babylonian captivity, the worst calamity in Israelite history. How could they possibly be the chief of the nations? But Jeremiah is seeing with a prophet's eye, gazing toward that future which would be fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah who would gather the new Israel (the church) and make it the light to the world.

Aired: 10/29/2006   Download Show

Sermon 302: The Voice of Ambition

James and John want to sit at Jesus' right and left when the Lord comes into his glory. What they don't realize is that his glory is the moment of his crucifixion. To be at his right and his left at his enthronement is, therefore, to be crucified with him, to be willing to give oneself totally away.

Aired: 10/22/2006   Download Show

Sermon 301: I Asked for Wisdom and Prudence

If an angel of the Lord stood before you and invited you to pray for one thing, what would it be? The book of Wisdom suggests today that you should pray, not for power or wealth or beauty or health, but for the wisdom that would enable you to use any and all of those gifts well. Let the first reading for this week be a sort of spiritual exercise for you.

Aired: 10/15/2006   Download Show

Sermon 300: The Two Become One Flesh

Our readings for this week are all about marriage. In the Catholic understanding, a married couple do not so much receive a sacrament as they become a sacrament. They realize that their marriage is not about them; rather it is a vehicle through which God's purposes are being worked out.

Aired: 10/8/2006   Download Show

Sermon 299: Cut Off Your Hand! Cut Off Your Foot!

Jesus certainly manages to get our attention in this week's Gospel. Don't literalize his language, but feel its power. Are you willing to eliminate certain things from your life--ways of grasping, ways of walking, ways of seeing--that are compromising your friendship with God? What, precisely, are you willing to sacrifice?

Aired: 10/1/2006   Download Show

Sermon 298: The Warfare Within, The Warfare Without

We have been reading for the past several weeks from the letter of James, which is a treasure-trove of practical wisdom. James tells us this week that outer conflicts flow from a war of passions within each individual. How do you find the inner peace that will conduce to outer peace? Listen to the sermon!

Aired: 9/24/2006   Download Show

Sermon 297: Title to come

Description to come

Aired: 9/17/2006   Download Show

Sermon 296: Ephphatha

In this week's Gospel, Jesus heals a man who is deaf and dumb. When we read this account at the spiritual level, we see that he cures those who are deaf to the Word of God and hence unable to speak it clearly. How relevant this message is to our own time!

Aired: 9/10/2006   Download Show

Sermon 295 : Law and Laws

Whatever we reverence--baseball, good music, golf, the spiritual life--we surround with laws. Law is meant to preserve and enhance the integrity of certain basic goods. But law also carries with it a shadow side, namely, a certain legalism and fussiness. Our readings for this weekend explore these various aspects--positive and negative--of religious law.

Aired: 9/3/2006   Download Show

Sermon 294 : Many Went Away

The Eucharist has been, from the beginning, a source of conflict and division. This is, of course, not Christ's will, for the eucharist is supposed to be the great unifier. Nevertheless, for the past two thousand years, the radical doctrine of the real presence has compelled some to rebel. Why is this? Take a listen.

Aired: 8/27/2006   Download Show

Sermon 293 : "My Flesh is Real Food, My Blood is Real Drink"

Our Gospel for this weekend is the climax of Jesus' Bread of Life Discourse from the sixth chapter of John's Gospel. Given every opportunity to offer a symbolic interpretation of his words concerning his body and blood, Jesus intensifies the realism of his statement: "My flesh is real food; my blood is real drink." All Catholics must wrestle, in season and out, with the implications of this claim.

Aired: 8/20/2006   Download Show

Sermon 291 : Transfiguration of the Lord : Myth and History

In our second reading for this weekend, St. Peter tells us that, in sharing the Christian story, he was not trading in "cleverly concocted myths." There is a sharp distinction to be drawn between myth and history, and it matters enormously that Christianity is not a mythic system, but an historical religion. This feast of the Transfiguration gives us the opportunity to reflect on this difference.

Aired: 8/6/2006   Download Show

Sermon 290 : 17th Sunday in OT : The Mystery of the Mass

This weekend, we commence our careful reading of the remarkable sixth chapter of John's Gospel, the central theme of which is the eucharist. The sixth chapter opens with John's account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Every detail of this story is symbolically evocative of the liturgy, that great prayer in the context of which the eucharist is situated.

Aired: 7/30/2006   Download Show

Sermon 289 : 16th Sunday in OT : The Cross is Our Peace

We continue our reading of Paul's extraordinary letter to the Ephesians. We hear that the cross of Jesus has broken down the wall of enmity which divided Jews and Gentiles. At the very center of Christianity is the conviction that the death of Jesus on the cross represented God's victory over all the dark forces that divide us. What looked like ultimate defeat was in fact God's triumph over the power of division.

Aired: 7/23/2006   Download Show

Sermon 288 : 15th Sunday in OT : The Five Act Drama

For the next several weeks, we are going to be reading from Paul's magnificent letter to the Ephesians. In our passage for today, we learn that we are situated within the context of a great theodrama, written and directed by God, and designed to lead us to eternal life. The Biblical drama has five acts: creation, the fall, the formation of Israel, Jesus Christ, and the Church. We read the Scriptures in order to discern the contours of that drama and, more importantly, our place within it.

Aired: 7/16/2006   Download Show

Sermon 287 : 14th Sunday in OT : The Call of the Prophet

Every baptized person is conformed to Christ: King, Priest, and Prophet. Thus speaking the divine truth (prophecy) is not the concern of priests and bishops alone, but of all members of the church. From Ezekiel and Mark, we can discern a number of qualities of the prophetic office. First, the prophet does not speak his own word, but God's. Second, the prophet is given a difficult assignment. And third, the prophet is summoned, not to success, but faithfulness.

Aired: 7/9/2006   Download Show

Sermon 286 : 13th Sunday in OT : The Daughter of Jairus and the Book of Leviticus

In order to understand the power of our Gospel reading for this week, we must attend to the book of Leviticus. In that great rule-book of Israelite life, we hear that contact with a hemorrhaging woman or with a corpse would result in ritual uncleanliness. When Jesus touches the hemorrhaging woman and the dead daughter of Jairus, he is not made unclean; in fact he makes them clean. In so doing, he redefines what it means to be a member of the true people of Israel.

Aired: 7/2/2006   Download Show

Sermon 285 : 12th Sunday in OT : The "De Profundis" Prayer

Psalm 130 begins with the words, "out of the depths, I have cried to you, O Lord." Throughout the great tradition, the prayer "de profundis," (out of the depths) has been one of the most powerful expressions of our reliance upon God. When our lives have bottomed out, when we are lost and at the end of our strength, we turn to God. The cry of the apostles in the boat, as the waves crash over the side and threaten to drown them, is a New Testament example of this prayer. Do you need to pray it today?

Aired: 6/25/2006   Download Show

Sermon 284 : 11th Sunday in OT : The Mass and Sacrifice

For this feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, I reflect on the Mass as a sacrifice. Sacrificial language runs right through all of our readings for today, just as it runs through the whole of Israelite history. In Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, God's fidelity unto death finally meets a human obedience unto death--and in that meeting, the covenant is fully realized, and salvation is accomplished. The Mass is the re-presenting of that world-changing event.

Aired: 6/18/2006   Download Show

Sermon 283 : God Is Love : The Holy Trinity-Solemnity

On the feast of the Trinity, we reflect on the uniquely Christian definition of God: God is love. Love is not something that God does, or an attribute that God has; love is what God is. This means that God must be a play between lover, beloved, and love--between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Aired: 6/11/2006   Download Show

Sermon 282 : Pentecost : Pentecost and the Tower of Babel

All the Jews in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost heard the disciples preaching in their own languages. This miracle of the Spirit is the reversal of the Tower of Babel, when God scattered the nations and confused their languages. The Holy Spirit is the solution to the spiritual problem of the one and the many. In God alone can the many come together fruitfully as one.

Aired: 6/4/2006   Download Show

Sermon 281 : 7th Sunday of Easter : More Da Vinci Code

This week I discuss two more themes that emerge in the Da Vinci Code: the Gnostic Gospels and anti-Catholicism. Much of the storyline of the Da Vinci Code flows from the controversial Gnostic tellings of the life of Jesus. These are, in fact, far less historically reliable than the canonical Gospels--not to mention less theologically sound. And the book as a whole should be classed in the genre of anti-Catholic screed. We shouldn't be hysterical about American anti-Catholicism, but we also shouldn't be naive about it. I promise that this is my last word about the Da Vinci Code! Next week we're back to the Scriptures

Aired: 5/28/2006   Download Show

Sermon 280 : 6th Sunday of Easter : The Da Vinci Code

I don't like departing from the Scriptures in these homilies, but the appearance of the movie based upon the wildly popular novel The Da Vinci Code warrants a response. The central claim of the book--that Jesus is not divine--stands directly opposed to the central and defining claim of the Church. The Da Vinci Code argues that the divinity of Jesus was a fourth-century invention. Nothing could be further from the truth. This week and next, I will address this question and some others that arise from the Da Vinci Code.

Aired: 5/21/2006   Download Show