Be honest now. Did we really believe that we would all still be here in the third millennia of the Christian era, still waiting for Christ’s return? Saint Paul surely didn’t believe that we would still be here or else he never would have uttered those words in the second reading today. I tell you brothers and sisters, the time is running out. How could Paul have gotten it so wrong? The entire New Testament was written in the belief that Christ would come again and soon.

I wonder if part of the misunderstanding might just be due to a misunderstanding of what is meant by time. In the Gospel Jesus announces that this is the time of fulfillment, the kingdom of God is at hand. Clearly Jesus was not speaking about linear time, a chronology of events we would call it, where one day on the calendar follows another. The word used for time in this text is not about chronology, but what is called kairos. Kairos refers to heightened time, a time of opportunity or crisis. Jesus is saying that something important is going on something of earth-shattering importance, and until we get it, linear time is kind ...

I must admit to you that I am always a bit saddened to come to this feast of Epiphany, because I know that it marks the solemn end of the Christmas season. Most of your decorations are probably packed away already for another year. The house is cleaned; the tree is gone. There is something special about Christmas. Even amid the rush that business and buying places upon us, there is gentle joy and lightened spirit that seems to be present in people.

The feast of Epiphany, which we are celebrating today, is often referred to as the solemnity of Christmas. The magi have been added to the Christmas story. While little is actually known about their identity, their place in the Christmas story is meant to emphasize the universal extension of the gift of Jesus Christ to all people and nations. The magi clearly were not Jews and that makes them important for the telling of the story. Their place in the nativity story is that they are seekers, who come from foreign lands and they bring gifts. Their gifts to the Christ child remind us of how important is the gift that we have all received in the ...

Over the course of the year I think that it is safe to say that from time to time most of us could just use a hug. You may have people in your own life who are quick to say ‘I need a hug’. I wonder if you ever thought about Christmas as a hug from a loving God. God has hugged the human race and taken us all to his breast forever. I don’t think that it could be said of me that I view life through rose-colored glasses. I think that I am a realist. But I know that life can be tough for you. There are plenty of problems in our world as certainly in our personal lives as well. But how can we possibly be cynical or disenchanted on a day like this? How can we size the world up as being ugly or gray, or only hear the cries of human clamoring and striving?

Do you think that our world is any worse off than the world to which the prophet Isaiah prophesized in the first reading? After decades of exile he could still hold out this wondrous hope for the people. A child has ...

On this the Fourth Sunday of Advent we stand at the doorway of another Christmas. The readings especially the first and the Gospel reading focus our attention on the notion of a dwelling place for God. No doubt King David believed that he was going to do something truly wonderful for God. He no longer has to fight his enemies and so he turns his attention to building a beautiful palace for himself and a splendid temple for God. It seems like a great idea at first until God turns the entire plan upside down. Should you build me a house to dwell in? God has been on the move all through Israel’s history, living just as they did, in makeshift tents. God was present in the portable tabernacle that they carried with them wherever they sojourned. What God has in mind will blow David away. There is a play on the word houses that it shifts from the notion of the house and temple that David will build to David’s ruling line, his descendants. David is talking about a temple but God is speaking for a dynasty.

In the Gospel we finally understand what that new residence will ...

The gospel of Mark begins today with chapter one, verse one. We may be somewhat surprised that there is no mention of the manger here. Rather where the writer of the Gospel takes us is to the wilderness. The wilderness is the birthplace of a people, a chosen people, who through the prophets are trying to find a way back to God again. As soon as wilderness is mentioned, the Israelites would have remembered the first wilderness from which they were delivered under Moses. This was the story of the Exodus. If the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings, then the book of Exodus is the book of redemption.

I think that it is safe to say that we all have exodus stories. Most of life is spent in some wilderness. There is always a past that has shaped us positively and negatively. There is always a future before us that holds promises and challenge. The message of the Baptist in the wilderness is totally focused on the future. The fullness of time was near and focused on the people’s need for repentance and a baptism that would stress this notion of repentance.

On this Second Sunday of ...

In just two weeks from now, the implementation of the New Roman Missal will take effect in the United States. I have written a number of articles over these past months, in an attempt to catechize and explain the new changes. For over two thousand years the Church has taken very seriously the command of Our Lord at the Last Supper, do this in memory of me. The church gives a primacy of importance to the celebration of the Mass. The Eucharist is the core of our Catholic life and is a key mark of our identity. When Jesus died on the cross, the Church was born, and the sacraments were given. It was really in this action that the culture of the Church was born.

Over the twenty-one centuries of her existence there have been a number of changes to the Mass. For some of us, we lived through a most dramatic change in 1965 when the New Order of Mass in our own language was begun for the first time. This change coming in two weeks is not nearly as dramatic. It is more akin to rebooting your computer. You know, you have a problem with your computer, ...

 As many of you know I returned from a mission trip to Haiti last week Friday. So many people have expressed interest in the trip and supported me with prayer that I thought I might spend this time on this weekend to give you an update on that trip.

The fight from Miami to Port Au Prince is a relatively brief 90 minutes. It seemed upon landing that it might as well have been on the other side of the world. I had worked in Guatemala earlier in my priesthood but Guatemala was nothing like this. The group from our diocese numbered twelve plus four members from Food for the Poor who accompanied us.

After almost two years Port Au Prince is still in a state of ruins. The tent cities are everywhere with human beings living in deplorable conditions of poverty and squalor. The beautiful civic buildings are in ruins, or so badly damaged that they are uninhabitable. The once beautiful cathedral of Port Au Prince is in rubble with its archbishop a victim of the earthquake. Our hosts wanted us to take it all in, because I am convinced that they wanted us to continue to tell ...

Who would you say owns the cross? Our first response would probably be that churches owned the cross. Yet if I had a chance to look in your jewelry boxes I suspect that I would discover that jewelers and fashion designers also have sizeable amount of stock in the cross.  It is everywhere. Distinguishing between the secular and scared is increasingly difficult in American culture.

There really is no mention of the cross explicitly in the Sunday readings. Yet when we see the cross, we notice that it represents the intersection of the vertical arm and a horizontal. Traditionally these have been seen as the Christian’s responsibility to love God and neighbor. In the exchange that takes place in the Gospel today between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees we see again a familiar sub-plot of Matthew’s Gospel. Actually this Gospel is a continuation of the Gospel we read last week where the scribes and Pharisees work together in trying to trap Jesus over the inscription on the coin. Whom do we have allegiance to God or Caesar? While today’s question in the Gospel sounds innocent enough, Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest; it is actually another ...

I presume that most of you know what a mission statement is. Many large organizations and institutions function from a mission statement. A mission statement paints in broad strokes, seeking to give the overall philosophy or purpose of an organization. The parish has a mission statement. It is on the front cover of the bulletin. The problem with mission statements is that they tend to be wordy and not really say anything. I once heard that the mission statement of one large hotel chain in our country was incredible simple. Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. There is a lot there between the lines if you think about it.

I don’t know if you would call it a mission statement but Jesus’ response to the Herodians and Parisees over the issue of the coin and the allegiance it implied was masterful. Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.  That statement is incredibly insightful. Let’s explore it for a moment.

Most Christians are familiar with the text from Deuteronomy that we should love the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind and soul. For the Jews this is referred to as the ...

The composition of the Bible took place over many centuries. The earliest books of the Old Testament were written some thirteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. The last books of the New Testament about a century after Jesus, give or take a few hundred years. The Bible is a book of laws, among other things. You all know that the Ten Commandments are found in the Bible. Religious laws are generally intended to govern the responses of the people to God and the relations of God’s people to each other.

As the generations passed, religious laws were understood to have a higher purpose and goal than merely regulating conduct. Don’t we see this in our own life? The laws, which our parents make us observe when we were young, were given to us to help develop our character and mature. Even though when we were young we were all convinced that our parents were just trying to make us unhappy. Think of the Bible as a storybook. The story is about growing up to God. The most perfectly integrated and inner motivated person that ever lived was Jesus Christ. Jesus was so well put together that while others ...