Friday, January 30, 2026

 

Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

(II Samuel 11:1-4a.5-10a.13-17; Mark 4:26-34)

An important American theologian wrote that the “Kingdom of God” is a poetic way of saying “God.”  What is God like?  Jesus gives a partial answer to this perennial question with today’s parables. He is like a mysterious power that makes things happen for human benefit.

There is no patent on the beginning of life. No one knows how exactly life first came about.  In today’s gospel Jesus attributes its coming to be to God’s acting in the world.  “The Kingdom of God” typically acting quietly, he says, describes how biological life came about. 

More than this, Jesus explains life’s blessings with another parable of God’s Kingdom.  He states that God’s Kingdom has the power to turn a tiny mustard seed into a giant mustard plant.  The product provides nutrition and repose to a multitude of birds.  One might make her own parable here.  God’s kingdom is the dynamic force that turned a little Georgian restaurant into the ubiquitous luncheon enterprise known as “Chick Fil A.” Or, more in keeping with the Eucharist, the Kingdom of God is like a band of twelve men in Israel becoming an institution with over one billion members in almost every country in the world.

The parables of the Kingdom inspire us to consider God’s goodness.  More than that, they encourage us to act so that we might benefit from its prodigious bounty.

Friday, January 29, 2021

 Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 10:32-39; Mark 4:26-34)

Every year for the last forty-seven years, thousands of demonstrators come to Washington for the March for Life.  The demonstration proposes “to end abortion by uniting, educating, and mobilizing pro-life people.”  The magnitude of the march has varied through the years, but the tendency is to have increasing numbers.  Demonstrators have a sense of joy and comradeship.  It exemplifies the kingdom of God which Jesus parabolizes in today’s gospel.

Jesus says that the kingdom begins as something small like a seed of grain.  Once planted, however, it grows giving sustenance like wheat or comfort like a mustard tree.  The kingdom is God’s presence that both touches and satisfies us.  Corporately, the kingdom brings peace and joy. Individually, it blossoms into eternal life.

We might see Jesus himself as the kingdom.  He offers his friendship to us through the sacraments.  He makes our life easier because he helps us to do what is right.  He makes death a joy, once we get beyond the dying.  Then he will welcome us into eternal life.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

(I Samuel 3:1-10.19-20; Mark 1:29-39)

The first reading today takes place in the period of the judges of Israel.  It is a time of frustration because the Israeli nation cannot get control of the land.  Local peoples always threaten to take it back.  The reading tells of Samuel, the judge and prophet, who will eventually anoint David king of all Israel.  David will consolidate the land in the name of Israel and its God.

David’s reign over Israel will serve as a model for Jesus’ proclaiming the kingdom of God throughout the world.   Jesus shows both the power and the will of God by curing diseases and casting out demons.  In today’s gospel, still early in the story, Jesus expresses his intention to preach throughout Galilee.  In time he will bring the message of the kingdom to Judea.  After his death, his apostles will proclaim it throughout the earth.  It is a kingdom of justice and peace or, better, eternal happiness.

The kingdom of God is not political.  It does not vie with men and women to govern the commercial affairs of the people.  Its rule runs deeper than that.  The kingdom of God engages human freedom reorienting it from selfish concerns to love of God and neighbor.  We freely submit to it because it will lead us from frustration to eternal happiness.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

(I Samuel 1:1-8; Mark 1:14-20)

We may wonder how Elkanah, obviously a pious Israelite, could have two wives.  The Mosaic covenant allowed divorce, but it insisted on one wife at a time.  One commentator reasons that at this early stage of Israel’s history, marriage regulation was downplayed.  It was like our Catholic precept of attending mass on holydays of obligation.  Many pastors don’t even announce upcoming days of obligation and provide only one mass.  The commentator further suggests that Elkanah took a second wife in order to assure descendants.

Today’s gospel indicates a contrary dynamic to the concern about descendants.  James and John on hearing Jesus’ call leave their father behind to follow Jesus.  They renounce family for the sake of the kingdom.  Mark’s gospel, as the others, relate the in-breaking of the kingdom with Jesus, the Son of God.  Some may call this development a “big thing.”  That term, however, makes the coming of the kingdom just one important event among others.  The gospel writers are saying, on the other end, that this is the event to end events.  The coming of the kingdom of God represents the end of history.  It merits the abandoning of family concerns.

So we are left to wonder again.  How can history continue if it ended with Jesus’ dying and rising from the dead?  As incredible as it may sound, we live in an “in-between” time waiting for Jesus to return for the ultimate ending.  This is a time for preaching his Lordship so that all human beings may experience his salvation.  It is time for us to prepare for his coming with works of mercy.

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

(Philemon 7-20; Luke 17:20-25)

It is often said that the biblical Kingdom of God is better rendered Reign of God.  The reason given is that the concept indicates a dynamism more than a territory.  Something similar may be said about heaven.  Although people may point to the sky when they say the word, heaven is more a condition of love than a physical locale.  In today’s gospel, Jesus stretches the idea of Kingdom of God even more.

Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God is neither a place nor a thing.  He adds that it is “among” them.  He may be referring to a relationship with himself.  The Kingdom of God is friendship with Jesus himself.  He provides all the security and support, the joy and the affection that makes life worth living.  Since he will rise from the dead, the Kingdom of God will likewise never know a sunset.

Jesus extends his hand to form a relationship with us daily.  He is present to us physically in the Eucharist where we actually take him into ourselves.  The experience does not diminish him, but it does expand us.  Having his love and support, we can become as gracious and happy as he.  We become bearers of the Kingdom to others.

Homilette for Thursday, November 12, 2009

Memorial of St. Josaphat, bishop and martyr

(Wisdom 7:22b-8:1; Luke 17:20-25)

However arrogant the Pharisees appear in the gospels, they also sincerely want to know about God. In today’s gospel, the Pharisees ask Jesus when the Kingdom of God will come about. Like us they long for a society where everyone behaves as God commands.

Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees -- that the Kingdom is in their midst -- echoes what he has said before. The Kingdom presents itself gradually like wheat growing in a field. It is there even as Jesus speaks. As a matter a fact, it has come in the person of Jesus who stands before them. It is present in us as well as we carry Jesus in our person through Baptism.

The Kingdom of God is present when we make ourselves “Advent Angels” or some other kind of caregiver. It is found in our presence when we reach to help the stranger. It is there where the man stops on the highway to assist a driver with a flat tire and no idea how to jack up a car. It is there when we smile at the driver who comes into our lane.

Homilette for Friday, January 23, 2009

Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 8:6-13; Mark 3:13-19)

When President Harry Truman campaigned to keep his residence at the White House in 1948, he took to the rails. He crisscrossed the country speaking to the people in every town with a train station. The tactic gave the president access to large numbers of citizens and also pictured him in their minds as one like them. The railway campaign was a symbol not only saying something about Harry Truman’s character but also accomplishing his purpose of being reelected.

We can see Jesus choosing twelve men as his core disciples or apostles in a similarly dynamic way. Jesus does not choose twelve because it is a number divisible by many other whole numbers, much less because he has only twelve men qualified for the job. No, he chooses twelve to symbolize the twelve tribes of the Kingdom of Israel which Jesus has come to restore. The Kingdom of Israel is to serve as the foundation of the wider Kingdom of God that is bringing peace to the whole world. The men are also to help realize the kingdom through their preaching and healing.

Sometimes we satisfy ourselves thinking that Jesus came to save individual souls for a heaven above and beyond the world. This is not the picture the gospels present us, however. Although we believe that we have an eternal destiny beyond our deaths, we need to recognize that the Kingdom which Jesus has inaugurated is a new world order where men and women live amicably together under God’s righteous rule. This vision remains the true Christian hope.

Homilette for Friday, November 28, 2008

Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Revelation 20:1-4.11-21.2; Psalm 84; Luke 21:29-33)

Apocalypse is the Greek word for revelation. For this reason the last book of the Bible, from which we take the first reading today, is alternately called the Apocalypse or the Book of Revelation (no s please). Apocalyptic literature, however, of which the Apocalypse is the only full biblical example, has a meaning beyond revelatory. It refers to stories that relate a struggle between God and the powers of darkness causing the end of the world as it now exists and its replacement by the Kingdom of God. Today’s first reading gives an account of that struggle and the coming Kingdom characterized by “a new heaven” and “a new earth.”

Since the destiny of the present world is annihilation, some Christians have questioned the value of working for a better world. “Why should we take risks to create a better society when we know that this world is bound to crumble?” they ask and, “Is it not just vanity to assume that the Kingdom of God is our work?” The “Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” of the Second Vatican Council addresses these provocative issues. It declares that “the expectation of a new earth must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this one.” Its reasoning is that present institutions can exhibit some of the values and constructs of the future age. For sure, it warns that not all earthly progress foreshadows the Kingdom of God, and that we must be careful never to equate the two. But still, since Christ began the work of the Kingdom when he walked the earth, then we, his followers, have the responsibility of carrying on his efforts. In other words, we must do what we can to build up the Kingdom of God until he comes again to complete the work.

Homilette for Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the Church

(Luke 4:38-44)

When Jesus retreats to a deserted place, we may conclude that he is going there to pray. However, the evangelist Luke has a different scenario in mind. The devil tempted Jesus in a desert place earlier in the gospel. Here the people come to tempt him again.

Jesus has successfully met the people’s needs. He spoke with an authority that left them astonished. He also cast out their maddening demons and cured their various types of diseases. Who wouldn’t want such a prophet to stay among them? The gospel does not mention how the people try to prevent Jesus from leaving them, but we can imagine them making offers difficult to refuse. They may tempt him with a life-tenure as rabbi of their synagogue. Or perhaps they propose the hand in marriage of the beautiful daughter of the town’s richest merchant! These kinds of deals would at least interest many of us.

But Jesus knows that he is no local teacher. No, he has come to tell the world about the Kingdom of God, indeed to inaugurate it with words, deeds, and ultimately with his life. He is not to be deterred by temptations of power, pleasure, or prestige. Jesus presents us here with an example and an assurance. We must know what we are about as Christians in the world and not let ourselves be led astray by temptations. There should be very little, if any at all, of following one’s fancy among us. Equally helpful, Jesus assures us that he has come to save us and will not allow anything to stop that from happening.

Homilette for February 1, 2008

Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

(Mark 4:26-34)

In “Jacobellis vs. Ohio,” 1964, the Supreme Court wrestled with the contentious issue of state censorship of pornographic material. Some justices thought that the state has no business trying to regulate what adults can see. Others thought that a state has a legitimate interest in restricting pornography. Justice Potter Stewart rendered his opinion which would permit all forms of obscenity except “hard-core pornography.” Commenting on what he meant by the latter, Justice Stewart wrote that he could not define the term. “But,” he said, “I know it when I see it.”

Although it has a diametrically opposite character, many of us have a similar difficulty explaining the Kingdom of God as Justice Stewart had defining pornography. Like him we might resign ourselves to say, “I know it when I see it.” In the gospel parables today Jesus provides us with some signs to look for. He says that the Kingdom starts as a seed planted by a sower whom, from a previous parable, we know to be a preacher of the word of God. Then, Jesus continues, the Kingdom grows slowly like a plant, produces good fruit, and becomes a great source of comfort for many.

We find examples of the Kingdom of God in the many movements within the Church like Marriage Encounter and Teens Encounter Christ. We might locate the Kingdom developing in our own lives as we slowly mature to give greater glory to God. Multiplied by millions of individuals, the Kingdom becomes a global reality exhibiting peace, justice, and compassion.