Friday, August 7, 2026

 

Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Nahum 2:1.3.3:1-3.6-7; Matthew 16:24-28)

To appreciate the drama in today’s gospel, one must remember that Peter has just recognized Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Jesus approved of the title but warned that it will not bring him the glory Peter imagines when they arrive in Jerusalem. Because Peter could not tolerate defeatist talk, he argued with Jesus.  The Lord had to reproach him.

Now Jesus tells of the costs of following him.  As he will be crucified so his disciples must bear their crosses.  This is only another way of saying that the hardship and suffering they will inevitably face as they carry out his will must not be shunned but accepted and even embraced.

Tomorrow we will celebrate one of Jesus’ true disciples.  St. Dominic did not flinch from suffering for Jesus’ sake.  Fra Angelico pictures him embracing Jesus’ cross. As a boy, Dominic sold his books to provide for the poor in midst of famine.  As a friar, he gave himself day and night to preaching the gospel.  By day whether by word or action he proclaimed God’s love in Jesus Christ.  By night he sacrificed sleep as he prayed that Jesus’ mission in the world might be extended by his brothers and sisters.

Monday, September 14, 2020

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

(Numbers 21:4b-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17)

Some see in the figure of a cross the hope of transcendence.  A horizontal line signifies a never-changing end of life.  Things may improve from one generation to the next, but everyone is terminal.  The cross, however, has a vertical component breaking through the relentless movement toward death.  This pole promises glory beyond the struggles of the world. Paul expresses this work in the passage from Philippians.  Because Christ accepted death on a cross, God raised him to glory.

Early Christians especially saw the cross as a sign of contradiction.  To them the cross represented Rome’s cruelest form of execution.  It meant torture and death.  Yet Christ, by dying on a cross and then rising from the dead, turned the cross into an instrument of life.  Today’s first reading reveals the cross as a sign of contradiction.  The Israelites having been bitten by serpents were dying from infection.  But  when they looked on the serpents mounted on the pole, they were cured of the snakes’ venom.  

Today’s gospel expresses still another Christian view of the cross.  The cross becomes the sign of God’s love for us.  When Jesus tells of the Son of Man being lifted up, he is speaking of both his crucifixion and his resurrection.  When we look upon him as our savior, we avail ourselves of God’s love that enfolds us into eternal life.

Wednesday, Februrary 26, 2020

Ash Wednesday

(Joel 2:12-18; II Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6.16-18)

Is it not ironic that we put ashes on our foreheads today when the gospel tells us to wash our face?  But ashes are just a way for us to encourage one another to start the Lenten journey.  It would be deceitful if we only practiced Lenten penitence for one day.  It would be wrong as well to broadcast our self-imposed deprivations every day of Lent. 

Ashes are not to be worn proudly but with humility.  They remind us and tell others that we have sinned.  That is, they indicate that we have followed our own will rather than obey God’s.  The fact that they are spread in the shape of a cross is also significant.  We will hear in Lenten gospels Jesus telling his disciples to take up their crosses and follow him.  He means that we are to stop fleeing our responsibilities and complaining about them.  Rather, we are to shoulder them dutifully as Jesus shouldered his.  Wearing the cross of ashes indicates our intention to do so.

Forty days may seem like a long time to fast regularly, pray assiduously, and serve others significantly.  However, the time seems to accelerate as days grow longer for us living in the Northern Hemisphere.  Even more helpful, these burdens become light because we share them with Jesus, the Lord.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 1:11-14; Luke 12:1-7)

It is said that a Christian during the early centuries of persecution would walk up to a stranger and make a line on the ground with his foot. If the person would draw a line through the first to make a cross, the two would know that they could talk freely. If the other did not respond, then the conversation would not mention faith in Christ. The gospel today seems to reference such a custom.

Jesus says that what has been whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on housetops. He apparently means his Lordship, which his disciples knew of but did not understand well. After his resurrection with the coming of the Holy Spirit, they will see clearly and profess openly that in Jesus sins are forgiven and people experience eternal life.

Today religion has once again been privatized. Social pressures intimidate people from talking openly how God has affected their lives. Ironically, it is a message that others not only need but want to hear. When we give testimony to our faith, we strengthen others’ resolve to live righteous lives that benefit society and lead to their salvation.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

(Colossians 2:6-15; Luke 6:12-19)

The Coptic Christians in Egypt are said to be tattooed in childhood with the sign of the cross. The mark not only makes them stand out among the Muslim majority, it also reminds them of their salvation.

The reading from the Letter to the Colossians today charts the dimensions of that salvation. Our selfish desires are buried through our participation in the cross by means of Baptism. Its power also raises us up to live in the world as free men and women attracting others to Christ. Any debt that we owed because of past sins the cross of Jesus pays in full through the blood of the cross. Finally, it subdues the powers of evil that might allure us from the path of righteousness.

We may not want to be tattooed, but we are wise to keep an image of the cross before us. Could anyone claim that a Christian who lays a crucifix on her desk at work is imposing her religion on others? Could not a cross or crucifix be found to accommodate any decor or style of household furnishings? Of course, the concern of somehow offending others or even good taste is hardly what keeps us from retaining a cross before us. The real issue is whether or not we want to be dominated by the one we call “Lord” who hung upon the cross.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Number 21:4b-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17)

Although the swastika has been used for eons with varied significances, most people see it today as a symbol of Nazism. As such, it conveys the idea of a misconceived super-race with the supposed right to conquer and suppress any nation or people. Analysts have found this meaning stemming from the design of a cross that is turned in upon itself.

Since Jesus death and resurrection, the cross has been associated with human transcendence through belief in Jesus’ divinity. The horizontal bar symbolizes human destiny without Christ doomed to destruction. But Christ, symbolized by the vertical bar, gives humanity eternal possibilities if humans but attach themselves to him through faith. However, the right angles of the swastika represent humanity’s turn to itself again intercepting the hope of transcendence.

All this may sound like heady speculation, but it also may give us a better appreciation for the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross that we celebrate today. In Roman times the cross was a sign of death, much like a hangman’s noose today, because it was used to execute criminals. Jesus, however, transformed it into a symbol of life by embracing death in perfect love according to the Father’s will. Following him as our Lord and Savior, we can view the cross as an assurance of our new destiny.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

(Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 9:22-25)

When Jesus speaks of taking up one’s cross in the gospel, we usually think of accepting the hardships that are part of every person’s life. Even the rich get sick. Even the famous suffer heartache. We want to bear with disease and anxiety with the same patience and courage that characterized Jesus as he headed toward Jerusalem.

But when the gospel speaks of the cross at the beginning of Lent, another idea comes to mind. We think not so much of the trials thrust upon us as of the penances taken on voluntarily. We search for ways to deprive ourselves – perhaps from some food or drink that we enjoy and from the rest or entertainment that we defer in helping others. Certainly in our age of instant gratification such behavior appears bizarre and even masochistic to many, but we know differently. We understand that such sacrifice conforms us more to the one whom we not just admire and follow but who gives us salvation.

How does this happen? Jesus allowed his persecutors to torture him out of love for us. We show a parallel love by denying ourselves. It is the same spiritual motivation that people show in sympathy actions – a wife giving up wine in support of her alcoholic husband or even a union showing solidarity with another that is on strike by calling a work stoppage. Also self-denial makes us morally stronger, again like Jesus. We exhibit control over our sensual appetites as well as the capacity to better appreciate their fulfillment on the day of glory.

Homilette for Friday, August 8, 2008

Memorial of St. Dominic, priest

(Matthew 16:24-28)

When William Jefferson Clinton was first inaugurated President of the United States, his wife Hillary was wearing a cross on a chain around her neck. Radio commentators asked whether the cross was an appropriate symbol on such a civic occasion. A more poignant question would have been whether Mrs. Clinton knew the significance of her jewelry.

In the gospel Jesus tells us that to be his disciples we must take up our cross and follow him. Wearing a cross signifies that we have accepted the terms. As his disciples, everyday we will encounter challenges because we are opting for self-denial which goes against our hard-wired fallen human nature. Sometimes – like when the cross demands that we give up the possibility of marriage to someone we are exceptionally fond of – it will seem too much to bear. But, of course, we can always count on Jesus himself to help us carry it.

It seems that St. Dominic never flinched in carrying his cross. His followers saw him as both austere and amiable. He would stay up all night praying on the floor of the Dominican basilica in Rome. However, such piety did not leave him too weary the next day to graciously encourage his brother friars. Several witnesses summed up Dominic’s virtue by testifying in his Acts of Canonization, “He spoke only of God or to God.”

Homilette for Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Wednesday, VI Week

(Acts 17)

Jerome Murphy-O’Connor may be the greatest living Dominican Scripture scholar. He is also one of the world’s experts on Paul, the Apostle. A few years ago he published a book which he called Paul: His Story. The work tries to fill in the gaps about the life of Paul from what is suggested in the letters of Paul, from the Acts of the Apostles, and from what is known about the geography and history of Paul’s time. Fr. Murphy-O’Connor distinguishes his “story” from historical fiction because he does not try to put words into Paul’s mouth. Rather, he surmises what Paul must have felt and thought when, for example, he had the vision – recorded in Acts -- of first being invited to preach in Europe by the Macedonian.

We might pursue Murphy-O’Connor’s method in considering the reading from Acts today. Some of us have had the fortune of visiting Athens and seeing the Parthenon. All of us have seen pictures of the majestic buildings that represent beauty and wisdom. Of course, Paul is speaking at the Aereopagus, but that structure – what it was -- likely inspired the same sense of high culture. We can see Paul clearing his throat preparing to use all his rhetorical power and logic to move his sophisticated audience. And the result is catastrophic! Not only do the people not respond favorably; they laugh at Paul. They dismiss him saying in effect, “That’s interesting, but tell us about it at another time.”

But Paul seems to have been converted by the experience. When he preaches to the Corinthians, according to his first letter to them, he doesn’t use any sophisticated language. No, he only presents to them Christ crucified which is enough, however, to convince them. Is it enough for us? Can we accept the crucified as our Lord and God? Perhaps it sounds only romantic to do so. But let’s try to be real about the consequences of accepting the crucified Lord. It means standing ready to suffer injury for his sake so that we might experience the glory of his resurrection. Is it enough for us?