Homily: 2nd Sunday of Lent

This weekend we heard the famous biblical story of Abraham and his son Isaac, and the angel who stopped Abraham at the last minute from sacrificing his son as God had ordered. While this passage demonstrates Abraham’s unbelievable faith in God – it is a story whose ending is often missed.  An ending which turns this story upside down and changes how that culture – and we – need to see God so differently.  What is this surprise twist? And how does it impact our spiritual journey?  Check it out…

Click here for a podcast of the homily

Click here for the text of the homily

Click here for the readings of the day

Homily: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

For the past few weeks, we have been listening to Jesus telling parables to the Chief Priests and Pharisees.  For Jesus is attempting to get their attention to think differently, choose differently and to open their eyes to his teachings of the Kingdom of God. But they show no interest in listening to his teachings about love and compassion, much less inclusion.  Thus, they look to corner Jesus into committing a crime of sedition and thus be crucified, by putting the question to Jesus if taxes should be paid to Caesar or not.

Perhaps a way to phrase this question in the present time would be: is our allegiance with the spiritual or the worldly?  Where is our focus today?  Since this story appears in all three Synoptic Gospels, this story carries a deeper and more significant message than a Gospel about just paying taxes. What is that hidden meaning?  Check it out…

Click here for a podcast of the homily

Click here for the text of the homily

Click here for the readings of the day

Homily: The Wedding of Carole Moore and John Wagner

This past weekend I had the honor to officiate the wedding of a longtime friend, Carole Moore, who has directed the Children’s Choir at our parish of St. Paul Church in Princeton for over 30 years. Having lost her husband, and my dear friend, to cancer some 10 years ago – it was one of the first funerals I served as a Deacon.

Allowing God to open her eyes, Carole met a wonderful man, John Wagner, whose 40 year marriage ended with the death of his wife from cancer a few years ago. With a combined 65 years of marriage to their former spouses, they came to this new union as people who have learned that marriage requires you to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things in good times and bad…and certainly in sickness and in health. Their earlier marriages gave them knowledge and insight as well as a broken and mended heart. So walking alongside John and Carole this past year has been a blessing for me as I have had a front seat to witnessing their “seasoned love.” So let me tell you a bit of what that looks like…

To listen to the recording of the homily, click here

To read a transcript of the Homily, click here

Homily: Fifth Sunday of Easter

(c) Ivan Guaderrama

This weekend’s Gospel from John drops us in at the end of the Last Supper as Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment on how to live and love. The old directive was to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’  Jesus takes this up a few notches and says we are to love another as Christ loved us. So, what does that kind of love – depth of love – Christ centered love - look like? 

Perhaps the easiest way to understand this is through stories by Parker Palmer, Jean Vanier and Greg Boyle. Take a listen to the invitation that is before us each and every day – of how we are called to “ventilate the world” with love, tenderness, compassion, forgiveness and mercy. 

To listen to a podcast of the homily, click here

For the text of the homily, click here

For the readings of the day, click here

Homily: 6th Sunday of Easter

In this Sunday’s Gospel we hear the three most important words given to us in the Bible. By far, it is the greatest and hardest thing Christ asked us to do...but truly…it is all that really, really matters.

What are those words…and why do we find it so hard to follow them?

Check it out….

 
For the podcast of the homily, click here

For the transcript of the homily, click here

For the readings of this Sunday, click here

Eulogy for Marjorie Gilbert Knipper

On December 25, 2016 our Step-mother, Margie Gilbert Knipper, at the age of 86, died after a short illness.  She joined both of my parents in the arms of the risen Lord.  Today, friends and family gathered together as we celebrated her life with a Mass of Resurrection at St. Paul Church in Princeton NJ.

Margie had an incredible life as a religious sister, author, playwright, artist, poet, minister, Religious Education Director, and wife.

In 1980 she jotted down her Philosophy of Life:

1.      Trust in God

2.      Be kind to everyone

3.      Do what you want to do

4.      For spirituality – say the Our Father and listen to the Spirit within you

5.      Be honest – no matter what

6.      Don’t take yourself too seriously

7.      Be grateful. Thank God

8.      Appreciate a blade of grass, how a rug is made, a song, a child, a book, sand, sea, flowers…see God’s face in every flower.

9.      Pray for a friend!

Her life was filled with many blessings and no surprise that she was called home to the Lord on Christmas night.  Why do I say that?  Listen to the words I shared with all those who came together today – and more about our dear Margie…

Click here for the text of the homily

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Light, Law and Love

The current Sunday Gospels have us dwelling within Mathew’s Sermon on the Mount which pulls together the best of Christ’s teaching into one setting - making it clear to all that there is a new way to live.  Each of us are the salt of the earth and light of the world.  And it is through living out our lives that we bring to life the light of Christ – a true manifestation.  So, then, why do so many look to hide their light – or worse yet try to hide the light of others under a proverbial basket.  This past week the media has been filled with such stories:

Recently, students from East Catholic High School in Seattle rallied in support of their gay vice principal who was fired for marrying his husband.  Father John Whitney, SJ, pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Seattle, in a recent homily brought light onto this topic in support of the students. “In the last few weeks, these students… have given us an example of the kind of passionate discernment, motivated by the Gospel, that characterizes an important dimension of Catholic education—and, indeed, should characterize our faith both in and out of school."

In another case of trying to snuff out the light of others…. a Montana teacher was fired for conceiving a child out of wedlock for evidently violating the terms of her contract.  She made a decision to have the baby versus obtaining an abortion, which would have allowed her to keep her job by hiding evidence of sexual activity.  Cathleen Kaveny, professor of Theology at Boston College, writing on this termination reminded her readers: “Catholicism is a religion of “being,” not a religion of “willing.” Membership in the community depends upon, in most cases, baptism as an infant. You are part of the Catholic family–no matter what. That is the most deeply countercultural message the Church can convey in American culture, which has a deeply voluntarist strain–you say something wrong, you do something wrong, you’re out of the club : we choose to exclude you or you choose to exclude yourself.”

And probably the most recent and absurd example of ego-centricity gone rampant in an attempting to hide the light of others was last week’s media onslaught of people questioning how Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died of an apparent drug overdose, was afforded a Catholic funeral…as if being buried out of the Church was something to be earned.  Author and celebrant of the funeral, Fr. James Martin, SJ reminded all that, “Phil Hoffman was not only a baptized Catholic but also a person with a lovely soul, and so deserves a Catholic funeral, and Pope Francis reminds us that the sacraments aren’t for perfect people; they are for the rest of us.”

The issue at hand is that most of us are rooted and stuck on the “Law” – and using the law, such as it is, to measure others.  And thus we have lost the core message of the Sermon on the Mount – which is really about love. Versus laws, love is a real energy and spiritual force, forever alive and life giving.

So on this day and every day be eager to live in love and to allow your light AND the light of others to shine on and on.  Why wait.  Do it now.

 

Fall in love. Stay in love.

In the past week Teresa and I celebrated our 22^nd wedding anniversary.  Earlier in the month we were visiting our alma mater, University of Scranton, a Jesuit institution, for her reunion. So what better way to celebrate love of my wife and that of the Jesuits than with this quote from the late Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J.

 “Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.  What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.  It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.  

Fall in love.  Stay in love.  And it will decide everything.” 

Pedro Arrupe, S.J, 28^th Superior General of the Society of Jesus from 1965-1983.

So who or what are you in love with?

Homily: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time



Teresa and I and our kids on our wedding day.
June 23, 1990



On this Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time we celebrate the World Day of Marriage.  Today’s Gospel recounts Christ healing a leper through touch.  Why is this significant?  Do you have any ‘lepers’ in your community….or even in your family?  Did Christ really throw out the Law of his time?  So how do the words of some 4 – 8 year olds – those who still have a ‘Beginner’s Mind’  bring wisdom and clarity to all these questions. Take a look…

Click here for the readings.

Click here for the homily.