Catholic Homilies 2012

Current Homilies

Obedience and Freedom "This year's Gospel is difficult for me. It tells about Joseph and Mary's frantic search for their lost child. I have been with parents terrified by the disappearance of a child. Did he run away? Was he kidnapped?..." (December 30, 2012 - Holy Family Sunday)

Why Jesus Was Born "This story from the life of Dave Brubeck underscores our fundamental human problem. We are like an orphan who does not know who his father is. In fact, many people in our world do not even know they have Father...'" (December 25, 2012 - Christmas Homily)

In Haste "The pope's frankness and clarity may surprise you but I am sure it will increase your appreciation of who Jesus is and what he has done for us...'" (December 23, 2012 - Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C)

What Should We Do? "People have asked me a similar question: 'Father, is there any way I can help? Just tell me what you need. I would be glad to help any way way I can...'" (December 16, 2012 - Third Sunday of Advent, Year C)

The Day of Christ Jesus "I'd like to lead into today's homily with one of my favorite Far Side cartoons. It goes something like this: A large dinosaur is addressing a group of smaller dinosaurs..." (December 9, 2012 - Second Sunday of Advent, Year C)

Victim or Free? "At first he felt a sense of liberation - that he was not alone. As he got deeper in his new lifestyle, however, he noticed that it often involved other things: alcohol, mind-numbing drugs, pornography, and anonymous encounters..." (December 2, 2012 - First Sunday of Advent, Year C)

All or Nothing "Like Rhett Butler, Jesus is a relentless suitor. He is delighted by even a tiny reponse, but ultimately he wants all..." (November 25, 2012 - Feast of Christ the King, Year B)

The Freedom We Have Received "He delighted some of the audience and infuriated others by explaining that England too should have have a Thanksgiving Day..." (November 22, 2012 - Thanksgiving Day Homily)

The Last Things "What is one of the most visited spots in Seattle? It might surprise you, but it is the grave of our most famous citizen. You know who he is..." (November 18, 2012 - Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

A Splendid Woman "In Spanish a generous person is called 'esplendido.' Splendid. Jesus wants us to be splendid people. I think of two of my nephews..." (November 11, 2012 - Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Moment of Decision "This Tuesday we also face decisions regarding marriage, marijuana and schools. These issues have huge, long-range consequences, but, you know, you and I are facing something even more important - right now..." (November 4, 2012 - Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Love and Faith "I feel like Golde in Fiddler on the Roof. Out of the blue, her husband Tevye asks, 'Do you love me?..." (October 28, 2012 - Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Saint Kateri, Pray For Us "In 2006, a five-year-old boy named Jacob Finkbonner became infected with a flesh eating bacterium. Their priest, Fr. Timothy Sauer, suggested that they ask Kateri's intercession. They placed a relic of Kateri on his pillow..." (October 21, 2012 - Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Faith and Eternal Life "In spite of disappointment with how we implemented the Council, I remain grateful for many of its gifts. I would like to mention just one..." (October 14, 2012 - Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

A Difficult and Controversial Gospel "Many people are saying that marriage is finished. Young people prefer to simply live together and when they do marry, those marriages seem so fragile. And, along with all that, a growing number want to redefine marriage..." (October 7, 2012 - Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Spiritual War "Dr. Peter Kreeft once spoke about the spiritual war and he asked, 'Who is the enemy?' He goes through a list of possible enemies, including Muslim terrorists, the media, the liberal establishment, abortionists and cafeteria Catholics..." (September 30, 2012 - Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

We Are Little People "A lovely hymn says, "'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free, 'tis a gift to come down where we out to be." Jesus is asking us to come down..." (September 23, 2012 - Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Taking Up The Cross "Finally the moment arrived - checkmate. C.S. Lewis knelt in his room. He said that he was 'the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.' But then came the really hard part..." (September 16, 2012 - Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

A Work of Liberation "As he did for the deaf man, Jesus wants to do for us - to open a world of meaning and purpose. Especially for our young people...He wants you to realize the meaning of your masculinity or femininity..." (September 9, 2012 - Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Dealing with Distractions "A third type of distraction calls for some delicacy: those that come from immodesty in dress..." (September 2, 2012 - Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

The Supper of the Lamb "Gnostics think they have a secret knowledge (in Greek "gnosis") that elevates them above others. They don't need baptism. They don't need the Eucharist. They don't even need the ordinary rules of morality..." (August 26, 2012 - Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

What We Must Do "But isn't it illogical to receives the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus, and then say, 'I wasn't fed'? Satan has a lot of strategies to keep us from the Eucharist, but the easiest..." (August 19, 2012 - Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Why Jesus Came "Pope Benedict writes about the logic of redemption, 'God cannot simply ignore man's disobedience and all the evil of history; he cannot treat it is inconsequential or meaningless.' Think about the mass murder in that theater in Colorado..." (August 12, 2012 - Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Jesus' Identity "If these views of Jesus are too narrow, who then is he? To understand Jesus' identity we have to be alert to 'I am' statements. ..." (August 5, 2012 - Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Love Languages "When I think about Sister Barbara - and other great women religious I have known - I have to admit that I resent the stereotype of the stern sister holding a ruler in her hand. For the record..." (July 29, 2012 - Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

The Way to Heaven "Now that I have been at St. Mary of the Valley for over three years, I can tell you what happened when I first arrived. As I got into town, I was a little disoriented so I ask this boy..." (July 22, 2012 - Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

The Source "The Russian people have a fable about a foolish boar..." (July 15, 2012 - Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Mary Opens a Window "The great Catholic televangelist Bishop Fulton Sheen used to tell this humorous story..." (July 8, 2012 - Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Excel in Every Respect "You might be surprised how much time Paul devotes to collections. Specifically he asks the more prosperous 'Europeans' (Corinthians, Romans, Macedonians, Celts, etc.) to aid the 'mother church' in Jerusalem and Judea. When you think about it, a collection is a political statement..." (July 1, 2012 - Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

The Herald of Freedom "John heralds freedom in a very practical way. Do you remember his basic message?..." (June 24, 2012 - Birth of St. John the Baptist)

Meaning of the Mustard Seed "To understand the parable of the mustard seed, I will quote two books..." (June 17, 2012 - Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Most Precious Possession "One of my great inspirations is a man who had a very short priesthood..." (June 10, 2012 - Corpus Christi - The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year B)

Ultimate Freedom "Here we get an occasional hors d'oeuvre, but the banquet is somewhere else..." (June 3, 2012 - Trinity Sunday)

Our First, Most Cherished Liberty "People used to say the Church should stay out of people's bedrooms. Now they are saying the Church should pay for what people do in their bedrooms..." (May 27, 2012 - Pentecost Sunday)

He Took Prisoners Captive "Let me make a comparison. I've sometimes asked people if they know who was the first prisoner of war - POW - to become a pope. They guess everyone from St. Peter to Pope John Paul II..." (May 20, 2012 - Ascension of the Lord)

Love Your Crooked Neighbor "Auden wrote those words after World War II - a time when the world had seen the failure of love on an immense scale...." (May 13, 2012 - Sixth Sunday of Easter)

Boldly in the Name of the Lord "Let me tell you about a woman who asked boldly. Her bold request came in the middle of a crisis..." (May 6, 2012 - Fifth Sunday of Easter)

The Most Inclusive Religion "If you were to ask what the most inclusive religion is, the answer would have have to be..." (April 29, 2012 - Fourth Sunday of Easter)

He Likes Matter "He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it..." (April 22, 2012 - Third Sunday of Easter)

Divine Mercy in a Time of Crisis "In marriage a man joins himself to one woman - to the exclusion of all others. That's no easy road. And being unmarried is no picnic either..." (April 15, 2012 - Second Sunday of Easter: Divine Mercy Sunday)

To Get Rid of My Sins "It caused quite a stir when, after many decades of searching, he entered the Catholic Church. Friends asked him why he became a Catholic. Chesterton replied..." (April 8, 2012 - Easter Sunday)

The Newness of Jesus' Death "Fr. Robert Barron has a powerful reflection on the newness of Christ's death. He uses an unexpected starting point - a movie titled 'The Hunger Games'" (April 6, 2012 - Good Friday Veneration of the Cross)

Blood Shed For Us "Persecution of Christians in those countries does not surprise us. What does suprise many is to hear about persecution in supposedly Christian countries..." (April 5, 2012 - Holy Thursday Mass of the Last Supper)

A Loud Cry "When we come to Jesus, feeling abandoned, something unexpected happens. We see it in the Gospel: After expressing abandonment, we hear that 'Jesus gave a loud cry.'" (April 1, 2012 - Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year B)

To Know the Lord "Regarding prayer, I recently read an interview with Fr. Liam Cary - the new bishop of Eastern Oregon...." (March 25, 2012 - Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year B)

Everything Matters - Except Everything "He said that one of the characteristics of the modern world is our willingness to talk about everything - nothing is off the table. He added, though, that there is one thing we are embarrassed to talk about..." (March 18, 2012 - Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B)

The Coming Tsunami "His boat, filled with passengers, was in a harbor. The warning came that a moving wall of water was on its way..." (March 11, 2012 - Third Sunday of Lent, Year B)

Two Steps to Glory "How do we avoid becoming an everlasting horror? How do we become an everlasting splendor? How do we realize our true potential - the glory that is within each of us?" (March 4, 2012 - Second Sunday of Lent, Year B)

The Convenant with Noah Today "Sometimes people ask if there are moral rules that all humans must follow. We have an answer in the Noahide Covenant..." (February 26, 2012 - First Sunday of Lent, Year B)

An Agressive Attempt to Deny Sin "If a person has a guilty conscience (and does not repent) he cannot bear that others do not accept what he is doing. In recent years we have witnessed how far some will go to get others to say that there is nothing wrong with things like homosexuality, abortion, sterilization and contraception..." (February 19, 2012 - Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

The Leper Inside "I would like to mention one person whom we shy away from. His disfigurements make us unwilling to look at him..." (February 12, 2012 - Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

I Do So Willingly "We are in an election season in the United States. Different candidates will be telling us they have the solution to our problems, but there is one word we are not likely to hear..." (February 5, 2012 - Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Liberation from Addiction "We do not know exactly what happened to Dostoevsky that night, but somehow his addiction was broken. It certainly had something to do with his desire to confess his sins and seek Christ�s forgiveness..." (January 29, 2012 - Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Time to Place Your Bet "And how will you know you made the right decision? When G.K. Chesterton finally entered the Catholic Church, people asked him why he did it..." (January 22, 2012 - Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Behold the Lamb of God "I am writing this homily in Peru where I have had a chance to see some of the magnificent Inca culture..." (January 15, 2012 - Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Dim by Comparison "When we encounter Christ, his light overwhelms even the stars. Astrology - and naturalism - fade when one discovers Christ..." (January 8, 2012 - Epiphany of the Lord)

The Power of a Blessing "Let me give you an example of the power of a blessing..." (January 1, 2012 - Feast of Mary the Mother of God)

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