John 15:9-17 Mother’s Day, like any other holiday we celebrate, means different things to different people. This is because we are each unique. But, consider this!! Each one of us began our life in the womb of our birth mother. This is not generally what we think of when we celebrate Mother’s Day. Face it, none of us would be here if it were not for this first dwelling place. There are a multitude of ways that conception occurs. But no matter how we are conceived, we all begin our journey in the environment of the womb and …
Paul Knitter’s Reflection from Good Friday, April 3, 2015
Jesus before Pilate (John 18:28-40) This passage is as profoundly inspiring as it is dangerously misleading. It suggests what is the redeeming, transformative meaning of Jesus’ death, but it also misleads us as to why Jesus died. The author of John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus’ death was called for by “the Jews,” by “your own people.” (The phrase “the Jews,” comes up 21 times in his Passion narrative.) We know now, as the Second Vatican Council has admitted, that this accusation, which has branded the Jews as Christ-killers and so has inspired and justified the horrors of anti-Semitism throughout …
Leora Weitzman’s Homily, April 19, 2015
3rd Sunday of Easter • 4/19/15 • Leora Weitzman Acts 3:12-19, 1 John 3:1-7, Luke 24:36b-48 “Everyone is born left-handed,” says a left-handed coffee mug. “You become right-handed when you commit your first sin.” “We are born of God, we are God’s children now,” says John in his letter. “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil.” This first letter of John has my head spinning. Last week, we heard from chapter 1: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” That would seem to make us …
Paul Knitter’s Homily from Easter Vigil, April 4, 2015
“If Not Now, Why Then?” WHY IS THIS NIGHT DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER NIGHTS? This year, here at Holy Wisdom there are two answers to this question that opens Jewish and Christian paschal celebrations: Tonight is the night when the Christian people of God celebrate the victory of the Risen Christ over the threat of death…. … and tonight is the night when the people of Wisconsin hope to celebrate the victory of their basketball team over the threat of Kentucky! There is, unfortunately, a clash of celebrations that marks this night special. They’re both happening at the same time! …
Paul Knitter’s Homily from Easter Vigil, April 4, 2015
“If Not Now, Why Then?” WHY IS THIS NIGHT DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER NIGHTS? This year, here at Holy Wisdom there are two answers to this question that opens Jewish and Christian paschal celebrations: Tonight is the night when the Christian people of God celebrate the victory of the Risen Christ over the threat of death…. … and tonight is the night when the people of Wisconsin hope to celebrate the victory of their basketball team over the threat of Kentucky! There is, unfortunately, a clash of celebrations that marks this night special. They’re both happening at the same time! …
Libby Caes’ Homily from Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015
Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015 Phil.2:5-11 Mark 11:1-11, 14:1-15:47 Today’s proclamation of the gospel embraces a very diverse cast. There are the obvious players: Jesus The twelve disciples with the spotlight shining on Judas and Peter, The high priest, Pilate. And there is a host of unnamed people who give the drama depth and irony: bystanders, the chief priests, elders and the scribes, a man carrying a jug of water, the servant girl who questions Peter, a young man wearing only a linen cloth who then escapes naked, the slave whose ear is cut off, two bandits, the person giving …
Joseph Wiesenfarth’s Homily, March 22, 2015
Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 5:5-10, John 12:20-33 Recently I was surprised by a word. Not so much surprised by the word itself but by the user of the word. My granddaughter, age 3, wakes up early in the morning for her Day Care, but she’s not keen on getting dressed to go to it. So recently she told her mother, “Mama, underwear is overrated.” Eventually, I’m sure she’ll find out that it isn’t overrated, just overpriced. But, I wonder, where does a three-year old get a four-syllable word? We’ve got something of a similar sense of some words being …
Albert Majkrzak’s Homily, March 15, 2015
On August 16th 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Toward the end of his speech he said this: “If you will let me be a preacher just a little bit – One night, a juror came to Jesus and he wanted to know what he could do to be saved. Jesus didn’t get bogged down in the kind of isolated approach of what he shouldn’t do. Jesus didn’t say, “Now Nicodemus, you must stop lying.” HE didn’t say, “Nicodemus, you must stop cheating if you are doing that.” He didn’t …
Patti LaCross’ Homily, March 1, 2015
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38 I love my life; and I hope that you can say the same thing. I am grateful every day for all the love that surrounds me, the food on our table, a home, choices. So I question: in a world of so much need, so much struggle, what does it mean to wear this, my life, lightly? Today’s readings require us to live with that tension: To hold fast to the covenant of our faith, and lightly to our life – even as we live it with gratitude and joy. Stories of …
Libby Caes’ Homily, February 22, 2015
Mark 1:9-15 When I was a hospital chaplain I would sometimes ask patients, “Where is God/Jesus/the Holy in all this?” I would use the language of the transcendent that the person I was with used.. I wanted to know how they connected the dots, what meaning their faith or beliefs had in their challenges, illness or suffering. I got a wide variety of responses. Sometimes the reply would be, “God wants to teach me something.” Or “God is testing me.” Or, “God is using this to make me stronger.” When I heard such responses I would think to myself, …