Women and Children: The Center of Our Concern in the Reign of God Mark 10:2-16 “Some Pharisees approached Jesus and, as a test, asked, ‘Is it permissible for husbands to divorce wives?’” This question is a test, or better, a trap. Legislating morality was tricky business then and it still is today. Defining things like marriage, advocating regulation for things like fertility and justifying things like poverty leads into a quagmire that can get a prophet, a politician or even a homilist into big trouble. The Pharisees do indeed seek to lay this kind of trap for Jesus. Earlier in …
Wayne Sigelko's Homily from September 30, 2012
I absolutely love this reading from the Book of Numbers. First of all, the People of God are doing what they always do in Numbers, and if we’re really honest about it the People of God have done throughout their history. They’re whining! After all God has done, the escape from slavery in Egypt, crossing the Red Sea and watching an army bent on their slaughter being swallowed up in it. Being given water to drink from a rock and manna to eat from the sky. God’s People respond to all of this with, “God, Really, no meat? You couldn’t …
Libby Caes' Homily from September 9, 2012
Mark 7: 24-37 I don’t know about you but sometimes I get really, really tired. Exhausted. And then I am no fun to be around. When I am tired life feels overwhelming and there is not much to be hopeful about. Even doing the dinner dishes is too much! When I am tired my ability to hear decreases dramatically. Dave will say something and all I hear is sounds, I can’t make the sounds into coherent words. When I am tired it would be really best go to bed and get some extra sleep. Instead, you might find me …
Patti Lacross' Homily from August 19, 2012
Twentieth Sunday August 19, 2012 Proverbs 9: 1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58 We Benedictine, inclusive (c)atholic followers believe that Jesus is most emphatically here, with us, around this table. We call this Eucharist “Sacrament”: neither symbol nor re-enactment, but a real time encounter with the God whose invisible activity works always, at the very heart of things.* “Just as the living God sent me and I live because of God, so whoever eats me will live because of me.” John the Evangelist introduces us to Jesus as Sacrament, as Eucharist, to make of all we who would follow him First Generation Christians.* …
Leora Weitzman's Homily from August 12, 2012
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ August 12, 2012 ~ 1 Kings 19:4-8; Eph 4:25-5:2; Jn 6:35, 41-51 We are what we eat. The more like God we want to be, the more we need to nourish ourselves with God, any way that we can. That’s why we’re here this morning. What do we feed on the rest of the week? Too often, we indulge in spiritual junk food: sensationalist media, gossip, judgmental conversations (which are no less judgmental if our judgments happen to be true…… if, indeed, any thought that judges a created being can be true in the …
Libby Caes' Homily from July 15, 2012
Holy Wisdom Monastery, July 15, 2012 Amos 7.7-15; Psalm 85: 8 ff.; Eph. 1:3-14; Mark 6: 14-29 Since Easter one of my challenges has been balance. If you were to hold a plumb line (open the straight line) next to me when I am standing with my eyes closed and feet close together, you would notice that I sway a bit. A plumb line is a string with a weight at the bottom of it. Similar to this straight line which my husband Dave uses to mark a straight line before cutting drywall. But plumb lines are not used on …
Jim Penczykowski's Homily from July 8, 2012
Jesus’ identity as Messiah is misunderstood by the religious leaders, by the crowds, and by his own family of origin and hometown neighbors. Our passage concludes one portion of Mark’s Gospel and begins another portion. At the beginning of the portion devoted to the twelve we see them cast in a fairly positive light, Jesus sending them out to proclaim that all should repent. In the chapters to follow, the twelve are just as clueless as the Pharisees and the citizens of Nazareth. They do not understand Jesus as the messiah sent by God. Much of what we hear proclaimed …
Colleen Hartung's Homily from June 24, 2012
Practical Faith in the Face of the Storm Mark 4: 35-41 June 24, 2012 In today’s readings, a fierce gale and punishing waves, a voice from a terrifying whirlwind and a frustrated evangelist cause us to ponder some hard questions about faith and discipleship. In the Gospel of Mark, the disciples cower before raging winds causing Jesus to ask them, “Have you no faith?” In the reading from the Book of Job, Job dares the question of justice and fairness in the face of incomprehensible loss causing God to issue a demand from the heart of a whirlwind, “hitch up …
Patti LaCross' Homily from June 3, 2012
What a wonderful gathering of people we have today under this soaring roof! The Holy Spirit has worked some amazing things to bring us together today. Acknowledging that Spirit, please look around you, and quickly introduce yourself to anyone sitting near you whose name you don’t know. It would be really awkward to get adopted and expect to be a family with people whose names you didn’t even know, right? Since our Sunday worship assembly is growing steadily, we really need to work at getting to know one another, because we are called to be a family of faith. Did you catch that word adoption …
Leora Weitzman's Homily from May 27, 2012
Pentecost * Acts 2:1-21, Romans 8:22-27, John 15:26-27 & 16:4b-15 * Leora Weitzman * May 27, 2012 The homily resource books in our library here gave me some much needed help with part of today’s Gospel. The lines about sin and righteousness and judgment can be retranslated to reveal a courtroom metaphor regarding a crime, the nature of justice, and the verdict. In the case of Jesus, the Advocate turns the world’s perspective on its head. Where the world saw an enemy of the state tried, found guilty, and executed, the Spirit sees something else. It sees a friend of …