Homilies

December 8, 2019

Homily: Laughing at Prophets

To listen to this homily click here. Yves Congar, the great twentieth century Dominican theologian, in a book he wrote a little more than a decade before the Second Vatican Council (a book which by the way influenced the future Pope John XXIII), said in rather a matter of fact way, but mystically nonetheless, that “Prophecy […]
December 1, 2019

Homily: Why We Can’t Go Deep

To listen to this homily click here. It was only at the end, in jail awaiting execution, that it became clear to him, the whiskey priest in Graham Greene’s famous novel, The Power and the Glory.
November 27, 2019

Essay: On Hope and Advent Preaching

November 24, 2019

Homily: Killing Kings and Freedom

To listen to this homily click here. The death of the king marked year one in the French Revolution, the beginning of the republic and a new era—an era, of course, of freedom.
November 17, 2019

Homily: When Christ Loses the Argument

To listen to this homily click here. I have always been haunted by the fact that Jesus didn’t really win the argument, that he convinced only very few. What I mean is that all along and throughout his ministry, although at times he attracted countless many, his disciples, when all was said and done, were few.
November 10, 2019

Homily: Martyrs and Angels and Christian Courage

You wouldn’t think it, necessarily, but early Christian martyrs were often funny. They weren’t pious wimps singing hymns while being led away to torture and death. More often than not they were sardonic, sarcastic, and smart-mouthed.