Homilies and Other Writings

Easter Triduum Homilies Holy Thursday:  https://pastorsandteachers.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-most-luminous-night-on-last-supper.html Good Friday: https://pastorsandteachers.blogspot.com/2025/04/good-friday-where-you-there.html Easter Vigil https://pastorsandteachers.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-power-of-one-candle-easter-vigil.html

1. Martha: “ Lord , you have healed so many strangers all over Galilee and Judea: now, the one you love is sick ” (cf. John 11:3) Lazarus might have thought: “Jesus is my friend, I know He will come.” And a few days later: “Jesus is my friend; there must be a reason for His absence!” Jesus said: “ This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” He stayed two days longer where He was, and then said, “Let us go to Judea again… Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe” (cf. John 11:7,14) “For your sake,” He said, because “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” ( John 11:5) and, from a human point of view, He would have liked to help His friend to not suffer… but God’s will was different. Jesus did not take advantage of His fame or power to favour His relatives and friends. For the same reason that Jesus did not save Himself, He did not spare His mother from s...

  1. There are two kinds of vision: bodily vision and spiritual vision. We see some things with our corporeal eyes, and we also see things, or rather, understand things with the eyes of our intelligence. Our bodily vision is limited: we cannot see without light, we cannot see things that are too far, we cannot see things that are too small. Our spiritual vision is also limited. We cannot understand things that are more perfect than us. We are able to understand the visible world, we can make sense of it and explain many things in nature and in history, we can even conclude that there must be a Supreme Being who is the cause of everything that is, but we cannot see Him. Not only is He beyond the reach of our bodily vision, but He is also too perfect for our spirit to understand. Our bodily eyes cannot see directly the sun because it is too luminous, too much for our eyes; in a similar way, our intelligence cannot see God. We can know that He exists, we know He must be there, even ev...

  What is this water that the Lord is talking about, and in what sense does it satisfy all thirst? I would like to respond with the help of St. Thomas Aquinas, using his Commentary on the Gospel of John . Why St. Thomas? He is the greatest doctor of the Church. Pope John XXII, back in 1322 when Aquinas was canonized, said this about him: “By the use of his works a man could profit more in one year than if he studies the doctrine of others for his whole life. ” And maybe today, after hearing a little bit of his explanations, you will agree with the Pope. The woman said to Jesus, “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his children and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but the one who drinks of the water that I will give will never be thirsty. ” 1. Aquinas says that the water Jesus is talking about is His doctrine. “[Jesus] shows that his doctrine is the best water because it has...

  The Lord said to Abraham: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The Lord had promised it, and the Lord had power to do it. “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.” He left everything behind, because he had hope to obtain much more from the Lord. As we heard in the Psalm, “Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” Let me reflect on hope. How is our hope? Do we need to purify our hope? 1. Despondent is defined as the person who is “ in low spirits from loss of hope or courage.” Some people have lost hope in the Church: they do not see the Church making a difference, they do not think the Church can make a difference, and things just seem to get worse. Now, losing hope, being defeated does not feel good, and so people tend ...

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