Homilies and Other Writings

(Fr. Andrew’s Homily for January 1 st ) “All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” ( Luke 2:18-19). The shepherds’ job is to proclaim what has been revealed to them. All those who hear the shepherds are amazed at what they hear. Mary goes beyond the amazement: she also ponders the message in her heart. 1.   In the Catholic Church, we call our leaders “shepherds.” This tradition comes from the Bible itself (cf. 1 Peter 5:2; John 10: 1-18, 21:15-17). It is interesting, however, that while God chose a shepherd, David, to be the king of Israel, He chose instead fishermen to be the leaders of the new people of God. They are both shepherds of God’s flock and fishers of people. They are fishers because they rescue people form the waves of worldly life and sin so that people may become the food of God and of His Christ. Indeed, when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, not only Jesus be...

(Fr. Andrew’s homily for Sunday, December 31 st 2023) Families are complex systems of relationships... Today I would like to offer some thoughts about how to play our own family role in the best possible way. We must love one another as Jesus has loved us. We must love our neighbor as we love ourselves. How should we love ourselves? How did Jesus love us? What does it mean to love, to truly love in a family? 1.   Each one of us is like a family of parts, or aspects. Sometimes we love certain parts or aspects of people and not others. We may love how some people look and at the same time extremely dislike their opinions. Or we may enjoy playing tennis with someone and completely ignore their personal lives. In any case, we may distinguish several aspects in people: bodily health, emotional stability and comfort, intellectual abilities and their degree of development, spiritual openness and/or maturity, and some of those parts can be further divided in other aspects or parts...

The Wise Men were not kings, perhaps, but they had plenty of gold. They brought gold to Jesus because they knew that Jesus was a king. Mary and Joseph were poor, and so was Jesus as well. The help from the Wise Men came just in time: even if Joseph and the Magi did not know it yet, the Holy Family had to escape to Egypt, and they would need all that gold for their travel and their stay in a foreign land. God’s providence did not fail. God’s providence will not fail us. Jesus was probably about two years old when the Magi arrived. [1] He was already able to walk, reach out his little hand to receive the gifts and, perhaps, even say “thank you.” The Holy Family was no longer at the stable, but in a simple house of Bethlehem. [2] Mary and Joseph must have been surprised at the visit, but they immediately remembered the prophecy of Isaiah: “Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance... the wealth of nations shall be brought to you. Caravans of camels shall fi...

(Fr. Andrew’s Homily for Christmas 2023) Human beings desire redemption but sometimes look for it in the wrong places. Some people try to redeem themselves by means of achievement, as if their personal worth depended on it. Other people are always looking for approval or appreciation, as if they needed it in order not to feel worthless or unloved... Sometimes our feeling of worthlessness pushes us to throw ourselves into unhealthy ways of coping or into vices, as if feeling good could silence, at least for a moment, the voice constantly telling us “you are a loser, a nobody” or “you are a poor, unhappy person.” The desire for redemption, for recovering our personal dignity looks sometimes like a race, like a rush, like an anxious striving to reach what can never be finally achieved. What is redemption? Or, where is it? Why do we need it? How do we obtain it? Those are big questions. What I want to say today is that many of us, because of our personal history or because of bad cultu...

(Fr. Andrew’s Homily for Sunday, December 24 th , 2023) Christmas is around the corner. Most of things are probably already planned, organized for welcoming family members in our homes. Last preparations are perhaps under way, or soon to come, and some of you may have come to this celebration with a lot in your mind and a great deal of stress... Let us try to pause. Let us try. God understands if you cannot. His Blessed Mother and St. Joseph were very worried with their own last minute preparations. In Advent we have tried to get ready for Christmas, and this Sunday is our last shot. Too late? It is never late. A thief could get ready in one hour for heaven: the Good Thief. We have more time than him. And we are not expecting death, but the birth of Life. The Church proposes as today, on the fourth Sunday of Advent, the example of Mary. How did Mary welcome Jesus in her life? 1.   She discerned the message . Mary realized perhaps immediately that the message was coming from G...

(Fr. Andrew’s Homily for Sunday, December 17 th , 2023) Today, third Sunday of Advent, is traditionally called “Gaudete” Sunday. It is an invitation to pause and rejoice in our Advent season. But why rejoicing if Jesus is not yet come? Three reasons I will propose, each of them related to one of today’s readings. 1.   We rejoice because He will come. Whenever hope is secure, we rejoice in the expectation of the good which is coming to us. In the first reading we heard, “ As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, so will the Lord GOD make justice and praise spring up before all the nations. ” We know Jesus comes to save us, we know He wants to save us, we know that nothing and nobody can prevent Him from doing what He wants. Therefore, if we do not close our hearts to His forgiveness and His mercy, if we desire His salvation, if we truly thirst for Him, then we rejoice, because He will surely come and satisfy our earnest desire for Him. 2....

What are we happy about at Christmas? What do we celebrate? Or, before that, are we happy at all, or just stressed and anxious about family gatherings, shopping, cooking...? Probably you are busy even to read this! It’ll be brief. When I was 11 years old, in an improvised small chapel during a retreat, before a wooden tabernacle, I felt for the first time that Jesus wanted me to become a priest. I was not sure at the time, but four years later I could not see myself doing anything else. I would have been a musician, maybe a guitar teacher; my dream had been to be a rock star. But hear I am: also a musician, admittedly, but most of all a missionary, a pastor and a teacher. I had heard about Jesus, but because Jesus popped up in my life, my life changed. Jesus was now real, a part of my world, and my world changed. I would not be who I am if Jesus were not real for me. I say this because I would like to invite you to remember those moments in your own lives. The times you made deci...

(Fr. Andrew’s Homily for Sunday, December 10 th 2023) Advent is a time of preparation for the Lord’s coming. Now, the way you get ready for someone depends on who that person is, on what that person means for you. Now, first things first. Is the Lord coming? Is Jesus coming to you, this Christmas? Well, Jesus has already come, two thousand and twenty three years ago. Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, but nobody knows when: maybe before, maybe on Christmas day or maybe after Christmas... So why are we getting ready now? There is a third coming, between those other two: Jesus’ coming to your heart. We remember His first coming on the first Christmas so that we may remember to welcome Him in our own lives, this Christmas. 1.   “But, father, Jesus is already in my heart, He already has a place in my life.” I wish we all could say that... good for you! You live in a state of grace and always try to grow in your spiritual life: this is very good. But sometime...

  (Fr. Andrew’s Homily for Sunday 3 rd , 2023) Advent is the memorial of the Lord’s first coming and an expectation of His future coming. He came once in the past to Bethlehem, in order to come to every person in every time and place. He will come again to see whether we have welcomed Him or not. He will remember the doors which he found closed in Bethlehem. He will remember the hearts which He found closed in history, the ears which were not open to Him. “ I was a pilgrim, and you did not welcome Me . I passed by in my messengers, I reached out to you through my Gospel, I called out to you so many times, whispering to your spirit, and you did not welcome me...” Today’s readings are an invitation to figure ourselves at that moment, when the Lord comes for us, for each one of us, to have the final conversation. 1.   When will He come? “Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the mo...