Homilies and Other Writings

“ Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord ” ( Ephesians 5:22) One may object, why should you be subordinate to someone you love? This is why St. Paul adds, “ as to the Lord .” We love the Lord and we also are subordinate to Him. True, sometimes we are subordinate to the Lord, not out of love, but out of fear. This should not be among Christians! Nor should it happen in families, that one is subordinate to the other out of fear. “Wives, submit to your husbands,” not to abuse or mistreatment! True, it is better to obey the Lord at least out of fear than not to obey Him at all. Fear of authority can play an important role in our personal development. But we are all meant to overcome the stage of doing good simply out of fear of punishment , and pass over to the holy fear of the Lord . This “fear of the Lord” happens when we love God so much that we are terrified at the mere thought of displeasing Him with our actions. “ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ l...

  (Fr. Andrew’s Homily for Sunday, August 18 th 2024) In the first reading, Wisdom, that is, the Son of God, calls us in this way: “ Let whoever is simple turn in here... Come, eat of my food...! Forsake foolishness that you may live ” ( Proverbs 9:4-6). St. Paul explains wisdom’s call: “ Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit ” ( Ephesians 5:17-18). We are called to abandon foolishness, so that we may enjoy a spiritual food, so that we may be filled, not with worldly bread, but with the Spirit, coming to us through the Eucharistic Sacrament. “ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life ” ( John 6:54). Every Sunday we are reminded of Wisdom’s call and invited to respond appropriately. Wisdom’s call is not only a call to get together and eat, but also a call to abandon foolishness, a call to turn away from sin and towards...

 (Fr. Andrew’s Homily for Sunday, August 4 th 2024) 1.   The Jewish people were ready to abandon the Lord because of their hunger ( Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15). They thought that disobeying the Lord and going back to Egypt was the best for them. Their desires blinded them so much that they forgot that in Egypt they were slaves. Their bellies were full in Egypt, but they were treated like animals, oppressed by hard work, regarded as slaves and as people without dignity. In response to their grumbling, God gives them what they need and more than that: He gives them also the manna, a mysterious bread from Heaven... St. Paul tells the Ephesians to “put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires” ( Ephesians 4:22). Bad desires are deceitful: they seem to lead us to happiness but, by leading us away from God, bad desires actually are like a slope leading to the cliff. It’s easy to slide down the hill, but the end is not the one we were expecting...

The Eucharist is a sacrificial meal: we eat the Lamb sacrificed for our sins and, in this way, we ourselves become that Lamb, that sacrificial victim pleasing to God. In Holy Communion, it is not the Lamb who becomes part of ourselves, but we who become part of His Body, the Church. This is what it means “Holy Communion”: we enter into communion with God and with one another through the Lamb of God . We become that Lamb of God, part of His Body and Blood, and thus, like the Lamb, we belong to God. Now, true communion with the Lamb implies communion of love, implies being one heart with Jesus and, in Jesus, with our brothers and sisters. This is why St. Paul says in the second reading: “Live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma” ( Ephesians 5:2) How are we one heart with Jesus? When we love Him. When we do what He commands: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” ( John 14:15). It is not uncommon...

  Before multiplying the bread for 5,000 men, Jesus asked Philip, "‘ Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?’ He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little’ " ( John 6:5-7). Philip realizes Jesus is making big plans and that he, Philip, appears to have a certain role to play in Jesus’ plan. But Philip realizes there is no way that plan can work and no way he can help. “Jesus, my Lord, they are too many, and we have no money. All I can give you is my acknowledgment that this is impossible and I can do nothing for you.” I think this is what Jesus wanted: that Philip realized that feeding those people with the bread of Life was impossible... for human beings. This is an important point. God can work great things through us when we realize that, by ourselves, we can do nothing (cf. John 15:5). Only a humble human being can be...

  These are Jesus’ instructions for those who preach the Gospel. They apply, to some extent, to all those who realize their mission to share the good news with their brothers and sisters. “ He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic .” “ Take nothing for the journey ” is said in order to prevent anxiety about temporal things, “lest whilst the apostle’s mind is taken up with temporal things, he should provide less of eternal things to others,” as Saint Bede explains. [1] “ Take nothing ” he said, “ but a walking stick ,” which is a sign of their God given authority. That is, they must not be anxious about temporal things because, thanks to their God given authority, nothing will be wanting to them, as Saint Augustine explains. God provides for the ministers of His Gospel! Saint Augustine explains that, “by saying that they are to be shod with ...

 One of the most dangerous forms of pride is holding on to our own judgment against the truth, a truth which we could understand but which at the same time we do not want to see. This pride is preferring my own way of seeing things to the way things really are. It is affirming myself against reality, as if my judgment could change the way things really are. This pride is like a disagreement with the order of creation and a desire to establish our own order in this creation, as if we were God and we could create our own reality. This pride sets man against God and against creation itself: man, in a way, remains prisoner of his own world and, in a deep way, remains alone. Of course, despite the proud person’s way of thinking, reality keeps being what it is and this bothers the proud person, who feels attacked by the facts and by people who affirm the facts. This kind of proud person has only enemies or slaves: his enemies are all those who do not agree with him, and everybody else ...