Word On Fire Sermon Podcast
By Father Robert Barron
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Podcast Description
This is the Word on Fire sermon podcast
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Sermon 579 : All Are One in God : 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The leper in Mark's gospel, a feared presence to the ancient Israelites, is made clean by Jesus' benevolent touch. A connection is formed, to each other, to God, that reminds us all of the comforting power of communion, the healing nature of our Creator. | 2/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 578 : Jesus the Miraculous Healer : 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Mark's accounts of Jesus working miracles didn't always sit well with scientists, philosophers and contemporary Christians, as they believed such things would just not be possible given the laws of the natural world. But why wouldn't God, this natural world's creator, grace humanity with extraordinary acts exemplifying his love? Jesus worked miracles, and he still does today. | 2/4/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 577 : He Speaks With Authority : 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | In Mark's gospel, we see find Jesus exorcising an unclean spirit from a man in the temple, doing so as both the messenger and the message. Jesus unites the divided, purges the false, and fulfills the teachings. He is the authority - the truth - we seek. | 1/28/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 576 : The Spiritual Drama of Jonah : 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | A divine calling, whether the meaning is revealed in this life or the next, always requires our biblical heroes to do more than they feel they are capable. But all of us must answer, regardless of the call. Jonah provides a very "human" example of how difficult the work may be, and how the result might not be what we anticipate, but that it is always worthwhile and reflects God's will that we enact the purpose that brings our life to its proper fulfillment. | 1/21/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 575 : Staying With the Lord : 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | When we witness something beautiful, something important, we desire to share it with others, just as St. John did when he said to his disciples, "Behold the Lamb of God" - and just as those disciples did when they spread the good news of the Messiah. We quest to know God, to follow God, but more important is God's quest for us and our willingness to heed his call. | 1/14/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 574 : Herod and the Magi : Feast of the Epiphany* | Herod sees all from the confines of his ego, trying to make the world conform to his plans. The Magi look outside of themselves, looking for an order that they will conform to. By focusing their attention away from themselves, they are spiritually liberated to follow the star of Bethlehem. This is the liberation that Christ grants us. He allows us to escape the jail cell of our egos to join the liberating current of his love, leading us closer to eternal life. | 1/7/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 573 : The Face of the Living God : Mary, Mother of God* | Looking into the face of another is a very intimate experience. It evokes many strong feelings: shame, liberation, joy, etc. Like Adam and Eve, we typically hide from the face of God fearing his anger. But Jesus, the Face of God, first appears as a baby. A baby's face is a non-threatening face. It is the peaceful face of God. | 12/31/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 572 : In the Beginning was the Word : Christmas* | The Prologue of the Gospel of John sums up the whole of the Christian message. It tells the story of a re-creation through the Word made flesh. All will be restored to union with the Godhead. This is the good news Christians continue to proclaim. | 12/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 571 : Adam, David, and Jesus - Three Kings : Fourth Sunday of Advent* | Adam had a kingly mission. However, he became a bad king. David was meant to restore kingship to its proper form. However, he failed too. But Christ, the Lord, is the King who sets everything aright and restores creation. His kingdom rivals all others. | 12/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 570 : A Not Very Cozy Advent - The True King is Coming : Third Sunday of Advent* | Christ proclaims himself as the King of everything. This is a bold claim for it puts everything under him. However, he is a very different King than what we typically expect. So with the arrival of this King, we must change all our expectations. | 12/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 569 : Prepare the Way of the Lord : Second Sunday of Advent* | The theme of preparing a highway for the Lord emerges from the time of the exile. When the Babylonian captivity was coming to a close, the prophet Isaiah envisioned God making a highway in the desert to facilitate the return of his people to Jerusalem. From what captivity of ours is God leading us this Advent? | 12/3/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 568 : The Potter and The Clay : First Sunday of Advent* | Our first reading for this first Sunday of Advent gives us the master image of God as the potter and we, his creatures, as clay. St. Irenaeus said that God's provident direction of our lives is easy as long as the clay of our hearts remains supple and moist. Trouble comes only when we allow the clay to harden. | 11/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 567 : Language Fit for a King : Christ the King* | Fr. Barron comments on the new Roman Missal. This new translation is more fit for the celebration of the liturgy because it helps us address Christ in language befitting a King. | 11/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 566 : The Great Spiritual Law : 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The great spiritual law is the law of the gift. Although counter-intuitive, it is the way of the Spirit. Giving your life away for love increases life within you. You partake in the flow of the divine life. Hence, happiness is found in loving acts. | 11/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 565 : The Wise and Foolish Virgins : 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | How do we wait? That is the question addressed by Jesus' parable for today. While we wait for the second coming of the Lord, we should keep our lamps stocked with oil, that is to say, we should pray, study, love, do the works of mercy, and keep vigil. In so doing, we are ready for the arrival of the Bridegroom. | 11/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 564 : Priesthood - Darkness and Light : 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The reading from the Book of the Prophet Malachi is an address to all priests, especially when they go bad. What causes this corruption? When they stop giving glory to God. God places a curse on wicked priests. We see this happen throughout Church history, especially today. But the only remedy to this is walking in the ways of Christ and allowing God to make you into a gift for all peoples. | 10/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 563 : Three Tasks of the Church : 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Christ calls us to worship the Father, teach and evangelize in his name, and serve and care for him in the poor. The Church is the Body through, in and with which we do these things. But the meaning of this all is placing God at the center of our lives. | 10/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 562 : Caesar and God : 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Jesus places everything in its proper relationship to God. But he also chastises those who are involved in power games. God is ultimately in charge and rules over even Caesar. | 10/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 561 : The Wedding Feast : 28th Week in Ordinary Time* | Jesus tells the story of a King who is inviting people to the wedding banquet for his Son. Some ignore it. Some actively kill the messengers. But this does not deter the King from inviting all to the banquet. Listen to the invitation of the Lord and actively respond to it. That is a decision you will not regret. | 10/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 560 : Parable of the Tenants : 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The parable of the tenants is an allegory that presents the relationship of Israel to Christ, but more than this it reveals a necessary truth about the spiritual life: that we are "tenants" in regards to the gifts that God has given us, and when we construe our relationship to God's gifts as being that of "owners", rather than "tenants", the consequences can be quite dire. | 10/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 559 : To Let Go Rather Than to Grasp... : 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The magnificent hymn in the Letter to the Philippians reveals that at the heart of the Gospel is the mystery that the Lord Jesus did not grasp or cling to the prerogatives that properly belonged to him as God, but emptied his divine glory into our humanity so that we might share in his divine life. | 9/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 558 : Seeing the World from God's Perspective : 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Sometimes Christ does not seem fair. The Parable of the Day Laborers evokes this sense of injustice. Those who do not work as long and hard as the others get the same reward. However, Christ wants us to move beyond our sense of justice and see all according to love, God's perspective. Gratitude for the gift transforms our natural disposition to judge who deserves what into a disposition of thanksgiving. | 9/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 557 : September 11th, 2001 - Anger and Forgiveness : 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time* | While we are justified in our anger at perpetrators of 9/11, we must ultimately move to a stance of forgiveness. Christians must always remember Christ's command to forgive always. Forgiveness is the act by which you bring the other into the matrix of love. It is very difficult but necessary. Hopefully we can do this for those who committed the grievous crimes of 9/11. | 9/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 556: "If Your Brother Sins Against You..." : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time* | Catholics are always called to confront sin, even the sins of those closest to them. But they should never spread gossip about other's sins. Rather, they should go directly to the person who is sinning and try to get them on the right path. The Catholic way of handling problems is by always doing as much to directly fix the problem instead of announcing the problem to the world before fixing it. | 9/3/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 555 : "But For Wales...?" : 22nd Week in Ordinary Time* | All must be aware of the possibility of losing one's soul in pursuit of gaining the world. One will inevitably face opposition from the world. Will you give in? Christ's demand of love is difficult and many do not want to follow it because it entails suffering. But in order to follow Christ you must consciously and purposely walk the path of suffering love. | 8/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 554 : The Gates of Hell : 21st Week of Ordinary Time* | In the eyes of the world, the Christian way of being is strange. All Christians are called out of the world and into a new way: Christ's way. Christians must be very clear about how they are different from the world and confidently proclaim it. They must stop trying to fit into the ways of the world and rather tell the world to conform to Christ. Christ will break down the Gates of Hell and invade all that resist his Love. | 8/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 553 : Strength Through Resistance : 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Discipleship is not easy. It takes focus, a strong will, and the willingness to undergo training. Christ is the spiritual master and we must be ready to die to self in order to apprentice to him. | 8/13/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 552 : Elijah and Peter : 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Elijah is a contemplative who has the eyes to see and the ears to listen. God does not appear in the glory of the world. Rather, he appears in a silent way. Weed out of your heart all of those fears and desires that prevent you from discerning the silent presence of God. | 8/6/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 551 : The Loop of Grace : 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | It all begins with grace, and it all ends with grace. Bernanos' country priest summed up Christianity with the phrase "Toute est grace", everything is grace. God gives graciously, gratuitously, superabundantly--and then we are called to respond with a similar exuberance. The more we give back to God, the more we get, and then we must give that back again, so as to get even more in return. This is the loop of grace which is spoken of from beginning to end of the Bible. And all of our readings for today touch on it specially. | 7/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 550 : What Do You Want? : 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | God says to Solomon in our first reading, "Ask for anything, and I will give it to you." What would you say if you heard that invitation? Solomon asks for wisdom and not for wealth or power or victory. Find out why that answer is so pleasing to God. | 7/23/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 549 : Three Parables; Three Spiritual Lessons : 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Jesus' parables in today's Gospel tell us how and why the Kingdom of God emerges. It does so often through struggle, quietly and clandestinely, and through infiltration rather than direct confrontation. | 7/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 548 : The Prodigal Sower : 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | God sows his Word into each of our hearts liberally. He does not solely give his grace to those he knows will bear fruit. He sows the Word in everyone, but it doesn't flourish for each person due to circumstances (secularism, anxiety, the allurement of the world), but strive to counter that by letting the Word open you to the implications of his Lordship. God is always giving himself to you, listen and act. | 7/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 547 : The Little Ones : 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The purpose of Jesus' teachings is that we allow the divine life to surge through us so that we become transformed in Christ, making us more like Him. All our knowledge should serve this end. However, some learned people can use their knowledge to puff up their egos and put others down. The "Little Ones" are the people whose entire life is about helping others participate in the divine life so they may fully flourish. | 7/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 546 : Bread in the Desert : Feast of Corpus Christi* | All of us are on a spiritual journey from sin to salvation. Like the Israelites longing for a return to Egypt, many of us occasionally desire our old addictions, providing the anxious ego with comfort and security. Far from Egypt, the Promised Land is the spiritual space of complete dependence upon God. But the Israelites are not there yet. They need to eat the manna from heaven. For Catholics, this is the Eucharist. It is the means to getting God’s divine life within us. | 6/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 545 : The God Who is Love : Trinity Sunday* | God is Trinity. He is fundamentally a relationship: a lover, a beloved and the love between them. In other words, God is a complete openness and receptivity to the other. He is love. Now, we believe we are made in the image of God. Thus, we become fully alive to the degree that we imitate God. | 6/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 544 : Drink of the Holy Spirit : Pentecost* | Everyone thirsts for the divine life. No one is content without it, even proclaimed secularists. Christ has come to give us that life and he calls us to seek it in him. Although no one will be fully satisfied in this life, the more we partake in the person of Christ, the more we will be fulfilled. | 6/11/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 543 : The Meeting of Heaven and Earth : Ascension* | The mysterious and wonderful feast of the Ascension of the Lord which celebrates Christ glorified "at the right hand of the Father". The key to unlocking the marvels of this event is to recover a specifically Biblical understanding of the relationship of heaven and earth. | 6/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 542 : The Spirit of Power and of Truth : 6th Sunday of Easter* | The Scriptures for this Sunday offer some glimpse of the Holy Spirit in advance of the great feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is the heavenly grace that enlivens the Church in all aspects of its mission. | 5/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 541 : The Co-Inherence of the Mystical Body : 5th Sunday of Easter* | No man is an island. One of the messages of the Gospel is that all reality is interconnected. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. How organic the Bible is! This view of reality is the exact opposite of the American individualism that currently pervades our culture. | 5/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 540 : The Shepherd's Voice : 4th Sunday of Easter* | God speaks to us in many ways, especially though the conscience. Since God is a Person, his voice will reach our consciences and lure us to conform our lives to the life of his Son, Jesus Christ. In addition to listening to Christ thought the scriptures, through the teachings of the Church, through the lives of the saints, and through the liturgy, listen to Him speaking to your conscience. He will set you free. | 5/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 539 : The Road to Emmaus : 3rd Sunday of Easter* | Like the two disciples walking towards Emmaus, a symbol of worldly power and security, and away from Jerusalem, the center of sacrifice, we need to be stopped in our tracks. Christ appears to them, but they do not recognize him. They do not recognize him because they are walking the wrong way. The recognition of the pattern of Christ’s life does come until the Eucharistic act which presents the pattern of sacrificial love. Then they immediately go back to Jerusalem, the place of suffering love. | 5/7/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 538 : The Risen Christ in the Midst of His Church : 2nd Sunday of Easter* | Jesus has come to bring us the divine life. Under his influence we become peaceful, unafraid, evangelizing, and forgiving. Through the Church, saints are made. This is because Christ is at the very center of the Church. | 4/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 537 : He is Risen! : Easter * | Our first reading for this Easter day is Peter's great kerygmatic speech on Pentecost morning. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter addresses the Jerusalem crowd, telling them the impossibly good news that Jesus of Nazareth, a man who moved through their ordinary towns and villages, has been raised from the dead. The Easter faith of the Church is not an abstraction, not a vague claim about God's fidelity or our hope for immortality. Rather, it is the startling assertion that God has brought this man Jesus back from the dead. May we bask in the glow of this still surprising revelation. | 4/23/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 536 : The Passion of the Christ : Palm Sunday* | Matthew shows us that, as Jesus resolutely does his Father's will, myriad forms of human dysfunction--betrayal, sloth, stupidity, violence, scapegoating, corruption--break out around him. This is the salvation story: God's compassionate embrace of sinners. | 4/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 535 : Lazarus and the Power of Death : 5th Week of Lent* | Death is not a condition God desires for us . Rather, God wants us to have life. However, death is a reality; but it is not the final word. Christ is the final Word - namely, the life-giving Word. Christ brings Lazarus back to life. He desires to do the same for us. | 4/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 534 : Coming to Spiritual Vision : 4th Week of Lent* | The healing of a man blind from birth is an archetypal story of coming to spiritual vision. Sin prevents us from seeing clearly. Christ is the light and he wants us to walk in his light. But we resist. Fortunately, if we stop resisting, Christ will enable us, like Adam in Eden, to walk in easy fellowship with God. | 4/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 533 : One who is greater than our father Jacob... - 3rd Week of Lent* | The story of Christ's encounter with the Samaritan woman is a kind of template by which we can understand our own encounter with the Lord. | 3/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 532 : Christ's Metamorphosis : 2nd Week of Lent* | The story of the Transfiguration has beguiled artists, poets, spiritual masters and the faithful for centuries. The meaning of this extraordinary revelation is in the haunting details that the Gospel presents. | 3/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 531 : The Lord Your God Shall You Worship and Him Alone Shall You Serve : 1st Week of Lent* | The source of our greatest suffering is the deification of the will. We make ourselves God. However, once this move is made everyone else, in a self-defensive stance, tries to be God. The product of all of this is isolation, self-consciousness and self-protectiveness. Do not put up walls of self-protection, but become servants of the will of God. | 3/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 530 : Building on Rock : 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Christ does not desire merely admirers of his word; he wants practitioners of his word. If we do not practice his teachings we will be like those who build their houses on sand. In order to build your house (self) on rock, act upon love. Your life will not flourish if it is not grounded in love. | 3/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 529 : Seek Ye First : 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time * | "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the rest will be given to you." Make God the center of your life, and you will be spiritually ordered in Christ's image. If you make wealth and security your center, you will be empty. You make the choice: will God be your center? | 2/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 528 : Be Perfect : 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Jesus calls us to love. But few consider the radical nature of this calling. It entails loving the other, even our enemies, regardless of the response of the one who is loved. If you fail, and you often will, turn to God for the grace to live out this strange way of Christ. | 2/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 527 : Preaching the Radical Word : 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Like a good healer, Jesus has not come simply to behaviorally modify us; he has come to heal us at the root of our being, eradicating all dysfunction from our most basic core. | 2/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 526 : Salt and Light : 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Christ's apt use of the metaphors of salt and light as images of the spiritual life help us to appropriate and understand the expectations of discipleship. | 2/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 525 : Blessed Are We : 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time * | The Beatitudes reveal the true path of joy is found not in grasping at power but in the willing surrender to God's mysterious grace. | 1/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 524 : Following The Lord : 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time* | All of us want to live to the fullest. However, most of us never find the one thing that will inspire us to dedicate our whole lives to it. It is amazing to hear of how the first people who responded to Christ dedicated their whole lives to him. Their encounter with Christ sent them on a path they never dreamed of. Paradoxically, this path was marked by great joy and suffering; but, nevertheless, they lived life to the fullest. | 1/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 523 : Paul's Opening Words to the Corinthians : Second Sunday of Ordinary Time* | In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he highlights the beauty of baptism and how it sweeps the baptized person into God's great theo-drama. God calls us out of the world of our narrow egos to partake in his redeeming plan of love of which the Church is the vehicle. Follow Christ, and peace will be given to you. | 1/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 522 : Priest, Prophet, and King : The Baptism of the Lord* | All the baptized participate in Christ. Since Christ is the fulfillment of the priest, prophet, and king that means that all the baptized are those as well. Although this statement may seem odd since we do not naturally think of ourselves this way, we must become more conscious of what it means to be grafted onto Christ. Our baptism grafts us onto the Body of Christ, making us all share in His Person. If his Person is priest, prophet, and king, then so are we. | 1/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 521 : Herod and the Magi : Feast of the Epiphany* | Herod sees all from the confines of his ego, trying to make the world conform to his plans. The Magi look outside of themselves, looking for an order that they will conform to. By focusing their attention away from themselves, they are spiritually liberated to follow the star of Bethlehem. This is the liberation that Christ grants us. He allows us to escape the jail cell of our egos to join the liberating current of his love, leading us closer to eternal life. | 1/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 520 : Herod and Joseph : Feast of the Holy Family* | It seems as if those in worldly power rule the day. King Herod tyrannically ruled his territory, making sure he was always the most powerful. Any apparent threat to his power was quickly squashed. Herod represents all who assert themselves over and against others. He seeks the death of the other. Joseph represents those who support the other and do not see Him as a threat. By basing themselves in God, other people are not threats but brothers and sisters. Christianity will always be foolish to those who aspire to power. | 12/25/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 519 : Ahaz, Isaiah, and Joseph - Dreaming Big : Fourth Sunday of Advent* | The problem with our world is that most people do not dream big. In experiencing hardship, we have a tendency to assume the worst, thinking narrowly. The Biblical vision is the opposite of this. Biblical figures see the world through the infinite possibility of God - based in their faith in the Lord. Ahaz refused to be surprised by God's possibility. Isaiah was ready to be surprised. This confidence in God allowed him to dream big. | 12/18/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 518 : The Virtue of Hope : Third Sunday of Advent* | Hope is not this-worldly optimism. In fact, from a purely natural perspective, pessimism is the right attitude. Hope is that supernatural virtue which orders our desire toward heaven and the things of heaven. What Isaiah talks about in our first reading is not an expectation that will be realized here below, but only in a transfigured world on high. | 12/11/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 517 : The Bracing Figure of John the Baptist : Second Sunday of Advent* | The first step in the spiritual life is simple: you must see your life not as your own project but as a vehicle for God's purposes. However, we are all absorbed in our own lives, forgetting that the road to God is one of self-forgetfulness. This disposition helps us to focus on Christ and his mission. But in order for us to do this we must be cleansed of all attachments and baptized in the fiery love of God. | 12/4/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 516 : God's Holy Mountain : First Sunday of Advent* | Thomas Merton once wrote, "Man is not at peace with his fellow man because he is not at peace with himself. And he is not at peace with himself because he is not at peace with God." Only when we are in communion with God will we be in communion with ourselves and our fellowman. This simple formula summarizes Israel's mission of gathering all peoples in right praise to God on Mt. Zion. Although the world is divided in countless ways, Israel's gathering mission is realistic because Christ, the Messiah, is Lord, and all things will be gathered in himself. For this we wait in joyful hope. | 11/27/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 515 : Solemnity : Christ the King* | Our first reading for Mass this Sunday is taken from the opening chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians. There is no stronger statement of the absolute primacy, centrality, and importance of Jesus Christ in the entire New Testament. Jesus, Paul tells us, is the beginning and the end, the icon of the invisible God, the one in whom all things exist and for whom they are destined. And then the Gospel shows us this cosmic King nailed to the cross. This wonderful irony is at the heart of the Christian proclamation: the King of the Universe is a crucified criminal, who utterly spends himself in love. | 11/20/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 514 : What Remains? : 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | All things pass away. Political and religious institutions, the family, bodily health; nothing lasts. Everything dies. So often we seek our fulfillment and salvation in these things. But Christ is telling us not to. He is telling us to seek the one thing that will last: Himself. So long as we cling to Him will our lives be secure. He is the rock of our salvation. | 11/13/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 513 : Eternal Life : 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Today's Gospel reading tells us about the Sadducees trying to lead Jesus into a ridiculous conclusion. To them the Jewish teaching on marriage seems irrational. However, Jesus shows us that not everything that appears cloudy to our intellect is sub-rational. Rather, some times it may be supra-rational - beyond the finite intellect - making it rational, but the rationality of another dimension. The claims of Faith may not be comprehensible to our intellects now, but we believe that they will once we are in his eternal presence. | 11/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 512 : Salvation Has Come to This House : 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Zacchaeus is a man who has wandered far from God. But, often enough, people like Zacchaeus come back, again and again, to God because they cannot eliminate their hunger for Him. Once they open themselves to Christ he places himself in the most intimate parts of themselves, living there. Christ does not enter just a fragment of your life; he enters the whole thing! This is salvation. Let Christ shake and transform you. | 10/30/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 511 : Finding Justification : 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Religion serves a unitive purpose. In uniting the person to God, religion unites people together. However, many religious people forget religion's purpose. They like to puff up their egos, reveling in their ability to live according to the Law. Seeing themselves as better than the rest, they forget that grace only comes to those who realize they are sinners. The tax collector, realizing he is a sinful man, does not focus on himself, but focuses his gaze and hunger on God - the source of salvation. Justification comes to those who do likewise. | 10/23/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 510 : Moses and Amalek - An Icon of the Church : 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The church militant is the church at war with all the destructive powers that want to undermine its unity. The Israelites battle the people of Amalek, a battle that symbolizes the spiritual warfare that each of us, as members of the church, personally undergoes. There is no escaping this reality, and so we must fight. But our fighting is unusual: we fight with peacemaking, forgiveness, education, etc. Our fighting is only sustained through prayer and the prayers of others. Please pray that the Church is strengthened in its fight against evil in the world. | 10/16/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 509 : Naaman the Syrian : 28th Sunday in Ordinary Tim* | From the worldly perspective, the worst thing a powerful person can do is admit his/her weaknesses to others. If done so, the person loses his/her position of power. Naaman the Syrian, a man of power, is an example of humility. He does not let embarrassment stand in the way of admitting to his weakness. By doing so, he is healed and offers right praise to God. Like Naaman, admitting one's weaknesses is the first step to proper worship. | 10/9/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 508 : The Lament of Habbakuk : 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The prophet Habbakuk expresses what most of us feel at some point in our lives: how can God be so indifferent to suffering? Listen carefully to the answer he receives from the Lord. | 10/2/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 507 : Rich Man, Poor Man : 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Most of us find the homeless to be unnerving and annoying, telling ourselves not to give them money because they might use it for drinks or drugs. But think of the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and did they have different fates! Lazarus was carried to Abraham's bosom and the rich man to the nether world, where he was tormented. The torment for the rich man began by locking himself in his narrow ego, going against his calling to give. As Catholic social teaching remind us, we cannot remain indifferent to the poor. They must always be taken into consideration or else we go to hell. | 9/25/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 506 : A Warning Bell in the Night : 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Most of us spur into action when we believe that our financial state is in dire straits. Why don't we act in the same way in regards to our spiritual state? Today people need the same spiritual concern that people had in the past. They need to want to establish a relationship with God, that which is of paramount importance. So wake up, and place God at the center of your life! | 9/18/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 505 : Logic of Justice; Logic of Grace : 24th week in Ordinary Time* | The God Jesus describes does not operate according to the same logic we do. In fact, He seems to be crazy. If God is supposed to be like the Shepherd who abandons the ninety-nine to find the lost one and the woman who diligently searches her whole house for a penny, then he must be crazy. But that is not so. God operates according to the logic of grace, defying our logic of justice. Being a Christian is learning how to operate according to God's logic. | 9/11/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 504 : The Cost of Discipleship : 23rd week in Ordinary Time * | Let's move beyond playing with religion and take up the tough work of following Christ. He desires disciples who are completely devoted to God's kingdom. This entails living in the way of non-violence, forgiveness, self-gift, and other-orientation. This way is counter to the way of the world and will be met with resistance. Are you ready to walk this way? | 9/4/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 503 : The Hopeful Vision of the Mass : 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The Letter to the Hebrews is a sustained reflection on the Mass as the source and summit of the Christian life and the pivot around which history turns. Writing from a developed understanding the Temple, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews shows how Christ's sacrifice on the Cross is the sacrifice that has and will restore the communion between God and creation. As a re-presentation of this act, the Mass makes present to us our final destiny: communion with God through Christ. | 8/28/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 502 : The Narrow Gate : 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time* | To gain eternal life is to participate to the fullest degree possible in the very life of God. It is to walk the path of love, surrendering to grace and allowing this grace to flow through you to the wider world. Is this an easy task? No. The Gospel of Luke tells reminds us that the gate is narrow precisely because it is in the very shape of Jesus Himself, and entrance through the gate involves conformity to his state of being. The path of love is traveled by taking up one's cross every day. | 8/21/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 501 : Mary the Warrior : 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | In contrast to our conventional view of the Virgin Mary as a shrinking violet, the book of Revelation presents her as a warrior who has brought into the world a new way of dealing with worldly power: Christ (i.e. Love itself). If we do not approach the world as a battlefield between love and violence, we will become spiritually blind. But the Virgin Mary, as warrior, helps us see this reality while assuring us that her Son has already conquered. | 8/14/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 500 : Giving and Receiving : 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | In the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Christ assures us not to be afraid. Fear is a spiritual state that causes us not to trust in the lordship of God and to play master of our lives. However, with the awareness that God has given all to us, we'll realize that we are basically a gift. Gifts are meant to be given, so confidently give yourself away. Do not fear that you will become nothing by giving yourself away for by doing this the divine life fills you anew. | 8/7/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 499 : To Have and To Be : 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Maturity comes in facing the reality of death and the transient nature of the world. In this regard, the Book of Ecclesiastes is full of wisdom: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity"; Everyone who thinks they are going to find their happiness in possessing the goods of the world will eventually have to face the truth that they will not. All passes away. Therefore, spend your time building a good spiritual disposition for you never know when your life will be demanded of you. My advice: devote yourself to love. | 7/31/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 498 : Jesus' Kingdom Prayer : 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | How central is the Lord's Prayer to Christianity! Basically this prayer is about ordering ourselves to God and letting his way of being order all levels of our lives. But we must not think that we will easily orientate ourselves to God. There are powerful forces that resist this, and we must not be naive about them. The Lord's Prayer is the itinerary for our spiritual journey. | 7/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 497 : Martha, Mary and the Attitude of Discipleship : 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Although the little story of Martha and Mary has been interpreted throughout the centuries as a parable dealing with the "active" and "contemplative" approach to the spiritual life, it can be read as Christ's invitation to all people to partake in his inner circle of discipleship. Christ overturned the social conventions of his time by summoning all people to discipleship. Thus, we must remove all barriers to discipleship for all people. | 7/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 496 : Hearing the Voice of God : 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | During the 20th century, moral relativism was in vogue in elite cultural circles, but now it is the dominant moral outlook of the broader culture. Against this, C.S. Lewis argued for "the universality and inescapability of the moral law." Although there are subtle moral differences between cultures, if we look close enough, we can discern fundamental moral agreements. The Catholic tradition says that this moral bedrock is a reflection of the Eternal Law in the mind of God. It is the voice of God within us. Listen to that voice. | 7/10/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 495 : Being American, Being Catholic : 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | We Americans embrace freedom. However, a proper understanding of freedom must inform our celebration of it. In both classical philosophy and the Bible, "freedom is not so much individual choice as the disciplining of desire so as to make the achievement of the good, first possible, then effortless." This freedom may seem confining, but it is actually liberating for it aligns oneself to the truth. In Christ, by whom we are created equal in dignity, we become free. As Catholics, we can embrace America's protection of equal rights, but we must be critical of modern interpretations of freedom. | 7/3/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 494 : Elisha and the Nature of True Freedom : 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Freedom is not self-determination, but finding and doing what God wants you to do. Biblical figures did not choose their God-given role; God chose it for them. Thus, in order for us to fulfill our mission perfectly we have to get rid of all obstacles to freely following Christ. This means that we have to get rid of all that prevents us from perfectly loving God, neighbor, and self. | 6/26/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 493 : Christ's Identity and Mission : 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Today's Gospel presents Luke's version of the famous conversation that the Lord Jesus had with his disciples concerning his identity and mission. Authentic acceptance of Christ's identity and mission engenders in us a willingness to accept in our own lives the necessity and saving power of the cross. | 6/19/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 492 : Sin and Grace : 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The Gospel present two tales of sin and grace, Christ's encounter with a repentant woman and the parable of the two debtors. Both illuminate for us not only the necessity of personal conversion, but our willingness to forgive those who have sinned. | 6/12/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 491 : Corpus Christi* | The Church comes from the Eucharist for it is the sacrifice that makes saints. The Eucharist is essentially the fullest act of gratitude prefigured in Melchizedek finding its fulfillment in the sacrifice of Christ. Every Mass is a participation in and celebration of this sacrifice, but the feast of Corpus Christi is a time to be especially aware of the gift of the Eucharist. | 6/5/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 490 : God Has Spoken : Trinity Sunday* | Karl Barth said, "The central claim of Christianity is that God has spoken." The uniqueness of this claim has lead Christians to refer to God as a Trinity. The Trinity denotes God as speaker, the Word spoken (i.e. Christ) and the interpreter of the Word (i.e. Holy Spirit). It is always better to have the author interpret his word for you when reading his works. This is how the Church understands the Holy Spirit in helping her understand God's Word. | 5/29/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 489 : The Holy Spirit that Awakens : Pentecost* | Pentecost celebrates the awakening of the Holy Spirit within the disciples thus forming the Church. As the Holy Spirit unites the Church closer and closer to Christ, it pushes the faithful into a realm beyond self-determination. The more you allow the Holy Spirit to work in you, you paradoxically become both smaller and greater. | 5/22/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 488 : Participation in God's Way of Being : Ascension* | Fr. Barron clarifies the Church's belief in Christ's Ascension as heralding our elevation into God's way of being. Rather than forgetting about the world, this eschatological hope properly orientates us to the concerns of the world. | 5/15/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 487 : The Guidance of the Holy Spirit : 6th Sunday of Easter* | The first reading for this Sunday, taken from the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, is about the Council of Jerusalem that allowed Gentiles into the Church. This Council, like all councils, is full of disputes. But it must never be forgotten that the Holy Spirit is guiding and directing the Church. | 5/8/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 486 : A New Heaven and A New Earth : 5th Sunday of Easter* | The second reading for this Sunday, taken from the twenty-first chapter of the Book of Revelation, completes the Biblical story. The Bible tells us that the world will be transformed into a new heaven and a new earth through the One who "makes all things new." | 5/1/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 485 : The Lordship of Jesus : 4th Sunday of Easter* | The first reading for this Sunday, taken from the thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, recounts the expulsion of Paul and Barnabas from Antioch. Paul's radical message of the Lordship of Jesus subverts all other power and authority. It is a public proclamation that is a challenge to all. | 4/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 484 : The Structure of Discipleship : 3rd Sunday of Easter* | Our Gospel for today, taken from the wonderful 21st chapter of St. John's Gospel, is filled with mystical and symbolic allusions. The disciples in the boat are evocative of the church; Jesus on the shore calls to mind the eschatological fulfillment toward which the church is journeying; Peter calls to mind both sinful Adam and the promise of redemption. In all of it, we see a picture of discipleship. | 4/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 483 : My Lord and My God : 2nd Sunday of Easter* | Despite the locked doors, the risen Jesus stands in the midst of the disciples. This is a beautiful icon of the Church, the community gathered around Jesus and filled with his spirit. When the Lord, first appears, Thomas is not there and hence does not believe. Only when he returns to the apostolic circle does he encounter Jesus and make his great confession. This detail reminds us that we see the risen Lord only in the church and through its mediation. | 4/10/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 482 : The Impossibly Good News of Easter : Easter* | The Church's Easter proclamation is the strangest message ever delivered: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. His resurrection is not merely a symbolic statement about Christ's historical importance or the affirmation that his cause goes on. Nor is the resurrection simply about some change in the the apostle's minds in regards to Christ after his death. The resurrection is about the real body of Jesus. | 4/3/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 481 : Which King? Whose Kingdom? : Palm Sunday* | Today the Church proclaims the Passion of Christ. The story of the Lord's suffering and death haunted the minds of the first Christians. All the Gospels center around it and find their fulfillment in it. The special emphasis in this years account, taken from the Gospel of Luke, is Christ's struggle with the false kingdoms of the world. | 3/27/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 480 : All Is Loss : 5th Sunday of Lent* | In our second reading for this Sunday, St. Paul lays out his resumé. In terms of the Judaism of his time, Paul was about as accomplished as one could hope to be: he was a defender of the tradition, steeped in the wisdom of his people, and blameless under the law. But after seeing Jesus risen from the dead, Paul said that he counted all of those achievements as loss and refuse. So we, he implies, should not base our lives on our accomplishments, degrees, social status--but rather on Christ crucified and risen. | 3/20/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 479 : The Father and The Sons : The 4th Sunday of Lent* | The parable of the prodigal son is a portrait of God's gracious love and two negative responses to that love. Both sons, in their own ways, indicate the disposition of the soul in estrangement from God. | 3/13/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 478 : A Tale of Two Trees : 3rd Sunday of Lent* | Today's scriptures present stories of two trees: the burning bush, that represents the reality of a soul that is receptive to God's presence, and the fig tree, which represents God's presence resisted and refused. | 3/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 477 : Transfigured Prayer : 2nd Sunday of Lent* | The startling event of the Transfiguration displays a model of prayer. The mountain represents the place of Divine encounter, the radiance of the Lord displays the interior life of the soul in relationship to the Divine life, the conversation with the prophets is a symbol of the communion of saints. All this culminates is a sending forth in mission. | 2/23/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 476 : The True and the False Messiah : 1st Sunday of Lent* | Today's Gospel presents the dramatic scene of the Lord Jesus' confrontation with the evil one. The evil one attempts to frustrate the Lord's mission by tempting him to become a "false" messiah by succumbing to sensual desire, exercising worldly power, and using the power of God for ego driven purposes. These temptations are intended, not just to frustrate the Lord in his mission, but our own mission as well. | 2/20/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 475 : Whom will you trust? : 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Our life takes shape in relation to that which we are willing to trust. What then is worthy of our trust? Worldly powers can disappoint and will all ultimately fail us. The Scriptures insist that we trust in the Lord's promises, promises that are proved to be true through the Resurrection of Jesus from dead. | 2/13/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 474 : Shaking the Foundations : 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Grace shakes us to the foundations, provoking in us a keen awareness of our own sinfulness, and offering us the liberating power of the forgiveness of our sins. Once transformed by God's grace, we are sent out on mission and through our mission, we share with others the Grace that we have received. | 2/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 473 : A Messiah For All the Nations : 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Today's scriptures clarify that the mission of the Messiah will not just be for the benefit of Israel, but for all the nations. Through the Jesus the Messiah, the Lord offers all peoples a share in his own divine life. | 1/30/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 472 : Learning Who We Are : 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The dramatic scene presented in the Book of Nehemiah presents a people who had forgotten their identity and learning, as if for the first time, who they really are. It is the mission of all those who remain invested in the Faith of the Church to give testimony to their brothers and sisters in Christ, reminding all, that in Christ, we have received a unique and wonderful identity- and it is only when we know who we are that will be able to find our purpose and accomplish the mission that Christ has given to us. | 1/23/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 471 : The First of the Signs : 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time* | The communion of humanity and divinity in Christ's divine person can be likened to a marriage. Sin effects a kind of divorce between God and humanity, a break up of the marriage of God and his people. How wonderful, therefore, when the Messiah offers the first sign of his identity and mission that it as at wedding. This is an indication that the relationship of God and humanity will be transformed, reconciled and renewed in Jesus Christ. | 1/16/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 470 : Christ and the World Religions : The Baptism of the Lord* | Although Christianity is the fullness of Truth, other religions, to a certain degree, participate in that Truth. The Magi, coming from Gentile cultures, seek the truth and find it in Christ. | 1/9/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 469 : Religion, Science and the Journey of the Magi : Feast of the Epiphany* | The story of the Magi illuminates important dynamics in the relationship of religious conviction and scientific investigation. There need not be any necessary conflict between the religion and science, as wise men of every age are drawn, not only to investigate the wonders of creation, but to draw closer to Christ, through whom all things have been made. | 1/2/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 468 : What Makes A Family Holy : Feast of the Holy Family* | Today the Church calls our attention to not simply the importance of family life, but the necessity that our families be holy. Holiness is discovered in the realization that our lives are not about ourselves, but are meant as a gift for others. The families that embody this radical gift of self to each other imitate the Holy Family of Christ. | 12/26/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 467 : Joy Before the Ark of God : Fourth Sunday of Advent* | The image of John the Baptist leaping in joy in the womb of his mother at the sound of the greeting of the Blessed Virgin Mary hearkens back to the Old Testament image of David, leaping and dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. The New Testament is properly understood when one references patterns or events that are described in the Old Testament. | 12/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 466 : The Message of John : Third Sunday of Advent* | John the Baptist insists that preparation for the coming of the Messiah entails moral transformation. When the Messiah comes, all will face his judgment, but oddly enough, this judgment will be good news. | 12/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 465 : Be Ready! : Second Sunday of Advent* | The prophecy of Baruch finds its fulfillment in the revelation of Christ, who brings the troubled history of God's people to its fulfillment and reveals God's eternal purpose for Jerusalem, the Temple, the Messiah and for Israel itself. | 12/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 464 : The End of the World as We Know It... : First Sunday of Advent* | The apocalyptic imagery of this Sunday's scriptures directs us to appreciate the finite nature of all worldly things and the truth that the only reality that endures in this world of inevitable change and loss is the Lordship of God in Christ. | 11/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 463 : There's a New King in Town... : Our Lord Jesus Christ The King* | Christ's kingship cannot be properly understood outside Israel's expectations for the Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth fulfills these expectations, yet in surprising and unexpected ways. | 11/21/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 462 : The Last Battle : 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The scriptures for this Sunday represent a biblical genre called "apocalyptic", which means "unveiling" or "revelation." The extraordinary revelation of these particular scriptures is that in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the battle against the fallen powers of heaven and earth has been won and a new age has begun, the age of the Church. | 11/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 461 : A Tale of Two Widows : 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Today's scriptures highlight two widows and two very important biblical principles: God reveals himself precisely at that moment of our greatest vulnerability and need, and that the grace in your life will increase in the measure that you give it away. | 11/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 460 : The Communion of Saints : Solemnity of All Saints* | The magnificent diversity of the Saints indicates to us that we have been called to holiness. Holiness is about more than a kind of humanisn, but a deliberate and sincere discipline of life by which we imitate Christ and accept his presence in all the circumstances of our lives. | 10/31/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 459 : Called From Darkness into His Light : 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The story of Bartimeaus is a model of the spiritual journey. The desire for Christ engenders in us spiritual healing, which is delivered in a profound illumination of Christ's identity, the acceptance of which leads us into the Church. | 10/24/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 458 : The Suffering Servant : 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | This Sunday's readings highlight the idea of redemptive suffering. The revelation of Christ changes our disposition towards the difficulties of life, filling these experiences with the potential for goodness. In his Incarnation, Christ did not evade the often harsh realities of human experience, but he accepted them, knowing that he would be with us in all things. The challenge for us is that in the face of the inevitable challenges of life is this: will we accept hardship as an occasion to grow in holiness and deepen our relationship with the Lord. | 10/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 457 : The Necessity of Spiritual Heroism : 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Today's Gospel identifies the spiritual itinerary of discipleship, the movement from living out the Faith in accord with merely what is basic and the challenge of applying oneself to the demands of spiritual heroism. Christ does not let us remain comfortable with what amounts to only an adequate response to his call, he asks for more, and our relationship with him is expressed in our response. | 10/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 456 : The Theology of Marriage : 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Marriage is not just some secular act or social arrangement. Rather, it is brought about by God for God's purposes. Marriage is properly understood, first and foremost, as a theological act. The purpose and meaning of marriage is revealed in the mystery of God's own life (the Trinity) , in God's relationship to creation, and in Christ's relationship with the Church. | 10/3/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 455 : Would that Everyone Could be a Prophet : 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Our first reading from the Book of Numbers and the Gospel reading from Mark both highlight a very interesting spiritual predicament, one that is presented numerous times throughout the Bible. It might be summed up as the inclination for members of the Church to subvert the mission of the Church because of their own ego driven desires and pre-occupations. | 9/26/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 454 : The Way of the Child : 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The gesture of the Lord in today's Gospel calls to mind the spirituality of Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose "little way" is essentially a disposition of child-like trust in the Lord. This trust might be likened to the capacity of children to find profound joy in the simplest experiences of life. There are few better models to describe the soul's relationship with Christ than this "little way" of St. Therese. | 9/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 453 : The Way of the One : 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Peter's magnificent confession of faith in the Lord Jesus illuminates, not only his divine identity, but it provides for us a great spiritual lesson in regards to how necessary it is to curtail the self striving of the ego in its need comfort and glory. In this regard, Christ invites, not only Peter, but all of us, into a new way of being in which negation of the ego and the practice of self denial enable us to grow in our capacity for love. | 9/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 452 : The Deafness of Secular Man : 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The healing of the deaf mute indicates not only a display of Christ's divine power to heal, but provides an image of how ideological secularism dulls our spiritual senses and inhibits our capacity to receive God's life and presence. Faith in Christ empowers us to become sensitive to the life and presence of God as he makes himself known in our lives and in the world. | 9/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 451 : The Dilemma of the Law : 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time* | One of the great tensions in the spiritual life is between loving the law and being free of the law. I argue in this homily that learning to swing a golf club is a very good analogy in this regard. Listen and find out why. | 8/29/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 450 : You Gotta Serve Somebody : 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The Book of Joshua provokes us to consider one of the most important questions of the spiritual life- whom will you serve? Will it be the Lord or some other concern? Making something finite the ultimate concern of one's life is a grave spiritual predicament. Only is the Lord is ultimate and it is only when we recognize this truth that the other concerns of our life can be properly ordered and become spiritually fruitful. | 8/22/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 449 : Wisdom Has Built Herself A House : 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The Book of Proverbs features a fascinating image of God's wisdom setting before humanity a sumptuous banquet. This is an image of the Church, who sets before the world the life and presence of Christ, a source of nourishment and renewal for the world. The wisdom of Christ is not merely a matter of mind, but a way of life that must be practiced if it is to be appreciated and understood. | 8/15/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 448 : Remaining Attentive to the Lord : 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The first reading for this Sunday is taken from the Old Testament Book of Kings. In this reading we are introduced to the Prophet Elijah, who is nearing the end of his mission. This particular scripture has much wisdom to share with us in regards to our own passage through the mid point of our lives and the necessity of remaining attentive to the Lord and open to his purposes. | 8/8/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 447 : Bread of Life : 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | Again, the Church's Gospel is taken from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. The principle concern of this Gospel is to provide testimony to the enduring presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This presence is foreshadowed in the mysterious "showbread' of the ancient temple of Israel. The promise that is symbolized in the "showbread" is fulfilled in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, the Church partakes of the its own "showbread", though no longer merely a symbol, it is the "Bread of Life"- the life and presence of Christ. | 8/1/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 446 : The Mystery of the Mass : 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | The sixth chapter of John's Gospel, from which we will be reading these next several weeks, is a sustained meditation on the meaning of the Mass and the Eucharist. Our passage for today, when read symbolically, illumines the major movements of the Mass. | 7/26/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 445 : A New Shepherd; A New Kingdom : 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | We should never seek our final security in the things that worldly rulers and kings can provide. It is only through the shepherding of Christ that we find our way to good pasture. | 7/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 444 : The Way of the Prophet : 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | If you walk the path of the prophet, you will abandon your own "career" and learn to follow the promptings of the Spirit. Also, you will be opposed. Once you accept and internalize those two lessons, you are ready to be a bearer of God's word. | 7/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 443 : The Mission of a Prophet : 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time* | This week's scriptures illuminate the identity and mission of a prophet- a calling that belongs to all the baptized by virtue of our Baptism. God appoints the prophets to a specific mission. This mission is to speak God's word of truth. God's word of truth is not a private or personal opinion, but the Word of God communicated through human words. The prophet speaks God's word of truth to those within and those outside the Church. Prophets do not seek to proclaim a message that is easy to be accepted, but seek to speak God's word of truth, no matter how hard it might be to hear and accept. Christ is the paradigmatic example of the identity and mission of the prophet. | 7/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 442 : 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time : God did not make death* | The Book of Wisdom offers us the strange assertion that God did not make death, but formed humanity to be imperishable. This revelation directs us towards the truth that death is much more than merely the dissolution of the body, but is the full impact of the power of sin over our lives. This power is especially evident in our fear of death. The dormition of the Mother of God offers us a sign that Christ has given to humanity a way, that takes us, not only beyond our fear of death, but beyond death itself. The way of Christ enables us to face the power of death with trust, rather than fear. | 6/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 441 : Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Storm at Sea* | The story of Jesus calming the storm at sea is an archetypal description of the church down through the ages. We find ourselves in the midst of storms, but as long as Christ sails with us, we can find peace. | 6/21/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 440 : Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time : Corpus Christi* | The Eucharist is the holy meal that God wants to share with his people. It is also the sacrifice that makes that meal possible in the midst of a fallen world. To understand the eucharist, we have to keep these two dimensions in mind. | 6/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 439 : Trinity : The Center of Our Faith* | The Trinity is not simply a theological connundrum for scholars to fuss about. It stands at the very heart of our faith, since it expresses the fact that God is love. Our whole salvation depends on this great truth. | 6/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 438 : Pentecost : Pentecost Sunday* | The gift of the Holy Spirit leads us to the Truth and Holiness of Christ as mediated by the Church. | 5/31/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 437 : Seventh Sunday of Easter : Feast of the Ascension* | The Ascension of the Lord empowers the Church to fulfill its messianic mission: to gather the nations of the world into a relationship with the God of Israel. | 5/24/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 436 : Sixth Sunday of Easter : God's Marvelous Choice* | Today's Gospel present the distinction between a generic spirituality which emphasizes our decision for God, and authentic Christian Faith, which is the recognition that God has chosen us in Christ. It is God's choice, his election of us in Christ, as not only his followers, but his friends, that matters most | 5/17/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 435 : Fifth Sunday of Easter : The Vine and the Branches* | The image of the vine and the branches indicates that our relationship with Christ is greater than that of merely a teacher to his students. Instead, we are related to him on all levels of our existence because Christ is the eternal Logos through whom all things are made. | 5/10/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 434 : Fourth Sunday of Easter : The Shepherd's Voice* | Jesus identifies himself with the figure prophesied long before by Ezekiel, the one who would definitively gather the scattered tribes of Israel. The good shepherd is the one who brings Israel together so that it might fulfill its mission of gathering the other nations of the world to the praise of Yahweh. | 5/3/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 433 : Third Sunday of Easter : Resurrection and Metanoia* | The readings for today effect a correlation between the resurrection of Jesus and conversion. The biblical word for conversion is "metanoia" which has the sense of "going beyond the mind that you have." What would it be like to move from a death-haunted consciousness to resurrection-haunted one? It would involve a conversion. | 4/26/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 432 : Second Sunday of Easter : Resurrection and the Love of This World* | From the time of Marx, Feuerbach and Freud, we've heard the critique that religion is a wish-fulfilling fantasy, a game of "pie in the sky when you die." The readings for this second Sunday of Easter give the lie to this criticism, for they show how those who were convinced of Jesus' resurrection were also deeply commited to a more just society. | 4/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 431 : Easter Sunday : The Resurrection of Jesus is Not a Myth * | There are some debunkers of religion around today who want us to believe that the story of the resurrection is just another iteration of the myth of the dying and rising god that can be found in many ancient cultures. Nothing could be further from the truth. A careful reading of the Easter accounts shows that they have to do with a very particular, historical individual and with a very particular, unrepeatable event. | 4/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 430 : Palm Sunday : Dealing With the Mess* | Life is grim. It is marked by conflict, division, inextricably difficult situations. And brooding over all of it is the fact of death. How do we deal with this mess? We can't, but God can. In Christ, he takes on the dysfunction and sin of the world and takes it away through the divine mercy. Walk through the Passion narrative with this idea in mind. | 4/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 429 : Fifth Sunday of Lent : Planting the Law Within Us* | Jeremiah 31:31 is the great prophecy that the Lord will one day place his law within our hearts. In the Old Testament, God's law was written on stone and often appreciated as an imposition, a burden. But Jesus is the Law incarnate, the Torah made flesh. Therefore, when we eat his body and drink his blood, we take the law into our hearts, and thus we realize the prophecy of Jeremiah. | 3/29/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 428 : Fourth Sunday of Lent : Reading the Signs of the Times* | How do we know what's going on? How do we read the signs of the times? We could do so politically, sociologically, culturally, or economically. But the Bible insists that the world should be read theologically. What precisely is God doing and why? This sermon is about how to do this. | 3/22/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 427 : Third Sunday of Lent : The Ten Commandments* | Scott Hahn refers to these famous laws as 'our declaration of dependence.' They teach us how to center our lives radically around God and his demands. They signal our total dependence upon the Lord. How wonderful that we meditate on them in the midst of Lent. | 3/15/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 426 : Second Sunday of Lent : The Terrible Aqedah* | The story of the Aqedah, the Binding of Isaac, haunted the Israelite religious imagination. In it is contained one of the most important spiritual lessons in the Bible: everything we are and everything we have belongs, finally, to God. Knowing this is our liberation. | 3/8/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 425 : First Sunday of Lent : Get on the Ark* | As Lent commences, we are given the great image of Noah's Ark. This story is not just a charming tale that we tell to the kids; in it is contained the whole message of salvation, if we but know how to decipher the symbolism. | 3/1/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 424 : Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time : God's Great Yes* | Paul tells us that with Jesus Christ it was never yes and no, but only yes. This means that in Jesus all the promises made to Israel have come true. I will tell you why this great Yes of Jesus still matters for us. | 2/22/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 423 : Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time : Becoming Fit for Worship* | In our Gospel for today, a leper comes to Jesus and asks to be healed. He is suffering, not only from a physical malady, but from ritual uncleanness, rendering him incapable of worship. Jesus the Messiah has come to gather the scattered tribes of Israel to the worship of the true God and so he reaches out to the leper. That same Christ seeks to gather so many of us who have wandered away from the worship of the true God. | 2/15/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 422 : Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Spirituality of Pain* | Why would an all-powerful and all-loving God allow his people to suffer so much? That's one of the oldest and most difficult theological questions. Our first reading from Job and our Gospel from Mark provide some fascinating answers. | 2/8/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 421 : Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time : A Prophet Like Moses * | Moses promised that a prophet like himself would one day arise among the Israelites and that he would have the very authority of God. It is precisely this authority that Jesus claims. And this is why, in his regard, we have to make a choice. | 2/1/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 420 : Third Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Time of Fulfillment* | We hear in today's Gospel Jesus' inaugural address. He tells us that the time of fulfillment is now. This means that the whole of Israelite history is summed up in his person. He is the new Temple, the true prophet, the everlasting covenant, and the definitive Torah. And this means that all people must make a decision about him. | 1/25/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 419 : Second Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Call of Samuel* | The story of the call of Samuel is illuminating for our time of corruption and cleansing. I argue that the sex abuse scandal in the church should be read through the lens of this narrative. | 1/18/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 418 : Baptism of the Lord : Baptism of the Lord* | The Gospel compels us to come to grips with the fascinating figure of John the Baptist. John was the son of Zechariah, a temple priest. And John, baptizing in the desert, acts as a priest, cleansing the people for entry into the new temple. | 1/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 417 : Second Sunday of Christmas : Epiphany* | The feast of Epiphany gives us the occasion to reflect on a distinction that is much in vogue today between spirituality on the one hand and faith on the other. The Magi represent all that is good and true and beautiful in religious seeking. But they come to the tradition of Israel to find the right focus for their spiritual quest. | 1/4/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 416 : The Holy Family - Feast : What Makes a Family Holy?* | The Bible is not particularly sentimental about families. What makes a family holy, as far as the biblical writers are concerned, is its willingness to surrender to the purpose of God. We see this in a number of key figures, including Joseph, Anna, and Simeon. | 12/28/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 415 : Fourth Sunday of Advent : Reading the New Testament in Light of the Old* | The church fathers saw so clearly that we will never understand the New Testament without understanding the Old Testament. Our readings for this weekend show how the angel's words to Mary at the annunciation are intelligible only in light of God's promise made, ten centuries before, to David. | 12/21/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 414 : Third Sunday of Advent : Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks* | In our second reading from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, we hear the strange recommendation to pray always, rejoice in every circumstance, and give thanks at all times. How is this possible? Only when our lives have been radically reconfigured around Jesus Christ. | 12/14/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 413 : Second Sunday of Advent : Prepare the Way of the Lord* | The theme of preparing a highway for the Lord emerges from the time of the exile. When the Babylonian captivity was coming to a close, the prophet Isaiah envisioned God making a highway in the desert to facilitate the return of his people to Jerusalem. From what captivity of ours is God leading us this Advent? | 12/7/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 412 : First Sunday of Advent : The Potter and the Clay* | Our first reading for this first Sunday of Advent gives us the master image of God as the potter and we, his creatures, as clay. St. Irenaeus said that God's provident direction of our lives is easy as long as the clay of our hearts remains supple and moist. Trouble comes only when we allow the clay to harden. | 11/30/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 411 : Solemnity : Christ the King* | Our readings for Christ the King focus on the shepherding function of the king. Jesus calls the tribes of Israel together--and he also separates the sheep from the goats. We would do well to attend to both of these dimensions of his shepherding work. | 11/23/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 410 : 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time : Parable of the Talents* | Your being increases in the measure that you give it away. That's the law of the gift, and it can be found from end to end of the Bible. One application of this law has to do with faith itself. Your faith will grow only in the measure that you give it away, sharing it with others. | 11/15/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 409 : 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time : Dedication of St. John Lateran* | We celebrate today the feast of the dedication of St. John Lateran, the Pope's cathedral church as bishop of Rome. This gives us the occasion to speak of the importance of all church buildings, images of the temple in Jerusalem. | 11/9/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 408 : Solemnity : All Souls Day* | Why do we speak of the "soul?" We do so because there is something in us that links us to the eternal. Though the body fades away, the core of the person does not. And therefore, we remain connected to those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. We should pray for them in the hopes that one day we might live in communion with them. | 11/2/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 407 : 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Three Tasks of the Church* | Pope Benedict has said that the church has three basic jobs: to care for the poor, to evangelize, and to worship. These three are on clear display in our three readings for the weekend. | 10/26/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 406 : 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Render to Caesar...* | The Gospel for today raises the famously complex question of the relationship between "religion" and "politics." Though there is a legitimate distinction between the two, this can never turn into a separation. We should certainly render to Caesar what is Caesar's, but we must never forget that even Caesar belongs to God. | 10/19/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 404 : 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Vineyard* | In both the prophet Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew, we find the image of the vineyard as a symbol of Israel. As Jesus develops this image, we see both the glory and the tragedy of Israel-as well as the promise that the church will emerge as the bearer of the God of Israel to the nations. | 10/14/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 405 : 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Sacred Banquet* | One of the most powerful and enduring symbols of God's intention toward the world is the sacred banquet. God wants his life to flow into us and through us to one another. The result of this is life and life to the full. The question posed by the Gospel is this: when the invitation to this banquet comes, do we answer yes or no? | 10/12/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 401 : 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Triumph of the Cross* | We will understand the power of this feast only when we grasp how very strange it is to speak of the cross as a triumph. Paul's great hymn in his letter to the Phillipians helps us to grasp how the cross fits into the narrative of God's salvation. | 9/14/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 402 : 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time : As High as the Heavens... * | The Biblical manner of dealing with the problem of evil is neither to deny the fact of evil nor the fact of God's existence. Rather, it is to stress the transcendence and inscrutability of God's ways. What looks like pure evil or dumb suffering to us finds its place within the providential plan of a mysterious God. | 9/14/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 403 : 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Old Adam or New Adam* | Our second reading contains one of the most precious texts in the Christian tradition, Paul's description of the mind of Christ. While the old Adam clung to godliness and hence fell, the new Adam let go of his divinity and hence reversed the momentum of the fall. What does it mean to be conformed to God? It means to embrace the path of self-emptying love. Which Adam do we choose? The Old or the New? | 9/14/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 400 : 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time : Fraternal Correction* | The command to love compels us to engage in the difficult task of fraternal correction, but it enjoins us to do so carefully, always aware that it can slide easily enough into a game of ego-inflation. The Gospel gives us some very practical advice in this regard. | 9/7/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 399 : 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Problem of Suffering* | Most of the great religions and philosophies of the world center around the issue of suffering. Stoicism, Buddhism, Platonism all propose different paths to overcome suffering. Jesus proposes to his disciples the distinctively Christian path of embracing suffering in the act of self-sacrificial love. | 8/31/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 398 : 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time : Ekklesia* | Jesus tells Peter that he will build his ekklesia on the rock of Peter's confession. The word ekklesia means "called out from." To be a member of the church is to be called personally by Christ out of the world and into a new way of being. | 8/24/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 397 : 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time : How Great Is Your Faith* | The story of the persistent Canaanite woman has intrigued and puzzled Christians for two thousand years. Why would Jesus treat this pious woman with what seems like indifference, even hostility? Why does he refuse (it seems) to answer our own prayers? The solution can be found in the very Biblical category of testing. | 8/17/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 395 : 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Grace* | Our readings for this weekend are filled with grace, the free gift that God is. Our relationship with God gets off on the wrong foot the moment we see it in an "economic" or calculating way. God, who needs nothing from us, simply wants to share his life with us. And this is why he says, through the prophet Isaiah, "All you who are thirsty, come to the water!" | 8/14/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 396 : 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Christ, the Son of God* | The Church never tires of confessing the divinity of Jesus, for in that confession, the Church finds its whole identity. Over the centuries--and in the present day--many have tried to portray Jesus as no more than an inspired teacher. But the disciples who witnessed Christ walking on the water know better. They confess "truly, you are the Son of God." | 8/10/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 394 : 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time : What Do You Want?* | God says to Solomon in our first reading, "Ask for anything, and I will give it to you." What would you say if you heard that invitation? Solomon asks for wisdom and not for wealth or power or victory. Find out why that answer is so pleasing to God. | 7/27/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 393 : 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Three Parables; Three Spiritual Lesson* | Jesus' parables in today's Gospel tell us how and why the Kingdom of God emerges. It does so often through struggle, quietly and clandestinely, and through infiltration rather than direct confrontation. | 7/20/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 392 : 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Sower* | We have the special privilege of hearing Jesus himself interpret one of his parables. He tells us the three basic reasons why the Word is not accepted into our hearts: lack of understanding, lack of discipline, and lack of prioritization. | 7/13/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 391 : 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Take My Yoke Upon You.* | The Gospel for today allows us to overhear a conversation between the Father and the Son. We learn that the Son receives everything from his Father, that he is, in a word, yoked to the Father. When the Lord tells us to take his yoke, he is inviting us to pull with him, receiving through him the life that he receives from the Father. | 7/6/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 390 : Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles - Solemnity : Peter and Paul: The Indispensable Men* | Peter and Paul were the greatest "christophers," Christ-bearers in the early days of the church. Though they were very different, they came together in their love for Jesus and their conviction that he was Lord. It is largely because of their witness that we gather still today in the name of Jesus. | 6/29/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 389 : 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Old Adam, New Adam* | In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that Jesus is the new Adam or the second Adam. He means that Christ sums up the history of Israel and renews the human race. | 6/22/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 388 : 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Election* | One of the key themes of the Bible is the divine election, the fact that God chooses. But God chooses, not on the basis of merit, but simply through and because of his grace. And he chooses, not to glorify those whom he elects, but rather to give them a mission of love. Accordingly, he chose Israel so that it might be a priestly nation; and he chose the twelve so that they might proclaim the kingdom, and he chose us the baptized that we might be conduits of his grace to the world. | 6/15/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 387 : 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Getting Straightened Out* | Paul's letter to the Romans explores the great theme of justification, the process by which we become rectified or straightened out in regard to God. Key to this process, says Paul, is faith, that is to say, trust in the Lord. What has thrown us off-kilter is precisely a tendency to rely on our own powers. But when we, like Abraham our father in faith, learn to trust, then the divine life can flow into us and through us to the world. | 6/8/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 386 : 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Rock or Sand?* | What is the foundation of your life? How goes it with your heart? Are you building your spiritual house on sand or on rock? These are the fundamental questions that both the book of Deuteronomy and the Gospel of Matthew pose for us as we return to Ordinary Time. | 6/1/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 385 : Solemnity : Panis Angelicus* | In 1264, Pope Urban IV asked Thomas Aquinas to compose the office for the newly established feast of Corpus Christi. Thomas's texts are both beautiful and profound. By studying them, we can learn much of the Church's theology of the eucharist. He tells us that Christ serves us, with his own hands, the bread of angels. | 5/25/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 384 : Trinity : Why the Trinity Matters* | There is no question more important than this one: who is God? The doctrine of the Trinity is the Christian answer to that question. The Trinity is simply a doctrinally exact way of stating the belief that God is love. If love is what God is, then in the very being of God there must be lover, beloved, and love. | 5/18/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 383 : Pentecost : One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic* | The feast of Pentecost is the birthday of the church. Our readings show us the four major features of the church: it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. What do these four things mean? Listen to the sermon! | 5/11/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 382 : Seventh Sunday of Easter : The Dangerous Spirit* | Jesus assures his disciples that, if they pray for it, the Holy Spirit will definitely come upon them with great power. At the same time, he reminds them that the presence of the Spirit always awakens opposition and persecution. So ask for the Holy Spirit, but be prepared to suffer on his account. | 5/4/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 381 : Sixth Sunday of Easter : Five Signs of the Spirit* | As Pentecost approaches, the church gives us readings redolent of the Holy Spirit. Our passages for this Sunday speak in various ways of the presence of the Holy Spirit: bold speech, signs and wonders, joy, intellectual curiosity, and love. | 4/27/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 380 : Fifth Sunday of Easter : The Priesthood of the Church* | All the readings for today are, directly or indirectly, about the priesthood, that office that all of the baptized share. To be a priest is to be a mediator between God and human beings and to be a person who offers right praise. This identity should play itself out in all that you do. | 4/20/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 379 : Fourth Sunday of Easter : Peter Proclaims Jesus is Lord* | Peter's sermon on Pentecost morning is the model for all evangelical proclamation. He declares that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah, and this straightforward, unambiguous confession leads to conversion on the part of the people. When our preaching about Jesus is wishy-washy, unclear, tentative, we shouldn't be surprised that no one listens. | 4/13/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 378 : Third Sunday of Easter : Emmaus and the Pattern of Redemption * | The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus teaches us how to see. When we listen to Christ explain the Scriptures to us, we understand the pattern of his life and death. And when we eat his body and drink his blood, we see precisely who he is: God's love made flesh." | 4/6/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 377 : Second Sunday of Easter : The Mission of Easter* | Essential to the Easter message is mission: we are sent by the risen Jesus to do his work in the world. It is never enough that we contemplate his risen splendor; we must become his forgiveness-bearing presence to those around us. | 3/30/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 376 : Easter : He is Risen!* | Our first reading for this Easter day is Peter's great kerygmatic speech on Pentecost morning. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter addresses the Jerusalem crowd, telling them the impossibly good news that Jesus of Nazareth, a man who moved through their ordinary towns and villages, has been raised from the dead. The Easter faith of the Church is not an abstraction, not a vague claim about God's fidelity or our hope for immortality. Rather, it is the startling assertion that God has brought this man Jesus back from the dead. May we bask in the glow of this still surprising revelation. | 3/23/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 375 : Palm Sunday : The Passion of The Christ* | Matthew shows us that, as Jesus resolutely does his Father's will, myriad forms of human dysfunction--betrayal, sloth, stupidity, violence, scapegoating, corruption--break out around him. This is the salvation story: God's compassionate embrace of sinners. | 3/16/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 373 : Fourth Sunday of Lent : The Man Born Blind* | Blindness is a great Biblical symbol of spiritual blindness, the darkening and distortion of our vision. | 3/14/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 374 : Fifth Sunday of Lent : Lazarus Come Forth* | Jesus came to end the reign of death, to wrestle death to the ground. In the raising of Lazarus--which anticipates his own even more glorious resurrection--he fulfills the prophecy of Ezekiel. | 3/9/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 371 : 2nd Sunday of Lent : The Mystery of Light* | On his way to Jerusalem, where he will be crucified, Jesus is transfigured before three of his disciples. This manifestation of glory, says Thomas Aquinas, was designed to encourage the disciples during the difficult days that would follow. It gives hope to us too. On the sometimes painful journey through this life, we see in the Transfiguration of the Lord a sign of what awaits us: a glorified life with God. | 2/17/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 372 : Third Sunday of Lent : The Woman at the Well* | We are made for God, and therefore our hearts are restless until they rest in him. This longing is symbolized in the thirst of the woman at the well. Directing her away from all earthly goods, Jesus draws her to himself: "I will give you water springing up to eternal life." We hear the same invitation to the font of grace. | 2/14/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 370 : 1st Sunday of Lent : Back to Basics* | "For the first Sunday of Lent, the church brings us back to spiritual training camp and encourages us to review the basics. We are in the garden with Adam and Eve and in the desert with Jesus. When the devil approaches us, do we respond as they did, or as he did? Everything else will flow from that decision." | 2/10/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 369 : 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time : How to Be Happy* | In the beatitudes, the Son of God tells us what every one of us, deep down, wants to know: how to be happy. So we must listen with great attentiveness. At the heart of the program is the beatitude: blessed are the merciful. This is because mercy is a participation in the divine life itself. All of the other beatitudes center around and relate to this one. | 2/3/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 368 : 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Work of the Messiah* | Our Gospel passage from the 4th chapter of Matthew's Gospel tells us, in very short compass, what the work of the Messiah was. Jesus proclaims the kingdom, commences the gathering of the tribes of Israel, and takes on God's enemies. We who are grafted on to him must do the same. | 1/27/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 367 : 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time : Behold the Lamb of God* | John the Baptist's designation of Jesus as Lamb of God is, I submit, largely misunderstood. It has little to do with Jesus' meekness, mildness, or humility and everything to do with his being the victim of a sacrifice. To find out why this is such good news, listen to the sermon! | 1/20/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 366 : Baptism of the Lord : The Bending Low of the Son of God* | The feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a celebration of God's great humility. In order to rescue us sinners, God the Son bent low and stood with us in the muck and mud of our dysfuction. This was so that he could draw us up to his glory. | 1/13/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 365 : Solemnity : Faith the Friend of Reason* | "One of the truths that is manifested on Epiphany (that's what the word ""epiphania"" means) is the compatibility of faith and reason, of religion and science. The Magi were scientists, astronomers interested in tracking and measuring the heavenly bodies. But they also saw in the orderliness of the universe evidence of God. Their search for Christ symbolizes the fact that all of science leads finally to God." | 1/6/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 364 : The Holy Family - Feast : Holy Family Values* | Paul lays out for the Colossians (and us) the virtues that make a family healthy. They include compassion, patience, bearing the burden of the other and, above all, love. To find out precisely what these terms mean, listen to the sermon! | 12/30/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 363 : 4th Sunday of Advent : Ahaz and Joseph* | Both Ahaz and Joseph are being summoned out of a narrow perspective and encouraged to dream big, to think of their lives within the context of God's purposes and plans. This makes them prime Advent figures. | 12/23/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 362 : 3rd Sunday of Advent : The Virtue of Hope* | Hope is not this-worldly optimism. In fact, from a purely natural perspective, pessimism is the right attitude. Hope is that supernatural virtue which orders our desire toward heaven and the things of heaven. What Isaiah talks about in our first reading is not an expectation that will be realized here below, but only in a transfigured world on high. | 12/16/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 361 : 2nd Sunday of Advent : Repent!* | John the Baptist sums up the Advent season. He lives in the desert, the place of no distraction, and he speaks a message of repentance and the confession of sin. Advent is a great time to clear away all that separates us from Christ. It is a time of repentance. | 12/9/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 360 : 1st Sunday of Advent : Incoming!* | Advent is from the latin word adventus, which means coming or arrival. Some arrivals are positive; others are downright threatening. The Gospel for today paints a somewhat dark picture of the coming of the Son of Man, likening it to the flood of Noah. When Christ comes, we have to change, and that's often wrenching. | 12/2/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 359 : Christ the King - Solemnity : David and Jesus* | Along with Moses and Abraham, David is the most important figure in the Old Testament. The first Christians read Jesus in light of these heroes of the Old Testament. | 11/25/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 358 : 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Birth Pangs of the Messiah* | Our readings for today are apocalyptic, which means that they describe the end of an old world and the beginning of a new one. The new world in question is the world of Christ's lordship. To enter into that spiritual space, we have to go through earthquake, famine, and war. But this is, finally good news! | 11/18/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 357 : 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time : Resurrection of the Body* | "Both our first reading and Gospel for today present the distinctively Biblical view of what happens to us after we die. We do not so much escape from the body as begin to live in a transformed and transfigured body, what Paul calls a "spiritual body." | 11/11/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 356 : 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time : Zacchaeus* | The story of Zacchaeus in the Gospel of Luke is a kind of spiritual itinerary. If we attend to it carefully, we will learn the essentials of the life of grace. | 11/4/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 355 : 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Paul’s Farewell Discourse* | The second letter to Timothy is Paul's parting advice to his young colleague and spiritual son. He speaks of being poured out like a libation, of being ready for a great journey, of having fought the good fight and run the successful race. All of these images are illuminating for us as well. | 10/28/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 354 : 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Struggle With Amalek* | An awful lot of people probably find our first reading for this week offensive. We hear that Israel mowed the Amalekites down with the sword. How can this terrible story of conquest be a revelation of God's intentions? Listen as I offer the surprising interpretation that Origen of Alexandria offers. | 10/21/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 353 : 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Lessons of Naaman* | The story of Naaman the Syrian is not terribly well-known, but it contains some marvelous spiritual lessons for all of us. It tells us of the importance of patience, humility, perseverance, prayer--and above all following our weakness as it leads us to God. | 10/14/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 352 : 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Lament of Habbaku* | The prophet Habbakuk expresses what most of us feel at some point in our lives: how can God be so indifferent to suffering? Listen carefully to the answer he receives from the Lord. | 10/7/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 351 : 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Sermon 351* | Summary to come... | 9/30/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 350 : 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time ; Summary to come...* | Summary to come... | 9/23/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 349 : 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Reckless Abandon of God’s Love* | God does not love as we do, in a calculating manner. He makes his sun to shine on the good and the bad alike and his rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. This means that he is like the Good Shepherd who seeks even the one sheep who is lost and like the father who welcomes back even the prodigal. | 9/16/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 348 : 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Path of Dispossession* | Jesus tells us that we must get rid of all of our possessions, including the people that we have turned into possessions. It is in this sense that he encourages us to "hate our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters." In the measure that these nearest and dearest are possessions of one's ego, they are a block to salvation. | 9/6/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 347 : 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Addiction of Honor* | The lust for honor interrupts the great banquet that God wants us to enjoy. This is why Jesus interrupts the interruption in today's Gospel, urging people purposely to take the lowest place and to entertain only those who cannot repay the favor. We must free ourselves of the addiction to honor! | 9/2/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 346 : 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time : Jacob Neusner, Benedict XVI, and the Vocation of Israel* | In his new book, Pope Benedict engages in a fascinating dialogue with the American rabbi Jacob Neusner on the identity and meaning of Jesus. In this sermon, I will tease out the implications of this debate, especially in regard to the vocation of Israel. | 8/26/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 345 : 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time : I Have Come to Cast a Fire Upon the Earth.* | Jesus' words from our Gospel this week inspired the name for my program, Word on Fire. Jesus speaks of the divine judgment that will fall like a cleansing fire on the earth. This is not opposed to God's love, but is rather what God's love looks like to a fallen world. | 8/19/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 344 : 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Trusting the Darkness* | Authentic faith has nothing to do with credulity or intellectual naivte. It has everything to do with placing one's trust in the God whom we cannot, even in principle, know with clarity. It is the willingness to follow the promptings of God, even when we don't see where they might lead. | 8/12/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 343 : 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Qoheleth and the Foolish Rich Man* | Both our first reading and Gospel function as a slap in the face, cold water, a wake-up call. They show how passing, ephemeral, and unreliable are the goods of this world. The idea is to set our hearts, as Paul says, on the higher things, rooting our lives in God. | 8/5/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 342 : 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Lord’s Prayer* | Our Gospel for this week is of the utmost importance, for we hear the Son of God himself teaching us to pray. In this homily, I walk rather carefully through the major petitions of the Our Father, noting how central this prayer is to Christian life and spirituality. | 7/29/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 341 : 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Paul's Suffering* | Paul says in our second reading that he "makes up in his own sufferings what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ." This means that Paul-and all of us-have the enormous privilege of participating in the act by which Christ saved the world, an act of suffering love. How do you interpret your own pain? Might it be a participation in the salvation of Christ? | 7/22/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 340 : 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Natural Law* | What the church calls "the natural law" is, as Moses suggests in our first reading, close to us, in fact, written on our hearts. Thomas Aquinas said that this natural, moral law is a reflection of the eternal law of God and is, in turn, the ground for all of our positive laws. When the relationship between God's law, the moral law, and political law is lost, our society suffers. | 7/15/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 339 : 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Boasting in the Cross* | St. Paul tells us in our second reading that he boasts in the cross of Jesus. To any of his hearers in the first century this would have sounded like madness. Paul can boast in this shameful thing precisely because God has raised Jesus from death and thereby placed the world-the realm of hatred, violence, and division-under judgment. Now we must have the courage to leave the world and enter into the new creation which is the body of Christ. | 7/8/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 338 : 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Gospel Freedom* | Our readings for this weekend are completely counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. We put a huge premium on freedom and self-determination in regard to choosing our careers. But this is not the Biblical perspective. Elisha accepts the mantle of prophecy, simply because God commands him, and he leaves everything behind. Jesus tells a man to follow him, even if that means not attending his own father's funeral. In the determination of the meaning of your life, what, or better who, finally matters? | 7/1/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 337 : Solemnity : Solemnity* | Summary to come... | 6/24/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 336 : 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time : They Shall Look on Him Whom They Have Pierced* | Summary to come... | 6/17/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 335 : 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Corpus Christi* | Paul tells us that whenever we eat the body and drink the blood of the Lord, we proclaim his death until he comes. This means that the Eucharist involves a wonderful compression of time, past and future meeting dynamically in the present. When we gather around the Lord's table now, we call to mind the breakthrough moment of the Paschal Mystery and we anticipate the culminating moment of the end of time. In doing this, we charge the present with meaning and purpose. | 6/10/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 334 : Solemnity : The Holy Trinity* | This weekend, we celebrate the Trinity, a mystery which stands at the very heart of the faith. The doctrine of the Trinity is a technical way of stating what St. John said in his first letter, viz. that God is love. If God is love, then there must be within God a play of lover, beloved, and love. This is the relationality that obtains among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit | 6/1/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 333 : Pentecost : Pentecost* | The two great symbols of the descent of the Holy Spirit are wind and tongues of fire. Wind is powerful, unpredictable, destructive, like the Spirit which seizes us and takes us where we would rather not go. Tongues of fire signal impassioned speech on behalf of the Good News, a willingness to announce the Gospel publicly and even in the face of opposition. With the whole church around the world, we pray on this great feast of Pentecost for the coming of that troublesome and wonderful Holy Spirit. | 5/27/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 332 : 7th Sunday of Easter : The Ascension of the Lord* | The feast of the Ascension is meant to awaken hope. In Jesus, risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, our lowly human nature participates in the very life of God. In the light of the ascension, therefore, we are permitted to hope for a way of being, elevated and perfected beyond our imagining. | 5/20/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 331 : 6th Sunday of Easter : Paul's Basic Message, Part II* | Last week we explored the central teaching of St. Paul: to live in Christ Jesus. This week, we draw out four implications from this teaching: the corporate nature of the church, a sacramental imagination, the gifts of the Spirit, and the acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord. In emphasizing these themes, Paul gave shape to the whole of Christian theology through the ages. | 5/13/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 330 : 5th Sunday of Easter : Paul's Message* | "Last week we looked at the life and times of Paul, the person who, after Jesus himself, is the most influential figure in the formation of the Christian church. In this week's sermon, I look briefly at Paul's central teaching, which I identify as "being in Christ."" The phrase ""en Christo,"" in Christ, appears 83 times in the letters of Paul, indicating how central it is to the Apostle's teaching and preaching. Christ Jesus is a new energy field, a new power, a new way of being, and the idea, as far as Paul is concerned, is to get into it--so that ultimately you can say, with him, "it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" | 5/6/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 329 : 4th Sunday of Easter : Paul the Apostle* | "During the Easter season, we are reading from the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Though John, Philip, Peter, and James are all featured in Acts, the ""star"" of the text is clearly Paul, missionary and evangelist. Who was this extraordinarily important figure, the man that many say, after Jesus himself, was most influential on the development of Christianity? For the next three weeks, I will be exploring the life, thought, and work of Paul the Apostle." | 4/29/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 324 : 5th Sunday of Lent : All is Loss* | In our second reading for this Sunday, St. Paul lays out his resumé. In terms of the Judaism of his time, Paul was about as accomplished as one could hope to be: he was a defender of the tradition, steeped in the wisdom of his people, and blameless under the law. But after seeing Jesus risen from the dead, Paul said that he counted all of those achievements as loss and refuse. So we, he implies, should not base our lives on our accomplishments, degrees, social status--but rather on Christ crucified and risen. | 4/25/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 328 : 3nd Sunday of Easter : The Structure of Discipleship* | Our Gospel for today, taken from the wonderful 21st chapter of St. John's Gospel, is filled with mystical and symbolic allusions. The disciples in the boat are evocative of the church; Jesus on the shore calls to mind the eschatological fulfillment toward which the church is journeying; Peter calls to mind both sinful Adam and the promise of redemption. In all of it, we see a picture of discipleship. | 4/22/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 327 : 2nd Sunday of Easter : My Lord and My God* | Despite the locked doors, the risen Jesus stands in the midst of the disciples. This is a beautiful icon of the Church, the community gathered around Jesus and filled with his spirit. When the Lord, first appears, Thomas is not there and hence does not believe. Only when he returns to the apostolic circle does he encounter Jesus and make his great confession. This detail reminds us that we see the risen Lord only in the church and through its mediation. | 4/15/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 326 : Easter Sunday : A New Creation* | "Easter is the dawn of a new creation. St. John tells us that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early on the morning of the first day of the week. This is meant to call to mind the first day of creation, when God said, ""Let there be light"" and brought order out of chaos. From the meaninglessness of death, God brings eternal life. This is the central and revolutionary message of Easter." | 4/8/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 325 : Palm Sunday : The Passion of the Christ* | In St. Luke's account of the Passion, we see what real kingship looks like. Jesus gives his entire self away in love--and in that he is Lord. The supreme irony is the sign placed by Pontius Pilate over the cross: This is the King of the Jews. Real power is not a function of money, pleasure, domination, and self-aggrandizement. Real power is self-forgetting love | 4/1/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 323 : 4th Sunday of Lent: The Greatest Story Ever Told* | "Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most memorable, carefully crafted, and inspiring stories ever told. In some ways, the whole of the Christian "thing"" is summed up in this narrative. We have a God who invites us into the dynamism of his own life, and who relentlessly pursues us even when, in our stupidity and sin, we refuse to respond to the invitation." | 3/18/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 322 : 3rd Sunday of Lent : The Burning Bush* | Moses sees a bush that burns but is not consumed. This is a lovely symbolic expression of the way God relates to the world. The closer God gets, the more we become radiant with his presence. God's proximity does not mean our destruction or the compromising of our integrity; rather it is the means by which we become fully ourselves. | 3/11/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 321 : 2nd Sunday of Lent : The Father in Faith* | Abraham was chosen by God as the founder of a people who would be the means by which God would save the world. His great mark is faith, that is to say, trust. Faith is what Adam and Eve couldn't muster (they grasped at godliness) and from this followed the agony of the world. God commenced a rescue operation by setting Abraham in quest of a promised land. | 3/4/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 320 : 1st Sunday of Lent : The Three Temptations* | As we once again commence the penitential season of Lent, it is good to get back to basics. We journey with Jesus into the desert, and with him, we confront the three basic temptations: sensual pleasure, power, and glory. Only when we set aside our obsessions with these three things can we be free to serve the Lord | 2/25/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 319 : 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Enemy Love* | The most troubling and challenging of Jesus' teaching is the command to love our enemies. In this homily, I explore four good reasons why it is so important to engage in this most difficult act of love. | 2/18/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 318 : 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Where Do You Put Your Faith* | "The readings for this weekend pose a blunt question: whom, finally, do you trust? ""Trust"" is meant here in an absolute sense. Where do you base your life? In God or in the things of this world? How you answer that question determines pretty much everything else." | 2/11/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 317 : 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Isaiah and Peter* | The Church invites us to read together the stories of Isaiah's call and Peter's call. Both are addressed by the God of gracious surprises; both are shown marvellous things; both become more not less aware of their sins; and both are sent on mission. So it goes with all of us who are addressed by the living God. | 2/4/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 316 : 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time : What is Love?* | "In the thirteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul sings a hymn to love. He tells us that love is ""patient, gentle, kind, not snobbish"" and that it ""never fails."" Love, after all, is what God is: willing the good of the other as other. When we love, therefore, we are sharing in the very life of God." | 1/28/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 315 : 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time : Sermon 315* | Nehemiah, the 5th century governor of Judea, has an important spiritual lesson for us today. Nehemiah led the project of re-building the walls of Jerusalem after the return from exile. Walls, which set a community apart, are essential for identity and clarity of purpose. If the church is to be a world-transforming agent, it must, first, know clearly who she is and what makes her distinctive. | 1/21/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 314 : 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Task of the Church* | As we enter into ordinary time, we reflect with St. Paul on the ordinary task of the church: the discernment and exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. How do we use the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, healing, and faith? That is the only question that | 1/14/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 313 : Baptism of the Lord-Feast : Universal Significance of Jesus* | The visit of the Magi to the Christ child signals the universal significance of Jesus. At its best, Christ's church has always been a trans-national and trans-cultural force, overcoming the political and national divisions that so bedevil us. This is why the journey of the Magi is ground for hope. | 1/7/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 312 : The Holy Family - Feast : Biblical Family Values* | There are family values in the Bible, but they might not be the ones you'd expect. The Biblical authors--both Old Testament and New--put a stress, not on sentiment and personal connection, but rather on mission. They see the family as a place where one's vocation from God is prioritized and cultivated. We see this theme on clear display in both the Hannah story and the account of the finding in the Temple. | 12/31/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 311 : 4th Sunday of Advent : Inexhaustibly Fascinating Figure of Mary* | On the final Sunday of Advent, the Church invites us to consider the inexhaustibly fascinating figure of Mary. The Mother of God is a figure of faithful Israel, the people who for so many centuries waited for the coming of the Messiah. She is, accordingly, the new Eve, the new Moses, the true Isaiah and Ezekiel. In meditating upon her, we come to a deeper appreciation of the Christ she bore. | 12/24/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 310 : 3rd Sunday of Advent: What Should We Do?* | "Our Gospel for today centers around a question that is bracing in its directness and simplicity. A group of people come to the Baptist and ask ""what should we do?"" The spiritual life is about a set of behaviors and practices, focused, as John the Baptist specifies, around the work of justice." | 12/17/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 309 : 2nd Sunday of Advent : Return Home* | In our first reading for this week, we hear the prophet Baruch predicting the return of the children of Israel to Zion. God will level the mountains and fill in the valleys so as to make a highway for them. In the Gospel, John the Baptist announces a similar preparation for a similar return, but this time it is the return of Israel from the exile of sin and death, facilitated by the coming of the Messiah. | 12/10/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 308 : 1st Sunday of Advent : The Second Coming* | The readings for this first Sunday of Advent focus, not on the historical coming of Jesus at Bethlehem, but rather at his eschatological coming at the end of time. Knowing that all of history tends toward and culminates in Jesus changes radically the way we live now. | 12/2/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 307 : Christ the King - Solemnity : Pilate and Jesus* | "In the confrontation between Pilate and Jesus we see, according to Benedict XVI, a clash of two visions of politics. Pilate, who cynically dismisses any claim to know the truth, allows Jesus' fate to be determined by the will of the majority. But Jesus reminds Pilate that his legitimate political authority comes to him, not from the people, but ""from above,"" that is to say, from certain moral values rooted in God." | 11/26/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 306 : 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time : God's Great Cleansing Operation* | For centuries, Biblical people have been puzzled/fascinated by apocalyptic language. Plagues, floods, earthquakes, the closing down of time itself: what does it mean? God is always, throughout the Scripture, in the business of cleansing and purifying a fallen world so as to make way for a new world. The ultimate apocalypse, therefore, is the dying and rising of Jesus. The cross and resurrection represent the end of an old world and the beginning of a new creation. | 11/19/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 305 : 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time : Christ the High Priest* | For the past several weeks, we have been reading from the extraordinary letter to the Hebrews, the principal theme of which is the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Jesus can be the ultimate bridge-builder between God and us, precisely because in his own person he reconciles divinity and humanity. True God and true man, Christ is true priest. | 11/12/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 303 : 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Chief of the Nations* | In our first reading, Jeremiah the prophet tells the Israelite people to rejoice because they are the chief of the nations. This would have struck his listeners as something of a joke. They had just returned from the Babylonian captivity, the worst calamity in Israelite history. How could they possibly be the chief of the nations? But Jeremiah is seeing with a prophet's eye, gazing toward that future which would be fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah who would gather the new Israel (the church) and make it the light to the world. | 11/5/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 304 : 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time : Hear, O Israel* | "Our first reading for Mass this week contains the most sacred prayer in the Jewish tradition, the ""Sh'ma."" In the Gospel, when asked which commandment is the greatest, Jesus, a pious Jew, recites this prayer from the book of Deuteronomy. Listen as I explicate this central and decisive statement of Biblical faith." | 11/5/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 302 : 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Voice of Ambition* | James and John want to sit at Jesus' right and left when the Lord comes into his glory. What they don't realize is that his glory is the moment of his crucifixion. To be at his right and his left at his enthronement is, therefore, to be crucified with him, to be willing to give oneself totally away. Be careful what you ask for! | 10/22/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 301 : 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time : I Asked for Wisdom and Prudence* | If an angel of the Lord stood before you and invited you to pray for one thing, what would it be? The book of Wisdom suggests today that you should pray, not for power or wealth or beauty or health, but for the wisdom that would enable you to use any and all of those gifts well. Let the first reading for this week be a sort of spiritual exercise for you. | 10/15/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 300 : 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Two Become One Flesh* | Our readings for this week are all about marriage. In the Catholic understanding, a married couple do not so much receive a sacrament as they become a sacrament. They realize that their marriage is not about them; rather it is a vehicle through which God's purposes are being worked out. | 10/10/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 299 : 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Sermon 299* | Jesus certainly manages to get our attention in this week's Gospel. Don't literalize his language, but feel its power. Are you willing to eliminate certain things from your life--ways of grasping, ways of walking, ways of seeing--that are compromising your friendship with God? What, precisely, are you willing to sacrifice? | 10/1/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 298 : 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Warfare Within; The Warfare Without* | We have been reading for the past several weeks from the letter of James, which is a treasure-trove of practical wisdom. James tells us this week that outer conflicts flow from a war of passions within each individual. How do you find the inner peace that will conduce to outer peace? Listen to the sermon! | 9/24/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 297 : 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time : Sermon 297* | Summary to come soon. | 9/17/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 296 : 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time : Ephphatha* | In this week's Gospel, Jesus heals a man who is deaf and dumb. When we read this account at the spiritual level, we see that he cures those who are deaf to the Word of God and hence unable to speak it clearly. How relevant this message is to our own time! | 9/10/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 295 : 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time : Law and Laws* | Whatever we reverence--baseball, good music, golf, the spiritual life--we are surrounded with laws. Law is meant to preserve and enhance the integrity of certain basic goods. But law also carries with it a shadow side, namely, a certain legalism and fussiness. Our readings for this weekend explore these various aspects--positive and negative--of religious law. | 9/3/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 294 : 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time : Many Went Away* | The Eucharist has been, from the beginning, a source of conflict and division. This is, of course, not Christ's will, for the eucharist is supposed to be the great unifier. Nevertheless, for the past two thousand years, the radical doctrine of the real presence has compelled some to rebel. Why is this? Take a listen. | 8/27/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 293 : 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time : My Flesh is Real Food; My Blood is Real Drink* | "Our Gospel for this weekend is the climax of Jesus' Bread of Life Discourse from the sixth chapter of John's Gospel. Given every opportunity to offer a symbolic interpretation of his words concerning his body and blood, Jesus intensifies the realism of his statement: ""My flesh is real food; my blood is real drink."" All Catholics must wrestle, in season and out, with the implications of this claim." | 8/20/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 292 : 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time : [REPLAY]* | This week Fr. Barron was unable to record a new Word on Fire. Will will replay the sermon from 2003, cycle B, the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. | 8/13/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 291 : Transfiguration of the Lord : Myth and History* | "In our second reading for this weekend, St. Peter tells us that, in sharing the Christian story, he was not trading in ""cleverly concocted myths."" There is a sharp distinction to be drawn between myth and history, and it matters enormously that Christianity is not a mythic system, but an historical religion. This feast of the Transfiguration gives us the opportunity to reflect on this difference." | 8/6/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sermon 290 : 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Mystery of the Mass* | This weekend, we commence our careful reading of the remarkable sixth chapter of John's Gospel, the central theme of which is the eucharist. The sixth chapter opens with John's account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Every detail of this story is symbolically evocative of the liturgy, that great prayer in the context of which the eucharist is situated. | 7/30/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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291 |
Sermon 289 : 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Cross is Our Peace* | We continue our reading of Paul's extraordinary letter to the Ephesians. We hear that the cross of Jesus has broken down the wall of enmity which divided Jews and Gentiles. At the very center of Christianity is the conviction that the death of Jesus on the cross represented God's victory over all the dark forces that divide us. What looked like ultimate defeat was in fact God's triumph over the power of division. | 7/23/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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292 |
Sermon 288 : 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Five Act Drama* | For the next several weeks, we are going to be reading from Paul's magnificent letter to the Ephesians. In our passage for today, we learn that we are situated within the context of a great theodrama, written and directed by God, and designed to lead us to eternal life. The Biblical drama has five acts: creation, the fall, the formation of Israel, Jesus Christ, and the Church. We read the Scriptures in order to discern the contours of that drama and, more importantly, our place within it. | 7/16/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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293 |
Sermon 287 : 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Call of the Prophet* | Every baptized person is conformed to Christ: King, Priest, and Prophet. Thus speaking the divine truth (prophecy) is not the concern of priests and bishops alone, but of all members of the church. From Ezekiel and Mark, we can discern a number of qualities of the prophetic office. First, the prophet does not speak his own word, but God's. Second, the prophet is given a difficult assignment. And third, the prophet is summoned, not to success, but faithfulness. | 7/9/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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294 |
Sermon 286 : 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Daughter of Jairus and the Book of Leviticus* | In order to understand the power of our Gospel reading for this week, we must attend to the book of Leviticus. In that great rule-book of Israelite life, we hear that contact with a hemorrhaging woman or with a corpse would result in ritual uncleanliness. When Jesus touches the hemorrhaging woman and the dead daughter of Jairus, he is not made unclean; in fact he makes them clean. In so doing, he redefines what it means to be a member of the true people of Israel. | 7/2/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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295 |
Sermon 285 : 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time : "The ""De Profundis"" Prayer"* | "Psalm 130 begins with the words, ""out of the depths, I have cried to you, O Lord."" Throughout the great tradition, the prayer ""de profundis,"" (out of the depths) has been one of the most powerful expressions of our reliance upon God. When our lives have bottomed out, when we are lost and at the end of our strength, we turn to God. The cry of the apostles in the boat, as the waves crash over the side and threaten to drown them, is a New Testament example of this prayer. Do you need to pray it today?" | 6/25/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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296 |
Sermon 284 : 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time : The Mass and Sacrifice* | For this feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, I reflect on the Mass as a sacrifice. Sacrificial language runs right through all of our readings for today, just as it runs through the whole of Israelite history. In Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, God's fidelity unto death finally meets a human obedience unto death--and in that meeting, the covenant is fully realized, and salvation is accomplished. The Mass is the re-presenting of that world-changing event. | 6/16/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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297 |
Sermon 283 : The Holy Trinity-Solemnity : God Is Love* | On the feast of the Trinity, we reflect on the uniquely Christian definition of God: God is love. Love is not something that God does, or an attribute that God has; love is what God is. This means that God must be a play between lover, beloved, and love--between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. | 6/11/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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298 |
Sermon 282 : Pentecost : Pentecost and the Tower of Babel* | All the Jews in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost heard the disciples preaching in their own languages. This miracle of the Spirit is the reversal of the Tower of Babel, when God scattered the nations and confused their languages. The Holy Spirit is the solution to the spiritual problem of the one and the many. In God alone can the many come together fruitfully as one. | 6/4/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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299 |
Sermon 280 : 6th Sunday of Easter : The Da Vinci Code* | I don't like departing from the Scriptures in these homilies, but the appearance of the movie based upon the wildly popular novel The Da Vinci Code warrants a response. The central claim of the book--that Jesus is not divine--stands directly opposed to the central and defining claim of the Church. The Da Vinci Code argues that the divinity of Jesus was a fourth-century invention. Nothing could be further from the truth. This week and next, I will address this question and some others that arise from the Da Vinci Code. | 5/21/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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300 |
Sermon 281 : 7th Sunday of Easter : More Da Vinci Code* | This week I discuss two more themes that emerge in the Da Vinci Code: the Gnostic Gospels and anti-Catholicism. Much of the storyline of the Da Vinci Code flows from the controversial Gnostic tellings of the life of Jesus. These are, in fact, far less historically reliable than the canonical Gospels--not to mention less theologically sound. And the book as a whole should be classed in the genre of anti-Catholic screed. We shouldn't be hysterical about American anti-Catholicism, but we also shouldn't be naive about it. I promise that this is my last word about the Da Vinci Code! Next week we're back to the Scriptures | 5/16/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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301 |
Sermon 279 : 5th Sunday of Easter : Christ Living His Life in You* | Jesus Christ is infintely more than a moral ideal, a saint whom we admire from afar. In accord with the image from the Gospel for today, he is the vine upon which we have been grafted like branches. This means that he is our life blood, the very energy of our existence. Therefore we should read our lives this way: Jesus Christ is living his life in us. | 5/14/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 301 Episodes |
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