Month: January 2026

A homily for the fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Hello, faithful. My sister is an R.N., and every now and then, she’ll suggest some things to me. Like she says, she will introduce me to probiotics. Boy were those good. And she said the probably the best over-the-counter thing you can take is magnesium. It’ll help you sleep. Boy, is that good. Her third suggestion was a ten second body exercise.

Just 10s, she said. Hold one foot up off the floor for 10s, then hold the other foot off the floor for 10s. So it’s the 20 second exercise, and she says it’ll do wonders. It helps your balance, helps your stride, and it even helps your memory. Like I oftentimes say, I have a 35 second memory. People say, who’s like this was at table last night. Who’s the director of our seminary in El Salvador? And I said, I don’t know, but I’ll know in 35 seconds because the memory takes that long sometimes to pop in. And she says this exercise will shorten that. So all it is, is you pick up one foot and hold it in the air for 10s. It helps the brain, helps the balance, helps the stride, helps the posture.

10s. And so I can do that. So 12345678.

I’m trying I’m trying. Well, this I think is going on in today’s gospel. It’s an exercise we’re beginning the great sermon on the Mount. Jesus is great sermon. And I think it’s all about just transformation into a new creation. And it starts with the Beatitudes and the Beatitudes, I think are almost like when you read, you know, in a textbook, the introduction.

By the end of this chapter, the students should be able to. And that’s the Beatitudes. By the end of this chapter, by the end of the students, sermon on the Mount, the students should be able to live poverty. Spirit should be a peacemaker, should be merciful, should be compassionate, should be tolerant of persecution. This is the end result.

It’s not the beginning. The Beatitudes introduces what this sermon will do. And it’s like, if you can do these ten seconds, you will be greatly improved. If you can do this exercise, this spiritual exercise of trying to be merciful or trying to be compassionate or trying to be a peacemaker, just a little thing to, turn the other cheek or, walk the other way, or reach out in compassion or be generous or just a little bit. It will grow. You’ll be able to hold one foot off the ground for five minutes. I suspect if you did it every day, it’s the same with these, these and these ideas in the sermon on the Mount. We do them every day, just a little bit. We will grow to be great spiritual beings. Like this. Exercise is for one’s physical self.

The Beatitudes is for one’s spiritual self. Saint Teresa writes, we ought to thank the Lord who makes us desirous of pleasing him, even though our works be weak. Of course the works be weak, but if we do them every day, they get stronger and stronger and stronger. If I can hold one foot up off the ground for 10s a day, my brain will get stronger and stronger and stronger.

I think there’s a great parallel here. So we ought to thank the Lord who makes us desirous of pleasing him, even though our works be weak.

A homily for the third Sunday in Ordinary Time

For the feast of Saint Gregory the Great, which is in September. The passage from Office of Readings, part of the Breviary, part of the liturgy of the hours, is really good. It’s something written by Saint Gregory, and he’s riffing on his name, Gregory, which means watchful. And he says he’s far from watchful. He’s busy in the monastery, he’s a Benedictine, and he finds himself gossiping all of a sudden and gossiping mean.

Or when he’s pope, he’s expecting, you know, the best food, the best. And he says, it’s just he finds he’s not watchful at all, and he’s got to be more watchful. That’s why he takes the name servant of the servants instead of Lord of Lords or anything. I think that same kind of riffing on the name is what’s happening in today’s gospel.

We have Jesus along the shores of the sea of Galilee, and he sees Simon and Andrew and says, come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. We think it’s just follow him and you’ll be evangelizing. But I think he’s riffing on the name Andrew. Andrew, like the word androgynous or, And it means just the man.

And so when he says, I will make you fishers of men, he’s actually saying, I will make you fishers of the man. He’s saying, I’m going to make you fishers of yourself. If you follow me, you’re going to catch yourself. You’re going to learn yourself. You’re going to be fully yourself. And I think Saint Teresa of Avila says this very well.

Jesus comes to her and she says, what’s the point of prayer? And he says, you will find yourself in me and you will find me in yourself. It’s just like journey. The more we know ourselves, we journey into ourselves. The more we learn Jesus, but the more we learn Jesus and His law and his ways and his commands and his gospel, the more we learn of ourselves.

It’s like a spiral of more. Find yourself in me. Find me in yourself. Find yourself in me. Find me in yourself. Higher and higher. We can think of it as closer and closer. Find yourself in me. Find me in yourself. Find yourself in me. Find yourself me in yourself. Till you’re one. You’re so close. That’s the mystical marriage.

So I think that’s what Jesus is offering. Simon and Andrew and James and John before they can become fishers of humanity. They’ve got to be fishers of themselves.

A homily for the Baptism of Jesus

At Halloween time, I carved a pumpkin into a jack o lantern and I texted that out to my friends, including Ryan, newly ordained guy, and he texted back him in his Halloween costume. And it was a jacket, like a hoodie. That’s at six seven and he has a stole on and he’s carrying, oils in his hands, and he says he is doing the anointing of the sick seven.

So I texted back, I don’t know what that means. I texted back, I’m a bit lost in the imagery. Just give each a scapular and that will get them into heaven. Playing off the anointing thing. He texted back. Six seven is a meme. Popular among the teens. So it’s a play on words and theological sacramental allusion of anointing of the sick seven, because the sacrament is called anointing of the sick. So six seven and the meme is like, you just do this and six and you say, six, seven. What does it mean? I don’t think anybody knows what it means. I bring this up as we’re celebrating the baptism of Jesus. What does it mean? Because oftentimes we think baptism is the washing away of sin.

Jesus is sinless. Why would he do that? But baptism is more. It all comes from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans. Saint Paul, after the soul saw incident, is baptized, but he isn’t told what it means, so he thinks about it. Well, last time he was all wet. He was getting clean. So maybe it’s the washing away. Not of dirt of sin.

The first time he was all wet and people looked at him. He was being born. So he says, well, it could be like being born again. And then he’s, you know, he’s a seafarer or that’s why he’s traveling around the Mediterranean in a boat. Could it be like burial? Burial at sea. Just drop the body in a baptism because they bury the baptized by immersion.

And so it was like being buried. And then you come out again. Resurrection could be like that. And he says, every time I enter a building, I wash my feet and hands. It was the custom made. So maybe it’s just entering a building. The building of the church. So he has a lot of ideas. What baptism means. What is it?

Which is it? I think it’s all of them. So six. Seven. We don’t know what it means. It means anything to anybody. But it’s a powerful meme for youngsters. Especially because it means they belong. They’re the in-group. They are there. I think that ultimately is what baptism means. We belong. We’re here. We’re. We are the in-group. Maybe that’s why Jesus chose to be baptized.

To be part of us. With us. Journeying with us. I don’t know what Jesus would do with six seven, but I think he loves baptism. Saint Teresa of Avila says, in this house, all are friends, all are loved, all are helped, all are held dear. And that’s what baptism does, It brings us into that house. And that’s what we celebrate today.