Month: February 2026

A homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

During the season of lent, I give up coffee, which means I’m going to be making tea. So heat up water and I usually use the microwave, heat it up to boiling and make my tea. Brother David says, why are you using that? That’s slow? Use the kettle. And I said, what kettle? There’s a kettle in that kitchen. I’ve never used it.

And he says it’s induction heating. I go, what’s induction heating? And he explains it uses magnets and it heats up the water very fast. So I tried it. Okay. We’ll use the kettle. I put two cups of water in the kettle

and two cups of water in the microwave. Let’s see which is more efficient. Microwave. I can understand how it works.

The kettle I don’t quite understand. So I timed it.

Sure enough, the kettle was much faster. A much better way of heating up water, and I could use the microwave from then on if I wanted to. But why? I have a better way of doing it. Either way is good. One is better. And I think that sums up this sermon on the mountain, these, teachings of Jesus.

He’s not saying the old teachings are wrong, but there are better. That’s why he says the law is not canceled. And, it’s he’s not come to abolish the law because the law works. But he has a better way. You know, treat people with respect instead of just as objects. You know, your spouse. People. Not just to be, abused for your pleasure or offer times go. You were told that. But what I teach you is when, for example, eye for an eye. Eye for an eye is a great law. Because before that, it was you. Touch me. I burned your house down. Eye for an eye is a much better law. But he says even has a better law. Do not return evil for evil or injury for evil.

Let it go that way. You’re not going to be resentful. That way you’re not going to be, escalating back and forth. Just let it go and your heart will be better. So that’s what these teachings of the, sermon of the Mount are. There’s a better way. You can do the old way, and it works, and it’s fine.

But there is even a better way. Saint Teresa of Avila writes, and she talks. And this is about the four waters, about four different ways of praying. And she writes, it seems the garden can be watered in four ways. You may draw water from a well or by means of a water wheel, or it may flow from a river or a stream, or the water may be provided by a great deal of rain.

Each of those ways of watering the garden is fine. It’s good, but each is better. I think that’s what Jesus is getting in. There are better ways. The old ways are good, but this way is even better.

A homily for the fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I’m gonna ask my phone a series of questions. Hey, Siri, tell me a joke. If you get heartburn every time you eat a birthday cake. Try taking the candles off. Hey, Siri, tell me a joke. I love playing tricks on vampires. They’re such suckers. In today’s gospel, we have Jesus saying you are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world. What is this? And you know it. Interesting. If the salt, loses its flavor, it’s good for nothing to be thrown up. What is this? Salt? That adds to life that we’re supposed to be. I think it’s humor. Humor makes life so much better. Humor makes life enjoyable. Humor makes the day short and wonderful.

I think the the. We’re supposed to be people of humor. And evidence of this is. Oh, this is a few years ago. The Carmelites called a meeting of their vocation directors. The recruiters and former vocation directors and people they thought would be vocation directors, recruiters in the future. That’s how I got involved. And there was one question. The moderator began with pencils on a piece of paper to everybody and said, write the ten qualities you want in a prospect you know vocation candidate, the ten top qualities you put on some music, mural thinking and writing down our ten qualities.

At the end of that, he had each person read what they wrote. You know, qualities of prayerful nuance or faithfulness or generosity or kindness. And he’d rate their qualities what they said on the board whiteboard. And if there was a repeat, he put a checkmark after that one. And then when it was all done, everybody had read their pieces of paper, he said, now let’s look at.

He turned to the whiteboard. He says, let’s look to see which is the top quality. The Carmelites are looking for the prospect. And he said, wow, you guys. The top quality was really interesting was sense of humor. That’s the quality most of the guys wrote, and I think he said, that’s a very good quality. You’d never had that before in this kind of workshop.

And he thought it was a really good sign. And so it’s what I think sense of humor is important. They say Saint Teresa of Avila had a great sense of humor one time. She’s a and a carriage going from place to place, and it’s raining and the carriage is crossing a stream. It gets stuck in the mud, so she has to get out.

And when she gets out, she slips and falls into the mud. And she looks up to heaven and says, Lord, if this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few that just one of the example of many of her jokes. I won’t go into them, but I think that the zest, the salt, the light of the world we’re called to be. Not to take ourselves too seriously, not to take the world too seriously, not to take the neighbor too seriously, but to have a joyful heart, a rejoicing heart, a mirth filled heart, a humor filled heart.