| |
 |
| |
Homilies are posted no later than during the week
prior to the Sunday they are needed |
| |
5 Ordinary Time
|
Fifth
Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B - Mark 1:29-39
Michael Deacy was famous for giving away much money
to the poor over fifty years as a priest. Any tale would touch him. He
was the easiest mark in Manhattan. He had holes in his pockets. You
always needed his money more. Jesus for him was the inhale and giving
the exhale. Mike was Jesus' kind of guy. Are we?
Today's miracle occurred on a Saturday. Since
Jesus was a Jew, He had spent the whole morning in the synagogue at
worship. Do you worship weekly? If no, Christ says to you,
"Gimmeabreak."
The miracle site was Caphernaum. It is near the Lake
of Galilee. The ruins still exist. You may walk among them and imagine
the house where Christ slept and ate. The Teacher loved Caphernaum more
than Nazareth. One should not be surprised. His home boys tried to kill
Him. Neighbors like those no one needs.
Since Caphernaum was Peter's hometown, he
wisely invited
his new Employer home for brunch - Bloody Marys, ziti, fresh lobster a
la Caphernaum, etc. "Some of Christ's closest moments with His
disciples were spent over food." (AU) Incidentally, one suspects
Peter's house was a welcoming home. Is ours?
Even before the Master finishes His cappucino,
cheeky Peter presents the bill. "My mother-in-law is ill." This was the
first time in the five thousand years of recorded history that a
son-in-law wished his wife's mother long life. And Jesus was the first
to quip, "There is no such thing as a free lunch."
Notice Peter had no hesitation in asking Jesus for a
cure.
He knew He was an easy mark. Why then do we drag our feet in bringing
our needs to the Christ?
The sickness was probably malaria. The Gospel
speaks of
a fever. Caphernaum was near swamps. Mosquitoes flying into town for a
meal carried the virus as so much extra baggage.
The Nazarene put down His cup and went over to
the hammock. The rest is history. The cure was immediate. The woman
leaped out of the hammock like a young girl. She served the dessert -
creamy cheese cake and freshly brewed cappucino. She was the first
mother-in-law in history who felt she owed her son-in-law something.
Never would she say, "Behind every successful husband stands a
surprised mother-in-law."
If bad new travels fast, so also happily does
good. Mark sums up the case succinctly, "The whole town came crowding
round the door." The cool-hand Jesus moved among them and cured their
sick. The Teacher was big at touching people, especially the ill.
Mark's word picture allows us to see the running sores, smell the foul
odors of the ill, and hear their horrible groans.
This was a scene made for the genius of
Rembrandt. His
sick are painted in dark colors and Jesus the barefoot physician
is bathed in bright light. Check his famous 100 Guilders sketch.
Jesus got to bed late. He had to be exhausted. To
catch
a breeze He slept on Peter's roof covered with makeshift mosquito
netting. As He fell asleep, He wondered why He and the Father had
created bothersome mosquitoes in the first place.
Sunday AM mobs were all over Peter's freshly
sown lawn. His wife's roses were history. The crowd wanted more
miracles. But the Master had left before dawn. He was not into show
business. In the divine economy, the cures of yesterday were not to
be repeated the next day for reasons best known to Himself.
Prodded by his mother-in-law, Peter formed a
posse and gave chase. They found Him in a lonely place praying.
Somebody has said, "Through prayer Jesus gained what people sought from
Him." Should we pray more? Peter rudely shouted, "Everybody is looking
for you. Time Magazine wants to make you Man of the Year. 60 Minutes
called. The New York Times wants to interview you."
But such was not His plan. Like Robert Frost,
Christ had miles to go and promises to keep before He would sleep. He
got off His knees, brushed the grass from that famous seamless garment,
and moved out to the next town. Peter followed.
There are lessons one can draw from this
account. Perhaps the paramount one is the willingness of the Christ to
give to the needy. Father Michael Deacy was an authentic imitator. Will
anyone say that of us? Deacy had learned well the insight of CH
Lorimar. "It's good to have money and the things that money can buy,
but it's good to check up once in awhile and make sure you haven't lost
the things money can't buy."
|
|
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
5 Ordinary Time
|
Reaching
For the Presence of God
Our
dear departed pastor, the finest priest I ever met, Fr. John
LaTondress, used to say to me, "Joe, people have such huge
problems. We priests think we have problems. We don't have
problems. Our people have the real problems." There are so
many aspects to life for which there are no solutions. People
have lost a loved one. Who has a solution to make the pain go
away? Some members of our parish have chronically ill
children. In some families, alcohol, drugs, psychological
problems, or infidelity have broken up a marriage and a home. How
can the family return to its state before it was devastated? It
cannot. There is no solution. Chronic sickness and pain
become the focus of a person's mind. How can he or she make
believe it is not there? They cannot.
Through all this you folk come to Church to pray to the Lord. I am
constantly edified by those of you who have learned to control the
anger which your problems have occasioned and come to the Lord for
help. And so you come, even though it is so difficult. I
know that sometimes you hear us priests speak in flowery language about
the wonders and beauty of God. You hear constant
encouragement to lead Christian lives, to be people of faith, but, for
some of you, all you can focus on is the turmoil, the trauma in
your lives. Perhaps you hear priests say that like Jesus you need to go
to a quiet place to pray, but you cannot escape the reality which is
your own situation in life. Nor can you escape the turmoil within
yourselves.
To
you folk, and to us all, God has given the Book of Job. The Book of Job
is framed around a story of trauma and reward. Job was a
prosperous man with the perfect family. Then everything went
wrong. One day he received messages that the Sabeans had stolen his
oxen and donkies, his servants had been killed, his sheep and their
shepherds had been burned in a fire, the Chaldeans had stolen his
camels and killed the heardsmen, and, then, the worst news yet, his
sons and daughters were all killed when the house they were in
collapsed. You know Job’s reaction: “ Then Job arose and tore his robe
and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And
he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return
there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name
of the LORD." And if all this was not enough, even too much, then Job
was plagued with sores all through his body. Through most of the
Book of Job he sits in ashes suffering all these pains, and considering
suffering. At the end of the Book of Job, God rewards his for
continuing his faith in Him.
However, it is the forty chapter between the terrors that attack Job
and the happy ending that are really important to us today. Job
and his so called friends ask the same questions we all ask when
besieged with problems. This is particularly evident in today's first
reading. "I have been assigned months of misery....My days come
to an end without hope....I shall not see happiness again." Job's
own wife tells him to curse God and die. He cannot explain
why these terrible things have happened to him. But through it all, the
turmoil, the doubting, the pain, the loss, Job keeps faith in God. He
knows that God is there, somewhere. His faith is rewarded by
recognizing the presence of God in the midst of the pain.
Job
is an ancient biblical type of Jesus, confronted with the pain and
suffering of mankind in today's gospel and with his own personal
impending suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross
of Calvary. Jesus's total sacrifice of himself for his
people and for God's Kingdom results in his feeling completely
abandoned. "My God, my God, why have your forsaken me," he prays on the
cross beginning Psalm 22. But Jesus keeps faith in God, his
Father. God vindicates Jesus and Job. That's the theological term we
use. It means God's actions show the truth of Job's and Jesus's
faith in the face of their turmoil.
Nothing could take God's life away from Job or Jesus. Not even
death could destroy this life. Job believed in this. Jesus
gave this to us. Perhaps, St. Paul put it best in the Letter to
the Romans:
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord." (Romans 8:35-39)
In
the face of turmoil, through trauma, in pain for which there is no
cure, even when we feel we have been abandoned, we are not alone.
Jesus is still there. Nothing, not even our pain can take him
away from us.
And
Jesus comes upon Simon Peter's mother in law in bed with a terrible
fever. She, like all of us, are important to the Lord. He
has work for her. He reaches out to her, cures her, and she waits on
the disciples. Then Jesus comes upon many people suffering the results
of evil in our world, for all pain and suffering and death is due to
mankind's original and continual turning away from the Lord of Life. He
sees them reaching out to him and he reaches out to them.
Today all of us are told that when we are suffering, in any manner
whatsoever, we must reach out to the presence of God in every aspect of
life. We believe that he is present for us and with us through it
all. We believe that he cries out with us sharing our pain.
Now, we must use this special presence of the Lord as a way to come
closer to the God who loves us, who was one of us, who died for us and
who gave his life, eternal life, to us.
So
we ask our God, "When the difficulties of our human condition weigh
heavily upon us, dear Lord and Divine Lover, teach us how to
pray."
|
|
http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
5 Ordinary Time
|
Entrusted
With a Stewardship
(February 8, 2009)
Bottom line: We do not give time and money grudgingly; we are building
the Body of Christ: We have been entrusted with a stewardship.
Many years ago, in England, three men were pouring into a trough a
mixture of water, sand, lime and other ingredients. A passer-by asked
them what they were doing. The first said, "I am making mortar." The
second: "I am laying bricks." But the third said, "I am building a
cathedral." They were doing the same thing, but each looked at it
differently. And what a difference that made!
We can see something similar in the way people relate to their parish,
why they give. One person says, "Oh! All they do down there is ask for
money." The second person replies, "Well, you have to pay the bills."
But the third person says, "I am building the Body of Christ." The
three are doing the same thing, but what a difference in their
attitudes!
Today's Scripture readings reflect those differences. Poor Job says
that life is nothing but drudgery: When I lie down at night, I toss and
turn - and wonder when morning will come. But when I get up, I am tired
and I ask how long until I can get back to bed!
Most people can identify with Job. But St. Paul takes a different
approach. Few people worked as hard as him - or went through so many
trials. Yet he says this about his work: "I do so willingly...I have
been entrusted with a stewardship."
Today's Gospel presents a fascinating example of stewardship: St.
Peter's mother-in-law. She was in bed, sick, when her son-in-law
brought unexpected guests. One of them, Jesus, went to her bedside,
took her hand - and she sat up. The fever went away and, quote, "she
waited on them."
Now, some people think she would have preferred to stay in bed. That
viewpoint says more about us that it does about that wonderful woman.
For people in ancient times, hospitality was their top value.* It was
the glue that held their society together. For Peter's mother-in-law,
hospitality would have been a sacred duty. But there is something more.
The text says, "she waited on them." The word for "waiting on them" is
"diaconia" - the root of our word "deacon." Jesus had touched her and
healed her. To be his "deaconess" would be pure joy, a beautiful honor.
When I was a seminarian, I remember an elderly priest saying, "Since
this 'servant' concept came into the Church, I have taken a terrible
beating." But he said it with a smile. To serve is hard work - and
often, humbling - but being a servant of Christ is joy.
St. Paul illustrates the joy of service. With no fanfare, he says that
he is free. (And who of us has greater inner freedom than Paul?)
Nevertheless, says Paul, I have made myself a slave to all. For a
Christian, freedom is not license to do whatever a person wants. It is
freedom for service.
One thing about I like about President Obama is that he is not afraid
to use the "s-word": sacrifice. He used the word twice in his short
inaugural address. Now, it is easy to become cynical, especially when
one hears about people using public money for personal benefit. But, as
followers of Jesus, we cannot use other people's failings - or our own
- as an excuse. It is clear what he asks of us. And, remember, we are
not simply mixing mortar. We are building a cathedral. We do not give
time and money grudgingly; we are building the Body of Christ: We have
been entrusted with a stewardship.
**********
*Hospitality was a basic virtue in the Bible. You can see also the
supreme importance of hospitality in the Odyssey, a foundational work
of Greek and Western civilization.
General Intercessions for Fifth Ordinary Sunday (from Priests for Life)
Spanish Version
|
|
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
5 Ordinary Time
|
February 8th 2009 A.D.
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Mk 1/29-39
Background:
Scripture: Mark 1:29-39
There is considerable debate about whether the people whom Jesus
healed were really possessed by the devil or were mentally disturbed.
The debate is utterly besides the point. These individuals were deeply
troubled and Jesus healed them. Jesus came to heal both body and soul.
Most scripture scholars now agree that miracles were an important part
of Jesus’ ministry and of the memory of that ministry in the early
church. We simply cannot abandon them to please those who say miracles
are impossible. The precise explanation of how these healings were
accomplished is another matter and perhaps one that is also besides the
point. Jesus did not work miracles to prove anything. Rather they were
signs that God’s healing love is at work in the world.
Story:
Once upon a time there were some doctors who were discussing
whether prayer helped their patients. Does it do any good, they asked,
for people to pray for those who are sick. One group said it helps
those who pray to feel that they’re doing something for the sick
person. But it really doesn’t help the sick person at all. The other
group said that they had the impression that prayer really had a
positive effect on sick people. The first group said that’s
scientifically impossible. So they decided to try a “double blind”
experiment on those who were recover from heart problems. They
would have prayers said for some and not for the others to see what
happened. The doctors didn’t know who was chosen to be prayed for and
the subjects of the prayers didn’t know either. However a list of first
names were given to those who were to do the praying. So neither the
prayers or the prayees or the researchers know had been chosen to be
the target of prayer. What happened? Those for whom prayers were said
recovered more quickly. See said those who had argued that prayer
worked, there’s more things under heaven than science dreams of. (This
is a true story about research which is reported in the Archives of
Internal Medicine, October 25/1999.)
|
|
http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
5 Ordinary Time
|
Feb, 08, 2009
Mark 1: 29-39
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel Summary
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is presented as one who acts rather than as one
who speaks. The lengthy discourses in Matthew, for example, are missing
in Mark. This is in keeping with the biblical conviction that actions
speak louder than words. It is the interventions of God in human
history, at the Exodus of Israel and then in the definitive Exodus of
the Resurrection of Jesus, that contain the essential source of
biblical revelation. This reminds us also that we must personally
participate in some way in those events of liberation in order to
receive the salvation promised by the Bible.
In today's gospel, Mark draws our attention particularly to those who
were possessed by demons. Whatever their malady may have been, it
represented the sad condition that existed before God brought a
light-filled, harmonious world out of the original darkness and chaos.
Jesus continues this creative work and the demons, as contemporary
agents of the old chaos, instinctively recognize him as their
adversary.
It is poignant to see how Jesus is already beginning to disappoint his
disciples. They cannot wait for him to raise the flag of rebellion and
to use his power to drive out the Roman occupiers of their land. But he
goes off instead to a quiet place to commune with his heavenly Father.
He has come to preach the good news of salvation through the power of
love and sacrifice, rather than through the military power and
domination that they seek.
Life Implications
We need not look far to find the reality of chaos and dissention in our
world today. The ancient Hebrews saw in the original chaos an
aggressive force that was constantly trying to take back the creation
that God had brought forth. Their imagery may have been primitive, but
their perception was very accurate. In fact, the forces of chaos seem
at times to have the upper hand today, as nations are consumed by
ethnic hatred, communities are divided by strife and families are often
torn apart by sibling rivalries. Sometimes the chaos enters our own
psyches as we struggle to see the meaning in our lives.
God is fully aware of these troubles and he has sent Jesus to give us
the wisdom, which alone can bring us peace and happiness. This is the
unlikely, but only truly valid, wisdom of loving concern. Jesus not
only taught this wisdom but he lived it fully as he gave his life for
us.
We, like the disciples, are all for making war to achieve our purposes,
but Jesus goes away to pray. This does not mean that we should not
strive to achieve legitimate objectives but it does mean that,
ultimately, it is only prayerful attention to the Lord and sincere love
of others that will heal the beautiful world that God has entrusted to
us and bring the peace and harmony that Jesus came to offer us. For God
certainly wishes, once again, to look at our world and be able to
recognize, as he did at the beginning, that It is "very good" (Gen
1:31).
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
|
|
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
5 Ordinary Time
|
FIFTH
Sunday
Job 7:1-4. 6-7; Psalm 147;
1 Corinthians 9:16-19.22-23; Mark 1:29-39
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
"And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to
a lonely place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with
him followed him, and they found him and said to him, 'Every one is
searching for you.' "(Mark 1:35-37)
All of mankind is searching for Christ. Our destiny from the beginning
of time is God our Creator, and we do find him if, like Simon Peter and
those who were with him, we stand ready to abandon our comforts, our
plans and dreams, to follow him.
The great witness of Peter and the other Apostles, the first priests of
Jesus Christ, is that they followed the Lord heroically, going even
with him into the "lonely place" of celibate life, and abandoning
mother and father, sisters and brothers, wife and children, to follow
the vocation to which Christ called them. Sacrificing the human
companionship of marriage and family life is not a cold and empty place
if there is found in it a marriage to Christ's beautiful and radiant
bride, the Church. Celibacy in Christ is a sign and a motive of
charity, a powerful witness of the command to "seek ye first the
kingdom of God". For two millennia men have followed Christ in the
heroic life of the ministerial priesthood, not to reject the joys and
consolations of human marriage, but to marry the Church and to be
fathers, raising up sons and daughters who will live forever in the
true marriage feast of the Lamb in heaven. The Faith has been preached
to the remotest corners of the earth, from the Apostles to the
missionaries of today, because of joyful and confident acceptance on
the part of men and women religious, as well as priests, to share in
Christ's all-consuming mission to die to self in accomplishing the
Father's will.
The unchaste cannot comprehend or appreciate the jewel of celibacy,
which radiates within the Church of Christ. For countless souls it is a
magnificent source of attraction to Christ and his Gospel. Celibacy is
holy because made holy by the example of the God-Man, and a gift which
the Church preserves and protects as a grace which gives fruitfulness
to the Bride of Christ in raising up new members. The gift of celibacy
is an irreplaceable sign of God's love, for by it the priest is freed
to be radically available and open to every man and woman in generous
service. The man or woman religious is prepared each day to follow
Christ wholeheartedly, instruments of God's compassion through free
service of mankind.
"All the ordained ministers of the Latin Church, with the exception of
permanent deacons, are normally chosen from among men of faith who live
a celibate life and who intend to remain celibate 'for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven.' (Mt 19:12) Called to consecrate themselves with
undivided heart to the Lord and to 'the affairs of the Lord,' (1 Cor
7:32) they give themselves entirely to God and to men. Celibacy is a
sign of this new life to the service of which the Church's minister is
consecrated; accepted with a joyous heart celibacy radiantly proclaims
the Reign of God." (CCC 1579)
The priest of Jesus Christ is a man of God whose whole way of life
proclaims that the Lord is his portion and his inheritance. The priest
is an undeniable sign to the world of the calling of every creature to
the eternal life with God that is threatened by man's sinful rejection
of God.
In accepting the gift of celibacy the priest is better equipped to act
in persona Christi, for by it he is freed, as was Christ, to dedicate
himself more generously to the preaching of the Gospel, the forgiveness
of sins and the worthy celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
St. Augustine describes a conflict we all face in The City of God
between two loves: the love of God to the point of disregarding self,
and the love of self to the point of disregarding God. Mankind is in
constant danger of forgetting that this life and its joys, such as
marriage, will end, and that we cannot be happy or fulfilled unless we
look to the kingdom for the fullness of joy where we will behold the
source of all beatitude, our heavenly Father, face to face.
The celibate priest, and any man or woman who foregoes the earthly joys
of marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, disregards himself
for more perfect love of God. He is a help to men as he walks the paths
of this earth in solidarity with every child of God, married or single,
religious or lay, young or old. His celibacy is not sterile but rather
most fruitful. The priest is ordained to give the grace of the
sacraments, but his celibacy plays a role as well. Radically available
to everyone who calls upon him, the priest is an effective and credible
witness who shows by his life that the aching for love in every
restless human heart is satisfied when the heart rests in God.
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick ( Publish with permission.)
www.christusrex.org/www1.mcitl/
|
|
http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
5 Ordinary Time
|
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time—2003
Homily
In today’s First Reading and Gospel we are invited to reflect on the
meaning of suffering in the life of the Christian.
In the extract from the book of Job set before us we see how Job
despaired at the suffering he was forced to endure. He had lost
everything; his land, possessions and even his family, besides a plague
of boils and other horrors. We can certainly identify with his
complaint.
He sees no sense in his suffering and therefore no meaning in his life
and he complains at what he must endure. As he says, on the one hand
time drags and goes by only very slowly and painfully, and yet on the
other hand it seems to pass so quickly that the years are gone swiftly
leaving him feeling empty and hopeless.
Job despairs—but we know that later in the story he rediscovers hope
and his losses are restored to him. His perseverance pays off—God
rewards him for not giving up.
Nevertheless, we all too easily identify with his suffering and we have
all known depression at one time or another in our lives.
In the Gospel reading there is a much more positive note and we read
about the compassion of Jesus. He cures Simon’s mother-in-law and then
goes on to cure all who asked for healing whether they were suffering
from illnesses of body or spirit.
We know that Jesus did not refuse to heal one single person who
presented themselves to him and asked for healing. Even those he knew
would turn out to be ungrateful were cured by Jesus.
But his compassion drains him and he goes away to a lonely place to be
at peace and to pray to the Father. Yet even there the disciples come
looking for him, and he decides to move on to other towns so he can
continue his ministry of teaching and healing.
What went on in those early hours of the morning when he was alone in
prayer? Surely Jesus must have prayed for all those people with their
illnesses and afflictions of all kinds. His heart was certainly full of
compassion for them and all that suffering must have played on his mind.
But he also knew that he would have to undergo suffering himself; that
in the garden he too would beg the Father to release him. We don’t
know, indeed we cannot know, what went through Jesus’ mind in those few
hours of prayer. In his humanity we can conjecture that he would think
just as we would in the same circumstances. However, in his divinity we
must acknowledge that he certainly understood the meaning of all that
was to take place.
The people Jesus healed were truly cured of their afflictions but they
would inevitably become sick again and die from one cause or another.
Their particular illnesses were healed but not their human condition.
Jesus faced his own death with courage and chose to bear the insults
which were heaped upon him. In the manner of his death he showed us how
to face death, suffering and all the other evils we will inevitably
meet during the course of our life.
He faced his passion and death not only with courage but with the
certain hope that it would bring about the salvation of the world. His
death became the triumph over sin and evil. His death is our liberation
for by his wounds we are healed.
Healthy though we now may feel, all of us must face illness or
suffering of one kind or other. A very high proportion of us might also
experience depression and despair similar to that described in the Book
of Job. In some cases this might have a medical or psychological cause
or ironically it might come as a side effect of medication we may be
taking to relieve some other complaint.
Whatever its cause, it is something that is very difficult to deal
with. Depression and despair needs healing just as much as any other
illness. And like any other illness we can offer it to God. We can ask
him to accept these sufferings as our share in the Cross of Christ, as
our small contribution to Christ’s work of salvation.
For the Christian suffering is never without meaning. The pain we
experience is not merely negative it is a part of the great struggle in
which all mankind is engaged, it enables us to be united with Christ in
the one great act of redemption.
Jesus went to a lonely place and prayed there. Each one of us also
needs to spend time in a lonely place of our own. We need to pray, we
need to build up our courage to face the trials ahead and the best way
to do this is to draw strength from the Father in prayer.
We must each find our own place of stillness, our own place of silence,
where we can commune with the Lord. We need to find a place where our
souls can be at rest and have time to contemplate what lies ahead for
us and grow in understanding of the victory that Christ has already won.
Tuesday is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and on this day each year
we celebrate a Mass of Healing and administer the Sacrament of the Sick
to all who wish to receive it. There is also a Mass of Healing with the
Bishop at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Kingswood on Wednesday
evening.
All of us need healing, all of us recognise our dependence on God and
his sacraments. We read the account in the Gospel today of how the
whole town came crowding round the door where Jesus was. They were
certainly not all suffering from particular illnesses but they simply
recognised Jesus as a healer and knew that he could bring them physical
and spiritual health.
Those words ‘They came crowding round the door’ remind me of those few
moments before mass when I stand in the porch to greet you as you
arrive. Sometimes its chaos, a holy chaos! Maybe its cold outside,
maybe there are things to do such as picking up the mass sheets or
getting the Catholic papers or paying your weekly Lucky Numbers, or
whatever?
Or maybe we are like those people in Capernaum crowding round the door
trying to meet Jesus and experience his healing and the power of his
salvation?
|
|
Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
5 Ordinary Time |
|
|
These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author. |
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
