One Catholic Life

Here is the audio from my homily for the Christmas Eve Children’s Mass, December 24, 2018.

Once upon a time, in the early ages of the world, people believed that storms and droughts and sickness were sent by angry gods and goddesses. To the ancient people, the universe was a fearful place, a place of chaos, a place of danger, and the only way to stay safe was to offer sacrifices to try and please the gods. Ancient peoples would sacrifice a portion of the crops, they would sacrifice animals, and in some cases, they even sacrificed humans. But then came a people who...

The other day I was driving home from work, coming up Freya hill, and I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me. People put bumper stickers on their cars for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because they have something to say to the world. “Vote for this or that candidate.” “Work for world peace.” “Support my kid’s school.” Well, this particular driver had a different message. It was a big, red rectangular sticker, and in white letters it read, “No Gods. No Masters.”...

Many of you know that Les Misérables is one of my favorite books, but it’s a long one, almost 1500 pages, so reading it takes a while. Last year I found out that it has exactly 365 chapters, so I decided that in 2018 I would read one chapter a day, starting on January 1st and going to December 31st. They’re short chapters, about 5 pages or so, and I I thought it would be kind of a meditation and exercise in patience and delayed gratification to read...

As the church year begins to wind down over the next two weeks, many of the the Scripture readings are about the end of time, when Jesus will come again. So today’s first reading may seem out of place. In the cycle of readings for Sunday, the first reading is paired with the gospel. But today’s reading from Proverbs about the worthy wife seems a bit disconnected from the gospel. Why are these two readings paired together today? Since the gospel seems to fit this time of year...

This weekend is catechetical Sunday, the weekend in which the Church asks us to call forth those who have been chosen to be catechists in our parish, to bless them and commission them for the upcoming year. These are the teachers at our parish school, All Saints; these are the parish staff and volunteers who work with the children and teens in the many youth faith formation ministries of the parish. They are more than teachers, they are catechists. What does that mean? They do teach, certainly. which...

After Mass this Sunday I’m going to drive south to the Camas Prairie in Idaho, where my wife Brenda is already visiting her mother. As any conscientious husband will tell you, you don’t need a reason to visit your mother-in-law, but this weekend we do in fact have a particular reason for visiting: we’re going to watch the eclipse. We want to go see the eclipse not only because it’s such an unusual natural phenomenon, but also because natural events like this can help us understand the supernatural...

There’s a long but important sentence in the First Letter of Peter that we heard earlier: “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” Of all the words in that long sentence, it’s the last one, hope, that’s the most important. Hope is something the world could surely use more of. But before the First Letter of Peter gets to that long sentence, there’s a lot that comes before to help us understand what it means. First of...

The first few gospel readings of the Easter season focused on showing us that Jesus was raised from the dead. He eats with his disciples, he shows them his wounds, he assures them that it really is him, he is risen from the dead. Now as we enter the third week of Easter the scripture readings change their focus from the resurrection itself to show us the effect of the resurrection on the disciples. We see this first in the figure of Peter. The last time we saw...

We walk through the Doorway of Love, following the Thread of Love, imitating the Model of Love, sitting in the Garden of Love.

Today’s gospel is a story of baptism, and what baptism does for each of us. It’s a story of thirst and water, of longing and desire. It’s part one of a baptismal trilogy that continues next week and the week after. Three lessons about baptism, with three images: this week water, next week light, and the following week rising from the dead. But it all begins with being thirsty. Within each one of us is a deep yearning, what St. Augustine calls a restlessness, what some spiritual writers...

A few weeks ago we read how Jesus went up the mountain to teach his disciples. Just as Moses went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Law, Jesus, the new Moses, speaks his Sermon on the Mount to deepen our understanding of the Law. This week he is still on the mountain and his words are clear: “Offer no resistance to one who is evil.” “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.” The message is simple, the challenge is difficult: Jesus is telling us to...

There were many newsworthy events this past week and there are many more going on this weekend; but there’s one event that happened this past Wednesday that you probably didn’t hear about: one of the world’s best-selling authors passed away at the age of 92. They say that if a book sells more than 20,000 copies in a year, then it’s in the top one percent of all book sales. This author sold over 10 million copies of his books. And yet, despite being so successful, you probably...

Back in November, Brenda and I got to see our daughter Teresa perform in Gonzaga Prep’s production of The Sound of Music. I know some of you here are theater moms or dads, and your kids have been in shows too, shows like Ferris’ The Addams Family, Fiddler on the Roof, or Shrek. Or maybe some of you are theater kids and have seen your parents perform in Ham on Regal. So you know how it is that you end up seeing the same show multiple times. You...

A while back a friend shared a website with me that was a collection of the last words of famous people, and it was very interesting. Some of their final words were humble. For example, Leonard DaVinci said, “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.” Some tried to be prophetic. Nostradamus, for instance said, “Tomorrow I will not be here.” He was right. And there were some who didn’t realize they were speaking their final words. The last...

The dramatic scene from the first reading, with Moses raising the staff of God during battle, and Joshua mowing down Amalek, almost feels like a scene from The Lord of the Rings. But it’s not Tolkien that I find most helpful in breaking open today’s scripture, but rather one of his best friends, C.S. Lewis. Lewis, as many of you know, was the author of the Narnia series, that wonderful set of books about Aslan, Prince Caspian, and the magical world on the other side of the wardrobe. Lewis...

Today’s gospel account of the dishonest steward reminds me of those con artist movies like Ocean’s Eleven or The Sting, you know, those movies featuring criminals who are trying to con people out of their money. They come up with these elaborate plans, like robbing three casinos at once, or tricking the rich man into betting all his money on a fake horse race. And despite the fact that they’re criminals, we find ourselves rooting for them, hoping that their plans succeed. And usually, somewhere in the middle...

Once upon a time there was a preacher who was worried about his congregation. They were good people, people who loved Jesus, people who had embraced the Christian way of life. But there came a time when they became exhausted. They were tired— tired of serving the world, tired of worship, tired of being seen as peculiar and whispered about in society, tired of the spiritual struggle, tired of trying to keep their prayer life going. Attendance at church was down, the people were losing confidence, and many...

Today’s readings offer us a contrast between two people visited by the Lord. The Lord comes to their homes, and we see two different reactions; I’m not speaking here of Martha and Mary, but of Martha and Abraham. Now, there are definitely differences between the way Martha responds to her encounter with Jesus, and the way Mary responds. But if we focus only on Martha and Mary, we may get the mistaken idea that Mary’s contemplation is superior to Martha’s service. But by comparing and contrasting Martha and...

One of the most dreaded phrases in classrooms everywhere is “in your own words.” “Explain the causes of the Civil War in your own words.” “Describe the process of photosynthesis in your own words.” Teachers love the phrase because it requires students to do deep thinking; and students dread the phrase, because it requires them to do deep thinking. It may seem cruel of me to be talking about school so soon after summer vacation has begun, but I only bring it up because of what happens in...