Category: Homilies

  • Who is on your doorstep?

    Who is on your doorstep?

    26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C); September 28, 2025 Am 6:1a,4-7.  Ps 146.  1 Tm 6:11-16.  Lk 16:19-31 Deacon Jim McFadden             Today’s Responsorial Psalm reminds us that God, “the maker of heaven and earth,” upholds the anawim, Old Testament code for the stranger, the widow, and the orphan—the most marginalized  in a kinfolk society. …

    Continue reading →

  • what’s your plan?

    what’s your plan?

    25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C); September  21, 2025 Am 8:4-7.  Ps 113.  1 Tm 2:1-8.  Lk 16:1-13 Deacon Jim McFadden             The parable in this Sunday’s Gospel is about a shrewd, dishonest steward, who was charged to watch after his master’s goods, but instead ripped him off by squandering his property.  He is about…

    Continue reading →

  • why did the father permit the crucifixion?

    The Exaltation of the Cross; September 14, 2025 Nm 21:4b-9.  Ps 78.  Phil 2:6-11.  Jn 3:131-7 Deacon Jim McFadden          In 1988 there was a beautifully crafted drama film  about twin brothers, Dominick and Eugene.  Dominick played by Tom Hulce just off his sterling performance in Amadeus, has an intellectual disability due to an accident…

    Continue reading →

  • A slap in the face

    A slap in the face

    23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C); Sept.  7, 2025 Wis 9:13-18b.  Ps 90.  Phlm 9:10,12-17.  Lk 14:25-33 Deacon Jim McFadden          This Sunday’s Gospel from Luke is really hard to take.  Jesus—the one we associate with love fully incarnate—is telling the crowd, is telling us, that we must hate people.  Not just anyone, but our…

    Continue reading →

  • Holiness is always “original”

    5th Sunday of Easter (C); May 18, 2025 Acts 14:21-27.  Ps 145.  Rv 21:1-5.  Jn 13:31-35 Deacon Jim McFadden             A former teaching colleague of mine, a consecrated religious, had a sign in her classroom which blasted: “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”  That raises…

    Continue reading →

  • The True Shepherd Who Always Stays With Us

    Fourth Sunday of Easter (C); May 11, 2025 Acts 13:14,43-52.  Ps 100.  Rv 7:9,14b-17.  Jn 10:27-30 Deacon Jim McFadden             In today’s Gospel from John, our Lord Jesus is presented to us as the true shepherd of the People of God.  As such, the relationship that binds Jesus to us, the sheep of his flock,…

    Continue reading →

  • “Do You Love Me?”

    3rd Sunday of Easter (C); May 4, 2025 Acts 5:27-32,40b-41.  Ps 30.  Rv 5:11-14.  Jn 21:1-19 Deacon Jim McFadden             We continue to read from the pages of John’s Gospel which recounts the third time the Risen Christ appears to the Apostles.  It is a meeting that takes place in the Sea of Tiberius (aka…

    Continue reading →

  • Anastasis! He is Risen, He is Alive!

    Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord; April 20, 2025 Acts 10:34a,37-43.  Ps 118.  Col 3:1-4.  Jn 20:1-9 Deacon Jim McFadden        Today we are celebrating the apex of the liturgical calendar: The Resurrection of the Lord.  Even though it is the pivotal event of our Faith, we are so familiar with this solemnity,…

    Continue reading →

  • “Father, Forgive Them”

    Palm Sunday (C); April 13, 2025 Lk 19:28-40 (procession). Is 50: 4-7.  Ps 22:8-917-20,23-24.  Phil 2:6-11.  Lk 22:14-23 or 23:1-49 Deacon Jim McFadden        In the Sermon of the Mount, which contains the crux of his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, Jesus instructed us on the Mystery of Forgiveness, which is an absolute imperative…

    Continue reading →

  • Everything I Have Is Yours

    4th Sunday of Lent (C); March 30, 2025 Jos 5:9-12.  Ps 34.  2 Cor 5:17-21.  Lk 1205:1-3, 11-32 Deacon Jim McFadden          Today is Laetare Sunday, a time for rejoicing because the Father reveals to us that “Everything I have is yours” (Lk 15:31b).  Lent is more than half over, and redemption and forgiveness and…

    Continue reading →

homilies

Don’t Talk to the Divider!

1st Sunday of Lent (A); February 22, 2026 Gn 2:7-9, 3:1-7.  Ps 51.  Rom 5:12-19.  Mt 4:1-11 Deacon Jim McFadden          Each year,  the Gospel of the 1st Sunday of Lent presents us with the narrative of Jesus in the…

Ash Wednesday: A Time for pruning

Jl 2:12-18.  Ps 51.  2 Cor 5:20-6:2.  Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Deacon Jim McFadden          People of God,  we come once again, to that great season of Lent, which is a great opportunity to prune away falseness, superficiality, and indifference to…

Respect a Person’s Dignity!

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A); February 15, 2026 Sir 15:15-20.  Ps 119.  1 Cor 2:6-10.  Mt 5:17-37 Deacon Jim McFadden          It can begin with the smallest gesture: an interested glance across a classroom, the brushing of a hand,…