Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world
This Sunday’s gospel is a perfect companion piece to the one we heard last week. Each gospel manages to show us two sides of the same coin. Last week, you’ll remember, we found ourselves in the Sea of Galilee, and heard the account of Peter attempting to walk on water, and sinking. It was the [...]
This gospel passage that we’ve just heard may be among the most haunting in all of scripture. It has a lot to say about fear, about faith, about trust — about daring to do the impossible. While no one disputes that this event actually happened, you’ll find a lot of interpretations of what we’re supposed [...]
Those are the beautiful sentiments that conclude this 1990 ordination homily from Cardinal John O’Connor, which was published recently in the Catholic Review: As your bishop, I give you but one mandate: love our Church, love God’s people. Love them for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Love them [...]
For the last few weeks, we’ve been hearing a series of parables from St. Matthew’s gospel: the story of the sower and the seed; the parable of the wheat and the weeds, the stories that have compared the Kingdom of God to a pearl of great price or a treasure in a field. While each [...]
The gospel we just heard has some surprising comparisons to the Kingdom of God – a kingdom that isn’t measured in acres, or miles, or limited by any kind of geography we might imagine. It is a kingdom, in fact, whose size could be small enough to hold in your hand, or bury in a [...]
“A sower went out to sow…” Those simple words begin one of the most memorable parables in the gospel – a story that has much to teach us not only about gardening and growing, but also about listening. Listening to the Word of God. Being receptive to it. Being open to it. That can be [...]
If you leave St. Patrick’s Cathedral by the front door, on Fifth Avenue, you can’t help but be jolted by the figure greeting you as you leave. It’s Atlas: a mammoth, four story high statue of the Greek titan, cast in bronze, his arms spread wide has he carries the universe on his back. He [...]
On Palm Sunday, a woman approached me between masses with an unusual question. “Excuse me,” she said, “but do you mind if I kneel when I receive communion?” I was in a hurry, and a little surprised at the question. But I quickly told her no, that wasn’t a problem, and she thanked me. And [...]
This Sunday, we celebrate the arrival of the Holy Spirit, and the great birthday of the Church, Pentecost. It may be one of the most neglected of the church’s feast days. We don’t hang lights, as we do at Christmas, and we don’t wear fancy hats or eat lots of candy, as we do at [...]
In April of 2005, an Army captain by the name of Scott Smiley found himself where most people would not want to be: in Mosul, Iraq, confronting a man in a car who fit the description of suspected car bomber. Captain Smiley knew what to do. He told the man to get out. The man [...]
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