Even though Thanksgiving Day is a secular, not a religious, holiday it has a special resonance for Catholics. After all, the central prayer of the Church is Thanksgiving (which is how you translate Eucharist.) In our prayer today it is good to give thanks for blessings received like the leper who was healed by Jesus.… Read More »

The contrast between the two readings designated for today is dramatic. In the Book of Daniel when the king sees the sign of God’s presence  his face blanched; his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook,  and his knees knocked. God was overwhelming. In the Gospel of Luke when Jesus warns us about troubles to… Read More »

A common science fiction trope is time travel. The ability to go back into the past to fix what went wrong or to go into the future to escape current woes stirs the imagination. The Bible includes its own version of time travel. The Book of Daniel looks at past events and sees in the… Read More »

During this, the last week of the Church’s year, the first reading of the day is taken from the Book of Daniel. This book purports to be from the time of the Babylonian exile (587BC) but was actually written about the year 165BC It is, what we might call today, historical fiction. The author looks… Read More »

I was in novitiate during the late 60s and the novice master, Father Leon of happy memory, wanted, I suppose, to be a hip, up-to-date, Vatican II priest.  On this feast day, Christ the King, he announced after the gospel, “Today, brothers, we will have a dialogue homily,” that is instead of him preaching we… Read More »

The Bible reports that King Antiochus died disappointed, alone and “in bitter grief.” He had pursued power and glory in this world and it had failed to satisfy him as his life ended. Contrast that with the words of Jesus: “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob is not… Read More »

One of the atrocities that led to the Maccabean revolt against the Greek occupiers was the desecration of the temple in Jerusalem. When the Jewish army recaptured the city their first thought was how to re-sacralize the temple in order to re-introduce worship. For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar and joyfully… Read More »

The two readings assigned for today provide quite a contrast. The Old Testament lesson from 1 Maccabees is about the start of a war. The Jewish people were being harassed and persecuted and executed for living out their faith so Mattathias gathers people around him to revolt against their Greek overlords. The Maccabean war did… Read More »

The Bible readings assigned for today are a bit overwhelming. The Old Testament lesson from 2 Maccabees describes the horrible execution of an entire family — mother and seven sons — due to religious persecution. In the Gospel Jesus tells a parable which has woven into it a story of a revolt against a king… Read More »

The story of Zaccheus is a familiar one but some contemporary scholars speculate that we have missed the essential point. The traditional translation is:  Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay… Read More »