The Feast of Christ the King

Matthew 25:31-46 Dear Friends, This famous Gospel text is not as simple and straight forward as it seems on the surface.  I do not know of anyone who has turned away more needy, homeless and addicted women and their children than my sister who is a nun. If we take a literal interpretation...

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Well done, good and faithful servant

Matthew 25:14-30 Dear Friends. The message for us in today’s Gospel is clear: to realize that God is calling us to use our time, talent and treasure to increase the kingdom of God. Our call is to create and support life in all of its various manifestations. The seamless garment of life, from the...

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Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour

Matthew 25:1-13 Dear Friends, As we draw near to the end of this Church year, in three weeks, the Church has a message for us about time. It may be better stated that the Church invites us to ponder the mystery of time. In today ‘s Gospel about the ten virgins both wise and foolish, and next week’s...

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Call me Tracy

In my second or third year as a young priest, at the end of the Second Vatican Council, I began to tell people to drop the Father and just call me Tracy. Very shortly one of the wise leaders of the parish pulled me aside to tell me a simple truth: It was not about me!  She said the community needs...

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Laurence Parish

Dear Parishioners, I grew up in St. Laurence parish on the South Side of Chicago. It was a very beautiful and enriching experience in many ways. But like anything else human, it suffered from the blindness revealed in today’s Gospel. Over the years, I have found myself growing in awareness of the many...

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The Twenty Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Matthew 22:15-21 Dear Friends, Today’s Gospel is the first in a series of for different groups that try to entrap Jesus and thus endanger his life. In each case, Jesus turns the issue into a teaching opportunity.  Today’s message is not the separation of church and state. It is a clear mandate...

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The Twenty Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time

St. Matthew 22: 1-14 Dear Friends, In today’s Gospel reading, Matthew has multiple messages. I want to delve into two points. We have received an invitation to the wedding feast and that has consequences for us.  In the Bible, the theme of the invitation or call is repeated often. Abraham...

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The Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

Matthew 21:33-43 Dear Friends, We are quickly approaching the end of the Church year with our journey in the Gospel of Matthew. The next several Sundays have selections that highlight two things: Jesus’ conflict with the Jewish leaders and His call to make a decision on His message. Down through...

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The Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Matthew 21:28-32 Dear Friends, today’s Gospel message has a context. It was after Jesus’s’ glorious entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. He then cleansed the temple. The impact of these events led to even deeper conflict with the religious leaders. With today’s parable of the two sons...

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Twenty Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Matthew 20:1-16 Dear Friends, Each Sunday the Gospel message invites us into a new world, a world where the values of Jesus call and challenge us to change. In this world, we are told that the last shall be first, the leader is to be the servant of all. The response to violence is not revenge but...

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The Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mt 18:21-35 Dear Friends. Once again, Jesus uses the misinformed good will of Peter to lead us deeper into the mystery of God’s love. To understand today’s message, there are several background points that are helpful. First, Peter’s suggestion of seven was quite generous in contrast to the operative...

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Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 18:15-20Dear Friends,Today’s message of forgiveness and reconciliation is where the Gospel becomes concrete, where the rubber hits the road.This message is part of a special section (Mt 18:1-35) on the church as a community. The Christian community is made up of flawed human beings who have...

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Sunday of Ordinary Time

Matthew 16: 21-27Dear Friends,From time to time, when I am frustrated working with people, especially in the Church, I say Jesus made only one mistake. He chose to let people to do His work. Of course, this is basically no different than what Peter told Jesus in today’s Gospel.In the beginning of the...

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The Twenty First Sunday of Ordinary Time

Matthew 16:13-20Dear Friends, Peter had quite a journey from the time Jesus asked him to leave his boat and nets and follow Him. He saw it all: the blind seeing, the lame walking, the devils cast out, the loaves and the fish and, of course, his short, ill-fated attempt to walk on the water and so much...

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Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Matthew 15:21-28Dear Friends, It is very hard for us to grasp how deeply the Jews at the time of Jesus cherished their role as the chosen people of God to the exclusion of all others. It colored their reality with a clear vision and acutely guarded set of protocols that defined all social interaction...

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The Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary time

Matthew 14: 22-33    Today’s Gospel story of Jesus walking on the water is filled with symbolism and echoes of the divine in the Old Testament.  Most immediately the story of the boat in the storm is the manifestation of the Church’s struggles in the first days of her existence and down...

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A Slow Journey of Love for God’s Word

IIt was 1954, nine years before Vatican II. I was completely packed to leave for the Carmelite seminary. My dilemma was that I still had a gift of a large bible. Like most Catholics at the time, I had no interest in the bible. However, I had great love and respect for my parish priest who had given...

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Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 14: 13-21Dear Friends,    Today’s passage in Matthew is about the loaves and fishes.  This story is appears six different times in the Gospels.  Likewise, it is the only miracle story that is in all four Gospels.  No doubt, it has a powerful message for us.   ...

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Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary time

Matthew 13: 44-52Dear Friends,    Today is the third Sunday of parables in Chapter thirteen in the Gospel of St. Matthew.  Many scholars of the Bible say today’s parable of the treasure is the most important of all the parables.      It begins with the statement,...

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Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

St. Matthew 13:24-30Dear Friends,    I had my introduction into this parable of the weeds and the wheat when I was a sophomore in high school.  It was the time of the McCarthy hearings on TV.  The politics of the day were about the infiltration of Communists into our government and...

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