Of the three attempts at this homily on Ephesians (with a lot of Galatians and Genesis too), all of them had two or more flubs, so I just had to pick one. On the one here I didn't really deliver the opening story the best I could have, and also meant to come back at the end and emphasis that Paul's depictions of the Messiah's work really is horizontical. But the other two had bigger issues. Alas.
I covered at a different parish this week, so I had to do a little bit of background on 2nd Corinthians before diving into the reading of the day. So if you've listened to another homily of mine in the last several weeks a small part will be a review/repeat. (Actually, to be honest, I've covered for three of the last five weekends and I'm getting a lot of mileage out of introducing people to 2nd Corinthians.)
So many great letters by St. Paul for so many situations. You need encouragement? Read Philippians. Frustrated by imperfection in your church? Compare with 1st Corinthians. Kind of a masochist and like being yelled at? Try Galatians. Such variety, something for everyone.
2nd Corinthians asks, "What about when you feel like you've lost everything you relied on: your friends, your health, even the very sense of hope itself? When your life turns into Job chapters 1-2, where do you turn? Where would a person who felt they could do nothing else to advance the kingdom of God look to find purpose and hope?"
Paul thought he knew the power of Christ's cross, but it wasn't until he felt he had himself been pressed, crush, persecuted, and abandoned, in imitation of Him, that he saw himself as being fully The Messiah's Man. A strong and eloquent traveling evangelist is good. A wounded, discouraged, tongue-tied beggar is an even better ambassador for the crucified messiah.
Kids are great. They ask great questions. Hard ones. I'm at a loss often, and frankly the questions about the one God are no easier than those about the three Persons.
St. John is definitely the poet of the New Testament writers (no offense, Paul). And if his Gospel is his Hamlet then his First Epistle is his collection of sonnets. The whole of 1 John 4 is worthy of close inspection and meditation on its own, and its genius only seems to grow when you absorb it with parallel thoughts in his gospel. We trace the agape love of the New Testament from the Father to the Son to the disciples to all the faithful and out into the world. And we see the lowliest Christian loving his neighbor with the same love that burn in the very depths of the Trinity.
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The Letter to the Hebrews takes a couple of things quite seriously. Important to the Ascension are two: Jesus' Ascension is part of the whole of the paschal mystery, and that his entrance into the heavenly sanctuary fulfills what the Day of Atonement had been pointing to for 1200 years.
One Sunday, two homilies. You can try to shoehorn the regular Sunday topic in/around/alongside the First Communion setting, but it's usually rough on both crowds. So here's the normie, 4th Sunday of Easter homily and the 10am First Communion Mass homily.
4th Sunday of Easter, Year B
