PAN DE LA SEMANA

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 27 th Sunday Year B October 4, 2015 UNION, UNITY, DIGNITY Today’s topic is most difficult for preachers like me. The easiest route is to go by way of what seems to be the only topic that appears to be the only way to go – that is, talk, not about, but against divorce. Don’t get me wrong … I am a Catholic, and as a teacher of Moral Theology, would never go against either Scripture or sound, clear and consitent Catholic doctrine. But I always take the route of the bigger picture. A detailed doctrine, no matter how categorical and clear, without its bigger context, will often (if not always) lack compassion. But life being what it is, complex and even complicated, we need both CLARITY & COMPASSION. So then, what is clear in today’s readings? A whole lot, I must say … From the first reading, it is clear that humans were created “in God’s image and likeness.” What is clear is that human dignity is at the basis of humanity, a...

27 th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) October 7, 2012 ALL THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES! Back in my Baltimore days, I got sort of hooked to the daytime soap opera DAYS OF OUR LIVES. I did not make much of whatever was going on in the lives of the Horton and Brady families in a town called Salem, but I remember enjoying the portrayal of the complex characters of the evolving story, that began yet in 1965, and is poised to air its 12,000 th episode come January 2013. It is a story filled with twists and turns, unpredictable ends and unexpected bends along the circuitous – if, tumultuous – route that is called life as lived by the average Tom, Dick, and Harry, and for our local culture where I am at, every Juan de la Cruz of our times. I start with something positive – a blessing, in fact … “May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives!” (Responsorial Psalm). How does one deserve and earn such a blessing? Let me count the ways, as suggested by the very ...

Catholic Homily / Sunday Reflection 27 th Sunday in Ordinary Time(B) October 4, 2009 There is something disarmingly real, authentic and genuine in children that one is hard pressed to find among adults. Children are naturally loyal, dedicated and committed to their caregivers. Watch a toddler and his unalloyed attachment to his mother or his primary caregiver. Children value relationships. They prize their belongingness to a family. And they make no secret about such healthy attachment to a family system. Ordinarily, for the normal child, the family is a matter of pride for him or her. Adults on the other hand, may be far less spontaneous and straightforward about where their real sympathies and concerns lie. Having learned with the passage of time to dissimulate, to manipulate, and to capitulate to some internal or external pressures, adults may value themselves more than they value the collectivity, the family, the community, the nation, or t...