Gospel, Homily and Coffee

The word “Freedom” like “love” gets used a lot, and I think abused a lot, especially in our English and American culture. St. Paul contemplates it and writes of it; Freedom in its truest sense. Freedom, that ability to be the good persons that we are created by God to be. Freedom, the ability to do choose to do good. Freedom, in our Christian viewpoint, is NOT about civil liberty; nor about the ability to do things that “I” want do, whether it has to do with our body, our guns, our things. This is how we as Christians, as Catholics, make the distinction. Freedom has more depth it is part of our core being. Civil liberties come and go; they are passing inventions of humankind.  They are controlled by laws, politics, et al. Freedom...well the only thing that inhibit it is within our own selves. Paul talks of Flesh and Spirit.  Flesh, is really another way of saying, egocentric behavior.   It is about being concerned with the me, myself and I.  It is a reac...

I am a fan of genealogy. I have done the whole genetic testing, family tree. I like to see our connections and find relationships, understand our family roots. I believe a lot of Americans feel this way. The vast majority of us came from other countries, and we have this inherent desire to know our roots. I wonder if it is because of our immigrant roots. I remember my grandparents talking about their own parents and the “old country”, and I was fascinated by it. What about our spiritual roots? Our Spiritual DNA? This is a part of our Celebration today, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. See, at our core, the very core of our being, what forms the roots of all other ways we identify ourselves, we are the children of God. In a sense, that is all of salvation right there: freedom to be the children of God. Being Human is being a Child of God. The trick, the spiritual life, is to live it out. Jesus Christ is our role model, our mentor, and of cou...

I think I am going to break some ethics in preaching. Once, a teen was having a hard time in high school. He worked and studied while his classmates seemed to have all the fun. He went to mass because that was what he was supposed to do, but his heart was not in it. One Christmas Eve he attended mass with the family but he sat apart from them. Something came over him during the mass and he felt a warmth, and some of his hair stood up on his neck. He didn’t know what it was. In graduate school a young adult attended weekly mass at the Newman center along with the hundreds of others. It was always lively there at the mass, very different from his home parish. However, one mass in particular, during the singing of the Our Father, he felt all tingly. The hair on his neck stood up and he felt overwhelming emotional. Strange, he thought, am I sick? Then he looked at the people around him, they were crying. He was not alone in this. OMG---It was the Holy Spirit! He then remembered his Chris...

How many of us have known or currently know “micromanagers”? If you are reading this, or listening to this, you do. I am one, or I like to think I am at least a “reformed micromanager” Micromanagers, those people who desire to control all aspects of other’s work and lives. They are overly concerned with the details and how things are done, the process. They want things done, and they want them done in their way. I think for some of us this attitude comes from fear and mistrust. I think some micromanagers are fearful of being judged unworthy, failures, slackers, etc, and so to allay their fears, to prevent the judgment of others they seek to control as many variables as possible. They control out of fear. They (we) lack the trust that others will make us appear good and successful Not fun. People who analyze businesses and people say really the best managers are those who trust their staff, who do give clear direction and goals, and they let their staff do what they are trained to ...