Gospel, Homily and Coffee

Where’s Waldo? We remember those books; the funny looking dude with glasses, hat and striped shirt hiding in plain sight amid a crowd of others. Our task was to find him, to recognize him amid all the other people. It teaches attention and concentration; and frustration!!!!!!! At times we can all get into a too comfortable position in life and become numb to our world, our reality. We do not truly see what is around us. We all notice the snow on the mountains when it first happens, but by January we become “meh” about it.  We can also get overwhelmed by situations that wear us down, and we become less able to see the positive around us.   We can fall into the trap of thinking God is not here with us. God is not working with us. God is not in our world. We can think this as we get confronted in the news by all the bad news; gun violence again and again; earthquakes, wars, drought, the divisions.  Where's God? This thinking is not sinful, but it is also not help...

Earlier this year the movie “Everything Everywhere all at once” was released. I found it a brilliant movie, and although I do admit a small crush on Michelle Yeoh, it is not because of that. It is a movie about choices in life; and making decisions that impact our lives and those around us.  In this movie, and in other recent movies and shows, there is talk of the multiverse; which comes from a line of thought in Quantum physics that there are infinite universes, all based on choices. If we choose coffee, then that sets us on one path; if we choose tea for breakfast then that sets us along a different path.  It is a fun concept, but can also lead to our heads swimming, and for some neurosis about making choices. We can come to those threshold moments in our lives in which a new direction, a new way of living is presented to us. What will we do? This is not just a new job, new house, or new car; this is also about a fundamental option to live in a different way. For some i...

There have been a lot of funerals of late. Not just here at OLS, but other priests I have talked with said the same thing: lots of funerals. So lots of thoughts and homilies about death, dying and what does this all mean.  Funeral homilies can be “Tricky”. How do we balance that sadness of death and wanting to help make people feel better, and also be true to our deeper faith; a faith in the Resurrection.  Someone remarked to me that I do not talk much about heaven in my funeral homilies. It is true. I used to and the homily would talk of doing whatever the deceased liked to do in this life, but doing it better in heaven: Golfing, fishing, gardening, etc.  In essence, Heaven seemed like a big country club where we all have perfect bodies and enjoy life for all of eternity. Really, Jesus mentions very few times any sense of heaven. He brings up talk of a court a few times, but this was not about describing heaven, rather it was to inspire followers to treat people ...