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Short Sunday homilies. Read by Peter James-Smith
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Third Sunday of Advent A “Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient.” Today’s second reading from the letter of Saint James encourages us to be patient. We are waiting for the Lord and we don’t know when he is coming. We know he is going to be born on Christmas’ day, but we do...
Second Sunday of Advent Today the Church presents to us John the Baptist as a model to follow. He was the Precursor, the one who comes first. His mission was to open the ways of the Lord, to give witness to the light, to prepare men’s hearts so that Christ may enter. Our mission is to follow in his footsteps. He came two thousand years ago; now it is our turn. How do we do that, if we have lost our way and our life is in complete darkness? We need fir...
First Sunday of Advent Watch out, the Lord is coming, the Lord is very near. This is what the liturgy is reminding us these days: to be awake, to be vigilant, to be ready. In a crescendo manner, putting pressure with the passing of days, the prayers of the Mass are telling us slowly that he is coming: he is on his way, he is getting there, only a few days to go, he is almost here, he is knocking at the door, he is already opening the door. When ...
The Good Thief Three crosses, two thieves and three different expressions of suffering. Jesus wanted to be crucified surrounded by sinners, sharing his throne of glory with them. Many saints would have liked to have been there, to change places with one of them, with a holy envy. Three crosses; as Saint Augustine says, one gives salvation, the other receives it and the other despises it. Two thieves; we are represented by these two criminals, an...
Eschatological discourse When we reach November, at the end of the liturgical year, we have these Gospels about the end of times, about the distant future. They are always a bit frightening and we don’t know what to do about them or how to react. We want to read them quickly, and pass soon into Advent, to be able to look forward to Christmas. Why does the Church want us to look at these events, when we don’t know when they are going to happen, and mos...
Resurrection of the dead Today in the Gospel the Sadducees tried to have a go at Jesus with a silly argument, defending their denial of the resurrection, and thanks to them we have from him a good statement about the resurrection of the body. Jesus uses sometimes our pride and selfishness for our own good, to give us a lesson. Whether we like it or not, at the end of time we will be reunited to our bodies. It will be either a glorious body or a damned...
All Souls In the month of November we remember our brothers and sisters who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. We don’t know where they are. All we know is that they are already in eternity for ever. Some of them still have to undergo a kind of purification, because they are not completely cleaned to enjoy God’s presence. They are happy because they know they are on their way to heaven, but they earnestly desire to be transformed...
All Saints Once a year in November the Church on earth as a good mother helps us to remember our brothers and sisters who have made it into eternity. On the first of this month, the saints in heaven; on the second, the souls in purgatory. They say there are around 10.000 saints recognised by the Church. It is impossible to count all the saints in heaven. We don’t have time to canonise every person who enters into glory. There are millions of them. We ...
Zacchaeus There were three big obstacles that prevented Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus. They seemed insurmountable, but because he wanted with all his might to see Jesus, he overcame them all, one after the other. We all have some hurdles that make it difficult for us to discover God. And we need to jump over them one by one. Every man has a desire deep in his heart to see God, a hunger for the happiness that only an infinite being can fulfill. We are re...
Parable of the Pharisee and tax collector We normally see ourselves as the tax collector. We don’t think the example of the Pharisee is for us. And we are mistaken. We walk into a church with the attitude that it belongs to us. We place ourselves in front of the tabernacle with the right to be there. We talk to God listening to ourselves, reading a list of favours we have done to him, expecting him to acknowledge our achievements. We are arrogant and ...
Parable of the unjust judge Even though this parable focuses mainly on the reactions of the unjust judge, on his lack of fear of God and his indifference about justice, it should be better called the parable of the persevering widow, because she is the real protagonist, the one who wins at the end and is vindicated. She is our model in front of injustices and the indifference of human beings. She teaches us how to react when we find ourselves in hopel...
Ten lepers You could say that leprosy was the worst sickness. They used to call lepers “living dead”. Your body died slowly, in front of you, in front of others. You were thrown out of society, you became a castaway; some of them literally were being sent to an island, like Molokai. You had to walk round sounding a bell like an animal, crying out: impure, stained. They were like zombies. It was considered a punishment from God; he had touched yo...
Increase our faith Today we go to Jesus like the apostles and we ask him to increase our faith. Like them we have witnessed miracles, we have experienced things beyond our power, we have seen God’s grace, but we feel that our faith weak. We cannot do what Jesus is asking us to do, because Jesus normally asks for faith before he gives us a hand. After the transfiguration, coming down from the mountain, Jesus met the apostles trying to cast away a...
Parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus We are both the men in the parable, whether we like or not, the rich man and the poor man Lazarus, with both their weakness and their strengths, with their aspirations and desires. Both lived parallel lives, clearly related to each other but completely opposite, in this life and the next in eternity, crossing each other at life’s intersections; the first will be last and the last will be first. &n...
Parable of the unjust steward This is a parable about stewardship. We have been given a bit of God’s harvest and Jesus is asking us today to examine ourselves how we are looking after it. We are at his service and we could be a bit easygoing, complacent or indifferent. It doesn’t matter if we are in charge of a big field, or we are only responsible for a small part of God’s vineyard. The important thing is to look after it well, and give a good ...
Our Lady of Sorrows Standing at the foot of the Cross is our mother. She is standing, not crying or fainting; she is there supporting her son with her presence. Silent tears run down her cheeks. And Saint John is also there, the celibate apostle, the one Jesus loved. Other women are there too. Women are stronger than men. Many artists tried to capture this moment but with different results. It is almost impossible to represent in a painting what happe...
Parables of the lost sheep and the coin Sinners were attracted to Jesus and the Pharisees complained. Sinners followed Jesus because they saw an opportunity to leave their sinful life behind. That’s why we too are attracted to Jesus. We need him; without him we are nothing. The more we see ourselves as sinners, the more we feel Jesus’ attraction. Like a magnet; the closer it is to the iron, the more difficult it is to separate the two. Our world has l...
Conditions for following Jesus Today in the Gospel Jesus gets very serious. He looks at the people following him and he realises that many of them were there for human reasons. They were following him because they wanted to experience miracles, because they were fed with tasty bread and fish, because that man spoke very well, because he had a go at the Pharisees, or he defended the poor and he could become a political power. The same thing happens wit...
Parable of the first places Jesus was having a meal with his apostles. We see often Jesus in the Gospels sitting at the table. It is important to spend time with others, and meals are great occasions to do so. People nowadays spend their time with their phones, just watching screens. These were moments when Jesus took advantage to pass on to them his message; he used these opportunities to teach them a lesson, in this instance, humility. Jesus was ver...
The narrow gate Today in the Gospel we see a fellow coming up to Jesus and asking an important question: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” We are still asking this question nowadays. How many are going to be saved? Is anybody in hell? It is based in a truth of our faith: we all need salvation. Few years ago we had a debate about this topic when we had to change the words of the consecration during Mass, to better translate the original. W...
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