The Emmaus Pastorate’s Podcast

Homily from 1-30-22

Real love, biblical love, is always about others.  That's the message Jesus tried to convey in his hometown.  As the prophets before him demonstrated though, a prophet usually isn't accepted in his hometown.  The people listening grew angry and began to throw him out.  But despite their uproar, Jesus offered them nothing but love because "love never fails," says St. Paul.  People will know we are Christians by our love.  So fall in love, and stay in love.  It will decide everything!

Homily from 1-23-22

“Many gifts, same Spirit!” Saint Paul continues his teaching on our “connectedness” this week with a “spiritual anatomy” lesson. “As a body is one though it has many parts, so also Christ.” (1 Cor 12:12) There is no mistaking his message- we are different, but we are all called to be one! Unfortunately, if we applied this passage to our society today, the body would be pretty dismembered! There are many parts of our country, our Church, our families and our relationships who are making decisions about not belonging to the body. Leaving, withdrawing, divisiveness, personal justification due to opinion and wants, and the like, are all excuses. We seem to have forgotten the “us” and the “we” in favor of “me”! It is going to take some grace-filled healing for the Divine Physician to restore health and wholeness to this fractured and injured body of humanity. St. Paul exhorts us “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.” But he precedes that line with this sobering thought: “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.” Whatever our differences we cannot deny that we share a common existence in Christ Jesus.

Homily from 1-16-22

All of us have gifts.  Those gifts are given to us at birth, and we all have them.  St. Paul tells us that everyone has particular gifts, meant for service to each other.  The trick is to find out what our own gifts are and how to use them.  When the day comes when we see Jesus face to face, he'll ask what we did for him with the gifts we were given.  What will your answer be?

Homily on 1-9-22

John must have been really surprised when he saw Jesus - the Son of God! - come into the Jordan River to be baptized.  Surely, Jesus was sinless and had no need of such a cleansing, right?!  But the Sacrament of Baptism is more than just washing away sin.  It's the moment in which a light is lit in the newborn Christian, a certain power is instilled in him or her.  That light has a chance to grow as time evolves and the same Christian comes to the Sacrament of Confirmation.  But don't be too quick to judge those who haven't received these Sacraments, because that same power can reside in any person - Jew or Gentile.  God has no partiality, and woe to us if we judge or chastise someone whose light might be a little dimmer than ours.

Homily from 1/2/2022

On the Solemnity of the Epiphany, we're reminded that the day isn't just about three kings, wise men, the gifts they offered a newborn baby boy, or the distance they traveled.  In fact, there might not have been three, and they probably weren't kings.  But that they came is the point.  That they followed the star, a revelation of divinity, is the purpose of this annual solemnity.  Epiphanies happen all the time, even if we aren't aware of them.  God reveals himself to every day really!  The challenge is to recognize their occurrence and be willing to be changed by them.  The wise men who followed a strange star allowed themselves to be transformed.  As we start a new year, will you allow yourself to be transformed by the same Light of the World?

Homily on the Feast of the Holy Family 2021

What is a family?  How is a family defined?  Deacon Paul Dolan, a husband and father, gives us several possibilities.  In the end though, the common denominator is simple: love.  The love between people defines family.  Not the overly dramatic love of Hollywood and romance, but the true charity and selfless giving sort of love that focuses not on our own desires but rather on the needs of others.  Ergo, ultimately everyone is included in God's family.  The question, then, for us is simple but ever so complicated: Do we consider everyone we encounter our family?

Christmas Homily 2021

What's the meaning of Christmas?  Is the day intended to honor the blond haired, blue eyed baby we imagine was laid in a tidy little manger all those years ago?  No.  Christmas is a reminder of our baptismal call.  Just as Christ came to bring grace, peace, and salvation to the world, by our baptism we are called to continue that work 21 centuries later.  No, Christmas isn't the occasion to celebrate the birth of a child again.  It's to remind us that that child should be born in us every day and he should be shared with the world through our day-to-day actions.  Maybe, just maybe, in doing so our world will see the transformation God intended in sending his only son.

Homily on 12-19-21

When??  When is the day??  When is the time??  We ask ourselves "when" so many times throughout the year, even throughout the day.  TODAY is the day.  TODAY, right NOW, is the time to allow Christ to renew our lives.  THIS MOMENT is the answer.  How's your Advent preparation going?  If it hasn't started, start NOW.

Homily on 12-12-21

During the first week of Advent, we heard about WHO, asking ourselves with whom we're in relationship.  During the second week of Advent, we asked ourselves for WHAT we prepare during Advent.  During this third week of Advent, Deacon Paul Dolan turns us to the WHERE.  Where do we see Jesus today?  Where are our energies focused?  On this Gaudete (translated Rejoice) Sunday, where do we find our joy?  Like a road that needs rebuilding, we need a foundation that is sturdy, dependable, and reliable.  Hopefully we can consider Christ our foundation, the person in whom we find joy and worthy of our energies and focus!

Homily from 12-5-21

"Prepare the way of the Lord!  Make straight his paths!" (Luke 3:4-5)  These words from the John the Baptist call us to get ready for the Lord's coming.  But 2,021 years after Jesus came, how do we do this?  How exactly do we prepare our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our lives, our society for the coming of Christ?  And how do we do that everyday, not just during the season of Advent?  If this journey seems too daunting, fear not, for St. Paul tells us that Jesus Christ began a good work in us and will continue to complete it until he comes again (Philippians 1:6)!