May 12, 2019 - Easter 4C

Lectionary Readings

Grant us, Lord, always to sit at your table and dwell in your house for ever. Amen.

            Think for a moment about the best meal that you’ve ever had. Maybe it was a home-cooked specialty made by your grandmother or perhaps it was at a high-end steak house. Think back to what made that meal so special. The food was probably good, the atmosphere was likely nice, but I bet that with more certainty than telling me what food you ordered or what music was playing in the background, you can tell me who you were with. What makes a meal sacred is the people gathered around the table with you. I’ve had some really lousy food, but the meal ended up being a good experience because I was surrounded by loved ones. This truth is what makes the Holy Eucharist such a special meal, because in it we are gathered with the dearest of people.

December 17, 2017 - Advent 3B

Lectionary Readings

O come, O come, Emmanuel. Amen.

            “Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try.” John Lennon wrote those words from a religionless point of view. But to those of us inside the church, it really isn’t that hard to image there’s no heaven. You’ll recall that on the first Sunday of Advent, I mentioned that the word “eschatology” means “the last things.” And Advent has been a time that the Church has historically focused on the Four Last Things of death, judgment, heaven, and hell. But many have accused the modern Church of having a case of eschatological amnesia. In other words, we have forgotten our future. We have forgotten the end of things, and in that forgetfulness, we lose the meaning of the present.