Homilies - Fr. Brendan
Bear Fruit for God
There was once a billionaire, who threw a large party at his big estate
and when all his guests arrived, he announced that,
"I have filled the swimming pool with crocodiles and alligators.
If anyone who was brave enough to swim from one end
of the very long swimming pool to the other end,
could have a choice of his entire art collection worth millions of dollars,
the presidency of his entire company collection of companies
or his daughter in marriage."
With that, there was a splash in the water
and this frantic movement in the water of
somebody swimming to the other end.
Soon the pool got a little red but then out at the end comes a man,
a little worn and beaten up but he arrives safe and sound.More...
Knowing and Experiencing Are Different
If asked someone who lived near the equator if they know anything about snow.
There will be some people who have read about it in a book
and understood what it looks like,
maybe they have even seen lots of pictures of it;
they understood how it comes about
but they have never actually seen snow in reality;
they have never experienced the snow.
Now they still know it but they have not experienced snow.
Maybe there are some people here who have not experienced snow
because we live in a sort of warm climate.
One Step At a Time
There was once a group of settlers who came to this land
and they found a beautiful valley between two magnificent mountains.
On either side of the valley were very steep mountains.
One day, a young man from among the settlers
decided he would climb the top of this mountain and he did.
After many days he returned,
he spoke of the how magnificent the view from the top of the mountain was, "Like an eagle I have seen the beauty of the valley and beyond;
the beauty of God's creation is awesome
and we are called to give glory to such beauty in God's creation."
Peace I Give You
If I offered to give you $10,000 what would you say?
I can see there are smiles on your faces already.
What would you presume that from what I said
-if I am going to give you $10,000?
The answer is that I must have $10,000
and maybe a whole lot more than that to give it away so easily.
I must have at least $10,000 or whole lot more than $10,000
if I am so quick to give you $10,000.
How could I give you something I do not have.
Christ Is Risen
Our faith could be compared to a level playing field,
where the different images and metaphors of God
all play equally on this field.
The image of God as Father,
the image of God as Protector,
the image of God as Benefactor;
the image of God as Judge;
the image of God as our Redeemer,
the image of God as Lover, God who loves us as a Father.
We speak at different times with these different images of God
with various degrees of emphasis.
Our liturgy is full of these images,
each of them slightly different,
each of them different aspects of God,
different views of God but always on an equal playing field.More...
Cleansing Waters of Baptism
"Good" Friday
There is a wonderful short story by O. Henry
There are two elderly women, Joanna and Sue,
trying to survive the coldest winter on record.
Joanna is suffering from pneumonia and
is getting sicker as each colder day goes by.
There is no heating and they struggle to survive.
Joanna looks out the window every single morning
and they see the leaves dropping off a vine
on the wall opposite their apartment.
Joanna says to Sue,
"When the last leaf of that vine falls to the ground,
my time will have come to the end."
At this stage there was only one last leaf left on the vine.
Sue tells to her neighbor, Behrman, a kind old man
about how tough things have got for the two of them.
Behrman had struggled all his life trying to be an artist
and was somewhat of a failed artist.More...
God Loves You
"Do you know what I have done for you?
You who call me teacher or master.
I have given you a model to follow.
So as I have done for you, you should also do for each other."
Love is a strange thing!
When we love somebody,
we can love them in such a way
that we love them beyond their idiosyncratic behaviors,
their weaknesses, their foibles, their weirdness
and even their nastiness at times.
We can love them just like that
because we know it is part of who they are and yet we love them.More...
Imitate Christ By Love
About this time in some places in the Philippines
some young men voluntarily have themselves scourged,
a real crown of thorns pressed sharply into their heads,
then have real nails nailed into their hands and
real nails put into their feet in imitation of Christ's crucifixion.
They are then taken down from the cross and
typically rushed to the hospital for attention.More...
Metaphors of God
When we speak of God it requires of us to use special language,
we must speak in analogy or metaphor
because no words can ever encapsulate who God is.
We come up with metaphors that can be very different in nature:
we have God as Father,
God as Protector;
God as Judge,
God as Lover;
God as Patron;
God as Benefactor.
Each of these images or metaphors are in themselves incomplete.
No one metaphor is the totality of who God is.
In fact, some of these metaphors are competing
if not inconsistent with one another
and sometimes the image of God is in the tension between them.
More...
