This is relatively lengthy, starting as it does with an issue I'm going to be talking about for several weeks: dismal weekend Mass attendance. -- My time in London helped me to consider the matter of kingship; I think I have some helpful insights.

Sorry, I failed to record this one.

I was sick and this homily was very brief.  I believe that this was the Gospel of "the widow's mite."

OK, I got the problem figured out and I am ready to podcast again.  Two new homilies will appear here in a few minutes.

Hello,

Given that I bought a new computer recently, I am a bit delayed in making all the transitions from old to new.  In the case of the homilies, my recording software seems to be clashing with the version of Windows XP that came with this new computer.  I am checking with the software company on this.  I did not record last Sunday, 33rd in OT, but I do have 32nd OT recorded, and I will keep recording so there will be plenty to listen to after I have resolved the problem.

I'm sorry for the delay in getting last Sunday's homily uploaded.  I had a cold over the weekend.  I'm amazed that I am over it already.  I am accustomed to colds that go on for weeks.  Meanwhile, my new laptop arrived yesterday and I am in the midst of all the business of transferring data from the old laptop to the new one.  I'll catch up before too long!

I was just watching the BBC's coverage of the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as U.S. Secretary of Defense.  I cannot describe my relief over this sign that the Bush Administration is, however feebly and however late, responding to reality.

I heard Mr. Rumsfeld's parting words.  He is unrepentantly arrogant to the end.  His comments informed all of us who oppose his precious "first war of the twenty-first century" that we misunderstand it -- as one might misunderstand a gifted child, I suppose.  How can we fail to understand that this war in Iraq was conceived because of this administration's fatal hubris and willingness to lie to the world about the existence of weapons and the nonexistent connection between Saddam Hussein and the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001?  How can we fail to understand bloodshed for no reason?  But this quality is inherent in arrogance: to suppose that those who disagree, if not disloyal, are, at the very least, stupid.  But this is the chief and mortal flaw of the arrogant person: the unwillingness to see that he does not have a monopoly on wisdom -- the resistance to the fact that others perceive truth without its being "managed" or "spun."  Someone once said that the truth will set us free.  There is freedom in acceding to the fact that truth is accessible to all human minds and hearts.  But the arrogant one denies this.  And so he condemns himself to self-inflicted deception.

If you desire a break from American politics, try Church politics.  We now have an order from on high regarding a perceived need to keep lay people from purifying sacred vessels.  As of January 1, an ordained person must do it.  (So can an acolyte, but in practice such officially-installed acolytes are not to be found; women cannot be acolytes, so we refrain from making acolytes.  The official acolyte is a "lay ministry," supposedly; but in practice it is treated as the minor order it once was.) 

This reminds me of something I once said when at Mass a seminarian and I were struggling with getting incense to burn: "This is why we spend eight years in the seminary: to learn to light charcoal!"  More to the point, we as the Catholic Church are experiencing a rollback of the great liturgical progress we were making following the Second Vatican Council.  The Council taught us that each believer (not just the ordained) has an active role in the liturgy.  Further, we learned that the sign-value of each sacrament must be used to the fullest.  Cardinal Arinze's comments on intinction, on the other hand, belittle the importance of actual eating and drinking in the sacrament of the Eucharist.  We will comply, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.

"Love God with all your heart" -- this is the first and greatest commandment.  But it is certainly not the first commandment of which we have a practical grasp.  Let us consider how we learn to love.