Sunday Homilies

from Father Kevin Laughery, Troy St. Jerome and St. Jacob St. James Parishes, Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Note: Comments from this page do not reach me; instead, email: kl@kevinlaughery.com

The Podcasts

Unsettled, dispiriting things are swirling around within us.  We must seek divine healing for our various resentments and accept the peace which allows us to be gifts to one another.

Direct download: KML_2015-09-20_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 4:56pm CDT

Peter professes his faith in Jesus, but also reveals that the concept of "suffering servant" eludes him

Direct download: KML_2015-09-13_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:54pm CDT

The refugee situation in Europe is another proof that we can never escape the xenophobic tendencies pointed out today in the Letter of James.

Direct download: KML_2015-09-06_945am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 4:51pm CDT

If you think that what passes through and comes out of you is repulsive, apply your feeling of disgust instead to the evil attitudes which you harbor in your hearts.

Direct download: KML_2015-08-30_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 4:48pm CDT

Decision and commitment move us to stand with a spouse and with the God who promises his intimate presence.

Direct download: KML_2015-08-23_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:45pm CDT

Ephesians touches upon singing as a fundamental Christian activity, while Proverbs gives us the image of the banquet as the preferred way to describe how God loves us.

Direct download: KML_2015-08-16_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:41pm CDT

A man named Donald Trump was in the news; this led to my comments about respect, as alluded to in the Ephesians passage.  

Direct download: KML_2015-08-09_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:37pm CDT

It is the most reasonable thing in the world to ask "What is it?" when presented with unfamiliar food.  "Manna" means "What is it?"  We are still asking "What is it?" when we are given the Bread of Life.

Direct download: KML_2015-08-02_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:24pm CDT

The homilist was away last week.  We consider what we hunger for, and what will satisfy our hunger.

Direct download: KML_2015-07-26_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 6:30pm CDT

How do we evaluate the reliability of a prophet?  Consider whether or not he is enriching himself.

Direct download: KML_2015-07-12_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 6:27pm CDT

"He can't be any good, because he's from here!"  We have to consider this very common and very strange way of thinking.

Direct download: KML_2015-07-05_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 6:24pm CDT

The heartwarming account of Jesus piling healing upon healing.

Direct download: KML_2015-06-28_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 6:20pm CDT

The homilist was away last week.  Today, in light of God's address to Job, we consider the encyclical of Pope Francis on the environment, and the murders in Charleston, S.C. 

Direct download: KML_2015-06-21_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:17pm CDT

In this year's Scriptures, we focus on the meaning of the blood of sacrifice.

Direct download: KML_2015-06-07_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 6:11pm CDT

I believe that, in the last dozen or so posts, there may be a couple of inaccuracies as to labeling.  At some point (but not right now) I will review them and make any corrections necessary.

Category: -- posted at: 5:56pm CDT

God, in his dynamism, demonstrated in the relationships of the Trinity, enters into human affairs, definitively so in Jesus.

Direct download: KML_2015-05-31_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:43pm CDT

The fruits of the Holy Spirit are amazing and peaceful indications that conversion has occurred.

Direct download: KML_2015-05-24_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 1:42pm CDT

The homilist was away on May 10.  Let's be careful when interpreting the snakes and poison of the conclusion of Mark's Gospel.  The one who ascended did so because he had first descended to the depths of human misery.

Direct download: KML_2015-05-17_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:40pm CDT

A vine and branches are the same substance, just as Jesus is truly human and thus of the same substance as ourselves.  We see, in the case of the converted Saul/ Paul, how important community is for certifying who has experienced conversion.

Direct download: KML_2015-05-03_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 1:38pm CDT

First John hints at our exalted dignity.  Peter comments on the uproar over the healing of the beggar at the Temple gate.

Direct download: KML_2015-04-26_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 1:34pm CDT

Jesus resurrected our enfleshed humanity.  We must take this seriously as we seek to appreciate how God affirms the goodness of the way he made us.

Direct download: KML_2015-04-19_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 1:31pm CDT

The earliest Christians "had everything in common."  We who are invested in the notion of private property may find this practice challenging.  If we are heirs to the resurrection, other possessions become less of a concern.

Direct download: KML_2015-04-12_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 1:27pm CDT

I accidentally left the recorder on after the homily.  I don't think there's anything ugly or shameful in the forty-some minutes which were inadvertently recorded.  You may enjoy this for its capturing some of my typical Sunday morning.

Direct download: KML_2015-03-29_945am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 1:23pm CDT

Jesus makes a statement about the death of the grain of wheat, applying it to himself.  We seek properly to apply it to ourselves.

Direct download: KML_2015-03-22_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 1:19pm CDT

God has given us all things.  We seek to express our thanks.

Direct download: KML_2015-03-15_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:17pm CDT

There's no recording for March 1, since I cancalled Sunday Masses due to heavy snow.  Today we are introduced to the scandal which leads to Jesus' crucifixion: the scandal of his affirming that he is the Son of God.

Direct download: KML_2015-03-08_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 1:10pm CDT

We must be well aware that the sufferings of Jesus have meaning because he willingly took them upon himself

Direct download: KML_2015-02-22_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:57pm CDT

A consideration of the many ways in which we separate ourselves from each other.

Direct download: KML_2015-02-15_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:51pm CDT

Jesus demonstrates his own weariness, which is quite similar to what is described by Job.  We need refreshment in the midst of activity.

Direct download: KML_2015-02-08_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:50pm CDT

"Predictions are always difficult, especially about the future."  Prophecy is not necessarily about the future; God, speaking through prophets, has a lot to say to us about how things are right now, and how they must change.

Direct download: KML_2015-02-01_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:42pm CDT

Satire is in the news, and it's in the Bible.  The Book of Jonah gives us the portrait of an unwilling prophet and as we laugh at Jonah, we learn to laugh at our own resistance to God.

Direct download: KML_2015-01-25_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:37pm CDT

Here I am.  How do I hear and understand a call from the God who has given me life?

Direct download: KML_2015-01-18_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:28pm CDT

Baptism symbolizes many things, including a thirst for human existence to make sense.

Direct download: KML_2015-01-11_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:23pm CDT

Can "foreign" people really be as human as we are?  Somehow we resist this obvious fact of life.  The manifestation of Jesus to the nations helps us break through our self-imposed barriers so that we appreciate our kinship with all people.

Direct download: KML_2015-01-04_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 12:14pm CDT

The family of Abraham and Sarah, and the Holy Family, help us to see how God's promises are fulfilled in history and through crises.

Category: -- posted at: 12:06pm CDT

We understand Mary of Nazareth to have been the most free person of all.  We consider whether we will dispose ourselves to cooperate with God as Mary did.

Direct download: KML_2014-12-28_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 11:43am CDT

What is the opposite of joy?  Not suffering, but rather, numbness.

Direct download: KML_2014-12-14_800am.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 11:32am CDT

We yearn for a straight path to the meaning of our life.

Direct download: KML_2014-12-07_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:15pm CDT

Break open the heavens and come down among us, that we might be roused from our dullness.

Direct download: KML_2014-11-30_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:07pm CDT

The last judgment is carried out according to criteria which leave us absolutely depending on God's mercy.

Direct download: KML_2014-11-23_800am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:52pm CDT