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

You may know that I and the various liturgical ministers get ready for Sunday Mass in a little room back in this corner.  It's called the prep room.  And it is a relatively small space for the number of people who gather there.  So I find myself getting vested for Mass and I try to catch a glimpse of myself in a full-length mirror, to make sure that the chasuble is on straight.  And yesterday before four o'clock Mass I was having a bit of trouble because there were so many people and someone remarked to me, "Ah, you can do it blind." 

Well, perhaps I can, but I just find this to be an instance in which I am very well aware of how much I depend on my sense of sight for this and for so many things.  And we can all reflect on how we rejoice in our gift of vision.  We can think at this time of year -- even if we've seen it year after year -- we still marvel as we watch the colors of the leaves changing at this time of year. 

Now Bartimaeus had a clear understanding of what he wanted to do with the gift of sight, which came to him as Jesus said, "Because of his faith."  He wanted to follow Jesus and the gift of sight permitted him to do this easily.  And he did it. 

We know that our eyes can be fixed on a variety of things, some of which are a good deal more important than other things.  We know we want our very soul to be filled up with what our God presents to us to be seen.  And of course that includes all of God's people, the dignity of every human being and our call to help one another to know that God is in our midst.  At the same time, we understand that there is something that goes beyond mere seeing.  We can find a hint of it in the Hebrews reading today, where we come to understand that our Savior, who is truly God and truly human, has tremendous mercy and compassion for all of us.  And that really is something which goes beyond seeing.  Actually, seeing can sometimes get in the way of understanding.  We tend to equate knowing with seeing an image of something.  But in fact, we're just seeing an image.  Understanding goes deeper.  And at times, we just have to look away from things in order to understand. 

Now you remember on Easter Sunday, we have that gospel of Peter and John inspecting Jesus' empty tomb.  They did not see him there. They looked around the tomb and saw various burial wrappings.  They were strewn about, and there was the one that had covered Jesus' head, rolled up in a place by itself.

They didn't see the risen Jesus right away, but they looked around the tomb. And finally, they understood so many things that they were afraid to ask him about -- things that they tried to ignore, in fact, because they didn't want to think about his death.  And they didn't know what to do with rising on the third day.  Finally, they understood. And this really went beyond seeing.

Likewise, in the psalm today, the people are exclaiming that the Lord has done great things for us.  We are filled with joy because they were set free from their captivity in Babylon.  You don't have to see something in order to understand.  We are going home.  So we recognize how much we depend upon the gift of sight.  And likewise, we see that we are led to something that goes even deeper, to understanding who our God is.  And really, we can equate understanding with faith.  Jesus says to Bartimaeus, "Your faith allows you to see."  We must understand our own understanding and see that understanding is a function of faith.  And it feeds faith as well.  We give thanks, as Peter and John did, for all the things that have been told to us that maybe we can't quite put into place.

The witness of the People of God, the Church throughout the centuries and today: we take it all in.  We understand.  We grow in faith.

Direct download: KML_2024-10-27_830am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:01pm CST

The homilist was away last week.

Well the young people sitting up front here spent a night -- I don't know how comfortable it was because they were sleeping outside during the night.  It's what we call cardboard city.  It is an opportunity for them to have an experience of homelessness.  And I wonder whether at school you know people who are similar to what I am going to describe to you.

In high school I had two classmates who had this ongoing feud about which one of them was taller.  It happened that they were the two shortest guys in the class. And right there we find something about the futility, the nonsense of seeking distinction.  Or trying to prove that someone is somehow superior.

Well this is what we find in the Gospel.  James and John want distinction.  I suspect that if Jesus gave them their wish, and I don't know which of them was the older, they might have decided that these places were dissatisfying because the right side is considered preferable to the left.  So there may well have been some kind of dispute over that.

We see the folly of this.  We understand that we must begin our understanding of ourselves by knowing that our God loves each one of us to a degree we cannot conceive.  And it is from that awareness of God's complete love for us that we can carry out our life unconcerned about distinctions: that we will make our lives acts of thanksgiving.

Jesus asks them, "Can you drink the cup that I drink?" The Old Testament passage and the selection from Hebrews today remind us of that cup that Jesus drank.  He laid down his life.

He did something which only he could do.  As God, he was able to take the initiative.  As human, he was able to offer up human nature itself.

Direct download: KML_2024-10-20_830am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:17pm CST

This is a summary of what I preached on Sunday, October 6, 2024, the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

So we had a Gospel about marriage accompanied by Genesis 2 and the creation of a woman.

This is always an occasion to talk about marriage, and I have to say the main point I was driving at that day was that before people can be spouses they have to be friends; they have to enjoy a deep friendship.

I used once again the exchange in Act 2 of the play "Our Town" in which George and Emily are coming close to saying to one another that they are to be married.

I did not record the homily as I got distracted that day. That was the day that we held the Mass in the Grass in the Troy Park at the Gazebo.

And it was a beautiful, perfect day to be out, and that was what distracted me from the duty to record the homily.

Direct download: KML_2024-10-06_1030am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:54pm CST