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

2025 Feb 9 SUN: FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Is 6: 1-2a. 3-8/ Ps 138: 1-2. 2-3. 4-5. 7-8 (1c)/ 1 Cor 15: 1-11/ Lk 5: 1-11

If you're so smart, why aren't you rich? You've heard that expression. And it seems that in our culture, the test of whether you are intelligent is whether you make a lot of money. Now, in fact, there are plenty of intelligent people in the world who go about their lives doing things for which money is not the main object.

But what do we have today? We have some people who consider themselves very smart and who happen to be very rich, and who say, "It's my riches that prove to me and to you that I am the most intelligent and I will go about doing things from my mind alone." These people are so full of themselves that they allow no room for some other inspiration, perhaps the voice of God Himself.

In contrast, as we turn to the Gospel here, we find Peter with his net empty. And obviously he identifies with his net, and he feels himself empty. And that is a good thing for him, because in his emptiness, he does make room for the God who gave him life in the first place to surprise him and change him.

And so the nets are tearing and the boats are in danger of sinking. And what does Simon Peter say to Jesus: "Depart from me, I am a sinful man." This is similar to the call of Isaiah when Isaiah responds, "I am a man of unclean lips." He is likewise empty and ready to receive what God gives him. And the gift is symbolized by the use of a burning coal on his lips, and the angel says, "There, now you are ready." 

We cannot understand ourselves by means of our own projects. We must understand ourselves as being converted and remade by our God. And we have a very good example of this in what Paul has to say today. He says, "I do not deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Christian way, but by the grace of God I am what I am." And it is important -- indeed it is necessary -- for us to understand ourselves as being defined by the grace of God which has changed us, has given us peace, has given us a sense of generosity. And we can use that Psalm that we've sung today, Psalm 138. One of the lines in that Psalm is, "I thank you for your love for me which excels all I ever knew of you." 

We are not to go through life full of ourselves. We recognize our emptiness and we make room for the love of the God who transforms us, who changes us, who gives us peace.

Direct download: KML_2025-02-09_830am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:12pm CST

From time to time I have heard people speak of what is called an elevator speech. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. If you are in some sort of group that is sponsoring a cause of some kind, for instance, the elevator speech is the way you summarize and distill your message to such a brief amount of time that you can give this speech during a journey in an elevator.

I don't think I've ever succeeded at this, mainly because the things that I care about I think require a lot of explanation. But it occurs to me that today's feast of the Presentation of the Lord gives us something close to an elevator speech about who Jesus is and what he came to do.

So we have this remarkable Gospel, a moment when Mary and Joseph are bringing the child Jesus, when he is 40 days old, to the Temple in Jerusalem.

And then we have the figure of Simeon. Simeon who has waited into old age so that he himself can gaze upon the consolation of Israel. He takes the infant Jesus in his arms, blessing God, and he offers a prayer which in the official daily prayer of the church we offer every night at night prayer. It is what you might call a prayer of submitting to our own limits and remembering that God is carrying out salvation. Simeon says, "Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace. Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen your salvation which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel." We say this prayer when we are about to retire for the night, and it's saying, "Yes, I have my human limits and I have to go to sleep and someday I will die, but your salvation will be carried out." 

Then we have his words to Mary, and we have this image of the fall and rise of many in Israel. And I think it's good to connect this with what we heard in the first reading about purifying gold and silver. Now that to carry this out, the gold or the silver must reach a very, very high temperature. So it is, if we imagine ourselves in the place of gold or silver, we find this to be a real test, a true stress. And I believe we can say that when we think of the fall of people, that this fall is not permanent; that in the process of conversion, as God changes our hearts and makes us more alive to His very presence, as He does this, we find that we can be truly ourselves as God created us to be.

We also have the passage from Hebrews, from chapter 2 of that 13-chapter letter. And it is saying, and we cannot say this too many times, that the Son of God was absolutely pleased to enter into our existence, to take on our human flesh, to suffer for us so as to lift us up.

And there we have, I believe, the elements of an elevator speech. We know that the Son of God has been pleased to show mercy to the human family, and to do so by being completely one with us.

Direct download: KML_2025-02-02_830am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:45pm CST

2025 Jan 26 SUN: THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Neh 8: 2-4a. 5-6. 8-10/ Ps 19: 8. 9. 10. 15/ 1 Cor 12: 12-30/ Lk 1: 1-4; 4: 14-21 (I added 4: 22-30, which would have been heard next Sunday, were it not for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.)
 
It happens that we have some really wonderful Scriptures prepared for us here in the early Sundays of Ordinary Time. One difficulty, however, is that a week from today we will be celebrating the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and some really good Ordinary Time readings are going to be skipped. So I commend to you the reading on your own of First Corinthians 13. This follows on what we've heard -- this really utterly understandable analogy of the body which St. Paul has given us. It goes on to say that, yes, we have many gifts but without love our gifts are nothing. And if you were following along there in Breaking Bread you noticed that the gospel went a little long because I included the Gospel which we would have heard next Sunday, had there not been the Feast of the Presentation and it follows immediately upon what was prescribed for today, and we find Jesus at the beginning of his ministry provoking people and we consider why they were so provoked. 
 
But I'd like to give you three principles which will explain the rest of what I say today. First is that truth is not anyone's possession. Truth is something which we discover together. The second one: If friendship were based on people agreeing completely with one another, there would be no friendships. And third: in our day it is unfortunate that we have become used to hurling opinions at each other as if they were rocks. And it is on the basis of these principles that I share with you how grateful I am for the act of the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde,  when she lifted up her voice and pleaded for mercy. 
 
We are living in difficult times -- difficult for so much as the communication of truth with one another. We think of this analogy of the body which even very young children can grasp. But we ask whether the point of this analogy is understood: that the whole Christian people is a body and truly the entire world is a body and we each have our contribution to make. There are those who would look upon themselves as the brain, saying, "I know everything; just follow my orders." If you were only a brain disembodied you would have a hard time getting your inspirations carried out. And again we look at this Gospel and people are complimenting Jesus. And then he mentions that in the Scriptures God showed favor to foreigners, and this enrages the people in the synagogue and they want to throw him off a cliff. But it was not his time; he escaped them. But this is all the foreshadowing of the fact that his ministry would end in his death. 
 
Now if you disagree with me in any respect on any topic whatever that's good; that's natural; that's normal. We must recognize that we must not take up the position of those who hug their opinions to themselves when they are not hurling them like rocks. Disagreement is the first step toward finding the truth together. And we have a very big task before us as we in fact listen to one another and discover how we act as a healthy body of human beings acting on behalf of mercy and love.
 
Direct download: KML_2025-01-26_830am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:04pm CST

2025 Jan 19 SUN: SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Is 62: 1-5/ Ps 96: 1-2. 2-3. 7-8. 9-10 (3)/ 1 Cor 12: 4-11/ Jn 2: 1-11

We are getting started on a course we will pursue during this entire year, and that is we are getting started on Ordinary Time, which is actually a favorite time of mine because we hear the Scriptures in a continuous fashion. Now during this year of Ordinary Time, we will be reading primarily from the Gospel of Luke. But we haven't heard from Luke yet today because we have some business yet from the Christmas season. Two weeks ago we celebrated Epiphany, which means manifestation. And associated with Epiphany are three events by which Jesus manifested himself to all of the human family. First of all, the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. And then what we celebrated a week ago, Jesus' baptism by which he expressed solidarity with all human beings. And then finally, as John calls it, the first of his signs, the changing of water into wine at this wedding. So these are ways in which Jesus manifested himself to all peoples.

And you hear the use of that word "sign," which is really a better word than the customary miracle that people will use to characterize certain actions of Jesus. To me, miracle sounds like a performance, but this is a sign. And it comes to us actually very quietly. It was just the servers who filled the water jars who knew about it. And the head waiter did not know. And we don't know exactly whether it is as a compliment or as a puzzle to him that there's still good wine. But this is the first of the ways in which Jesus was beginning to reveal his divine identity. 

We also have, as always at this time of year, readings from St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. And this is a letter discussing many practical issues which arose in this early Christian community at Corinth, Greece. And we're reading from the last part of First Corinthians now. And St. Paul is bringing up a theme which will be developed further next week. And that is the theme of the gifts of the community. And we understand that this really is the proper way to think about the people in our life. That every one of us is a gift to the community. And we have to recognize those gifts. 

Now you and I have been hearing about the possibility of a lot of deportations from our country. And yes, we can argue back and forth about what is to be done. But you and I have to recognize that our starting point is a principle of Catholic social teaching: which is that every human being has a fundamental right to migrate. It seems to me that this is not in keeping with the idea that everybody has gifts. It seems to be a process of judging that people are first of all problems. And we have to start from another point of view: that people wherever they're from or wherever they find themselves are a gift to the community.

So we consider the gift of Jesus. And we do it in the context of a wedding. This is an image that we hear from the prophet Isaiah as well: that God has chosen his people and we are to discover that in our relationship with the bridegroom, our God, we discover the gifts that we are to share with one another, so as to build up the beloved community.

Direct download: KML_2025-01-19_830am..mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:34pm CST

2025 Jan 12 SUN: BAPTISM OF THE LORD F
Is 40: 1-5. 9-11/ Ps 104: 1b-2. 3-4. 24-25. 27-28. 29-30 (1)/ Ti 2: 11-14; 3: 4-7/ Lk 3: 15-16. 21-22

We have had an interesting few days. We received more snow than we're used to. And from my point of view, it's a hardship. It's tough to get around.

Of course, we can think of the inconvenience of the snow and realize that there is no comparison with what people are undergoing with these fires in the Los Angeles area. We know that real hardship is common to the human family generally. 

Today we are completing the season of Christmas. And this is a time for merriment. But I believe that as year after year gets added to our ages, we are all the more aware that even merriment does not do away with hardship. And we want to make sure that our hearts are united with those who are suffering for any reason, whatever. And of course, that leads us to prayer. And we can all increase both the time we spend in prayer and its intensity. We see very, very clearly how much we need those words from the first reading today.

"Comfort. Give comfort to my people." This is an acknowledgment that comfort is needed and it is a universal need. Really, these scriptures taken together are kind of a summary of the Christmas season. Isaiah is, as we know, associated with Christmas and with Advent. The letter of St. Paul to Titus is used at two different Christmas Masses. And it is always remarkable to hear those words. To hear "God and Savior Jesus Christ," to know how early in Christianity the divinity of Jesus was affirmed. 

And then we come to the Gospel, one of the portrayals of Jesus' baptism. As we said at the beginning of Mass, Jesus had no need of a baptism of repentance. But he submitted to baptism just as he submitted to the human nature that he assumed. He wanted to be completely united with us. And this baptism is a sign to us of the fact that he intends and he remains completely united with us in our human nature.

So we reflect upon both the merriment and the pain which are associated with the season of Christmas. And especially how it must have been incredibly strange for the Son of God himself to take our griefs upon himself. And we can look at this as a preparation for what the rest of the year brings. 

Easter is relatively late this year. It will fall on April 20th. That means that Ash Wednesday is not until March the 5th. We see the baptism of Jesus as a boundary between his hidden life, of which we know practically nothing, but what we heard two weeks ago on the Feast of the Holy Family about Mary and Joseph searching for Jesus who said, "You know I had to be in my Father's house, in the Temple." We have just that little window on his youth. But then when he was about 30 years old, he received this baptism and he began his public ministry, which we think was about three years. We are led into sober thinking. That is, in our lives of prayer we are developing an awareness of the needs of the whole human family. And we find ourselves moving more deeply into the mystery of Jesus embracing our state of life and lifting us up by dying for us. So we have several weeks of Ordinary Time and then in early March we enter into Lent, which will prepare us to celebrate more fully the Easter mystery of death leading to resurrection. We give thanks for these gifts and as we remember Jesus' baptism, we seek to be immersed more deeply into his mystery.

Direct download: KML_2025-01-12_1030am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:15pm CST

2025 Jan 5 SUN: EPIPHANY OF THE LORD S
Is 60: 1-6/ Ps 72: 1-2. 7-8. 10-11. 12-13/ Eph 3: 2-3a. 5-6/ Mt 2: 1-12

I want to start by looking at two words. It seems to me that more recently there has been some confusion between these two words, and I think it is helpful for all of us to maintain a distinction between them.

The words are epiphany and insight. Very often, and I believe this is the source of confusion, you will hear people say from time to time, "Oh, I've just had an epiphany." Well, I think they're really talking about an insight, and I want to explain the distinction that I see.

As we said at the beginning of Mass, epiphany means manifestation. It means something external that people can see.

An insight, however, is something that goes on within us when we are looking at what appears to be the same reality we've always known, but somehow we see something quite different about it.

And that is a change within ourselves. I think that insight is really the proper word for that concept.

And in the Word of God today, we see that St. Paul is saying that an epiphany is an external event happening, the manifestation of the Savior to the nations.

This external event prompts insight. And what is the insight St. Paul says? Gentiles, the nations, the foreigners, they are coheirs with the Jewish people. They also receive the gift of salvation in Jesus.

Really, the Epiphany is a time for us to be aware of an insight we probably receive many times during our earthly lifespan. And that insight has to do with breaking down something that we tend to suppose. That is that we look at our own people, the people we are familiar with, who look and talk and believe like us. And then we think of foreigners and happily, because of the great increase in our day of communications and travel, we are much more in contact with peoples of other nations. And we have this insight that amazingly, they are just as human as we are. And it's a kind of an insight that has us saying, "Oh, why didn't I know that before?" Or, "Why didn't I think of that before?" But it's an extremely important insight.

And we see what happens in the words of Isaiah today. "You shall be radiant at what you see, your hearts shall throb and overflow, because you begin to understand that people of all nations are a gift to us." We build one another up. And that's certainly a good alternative to what I would call caricaturing people of other nations. And indeed, I believe that is a major source of the troubles we have in our world community: that we don't see other peoples as being quite human. And then we have a pretext for doing inhuman things to them.

So this is the thing that can carry us through another year, as we reflect on the mysteries of the Epiphany. There has been an external manifestation which causes us to rethink what's going on in our hearts and to develop the insight that far more than the symbolic gifts which the Magi gave to Jesus, we have gifts in one another as fellow members of the People of God.

Direct download: KML_2025-01-05_830am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:37pm CST

2024 Dec 29 SUN: HOLY FAMILY F
1 Sm 1: 20-22. 24-28 or Sir 3: 2-6. 12-14/ Ps 84: 2-3. 5-6. 9-10/ 1 Jn 3: 1-2. 21-24 or Col 3: 12-21/ Lk 2: 41-52

I find that these readings today can be summed up by quoting another reading, not found among these. I'm thinking of a verse in St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6, in which he says, "You are not your own. You have been purchased and at a price." Paul is referring to the mystery of Jesus' death and resurrection, by which all of us have become new people who absolutely belong to God. 

We turn to these readings and it seems as if they are saying, "Your children are not your own." There is a universal tension behind these words. They are felt in every family, these tensions.

Because we know what the normal response of parents is to their children. They want to exercise some sort of control over them. At the very least, even though they won't say this outright, parents will be hoping that their children will not repeat their own mistakes. They may be hoping that children will achieve a success which is beyond their parents'. They may subtly or less subtly be placing expectations upon their children as to whom they marry or what sort of career they have. And we know, again, this is founded in a desire to see the best things come about for children. But as much as we want to direct our children, the more we find that each child is a mystery. And it is necessary for parents to stand back, stand back and see what happens, because the ways in which children grow and mature will always be surprising. 

We have read from the Old Testament about a woman who understood very well that her child belonged to God. Hannah had prayed for a son, and Samuel was born to her. She remembered the fact that she prayed earnestly for this child when she went to the sanctuary in Shiloh. It is perhaps better described as a tabernacle or a tent. And Hannah could not forget the fact that she would see to it that this child would be dedicated to the Lord's service.

We go then to the Gospel, and we can see that by the time Jesus was 12 years old, that is, one year before he would be considered an adult, we can see that Mary and Joseph settled into comfortable parental roles, and they were not willing or eager -- eager is probably the better word -- they were not eager to see that this child would grow and become something beyond their imaginations. Luke tells us that when Jesus says to them, "You knew I had to be in my father's house." Mary and Joseph did not understand. I believe, however, that at least in Mary's case, at some level of her awareness, she knew what Jesus was talking about. That indeed, if you were in Jerusalem, you would know that he would be in the house of God, whom he would begin to call "Father." And it must have been painful for Mary and Joseph alike. But we have this window, a very brief window, into the childhood and youth of Jesus. And we see that he was on the path of his mission to love human beings as the Son of God and to do so by giving himself completely for our salvation.

And we can take all this and come to understand better the words of the first letter of Saint John. We are God's children now. What we shall be has not yet come to light. But somehow we will be like God, for we shall see him as he is. We are reminded again, we all belong to God, absolutely. Our children are gifts given back to God and given, in fact, to the whole human family that we might all mature together. So this is the tension and the difficulty of considering family. And we find it even in the Holy Family. And we trust it will be a creative tension.

Direct download: KML_2024-12-29_830am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:54pm CST

2024 Dec 22 SUN: FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT (O Rex Gentium)
Mi 5: 1-4a/ Ps 80: 2-3. 15-16. 18-19 (4)/ Heb 10: 5-10/ Lk 1: 39-45

You know that for several weeks we have been looking at Scriptures which have to do with what are called the last things. Again, that technical word is eschatology. We've been thinking about the fact that people find something quite emotional in a concept called the end of the world.

And we learn to understand that what people call the end of the world is simply the beginning of eternity. And therefore we take comfort in all the things that we are hearing, especially about the definitive, glorious coming of the Son of God when God brings all things to completion and perfection.

And we read from the prophet Micah a mention of a place called Bethlehem. In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Bethlehem is noted as the place of the birth of Jesus.

And remember that Bethlehem is associated with King David -- that he came from that area. And remember that the genealogy at the beginning of Matthew's gospel traces the lineage -- that is to say the legal fatherhood -- of Jesus, and it goes through David who is looked upon as the ideal king.

The letter to the Hebrews speaks to us about the definitive thing that Jesus did in laying down his life. He did the will of his Father. He offered himself for the salvation of all human beings.

And as we heard very clearly this morning, he did that once for all of us. And therefore it is not necessary for any of us to do something extraordinary or extravagant in order to get the attention of God the Father so that he might smile on us. That is, all of that is accomplished already. 

In the Gospel we have two women sharing the favor of God upon them. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, is the one who brings this child to birth even though she is past the age. Mary is the mother of the Word Made Flesh, the Savior, and in her case she does not know man.

So these two women know of God's special favor upon them. God favors us as well.

In the case of Elizabeth and Mary, these are things that could not be easily shared really with anybody. And in our case as well, God brings us peace in ways that are hard for us to explain to another person.

But as it's been said, each of us has the same secret -- that idea refers initially to the same secret of wondering how inadequate we are. We can also take that phrase, each having the same secret, and apply it to the fact that in various ways, in unique ways, our God signals to us in our daily living that our humanity is blessed.

It has been consecrated because we have received the gift of the one who laid down his life so as to conquer death and give us all resurrection and eternal life.

Direct download: KML_2024-12-22_830am.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:29pm CST