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

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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