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God Can Use Anything, but He Shouldn’t Have to - A Homily for the 25th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • September 30, 2017 • In understanding Sunday’s Gospel, we cannot overlook the audience Jesus was addressing. The text begins, Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people …. In other words, He was addressing the religious leaders and religiously observant of His day. He calls at least three things to their attention, three common sins of the pious, if you will: lost connections, leaping to conclusions and lip service.Let’s look at each of...

Dimensions of Discipleship - A Homily for the 25th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • September 23, 2017 • credit: זלדה10, wikimediaWhat Jesus teaches in this Sunday’s Gospel is one of those parables that rock our world and challenge our worldly way of thinking. Frankly, that is one of its purposes. We are tempted to side with the laborers who worked the longest, thinking that their being paid the same amount as those who worked only for an hour is unfair.Think very carefully before asking God to be “fair.” What we really should ask of God is...

September 20, 2015 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Wis 2:12, 17-20 The wicked say:Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;he sets himself against our doings,reproaches us for transgressions of the lawand charges us with violations of our training.Let us see whether his words be true;let us find out what will happen to him.For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend himand deliver him from the hand of his foes.With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the testthat we may have proof of his gentlenessand...

Msgr. Charles Pope • September 19, 2015 • In today’s gospel, the Lord Jesus is asking a crucial question. The word crucial here is selected carefully. It comes from the Latin cruces, meaning “cross.” Indeed, looming over this entire gospel is the Cross. Jesus makes the second prediction of His passion, death, and resurrection. It is in the context of this teaching that the Lord asks the “crucial” question of us: What is most central in our life? Let’s look at this gospel in five stages. I. The Processional Picture – The gospel text opens this way: Jesus and his...

This is one of those parables that rock our world and our worldly way of thinking. And frankly, that is one of its purposes. We are tempted to side with the laborers who were hired first and who worked the longest. When we find out that they got paid the same as the men who only worked an hour the thought occurs to us that somehow this is unfair.But, think very carefully before asking God to be “fair.” What we really should ask of God is that he be merciful. For if he were fair, we’d all be in Hell...