Category: Homilies

I post the text and audio of my Sunday homilies here for anyone who wants to go back to something they liked or catch something they missed. I sometimes include links to resources that I mention, so that you aren’t left guessing how to follow up on anything I may have challenged you to do.

I put up every weekend homily and the homilies for special feast days like Christmas or the Assumption.

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Homily for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Should I Obey?

Posted on by Father Albert
26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A (focus on 2nd reading)                             September 27, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/JWp2ZRl6PTQ “Obedience is not a virtue.” I saw that tagline on an aerial picture of a World War II concentration camp. In that context, it’s pretty hard not to agree. The Nazi soldiers’ obedience to Hitler, the many doctors and citizens obedient to anti-Jewish and eugenic laws, even the priests and pastors obedient to leaders who told them not to preach about it. Surely that proves obedience is not a virtue, right? But...Read More

Homily for the 25th Week of Ordinary Time: The Wage of Envy

Posted on by Father Albert
25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  September 20, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/_RYOIHmDjfg The sugarcane harvest is starting, so for the next four months or so will see many, many people working 12-hour days and more. How would they feel if people showed up in the last hour of the day and got paid the same amount? But that is exactly what happens in the parable. Now, this is not exactly business advice. Jesus is not teaching that business owners should always pay a full day’s wage...Read More

Homily for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Worth It?

Posted on by Father Albert
24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  September 13, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/hHtJFTsW-iU How did this guy even get into that much debt? Jesus tells us the man owed his king a “huge amount.” That’s a loose translation, it’s actually 10,000 talents. A talent is worth about 6,000 denarii. A single denarius is the amount of money a laborer earns in a single day. That means this huge amount is what someone would earn by working for 60 million days. If you do some division and throw...Read More

Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Love is Love

Posted on by Father Albert
23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  September 6, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/ITpHMmgwkmQ “Love is love.” “Love trumps hate.” “Love wins” It’s a popular tactic to include “love” in slogans for political and social movements. St. Paul does something similar. “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.” Jesus himself sums up the entire Jewish law with a similar phrase: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which St. Paul repeats here. But there are two very important questions. What. Is. Love? Why should I love? That’s where...Read More

Homily for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: God Forbid

Posted on by Father Albert
22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                 August 30, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/30pRHRn2QXY “God forbid, Lord! Don’t let it happen. Don’t let them suffer, don’t let us suffer.” A reasonable request, but what do we do when he doesn’t forbid it? Do we try to forbid what God himself allows? What God himself wills? Then we may well hear that surprising rebuke Jesus offers to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” Peter, the close friend of Jesus, first among the Apostles, and the first to confess Jesus as...Read More

Homily for the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time: Beyond the Gates

Posted on by Father Albert
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  August 23, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/FJ-LHdThtl4 Have you ever been attacked by a gate? Lost a fight to one? I mean, Jesus says “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against” the church that he will build on a rock. A church and a gate… two inanimate objects – how can one of them “prevail” against the other? I think most people just interpret this passage as if the netherworld is on the offense and the Church is the...Read More

Homily for Year of St. Joseph: Man of Mystery

Posted on by Father Albert
Opening Mass Year of St. Joseph                                                                   August 16, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/eDQD0nNkF0w St. Joseph has always been an important saint, but 150 years ago he was declared the patron of the Universal Church by Blessed Pope Pius IX. This is because of his special role in the life of Jesus, who is the head of the Church, and in the life of Mary who is the model and exemplar of the Church. So, the Diocese of Lafayette has decided to observe a special year of St....Read More

Homily for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time: The Ship That Does Not Sink

Posted on by Father Albert
19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  August 9, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of Mass: https://youtu.be/ZfHVJ5yehUQ This is one of the more popular scenes from the Gospel and there are a lot of ways to apply it: the power of faith to do the impossible, the importance of keeping your eyes on Jesus, the way that Jesus catches us when we call out to him. Really, it’s one of those passages that seems so familiar, so obvious to interpret that it’s easy for us to stop listening when it comes...Read More

Not Enough

Posted on by Father Albert
18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  August 2, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/H-X4ONLUPvM Not enough. Words that haunt every human being, whispered in the mind, festering in the heart – not good enough, not pretty enough, not rich enough, not strong enough, not popular enough, not holy enough. Scarcity is simply part of our condition. Even the super-rich, super-famous, and super-powerful face this fundamental experience of fallen humanity. An echo of the first temptation given to Adam and Eve, the suspicion that we are not enough...Read More

Pastor’s Column: Three Notes on Development

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of July 26, 2020      We’ve been looking into the development of doctrine with the help of Blessed Cardinal Newman who laid out 7 “notes” of development in one of his essays. Last week, we looked at four of those notes: Preservation of Type, Continuity of Principles, Power of Assimilation, and Logical Sequence. Today, we’ll finish with the last three.      Anticipation of its Future: This one is closely connected to the previous example of a logical sequence. It means that, when we look at a development of doctrine, should be able to spot its anticipation in...Read More