Carrying The Cross With Both Arms

Homily for 22ndSun OT, Year A                                                                Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Carrying-The-Cross-With-Both-.wav"][/audio]   Is Peter making a mistake? Is it a mistake to trust this Jesus? In the course of a single conversation, He went from promising the keys of the kingdom of heaven to calling Peter “Satan.” Peter was just trying to be a good friend, trying to save Jesus from pain and difficulty. Wouldn’t...Read More

It Is Right And Just

Homily for Mother Teresa Novena Mass, 5th day                                           Fr. Albert Queen of Peace, Lafayette [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/It-Is-Right-And-Just.wav"][/audio]   There is a dirty word among Christians: Justice. It is popular to speak all the time of mercy. That word conjures up warm thoughts of reconciliation, welcome, and kindness. But justice… well, that too often sounds like rules or judgment, wrath or revenge. Still others suspect the word refers to invented rights, and conspiracies of control. And yet, there are those who are willing to speak of it as they should. Even the formulas for mass today are for the preservation of Justice and...Read More

You’re Building What?

Homily for 21stSun OT, Year A                                                                     Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Youre-Building-What.wav"][/audio]   Maybe this sounds familiar: Three men died and went to heaven. When they got there, St. Peter met them at the gate. He said “tell me why you deserve to go to Heaven…”  Those lines are the opening to hundreds of different jokes about dying and going to heaven. Some of them...Read More

Better a Dog to God than a Child to Satan

Last week Jesus knowingly sent his disciples into a storm and left them in it for hours. This week, we see something that, quite frankly, is offensive to us. Jesus not only ignores this poor woman, but even calls her and her whole race “little dogs.” And yet, just as the storm ended with walking on water, so this rebuttal ends with a joyful consent to the woman’s request. Some try to say this woman teaches Jesus about racism but that is silly; Jesus already knows racism is wrong. Jesus Christ, who is both God and Man, is using this...Read More

Jesus Made Me Do It

Homily for 19th Sun OT, Year A Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Jesus-Made-Me-Do-It.wav"][/audio]   “After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side.” Jesus made the disciples go across the sea without him. And he knew that they would be caught in a terrifying storm. It’s not even the first time he’s let them face the intimidating power of a storm at sea, but at least he was with them last time, even if he was asleep. Sure, Jesus knows he will come to them later, but the storm starts in...Read More

Looking at the Lamp

Homily for Transfiguration, Year A Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Looking-at-the-Lamp.wav"][/audio]   Darkness. Do you know darkness in your life? In the world? Surely the answer is yes. Loneliness, boredom, lack of direction, restlessness, confusion, heartbreak – darkness. But, Scripture tells us repeatedly that Christ is the light of the world and that we are to be children of the light. Still, who here does not sense the darkness in their life, shadows hiding in their own heart? Each of us needs light, more light. And Peter, the first Pope, tells you how to do that....Read More

The Might of the Mustard Seed

Homily for 16th Sun OT, Year A                                              Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Might-of-the-Mustard-Seed.wav"][/audio]   "Might makes right." Is such a statement true? Scripture seems to say that it is. The book of Wisdom addresses God saying, “your might is the source of justice.” So, yes might makes right, but only when it’s God’s. That’s because God’s might is the same thing as his love and his justice. There is no division in God, no contradictory impulses and arbitrariness....Read More

The Liberating Burden

Homily for 14th Sun OT, Year A Fr. Albert  St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Liberating-Burden.wav"][/audio]   Is it heavy enough for you? Are you weary from carrying it? The weight of your own importance, the burden of your pride. Do your shoulders hurt from the load of vanity, of keeping up appearances? Is your back sore from leveraging control over politics, or relationships, or even traffic? It’s work enough controlling ourselves, yet we so often insist on seizing responsibility for anything but the one thing that is actually ours. "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and...Read More

Reasonable Fear

Homily for 12th Sun OT, Year A Fr. Albert  St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Reasonable-Fear.wav"][/audio]   “Fear no one!” This man has just told his Apostles that they will be slandered, persecuted, and hated. He said that brothers will have their own brothers killed and that there will even be children who have their own parents put to death. And then this man, this Jesus has the gall to plainly say, “fear no one.” Can you imagine if your own son or daughter were to have you executed? Would the command, the advice to “fear no one” really be of...Read More

The Unity of the Holy Spirit

Homily for Pentecost Sunday Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Unity-of-the-Holy-Spirit.wav"][/audio]   Unity. Do we have unity in our families? Our Parish? Our Country? What about in our faith? Is our Church unified? Perhaps it is worth asking, what “unity” means anyway? In a sense, we could say that these questions run throughout all human history. Trade, politics, warfare… these and more are responses to the question of unity, to the question of how we will go about existing in the same world. Sometimes we can avoid the issue by simply avoiding the same space. Two points...Read More