Tag: Gospel

In The Beginning: Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent, B

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1st Sunday of Advent, B                                                                                 December 3, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/KxHrddNPiWA “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” That’s the opening line to the second book of Douglas Adams’ comedy book series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” You see, Douglas Adams was a Christian-turned-atheist and his book series is full of funny little jabs at bad arguments for God’s existence. That opening line – creation being a bad idea – conjures up the classic...Read More

How You Treat Your King: Homily for the Christ the King 2023

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Christ the King, A                                                                                          November 26, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/vSPc8phV1jI You could maybe be excused for thinking that today’s solemn feast is about the end of the world. After all, we’ve been hearing about that subject for a few weeks in our readings and today we hear again about the final judgment. Today also marks the last Sunday of the Liturgical year. Next Sunday begins Advent, which is the start of a new cycle. So, it kind of makes sense that the feast of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe should be...Read More

Heavenly Treasure: Homily for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

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33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                   November 19, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/jK9ymiP5ZJ4 Every now and then, someone asks me if the world is going to end soon. Just Friday, in fact, a woman at a store asked me that question based on what is happening in the middle east right now. I gave her my standard answer: “every generation of Christians thinks the end is near.” I put it that way to make a few points: First is that worrying about the end of the world isn’t new. Secondly, everyone who thought the...Read More

Dying To Live: Homily for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

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32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  November 12, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/-jvAMZk0wIg To get right to the point: we are all going to die. Some people want to avoid this reality, even avoiding the word “funeral” and instead talking about a “celebration of life.” Of course we celebrate life! But we do so precisely because we know we’re going to die and that only by dying do we receive real life, eternal life with God. So it’s important to realize that death comes for us all. If we don’t want that reality to...Read More

What Our Future Needs: Homily for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                   October 29, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/2up2bZK2WGU When I started here, we averaged between 400 and 450 people at Mass each weekend. Covid dropped us to around 250. The current average is near 300. On average, we have about 30 funerals a year. We have about a dozen baptisms and 5 weddings a year, but both of those numbers include people who no longer live here, but came for historical reasons. To put it simply, we are shrinking. I say this so you understand why I often mention...Read More

To Repay What We Owe: Homily for the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                   October 22, 2023 Fr. AlexanderAlbert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/A1CWnEMUS7c “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” And what is that, exactly? What do we owe to God? Everything. The demands of our religion aren’t arbitrary. They are concrete expressions of the fact that we owe God everything. Authentic religion is the effort to make that repayment. Last week, I focused particularly on the obligation to attend Sunday Mass. Repaying to God what we owe to God means being willing to sacrifice time, money,...Read More

What Is Chosen: Homily for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                   October 15, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/dFZ1EfAg8as Beating the messengers again! Just last week Jesus told us about people who killed the messengers rather than pay their rent. I offered the hypothetical explanation that the tenants of the vineyard had no fruit to give, so they responded to their shame and fear by killing whoever threatened to expose it. Indeed, we often respond to God in the same way – lashing out whenever he dares to touch on our sins, wounds, and weaknesses. Afraid of how demanding God...Read More

Not To Count: Homily for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  October 1, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/P9Y2vj_vdXk It’s not a ledger. We talk like it is, but judgment isn’t a ledger with good on one side, bad on the other, and whichever has the most decides your fate. If you don’t know better, it seems reasonable that your final fate is determined simply by whether or not you did more good than bad or more bad than good. That kind of idea why the first reading is addressed to people who accuse God of being unfair in how...Read More

The Just Wage: Homily for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  September 24, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/yNuELL_bquA I… don’t often address politics and economics directly from the pulpit. I don’t want to encourage our American tendency to over-politicize everything. Still, it’s the Church’s job to give the laity moral guidance on politics and economics even if the specific policy-making is left up to the laity. Yes, people of good faith can legitimately disagree on specific applications so long as they don’t reject the principles. Of course, that presumes they know what the principles are. Today is a chance...Read More

What Is There to Lose? Homily for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                   September 17, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/KZvkzZgueNM There’s no clever twist here. Jesus’ point is pretty straightforward: forgive other people or you will not be forgiven. And if we aren’t forgiven, we go to Hell. Jesus uses the number seventy-seven as a symbolic number that means “as many times as it takes.” Forgiving people is hard and it’s harder the more they hurt you. But Jesus doesn’t offer exceptions. Forgive or you will not be forgiven. To understand why, we have to get our first principles right, the...Read More