Tag: Jesus

To The Bone: Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent

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1st Sunday of Lent, B                                                                                      February 18, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/PLpt7gAnj1k In 1363, King Edward III of England decreed that every able-bodied man in the country must practice archery every Sunday and Holy Day, extending to boys as young as 12, 8, or even 5 years old. The bow and arrow has long been a deadly weapon. The deadliest version in the Middle Ages, the English Longbow, required the ability to pull 150 pounds or more of force with one arm. Thus the training from childhood. This lifelong training was so effective that a unit...Read More

The Hope of Death: Homily for Ash Wednesday 2024

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Ash Wednesday                                                                                              February 14, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/jjTu_TJLkcM What a day this is, this Ash Wednesday. It fixes itself in the imagination, stands out. Many non-Catholics and even non-Christians have picked up on it as something special, and rightly so. For what other day would millions of people eagerly wait in line to be reminded that they are going to die? “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” But they do. Apart from Christmas and maybe Easter, Ash Wednesday Mass has the highest attendance of the year. Why? You tell me....Read More

Do I Will It? Homily for the 6th Sunday OT, 2024

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6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                     February 11, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/lOVg2MYP1SY “I do will it. Be made clean.” Jesus means it. And this man is right, Jesus can do whatever he wills because he is God. So, why aren’t we clean? Because, even though God wills it, we don’t. I’m not talking about leprosy, of course. We have that cure already. We know that God does not always heal diseases. Here, though, scripture is using leprosy as a metaphor for sin. Don’t get me wrong, Jesus did heal this man of a real biological disease....Read More

What’s Your Price? Homily for the 5th Sunday OT, 2024

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5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                     February 4, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/o5FeYgl6YWw What’s your price? What would it cost someone to convince you to proclaim the gospel to them? In the second reading, St. Paul says he offers the gospel free of charge. Of course, it’s his job: “an obligation has been imposed” on him to preach the gospel. Yet, even though he has the right to be paid for this job but he refuses to accept money from the people he’s preaching to. Why? Because he wants them to see it’s not about the paycheck,...Read More

A Heart That Can Be Astonished: Homily for the 4th Sunday OT 2024

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4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                     January 28, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/aJ_e1CLKBsM “The people were astonished at his teaching.” I’ll admit it, there’s a part of me that wants people to say this about my preaching, that wants people to look up to me because of it. But I know that’s my vanity talking and I’ve learned – often at the expense of people I love – just how harmful it can my vanity can be. So, what do I do? Preach badly on purpose so I never get complements that might make me vain? Then...Read More

Return on Your Investment: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024

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3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                     January 21, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/rbdFnV_JPTI If there was a bank that could give you a return of 50% or more on your retirement, would you put your money there? Given that the average is probably closer to 5%, that sounds impossibly good. So you’d be right to ask “what’s the catch?” The catch is that, every year, there’s a 50% chance this bank – and all the money in it – simply disappears. The logical question here is: what good is a retirement plan if the money disappears before...Read More

Your Body Matters to God: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2024

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2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                    January 14, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/YiG7kmwbD-I “Why would the all-powerful God be so worried about what people do in their bedroom?” Critics of the Church’s teaching on sexuality love to ask that kind of question. They want to imply or even explicitly say that the Church is too obsessed with sex and that, to God, it’s not really a big deal. “Do what you want! Your sex life isn’t important enough for him to notice!” We have an answer, though. It’s meant as a rhetorical question or a lazy criticism,...Read More

Myrrh to Give: Homily for the Epiphany, 2024

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Solemnity of the Epiphany                                                                             January 7, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/tNpg2iiciWY The bells in a church are symbols of the angels. Because church bells are rung to call people to prayer, they carry the message of God to the world just as angels do. I don’t think I knew that when I was in college at UL, but when I would hear the bells of Our Lady of Wisdom ringing across campus, something in me did know. Those bells carried to me the message of God. They proclaimed to me that Christ is...Read More

A Family of Faith: Homily for the feast of the Holy Family 2023

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Feast of the Holy Family, B                                                                           December 31, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert [No recording available] Abraham “reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, and he received Isaac back as a symbol.” A symbol of what? God promised Abraham a lot of descendants. He finally had Isaac when he was 100 years old and God said his descendants would come from Isaac. So, when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac before Isaac even had the chance to have his own children, Abraham correctly guessed that God must be able to raise people from the dead. As...Read More

A Chosen Family: Homily for the Christmas Vigil Mass 2023

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Christmas Vigil Mass                                                                                     December 24, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/mv-a2ZjONgs Arthur J Albert became the father of Julius. Julius became the father of Jules Sr. Jules Sr. became the father Jules Jr., whose mother was Bertha. Jules Jr. became the father of Kenneth, whose mother was Nancy. Kenneth became the father of Alexander. Alexander became a priest and stands before you now. But what does that list of names tell you? Probably not much and not nearly as much as the Gospel’s list. Yet, in both, there are important details if you...Read More