Tag: justice

The Call of the Light: Homily for the 3rd Sunday OT 2026

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3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                             January 25, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                            St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/hAUKlxBw3kY “What can we do? What can I do?” Maybe you’ve asked that question a few times this month. From international anxiety over Venezuela and Greenland to ongoing unrest in Minnesota to the disturbing allegations of abuse in our own diocese, there are a lot of reasons to be worried or even feel powerless. Perhaps you identify with that description of Zebulun and Naphtali in Isaiah. Perhaps you feel like a people who “sit in darkness” and like “those dwelling in a land overshadowed...Read More

Making Peace for Life: Homily for VC Pro-Life Mass 2026

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Pro-life Mass (Peace & Justice)                                                      January 15, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/VFEnWw-Y-FY “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” What, I wonder, do you imagine when I describe a person as a “peacemaker?” Someone who gets along with everyone? St. James the Apostle in our second reading describes wisdom as “pure, peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits.” So, yeah, gentleness, compliance, and mercy are all connected to peace and making peace. But St. James also says that peace has to be connected to righteousness. Then Isaiah the prophet says,...Read More

A Turn of Love: Homily for the 7th Sunday OT 2025

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7th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                     February 23, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/0IJCGuT8RiY Once, while I was a seminarian teaching catechism to kids, a student struck me on the cheek and ran away. To be fair, he didn’t mean to actually hit me. He was acting on a dare to touch my beard, which was laughably bad in those days. Nervousness made him move too quickly, but it’s not like it even hurt… more surprised me. Eventually, of course, his classmates told their parents, who told the pastor. When the pastor asked...Read More

The Good and The Bad: Homily for the 26th Sunday OT 2024

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26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                   September 29, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/yOnOWMxOvEg Okay, Jesus, which is it? You seem to be talking out of both sides of your mouth. On one side you say something like “whoever is not against us is for us.” That’s a pretty low bar. That seems pretty easy. All I have to do is not actively oppose you and I’m in? Just give a cup of water to your disciples? Can do! On the other side, however, you threaten hellfire to people who aren’t willing to cut...Read More

Fear of Fruitlessness: Homily for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  October 8, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/hzKx4gYwYDc Why didn’t they just give him some of the grapes? No one likes it when it’s time to pay the rent. But how much sense does it make that their first response is to beat, kill, and stone the messengers? No request for leniency, no negotiation. It’s not like the landowner is unreasonable or impatient. He tried again, even after they murdered his servants. He sent his own Son. Clearly, if these tenants had even tried to work out a deal...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

All Will Be Revealed: Homily for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                               June 25, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/QNoeHhjIgmo “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed.” Does that frighten you a little bit? It does me. There are things in my life I would rather remain concealed. I’m sure that’s true for every human being. It’s also true that there are things which should not be publicized. Jesus is not suggesting we shout out our every fault and sin in public. There is such a thing as prudent silence, discretion, and confidentiality. Indeed, the sacrament of Confession is...Read More

Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King: Justice and Mercy

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Christ the King, C                                                                                           November 20, 2022Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/0oCRms2gkmw “We have been condemned justly.” Have we? Since the beginning of the Church, there have been those who keep coming back to the same error, the same mistake: the idea that our condemnation isn’t really just, that damnation just can’t be real. There are a lot of subtle and clever arguments to support the idea that everyone goes to heaven – we call it universalism – but it seems to me there is always something beneath the surface…...Read More

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent: Woken to Glory

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Lent Sun 2, C                                                                                                  March 13, 2022Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/TY0G80EN9fQ “Stay woke.” Perhaps you’ve heard some variation of this phrase. Maybe it’s a positive thing to you or maybe you think of it as a kind of insult. Like so many catchphrases, the meaning has shifted over time and it means different things to different people. It was originally meant to encourage people to stay alert to what is really going on behind the scenes… to see past what “the man” tells you. Or it’s being sensitive to injustices that permeate our...Read More