Sermons & Homilies
As we all know, we live in a consumer driven society. The consumer mentality dominates every aspect of our life, economic, political, and even religious. There is no part of our life that is free from this mentality. We demand choices and we all want the very best choice—not just for ourselves but for our children and those we care about.
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Today is the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It’s the start of a season, a kind of forefeast. With this we can be certain of a few things. Namely, the time of trials and tribulations is upon us. This is one of the things that we can be certain of when we come upon any feast of the Cross.
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The essence of today’s feast is about both barrenness and fullness; it is about human weakness and the limitless wonder-working power of God. We are well aware of the details of the conception and birth of the Mother of God. The hymns teach us this feast’s story. Joachim and Anna, an upright and pure couple, are left with no child. Before the Christ came, childlessness was a reproachful and shameful thing, it was taken as a sign of God’s disfavor and a curse. We are familiar with this situation throughout the Holy Scriptures.
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Time impresses itself on our attention most frequently when we realize that it will come to an end. At these moments, what comes to the fore is the vanity of much of what we do, the pettiness of our likes and dislikes, and the impermanence of all that we hold dear. It motivates us to change, to become better, to live our life differently. Yet, this surge of enthusiasm wears off. How is it that a near-death experience, a bout with cancer, or the loss of a loved one draws us into such an atmosphere without our consent, the value of which is evident to us but seems so fleeting as time moves on and we become forgetful of those moments?
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In today’s Gospel passage, we hear the greatest definition of the Christian life ever given by anyone. One of Jewish lawyers asked our Lord: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And Jesus replied: “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” St. Augustine later summarized this answer even more succinctly: “Love, and do what you want.”
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