Four minute homilies

Parable of the unjust steward 

            This is a parable about stewardship. We have been given a bit of God’s harvest and Jesus is asking us today to examine ourselves how we are looking after it. We are at his service and we could be a bit easygoing, complacent or indifferent. It doesn’t matter if we are in charge of a big field, or we are only responsible for a small part of God’s vineyard. The important thing is to look after it well, and give a good account of our stewardship. The master commen...

Our Lady of Sorrows

            Standing at the foot of the Cross is our mother. She is standing, not crying or fainting; she is there supporting her son with her presence. Silent tears run down her cheeks. And Saint John is also there, the celibate apostle, the one Jesus loved. Other women are there too. Women are stronger than men. Many artists tried to capture this moment but with different results. It is almost impossible to represent in a painting what happened at Calvary. Where are the other apostles? Where are the big guys? They said they w...

Parables of the lost sheep and the coin

            Sinners were attracted to Jesus and the Pharisees complained. Sinners followed Jesus because they saw an opportunity to leave their sinful life behind. That’s why we too are attracted to Jesus. We need him; without him we are nothing. The more we see ourselves as sinners, the more we feel Jesus’ attraction. Like a magnet; the closer it is to the iron, the more difficult it is to separate the two. Our world has lost a sense of sin, the natural pull from God. Our society moves arou...

Conditions for following Jesus

            Today in the Gospel Jesus gets very serious. He looks at the people following him and he realises that many of them were there for human reasons. They were following him because they wanted to experience miracles, because they were fed with tasty bread and fish, because that man spoke very well, because he had a go at the Pharisees, or he defended the poor and he could become a political power. The same thing happens with us: we are here because we feel good, because it is the right thing to do...

Parable of the first places

            Jesus was having a meal with his apostles. We see often Jesus in the Gospels sitting at the table. It is important to spend time with others, and meals are great occasions to do so. People nowadays spend their time with their phones, just watching screens. These were moments when Jesus took advantage to pass on to them his message; he used these opportunities to teach them a lesson, in this instance, humility. Jesus was very observant, as holy people are, not self-centered, but completely aware of other people’s needs. I...

The narrow gate 

            Today in the Gospel we see a fellow coming up to Jesus and asking an important question: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” We are still asking this question nowadays. How many are going to be saved? Is anybody in hell? It is based in a truth of our faith: we all need salvation. Few years ago we had a debate about this topic when we had to change the words of the consecration during Mass, to better translate the original. We used to say that the blood of Christ was poured...

Set the earth on fire

            Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.” In the Bible, fire is often used to describe God’s burning love for men. This divine love is what made the Word become man: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”. Jesus voluntarily gave up his life on the Cross: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends”. We experience personally his love in the Euchar...

The Assumption

            Today we celebrate the feast day of the Assumption of our Mother to heaven. What can we say about what happened on that day? We haven’t got much information. Saint John witnessed it and didn’t tell us anything. John, you told us all about the life of Jesus, with plenty of details, but you didn’t want to tell us about our Lady leaving earth. She is our Mother too, and we would have liked to know more about her. But you preferred to be silent. We needed to know about how Jesus ga...

Waiting for the Lord 

            “Gird your loins and light your lamps”, Jesus is telling us today. Fasten your seat belt and start the engine, would be a modern way of saying the same. These are the two attitudes the Gospel is asking us to have. First, be ready for the journey, and then turn on the lights outside, to welcome the guest who is coming. The same expression from the parable of the foolish virgins: the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him. Come out of yourself and welcome him. He has dropped us here and he...

Parable of the rich fool

            Today in the Gospel Jesus gives us the parable of the rich fool. This is how he calls him. We are the person in this parable. We are him because we normally act like this man. Jesus calls us fools because we are silly, because we won’t learn. We keep thinking that we are going to make a difference, that we are going to do something important, that will engrave our names in the golden book of history. We are wasting our time. We come naked from God and we go ba...

Teach us to pray

            Have you ever been jealous of someone else’s ability to pray? I’ve been a few times, when I have witnessed holy people praying. The same happened to Jesus’ disciples. They have seen him praying early in the morning, spending the whole night in prayer, immersing himself in his relationship with his Father God. They found it very difficult to imitate him. They couldn’t wake up in the morning, they fell asleep during the night, or they got distracted looking at rich people putting money into the treasury of the temple. Th...

Martha and Mary

            Bethany is only two miles from Jerusalem. Jesus used to stay there when he came to the holy city, to find a peaceful place where he could rest and spend time with his friends. Beth means home, an appropriate name for a place where Jesus felt at ease. Jesus used to love to go to Bethany, to spend time with Martha, Mary and Lazarus. As a human being he needed friends. He loved his friends and tried to drop in and stay with them. We too are social beings, and we need friend...

The Good Samaritan

            It all started with a question a lawyer asked, to catch Jesus, to see how wise he was. He wasn’t sincerely interested in the answer. As a good lawyer he wanted to score a point. But it was a good question, maybe the most important question in our lives: What do I have to do to go to heaven? Or in a more personal way: God, are you happy with me? Jesus took advantage of this pretentious lawyer to remind us of the law inscribed in our hearts: we are created to love...

72 Disciples

            Today our Lord is sending us ahead of him. That’s the reason why we are here on earth. We are here for a purpose. We didn’t choose to be here. He chose us before the beginning of the world. This is our time here. We only have few years to go. Let us take advantage of the time we have and don’t get distracted or side tracked. Last week Jesus told us to follow him. Now he tells us: Go! His command is imperative. We need to discover what he wants us to do. We...

Saint Peter and Saint Paul

         Today we celebrate a double feast, the two most important apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul. We have two other feasts for each saint, the conversion of saint Paul and the chair of saint Peter. Why do we put them together in one feast? Because some people wanted to separate them, to oppose one against the other, to create a conflict. The devil loves confussion and disunity to do his work. Peter preached to the Jews and Paul to the gentiles. At the beginning of the Church there was a dange...

Corpus Christi 

         Today we celebrate the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. We look at the amazing miracle that happens every day, when the priest pronounces the words of consecration during the Mass, and transforms the substances of bread and wine into the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We will never be able to comprehend totally the mystery we are contemplating.

         I’d like to look at this reality from the point of view of the trascendentals, four ways we share of a certain resemblance with God, which reflects his infinite...

Holy Trinity 

            Nowadays sciences have grown exponentially. The desire to know our world, to comprehend the laws of nature, has pushed our knowledge to limits never experienced before. We have an intellectual curiosity that has filled the internet with almost an infinite amount of information. AI is using all this data to challenge us, to produce better outcomes, to simulate our brains. It is developing capabilities unknown to us. But we forget that we are created for God, that our end is to know and love God for all eternity. And this endeavour should begin here.<...

Pentecost 

            Today the Holy Spirit is coming to us. We want him to remain with us. But, How do we know that he is with us? Where do we find him? There are signs to check his presence among us. He is very discreet, trying to pass unnoticed, but there are some clues that reveal his action in our souls. The first one is goodness. A person with the Holy Spirit tries to do good. You notice when a person has a good heart, when he wants the good of the other, that in spite of his...

Ascension 

            The Acts of the Apostles say that when Jesus was lifted up “a cloud took him from their sight.” It means that they couldn’t see him anymore because he was obscured by a cloud. It doesn’t mean that he is not there anymore. He is still there behind the cloud until the end of time. The book of Revelation says that Jesus will come sitting on a cloud to judge the living and the dead. He is not too far away from us, even though we cannot see him. He is just behind the clou...

Peace

            When John Paul II was elected Pope and came out on the balcony above Saint Peter’s square, to salute the crowd, he began his speech saying: Be not afraid. I didn’t understand at that time why he said that. I was young and I wasn’t afraid of the future. Life was open to me. Later on I understood his words. In our modern society we are afraid of the future. We spend a lot of money on insurance, keep our money in the bank, our jewelry in the safe, and spend money in sec...

The New Commandment

            The New Commandment is still new. It is always going to be new. It is new every day for each one of us. We all need to struggle in two areas that begin with CH: charity and chastity. It has to do with our bodies and people’s bodies. We are not pure spirits, we are not angels. We have bodies and we bump into each other, for good or for bad. We rub against each other, polishing our characters on the way. We are attracted or repelled by others. We are not a hu...

The Good Shepherd 

            The main task of the Good Shepherd is to bring us to good pastures. What are the good pastures for us? We have the wrong idea where to find them or what they are. We think that they are wealth, honours, health, entertainment, food, beauty, pleasurable things, love, gadgets, adventure, travelling; all sort of different things, depending on our age and circumstances. If we don’t agree what our good pastures are, how are we going to follow the Good Shepherd to where he is trying to lead us? This is the real prob...

Second miraculous catch of fish

            Peter said: “I am going fishing.” The other apostles agreed: “We are going with you.” That night they caught nothing. It was a good idea to have a break, make a bit of money and get some food, but they spent the whole night casting the net and all they caught was an old boot and a broken amphora. Last time they went fishing was the first miraculous catch of fish. They thought they could pull it off again. They started with a lot of enthusiasm, but as the hours went by, the c...

Thomas 

            Jesus’ disciples were afraid of the Jews and locked the doors where they were staying. Jesus came through the walls, stood in the midst of them and said: Peace be with you. He came with his glorious body and they found difficult to recognise him. This is the kind of body we are going to have at the end of time, when our soul will be reunited to our body. We are body and soul, and to be truly human we need our body back. Our society adores the body and has forgotten the soul. It...

Holy Thursday 

            One of the most beautiful ceremonies we perform today is the washing of the feet. The Church wants us to witness again what happened at the last supper, not to forget the example of the Master. Saint John begins this chapter in is his Gospel saying that Jesus “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” John is the beloved apostle who had the best access to Jesus’ heart. The washing of the feet is a straight manifestation of the message of the Gospel. It helps us to peek in...

Good Friday 

            After the homily we are going to bring the crucifix veiled, Jesus crucified hiding behind a purple cloth. Purple used to be a royal colour, because it was the most expensive colorant to produce. Herod covered Jesus with a purple robe, to mock him. This is why we use this colour. We cover the crucifix because we don’t know if he is still alive; we don’t want to see him dying for us. The unveiling signifies the death of Jesus. Before it was hidden; now we know.

            We are going to unveil h...

Easter Sunday 

            While the men were sleeping, women went to Jesus’s tomb. Women are always more on top of things. They didn’t have time to finish anointing Jesus’s body on Friday night. They waited till Sunday, because on Saturday it was forbidden to work. We must be like them, awake, here on the most important day of the year, waiting for Jesus to rise from the dead. We believe that he is going to rise, because he does so every year. We are celebrating his resurrection. The women’s love and generosity made them first...

Palm Sunday 

            Today we read the Passion from Saint Luke’s Gospel. Every evangelist gives his particular vision of the event. When we witness or hear about something that happened, we all have different recollections. Luke presents five specific details that are absent in the other three Gospels. The first one is about the night in the garden of olives. He uses the word “agony”, a word we use when somebody is dying, representing the last moments of a person’s life, the difficult struggle between life and death. Two other details from this scene are the sweatin...

Lent 5 C The adulterous woman

            Saint Augustine defines the meeting between Jesus and the adulterous woman with this great expression: Misera et Misericordia, Misery and Mercy, the wretched woman and the merciful Jesus, the sinner and God, sin and grace. Pope Francis calls his Apostolic Letter at the conclusion of the Jubilee of Mercy, Misericordia et Misera. He turns them around, emphasizing love and forgiveness above sin and justice: “the misery of sin was clothed with the mercy of love.” There they meet, one in front of each other, Mercy and Misery, Jesus and the adulterous...

Lent 4 C The Prodigal Son  

            In chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus proposes three parables of mercy: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. His Gospel has earned the title of Gospel of Mercy. To receive his mercy, first we need to recognise we are lost. Nowadays with GPS, it is very difficult to get lost, unless we run out of data or we lose our internet access. The most famous parable of all is the return of the prodigal son, the summary of the Gospel, very dear to our Christian faith, a reflect...

Lent 3 C Barren fig tree

            Today Jesus gives us the parable of the barren fig tree. Why was it barren? We don’t know why. In spite of all the care and concern of the gardener, the tree remained barren, esterile. It was maybe a proud tree that wanted to just produce leaves, to show off, a beautiful manifestation of its magnificence. Or perhaps it was its selfishness, to keep the produce for itself, not to lose its healthy look. It reminds us of our modern man, too concerned about his body image, going to the gym...

Lent 2 Transfiguration 

            Today we are going to ask five questions about the transfiguration. First of all, Where did it happen? Tradition places this event at Mount Tabor, 300 metres above the plain. It looks taller than it is. Now there is a winding road that goes to the top; they use shuttle buses to take you up there. Pope Francis says that these days of Lent we need to climb up, becoming closer to God, leave material things behind. We carry what we need. When you do the Camino of Santiago they recommend you to carry only 8...

Lent 1 Temptations

            Today we accompany Jesus to the desert to be tempted. For us temptations are part of our daily lives. They say that every temptation can be reduced to one: to believe that we can fulfill the desires of our hearts by ourselves, with our own strength. It was the first temptation of Adam and Eve: to be like gods, knowing good and evil. It is the temptation of the child who thinks he has already grown up and doesn’t need his parents. We think that God is not a good Father, he doesn’t...

Ash Wednesday 

“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” The Gospel acclamation of today’s Mass centers on our struggle for the weeks ahead. We begin an intense liturgical time during which God through the Church will give us special graces to undergo a new conversion. We need to hear his voice and let our hearts become softer like a sponge, to absorb as much as we can from the power of God. During the year, our hearts have been hardened by the obstacles found on the way, blackened with the dust of the...

Two Parables 

            Today in the Gospel Jesus gives us two parables, more like two comparisons or examples, very practical for our Christian lives. The first one is about the blind leading the blind. We all have the image of a line of blind people falling into a cliff, one after the other, oblivious of what is going to happen to them. It helps us to ask the question: What or who are we following? Is my life taking me to a safe haven? We should check from time to time our compass, to make sure we are...

Magnanimity

            Today’s Gospel reading reaches a higher level. Jesus is always lifting us up to a higher level of perfection. It is a reminder of the universal call to holiness. We are all called to become holy; it means that when we die, we go straight to heaven. It is a central message of the Second Vatican Council. We are not called just to be a good Christian, but to become holy. It is not a matter of saying hundreds of rosaries or being involved in the activities of the parish, but to have a new he...

The Beatitudes 

            The readings of today’s Mass focus on trust. The first reading from the book of Jeremiah, compares a man who trusts in human beings with the man who trusts in the Lord. The first one is like a bush planted in the desert, dried and barren; the second one is a tree planted on the shore of a river, its roots sucking up water all year around and producing magnificent fruits. The Responsorial Psalm praises whoever leaves things in God’s hands: “Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.” The second reading from th...

Miraculous catch of fish

            Today in the Gospel we have a beautiful scene full of lessons. We are at the lake of Gennesaret, surrounded by boats and nets. This is how we imagine Jesus, close to the water, on the shores of the lake, among fishermen. The scenery hasn’t changed much from Jesus time. He got into Peter’s boat, which represents the Church. The Pope is the captain leading us to a safe harbour. He is steering the boat and we are under his command. If we get out of the boat, or we try our...

Presentation of Our Lord

            Today Jesus is brought for the first time to his temple, to fulfil the duties prescribed by the Jewish Law. He comes in his mother’s arms; he is too little to be able to walk. Joseph brings a pair of pigeons. They were a poor family and couldn’t afford a lamb. A poet says that because God couldn’t find poverty in heaven, he came to find it on earth. After all these centuries waiting for the Messiah, when he arrived, there was no party to welcome him. Only two people r...

Beginning of Luke's Gospel

            We begin this new year with the Gospel of Saint Luke. He is the only evangelist to give his book a preface, where he describes why he has written the book: to provide an orderly account of the life of Jesus. Luke is the most prolific author of the New Testament: he wrote the longest Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He was a Greek from Antioch, and he became the fellow worker of Saint Paul, remaining with him till his martyrdom. Some people say that he was one of the 72...