Homilies
Preaching is at the heart of what it means to be a Dominican. Click this site to hear our latest homilies.
Preaching is at the heart of what it means to be a Dominican. Click this site to hear our latest homilies.
We currently produce a variety of podcasts to help with spiritual growth. In addition to our homilies, we offer Commentary, The Catholic Schoolhouse and Going Behind the Word. You can subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts.
To help continue growth in faith, the DePorres Pages has created a list of livestreamed Mass sites, Catholic TV and Radio, and prayer resources.
Who is it you notice? It is simply not at all likely the rich man did not notice Lazarus, the poor man. He was in the front of his house, and his sores are visible We can think that this is just an isolated story from long ago. But who is it you notice?
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel had a song they sang called I am a Rock. The song is about a man who has been hurt in a relationship and decides he is no longer going to allow himself to be hurt again. Most of us have probably had the experience of being let down by another person. Sometimes these events cause really deep pain. And we can be tempted to take the same route as the character in Paul Simon’s song. We can close ourselves off from everyone.
I remember a student in a high school I was at that constantly reminded me that I had forgotten to give the homework. Needless to say he was not terribly popular. But he was so obsessed with grades that he did not want to take a chance they would get any lower. He was so obsessed that he could not enjoy his success. We can be like that in our life too. James and John were so obsessed they could not see clearly what it meant to follow Jesus.
I remember a time when I was working in an elementary school, and I saw a young boy push another boy down the stairs. When I confronted the boy who did the pushing, he said to me, “I did it on accident.” While the behavior was potentially dangerous (the boy who was pushed was not hurt), what was more troubling to me was how quickly this boy was willing to turn his deliberate decision into an “accident”.
We live in a meritocracy. That means that not only do we reward those on merit, but we think those who are successful are worth more than those who are not. It is a type of Calvinism which sees the blessed as those who have the highest socio-economic level. But Jesus reminds us that is should not be like this. We should recognize the common human dignity of all people and treat them as persons made in the image and likeness of God.
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