Father Kevin A. Codd

The Gospel reading chose for this important day is the story of Jesus raising the son of the widow of Nain, (Luke 7:11-17). The miracle is lovely, but for those experiencing their own grief, the temptation is to ask Jesus, "Why not my beloved husband, wife, son, or daughter? If you can raise that fellow in Nain, can you not do the same for me?" Jesus offers us something greater than what he gave that young man, a reprieve from death as a gift to his mother. That "raising" was to ordinary life in this world and he would surely experience death again. Jesus offers us the gift of walking with us through death to ETERNAL life. 

Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador. 

Many of us tend to race through our lives intent on improving ourselves morally and spiritually before we die. Part of that running is founded on the idea that we are still far from holiness or sainthood and we'd like to make up the difference as quickly as possible. Today's feast calls us to reconsider that bias towards unsaintliness in our lives; sure, we are far from perfect, but we ARE already members of the communion of saints by virtue of our baptism. Maybe we can see our lives not as races, but as pilgrimages in which we walk with the Lord and he with us secure in the knowledge that his mercy and love support us along the way. 

Homily for the Solemnity of All Saints shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador. 

Linus, of Peanuts and Snoopy fame, once proclaimed: "I love humanity; it is just people I can't stand." The phrase could be tweaked for people of faith: "I love God; it is just my neighbor I can't stand." Jesus' recalling of the two great commandments, to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind...and your neighbor as yourself, leaves most of us frustrated by how difficult the second commandment is in real life. Perhpas that is an indication that we also have a problem with the first: loving and knowing God. 

Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador. 

This Sunday's parable is a particularly important one for two reasons: first, it is directed at the leaders of the people, and second, because Jesus is speaking of himself in a very intimate manner. HIs confrontation with those leaders becomes not so much a prediction of disaster for them, but a call for conversion of their hearts so that they can know Jesus for he most truly is: the son of the Father. 

Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador. 

This Sunday, Paul's Letter to the Philippians takes center-stage for this homilist. Midway through the reading, Paul seems to break into song, a canticle to Christ! The hymn magnificently captures the extraordinary humility of Christ in not grasping onto his divinity but becoming one among us. This pouring out of himself is the key to peace among ourselves. 

Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador.  

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways..." Thus the Prophet Isaiah powerfully identifies one of the great failings of people of religion: we make our thoughts God's thoughts and our ways his ways. Today's Gospel parable is a perfect example of the temptation: even today, we do not like this parable of the master who pays all his laborers the same no matter how long they worked for him. "It is just not fair," we exclaim! How God sees the matter is so different from our own! As high as the heavens are above the earth so are my thoughts above your thoughts!

Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, EC.

How many times must we forgive? Not seven times but seventy-seven times, Jesus responds to Peter. Jesu must have sensed that the numbers weren't enough to impress upon his disciples what was at stake here, so he tells a parable...and what a parable it is! 

Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador.

At the heart of Jesus' instructions to his disciples about "fraternal correction" is the fundamental reality that if they are to nurture to maturity the infant church following his return to the Father, then they must understand the profound communion that binds them to him and one another. Without that communion, they would be just another "fraternal organization".  

Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community, Cuenca, Ecuador. 

Peter goes from "hero" to "zero" in just six verses! Last Sunday, he proclaimed Jesus as messiah and Son of God and this Sunday he remonstrates with Jesus not to follow the way of suffering and death his Father has given to him. Peter clearly hits a major nerve in Jesus, causing him to snap at Peter: "Get behind me, Satan!" It is not so difficult to identify just what that nerve is and why in that moment, Peter was a satan for Jesus. 

Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community, Cuenca, Ecuador. 

"Who am I?" is one of the preeminent questions young people ask themsleves as they work their way through adolescence and young adulthood. It is a question that Jesus would never have thought to ask himself for his identity was clear in his own mind and heart. But he does ask it of his disciples who are still working through what they believe and know of Jesus. Simon's bold answer is what Jesus needs to anoint him as the "Rock", Petrus, of the church that will carry on his mission after he returns to the Father. As did the early church, so we too continue to hold tight to this Rock and its ministry of unity and true faith. 

Homily shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecudador.