Father Kevin A. Codd

Welcome: Double Blessings, 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A), July 2, 2023

The scriptures are replete with stories of welcome, those blessed moments when one person welcomes another and the blessings for both welcomer and welcomee are rich and bountiful. Today's reading from 2 Kings gives us one such story and the Gospel of Matthew 10, makes it clear hospitality with its double-blessings is part and parcel of Jesus' teaching to his disciples. 

This homily was preached to the Community of Saint Francis in Cuenca, Ecuador

Sparrows: A Dime a Dozen, 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A), June 25, 2023

Of all the images from nature that Jesus could have used to give his disciples a major pep-talk on evangelization, the lowly sparrow seems among the least likely. But Jesus makes a fundamental and foundational point about who God is for us by beginning with sparrows. To understand him, we need to page back to the very first page of the Bible: the story of creation!

Homily delivered to the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador

Reading the Crowd, 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A), June 18, 2023

"Reading the crowd" was one of Jesus' great gifts. As we hear in today's Gospel passage from Matthew 9, his intuitive sense of both the joys and burdens of those who came to him in great numbers allowed him great compassion for them and gave him the ability to grace them with blessings where they were most need. He passes this gift on to the Twelve, a reminder to us that we, too, have been sent out, blessed with this gift to console, heal, and liberate. 

When Jesus invites his disciples to pray for laborers for this great harvest, we are not praying for others to join the harvest; we have met those laborers, and they are we.

Origin Stories: Corpus Christi, June 11, 2023

The "origin story" of today's solemn feast of The Body and Blood of Christ, more commonly known as "Corpus Christi" is really that of the Jesus' Jerusalem Passover meal on the night before he died. His gift of his body and blood was not given only to edify the recipients, but came with a responsibility to share the gift beyond the person receiving it. Jesus' self-giving love, manifested in healing, forgiving, compassion for the sinner is always a gift to be given. If we focus today only on our own spiritual nourishment and not our responsibility to do what Jesus did "in memory of him" then his memory is lost, and in a sense, he dies. This feast of Jesus' Body and Blood calls us to give our own body and blood to the world beyond the doors of this or any church.

Grief: That Most Unwelcome Intruder, Third Sunday of Easter, April 24, 2023

Grief is a most unwanted intruder into our lives. It sneaks up on us from behind and wraps its dull claws around our chest, squeezing out of us words, hope, and joy. Jesus' disciples have been living with this intruder into their lives for three days now. It keeps them from seeing and knowing who it is who walks with them in their intense sadness, until...

Homily given to the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca, Ecuador, Iglesia San Francisco.

Doubts: Second Sunday of Easter (A), April 16, 2023

Most of us have found that a part of our life of faith is the entertaining of doubts about that faith. Happily, we find a "patron saint of doubt" in today's Easter Gospel from John. That "patron saint," of course, is the apostle Thomas. He leads the way and accompanies us as we move from doubt to deeper faith. 

This homily was preached before the Saint Francis Catholic Community of Cuenca in the Iglesia de San Francisco, Cuenca, Ecuador. 

Mary Magdalene’s Very Weird Morning: Easter Morning (A), April9, 2023

Mary Magdalene's very bad week is about to take a very weird turn as she heads to the tomb early on the first day of the week.

This Easter lmorning homily was preached to the Saint Francis Catholic Community of Cuenca in the Iglesia San Francisco, Cuenca, Ecuador. 

Good Friday: Pride and the Cross, April 7, 2023

One startling and distressing detail of John's Passion story is the profession of fidelity of the Chief Priests to Caesar: "We have no king but Caesar!" This is a kind of blasphemy and idolatry for it was no secret that Caesar pretended at divinity. How did those Chief priests get to such a place, these holiest of holy men? That is a profound question that reaches back to the sin of Adam and all of us ever since: taking God's gifts and claiming them as our own. Pride. The Cross we venerate on this night stands as a potent counter to that Pride. It is all humility and self-giving sacrifice. In its veneration we are called to mercy, compassion, and loving self-sacrifice. 

This homily was shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca at the Iglesia de San Francisco. (Sadly, the audio of the prior proclamation of the Passion was not adequate so had to be deleted.)

”And Jesus Wept”, 5th Sunday of Lent (A), March 26, 2023

Of the many important details that make the story of the raising of Lazarus so powerful, perhaps the one most likely to be overlooked is the simple, three-word sentence: "And Jesus wept." That Jesus would weep as we weep, especially in the face of the death of a beloved friend, reminds us of Jesus' humanity. His tears mingle with ours and ours with his. His trembling before the cold, dark tomb of his friend reminds us of his cosmic battle, his divine battle really, with the forces of death, destruction, and evil itself...a trembling which is expressed in the God-command: "Lazarus, come out!"

Homily delivered to the Saint Francis Catholic Community of Cuenca, Ecuador. Iglesia de San Francisco, Cuenca

I Was Blind, But Now I See, 4th Sunday of Lent (A), March 19, 2023

The Man Born Blind (too bad we never get a name!) in today's Gospel from John shows forth incredible metal and character as he grows through adversity upon adversity. At first, his healer is just "than man Jesus", then he is a prophet, and finally he worships Jesus, the Son of Man. He stands before us this Lenten season as a great model of what it means to open our eyes to the Lord's presence with us every day of our life. 

Homily delivered to the Saint Francis Catholic Community of Cuenca, Ecuador, (Iglesia de San Francisco).