Father Kevin A. Codd

En la vida, siempre hay cambios  Asi era para los grandes figuras de las Escrituras y en particular para los Doce. En el sexto capitulo de San Marcos, la vida de los Doce se cambia en una manera grande e inesperaba: se cambian de discipulos a apostoles. 

Homilia compartida a los feligreses de la Iglesia de San Francisco de Asis en Cuenca, Ecuador.

 

Jesus' return to his hometown of Nazareth is marked by the unappreciative (and unbelieving) response of his family and neighbors. Perhaps tangled expectations, part of every family's life, are the reason. 

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

The evangelist, Mark, chooses a very rare literary form in his fifth chapter; he "sandwiches" one beautiful story between two halves of another. Let's explore what he might be up to even as we learn so much from both Jesus' encounter with Jairus, the synagogue official and the woman suffering for twelve years with a debilitating flow of blood. 

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

Mark's version of the storm at sea contains one line that should stop us cold: "Teacher, do you not care that we are about to perish?" It is a terrible thing to say to Jesus who is "care" incarnate. What Jesus' apostles miss in the midst of their storm is the reality that Jesus is in the boat with them. We, too, often forget this same truth in the midst of our life's storms. 

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

 

The character of Adam and Eve's first great sin in today's story from Genesis was not really that of "disobedience" as much as it was good, old-fashioned "hubris". Their attempt to make gods of themselves was the beginning of the troubles our human race has struggled with almost forever. It is the "great sin" still at the heart of just about all our present troubles. The Jesus story found in the Gospels lets us know we can rest in our humility for it is thus that the one and true God loves us, as evidenced by his coming to us as one of us. (And apologies for the gravelly voice today...a cold virus got to me earlier in the week.)

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

La historia de Adan y Eva es una de las mas importantes del Antiguo Testamento. Con su "pecado original" comenzamos una historia por los siglos de mucha maldad. No es tanto un pecado de desobedienca, sino uno del orgullo humano que siempre quiere ponernos como dioses. Y asi, continuamos a vivir una historia de una maldad humana desastrozo. (Pido disculpas por mi voz; estoy un poco resfriado hoy). 

Homilia compartida en la capilla de las Hermanas Carmelitas, Virgen de Bronce, Cuenca, Ecuador.

The expansive display of sweets of all kinds here in Cuenca's Parque del Calderon this Corpus Christi weeks raises the simple question, "Why?" The answer is clear if we understand what sweets symbolize in the popular Catholic imagination, particularly in Latin America. Just about everything dealing with God and his love for us! Sweet are God's abundant graces in our lives!

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

To "understand" the Holy Trinity is only possible after we have "experienced" the Holy Trinity as did Jesus' first disciples. 

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

Un viñador nos ensena el significado de la viña, el tronco, y sus uvas: comunión con Dios y los demás.

Homilía compartida por el Padre Kevin con la comunidad católica de Santa Teresita, Misicata (Cuenca, Ecuador)

The image of the Marlboro Man is the archetype for rugged individualism. The humble vine-tender with his vines is an archetype of communion. 

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