Father Kevin A. Codd

The image of Jesus dying on the cross and that of our worldly kings seem to be polar opposites, yet this day we proclaim this humble, defeated, and dying man a king. How is this possible? 

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

Al acabar el año litúrgico, las lecturas de las misas dominicales se enfocan más y más en cómo se acaban las cosas hecho por las manos humanas, y lo más importante, la esperanza que Jesús nos ofrece en medio de las tribulaciones de los últimos días. 

Esta homilía es un poco improvisa porque Padre Kevin no tuve la oportunidad de prepararla con anticipación. 

Homilía compartida en la Iglesia de San Francisco, Cuenca, Ecuador. 

As the Church year draws to a close, our Sunday readings become ever more preocupied with the end of things. Today, the great Temple of Jerusalem offers a starting point in understanding Jesus' pragmatic understanding of just how fragile are the things made of human hands...and his great hope in God's promises of eventual victory over all that is evil. 

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

On a feast-day dedicated to Christianity's first great church, the Roman cathedral of Saint John Lateran, we pause to reflect on why we love our churches and what The Church most truly is. 

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

Even the best of prayers, perfect in form and eloquent in speech, can be perverted from the inside out by human hubris and spiritual pride. Arrogance and judgementalism are the enemies of true prayer, as Jesus teaches in today's parable of the two men who went up to the temple to pray: one a tax-collector and the other a Pharisee. 

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

The "message" in today's parable is easy to grasp...no head scratching required: pray persistently! Nevertheless, the final words of Jesus in this reading are more perplexing: "But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" So what does this have to do with the parable he just told about the persistent widow and the hard-hearted judge? Maybe Jesus is applying the principle of persistent prayer to much more than us just asking God to tend to our own needs? 

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

The very word "leper" for most of human history would have evoked revulsion in most people. The disease had terrible consequences for those who contracted it almost everyone deeply feared it. Somewhat the same, the word "Samaritan" would have evoked among many Jewish people in the 1st century a similar reaction of deep disdain. Both words play prominent roles in today's gospel story and give this event in Jesus' life many levels of meaning. All of it touches our own consciences deeply.

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

Perhaps we read Jesus' words to his apostles responding to a request to "increase our faith" in a scolding tone, when, in fact, he may be speaking to them with a bit of comic exaggeration...and even more with affection and delight. 

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

Yet another parable to consider! This time, Jesus is speaking directly to a group of religious big-shots and this parable of the unnamed rich man and the poor, hungry Lazarus is for them. As we get deeper into the story, Jesus pulls the old gospel switcheroo of the " the first shall be last and the last shall be first" type. By the end of the parable, it is clear that this is a story about himself and them. His final words: "even if one should rise from the dead, they still would not believe," are some of the most potent in all of Jesus' parables. 

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

Today's parable is a most head-scratching one! And the commentaries by Jesus that follow the story itself don't help any. What to make of this strange story in which at first sight Jesus seems to approve of a sketchy steward who plays fast and easy with his boss's money? Maybe this is one of those stories that needs some "creative color" added to it so it makes sense to us in our times. That "creative color" may come to us from its twin reading from the Prophet Amos in which the prophet decries the rich and mighty who have gained their privileged status by trampling upon the poor and defenseless. Let's see if we can make this story less head-scratching! 

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