Homily – Page 15 – Apology Analogy

Catching the Grace

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

With what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you, and more shall be given to you. —Mark 4:24— When my friend Mike attends a baseball game, he will, depending on where he is seated, bring a mitt with him. He wants to be ready to catch a

Angels in Education

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

A Homily Preached for the Opening of Catholic Schools Week Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, Allentown, Pennsylvania 25 January 2015 Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh

Fairy Tales Can Come True

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

Amen I say to you, as long as you did it for one of these, the least, of my brethren, you did it for me. –Matthew 25:40– I have a confession to make. I am an unashamed and unabashed reader and lover of fairy tales. That’s right. But I

The Jesus Connection

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

Without me you can do nothing. –John 15:5– Some years ago, my friend Father Frans Berkhout and I were in an airport on our way home from a vacation. We were in a long line of passengers waiting to have our luggage scanned before boarding our plane. Passengers were

The Leprosy of Sin

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

And a leper came to him, entreating him, and kneeling down he said, “If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” –Mark 1:40– Once, when I was about eight or nine years old, I said to my sister Marybeth, “Hey, Marybeth! Wouldn’t it be neat if we couldn’t feel

A Night at the Opera

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

“For with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you.” –Luke 6:38– Concerning the story I am about to relate, permit me to use the words of Father Peter Lonergan in The Quiet Man: “Well, I can’t say it’s true, and I won’t say it’s not.” Several years

One Fire, Many Flames

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

Now no one, when he has lighted a lamp, covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a couch, but he puts it upon a lamp-stand, that they who enter may see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest; nor anything concealed that

So Many Rules!

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

I fondly recall the first time I was invited to have dinner at the home of Kevin Damitz and his family. Kevin is the Director of Religious Education at Saint Thomas More parish here in Allentown, and he and his wife Susie are blessed with eight happy, well-adjusted children. As

Sweet Revenge

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

Pray for those who persecute and calumniate you. –Matthew 5:44– I love fairy tales, and by far the very best author of fairy tales is George MacDonald. In his wonderful story, The Day Boy and the Night Girl, an evil witch named Watho mercilessly torments a young hunter named Photogen

A Time for Bonding

January 21, 2017 Father Bernard J. Ezaki Homily

Joseph stood alone at the entrance to the cave and saw the first light of dawn touch the eastern horizon. It had been a long night. The child had been born some six hours ago. The shepherds had come and gone, and now his wife Mary was in the