Life on the Chrism Trail

Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Katharine Drexel

March 3, 2026
Oblate School of Theology
San Antonio, Texas

Isaiah 1:10, 16-20
Psalm 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23
Matthew 25:31-46

Isaiah addresses Judah with searing irony, calling them “rulers of Sodom.” The prophet speaks in a liturgical context — Temple sacrifice is ongoing — but God rejects it because it is unaccompanied by righteousness and just actions. Israel’s sin is not primarily ritual failure but ethical rupture. God’s invitation follows: “Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow.”

March 3, 2026

Homily for the Monday of the Second Week of Lent

March 2, 2026
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
College Station, Texas

Deuteronomy 9:4b-10
Psalm 79:8, 9, 11, and 13
Romans 8:31b-34
Luke 6:36-38

Even people who have never held the Bible in their hands are familiar with this verse from Sacred Scripture. “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.” These profoundly serious words of Jesus are invoked frequently by some people as a justification for their own sinful habits. Of course, in recent years we frequently hear some do this by citing these words of Jesus in connection with the airplane quote of Pope Francis from several years ago taken out of context regarding homosexual acts: “Who am I to judge?”

March 2, 2026

Homily for the Vigil for the Second Sunday of Lent

February 28, 2026
St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church
Arlington, Texas

Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
2nd Timothy 1:8b-10
Matthew 17:1-9

The first reading of this Sunday’s Mass presents the call of God to Abraham. At this time in his life, Abraham is seventy-five years old — a time that common sense tells us is too late to expect change from any human being. Those of us who have loved ones who have aged and entered the elder cohort of the human population or who have even themselves entered old age can attest to the wisdom of such proverbs as, “She is too set in her ways;” or also, “He is an example that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.” Yet, the matters of vocation and conversion are not matters of human initiative, ingenuity, or will power.

February 28, 2026

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent

February 22, 2026
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7
Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

The drama of temptation by the devil entices us to think that we can battle temptation alone without God. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, prior to their fall into sin, entered into dialogue with the devil about what God commanded them to do. Eve listens to the devil who tempts her and Adam to disobey God’s command to them not to even touch let alone eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The promise that the devil makes is that they will be like gods. To be like gods means that they will no longer be human in accord with the way God created them in their humanity. They will no longer have need for God nor to be in relationship with God. They would come to see God as a rival to their freedom and knowledge.

February 22, 2026

Homily for the Lunar New Year

February 15, 2026
Our Lady of Fatima Church
Fort Worth, Texas

Genesis 1:14-18
Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Philippians 4:4-8
Matthew 6:25-34

We come together today to worship God in the offering of the Mass. We do so because God has revealed Himself fully to us through the Sacred Scriptures and fully in the gift of His Son Jesus Christ, who taught the Apostles and His earliest disciples to do this in His memory. We come together as members of His Holy Catholic Church in communion with the Church throughout the world.

February 15, 2026

Homily for the Memorial of Saint John Bosco

January 31, 2026
Theological College
Washington, D.C.

Philippians 4:4-9
Psalm 103:1bc-2, 3-4, 8-9, 13-14, 17-18
Matthew 18:1-5

Today the Church offers us this liturgical Memorial of Saint John Bosco, a saint of the nineteenth century who was renowned for his humble dedication to the care and education of orphaned and abandoned boys and adolescents. He and his brother Salesians accepted the responsibility of care for these young men whom the world considered to be a burden on society.

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

February 1, 2026
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13
Psalm 146
1st Corinthians 1:26-31
Matthew 5:1-12a

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach…” There are two groups depicted in today’s Gospel: the crowds and the disciples. Jesus teaches His disciples, and they listen because He has called them by name, and they belong to Him. A crowd is without identity and thrives on frenzy. Crowds are pieced together by individuals who out of fear or indifference have jettisoned the responsibility that accompanies belonging as a lawful member of society in exchange for fitting in with the prevailing mood of the time. The disciples are governed by faith in God as Christ’s Church.

February 2, 2026

Homily for the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church

January 2, 2026
SEEK Conference
Grapevine, Texas

1 John 2:22-28
Psalm 98:1-2-3ab, 3cd-4
John 1:19-28

So many of us have come here to SEEK in order to renew old friendships from last year and to establish new friendships among all of us who are gathered here this week. It is truly an opportunity for Christian friendship as we start a new year and as we continue our celebration of the liturgical season of Christmas. It is therefore providential that on this day the Church offers us the liturgical Memorial of Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen, because they were not only monks, not only bishops, not only doctors of the Church, but above all — they were truly close Christian friends since the time of their youth during which they studied together at what would be the equivalent of their college years.

January 2, 2026