Homily for Easter Vigil
March 30, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Genesis 1:1-2:2
Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18
Isaiah 54:5-14
Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Romans 6:3-11
Mark 16:1-7
When the Sabbath was over, three women gathered the ingredients necessary to bury the body of Jesus. They went to the tomb early and thought of a few practical points they had overlooked. What about the heavy stone sealing the tomb? What about the guards? What about the official seals that had been put on the tomb?
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Homily for Good Friday: Celebration of the Passion of the Lord
March 29, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42
The heart of the mystery of the Cross that we enter together as the Church of disciples and believers in Christ is the singlehearted love of Jesus Christ. His singleheartedness is seen in the unity of His human will with His Divine will in loving obedience to the Father, an obedience unto death. We see His singlehearted love as He stands silent before the duplicity of the Sanhedrin and the craftiness of Pontius Pilate and the other friends of Caesar. We see His singlehearted love in answering the high priest about the truthfulness of His Gospel and the transparent integrity of His life for which He is slapped and mocked. We see His single-hearted love as He entrusts His Mother, who possesses single-hearted devotion to Him, to the beloved Apostle and vice versa. Finally, we see His single-hearted love as He hands over His Spirit for the salvation of all and for each and every human being — universal and particular love.
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Homily for Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord’s Supper
March 28, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15
As we have just heard in the Gospel, Peter impetuously remonstrates Jesus for suggesting that Jesus should wash Peter’s feet. Peter is articulating a reverence for Jesus but a reverence that has not yet come to accept the truth that the majesty of God revealed fully in Christ strips itself of all earthly power and manifests itself in humble service and true mercy. When Jesus corrects Peter and tells him that without the washing of the feet Peter would not be able to have any part in him, Peter immediately asks just as impetuously that his head and hands be washed. Then Jesus offers Peter a response that should prompt our reflection in prayer. Jesus says, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so, you are clean, but not all.”
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Homily for Chrism Mass
March 26, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Isaiah 61:1-3, 6a,8-9
Psalm 89:21-22, 25, 27
Revelation 1:5-8
Luke 4:16-21
Bishop Michael Olson’s homily in English begins at paragraph 5.
Cuando Jesús comienza su ministerio público en el evangelio de Lucas, lo sitúa dentro de la profecía de la tercera parte del libro de Isaías —que se refiere a la comunidad de exiliados que ha regresado a la Tierra Prometida. “El espíritu del Señor está sobre mí, por cuanto me ha ungido para anunciar la buena nueva a los pobres,” cita Jesús del profeta Isaías (cf. Lucas 4:18). Así como el Señor Dios ungió al líder lleno del Espíritu para llevar la buena nueva a los pobres y los débiles, Jesús ve y se revela su vida y ministerio de la misma manera. Y espera que aquellos que lo seguirán como discípulos hagan lo mismo, y particularmente aquellos que lo seguirán en el discipulado como sacerdotes.
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Homily for Palm Sunday
March 24, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 21-22
Philippians 2:6-11
Mark 14:1-15:47
Death on its own terms is an annihilation. It is a total and violent obliteration of every part of life that leads up to it. It ends friendships, it makes widows and widowers, it makes orphans, it closes the future, it bluntly ends life. Many nonbelievers, even those who enjoy life, in their more honest moments will speak out loud the unmentionable: death mocks our every action and achievement; it mocks all our hopes; it casts a shadow on everything we do and enjoy in life. Death haunts and terrifies us.
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Homily for the Ordination of Isaac McCracken to the Transitional Diaconate
Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary
March 19, 2024
Saint Maria Goretti Catholic Church
Arlington, Texas
Numbers 3:5-9
Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 10
Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22
Matthew 1:1-16, 18-21, 24a
Today in her liturgy the Church offers us a respite from Lent in all its purple and penitence, in giving us this great solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day, the Gloria returns for one celebration until the Vigil of Easter and the triumphant color of white for the purity of the saints made so by Christ’s conquest of sin and death is returned for the moment as we celebrate this solemnity of Saint Joseph, Most Chaste Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Foster Father of Jesus, and Patron of the Universal Church. It is more than fitting that we celebrate the ordination to the diaconate of Isaac McCracken on this great solemnity of the Church’s calendar that we might enter more deeply into the mystery of the Church’s call to holiness.
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The Eucharist is the ‘source and summit’ of Christian life. What does that really mean?
This essay was originally published on March 4, 2024, on Americamagazine.org.
This essay is a Cover Story selection, a weekly feature highlighting the top picks from the editors of America Media.
The call for Eucharistic revival we have heard in the church is particularly important to priests. Why? Because we are responsible for presiding and offering the Mass, which priests do in persona Christi. This configuration to Christ as head and shepherd of the church that takes place at our ordination as priests comes to its full expression gradually through our devoted pastoral ministry and care for God’s people. This expression is centered upon Christ present in the sacrifice and offering of the Eucharist that then is extended through the other sacraments and apostolic works that we celebrate and administer to the faithful.
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Life on the Chrism Trail 