Homily for the Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Opening Mass for the National Association of Diaconate Directors Conference
April 28, 2026
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Acts 11:19-26
Psalm 87:1b-3, 4-5, 6-7
John 10:22-30
“It was winter.” These are the words we read in today’s Gospel as written by John the Evangelist. “It was winter.” It was a winter not so much of discontent but of disbelief. It was a winter of cold disbelief among those who saw the works of Jesus but refused to understand them. It was a winter of cold disbelief among those who heard the words spoken by Jesus but refused to listen to them or to recognize His voice. It was a winter of suspense and anxiety among those who waited for the Christ but would only recognize and accept Him on their own terms. “Tell us plainly.” It was winter.
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Homily for the Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
Eighth Grade Vocations Mass
April 23, 2026
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
John 10:11-18
We all need to earn money to live, but money cannot satisfy our deepest desires. A true vocation has nothing to do with money because it comes from love. Most people are called to love another person in Holy Matrimony, and then husbands and wives love their children. That kind of love cannot be bought. And other men and women are called to love without being married, and they become priests and religious sisters. That kind of love cannot be bought either. Vocations, either to married life or priesthood and religious life, cannot be bought just as Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd teaches us: someone who works because of a desire for money is not following a call from God.
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Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter
April 19, 2026
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Acts 2:14, 22-33
Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
1 Peter 1:17-21
Luke 24:13-35
It is in the light of Jesus’ revelation as experienced by Cleopas and his fellow traveler on the way to Emmaus and recorded in Luke’s Gospel that Peter — the first pope — preaches in both the first and second readings from today’s Liturgy. In these first two readings, Saint Peter speaks to all the nations of the world that this Man, Jesus Christ — the One they had crucified and seen suffer and die — has been raised from the dead. As a witness of the Resurrection, humbled after his cowardice on Good Friday, Peter preaches to the world that “our futile lives and conduct have now been ransomed because of the precious Blood of Jesus Christ.” The Cross and Resurrection of Christ have changed everything, including our destiny and our capacity to act morally as redeemed human beings. The Death and Resurrection of Christ is what now informs our conscience.
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Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter
Divine Mercy Sunday
April 12, 2026
Confirmations in Sacred Heart Church in Seymour; St. Joseph Church in Rhineland; and St. John Paul II Church in Denton
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31
Saint Thomas not only doubts the Resurrection of Christ; first, he doubts and disbelieves the witness of the other Apostles who have received the gift and power of the Holy Spirit as breathed upon them by Christ Himself. He sets his own conditions for belief by establishing the criteria that he first probe the wounds in Christ’s hands and side with his own fingers and hands in order for him to believe. It is only after Thomas encounters Jesus Christ risen from the dead that he comes to recognize the pride of his own disbelief and he repents and converts. The Resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit given to Thomas and the other Apostles for the sake of sharing with their successors and with all the followers in the Church introduces an entirely new reality in which truth, love, and mercy conquer deception, hatred, and sin.
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Homily for Easter Sunday
April 5, 2026
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Matthew 28:1-10
Matthew’s Gospel account of the empty tomb and the encounter with the Resurrected Lord that we have just proclaimed includes a detail that grounds the truth and power of the Resurrection of the Lord in reality: “Jesus met [the women] on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.” Why did they embrace his feet? The feet are the parts of the body closest to the ground. As we recall, it was the feet of the Apostles that were washed on Holy Thursday. Feet ground a human being in reality. Feet represent the human condition, never totally clean, highly sensitive and always in need of cleansing. Today’s actions by the women in the Gospel reveal that in Jesus, our human condition is redeemed and cleansed.
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Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday
May 11, 2025
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Acts 13:14,43-52
Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5
Revelation 7:9, 14b-17
John 10:27-30
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one”.
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Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
Pastoral Visit to the Dominican Sisters
May 5, 2024
Blessed Imelda Convent
Fort Worth, Texas
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Psalm 98: 1, 2-3, 3-4
I John 4:7-10
John 15:9-17
The readings that the Church offers us in today’s liturgy center on authentic love and friendship. It is unconditional love that is the way that “the Lord has revealed to the nations His saving power” as we prayed in the 98th Psalm as our responsorial psalm. In our second reading and our Gospel for today’s liturgy the word love appears eighteen times. The type of love that is mentioned is known as agape or charity. It is not mere human love or affection. It is stronger than marital or familial love. It is the type of love that only God can instill because it is the very life of the Holy Trinity. It is this type of love that the Incarnation of Christ makes a capacity of human love and that which the Holy Spirit imbues in us as the theological virtue of charity at our Baptism and Confirmation.
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Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Sacrament of Confirmation
April 28, 2024
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
Windthorst, Texas
Acts 9:26-31
Psalm 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
I John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8
The Acts of the Apostles tells us today about Saint Paul’s entry into the Church. Three years after the Lord had appeared to him on the road to Damascus, Paul presented himself to the disciples in Jerusalem. But his reputation as Saul the enemy of the Church had preceded him, and the leaders had trouble believing that he had changed from persecuting the Church to being its defender.
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Life on the Chrism Trail 
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