Jesus calls us to delighted following – Mark 10:46-52

OT Yr B, Wk 30; Farley Hall (ND).  Welcoming the students back after Fall Break.

Like most of you, I was away this past week; and like many of you, I did a lot of driving.  As my friend and I drove up through West Virginia and Ohio yesterday, we passed a convoy of station wagons with Indiana license plates, being driven by college-student-aged-looking drivers.  We were pretty sure: this is the CSC Appalachia service trip making its way home.  It was a nice reminder of where we were going, and who we were going there with.  We were on the way, and so were they.

God fills us to overflowing – Mark 10:17-27, Heb 4:12-13

OT Yr B, Week 28; Farley Hall (ND).  My first attempt at a dialogue homily at a Sunday Mass.

I’m sure you all know that something big happened on campus this weekend.  Something that attracting big media attention, filled the social networks.  I’m talking of course, about the announcement that the optimistic lifestyle brand “Life is Good” has teamed up with Notre Dame to offer the brand’s first collegiate licensed apparel.  That’s right, as of next week, you can may 11 varieties of men’s and women’s shirts featuring the words “Life is Good” and your choice of interlocking ND monogram, or cute leprechaun.

Jesus brings us back to God’s creative love – Mark 10:2-12

OT Yr B, Wk 27; Duncan Hall (Notre Dame)

“Go back to the beginning… how did this all start?”  When something that was meant to be wonderful starts to taste bitter, that can be just the question to ask.  What was it that so exited me and led me to begin this course of study, to play on this team, to take this job… to marry this person?  How can I bring that initial fervor to life again, in the more mature way that’s needed to deal with our more seasoned problems or our creeping ennui?

God can heal us through anyone – Mark 9:38-48, Num 11:25-29

OT Yr B, Wk 26; Walsh Hall (ND).

There isn’t really a good transition from plucking eyes out to anything else, so I won’t try.  But, I’m not going to start by preaching about eye-plucking.  I’m not going to ignore that bit like it’s some kind of a dead letter, but let me start somewhere else, and then we’ll get there. 

Jesus embraces us – Mark 9:30-37, James 3:16-4:3

OT Yr B, Wk 25; slight variants preached at two different Masses at Notre Dame this weekend.

There’s a puzzle that British newspapers like to publish called ‘spot the ball.’  They’ll take a photo of a moment in a soccer match, use computer wizardry to render the ball invisible and invite readers to reconstruct where it must be.  It sometimes takes some thought, but it’s an eminently doable puzzle, because all the action really is revolving around the ball; everyone on the pitch treats it as the most important object in the world and focuses their action around it.  It’s the same when someone really important, really valued, really great is walking somewhere.  Maybe we see it on campus on weekends like this, or we’ve all seen media images of a rap star or president walking surrounded by their entourage.  They’re surrounded, in the center, all conversations and interactions are rooted around the great one in their midst.

God gives us goodness – Mark 7:1-23, James 1:17-27

22nd Sunday in OT, Yr B; Walsh Hall, University of Notre Dame.

Many great actors say that they relish playing villains.  Some stories create much of their delight and intrigue by making us root against someone.  If you come out of the movie theater feeling sorry for Scar, or thinking that Darth Vader wasn’t such a bad egg after all, you’ve kind of missed the point of those movies.  But that way of engaging narrative, seeking out the baddies… that can lead us dangerously astray when we apply it to the gospels, or to our day-to-day lives for that matter.  Because if you look at this gospel trying to find the hero, that’s clear and right; we find Jesus.  But if we look for the villains, we’d be tempted to find the Pharisees and scribes.  We’d start to read this thinking that Jesus is out to vanquish them, and miss his will to save them.  And we’d start to think that we need to distance ourselves from them, because they might defile us… too much contact with them might make us impure.  And then the gospel turns its head on us, on the judgments that rise up within us, and Jesus would sadly smile at us and tell us, “No, nothing that comes from outside can defile.”

God enlivens our relationships with love – Eph 5:2a, 25-32

Ordinary Time, Yr B, Wk 21.  Notre Dame, Badin Hall.

I seem to have an odd track record of readings about marriage coming up at Masses I celebrate in very different contexts.  We’re here, about to begin a new school year at Notre Dame, and one comes up.  Just a few months ago, on June 6^th, I presided at 8^th grade graduation Mass at the parish where I was serving before I came here, and the first reading was another marriage reading.  It was from the book of Tobit, a depiction of parental pride at children growing up and marrying.  And it worked pretty well for 8^th grade graduation.  Certainly, there was a lot of parental pride, even though none of these kids had gotten married.  But, praying as I prepared myself to preach at that occasion, I started thinking about what marriage really is.  Marriage is a totally human relationship that is blessed to show the world something of what God’s love for us looks like.  And the kids we were graduating had entered into relationships like that; they’d entered into authentic, maturing friendships.  I’d marveled often as I saw their love, their mutual challenge, and their forgiveness when things went wrong, and genuinely seen God’s love.  And, at their graduation, I felt some pride, marveled in gratitude, thanked them, and encouraged them to keep on loving like that.