Wednesday’s Wink from Above 02-04-2026 [Homily Cycle A 02-01-2026 Offered at OLPH]

 

 

Homily Cycle A 02-01-2026 Offered at OLPH

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020126.cfm

Zephaniah instructs us to “Seek the Lord…. Seek justice, seek humility.” And St. Paul reminds us that “God chose the foolish … the weak and the lowly [and that we] … should only boast in the Lord.”

A few months ago Fr. Murphy was walking down the main street in his little town outside of Dublin when he saw the Lord, Jesus Himself walking toward him. He panicked and took out his cell phone, called Pope Leo, to his surprise he got right through to Pope told him what was happening and asked Pope Leo “what should I do?”

The Pope said, “Look Busy!”

Our Gospel is about being busy “listening to the Lord” and doing God’s work in building up THE KINGDOM. Today we are called to the Mountain, the one that Jesus called His listeners to 2000 years ago. Sometime today gaze at South Mountain [in Bethlehem, PA]and imagine walking up it to listen to Jesus. He calls us [as He did them] to make the Beatitudes the center of our lives. What anxiety, what need, what prayer, what emptiness will you give to Jesus to lift off your shoulders as He blesses you?

Picture a dusty mountain in Galilee, where the sun baked the earth & hope felt as scarce as shade, where fisherman, carpenters, field workers, homemakers, servants, day laborers & others were searching for the answers to life’s questions. Some were comfortable, but most were struggling. For them and for us there are bills, mortgages and taxes to pay, mouths to feed, violence on the streets, and in the world. There are many in need of the essentials of life, food, housing, safety.

Blessed? Who can call this life blessed?                                        

Our Catechism [#2546] offers us this profound insight, “The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom already belongs.” Pope Francis put it this way,“The word blessed…. Is like a refrain reminding us of the Lord’s call to advance together with Him on a road which, for all its many challenges, leads to true happiness.” Many years ago Jesus spoke God’s Word and His fame spread like wildfire, even though there were no TV broadcasts, no Social Media, no Newspapers [paper or electronic].

The teaching of Jesus of Nazareth called the people of His time and of our time to live the way God created us to live. A life to honor & love God.

Today we join the crowd as they climb up the rocky path and we pray for our nation for civil discourse, the restoration of  trust in our government, but most importantly for the courage to follow Jesus faithfully and fully. We pray for our world, our families and ourselves. Jesus sat like a rabbi of old, His disciples close, the air filled with anticipation & curiosity, His eyes fixed on the hearts and burdens of the weary crowd in front of Him, BUT, also on each one of us today. You and I are called to listen to Jesus and allow His Words to lead us to True happiness, True blessedness. The Beatitudes are a way of life, where our burdens, hardships & crosses flow into eternal blessings.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart and [in our time] the peacemakers. If we live the Beatitudes we will experience insult & persecution because of Jesus but He assures us we will “rejoice and be glad for our reward will be great in heaven.” For a few minutes think about how you will respond to Jesus call to live the Beatitudes.

May God Be Blessed.

Wednesday’s Wink from Above 01-28-2026 [Homily Cycle A 01-25-2026 Prepared for OLPH blocked by Mother Nature]

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012526.cfm

The writer, Mark Laidlow said adding one short phrase to the second sentence of any book would increase readership, & intensify the intrigue in the work. [#Laidlowsrule]

Listen to the first verse from today’s reading from Isaiah using  Mark’s suggestion, “First the Lord degraded the land of Zebulin and the land of Naphtali ” And then the murders began ….”

Wow what a difference! Laidlaw’s recommendation certainly intensifies the intrigue, BUT our Reading from Isaiah produces its own intrigue & interest because in Isaiah we heard  people are walking in darkness.

St. Paul asks us if we are following Christ or someone/something else? Then Jesus calls us to Repent & Follow Him.

Interesting & Intriguing.

What does that mean?

We need the Lord’s Light to shine more brightly in our world. A world increasingly darkened by selfishness, greed & other sins. In our Responsorial Psalm, we prayed “the Lord is my light & my salvation.”

Is the Lord your top priority; Is He your salvation & your light?

The Gospel reminds us that the Lord calls us to follow Him & make Him the center of our lives. The gifts, the talents God has bestowed on us; are to be used to build-up THE Kingdom. Most of us have very ordinary gifts  we are here on earth to use them to build-up THE Kingdom.

Maybe this story, “The Wedding Gift,” can help us understand. Among the many gifts Brandon & Kathy Gunn received at their wedding was a white box from Kathy's Aunt Alison. The card on the box read, “Do not open until first argument.” Sure enough, there were moments of tension & disagreement, but Brandon & Kathy didn’t open the gift… they believed that their love for one another could handle whatever life threw at them. 

The white box became a challenge.

In May they celebrated their ninth anniversary, [now the parents of two children] & they decided to open Aunt Alison's box…. What they found…was ordinary some money for: flowers, pizza, a bottle of wine, nothing that could really end a fight at all, just bring a moment to stop & regroup.

The real gift, the priceless gift, had been staring at them all along. 

By not turning to the box, Brandon & Kathy were forced to learn tolerance, compromise, patience, learning to listen to each other, learning from St. Francis de Sales that, “The measure of love is to love without measure.”

That was the real gift. 

They realized that the challenge is to allow God's grace to guide them. [Adopted from Connections, January 15, 2017]

Isaiah pointing to the darkness &  reminds us of the Light. Take your belief in God’s Grace & God’s Light & carve it into your heart, your soul, your entire being. Make that belief the focus of your life in the darkness of our times.

The focus of Peter, Andrew, James & John’s life was to follow Jesus do we follow Jesus in our life? We just celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. day.

Two months before he was assassinated, he preached about his funeral eulogy, let me share a few excerpts from that sermon, “I'd like someone to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others., that he tried to love somebody.

I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry… to clothe those who were naked… to visit those in prison… that I tried to love & serve humanity." He concluded with these words: I “… want to leave a committed life behind."  [www.Sermons.com]

Ordinary Time gives us a chance to reflect on our eulogy, on our life. Take a few minutes to reflect on what you are really committed too.

May God Be Praised!

 

Wednesday’s Wink from Above Homily Cycle II 01-13-2026 Offered at OLPH

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011326.cfm

Our readings from Scriptures today point us to prayer; we are called to live a life of prayer.

In our Responsorial Psalm we prayed. “My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.”

Do our hearts really exalt in the Lord?

Jesus speaks & acts with authority, no surprise there [for us] but for those in the synagogue it was “astonishing.”

Jesus is true God & true man therefore His healing of the man points to life not death.

His authority points to saving and restoring us to full life in God.

Today spend some time reflecting on the Our Father, in particular, our promise, “Thy will be done.”

“Thy will be done” should be our focus in Ordinary time, there is nothing ordinary about doing God’s Will.

May God Be Praised.

 

Wednesday’s Wink from Above 01-14-2026

 

Ordinary time invites us to reflect on a simple but profound question, “Why are we here?” and “What does it mean to be a Catholic?”

Those questions are an excellent way to for us to ponder this “Ordinary” Season [liturgically in the Church], which is anything like ordinary in the way we commonly think about ordinary.

“Why are we here?”

“For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  [Ephesians 2: 10]

St. Francis de Sales offers us this insight, “Be who you are and be that well to give honor to the master craftsman’s whose handiwork you are.” He also, helps us with these insights, “Holiness is a divine-human adventure: it was God who entered human history and it is He who leads people into His own proper into His own proper life.”

“… holiness is neither the simple result of human effort nor is it the automatic result  of a ‘grace’ from out of the blue.  A combination of both is needed: God’s gratuitous gift and free human cooperation with that gift.” [The Spirituality of Francis de Sales, A Way of Life, p.10 & p.12]

You and I are called to be Saints - - that is the goal of Christian life.  de Sales said, “Saints are people who do ordinary, extraordinarily well.” “There’s more to get thrilled about in the ordinary than the extraordinary.”  [Colors, “Time Well Spent”]

What does it mean to be a Catholic?

“To be Catholic is to see the world as a place of meaning & of hope; a place created by God,                                 

it is to know that each individual is called to flourish in that world & to make a positive contribution to the common good, it is to be content in the knowledge that we have the real possibility of divine destiny.                                                   

To be Catholic is to be a person of hope & of vision, a person who sees meaning in life in this world & promise beyond.”  [Fr. Michael Hayes]

So, we are here to honor God as a person of vision & hope, knowing that God has made us & calls us to be with Him; Ordinary stuff of each day we are here.

 

May God Be Praised.

 

Wednesday’s Wink from Above 01-07-2026

 

Homily Cycle A 12-25-2025 Offered at OLPH [Readings from Midnight Mass]]

The Prophet Isaiah tells us, our Savior will bring Light into the darkness of our world. He will be called Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father Forever, Prince of Peace. In the Letter to Titus we heard that “The grace of God appeared in Jesus Christ.”

The story about Mary and Joseph searching for a place to stay is a familiar one at Christmas time. Let me share with you a beautiful twist on that story.

The annual Christmas play was being practiced. Johnny was big for his age--seven years old. Everyone wondered what role the teacher would give him in the annual Christmas pageant. The teacher gave Johnny the role of the Innkeeper, he was delighted and had one line: "There is no room in the Inn."

The evening of the pageant was finally here, the auditorium was filled. The children entered singing "Oh come all ye faithful" then came Mary & Joseph who walked up to the Inn. "Please sir, my wife is great with child. May we have a room for the night?"

Johnny was ready he began, "There is" but then he hesitated. He regained his composure and started [again] “There is” he hesitated. Joseph improvised and started walking away toward the stable. Johnny, also, improvised & called out: "Look, there's plenty of room at my house, just come on home with me." [Adopted and modified from Sermons.com, "No Room in the Inn"] The audience was delighted with this twist on the familiar story.

"There is no room in the Inn," recurred throughout Jesus' ministry in many different ways.

The question for us is, will there ever be any room for him?

Is there room for Christ in the Inn of our lives?

Is the room we offer our Savior a stable or our entire life: heart, soul, will and actions?

In our secular culture Christmas ends today but not in our Church.

We join the shepherds, unworthy but welcome guests to the great mystery of pure love among us. In the Creed we will pray  we acknowledge Jesus as true man and true God, fully human and fully God. Howard Thurman illuminates the real message of Christmas.

“When the song of the angels is stilled,

when the star in the sky is gone,

when the kings and princes are home,

when the shepherds are back with their flocks,

the work of Christmas begins:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among the people,

to make music in the heart.” [Howard Thurman, an African-American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader]

During Advent we prepared for today “THE SAVIOR’S BIRTH” and now we reminded to live for Him:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken,

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among the people,

to make music in the heart.

For a few minutes reflect on how we  will do our Christmas work.

May God Be Praised.