Lifeissues is mainly concerned with publishing thoughtful articles directly related to issues raised in Evangelium Vitae. However, from the very beginning, we have also published a few related homilies, notably by Fr. Al Cariño, O.M.I., Fr. Tony Pueyo, and others.
Please use the pulldowns below to select a homily by Liturgical Calendar date.
We should remember that conversion is not the strong reaction that we may feel when we hear a preacher who attracts and dazzles with his or her emotional and ardent words. Christian conversion is conversion to the person of Jesus.
Sin is real. We only have to look at the sufferings and misery we cause one another. How can one deny the reality of sin in the face of bodies mangled by war? How can one deny sin when thousands of children end up in pornography and other forms of sex trade?
We are bound to repeat history if we have not learned our lessons from it. How can there be social renewal if we deny the need for it? When there is no admission of wrongdoing, then there can be no repentance. How can we be sorry for sins which we do not admit we have ever committed?
Friendships are always based on common qualities: we are drawn to those of like character. That's why Christ feeds us with the bread of adversity, so that we can become more like him, so that we will have a greater and more intense friendship with him in eternity. He delights when we call out to him in a spirit of poverty and faith. What he sees is the development of a friend that he will have for all eternity.
Today's reading comes from the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark. If you haven't read the Gospels before, Mark is a good one to start with, in part because it gets to the point so quickly.
The famous story of a great flood and Noah's ark reveals a God who is so determined to rescue humanity from itself and from evil that nothing is too radical to consider, including a changing of the divine mind. This same redemptive God later smashes precedent and expectations again at Easter -- and today wants to rescue us, too.