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.
The line that divides noble ambitions from selfish ambitions is very thin. One has to really be very honest and be aware of desires and innermost workings of his heart.
The bond that we have with God, our Father, the experience of faith and love that ultimately leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven, is what we Christians call religion. That is why we cannot understand people who use violence to further their religion.
A class of high school seniors were talking about their desired careers. Each one expressed his desire to be a doctor, a teacher, an engineer, a priest, a politician, a soldier, and so on. Each one also justified his choice of profession “in order to serve the people.” The teacher then turned to a little boy in Grade One who was listening, “And what would you want to be?” The boy right away shouted, “ I want to be the People because everybody wants to serve me.&rdquo
Synopsis: Our obligation is to love our patients, not for our sake, but for theirs, to care for them even when they cannot thank us or when they are not apparently aware of us. Our duty is to make them as comfortable as possible.
What is interesting is that the Second Reading locates the source of the social disorder not in the structure of government or in political mechanisms, but in the disordered passions of individual persons. One of the most wonderful characteristics of the child is “openness”. A child is open to learn and obey. It is only later on, in adulthood, that some people will make the decision to close themselves, because they have decided that they want to “feel” a certain way, that pleasure is more important than truth, that feeling emotionally comfortable is more important than the continual improvement of one’s character.
Then there is a moment of respite in the story of conflict between good and evil and our sinful passions which reap a whirlwind of death and disease. You would think that divorce, Aids, sexually transmitted diseases and the psychological wounds of contraception, abortion and sterilization would be enough to dissuade us from such conduct. But in that moment, Jesus takes "a child . . . places it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me'."
Our text contrasts a false self-seeking "wisdom" with "wisdom from above" that leads to good relationships. The whole letter of James focuses on right behavior, and says little about Jesus by name. But in light of traditions about wisdom in the Hebrew scriptures that Christians used to speak about Jesus, we can see the letter's encouragement to live with wisdom as another way of speaking about following Jesus.