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.
If you truly love someone who you see is suffering, you will want to share their suffering in some way. You will not allow them to suffer alone. To allow someone to suffer at a distance, without entering into his/her suffering in any way, is not love at all.
God could give us a free pass, but why would he? No value, no glory in that. Besides, we would be 'uneasy' among so many who made sacrifices for others and out of place in heaven. Easy come, easy go. Whatever our relationships, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins, employers, employees, friends, neighbors and strangers - our glory is serving others, not ourselves, both as benefactors and beneficiaries, all in one, in the sacrifices we make.
James and John ask Jesus to "do whatever they ask of him." Jesus uses their asking for places of honor in the kingdom as an opportunity to talk about true discipleship, which is seen not in positions of glory, but in places of service. Indeed, for followers of Christ, it is a "race to the bottom" - not seeking to be recognized so much as to be in service for God.
When disciples John and James asked Jesus to let them sit by his side once he occupies his heavenly throne, they received a pointed lesson in the real purpose of their lives and their calling as followers of the anointed one. The lesson, it turned out, had almost nothing to do with heaven.
To be alive to God, one has to be dead to the world. This is a basic principle of the spiritual life. The less one is dead to the world, the less that person is alive to God.