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.
In August 1976, I thought the end of the world has come with the great earthquake and the accompanying tsunami that killed thousands in our area of the country. It was midnight when we awoke to a loud rushing sound that accompanied the quake. The moon was red as we ran out of our rooms and clung to the big pine trees for protection.
Whether this world will end with a great deluge or a great fire we do not know. Scientific theories abound and they make their way into the creative imagination of movie producers and writers. Predictions have been made as to the exact day or hour. Since the invention of the nuclear bomb, we have come to the awareness that such cataclysm is within our human powers. We are capable of destroying this world many times over. The issue of global warming is not just a theory. Now we see clear signs that it is indeed happening.
Do we recognize the signs of tribulation' in our time - rampant obesity, coronary angina, diabetes, sexually transmitted viruses and AIDS? We treat their symptoms - infection, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness and acid reflux - with drugs and medications rather than their possibly underlying vices, gluttony, lust and sloth? Greed, pride, envy and anger, what are their symptoms? Is anyone angry at me for mentioning this?
Those who love evil are absolute egoists who feed off of the adulation and praise of others, so they carefully fabricate a façade, a false self that is very likeable. But if we were to get a glimpse of what is underneath, we’d be horrified. But the wise shall shine brightly, because they are completely unstained, like crystal, pure and emptied of self-love, and so the divine light can penetrate right through them.
These passages, remote as they may seem to modern and postmodern ears, reflect a reality about the human condition that speaks as insistently to us, today, as it did to the early church finding its identity in Christ.