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.
A painter who was looking for a model of a young man who is Christ-like, one who exudes life in a state of grace. He found his model and he painted him. A few years later, he was searching for another model. He was looking for a man who shows the face of a sinner and is damned in hell. Going through the crime-laden section of the city streets he finally found a man who was willing to pose for a fee. When the painting was done, the man turned to the painter with tears in his eyes and told him. 'I was the young man you painted years ago.'
Our union with God is not in our blood lines, our "corruptible" sin-prone bodies - which are doomed to decay "unto dust we shall return". Our relationship with God resides in his grace only. We should hate what severs our relationship with God including our biological relationships with mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and siblings. There is no heaven in "the desires of the flesh" in the world. Saint Paul knew this well. At one point, he was so exasperated with his conflict of body and soul that he declared, "would someone rid me of this body of death in me."
Paul had a difficult letter to write to Philemon, and today that letter about an escaped slave can provoke debate in the United States, where slavery is automatically associated with race. And while slavery is in our past, it created injustices that persist. Christians can influence the way society deals with those injustices by being a community that really displays the love of Christ.