Here I have put together a selection of homilies. The Word of God is ‘alive and active’ says the Letter to the Hebrews. That is not to say that it lives a hidden organic life we can trace through a microscope, as if it were a virus; but that it is inspired, a bearer of God’s eternal Spirit. Therefore it resounds to this day with quite as much force as when it was first spoken. It ever has something new to say. The preacher’s first task is to listen intently to this Word at once ancient and new, then to make his own, necessarily limited words its vehicles. I have not been able to provide translations of texts in other languages; but if you rummage around a little you will find a fair amount of material in English.
The rainbow God set as the sign of his covenant, a sign no lesser cause can usurp, indicates an economy of mercy, for God will henceforth leave the world undestroyed. It also indicates an economy of patience, for in a post-diluvian world man must bear the brunt of his choices.
Continue reading Affirming our mortality, we embrace our limitation. We own that, despite occasional lapses of delusion, we know we are not God.
Continue reading We might be tempted to try a Marxist reading of our passage from Job, and say, ‘Haha - here is proof of alienation from life-activity even in Biblical times, proof of man reduced to a cog in the wheel of a structure that exploits him — live the Revolution!’ And we'd miss the point.
Continue reading If we stay faithful to our call, we too, shall by grace be a sign to the nations, a sign of hope and direction our disoriented times need badly as they hurtle ever further off the rails.
Continue reading Do we feed ourselves and others on solid food or on milky mush? One quickly tires of mush, which can hardly be said to anticipate the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
Continue reading It is a gigantic and tragic paradox that the celebration of such noble legislation coincides this year with a motion for a new abortion law whose predictable finality is the elimination of, precisely 'the poor and disadvantaged in society' before they have even seen the light of day, that we might forget all about their existence.
Continue reading With increasing frequency we hear the word 'truth' used with a first-person singular possessive pronoun - even university presidents can be found to speak in earnest about 'my truth'. It is agreeable to behold the world in this light; if truth is mine, it follows that I am always right.
Continue reading In the Church we transcend time. We must always be mindful of this.
Continue reading The sanctuary where Samuel heard his call was not a fervent junior seminary. It was a tepid, lurid scene, a place void of conviction, an accusation against itself for failing to live up to its objective.
Continue reading Structures and institutions fall. What remains is the Word proclaimed in the night by a star.
Continue reading No child belongs to its father or mother; it is entrusted to them; but has its own integrity from conception. It is God's gift.
Continue reading Rightly understood, the Word of God is the paradigm by which all things are judged, the cornerstone that is at the same time a stumbling-block for unbelievers.
Continue reading Emmanuel, God-with-us, would use us to cleanse this world with water, oil, and fire, then spread abroad his sweet perfume. The grace of Christmas is anchored in history but nonetheless points forwards to a new heaven, a new earth.
Continue reading Only one who knows himself carried by an all-powerful benevolence can say, 'I know neither who I am nor what I shall become, but I know that I am loved'. That is the only remedy for ills whose deepest root is perhaps not so much ideology as despair.
Continue reading En dom i bibelsk språk er ikke et juryutsagn rettet mot en anklaget forbryter; dommen går ut på at ting fremstår slik de er. Det skjulte blottlegges på godt og ondt.
Continue reading While the sweet-smelling incense rises, we call upon the Holy Spirit, 'the Comforter, the Spirit of wisdom and prudence, of knowledge and piety, of the fear of God'. This monastic church, drawn by sturdy architects from Trondheim, is no longer, then, a mere building - it will have become a sacramental reality, the tabernacle of divine presence, a concrete epiclesis.
Continue reading As long as I consider myself the hapless victim of the ravages of others, of life, or of God in his heaven, I never take my future into my hands; somehow I'll never be my own life's acting subject. There is a risk that I'll gather bitter grapes even from good vines - so let's beware.
Continue reading These days there is a tendency to cardamomify the Christian proclamation. We might profitably note how demanding the Church herself is when, through the liturgy, she shows us what we believe and what we are called to become.
Continue reading Our world is set on a course that madly resists the good and true, bent on obliterating God. Wherever God’s grace makes its presence felt, it encounters resistance, even violence.
Continue reading What we celebrate today is the triumph of hope. Even the dead who, at their passing, were unprepared to meet their Maker are covered by the mantle of his mercy.
Continue reading By our prayer and sacrifice we can bring effective consolation to brothers in tribulation, who may not be able to pray themselves, being overwhelmed. This touches the heart of the communion of saints - we bear one another's burdens in a communion that defies time and space in all-encompassing fellowship.
Continue reading To be in love is to idealise the beloved while at the same time finding ourselves idealised. It is a most agreeable sensation.
Continue reading In day-to-day speech, when we say of someone, ‘He (or she) is very zealous’, we shudder a bit. The zealous person is officious and singleminded to the point of obsession, having little time for the sensibilities of others - to live alongside zealots can be an ordeal.
Continue reading History progresses towards a fulfilment. God uses the processes of history and man's free choices, choices often ignobly and selfishly motivated, to further in the long term his design - our salvation, the establishment of God's kingdom whose birth pangs darkly immerse us.
Continue reading What's it supposed to mean that Noah, after the flood, planted vines, not cabbage? That man refuses to accept the world as merely a vale of tears, a wilderness of thistles to be conquered in the sweat of his brow - that within us there's remembrance of a more harmonious earth, created for delight.
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