Tag: confession

A Body Made Real: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
2nd Sunday of Easter, B                                                                                  April 7, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/w5q5Gk1QIFI Does it sound like a cult to you? When you hear that first reading describing the early Christian church, perhaps everyone being “of one heart and mind” sounds a bit like not letting people think for themselves. Perhaps having “everything in common” and no one claiming “any of his possessions [as] his own” sounds a bit like a hippy commune. Perhaps letting the Apostles distribute wealth “to each according to need” sounds a bit like giving the leaders too much power and...Read More

Do I Will It? Homily for the 6th Sunday OT, 2024

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6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                     February 11, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/lOVg2MYP1SY “I do will it. Be made clean.” Jesus means it. And this man is right, Jesus can do whatever he wills because he is God. So, why aren’t we clean? Because, even though God wills it, we don’t. I’m not talking about leprosy, of course. We have that cure already. We know that God does not always heal diseases. Here, though, scripture is using leprosy as a metaphor for sin. Don’t get me wrong, Jesus did heal this man of a real biological disease....Read More

What Is There to Lose? Homily for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                   September 17, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/KZvkzZgueNM There’s no clever twist here. Jesus’ point is pretty straightforward: forgive other people or you will not be forgiven. And if we aren’t forgiven, we go to Hell. Jesus uses the number seventy-seven as a symbolic number that means “as many times as it takes.” Forgiving people is hard and it’s harder the more they hurt you. But Jesus doesn’t offer exceptions. Forgive or you will not be forgiven. To understand why, we have to get our first principles right, the...Read More

How They Love One Another: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Easter

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2nd Sunday of Easter, A                                                                                             April 15, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/tz51ynvOa84 “See how they love one another.” That was the phrase most commonly used to explain why people were converting to Christianity in the ancient world. Not “see how clever they are” or “see how successful they are,” or “see how pretty their buildings are,” but “see how they love one another.” Our first reading gives us a glimpse of this. Starting with Advent, the Church has taken us through all of salvation history: creation, fall, promise of redemption, the old covenants, the...Read More

Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent: What We Eat

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1st Sunday Lent, A                                                                                          February 26, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/d16N75iYsrY Why does eating a piece of fruit condemn all of humanity to death and destruction? Why does it matter so much what we eat? Well, if someone is hanging from a cliff by a rope, ask them why it would matter if you cut that rope. The poetic language of the creation story talks about fruit and trees, but it’s really conveying to us our place in the universe. Adam and Eve had no say in how gravity works, how the chemical...Read More

Homily for Christmas: The Sudden Arrival of Hope

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Christmas                                                                                                        December 25, 2022Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/Gs6_kJf5w6k Allow me to tell you a story… a parable of sorts. Sometime in the past, there once was a man with his daughter. A loving father, a devoted daughter. Living in Australia in its early days, they were both eager to discover what life was like in the old world. After a careless choice by the daughter on the journey, they were separated. Each knowing that the other would not turn back, they resolved to continue the journey, hoping to be reunited along the way. So...Read More

Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King: Justice and Mercy

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Christ the King, C                                                                                           November 20, 2022Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/0oCRms2gkmw “We have been condemned justly.” Have we? Since the beginning of the Church, there have been those who keep coming back to the same error, the same mistake: the idea that our condemnation isn’t really just, that damnation just can’t be real. There are a lot of subtle and clever arguments to support the idea that everyone goes to heaven – we call it universalism – but it seems to me there is always something beneath the surface…...Read More

Homily for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Faith That Saves

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28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, C                                                                   October 9, 2022Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/asAMCTLUiWI “Your faith has saved you.” Has it? Has your faith saved you? Maybe that’s a strange question for Catholics to hear, reminiscent of the protestant who inquires “have you been saved?” And yet, it is a worthy question. The fact that Jesus says it to some and not to others leaves us wondering what is the fate of those who have not been told this. Just last week we considered what faith is and isn’t, acknowledging that...Read More

Homily for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time: What Faith Isn’t

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27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, C                                                                   October 2, 2022Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/LlcdLUKsOB4 It’s not just willpower, you know. Faith is not stirring up some kind interior resolve to summon mystical powers and do the impossible. When Jesus gives this example of the mustard seed moving the mulberry tree, he doesn’t mean that if you dig down enough and just believe in yourself, you can levitate giant trees into the ocean. You see, faith is not just willpower or self-confidence. Faith is a virtue. Now, I say that – “faith...Read More

Homily for the Ascension: Advancing the Kingdom of Heaven

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Ascension, C                                                                                                               May 29, 2022Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/HMLIPbQGB1I Where did he go? Jesus is “lifted up” in the first reading until a cloud takes him from sight. The Gospel tells us he “was taken up to heaven.” So, do we believe that heaven is up there, in the clouds somewhere? Did Jesus go up like a rocket ship into outer space until he reached some distant planet where heaven is? Of course not. But to this day, we talk about heaven as being “above” us and...Read More