Archives: Sermons

4-23-23 Misericordias Domini

April 23, 2023
This Sunday our Easter joy continues. Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). The reading fits well with this resurrection theme, because Jesus reveals to us the nature of His life and His relation to death. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. This is…

4-16-23 Quasimodo Geniti

April 16, 2023
Alleluia! Christ is risen! As soon as He rises from the dead Jesus offers the forgiveness of sins. He could offer anything. I suppose more people would come to Him if He offered something else. They ran after Him when He healed diseases or fed them with bread and fish. And Lord now over everything – that’s what He says about Himself, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me,” think…

4-9-23 The Resurrection of Our Lord

April 9, 2023
Alleluia! Christ is risen. Our Lord Jesus compares the Kingdom of heaven to a man who finds a precious treasure in a field, and he goes and he sells all he has to buy that field, because everything else has suddenly become nothing in comparison with that treasure. So St. Paul when he was traveling to Damascus and the risen Lord Jesus appeared to him on the road, he found such a treasure. He wasn’t…

4-7-23 Good Friday

April 7, 2023
“For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.” Thus the Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah. “For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.” For your transgressions Jesus was stricken. Think of that. Atoning for sin was no light matter. Satisfying the wrath of God was no light matter. The Father in heaven is not overreacting when He drives the crown of thorns into His Son’s head, when He flogs His Son repeatedly…

4-6-23 Maundy Thursday

April 6, 2023
Paul’s passionate defense of the Gospel ends with a passionate appeal to love one another. Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Do good to all, especially those of the household of faith. There were those who accused Paul of preaching against good works, against love, because he insisted that our good works and our love don’t save us. It happens every time you faithfully preach the Gospel. It happened to…

4-2-23 Passion Sunday

April 2, 2023
The image of the passion of Jesus has become so common among us that we can pass by it, hear about it, talk about it with no feeling. You can literally sit down, as I did yesterday morning, and read through St. Matthew’s passion without shedding a tear, without any deep feelings of emotion, of guilt or of joy or of gratefulness. We can just pass by the crucifix, a gruesome picture: look at it,…

3-26-23 Judica

March 26, 2023
The last two weeks of Lent are called Passiontide, which means suffering-time. This little two-week season begins today. From now until Good Friday our meditation on the Word of God is largely a meditation on the sufferings of Christ. In the Gospel reading for today we heard Jesus suffering slander. We picked up partway through John 8. You might wonder, “What did Jesus say that got the people so upset?” He had told them, “If…

3-19-23 Laetare

March 19, 2023
The feeding of the five thousand is Jesus’ great miracle. It is the one recorded in all four gospels. It is the one witnessed by the most people. We call it the feeding of the five thousand, but that was just the men, including women and children the number was tens of thousands, especially if families like mine were there. It is also the miracle that is most obviously a sign, most obviously meant to…

3-12-23 Oculi

March 12, 2023
The proverb says, “Where there are no oxen, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox." I’ve applied this to my house lately, “Where there are no children, the house is clean, but much increase comes from the presence of children.” It’s true, the more activity going on, the more messes you’re going to have. It’s just the way it is, things don’t get done without making messes. Ask…

3-5-23 Reminiscere

March 5, 2023
The mother knows her daughter has a demon. It doesn’t matter what exactly the demon is doing to the poor girl – we’re not told that – what matters is that it’s a demon doing it. So the woman doesn’t run to a doctor or a shrink or a pill. She needs Jesus, needs divine help, because her daughter is oppressed by hell. This is a view of the world that our time needs to…
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