Saints & Feasts Homilies Podcast By Fr. Michael Black cover art

Saints & Feasts Homilies

Saints & Feasts Homilies

By: Fr. Michael Black
Listen for free

Saints & Feasts Homilies delivers Catholic reflections tied to the yearly cycle of Catholic Masses and rooted in the deepest of deep traditions.Copyright Fr. Michael Black Christianity Ministry & Evangelism Spirituality
Episodes
  • 3-22-26: 5th Sunday of Lent Readings & Homily

    3-22-26: 5th Sunday of Lent Readings & Homily
    Mar 22 2026
    A Reading from the Book of EzekielThus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD. The Word of the Lord Responsorial Psalm R. (7) With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption. Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; LORD, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication. R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption. If you, O LORD, mark iniquities, LORD, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered. R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption. I trust in the LORD; my soul trusts in his word. More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the LORD. R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption. For with the LORD is kindness and with him is plenteous redemption; And he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities. R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption. A Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans Brothers and sisters: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you. The Word of the LordA Reading from the Holy Gospel According to JohnNow a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.” So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.” When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.” As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her...
    Show more Show less
    21 mins
  • 3-22-26: 5th Sunday of Lent Homily

    3-22-26: 5th Sunday of Lent Homily
    Mar 22 2026
    5th Sunday of Lent 3-22-26 Year A On this fifth Sunday of Lent we hear the story of Lazarus. This is a story, not a parable, not a fable. It actually happened, in the town of Bethany, just a mile or two outside of Jerusalem. Jesus tells many parables during his public ministry, but he also performs many miracles. These miracles are not parables. Among His greatest miracles are three resuscitations. He raises the son of the widow of Nain from the dead and he raises the daughter of Jairus from the dead. And most incredibly, he raises Lazarus from the dead after he has been in a rock tomb for four days. This is Christ's miracle of miracles, one only surpassed by Christ raising himself from the dead after three days. The events we hear about today, a “sign” in the language of John’s gospel, directly precipitate Christ’s passion and death, which will take place in nearby Jerusalem shortly afterwards. The details of today’s gospel are interesting. Jesus receives the message that Lazarus is sick yet he remains for two days where he is with his disciples. Why does he stay two days? Why doesn't he hurry to the side of his friend who is sick? Because he wants the will of God to be manifested. He waits. He takes his time so that the natural course of events may be succeeded by the supernatural course of events. Only after he knows that Lazarus has died does he depart for Bethany. When Jesus arrives near Bethany he meets Martha and Mary, Lazarus' sisters, who question him and wonder why he did not come earlier “Lord if you had been here our brother would not have died.” Jesus shares their grief as they express this existential wonder. Where is God when someone is suffering? Where is God when somebody is about to die? People don't ask questions about God’s presence when someone wins the lottery. They don't wonder about the presence of God when they get a promotion at work. But we do ask about God when in the face of evil, in the face of wickedness. We want to know how bad things can happen when we’ve been told that God is so good. Jesus enters into the suffering of Martha and Mary in a deeply human and admirable way. It's easy to share joy. It requires nothing to bask in the sea of happiness at a crowded wedding reception. It's a joy to be joyful with the parents after a baby is born. But to share another’s grief is work, isn't it? When a friend is depressed, a sibling loses his or her job, or a colleague’s marriage fractures and they want to share their grief with us, it can be a challenge. Joy is naturally communal. Grief is deeply personal. Sorrow is just harder to share than joy. Jesus is empathetic. He feels and mirrors the sorrow of Martha and Mary because Lazarus was his friend too. It’s the family’s loss and His loss. And so the gospel tells us, in a very short verse, “Jesus wept.” A famous Hollywood movie might help us to re-imagine the story of Lazarus in a more modern and imaginative key. In the 1978 movie Superman with Christopher Reeve, Superman is emotionally very close to Lois Lane. Lois dies when an earthquake splits the earth and her car slowly sinks into a crevice. She struggles to escape but is suffocated by the earth spilling into her car. Superman is not there to save her. He is not at her side in her hour of need. He zooms through the sky to help her but arrives too late. He pulls her car from the crevice, removes her body, and gently lays Lois’ dead body on the dirt. He weeps. He is forlorn. If only he had been there. And then he does something only a man of his power could do. He rockets into outer space and undoes what has been done. He uncreates what has been created. He whips around the circumference of the globe with such speed and force that the world’s rotation reverses. And slowly the boulders climb back up the mountains. The large chunks of concrete of the Hoover dam reassemble themselves and the water reverses and crawls back into its lake. Superman reverses creation, and thus reverses time. The earthquake is undone. Time reverses as creation reverses. This imaginary episode is not totally crazy. The movie does not show Superman firing a supersonic laser to save Lois, or reaching into a special magic box, slipping through a black hole, or consulting universal psychic. He does something that seems to make some fanciful sense. To uncreate means to undo time. To go back in time means to restore a previous time. We believe that our God is outside of time. Our God is perfect and so is not subject to time. Time is a means for measuring change and change implies becoming better or becoming worse. Change implies more virtue or less virtue. More power or less power. But God can’t improve or decline, by definition. So there is no time where God is, which means that there is no clock in heaven. There is nothing to gauge in the land of God. God is Timeless, ...
    Show more Show less
    13 mins
  • 3-15-26: 4th Sunday of Lent Homily

    3-15-26: 4th Sunday of Lent Homily
    Mar 15 2026
    March 15, 2026: 4th Sunday of Lent Homily The Louvre museum in Paris is one of the most popular museums in the world and also one of the largest. Hidden down one of its endless hallways is a small room where a dark stone is on simple display. The stone is shaped a bit like a tombstone and it's about four feet high and three feet across. It’s called the Moabite Stone and has a deep connection to today's first reading. It was discovered in 1868 by a German missionary in the area east of the Dead Sea in modern- day Jordan. The stone dates from about 840 BC, meaning its ancient letters were chiseled into the basalt stone just 130 years or so after David died. Along with just a few other pieces of archeological evidence, the Moabite stone establishes a solid historical foundation upon which the biblical story of David firmly rests. This rock-like evidence provides a powerful counter argument to any argument that the Old Testament is a mere collection of fables. The Moabite Stone is of great interest for a number of reasons: It contains some of the earliest non-biblical references to the Kingdom of Israel; it specifically mentions the Jewish god “Yahweh” and that images of him were stolen by the Moabites; and it also references the House of David, which was established with his modest anointing in today's first reading at Mass. When does this anointing of David occur? Probably around the year 1,000 BC. We need a little bit of history to set the context. After returning from their long exile in Egypt the Jewish people slowly populated the land of Canaan, more or less the western part of the modern Middle East. They were for a few centuries governed by judges., These judges, or local leaders, were non dynastic, that is, their power and authority did not pass on to their heirs. Their authority was probably over just one or two tribes and often temporary. After perhaps 300 - 400 years of being ruled by judges, the Jews asked asked God to be ruled by a king since so many of the neighboring tribes had kings. So Saul is anointed by Samuel as the first king of Israel. The era of the judges comes to a close, and the Jews, at least the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, will be ruled by kings 586. At that point, the start of the Babylonian exile, the last king with the blood of David in his veins, named Zedekiah, is killed after being taken into exile. This is when the house of David ends. David serves for approximately 40 years as king, and dies around the year 970 BC. He is followed by his son Solomon. This chain of Saul-David-Solomon is the well-known but short-lived United Monarchy of the Jews which will fracture in the time of Solomon's sons. Why does the history of the Jewish people matter? Because the church matters. The Catholic church, in its theology, worship, sacraments, and structure, grows out of that ancient chosen people. If the church is the tree, then the Jews are the roots. We fulfill, and are fulfilling, the promises God made to the Jews without canceling that promise. God's new and eternal Covenant, as we say at the consecration at Mass, brings to greater fruition and universality the Old Covenant God made with the Patriarchs. Theology is not a ship in a bottle or a precious diamond resting under a glass canopy. Theology happens in history for a real religion. Real people. Real dates. Real places. Real events. No castles in the clouds for us. No cosmic dreamcatchers or “the force be with you.” We are rooted in historical truth. Notice in the reading how David is not the first choice of Samuel. His choice is Eliab, the oldest of Jesse’s sons. He is tall and of a fine appearance, while David is the youngest, not present, and busy working the herd. In other words, a good appearance does not always translate into competence or leadership abilities. We often universalize, instinctively, physical and personal gifts, thinking that they indicate skilled competence or somehow translate into other areas of life. But there is no intrinsic relationship between competence and charm or personal attractiveness or athletic skill. The Bible reiterates this lesson. The best leader might be the physically least impressive person. And why do the Jews want a king in the first place? Partly out of jealousy and partly out of a natural human instinct. They want a king because every group wants a good leader. The ship needs a captain, the platoon a lieutenant, the team a coach. Groups thrive under good leaders and do things they would never be able to do when governed by committe. And if that leader is chosen and anointed by God, all the better. The anointing of Saul and then David, in fact, become the model for the anointing which is part of the coronation ritual for all kings, even down to today in the western world. Kings in the middle ages were even thought to have the gift of healing ...
    Show more Show less
    9 mins
No reviews yet