κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

Because You, You possess my inner being and character, You have woven me in the womb of my mother. I will be brought to a thankful confession on account of this: Because I have been fearfully and wonderfully set apart. Your works are leaving us in wonder, and my whole being continues to know it very well (vv 13-14). [Introduction] Brothers and sisters in Christ, today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Therefore, I am going to talk to you about life ... not only life that begins at conception, but life to its fullest ... life in the womb, life of the vulnerable, life of the aged, life to its natural end ... your life, my life, our life with God and our life together. To diminish the value of one category of life is to diminish all life; it is against the fifth commandment.  Part of the miracle of life is the God-given capacity for men and women to be fruitful and to multiply. By procreating, you and I participate in and reflect God’s own creative nature.  He made me, and he ma...

[Introduction] There are not many events in the ministry of Jesus that are more striking ... more defining ... than the Baptism of Our Lord. That’s because Baptism of Jesus shows us who God is. As Matthew writes, after receiving baptism, Jesus immediately went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending, as if a dove, upon him, and behold, a voice out of heaven saying, This One is My Son, the Beloved One, in whom I delight (vv 16-17). Though he had become one with mankind when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary ... though Simeon recognized that he had seen God’s salvation when he held Jesus in his arms ... we would not have known ... nor could we have known ... who he really was until this moment, his baptism.  Not even John the Baptizer, who leapt in his mother’s womb when he heard the greeting of the mother of God (Lk 1:41), knew who Jesus was until he saw the Trinity in Unity and Unity in...