Too Stubborn to Quit. Homily for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time November 16, 2025 The California coast was blanketed in fog July 4, 1952. Twenty-one miles to the west, on Catalina Island, Florence Chadwick, a 34-year-old-long-distance-swimmer, waded in to the water and began swimming toward the California coast. She had already conquered the English Channel, swimming in both directions. Now she was determined to be the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel. As the hours ticked off, Chadwick fought bone-chilling cold, dense fog, and sharks. Several times, sharks had to be driven off by rifles. Fatigue never set in, but the icy water numbed her to the point of exhaustion. Straining to make out the shore through her swimmer’s goggles, she could see only a dense fog. She knew she could not go any farther. Although not a quitter, Chadwick shouted to her trainer and her mother in the boat and asked to be taken out of the water. They urged her not to give up, but when she looked toward the California coast, all she could see was thick fog. So after fifteen hours and fifty-five minutes of fighting the elements, she was hauled from the channel into the boat. Frozen to the bone and her spirit defeated, Chadwick was devastated when she discovered she was only a half-mile from the coast! She felt the shock of failure…. Two months later, Chadwick swam that same channel, and again fog clouded her vision, but this time she swam with her faith intact—that somewhere behind that fog was land. This time she succeeded. Not only was she the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, but she beat the men’s record by two hours. A line from this story that struck me was: “this time she swam with her faith intact.” Florence Chadwick was able to persevere to her goal because she believed she could do it. In today’s gospel passage, Jesus speaks about the challenges and threats that will be faced by the first disciples when they go out into the world and start proclaiming the message. He doesn’t mince words or paint a rosy picture. Tough times of suffering will come. But then he adds, “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” In reflecting on this teaching, I was reminded of another Bible story. The disciples are in a boat crossing a lake. Jesus had stayed behind to spend some time in prayer. Then, late at night, he comes toward them, walking on the water. The disciples are frightened, thinking they’re seeing a ghost. Jesus tries to reassure them, when Simon Peter yells, “Lord, if it is really you, command that I walk on the water toward you.” Jesus invites him to do so, and Peter steps out of the boat and actually walks on the water toward Jesus. But then, he looks down and notices the threatening situation he is in. And he begins to sink. Jesus has to fish him out of the water and get him back into the boat (Cf. Matthew 14:22-33). What makes the difference? As long as Peter keeps his eyes on Jesus, he can do the seemingly impossible. When he focuses on the threat, he sinks. We find something similar in the writings of St. Paul. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he writes, “You know that while all the runners in the stadium take part in the race, the award goes to one man. In that case, run so as to win! Athletes deny themselves all sorts of things. They do this to win a crown of leaves that withers, but we a crown that is imperishable. I do not run like a man who loses sight of the finish line…” (1 Cor 9:24-26). So, when we have to face difficulties, when we live in hard times, when we feel left out or let down, how are we supposed to keep going? Florence Chadwick failed when she couldn’t see the finish line. When she found faith withing herself again, she was able to go back and reach her goal. Peter was even able to walk on water, but only as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. And Paul writes that he has been able to keep going, even while facing all sorts of hardships, because he has never lost sight of the goal. When facing challenges, a stubborn faith is required; perseverance is needed. It’s very easy to give up, to call it quits, to feel that there’s no way to face all the problems that pile up. We don’t have to face life’s challenges alone. Jesus is with us. And he asks us to be there for each other. He asks us to persevere, to have faith, to be too stubborn to quit.

The Holy Presence of God Homily for the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica November 9, 2025 Once, a parish priest climbed way up in the church’s steeple to be nearer to God. He wanted to hand down God’s Word to his parishioners, like Moses of old, who had brought the Ten Commandments down from the mountaintop. Then, one day he indeed thought he heard God say something. The priest cried out aloud from the steeple, “Where are you, Lord? I can’t seem to hear your voice clearly.” And the Lord replied, “I’m down here among my people. Where are you?” Today, we’re celebrating the dedication of a special church, the church of St. John Lateran. What makes this church unique is that for many centuries it has been the cathedral, or the official church, of the bishop of Rome, the Holy Father. So, in our readings we find a focus on buildings that were signs of God’s presence. In Ezekiel, life-giving water is flowing from the temple, making the earth fertile and fruitful for the people. In the second reading Paul talks about himself, as well as those who came after him, as builders of God’s building, with a solid foundation. But then he teaches that the people are actually what God is building. Each person has the Spirit of God dwelling in him or her. That makes each of us, and all of us together, holy. God’s not off somewhere in holy isolation. God is down here—in us, and with us, and among us. In the gospel we find two temples, two signs of God’s presence among the people. The first is the magnificent building, the temple which was the sign of God’s presence in Israel, the special place where they could focus their worship and offer their sacrifices to God. But we have a second “temple” in this gospel—in this case, not a building or a sign or a symbol, but Jesus, the Son of God, God come to earth to be among the people. The clue to help us understand this is Jesus’ statement: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” In other words, put me to death on Good Friday, and on Easter Sunday I will rise from the dead! God among the people, watering, teaching, nurturing, not just for this life, but for life eternal. So, we’re celebrating church today, in all its manifestations and meanings. A building that is the sacred place of encounter with the divine. A community that is sacred because God dwells in each and in all of us. And Jesus Christ, the foundation, the very life-giving presence. Let me end with a story. Many years ago, when I was studying to become a priest, I heard about a priest who some years before was the head of a seminary. During the season of Lent one year, he examined his conscience and decided that, once and for all, he wanted to give up smoking. He knew this would be hard, so he brought the Eucharist into his office. Being a humble man, he didn’t tell anybody what he had planned. One day, a visitor came to see the priest, and he started to light up a cigarette. The priest became outraged, and he yelled at the visitor, “How dare you smoke in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament?” The visitor ran out of the office, believing the priest had gone mad, thinking he was the Blessed Sacrament. Well, that crazy story has stayed with me over the years, and I’ve thought about it in relation to how I treat people. If God’s Spirit dwells in each of us, if each of us is a holy temple, then that means I should treat everyone as if they are, in a sense, a blessed sacrament, a person created in God’s image, and having a spark of the divine within them. If God is down here, in, with and among us, even in those I find it difficult to love, how dare I treat anybody as if they have no dignity or worth?