Father George William Rutler Homilies

29 March 2020 The Fifth Sunday of Lent NOTE: Due to the Covid19 / Coronavirus Emergency the Archdiocese of New York has cancelled all public Masses for an indefinite period. The homily attached hereto was given on 2 April 2017, the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A, using the same Readings as for today, 29 March 2020. John 9:1-45 + Homily 19 Minutes 49 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032920.cfm http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032920.cfm (New American...

9 February 2020 The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Matthew 5:13-16 + Homily 14 Minutes 11 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/020920.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: Luke the Evangelist is the patron saint of artists because he paints pictures with words. In describing the scene of old Simeon in the Temple encountering Jesus, Luke wrote that he “took him up in his arms” (Luke 2:28). That word picture of an old man...

26 January 2020 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Matthew 4:12-23 + Homily 19 Minutes 56 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012620.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: Precisely one year ago in the Italian town of Cremona, there was an imposed silence by order of the local government for eight hours a day, six days of the week for five straight weeks. The purpose was to allow the pristine recording by highly technical...

19 January 2020 The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time John 1:29-34 + Homily 14 Minutes 13 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011920.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: I knew an elderly Scotswoman who read the Bible each night by the light of a candle. It had become a kind of ritual, for everyone needs a rite, including those reared in the stark Calvinist kind of worship of her homeland Kirk. While she did all of her other...

12 January 2020 The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord Matthew 3:13-17 + Homily 16 Minutes 0 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011220.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: Prophets proclaim the truth, and they predict the future only in a derivative sense of cautioning about the consequences of denying the truth. Thus, the Church distinguishes between holy prophesying and sinful fortune-telling. There is a “psychic” near our...

5 January 2020 The Epiphany of the Lord Matthew 2:1-12 + Homily 17 Minutes 25 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/010520.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: Who the “Wise Men” were is a recurring question for inventive debate, but the point is that these sophisticated scholars were from “a foreign country.” Here in Manhattan, tourists can be annoying when they stop suddenly to look at a novel sight. But they also do us...

8 December 2019 The Second Sunday of Advent Matthew 3:1-12 + Homily 20 Minutes 22 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/120819.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: Of the “Four Last Things,” the Second Sunday of Advent treats Judgment. While it is superficially pious to ask, “Who am I to judge?” this has nothing to do with our Lord’s admonition: “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1). Christians are obliged to...

10 November 2019 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 20:7-38 + Homily 18 Minutes 49 Seconds Note: Due to technical difficulties today's homily was not recorded. This homily is from 2016 using the same text for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Link to today's Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111019.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: Life in New York City can be hard for anyone who has difficulty accommodating paradoxes. For instance, the...

3 November 2019 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 19:1-10 + Homily 17 Minutes 45 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110319.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: A 1973 film directed by Orson Welles was about forgers, and it turned out to be something of a forgery itself. Some of the information in “F for Fake” was itself faked. Later on, Welles claimed that this was deliberately done as a kind of joke, and he took to...

27 October 2019 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 18:9-14 + Homily 16 Minutes 56 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102719.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: If “religio” is translated as being bound to a particular outlook on life, then everyone is religious. The saints simply have bound themselves to true religion. Today that is a socially unacceptable assertion, but “political correctness” is itself a form of...

20 October 2019 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 18:1-8 + Homily 16 Minutes 35 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102019.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: Last week’s canonization of Saint John Henry Newman will have universal influences that I trust will include our own parish. It should be remembered that his achievements, for the most part, hardly seemed successful at the time. He might even be called a patron saint...

13 October 2019 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Canonization of Saint John Henry Newman Luke 17:11-19 + Homily 18 Minutes 58 Seconds Link to the Readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101319.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: Over forty years ago, I told a wise Protestant theologian that I had been reading the Apologia pro Vita Sua of John Henry Newman (1801-1890). He warned me that it is “a dangerous book.” That was just the sort of advice that...

6 October 2019 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 17:5-10 + Homily 16 Minutes 28 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100619.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: At the start of October, life in Manhattan recovers from those late September weeks when the opening of the United Nations General Assembly ties up traffic, even blocking many streets, and takes over many hotels and clubs for expensive receptions—some of the...

29 September 2019 Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels John 1:47-51 + Homily 18 Minutes 37 Seconds From the parish bulletin: In thinking of angels, you need humility, for a couple of reasons. First of all, a cynical culture mocks anyone who believes that angels exist in any way that is real rather than sentimental. Secondly, since angels, who were created before humans, are intelligent beyond any material measurement, that means they are smarter than any human. And...

22 September 2019 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 8:16-18 + Homily 19 Minutes 40 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092319.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: As with quotations that are variously attributed, journalists including Charles Anderson Dana of the “New York Tribune” and John B. Bogart of the “New York Sun” are said to have coined the aphorism: “‘Dog bites man’ does not make the news, but ‘Man bites dog’...

15 September 2019 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 15:1-32 + Homily 18 Minutes 44 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091519.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: From time to time someone will remark that our national flag hanging from the choir loft appears to be faded. It is actually in good condition, but the white stripes are printed with the names of those who were killed in the attack on our nation on September 11,...

8 September 2019 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 14:25-33 + Homily 14 Minutes 53 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/090819.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: It is gratifying each week to hear from many friends of the parish across our country and abroad, bringing to mind the words of John Wesley: “The whole world is my parish.” That can be said ever more fervently by any pastor, for each parish is a microcosm of the...

25 August 2019 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 13:22-30 + Homily 16 Minutes 2 Seconds Link to the Readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082519.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: The weekly column “From the Pastor” continues on hiatus for the remainder of the month of August while regular activities continue as usual, enlivened by the welcome visits of increasing numbers of tourists. Since there is a gratifyingly large number of readers who...

18 August 2019 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 12:49-53 + Homily 16 Minutes 29 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081819.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin: It is customary in our parish that the weekly column “From the Pastor” be suspended during the weeks of August, while the regular schedule of activities continues as usual. Summer also occasions the welcome visits of an increasing number of tourists. Since there is...

15 August 2019 Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Luke 1:39-56 + Homily 16 Minutes 54 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081519-day.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition)