Foot-washer

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062826.cfm Today, I am going to preach about an incredible religious experience that Kate and I had while visiting Peru ten years ago.  I am going to start by speaking about the Peruvian custom of mummifying the dead that was practiced during the Incan Empire before the Spanish conquistadors arrived.  I will then apply those customs to Christian beliefs about the resurrection, okay? Got that: Peru, mummies, resurrection.  Here we go. Most of us learned about mummies when we studied ancient Egypt as kids.   You can go to the Louisville Science Center and see a couple of examples on display here in town.  But the Egyptians are only the most famous of dozens of cultures that mummified their dead.   In the days of the Inca Empire (the 1400s) in what is now Peru, the Incan emperors were believed to be descendants of the sun god Inti.  When they died, the emperors were taken up t...

Corpus Christi Sunday https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060224.cfm This summer, the Olympics games will be held in Paris, France, and there is good news from the City of Light, the exterior of the Cathedral of Notre Dame will be restored in time for the games. You may remember that five years ago, on April 15, 2019, a massive fire engulfed the historic church. As onlookers watched, it appeared as if this famous 800-year-old church, a symbol of France and one of the greatest churches in the world, was going to be gone forever. It is truly remarkable that Notre Dame survived and has been repaired. I want to take us back to that day five years ago what the church was ablaze. On the scene was Paris’ famous fire brigade, which is actually a unit of army. They rushed into the church to try to control the fire and save some of the treasures inside. It was a hellscape inside. Father Jean-Marc Fournier, the priest-chaplain, described the interior. He said, “A rain of fire was fa...