An incomplete homily for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020 (September 13). This would have been my first homily, but I abandoned it for being too dark for my inaugural. The story about my friend and the skull is a bit... much. Maybe I will find the right audience or work it in some place else. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091320.cfm In the first reading, we hear Joshua Ben Sirach say, “remember death and decay, and cease from sin!” This is a repeated line in this unfamiliar Wisdom Book of the Hebrew Scriptures. Elsewhere Sirach writes, “In whatever you do, remember your last days and you will never sin” (7:36). Saint Benedict, the famous monk, was probably inspired by this line in his Rule. He poignantly wrote, “Keep death daily before your eyes” (4:47). I know a man who lived as a monk in Rome for several years. One day several of his monastic brothers were digging in the monastery’s garden when they ...
These posts are the collected homilies of Deacon Ned Berghausen, permanent deacon of the Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, assigned to St. Agnes Catholic Church. The title "Foot Washer" refers to the Last Supper (John 13:1-20) in which Jesus washed the feet of the apostles and challenged them, "“Do you realize what I have done for you? If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow."