3. A man of one sermon

     I am a man of one sermon.  In my homilies, I attempt to translate the implications of Jesus’ command, “Love one another as I have loved you,” into a practical spirituality.  And since I am compelled to live with intellectual integrity, my explorations of theological and philosophical issues are designed to show that the call to love intimately speaks for itself, timelessly.

     Through long experience, I have also become convinced that anyone who is committed to Jesus as the Wounded Healer and Tremendous Lover is also a person of one sermon.  And the gift of sharing community-life for the last five years with a confrere, Ralph Parthie, has helped me understand why.  Ralph’s one sermon is the proclamation of God’s all-inclusive love.

     The first time I voiced my summary of his one sermon, it seemed to me that Ralph took my remark as a declaration that he repeated himself.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Preachers who lack a moral center repeat themselves endlessly.  In marked contrast, each of Ralph’s homilies reveals sinful ways that I want to exclude some person from my life, whether it be a Pope whose writings and utterances proclaim an objective morality which I reject, a friar in my community, or a person who touches my life in ways that disturb my comfort zone.  And, more importantly, his positive proclamation of God’s all-inclusive love assures me of his loving presence when I dare to embark on a journey into the unknown in each encounter with another person.