Mass chat: Sometimes I don't understand the homilies ...

This beautiful icon was drawn by Tony Rezk.

Nothing was said at Mass about the Coptic martyrs.

Sometimes I wonder if the homily is more a prepared, obligatory address, an assignment similar to writing a paper on a theme, based on the readings of course - yet cleverly inserting some relevant tie-in with an issue the listeners can identify with.   Studied, prepared, delivered according to the ordinary form within the allotted time frame.  Cut and paste.  Finished and ready to be delivered - no matter what.

Sample assignment:  Compare Christ in the desert/wilderness to ... saving the wilderness and tie it all together with this and that verse about rainbows?  

I'm just not sure ... and I was so lost.

All I could think about during the homily was 21 Christian men beheaded on a beach in Libya.  All I could think about was their families, their faith, their courage ... Their cry, "Jesus save me!"  Did the martyrs see Him as St. Steven did at the moment he gave up his spirit?  Did they suffer much?  Does it hurt to have your throat slit?  A lot?  At what point do you die?  I kept thinking and praying for them and with them and for their families.  What if it happened here?  What would I do?  How could I withstand such an assault?  Is my faith real?  Do I have such charity, such love to surrender my soul as these men did?  What must I do?  

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All I'm saying is, try to make your homilies real - try to talk about Jesus and the shedding of His blood and what is happening to Christians - NOW.  In the early Church the early fathers exhorted the Christians to martyrdom - they taught how to prepare for martyrdom.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to criticize or complain ...

I can't stop thinking of the martyrs.  There are Christians right now in real deserts, real wilderness: desert refugee camps, arid prisons, sexual enslavement, some lost at sea attempting to flee their homeland.

We are now living in an actual passion-tide of blood...

The Libyan beach.