Fr. Samuel Keyes

[This is a minor revision of a homily first preached in 2023] As St. Luke tells the story, the disciples have precious little time with the risen Jesus. They encounter the empty tomb. Shortly thereafter, as we hear this morning, a couple of other disciples encounter a stranger on the road to Emmaus who speaks to them for several hours; only in “the breaking of the bread” do they at last recognize their beloved rabbi Jesus. And he at once disappears again. The disciples in Jerusalem hear of...

The Good Shepherd images in the gospel are always a bit disorienting to modern western ears, because we are accustomed to a rather different pattern of sheepherding. Strangely enough, this distinction is on full display in the charming 1995 film Babe, where a little pig learns to direct sheep not by the scare tactics, biting and driving of a sheepdog, but by polite instruction and friendship. Perhaps this should be a mandatory training video for new bishops. In any case this much is true: in...

April 5, 2026 Many parents of young children get tired of hearing “they grow up so fast,” or worse, “treasure every moment,” those sentimental comments from well-meaning folks piling fuel onto the fires of parental anxiety. I know I hated hearing those things in the early years of our family. Maybe I’m just not a very nice person. But this sentimentality has a certain truthfulness that takes on a harder edge as we all get older, which is less about savoring the moment — something almost...