Spirit Juice is proud to present Reel Homilies from Father Tim Anastos, associate chaplain of the St. John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois-Chicago. In these minute-long reflections, Father Tim will unpack the Sunday Gospel readings through the lenses of Church tradition, pop culture, and self-improvement. We hope these reflections serve to inspire your own thoughts on the Gospel and bring you closer to Christ…as well as bring a smile to your face.
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Gate To Heaven
So, at the end of your life, you get to the gates of heaven, and the person guarding the gates of heaven, either St. Peter or Morgan Freeman, asks you, “Why should I let you into heaven?” And we could have so many answers, like ” because I’m awesome,” ” because I gave much money to the poor,” ” because I went to mass every Sunday,” or “I’m not Voldemort.” We can give many good answers…
The Supreme Gift
I don’t know if you’re like me, but every time I see a baby, I only want to hold and squeeze it because it’s so cute. Maybe that makes me weird. What this is called is the positive feedback loop. When we hold or care for an infant child, it releases oxytocin. It’s written in our biology that babies are cute. The gospel for this Sunday is intense, but it is all about the preciousness of children, and the Catholic…
Dump The Garbage
Do you know who the unsung heroes of our society are? Garbage men. They do everything that we do not want to do. Garbage men and women, we salute you. In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus speaks about Gehenna. Gehenna also means hell. But Jesus uses the word Gehenna because Gehenna was the area of Jerusalem that was the garbage dump, and Jews were not allowed to go there. Jesus is…
Keep It Simple
A couple of weeks ago, a student approached me after mass and told me, “Hey, Father, you’re homily today. It has many overly complicated words. Next time, make it simpler.” And then they left, and then I cried myself to sleep. A lot of the time, we overcomplicate things. All we have to do is make things simple. This is precisely what the apostles do in the gospel for this Sunday. Jesus told the…
Fr. Flanagan
Okay, guys, we are going to the movies. Spirit Juice Studios has created this original content, a film about Father Flanagan, an absolute rockstar priest and up for canonization. Father Flanagan dedicated his life to protecting children and providing for them, especially those who were orphans and disadvantaged from every race and religion, and he gave of himself totally for them. This is a fantastic…
Embracing Shame
Defensiveness, denial, rationalization, avoidance. What do these things have in common? It’s what we do when we avoid shame. None of us like to experience shame. None of us like to experience suffering. And we love to avoid. We love to deny. We love to distract ourselves because shame does not feel good. Here is the gospel, though, where Saint Peter does the same thing. He tells Jesus…
Voice of God
Okay, guys, you have to check out this photo. This photo was taken in 1974 of a little boy named Harold. Harold could not hear anything, so doctors placed a hearing aid in his ear, which is the reaction of Harold hearing sound for the first time. And this picture is so moving, but what we hear in the gospel for this Sunday is even more moving and more incredible. Jesus Christ takes a deaf man away from the crowd…
The Right Ambition
Elon Musk, Simone Biles, Dwayne ‘The Rock, Johnson, Mulan, Tony Stark. What do all of these people have in common? Ambition. They have this drive to be great. In the gospel for this Sunday, James and John, the Sons of Thunder, have ambition. All they want to do is sit on Jesus’s right and left and be the most awesome. And the crazy thing is Jesus doesn’t take that away from them. Jesus…