Showing posts with label CYCLE-A-2026. Show all posts

THE TWENTY EIGHTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

St. Matthew 22:1-14

Dear Friends, Today’s gospel highlights the call, the invitation to the heavenly wedding feast. In the Bible, the theme of the invitation or call is repeated often. Abraham is the first, then Moses, David and the prophets. In the New Testament it is Peter and the Apostles and finally, Paul.

We all join that very prestigious group in our own lives. We are invited to the wedding feast. All are honored guests with whom God will share the heavenly banquet. Everything is ready. Therefore, it is urgent that we attend to God's invitation and respond with hungry hearts right now. Otherwise, we will find ourselves outside looking in at the feast of our salvation. Today’s gospel message is clear. There are responsibilities with the divine invitation. The message of today's liturgy also challenges us about our attitudes and biases here and now.

Jesus’ invitation, like his life, is an unending, unmeasurable and relentless act of love. The feast that Jesus hosts is open to all at all times. Our task is simple yet profound. We need to recognize that accepting the invitation demands the wedding garment of living according to the gospel values. The wedding garment means producing good fruits of reconciliation, service, welcoming the stranger and all the demands of the gospel. These good fruits will ensure the believer’s place at the table.

The banquet is beyond anything one could imagine. It awaits our arrival. Our seat is reserved for eternity. The story of the wedding garment helps us to understand this reality. When God calls, and He does so often, we need to take action. We have to accept the message of Jesus. We want to make our yes express itself in a new way of living. The wedding garment is a witness to the gospel message. The demands of Jesus’ wisdom are not met by a token effort or just following the crowd. It demands a change of heart, a conversion meaning a radical change of values. Our invitation is a call to move away from the standards of the consumer world to the liberating message of the gospel. This is a life of simplicity and humility. This is a call of service to the least among us.

The wedding garment tells us that just showing up is not enough. We need a commitment that goes deeper. The fact is that God is never finished with us. God always wants more. The Christian life asks us to constantly choose Jesus who, indeed, is the wedding feast. The Christian life is never satisfied with just following the routine.

We need to work at reconciliation to keep on forgiving not just seven times but seventy times seven times. We need to hear the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth not with a casual effort but with true sacrifice and generosity. We need to be open to all, not just our parish or our group, but to the stranger and the ones that are different.

Jesus really meant it when He said if we want to save our life, we have to lose it. If we are to be the leader, we need to be the servant of all! He has loads more of these upsides down and inside out changes of reality that never let us forget to put on the wedding garment so necessary for the wedding feast. All of this is so because God’s love has no limits. God wants us to share in the fullness of the feast of that love. We must die relentlessly to our self-love. As always, we do this by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

Matthew 21:33-43

Dear Friends, Our liturgical year continues to move on. There is no stopping the clock. Our journey with the Gospel of Matthew is moving to its conclusion. In the next few Sundays, we will have selections that highlight two things: Jesus’ conflict with the Jewish leaders and His call to choose life in following in his footsteps.

Down through Church history these final chapters of Matthew have been distorted to produce an antisemitism that has been a dreadful distortion of the gospel. This misrepresentation of Jesus’ message has led to activities that have been abhorrently inhuman and unjust in the relations between Jews and Christians.

The basic message of the parable of the murderous tenants asks us to address the need to decide. Will we be stewards of the gifts that God has given us? Are we living the gospel message in our family? Are we contributing to our community to make it more life-giving to all? Are we responding to the call to act justly and be instruments of peace? Are we being responsible and not squandering the blessings of our environment?

Jesus demands a decision. Do we accept His call and the gift of unconditional love? Are we able to recognize that all of life is a gift to be cherished and developed? The call of stewardship asks us to recognize the dominion of God and our reality as finite creatures who are forgiven, gifted and loved.

Today's Gospel passage from Matthew points to the rejection of Jesus’ preaching by the leaders of Israel. But it also should raise the question for us. Does our way of life offer some kind of partnership with the murderous tenants? We can ask ourselves: what role does justice and righteousness play for us in the garden of our daily life? Matthew will point out in the famous passage chapter 25 about the “the least of my brothers and sisters". We are told that failing to feed the poor is the same as denying Christ himself. This lack of justice and concern for the poor is the opposite of giving life. This is the murder of the Son in our time. We are choosing death over life. The rejection of the owner’s Son was not the monopoly of the Jewish leaders. It continues down through history.

Our task is to be faithful workers in the vineyard of life. Today, this calls us to both concern for the poor and marginalized along with concern for God’s gift of creation. Both are victims of gross neglect. The poor are almost always the first victims of climate change and other abuses of nature.

As we are called to address these overwhelming issues we are called to accept the Son. It is Jesus who will guide us and direct us to the truth and freedom that is the true hunger in our hearts. Stewardship in the vineyard of life is made so much easier and so much clearer when we accept the Father’s gift, Jesus Christ.

We are not alone. God is always with us. We need to realize that our small personal efforts are important. They benefit society in a way most often hidden from us. Likewise, they lift our self-esteem, encouraging us to stay in the battle.

As we begin to understand the challenge to our environment, most of us will need to change our understanding about creation. The most common view of creation is that God created the world and it was good and that was it.

Our disengagement from Creation flows from this static view of creation. The reality, however, is that creation is dynamic. Creation is filled with God’s presence. Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ eloquent reflection on the the enviornmental crisis, speaks eloquently on this dynamic presence of God in creation. It states that violation of the natural environment is a direct affront to God. Stripping of forests and polluting the rivers, lakes and oceans are not neutral acts but direct violations of God’s presence and plan for creation. There is a plea for responsible participation with nature, not the violent denial of responsibility. This sin against the natural world is a sin against both ourselves and God.

The gospel message of Jesus frees us to see with both the eyes of the heart and the eyes of the mind. Jesus’ teachings encourage us to create the virtues to let us live responsibly with what we need, not with the desires coming from a multibillion-dollar advertising industry that engulfs our daily life with falsehoods. These are the first steps in a journey to help all of humankind live a productive, healthy and responsible life that respects and nourishes God’s gift of creation. When we begin to live this call to respect God’ creation, we will be choosing life for both ourselves and the poor.

Matthew 21:28-32

Dear Friends, Today’s events from Matthew emerge just after Jesus’s glorious entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The cleansing of the Temple escalates the already intense hostility between Jesus and the religious leaders. The impact of these events set the scene for even deeper conflict. With today’s parable of the two sons, Jesus is not subtle in accelerating the tension.

An important point to remember right at the beginning is that the order of the challenge to the two sons eliminates a strong prejudice held over the centuries that the people of Israel are the 1st son and the Church is the 2nd.This is not the case in this parable or any authentic Christan teaching. It is not a matter of chronology. What is at stake is something more profound and more permanent in the life of a believer: doing the will of the Father.

The contrary actions of the two sons highlighted in today’s parable point out the contradiction between the leaders’ program and the all-inclusive mercy of the God revealed by Jesus. Jesus’s point about the tax-collectors and prostitutes entering the kingdom before the chief priests and elders was intended as a challenge to those who thought themselves to be God’s chosen and, therefore, the favored sons and daughters. Later on, this was going to be a test for the Christian Jews to accept Gentiles into the early church. It also questions our acceptance of the ever-expanding invitation of the gospel for the supposed outcasts of our day in whatever manner they invade our complacency.

The parable is a vessel of self-awareness. It does not take much insight to see that we share the ambiguity of commitment that Jesus discloses in the two sons. The perennial fickleness of the human heart is never far from us. When it comes to true discipleship, doing takes priority over saying. There is no denying that we play the role of both sons at different times in our lives. The struggle for us is to constantly search for the singleness of purpose. We need to make our yes to God more faithful and more determined in our daily lives.

Jesus’s question, “Which of the two did the will of the father?” (Mt 21:31) is a challenge to the listeners and to us. He is asking which son is truly righteous? With whom do we identify?

A true spiritual life helps us come to grips with the problem of personal ambiguity. Prayer opens the eyes of heart to the experience of the Hound of Heaven. This is the beautiful poem revealing God’s grace in relentless pursuit of us in our perennial resistance to God’s call. God’s love continually seeks to make our yes ever more generous and consistent. Faithful and committed personal prayer lets us gradually grow in awareness of our personal ambiguity. God’s wondrous and merciful love is always present to us no matter the distractions, attachments or illusions of our fractured heart. We need to simply accept our poverty which enables us to respond to the unending call to new life. This is our yes to Jesus. This is our conversion. It is not a one-time event. It is an on-going process of a steady struggle to be faithful in commitment to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

It is especially fitting that we use our weekly presence at the Eucharist as a time of renewing our yes to God for the entire week. Our weekly encounter with the Eucharistic Christ is always preparing us for the special and, so often, surprising moments of grace that await us during the week.

As we get to know ourselves, we become more familiar with our tendency of self-deception. Our strongest inclinations are to work out a comfortable compromise where our yes is a minimum for God and a maximum for us. By faithfulness to prayer, we learn the geography of the human heart. We learn to identify the great chasm between the good intention in the mind and the lived reality. We learn that anyone who chooses to change their heart for the better, will be welcome into God's reign.

God is patient with us but just like the disciples, there comes a time we when must walk with Jesus to Jerusalem. It is in faithfulness to prayer that we will free us from a troubled heart caught in the enigma of commitment or self-indulgence. Faithfulness to Jesus leaves us with only one longing in our heart, a free and generous yes to the gospel message.

Matthew 20:1-16

Dear Friends, Each Sunday, in the readings of the Mass, we encounter the values of Jesus. We are told that the last shall be first, the leader is to be the servant of all, and we need to be the one who washes our neighbors’ feet. The response to violence is not revenge but to turn the other cheek. These are just a few of the of the truly demanding perspectives Jesus has for us.

In the parables, Jesus hopes to crumble our clear and confident grasp our daily reality. Our commonsense mentality of how we think that things really are, cannot stand up to the power and wisdom of Jesus’ parables.

We're invited to the wonder of God's mercy in today's gospel and in the first reading from Deuteron Isaiah. Without this quality of God's mercy, our situation would be helpless and hopeless. God's mercy is without condition or limit. The main message for us in our confusion about the all-day workers is this. I will never earn God's mercy.

The key to understanding this parable and our deep feelings of injustice is this: a message is about the Kingdom of heaven telling us that we can begin early or we can begin late. It makes no difference. We can never enter into the Kingdom by ourselves. It is a total gift of God's mercy. Generous mercy on God's part is the only pathway into the Kingdom of heaven.

It is obvious that today’s parable is a shocker. Our immediate response is, “No way!” How can the “dawn to dusk” workers not complain about the inequality of the “one hour crew” for getting equal pay?

In all the parables, Jesus is setting us up for change. He is inviting us into a new world of God’s generosity. When it comes to justice and mercy, we use the teaspoon to work at the right measurement. Jesus is teaching us that God’s mercy and justice are more truly portrayed like a torrential downpour where there is neither instrument of measurement nor limits on the outpouring of love.

No doubt, Matthew understood our extraordinarily strong tendency to measure God by our limited standards. We are naturally inclined to have God see things as we see them. God, in fact, has a different mode of operation. God reaches out to all, deserving and undeserving. For us, it is just a person butting in at the front of the line. God sees if this individual is one who is late for “happy hour” leading to a night of self- indulgence or a husband rushing his wife to the delivery room or a thousand other variations on the motive.

Isaiah (55:7-9) tells us: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my thoughts above your thoughts.”

The entire gospel message of Jesus is one relentless attack on our deeply rooted self-centered approach to reality. The parable of the Generous Landlord is just one more invitation for us to see and embrace the new world that Jesus offers to us.

A few years back I had a singular encounter with the reality of Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard.

I was asked to visit a young man who was paralyzed from the shoulders down. He was the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting. Naturally, I felt quite apprehensive because I had little in my arsenal of pastoral advice that made any sense in this situation.

Immediately, the young man put me at ease. He shared the story of how some of the other, more veteran victims of a similar condition had ministered to him to cast away despair and call him to embrace life. He shared how grateful he was to be alive, to be able to see his daughter, even to enjoy the Lakers championship! His cousin was killed at the same time of his tragedy, and he shared his sorrow for the family.

If ever there was a “dawn to dusk” worker in the circumstances of life, I was in the presence of it in the paralyzed young man. There was no pity party for the injustice of life though the whole rehabilitation hospital was filled with victims of life’s arbitrariness.

Our encounter with Jesus’ parable invites us to appreciate the giftedness of life that finds most of us in the “one hour crew” even though we imagine we have been in the vineyard of life for many long hours. Jesus wants to provoke us to count our blessings with new eyes and an open heart. The merger of God’s justice and mercy is always in our midst. Our task is to grow in an awareness of God’s overwhelming goodness and not be blinded by the passing burdens of our daily life.

Matthew 18:15-21

Dear Friends, Today’s message of forgiveness and reconciliation is part of a special section (Mt 18:1-35) on the church as a community. The membership of the Christian community is made up of flawed human beings. There is a great need to heal the ever-present differences and conflicts that arise. Jesus presents a program of deep insight and wisdom.

When the conflict happens, Jesus asks us to approach it with humility and a heart open to radical forgiveness. Recall the advice from the Sermon on the Mount (Mt.5-7). There are all kinds of teachings about forgiveness and reconciliation. One relevant one in today’s case is, “Remove the wooden beam from your eye first, then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.” (Mt 7:5)

Secondly, Jesus advises us to bring the conflict or hurt out into the open, into the light of day. Going in love and vulnerability to the one who offends helps us to see another point of view. Often, we see that there are not just two sides to every story. Sometimes there are six or seven ways to interpret the reality.

When we need to correct another, the key is love. Only love can open the closed mind and the closed heart. Emotional ambushes with high-minded correction and painful admonitions seldom open the door for reconciliation. Love is the pathway to healing and to the truth that sets us all free.

Jesus’ teaching is to keep us from the trap of being the victim. The victim seeks to divide not to heal. When we are the victim, we escalate the problem by telling others how we have been hurt. In this way we further disrupt the community. What we are really doing is seeking power to control others.

Jesus asks us to involve others in a totally different way. Only after we have personally sought reconciliation, then we involve one or two others in a positive way. The goal is not punishment and control but forgiveness and compassion.

This is the stuff of the gospel. Jesus precedes this lesson with the story of the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine to go after the lost sheep. He follows it up by answering Peter’s question of how many times we need to forgive. Jesus says we are not to forgive only seven times but seventy times seven which means without limit.

Nevertheless, Jesus also teaches us that till the end we will have the weeds among the wheat. For the sake of community, it may be necessary to remove an unrepentant one from the community. But even in this case, we should continue to be open, and where possible, seek reconciliation.

Finally, Jesus teaches us to bring it all to prayer. As my very good friend St. Teresa of Avila teaches us, one of the great gifts of prayer is self-knowledge. It is with this gift that we can approach life in community with deeper humility and greater openness not to be the first one to cast the stone! (Jn 8:7)

Matthew 16: 21-27

Dear Friends, In the beginning of the Gospel of John we have the heart of God’s plan of salvation. The world-shattering proclamation, “The Word became flesh.” (Jn 1:14) is God’s plan. This is how Jesus accepted the call to save the world. Becoming flesh was not an isolated event. It is in accepting the totality of His humanity that we were to be saved. This meant Jesus accepted all of us as we are. He embraced all of us in our broken and sinful condition as part of His reality. For Jesus, this meant an encounter with evil that would lead to his Passion and Death.

So, when Jesus named Peter as the rock upon which He would build His Church, He accepted Peter, and all of us, His followers, as we are: defective and in need of being fixed. This is why it is so difficult for us to understand the Church. It is a home for sinners in need of healing, a home for the broken and lost in need of wholeness and new direction.

In Mattheew’s passage today, Jesus tells Peter, and all of us, His chosen way of salvation. He was going to restore the world by entering into the pain and suffering of our truly flawed humanity to heal it from within. The suffering and death of Jesus are the ultimate consequences of “the Word became flesh.” (Jn 1:14)

Peter could not handle Jesus’ words about the cross and rejection, denial and death. Most likely, he had great difficulty in the potential loss of personal power and prestige along with the unthinkable invitation to take up his cross. Peter was shocked by Jesus’ new direction, a way Peter surely had not anticipated nor desired. Jesus was replacing the popular expectation of military might and privileged prosperity and power for God’s Chosen People. Now Peter was confronted with the cross and loss of his comfort and convenience. So, he did what we have been doing throughout the history of Christianity, making Jesus over in our image rather than accepting God at his Word which is Jesus in the flesh. Only in Jesus do we have a real expression of God’s plan of salvation.

The command of Jesus is very forthright, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Mt 16:18) Peter had just been called “rock” but now he had become a stumbling block.

At one level Jesus is rejecting Peter’s misguided statement. On another level, it is a message of forgiveness. Jesus is telling him to get behind him and be a faithful disciple by following Jeus. Even though Jesus is very clear in His rejection, He still trusts Peter and forgives him.

Jesus understood clearly that discipleship is a process, most often a long and arduous process of trial and error. This experience of Peter is one of many events where Jesus is patient, kind and understanding with Peter as He is to us as we so often flounder on the road to Jerusalem.

Today’s announcement of the Jerusalem journey leading to rejection, suffering and death is the first of three such proclamations in the next few chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. In each episode the disciples totally miss the point.

We continue the difficult task of accepting Jesus on His terms and not our terms. The Church is always in the struggle of searching for the integrity of the gospel message. We are never far from the temptation to tell Jesus how to do it our way just as Peter did. We continue to live with false expectations of having this perfect community and a problem-free personal life to carry on the ministry of the Gospel. We find it hard to accept that Jesus has fully embraced us in our brokenness and confusion. He has chosen us as the vessels of clay that we are to proclaim and celebrate the gospel message.

We cannot stand the sex scandal, the clericalism, the anti-women expressions of the Vatican officials, the distorted wealth and you name it. The Church can be truly agonizing with so much clarity in its documents and such mediocrity in its reality. Yet, these very same failings are always mixed with the incredible faithfulness of so many families working against all odds, good priests trying their best, women religious continuing to be quiet and hidden heroes of the Gospel, the silent and loving suffering of so many hidden lives. The weeds and wheat will be with us to the end.

Jesus wants us to be open to the mystery of the Incarnation. We need to accept each other in our brokenness just as Jesus did when He became flesh. Paul expresses the wonder of this event in his great hymn in the letter to the Philippians:

Though He was in the form of God,

Jesus did not deem equality with God

something to be grasped at.

Rather, He emptied Himself

And took the form of a slave being born in the likeness of men

He was known to be of human estate,

And it was thus that He humbled Himself,

Obediently accepting even death,

Death on a cross! (PHI 2:6-8)

Matthew 16:13-20

Dear Friends, Peter had quite a journey from the time Jesus asked him to leave his boat and nets and follow Him. He saw it all: the blind seeing, the lame walking, the devils cast out, the loaves and the fish and, of course, his short, ill-fated attempt to walk on the water and a lot more. Now Jesus asks the question, “Who do you say I am?” (Mt 16:15)

Peter was ready, or at least he thought so. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Mt 16:16)

Peter got it right. Jesus says, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my heavenly Father.” (Mt 16:17)

But once again, Peter was that profoundly human expression of the weeds and the wheat, a mixture of generosity and hard-headedness. In the following paragraph that is next Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus puts Peter down with the powerful phrase, “Get behind me Satan!” (Mt. 16:23)

Peter thought he had arrived, but Jesus had to give him the tough love to let him know they were only half way there. Peter had to change. He had to get to know Jesus as the one on the road to Jerusalem, a suffering and rejected Messiah. Peter had to die to his dreams of power, prestige and privilege.

We all have to face the same struggle when we confront the most important question in our lives. Who do we say Jesus is?

Like Peter, we want God to be there for our needs, for our programs, for our dreams. Indeed, God is with us in our struggles but God wants more. Like Peter, we have to mature enough to accept Jesus as the one on the road to Jerusalem revealing a Savior who suffers and dies. Like Peter, we have considerable trouble with this when it comes to us personally taking up our cross and following Jesus.

In choosing Peter, Jesus obviously chose a very flawed and gifted person, a great mix of self and selflessness. Jesus does the same with all of us. We all have our own special role in this great event of the Christian venture in the footsteps of Jesus. Certain keys have been given to all of us. We need to be sure that we use them to open doors rather than close doors by the witness of our life.

Jesus invites us to follow Him. We need to pray to do this. We pray for many things but there is no greater gift than to learn in prayer that God loves us. As this awareness of God’s personal love grows in our heart, we gradually begin to accept Jesus and His plan rather than imposing our agenda. It is only in the context of this loving relationship with Jesus that we can truly answer the most important question in our life. Who is Jesus for us?

Unlike Peter, we cannot walk and talk with Jesus in the flesh. We can, however, read the and pray the Gospels. We can let the stories enter into our mind and heart. This will lead us to prayer: a conversation with someone we know loves us.

This praying of Scripture is a rich tradition in our Catholic faith that is being renewed in our day. It is called, lectio divina. It has four simple steps. First, we read the Scripture passage. We ponder and reflect upon it to see how it applies to our lives and how it calls us to change. Then we pray. This is the conversation that is with someone we know loves us and wants to let us know what that personal love means for us. Then we may be moved to just rest in silence in the presence of this loving God.

This prayer will be very helpful in our response to the most important question we will face in life. Who do we say Jesus is? The right answer is the work of a prayerful lifetime.

In this encounter, Jesus gave Peter a task that we must share. We must identify Jesus. We must believe in him. We must lead others to share our faith and commitment to Jesus. We must do this most especially by the way we live walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

Matthew 15:21-28

Dear Friends, In days of Jesus and from their earliest history the family of Abraham always treasured their heritage as God’s Chosen People. It is very hard for us to grasp how deeply the Jews at the time of Jesus saw themselves as the Chosen People of God to the exclusion of all others. It penetrated and permeated their reality with a clear vision and an acutely guarded set of protocols that defined all social interaction with the Gentiles. The Jews cherished their God-given position of privilege and uniqueness among all peoples.

The dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite woman really challenges us. We also need to be aware of another deep truth that is transpiring in this beautiful event. The God of Jesus is the God of the Jews. It was though the Chosen People that Jesus entered into the world . The God of Jesus is the God of the Jews. The woman’s faith in Jesus had wonderful personal consequences in the healing of her daughter. It also unveiled a great truth for all Gentiles. They come to God through faith in Jesus.

The early Christian Church struggled for two generations to break loose of this bondage of exclusiveness. Down through history, the Church, and all societies, have continued to manufacture various expressions of this elitism.

Today’s story from St. Matthew’s Gospel is as relevant as the latest headline on the evening news.

Over the centuries, Christian voices have produced some incredible fantasies to explain away Jesus’ harsh language addressed to the Canaanite woman. It still stands for what it is: a statement of the blind prejudice of His times. I especially like those who claimed it was protocol not prejudice.

History is filled with protocols that came from laws that simply hid the prejudice of the time behind a legal façade. In Ireland in 1710, a law said all government and military leaders must receive the sacraments of the Church of England. This was the first of a set of Penal Laws that led to the oppression and poverty of the Irish for over two centuries. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court declared separate but equal was acceptable under the law. This led to the segregation system that attempted to dehumanize the African Americans for decades with “white only” and “the back of the bus” set of protocols that were considered legal and righteous. With the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 women finally changed another protocol and won the right to vote. This was a great step in the struggle that continues to this day for equality for women.

When this embattled mother confronted Jesus, she was showing the way for the oppressed of all human history. Her action and her words are a simple declaration of her dignity no matter what the protocols and prejudice of the day has to say to the contrary. In one of the most moving gestures in all of the Gospels, she kneels before Jesus in total vulnerability and begs for help. Her wit turned around Jesus’ words of remoteness. Yet, in the end, it was her faith that moved Jesus to expand his mission as he embraced her pain and healed the poor child.

Jesus saw and heard this declaration of human rights and began a journey toward inclusiveness that continues for us today. God’s grace and God’s love are for all. It makes no difference how deeply and expansively the cultural, legal and theological norms are used to prop up the walls of separation and isolation.

In her simple and brilliant response to Jesus, the Canaanite woman was speaking for all of us. We are the children of God. After three confrontations, Jesus saw the light and celebrated her truth expressed in her faith. Her daughter was healed. All of us continue the healing every time we go beyond the accepted protocols and legalized prejudice and embrace the humanity of the “outsider.” It makes no difference if the excluded is the illegal, the Muslim, the gay and lesbian or maybe just a mother-in-law or father-in-law.

In our day, and all through Christian history, we have used labels in the name of righteousness to hide hatred and all manner of discrimination and dehumanizing activity. Anti-Semitism has been proclaimed and practiced throughout history in the name of the Christian religion. In American history, we have constantly created a hostility toward immigrants in the name of true Christian faith. Today, racism and all manner of hostility toward immigrant hide behind an honorable label of Christian nationalism.

Today’s Gospel message invites us to move beyond the simplicity of labels to the reality of God’s presence in every human being.

The human heart has a seemingly unlimited capacity to divide us in “us” and “them”. Today’s Gospel message is an invitation to move away from the common sense interpretation of reality to the wonder of the gospel message Jesus models for us today. Through the power of love for the outsider we hold the potential to transform our broken world into the wonder of God’s kingdom.

Matthew 14:22-33

The message of today’s Gospel is clear. Jesus continues joining us in the storms and threatening circumstances of our life. He may seem hidden and absent but he is there whether on the sea that was ready to take Peter or in the boat that evidenced a different threat.

Today’s Gospel story of Jesus walking on the water is filled with symbolism and echoes of the divine in the Old Testament. The disciples found themselves alone in a storm-tossed boat. Suddenly, Jesus was present to assure them, teaching them, and us, that there is no conflict, no struggle, no difficulty or no fear so great that God’s providential care cannot resolve.

Most immediately, the story of the boat in the storm is the manifestation of the Church’s struggles in the first days of her existence and down through history. Likewise, the episode with Peter sinking in the water is an expression of the basic human experience of being totally vulnerable.

Peter is bold and adventurous in his cry out to Jesus, “If it is you Lord, command me to come to you on the water.” (Mt 14:28) Peter begins his walk but reality overwhelms his feeble faith. As Peter faces his moment of truth and begins to sink, he cries out, “Lord, save me!” (Mt 14:30) This is an expression of the naked and unfiltered truth of our humanity. In the end, we are totally dependent on God.

Jesus says, “Do not be afraid!” (Mt:27). This phrase is expressed over three hundred times in the Bible. Each time it introduces us to the loving providence of God, the gracious presence of a saving and compassionate God. To call it a statement of comfort is very short of the mark. It reveals a God profoundly engaged in the human struggle with the power of healing and deliverance. This episode, like so many in the Bible, reveals a God who is always personally present to us in our struggles. In today’s episode, as an example, Peter ends up back in the boat rather than at the bottom of the sea.

Peter’s failed venture had some very beneficial consequences. He learned that the acute exposure to his own weakness brought to light the saving power of the Lord. Immediately, Peter experienced the limitation of his own faith. At the same time, he had the good sense to call upon Jesus. His “Save me, Lord!” was no small gift. It opened his heart to a deeper trust in Jesus and to an awareness of the frailty of his faith. This is the path of faith, a slow step by step growth in the midst of the rough and tumble reality of daily life. For Peter and for us, our experience of faith is always connected to the call of Jesus and not our wishful thinking. The true encounter with God will always be about service and sacrifice rather than selfishness and indulgence.

We all have our, “Lord, save me!” moments. They tend to be fewer but more intense as the years pass by. In the end, the situation grows in clarity that we are truly in the storm and we are about to sink.

The reality of the need for Jesus grows in our heart. It might be health crisis as we experienced in the pandemic, a child or spouse in a pathological addiction, the loss of a loved one, the consequences of an economy out of our control, the emerging hostility of climate change or simply the relentless process of ageing. Today’s headlines carry a new story but they manifest the same tension that is the ever-present unpredictability of life. We are always just a short way away from the storm if we are not already in it. These elements of stress all put extraordinary strains on our personal, family and communal life. Whatever the situation, these events are all down payments on the ultimate human experience, our mortality. The depth of the cry, “Lord, save me!”, becomes more intense and more dominating. At the same time, the need for Jesus’ hand reaching out gets clearer and stronger and incredibly more important. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

St. Agustine had this to say about Peter’s and our experience of life’s storms: “He came treading on the waves; and so, he puts all the swelling tumults of life under his feet. Christians – why fear?”

St. Teresa of Avila offers a clear conclusion from today’s reflections. Teresa says the story of her life is the story of God’s mercy. By this she means that when she had arrived at the deepest and clearest moment of her life, her “Lord, save me!” moment, she learned what it meant to be a creature. She embraced the fact of her reality as creature because for her it meant she was cradled in the loving hands of a gracious Creator revealed in her great friend and Savior, Jesus Christ. The ultimate reality is that God is good not that we are good. In the end, God’s limitless mercy is her victory.

It is a journey for us to know that our life also is, in its final expression, the story of God’s mercy. That, indeed, is a beautiful truth as Peter found out in today’s Gospel passage.

Matthew 14:13-21

Dear Friends, Today’s meal is not primarily about the Eucharist. It does, however, reflect the beauty and wonder of the eternal gift of Jesus. We are given a symbol of the final, Messianic banquet, the great day of the total victory over evil and death. While the bread and fishes are distinct from the Body and Blood of the Last Supper, they are a good memento of the blessing of the Eucharist for our daily journey.

Today’s story is about the loaves and fishes as a sign of God’s power, compassion and love. This story appears six different times in the Gospels. Likewise, it is the only miracle story that is in all four Gospels. Obviously, there is a profound message for us in the very special pattern of repetition.

The story looks backwards and forward in the Divine Plan. It clearly has echoes of the manna in the desert (Exodus 16) and Elisha’s similar fete of feeding the crowd with a few loaves. (2 Kings 4:42-44) More importantly, the language Jesus uses is similar to the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. (Mt 26:26) Finally, it foreshadows the Messianic banquet at the end of time.

Jesus mourning for the death of John the Baptist, sets the context for this great miracle. Jesus models the generosity of moving out himself to the needs of the people in his midst. He responded to the people seeking the Word of God and added the great gift of the Bread of God. This all happens because “his heart was moved with pity.” (Mt 14: 14)

By placing it after Herod’s banquet where John the Baptist was beheaded, Matthew adds to the powerful story of the loaves and fishes. The differences in the two banquets are amazing. Here are just a few of the contrasts revealed in the two meals:

Our world today and throughout history is organized with the values of Herod’s dinner values of exclusion, violence and jealousy. The gospel calls us to enter into Christ’s world by sharing, peace, service and inclusion of all.

Herod’s’ feast degraded women while Jesus’ gathering celebrated the dignity of all. Herod’s guests were the rich, powerful and entitled. Jesus’ guests were the poor and hungry and neglected. Herod displayed extravagance and waste. Jesus satisfied all with twelve baskets leftover.

Jesus teaches us that in the gospel world, the world open and accepting of the loving Father Jesus came to proclaim, things are different. When you give away there is always more. Only when we hold on and hoard and seek to find our security in our possessions do we experience loss and insecurity and fear. In Jesus’ world we begin to see the poor and the hungry not as an inconvenience and burden but as an opportunity to share and serve and love. In this way we multiply our own loaves and fish few as they may be.

Matthew 13:44-52

Dear Friends, Many scholars of the Bible say today’s parable of the treasure is the most important of all the parables. It begins with the statement, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” (Mt. 13:44). “The kingdom of heaven” is at the center of Jesus’ teaching and ministry. It is God’s plan in Jesus to overcome evil with love. It something God is doing not something we possess or acquire. The kingdom frees us from the consequences of sin. It is the movement toward restoring the total harmony and goodness of Paradise. Jesus’ miracles all manifest God’s saving presence bringing this anticipated wholeness and freedom. The ultimate expression of the inflowing of this divine power is in the conquest of death in the Resurrection.

The kingdom is God’s gift. We do not earn it but we need to be open to its call. The kingdom allows us to enter and participate in the very life of God. The kingdom is walking with Jesus. It is letting the values of the gospel message fill our heart and life. This great action of God is like our winning the lottery of the everlasting values that are so in contrast to the passing and deceiving values of the lottery of our materialistic dreams.

The kingdom is not something we do. It is God calling us to participate in God’s saving action in our daily lives. It is our sharing in the action of the kingdom. The threefold action of today’s parable is finding-selling-buying. It is basic method of how we participate in the life of God. It is the process of our personal transformation. This means moving from the deceiving world of our self-absorption to the truthful world where God is the center of reality. This affects everything that we experience in a new way The treasure before us is the Good News of Jesus. It is the wonder of being able to love and be loved. This invites us into an entirely new world of service and compassion, reconciliation and healing, mercy and justice.

In chapter thirteen of Matthew the phrase “kingdom of heaven” appears nine times. So, the question for us is, how does the simple little story of the found treasure connect us to this great saving and liberating action of God revealed in Jesus? The parable of the treasure, more clearly than most other parables, tells us how we experience God and what we need to do to respond to this glorious call.

The finding is the very common human encounter with someone or something. The encounter touches the deepest hunger in the human heart. It might be an event as profound as falling in love, having a child or losing a loved one. Or it may be a bit more mundane like deciding to go to college or becoming more active in the parish or community. Endless expressions of this finding are all part of our human journey. They all may be simple or profound, nevertheless they are the action of God’s grace. God is never finished with the dynamic of his calling and coming into our life.

To get hold of this great gift of God, we need to sell. We need to make space in our heart. We need to die to our comfort and control. Our responsibility is to accept the fact that our little world needs a real change. We need to expand our horizons. In the end, selling costs no less than everything because it makes space for God and space for us to operate according to God’s will.

The final step is buying. When we accept the challenge, we become free and empowered to accept a new world, a new reality where God takes a more prominent place of honor. This leads us to action for the kingdom.

The finding-selling-buying process is an essential part of any authentic spiritual life, our search for God. The most critical part is this. All creatures either help us to seek God or they are an obstacle. Our joy is to bring all these relationships to people, things, ideas and whatever else occurs in our life into proper order. All either help us or hinder us in our quest for God. When we have our finding-selling-buying in order, we are sharing in the great action of God that is the kingdom.

The threefold process never ends. It is all leading to a personal and social transformation called the kingdom of heaven in the Gospel of St. Mathew.

The parable of the treasure with its simplicity exposes how we experience God in the normal course of our daily life. It is an unending call that comes from a gracious God to tap the deepest hunger in our restless hearts. The ultimate and most complete expression of the treasure is Jesus.

St. Matthew 13:24-30

Dear Friends, Today’s parable of the weeds and the wheat, like all the parables, speaks to us of Jesus’ main message, the coming of God’s kingdom, as we enter into the parable, we begin to learn how we experience the presence and action of God in our daily life. The basic conflict of the weeds and the wheat, of good and evil, permeates all of our reality.

It is clear that God is in charge of the harvest. We tend to take over the job. Most of us have at least a Master’s degree in determining the good guys from the bad guys. Jesus would rather that we let the Father take on that task. That is why in Jesus’ teaching, a turned cheek is much more the priority than a clenched fist.

I had my introduction into this parable of the weeds and the wheat when I was a sophomore in high school. It was the time of the McCarthy hearings on TV. The politics of the day stressed the infiltration of Communists into our government and society. I was very interested in this topic.

At first, it was very confusing because there were two items that were very clear in my South Side Irish ghetto. Communists were as bad as you could get and Catholics were good. As the TV political drama evolved, I slowly experienced an assault on my Catholic prejudice. Even though Senator McCarthy was against the Communists and a Catholic, he was being labelled as the bad guy. I painfully began to realize he was indeed the bad guy, the really bad guy. His broad and indiscriminate strokes of accusation left a long path of innocent victims. Justice got lost in the heat of the quest for political advantage. Eventually, he was censored by the Senate. This was one of only three such condemnations in the history of our country.

This was the beginning of a lifetime journey where the clear black and white of my world had to give way to an acceptance of the grey of a complex world, a world where the weeds and wheat were growing side by side.

Among other things, this parable is calling us to an ever-expanding gospel vision of including and accepting others. The summons of Jesus into the kingdom very much includes sinners. We have no right to do less. God is calling us to share God’s patience and mercy. Our heart is a field with plenty of weeds that incline us to divide and separate and isolate and most of all, to judge. The parable of the weeds and the wheat open up the mystery of the justice and mercy of God inviting us into an ever-expanding program of inclusion and forgiveness.

If I just take the topics of race, sexual orientation and respect for women in my own personal experience, I can see an abundance of blindness, ignorance, open hostility and profound prejudice ebbing and flowing to a very painful evolution of change. The coming of the kingdom has slowly challenged me to grow in tolerance, trust and patience. Self-knowledge only comes with this openness to God’s call to be compassionate and patient. Self-knowledge will always reveal a heart blossoming with a full harvest of both the weeds and the wheat. The struggle to live in a loving way with both will continue to the end.

The guidance of today’s parable will lead us to separate evil from the evildoer, sin from the sinner. We are all better off nurturing the wheat by living the gospel. Too much energy goes into the weeds as we sit in judgement of our brothers and sisters. We are all better off if our main task is following the meek and humble Christ. God is quite capable of discerning how to deal with the weeds within us personally and within our sisters and brothers. We need to grow in the awareness that the true power of God is in God’s mercy. This shines out in Jesus on the cross.

This is why the gospel approach to the endless encounters with evil calls for a different approach we need to proclaim a Jesus of mercy and compassion. We need to offer an open hand rather than a closed heart.

St. Teresa of Avila had a very gifted and graced understanding of herself. Even though she eventually would become recognized as the first woman Doctor of the Church and a famous Carmelite saint, she clearly saw her weeds. She knew her life was a gift from God. She said often, the story of her life was ultimately the story of God’s mercy. She truly had tolerance for others, trust in God and patience with herself. She understood, as we need to understand today, that God’s kingdom is coming and with it comes the love and mercy and justice revealed in Jesus. In the meanwhile, God wants us to be the faithful labors of the harvest.

Mt 13:1-9

Dear Friends Todays message of the Sower is the first of three Sundays proclaiming parables from chapter thirteen of St. Matthew.

A parable is simply a story taken from the ordinary events of daily life that leads to a deep insight into reality. Even though the parables are prone to different interpretations, they all lead to an insight into the main message of Jesus, the kingdom of God. They unveil the saving presence of God in our ordinary human experience.

Today's parable is about the Sower of the seeds. A few facts about the agricultural practice at the time of Jesus are very helpful in coming to terms with the message of the parable.

First of all, the casting of the seed so indiscriminately does not seem like a bright idea. However, it makes a little more sense when one realizes the Jewish custom was to plow after the sowing. Most of the world does the opposite.

Secondly, a return between eight and ten percent was considered a very good yield on the seed sown.

In todays parable of the Sower. we are invited to compare the Word we receive to a seed. Each week we are summoned to once again hear the Word. The Church offers us the liturgy as a fruitful ground to encourage the growth of the Word in our heart and in our life. It is our task to let the Word blossom into the fruitful growth of the kingdom of service and love.

The parable of the Sower lets us know there was a range of responses to Jesus message in the early church. The same is true today. Even more so is it true in the depth of our hearts where the acceptance of Gods Word is always in turbulence and ambiguity. We need to continue the struggle to be generous enough to produce the thirtyfold and sixtyfold and one hundredfold.

For Jesus, the primary challenge of the kingdom relates to the human heart. It is in the heart where one resolves the struggle between sin and grace, love and hatred, inclusion and exclusion and, in todays example, between the weeds and the wheat.

Consequently, we can enter into the world of Jesus' parable and draw some true wisdom. The seeds are cast on all kinds of soil. Jesus' message is for all people, no matter what their circumstances. The universal call is at the heart of Jesus' message. Everyone is welcome at the table.

Of course, "all people" has always been a difficult choice for all Christians down through history. inevitably having a group of "those people" or outsiders who were not to be included has been a universal challenge for all followers of Christ. For centuries it has been the racial issue. Many decades ago, it was the Protestants and divorced. Recently, the gays and the Muslims were at the top of the charts for "those people."

Today, we are filling the void made by progress in societal understanding and acceptance of yesterdays rejects with new rejects, Today, transgenders are moving to become the top target of rejection. The fractured human heart will make sure we will never run short of groups to isolate and discard.

Another point to consider was the return of thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and one hundredfold. These numbers are outrageous. In the time of Jesus, an eight to ten percent level of return was considered very productive. Even more outrageous is God's love. The heart is the home of that good soil that opens up to incredible new possibilities even in this dark valley of tears.

The parable of the Sower reveals a mystery in life, a possibility of an explosion of love that is hidden in the ordinary flow of events. Reality is impregnated with a graciousness and giftedness beyond our dreams when we embrace the call of Jesus. The upshot of the yes to Jesus leads to a new life of freedom and reconciliation that guides us in seeking to create a new world of justice, healing and peace. Acceptance of Jesus' call is the transition to an innovative world of acceptance and inclusion, the beginning of God's reign here and now. In Jesus' lottery, the winning combination is 30, 60, and 100. The prize is in the victory of love over hate, peace over violence, harmony over division and a human heart with a deep sense of wholeness and integrity and freedom.

Todays parable of the Sower celebrates the universality of the gospel. There are no outsiders in Jesus agenda. It is a program of indiscriminate love and tolerance.

Mt 11:25-30

Dear Friends, In today’s gospel passage, we have an attractive invitation to be set free of our burdens. We will do this when we discover the true center of human existence. This a movement outside ourselves and in the God Jesus is revealing.

Many times, as a pastor, I counseled people that God does not allow us to be burdened beyond our ability to accept life’s troubles. More than a few times I got the response, “Well, God hasn’t checked my situation recently because I am on overload!” The message of today’s readings assures us God is up to date on the state of affairs in each of our lives. Indeed, the Father has sent Jesus to share our difficulties and trials and to show us a new way and a new wisdom that transforms our burdens into freedom.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents himself as one who truly knows the Father and his compassionate and saving will. When Jesus is inviting us to come to him, he is inviting us to make a choice not only against the religious leaders but of all human deception and distortion down through history even into the present day. He is inviting us to make a choice against the manipulation of the Law that the Priests, Scribes and Pharisees used to maintain power, privilege and wealth. We are invited to come to Jesus, free of the burdens of any and all misleading versions of the Law. Jesus did not offer the burdensome yoke of the slanted twisting of the Law. His was the yoke of the faithful and loving obedience to the will of God. With Jesus, we are invited into the sea of mercy and love that the true understanding of the Law produces. The honest acceptance of the Law brings genuine rest and freedom. The rest Jesus promises is not the lack of work and stress. The rest Jesus is proclaiming is rooted in God’s Day of rest on the seventh day of Creation, the Sabbath. This is the fullness of life in the kingdom. This rest is here and now, in this life, and it opens into eternal life.

Jesus says “Come to me.” (Mt 11:28). Jesus offered not the burdensome yoke created by the religious leaders of his day. As the full and privileged source of the complete revelation of the Father, the yoke he offers “is easy, and my burden light.” (Mt 11:30). We are to take his yoke; a yoke rooted in love not obligation. This is far different than the yoke of the leaders with its various intricacies, and even deceptions, of a legal system gone astray. This was the case in Jesus’ day and is often the same distortion in our day.

Jesus’ teachings all go beyond the rituals and external dictates. It is an invitation to the depths of our being. The message of Jesus is always centered on the engagement of the heart and relationships that are true and meaningful.

Where will we find rest for our souls? Where will we discover the peace that our hearts long for? Where will we encounter the wisdom that will set us free? Jesus opens the way in his invitation. “Come to me.” (Mt 11:28) Jesus is inviting us to embrace him and his summons to love. He is calling us to the depths of righteousness in the heart. He is calling us to live in openness and acceptance with all persons. He is calling us to cast off the burden of the endless “dos and don’ts” and to make our way into the freedom that true love offers.

When we come to Jesus, we will find another way to live. In Jesus’ way, we are engulfed in a love that enlightens us with the wisdom to see the way of truth and love. The continuing struggle to break loose of self-interest, to welcome the commitment to sacrifice and service, to eliminate the security rooted in excessive possessions, these preferences all lead to finding rest for our souls. “Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11:30). Jesus calls us to a love of God and love of neighbor that promises joy and peace now and everlasting life in the future.

Love is the driving force behind Jesus’ transforming promise to ease the burden of life. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus because he holds the seeds of wisdom leading us into the fullness of the Father’s kingdom.

Mt 10: 37-42

Dear Friends, Today’s teachings our Jesus’ final words on mission in this section of Matthew. The first three deal with the disciples’ reply to Jesus’ challenge to mission. They lay out the demands of being a missionary. The next three statements are about the response of those who receive the gospel message.

It is clear that if we are going to walk with Jesus, we have a price to pay. Sacrifice and suffering are part of the journey. This is the way to life and freedom in the experience of the gospel. The gospel law of love means that there is no room for selfishness in following Jesus. Our salvation is found in moving out of ourselves in service and reconciliation. With the perennial challenge for racial justice, with drugs feeding the scourge of gangs and gun violence, with intensifying threat of climate change, all we need to do and is to check our favorite media for the rest of our always growing chaos. Calamity seems to always be drawing closer. Jesus teaches us that the most realistic answer to our crisis is the call to a self-sacrificing witness proclaimed in today’s gospel.

Today’s seemingly severe words of Jesus about family are simply an invitation to put everything in order. When we love God first, not only do we love our family more, this love is more selfless and life-giving. This love is free of deception and illusion.

I like to reflect about our encounter with Jesus’ call to mission with this example. Each morning, we wake up with a short note from God awaiting us on this imaginary table next to our bed. This divine text is our to-do list for the day. The top priorities are our relationships and our responsibilities. Each of the tasks for responsibilities and relationships identifies some people who our marvelous gifts from God in all aspects of our life. Some of these individuals represent the cross that Jesus is talking about: “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10:38) Each of us in the journey of life has created a network of folks of all different kinds who need our love and service. These specific persons are the clearest expression of God’s will for us.

The discipleship Jesus calls for enriches and expands our vision of the world. Our daily responsibilities of family, work, communal and social obligations open up to new horizons to guide us in walking with Jesus. We are invited beyond the surface and outside the narrow limits of our comfort zone.

We are called to enter into the depths of life where we meet the wonder of God’s love in the ordinary flow of daily life. Our task is to cross the “T” s and dot the “I” s to bring love to the concrete circumstances of our day.

The gospel law of love seeks to drive us beyond the ever-present pull of our deeply ingrained selfishness. The saving will of our God will be found in our openness to the needs of our brothers and sisters.

Jesus makes it clear. We need sacrifice and deeper reflection to transform our lives with our families and our communal and professional responsibilities. This same sacrificial effort opens up how we relate to our neighbors including how we face the challenge of a suffering world that is immediately related to the indulgence of our lifestyle. Our consumer culture is always seeking to expand and saatisfy our desires. We are on the edge of destroying our planet. God’s will is clear. Enough already!

Today’s gospel tells us those who seek themselves are on the road to self-destruction. Our relationship with God, with our loved ones, with our life situation only finds life through self-giving.

“Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.” Mt 10: 38-39

Jesus of the gospels is clear. The way to life is through sacrifice, self-denial and our daily cross. Our great and continuing temptation is to create a new Jesus in our own image that frees us from the clarity and immediacy of this potent message.

Mt 10:26-33.

Dear Friends, Today’s gospel selection has the disciples about to begin their first missionary venture. Jesus is counseling them to cast off any fear. He is telling them about the Father’s constant providence. Jesus is addressing a universal human experience of fear in its many manifestations.

In addressing the perplexing issue of fear, the Bible has over seven hundred statements on this topic. Each time some form of fear is mentioned, the biblical text has a response expressing a deep sense of God’s providential loving care.

Today’s passage, like so much of the Word of God, shows that faith liberates, empowers, encourages, and offers hope. In contrast, fear imprisons, weakens, paralyzes and invites hopelessness.

Jesus’ message offers us a three-fold approach against fear. His first statement against fear is that his teachings will have liberating power. This point had been hidden but is now revealed. Secondly, Jesus had earlier told them they would be like sheep among the wolves. (Mt 10:16) Nevertheless, they need to move ahead without fear. Finally, the third declaration against fear is based on God’s loving and compassionate care. Jesus uses the everyday examples of the sparrows and the hairs on our heads.

In the time of Jesus, the sparrows were sold two for a penny and five for two cents. Yet, God knows their every movement. The hairs on the average person’s head offer a real test to maintain an accurate count. If God can keep track of these two obscure and almost frivolous items, infinitely more forceful is God’s loving care for each of us. This loving providence of the Father is the central truth of today’s teaching. All other elements need to be understood in this testimony.

There are two kinds of fear. The first is helpful and reasonable. Jesus is talking about the second fear that is rooted in ignorance and illusion. This fear is a crippling force that grips the frightened person. This fear distorts reality to the detriment of one’s responsibilities and relationships. This is a fear that stunts growth and deceives reason. This pathological fear destroys hope and freedom. Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of this fear in his famous Inaugural address: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

We all find ourselves these days in senseless wars and growing divisions at almost all levels of society. We all must come face-to-face with fear at many levels of our daily life. The wrong kind of fear often is damaging to our effort to live the gospel. We are drawn to an ordinary and mediocre effort devoid of the gospel’s challenge and new horizons. Do we fear the honest power of the gospel that will show us the deception of our cultural customs so removed from Jesus’ teachings? We all have to ask ourselves what kind of fear is motivating us? Is it calling us forward into the new world of the teaching of Jesus or is it crippling us in the captivity of our comfortable but often rigid world that blinds us to our own mortality and concern for our neighbor? Is it building fences or bridges? Is it drawing us deeper into the inclusion of all others as the gospel teaches or into the isolation of our prejudices?

Much of Christian service and true charity involves drawing our brothers and sisters away from the entanglements of destructive fear. Likewise, a true Christian love will identify and support true salutary fear. This is what Jesus is doing in today’s gospel passage. A true awareness of God’s loving presence will help us to see and embrace our true and final fear, a fear of missing out on eternal life.

The vision of Jesus in today’s gospel is clear and forthright. What we truly need to fear is the final separation from the source of all life, our gracious and loving God. All else, even the destruction of the body in death, rests in the hands of our loving Father who is always calling us to life.

Mt 9:36-10:8

Dear Friends, Today we begin Ordinary Time. Having finished our communal celebration of the Pascal Mystery with added celebrations for the Trinity and Eucharist, we now journey with Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. In this special time, the love of God in Christ Crucified and Christ Risen shines before us enlighten the presence of God in our daily experience. We will never discover a more insightful and more inviting expression of God’s loving mercy than in Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. It is our constant invitation to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. This special time is our passage through the debris of life, through the pull of our selfishness and through our ever-expanding yet still floundering search for happiness. We are challenged to realize where Jesus fits into the very ordinary stull of our daily burdens.

This is our liturgical journey of Ordinary Time. For the next twenty-four weeks we will delve into the Gospel of Matthew. It will invite us to make our search for meaning, our search for justice and, most of all, our search for that very elusive love that lasts forever. Each Sunday, we will meet Jesus once again in the wonderous gift of the Liturgy’s Word and Sacrament. This journey with Jesus will be an encounter of faith. We will bring our daily experience to God’s holy Word. We will be challenged to slow down and open our hearts to the presence of God in our daily struggles. We will be offered a weekly gift of Jesus calling us away from our confusion and distractions. This call of love will open our hearts to a God who passionately loves us. In fact, there is no way this one and only God could love us more.

Our weekly encounter with Jesus in the season of Ordinary Time is calling us into the extraordinary time of mercy and love. Jesus will lay before us the continuing gift of forgiveness and merciful love leading to eternal life.

In today’s gospel selection, we see Jesus moved to awe-inspiring compassion for the sick and suffering, stirred by the pain of others and by the hunger and thirst of the crowds. His heart aches with concern for the alienated, marginalized and all of burdened humanity. His message to the disciples is to teach and heal.

If we open our eyes and cast off the false security of our consumer-driven and materialistic culture, we will be able to see ourselves much in need of Jesus’ compassion. An open and uncluttered heart will let us see the marvel of God’s intense concern for our dire situation. We will find ourselves engulfed in deceiving attachments and a reality immersed in a message of mortality that we deny with obsessive intensity.

We read in today’s gospel text: “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, sheep without a shepherd.” (Mt 9:36)

Jesus calls the twelve to share his ministry of witnessing to the kingdom with healing and service. This kingdom is God’s plan to restore our original innocence. This will be the beginning of the elimination of sickness, hatred, isolation, racism, and every other form of prejudice along with the beginning of justice, peace, the integrity of creation and the reign of love.

Most of all, we will grow to appreciate and embrace the victory over death.

Today we are called to both receive and share that loving response to human suffering, isolation and marginalization. Jesus wants us to help and heal. Jesus wants us to share in the unleashing of the power of love that is the Father’s reign.

The task of the kingdom is love, love for God and love for our neighbor. If we are honest in responding to Jesus’ call, we can truly make a difference. Not all of our pleas will be heard on our schedule and not every heart we approach will be healed. However, our effort, no matter how seemingly inconsequential it may appear, will be wrapped in divine love. It will be like the mustard seed that blossoms beyond human comprehension. We have been sent. We are not by ourselves. Jesus makes it ever so clear, “I am with you always.” (Mt 28:20)

As our relationships and responsibilities meet the challenge of the gospel proclamation, our heart will be challenged to change and grow, most often one small step at a time. Nevertheless, it will be a relentless call to reach out rather than to settle down to our comfort. Our effort may seem negligible but when it shares in the divine love that Jesus gives us, it can transform the world.

John 6:51-58

Dear Friends, Today, we celebrate the great gift of Jesus, his flesh and blood in the Eucharist. In this boundless wonder of divine love, we embrace the mystery of the Crucified and Risen Christ. Likewise, we are invited to enter more deeply into the reward of Christian community. Through our encounter with the Eucharistic Christ, we are encouraged to open our hearts in service and love to all our brothers and sisters. At God’s table there is no accent that is not welcome. Shades of skin add to the beauty of the experience. There is space and welcome for everyone at this sacred breaking of the bread. Our Eucharistic Banquet is all about making us rush out to our world as servants and as healers and as celebrants of love.

Jesus is telling us if we share his flesh and his blood we need to be different. We need to be witnesses to love. We need to be our sister’s and brother’s keeper.

When I became pastor with this view of the Eucharist, I soon came to see First Communion celebrations as deeply flawed with a lot more party and a lot less Jesus.

My response was to require the parents to participate in twelve faith assemblies. These are evening sessions included a basic presentation of salvation history from Abraham to Jesus. They were much more than simple Bible classes because the emphasis was on seeing the Word of God intersecting their personal lived experience. There was much sharing of their stories and time for reflection and prayer.

The parents learned a fundamental lesson. To live by the bread that comes forth from the mouth of God requires a willingness to listen, to grow, to change and to be transformed by the Word

The end result was that the parents acquired a sense of personal power to be teachers of the faith for their children with a grasp of Jesus’ fundamental call to conversion into God’s love.

Parents were invited to a deeper appreciation of Jesus and his gift to us in the Eucharist. In his teachings, his healing ministry and his surrender to the Father’s will, Jesus opened a vision of a God both personal and involved with all people. In this journey, parents began to see the Eucharist as a great expression of God’s love in Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. This challenged parents to go beyond the superficial in their child’s First Communion.

Parents were encouraged to see the Eucharist as a real treasure of our faith. In this ritual, we go beyond the symbol of bread and wine. This is the real presence of our saving Lord Jesus Christ coming to nurture and love us. His real presence is a call for us to be caring, loving and giving to our brothers and sisters.

The goal was not just to help the parents prepare their children to understand what happens on that beautiful day of their First Communion. It was to convince the parents that this is the task of many years. Part of that task was their family participation in the Liturgy on a regular basis. The Liturgy is truly an on-going adult school of religious education where the daily experience is connected to the saving act of Jesus here and now.

Unless the parents grasp the importance of the basic experience of regular participation in the Liturgy, First Communion celebrations have the real possibility of becoming distorted and inconsequential.

The real goal is faithful participation in the Church’s worship and praise. Regular Mass attendance brings us into the encounter with the great act of love that is the fundamental story of the Bible. That love literally takes the form of flesh and blood to nourish and guide us on the troubled journey that is our life. That is why the Church teaches us that the Liturgy is the source and summit of our faith. Liturgy helps us take the information about our faith and lets it transform our heart drawing us into an encounter with our loving God.

On this feast of Corpus Christi, I would like to invite us to go beyond the mantra about Liturgy as the “source and summit” of our faith. I want to invite you to ponder and pray over a fuller expression of the teaching of Vatican II on our participation in the Eucharist.

“The celebration of the Eucharist, as an action of Christ and the people of God…is the center of the whole Christian life, for the universal church, the local church and for each and everyone of the faithful….the Liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the fount from which all its power flows….All who are made children of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of the church, to take part in the sacrifice and to eat the Lord’s supper.” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 1963, #2, 10, 41) Each Mass should be like a First Communion where there is a lot less party and a whole lot more Jesus.

John 3:16-18

Dear Friends, There is no place in the teachings of Jesus where we will find a description of the Trinity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It took the Church centuries of reflection, almost continual conflict and deep prayer to articulate the reality of Trinity as we have in our Creed today.

Jesus was the revelation of God. His was a message of love and mercy. As a Church we learned we cannot think our way into God. The only passage into the Divine Mystery is a way of love guided by faith that is open and searching obedience to love. Jesus taught us the way of love. It is love for God, for our neighbor and for our world.

Through Jesus, we have learned that our call to fidelity is mirrored in God’s fidelity to humankind. All through the painful and conflict-driven history of the human venture, God has responded well beyond our understanding in love and mercy. Our resistance and rebellion to the call of love has always received a Divine response of patience, compassion and merciful love. This is the only possible response from a Trinitarian God who is love.

We have an exquisite picture of what a true response to God’s love would look like. Aristides, a learned Greek philosopher, described the Christians in the second century this way: “They love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something, they give freely to the person that has nothing; if they see a stranger, they take him home and are happy as though he were a brother. They do not consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God.”

Today’s Gospel passage has often been called a gospel in miniature. It describes in just a few lines the unlimited love of God. In Jesus, we have the continual unveiling of this love of the Father. Jesus is the ultimate gift that keeps on giving, keeps on calling and keeps on loving!

Today’s Gospel tells us why God has saved us. It is all about love. God has chosen to lay out the magnitude and power of this love through the saving acts of his Son and through the continuing action of the Spirit. This love knows no boundaries, has no conditions and needs no invitation. It simply engulfs all reality. As St. Therese, the Little Flower, declared, “Everything is grace!”

Today’s Gospel sets this divine love before us very clearly. God takes the initiative: “God so loved the world.” (Jn 3:16)

In loving the world, God shows us that all are invited into the mutual love that is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus fleshes out this totally inclusive love in the stories of the Good Samaritan, the publican, Magdalene, the father of the troubled sons and so many other expressions of acceptance and mercy.

Likewise, today’s Gospel tells us the purpose of God’s mission: “God did not send the Son…to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him and enjoy eternal life.” (Jn 3:16-18)

This divine love portrayed in John’s Gospel is beyond our understanding, hopelessly out our reach for us to merit, and outside the limits of our capacity to respond in kind. God has loved us first and with a generosity we will never be able to match. In the end, all we can do is to attempt to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and embrace the merciful love.

Jesus invites us into the mystery of love and life that is the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. The choice is ours. We can accept or reject.

The great joy of today’s feast of the Holy Trinity, like every proclamation of the Gospel, is that God never gives up on us. Jesus is constantly calling us to accept Him as the way, the life and the truth. Slowly, life tends to teach us that Jesus really does have a better plan both for here and hereafter. Our calling is rooted in this God of love and we are destined to be one with God, Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

John 20:19-23

Dear Friends, The feast of Pentecost is the celebration of breaking through the barriers of time and space and opening the whole world to the re-creating wonders of love. In his Passion and Death Jesus confronted evil. This was the climatic encounter of all history. Love won out!

All of a sudden, Jesus is in their midst. His message is not vengeance. Amazingly, He does not even point the finger at their cowardly collapse. His trusted disciples were too awe-struck to feel the shame. It was a “wow” moment to the thousandth degree. Jesus had risen as he said! Alleluia!

His message was direct, clear, and simple: “Peace be with you.” (Jn 20:19). His peace conveyed the treasure of forgiveness. These two gifts of peace and forgiveness are in the context of His commissioning and gifting the disciples. “‘As the Father has sent me, I send you.’ As He said this, He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (Jn20:21-23)

That message of victory is handed over to the disciples along with the gift of the Hoy Spirit. This frightened and despairing group, fresh off their abandonment in the crisis of the Garden, now receive the peace and forgiveness of Jesus along with the ultimate gift of the Holy Spirit. The fear and confusion will now slowly grow into an unstoppable conviction of joy and fiery enthusiasm. Nothing was going to overcome their certitude in the Spirit. Nothing was going to close down their message of the Crucified and Risen Christ. Against all odds, the gift of the Holy Spirit was going to win out through these frightened, confused and disillusioned band of brothers and their sister disciples.

Receiving the Holy Spirit is a symbol of a new creation. Just as God breathed life into Adam in the Garden, so too, Jesus breathed new life into the disciples that makes them holy and leads them to conquer evil.

Luke, in today’s second reading from Acts, gives another biblical connection. The many foreigners with such a variety of languages hear in unity. This is the Spirit manifesting elimination of the division and isolation caused by the Tower of Bable.

After the reception of the Holy Spirit, the disciples’ story is very different. Fear gives way to courage and commitment. A new conviction leads them to confront power with patience and perseverance. The two-edged sword of Jesus’ gospel message cuts through the yoke of terror and cowardice. The gospel is proclaimed in spite of conflict and misunderstanding. Cultural barriers and native parochial narrowness open up to a vision of a universal community that continues to grow to this very day.

Gifted with the Holy Spirit, they join the Risen Christ in witnessing to the victory of love over evil and death. The seeds of the new creation were sown in the hearts of these very weak and pedestrian followers of Christ. They began an ever-expanding community of faith that has survived and prospered over these two thousand years.

Today, on this feast of Pentecost, we are invited again to receive the gifts of the Spirit. To do so, we need to turn away from sin which is the refusal to love. As with the first disciples, the Spirit beckons us to continually expand the horizons of our love.

The Spirit empowers and invites us to pray. The Spirit offers a peace that transcends our endless search for security in the things of the world. The Spirit allows us to break loose from the captivity of the cultural bondage to racism, sexism, a blindness to the destruction of creation, and most of all, a failure to simply love one another. Pentecost is the feast of liberation from our fears, anxieties and divisions.

The Spirit calls us to be the hands and feet and, most of all, the heart of Christ within the world of our responsibilities and relationships. We are called to be true witnesses to Jesus´ gospel message. Less we forget, a witness is one whose life’s actions speak so loudly that people cannot hear what you say.

The peace of Christ comes at a price. The patience and gentleness along with the joy and kindness and the other fruits of the Spirit are ever so precious gifts. They are possible only in a heart that is seeking reconciliation. This new life in the Spirit brings peace and forgiveness into a world ravaged by sin and death. This is the call for us on this Pentecost: transform our lives by the gift of Christ’s peace and His call to forgiveness. Slowly, we must understand that, for the Spirit, there is no limit on forgiveness and the target of inclusiveness is ever expanding and dynamic. The numerous descriptions of “those people” in our hearts have to give way a new definition of “us”. In this struggle to move out of our comfortable world, we must be open to the Spirit to find the only way that leads to the prized gift of Christ’s peace.