June 15, 2025: Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Sunday

This annual solemnity reminds us that the Trinity is a mystery, but we can continue pondering and probing its depth because we know it is something real in our lives.

God worked wonders to create the world as an expression of His love, which is so wondrously described in the first reading.  The Psalmist in Psalm 8 further marvels that God created us people as the crown of His creation.  And through redemption made possible by Jesus Christ, the Son, God's love was poured into our hearts, as has been our focus from Lent through the Triduum into Easter Season.  We, indeed, have hope in this firm assurance because we know God is with us because of how He has revealed His love to us.  God's essence is love, and lives it in a communion of Three Persons.  We have reassurance in the depths of our being because God loves us as part of His character.

The Holy Spirit, resulting from the love of Father and the Son, makes this mystery real to us.  As one instance of the rich language in the Last Supper Discourse, Jesus says the Holy Spirit takes from what Jesus has and declares it to us as real while He continues to sanctify us so that we live God's love and so reveal Him to the world.  And since the Triune God is a communion of Persons, we are called to make that love real in how we share it with others.

As I marvel at my recent 20th anniversary of Julian 8th Grade Graduation, and then Pope Leo XIV's celebration this weekend, God is truly working wonders, showing that we are part of something larger than ourselves. Even today, as we celebrate Fathers' Day, we marvel at God, our Father, and what He has done for us together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, as we rejoice in how God has revealed Himself in earthly fathers. We are called to participate in the Trinity so this mystery can be a little bit more real in our world.

June 9, 2025: Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

Mary has been present at the unfolding of God's plan of salvation for the world.  She bore the Savior into the world.  And when her Son Jesus was dying upon the Cross, He entrusted her to the beloved disciple. Then, from the body of Jesus came blood and water to signal the emergence of the Church, in which she would have a special role.

As she joined the apostles in prayer, waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit, so she continues to intercede for the Church so that we may faithfully live out the transforming power of the Paschal Mystery that the Holy Spirit brings deeply into us.

June 8, 2025: Pentecost Sunday

The great reality of the Paschal Mystery of Christ's death and Resurrection comes upon the Church in full force when the promised Holy Spirit descends like wind and fire.  The Church came alive and the disciples boldly proclaimed the Gospel.  Many people who were gathered for this important Jewish feast of Pentecost heard the mighty works of God proclaimed in many languages, all speaking the language of faith.  So the many peoples became one through this proclamation.

Jesus presented Himself to the apostles who were locked in a room of fear, bringing them peace and forgiveness through the breath of the Holy Spirit.  He sent them forth by this breath so they could bring this message of reconciliation to the world.  Indeed, those who were dead in sin, as St. Paul writes, were brought alive by the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit continues to work in the Church, teaching us and reminding us of all that Christ taught, so we can continue this mission.  

Recently, I listened to a Word on Fire program in which Bishop Barron described how unity makes diversity possible and how unity and diversity enrich each other.  We are bound by one faith, as St. Paul describes, which is realized in different ways in different people.

I think about this reality as I celebrate the 20th anniversary of my Julian Middle School 8th grade graduation today.  Our Class of 2005 came from all different parts of Oak Park, from a diversity of backgrounds, and we came together to learn and grow together.  Learning so much about others, including Jewish people, helped me appreciate myself even more.  Indeed, when I graduated, I celebrated a newfound zeal for faith.  It was a sign of how the Holy Spirit was at work in me to bring me alive.

So the Holy Spirit continues to bring us alive in different ways so that we can join together in declaring Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

June 1, 2025: Seventh Sunday of Easter

While Christ has ascended to Heaven, we still call upon His presence.  We have confidence and hope that, even in the face of difficulties, Christ reigns.

His reign spreads over all the earth, as He manifests His power, so that all will come to confess faith in Him, bound together in One Church that reveals to the world the One God.

June 1, 2025: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

The Risen Christ ascended in glory to Heaven while the Apostles were watching.  Yet, as Father Carl mentioned in his homily at Mass today at Ascension Church in Oak Park, His Ascension didn't mean He became absent.  Rather, Christ became present to us in a mystical and more powerful way.

As St. Paul writes, Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church, and by His Ascension, He is now exalted, yet He is still present with His Body.

The One Who conquered death has rejoined the Father, mounting His throne, and ruling mightily over all.  Furthermore, He is still at work in our lives and in our world as we embrace His rule and seek to build His Kingdom, waiting upon the power He grants us through the Holy Spirit, the sign that He abides with us.

At the beginning of this month of the Sacred Heart, we know His beating heart in His Presence that is so close to us here on Earth, even as this reality points us toward Heaven where Christ has gone with our human nature that we, on our way to glory, can share in it now.  Furthermore, we have hope, because we know He hasn't left us, but is still with us, and reveals the glory which we can share by faith.

May 31, 2025: Feast of the Visitation

Joy pervades the scene in the Gospel reading.  Even in the midst of the difficulties present, St. John the Baptist leaped for joy because He recognized the presence of the Lord, and as a result, so did his mother, St. Elizabeth. She declared Mary blessed for taking on the role of responding to God's call.

So let us join them in rejoicing that God is present among us.  For us who confess faith, joy is all around us.  And may we respond by sharing that joy through acts of kindness that edify one another and make God present.  Furthermore, as we celebrate during this Easter Season, may we rejoice that God is present to us in the Risen Christ in a glorious way.

May 25, 2025: Sixth Sunday of Easter

The Church as the Body of Christ is a sign that God is dwelling on Earth.

Undoubtedly, any group must exert effort to maintain unity, as we see in the first reading from Acts that despite the joys of the infant Church, there were also challenges to bring together Jews and Gentiles. Yet they relied on the Holy Spirit, the continued presence of God and the Risen Christ with the Church, to find a solution.

Ultimately, the Church is a sign of what is to come, the heavenly Jerusalem that shows the perfection of God's character. The vision from Revelation describes how the city has perfect dimensions, and God is fully present, so there is no need for a Temple or the heavenly bodies of the Sun or Moon.

As we strive toward the full realization of this vision, we rejoice that Christ remains with us through the Holy Spirit.  At the Last Supper, from which today's Gospel reading is taken, He declares that He gives us peace unlike what the world offers, because we have a sure grounding in our relationship with Him. The Holy Spirit teaches and reminds us of what Jesus Christ says so that these words come alive in us, and we see how everything is real as He said and so believe.

We furthermore rejoice today that Pope Leo XIV takes possession of the Cathedra of Rome in his role as Bishop of Rome.  It is a sign of the unity that God desires for our Church, that we may reflect the vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem and strive with the Holy Spirit toward the fullness of that reality.