June 22, 2025: Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

We are given a great gift when Christ offered His Body and Blood, as we've been made aware through the seasons of Lent, Triduum, and Easter.

It was a sacrifice that brought us back to God.

Christ is a priest like Melchizedek who offered bread and wine, from natural elements, to be a meal.  Now Christ fulfilled that feast by offering Himself so that we could be completely satisfied.  As Monsignor Shea said in his presentation at the National Eucharistic Congress last summer, the Eucharist has a satiety score of infinity.

Through this meal, we re-present the sacrifice of Christ and He continues to bring us Life when we gather to partake of this meal and proclaim the death of the Lord that has brought us life, the very life of God in which we now share.

We now share in His mission to be Christ in the world, because we have been joined to God, so we are His Body in the world.

It's special that churches have Corpus Christi processions today as a way to show how we take the Body of Christ out into the world, so that others can experience the life of God as we have.  He indeed satisfies us with the great abundance of the offering of Himself, His Divine Life.

Indeed, just as we have focused on for the past few weeks on the idea of the mysteries of our faith, on this day we celebrate that though the Eucharist is a great mystery, it becomes something very real in us and that we make real in the world.

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.

May 18, 2025: Fifth Sunday of Easter

God has glorified Himself in Jesus Christ, and Jesus is glorified in God through Jesus Christ's Death and Resurrection because in the Paschal Mystery Christ offers Himself as the fullest expression of God's self-giving love of agape.

As we recognize in our recent Triduum celebrations, these events are not merely historical events: They are realities within us.

The Paschal Mystery was lived out as the Holy Spirit worked to build the Church, which is called to reflect the glory of the Heavenly Jerusalem that will come in its fullness.

Indeed, at that time, God will make all things new, just as He is making us new as Christ's glorious Life is in us.

We advance closer to that reality when God fills our hearts with His love and then, by the Holy Spirit, we respond to the new commandment Jesus Christ gave at the Last Supper, to love others in a way that reveals the ultimate act of love God showed us in Christ.

I recall how I entered more deeply into God's love on the 5th Sunday of Easter, when I was baptized and then years later, when I presented myself for First Holy Communion, joining myself more closely to God through the Church.  Tomorrow I celebrate the 12th anniversary of my ValpU graduation, which was on Pentecost Sunday, and I recognize how on that day, I was sent forth.

Pope Leo XIV is installed today, on the birthday of Pope St. John Paul II, and the Church is refreshed as we come together in unity, which we show forth to the world as we express love for one another that flows into the world.

May 11, 2025: Fourth Sunday of Easter/Good Shepherd Sunday

God leads us to Eternal Life, an image so richly represented by the Good Shepherd.

He provides for our needs along the way so we can live in the Abundant Life He desires us.

He keeps us close, so that we experience closeness to the Father and to the Son.

Our Good Shepherd Jesus is the Lamb Who was slain to bring us salvation, and He now leads us to Eternal Life.

Such a glorious reality inspires us to proclaim this Good News to all the world.  Even when we face opposition, God consoles us, because He cares for us like a Good Shepherd.

The Church furthermore rejoices that we have a new earthly shepherd in Pope Leo XIV.  We pray that he will be faithful to his office and lead us like the Good Shepherd.

And we can all be shepherds guiding one another to encountering God's presence that is so real and joyful in light of the Resurrection.

May 4, 2025: Third Sunday of Easter

Christ, once dead, is now Risen, and He continues to live in us because He continually offers the gift of Himself for our nourishment and sustenance.

When the Apostles, likely from discouragement and lack of grounding in the new reality of the Resurrection, returned to their previous way of life and went fishing, they caught nothing.  Yet the Risen Jesus appeared to them and brought them an abundant catch, and even had breakfast ready for them.

He would then grant them a mission to care for His flock.

Furthermore, His living Presence in them would continue to sustain them in the face of opposition.  By the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Risen Christ in them, they would boldly proclaim the Good News, even when the authorities didn't want to hear it.

Yes, the reality of the Resurrection continues to live in us, as we feed on the Living Bread that came down from Heaven that keeps us connected with God so we may continue fulfilling His mission.

With great joy this weekend, I recall my first encounter with the Eucharist at my First Holy Communion Mass 26 years ago.  Furthermore, we party like it's 1991, because May 3 is the birthday of Carlo Acutis, who developed a deep devotion to God and the Eucharist from a young age, and then boldly shared it with others.  And this day 20 years ago, I attended another monthly Confirmation preparation meeting, continuing to draw toward the Holy Spirit, Who brings us, the faithful, alive in the Paschal Mystery that we, by its power, may impact the world.

This Easter Season continues to remind us that the Risen Christ is constantly present to us, and we rejoice as we go forth to carry this reality to the world, worshipping, like in the vision from Revelation, the Lamb Who was slain and is worthy of our devotion by our lives.

April 27, 2025: Second Sunday of Easter/Divine Mercy Sunday

The joyful reality of the Resurrection persists.  It is powerful enough to break through locked doors, bringing the living Presence of Christ to those in fear and those in need of healing, physical and spiritual.

We behold Christ now, Who is in great might, the One Who holds all time and all existence together.

Furthermore, He renews all of Creation by His Resurrection.  It's a powerful gesture when Christ breathes on the apostles to grant them the Holy Spirit, which allows for the forgiveness of sins.

Thomas, having missed the encounter with Christ, wanted proof in the most physical way of Christ's Resurrection.  It's not directly clear in the text if he actually touched Christ's wounds when He appeared.  Yet we know He expressed great faith when he declared, "My Lord and my God!"

Even though we cannot have the same physical experience, we are blessed when we recognize how Christ is present and active in our midst, a sign of our faith when we encounter Him and let the reality of His Resurrection transform us.

Indeed, I rejoice because tomorrow is the anniversary of my baptism, when I joined Christ in dying and rising into newness of Life, that continues to transform me daily so I can bring this glorious reality into the world.

April 25, 2025: Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist

Easter Friday in the Octave of Easter is superseding this Feast.

Yet in the spirit of Easter/Resurrection Sunday, we behold the Gospel by which we understand the reality of the Risen Lord Jesus.

He breaks through our fears and doubts with His very real living Presence.

And He sends us forth to proclaim to the whole world this joyful Truth that transforms all Creation.

April 20, 2025: Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord

Christ has risen from the dead, and we are forever changed.

Not just an event of history centuries ago, but an encounter we have anew today.  Christ continues to offer us His new Life, transforming us so that we can live as witnesses testifying to His life in us.

At first, we, like those first disciples, may not be able to make sense of the empty tomb, since emptiness is often a sign of something lacking. Yet we realize it is the new reality of God at work in our world because this emptiness is a sign that God has reversed the curse of sin and works His power of redemption in our world.

Now, we turn away from what is earthly, and we focus our gaze upwards because Christ has made possible the path to His Heavenly Presence.

And His Living Presence continues to abide with us so we can bring this joyful reality to change the world.

April 19, 2025: Holy Saturday Easter Vigil

It is a glorious night:  Throughout the ages, God worked to bring His people back into right relationship with Himself.  This work of salvation culminates in the night that great light shone when Christ rose victoriously over death.

God indeed created us good, and restored us so gloriously.  Through baptism, we die to sin, leaving behind all that leads us away from God, and we join ourselves so closely, living now His life.

So we continue to realize the awesome reality of the Resurrection.

April 18, 2025: Cross Friday

We behold the Cross, an instrument of shame, for Christ willingly bore the Cross, suffered, and died upon it in obedience to the Father.

By the Cross, He brought us salvation, joining in our sufferings so that, just as He redeemed the Cross to be the means of salvation, our sufferings, and even death, are redeemed by His Power.

We have great consolation and hope that Christ joined us in suffering, and that they will give way to Resurrection.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about how the fate of a nation was riding that night of April 18, 1775, as the British colonies inched closer to independence.

How more so did the world change that day when Christ died upon the Cross, and brought us freedom from the tyranny of sin so that we could live devoted fully to God's Kingdom.

April 17, 2025: Maundy Thursday

Christ offered us His Body and His Blood as the sacrifice at the heart of the New Covenant established at a Passover meal. Moving beyond the deliverance of God to His people from salvery in Egypt, God has delivered us from slavery to sin.

He commanded us to do this in remembrance of Him.  He also commanded us to follow the example of love He gave us in giving of Himself.

April 13, 2025: Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem to great acclamation from the crowds, but also with great humility, riding on a donkey.

As He would display later in the week, He came to deliver His people victoriously, not like a mighty conquering warrior, but as a King Who would die in an agonizing way for the sins of the people.  He did so, entrusting Himself to the Father in the face of immense suffering.

From His death, He would rise and be greatly exalted by the Father, so that we now worship and adore Him, all in Heaven, on Earth, and under the Earth, as we do this day when we begin Holy Week.

Furthermore, we recognize the immense power of His forgiveness, noted when Christ says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do", and again when a repentant thief calls to Jesus.  That thief knew his sins and knew that Jesus could forgive him because Jesus died to make forgiveness possible.  Then we enter into His Kingdom, like in the spirit of what Jesus says when He bestows a Kingdom on the apostle.

We are called to enter anew into this Paschal Mystery of His salvation, following His way in great humility so that we can join Him in dying and, through Christ's redemption, rise to Newness of Life.

April 6, 2025: Fifth Sunday of Lent

God is doing something new, as the first reading from Isaiah proclaims.  He is making a way for His people to be restored.

Jesus makes a new way in the Gospel story for both the woman forcibly brought before Him and the people who brought her.  Instead of responding to their question about her punishment, He turns the question on them to consider their own lives and their sins.

When they all leave, rather than throw a stone at her, Jesus emphasizes the point that no one has condemned, and neither will He.  So then He sends her forth with the directive to "sin no more".

God demonstrates that He has the power to offer us compassion and mercy so that we can be forgiven of our sins and then they leave behind as we live in His righteousness that He imparts to us through the Paschal Mystery.

We can follow Christ's way, which is the ultimate gain, more so than anything else the world can offer us, because He imparted new life to us through the Cross, and in it, we live by His righteousness.  This way is what drives us to live purposefully as we keep pursuing to grow in relationship with Him Who saves us.

March 30, 2025: Fourth Sunday of Lent/Laetare Sunday

We rejoice that God loves us and has sent His Son to be our redeemer.

While the parable Jesus tells in today's Gospel reading is often referred to as the prodigal son, the story is also very much about the prodigal father.  No matter how far his younger son has strayed, the father is constantly vigilant for the son's return and lavishes great love upon him, and has a huge celebration, recognizing the son was dead and lost is now alive and found again.

The father is even prodigal in lavishing love on the older son, who feels that his brother doesn't deserve such grand treatment.

When we think about this story in terms of God the Father's love for us, we see that no matter how far we have strayed in sin, He loves us abundantly and redeems us from whatever our faults are.  He loves us for who we can become in Him.

Indeed, Christ redeems us, and in Him, we become a new Creation living for the praise of His glory.

As the Hebrews celebrated being made anew when they celebrated the Passover upon entering the Promised Land, eating its bounty rather than the manna that had sustained them, so we enter the great feast of God's love, which we experience profoundly in the Eucharist.

On this Sunday, when we have just passed the midpoint of Lent, we rejoice anew in God Who showers us with His abundant love that we who were once dead in sin may now be fully alive.

March 25, 2025: Solemnity of the Annunciation

God unfolded a great plan foretold by the prophets when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary, the Blessed Mother.

Though it didn't all make sense, Mary had faith that inspired her to respond "Yes" to God.

She is a great example of how a "Yes" to God can be a tremendous blessing beyond our scope of what we can comprehend as it reverberated throughout time and space.

In our own circumstances, when we say "Yes" to God, His plan of salvation continues to unfold and, from our own circumstances, impacts time and space.

It was a tremendous blessing to celebrate this Solemnity by saying "Yes" to God's gift of Life with hundreds gathered for the Illinois March for Life in Springfield.

March 23, 2025: Third Sunday of Lent

God constantly reveals His compassion and mercy to us.  Unlike what people thought at the time of Jesus, God doesn't necessarily use unfortunate circumstances as punishment.  Yet if we don't repent, we will face judgment.  And He gives us an opportunity to repent.  Even when the landowner wants the tree cut down out of frustration for lack of fruit, the gardener intercedes for us, as Jesus works to fertilize the soil of our hearts so that we will bear fruit.

Week to repent and bear fruit of righteousness in response to the marvels of our God, so awesome and so mysterious.  He commanded Moses to remove His sandals because he was standing on holy ground before the Mighty God.  Yet this God announced He would save His people from slavery, and chose Moses to lead them out of Egypt.

Indeed, God is mysterious, revealing Himself as the Great I AM.  Yet He chooses to work in our hearts so that we repent and bear the fruit of righteousness, making His presence known.  So we make holy the ground where we stand.

These words resonate with me deeply because 12 years ago, I heard them proclaimed when I attended Mass at St. Augustine Mission.  It was founded by St. Mother Katharine Drexel to serve teh needs of the Native Americans in northeast Nebraska.  It is holy ground because she founded it and walked there in service, seeking to make God known.  Our group made it holy ground because we went there in the name of faith to serve, too.

March 19, 2025: Solemnity of St. Joseph

It is a glorious day to celebrate St. Joseph, who was present when the Word became Flesh.

I realize that I can't think of too many Christmas Carols that mention Joseph, aside from a line in "Angels We Have Heard on High".

Yet God gave him an important role to live out virtues by caring for the Son.

May the example of St. Joseph inspire us to do our work in life with purpose, on the job, in the home, and everywhere else we serve in the way God has called us specifically.  Even doing so quietly without fanfare, God is present in our service as it joins with the larger scope of His plans for His greater glory.

March 16, 2025: Second Sunday of Lent

Even in Lent, Sundays are an opportunity for us to rejoice in the reality of our Resurrected Lord.  Today's readings give us a glorious glimpse of the reality we see by faith.

God tells Abram his descendants will be as numerous as the stars of the sky.  A commentary I read said that Abram was looking at the sky during the day when he wouldn't have seen stars.  Yet he recognized the stars would be there, and so he also had faith in God.  Later in the reading, God made an astounding fiery appearance to Abram to assert His faithfulness in the covenant He established with Abram.

Then, three of the Apostles go up a mountain with Jesus and get a glimpse of His glorified state.  Furthermore, they see two important figures, Moses and Elijah.  It is an opportunity for the apostles to look ahead to the glory that comes after suffering.  Rather than bask in the glory, as St. Peter was thinking, God sends them forth to listen to the Beloved Son.

We are looking ahead toward Resurrection Sunday at the end of Lent, when we encounter the glory of the Risen Christ anew, and we seek His glory at other times, too.  Yet we are reminded by the Transfiguration story that we can possess this glory, too.  Our Lenten practices, and even our sufferings in life, have a purpose in light of our relationship with God. They are transforming us so that we listen closely to Jesus Christ, and be more conformed to be like Him in holiness.

I rejoice in the moments of glory I experience this weekend.  I was present as nearly 70 youths at my home parish encountered God when sealed with the Holy Spirit in Confirmation.  Today, I rejoice in that special day when I was born, and I delight in all those who have reached out to me to celebrate this day.  These special days point to a reality that God is marvelously at work to bring glorious purpose to our lives.

March 9, 2025: First Sunday of Lent

We journey into the desert with Jesus, led by the Spirit as He was to face our human weakness. There, we encounter the power of God at work.

The Hebrews journeyed through the desert, which was a call for them to wait upon God to provide for them.  They weren't so faithful.

Jesus, the Word of God, withstood temptation because He spoke the Word that is Truth and Life, showing us an example of how to be faithful.

In this Lenten journey, we strive to be faithful to God, with Jesus as our example, as we abide by and internalize the Word of God, knowing that God's brings us Abundant Life to us in Christ. We call upon Him, professing our faith and belief in the One Who, by the Paschal Mystery, has brought us to life.

I answered the call to live out belief during a week of service at St. Augustine Mission, a trip which concluded 12 years ago with my arrival home.  I continued to put faith into action a year later as I met with the Confirmation group as they continued to prepare for the sacrament.

In these experiences, I pondered deeply what it means to have a relationship with God and how I could be transformed to live it more fully as a profession of faith I have in God.

March 5, 2025: Ash Wednesday

We hear the pressing call to repent.  We must recognize our sinfulness and call upon God, for He is just and merciful.

We call upon Him in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving not to bring attention to ourselves but to honor Him, because we know that He is good to us, even when we are unfaithful.  He responds to people when they call out to Him and turn to Him anew.

As St. Paul bodly writes, now is the acceptable time and the day of salvation, by which we can be transformed anew to be holy before God Who has saved us.

March 2, 2025: 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Approaching the end of the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel according to St. Luke, Jesus calls His disciples not to fixate on the imperfections of others, but to turn inwardly and examine ourselves.  Because no one is perfect, we draw upon God to fill us so that we can bear good fruit.  No one is above our Teacher, and we should turn to Him so He can fill us to live His way.

We can persist in the good work of displaying righteousness in this world because Jesus has conquered death victoriously.  We live with great hope and purpose because of the newness of Life we have in our Savior.

Lent starts soon, and we go with hope, like in the spirit of this Jubilee Year, because we know that our God is alive in us and we have purpose.  It was that sense of purpose that motivated me as I traveled 500 miles with a group to serve in Nebraska 12 years ago this week as it inspires me to keep serving, especially as I accompany young people in my parish community to the sacrament of Confirmation so Christ may be alive in them.

February 23, 2025: 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

David had the opportunity to end the threat that King Saul personally posed to him.  Yet David wouldn't take matters into his own hands, but took a much different approach of letting God mete out justice and instead holding himself to being merciful.

This story points ahead to what Christ calls us to do as His disciples.  We are called to reflect God's mercy in our interactions, remembering the highest example of mercy when God poured out His love for us when Christ was upon the Cross.

Now in light of the Paschal Mystery, we are transformed to be living beings, like St. Paul writes, to be beings who, like Christ, give life.  We respond to evil in the world with God's goodness that He pours into our hearts.

February 22, 2025: Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

Christ asked His apostles Who people though He was, and then pointed the question directly at them.

St. Peter responded with a declaration of faith, that Christ is Son of the Living God.

Christ acclaimed St. Peter for expressing what God the Father revealed to Him, and furthermore stated that the Church would be built on the rock of him, who made such a profession.

We, the Church, continue to ground ourselves on that rock of faith, professing what God the Father reveals to us, which the Church has stewarded through the centuries, with the successors of the apostles, the Pope and the other bishops, guiding as shepherds.

By faithfully upholding this Truth of Who Christ is, we advance the Kingdom on Earth as we reveal in our lives the Living God.

February 16, 2025: 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

When God entered the world in Jesus Christ, He reversed the typical ways of the world.

Jesus offers 4 beautitudes and 4 woes in the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel according to St. Luke, saying those of us who are poor are blessed, and woe to those of us who are rich.

Pondering the idea of poverty versus riches, if don't recognize our need for God, we will ultimately wither by not drawing upon Him.

The reading from the Prophet Jeremiah uses a great illustration of a tree watering itself from abundant streams, an illustration also in Psalm 1.

We are blessed when we don't seek to live in our own strength, but constantly draw upon God, Who is the limitless source of life..

Indeed, we stake ourselves in God because He is alive among us because of the Resurrection of Christ.  Without it, we have no life and no faith.

Like waters that constantly keep us fresh, we can count on the Resurrection to bring us alive with waters ever living.

February 9, 2025: 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I've come to Temple, TX, on vacation this weekend, and in the first reading, we hear how Isaiah is in the Temple.

Isaiah, St. Paul, and St. Peter encounter God's presence in powerful ways.

They become aware of how much less they are than God, and respond to His presence, aware of their unworthiness.

Yet God raises them and fills them so they can fulfill His mission to His people, to proclaim His message.

Indeed, God's grace is powerful, because it flows forth from the Paschal Mystery, as St. Paul states so eloquently in the second reading.

By it, we are filled with His grace to live the life of mission He gives us.  We go out into the depths, as Jesus sends Simon, to ultimately build the Kingdom by fishing for people.

Truly we live to proclaim that God is alive because He is at work in us.

February 2, 2025: Candlemas/Feast of the Presentation of hte Lord

When Christ was born, a Great Light shone in the world, as we so richly celebrated on the Feast of the Lord's Nativity on Christmas Day.

Through the eyes of faith, Simeon and Anna recognized Christ for Who He is when Mary and Joseph brought Him to the Temple, as we celebrate on this glorious Feast Day that is 40 days after Christmas.

Simeon and Anna praised God for revealing His salvation.

It was the promise of God fulfilled for His people, and also a great blessing to all the world.  God would send His messenger to the Temple to purify His people of unrighteousness so we could be Holy before Him.

This messenger was our Savior Jesus Christ Who purified us of sin by becoming One with us, taking on Flesh.

We indeed rejoice that Christ shines as our Great Light in the darkness.  No longer do we fear the dark power of sin, because we have a Light with us that is far greater.

We join with Simeon in embracing Christ Who continues to abide with us, and we carry His Light that continues to shine so brightly.

This Feast speaks to me so profoundly because even though the glorious celebration of Christ's birth Christmas Day was 40 days ago, we can continue to celebrate the glorious power of the Mystery of the Incarnation.  Truly, the Light shines and will continue shining because it is the power of God ever constantly made present in our world.

January 26, 2025: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Word Became Flesh when Christ was born.

So God fulfilled His Word in our presence, as He continues to do, and thus, we celebrate Word of God Sunday today.

Christ was anointed to fulfill the mission to bring Good News, with life and healing, to the world.

We are called to rejoice because the joy of the Lord is our strength because His life-giving Word is present to us.

Furthermore, we share in the mission of Christ to bring the Good News to all the world as the Word takes shape in us.

I remember powerfully receiving this call 6 years ago when I heard these passages proclaimed at the World Youth Day 2019 Closing Mass in Panama with 700000 people, celebrated by Pope Francis. It was a time when I heard God's Word anew and realized how it is being fulfilled in me as I join with the Church in fulfilling His mission.

January 25, 2025: Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

A great Light shone in our world when Christ was born

That great Light shone brightly upon Saul, calling Him to radical repentance.

He truly encountered Christ's Living Presence.  In baptism, He received God's grace.

Convinced of this reality, He answered the call of Christ in the Gospels to proclaim the Good News.

In his work, he helped lay the foundation for the Church.

Upon this foundation, we continue to build as we proclaim the Good News.

January 19, 2025: 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

In our recent Christmas celebrations, we marveled at how God made HImself present to us in Jesus Christ, through His birth at Bethlehem, the visit of the Magi, and Christ's baptism.

Today we marvel at how God manifested Himself in Jesus through the first of Christ's signs, the changing of water into wine.

It's special that this sign happens at a wedding, highlighting an idea from the first reading: that despite the ways we've gone astray, God desires to rejoice and be in a relationship with us like a groom rejoices in His Bride.

As God provided for the couple when the wine ran out, God provides us restoration to a life-giving relationship.

Furthermore, He provides for gifts that we can live out our relationship in tune with the Holy Spirit, Who is the source of all gifts.

As we mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, God desires for us to be One Church. On this Sanctity of Life Sunday, we recognize that in God's sight, we all have value.  God rejoices in all of us, and reveals His presence to us constantly so we draw close to Him and believe in Him.

January 12, 2025: Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

We rejoice at the birth of Christ because God came to our world and became human.

Jesus Christ identified Himself so closely with us by taking on our flesh.

As the Word Made Flesh, He raises our humanity to the divine life of Heaven.

God indeed shepherds us into the ways of Eternal Life.  He cleanses us so that we are rightoues in God's sight and equipped for good works.

Jesus didn't need to be baptized, yet in His baptism, He identified Himself with us and transformed this ritual into a means by which God would cleanse us, declare us His beloved, and transform us to be part of His people.

So we join with the Church in praising Christ, the presence of God Who continues to abide with us, and open ourselves to transformation that manifests God's Divine Presence in us.

January 5, 2025: Epiphany of the Lord Sunday

A great Light shone in our world when our Lord was born as the Word Made Flesh.

This Light reached all the nations, and by it, they have come to encounter the God Who was born among the Chosen People.

The Child born unto us is a great gift because, though He was the fulfillment of promises to Israel, He offers salvation to all the world.

In light of this glorious gift, we all have the opportunity to respond and offer our gifts and devotion.  Like the Magi, let us lift our gaze above to see the wonders of God and follow the signs to encounter Him, because He has come to be so close to all of us in the whole world.

January is a special month because it was when I participated in the 2005 National Geograph Bee Final Round at Julian Middle School.  It's also when I went to Panama for World Youth Day.  Taking on a global perspective, I see how God has filled the earth with His light by the Incarnation and inspires us to join with all people in seeking Him.

January 1, 2025: Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God/Naming of Jesus

The Incarnation was a great blessing because God revealed Himself fully in the birth of Christ in the flesh.

God, Who is outside of time, entered in time, as St. Paul writes in his epistle to the Galatians, to ransom us and transform us into children and heirs of God.

Only in the name of Jesus do we find salvation, and that is why He is such a great gift from God.  The shepherds provide a great example for us to go in haste to encounter the God Who comes to us.

Mary also provides a great example because she ponders the mystery revealed to her in such an intimate way because she bore the Son of God into the world.  She certainly had so much to ponder, as do we.

In so pondering this mystery, like her, we then respond by answering the call to bear the Son of God into the world around us, announcing the Good News of God Who entered time from the outside to sanctify our time for His Glory.