Sunday, August 31, 2025

August 31, 2025: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

God works powerfully in our world through our humility.

When we are humble, we recognize who we are in our relationship with God and uphold His presence in our lives by letting Him raise us up in our identity in Him.

We furthermore show love to others by giving of ourselves not expecting anything in return, which poises us for a great reward in Heaven.

We experience Heaven now because Jesus Christ offers us an example of how to be humble by acknowledging ourselves less and focusing more on who we are in God.

May I say this? We can become august and lofty in the sight of God.

Sunday, August 24, 2025

August 24, 2025: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus Christ proclaimed Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He provides access the Father for all who have a relationship with Him.

To reach the Father, we must follow the narrow way, and it takes effort on our part.  At times, we can even experience the discipline of God. Although it may be painful, it poises us to experience the fruit of righteousness, as is mentioned in the 2nd reading from Hebrews.  It's not enough to just do the bare minimum of religious gestures. God ultimately wants a relationship with us, so He can be ready to welcome us into His presence at the end of our lives and at the end of time.

While God has promised salvation for His Chosen People, He extends this offer to all people.  The first reading from Isaiah offers a wonderful statement that says even some of the Gentiles will serve as priests.  Truly, each of us strives to enter Heaven, and support others in following this path, because Heaven is a great gathering of people throughout the world who have a relationship with God and were faithful to it throughout their lives.

On this 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, I am grateful for how the community of St. Teresa's in Valparaiso did so much to support me to be faithful in my relationship to God through the ministry they offered to college students like me.  I'm also grateful to the ministry of Father Mark Beran at St. Augustine in Winnebago as the community celebrates his birthday at 50 years.  

Today is also the birthday of William Wilberforce.  He strove, by faith, in the narrow way, through many challenges, to end the slave trade and then slavery in the British Empire, because the end goal of creating a better world made the striving worthwhile.

Today, I reminded of the blessing of being part of a Church that represents God's presence in the world, which I saw exemplified 10 years ago when Archbishop Vigano presented Cardinal Cupich with his pallium, so that we would see in that wool ceremonial vestment a sign of how God invites us to the follow the narrow way as He shepherds us into Eternal Life.

Sunday, August 17, 2025

August 17, 2025: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In a world marred by sin, when a prophet speaks, some accept the message, and some oppose it.

Jeremiah predicted ruin for the people of Israel if they opposed the invaders.  So he was put into a cistern.

Jesus Christ came to Earth to preach a message calling people out on their wrongful ways and urging them to repent.  This message has caused great division.

Ultimately, those who opposed His message demanded His crucifixion.

Christ was steadfast in fulfilling His message, enduring the Cross because of the joy that would come after it, as the Epistle in Hebrews writes, attaining great glory.

As we follow Christ in His mission as prophet, to proclaim a message unpopular in the world, yet grounded in Truth, we can endure our struggles and enter into the joy of what will result from advancing the Truth.



Friday, August 15, 2025

August 15, 2025: Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Jesus Christ rose from the dead first.  Then Mary experienced the power of the Resurrection by entering body and soul into the Heavenly Presence of God, which underscores her special relationship with her Son.

The Resurrection gives us hope for having Eternal Life, and the Assumption emphasizes the effects of the Resurrection.  Mary, the first disciple, has experienced what we hope for:  All those who are His disciples, living by faith in Him, share in the promise that, by remaining faithful to the end, we will be with God in Heaven, body and soul, united with Him always.


Sunday, August 10, 2025

August 10, 2025: 19th Sunday in Ordinary TIme

God calls us to be constantly in a state of readiness to meet Him, especially when it's time for our departure from this life.

To make the most of this life, we strive to live by faith, preparing to encounter God at any moment.  We acknowledge God's promises for us, just like the giants of faith in the past.  They didn't see the fullness of the promises, but still strove toward God, confident they were playing a part in a greater plan.

Indeed, we have been entrusted with faith as a great gift.  We make the most of our lives now by stewarding this gift nobly and using it to keep close to God and make His presence known by living love now.  The priest at the Mass I attended at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport, IA, pulled a heart out of a knapsack to illustrate this idea and underscored it when he said that Heaven is when we're united with God.  Living love now is a way to be united with as we wait for complete union with Him after we depart this life.  Yet looking ahead to embrace this reality now by living it brings us purpose and joy indeed.  We, by God's graces, can make the sacrifices necessary to love as we keep ourselves constantly aware of how God is making Himself known to us.

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

August 6, 2025: Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

God sent Jesus Christ to reveal Himself to the world.

On the mountaintop of Tabor, Jesus revealed a glimpse of His Heavenly glory.  He stated clearly multiple times that He was to follow the way of the Cross, and so would His disciples.  Yet this way would end in glory.

We listen to the Son and follow His way because we, as His disciples, have hope, because we have glimpsed God's glory in Jesus Christ.

Sunday, August 3, 2025

August 3, 2025: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

On the surface level, there is a bleak picture of life in today's readings.  Ecclesiastes emphasizes how everything is vanity.

When someone comes to Jesus asking for His arbitration in a dispute, Jesus indicates that a life focused on possessions lacks substance.  The parable He tells shows how fleeting life can be, because possessions aren't as lasting as we think they are.

Yet in Christ, we see that life has great meaning when we focus on Heavenly things, which can transform earthly things into means that lead us to what is worthwhile and everlasting, even Heaven.  As we turn our focus back to the relaity of the Resurrection on Sunday today, a Little Easter, we get to revisit a passage from Easter/Resurrection Sunday Mass in Colossians.  Christ has been raised, and has gone to Heaven.  As people transformed by faith in Him, we can focus our gaze upward, too.

By faith, we can see glimpses of Heaven.  I think about how 9 years ago, my brother and sister-in-law married, a joyful occasion of celebrating their union. And 9 years ago on this 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, I heard these readings proclaimed at a church in Cripple Creek, CO, at nearly 10000 feet above sea level, as I spend a weekend joyfully sharing the company of family while celebrating my Great Aunt Carmen's birthday.  Joyful occasions like these point us to the ultimate joy of Heaven.

Pope Leo XIV said it so well in his homily today at the conclusion of the Jubilee of Youth.  The fullness of our existence isn't about what we possess, but rather "what we joyfully welcome and share".  We can part from attachment to worldly matters, especially sin, and receive the abundance of new Life in Christ.  On our way to Heaven, we experience Heaven now as we find the ultimate of purpose in life realized now, because that purpose points us to what is lasting and most worthwhile.