Jesus offers us the sign of Jonah.

“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet” (Mt 12:39).

Jonah is the prophet best known as the one who spent three days and nights in the belly of a whale, great fish, or sea monster, depending on your scriptural translation. Jonah ended up in that predicament because he refused to follow God’s direction to speak his message of forgiveness to the sworn enemies of Israel, the Ninevites. It would be like God asking one of us to fly out to the Middle East to meet with members of ISIS or Al-Qaeda and invite them to repent. Not only would we not believe they would want to repent, would we want them to even if they would? Also, whether they did or didn’t, would we be able to return from such a meeting with our heads intact?

These were probably some of the issues running through Jonah’s mind when he refused to follow God’s will. After swimming to shore, Jonah overcame his resistance and followed the command of the Lord, kept his head on his shoulders, and the people of Nineveh repented. Happy, happy, joy, joy! Not exactly. At the repentance of his enemies and God’s expression of mercy and forgiveness, Jonah said to God, “This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you were a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish” (Jonah 4:2)”. Jonah shows his hardness of heart in that he did not want to go to Nineveh because he did not want his enemies to receive God’s forgiveness!

The scribes and the Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign and the sign of Jonah is what he gives them: The Ninevites, Gentiles, non-Jews, were willing to repent at the word of Jonah, and those scribes and Pharisees questioning Jesus, God’s chosen, were not willing to repent at the urging of one greater than Jonah, the Son of God, who was in their midst.

Jesus announced his ministry, as recorded in Mark 1:15, with the words: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” That is again our invitation today, to examine our conscience by asking God to help us to recognize his presence among us, then reflect on what good God has done in our lives and give him thanks. Review the last day or two to see where God has called us to act. Where did we answer his call, where did we, like Jonah, resist or refuse?

Someone greater than Jonah, is Jesus the Christ. May we allow his love, mercy, and forgiveness to fill us and to soften our hardness of hearts. Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale and was saved, Jesus spent three days experiencing death and rose again. Once we repent and die to our self-sufficiency and surrender our pride, we will experience the love and mercy of Jesus flow through us to all those we meet in person and online. Even, and especially, those for whom we would rather not: those who get under our skin, grate on our nerves, and/or those who mirror to us our own biases and prejudices.

Suffering is a very concrete and harsh reality. That is something we all agree on whether we believe in God or not. The question is, how do we respond to suffering, especially the hurt caused by another? We can harden our hearts, slip into denial, despair, or wish our problems away, but none of these work very well for the long term. Jonah found that out when he hardened his heart against forgiveness and refused to follow God’s will. Jesus followed the will of God to the cross, forgave those who crucified him, and experienced new life.

Let us not run away from God, his will, or his offer of forgiveness. Forgiveness stops the bleeding from the original wound received. When we forgive, we will not be alone. Jesus waits for us with his arms wide open to embrace us and journey with us each step of the way. Jonah hardened his heart, but still was willing to repent and follow God’s will to preach repentance to his enemies who did just that. When willing to forgive, we open our hearts and minds to God’s love which opens the door for healing, mercy, and reconciliation.

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Photo: There is no resurrection without the cross. There is no healing without forgiveness. There is no suffering without God’s consolation.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, July 20, 2026

Abiding in God’s love we will flourish and thrive.

The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off” (Mt 13:24-26). 

The enemy in the parable we attribute to being Satan. In Hebrew, śā-țān means adversary or one who opposes. Satan is not a god or Demi-god, nor did God create Satan. He created a high arch-angel named Lucifer, just as he created the arch-angels, Michael, Gabriel, and Rafael. Lucifer opposed the will of God and took the stance of being his adversary. Satan seeks to bring about division, isolation, despair, and death. 

God seeks to bring about communion, expansion, hope, and life.

God did not nor does he create evil. Evil is not a thing but a deprivation of the good. God did not create but he does allow evil. God allows distortions of the good he promotes and invites us to participate in all that is good true and beautiful. Our Father loves us so much, angels and humans alike, that he is willing to risk that we will reject him. God is not a tyrant nor dictator. God loves us and wants us to choose him freely. Even when evil and the wicked may seem to flourish, God can still bring about a greater good.

There are times when we have turned away from God because of the pain we have witnessed and/or suffered. In our sin, we seek an apparent or disordered good, but miss the mark of intimate union with God. There are also times we say yes to our Father and his will, will follow those little nudges of the Holy Spirit, and allow Jesus to forgive us and love us in places where we feel unlovable and alone. The hope is that over time we will say no less and yes more.

Jesus shares the parable of the wheat and the weeds with the intention of helping us to see this reality of living in a fallen world where God has created all that is good and yet, in so many ways, bad things happen. God allows the wheat and the weeds to coexist. Jesus is relating a common agricultural application of his time. “The weed here is darnel, a poisonous plant whose roots would become intertwined with the rest of the wheat crop” (Mitch and Sri, 180).  

As humans, unlike wheat and weeds, we can change, we can mature, we can repent from our times of saying no and choose to say yes and walk a little closer with our God. The wicked are allowed to exist along the good until the final judgment. Disciples are to “watch and pray that [we] may not enter into temptation; the spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak” (Mt. 26:41).

Prayer is the most important thing that we can do every day and the enemy knows this. He will do whatever he can to divert, distract, or dissuade us from praying. If that doesn’t work then he is going to tempt us to pray in as functional or anemic a way as possible. For if he can keep us curved in upon ourselves, isolated, shaming or shoulding all over ourselves, then we are separated from our Father’s forgiveness, mercy, consolation, compassion, and love. I have been led astray in my life and earlier years walked away from God, but he never left me. 

Through small ways, God continually reached out and during my late teens, I started to say yes to his invitations. Building on the early stability from my mother and her parents, a moment of prayer with my father, following the nudge of the Holy Spirit to purchase a Bible, to read and pray with the Bible, to return to church and teach Sunday School, when I hadn’t a clue about what I was doing. God led me with his tender chords of love, gently and slowly, and with each successive yes, I experienced his love and our relationship was strengthened.

God encourages and invites each of us, just like a parent invites his or her child to walk. A mother or father encourages their small child to come to a wobbly stand and then encourages them to begin to take those first steps. If the child resumes to a crawl and then crawls away, the parent will go around and again meet the child, help to lift he or she up and then encourage them to walk again. In this intimate dance of love between the two, the child will eventually learn to walk. Sometimes, they will walk away and sometimes walk into their parent’s loving embrace. The parent is always close, to pick their child up when they fall as well.

So, it is with our relationship with God. He has sent his Son to be one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. Slowly and steadily, Jesus guides us, to crawl, take baby steps, and walk into the loving embrace of the Father to share the infinite love between them who is the Holy Spirit. God is ever patient and ever-present. Yet, we often do not experience him in our lives, because we are preoccupied. We are distracted and diverted by so many other things or we are let down and disillusioned. Instead of bringing our pain, struggles, and sufferings to God, we believe the lie of the enemy that we have to be self-sufficient and stand on our own or we are weak.

God invites us to bring our worst to him. When we first received the diagnosis that JoAnn, my wife, not only had pancreatic cancer but that it had spread throughout her abdominal region. The prognosis was not good. There was a flashback to the earlier days of turning away from God. Not this time.

This time I turned to God and trusted in whatever was coming. JoAnn and I both received the grace of his peace and the closeness of his presence because we did not turn away from him, even though the outcome was not what either of us wanted or prayed for. Even though this was not fair any way you looked at it, no matter JoAnn was in perfect health except for the cancer… We accepted the devastating reality and decided not to take the time we were given for granted. Knowing our time was limited we decided to get things in order and make the best of the time we had left.

From this experience and others, I have realized that there is very little that we are truly in control of. But we can decide how we are going to live no matter the internal resistance or external circumstances. “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.” God has created us good. We are invited to grow where we have been planted, to mature, and to bear fruit that will become the seed to be sown in the lives of others. By our willingness to will the good of each other, we love as God loves us. 

There is evil and those who live wicked lives among us. We can choose to react in kind and be weakened by the poison of evil and other’s wickedness, we can give into despair, and we can curve in upon ourselves and/or bury our head in the sand. Jesus invites us to choose another way. We can be more intentional with the time we have been given. We can allow ourselves a prayerful breathe and pause before we choose to entertain each thought, before we speak each word, and choose instead of reacting, to act in ways that promote a patience and peace that surpasses all understanding.

Healing for ourselves and those we hold close to our hearts is possible, even in situations that appear to be hopeless. When we choose to abide in God’s love, the Holy Spirit will help us despite our wounds and weaknesses to heal and become whole again. Abiding in God’s love we will flourish where we have been planted, we will overcome the temptations that seek to undo us, and we will experience hope and joy.

Photo: On Rosary walk and then stopping to pause and breathe.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, July 19, 2026

There are times to take a stand as well as withdraw.

In today’s Gospel from Matthew, Jesus realized that: “The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death” (Mt 12:14). Jesus did not then start to plan how he would defend himself against their plot, he did not arm his supporters, nor is there any indication that Jesus let the fact that he was a marked man bother him. What did Jesus do with this bit of news?

“He withdrew from that place” (Mt. 12:15) and cured those who followed him. Was Jesus being a coward by withdrawing? No. Jesus refused to engage or give any of his time or energy to their negativity or threat. He focused on who he is and what he was about: continuing the mission that his Father had sent him to accomplish. Jesus as Son of God became human to help bring about the salvation of humanity and the world and to call those who would work with him to participate in his mission.

Many of us will hopefully not receive death threats, but many of us may witness and/or receive critical, negative, belittling, demeaning, or dehumanizing looks, words, and outright actions that cause physical, mental, emotional or spiritual harm. For those of us who choose to practice the teachings of Jesus, we may receive even more, even from those in our own families!

Our common response to the many forms of perceived or actual animosity directed toward us is to react. Our reactions generally are based on learned defense or coping mechanisms that we have adopted to survive. When we react, we have slipped into survival mode, experience increased anxiety, defensiveness, anger as well as a myriad of other emotions. Reactions will continue until we learn to feel safe. Intentional breathing, slow and deep, is a good first redirection. Then we are more open to call upon God’s guidance and hear his direction.

Breathing and praying daily when we are not overtly feeling stressed is a good practice to build up our reservoir, so when we are triggered, we have some muscle memory already wired to breathe and pray. Life is short, let us not take a day or moment for granted, nor give away our precious time by engaging in unneeded drama or negativity. There are times that we do need to stand and speak up. Other times, as Jesus did today, we need to walk away and focus on what Jesus has before us. With each challenge or conflict, may we call on Jesus for his discernment on how best to act in each situation.

The words of Teresa of Avila, Spanish saint and doctor of the Church (1514-1582), are good ones to repeat and meditate upon often: “Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.”

Photo: Making time to withdraw from the world each day, to breathe, be still, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love, helps us to feel safe, renew, and be clearer about God’s guidance. We can proceed from there.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, July 18, 2026

The Lord of the sabbath is the Lord of mercy.

I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.” (Mt 12:6-8).

Jesus continues to rock established regulations and practices. Here he is challenging the understanding of the Sabbath itself when justifying the accusations leveled toward his disciples who were picking and eating grain on the Sabbath, and he does so in a profound way by saying that, “something greater than the temple is here.” Present in the heart of the temple, the area called the Holy of Holies, was the ark of the covenant. Atop the ark was the lid called the mercy seat of God. Jews believed that this was where God sat and when the blood of atonement was offered from sacrifices, God’s mercy was offered to the people. In the temple then, was the mercy seat, the very presence of God.

Jesus’ claim that he is greater than the temple is putting him on the same level as God. A blasphemous statement to say the least, unless of course, he is God. Jesus even doubles down by claiming that he is the Lord of the sabbath; Jesus is God! “As such, he has authority over how the Sabbath law is to be observed” (Mitch and Sri, 165).

In quoting Hosea 6:6: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”, Jesus not only said that he is the something greater, but that his Way is something greater. One of the foundational points of the Way of Jesus is mercy. Through the incarnation, the Son of God dwelt among us and became one with us in our humanity. He provides a way to restore the glory lost at the fall. What Jesus said, in defending his disciples eating from the grains of wheat on the Sabbath, he is saying to us today: “What is owed to every human being on the basis of his or her human dignity is personal respect, personal acceptance, and personal care” (Kasper 2014, 202).

Each one of us strengthens our unity in the Body of Christ when we, with Jesus, bestow works of mercy on our neighbor, which are “are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his [or her] spiritual and bodily necessities. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. 2447).

Will we judge others without mercy and keep them at arm’s length? Or rather, respect the dignity of each person, interact with and care for people, even when different, journey together, and offer God’s love as he loves us? Reviewing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy above is a good place to start. Praying about and deciding which one(s) to put into practice would be a good next step. We can write a broader and brighter chapter in the coming weeks and months ahead if we are willing to follow Jesus and lead with mercy, which is “the willingness to enter the chaos of another” (Keenan, 2015).

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Photo: We will be more merciful when we allow our heartbeat to beat in time with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Whose heart beat, in the womb of Mary, beat in time with the Immaculate Heart of his mother Mary.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, July 17, 2026

Kasper, Walter. Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life. NY: Paulist Press, 2004.

Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church: Revised in Accordance with the Official Latin Text Promulgated by Pope John Paul II. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997.

Keenan SJ, James. “The Scandal of Mercy Excludes No One.” Thinking Faith. December 4, 2015.

Mitch, Curtis and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.

When allow ourselves to breathe and rest with Jesus our burdens will be lighter.

Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28).

Scripture scholar, Fr. Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, stated that in this passage Jesus’ invitation was given to those who are not yet his disciples, those Jews who did not yet believe in him and the way that he was proposing. Jesus called them from the heavy burdens laid upon them by the scribes and Pharisees and invited them to accept his burden which is lighter (cf. Harrington, 167). “They tie up heavy burdens [hard to carry] and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4).

The charge Jesus leveled against the Pharisees came from those who experienced the laws without any assistance and support. The demands of Jesus are even more challenging than those of the Pharisees, Sadducees, or the scribes! I shared yesterday one of the six antitheses, here is another: “You have heard that it was said… whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to the judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna” (Mt 5:21-22). Jesus is equating calling someone Raqa – an airhead or calling someone a fool akin to murder. Our words can destroy or empower! We need to choose our words wisely.

The difference between Jesus and many of the religious leaders of his time is that Jesus, the Son of God, in the fullness of his divinity, was willing to enter into the chaos of our humanity. He experiences and suffers along with us. He invites us to yoke ourselves to himself. This will lighten the load that we carry. Many impose burdens on us, and we can impose burdens on others. We also impose them on ourselves and turn away from the invitation of Jesus’ help because of the temptation of self-sufficiency.

A handful of injuries I have suffered through the years were because I attempted to lift or carry something beyond my strength, instead of seeking assistance. I would think, “I can do it, I don’t want to bother anyone.” That is just the physical; there are also the mental and emotional burdens of anxiety, doubt, pride, fear, and worry that we burden ourselves with. This is not Jesus’ way.

Jesus offers us a path to follow that leads us to experience joy, peace, and tranquility in this life and fulfillment and union with God in the next. No matter what pain, suffering, conflict, and/or challenge we are facing right now, we do not have to go through it alone. We just need to remember to reach out our hand to Jesus and when we do, we will find that his hand is already extended ready to lead us to a better way.

In aligning ourselves with God’s will, life isn’t necessarily going to be easier. God’s commandments, and Jesus’ teachings aren’t any easier! The difference is that the Holy Spirit will give us the strength and peace of mind not only to endure but to experience a peace that surpasses all understanding while doing so. Let us take our first step together today, hand in hand with Jesus, and so find rest in knowing that we are not alone!

While walking with Jesus, we will learn to be patient and kinder with ourselves, and so kinder, patient, and more understanding with our words, actions, and faces. When receiving those who may be abrupt, rude, or reactive, resist the temptation of reacting in kind, and instead listen and love; for we are not aware of the burdens others are carrying consciously, and they may not be aware of their unconscious burdens. Offer instead a genuine smile, listen, not with an intention to defend, fix the person or solve their problem. Simply listen, breathe, and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the ears to be silent or the words to speak at the appropriate time.
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Photo: Evening rosary walk with Jesus and Mary for some quiet time.

Harrington, S.J. Daniel J. The Gospel of Matthew. Vol. 1 of Sacra Pagina, edited by Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2007.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, July 16, 2026

Tradition develops and unfolds over time through the loving guidance of Jesus.

“At that time Jesus exclaimed: ‘I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike’” (Mt 11:25).

Why did the wise and the learned, referring to some of the Sadducees, Pharisees and scribes, reject Jesus? One possibility is that Jesus challenged their idol of tradition. Even though Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (cf. Mt 5:17), the invitation to go deeper was and continues to be challenging. This is certainly highlighted in the six antitheses that Jesus shared during his Sermon on the Mount that we explored not that long ago. Here is one such example: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil” (Mt 5: 28). Offer no resistance to one who is evil? Not only hard to swallow for people of Jesus’ time, but for us today as well.

Jesus offered then and continues to offer us today a share in the intimacy of the Trinitarian Love of God shared between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To share in his Love, we need to resist being governed by holding blindly on to tradition for its own sake. Instead, we need to be open to growth, change, and renewal. Gerhard Lohfink, in his book, No Irrelevant Jesus, quotes the Polish philosopher Leszak Kolakowski: “A society in which tradition becomes a cult is condemned to stagnation; a society that tries to live entirely through revolt against tradition condemns itself to destruction” (Lohfink 2014, 2).

Many have left the Church or are barely hanging in there because they feel we are too steeped in tradition, rules, and laws Yet in doing so, they have left behind the secure ground or foundation, with no anchor in their life. On the other extreme are those who remain hunkered down, entrenched in a bunker of tradition fearing the secular tide, grasping, white knuckled, to tradition, but this stifles their growth.

Both tendencies are insufficient because at the root there is not a trust in or relationship with Jesus. Knowing Jesus helps balance the tension between each. Jesus invites us to remain anchored in the Truth of the deposit of faith that he has given while encouraging us to go deeper in our understanding, practice of our faith, and relationship with his Father. If we are not moving forward in our spiritual lives, we are moving backward. “Tradition then exists concretely as presence in faith, which again, as the in-dwelling of Christ, is antecedent to all its explicit formulations and is fertile and living, thus developing and unfolding throughout the ages” (Ratzinger, 123).

We are better when we resist the extremes of rejecting tradition altogether or idolizing tradition alone, and instead build on the foundation of Jesus Christ: “The Way, the Truth and the Life” (cf. Jn 14:6). Within the life of the Church, “we must not do away with its traditions, but at the same time, it must continually clarify, renew, and deepen them” (Lohfink 2014, 2).

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Photo: Close up of Our Lady of Manresa, St. Charles Church founded in 1819.

Lohfink, Gerhard. No Irrelevant Jesus: On Jesus and the Church Today. Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2014.

Ratzinger, Joseph in Introducing Communio Theology. Elk Grove Village, IL: Word on Fire, 2025.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Repentance is not punishment, but an invitation to freedom.

“Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented.” (Mt 11:20).

Anyone who encounters Jesus is invited to change. Jesus shines the light of his love and mercy into the darkness of our own fallen nature, where we are wounded, sinful, and misled. He invites us to repentance, healing, and reconciliation. He seeks to help us to understand who we are, the daughters and sons of his Father. A wonderful invitation, but why would we turn away? The darkness may be too dark, or the light may be too bright.

Facing our own darkness and pain is not easy and can be frightening as well as intimidating. We are vulnerable to temptations, distractions, and diversions when we don’t trust Jesus to come into the places where we feel unlovable. He loves us there, because he loves us in our totality. If we don’t allow him in those places of darkness and shame though, we will not experience his love, forgiveness of healing.

Yet the hunger for his intimacy we still seek, so will continue to be tempted by disordered affections to fill the void. We may not be able to sit still and breathe because we want to keep moving so as not to face our fears and the root causes of our suffering, nor let go of our false senses of security, control, and the glitter of apparent goods. The disfunction we know and have become accustomed to, is more comfortable than the promise of new life Jesus offers. We also may not be able to accept the fullness of our goodness, of who God calls us to be, and the realization of who we really are.

Jesus invites us to stop, to breathe, to enter into his stillness and silence where we can hear the word of his Father and experience the love of the Holy Spirit. In this experience of silence, we come to encounter what our lives look like without God and what our lives are with God. The choice to change our hearts and minds becomes clearer when we experience the light and love of Jesus. When we become aware of our sin, our turning in upon ourselves and away from God, Jesus does not condemn us. He inside invites us to repent: to turn away from anything and anyone that is not of God and to turn back and receive his loving embrace and welcome.

God loves us more than we can ever mess up, more than we can ever imagine, and he does not define us by our sins, failings, or worst mistakes. Jesus’ arms are wide open to receive us in the midst of our deepest wounds, fears, pain, sin, and suffering but we must be willing to stop running. We need to be still long enough to experience and feel the pain of our turning away from him. We repent when we allow Jesus to love us in our poverty and pain and then we experience being seen and heard. We are no longer isolated and alone.

The call of Jesus to repent is not a punishment but an invitation to freedom from punishing ourselves in self-criticism and judgment, from the lies that separate from the one who made us to be loved and to love in return. All the saints experienced the freedom for the excellence. The light of Christ revealed their sin, which they renounced, and so saw more clearly their unique charism. Trusting in and following Jesus they were transformed.

With confidence in being seen and loved, they cut the chords and strings that bound them. For a bird tied by even the smallest of strings will not be able to fly until the last string is cut. Let us repent and allow Jesus to reveal the chords and strings that bind us so that he can help us cut them and be set free from the fowler’s snare while there is still time!

Photo: Jesus will let us know what we need to repent from if we are willing to make the time to be still and listen.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, July 14, 2026

“I have come not to bring peace but the sword.”

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword” (Mt 10:34).

Seems to be odd words coming from the King of Peace! The reality of this statement though is the reality of his mission. Jesus entered the lives of individuals. Some said yes to following him and some said no; some saying yes and no within the same family. The image of the sword represents how sharp and stark this choice could and did cut.

During the time of Jesus and for most within the first generation of believers, there was not a lukewarm choice. You were either for Jesus or against Jesus. Being for Jesus also meant possibly dying for him. Jesus was either very dangerous because he was leading people to believe he was God, he was distorting the teaching of the Jewish faithful and leading people astray, he was just crazy, or he was who he said he was. These choices would have divided families and friends. As he continued to speak about those who would follow him, the choice did not become any clearer:“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

Jesus spoke clearly that he was sent by God and if received that act would be the same as receiving his Father. Just prior to this statement, he said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…” This also being true for brother, sister, husband or wife. These words would be shattering to those listening to him. What audacity to say follow him before even their own family and clan! Unless… Jesus is not just sent by God, but he is God himself in the flesh. If that be true, we must love him with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. If he is not God then those who opposed him were correct in calling him a blasphemer. The choice between family and friends around the table would be heated at best, unless everyone was in agreement either for or against.

When Jesus said, “I have come to bring not peace but the sword” (Mt 10:34), he meant that he and we as his disciples are not to settle for a false peace, a lethargic appeasement to just get along or to water down the Gospel message in the hope that others will receive it. Jesus demanded a choice. We are to decide whether or not we believe that Jesus is who he says he is. If he is God, then we must follow him and put his teachings into practice, as challenging as they are.

The good news is that Jesus, doing the will of his Father, draws close and gently leads us with his tender chords of love. Following Jesus and putting his teachings into practice, like taking up our cross and following him, is impossible without his help. He is also there to pick us up when we fall, if we are willing to accept his help. In sharing our faith, we do not carry a mallet and bludgeon others with the true, the good, and the beautiful. We share what we believe in the same way we have received it, through love, patience, compassion, and understanding. We put our faith into practice and share with those God brings into our lives, as well as our family and friends already present.

Allowing Jesus, to love us, we enter into the trinitarian communion of love as the Father’s beloved daughter or son. Experiencing his love helps us to detach from unhealthy attachments, disordered affections, and habitual temptations. No one and nothing else can truly feed our insatiable hunger and thirst. The love that we seek will be satiated by God alone. Living our faith in love will result in conflicts when we stand up for what we believe in, even with those closest to us. And yet, if we are to be free and are to have a chance of helping those who disagree, we must trust in and how the Holy Spirit guides us.

Woodcut: St Ignatius of Loyola surrendering his sword to Our Lady of Montserrat and renouncing his disordered affections, identity as a soldier, and courier of the Spanish court. He gave all for the love of Jesus.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, July 13, 2026

Who has helped to plant the seeds of God’s word in your life?

Do you think we are in the end times? Do you think the world is coming to an end? I have heard these or similar questions over the past few years and longer. I have also heard definitively by some that we are in the final days and that the world is indeed coming to an end. The more we spend time watching the endless news cycle, I can understand why people may feel this way. I don’t need to share a list of the hardships we are going through in the world. In addition, many of us also have our own unique struggles that we are wading through, sometimes feeling like we are neck time and some days sinking even deeper.

This same question of the end times even came up with the disciples. They asked Jesus when that day would come and Jesus said that only the Father knows the time or the hour (cf. Mt 24:36). I believe Jesus was saying then, has repeated in every generation, and is saying to us now, that is the wrong question to be asking as a disciple. Spending time speculating about the end of the world is not to be our focus.

St Paul also chimed on this topic when he wrote to the Church in Rome,  “Brothers and sisters: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing  compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Rom 8:18). From Paul to this day, each generation has had to face its own trials and tribulations.  There is hope in that this life is not all that there is, but that does not mean we just indifferently endure and trudge through this life until the end. We have other options than mere existence, living in a constant disposition of fight or flight survival of the fittest mode.

There is a powerful scene in the movie, The Lord of the Rings, where one of the main characters, Frodo, a halfling, is speaking with Gandalf, a Christlike figure. Frodo was feeling overwhelmed with the task that he had been entrusted with which was to destroy a great ring of power. He turned to Gandalf and said:  “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.” To which  Gandalf replied,  “So do all who live to see such times but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

The Lord of the Rings was written by JRR Tolkien who personally witnessed the atrocities of the First World War. If you are looking for a good book or trilogy to read, I would highly recommend it. It is not only a powerful parable of hope, courage, and transformation, it is a deeply Christological parable. Once seeing the size of the trilogy, one might say, “I don’t have the time to read it!” I might then reply, “I invite you to give up the time you spend watching the news and put into reading the tale instead.” Doing so might give us all a little more peace.

Another invitation I could offer is to read the Bible each day, such as the daily readings of the Mass. All of our readings today as well as what I have pointed out so far are interconnected with the principle that God works in small ways to affect and bring about change and a greater good. No matter the time or season, his word does not come back void. This change is not just about some abstract ideal. What God offers each one of us is his love and if we are willing to accept it, personal transformation. This comes forth rather powerfully in the Parable of the Sower.

Do we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear Jesus when he comes close in his word in the Bible, in our seemingly coincidental experiences of each day?

There are happenings or incidences, I like to call them God-incidences, where Jesus is present and active in our lives, where he draws close to us each day. Jesus’ word is constantly being sown into our being through our interactions with one another and our experiences. We are invited to receive him, allow him to take root in our lives, and we are to share the fruit of his love as a result of our growing relationship with him. If we receive the love of God, allow our the resistance to be tilled and turned over, the rocks of sin to be tossed out, the weeds to be uprooted and tossed away, we will have some fertile soil in which to receive the invitation to be loved, forgiven, and healed.

Let me give you a few examples from my own life of seeds sown, of God-incidents, of Jesus drawing close.

Growing up we would often share holidays with my mother’s parents. As we settled in around the table we would continue to visit as the last of the food was placed on the table. My grandmother would sit down, and if the conversation went on a little longer, she would say something along the lines of, “Ok old man, let’s go.” My grandfather would say in a mock, wounded way, “Snucksie, I’m talking.” She would give him “the look” and then he would make the sign of the cross and pray the Our Father. Sometimes he read a short prayer from a little devotional. In times alone with my grandfather, he also encouraged me to take time to be still and quiet and also passed on to me his love of books and reading.

Each of these were seeds that found good soil in my heart and mind. They were impressed upon me because my mind and heart was open to receive them. I was moved deeply and I believe these were times when Jesus drew close and I opened the door and let him in.  If we allow ourselves to recall, we can look back over the years of our lives and see where Jesus has drawn close through the those important people in our lives. The opposite may also be true, and it is important to be honest when and where we have been hurt, for in those places of pain that we are still wounded, we may not trust. Where we curve in upon ourselves and may not be willing to let God love us there.  

There may be a lot on your plate right now. Even so, I learned from my wife, JoAnn, that life is short and we cannot take the time we have for granted. Life is hard and it is, even if long too short. I have spent time keeping God at a distance and I have spent more and more each successive year allowing him to come closer. I choose more and more to spend less time in the promises of what the world offers for safety, security, power, pleasure, fame, and honor, all goods when properly ordered, but like weeds that can choke and strangle our spiritual lives if they are placed first or replace God.

I invite you as my grandfather invited me to spend some time in silence and to be still as you finish reading these words. After some deep, slow breaths, invite God to speak in the silence of your heart. As anxieties, worries, false promises, lures, half-truths, apparent goods and disordered affections arise, allow your heart and mind to soften, breathe into them, identify if there any thoughts that are at the source and then choose to uproot them if not of God. Allow the seed of God’s Word, Jesus, to find root in your life. Allow the Holy Spirit to nourish you with his love.  

Even in troubling times, personally right at home, communally, nationally, or internationally, we are not to be strangled by the growing uncertainties, divisions, and even expressions of inhumanity. Instead, we are to till the soil of our hearts and minds, dig out the stones, and uproot the thorns, thereby preparing rich soil that is open to receiving the seeds of God’s love. As we continue to care for our garden, we will produce the rich fruit of his love, experience forgiveness, healing and wholeness to be shared.  

It is our choice regarding which soil we want to have. As Gandalf said to Frodo, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

Photo: My grandfather and me.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, July 12, 2026

Allowing Jesus to love us, we become like him.

Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master (Mt 10:24-25).

Following the teachings and guidance of Jesus was hard for his apostles and disciples then and it is just as challenging today. To live as disciples, we need to learn from and put Jesus’ teachings into practice. That means more than reading some of his teachings: love God with your whole heart, mind, and soul and your neighbor as yourself, turn the other cheek, and what you do to the least of my brothers, you did it to me, and acknowledging, that, “That is some good stuff!” Then just moving on to the next thing on the to-do list.

Living as a disciple also happens in a public way, which means public scrutiny. One thing we all have in common as human beings is that we want to belong, to fit in, and to be a part of. We risk rejection and ridicule by following Jesus and living as his disciple because we run up against our own fallen nature and the fallen nature of others. Jesus said he would be sending us as sheep among wolves yesterday and in today’s reading, he announces that we are not to be afraid of those who kill the body. Not exactly the kind of encouragement many of us are looking for.

Yet, Jesus affirms consistently that we are not to be afraid. Jesus leads us to the most important relationship that we will ever develop and that is with his Father. God cares for us, just as Jesus said, as his Father cares for the sparrows, but even more. God knows us by name, and we are his, we belong to him. Every hair on our head is counted. Our loving God and Father knows us better than we know ourselves. Never have we been, are we now, nor will we ever be, alone. As we come to know God’s will in small moments and follow the nudges of the Holy Spirit, we will experience, joy, consolation, and a fulfillment that is unmatched.

One of the keys to living the Christian life is understanding that it is more than a philosophy, a set of teachings, or a theology. Being a Christian means allowing ourselves to be known, loved, and to build our relationship with a person. Jesus is that person. Instead of hiding or running, we are invited to trust and turn to him. By admitting and giving him our insecurities, weaknesses and our fears, our anxieties and overthinking, our worries and our sins, we can begin to slow down, breathe, feel safe, and we can begin to reset our brain’s wiring.

Isaiah, recognized he was a man with unclean lips, not worthy to be God’s prophet, he allowed his mouth to receive and be purged by the ember placed by a seraphim. St. Peter recognized in the presence of Jesus that he was a sinful man, followed Jesus anyway, and his impulsiveness became properly ordered. We too, will see our weaknesses, our failures and our shortcomings. Yet Jesus loves us anyway. The light of Christ reveals to us our darkness not to condemn us, but to free us. He gently invites us to bring our sin into the light, so we can be purged, purified, and ultimately deified – become like God through our participation in the life of Jesus.

In turning our weaknesses over to Jesus and admitting our utter dependence on him, then we become strong. Our confidence and strength are not in ourselves but in him. Acknowledging Jesus as our teacher does not mean that we will gain all the answers to life, but it does mean that we will be more aware of his presence during each step of our journey. Take courage, be not afraid, and like Isaiah, the prophets, the Apostles, and Mary let us say, “Yes.” to the will of God and take our next step along the path to our healing and freedom as we are loved by him, every step of the way.
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Photo: Jesus’ Sacred Heart is open to receive us in all aspects and situations of our lives.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, July 11, 2026