Jesus, with his love and light exposes “evil so that it can be expelled.”

Jesus quoted no one. He spoke from his own authority. Nor did he shy away from the attacks of demons.

The Gospel of John picks up the source of Jesus’ authority from the beginning line of his Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). Jesus is the Word, the Logos in Greek. Who would have more authority to speak about the word of God, than the Logos, the Word, himself?

The authority of Jesus was not only limited to teaching but restoration. Jesus is the light who shines in the darkness. His Father sent him to invite us to receive the restoration of the likeness we have lost because of the Fall. He wants to restore the glory that God has intended for all of us. We see this happening in the exorcisms Jesus performed. As he was teaching in the synagogue he expelled the unclean spirit of a man when he said, “Quiet! Come out of him” (Mk 1:25)! The unclean spirit would not go easy, but could not remain in the presence of Jesus and his command.

Jesus came to teach in the synagogue and the authority of his teaching identified the evil in the midst of the congregation. “Jesus’ teaching has the intrinsic effect of exposing evil so that it can be expelled” (Healy 2008, 42). The first act to follow his address that the kingdom of God was at hand was to begin to undo the disfigurement of the good that God his Father had created. The time of fulfillment was indeed at hand in the coming of Jesus and he began his work by proclaiming and teaching with authority and exorcising his authority over demons.

If you haven’t read the Bible ever, have not for a long time, have been away for a while, or could benefit from a deeper dive, I invite you to read the Gospel of Mark. Do so with the intention not of reading a history book or novel, but to read, study, and above all pray with Mark’s account. In this way, we come to not just know about Jesus, but know Jesus and experience his authority in our own lives. We will come to experience the same awe and wonder of those who experienced Jesus in person.

A great way to do so is to read along with the Church as we are reading the Gospel daily right now in the lectionary or at your own pace, say five to ten minutes a day. What may be even better is to read a short section at a time, read it over two to three times, and meditate on the passage. Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, it is quick moving, and action-packed; the James Patterson of the Gospels. The accounts lend themselves particularly well to visualizing, and placing yourself in the reading as if you were watching a movie. Open your heart and mind to what Jesus wants to reveal or communicate to you in the silence of your heart.

We can also receive a word or phrase and carry it with us through the day, such as from today’s account. Jesus can be the light that shines in our own darkness and bring us healing. We may not be dealing with being possessed, but for those times that we experience negativity, temptation, stress, feeling indecisive, or divided we can call on Jesus’ words and speak in his name, “Quiet!”, “Silence!”, or “Peace be still!” and receive through the authority of his word his healing presence.

We do not walk this journey alone. We have the gift of prayer, of turning our hearts and minds to God, and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to help to bring the words of Scripture alive. Jesus is present with us, ready to help us and others. The kingdom of God is at hand, let us receive the hand of our Savior and be on our way!

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Photo: Evening walk, USMl, Mundelein, IL.

Healy, Mary. The Gospel of Mark. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, January 13, 2025

Jesus is close, and when we repent, we will experience how close he is!

“This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).

With these words as recorded by Mark, Jesus begins his public ministry in time and space and we in 2026 begin the first week of Ordinary Time together. Whether we are in the season of Christmas, Easter, or Ordinary Time, each day is an opportunity to be thankful and celebrate our lives for this continues to be “the time of fulfillment”. The Kingdom of God is still at hand because Jesus is still present with us.

We are not alone on our journey. The Son of God became human, as we just celebrated this Christmas season, and as we will celebrate in Easter, he died and rose again. This was no mere resuscitation like with Lazarus who rose and died again. Jesus conquered death and became the firstborn of the new creation. Ordinary Time is the season in which we not only study the life and teachings of Jesus but hopefully continue to be willing to be more conformed to his Body and the will of his Father and experience the love of the Holy Spirit.

One of the things that may hold us back from embracing the gift of the Kingdom of God in our midst is that we have often chosen to place our focus on other distractions or diversions or placed ourselves others first before God. Jesus calls us to reorient our lives in urging us to repent. This is an invitation to see what our lives are like apart from him and how they are with him. With a clearer choice, we can then choose to turn away from the false reality that we are the center and author of our own lives. When we do so, we come to realize the truth that God is our true author and director. To repent also means to open ourselves to his love, to place our trust in him, and to be assured that God accepts us as we are, right now at this very moment.

We do not repent so that God will love us. We do not have to do anything or act perfectly or say the right prayer for God to love us. We just need to “move the Lord out of the category of ‘polite company’ and into that of intimate friend to whom one can tell everything” (Barry 1987, 55). To repent means to turn back to the God whose arms are wide open ready to embrace us. We are given the opportunity to see where we have turned away from God. Let us run into his waiting embrace and receive the forgiveness, mercy, and love that he offers us. Experiencing the love of God we can then begin again and walk in communion with God.

The call to repent that Jesus accentuates is a continuation of the preaching of the prophets and John. What he adds to repentance is to believe. To believe is to “trustingly accept and yield to what God is doing in him. The kingdom is near enough that anyone who so chooses can reach out and lay hold of it through faith” (Healy 2008, 42). As we turn back to God, reorient our minds to his guidance and direction, reflect on how much he has blessed us, we will better make an ascent to believe.

To “repent and believe” is a good way to begin our journey into Ordinary Time together. May we resist the temptation to hold anything back and share more with our Father and grow closer to God as a person, each day. Let us trust in Jesus who encourages us to resist limiting God and the possibilities he places before us. Instead of attempting to bend his will toward ours, may we allow the love of the Holy Spirit to expand our hearts and minds such that we will believe in and trust God more so to be like a pencil in his hand.

Photo: A good way to reorient our minds and hearts to the will of God and to believe is to slow down, examine our interior life, and pray. Doing so in the chapel at the community center of USML last week.

Barry, S.J, William A. God and You: Prayer as a Personal Relationship. NY: Paulist Press, 1987.

Healy, Mary. The Gospel of Mark. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, January, 12, 2026

The baptism of Jesus, not for his sins but ours.

Today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord and the ending of the Christmas Season. From the timeline of each of the Gospels, even though they emphasize different points, Jesus’ baptism is a significant step in the life of Jesus.

It is good to occasionally reflect on our own baptism and the vows made on our behalf if we were baptized during our infancy or if older, we actually may remember our pronouncing our own vows. Each time Catholics enter church, we dip our fingers into the Holy Water. We then bless ourselves with the signing of the Cross. We participate in this act to affirm that we choose again to live by the baptismal vows we or others made on our behalf. What are those vows? That we renounce Satan, all his works, and empty promises, sin, and the lure of evil. We then pronounce that we believe in God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, communion of saints, forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

Reflecting on what the Church in her wisdom, which has been preserved and passed on through the ages, we may see this feast as important to us as well. But we might ask, why is Jesus being baptized? He is the Son of God and haven’t we been taught that Jesus is like us in all things but sin? Yes and yes. And this is the wonderful gift of the Bible that the words of Scripture invites us to enter into the tension of humanity and spirit.

Jesus was not participating in baptism as an act of repentance, he was joining in solidarity with us in our fallen and sinful nature, while at the same time affirming that we are not destroyed by sin but only wounded by it. Jesus came to redeem us, to save us, to help to reconcile our fractured relationship with his Father. In the words of St. Irenaeus, “Jesus opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.” The waters of baptism, the baptism of John did not cleanse Jesus, he cleansed the water. Just as Jesus placed his hands on the leper, he did not contract leprosy, he healed the leper.

We recall and celebrate this reality that the Son of God, non-being, Infinite Act of Existence, became a finite, human being and then even assumed our sinfulness, while remaining sinless himself. The pure, unblemished, Lamb of God would be the sacrificial offering on the cross. Just as in his birth there were images of his death; the cave foreshadowed his tomb, the swaddling cloths his shroud, and being laid in a trough that was to feed animals, by his death he would become the bread of life to feed us at each Mass. His baptism also reveals signs of his death.

Jesus was willing to participate in John’s baptism, which was a foreshadowing of his crucifixion, because he loved his Father and was willing to follow his Father’s will all the way. He was willing to show unconditional love for us, by his willingness to walk among sinners coming to John for a baptism of repentance, he entered into solidarity with fallen humanity. He was showing that not only in his baptism but also in willingness to die for us, that he would take upon the sins of the world on the Cross. He came among us as a human being so that what he assumed, he would redeem. The muddy waters of the Jordan he would be baptized in would also be made pure such that in our baptism we would be made clean, we would be cleansed of all stain of sin.

We have choices each and every day, each and every moment to make. We can turn our back on our God and Father and his love for us, and instead listen to false promises, seek after apparent goods, and give in to temptations and diversions that may satisfy for the moment but leave us empty in the end. Even if they do satisfy for the moment, we will not only be hungry and thirst again, we will never be satisfied and only want more. We can live a life for our selves alone working toward an eternity of eternal separation from the one who loves us more than we can ever know.

We can also choose another path, to allow God to love us, to receive his love and his guidance, to accept his invitation to be in relationship with him, to participate in the plan that God has for us, and to follow his beloved Son. By our baptism into the life of Jesus, we become adopted children of the Father so that we can hear each day, “You are my beloved daughter, you are my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” We can truly be forgiven of our sins and experience the joy and meaning of a life of fulfillment as we collaborate with God and strive to live out the grace he has given us toward a life of eternity with God while at the same time helping others to do the same.

How come Jesus never sinned? Because he never said no to his Father. Jesus always said, “yes.” Jesus’ baptism also revealed the Trinity into whom we are baptized in. When Jesus prayed after his baptism, he did so as the Son of God, fully human and fully divine. As he was praying the Holy Spirit came down upon him like a dove and the Father spoke of him saying, “You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”

During our Baptism we were indelibly marked, eternally conformed to Jesus and became adopted daughters and sons of the Father, with whom he is well pleased! Such that our Baptism, our being born again, born from above, is just the beginning. God the Father has a part for us to play in bringing about his kingdom. It does not matter how small. We are called to be holy, we are called to be saints. Each and every one of us, each and every day, are invited to say, “yes” to God’s will, to live out our baptismal vows to commit to playing our part in salvation history.

We are not alone in this endeavor. The saints represented in stained glassed windows, with the light shining through, are not just there for adornment. They are examples and reminders of those, who though sinners, and imperfect like us, made a decision one day that their baptism mattered, that they were going to say, “yes” to God. That day, and each day that followed, they allowed the light of Christ to shine through them to others. We can do the same, as the saints cheer us on.

The Father and the Son have also sent the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to empower us through his love, to give us the guidance, the ears to hear, and the courage to act. All that needs to happen for us to begin and continue to live out our baptismal call is to say, “yes,” as Mary did, today, tomorrow, and the next day, and in each moment, to the will of our Loving God and Father.

Painting: Baptism of Christ by Battistello Caracciollo

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, January 11, 2025

Each day we awake and consecrate our heart to the Lord, we will experience his joy!

“So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”(Jn 3:29b-30).

How could John be feeling joy with decrease? This is counter to what many aspire to in our country. Aren’t we supposed to obtain more, be more popular, and not rest on our laurels if we are to be happy? If our end goal is, fame or honor, wealth, power, and/or pleasure, above all else, then yes that would be true. But John is giving us an insight here about what brings us real joy.

True joy comes from God himself. He is the one who will satisfy our deepest longings, the ones that we are not even aware of! This is even deeper when we have found our meaning and purpose, or vocation in life. John was clear about his mission. John came to prepare the way of the Lord. He experienced this from the time when he leaped in the womb when Mary first arrived to see Elizabeth. From that moment, he was preparing the way for Jesus and continued to do so into his adult life. He was not distracted by how many people he was or was not baptizing because he did not see Jesus as competition. Each of them were playing their part in saving humanity and the world. John focused on his part, preparing people to be ready for the coming of the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29).

John is not threatened by Jesus as was Herod, he was overjoyed that the time of fulfillment had come. What John had been called to do by God he had been doing and would continue to do. The reality that Jesus increased and John decreased brought John joy because this was the fulfillment of his mission. How many of us get to experience the fruits of our labor in the moment or even our lifetime?

If we want to be happy, experience joy, and be fulfilled, then following the lead of John the Baptist is a pretty good way to start. I do not necessarily mean selling off everything and living in the wilderness. The important point is that John cultivated a relationship with God. He came to know God’s voice, was open to his direction, acted on his leading, found confirmation, and became clear of the part he was to play in salvation history.

Each and every one of us has a specific role to play in God’s plan. We come to understand our mission by slowing down and becoming consciously aware of the relationship God is inviting us to participate in. As we do so, we also experience the Holy Spirit who, in the words of Pope Francis, “impels us to open the doors and go forth to proclaim and bear witness to the good news of the Gospel, to communicate the joy of faith, the encounter with Christ. The Holy Spirit is the soul of mission” (Francis 2014, 48).

I enjoyed teaching at each level, elementary, middle and high school. As I saw my teaching career coming to a close because I knew that Jesus was leading me to the priesthood, I experienced joy, not because I was leaving a career and vocation I was blessed with, but was taking the next step that the Holy Spirit had called me to participate in. I am also glad that I have been able to continue to share these reflections. There have been many evenings in which my body was ready to head for the land of dreams but I have found joy even when weary to do so mostly each day.

When we allow ourselves to listen, we will hear and begin to recognize the voice of Jesus in the silence of our hearts, we will better discern where we are placing our thoughts, time, and energy, as well as better examine how God is inviting us through his creation, our experiences, and relationships. As we step out and risk, following the lead of the Holy Spirit, as we decrease and allow Jesus to increase, he will not only confirm for us but provide us with the means to accomplish our mission and we will experience his joy!

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Photo: “My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and chant praise. Awake, my soul; awake lyre and harp! I will awake the dawn.” (cf Psalm 57). Last morning at USML.

Pope Francis. The Church of Mercy: A Vision for the Church. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2014.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, January 10, 2025

The Son of God came and continues to come close to forgive, heal, and transform us.

The man in today’s Gospel scene takes a tremendous risk by approaching Jesus. He is a leper and so considered unclean. The appropriate response when someone was coming into his general vicinity would have been to give as wide a berth as possible, if not remove themselves from view entirely, or to make themselves known to be unclean to any passerby.

This state of uncleanness was not a mere sense of hygiene. This was considered ritual impurity. So anyone touching or being touched by a leper would be considered ritually impure. For this reason, lepers were ostracized from family, friends, and the larger community socially as well as being forbidden access to public worship. This is a horrific state to find oneself in, for as human beings we are social beings who want to belong, to be a part of, and to be loved.

The leper cast aside all social norms and fell prostrate before Jesus and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean” (Lk 5:12). Jesus knew full well the social norms, and it is very telling that not only did Jesus heal the man, but he did so by placing his hand on him. He could have easily said, “I do will it. Be made clean” (Lk 5:13), without touching him and the man would have been healed. There are Gospel accounts of Jesus not only healing with his word but also with his word from afar.

Jesus says more in his willingness to touch the leper than he does even with his words of healing. He does not keep the man at a distance but instead places himself on the same level as the man. In Jesus’ touch he is not made unclean, but the man becomes clean. The tremendous stigma of this man having to be separated from something as simple, yet as significant, as a human embrace is removed. With that simple touch, Jesus comes close and in doing so, the man will no longer be kept at arm’s length but restored to his community and the opportunity for fellowship.

This is what the Son of God has come to do. He has come close to all of us. He has become human so we can see the face of God. We can experience the tenderness of his touch, his closeness, and being understood when no one else can or is willing to do so. Jesus has come close so that we know that we are not alone, that we are loved more than we can ever imagine, more than we can ever mess up, more than our worst mistakes, or even our gravest sins. Jesus has come close so we can experience how it feels to forgiven, healed, restored, so to belong, cared for and loved.

Having received this wonderful gift of his love, we are invited to also come close and be willing to love one another. In doing so, we can move a bit closer to actualizing the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, “Someday after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love; and then for the second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire.”

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Photo: A few minutes before Mass this morning and preparing for Jesus to come close again in his glorified Body.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, January 9, 2025

In loving our brothers and sisters, we are loving Christ who gave his life for us.

He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21).

Jesus spoke these words to his hometown congregation in Nazareth who had just heard him read the passage from the writings of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus proclaimed that he was the one to whom Isaiah was talking about. Luke chose to highlight this event as the starting point of Jesus’ public ministry, of bringing glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives, recovering sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free, and proclaiming a year acceptable to the Lord (Lk 4:18-19).

This message of universal healing, restoration, and reconciliation for all people would be an aspect of the mission of Jesus. He presented the message that he would be the vehicle to bring the love and redemptive work of his Father to all the nations, to invite all people to be aware of the reality present to them: that God his Father is inviting all into communion and relationship with him. The poor mentioned were not just in reference to those experiencing material poverty, but also to those finding themselves on the margins of society, the outcasts, those on the peripheries. The captives were not only those imprisoned for debts or crimes but those bound in the chains of their own sin and addiction. The blind were not only those who could not physically see but those who experienced the spiritual blindness of pride and arrogance. The oppressed were not just those under the iron fist of totalitarian and dictatorial regimes, but those pressed down through their own anxieties and fears.

In what ways are we in need of Jesus’ teaching, healing, and restorative power? What is keeping us on the peripheries, apart from communion and fellowship? What sins, disordered affections, and/or addictions, fears, anxieties, distractions, and/or diversions keep us bound? What is keeping us blind to the reality that God is in our midst and seeking a deeper relationship with us? Today we hear or read again Jesus’ words proclaimed in the Gospel. Jesus invites us to be healed and to align ourselves with his will and ministry of loving service.

It is a good practice to ponder the same words that Jesus spoke to the people of his own hometown. Are we willing to listen? Will we hold on to our biases and prejudices, to our tribe, nation, political party at the cost of losing our integrity, reason, and dignity? Or can the words of Jesus be a light for us to see our fallen nature? Resisting the temptation to turn away from but instead allowing the light of Jesus to shine into our darkness opens us to the gift of our uniqueness, the richness of our humanity, and that we are all interconnected.

The Psalmist stated that, “From fraud and violence he will redeem them” (Psalm 72:14) and John wrote, “whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). Pondering these words from today’s readings gives us an opportunity to begin again. Allowing ourselves to be loved by God who loves us more than we can imagine and has a plan for us beyond our wildest imagination offers so much hope. We receive this gift, when we give ourselves time to experience what we thankful for, admit our sins and turn to God with a contrite, sorrowful heart for what we have done and what we have failed to do.

As we do so, we are more able to experience the healing hands of Jesus on our bowed heads and receive the warmth of his forgiveness and love pouring through us as we are purged from our sin and pride. Then, in recognition of how much suffering and pain is present in our country and world, we can open our hearts and minds to the guidance of the Holy Spirit to participate with him in choosing love over hate, bringing the invitation of healing and reconciliation to others, and committing to bringing about “a year acceptable to the Lord” in this new year of 2026 (Lk 4:19).

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Photo: Prayerful walk after lunch on the grounds of USML.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, January 9, 2025

God is inviting us to experience some silent moments to pray.

And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray (Mk 6:46). We often read in the Gospels that Jesus went off by himself to pray. I am sure this was not a practice that he just began during his public ministry, but one that he learned and developed from Mary and Joseph. The Apostles themselves witnessed Jesus praying, and how God was primary in his life.

Pope Leo during a Sunday homily on July 20, 2025 shared, “Our relationship with God comes first… we should set aside moments of silence, moments of prayer, times in which, quieting noise and distractions, we recollect ourselves before God in simplicity of heart. This is a dimension of the Christian life that we particularly need to recover today, both as a value for individuals and communities, and as a prophetic sign for our times. We must make room for silence, for listening to the Father who speaks and ‘sees in secret’” (Mt 6:6).

Jesus prayed, he taught his Apostles to pray, and we are at our best when we are people of prayer. We become people who pray when we are willing to make friends with silence. When we show up intentionally to spend time with God, our lives begin to change. That we even desire to pray, that we even want to be closer to God, is already a prayer because we are experiencing an invitation from God to draw close to him, to develop a relationship with him, to come to know the one who knows us better than we know our self.

Fr. William Barry in his book, God and You, describes how prayer is becoming consciously aware of our relationship with God. “God is in relationship with each and every created thing in the universe and in relationship to the whole of it… whether that being is aware of the relationship or not.” The amazing thing about God is that “he will not force himself on us. He continually tries to arouse our awareness and interest in him” (Barry 1987, 12-13).

God reaches out to us in so many ways such as a majestic sunrise or sunset, the ebb and flow of the waves on a beach, and the brilliant radiance of a starlit sky. He also does so through our trials of sickness, pain, others who are being hurt, or encountering injustice. He is also present through our every day relationships and experiences. The key is to be aware of what is being stirred up within us when we experience something and allow ourselves to “wonder about the experience and its meaning” (Barry, 13).

What is most important regarding becoming people of prayer is our awareness, our becoming conscious that we have a relationship with God who is not an idea but a person. “This relationship is based on God’s actions to establish it and his desire that we become conscious of who he is and wants to be for us. Our consciousness depends on our willingness to pay attention to God’s actions, or at least to experiences that might be actions of God, and to let our desires for God be aroused” (Barry, 14).

Another question that Fr. Barry answers regarding prayer is that if God knows everything about us, why bother to pray at all? God is not just wanting information. Again, he is inviting us to enter into a relationship. He wants to know whether we believe he cares how we feel and whether we are willing to let him in, to let him know what we feel and desire. It is important to be honest in our dialogue and be willing to reveal ourselves to God, while at the same time, be open and willing to allow him to reveal himself to us. This is how we build authentic relationships with God and each other (cf. Barry, 15).

Jesus, thank you for inviting us in so many small ways each day to spend time with you. Though we can allow our harried pace, distractions, diversions, temptations, and/or pain to lead us away from the gift of your presence, please help us to slow down, to breathe, rest, and abide in the wonder of how our God and Father is present, and how the love of the Holy Spirit is working in our lives daily. Help us to realize that we don’t need to be perfect to come to you, to say the right words to be heard by you, nor that we have to say any word at all, and help us to be free to show up, rest in your loving gaze, and be with you and go from there.

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Photo: Moments when we are touched by beauty and stop, are accepted invitations to pray.

Barry, William A. S.J. God and You: Prayer as a Personal Relationship by William Barry SJ. New York: Paulist Press, 1987.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 7, 2025

Jesus is offering to us his heart, are we willing to receive it?

We can observe two movements of Jesus going out to serve others in today’s Gospel. The first is evident in the beginning verse: “When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mk 6:34). Jesus was moved with pity or compassion and he also witnessed, beyond their immediate physical hunger their deeper, spiritual ache. hey were not even aware of the depth of their hunger.

They just had spent time with Jesus, experienced and had heard of the many other accounts of him preaching with authority, his healings, and exorcisms. They wondered if he could be the Messiah, the one who had been promised, present now in their midst. Yet, for the vast number of them, if not all gathered, they sought the kind of leader, that Jesus was not. He was not to be a mighty military leader, he would not train his followers in guerilla warfare, and Jesus would not conquer the Roman occupation with might.

After his teaching, the time grew late and he and his disciples were aware of the hunger of the crowd. The disciples only saw the five loaves and two fish that were present, barely if enough to feed the Twelve, let alone the vast multitude. Their first instinct was to send them on their way such that they could fend for themselves. Jesus, who knew the Father, knew there were no limitations to his providential care. Jesus: Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves and gave them to [his] disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all (Mk 6:41).

Jesus shepherded and provided nourishment for five thousand men, so if that number was not including women and children, the number could have been easily doubled, and all ate and were satisfied (Mk 6:42). Jesus was aware of their deepest needs and provided for them. Jesus knew their spiritual hunger as well as their physical hunger, better than those who came to listen to him. This deeper desire, in time, he would provide as well.

Are we so different today? We think we know what we need, but how many times are they really apparent or disordered goods or substitutes for what we truly hunger for deep down? We continually strive to be autonomous, self-sufficient, able to control and govern our own affairs. We witness this when the disciples wanted to send off the people to get their own food, and they would deal with the meager amount they had. Yet, this is counter to who we have been created to be.

Jesus showed his disciples time and again the way of God was not self-sufficiency, but self-surrender. They were and we are to place our complete reliance on God. The deepest hunger we all have is to be loved by God. Can we allow ourselves to be loved? Will we remain still long enough to experience his love? Do we believe in some form of lie that says we are unlovable? If so, renounce it and replace it with the words of John: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

To experience this love, we are invited to spend time with Jesus regularly just as we would to help nourish any human relationship. With only a small amount of bread and fish, Jesus was able to give enough to the multitude so that all were satisfied. So too, the amount of time we spend is not as important as that we spend time with him each day. The little bit of intentional time we give to Jesus, he will receive and share his love with us. Jesus requires nothing from us. When we are willing to offer him our poverty, recognize our need for, and acknowledge that we depend on him, we allow our heart to beat with the rhythm of his sacred heart.

Photo: Statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, grounds of USML, Mundelein, IL.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, January 6, 2025

Jesus is the light that will lead us out of our darkness.

Yesterday, we celebrated the Epiphany, in which the three magi encountered Jesus. They left changed, no longer following a star to find a king, but bearing the light of Christ from their encounter. Next Sunday we will recall the Baptism of Jesus by John. Today the daily readings jump ahead to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John the Baptist has been arrested. He must decrease as Jesus increases.

Jesus inaugurates his ministry echoing the words of John’s ministry: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). John prepared the way for the Kingdom to come, Jesus himself, in his person, is the Kingdom of heaven. Heaven is not so much a place but a state of communion with God, and who better to embody the reality of heaven than the Son of God in our midst. He who remained fully divine, in communion with his Father, while becoming human and living among us.

Jesus proclaimed his promise of the Kingdom to his people who were suffering. He is the one who has been promised. Jesus is the fulfillment of their greatest hope. Matthew summarized the ministry of Jesus thus: “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people” (Mt 4:23).

Jesus provided hope and healing to those who were losing hope, struggling, and in pain. Jesus taught with authority, providing light that if they were willing to follow would lead them out of their darkness. He did so through not only being the Kingdom in their midst, not only being their light to guide their way, but also being the way, the truth, and the life embodied. He empowered and freed them from their slavery to the sin that kept them bound. He helped them to see that they could not be enslaved by anyone or anything. Jesus helped the people to see that what kept them bound was their separation from God.

Jesus did not only come to the people of Galilee two thousand years ago. His message is offered for everyone. Jesus proclaims his message again to us today, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). There is no better new year’s resolution to begin with than this! Jesus is still present to us, providing hope and healing, providing his presence of love and mercy, providing his teaching which shines a light in our darkness. We too can rise up a follow his light and be freed from our slavery to our own selfishness and sin. As we decrease and allow Jesus to increase, we too like the wise men will be changed. We too can share Christ as we live our lives differently this year.  A life that expresses love, understanding, patience, mercy, and forgiveness.

Photo: Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, January 5, 2025

Ponder with the One “begotten of the Father before the daystar shone.”

“Begotten of the Father before the daystar shone or time began, the Lord our Savior has appeared on earth today.”

These words come from the second antiphon from Evening Prayer 1 of the Solemnity of the Epiphany. Evening Prayer is found in the Liturgy of the Hours which is prayed by clergy, religious, and those laity blessed to be introduced to this beautiful daily prayer practice. Though these words do not come from today’s gospel from Matthew, they offer a beautiful opportunity for meditation on the mystery of Epiphany and are continuing to celebrate and ponder this Christmas Season.

The first line, “Begotten of the Father before the daystar shone or time began,” offers a beautiful rhythm that invites us to journey back in time before time existed! Before there was the sun or any sun, before anything existed, even time, God was. God was a Trinity of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father begot the Son, did not make him. His Son is not a created being, because there was no creation, this is a reality before even time. The Father eternally begot the Son, the Son was eternally begotten, and the infinite love and outpouring, the giving and receiving of one to the other is the procession, or spiration of the love between them, the Holy Spirit.

God was, is, and always will be. God was, is, and always will be a communion of an infinite three. Then in that wonderful moment in time, he sent his Son, to be conceived. The, “Yes,” of Mary and the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, allowed our Lord and Savior to appear on earth. The divine Son took on flesh, became fully human in the womb of Mary. Heaven and earth became united in a way never known before or at any point of history before that moment. The wiseman followed a star to see this child king, the One who existed before any star.

We are given in these words an invitation to stop. Full stop, period. To breathe and read these words again slowly, “Begotten of the Father before the daystar shone and time began.” Breathe a few more times and read a few more times. Then close your eyes and breathe and let the words be spoken to you by the Word who became flesh. Listen and allow yourself to spend some time with the One who was before there was time, the One who was there when all was made and all came into being out of an outpouring of the trinitarian communion of love.

Breathe and allow yourself to be loved by the One who is love (1 John 4:). Breathe and spend some time with the one who obeyed his Father and came. He is “the Lord our Savior [who] has appeared on earth today.” Jesus, our Lord and Savior was born in time, died in time, conquered death in time, so now in his glorified body can transcend time so – Epiphany – to appear, to come into a clearer view and be with us today, in this moment.

Enough from me for this time. I hand you off to Jesus who offers his hand to you to spend time with him. My invitation is to follow his lead as he led me earlier with these words. Allow him to lead you now where he invites you to go. Trust in the One “begotten of the Father before the daystar shone and time began.”

Photo: My view in the chapel in the Community Center at University of Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL, where I read these words during evening prayer and then spent the next hour pondering them with the one begotten of the Father! Wow.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, January 4, 2025