In the opening of today’s Gospel, we witness Jesus, Peter, James, and John returning from the experience of the transfiguration. As they draw closer they witness a commotion, for while they were away, a man had brought his son to the other disciples to expel a demon from him but they could not. As they draw closer, the father appeals to Jesus: “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “‘If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith.” Then the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe, help my unbelief” (Mk 9:22-24).

Jesus’ response to the man is clear and consistent with his teaching, miracles, exorcisms, and healings. We see that the key ingredient over and over again throughout the Gospels is an appeal to Jesus’ help and the person’s faith. What may be unclear is the man’s response, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” This statement not only addresses his experience but those of his disciples who were not able to heal the boy.

The man did have faith in Jesus to a point, for he brought his son to him believing that he could possibly heal him. His words reveal the maturity of his faith, “But if you can do anything…” This request shows some doubt. This is much different than the woman with the hemorrhage who believed if she but just touched the tassel on his cloak she would be healed or the Canaanite woman who sought to have her daughter exorcised even though Jesus initially dismissed her for being a Gentile.

The father’s statement, “I do believe, help my unbelief!”, is beneficial to us all. The father believes in Jesus to a point, but recognizes he needs help to go further in his faith. Jesus confirms that what is important in maturing in our faith life is being people of prayer. When his disciples talked to him in private, they asked him why they were not able to heal the boy and Jesus replied, “This kind can only come out through prayer.”

Prayer is not a magic formula. Prayer is about becoming aware of God’s invitation to develop and sustain a relationship with him. When we make time for God in our day and recognize his presence in every aspect of our life, we come to know him and know his will in each situation. The exorcism of the young boy happened because the father of the boy appealed to Jesus that he needed his help to believe. The disciples could not heal because they sought to do so through their own will power alone instead of drawing on the infinite source of Jesus.

The good news is that even though time and again they fell short, and we see plenty of examples of this, they persisted in their faith, in their belief in Jesus. They grew in their trust in him such that the disciples did mature, and they recognized that apart from Jesus they could do nothing,

So much so, that we see Peter, who had denied Jesus, reconciled with him after his Resurrection, would some time after the Ascension of Jesus, come to encounter a man crippled from birth who was begging for alms. Peter said to the man: “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give to you: in the Name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk” (Acts 3:6).

Peter’s faith grew over time, through failure, sin, and unbelief, but he, like the father in today’s Gospel, gives us a model to follow each and every day. We can mature in our faith as well. Let us begin our day with this prayer and return to if often: Jesus “I do believe, help my unbelief.”

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Photo by Pic Rodrigues at Pexels.com

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, February 21, 2022

As Christians, we are called by Jesus to live lives of holiness, with the end goal of being saints. Saints are those who are about one thing. They know what God requires of them and they do it. Each on of us are invited to live lives of sanctity as well, no matter our age or our vocation. What we need to realize is that we cannot attain holiness on our own. For apart from Jesus we can do nothing, yet in participation with Jesus all things are possible. We also need to understand that Jesus is not “just an idea but a person” (Barron 6, 2016).

We receive a demanding challenge from this person in our Gospel reading from Luke today in an excerpt from Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain. This provides a nice opportunity for us to assess how we are doing in living our life as a Christian.

Let’s look at the first two. How many of us this week have been regularly loving our enemies or doing good to those who hate us? Let’s look at these two points a little more concretely, how did you react the last time you were cut off in traffic? Did you bless them with the sign of the cross or offer another gesture? What was your internal reaction the last time you perceived that someone was rude or impatient with you? Were you rude and impatient in return, did you stew within, or were you understanding and patient?

How many people have you blessed this week that have cursed you and how many people did you pray for that mistreated you? I could go on, but I encourage you to read the entire account prayerfully and reflectively. Resist the temptation to slip into rationalizations and defensiveness or to throw your Bible or computer across the room.

Jesus is helping us to understand the kind of love he calls us to engage in. This love is not about emotion, mere sentiment, or about feeling good about ourselves because we have done something nice for someone else. This love is not about giving to get something in return. This love that Jesus is imploring us to live in and share, is about willing the good of other as other and realizing that apart from placing ourselves in a position of receiving and experiencing the unconditional and merciful love of Jesus, we are not capable of loving others.

Jesus also shares that we are to: “Forgive and you will be forgiven.” We do not do forgiveness well. Thus, we do not experience forgiveness, and so remain stuck in a this growing cycle of unforgiveness, bitterness, division, polarization, separation, and isolation. If we instead put more effort into consciously practicing forgiveness and asking Jesus to forgive us, for what we have done and have failed to do, I am convinced that we will experience his love and mercy and be better agents of healing and reconciliation.

Lent is almost upon us. Lent is a good time to participate in the healing power of the sacrament of Reconciliation. By doing so we experience the love of being forgiven. Once we experience God’s tender love and forgiveness, we will be able to begin to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse and mistreat us. We will begin to offer the other cheek to the one who strikes us, do to others what we would have them do to us, and be merciful because we have received the mercy of our Father in heaven.

Jesus calls us for a purpose, to be holy and set apart, to live as saints, to live as Jesus calls us to live in his Sermon on the plain, which is to be about one thing, opening our hearts and minds, applying our faith and reason, as we receive the love of Holy Spirit so as to love God, ourselves and our neighbors as ourselves.

Photo: from an evening walk two nights ago.

Quote from Francis Cardinal George from the forward to: Barron, Robert. The Priority of Christ: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, February 20, 2022

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them (Mk 9:2-3).

Peter, James and John experienced Jesus’ teachings with authority, his powerful signs and wonderous works, they also witnessed his healings, casting out of demons, and forgiveness of sins, all of which, helped them to experience the divine working through the flesh. Peter had just acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, yet he and Jesus’ inner circle were still working out what that meant. In the encounter of Jesus transfigured, Jesus revealed, not only a foretaste of what was to come in heaven, but a glimpse of his actual divinity.

Jesus is not 50% God and 50% human. Jesus is fully God and fully man. This is the Mystery of the Incarnation; the reality that the second Person of the Trinity took on flesh and became human. This is an important reality, because in this very act of Infinite Grace, Jesus, in the words of St. Irenaeus, opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed. The Son of God became one with us so that we can become one with him. Through our participation in the life of Jesus the Christ we can restore our relationship with his Father.

“By revealing himself God wishes to make [us] capable of responding to him, and of knowing him, and of loving him far beyond [our] own natural capacity” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1997, 52). This reality of the invitation of communion with the Loving God and Father of all creation is for all, everyone, not just a select few. Our joy and fulfillment is achieved through saying yes to the invitation from the Holy Spirit and developing a relationship with the loving God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Many may say they are happy and living a good life without having a relationship with Jesus or apart from God or his Church, and I would not disagree with them. I would only add that if we are honest with ourselves, there is more to life than the mere material and finite reality we see and experience with our senses. When we slow down enough, when we are actually still enough, we can sense a deeper yearning for more.

Even with great achievement, mastery, honor, and accumulation, there is still a lingering question, “Is this all that there is?” We experience, mostly unconsciously, a restlessness. We continually search to fill this unease, feeling satisfied for the moment, but eventually in short order, we are left empty, time and time again. This unease is our soul’s yearning, our transcendent nature longing for more, and that longing is for the infinite that the finite cannot provide. St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) articulated this desire and yearning well in the opening chapter of his autobiography, Confessions: “Thou dost so excite him that to praise Thee is his joy. For Thou has made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

The Transfiguration of Jesus is an invitation, not to reject our humanity, but to embrace the fullness of what it means to be human, to be one with God as the Son of God is. Through his willingness to be sent, to be one with us, while remaining fully divine, we are invited to embrace the fullness of our humanity; the reality that we are physical, emotional, intellectual, while at the same time, spiritual beings. Our fulfillment and joy comes from a balance of nurturing each aspect of who we are in participation with Jesus.

Peter, James and John, as well as Augustine and the saints, said yes to this invitation from Jesus. They nurtured this relationship and that has made all the difference. The Holy Spirit, the love shared between the Father and the Son, invites us to experience the same wonder, to explore the full breadth, depth, and width of all that our reason and faith can open for us, and go even further, to embrace the deepest yearning of our soul, which is to draw ever deeper into the intimacy of a loving relationship with God, ourselves, and each other.
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Painting: Transfiguration of Jesus, Carl Bloch – 1872

Quote from Confessions by St. Augustine, Word on Fire Classics translated by F. J. Sheed

Mass Readings for Saturday, February 19, 2022

Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mk 8:34).

Our life is not about us, about what we can accumulate. It is not about placing as our primary goal, achieving power, fame, wealth, and pursuing pleasure. Nor are we here on this earth to merely exist, to just get by, and live in survival mode. We exist to be loved by God and to love others as we have been loved.

The challenge before us, is, are we willing to truly deny ourselves, take up the cross of Jesus, and follow him? Are we willing to change the question and process of discernment from asking what we want to do, so instead to ask, “God, what do you want me to do?” How and in what way does he want us to serve and participate in his plan?

As we draw closer to the season of Lent, which  begins March 2, Jesus’ invitation and these questions are a good way to ponder and begin to prepare.

Photo: Erike Fusicki from Pexels

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, February 18, 2022

“Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mk 8:33).

Peter received this rebuke from Jesus only moments after he recognized Jesus as the Christ. Acknowledging Jesus as the Anointed One was a significant insight inspired by God, but Peter still saw Jesus from his limited perspective, his preconceived notion of who the Messiah was to be. Peter was not alone in this presumption. For some five hundred years the chosen people were awaiting the promise and coming of the Messiah. The greater majority sought a Messiah in the mold of a new King David. One who politically and militarily would liberate the people from their Roman oppression.

The Messiah would set things right. The Messiah would restore proper order politically as well as spiritually. Many of the Jews were not happy with the alliance that the Sadducees, who held control over the Temple, had with Rome.

Peter got the first part right when he answered the question Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am” (Mk 8:27), but he saw not the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 but most likely some other view of the Messianic hope of Israel. When Jesus began to build on Peter’s first insight by sharing how he would suffer, be rejected, and killed, Peter probably did not even hear anything about Jesus rising on the third day. He pulled Jesus aside and began to rebuke him!

We can learn from Peter’s boldness and misstep. In both instances, Peter confidently shared what he believed. In the first insight, that Jesus is the Christ, he was on target. In the second, he was off the mark by not understanding the reality of Jesus’ impending suffering and death and was corrected. Peter stated what he believed, sometimes insightful, sometimes shortsighted, yet through each experience, he learned. Sometimes they were hard lessons, such as when he later rejected Jesus three times. Yet Peter kept coming back to Jesus. Peter was not lukewarm and/or indecisive.

Too many times I tend to be more cautious and often indecisive. Being reflective is good, but I could use more of Peter’s boldness. What doesn’t work is being afraid of making mistakes. Jesus shared a key lesson with Peter that we need to fully appreciate, and that is, we need to understand things from God’s perspective instead of our own. Our discernment in this area will only improve, as did Peter’s when we build our relationship with God.

Making mistakes, sinning, and being tripped by our temptations is not so much the problem as much as trying to rationalize or justify them, and staying in a state of self-justification when we become aware of them. We need to face them with contrition, seek forgiveness, and learn from them if we are to mature in our relationship with God. The good news is that we are not alone. Jesus walks with us each step of the way. Will he convict us and rebuke us as he did with Peter? Absolutely, because he loves us and seeks the best for us, but he will also provide the support and empowerment we need to get the most effective balance of boldness and humility.

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Painting: St Peter – Guido Reni, 1634

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, February 17, 2022

In today’s Gospel from Mark, Jesus healed a blind man. Like the healing of the deaf man (cf. Mk 7:31-37), Jesus again used his own saliva in the healing process showing the intimacy and closeness of each encounter. The difference this time is that this man does not receive a full and complete healing the first time. Jesus laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly (Mk 8:25).

Often with Jesus, there are instant healings, as well as healing without touch. What might be happening here? Maybe it is because Jesus meets each person where they are at. He invites us into the process of healing and each person has a different response, even to the point of saying no to the invitation to heal. Remember how Jesus was only able to heal a few people while in his own home town of Nazareth?

We are also invited to read the Bible as a whole and these two miraculous healings of the deaf and blind men more deeply than just the literal physical healings. Each of us suffers from both spiritual deafness and blindness to some degree. We come to hear and see God’s will for us gradually. As I shared a few days ago if we knew God’s intention for us early on, we might be crushed with the weight of our own doubt! If someone had told me when I was in high school that I would be a teacher or that I would preach to a whole church assembly in English and in Spanish, I would have quietly retreated to the stand of white birch trees across from the old oak tree in the field behind my parent’s house until that idea passed.

Yet, Jesus met me on my level. Sometime around my junior year of high school, he invited me through an interim pastor to teach Sunday school to a class of three. About a year later I gave a children’s sermon to the youth and the small congregation. The summer after my freshman year of college, I began to work second shift as a certified nurse’s aide and during my sophomore year of college, after following the urge to take a search in education course, I switched my major from psychology to elementary education. After graduation, my first teaching position was not in the four walls of a classroom, but the six hundred eighty acre sanctuary of the Sharon Audubon Center as an environmental education specialist.

I began to interact with people, Jesus drew me out of my own self-centered posture, and I began to grow and mature. I would eventually enter the classroom when we moved to Florida in 1997 to teach, first in public school and then through JoAnn’s guidance, I applied for a substitute position at Rosarian Academy in WPB. I not only got the position but would also spend the next eight years teaching middle school religion, then entering the formation program to become ordained a deacon, and for the past eight years teaching at Cardinal Newman HS.

Each of these experiences of saying yes to Jesus was my willingness to trust his lead and to be coaxed out of my shell. Certainly, with the loss of JoAnn, I have been challenged again these past two years and five months, and yet, Jesus has continued to lead me as he has consistently done. I trust that he will do the same for each of you. We just need to have our eyes and ears open for his healing touch and his gentle guidance. He is not done with any of us yet! Stay tuned…

Photo: Returning to Rosarian Academy to share the commencement address a few years ago.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Today’s account from the Gospel of Mark is a continuation of what we read yesterday when Jesus convicted the Pharisees for demanding a sign. He recognized their hardness of heart and hypocrisy and with the opportunity of being together in the boat, Jesus seized on this encounter as a teachable moment. He wanted to warn those of his inner circle to be aware not to follow the same path of corruption when he enjoined them: “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod” (Mk 8:15).

The disciples missed the point as they focused on the literal reality that they only had one loaf of bread among them. Jesus was warning his followers about the danger of pride, seeking honor, power, and fame which had lead many of the Pharisees and Herod astray. To be his followers, striving to place themselves first would be not only the undoing of each of them but also this posture would undermine those they would be charged to care for.

Unfortunately, too many have not heeded this lesson that Jesus offered in today’s Gospel to his disciples regarding being aware of the corrupting leaven of many of the Pharisees and Herod. Just as the effects of original sin has wounded humanity, so it has also affected those in the Church. Throughout the ages, clergy and laity alike have succumbed to the temptations of placing our needs and focus on ourselves instead of God and who he calls us to serve.

Yet throughout the worst of corruption and abuse, the Church is still here. God continues to work through many who have and continue to be faithful to his invitation and follow his will in simple ways, living lives of quiet service. It is unfortunate that there are those who leave because they see the presence of hypocrisy, injustice, abuse, and corruption. Those who have the eyes to see and ears to hear what needs to be corrected are the very ones who need to stay to fight for the truth and healing that the Holy Spirit offers the wounded Body of Christ.

The Church is in need of healing and so are we. We are all interconnected. As one suffers, we all do. We all need to be aware of the sinful leaven that seeks to undo each of us. It is easy to point fingers but we will be on surer footing to bring about transformation and healing when we come to Jesus, spend some time with him in quiet, and be willing to be still long enough that he may reveal to us our sins. Not just the low hanging fruit but all the way down to the roots of our deepest pain, wounds, and traumas that feed the fruits of our sin. If don’t cut up the root, we will fall for the same temptations time and time again.

We do not embark on this journey alone. Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, counseling as needed, conversations with trusted family and friends, we begin to dig up and cut away these deeply embedded roots. As we continue to trust God, with each faithful step, we will experience the healing balm of our loving Father’s tender care, his Son’s understanding and accompaniment, and warm touch of the love of the Holy Spirit that reaches into the depths of the wounds of our souls. This is how we can better allow God’s healing to work through us to provide healing for others so as to bring much needed healing to the wounded Body of Christ.

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Photo: from Pixels-Pixabay

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, February 15, 2022

“Give me a sign!”

Often, when we ask for a sign, we have a preconceived notion of what we are seeking and we want God’s stamp of approval on it. The impetus is coming from us, seeking to bend the will of God to our will. More often this approach will end in frustration. The Pharisees in today’s account are asking for a sign. Jesus has already been preaching with authority, healing, casting out unclean spirits and demons, encountering the unclean and restoring them to the community and right worship, and this is not enough?

We can understand how: He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation” (Mk 8:12). The majority of the Pharisee’s minds were set. Jesus knew there was nothing he could say or do to prove to them he was who he said he was; the kingdom of God at hand. If they had not the eyes to see and the ears to hear there was no argument, point, or sign that would have changed their minds. Jesus sighed from the depths of his spirit because their hearts were hardened such that they closed themselves off from the gift of the grace he sought to share. So he then got into the boat to go to the other shore, to share his message with others: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15).

The question for us today is, do we believe, do we really believe, that Jesus is who he says he is; do we believe that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6)? Do we seek to bend God’s will to our own will or seek to align our will with his? The woman with the hemorrhage for twelve years, the woman whose daughter was possessed, the friends with the man with the withered hand, and the leper, did not ask for a sign, they asked for a healing. They trusted, believed, and risked getting closer to Jesus so as to encounter him despite the barriers in place to prevent them. In each of these cases, Jesus recognized their faith and each received the healing they sought.

In our discernment, we need to be aware of our intent. There is a subtle distinction, but it is important. Are we seeking proof, a sign, or are we placing ourselves in a posture of believing and seeking to understand God’s will, as Mary did when she asked, “How can this be” (Lk 1:34)? Are we demanding proof, a three-point plan from God before we follow his lead, or do we trust his invitation, and seek to understand how he wants us to act, knowing that he will reveal what we need to do each step of the way? Often times, if we knew the end result and full ramifications of his original request, our doubt would crush our spirit before we even started.

Let us embrace a posture of faith seeking understanding today, trust in Jesus, and seek to align our will with God our Father. May we make time to be still and enter a place of prayer and to open our hearts and minds to the leading of the Holy Spirit. May we with confidence, say in the words of Mary, “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38), then arise to grasp the hand of her Son, Jesus, and face head-on that which is before us, to accomplish what he calls us to do, knowing that with Jesus, we can overcome any obstacle that is placed before us.

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Photo: Fertoledo – “Rostro de Christo” Face of Christ – from cathopic.com

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, February 14, 2022

In today’s Gospel, Luke records Jesus sharing his sermon on the plain. Jesus is making a distinction: “Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied” and “Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.” Jesus is addressing that which truly satisfies and fulfills us as human beings.

Each of us ultimately want to be happy. If we follow the trail of any thought we entertain, decision or action we make, and that which we are willing to allow or bring into our presence, we can see at its root in each instance our seeking happiness. The challenge is to discern and determine which are apparent goods and which are true goods. What will truly fulfill us not just in the moment, but will satisfy us for the long term, and in Jesus’ presentation, what will satisfy us for eternity.

If we are full such that our hunger is satisfied, we have little if any desire to seek to satisfy our hunger. If we are constantly satisfying our hunger with those foods, activities and expending of our time in apparent goods, we may not be aware that we are filling ourselves with those things that are not truly satisfying, and when we hunger again, we try to keep filling ourselves with those things. We can eat a whole bag of potato chips, a half gallon of your favorite ice cream, a whole pizza, and find satisfaction in the moment, be full for the moment, but in constantly filling ourselves with such as these, over time our health will suffer, “Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.” 

We can apply this to anything, our entertainment, occupation, how we spend our time, who we spend our time with, what we do with our time. At some point, we become aware that we are filling ourselves up with that which is not fulfilling, that which will continue to leave us empty, because nothing in the material or finite realm will satisfy. We have been created for something more, to be in relationship with God and one another.

The good news is that all of us are hungry for God. Are we are aware that is who we are hungry for? Many times I am thirsty, but go to get something to eat instead. The food does not satisfy because I have discerned poorly that which I truly needed, which was water. We need to resist the temptations of material and finite allurements which may be good in and of themselves, but not so if we place them as foundational to our happiness and fulfillment.

To find true fulfillment, we need to acknowledge our hunger for God, we need to trust in Jesus our Lord, and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. When we do so we will be, “like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8).

Jesus is the wellspring that never dries up, and is the living eternal source that fulfills us. JoAnn and I spent a few years even before knowing that she was sick sorting through many of the material items that had been taking up space for years. We were able to let go of those material things, that at one time provided enjoyment, but had just been taking up space. Letting go and emptying is a good practice that helps us to be open to see what we are truly hungry for, which is God’s love. When we open out heart to receive the love of the Holy Spirit, we will be blessed because we can continue to draw from this eternal source of love through the joyful as well as the challenging times.

Photo by Matías Medina, Catholic.com. There is no greater love than these arms held open to receive us time and time again!

Link to the Gospel readings for Sunday, February 13, 2022

As Christians we are called to be disciples of Jesus, to learn his teachings, and follow his ways. We are also called to be apostles in that we are to go out, proclaim and share that he is who he said he is, and how he has affected our lives. Often when we are reminded of this message though, we may feel inadequate. We may question what it is that we can possibly offer in an effort to help build the kingdom of God. We may feel we have nothing to share, nothing to give, nothing to say, or that what the Lord asks of us, we do not know how to accomplish.

The disciples express similar feelings today for the latter point. Jesus shows concern for the thousands who had just listened to him for three days and are readying to depart. He is concerned that they are hungry and that some may collapse on their way home. The disciples look about bewildered as to how they could possibly feed the vast crowd. Then Jesus asked,  “How many loaves do you have” (Mk 8:5)? They responded that they had seven loaves and two fish. Jesus would go on to feed, not only the whole multitude gathered, but when all ate their fill, seven baskets of bread fragments were left over.

We may not know how to take active steps to live our faith out in our daily lives, we may not even be aware of how to begin. On the other hand, we may have actually been engaged in service, in our vocation, but have started to coast, gotten complacent, and need to continue to strive to mature as a disciples and apostles.

Each day is a new opportunity to begin again, and a good way is to place ourselves in the presence of Jesus. If we have trouble visualizing him, we can look at a statue we may have, a picture, or an icon. Then take some deep breaths, meditate on our present life condition, and assess where there is a need in our own life as well as those of others. Once we are able to identify a concern, let us have ears to hear Jesus ask us, “What do you have, what can you offer?”

You may not have an immediate answer. Stay with the question for a period of time, take it with you throughout the day or days. Resist looking for the big, grandiose response. Ask yourself what you can offer no matter how small. What you give to Jesus in service and participation with him, he can multiply and bring about amazing results. The disciples only gave him seven loaves and two fish, what seemed insignificant to feed the thousands, and yet, Jesus multiplied the meager amount to feed all present with seven baskets left over. Jesus provides, Jesus works through us.

The question we need to answer is not are we worthy because we are not. The question we need to answer is, “Are we willing?”

Photo: Statue of Jesus in the Chapel of St Anthony at St Thomas University, Miami Gardens, FL

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, February 12, 2022