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We give alms, pray, and fast to grow in our relationship with God and one another.

The teachings of the Beatitudes as well as the six antitheses are powerful lessons that can transform our lives when we put them into action. As we continue to hear or read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount today, Jesus presents not only common practices of living a devout life of faith. As before, Jesus raised the standard practice of these three pillars to a higher level. The key point he is making though has again to do with our end goal. Jesus continued to show his disciples how to be “perfect just as [our] heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). The perfection to be attained is oneness with God. Jesus disciple’s then and we today are to strive to become holy, to be saints, for the purpose of deepening our bond and relationship with God and each other.

Our being perfected in Jesus is a process whereby we become less and Jesus becomes more. What decreases is our focus on self, especially the ego-self, our sense of self-centeredness. Jesus provides for us three ways in which we can practice drawing closer into communion with God and one another. We are to give alms, pray, and fast. We may remember that these practices are the three pillars of Lent that we put extra emphasis on during that penitential season.

When we give alms, pray, and fast, our intent must be properly ordered. If we give alms with the intention to “win the praise of others” (Mt 6:2), pray in a public display “so that others may see” us (Mt 6:5), and in our fasting “look gloomy” and “neglect [our] appearance, so [we] may appear to others to be fasting” (Mt 6:16), then we are seeking to do so in such a way that the focal point is on us. We think to ourselves, how holy and pious we are. In fact, if we act in this way, how hypocritical we are because, in each of these actions, we are not seeking to improve our relationship with God, build up his kingdom, or give glory to God but to build up our own pride and ego by seeking affirmation and adulation for ourselves.

Jesus calls us to give and serve out of love for others, so that others may be healed, have their basic needs met, become empowered, and strengthened in their relationship with God. We seek Jesus in prayer not to conform his will to ours, but to surrender to his will and allow the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit to purge us from the dross of our accumulated sin, selfishness, and that which we are attached. In our time of prayer and examination of conscience, Jesus will reveal to us those apparent goods and disordered affections that lead us astray. From these areas we can fast from, turn back to God, and in doing so, we will find rest for our souls.

In our prayer today, let us ask Jesus to reveal to us one way that we are putting ourselves before God, one habitual vice that keeps us bound, and/or something that we are attached to that we can fast from. What is one way we can reach out and give ourselves to someone else? Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are not only for Lent. Following Jesus’ guidance in each of these three practices will help us to grow closer to God and recognize the needs of others. We become the hands and feet of Jesus when we are willing to allow him to lead us to serve others with the love of the Holy Spirit.

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“Do you wish your prayer to fly toward God? Make for it two wings: fasting and almsgiving.” St. Augustine Painting by Fra Angelico, “The Conversion of St. Augustine”

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, June 18, 2025

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

The sixth antithesis may be the most challenging of them all. “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father” (Mt 5:43-45). The parable of the Good Samaritan provides a nice parallel to this verse. It can be found in Luke 10:25-37. For in that parable, Jesus shows our enemy and our neighbor to be one and the same.

A good examination of conscience would be to read the above verse, ponder who would come up for us as an enemy, and then read the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Whenever the word Samaritan comes up, we drop the word Samaritan and insert the person or persons who came up for us. When we have finished this exercise, then, may we pray for the person or persons defined by us as our enemy, for if we only love those who love us, what makes us any different than anyone else? If we are to be disciples of Jesus, if we are to be children of our heavenly Father, we are not only to love those who love us, but we are to also love our enemies. We are to love those for whom there is little chance of being loved in return.

Jesus offers us the way to be able to accomplish this seemingly impossible feat: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). We are able to love our enemy as ourselves by being perfect. This is not much help unless we understand that the English word used here is translated from the Greek word telios, which means complete, whole, to reach one’s goal or purpose in life. As a Christian, our end goal, our purpose, our fundamental option, is to be in full communion with God our Father, who is Love. God the Father is not just loving, not just a lover, but Love. “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

God is love and so, “makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt 5:45). We strive in our life to attain the end goal of being perfected by Jesus the Christ, when we, through an act of our will, allow ourselves to become transformed into becoming agents of his love. The most challenging of enemies is facing the enemy within. To love as God loves, we are to follow the words and actions of Jesus and the prophets.

Each day we are given a choice. We can choose to feed our fears, seek revenge, dig in our heels, embrace our egos, react in kind to negativity, and/or remain indifferent to the suffering around us and in our world. We can refuse to love our enemies, withdraw our love, and so reap what we sow and contribute to the condition of separation, polarization, violence, and dehumanization that plagues our communities, nation, and world.

Or, we can choose instead to resist giving in to all of the above and instead allow ourselves to be perfected by Jesus, brought into alignment with his Father’s will, and collaborate with the love of the Holy Spirit so to be agents and models of love, mercy, forgiveness, and justice in our realm of influence. By loving our enemies, we will help to diffuse the power of hate.

We can only be perfected and transformed by the love of Jesus when we spend time with him in meditation and prayer. We are called to receive his teachings, to resist hearing and letting them go in one ear and out the other, and instead read them again a second, third, and fourth time to allow the light of the Holy Spirit to convict us. Where do we fall short or resist putting into practice the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount? Answering honestly will help us to receive more of the love of God and the strength to put these seemingly impossible commands into practice in our lives with those real people we engage with every day.

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Photo: Pope St. John Paul II modeled for us this antithesis when he met, prayed with, and forgave Mehmet Ali Agca at Rebibbia prison on December 27, 1983, for shooting and attempting to kill him on May 13, 1981. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano accessed from catholic sun.org)

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, June 17, 2025

“Offering no resistance to one who is evil” is possible when we are grounded in God’s love.

Today we receive the fifth antithesis, in which, Jesus said to his disciples: “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” (Mk 5:38-39). The Mosaic law, an eye for an eye, that Jesus first addressed was originally an attempt to curb the emotive response of revenge. If someone had killed a clan or tribal member, there would have been those who would choose to retaliate by inflicting as much carnage as possible to the people responsible, even up to and including the death of the whole clan or tribe, even the women and children. The rationale behind this was that there would then be no one to come back for revenge. The idea of seeking instead an eye for an eye was to temper the retribution to a more measured and proportionate response.

Jesus though is saying that “an eye for an eye” does not go far enough, and raises the challenge of being his disciple to a higher level, being that even the thought of revenge is not to be considered. Jesus is not just seeking to lessen the cycle of violence, he is giving us the means to end it. Forgiveness is the cornerstone of the teachings of Jesus. Instead of seeking revenge, Jesus is commanding that we seek to forgive those who have harmed us. We who pray the Our Father or the Lord’s prayer, are to take to heart and be mindful of the words we pray each and multiple times each day: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

The urge for revenge is powerful and primal. Revenge is wired into our survival instinct to protect ourselves. Jesus invites us to grow beyond our mere instinctual responses and survival instincts. He is calling us to move the bestial and to be a people who do not merely survive, but thrive. Jesus is seeking to infuse us with his divine life so that we will be transformed. This is true not only for ourselves but for those who would seek to do us harm. Instead of striking back with revenge, we are to be flexible and adept enough to instead appeal to their conscience. We are to take all that others throw at us, and meet them with the courage to stand and receive their worst, and disarm them with the blinding light of the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

This is no easy task, especially when we experience ongoing injustice and needless loss of life. To put into practice such teachings as the turning of the other cheek, we need to start small. We need to resist the immediate thoughts of revenge that arise for the smallest of offenses. When someone makes a snide remark, and/or offers demeaning or dehumanizing comments directed at us or others, we resist retaliation. We hold them accountable by not adding more fuel to the fire. Our hope is to receive the offense and mirror back to them what they have done such that their conscience may be convicted. By loving them instead of striking back in kind, we may win back a brother or sister.

To be a disciple of Jesus means we need to be contemplatives in action in the face of cruelty, division, and dehumanization. We need to ground ourselves in the word of God as we return to these challenging teachings of the Beatitudes and antitheses often, believe in them, meditate and pray upon them, keep them at the forefront of our minds and, with the courage and guidance of the Holy Spirit, put them into practice. Doing so will then help us to be centered and intentional when conflict arises. Instead of responding with a knee-jerk reaction, we can breathe and seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance and then choose how best to respond.

Some would say this is naive and impossible. It is true that we will not be able to resist thoughts, words, and acts of revenge and walk the path of forgiveness on our willpower alone. We need to surrender our ego and pride to Jesus, who as the Son of God became one with us in our humanity, experiencing our humanity at its worst, so that we can become one with him in his divinity and become human at our best. As we receive his love, forgiveness, and mercy, he will begin to transform us and forgive and love others through us.

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Photo: The only way we can be transformed by Jesus’ love and put into practice his teachings is to follow the lead of Mary and the Apostles and spend time in mediation and prayer everyday. Stained glass window at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Vero Beach.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 16, 2025

The Spirit of God will reveal the truth of his infinite love for us.

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is the foundation of not only our faith but the reality of all that exists. God has been, is, and always will be. God exists as a communion of three Persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Three Persons in one God, but not three beings.

Anything we say about God is going to be woefully inadequate regarding the truth of who God is. Jesus, as the Son of God incarnate, revealed to his disciples the truth of who he is and who his Father is. As he approached his crucifixion, he began to prepare his disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit. “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth” (John 16:12-13).

We consistently how hard it was for the disciples to understand that he was the Son of God, that he in fact is God. Jesus to explain the Holy Spirit to them he knew would not happen. But the seeds that he planted would take firm root for the appointed time at Pentecost which we celebrated last Sunday. The Holy Spirit would come upon Mary and the Apostles, and then we see them, as expressed in the Acts of the Apostles, coming into their spiritual maturity as they are willing to be led by the Holy Spirit.

We are not going to understand the deepest truth of our faith and who God is by intellect and reason alone. To begin we have a better chance of saying what God is not. God is not a being, not one being among many, nor the greatest of all beings. God is not in the same genus as us, nor in any genus. God is not even a supreme being, because God transcends beyond all space and time. God is completely self sufficient, thus he does not need us for our existence, nor does he need anything to exist. God is the very ground and source of all being.

God is infinite act of existence, or in the Latin of St Thomas Aquinas, ispum esse subsistens, the sheer act of “to be”. This means that God has no limitations. To say that God is three Persons is even harder for us to comprehend because we often in our modern sense use the words person and being synonymously. To use the word person in speaking of God means to speak relationally.

We describe God as Father because he begets God the Son, God the Son is the one begotten. The Son is not generated or created, because the Son has always existed with the Father. This is true because they are not finite beings separate from one another. They are infinite, though distinct, in their relation to one another. God the Holy Spirit is then the Love shared between God the Father and God the Son. God within himself then is an infinite communion because of the infinite giving, self-emptying, and infinite receiving between each other. Each Person gives and receives infinitely, perfectly giving all and holding nothing back.

We will never fully comprehend God because he transcends our finite reality. We will be frustrated also if we treat the mystery of God as a problem to be solved. God is not an equation to formulate but a person that we can encounter and develop a relationship with. This is possible because to be in relationship with God and one another is the very reason we have been created. God draws close to us, he reveals himself to us, he seeks us out, his created beings. We are blessed to live in a time when he has already drawn close to us in the Person of his Son through the love of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit continue to reveal the truth of God the Father to us. When we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and follow his guidance, we too can experience the communion of love shared between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The best way to understand, to know, to build our relationship with God, is not to force God to fit into our finite reality, mindset or limited view, but to be open to, “the Spirit of truth,” and “he will guide [us] to all truth” (Jn 16:13). The Holy Spirit will guide and lead us to all truth when we resist curving or turning in upon ourself and instead make the time to be still, to breathe, to ponder his living word, and lift our hearts and minds to him in prayer. When we do so we will be expanded and transformed by his love and conformed to God’s will. This gift of grace will grow the more we are open to opportunities to be loved and to love in our everyday moments. For where the willing of the good of each other is, God is, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).

When we as fathers follow the will of the Father, when we are willing to be loved by the Holy Spirit and to love our children and others in return, and when we are willing to sacrifice and serve as Jesus, we are at our best. Happy Father’s Day!

Photo: Spending some quiet time receiving the love of God.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, June 15, 2025

“Tell the truth and you don’t have to remember anything.”

In today’s Gospel, we read about the fourth antithesis where, Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all (Mt 5:33-34). The taking of an oath in Jesus’ time became an acceptable practice to confirm that someone was telling the truth. Taking an oath by invoking God made the testimony or presentation of one’s statement more believable because he was willing to receive God’s judgment upon himself if he was lying.

People expanded this oath taking as Jesus pointed out by replacing God’s name with taking an oath by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or one’s head. The thought being that one would escape God’s judgement if they were not being fully honest. Jesus points out that this would not be the case. For heaven is God’s throne, the earth is his footstool, Jerusalem is the city of the great King, and it was even God who made the color of one’s hair.

As with his other antitheses, Jesus called his disciples to go deeper, to be better. The word of the disciple ought to stand on its own weight such that they need not take an oath at all. Jesus spoke the truth always and his disciples are called to do the same. If his disciple tells the truth, there is no need to take an oath. The “Yes” or “No” of a disciple is sufficient. “Anything more is from the evil one” (Matthew5:37).

We can see remnants of this practice today, when we hear someone say, “I swear on my mother’s grave that I did not…, I swear on our friendship that I did not…, or I swear to God as my witness that I did not…”

Jesus is teaching us as well that we are to resist the temptation to swear an oath at all. We are to just tell the truth in all circumstances. We are to be people of integrity and stand on what we say as the truth. We are definitely living in a time period in our country where the ability to tell the truth is certainly being called into question, where lies and the bending of the truth are becoming common place. This is one of the reasons why so many people have such a low opinion of secular as well as religious leadership. But it is also present in our day to day interactions with one another.

In a 2014 episode of his television show, Dr. Phil, gave a list of reasons researchers gave for why people lie: People lie to take what is not rightfully theirs, to escape accountability, to create a fantasy/false self-esteem to escape their mundane life, to avoid punishment, to inflict pain, to feel better in the moment, steal admiration, and to gain advantage to exploit others.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it is a very good place to start. Lying destroys the very foundation of relationships which is trust. Once trust has been broken, it is very hard to come back from and rebuild. Lying also supports our false self of the ego, so even if we do not get caught in a lie, we know, and our conscience convicts us of that fact. There is an ache in our soul because we are not being true to who we really are.

Covering up lies expends a lot of energy because we have to remember what we said. Left unchecked, one lie leads to another, and we string together a web of lies. We also begin to feel sick inside, because we have not been created to be deceitful and dishonest. We have been created good, to be people of honesty and integrity. We will experience less stress if we, as Mark Twain is believed to have said, “Tell the truth and we don’t have to remember anything.”

Examining our conscience is a good daily practice, and being humble enough to admit where we have lied is the next best step. In the beginning, when we begin to work to undo a habit of lying, we can visualize ourselves apologizing to the person we have lied to and ask God to help us to imagine how we could have handled the original situation in a more honest way. Then we can actually reach out to the person and apologize, move toward reconciliation, and living a life of honesty.

If we recognize a deep seeded pattern in which we habitually lie, then the Sacrament of Reconciliation is an opportunity to express our contrition and seek not only forgiveness, but the grace of Jesus to help and strengthen us to tell the truth. Jesus will help us to catch ourselves at the instant we begin to form a lie in our mind, and when we call on his name, we can harness the courage to tell the truth instead. In time, with the help of the Holy Spirit, our vices of deceit will be transformed into new virtues of honesty. Let us live by Jesus’ command to make our, “‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and [our] ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one” (Mt 5:37).

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Photo of Mark Twain in 1906 accessed online from National Endowment for the Humanities.

Link for the clip of the Dr. Phil list for why we lie:

Link for the Mass reading for Saturday, June 14, 2025

We will experience joy and fulfillment with friendships grounded in the love of Jesus.

Jesus continued with his next antithesis in today’s account to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28).

Too many people today believe that our sexual urge is too powerful to channel and direct in chaste ways. In fact, to even attempt to do so, some would say is damaging. The Church has confused the matter a bit more because of those within her number who have not only abused children sexually but also those who have turned a blind eye to warning signs and/or covered up the abuse.

Yet, even these horrific acts by a few do not change the fact that Jesus calls us to practice chastity. Our sexuality is a powerful gift that when properly ordered in the marital embrace enhances intimacy and unity as well as offers the potential to bring life into the world. This is a wonderful gift. But the enemy seeks to distort and destroy all that God has created good. Twisting and manipulating the gift of our sexuality such that it can be used for mere physical gratification and objectification of another.

The normalization of lust, pornography, objectification of another must be countered with healthier and chaste ways of living. We figuratively tear out an eye or cut off a hand that leads us to sin by recognizing, identifying, and renouncing any disordered practices or variations. We also need to resist the opposite pull to the puritanical, opposite extreme, and identify our sexuality and all things human as bad. Suppressing our sexuality is not what Jesus is guiding us to engage in. God created humanity good, and our sexuality is good when we integrate it into the wholeness of the physical and spiritual aspects of our humanity.

This is a hard lesson to grasp if the majority of what we read, listen to, watch, think and fantasize about, are erotic and evocative. Living in a culture that is hyper-sexualized, condones enticing advertisements on TV, the computer, and billboards; normalizes pornography, acting out sexually at a younger and younger age, and the like, will make being and living a chaste life seem impossible. Jesus offers us a better way that will lead us to more authentic love and joy. We just need to be willing to allow him to transform our hearts and minds.

Self discipline and the dignity of human beings are true and authentic goods. Unbridled passions do not lead to happiness but instead to slavery and addiction. Seeing each other as objects for our own personal gratification demeans and reduces us to the bestial. Human beings are not merely objects and there is much more depth to our beingness beyond mere sensuality. As St. Pope John Paul II stated, “There is no dignity when the human dimension is eliminated from the person. In short, the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of the person, but that it shows far too little.”

There is a greater intimacy that can be experienced when we engage in a wider range of personal engagement. Chaste friendships are a wonderful gift that is becoming a lost art. We all seek to belong, to be a part of, and to be loved. Making the time to have in depth conversations where we can speak and listen, share common interests, experience activities; work through challenges, conflicts, and accomplish goals together; as well as being able to take the risk to be ourselves, take off our masks, share our fears, insecurities, hopes, and dreams, and be heard, accepted, and loved, are ways we grow in intimacy and deep friendship.

Lust is too often linked with love. The sole pursuit of lust is to objectify another for our own self-gratification. The sole pursuit of the unconditional love that Jesus calls us to, is to will the good of the other as other, to seek their best. Jesus lived a chaste life full of love, joy, and meaning. He invites us to settle for nothing less. Jesus invites us experience the love of God, who fills our deepest longing. As we experience God’s love, we realize we don’t have to settle for counterfeit relationships. Our friendships can be properly formed such that we don’t see each other as objects for our pleasure, but instead friends to experience and grow in relationship with.

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Photo: Blessed by Jesus to be friends for decades!

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, June 13, 2025

“…whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin…”

As was presented yesterday, Jesus made it clear that he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets but he came to fulfill them. In his Sermon on the Mount as recorded by Matthew, Jesus offered practical ways in which we can find fulfillment and happiness. In today’s account, he introduces the first of six antitheses. With these apparent contrasting statements, beginning with, “You have heard that it was said” followed by, “But I say to you”, Jesus provided for his disciples the way to avoid the trap that some of the religious leaders of his time fell into: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20).

The scribes and Pharisees that Jesus pointed out were those who believed that they were following the letter of the law, but their hearts were not changed. They may have been adhering to the external provisions of the law, but there was no transformation, their hearts were hardened, they were focused more on their own access to honor and power. They were also imposing strict adherence to the law without providing the support or means for others to achieve what the law imposed. The law became more important than the dignity or value of the person. Jesus recognized the law, but also realized that it was in place to help to provide guidance and discipline so one could better resist the temptations of our fallen nature. The law was to be a foundation to be built upon, not the end goal in and of itself.

Just as children need clear boundaries and structures in place to provide a clear path toward healthy development, this is also true for those of us growing and maturing spiritually. We need to learn to crawl, to build strength and balance before we can take those first wobbly steps. With continued support, we are then able to walk and soon run. Jesus is not only providing the means to go through each of these stages in our faith life, figuratively teaching each of his disciples and us today to not only crawl, walk, and run but to also be able to fly as we seek to reach the heights that Jesus is willing to raise us to!

The Beatitudes and six antitheses are challenging because each one of them goes counter to much of the way the structure of our fallen world has been governed for centuries. If we are to catch the fire that Jesus has come to set, we need not only to read, pray, meditate, and contemplate upon on the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, we need to also see their relevance and practicality to our time and place today, and begin to put them into practice. As Christians, our faith ought not to be shaped and informed by our culture, but we are to be shaped and conformed by the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, so to shape and inform our culture.

Today we start with the first antithesis: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to 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). The seeds of anger begin to sprout in our mind from our knee jerk reactions to a perceived or actual threat, from our hearts hardened by prejudgments, prejudices, and/or a reflection of our level of spiritual immaturity.

Jesus addresses the known provision against murder. He then builds a hedge around the Torah. If one does not want to break the law, another is imposed so as to protect one from even getting close to breaking the first. If we can resist the temptation to react and instead step back for a moment, take some deep breaths, pray, and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will be less likely to criticize, judge, demean or dehumanize another, and then there is much less chance for our anger to grow into wrath, that left unbridled could lead to murdering someone.

Jesus is also saying that our words matter, that they have the power to destroy or to create. Calling someone Raqa, Aramaic for a block-head or idiot, and then calling someone a fool, would “be liable to fiery Gehenna” (Mt 5:22). How much more egregious are we today? How polarized we have become inside and outside of the Church because of the level of demeaning words, tone, and language that is spoken, condoned, and justified? This has a ripple effect that poisons our family, relationships, and spreads to the wider culture, politics, and the Church with growing hateful rhetoric, overt expressions of prejudice, and violence.

Instead of settling for two dimensional caricatures of one another, we can go deeper when we are willing to spend time with and get to know each other. Jesus challenges us to slow down and see the person before us with dignity and respect. When we resist reacting, giving in to our biases, and prejudgments, and instead recognize the value and dignity of each person, we will have a better chance of building relationships. We will also be more apt to reform policies and structures that respect the dignity of each person in the womb, after birth, and at each stage and condition of life until natural death.

May we all take some time today to reflect on Jesus’ teaching about how we think, speak to and about, and act toward one another. May we examine our conscience and seek forgiveness for those times we have thought, condoned, or justified thoughts, words, and/or actions that have been belittling, dehumanizing, and demeaning directly or while with others, we approved by our manner or our silence.

Jesus, please impart within us your infusing power of justice, love, and mercy so that we will be more inspired to live out your teachings in our daily lives. Help us to strive to encounter each other grounded in mutual respect and understanding as our brothers and sisters, no matter our race, ethnicity, creed, and/or gender, and to commit to building a culture of life and dignity for all, not in some abstract utopian way, but in the concrete moments of our everyday experiences, one person and one encounter at a time.

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Photo: Let us listen to Jesus and do whatever he tells us.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 12, 2025

The love of Jesus will heal us and help us to heal others.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17). Jesus was a devout Jew, he was taught how to live out the law and the prophets in his daily life by Joseph, Mary, and his Father. Jesus grew up not only practicing but embodying a deep understanding of the law and the prophetic tradition. We see evidence of that when, at twelve, he is found by his parents among the teachers and scholars discussing the law with understanding and wisdom. Jesus, in his public ministry, very much spoke with authority, as God, calling the people of Israel back to the law, both those who have turned away from God as well as those who used the law as a bludgeon and for building a wall to keep others out.

Jesus also showed time and again that being true to Torah was more than just following the law but obedience to God and allowing God to transform each person from within was the point. The law was about building relationships with God and others. Jesus extended his hand, person to person, offering an invitation of welcome for people to come to know him and his Father intimately. He called out many religious leaders who taught the truth but lived another way. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, Jesus forgave sins, Jesus touched lepers and he ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners, those on the peripheries, not because he was being willy-nilly with the law, but because he was showing the deeper interiorization of how to live out God’s commands by his lived example that the greatest commandment of the law was and is to love God with all his mind, heart, and strength and to love his neighbor as himself.

This practice goes right to the foundation of who God created us to be. All of humanity has been created in God’s image and likeness. Each of us is endowed with dignity by the very fact that we exist as a daughter and son of God. Yet, it is in our choices to sin, that we lose our likeness to God. Jesus calls us to repent, to turn away from our sinful attitudes and ways, and to turn back to receive the love of God.

In Jesus, we see that the highest observance of the law of God is to love. Jesus met each person where they were and accompanied them. That also meant calling out those who misused the law by keeping others at arm’s length. Jesus did the opposite. As the Son of God, Jesus became one with us in our humanity, so that we can become one with him in his divinity. Jesus offered others his arms extended outward, inviting others to enter into his loving embrace. He showed this in a graphic and powerful way on the cross, where he opened his arms wide to embrace all peoples of every race, ethnicity, and gender, even in our deepest sins.

Jesus built on the law and the prophets, because he was the fulfillment of them, and in doing so, he gave the law its greater context. The foundation of the law and the prophets were founded in love, meaning its highest expression, which is to will the good of the other as other. This means that the law is not like a stagnant pool, where we grasp onto the law and tradition for its own sake, but the divine law of God is rather like a running stream, it is always fresh and being renewed by the Holy Spirit.

What Jesus ushered in, was the reign of God, which was possible through the foundations laid by those who had gone before him: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, the judges and prophets, David, and those who answered the call of God to serve in his name. From a person, Abraham, to a clan, a loose gathering of twelve tribes and then a nation, Israel, God called a people to himself to shine the light of his will to others. Then at the appointed time, he sent his Son, to be one with the people he called to draw all nations to himself so that all were and continue to be invited to come to be one with him, the God of all creation.

Our joy and fulfillment take shape most meaningfully as we are transformed by the love of God. As we build on the traditions of our faith that give us a solid foundation, we must resist holding on to them so tightly that they strangle and suck the life out of us. That which leads us to encounter and renew our relationship with Jesus in love is what we are to embrace and share. That which has become stagnant and no longer is an avenue for affirming life must be purified.

The love and mercy of God put into practice through Jesus was not a watering down of the law and the prophets. Jesus not only fulfilled both expressions, but he also raised the bar even higher when he taught his disciples to move beyond seeking an eye for an eye, to not resisting an evil person (see Mt 5:38-39), and challenged them further in requiring them to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them (see Mt 5:44). To accept and put into practice these impressive expressions of love is only possible, by allowing God to love us in our weakness and frailty, by being willing to be transformed by his love, so that we can in turn will love others unconditionally with the same radical love we have received from Jesus.

God’s love invites us to identify the darkness of our own sins and idolatry not so that we become over zealous moralizers. We are not to lead with the law but with love. We do so best when we are willing to be humble enough to trust in the purifying fire and convicting movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives, are willing to confess with contrition our sins, and become less drawn to protecting our false and fallen selves. Emptying ourselves in this way, we are then open to drink from the living stream of Jesus’ love, we become more comfortable in our own skin, are true to ourselves, and who God calls us to be. Hurt people, hurt people. Let us be healed people who radiate joy, hope, and love to those seeking to be healed.

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Painting: by Melody Owens – The original painting is 11″x14″ gouache.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Let us be salt and light in the world – we can begin one smile at a time.

We have returned to the season of Ordinary Time. The focal point of this liturgical season expressed in the readings chosen from the Gospels will be on the life and teachings of Jesus. Our series of readings for the next few weeks will be a return to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In today’s account, Jesus has just finished presenting the beatitudes and encourages his disciples to live out this empowering teaching of how to be happy by being “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (cf. Mt 5:13-16).

This call continues to ring true for us today as his disciples. We too are to be “salt” and “light”. Salt has two major properties, preservation and flavor. Jesus emphasizes the aspect of salt being seasoning that one puts on food, which enhances its flavor. We are also to preserve the goodness that God has created. For all that God has created is good. The enemy, Satan and his minions seek to corrupt and disorder that which God has made good. We are to counter the effects of sin with remaining faithful in times of darkness. And also, along with Jesus being to be the light allows those to see in the darkness and lead them out of the darkness into the light of Christ. How then can we be salt and light?

We begin by remembering that we are an Alleluia people, meaning that we are a people grounded in hope and joy because we who die with Christ will rise with him. Also, our faith is not just for us alone, we are to go out and share it with others, we are to bring Jesus to others. Pope Francis, in the very first line of his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, writes: “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, emptiness, and loneliness.”

The Pope is not saying that when we accept Jesus into our lives and develop a relationship with him that all will go our way, there will no longer be conflict or pain, and that our life will now be perfect. What he means is that Jesus is the very embodiment of love and the light that leads us away from the darkness of our sin. Jesus is present and accompanies us in our pain and sorrow, and assures us that we are not alone. Jesus is the one who fulfills the longing of our heart’s deepest desire, he reveals to us our meaning and vocation in life. Jesus brings us hope and offers his hand to lead us through our darkest nights of despair and trauma.

We who have experienced the healing balm of the presence of Jesus in our lives, have grasped his hand for strength, have leaned on his shoulder to cry on, and experienced the joy of our encounter with him, are to be present to others in the same way. We are to be salt by bringing the joy of Jesus to all those we encounter. We need to resist becoming salt that has lost their flavor, meaning that we are no different than those in the world. We are not to slip into gossip, cynicism, and relativism, but instead are to be people of integrity, understanding, and truth.

I am not the most extroverted of people and was more introverted in my youth. In my freshman or sophomore year of college, I heard a talk on cassette given by St Mother Theresa. She mentioned reaching out to others with a smile. I still remember the first time of risking to smile at someone after hearing Mother’s encouraging words. I was walking up the sidewalk toward the parking garage on campus. I do not remember if the person I smiled at returned the smile, yet I do remember that day as a key moment in my faith journey. Having heard of how to share the light of God’s love with another, and then to follow through with the courage to do so, filled me with joy, and it continues to make a difference in my life and hopefully, the lives of others. When we are living our lives like Jesus, then people ought to feel better after having been in our presence, because they have had an encounter with Jesus through us.

How can we be salt and light in our everyday experiences? I would recommend beginning by smiling at those we interact with and it need not only be limited to those we feel comfortable with or like. We can share a smile with those we may have had conflicts with and even those for whom we may feel a bias or prejudice. This is only a small beginning, but it draws us out from our own self-centered focus and directs our attention toward willing the good of another.

A simple, yet genuine smile can work wonders for someone who begins to believe that no one cares or has the time of day for them. This is true for the recipient as well as the giver. If you have felt like you have lost some of your flavor or if you are not sure how to be a light for others, next time you catch the eye of another, smile.

In this small act, we say to the person on the receiving end of our smile that we care enough to notice them, that they are loved just for being present in that moment. They have worth and dignity just for who they are. A simple, sincere smile can bring a little flavor to someone in a sour mood, as well as a little light to someone in a very dark place. Each day we can certainly share a few more smiles and share the light and love of God.

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Photo: A smile for your day, may you receive it and pass it on!

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, June 10, 2025

“Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.”

Today’s memorial, Mary the Mother of the Church, began with the decree released on February 11, 2018, by Cardinal Robert Sarah while he was still the head of the Congregation of Divine Worship. Pope Francis called for the Church to celebrate this memorial on the Monday after Pentecost. Not only is Mary the Mother of Jesus, but since we as the People of God participate in the life of Jesus as members of the Body of Christ, she is our mother too.

The New Testament records time and again how Mary reveals by word and action that she is the model of discipleship.

Mary answered Gabriel’s request to conceive and bear Jesus, with her response, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Mary then went with haste to share the good news with Elizabeth and to assist her in her pregnancy of John the Baptist. Mary, after the birth of Jesus, is visited by the shepherds and upon hearing their news from the angelic host, she “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). Mary and Joseph cared for, protected, and guided Jesus in the Jewish faith as he matured and grew into a young man.

Mary was also present at the beginning of his ministry when she said to the servants at the wedding at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). Mary was also present at the crucifixion, as recorded in today’s reading from the Gospel of John: When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home (Jn 19:26-27). Mary was pierced with sorrow when the centurion’s lance was thrust through the side of Jesus, her son, as blood and water flowed. Mary was then present as the Church was birthed at Pentecost during the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).

Mary is the mother of Jesus, the Mother of the Church, and so she is also our mother. We do not worship Mary but seek her intercession and guidance as we would our own earthly mothers. We also look to her as a model for living as disciples of Jesus. We too are to ponder the wonders and mysteries of God working in our lives. As with Mary at the cross, may we too not run from suffering but embrace it so that we also can then receive her Son, Jesus, whose arms are wide open to receive us in the midst of our pain, so that he may bestow upon us his consolation and healing.

But may we not stop there. May we open ourselves to the love and empowerment of the Holy Spirit such that we may say, “Yes”, to bearing Christ and going with haste to share the Good News of he has transformed our lives. May we resist the temptation of indifference and uncaring and instead help and support those we come into contact with who are in need. May we follow the last words of Mary recorded in Scripture and do whatever Jesus tells us to do to make his Church relevant and vibrant in our time. May we, as did John, receive Jesus’ invitation to receive Mary as our mother and take her into our home.

Mary, Mother of the Church, our mother, pray for us now, and at the hour of our death!