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Are we willing to come close as Jesus does for us?

“Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed” (Mk 6:56).

The people of Jesus’ time were in need of healing, hungry to draw closer to God, often searching, wandering, and wounded, like sheep without at shepherd. This is just as true for us today. Though Jesus is not as visible to us as he was to those in the land of Gennesaret, he is just as present if not closer. We who receive Jesus in his Word proclaimed and through his Body and Blood, in the sacraments, prayer, healing, mercy, and grace are sent forth to bring Jesus to others.

We are not to go home as if nothing of any significance just happened in our gathering as the Mystical Body of Christ at Mass. Jesus does not send us to walk around with an air of superiority over others, to judge and condemn people, to refuse to help those in need because we feel they deserve the condition they are in, that they are “illegal” (people may do illegal actions but no person is illegal), that they chose their lifestyle, that they are lazy and just need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Jesus was and is not indifferent to the plight of others. Jesus met people and continues to meet us where we are and as we are, and then he leads us with his “gentle chords of love” (cf. Hosea 11:4) to the truth of who his Father has created us to be.

Pope Francis was asked in an interview by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., in 2013, “What does the church need most at this historic moment?” And Pope Francis answered, “that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle.” We need to be “near”, in the same “proximity”, to bear Christ to one another: “The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all.”

Jesus, please help us to be present and willing to come near. Lead us to experience your love, mercy, forgiveness, and like you, be willing to enter into the chaos of one another. Help us to resist the temptation to keep others at a distance and refuse to be indifferent to the needs of those you bring to us in their time of need. May we too, in the words of Pope Francis, go out to “heal the wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful” by being willing to accompany others in their sorrows, anxiety, trials, and tribulations.

People are really hurting all around us. Help us to let go of the need to fix them or fix their problems. Jesus, help us to be present, to listen, to hear, understand, and be open to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through us at the appropriate time, so that, in the end, we do not prevent people from encountering you, but become a means for them to encounter you, the divine physician, and be healed.

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Photo: Are we willing to grow together like these three trees? Rosary walk, St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Spadaro, S.J., Antonio. “A Big Heart Open to God: An interview with Pope Francis”. America Magazine. September 30, 2013 Issue: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2013/09/30/big-heart-open-god-interview-pope-francis

Link for Mass readings for Monday, February 5, 2024

Come away and rest for a bit.

After hearing the accounts of the missionary trip, Jesus invited his apostles to step away from the crowds “to a deserted place [to] rest awhile” (Mk 6:31). Jesus is showing the apostles the importance of balance. There are times to serve and times to recharge, to reconnect, and spend some quiet and reflective time with him. Jesus is our model, our guide and teacher, but he is at the same time more than that. Jesus is the source and sustenance of who we are as a living craving, hunger, and desire to be one with God and each another. As the deer longs to refresh itself from the waters of a running stream, we long to be nourished by the living water, the love and communion with Jesus, and this is true for the atheist as well as the mystic alike, for each and every one of us, whether we are aware of this reality or not.

Our thirst for communion can be stifled because it is so easy to be caught up in our day-to-day schedule, life’s demands, and even survival. There is so much that needs to be done, and at the same time, there are so many distractions and diversions that vie for our energy and attention.

In today’s Gospel, the intent of Jesus is to escape with his apostles for some rest and renewal. They get in a boat to do just that, yet the crowd that they thought they had left behind has arrived on the other side before they did! “When Jesus disembarked and 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). So much for being able to “rest away for awhile”! Or maybe the boat ride across was that moment of rest.

Choosing five to ten minutes to be still, to rest in the Lord, may not seem like much but can make a huge difference. Our challenge is to be able to discern and develop a healthy balance that becomes fruitful through aligning our will with Jesus. When we intentionally put God first and make the time each day to spend with him, often there is a serendipitous alignment that we experience in our day, that we did not think possible at the outset. This often happens when we consciously make time for stillness, for meditation, contemplation, and prayer, even and especially, during those moments when we may feel we just don’t have the time. As St. Francis de Sales taught, no matter what station we are in life it is good to pray at least thirty minutes a day, and for those who are busy, sixty.

If you haven’t practiced time sitting still and silent, that may be too much to ask in the beginning. It is better to start with small increments of time and be consistent.

I invite you to begin with today’s Gospel. Read it slowly and reflectively for a few minutes. Then step into and sit in the boat with Jesus and his disciples. Breathe in deep, let your head fall back to feel the breeze of the Sea of Galilee, feel the warmth of the sun on your face, and experience the rhythm of the boat on the water. Does Jesus remain silent and rest with you? Does he begin to teach, what does he share? In your time of quiet, do you have questions for him, what do you ask, and what is his answer?

Allow yourself to leave the desire for doing at the shore and rest in just being. Enter into the experience, and when the boat comes to shore, go forth into the day renewed and blessed by Jesus so to go forward with a heart and mind able to be moved with compassion to serve others. From such periods of renewal, breathing, resting, receiving, and abiding in God’s love, even for short periods, we can better embrace interruptions in our days with the heart and compassion of Jesus, and see them instead as opportunities of encounter and service.

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Photo: Enjoying some quiet time with a Rosary walk in Egret Landing, Jupiter, FL as I prayed in the new year.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, February 3, 2024

Let’s embrace the wonder of God’s creation and one another.

There is a sadness and an ache that accompanies today’s readings. David sins again and many people suffer because of the choices he makes as leader. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus preached and taught in his “native place”, but for the most part, his words were not received. Because of the lack of faith of his hometown crowd, their unwillingness to trust in him, Jesus did not perform many healings or exorcisms. He was not able to bring those who knew him for the majority of his life into deeper communion with his Father.

The whole reason that the Son of God became man was to bring light to a world suffering in darkness and to reconcile humanity to their rightful place as sons and daughters of his Father. And yet, those closest to him refused the invitation such that: “he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mk 6:6).

Is our world today becoming more and more like Jesus’ “native place”? Is Jesus taken for granted? Do we pay attention to him at all? Many expend more energy on cynicism, taking care of number one, and an uncritical acceptance of empiricism or scientism. Again, a sad state because science is an awesome gift. Science and faith come from the same source, our intrinsic ability to embrace the wonder of God’s creation! These two are not incompatible. Authentic faith seeks understanding. A questioning and searching mind are the ingredients for a living, relevant, and vibrant faith, and life.

Faith without reason, as well as reason without faith, leads to a more limited understanding of the vast expanse of our world. Scientism is limiting the very gift of science itself because it stops when the questions get really interesting, when the exploration goes beyond the measurable, the sensate experiences as we know them. Faith without reason can devolve into mere superstition and legalism.

Jesus invites us to resist setting limits, settling for a minimalist or cynical approach, and the hardening of our hearts. He instead is inviting us to open ourselves up to the limitless possibilities God opens up before us! There is so much to experience in God’s creation if we just slow down and are still enough to experience the wonder of our everyday moments all around us.

The Holy Spirit works through each of us when we resist keeping each other at a distance and placing each other in a box. Many of Jesus’ own people could not see Jesus as anyone other than a simple carpenter and son of Mary. There was no way he could do all the things people were saying about him.

May we resist the lie that we know all there is to know about each other. There is so much wonder to the gift of each individual, especially when we allow ourselves to expand by following the will of God for our lives and helping each other to do the same. We can experience so much more by embracing our faith and reason, opening our hearts and minds to the wonder and glory of God and each encounter with one another. As we do so, we will begin to experience God’s greatest joy, the human being fully alive!

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Photo: Short morning walk yesterday, enjoying some blue sky and sight of the moon. Mary has often been compared to the moon as she reflects the light of her Son!

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Have courage, have faith, trust in Jesus.

“Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who has touched my clothes'” (Mk 5:30)? The woman could have slipped away, she could have stood still and said nothing. Had anyone seen her touch his clothes. Jesus’ disciples were bewildered that Jesus even asked such a question with so many pressing about him. No matter, the woman approached with “fear and trembling” and told him the truth.

In coming forward and telling the truth, this woman was showing tremendous courage. She had just broken a serious, social taboo. She touched Jesus in public as a woman and having been hemorrhaging for twelve years, would have been considered ritually unclean. Her touch would have rendered Jesus unclean. The opposite happened. Both Jesus and the woman knew she was healed the moment she touched his garment. Jesus did not admonish her but publicly recognized her faith.

All the while as this scene transpired, Jairus must have been in agony, knowing how close his daughter was to death, and Jesus actually, stopped and took precious time to even engage with this woman. Finally, they were about to resume their journey when the terrible news came that his daughter had passed away. What might have flashed through his mind in that moment? The time Jesus took to talk with her, could that have made the difference?

Other details surely crossed his mind. As a synagogue official he would have known the taboos she crossed as a woman who was the lowest of low. She would have also been frail and pallid from her condition, at death’s door herself, yet she had mustered such courage and faith. As these and other thoughts raced through his mind, Jesus said to the man, “Do not be afraid, just have faith” (Mk 5:36).

Jairus had just experienced a powerful expression of just such faith with this woman, probably someone until this very moment who he would have shown disdain for. Maybe just maybe, if he could muster the same faith as her, Jesus could bring his daughter back to life. Could his and the woman’s eyes met at that moment? Could a light have then shone in the darkness of his despair? Jesus would heal his daughter, by taking her hand and commanding her to rise and walk.

How many of us have been or have known someone who has experienced the anguish Jairus, whose daughter was near death, was going through, or the woman who had been suffering for twelve years with hemorrhages and receiving no help and all but lost hope? How many of us know of such healings that still happen today? How many of us have though experienced the opposite? Where we experienced no healing, we wondered where Jesus was, and why did he allow this to happen, or did not step in to help?

The best we can do in times of trial and dire need is to summon the courage of the woman suffering from hemorrhages and trust in Jesus. He may or may not bring the outcome we seek. But I assure you that he is present with us through our pain and suffering, whether we feel his presence or not. Sometimes he allows the unthinkable to happen, of which we cannot even comprehend at the time, to bring about a greater good. Often, we are not able to see that until a later date when we are able to look back.

Remember also, that even death does not have the final say. Jesus does because he has conquered death. Jesus and we who participate in his life are victorious. Healings do still happen. Ultimately, faith is placing our trust in our God and Father who loves us, who is present with us no matter what, and carries us in our darkest hour. He sent his Son to walk with us and encourage us as he did with Jairus: “Do not be afraid, just have faith” (Mk 5:36). Let us place our hand in his, face what is before us, and be on our way together.

Photo: The light of Jesus shines even when the sun doesn’t. Rosary walk as storm clouds gathered a few weeks ago, St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, January 30, 2024

God first before anyone and anything else will help us to experience more peace.

“Brothers and sisters: I should like you to be free of anxieties (I Corinthians 7:32).

Those in the Church at Corinth who heard this verse read to them as we just read or heard, would most likely have perked up. Who then, and now, would want to be in a steady state of stress? Who would rather experience a steady flow of peace, stillness, and tranquility?

Paul’s guidance to experience peace may be lost in his example of being married or not married. It is important to recognize that Paul is writing from the perspective that Jesus will be returning soon and not saying that one state is better than the other. His writings often reflect that if one is married it is good to stay married, if one is single or a virgin to stay in that state and not seek marriage.

Obedience to Jesus and his Father is the guidance that Paul gives. The husband and wife are going to feel the tension of their obedience to God and each other. They will be more divided, and this tension will grow when they put each other first over and above God. When we allow anyone or anything to have a place of priority before God there will be a greater potential for anxiety because we are placing our ultimate trust in someone or something that is finite and imperfect. When we are obedient to God and when he is first and primary in our lives, our wills will be more ordered to his will. To be obedient, we need to listen to his voice, and put his words into practice in our everyday lives.

Moses said before his death to those about to enter the promised land: “A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to him shall you listen” (Deuteronomy 18:15).

“To him shall you listen.” As Christians, we believe Jesus is the One to whom Moses is speaking of, the one for whom we are to listen.

I remember Jesus being perturbed, angry, moved by compassion, experiencing sorrow, and extending love, healing, and mercy, but I don’t remember reading that he ever experienced anxiety. This is so because he was consistently obedient to and abided in the love of his Father. His Father also gave him authority to teach, heal, and cast out unclean spirits. Unlike the long tradition of rabbis who were given authority from those who they studied at the feet of, each rabbi would have traced their teaching pedigree through a succession of teachers back to Moses.

Jesus did not do so, and this may be one of the reasons the people were so amazed at hearing his teachings, witnessing his healing miracles, and the exorcising of unclean spirits. They wondered about where he had the authority to do, say, heal, and exorcise as he did. The demons and unclean spirits knew where Jesus got his authority from. They knew he was the Son of God and were obedient. When Jesus, as in today’s gospel, commands the unclean spirit to come out of the man, the spirit obeys. May we obey as well to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, in that order.

It may seem counter intuitive to place God before those closest in our lives; our spouse, family, and our friends, and even before ourselves, as Paul guides us to. Even if we do understand the principle, we may find it hard to put it into practice. David Kaiser-Cross, who was the associate pastor at Jupiter First Congregational Church, explained to me that if we put God first and strive to improve our relationship with him, as we grow closer to God, we grow closer to each other.

This is possible because as we receive and abide in God’s love, we are changed. We become more patient, more attentive, present, understanding, and loving. We experience forgiveness and healing. We are more grateful for what we have received. All of these graces lead us away from a selfish or grasping posture, and as we heal, we become less reactive, less insecure, less anxious, and more available to help others to heal and grow.

The more we are obedient and surrender to the commands of Jesus and put his guidance into practice in our lives, the more we will experience, not oppression but freedom, and the same peace that he experienced, “that peace that surpasses all understanding” (Philippian 4:5).

When we incorporate a daily practice of making time to be still, step away from our daily activities, even good and healthy ones and relationships, and rest and abide in the Father’s love, our anxiety will become less, and our peace and tranquility will become more. As challenges and conflicts arise, we will no longer be clinging to the person with white knuckles because of our fear of losing them, we will instead be more apt to remember to turn to Jesus, invite him into our situation because he is our anchor instead of them. We will be better able to let go of the unhealthy attachments that we have and allow for more breathing space between each other.

We will see our way through each crossroad with less stress, feel more of a sense of freedom and joy as we overcome our challenges. We will feel more stable and secure in our relationships with Jesus and each other as we work through each conflict. We will not feel we have to run away from or deny conflict as long as we remember that as we begin where we are right now, we are loved by Jesus as we are. May that reality be our foundation so that as we learn and mature, step by faithful step, we will consciously choose to be more patient and gentler with ourselves and each other.

Photo: One of the ways I have been experiencing more of God’s peace has been during my evening Rosary walks.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, January 28, 2024

Faith in Jesus instead of our anxieties and fears brings peace and stillness.

“Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith” (Mark 4:40)?

Jesus asked this question of his apostles after he quieted the wind and the waves. These were seasoned fisherman, so for them this must have been quite the storm. They even thought that they were not going to survive it as the waves not only tossed their boat but it also began to take on more and more water.

The question of faith was directed at their trust in him. Did they believe that Jesus was who he said he was and showed himself to be. If so, all would be well. Jesus called his apostles and brought them into his inner circle so they could not only experience his teaching, healings, and exorcisms but also to get to know him as the Son of God. As with any relationships, this takes time, and their faith, their trust in him in all circumstances was still growing. But as we read yesterday, faith as small as a mustard seed, will bring large results. This would come to pass with the apostles as well in time.

Our anxieties, fears, and insecurities are a good barometer of our faith in Jesus. These emotions are human and good in themselves as they are alerting us to a real or perceived threat. The challenge is to discern the real from the perceived and to determine when the threat has passed.

Where these emotions become a problem is when we believe in, place our faith in, and identify ourselves by them. Instead of saying to ourselves, I feel anxious, we define ourselves as anxious. Doing the opposite by denying and stuffing our emotions and feelings do not help either.

Jesus can help us to calm the real storms as well as the perceived storms in our lives. He can help and empower us to sit with our emotions, and ultimately get to the source of them and identify the root, identify if it is perceived or real, and then work through it. As with the apostles, when we continue to turn to Jesus, our faith and trust in him will grow, and we will also heal, mature, and grow through the storms in our lives.

Easier said than done? Yes for both our real and imagined storms. But for either, as we place our trust in Jesus, persevere, claim our authority in his name to renounce any attacks of the enemy, all things are possible!

Photo: Storm clouds on the way during retreat in January, all was calm and still.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, January 27, 2024

Knowing we are cared about and loved makes a big difference.

“I yearn to see you again, recalling your tears, so that I may be filled with joy, as I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and I am confident lives also in you” (I Timothy 1:3-5).

St. Paul writes these words to Timothy and what struck me was not only the affection he had for Timothy and that he knew his mother and grandmother’s names, but also that he knew the depth of the faith of each.

We are at our best when we make relationship with God and one another a priority. Christianity is not so much a philosophy or even a theology, as much as it is a relationship with a person, the God made man, Jesus the Christ. This faith in and willingness to enter into a relationship with God was lived by Lois and then passed on to Eunice, who then both passed it on to Timothy.

They knew and loved God and one another, they cared for and supported each other, and they welcomed Paul into their family such that he knew them well enough to refer to them by name in this letter. Do we know each other by name in our places of worship, in our communities, our neighborhoods?

Dr. Leo Buscaglia, a professor at USC shared a story about how he noticed that one of his students had missed class for a few days. When she did not return the following week, he asked her classmates about her whereabouts, and no one knew where she was. He then reached out to the dean of students, and she broke the sad news to Dr. Buscaglia that she had taken her life.

He was horrified not only by her death but even more by the fact that no one in the class knew anything about her. He then began to teach a course simply titled, “Love Class 101” in which his students came together to learn about building relationships with one another. He was doing what Lois, Eunice, Timothy, and Paul were doing, what the faith communities and families are called to do, what we as human beings are called to do.

We can help to shift the tide of growing anxiety, confusion, isolation, and loneliness, when we make a commitment to care, to be more present, communicate and listen, be more understanding and patient, support, empower and lift one another up. In other words, when we are willing to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

Photo: I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the education shed, nor the best teacher, but I cared. Let us love and care for those in our realm of influence so that they know that they matter and they are loved.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, January 26, 2024

The way of Jesus leads to forgiveness.

Today we celebrate the Conversion of St. Paul. Saul, before he was Paul, was a stellar Pharisee and defender of his faith. He learned at the feet of one of the top rabbi’s of his time, Gamaliel, and as he himself said, was “zealous for God”. So much so that he “persecuted this Way to death” (Acts 22:3-4). The Way was the term used early on for those Jewish people who followed Jesus.

The turning point for Saul was his miraculous encounter with Jesus as he was on his way to Damascus to persecute more people of the Way. The phrase that Jesus used when he spoke, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me” (Acts 22:7) was an interesting one. He could have said, “Why are you persecuting my Church, the children of God, your brothers and sisters” or any other choice, but instead he chose, “Why are you persecuting me?”

Jesus is showing the intimate connection that he has achieved through his being born as one of us, suffering and dying and conquering death for each of us, rising and ascending back to the right hand of the Father, still fully human and divine, such that he can come at this point and time to have an encounter with his most zealous of persecutors of the Way.

The encounter with Jesus is enough. Saul is stunned beyond anything he could have imagined. He was not struck by a sword, a smashing blow, or a trip wire across his path. He was stopped by a great light that surrounded him. Jesus, the “light that shines in the darkness” (John 1:5) did not condemn him, nor punish him. He asked a question and then told him what he was going to do next.

It would take another three years for Saul to work out this encounter, but once he did so, he made an incredible 180 degree turn in his life. The Way who he had been persecuting would now become the major focus of his life. He surrendered totally to Jesus and gave everything he had, even his life.

The encounter that Saul had with Jesus offers us a very strong message that we need to allow to sink into the depths of our being. There is nothing that we have done that God will not forgive us for. As Saul said, he was “persecuting this Way to death.” St. Stephen was at least one of those who died at Saul’s command. If anything just came to mind, if just the mere hint of a whisper, “Oh but God will not forgive…” Fill in the blank or blanks. Sorry, that is the voice of the liar, the deceiver, the enemy. That is not God’s voice. Don’t believe it for a minute, for a second. Renounce that thought in the name of Jesus.

God will forgive us. Period. Full stop. As we heard a few days ago. Jesus who was beginning his public ministry said, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). That is exactly what Saul did and became Paul and a saint. That is what we are invited to do this morning.

Photo: Rosary walk during canonical retreat at Bethany Center, Lutz, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, January 25, 2024

We will mature when we keep God first.

God loves us and he shows us this love by caring, providing, guiding, convicting, forgiving, healing, and saving us from our fallen tendencies. We are more open to receive his love and the gifts of his presence in our lives when we are willing to acknowledge that God is God, and we are not, and that we need and depend on him. God is our Father, and we are his beloved children.

This may seem like a small matter, but it is not. The moment we begin to place ourselves, anyone, and/or anything before God, we open ourselves up for trouble. We saw this with the kingship of Saul and are now beginning to see the cracks in David’s foundation as king.

Building a temple for God sounds like a reasonable and pious thing to do, but God, through the prophet Nathan convicted David: “Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in” (2 Samuel 7:5)? God then continues to outline how he never had asked before through any of the patriarchs or judges for a dwelling, and shared how he brought David out from the shepherd fields, made him King, defeated his enemies, and provided for him, and it would be God who would build a house and a kingdom that would endure forever.

Jesus helps us to understand how, like David, we can miss the mark when he told and interpreted the Parable of the Sower. God sews his seed as creator and the key is whether we receive it and care for it or not. There are forces that can counter God’s gift, like Satan, the accuser and liar, who through his lies, temptations, and manipulations steals the seeds from us.

Those who do receive them also can have challenges. Some receive them with great joy, but do not savor and care for the gift given. They only receive God’s word in the moment at the surface level of their emotions, but do not do anything to foster its growth. There is no root to anchor them in times of trouble. Anxieties, worries, distractions, and diversions, choke out any growth that may begin after the seeds have taken root and begun to grow.

When we keep God first in our lives before all else, he will help us to prepare our soil so that the seeds he sows finds rich and healthy soil. This takes time and energy on our part to follow his guidance and those in our lives that he speaks through. The effort and discipline expended are well worth the effort and will bear great fruit in our lives and those we serve.

Photo: A pine sapling here at the seminary off to a good start!

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 24, 2024

We are family.

Jesus consistently stretches the norms and social constructs of his time. He does so not just for the sake of stirring things up, but to help the people of his time and us today to see the reality that God has created. He is leading us from our fallen nature to the truth of who God has created us to be and is calling us to be.

Today’s gospel is no different. What seemed to be a very simple and straight forward statement, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you”(Mark 3:32). Jesus turns this on its head when he responds: “Who are my mother and my brothers” (Mark 3:33)? And he is taking a risk here as well because of the deep familial bonds of his culture. What most people then and now would agree on would have been for Jesus to ask those listening to make some room for his family to come in and join them or at the least, let everyone take a ten-minute break while he said hello.

Instead, Jesus is extending the parameters of family. Family is not just bloodline. He is saying that his family members are those who do the will of his Father. Those who do so then are his “mother, brothers, and sisters.” We have been created in his image and likeness and are God’s beloved children. This is the reality Jesus is leading us to return to.

We are invited to be a part of his family. An exciting proposition and no genetic testing needed! We just need to do the will of God. The foundation of God’s will is to allow ourselves to be loved by him and to love him and each other in return. If this is our goal today and each day and we intentionally put this into practice in our own unique ways, our lives would be transformed and so would our world! When we really believe and live this truth, we will treat each other much better as well.

I invite you to read today’s Gospel account for yourself, Mark 3:31-35. It is only five verses. Make the Sign of the Cross, breathe slowly and deeply, read the account a few times slowly, and then ask Jesus to bring you into his memory. Jesus was there and he remembers. Ask him to guide you as you enter into the scene by allowing your senses to come alive.

What do you see, smell, hear, feel, and even taste? What stands out for you? Was there a word or phrase that you were drawn to that you can think more about or visualize? As Jesus teaches, is there anything he shares with you? When he asks, “For whoever does the will of God”, what might that mean to you? Allow Jesus to lead you and let God happen. Enjoy!

Photo: Our Mother Mary. Who followed God’s will better than she? St. Vincent de Paul chapel, St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, January 23, 2024