catholicism

Jesus knew he was when challenged, do we?

In today’s account from John, Jesus responded to the criticism that he received from healing the man at the pool of Bethesda. The issue for those who were incensed was that he healed on the Sabbath, and he did not help his case any when he justified himself by saying that he was directed to do so by his Father: “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes” (Jn 5:21). Jesus did not make concessions with those who opposed him.

He clearly stated the truth about who he is, the Son of God, the Lord of the Sabbath. For those not believing Jesus, that he said that he is equal with God… this is blasphemy of the highest order. This is one of the reasons they plot to kill him.

So too in our own age, there are many ways to express our understanding and belief about who Jesus was in his time and who he is still today. If you haven’t thought about Jesus beyond his name in a while, about who he really is and why he is relevant to our lives, then allow St. Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, who lived from 297 to 373 AD, to offer a point to ponder today.

St. Athanasius held firmly to and taught with conviction that, Jesus is, “the Son of God [who] became man so that we might become God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 480). We cannot be saved on our own merits, through our own will power, and discipline alone. Jesus can save us particularly because in what he assumes as fully human, he is able to redeem as fully divine.

The reality that the second Person of the Holy Trinity, was sent through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit to enter the womb of Mary and take on flesh, became one with us in our humanity by becoming also human, so that we can become one with him in his divinity, is something worth meditating and praying about. There is much writing and discussion about how many people are leaving the Church, while at the same time their hunger still remains. I would say starving, for a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. This is true for those who leave as well as those who remain, whether either could or would articulate it in that way.

Could it be that we have forgotten the foundation of our faith, which is participating in and deepening our relationship with Jesus?

The words of St. Athanasius, “The Son of God became man so that we might become God.” Are words that will help us to remember who and whose we are, beloved daughters and sons of God. They are words that might help us to remember our meaning and purpose in life. They are words that might help us to stretch a little more from our comfort zones, to risk being who we are, and to trust God to walk with us in places where we are need of healing and reconciliation. Hopefully, they are words that help us to slow down and spend some time with Jesus and get to know him a little better.

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Photo: Quiet walk on the way to celebrate Mass.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, March 18, 2026

With Jesus no one is last.

Has there ever been a time when you were picked last for the team, whether on the playground, P.E., or gym class? I remember being on both sides, being picked last, and picking others to join and having to pick someone last. I preferred being chosen last rather than having to be in the situation to choose a classmate last. In our Gospel reading today, Jesus comes upon a man who has experienced an even worse situation.

This man had been in need of healing for thirty-eight years. Apparently, there was a limited time to get into the waters of the pool at Bethesda to experience the healing properties that it afforded, for each time the water stirred, while the man moved to get closer to and enter the water, “someone else [got] down there before” him. This is worse than getting picked last, as he doesn’t in a sense even make the team!

But with Jesus, the last shall become first. Key ingredients are belief, faith, as we heard in yesterday’s account and also along with belief and faith, is there a willingness to be healed. Jesus asks the sick man, “Do you want to be well?” When the man in need of healing explains the limitations he has experienced in the past regarding getting to the pool, Jesus does not hesitate. Jesus commands him to rise, pick up his mat and walk. The man is no longer the one picked over, the one ignored, the one unseen. The sick man encounters Jesus and is healed by his word.

Jesus approaches us in the same way that he encountered the sick man by the pool of Bethesda in today’s Gospel. He meets us in our need, where we are, no matter our station in life. He does not leave us on the outside looking in, he does not leave us wondering if we are loved or if we belong. He comes close and if we are willing, to forgive, heal, and empower us to be about the mission given to us by his Father. Jesus gives meaning and purpose to our lives. Each and every one of us is a gift from God, a beloved daughter or son, and we have been graced with something to contribute, something unique to help make the kingdom of God a reality.

May we enter a place of silence and stillness, without and within. Breathe intentional and slow, settle into a rhytm with no or little distractions, breathe in deep and exhale a few times more, one deep breath for each person of the Trinity, and then close our eyes. How do we see ourselves in our present moment, what is happening, what are we experiencing? As we take a few more breathes, notice Jesus walking toward us.

Jesus is present, right here and right now, for each of us if we are willing to be still long enough to engage with him. There are no boundaries, no limitations, only those we impose on ourselves. We are no longer misunderstood, left out, or picked last. Jesus has come close to be with us in this moment, to embrace us, and help us to really know that we are loved, heard, and we belong in the kingdom of God.

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Painting:”Do you want to be well?” If yes, then continue to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Jesus has come to heal and help to transform our minds and our hearts.

We hear often in the Gospels how those who believed in Jesus received healings, exorcisms, and were forgiven of their sins. We have also read accounts such as from the Gospel of Matthew that he “did not work many mighty deeds” in Nazareth “because of their lack of faith” (Mt 13:58).

In today’s Gospel account from John, Jesus speaks to a royal official whose son is close to death. Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left (Jn 4:50). On his way home to his son the man is met by the slaves from his household and they told him that his son would live and when they compared notes, they realized the healing occurred at the moment Jesus spoke and the man believed.

What do faith and belief have to do with Jesus being active in our lives? The way of the Gospel, the good news, is all about invitation and acceptance. Jesus enters our world, our reality, and he comes to each one of us intentionally, gently, and humbly. He came as a poor infant, completely dependent on Mary and Joseph for his very survival. He lived the majority of his life in the obscure village of Nazareth most likely working as a day laborer. When he began his public ministry he did so by inviting people to be a part of his life, to enter into a relationship with him and his Father. People are free to say, “no”, or to say, “yes”, to that invitation.

Faith is trusting that what Jesus says, is true, and that he is who he says he is. Belief is the act of our will that aligns with our faith, our trust in him. Jesus invited the man to believe that his son was healed and the man believed. He walked away with full confidence that his son would be healed. Belief is followed by an affirmative act of the will. I can believe my car will run, but unless I get in it and turn the key, I am not going anywhere.

This miracle was not just for the man and his son. As with each miracle, Jesus is teaching a lesson to those present. The preliminary statement to the people of Galilee is, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (John 4:48). This was a challenge to the man and to those present. The father believed Jesus and went on his way. Did the people who were seeking signs believe as the father did? Because this father did, his son was healed.

Jesus is fully human and fully divine. He has come to show us the promise of the life his and our Father wants to give to us. Jesus, the first born of the new creation, is collaborating with his Father: “To set right a world that has gone wrong” (Barron, 92). Jesus comes into our lives each day to show us a new way, a better way. Are we willing to let go of our defense mechanisms, our comfort zones, stepping out of daily survival mode and instead walk the path of this new way with Jesus? Do we believe, as did this man seeking a healing for his son?

Just as the sun rises each day, Jesus comes to us to set our minds and our hearts on the right path, toward our forgiveness, healing, and freedom. Just as Jesus was present for this man and his son, he is present to each of us as our divine healer, teacher, and savior. We experience that truth the more we believe in and choose to seek his help and guidance with each thought, word, and deed and in every situation. May we trust in Jesus with everything, may we thank him for everything, and when we sin, let us seek his forgiveness and begin again.

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Painting: Jesus meets us where we are and as we are to provide healing for ourselves and those we intercede for.

Barron, Bishop Robert. Lenten Gospel Reflections. Word on Fire, 2020.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, March 16, 2026

Are we willing to stay with Jesus as did the woman at the well and the man born blind?

As with last week, when the Samaritan women encounters Jesus, we again see this week an account of a transformation with the man born blind from birth. In both cases, neither are seeking Jesus or a healing, Jesus waits for the woman at the well and sees the man as he “passed by”. Both are open to encounter Jesus and are willing to be led by him. For the man born blind, Jesus, spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” (Jn 9:6-7).

To us, this would appear to be a bizarre way to heal. Imagine going into the optometrist and as he is checking an eye ailment and he says wait a minute, I have just what you need. He takes out bowl of dirt, spits profusely and begins to make some mud. How long are you going to remain in the chair? 

In Jewish tradition, and found recorded in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the account was that God when forming Adam out of the earth, also spit into the earth. The moisture needed to kneed the dry earth. Those knowing this account would have understood what Jesus was doing here. He was acting as God did in the creation of the first man. He was forming a new man, to be part of a new creation (Pitre).  

Jesus also helps our modern sensibilities by asking the man to wash his face in the “Pool of Siloam”, he was healed and his sight was restored. He then returned to his neighbors and they noticed that not only was he no longer begging but that he could see. They then asked him how this came to be and the man shared about his encounter with this man who healed him. Because of this miracle, they then brought him before the Pharisees.

Because this healing happened on the Sabbath, they wanted to understand what had happened with this man and although the man did not name Jesus, because he did not know who he was, the Pharisees suspected if not outright knew. This was not the first healing on the Sabbath. Some were hoping to gather information to make a case against Jesus. Unfortunately for them, this man would only share that Jesus healed him, confirm that he was born blind, and wonderfully the man asked if they would like to be Jesus’ disciples!

When he was thrown out by the Pharisees. Now ostracized for being healed and telling the truth, he was alone. Jesus came to him again, and as the conversation deepened, as with the woman at the well, his faith as with her’s grew. He first believed Jesus to be just a man, then he presented him as a prophet, and came to believe that he was sent by God, he was the Son of Man, and finally proclaimed him as Lord!

Would that we could have the same healing of our spiritual blindness as the man did with his physical that opened him up to his spiritual healing, such that we could see the depth of our own hunger deep within for God and the needs of those around us. Are we able to see Jesus as this man born blind or do we see him as some of the Pharisees, in a distorted way based on our own places within ourselves that are wounded and/or hardened and callused?

Allowing Jesus to come close will help us to regain a greater appreciation for him and each other. We will recognize how fragile our lives really are when we let down our guard, and place our trust not in our own self-reliance, but in Jesus. In facing our fears, even of death, resisting to run away or deny the fear, but instead embrace our feasr with Jesus, we will come out on the other side freed from those feats and appreciating the gift of our humanity. 

In allowing ourselves to encounter Jesus, may we be willing to allow him to remind us of who and whose we are. We are beloved daughters and sons, baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We belong to our loving God and Father. This is the foundational truth of our identity. Nothing can shake that truth as long as we allow ourselves to savor and allow that reality to move from our minds, to our hearts, and acknowledge it in the very depth of our souls. This truth helps us to realize that death does not have the final answer and we need not fear even death. 

The man born blind was grateful for the gift of receiving his sight, so much so that he came to believe and worship the one who healed him. When we allow ourselves some time with Jesus, may we grow more deeply committed to living as his disciple, be freed from our fears, and experience the love of God in such a way that we know him and breathe, receive, rest, and abide in who we are. 

Photo: Jesus is the light of the world and whoever follows him will have the light of life.

Pitre, Brant. Mass Readings Explained Year A, Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year A

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, March 15, 2026

Resist justifying or denying and instead confess our sins and we will experience God’s forgiveness, heal, and grow in his love.

It is much easier to find fault in others, and in some cases, the act of doing so has become entertainment in the private as well as the public sector. Gossip has a seductive allure and can be consuming. Judging others is also a way to justify and or project our own inappropriate behavior onto others. We may even place ourselves in a false sense of exalted pride. Have we ever, not just stated, but, thought or prayed something along the same lines as the Pharisee in today’s Gospel? “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income…” (Lk 18:11-12).

To pray any part of this prayer stunts the growth in our spiritual life because we are focused on ourselves instead of emptying ourselves before God. A hyper sense of self reliance leads us away from the truth they we are dependent on God our Father for anything and everything and apart from him we can do nothing. Anytime we rationalize, cover over, deny, or completely ignore our sinful behavior we create and support habits of selfishness and feed our selfishness. Left unchecked, we can become enslaved to them. Lent is a time to pause and ponder, to be grateful for God’s love and his care, and also to give ourselves time to be aware of where we fall short of the glory of God. When we are willing to identify and confess our sins, we are forgiven and can begin to heal from sinful attitudes and actions that have become habitual vices.

In reading more lives of the saints, I have come to understand that their recognition and their confession of their sinfulness was not just pious platitudes, but true presentations that they were growing closer in their relationship with Jesus. The closer we grow in our relationship with Jesus the more we experience his light and love, which unveils more of our sins.

When we drive our car while it is dark we don’t give much thought to the cleanliness of our windshield because we can see fine. Yet as the headlights from an oncoming car illuminate our windshield we can see how dirty in actuality it is. This can be evident in our spiritual life as well. The more we remain in our own darkness of denial, self righteousness, resist slowing down to examine our conscience, we feel we are fine, all is right with the world. If we experience any problems, it is because of something or someone else, never us. The closer we grow in our relationship with Jesus though, the more his light shines in our darkness, and reveals to us our sin.

Jesus invites us to resist the prayer of the Pharisee who prays comparing himself to someone else, who refuses to acknowledge his own sinful actions and instead emphasizes that we are to follow the honest humility of the tax collector, who did “not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner’” (Lk 18:13). Now, Jesus is not saying this is the only way we pray. We have the opportunity to worship and praise the Lord joyfully, we can seek his help in praying for others through intercessory prayer or for ourselves in petitionary prayer, we can also sit in quiet meditation during adoration or out among God’s wonder of creation and experience deep consolation.

Each prayer has its time and place and each type of experience of prayer helps us to grow and deepen our relationship with Jesus and each other. The key to each of our prayers is our willingness to be the humble children we are and lift up of our hearts and minds to God who is always inviting us to spend time with him.

True humility happens when we are willing to see who we are from God’s loving gaze. If we are to set a standard to live up to and if we are to compare ourselves to anyone, let it be Jesus. A daily examination of conscience of allowing ourselves to rest in our Father’s loving gaze is a healthy practice and discipline. When we invite Jesus to shine his light of love into the darkness of our fear and anxiety, our loneliness and idols, we will see our sins. Jesus does not do so to shame and condemn us, but so that we can experience our sorrow and separation from God that sin causes.

As we experience our loneliness, pain, and wounds, and resist putting anyone or anything else before God to compensate for what we are feeling, we can feel his love and begin to realize that we are not alone, that we never have been alone. And that the only one who can fill our deepest longings is God. With this attitude, temptations and sins became opportunities for God’s grace, because we can now see clearer our life without Jesus and our life with him. Each time we choose Jesus over our temptations, we will experience him more, know him better, grow in our relationship with his Father, and experience the love shared between them, the Holy Spirit.

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Photo: Spending time with Jesus, helps us to slow down, then we can follow him as he leads us from the darkness our sins so that we may experience the light of his love.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, March 14, 2026

Jesus shows us the love of his Father so we can receive and love him and each other in return.

Jesus recognized that the scribe, who asked him about which commandment was the greatest, “answered with understanding,” and then he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34). What is it that the scribe understood?

The scribe understood that God “is One and that there is no other”. God is the true source of our being, the foundation of our very existence. We have been created with an innate desire to be one with him. This is the longing we all feel in the depths of our soul, this is why nothing that is finite or material will ever fully satisfy us, and why we are always wanting more. This is as true for the mystic as well as for the atheist and everyone in between. We hunger and thirst for the living God. And even more wonderful of a truth is that God hungers and thirsts for communion with us!

God is “One and no other” also means that we are not God, we are his created beings. God is not just one being among many, not even the supreme being. This orientation is important and foundational. We can only see from our limited perspective. What we think or believe we might need, may in fact not be truly good or beneficial for us, the shimmer may be just an apparent good, a distraction, a temptation, that will lead us away from the authentic fulfillment and meaning of life that we seek. God will guide us away from any unhealthy want, he will lead us away from temptation when we are willing to seek his guidance over and above our own. God will give us what we truly need, he will lead us to that which is, in reality, true, good, and beautiful – relationship with himself, which when we come to put God first, will help us to properly order everyone and everything else in our lives.

Once we come to believe that God is God and we aren’t. We can experience that we are not just created beings. When we are baptized, we become his beloved daughters and sons. Accepting this filial relationship then we can take the next step: “to love him with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, with all [our] mind, and with all [our] strength”. God hungers and thirsts for all of us. We are to give all of our lives to him. In our surrender to God and his will, we become capable of receiving his love and so are able to better love him in return. We all long to be loved and to love. Experiencing the love of God helps us to unconditionally love “our neighbor as our self” because through our surrender to his will we allow God to love others through us.

An interesting addition that Jesus adds to his presentation of the great commandment, is that in quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, he adds to the original. Along with love God with our whole heart, soul, and strength, he adds to love God with all our mind. This insert helps us to understand how we can live out this commandment.  We are to pray, to lift up our hearts and our minds to God and depend upon him as Father. We do this best when we meditate on his living word daily. When we think about and return to his word often, we rest in his presence and in his presence, we experience healing, give of ourselves fully to him, and will be moved to love others.

As we surrender all of ourselves to God and love him in return, we will better love others (see Leviticus 19:18). To do so, we need to spend quality time with God in stillness, be present One on one, as well as come to an awareness of God’s nearness in our daily activities. We are to resist compartmentalizing God and instead seek his presence in every thought, word, action and through everyone we encounter.

Each of us, though prone to sin and wounded by our sin, are still not destroyed by sin. God loves us as we are, and when we are humble enough to be repentant: to be contrite, confess, and follow through on our penance, God forgives our sins, heals our wounds, and transforms us. No need to run away from him. Instead, let us run to him. Loving our neighbor as our self helps us to run to Jesus, for if we cannot love those we can see how can we love his Father, our Father, who we can’t? Going out of ourselves and giving to another helps us to build relationships because time spent with each other breaks down the walls of separation that keep us at a distance.

Jesus’ arms are wide open before us. May we surrender all our heart, soul, mind, and strength into his loving embrace, receive his love and love him in return, and be willing to love our neighbor and our selves in the same way. When we understand and put this commandment into practice, the other commandments will be something we will do naturally. As we enter into this practice, we too will hear Jesus say to us, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

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Photo: Some quiet time to meditate, pray, and contemplate God’s living word during Morning Prayer.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, March 13, 2026

Jesus calls us to attain greater heights. Choosing him and asking for his help, we will attain them.

Jesus not only tells his disciples that he has not come to abolish but to fulfill the law, he constantly teaches how this is true, models how to put his teachings into practice, and empowers them to do so. This elaboration on the law and the prophets, the entirety of Jewish scripture, is highlighted well in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This is evident in his Beatitudes with one example being, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, and another example from his Six Antithesis show the building on the Torah more vividly: “You have heard that it was said ‘an eye for an eye,’ but I say to you offer no resistance to one who is evil”. Jesus clearly begins with quoting the law, “You have heard that is was said”, and then offers a deeper implementation by stating with authority, “But I say to you”.

If we seriously take the time to read through Jesus’ teachings, we will see quickly how challenging they are. Jesus is not lowering the bar of discipline for his followers. Instead, he is raising it. Jesus is not putting heavy burdens on us for burden’s sake, he seeks to make us holy, to guide us to be restored to our original glory that God has intended from the beginning. He himself lives what he preaches, but Jesus is no ordinary teacher or mentor. The principles that he teaches, forgiving seventy-seven times, loving our enemy, giving up all to follow him, seemed impossible to his disciples then and to us today as well.

At face value, we may think that many of Jesus’ teachings are not possible to put into practice or very practical in our day and age. This is why many people do not follow him and walk away. Attempting to do so with our willpower alone will lead to coming up short each time, feeling more frustrated, and/or not wanting to even put in the time and effort to do so. Jesus does not expect nor desire us to accomplish living as his followers on our own efforts. Much the opposite! We are to yolk ourselves with him and be open to the transforming power and love of the Holy Spirit acting through us. This happens when we daily invite Jesus into our lives and are humble enough to follow his lead and to ask for his help in putting into practice what he requires of us.

We grow in our discipleship of Jesus when we study his life, learn and put his teachings into practice, and surrender ourselves to his will through prayer, discipline, worship, service, and participation in the sacraments. Ultimately though, it is nothing we do, other than ask for his help, open our hearts and minds to and allow Jesus to live his life in and through us. As we see and experience that with Jesus all things are possible, we are transformed by his love and conformed to his life such that we can say with Paul, it is no longer I who live but Jesus who lives in me (cf. Galatians 2:20).

The path of faith is not a sprint or a one-time event, but a marathon, a life-long journey of healing. Each one of us can be assured that Jesus is with us for the long haul, every step of the way. No matter what trials or challenges, we can meet them with Jesus. Resist the temptations, refuse to make decisions from a fearful or reactive state, and let us instead lean into Jesus and on each other. In breathing, receiving, resting, and abiding in the love of God, we will not only make healthier decisions, we will grow in our intimacy with God and one another, no matter what arises.

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Photo: Blessed to lead a retreat for the administrators and principals of the Diocese of Palm Beach today. Some quiet time breathing and praying with Jesus in the chapel at Our Lady of Florida Retreat Center before the first session. Very thankful for Jesus’ help in the preparation and presentation, not possible without him.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, March 11, 2026

“Love is stronger than everything.”

Forgiveness is a wonderful gift of grace and mercy that our loving God and Father wants to bestow upon us. The reasons is that he seeks a deep and intimate relationship with us. If we asked many people if they would like to receive forgiveness most would say yes. The number would most likely be less if we were to ask them how many would be willing to forgive others. If we were asked to forgive someone seven times, that number would shrink significantly, and if we were invited to forgive someone seventy-seven times, is there any among us who would say yes, any among us willing to consider doing so?

Why is forgiveness so hard for most of us? I do say most because there are those who have healed, forgiven, and see the wonderful gift in forgiving. One reason could be that we have few role models. I would imagine those that are more forgiving have not only experienced positive role models but have received forgiveness themselves.

How often do we seek forgiveness from others when we have done something wrong, inappropriate, or made a mistake? Do we seek to explain first, make excuses, justify, or worse ignore our behavior altogether. When we resist being humble, confronting our offenses, and do not seek reconciliation, we do not experience the healing balm of forgiveness. We are then less likely to be willing to offer forgiveness and more likely to hold a grudge or to seek revenge.

Yet, even if we receive the gifts of mercy and forgiveness, as the servant did in today’s parable (Mt 18:21-35), we may still choose to be unforgiving toward others. We may resist forgiveness because we have already created patterns of distancing ourselves, making someone else as other, somehow justifying the hurt and pain we feel. We think that by holding a grudge, offering another the cold shoulder, and/or keeping them at a distance, that we are giving them just what they deserve.

Unfortunately, patterns of not seeking forgiveness and not being willing to forgive others, allow ourselves to bear grudges, to distance ourselves, or project negative feelings to cover up our own inadequacies, not only perpetuate a climate of isolation and divisiveness, but continues to multiply mistrust and further distance. When allowed to be left unchecked this leads to violence in too many forms that we witness all too often.

Even in a case when someone has truly wronged us in some way, Jesus is guiding us to forgive, to make an attempt to understand why someone might act in such a way, and to shift the momentum away from the perpetual cycle of hurt and to seek to bring about healing and reconciliation.

Jesus is clear that if we are not willing to forgive, we will not be forgiven. This is true because when we are unwilling to forgive, we cut ourselves off from the love of God. We choose to remain steeped in the hurt and pain inflicted upon us over the healing balm that God offers. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a tremendous sacrament of healing, and a pattern of regular confession helps us to receive not only the healing and forgiveness of our loving God but also his guidance and strength to resist the temptations of the sins we have confessed. As we develop a regular practice of examining our conscience, experiencing contrition – true sorrow for our sins, confess, and are willing to complete our acts of penance, we are absolved and forgiven from our sins, and we will experience healing and freedom.

Forgiveness does not mean we condone another’s inappropriate actions. It means we choose to no longer participate in the cycle of hurt. Even when we feel forgiveness is impossible, are we willing? That is all Jesus requires. We forgive in the beginning when we are willing to ask Jesus to forgive through us until we can learn to forgive ourselves, like Doha Sabah Abdallah.

Doha lost her son during the bombing of her city in 2014. Doha shared her story with Pope Francis while he visited Iraq back in 2021. She said: “By imitating him [Jesus] in our sufferings, we testify that love is stronger than everything,”

Pope Francis shared how touched he was by Doha’s story of forgiveness. On his plane trip back home, Pope Francis said, “I forgive. This is a word we have lost. We know how to insult big time. We know how to condemn in a big way… But to forgive, to forgive one’s enemies. This is the pure Gospel. This hit me in Qaraqosh.”

Let us take up the mantle that Jesus holds out to us today and this Lent, to seek forgiveness, healing and reconciliation, and so receiving the forgiveness and love of God, may we then be more willing to forgive or to ask God to forgive through us until we can.

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Photo: Need a model to learn how to forgive? Look to and ask Jesus and Mary to help.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Are we filled with fury or with peace with Jesus’ invitation of repentance for all?

The people in Jesus’ hometown synagogue in Nazareth are incensed, rise up to drive him out of town, “and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong” (Lk 4:29). What got Jesus’ hometown crowd so twisted and contorted? Not only did he stand up earlier in this account of Luke and proclaim that he, the carpenter, was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, but it was to the widow of Zarephath that Elijah came and Naaman the Syrian that Elisha healed.

All three of these points may be a big ho-hum to us, but they were a big deal to his kin. Being a carpenter, more likely a simple day laborer, was not high on the social status ladder even in a poor town like Nazareth. The gospel writers even show the sensitivity of this. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is mentioned in this scene as  “the carpenter” (6:3), in Matthew, “the carpenter’s son” (13:39), and in today’s Gospel of Luke, “Joseph’s son” (4:22). By the time we get to Luke’s account, Jesus is not even associated with the trade of carpenter, how could someone of such simple and humble means assert the mantle of a prophet, let alone the Messiah?

Jesus does not go quietly in the night as the people’s wonder at his words turn to doubt and consternation. Jesus instead gives two seemingly obscure examples of people who receive God’s blessings. There were many widows and lepers in Israel, but it was to the widow of Zarephath that Elijah came and from Elisha that Naaman the Syrian received healing. The significance of these two people was that they were Gentiles, they were other, they were not part of the chosen people. Jesus is aligning himself in the prophetic tradition of Isaiah with the universal promise of God’s salvation that would also go out to the Gentile world. Jesus is invoking a choice that will consistently ripple throughout the remainder of his public ministry. People will either embrace his universal ministry or they will oppose it.

A concrete reason why his people “were all filled with fury” at the message of a universal invitation from Jesus is that Gentiles had been oppressing the Jewish people for generations. Beginning with the slavery they experienced in Egypt, the conquering of the ten northern tribes of Israel by the Assyrians, the Babylonians decimation the remaining southern tribes, their exile, and destruction of the Temple. After their return, they suffered the occupying power of the Greeks, and now during the time of Jesus’ preaching, the Romans. The hope of most Jews was that the Messiah would come to evoke a military uprising and crush their Roman occupiers. They were not seeking the repentance of their oppressors. Instead, much like Jonah, they sought divine vengeance.

Jesus’ hometown crowd was none too happy with Jesus’ universal invitation. We might too quickly judge them, but if we resist domesticating Jesus and allow ourselves to hear his words echoed today from our podiums and ambos, might we feel some of the same angst that the people of Nazareth felt? Who might we not be willing to welcome into the universal invitation of salvation that Jesus is still inviting us to experience in our day?

Would we embrace his message or begin to cross our arms and seethe? Would we too want to rise up and reject Jesus outright? If we are humble this Lent, we can walk up to Jesus and ask him to heal us of our own prejudices and biases, breathe deeply and receive his love and invitation for us to love those who we have not wanted to. The we too can bring glad tidings to those in our families, parishes, and communities. The choice is ours. Will we oppose Jesus’ invitation of repentance and healing or welcome and promote his invitation?

Photo: Jesus has been sent “to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). May we join in his mission!

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, October, 9 2026

Jesus comes to show and lead us away from that which prevents us from receiving his love.

Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know” (Jn 4:31-32).

The disciples of Jesus had just returned with some food, but Jesus was already filled from his encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Though one of the longest readings we will experience during Mass, save the Passion narrative, it is one of the most powerful.

From the beginning of this retelling, Jesus again does not recognize social taboos. He engages in a dialogue with a woman alone at the well at noon, she, who is also a Samaritan. None of these three details are in any way minor. Devout Jewish men did not speak with women alone in public, and they surely did not engage in discussions with Samaritans male or female. The subtle detail that the woman is by herself at the well around noon, may well be missed by us who do not frequent many wells.

The most common time to gather water would be the early morning or evening when it was cooler. This would also be an opportunity for social interaction with others doing the same. Coming at noon would increase the likelihood that she would be alone.

Jesus picks up on the fact that this woman is alone when he asks her, “Go call your husband and come back” (Jn 4:16). From the beginning of the conversation that Jesus initiates to the time she heads back to her village, Jesus engages her and leads her to a higher level. He does not judge her but loves her. He meets her where she is, engages her as she is, but seeks more. The blessing is that she is willing to follow his lead. By the end of the conversation, she has gone into her town with the courage of any of the earliest martyrs.

This woman, who came to the well at noon to avoid being seen, now left to return to the people of her village to proclaim that she had encountered the Messiah, a Jewish man. Her witness must have been powerful, for the people who most likely had judged her and made certain that she was kept at a distance, listened to her. They came to see Jesus, a Jewish man, because of her testimony, and then they encountered Jesus for themselves and believed.

Jesus entered the Samaritan woman’s life through her door but she went out of his door. That she was living in a state of sin did not prevent Jesus from coming to meet her alone in that very moment. We can see three other encounters of a man and woman meeting at a well in the Old Testament and each encounter ends in marriage: Abraham sent his slave to get his son, Isaac, a wife and he found Rebekah at a spring (Genesis 24), Jacob met Rachel, (Genesis 29:9-14), and Moses met Zipporah (Exodus 2:16-22) at wells.

This betrothal imagery of Jesus alone with the Samaritan woman that John is recording for us reveals the divine wedding of heaven and earth. Jesus is the bridegroom and the Samaritan woman, half Jewish and half Gentile, represents the Church. Jesus came to this woman and met her in her sinfulness, her isolation, and her thirst. He loved her, and led her with his tender chords of love to acknowledge what was preventing her from experiencing the love of God the Father.

Jesus seeks to encounter us in the same way. He doesn’t love us when we become perfect. He loves us as we are right now in our imperfections and sins. The problem with our sin is, not that God does not love us, for he does. The problem is that we are not free to experience his love for us until we, as did this woman, acknowledge where we have fallen short of the glory of God, what and who we are placing before God. When we do that, we open ourselves up to receive the love of the Holy Spirit. Then we, like this woman, can share the love we have received!

Evangelization of the Good News is not about Bible-thumping and condemnation. Proclaiming the Gospel is about engaging in and building relationships, being present, and allowing God to touch others through us. This happens when we too are willing to repent and allow ourselves to be loved by Jesus and allow him to flow through us like a spring of living water. Then we too will be able to experience the satisfaction and fulfillment Jesus experienced with his encounter with the Samaritan woman who was lost but had now been found.

Painting: The sins of the Samaritan woman do not prevent Jesus from loving her, they prevent her from being able to more freely receive and return his love.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, March 8, 2026