christianity

The guidance of the Holy Spirit offers us more wonder, beauty, good, and truth than we can imagine.

Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, “Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.” Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. Hopefully, we are less foolish and moving more along to path of gaining wisdom. Jesus continues his best efforts in today’s Gospel to offer guidance and assurance to his disciples that the Holy Spirit will continue to be their guide after his departure. “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” (Jn 16:12-13a).

Surely, Jesus could see the dimming lamps in the eyes of his disciples. As discussed yesterday, comprehending the death of the Messiah, his Resurrection, and return to the Father was a bit much to understand, let alone digest. Also, there was only so much that they could grasp with their finite intellect. Until they experienced the infused contemplative insights given to them by the Holy Spirit, there was only so much the apostles were able to be able to receive regarding the inner life of the Trinity, the divine communion of love between he Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Yet, Jesus, sowed the seeds that his Father gave him to share. His disciples took in what they could and would come to reflect later with more experience. Jesus’ death and Ascension were not to put an end to their learning, deepening of their understanding, healing or further developing their relationship with Jesus and his Father. The Holy Spirit would continue what Jesus started, and would to lead them to all truth, the fullness of the foundational relationship that is the source of all that exists, the Holy Trinity.

Anyone involved in teaching anyone anything or learning something for one self knows, that just telling someone something does not mean that learning has happened. There is a process of introduction, integration, practice, review, mistakes, corrections, and adjustments until some proficiency is achieved. With the disciples, this is the same. Jesus did not just present things once and move on to the next order of business. That is why John declared at the end of his Gospel that: “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written” (Jn 21:25).

I am sure a part of what John was talking about here were the lessons, corrections, and guidance Jesus offered. Just as Joseph modeled for and guided Jesus in his trade in carpentry, so Jesus learned from him through observation, practice, mistakes, adjustments, and corrections. Jesus guided his disciples in the same way, as a mentor with apprentices. He was now assuring them that even though he would be leaving them, the guidance and leading would continue with the support of the Holy Spirit.

The lessons about the immanence of God, God within himself as a Trinitarian communion, that Jesus taught were not as concrete as sawing, hammering, and planing wooden beams though. God is not a being, not even a supreme being, meaning that he transcends our ability to comprehend the fullness of his reality. We will never fully comprehend God or exhaust the richness and the depth of our relationship with God. What the apostles and the saints to follow and we can still experience today is God’s grace building on our nature. When we read, pray, and meditate with these sacred texts, the Holy Spirit will communicate with us and grant us insights beyond any intellectual endeavor. Context and study is important, but the understanding and transformation is gained through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

On the human level, we are guilty of malpractice in our relationships when we assume that we know everything there is to know about someone else. The gift of the person, the human being, is that we are ever-developing and growing in the mystery and wonder of who we are and who we are called to be. We can always surprise each other. If this is true for us in our relationships with each other, it is much more true in our relationship with God. Once we get to one level of understanding, we plateau for a time, but that is not the end of the journey. That is only a time to savor, to ponder, and contemplate until we are ready to go ever deeper into the truth that the Holy Spirit will reveal to us.

Our tradition teaches us that the fullness of God has been revealed in Jesus Christ, which is true, yet to comprehend that revelation will take a lifetime and continue on into eternity just to scratch the surface. St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a Dominican Friar, who is considered the Angelic Doctor of the Church, was one of the top theological influences during the Scholastic Period, yet close to the end of his life he had a deep and intimate encounter with God in which he came to realize that all of his intellectual achievement, all that he had written, mattered no more than a pile of straw compared to that which God had revealed to him in a single moment of infused contemplation!

Arguably one of the wisest persons of his time, and some would say one of the most brilliant minds ever, was also one who was steeped in daily prayer and continued to be open to the majestic wonder of the glory of God. May we too continue to embrace the gift of wonder, the gift of learning, and never settle, rest and savor yes, but continue to learn and grow, to seek and hunger for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, to continually allow our hearts and minds to be open to the Holy Spirit that he may guide us “to all truth”!

Photo: Experienced a nudge of the Holy Spirit to take a longer walk before Mass yesterday morning. A wonderful moment of joy from a simple activity that then heightened as I celebrated Mass.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Jesus has sent us the Holy Spirit to lead us to experience rest and peace grounded in his love.

What is common to all of us is that we experience some expression of loneliness to varying degrees, sometimes consciously but mostly unconsciously. We are social beings, we want to belong, to be part of, and this is why we are communal. We may do, say, or turn a blind eye to behaviors that go against our conscience just to be accepted, acknowledged, and/or noticed. This behavior further feeds our loneliness, because though we may be “accepted”, we become more alienated from our true self. We are not accepted for who we are but who we portray ourselves to be.

At the core of our being, what we all seek is to be loved, and to love in return. We strive from the moment of our conception not only to exist but to actualize the fullness of who God is calling us to be. Through our time of gestation, we are not potential human beings, we are human beings actualizing out potential. A difference between me typing this now and when I was in my mother’s womb is that before my birth, I was smaller and more vulnerable.

We as human beings are a living, craving hunger and desire to be in communion with God and one another from the moment of our conception until our natural death and continuing on into eternity. This is true to the believer and the atheist alike. Until we embrace this deepest of needs and desires, we will be restless, anxious, and unfulfilled. We can feel isolated and alone, even in the midst of a hundred people or daily likes on social media. St. Augustine in the introduction to his autobiography said it best: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”

God has made us for himself and constantly invites us to be in a relationship with him and with each other because he is the foundation and source of our being. Sin is the turning away from that invitation, a curving, or caving in upon oneself away from God and others. It is also the unwillingness to bother or to care, to reach out toward another in need. For what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to Jesus. We are not just to be pro-birth though, we as Catholics are to be pro-life, and we are invited to promote a consistent ethic of life.

Jesus became human in his Incarnation. He too, as we did, developed in the womb of Mary to show the importance of the dignity of the person and that our dignity is grounded in our relationship with God our Father, meaning we are all brothers and sisters. We are his beloved daughters and sons, just by who we are not by what we do. Jesus was not a plan B, but he was always the primary plan. In the fullness of time, when God so willed, he sent his Son to become one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. 

Jesus is the face, hands, and body of God. He came that we might see and experience God. Jesus experienced all we experience except for sin because he never, in any thought, word, or deed, rejected or said no to his Father. His whole life was a, “Yes” to the will of God. Jesus is the bridge, the way to love and be loved, authentically.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues preparing his disciples for the reality that he will be returning to the Father. Though he will ascend to the Father, he will not his apostles nor has he left us alone. He has and will continue to be with us for all ages. This is so because as the Son of God made man, in his Ascension, he returned to the Father not just in his divinity as the Son, but also in his humanity. God created all of humanity and his creation as interconnected, and because of that, we all experience this transcendent act of the Ascension when Jesus returned to the Father in his glorified, human body.

Jesus shared with his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning”(Jn 15:26-27). Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the infinite Love experienced and shared between the Father and the Son. We become sharers in this divine love and communion of the Holy Trinity through our participation in the life of Jesus.

As we experience the love of the Holy Spirit, develop a relationship with him, we begin to feel alive, we begin to heal and to feel whole, because we have experienced the love we have been made for. We have experienced being loved for who we are and as we are. We no longer have to say, do, or accept those actions that we don’t agree with or that go against our conscience, to belong. St. John Henry Cardinal Newman has stated that our conscience is the “Aboriginal Vicar of Christ”. Jesus dwells within us, to guide and lead us, to help us to develop a well-formed conscience. He encourages us to also say, “Yes” to his Father as he has and continues to do.

We share in the trinitarian love when we grow our relationship and participate in the life of Jesus. This great gift of grace will continue to grow as we testify to this love and share it with others. The greatest gift of God, the love that he gives us, expands as we receive and give his love away. The more we give, the more we will receive. That does not mean fixing others or their problems. We are called to be present, to accompany, and journey with others, meeting them as Jesus met others and meets us, as and where we are. We are to laugh with, cry along, encourage, empower, and support, but above all to be present, to allow the love of the Holy Spirit to happen through us.

Jesus has not left us as orphans. Jesus cares, even if we believe or feel like he is not listening. His return to the Father through his Ascension has given us a greater and more intimate access to the Holy Spirit. By trusting in his love, we will begin to heal from and free ourselves from the tendrils of doubt, fear, and anxiety.

We are not alone. We will heal, and expand when we say, “Yes”, to God’s will and allow ourselves to be drawn in by the tender chords of his love to grow in our relationship with him. Allowing ourselves to experience and receive more of God’s love, helps us to slow down more so that we will better listen, be more aware of and present to our needs and the needs of each other. Once identified, we can choose with the guidance of the Holy Spirit how best to proceed.

As we strive to actualize and become truer to ourselves, and who God us has created us to be, and then rest there, we will experience that peace that surpasses all understanding and develop relationships with others based on authenticity and integrity, regardless of external pressures and internal stirrings. To know we are loved and to love in return, which is what we all seek, is an unbreakable foundation. A foundation upon which we can find the rest we have been created for, in God, in ourselves, and we can just be.

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Photo: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love!!!

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, May 11, 2026

Trust in Jesus and follow his commandments and the freer we will be to hear and experience the love and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We are living in such uncertain times in so many areas of our lives that we may be experiencing a mix of emotions such as feeling uneasy or unsure, unsettled or upended, fretting or fearful, anxious or angry, some or all of the above, and that is ok. These are human emotions that arise from our perceptions that all is not well and that there may appear to be some instability in our families, society, and world right now. 

Denying our more painful emotions, hiding our head in the sand is not the answer. If we deny them, we keep ourselves ignorant of the wounds that may be feeding them. As we continue to leave them in the shadows, they shape our view of reality and we can hurt others by saying and doing things in a defensive mode that we would not do if we were grounded in God’s love for us. 

Allowing ourselves to experience what we are feeling joys as well as sorrows, becoming more aware and mindful of them, we will find that we won’t actually be overwhelmed by them and we can slowly regain some agency back in our lives. This also helps us to move from mind fields of depression, anxiety, and instant reactions as well as incessant needs for instant gratification.

Growing up, I was drawn to lighthouses. These buildings set on the shore emit a penetrating light to guide sailors to a safe haven, especially during times of darkness and stormy seas. 

The Bible very much operates as a lighthouse for us. The words passed down to us from generations, help to guide us home to a safe haven, as well as lead us to our final destination. When we avail ourselves of the gift of God’s word we are never lost or alone no matter how strong the winds of unpredictability blow or how unstable and turbulent the waters are. No matter the external circumstances or even the internal maelstroms that swirl, what remains a constant source of direction and support is the light of God’s presence in our lives.

Each of our readings today offers us some illumination to ponder today and through the week.

In the Gospel, Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (Jn 14:15)”.

Upon first reading, if we still wear a pair of cynical glasses we might view this statement, “Well that is a pretty conceited thing to say. There goes the Church again telling me what to do. There’s unconditional love for you.” And that is the view many people take regarding authority because many view institutions, the Bible, the Church, Jesus, and God from the view of our wounds, sins, mistakes, and failures. Much of our society is steeped in a culture of celebrity and we place our sports figures, entertainers, political and religious leaders on pedestals where they don’t belong, and when they fall, we find ourselves in a crisis of leadership.

Jesus not only never sought celebrity, he denounced any whiff of it. What also kept a growing sense of celebrity at bay was that he spoke consistently as the way, the truth, and the life. He challenged everyone’s comfort zones with his words and actions. Those seeking a superficial and surface relationship with Jesus free of personal demands then and now, walked and walk away from him. Jesus challenged in love and as such, to those seeking a deeper healing than the physical, intimacy to satiate the core of our being, Jesus was the light that guided to a safe haven. Safety from the external and internal unrest that is to find our grounding in our ontology. We are at our core a beloved daughter and son. Nothing or no rejection, wound, or abandonment can change that truth. 

There is also a challenge in that truth. We as beloved children of God are called to live by his commandments. To say that we do not need the commandments is like telling the lighthouse keeper as we head off into the calm ocean to shut the light off, we will be able to find our own way back home. No problem if all of a sudden a storm rises, or darkness falls sooner than we expect, will we be able to find our way back. Not wise.

Too many of us do the same when being offered God’s commandments as a guide. We fail to do so, relying on our false stability of our self-sufficiency. God is God and we are not. Would we prefer to anchor ourselves in the infinite reality of all existence or the temporary finite nature of our wonderful yet fragile humanity? 

All we need for evidence of this is a quick review of the past few months. Have we accomplished all our New Year’s resolutions, overcome an addiction or disordered affection, failed to take time to plan and just wing it, determined too often that we can go it alone on our own will power and determination? Even with good intentions, many diversions and distractions arise, and we choose apparent goods over and above our highest hope and good and find ourselves adrift without direction.

In our first reading from the Book of Acts, we see how “Peter and John ‘laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit’” (Acts8:17).

The early Church took root and thrived even while under heavy persecution because they encountered Jesus, trusted in him, allowed themselves to be forgiven and healed, as they followed the principles he set forth. They did so not on their willpower alone. For left, to themselves, and we see plenty of evidence of the failures of the apostles throughout the gospels, they were all utter failures. It was not until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that they were empowered by the love of God to now put into action what Jesus had prepared them to do. 

When we are, as were the apostles, willing to learn and follow Jesus’ commandments, Jesus, “will ask the Father, and he will give [us] another Advocate to be with [us] always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him” (John 14:16-17).

We can see the work of the Holy Spirit most active and alive in the sacraments. These are direct encounters with Jesus in which we are transformed by the fire of his love, die to our self-centered focus, and are reborn in him as a part of his body and life. As we grow closer to Jesus, allow him access to more areas in need of healing, trust and follow his leading, we experience more and more the love of the Holy Spirit alive in our lives. 

There is no secret to living as a Christian. Each day we must set aside time to pray and meditate, spend time in the Bible, worship together as a community, go out from ourselves to serve others, all the while being attentive to those Jesus has entrusted to our care. This balancing act will ultimately play out depending on our station and demands in life. This is why we need the Holy Spirit to nudge us, a savior to lead us with his light back into the core relationship we have been created for with our Father.

Our final point comes from our second reading from St Peter.

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, (1 Peter 3:15-16).

As our relationship with God grows, we share about our experiences with him to one another. This is who we are created to be. We are to share our faith, we are sent on mission to share our relationship with Jesus and our experience of the Holy Spirit. That does not mean imposing our views on others or assuming we are right and others are wrong, or that we are charged with saving those in our midst. It means that we are to share our stories, our encounters, our experiences with the living God and let God happen!

We do so when we know and put into practice the commandments, especially to love God, place him first in our lives and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to continually open our hearts and minds to accept the power of the Holy Spirit in the sacraments as well as in our daily spiritual disciplines and in our willingness to love, serve, and suffer with others.

When we live a life committed and guided by the commandments and are continually open to being transformed by the Spirit, when we trust and bring our trials and tribulations to Jesus, we will be people of hope and joy. Living a life of hope and joy in a world of suffering for some is like water in a desert. We may be the only Bible anyone ever experiences.

No matter what challenges we are experiencing now, or those that will rise before us, no matter how dark the night or how violent the storms, no matter how wounded or sinful, we know that God is our light, that he is with us, and that he will guide and provide for us in each of the ups and downs of our lives. We are not alone.

Photo: Holy Spirit moment! I was at my original gate typing merrily away this reflection when felt a nudge to look up, my gate said Houston instead of WPB. I then looked at my phone which I did not hear ding, and had just received a text that my gate was changed. One hop, skip, and a jump to the train, which was closed, and then another five minute walk all was good.  

Link to the Mass readings for Sunday, May 10, 2026

Even though Jesus was hated and persecuted, he chose to love and so can we.

When Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first”, Jesus was not proposing an-us-verses them mentality. It can be easily taken that way and certainly has been lived out in many ways in our society and world. Yet, an-us-verses them mentality is usually a defensive posture assumed by those who often feel or are actuality being persecuted. It is an understandable posture. It is just not the stance that Jesus proposes us to take. We are to love our enemies, we are to love those who hate us. Impossible? Yes, on our own will power alone, for apart from Jesus we can do nothing, but with him all things are possible.

Jesus makes it plain to his apostles. They need to be prepared, for the same persecution that has been happening to him will happen to them. They will be persecuted, mocked, imprisoned, and give their lives just as Jesus did. The gospel message is a challenge. We are challenged to have a change of mind and heart, to be conformed to the love of Jesus the Christ. This means that our focus must shift from that of self-focused, self-first and foremost, as well as I – me – mine. Instead of curving in upon ourselves and constricting, we are to look up and out beyond ourselves and put God first. With God holding priority of place in our lives we will expand and heal.

We know that we are putting God first instead of our fallen nature when we react less and love more. Reactions are based on survival instincts, which can be exacerbated with an-us-verses them mentality. “They” are responsible for the state I am in, it is all “their” fault, “they” made me do it… These are all reactive thoughts that can lead to more divisive and uglier statements and actions. Jesus invites us to assume the disposition of mindful action not reaction.

To resist reacting, we need to be willing to slow down and pay attention to our interior voices. We can slow down when we experience an emotional reaction, by breathing into the emotion, feel it instead of reacting or denying it, and then see if we can hear the thought or thoughts that are feeding the emotion(s). Spending time to recollect, just to breathe and allow our minds to settle, helps us to get in touch with our emotions and thoughts. Then bringing them to Jesus, he can help us to identify them and instead of reaction being our default position, we can begin to choose if we want to react or not. Instead of reacting, we can choose how Jesus is inviting us to respond. 

Much of our reactions comes from our harried pace, keeping us from being in touch with our deep-seated anxieties, suffering, and fears. Instead of running from the mirror Jesus holds up to us, may we stop and pray with him regularly. In this way, we can see our wounds, not just our sins and unhealthy choices, but the reasons why we are choosing to do what we don’t want to do instead of what we want to do. Healing begins when we allow ourselves to take some deep breaths, ask Jesus to be present with us in daily quiet moments and receive the light of his love. We can then see those hidden places that we have not wanted to face, those areas that rumble when a trigger is tripped, when our impatience starts to swirl, and/or our reaction begins to form. 

Since we are not machines to be fixed, we only need to allow ourselves to be loved by Jesus in the places that we have been afraid to let anyone see for fear of being rejected or abandoned. As we daily begin to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in Jesus’ love, we will become more patient, understanding, truer to who he calls us to be: People of love, willing the other’s good, accepting and encountering each other as fellow brothers and sisters on our journey together. In seeking to understand someone instead of reacting, we can then choose to listen and love as our first response, and come to recognize that the common denominator for each of us is that we are all wounded, imperfect, experience loneliness, and that we just want to belong and be loved.

May we allow the love of the Holy Spirit to guide and flow through us, so as to dissolve walls of hate and division, and instead build bridges of dialogue and healing. Instead of a tit for tat approach to contempt, hate, and dehumanization, we can choose instead to pause, breath, and turn again and again to Jesus for the strength to resist the easy and impulsive reaction so as to not act in kind but instead respond with acts of understanding, empowerment, and love.

Please let us take good care of ourselves and each other today.

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Photo: Wanting to learn how to slow down? Stop and look up and breathe slow. Doing just that in Woodstock, GA this evening.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, May 9, 2026

Remaining attached to the vine, Jesus, our source, we will bear rich fruit.

As the branch of the vine matures, it begins to look more like the vine itself. As the branch remains connected to the vine, as it is sustained by the nourishment provided, and protected by the vine grower, the branches become more and more conformed to the vine. This is also true in the event that a branch not originally attached to the vine is grafted to it. Over time, the branches are almost indistinguishable from the vine itself. The blessing of the vine does not stop there. A healthy and mature branch will also bear fruit.

Our hope, as disciples of Jesus, no matter what our background, culture, gender, ethnicity, or race will be the same. We are to be one as the Son and the Father are one. As St Paul has written to the Churches in Galatia and Collosse: “In Christ there is neither Jew or Greek, circumcision or uncircumcision, male or female, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free because we are all one in Christ” (cf. Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11).

Being a disciple of Jesus is not being a mindless follower of his. Quite the opposite! The more we are conformed to Jesus, the more we come to know him and also come to experience the unique gift of ourselves. We begin to let go of the pressures to conform to the pressures of the world, that which stunts our growth, and begin to embrace the freedom and truth of who we are. That freedom that just wants to burst out is allowed to be free when we die to our false selves and live in the love of Christ.

We will experience the freedom of being fully alive when we accept the invitation of Jesus to enter the divine communion of love between himself and his Father. We remain connected to him as the vine when we also “obey Jesus and love one another with God’s radical, self-giving love” (Martin and Wright, 254). Focusing solely and turning in upon ourselves disconnects us from the vine, from the very source of our lives. Just as the body will suffer without water and food, so our soul will suffer if we are separated from the living spring of our sustenance. Remaining attached to Jesus, the vine, means that we will mature and bear the fruit of joy that expands out beyond ourselves to engage others.

A good measure of our ripe harvest is when we: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:12-15).

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Photo: Accessed from Coravin Wine

Martin, Francis and Wright, IV, William M. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, May 6, 2025

Jesus radiates the light of peace to dissolve the clouds of division, violence and war.

Why so much violence? So many countries are and have been consistently embroiled by the ravages of war. Many countries, including our own, were founded on the taking of lands by force and oppression of aboriginal peoples. Too many of our youth and citizens die from gun violence and mass murders. So many examples of road rage, domestic abuse, human trafficking, terrorism – foreign and domestic, and the myriad of random acts of violence that continue daily.
We may hear goodwill speeches shared after each atrocity, participate in the petitions and intercessions ringing from our ambos and pulpits in our places of worship, and pray personally and in prayer groups, participate and/or witness demonstrations, marches, and votes for change. All the while, there are those working in the trenches of communities throughout the world, putting their own lives at risk, matching their words and prayers with their deeds. And yet, do any of these efforts make a difference?
There is a constant temptation of cynicism and despair biting at our heels, but let us never give in. There is a light the shines in the darkness of our fallen world. There is hope for a better day. We can experience both light and hope when we read and/or hear, pray with and rest, in the words of Jesus: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27).
This peace that Jesus promises to leave with his apostles is a peace that is not of this world, a peace that surpasses all understanding (cf. Philippians 4:7), and this peace has been and continues to be offered to us as a gift. Many have indeed said, “If there is a God, well then, why doesn’t he do anything?” God did and continues to. God sent his Son, the King of kings and the Prince of Peace. The peace that God shares through his Son and the love of the Holy Spirit is offered to one person at a time. This is why when Jesus rose he only appeared to those he chose and not the whole world.
Jesus is to be encountered and his relationship is built one person at a time in each generation. Each of us have the invitation to accept or reject his invitation to believe in him, but so much more. Jesus invites us to be his disciples. This means more than just putting into practice his teachings, as did the original apostles and saints who in each generation have done just that. We will experience his peace when we come to know Jesus. We do this best when we surrender our minds and hearts and the very depths of our souls to the love and peace that Jesus offers and teaches and allow him into the places of poverty, pain, and suffering where we are most in need.
Our world will not change until we change, until we allow ourselves to spend time each day breathing, receiving, resting, and abiding in God’s love. Until we are willing to be loved, until we are willing to confess our sins, and until we are willing to admit we need God’s help, we will continue to slip into survival mode and engage more in reaction and retaliation. When we do allow Jesus in, to be loved, forgiven, and accept his help, we will begin to heal  will begin to see each other not as enemies but as brothers and sisters, hurting and in need of help.
The peace of God that the risen Jesus offers is not some abstract formula. His command to love is not some pie in the sky universal love for all. The teachings and acts of peace and love that Jesus shares throughout the Gospels are very concrete, individual, and personal. Jesus interacts with people as people, not as numbers. He engages and directs us to do the same, by encountering, accompanying, and loving one person at a time. The real question is not why isn’t God doing anything? The real question is why have we left the gift of God’s peace offered to us unwrapped?
If we want peace in our world or even our corner of the world, our hearts and minds must be open to receive God’s love. We must be still and receive, savor, and embrace the love he wants to give and then share with others what we have received and as he directs. To receive and embrace the peace of Jesus, we must be willing to let go of our own weapons of hate, prejudice, cynicism, racism, division, selfishness, and the like. God created us as beings who are interconnected, which means that what one does affects all, for the sun rises and sets on the good and the bad alike.
If we want peace, as I believe all of us really do, we need to be more aware of and choose more intentionally our thoughts, words, actions, and even the expressions on our faces. The thoughts that we feed are the ones that bear fruit in our words and deeds. Figuratively and literally, we need to be willing to “beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks” (cf. Isaiah 2:4).
This verse becomes real in our lives when we choose to resist the temptation to react and choose instead to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the concrete, we can choose to disagree with someone without being disagreeable or disrespectful. When we make a mistake, let us resist beating ourselves up over the process and instead learn from our misstep, and begin again. We also do so when we are willing to seek and offer forgiveness, acknowledge we need to be healed, and be more patient and understanding. We can’t do any of this alone and that is why we need a Savior, to heal us, save us, and lead us from our own darkness into his light.
Can we really counter the violence, wars, and division, really bring about world peace? In some abstract form, for all people, for all time, no. What we can do is make a daily commitment to spend time with Jesus, receive, rest, and abide in his love. Study, pray, meditate with and learn from him. As we love, follow the way of Jesus and practice his truth, we will begin to live a life of peace that counters the division, violence, and hatred of a weary and worn world. Will that make a difference? Absolutely, for you and for me, and those within the realm of our influence. May we begin in our own little way, and bring a little light and love to our corner of the world today.
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Photo: Jesus is the light that reveals the way, the truth, and the life to experience lasting peace and unconditional love.
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, May 5, 2026

The commandments of Jesus do not constrict but expand our freedom to be loved and to love.

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me” (John 14:21).

Especially in our modern, western mind set, the idea or mere mention of following commandments may cause a bristling. Mostly this is because of the witnessing weakness of our fallen nature expressed in egregious ways through the abuse of power, abuse in relationships, and a weakening of trust in secular and religious institutions.

Jesus though is offering more of a challenge as he draws the following of commandments and love together. He is sharing with his apostles in the beginning stages of his farewell discourse, and before his crucifixion, what he feels is most important to share. His testament that he not only wants to give, but these final words he wants to impart upon them in such a way that they continue to learn and receive his teachings, put them into practice, allow themselves to be transformed by and so perpetuate them.

Just as commandments can lead one to bristle, love has many more superficial meanings than what Jesus means. One reason is that, even though the English language has a plethora of words to utilize and choose from, there is only one word for love and it is interpreted and used in many ways. In Ancient Greek, there are four words that are used to connote love. There is eros, which has to do with attraction. It is the beginning stage of love because we are drawn out of ourselves as we are attracted to another. The next word for love is philia, which aligns with friendship, a wanting to be together, to share between friends. If our love matures it moves from attraction or infatuation to friendship. The third word, storge, is the deeper love shared with family members which can be through blood or a deepening of friendship. The fourth word is agape, which is unconditional love, a sacrificial love.

When Jesus shares that we are to follow the commandments, he is not demanding that we do so as a tyrant would. He is providing boundaries, guard rail, parameters for us to grow and mature as people who love, who, in the words of St Thomas Aquinas, will the good of the other as other. As humans, we are social beings. We want to belong, to be accepted, and to be a part of. We seek meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in our lives. This is best done through cooperation and collaboration with God and with one another, striving to love unconditionally, agape. We desire to belong, to be loved, and to love in return. Yet, we need to ground our love in God first or our pursuit of love and belonging will be disordered.

As a good son of St. Augustine, Pope Leo XIV quoted Augustine in his inaugural Mass as Pope last year: “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you (Confessions, I: 1,1).” We are made by God to be loved and to love in return. Nothing we seek in this world will satisfy this deepest hunger that we all have in our soul besides the love God has for us. Unfortunately, we succumb to many disordered affections in pursuit of the love we seek. We are led astray by apparent goods that leave us hungry, thirsty, and wanting for more.

If we operate from a self-centered posture in which we are only turned in upon our self, and we only seek to manipulate and get from others, or worse, objectify others. Instead of working for consensus and sharing a common vision, we will ultimately be empty with the exchange on any level, because even in our relationships as with material things, we will be left wanting more. This is true because once the immediacy of the stimulation, whether material, emotional, or sensual, ends, so does the experience of the feeling. Some happiness may linger from the effect, but we will never be filled or satisfied with that which is finite. We will continue to seek more and more until the pursuit of instant and constant gratification ensnares us and we are entangled in a web of addiction.

God’s commandments, grounded in love, are meant to provide boundaries for us, training wheels, and to keep us free from enslavement to sin. The commandments point us to that which is not apparently but truly good for a wholesome and whole life. At the same time God’s commandments and the teachings of Jesus help us to mature as persons moving away from a posture of being self-centered to becoming disciples that love as Jesus loves.

Discipline in this way is meant to be a means of freedom for excellence such that we can become who God calls us to be and who we truly desire to be. God is not in competition with us. He is our biggest fan. As St Irenaeus wrote, the glory of God is the human being fully alive! When we can rest in the truth that God loves us as we are, even in our sin, when we can stop, breathe, receive, rest, and abide in his love, we can begin to settle and feel safe. Our restlessness can slow, the grasping can release, and we can just be, be loved, be ourselves, and experience peace.

Commandments and morality imposed indiscriminately, without reason or an end goal is a bludgeon. Love and mercy without accountability and justice can be enabling. Jesus’ invites us to receive and observe his commandments so that we may be freed from disordered affections and so properly order and discipline our desires and passions to be free to love authentically. Jesus knows what will truly fulfill and give us deeper meaning. May we trust in and learn from the deposit of faith passed on from Jesus to the Apostles, to each successive generation, as well as the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit, our Advocate that the Father sent in his name (John 14:26).

Pope Leo XIV, the vicar of Christ, implored us about a year ago: “Brothers and sisters, this is the hour for love! The heart of the gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters.” We are brothers and sisters, disciples of Jesus, when we receive and put into practice Jesus’s commandments, when we love him and his Father, we are given the discernment to reveal the lies of the enemy, we grow, and mature in our spiritual lives. The “heart of the gospel” Pope Leo preached in his inaugural address echoed again in his Sunday Regina Caeli address, May 3, 2026.

Having faith in God and Jesus “frees our hearts from the anxiety of possessing and acquiring, and from the illusion that we must pursue a position of prestige to have worth. Each person already has infinite worth in the mystery of God, which is the true reality. By loving one another as Jesus has loved us, we impart this awareness to one another… through love, amidst a multitude of brothers and sisters, each one discovers that they are uniquely made.”

Let us allow and continue to allow the tender chords of the Holy Spirit’s love to draw us deeper into intimacy with Jesus so that we can be transformed, forgiven, and healed by his love, and so freed from the false lures and promises that seek to divert us from being the beloved daughters and sons of God our Father that he has uniquely created us to be.

Photo: Pope Leo Regina Caeli address (Vatican Media)

Quotes above from Pope Leo XIV Inauguration Mass, May 18, 2025: Transcript of Pope Leo XIV’s Homily

Pope Leo XIV Regina Caeli, Sunday May 3

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, May 4, 2026

When we love, we reveal Jesus and his Father to others.

Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip” (Jn 14:8-9)?

Again we see the Apostles struggling to understand that Jesus and the Father are one, that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus attempts to explain again to Philip that whoever sees him sees the Father.

The challenge here is that Philip and Jesus are using the same language but talking from different points of view. When Philip is asking Jesus to show him the Father through physical eyes, he is asking to see God along the lines of what we might perceive from Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting of God. Jesus has been revealing the Father through the spiritual eyes of his works. Or: “He might be looking for a grand theophany, because his request of Jesus, Show us the Father, recalls Moses’ request of the Lord at Mount Sinai: ‘Let me see your glory!” (Exodus 33:18).” (Martin and Wright, 246).

God is not finite, he is not a being like we are. He is neither male nor female. We use the term Father because Jesus used it often to speak of him, and thus why we use the pronoun him. Jesus used analogous language to create a bridge of understanding for us who are finite, human beings to help us understand better that we can have a relationship with our God who is Infinite Act. God’s essence and his existence is one and the same. Even though God is beyond any genus of being, beyond any way for us to classify him, we can still know and experience God.

Jesus shared with Philip that “The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves” (Jn 14:11).

When Jesus heals, exorcises demons, speaks on his own authority, associates with those on the peripheries, these are some of the ways he is revealing the Father. In these very acts, he is loving those in his midst, he is willing their good. When Philip and the Apostles believed in Jesus and acted in his name they revealed Jesus and so his Father to others. When we love one another as Jesus loves us, live and act from the love we have received from Jesus, we also will reveal Jesus and the Father to others!

Photo: Jesus helps us to remember that we are each beloved daughters and sons of his Father, to be loved by him, to breathe, receive, rest and abide in his love for us and to love in return.

Martin, Francis and William M. Wright IV. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, May 3, 2026

 

Jesus Christ, God from God, light from light, true God from true God.

Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9).
Philip was one of the first of the apostles called by Jesus in Galilee (see John 1:43), and so had been with Jesus from the very beginning of his public ministry. He lived, learned, and traveled with Jesus. He experienced the power of his teaching with authority, the exorcisms, healings, and ways that Jesus interacted with him, the apostles, and others. Yet, he still had much to learn, as do we all about the core reality of who Jesus is.
Jesus, fully human, is also at the same time, fully divine. The struggle to understand this truth is on full display throughout the gospels. Those who believe in Jesus and have followed him, like Andrew and Philip, as well as the other disciples, are seeking to understand, but as we see with Philip in today’s account, they still fall short of the depth of the truth regarding who Jesus really is. Which is understandable, because to understand that Jesus is who he says he is, “I and the Father are one” (See John 10:30), is beyond our rational comprehension.
This is why so many within the leadership of the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin (The Jewish High Council) are so vehement about crushing the rise of Jesus and his popularity. They understand Jesus very clearly, that by his very words and actions, he is declaring himself to be God. To them, that a human being could be God is blasphemous. So they seek to obliterate this heresy.
Along with the apostles, there were others who saw Jesus differently. They expressed faith and trust in Jesus. Their hearts and minds were open that there was something more to Jesus. They did not feel threatened, but something in the depths of their souls was moved to follow and stay close. Peter and Martha remained close and in time experienced deeper, spiritual insights. Peter, when Jesus asked the apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (see Mt. 16:15). During the exchange between Martha and Jesus regarding her brother Lazarus’ death, when Jesus asked her if she believed that he was “the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live… Do you believe this?” Martha said, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God” (see John 11:17-27).
Even with these insights, Peter and Martha, still did not comprehend the fullness of who Jesus taught and revealed himself to be. As the apostles and other disciples would trust and grow in their understanding of Jesus so would the Church in the succeeding generations seek to understand and develop the truth of who Jesus is as well. From the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) we received this line about the identity of Jesus in the Creed that each one of us affirms each Sunday: “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God form true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father”.
This statement clearly affirms Jesus’ teaching that he and the Father are one. One God, while at the same time distinct in person and operation as Father and Son. Who Jesus is in relation to his human nature also was further understood as the hypostatic union. This is the dogmatic teaching that Jesus is one divine person, subsisting in two natures, fully human and fully divine. The incarnation is that historical event in which through the full ascent of Mary’s, “Yes,” the Son of God through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, entered the womb of Mary and took on flesh. The Son of God became human.
The Council of Chalcedon (451) helped to clarify this point of the two natures of Jesus subsisting in one divine person. Jesus has “two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation – the difference of the natures being by no means taken away because of the union, but rather the distinctive character of each nature being preserved, and [each] combining in one person and hyspostasis – not divided or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and only begotten God, Logos, Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets of old and the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us about him, and the symbol of the fathers has handed down to us” (Pelikan, 264).
Jesus’ characteristics and natures of the divine and human are distinct. There is no co-mingling, no mixing of the divine and human. Jesus is not a stew or smoothie of the divine and the human. Nor are there two distinct persons in Jesus. Jesus is one divine person. He remained the Son, fully divine at the moment he took on flesh, and in that moment became fully human. St. Irenaeus offered this description: “The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did through His transcendent love, become what we are, that he might bring us to be even what He is himself” (Against the Heresies).
What God the Father did in time and space, as an outpouring of his love for us, was to send his Son to become one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. Jesus, fully human and divine, showed the face of his Father to Philip, the apostles, and all those who met him. He still does so with us today. In instituting the sacraments, especially in his Body and Blood, present in the Eucharist, he gave us a way to grow in greater intimacy with himself and his Father so that we can also experience the love they share between them, the Holy Spirit.
This truth, to be affirmed in each of us will not come about through just an intellectual pursuit or exercise. We come to know Jesus as one divine Person subsisting in two natures, the human and divine, not by memorizing this fact. We come to know the fullness and truth of who Jesus is by knowing him. A simple way we can begin, is to begin each day, before doing anything else, by being still and breathing, slowly and deeply. We listen and become a friend with silence for God speaks in the silence of our hearts.
Then think back over the last 24 and recall at least three people or things we are grateful for, no matter how small. Then make an intentional act to dedicate this day to Jesus by asking for his guidance to improve upon one thing in our lives as well as one way that we can help someone in a simple and concrete way. These simple choices of slowing down to be silent, pondering who and by what we have been blessed, and opening ourselves up to Jesus’ guidance and will, will help us to know Jesus a little more today than we did yesterday and we will not only grow closer in intimacy with Jesus but with those in our lives as well.
Painting: “Christ Divine” by Jorge Cocco accessed from Altus Fine Art blog.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, May 2, 2026
Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600). Chicago and London: University of Chicago, 1971.