christianity

Jesus will help us to remove the log from our own eyes so we can help others to remove their splinter.

For many of us, judging one another is almost as automatic as breathing. As we encounter someone we have instant internal judgments. We judge looks, clothes, actions, inactions, homes, cars, and material items. We judge our family, spouses, friends, colleagues, classmates, leaders, enemies, celebrities, as well as those we consider different as well as those we determine to keep at arm’s length. Much of what gets our attention is what Jesus is addressing in today’s Gospel, negative judgments.

Jesus said to his disciples: “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye” (Mt 7:4-5).

There are positive judgments that bring about effective change for the good. In a court case, our hope is that the judge is learned in the law and guides the lawyers and jury in ways of sound judgment such that justice with mercy is served. For us to do likewise in our everyday interactions with one another, Jesus shares that we need to remove the wooden beam from our eye first before we are able to remove the splinter in another’s.

Jesus presents this hyperbolic image, a common rhetorical device for rabbis, of someone attempting to remove a splinter in someone else’s eye all the while the wooden beam protruding out of his or her own eye. This beam prevents the person from even being able to get close enough to actually be of any help! That is the point. Often in our rash judgements, we distance ourselves from our brother and sister, we not only judge them but condemn them. We don’t see the heart and mind of the person, we do not know what people are struggling with at any moment, and yet we allow ourselves to play judge and jury and so create further distance and so worse, separation.

Jesus is inviting us to remove the beam. We do so when we are willing to change our hearts and minds such that we are no longer callused and hardened by negative and condemning judgments toward others based on our own unbridled biases and prejudices. Softening happens when we take the risk and trust Jesus with those places in ourselves where we are believing the lies of the enemy, when we are judging and allowing ourselves to be poisoned by shame and self criticism. When we allow Jesus in to love us, we can then confess because we feel accepted and affirmed for who we are despite what we have allowed ourselves to do and not do.

Jesus is willing to lovingly enter our chaos, to embrace any and all of us who will receive the invitation of his healing embrace. Jesus walks with us, convicts us, and shines his light to reveal to us our where we are addicted, giving in to disordered affections and enslaved by sin. When we repent, allow ourselves to be loved at our worst, we experience God’s forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

We are then healed from our own limitations, weaknesses, self-centered perceptions, insecurities, denial and suppression of our anxieties and wounds that so often fueled our biases and prejudices. As we experience God’s forgiveness and love, we begin to heal, and that wooden beam shrinks. We are able to see others as God sees them, as human beings endowed with dignity because we have been created in the image and likeness of God. We come close as our hearts open wider to compassion and empathy.

Repentance, forgiveness, and growing in love helps us to collaborate and participate in Jesus’ work of redemption. Having removed the log from our own eyes, we can better assist others in removing their splinters. Admitting to our own shortcomings, weaknesses, and failures, and opening ourselves to healing, learning, and growing from those experiences, we are then in a better position to meet others in their own moments of chaos, to journey side by side, help others to repent, heal, and to be transformed by the love of God we have received.

Jesus helps us to remove our beams of judgment so that we can be more understanding, merciful, and forgiving. We will be blessed in doing so, for Jesus also taught us that as we judge, so will God judge us. As we repent and are forgiven, so may we forgive and show mercy. In receiving forgiveness and forgiving, in repenting from sin and judgmentalism, our souls will find rest and from that place of peace, we are better able to come close to help others as Jesus has done for us.

Photo: Allowing the light of Christ to shine within our hearts helps the logs in our eyes to dissolve.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 22, 2026

Be not afraid, God loves and cares for us more than we know.

“And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Mt 10:28).

Jesus is offering his words to his apostles before he is going to send them out on mission. He knows the persecutions they will face, because he has and will face worse, especially with his own crucifixion. And yet, even in the face of these attitudes of rejection, false accusations, ridicule, Jesus is encouraging them to not be afraid of even those “who kill the body“. Most of us hearing this today would understand this line of thought. The next line though could be a bit of a head scratcher though.

“Be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Those words I am sure gave the disciples pause and more so us today. Jesus is speaking about the “one”, his Father, and we are to be afraid of him? Yes, but not from the perspective that God is a vengeful egomaniac, dictatorial, tyrant. The fear Jesus is talking about is one of reality and awe. God is beyond the reality of the finite, and encounters with him throughout Sacred Scripture have been referenced to being one of “awe and wonder”. Because of the blinding, radiance of divinity, the infinite nature, and other worldliness of a transcendent God.

Jesus is following in the tradition of the Law and the prophets, like the prophet of Isaiah who said, “Do not call conspiracy what this people calls conspiracy, nor fear what they fear, nor feel dread. But conspire with the LORD of hosts; he shall be your fear, he shall be your dread” (Isaiah 8:12-13). Isaiah and Jesus are encouraging us not to fear the things of this world no matter how horrific and terrifying this fallen world can be. This is because no matter the hardness and suffering of this life, it is only temporary, even death does not have the final say.

A holy fear, “is a rational awe, a rational fear of offending God, a fear of sinning against the righteous and holy God, such that you would be separated from him, that you would break covenant with him, that you would break your relationship with him. That’s the fear of the Lord that the Old Testament says is actually the beginning of wisdom.” Dr. Brant Pitre continues this important perspective, “the fear grows out of love… the fear of offending God because he is so good, because he is so holy, because he’s a loving father and also because sinning against him means being separated from him forever in hell.”

Jesus is helping us to make a clear choice that will have eternal consequences. We can save our lives for the immediate situation, compromise or deny our faith, or we can have the courage to live our faith with each breath, thought, word and action. Denying God can start us on a path that will lead to a second death. Accepting and proclaiming God will start us on the path that will lead to eternal life.

Jesus wants to make sure that his listeners and we still hearing and reading his words today get the important nuance. Even though God does not need us, he loves us into existence and thirsts and hungers for our love, and seeks to sustain us with his love. He does not seek to love us for his sake but for ours! He knows what our deepest hopes and desires are because he created us. God’s greatest joy is not that we merely exist, God’s greatest joy is that we will be fully alive.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Mt 10:29-31).

Each one of us is “worth more than many sparrows” because we are his beloved daughters and sons created in his image, to be loved and to love in return. What may seem insignificant to his hearers, two small sparrows, Jesus is saying has great significance to God. What has greater significance still is our humanity, he knows us so intimately, each hair on our head is counted, each thought is heard. God weeps with us in our sorrow and rejoices in our joys.

It was in the parallel verses to today’s Gospel from Matthew found in Luke 12:2-9, that I first remember God speaking to me in my late teens. I had returned home from a high school party. I remember feeling bored and not fitting in. I was at a place of wondering what direction my life would lead as graduation loomed on the horizon. I opened my Bible for the first time for some guidance and read the verses in Luke above.

As I read, “Be not afraid,” I paused. God continued on in the quiet of my heart by telling me that I would not win the lottery, but that he would provide work. In essence, if I trusted in him, he would take care of me. God has remained true to his word over these past forty plus years. Life hasn’t been perfect, and there have been some rough moments, especially over the past seven, but through it all, God has not only consistently provided a means for me to make a living, but more importantly, I have felt his comfort, his guidance, and above all his quiet, rock-solid presence, especially during times when I did not feel that I had the strength to go on.

No matter what you may be struggling with, what may be troubling you, or even feeling the pressures of witnessing your faith, as you are reading these words, don’t give in to the mind storm, because we are never alone. As the emotions swirl, breathe. Breathe slow from your stomach, in and out, and then experience the emotions, assess where they are in your body and then breathe there. As our breath slows, our body feels safe and knows how to heal, and we can identify the thoughts behind each of the emotions.

As we begin to intentionally feel and become aware of our thoughts, we can ask Jesus to reveal the truth of those thoughts. As we breathe, we can choose to receive and abide in his love. When Jesus says that even all "the hairs of your head are counted", he is assuring us that God knows each and every one of us that intimately, that closely. He knows us better than we know ourselves and ultimately, that he is with us for the long haul, in this life and into eternity. In bringing our concerns, worries, and fears to Jesus, he receives them and offers us his love, mercy, healing, and strength.

In our faithfulness to trust and bring our fears to God, we are heard. The pressures then to conform to this world aren’t so tantalizing. Having been seen, heard, forgiven, and loved, we are no longer afraid. We can witness, even when pressured, the love we have received. Through the light and love of Jesus, we see more clearly. We can choose to sin and turn away from God for temporary pleasure, saving face or even our lives, but in doing so, lose our soul. In acknowledging Jesus before others, without counting the cost, even our lives, we will experience that death doesn’t have the final answer, Jesus does, and so gain our life for eternity. With each thought, word, and action, the choice is ours.

Photo: St. Micheal the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil…

Dr. Brant Pitre reflection, Catholic Productions, 12th Week of Ordinary Time, Year A

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, June 21, 2026

“No one can serve two masters.”

In today’s Gospel from Matthew, Jesus draws a direct correlation between our level of worry and our faith. Having faith is a common theme throughout Jesus’ teaching. How many times have we read or heard, “O you of little faith” (Mt 6:30). Faith is defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as, “man’s response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life” (CCC, 26.) Jesus came to reveal his Father to us, to show us that he cares for, loves, and wants to provide for us.

When we are feeling anxious or worried, we are most likely not placing our trust or putting God first in our lives. We may be dwelling on the past, rehashing something we did or did not do, what someone did or did not do, fixating on whether or not we made the right decision. We could also be anxious about the future. Our minds plague us often with the worst-case scenarios of what might be or what could happen. We also may react to another’s actions or words, not fully understanding the context or source of the hurt or struggle they may be going through that caused those words or actions. We react and then the worry wheel begins to roll again. When we seek security first in anything other than God, remain hyper-focused and absorbed in ourselves, we will stay stuck in our emotions and reactions and then we continue to remain stuck in the vicious cycle. We become tossed about like a tumble weed and our insides often experience a perpetual churning.

When we focus on what we do not have instead of being grateful for what we do, we will also experience unrest. We exercise little faith or trust in God when we allow ourselves to be hyper preoccupied with anyone or anything apart from and other than God. Jesus is helping us to see that, “No one can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24). Either we place ourselves, someone, or something first, or we place God first. There really is no middle ground. Jesus’ command to put God first in our lives and to trust in him above all and everyone else: “If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26), embodies the reality of his radical pronouncement. We cannot be his disciple if we are not willing to put God first, because to be a disciple of Jesus is to be willing to do whatever he tells us.

When we come to experience the love of God, we can then trust him and let go of the false promises, the apparent and disordered goods that we have sought in place of God. Our life apart from God first is met with the feeling of that separation. Anxiety, worry, and fear then has a place to roam because we are unmoored from his love. These emotions can then become debilitating and paralyzing and can lead toward a downward spiral, a curving in upon ourselves, that leads to an unsettled mental state. From this posture we can become impatient, reactive, and more fearful.

Too many of us buy into the enemy’s lies that lead to isolating ourselves, keeping ourselves busy, distracted, and perpetually tired. Even when we seek to find some rest and to wind-down and renew, we reach for activities that do not bring us the rest we seek but instead continue to keep us in a perpetual state of unrest. Mindless channel surfing, lost hours on social media, or binging on YouTube clips, will not bring rest to our souls. These practices do the opposite; they keep us in a constant state of busy and overstimulation fueled by dopamine hits that contribute to a growing cycle of chronic stress.

One of the reasons we may be drawn to these technological avenues is to escape the anxieties and stresses we experience. They distract and divert us for the moment, we can enjoy instant gratification, and we may feel satisfied – for the moment. It comes at the cost though of further separating us from God and each other. Until we face our restlessness with the one who can forgive and heal us, we will continue to be unhinged, unanchored, and floating from this to that distraction. At our core, we are deeply hungering to be loved and to love. “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (CCC, 27).

Jesus’ life, words, and actions provide a clearer way, a path that will lead us from the mist of diversion that continues to draw us deeper into the brambles of unbridled anxieties, attachments, and temptations. The way out of this inner downward spiral is to, “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Mt 6:33). God truly knows what we seek and need in the depths of our souls. At the foundation, is deepening our relationship with him. When we spend time consistently reading, praying and meditating with the Bible, walking in creation, seeking the things of heaven instead of this world and feeling, experiencing, and bringing our anxieties, fears, and sources of stress to God, we will feel safe and experience moments of peace and renewal. We can come to a place of rest where we can breathe again, be loved as we are, and begin to heal.

Intentionally setting aside key anchor times to be with God each day is one way to put God first in our lives. As we offer vocal prayers to our loving God and Father, share with him our needs and thanksgiving, our anxieties and hopes, we will find rest in knowing that God hears our prayers and will guide us. As we spend time reading, meditating and praying with God’s word, we are nourished, transformed, and recognize we are not alone in our struggles as we thought we were. And as we become more consistent with vocal and meditative ways of praying, we can then engage in the deeper gift of contemplative prayer in which we can just be silent with God and rest in his presence. We can be like the beloved apostle, who rested his head on the chest of Jesus and listened to the beating of his Sacred Heart.

We cannot serve two masters. When we put God first in this moment and with each breathe, thought, word, and action throughout this day, our hearts will be less troubled, we will be less afraid, and we will trust in Jesus, know better his Father, and experience more often the love of the Holy Spirit.

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Photo: “For it is not my desire to act towards you as a man-pleaser, but as pleasing God, even as also you please Him.” – St. Ignatius of Antioch at the beginning of the second chapter of his Letter to the Romans.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, June 20, 2026

“Where your treasure is, your heart will be.”

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Mt 6:19-21). Jesus helped his disciples then and is helping us today to be aware of the reality of our world. All that exists is finite and material. Each thing, each being, has a beginning and an end. We need to resist the temptation to be attached to anything, even to our family and friends, because in this life and this side of heaven, nothing and no one lasts forever.

Adopting an attitude of non-attachment to material things can be freeing as long as we do not embrace the opposite extreme of placing no value in created things, thinking that we can destroy and abuse the environment, exploit or objectify each other for our own ends. We can also be tempted to see all things that are not spiritual as corrupt and bad, even our material reality as human beings. The idea that our soul is imprisoned until we die. This extreme will not bring us happiness, joy, or fulfillment either.

Living a life directed by Jesus’ teachings will help us to embrace a more balanced life of recognizing that much of what is material and finite is good, as well as very good, and yet each has a time and a season. We have the opportunity and invitation to be participants in God’s eternal plan of salvation, and we can embrace and enjoy the wonders and gifts of his creation when we don’t hold onto the things of this world too tightly and allow our relationships and activities to be properly ordered by God’s will.

We need to resist grasping for and clutching anything material and finite. We will then be freer to embrace and follow the steady movement of the Holy Spirit, which is ever fresh and new. The Holy Spirit invites us to deepen and grow in our relationship with our loving God and Father and one another. Refusing to fill the deepest core of our being with the things of this world will help us to be less distracted and diverted from placing God as primary.

When we embrace the reality that our time here on this earth is limited, we will be less apt to take each other and each moment for granted. We will realize how precious life is, show greater appreciation for, as well as be more present, understanding, kinder, supportive, and patient with one another. We will be freer to let the petty things go and embrace the love that Jesus offers us, so that we will have more love to share with one another through thick and thin.

An imminent death helps this reality to become front and center. Knowing that JoAnn only had months to live – at best, was a gift. We embraced a greater appreciation for each moment we had together. What was even more foundational was that even before her diagnosis, we had already begun a journey together of deepening our relationship with Jesus. He helped us through the bumpy beginning years of adjusting and adapting our lives, through learning balance in the busy years, the financial challenges, life with kids and then teenagers, empty nesting, diaconate formation, and everything in between. Each year was a gift of growing closer to God and each other. A lot of the material things of this world became less important and time together became more important.

Dealing with death is never easy. Trusting that Jesus opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed and that he conquered death in his resurrection, helps when that reality moves from the head to the heart. Instead of denying or keeping death at a distance until faced with our own or another, we will be better off by engaging the reality of death more intentionally. Doing so is not a dive into morbidity but an invitation to define who and what is truly important in this life. Pondering death with God helps to live life more fully with the time we have left. Storing “up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:20), helps us to be free of holding too tightly to the things here below and to come to a greater appreciation of what is truly important.

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Photo: Not clinging to JoAnn as she was dying, nor after she had died has helped me to experience her love in a deeper way that has never died. Happened to check and this picture was taken exactly 7 years ago today! Little did we know we had 93 days left together this side of heaven.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, June 19, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We can only be perfected and transformed by the love of Jesus when we spend time with him by participating in the sacraments, reading, meditating, and praying with Sacred Scripture and Tradition. We are called to receive his teachings, to resist hearing and letting them go in one ear and out the other, and instead read them again a second, third, and fourth time to allow the light of the Holy Spirit to convict us. Assessing honestly where we fall short and seeking the help of Jesus will help us to receive more of the love of God and the strength to put these seemingly impossible commands into practice in our lives with the real people we engage with every day.

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Photo: Who better than Mary, John, and Mary Magdalene to model for us Jesus’ teachings!

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, June 2026

Telling the truth is a much more peaceful way to live.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Covering up lies expends a lot of energy because we have to constantly remember what we said. Left unchecked, one lie leads to another, and we then string together a web of lies. We also begin to feel sick inside, because we have not been created to be deceitful and dishonest. We have been created good, to be people of honesty and integrity. The worst damage is that when we live a life of lies, have been lied to, not only our trust in each other falters, but so does our trust in God. Anxiety and stress increases because we feel a growing isolation and separation from God and each other.

Examining our conscience is a good daily practice, and being humble enough to admit where we have lied is the next best step. In the beginning, to undo a habit of lying may feel hard because we have allowed a habitual pathway to form. We experience a knee-jerk or automatic response. Yet with intentionality and prayer we can rework our mental wiring. By asking God to help us to imagine how we could have handled the original situation in a more honest way, we can reach out to the person and apologize, move toward reconciliation, and be better prepared to tell the truth the next time, live a life of honesty, which is a healthier and more peaceful way to live.

Being patient with ourselves and seeking the Sacrament of Reconciliation for habitual patterns, grants us an opportunity to express our contrition and seek not only forgiveness, but Jesus’ grace to help and strengthen us to tell the truth. When we call on Jesus’ name, make a prayerful pause, Jesus will help us to harness the courage to resist the temptation to lie and to instead tell the truth. In time, with the help and love of the Holy Spirit, our vices of deceit will be transformed into new virtues of honesty. Let us live by Jesus’ command to make our, “‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and [our] ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one” (Mt 5:37).

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Photo: The father of lies has already lost, let us not give him any entry.

Link for the clip from the Dr. Phil Show showing the list for why we lie

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, June 13, 2026

When we allow our heartbeat to align with the Sacred Heart we will experience his rest and peace.

“It was because the LORD loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn your fathers, that he brought you out with his strong hand from the place of slavery, from the hand of pharaoh, King of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:8).

God hears the cry of the poor. He sends Moses to free his chosen people. Not because they are the best and brightest, the strongest or having the most potential. He is doing so because of his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs. He is doing so because he loves his children, those enslaved, but also all of humanity and creation. The chosen people are chosen not so they can keep God all to themselves but so that they can reveal him to all peoples.

All that has been created has come to be out of the outpouring of God’s love. We and everything that is, exists because God willed and loved us into reality, to be loved and to love him and each other in return.

God still comes close today, he still hears the cry of the poor. The poor are each of us in the depths of our souls crying out to our loving God and Father, just as St. Augustine in his introduction to his Confessions identified: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless, until they rest in you.” We all thirst and starve for his love and communion. The pharaohs today are not just those who overtly oppress others, though there are still those who do, but more subtle are the fallen aspects of each one of our egos that enslave our authentic and true selves.

God has sent another Moses to free us: “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him” (I John 4:9).

Jesus comes close, he shines the light of love into our darkness, our sins, our traumas, our fears. He gently invites us to come into the light of his love, to be embraced, forgiven, and restored as the beloved children that we already are, but to often forget.

Each day and during moments of the day, it is helpful for us to remember that we are the beloved daughter or son of the creator of all that exists. He made and formed each of us as an expression of his love. There has never nor will there ever be again someone like you. You are loved as you are right now as you are and you need do nothing to prove that. All we need to do is receive the love God offers to us.

Listen quietly for the beating of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and allow your heart to align in rhythm with his heart, such that Heart speaks to heart. Receiving the love of the Father through Jesus is the key to our freedom. No self-help program or three-point strategic plan needed (counseling does have its place and time). Just a simple, “Yes” to your loving God and Father, as Mary said, “May it be done to me according to your word.” As Jesus said, “Not my will but yours.” A simple slowing down and returning throughout the day and each day to an opening of your heart to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Aligning ourselves to the pace and rhythm of the Sacred Heart of Jesus helps us to experience his rest, which is deeper than physical. The rest that Jesus promises is the rest that our soul has always longed for. It is in that simple rest that we can experience the safety and stability of his love, a release from stress, strain, and pain, and deep, slow breathing that leads to peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding. Rest yes, but not for just ourselves. We are to “bring the peace of the risen Lord to our world, with the freedom born of the knowledge that we have been loved, chosen and sent by the Father” (Pope Leo XIV).

Painting: The Sacred Heart of Jesus accessed from Trinity Catholic College

Pope Leo XIV Solemnity of the Sacred Heart Homily, June 27, 2025

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, June 12, 2026

Our hearts, thoughts, words, and deeds can dehumanize and depersonalize or provide healing and give life.

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

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

This and the five antithesis to follow, outlines how: “Jesus calls his disciples to a higher standard than that of the scribes and Pharisees and he brings out the true meaning of the law. External conformity to the law is not enough. The law must be interiorized so that it penetrates one’s heart and leads one to live according to God’s ultimate intentions” (Mitch and Sri, 96).

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

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

Today we start with the first antithesis: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna (Mt 5:21-22). The seeds of anger begin to sprout in our mind from our knee jerk reactions to a perceived or actual threat, from our hearts hardened by prejudgments, prejudices, and/or a reflection of our level of spiritual immaturity.

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

Jesus is also saying that our words matter, that they have the power to destroy or to create. Calling someone Raqa, Aramaic for a blockhead or idiot, and then calling someone a fool, would “be liable to fiery Gehenna” (Mt 5:22). How much more egregious are we today? How polarized we have become inside and outside of the Church because of the level of demeaning words, tone, and language that is spoken, condoned, and justified? This has a ripple effect that poisons our children and each of us. We wonder why we are more in a state of anxiety and stress where we see our own leaders no longer speaking with respect but in dehumanizing ways. We can then fall into the same pattern which poisons our family, relationships, politics, and it has even poisoned the Church with growing divisive rhetoric, overt expressions of prejudice, and depersonalization.

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

May we all take some time today to reflect on Jesus’ teaching about how we think, speak to and about, as well as act toward one another. May we examine our consciences and seek forgiveness for those times we have thought, condoned, or justified thoughts, words, and/or actions that have been belittling, dehumanizing, and demeaning directly or while with others. In this way, we can ask God to heal our hearts. “[O]nly peaceful hearts can build a world of peace… The heart is the source of peace: there we must learn to meet rather than clash with each other, to trust and not mistrust, to listen and understand instead of closing ourselves off to others” (Pope Leo XIV, xiv).

Jesus, please heal us and infuse us with your justice, love, and mercy so that we will be inspired to live out your teachings daily. Help us to encounter each other with mutual respect and understanding as our brothers and sisters, no matter our race, ethnicity, creed, and/or gender, and to commit to building a culture of life and dignity for all, not in some abstract utopian way, but in the concrete moments, one person, one encounter, and one thought, word, and action at a time.

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Photo: Making time to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love will help us to better discern our thoughts, words, and actions and allow the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and minds.

Mitch, Curtis. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.

Leo XIV, Pope. Peace Be With You!: My Words to the Church and to the World. Dublin, Ireland: Harper On, 2026.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 11, 2026

Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets, which brings the law of love to the forefront.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The love and mercy of God put into practice through Jesus was not a watering down of the law and the prophets. Jesus not only fulfilled both expressions, but he also raised the bar even higher when he taught his disciples to move beyond seeking an eye for an eye, to not resisting an evil person (see Mt 5:38-39), and challenged them further in requiring them to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them (see Mt 5:44). To accept and put into practice these radical expressions of love is only possible when admit our powerlessness, weakness and frailty. Asking for God’s help transforms us.

Jesus’ love sheds light on the law. What is more important than white knuckled external observance of the law is a deeper trust in the love of God to identify the darkness of our own sins and idolatry. Doing so frees us from the temptation of becoming overzealous moralizers. We are not to lead with the law but with love. This happens when we are humble enough to trust in the purifying fire and convicting movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives, are willing to confess with contrition our sins, and become less drawn to protecting our false and fallen selves.

Emptying ourselves in this way, we are then open to drink from the living stream of Jesus’ love, we are purged of corruptive and debilitating attachments. We become more comfortable in our own skin, are true to ourselves, and who God calls us to be. Being loved, forgiven and experiencing the mercy of God helps us to heal and to become whole. Hurt people can hurt people. Healed and grateful people can instead show another way than reaction, isolation, and division. We can radiate joy, hope, and love and invite others to experience the love of God we have received.

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Painting: May we collaborate with and make something beautiful for God.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Jesus calls us to be salt and light.

As we continue our journey in Ordinary Time, we continue to be blessed to sit at the feet of Jesus for the next few weeks as we hear, ponder, and hopefully begin to put into practice his teachings from the Sermon on the Mount. In today’s account, Jesus has just finished presenting the beatitudes and encourages his disciples to live out this empowering teaching by being “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (cf. Mt 5:13-16).

This call continues to ring true for us today as his disciples. We too are to be “salt” and “light”. Salt has two major properties, preservation and flavor. Jesus emphasizes the aspect of salt being seasoning that one puts on food, which enhances its flavor. Our lives are better when we put into practice Jesus’ teachings and are transformed. Not only does the life of God living in us enhance our experience of life, we enhance the lives of others.

We are also to preserve the goodness that God has created. For all that God has created is good. The enemy, Satan and his minions seek to corrupt and disorder that which God has made good. We are to counter the effects of sin with remaining faithful in times of darkness. Allowing Jesus to shine his light in us, we experience his love in the darkness in our lives, are forgiven, experience, healing and move to wholeness. Through our transformation we then radiate the light of Jesus for others and invite them to allow the light of Jesus into places where they too may not feel loved, where they feel alone, or isolated. In experiencing God’s love and light shining through us to them, they can begin their own journey of healing.

Each morning upon awaking and experiencing our first breather of the day, let us remember that we are an Alleluia people. A people grounded in hope and joy which we experience more as we die to our old self, our sinful self, so that we become less and Jesus becomes more. Our faith is not just for us alone, we are to go out and share it with others, we are to bring Jesus to others. “Isreal was to be a light to the nations (Isa 60:1-3; Bar 4:2). Jesus calls his disciples to fulfill this role by living the beatitudes in such a way that the world may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Mitch and Sri, 92).

Pope Francis, in the very first line of his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, writes: “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, emptiness, and loneliness.” The Pope is not saying that when we accept Jesus into our lives and develop a relationship with him that all will go our way and on our own terms, there will no longer be conflict or pain, and that our life will now be perfect.

Jesus is the very embodiment of love and the light that leads us away from the darkness of our sin. His love invites us to experience a better way. Instead of path leading to death, Jesus lights the way to eternal life. Jesus is present and accompanies us in our pain and sorrow and assures us that we are not alone. Jesus is the one who fulfills the longing of our heart’s deepest desire, he reveals to us our meaning and vocation in life. Jesus offers us hope as well as his hand to lead us through our darkest nights of despair and trauma.

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

I am not extroverted or outgoing by nature. I was much more reserved and internal as a youth. In my freshman or sophomore year of college, I heard a talk on cassette given by Mother Theresa of Calcutta. She mentioned reaching out to others with a smile. I still remember the first time of risking to smile at someone after hearing Mother’s encouraging words. I was walking up the sidewalk toward the parking garage on campus. I do not remember if the person I smiled at returned the smile, yet I do remember that day as a key moment in my faith journey.

Having heard practically how to share the light of God’s love with another, and then to follow through, filled me with joy. Smiling continues to make a difference in my life and hopefully, the lives of others. When we are living our lives as Jesus guides us, as we read, meditate, ponder and put into practice his teachings, then the people in our realm of influence then we are being salt and light. People feel better after having been in our presence, because they have had an encounter with Jesus through us. Even if they feel convicted, they are not condemned but offered a better way that leads from shadows or darkness and into light.

How can we be salt and light that Jesus invites us to be? Live our lives as he did and commit daily to spending time breathing, receiving, resting and abiding in the presence of his Father and following his will. A simple way of adding some flavor and some warmth in our interactions is offering a smile. Doing so need not only be limited to those we feel comfortable with or like. We can share a smile with those we may have had conflicts with and even those for whom we may feel a bias or prejudice toward. This is only a small beginning, but it draws us out from our own self-centered focus and directs our attention toward willing the good of another.

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

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