christianity

Repentance is not punishment, but an invitation to freedom.

“Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented.” (Mt 11:20).

Anyone who encounters Jesus is invited to change. Jesus shines the light of his love and mercy into the darkness of our own fallen nature, where we are wounded, sinful, and misled. He invites us to repentance, healing, and reconciliation. He seeks to help us to understand who we are, the daughters and sons of his Father. A wonderful invitation, but why would we turn away? The darkness may be too dark, or the light may be too bright.

Facing our own darkness and pain is not easy and can be frightening as well as intimidating. We are vulnerable to temptations, distractions, and diversions when we don’t trust Jesus to come into the places where we feel unlovable. He loves us there, because he loves us in our totality. If we don’t allow him in those places of darkness and shame though, we will not experience his love, forgiveness of healing.

Yet the hunger for his intimacy we still seek, so will continue to be tempted by disordered affections to fill the void. We may not be able to sit still and breathe because we want to keep moving so as not to face our fears and the root causes of our suffering, nor let go of our false senses of security, control, and the glitter of apparent goods. The disfunction we know and have become accustomed to, is more comfortable than the promise of new life Jesus offers. We also may not be able to accept the fullness of our goodness, of who God calls us to be, and the realization of who we really are.

Jesus invites us to stop, to breathe, to enter into his stillness and silence where we can hear the word of his Father and experience the love of the Holy Spirit. In this experience of silence, we come to encounter what our lives look like without God and what our lives are with God. The choice to change our hearts and minds becomes clearer when we experience the light and love of Jesus. When we become aware of our sin, our turning in upon ourselves and away from God, Jesus does not condemn us. He inside invites us to repent: to turn away from anything and anyone that is not of God and to turn back and receive his loving embrace and welcome.

God loves us more than we can ever mess up, more than we can ever imagine, and he does not define us by our sins, failings, or worst mistakes. Jesus’ arms are wide open to receive us in the midst of our deepest wounds, fears, pain, sin, and suffering but we must be willing to stop running. We need to be still long enough to experience and feel the pain of our turning away from him. We repent when we allow Jesus to love us in our poverty and pain and then we experience being seen and heard. We are no longer isolated and alone.

The call of Jesus to repent is not a punishment but an invitation to freedom from punishing ourselves in self-criticism and judgment, from the lies that separate from the one who made us to be loved and to love in return. All the saints experienced the freedom for the excellence. The light of Christ revealed their sin, which they renounced, and so saw more clearly their unique charism. Trusting in and following Jesus they were transformed.

With confidence in being seen and loved, they cut the chords and strings that bound them. For a bird tied by even the smallest of strings will not be able to fly until the last string is cut. Let us repent and allow Jesus to reveal the chords and strings that bind us so that he can help us cut them and be set free from the fowler’s snare while there is still time!

Photo: Jesus will let us know what we need to repent from if we are willing to make the time to be still and listen.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, July 14, 2026

“I have come not to bring peace but the sword.”

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword” (Mt 10:34).

Seems to be odd words coming from the King of Peace! The reality of this statement though is the reality of his mission. Jesus entered the lives of individuals. Some said yes to following him and some said no; some saying yes and no within the same family. The image of the sword represents how sharp and stark this choice could and did cut.

During the time of Jesus and for most within the first generation of believers, there was not a lukewarm choice. You were either for Jesus or against Jesus. Being for Jesus also meant possibly dying for him. Jesus was either very dangerous because he was leading people to believe he was God, he was distorting the teaching of the Jewish faithful and leading people astray, he was just crazy, or he was who he said he was. These choices would have divided families and friends. As he continued to speak about those who would follow him, the choice did not become any clearer:“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

Jesus spoke clearly that he was sent by God and if received that act would be the same as receiving his Father. Just prior to this statement, he said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…” This also being true for brother, sister, husband or wife. These words would be shattering to those listening to him. What audacity to say follow him before even their own family and clan! Unless… Jesus is not just sent by God, but he is God himself in the flesh. If that be true, we must love him with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. If he is not God then those who opposed him were correct in calling him a blasphemer. The choice between family and friends around the table would be heated at best, unless everyone was in agreement either for or against.

When Jesus said, “I have come to bring not peace but the sword” (Mt 10:34), he meant that he and we as his disciples are not to settle for a false peace, a lethargic appeasement to just get along or to water down the Gospel message in the hope that others will receive it. Jesus demanded a choice. We are to decide whether or not we believe that Jesus is who he says he is. If he is God, then we must follow him and put his teachings into practice, as challenging as they are.

The good news is that Jesus, doing the will of his Father, draws close and gently leads us with his tender chords of love. Following Jesus and putting his teachings into practice, like taking up our cross and following him, is impossible without his help. He is also there to pick us up when we fall, if we are willing to accept his help. In sharing our faith, we do not carry a mallet and bludgeon others with the true, the good, and the beautiful. We share what we believe in the same way we have received it, through love, patience, compassion, and understanding. We put our faith into practice and share with those God brings into our lives, as well as our family and friends already present.

Allowing Jesus, to love us, we enter into the trinitarian communion of love as the Father’s beloved daughter or son. Experiencing his love helps us to detach from unhealthy attachments, disordered affections, and habitual temptations. No one and nothing else can truly feed our insatiable hunger and thirst. The love that we seek will be satiated by God alone. Living our faith in love will result in conflicts when we stand up for what we believe in, even with those closest to us. And yet, if we are to be free and are to have a chance of helping those who disagree, we must trust in and how the Holy Spirit guides us.

Woodcut: St Ignatius of Loyola surrendering his sword to Our Lady of Montserrat and renouncing his disordered affections, identity as a soldier, and courier of the Spanish court. He gave all for the love of Jesus.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, July 13, 2026

Who has helped to plant the seeds of God’s word in your life?

Do you think we are in the end times? Do you think the world is coming to an end? I have heard these or similar questions over the past few years and longer. I have also heard definitively by some that we are in the final days and that the world is indeed coming to an end. The more we spend time watching the endless news cycle, I can understand why people may feel this way. I don’t need to share a list of the hardships we are going through in the world. In addition, many of us also have our own unique struggles that we are wading through, sometimes feeling like we are neck time and some days sinking even deeper.

This same question of the end times even came up with the disciples. They asked Jesus when that day would come and Jesus said that only the Father knows the time or the hour (cf. Mt 24:36). I believe Jesus was saying then, has repeated in every generation, and is saying to us now, that is the wrong question to be asking as a disciple. Spending time speculating about the end of the world is not to be our focus.

St Paul also chimed on this topic when he wrote to the Church in Rome,  “Brothers and sisters: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing  compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Rom 8:18). From Paul to this day, each generation has had to face its own trials and tribulations.  There is hope in that this life is not all that there is, but that does not mean we just indifferently endure and trudge through this life until the end. We have other options than mere existence, living in a constant disposition of fight or flight survival of the fittest mode.

There is a powerful scene in the movie, The Lord of the Rings, where one of the main characters, Frodo, a halfling, is speaking with Gandalf, a Christlike figure. Frodo was feeling overwhelmed with the task that he had been entrusted with which was to destroy a great ring of power. He turned to Gandalf and said:  “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.” To which  Gandalf replied,  “So do all who live to see such times but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

The Lord of the Rings was written by JRR Tolkien who personally witnessed the atrocities of the First World War. If you are looking for a good book or trilogy to read, I would highly recommend it. It is not only a powerful parable of hope, courage, and transformation, it is a deeply Christological parable. Once seeing the size of the trilogy, one might say, “I don’t have the time to read it!” I might then reply, “I invite you to give up the time you spend watching the news and put into reading the tale instead.” Doing so might give us all a little more peace.

Another invitation I could offer is to read the Bible each day, such as the daily readings of the Mass. All of our readings today as well as what I have pointed out so far are interconnected with the principle that God works in small ways to affect and bring about change and a greater good. No matter the time or season, his word does not come back void. This change is not just about some abstract ideal. What God offers each one of us is his love and if we are willing to accept it, personal transformation. This comes forth rather powerfully in the Parable of the Sower.

Do we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear Jesus when he comes close in his word in the Bible, in our seemingly coincidental experiences of each day?

There are happenings or incidences, I like to call them God-incidences, where Jesus is present and active in our lives, where he draws close to us each day. Jesus’ word is constantly being sown into our being through our interactions with one another and our experiences. We are invited to receive him, allow him to take root in our lives, and we are to share the fruit of his love as a result of our growing relationship with him. If we receive the love of God, allow our the resistance to be tilled and turned over, the rocks of sin to be tossed out, the weeds to be uprooted and tossed away, we will have some fertile soil in which to receive the invitation to be loved, forgiven, and healed.

Let me give you a few examples from my own life of seeds sown, of God-incidents, of Jesus drawing close.

Growing up we would often share holidays with my mother’s parents. As we settled in around the table we would continue to visit as the last of the food was placed on the table. My grandmother would sit down, and if the conversation went on a little longer, she would say something along the lines of, “Ok old man, let’s go.” My grandfather would say in a mock, wounded way, “Snucksie, I’m talking.” She would give him “the look” and then he would make the sign of the cross and pray the Our Father. Sometimes he read a short prayer from a little devotional. In times alone with my grandfather, he also encouraged me to take time to be still and quiet and also passed on to me his love of books and reading.

Each of these were seeds that found good soil in my heart and mind. They were impressed upon me because my mind and heart was open to receive them. I was moved deeply and I believe these were times when Jesus drew close and I opened the door and let him in.  If we allow ourselves to recall, we can look back over the years of our lives and see where Jesus has drawn close through the those important people in our lives. The opposite may also be true, and it is important to be honest when and where we have been hurt, for in those places of pain that we are still wounded, we may not trust. Where we curve in upon ourselves and may not be willing to let God love us there.  

There may be a lot on your plate right now. Even so, I learned from my wife, JoAnn, that life is short and we cannot take the time we have for granted. Life is hard and it is, even if long too short. I have spent time keeping God at a distance and I have spent more and more each successive year allowing him to come closer. I choose more and more to spend less time in the promises of what the world offers for safety, security, power, pleasure, fame, and honor, all goods when properly ordered, but like weeds that can choke and strangle our spiritual lives if they are placed first or replace God.

I invite you as my grandfather invited me to spend some time in silence and to be still as you finish reading these words. After some deep, slow breaths, invite God to speak in the silence of your heart. As anxieties, worries, false promises, lures, half-truths, apparent goods and disordered affections arise, allow your heart and mind to soften, breathe into them, identify if there any thoughts that are at the source and then choose to uproot them if not of God. Allow the seed of God’s Word, Jesus, to find root in your life. Allow the Holy Spirit to nourish you with his love.  

Even in troubling times, personally right at home, communally, nationally, or internationally, we are not to be strangled by the growing uncertainties, divisions, and even expressions of inhumanity. Instead, we are to till the soil of our hearts and minds, dig out the stones, and uproot the thorns, thereby preparing rich soil that is open to receiving the seeds of God’s love. As we continue to care for our garden, we will produce the rich fruit of his love, experience forgiveness, healing and wholeness to be shared.  

It is our choice regarding which soil we want to have. As Gandalf said to Frodo, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

Photo: My grandfather and me.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, July 12, 2026

Allowing Jesus to love us, we become like him.

Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master (Mt 10:24-25).

Following the teachings and guidance of Jesus was hard for his apostles and disciples then and it is just as challenging today. To live as disciples, we need to learn from and put Jesus’ teachings into practice. That means more than reading some of his teachings: love God with your whole heart, mind, and soul and your neighbor as yourself, turn the other cheek, and what you do to the least of my brothers, you did it to me, and acknowledging, that, “That is some good stuff!” Then just moving on to the next thing on the to-do list.

Living as a disciple also happens in a public way, which means public scrutiny. One thing we all have in common as human beings is that we want to belong, to fit in, and to be a part of. We risk rejection and ridicule by following Jesus and living as his disciple because we run up against our own fallen nature and the fallen nature of others. Jesus said he would be sending us as sheep among wolves yesterday and in today’s reading, he announces that we are not to be afraid of those who kill the body. Not exactly the kind of encouragement many of us are looking for.

Yet, Jesus affirms consistently that we are not to be afraid. Jesus leads us to the most important relationship that we will ever develop and that is with his Father. God cares for us, just as Jesus said, as his Father cares for the sparrows, but even more. God knows us by name, and we are his, we belong to him. Every hair on our head is counted. Our loving God and Father knows us better than we know ourselves. Never have we been, are we now, nor will we ever be, alone. As we come to know God’s will in small moments and follow the nudges of the Holy Spirit, we will experience, joy, consolation, and a fulfillment that is unmatched.

One of the keys to living the Christian life is understanding that it is more than a philosophy, a set of teachings, or a theology. Being a Christian means allowing ourselves to be known, loved, and to build our relationship with a person. Jesus is that person. Instead of hiding or running, we are invited to trust and turn to him. By admitting and giving him our insecurities, weaknesses and our fears, our anxieties and overthinking, our worries and our sins, we can begin to slow down, breathe, feel safe, and we can begin to reset our brain’s wiring.

Isaiah, recognized he was a man with unclean lips, not worthy to be God’s prophet, he allowed his mouth to receive and be purged by the ember placed by a seraphim. St. Peter recognized in the presence of Jesus that he was a sinful man, followed Jesus anyway, and his impulsiveness became properly ordered. We too, will see our weaknesses, our failures and our shortcomings. Yet Jesus loves us anyway. The light of Christ reveals to us our darkness not to condemn us, but to free us. He gently invites us to bring our sin into the light, so we can be purged, purified, and ultimately deified – become like God through our participation in the life of Jesus.

In turning our weaknesses over to Jesus and admitting our utter dependence on him, then we become strong. Our confidence and strength are not in ourselves but in him. Acknowledging Jesus as our teacher does not mean that we will gain all the answers to life, but it does mean that we will be more aware of his presence during each step of our journey. Take courage, be not afraid, and like Isaiah, the prophets, the Apostles, and Mary let us say, “Yes.” to the will of God and take our next step along the path to our healing and freedom as we are loved by him, every step of the way.
————————

Photo: Jesus’ Sacred Heart is open to receive us in all aspects and situations of our lives.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, July 11, 2026

Receiving and savoring the love of God we have love to share.

“Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give” (Mt 10:8).

We cannot buy the grace of God, we do not earn our way into the kingdom of heaven. God’s grace and presence are freely given, without cost and without our effort. As with any gift, the joy and fulfillment come from the willingness to receive and open the gift. At the same time, God’s grace is not cheap grace.

God has given us the gift of his Son. We have the choice to say yes or no to receiving him, each and every moment, each and every day, with each and every breath. When we accept his offer of relationship, our life will be different. Just as when the wise men from the East went back a different way they came after experiencing Jesus as an infant, just as the Apostles lives were transformed, we too will never be the same. And that, though it may draw up some anxiety, is a good thing. We will hopefully begin to see, think, speak, and act differently. We like the disciples, will be transformed.

Our relationship with Jesus also brings reconciliation, and healing. Yet, this gift that we receive and open is not for our sake alone. We are invited to freely share the love of Jesus we have received with others. The Second Vatican Council renewed this call for evangelization. We are to, as did the Apostles, his disciples, and those within each following generation, live how he lived, say what he said, and do what he did, yet through our own unique and individual expression. As a bright light that shines through a prism, depending on the unique angle of the cut, a different color will emanate forth. Just so are we to be, reflecting the light of God in our daily experiences with our own unique color. The key is to remember that the source is God.

Words of belittlement and condemnation do not emanate from the love of God. When necessary, Jesus may call us to speak words of correction, but with tender chords of love leading to a better way. We speak as Jesus when we empower, affirm, and heal. We do what Jesus did when we resist reacting and choose instead to build relationships and engage in respectful dialogue. This also happens when through acts of hospitality, mercy, forgiveness, healing, being present, patient, understanding, and when we attend to the needs of others, especially the most vulnerable.

We are also to live as Jesus did, “for it is written, ‘Be holy because I [am] holy’” (cf. 1 Peter 1:15-16). We begin to grow in holiness when we recognize, repent, choose no longer to be governed by, and instead seek healing from our own self-sufficiency, pride, and self-centered ways of living. We grow in holiness when we trust and say yes to receiving the gift of the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit who heals and transforms us so that we become aflame with his love. Following Jesus will shift our disposition and posture from the stiff arm of keeping others at a distance, including God, and instead open our arms wide to embrace and love one another as Jesus loves us.

Jesus has a unique call for each of us that begins when we are willing to slow down long enough to receive and rest in his love. Experiencing his unconditional embrace, we will begin to let go of the weight, the stress, and the strain of trying to fix ourselves. Allowing ourselves to be loved helps instead helps us to heal, and from that place of rest resist reacting and instead seeing each other as human beings, created in the image of his Father. Led and loved by Jesus, we grow in holiness and our likeness to God is slowly restored. Daily experiencing the love of God, we now have something to give and we can begin where we started: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give” (Mt 10:8).

Photo: As did Mary, may we say yes to, receive, and share God’s love. Grotto on the grounds of Grand Coteau Retreats.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, July 9, 2026

Called to receive and share the love of God so people may experience the Kingdom of heaven which is at hand.

“As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 10:7).

Summoned by Jesus, the Apostles were sent to proclaim that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, that the God of all creation is present in our midst, and seeks to restore a relationship with his fallen creatures. This invitation is not new with Jesus. The Father has sought reconciliation and unity with his children since the fall. This is present also in our first reading through the words of Hosea who implored the people saying, “it is time to seek the Lord”(Hosea 10:12).

God has reached out and invites, generation after generation, not in some abstract way, but as he has done since he walked in the breezy time of the day with Adam and Eve. He came among them, he drew close to offer reconciliation, forgiveness, and intimacy and he continues to do so.

Salvation history is a record of God’s coming close to encounter and interact with individuals in every age. At the appointed time, our Father sent his Son to open the doors to the deeper trinitarian communion they share with the Holy Spirit. Jesus devoted himself to people, “accepting them, receiving them into fellowship with him and granting them forgiveness of sins. The power of his affirmation is to be found in his attention to the concrete individual, in particular to the despised, the abused, the sinner, but also involving himself with people in a very personal way… in giving himself away to them” (Gnilka 1997, 111).

We, as the Apostles, are called to do the same. Empowered by Jesus, we are not to bring about some abstract utopian ideal, but we are sent to enter into the chaos of the lives of real individuals: with our families and friends, those in our schools, communities, and places of worship, as well as on the margins. With each encounter, which may be the only Bible someone else ever reads, may we become a bridge to helping others to encounter the living Word of God. The Gospel is not just for a select few but for everyone. This is just as true today in our polarized climate of 2026.

Just as the sun rises on the good and the bad alike (cf. Mt 5:45), we are to examine ways in which we have contributed to division and separation instead of invitation. May we get in touch with our wounds as well as the sorrow for the hurt we have caused, for our actions and omissions, and for failing to reach out in love. May we receive and abide in his love that Jesus came to offer and then having received, be willing to be sent to share his love. We do so when we are more present, accepting, patient, understanding, kind, and forgiving person to person. In doing so, we will help people to experience Jesus and his kingdom which is at hand.

——————————————

Photo: View of the sunrise from my room. With each breath to welcome the new day I was blessed to receive the rays of the sun along with the love of the Son.

Gnilka, Joachim. Jesus of Nazareth: Message and History. Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, July 8, 2026

When we follow Jesus we will experience a love and joy that brings rest.

“At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9:36).

There is much that pulls at us for our time and attention. Jesus witnessed the anxieties, struggles, pain, and feelings of being lost regarding those in his midst. Are we so different today? Jesus knows the Father, he knows the joy and fulfillment of what being in a full relationship with him entails. Jesus saw then and sees in us now how lost we can become. How easily distracted and diverted we are. He knows how many things we put before our relationship with God thinking that we will be satisfied, but time and again we are left empty. Jesus remains close even in these experiences and in our sorrow, disappointment and loneliness, Jesus is not distant and aloof, he “is moved with pity.”

Jesus’ heart goes out to us, he yearns to be one with us and share his love. In that very act of love, he risks. He loves us so much, that he is willing to let us choose ourselves, others, or a myriad of other pursuits over him. Jesus invites us to the joyful experience of developing a relationship with him so we can come to know his Father, and experience the love of the Holy Spirit while at the same time he does not impose himself on us. We are given the whole world to choose from or we can choose him. Who do we put first? Is God a priority in our life? If we find that God is at best an after-thought, or at worst a no thought, instead of getting to know God better, what is it that we are choosing over him?

Jesus invites us, but too often we miss, ignore, or do not follow through on his invitation. Too often we choose other pleasures, distractions, diversions, temptations, and/or apparent goods. With time and experience, we may come to see the emptiness of the lure of these worldly promises, as well as begin to recognize that our attachments and disordered affections often lead to many of our troubles, trials, stresses, and anxieties. We are often led astray because we are seeking to address our underlying experiences of unfulfillment, abandonment, fear of missing out, and/or loneliness. There is only one source, one person, that will ultimately fulfill our innermost longing; God our Father.

I am not advocating for a rejection of the material world. All that God has created is good. We are human beings and a part of God’s glorious creation. Nor do I believe that we are souls trapped in this body waiting to be released upon our death. As human beings, we are a unique unity of body and soul. The key to our fulfillment, finding meaning and belonging is choosing to put God first. In establishing a firmer relationship with God, we can better discern that which we need to let go of, and/or how to reorder that which God wants to remain. Once we begin to experience the fulfillment of his love and establish God as our firm foundation, even the challenges and trials that arise with not disturb our peace.

This might be the moment to be still and evaluate where we are in our lives and to ponder who we belong to. Jesus offers to lead us, just as he has led his disciples through the ages. Those of every age have experienced trials and tribulations and found the promises of this world fleeting. What made the difference for the saints was that they said yes to the call of the Shepherd and then followed him and experienced his peace and rest. Are we willing to slow down, to breathe, and listen to the Shepherd’s invitation today? Are we willing to follow his lead and experience his love?

Photo: A quiet afternoon walk Grand Coteau Retreats, Grand Coteau, LA.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, July 7, 2026

“The crowd jostles, faith touches.”

“If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.” Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” And from that hour the woman was cured (Mt 9:21-22).

Just to touch his cloak may seem a small and insignificant act, but by doing so, this woman showed tremendous courage. Suffering from hemorrhaging for twelve years, broke from spending all her resources to be healed, she risked by coming close and reaching out. She could have been severely punished, beaten, or stoned for this small act. Under the Levitical code, her condition deemed her unclean, in the same category as a leper, a pariah. Touching someone else in that condition would then make the one she touched unclean. Yet, in that small touch, that great act of courage, “power had gone forth from him” (Mk 5:30), and she was completely healed.

In the parallel account from Mark 5:21-43, more details are revealed. Not only did the woman exhibit the courage to touch Jesus, but she was then willing to admit that she had done so when Jesus questioned who had touched him. Many of the disciples looked at Jesus wondering how he could ask such a question because so many people had been around and touching him. She could have easily slinked away, but she didn’t. She admitted to touching him and would receive whatever the consequence for doing so.

So many were gathered around Jesus as his disciples pointed out, and yet why was she the only one healed? Pope Leo addressed this in his June 25, 2025 audience: “In his commentary on this point of the text, Saint Augustine says – in Jesus’ name – “The crowd jostles, faith touches” (Sermon 243, 2, 2). It is thus: every time we perform an act of faith addressed to Jesus, contact is established with Him, and immediately his grace comes out from Him. At times we are unaware of it, but in a secret and real way, grace reaches us and gradually transforms our life from within.”

Jesus recognized immediately that power had gone out from him. He may indeed have known who received his grace and gave the woman the chance to be healed on a deeper level and to set aside her fears completely. When she did so, Jesus did not reprimand but affirmed her faith and courage. In this act of healing, Jesus did not contract leprosy, he as God received her illness, healed and restored her to the community from which she had been ostracized. Jesus restored her dignity.

Pope Francis in his general audience from August 31, 2016, stated: “Once again Jesus, with his merciful behavior, shows the church the path it must take to reach out to every person so that each one can be healed in body and spirit and recover his or her dignity as a child of God”. May we too establish contact with Jesus, and as we experience his grace, reach out, in-person and online to others and offer them the dignity, love, mercy, and respect we have received.

Photo: of painting, The Haemorrhaging Woman, by Daniel Cariola.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, July 6, 2026

Jesus invites us to be purified and healed by receiving his love and the light of his truth.

“Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved” (Mt 9:17).

Mark, Matthew, and Luke all record the reference of pouring new wine into fresh wineskins. What Matthew adds is, “and both are preserved.” Luke adds: “[And] no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

The Gospel authors offer this teaching of Jesus in the context of the tensions between those who would reject Jesus and those who would follow him and his new way. The new wine represents the acceptance of the Gospel, the Good News of the kingdom of God in their midst. The cost of receiving this new wine though means to change one’s mind and heart. “The tension, and often incompatibility, between the old and the new is part of every religious tradition and attends every change within that tradition. Matthew and Luke wrestled with it and adapted it to their community situation. Contemporary Christians have no less a challenge” (The Gospel of Mark, Donahue, SJ, p. 109). Matthew shared with his community that Jesus is the new Temple, the old had been destroyed in 70 AD.

Following Jesus meant that both the old and new covenants would be preserved. Jesus did not come to abolish the law and prophets, but he fulfilled the Old and in the New brought a greater depth of understanding and practice to a higher level only possible through participating in his life.

We are invited to wrestle as well. The Church is called to change, to be transformed by the Living God. Many say the Church needs to change this and that, not realizing that we are the Church, the People of God, the Body of Christ. If the Church is to mature and grow each of us is to embrace transformation, being made anew through the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit. This invitation is a call to let go of those habits, lifestyles, behaviors, mindsets, attachments, and addictions that are weighing us down or worse holding us in bondage and slavery to our sin, and ultimately keeping us separated from God.

Much of the material and finite things we hold onto prevents us from receiving the new life God wants to pour into us. Jesus is offering us something better than the merely material. He is offering us the love of the Holy Spirit that we were created to receive. In breathing, receiving, resting and abiding in God’s love, we find peace and rest that brings healing and renewal.

Jesus has come to set us free from our enslavement to sin by inviting us to try some new wine which consists of meditating and praying with, contemplating upon, and living the message of his teachings and actions as recorded in the Gospels. We do not have to be afraid of the change and transformation Jesus is calling us to experience. As St Irenaeus, the second-century bishop of Lyons is attributed to have written: “The Glory of God is man fully alive!” Jesus is inviting us to live our lives and live them to the full!

To become new wineskins then, we are called to identify and let go of those selfish and sinful inclinations that keep us constricted, rigid, and curved in upon ourselves. We are to let go of our fears so that we can be healed from them. We also must let go of what appears to be good, but in truth is not the good that God offers. We let go when we are still and allow ourselves to be loved by God. As we experience more of his love, we can see better the false truths, apparent goods, and disordered affections.

We grasp for these substitutes for God because we feel alone and empty. When we instead seek God instead of the substitutes, instead of distractions, we will feel the loneliness, true, but now we can invite God to love us there. That which is not true, good, and beautiful will be poured out. We are emptied of the false so to be filled more with the grace and love of God. We become new, fresh wineskins, capable of receiving a continual pouring in of God’s love.

The more love we allow ourselves to receive, the more purified we become from our creature comforts and the apparent safety and security of this world which is so fragile. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his encyclical, Spe Salve, line 42: “His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation ‘as through fire.’ But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God.”

Photo: Enjoying a quiet early evening walk, breathing, receiving, resting and abiding in God’s love, Grand Coteau, Louisianna.

Donahue, John R. S.J., and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. The Gospel of Mark. Vol. 2 of Sacra Pagina, edited by Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Parallel Scriptural accounts: See Mark 2:22, Matthew 9:16-17 and Luke 5:37-39

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, July 4, 2025

“Do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God” (Jn 20:27-28)!

Thomas’ acclamation “My Lord and my God!” came from his seeing the risen Jesus and his wounds. Jesus rose from the dead, conquered death, and yet he still bore the wounds of his Passion. This is a profound message to the Apostles, those Jesus sent to proclaim his Gospel, and for us who have been called to follow him today.

The Body of Christ continues to be wounded by the sin and division of our fallen nature that Jesus experienced the fullness of on the Cross. Many people doubt and do not believe today in God because they question, “How can a loving God allow such suffering and pain, especially of the innocent?” A valid question. Many examples may come to our minds, from indirect or direct experience. Pondering this question can then lead to a series of others, “Why God? Where were you? Do you care?”

Some suffering we can bring upon ourselves by removing ourselves from God’s protection, our own selfish choices can lead to pain that God allows us to experience. We can turn away from him because of suffering that has happened in our lives. We can choose disordered affections and false goods seeking to fill the deep loneliness that we feel. There is evil in the world and selfish acts that ripples our and affects us. The enemy of God seeks to divide, destroy, and kill.

Through it all, God is present, God cares, though again we are limited in what we can see and understand. God allows suffering which can reveal our weaknesses, our attachments and our sins. He allows us to see our lives without him and what the promise if of our life with him. Choosing to turn to him and receive his love, may not change a particular suffering we may be experiencing but we will feel his presence and consolation, and receive the strength to endure and overcome.

Even in the case of death, God reveals a deeper truth that death does not have the final answer. His Son does. That is what Jesus showed Thomas in bringing him close to touch his wounded side. Jesus rose from the dead and conquered it, but the scarring of his wounds remained. Jesus calls us to draw close and to touch his wounds so we can embrace our own, those we can and cannot see. As we allow Jesus to come close to those areas we have not wanted anyone else to see, those sins we never thought would be forgiven, and when we trust and open our hearts and minds to Jesus, we experience his healing.

Though the temptation is strong to deny, rationalize, or flee from the conflict, challenges, hurt, and pain that we and others experience, we must resist. If we don’t embrace our or another’s trials we will not come to the root cause of them. Jesus understands the suffering of the innocent, for he himself was innocent and sinless and was crucified on the Cross. Fair? No. He was willing to do so to free us from our sin, to be present now in this particular time and moment to show us a way out of our darkness, pain, and suffering.

We can be easily overwhelmed with the suffering in our country, our world, or the personal challenges right before us. Denial or indifference is not the answer. There is an act of balancing that Jesus calls us to participate in as we allow ourselves to be loved by and learn to love God, love others, and love our neighbors as ourselves. The answer is found when we are willing to encounter Jesus, grow in our relationship with him, and follow his lead.

We do not know where Thomas was when the Apostles first encountered Jesus after the Resurrection, but we do know he was not with Jesus. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing, yet with Jesus, the one who conquered death, all things are possible! When we feel overwhelmed, helpless, or indecisive, return to Jesus and acclaim with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” and begin again with him.

Jesus is present, just as he was with Thomas and the other apostles. He invites us to be engaged in the unique way he calls us to make our corner of the world a little better. As Jesus enters the chaos of our lives, he prompts us to enter into the chaos of another’s, to hear their story, their experience, be present, and allow the Holy Spirit to happen.

St. Thomas, pray for us!

Painting from Caravaggio: Incredulity of St Thomas, 1601-1602

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, July 3, 2026