discipleship

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).

——————————————————————–

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

Blessed is the one who hears and ponders the word of God and puts it into practice.

Curtis Mitch and Edward Sri, in their commentary on Matthew, offer three key insights into how to understand the beatitudes. Contextually, Jesus does not make up the genre of beatitudes himself. The Greek, makarios, can be interpreted to mean happy and “denotes blessedness or happiness not in the sense of an emotional state but in terms of being in a fortunate situation… In the Jewish tradition, beatitudes either commended those who take a certain path of life or promised future consolation to those in affliction” (Mitch and Sri, 88). 

The Hebrew Scriptures provide examples that Joseph and Mary would have read or shared from memory to Jesus, and he would have prayed with himself. “Forty-five beatitudes are found in the Old Testament, most in the Psalms and Wisdom literature, where they commend a certain quality, condition or situation. For example, the blessed are those who delight in God’s law (Ps 1-2), who take refuge in the law (Ps 2:12)… and trust in him (Ps 84:12).” (Mitch and Sri, 89).

Who is blessed to Jesus? Not even his own mother because she is his mother, but blessed is the one who hears and ponders the word of God and puts it into practice (cf. Luke 11:28). Jesus presents to his followers a path of how they are going to live a particular way of life. He is setting a road map that will guide them through the trials and tribulations that will come in doing so, and even when challenges arise, Jesus promises that his Father will provide consolation. Those who put the beatitudes into practice and live as his disciples will experience happiness and fulfillment. 

Mitch and Sri also show that “Jesus’ beatitudes represent a reversal of values, turning the world’s standards for happiness upside down” (Mitch and Sri, 88). Mature disciples of Jesus will come to experience consolation no matter the external storms that arise. Even in times of desolation, they will remain persistent and on course, so to come out on the other side stronger for having trusted that Jesus is with them even when they did not feel his presence. 

Jesus does not commend those who wage war as blessed, but instead: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” (Mt. 5:9). Jesus does not promote the lives of the rich and famous, but instead: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:3). Jesus does not affirm those who thirst for power, pleasure, wealth, and fame, but instead: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (Mt. 5:6).

These are just a few of the eight beatitudes Jesus presented. A good practice is to review each of the eight beatitudes that Jesus presents in the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount. Which one(s) strike a nerve. Stop there and meditate with Jesus leading us. Where is he helping us to see a way where we can release an attachment so to better follow more faithfully?

Jesus invited his disciples to sit at his feet as the “new Moses”. He came up the mountain like Moses who came up to receive the law. Jesus did not come to receive the law, he came to “teach it” (Mitch and Sri, 87). As he begins his Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, the other wonderful thing we will realize about the beatitudes is that he was not just sharing head knowledge but practical ways to inherit the kingdom of Heaven, to grow in intimacy with his Father and share in the love of the Holy Spirit. All practices that he himself lived through and through.

The Beatitudes, like the Ten Commandments, are boundaries that define us as the children and inheritors of God’s will and blessing. They help us to uncover that which seeks to lead us astray, to isolation, and to our death, and instead identify how to stay focused on that which leads us to eternal life. The most important thing we can do every day is to pray, and the enemy knows that, so he will seek with all his means to distract, divert, and dissuade us from doing so or to keep our prayer and practices merely at the functional level. 

Jesus offers us his love that we might trust him to allow his light to shine in our hearts and minds and the places we would rather no one would see. Even those places that we may feel unlovable, because even there, Jesus will love us when we let him in. He seeks to reveal our sin and failures, not to condemn and shame us, but to help us to see what is enslaving and isolating us and that which keeps us from greater intimacy with his Father. The light and love of Jesus help us to see what our lives are like without God and what they are like with him.

As our consciences become better formed through following Jesus’ teaching, such as the Beatitudes, as we allow him access to our wounds and sins, as we are loved by Jesus even there, we will be purified by the loving fire of the Holy Spirit, and we will then be blessed with a clean heart and see God. See our Loving God and Father who has made us to be happy, fulfilled, and at rest; a rest that we will find when we breathe, receive, rest, and abide in Him.

Photo: Quiet time praying Evening Prayer after the Saturday Vigil Mass at St Helen Catholic Church in Vero Beach.

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

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 8, 2026

Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves begins the moment we allow God to love us.

“Which is the first of all the commandments” (Mk 12:28). This may have been a challenge to Jesus, or it may just have been a valid question of one seeking the Truth. Scribes were the experts in securing and making known the Torah. They could read and write, a skill not only used for protecting and passing on the faith, but also for the daily tasks of commerce and contract writing.

This question of the scribe was one that was asked often by those who sought how best to live out the Torah. Not only were there the Ten Commandments, but throughout the Torah, there were 613 prescribed laws! A common debate that was often entered into was which were the most important to follow to be faithful, as well as the minimalist approach, being, which were the most important to be followed so someone could just get by?

Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” With this response, Jesus drew first on Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and then regarding loving your neighbor, Leviticus 19:18. By answering in this way, Jesus stated that when we orient our lives to who God has created us to be, which is to Love God first, place God at the center instead of ourselves, we can then better love our neighbors and ourselves.

St Augustine, the bishop of Hippo (354-430), echoed Jesus’ “Greatest Commandment” by stating that we can love God and do whatever we want. The order of that statement is aligned to the commandment Jesus gave. God is first. The problem many of us have is that we place ourselves first and seek to bend God’s will to our own. We look to flip the words to: do what I want and God will love me. It is true that God will love us, but we will not experience the intimacy of his love, just as we weaken intimacy with our human relationships when we put ourselves, our interests first before others.

When we shift our orientation to God first, such that he is the foundation of our life, our world opens up and expands. Many of us are wounded by our own sin and the sin of others. We retreat into defensive postures and actualize defense mechanisms to survive. These may be good and necessary at the moment, but the challenge is that if we continue to live in a posture of survival mode, we are merely existing.

God lays out for us a life of consolation and joy, and we can experience this more when we recognize our need for and open ourselves up to receive God’s love. When we allow him to love us, we can then receive his healing balm of forgiveness, love, and mercy. Once we begin to experience these gifts, we will begin to see ourselves and others, not from our own limited perspectives where we can slip into defensive postures that may feed our insecurities, biases, and prejudices, but see from the greater breadth and depth of how God sees us as his children, made in his image. We are not constricted by God’s love but expanded.

God reaches out to us in so many ways to tell us that he loves us more than we can ever imagine. Unfortunately, when we are diverted and distracted by other false pursuits and find ourselves opposed to his will, we limit our experience of his love. Yet, God’s love for us remains unconditional. God loves us as we are, right now, right at this moment. We just need to take some time to sit, breathe, and be willing to accept the gift of being loved for who we are as well as embrace the fullness of who he has created us to be as mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual human beings; as well as resist repressing any aspect of who we are, allow God access to all of us, and when we do we will grow in holiness and wholeness.

Through embracing God’s healing forgiveness, love, and mercy and being engaged in the fullness of our humanity, we can begin to relax our defensive postures. We can become advocates for healing the division, dehumanization, disrespect, and polarization in our realm of influence, in person, and online. In being loved, we begin to feel safe and no longer controlled by our fears and insecurities. Being loved, we will project, react, and should over ourselves less, and be more open to encounter and accompany one another as human beings, and experience our differences not as obstacles but as gifts for our mutual growth.

Photo: The fire of God’s love burns in each sanctuary lamp where his Son is present in the tabernacle. May we join him, sit awhile, breathe, receive, rest, and abide in his love.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 4, 2026

Jesus teaches and shows us that the God of the living invites us to experience and share his love.

In today’s account, Jesus faces another challenge, but this time and the only time recorded in Mark, it is the Sadducees that confront Jesus. They present a hypothetical case based on the provision of Deuteronomy 25:5-6, which states that if a man dies and leaves a widow who has not yet given birth to a son, that she is not to marry outside of the family, but she is to marry her husband’s brother. The reason was so that the first-born son would “continue the line of the deceased brother”(Donahue 2002, 352).

This was the starting point of the presentation. The representative of the Sadducees, then presented the absurd case in which six brothers marry the woman and all die before the woman gives birth to a son. “Last of all the woman also died. At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her” (Mk 12:22-23). The logical presentation was presented in this way to prove their point that there is in fact no resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection of the dead because they saw no overt mention of it in the Torah, the Law or the Teachings, or what we as Christians would call the first five books of the Old Testament.

The reply of Jesus aligns him with the belief of the Pharisees, as they believed in a resurrection of the dead, that is not a mere resuscitation, but that “the whole person will be restored to life” (Donahue 2002, 352). Jesus counters the claim of the Sadducees by inferring that they did “not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Mk 12:24). Jesus shares, not if, but when the dead rise, they will not marry as they had done during their life on earth, but that they will be like the angels. Jesus also cites an account in Exodus when Moses encounters God. During their exchange, God states that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled” (Mk 12:27).

Our loving God and Father is the God of the living. He is the source and sustainer of our life and that life is to continue beyond the temporal reality of our present experience and on into eternity. God has created us to yearn for communion with him, to find our true fulfillment in our relationship with him. In this life and in the next, we will not ever be able to exhaust that hunger and desire to be one with him. His love beckons us ever on.

We limit ourselves and the gift of wonder, as did the Sadducees, when we reduce the mystery of heaven to a problem to be solved. It is natural to think and ask questions like what do we do in heaven, who will we meet, and will…, fill in the blank here. In our present state of three-dimensional reality though, there are probably no words or descriptions that would suffice. A better way to exert our energy is to realize that heaven is not so much a place as it is a communal state of unity with God.  We are better able to do so when we open and prepare our hearts, minds, and souls to receive the one who has loved us into existence and continues to invite us into deeper communion with him. We can also ponder the gift that he is present in all aspects of our lives now and that we just need to attune our awareness of his presence in our lives.

As we become more aware of the presence of God, we will begin to experience his closeness and his love. We are to share that love concretely by choosing to be more understanding, patient, and kind with those we care about as well as those who we feel, not so much. As we learn to get along with one another, spend more time with one another, we can experience others beyond our comfort zones. God comes closest to us in our relationships. As we are loved by God and share our love with others, love increases, the source of which will never run dry.

God, please reveal yourself to us and help us to be open to encounter you in our experiences with each other. Help us to remember to turn to you as anxieties, conflicts, and struggles arise; to listen and love one another as we help to foster opportunities for forgiveness, reconciliation, and mutual understanding. Help us to realize that in seeking you we will be found by you because you have already been present waiting for us. It is in our encounter with you that we experience the foretaste of heaven.

Allow us to experience your peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding in each exchange such that we are inspired to act in ways today and each day that respect the dignity, not of a select few, but of each person we encounter, through our thoughts, words, and actions in person and online. It may not seem like much, but even in the face of hatred, prejudices, and polarization, through small acts of love and treating each other as part of one human family, as brothers and sisters, God’s love will ripple out and help to heal and transform us and our little corner of the world.

Photo: No greater love than this…

John R. Donahue, SJ and Daniel J. Harrington, SJ. The Gospel of Mark, vol. 1 of Sacra Pagina. Edited by Daniel J. Harrington, SJ. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, June 3, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

———————————————————————————-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

————————————————————-

Photo: Accessed from Coravin Wine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo: Pope Leo Regina Caeli address (Vatican Media)

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

Pope Leo XIV Regina Caeli, Sunday May 3

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

Jesus does not ration his gift of the Spirit.

The question that arises and is foremost regarding Christianity above all else is, “Who is Jesus?” How this is answered has a lot to do with what we believe. Biblical scholars debate whether today’s passage, John 3:31-36 is a continuation of John the Baptist talking with his disciples or these are an insertion by John the author. No matter who is the source of these points of concern, the goal is coming to understand and to believe that Jesus is the one who “comes from above” and the one who “comes from heaven is above all”; he “testifies to what he has seen and heard” and he is sent by God to speak “the words of God”; he is also generous in that he “does not ration the gift of the Spirit”; and the Son is loved by the Father and God “has given everything over to him”.
Each of these phrases are revealing the truth that Jesus is the Son of God who has come from above to reveal the truth about his Father and that he is able to do so because he has seen and has an infinite relationship with his Father. Jesus preaches the Gospel, the Good News, that God loves us, that he seeks and has always sought, to be in communion with us, his created beings. Jesus has come to reveal the love of the Father and that his love is unlimited.
The proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah, is not just revealed in the Gospel of John, but each of the three other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as the other epistles of the New Testament. Jesus, as the Son of God, is also the key to unlocking the Hebrew Scriptures, and we can see how the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings all point to Jesus as well. Jesus shared this outline of salvation history with Cleopas and the other disciple on the road to Emmaus, such that their hearts were burning within them while Jesus opened the scriptures to them (cf. Lk 24:32).
John the Baptist got it and the Apostle John and the other apostles eventually got it. They came to understand that Jesus is the Son of the Living God and that he offers a model for us to follow, but more than that, Jesus empowers us with his very life. This was a key point of surrender for John the Baptist when he shared with his disciples, the truth that, he, they and we are all called to ascribe to if we are to grow in our faith: “He must increase; I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). May we spend some time in quiet reflection today by pondering the phrases offered to us regarding who Jesus is. Which one, two, or do all of them call to you?
“The one who comes from above is above all.”
“The one who comes from heaven is above all.”
“He testifies to what he has seen and heard.”
“For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.”
“He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.”
“The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.”
When we have finished, what is our response? Do we disobey or discount that Jesus is who he says he is or do we “accept his testimony” and “certify that God is trustworthy”? If we “accept his testimony”, are we willing to decrease, such that he will increase his influence in our lives? Do we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God?
Reading, meditating, praying with and listening to the Gospel readings, helps us to encounter, sit at the feet of, and be in the presence of Jesus who teaches us in our time as he did with each generation of believers from the time of the apostles to our present age. Are we willing to be still, listen, and come to him daily? If yes, then in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, we will meet the Risen Christ and “know him intimately by the power of the Holy Spirit…” and have “actually touched him” so that we “can witness to him” (Martin and Wright, 79).
Let us not follow the lead of the rich man who walked away sad from his encounter with Jesus. May we instead follow the lead of the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, Cleopas and his companion, surrender our lives to him, and so be loved, forgiven, healed, transformed, that we may be witnesses of Jesus’ joy.
Photo: Jesus did not ration his love, he gave all of himself, holding nothing back, not even his life, so that we may know him and his Father intimately and so experience the outpouring of their love shared between them, the Holy Spirit.
Pope Benedict XVI, “Homily,” May 7, 2005 found in: Martin, Francis and Wright IV, William M. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015.
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, April 16, 2026

“By means of baptism, we are born into communion with Jesus and the Father through the Holy Spirit”.

Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night. He was a Pharisee, showing that not all Pharisees refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Most likely, Nicodemus was not there alone as he shared, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God”. Although, Nicodemus did not reject Jesus outright, he did not understand the fullness of who he was either. His heart and mind was open to what Jesus was teaching and he recognized that Jesus was sent by God. His coming at night most likely showed he was also not yet willing to support Jesus publicly and also on the spiritual level conveyed his lack of understanding regarding the message of Jesus.
He was not alone. For throughout the gospels, it is rare that anyone gets Jesus’ teaching on the first presentation, or second or third, if they are willing to stay with him that long. Nor do they get his deeper meanings if they do have some comprehension. Jesus though recognizes the opening that Nicodemus offers and he approaches Nicodemus as he did with his disciples. Where they are willing and open to learn, Jesus met them where were are and sought to stretch and expand there understanding to move from the things of the finite and below to lift them to spiritual insight and the things from above.
Jesus offers the image of being “born from above” to Nicodemus to help him to exercise his spiritual sight and muscles. Nicodemus takes Jesus words on the literal level and asks how someone can be born again and go back into their mother’s womb. Jesus taught Nicodemus that we as human beings are in need of receiving a new life, a life “born of the Spirit.” When we are born from above we are born again a second time. Jesus is speaking of baptism. We are given our life the first time through our parents, being born from below, and through the water and the Spirit are born again and made new. We are baptized into the death of Jesus and born again in the newness of his resurrection.
“This second birth from heaven is baptism. which is an action of the Holy Spirit. Through the water rite, the believer is joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection (Rom 6:4-5) and receives the indwelling Holy Spirit. If the kingdom of God is Jesus himself, then to enter the kingdom is to be given a share in Jesus’ own life. By means of baptism, we are born into communion with Jesus and the Father through the Holy Spirit” (Martin and Wright, 71).
What Jesus has begun to convey to Nicodemus, he will continue. He has done the same with his Apostles, other disciples, as well as anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear. His teachings have continued because there are those who have stuck with even while struggling with his teachings, have been willing to be transformed by them through the Holy Spirit and so have passed Jesus teachings, such as, the life of being born from above through baptism and the other sacraments, on. This continued for generations and in each age up to us our present day.
Christianity is not like Gnosticism, some secret sect of knowledge that is shared with a select, elite few. Neither is Christianity a form of dualism or Manicheism such that our body and all that is material are bad and we need to shed the physical as soon as possible to attain the fullness of our potential through the absolute embrace of the spiritual only. Nor is Christianity Pelagianism, where we just need the proper discipline, will power, and persistence to follow the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus offers us a universal invitation for all to “be born from above”, which means to be baptized in his name, to follow him into his death, to die to our our false sense of self, to our sin, our pride, that attitude and disposition that strives to set apart, diminish, devalue, dehumanize, divide, and polarize, and to rise with him. In being “born from above”, we receive the offer to participate in his divinity through the purifying fire and love of the Holy Spirit and so, instead of rejecting our humanity, embrace the fullness of our humanity, as we are being perfected by our participation in the life of Jesus.
The grace of God builds on our nature, the goodness of the creation he has made and formed into existence through an outpouring of his love. We accomplish this the same way his mother Mary, the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, the disciples, and Nicodemus did. We answer the call to holiness and sanctity. We say, “Yes” to Jesus and give him all we are and recognize all that we have is a gift from God the Father.
Day by day we need to be willing to be lead by the hand of Jesus, the firstborn of the new creation, he will lead us to our healing and guide us to offer our hand to others. May we resist the temptation to put up barriers, to keep others at arm’s length. We are all, every one of us, invited to become saints through our participation in the life of Jesus.
I agree with Pope Francis who in his exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate (“Rejoice and Be Glad”), wrote that we cannot “claim to say where God is not, because God is mysteriously present in the life of every person, in a way that he himself chooses, and we cannot exclude this by our presumed certainties. Even when someone’s life appears completely wrecked, even when we see it devastated by vices or addictions, God is present there. If we let ourselves be guided by the Spirit rather than our own preconceptions, we can and must try to find the Lord in every human life.”
God is present to us in each of our lives. For those of us who have been, may we embrace the gift of our baptism, so to better understand what Jesus was teaching Nicodemus, that we have been “born from above”. Through our dying and rising in Christ, we have better access and a share in the breath and life of the Holy Spirit. In this way, we are transformed and made new by the Holy Spirit when we believe and follow his guidance. We are invited to share and draw deeply from this spring of living water and lead others to the same source.
————————————————————————–
Photo: My baptism, July 18, 1965 and my journey to the priesthood begins.
Martin, Francis and William M. Wright IV. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015.
Link for the Pope Francis article on “Rejoice and Be Glad”
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, April 13, 2026

When we encounter Jesus for ourselves, we too will have some good news to share!

Today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark, 16:9-16, is commonly called, “The Longer Ending.” Most ancient manuscripts of Mark end at 16:8. Whether this Gospel ended there or the original ending was lost is not definitively known. Many biblical scholars also recognize in these verses a different writing style, so attribute this longer ending to a different author. This ending recounts that Mary Magdalene and two disciples, presumably the same on the road to Emmaus as recorded in Luke, met the risen Jesus. When both Mary and the this pair share their experiences with the eleven, they are not believed, and then, “later, as the eleven were at table, he [Jesus] appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart”

How many times had Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for being hard of heart? Now he is saying the same to the eleven for not believing the accounts of Mary and the two disciples. We do not have a reason for their unbelief and maybe that is well and good because that gives us the opportunity to ponder for ourselves when has someone brought us a message from Jesus and we responded to them with hard hearts and were unbelieving? Are there certain people we would not believe no matter what good news they had to share with us? Have we brought the good news of our encounter with Jesus and it was met with coldness or even disdain?

Mary a woman and a woman that has had seven demons exorcized from her would not have been considered a credible witness in the ancient near East. And yet, Jesus chose her to appear to first and to bring the message of his resurrection to the Apostles. And that such an “unreliable” source, Mary’s witness, has been retained in all four gospels has something to also say – Mary encountered Jesus, believed, and shared what she saw and experienced and although initially not believe, her testimony was preserved.

Jesus does not belabor the point. His conviction helped them to see that as his followers their hearts needed to be open to him working through others, as he told John when someone was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, “whoever is not against us is for us” (cf. Mk 9:40). He was also preparing them for those who would believe their testimonies.

Christianity is not a secret sect, it is a universal call and proclamation to be shared with all. We are celebrating in this Easter Octave, as we continue to do so each year, the fullness of the Paschal Mystery. Not only did the Son of God became incarnate and live the fullness of a human existence, he suffered, died, conquered death, and rose again, for all of humanity and creation.

This was no mere resuscitation like Lazarus who would die again. Jesus conquered death and became the firstborn of the new creation and he invites us to participate in his reign. He invites us to share in his divinity. The resurrection is the Good News he wanted his eleven to proclaim when he said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15).

Do we believe the apostolic claim that was first shared by Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles, and has been passed on generation after generation? Will we, like those who have gone before us, receive, abide in, and share the love of God? Jesus is calling us to do so not for a select few in our pew, but for all in our realm of influence. We are to build relationships by bringing the light, joy, and love of Jesus to each individual that we meet, person to person. Let us also be open to God working through others and receive his message from them as well! Alleluia!!!Alleluia!!!

———————————————————————

Photo: Elizabeth Tabish, playing Mary Magdalene in the series The Chosen.

Link for the Mass readings for April 11, 2025