forgiveness

With Jesus, may we pay a little more attention to the inside.

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing” (Mt 23:27-28).

How many of us spend an inordinate amount of time regarding physical externals? Washing, makeup, the right clothes, the correct scents, teeth whitening, plucking, nipping, and tucking. How about time spent exercising through gym memberships, home exercise equipment, physical trainers, sports, stretching, running, or cycling. How about time spent towards a career through education, updating, professional learning, seminars, webinars, and networking. There are other categories that I can add, and the point is that there is not anything necessarily wrong with any of the above when they are properly ordered and each is in a healthy balance.

Yet, if external activities and how we define ourselves externally are all we are investing our time and energy in, then Jesus has a point. We may “appear beautiful on the outside” with great looks, a body that doesn’t quit, and a career to die for, but what is going on inside? Are we empty, unfulfilled, achieving goal after goal, yet feeling adrift or hollowed out? Do we have all the right social skills and etiquette down, know the right things to say in public, we have friends in the hundreds or thousands on our social media accounts, yet we feel alone and not a part of anything meaningful?

Worse yet, do we go to Church, say the right prayers, are active in ministry, tithe, are members of boards, involved in the community, and doing some great works of charity, but when the door is closed, and no one is looking… what kind of “hypocrisy and evil doing” are we up to? It is easy to rest in a false sense of security while Jesus chews out the scribes and the Pharisees, right now, yet, do Jesus’ words have an effect on us if we allow his light to shine also on the imperfections and shadow sides of us as well.

We can spend our time whitewashing the outside, projecting a perfect image, while chasing finite and material pursuits alone, which will more than likely leave us still feeling anxious, restless, unsatisfied, and worn out. Maintaining and protecting a false image on any level is exhausting. Instead, we can take a good look at the time we invest, where we focus our energies, examine our conscience, and assess the health of our relationship with God, family,  significant friendships, our vocation instead of occupation, and our service to those within and beyond our intimate circle.

Instead of expending energy maintaining a perfect persona, we will do better to be in touch with our weaknesses, our faults, wounds, and poverty of spirit, so that we can resist defending or rationalizing and seek healing, reconciliation, and transformation. By doing so, we may be more accepting, patient, understanding, and forgiving of others because we will come to realize that we are not all that perfect, the world does not revolve around us, and we are in need of help.

The path lit by Jesus will reveal our imperfections and sins and also will help us to distinguish between apparent goods and what is authentic and truly good. When we can step off the treadmill of chronic stress, come to a stop… breathe… press pause, we will begin to experience our vulnerabilities, insecurities, and fears. When we allow Jesus into those places and ask him for strength, forgiveness and healing, we will experience the peace, love, and rest we have been made for. We can rest in just being, just being ourselves and loved by God as we are, imperfections and all – no whitewash necessary.

Photo: Sending some quiet time while the sun was setting to reflect on where I can improve and need God’s help and healing, and thanking him for what I did well with his help.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, August 26, 2026

To forgive? Each and every opportunity.

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times” (Mt 18:21)?

Peter may have thought he was being quite generous in asking to forgive seven times because the custom of the time was considered to forgive someone three times. It may also sound pretty generous to us, because the usual question most of us ask is, “Do I have to forgive at all?” Many of us do not do forgiveness well, even if we recognize that it is a virtue. 

If someone says to us, they are sorry, do we reply, “I forgive you.”? Often our automatic response is, “That’s alright”, “It’s ok”, or “No problem”. Then we may stew on the situation to different degrees. When we are called out for a mistake, error or offense, do we ask for forgiveness or operate from a defensive posture to explain or rationalize away why we did what we did, or defend that what we did as right, not willing to admit any inappropriate action?

We are very habitual creatures, and much of what I shared above is learned behavior. We are conditioned and shaped since the time of our youth and even from our time in the womb. We also may recall those cases in which we feel justified in our stance of unforgiveness. Another reason why forgiveness does not just roll off the tongue or our natural disposition is not forgiveness is because most of us are living in a chronic state of stress.

We are often in a defensive posture and aren’t even aware. We are often unconsciously in a state of fight of flight dealing with the normal stresses of daily life and that is just when things are going well. Add to the stew of stewing in our daily stresses, a wicked slider, and we slip into withdrawal mode or reaction mode.

For any of the above, Jesus will support no justification or rationalization for unforgiveness. He will instead raise the bar for us as he did for Peter: “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times”, which can also be translated as seventy times seven. In either case, Jesus’ point is to forgive unconditionally. “If God places no limits, humans cannot place a limit. On the other hand, those who place limits on forgiving others will have limits placed on their forgiveness by God” (Harrington, 269)

We are called to be disciples of Jesus; we are to strive to forgive as our heavenly Father forgives. Forgive the same person seventy-seven times? Yes. If someone is seeking forgiveness, forgive. God has forgiven us and will do so unlimitedly. We are to do the same. Jesus does not mean that we don’t hold people accountable. He offered three steps of how to hold one accountable in yesterday’s readings (Matthew 18:15-20). Nor is he saying that we are to remain in a dangerous or life-threatening situation or enable people in their self-destructive behavior.

Forgiveness has to do with not holding on to the hurt, not allowing the offense to fester as a grudge that builds to hate, that can then build to seeking revenge, or lead us into the opposite direction of depression and despair. Forgiveness is also not a curse but a blessing. For when we forgive, we stop the cycle of hurt. Forgiveness is an antidote to the poison someone has injected. When we refuse to forgive, we allow the person who has injured us to do so over and over again. In our unwillingness to forgive we allow that poison to continue to fester.

The parable that Jesus offers may be a bit confusing upon a first reading. How can God be so harsh after being so merciful? “The parable presumes Jewish concepts about God’s mercy and justice. God is willing to show mercy to sinners, but they must be prepared to show mercy to other people. To those who refuse to be merciful God will show strict justice” (Harrington, 271). It is in our best interest physically, in that forgiveness helps our stress levels and blood pressure to decrease, as well as spiritually, as forgiving helps us to experience reconciliation and healing between our relationships with God and each other. 

Struggling with holding onto a grudge and/or past hurts? Next time someone apologizes, resist the knee-jerk reaction of saying, “It’s ok.” If it was ok, there would be no need to apologize. Instead say, “I forgive you.” This offers healing for both involved. Another approach is to visualize yourself approaching the person you have the issue with and saying to them, “I forgive you for…” and insert the concrete thing that was done. You may also find it helpful to visualize Jesus standing beside you while you do this exercise. Repeat the process each day in your time of prayer until you start to feel yourself coming to a place of forgiveness and can imagine that reconciliation is indeed possible.

If you find visualizing difficult, sit down and talk with Jesus. Be honest with him, tell him the situation and share with him that you do not want to forgive the person. Then ask for Jesus to help you. Embrace the sacrament of Reconciliation and confess your unwillingness to forgive. When ready, determine how best to reach out to the person to say that you forgive them; a phone call, email, text message, or in person.

A third idea that may work is to write the person a letter, whether you send it or not. Each of these practical ways provides an opportunity to approach the great gift that Jesus offers us, to forgive seven, seventy-seven, or four hundred-ninety times, which is to say, to forgive each and every time we are given the opportunity to do so. There may be situations so abusive or horrible, or the person may no longer be alive, that a direct communication is not possible or wise. In that case, the healing journey of forgiveness still offers a path to healing deep pain, even without confronting the person directly. 

We don’t do forgiveness well. But with Jesus, a daily practice we can begin is to say each morning, “Please forgive me, God or name” of the person from whom we seek forgiveness, and think of a few thoughts, words, or actions we need to be forgiven for. Then, “I forgive you (insert name) for…” and think of a few words, actions, or inactions to insert toward the one who has harmed us. 

In the evening, call to mind that which we are grateful for, where we said, “Yes,” to God and where we said, “No.” Where we said, “Yes,” offer thanks, and where we said, “No,” we can ask for forgiveness and help to do better the next day.

Jesus also gave us a pretty good line to pray: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We are not alone. Remember, Jesus asked God to forgive those who crucified him. We can ask God to forgive those who have offended, hurt, or abused us. Then we can move to the point where we begin to develop the freedom of heart to say to others, “I forgive you”, and “Please forgive me.”

Photo: As God forgives us without limits, we are to do the same. An evening moment and prayerful pause, offers us a good moment to ask for forgiveness and to forgive.

Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew, ed. Daniel J. Harrington, vol. 1, Sacra Pagina Series (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2007).

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, August 23, 2026

Jesus offers us the sign of Jonah.

“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet” (Mt 12:39).

Jonah is the prophet best known as the one who spent three days and nights in the belly of a whale, great fish, or sea monster, depending on your scriptural translation. Jonah ended up in that predicament because he refused to follow God’s direction to speak his message of forgiveness to the sworn enemies of Israel, the Ninevites. It would be like God asking one of us to fly out to the Middle East to meet with members of ISIS or Al-Qaeda and invite them to repent. Not only would we not believe they would want to repent, would we want them to even if they would? Also, whether they did or didn’t, would we be able to return from such a meeting with our heads intact?

These were probably some of the issues running through Jonah’s mind when he refused to follow God’s will. After swimming to shore, Jonah overcame his resistance and followed the command of the Lord, kept his head on his shoulders, and the people of Nineveh repented. Happy, happy, joy, joy! Not exactly. At the repentance of his enemies and God’s expression of mercy and forgiveness, Jonah said to God, “This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you were a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish” (Jonah 4:2)”. Jonah shows his hardness of heart in that he did not want to go to Nineveh because he did not want his enemies to receive God’s forgiveness!

The scribes and the Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign and the sign of Jonah is what he gives them: The Ninevites, Gentiles, non-Jews, were willing to repent at the word of Jonah, and those scribes and Pharisees questioning Jesus, God’s chosen, were not willing to repent at the urging of one greater than Jonah, the Son of God, who was in their midst.

Jesus announced his ministry, as recorded in Mark 1:15, with the words: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” That is again our invitation today, to examine our conscience by asking God to help us to recognize his presence among us, then reflect on what good God has done in our lives and give him thanks. Review the last day or two to see where God has called us to act. Where did we answer his call, where did we, like Jonah, resist or refuse?

Someone greater than Jonah, is Jesus the Christ. May we allow his love, mercy, and forgiveness to fill us and to soften our hardness of hearts. Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale and was saved, Jesus spent three days experiencing death and rose again. Once we repent and die to our self-sufficiency and surrender our pride, we will experience the love and mercy of Jesus flow through us to all those we meet in person and online. Even, and especially, those for whom we would rather not: those who get under our skin, grate on our nerves, and/or those who mirror to us our own biases and prejudices.

Suffering is a very concrete and harsh reality. That is something we all agree on whether we believe in God or not. The question is, how do we respond to suffering, especially the hurt caused by another? We can harden our hearts, slip into denial, despair, or wish our problems away, but none of these work very well for the long term. Jonah found that out when he hardened his heart against forgiveness and refused to follow God’s will. Jesus followed the will of God to the cross, forgave those who crucified him, and experienced new life.

Let us not run away from God, his will, or his offer of forgiveness. Forgiveness stops the bleeding from the original wound received. When we forgive, we will not be alone. Jesus waits for us with his arms wide open to embrace us and journey with us each step of the way. Jonah hardened his heart, but still was willing to repent and follow God’s will to preach repentance to his enemies who did just that. When willing to forgive, we open our hearts and minds to God’s love which opens the door for healing, mercy, and reconciliation.

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Photo: There is no resurrection without the cross. There is no healing without forgiveness. There is no suffering without God’s consolation.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, July 20, 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

“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

Let us not demean but embrace our humanity as well as those in need.

And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven”(Mt 9:2).

Matthew’s account of this scene is much simpler than Mark and Luke’s, but the point is the same. The person paralyzed received healing because some people were willing to bear his weight and creatively bring him to Jesus. In neither of the three Gospel accounts do we know who the people are that bring this man to Jesus for healing. Were they family, friends, or neighbors, combination? It does not matter. They were aware of someone in need, they believed Jesus could heal him, and they put forth the effort to bring this man to Jesus.

Are we like the people in today’s Gospel; are we aware, do we care? St. Mother Teresa often said that people are “not only hungry for bread – but hungry for love, naked not only for clothing – but naked for human dignity and respect, homeless not only for want of home and bricks, – but homeless because of rejection.” If we are living our faith, indifference to the needs of others is not an option. Rationalizing why we ought not to care, or worse giving in to our fears and prejudices so as to dehumanize and reject others in need are counter to the call of Jesus.

When we may be closed off to helping others, a bit impatient or short, less than forgiving or merciful, it could be that we have been curving in upon ourselves and not allowing God to love us in areas we may not feel all that lovable. Yet, it is exactly there that Jesus yearns to enter. He seeks to love us in our most wounded places and where we feel shame. All sin is a curving in upon ourselves and away from God. Doing so also distorts reality and keeps us distant from the antidote. When we allow Jesus into our poverty, sin, and shame, we can be loved, forgiven, and consoled. Then we can embrace a disposition that is more open to sharing mercy, forgiveness, love, and care for others.

How is God speaking to and moving our hearts? There are so many who are hurting and suffering. May we not see people as interruptions but invitations to experience God’s grace. We just need to be honest about where God is leading us and act as the four in our Gospel reading did. When we are aware, willing to come close to those in need, access our personal gifts of creativity, and collaborate with Jesus, miracles can and still do happen. Structures of inhumanity and injustice can be turned around when we are willing to be loved by God and love others in return.

Pope Francis has been consistent and clear about the dignity of all life. He tweeted (do we still say tweet?) back in 2013: “It is God who gives life. Let us respect and love human life, especially vulnerable life in a mother’s womb.” During Mass on Sunday, January 14, 2018 he shared: “Migrants and refugees don’t represent just a problem to be solved, but are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved.” On June 3, 2020, Pope Francis said, “My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life”.

Painting: The Lord hears the cry of not just a select few but all of us in need. Are we willing to share our need, receive God’s love and so help others?

See also Mark 2:1-12, Matthew 9:1-8 and Luke 5:17-26

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 30, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, June 2026

Revenge, retribution, or eye for an eye? Neither. “Offer no resistance to evil” – Love, forgive, and show mercy.

Today we receive the fifth antithesis, in which, Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil” (Mk 5:38-39). The Mosaic law, an eye for an eye, that Jesus first addressed was originally an attempt to curb the emotive response of revenge. If someone had killed a clan or tribal member, there would have been those who would choose to retaliate by inflicting as much carnage as possible to the people responsible, even up to and including the death of the whole clan or tribe, even the women and children. The rationale behind this was that there would then be no one to come back for revenge. The idea of seeking instead an eye for an eye was to temper the retribution to a more measured and proportionate response.

Jesus though is saying that “an eye for an eye” does not go far enough, and raises the challenge of being his disciple to a higher level, being that even the thought of revenge is not to be considered. Jesus is not just seeking to lessen the cycle of violence, he is giving us the means to end it. Forgiveness is the cornerstone of the teachings of Jesus. Instead of seeking revenge, Jesus is commanding that we seek to forgive those who have harmed us. We who pray the Our Father or the Lord’s prayer, are to take to heart and be mindful of the words we pray each and multiple times each day: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.“

The urge for revenge is powerful and primal. Revenge is wired into our survival instinct to protect ourselves. Jesus invites us to grow beyond our mere instinctual responses and survival instincts. He is calling us to mature beyond the bestial and to be a people who do not merely survive, but thrive. Jesus is seeking to infuse us with his divine life so that we will be transformed. This is true not only for ourselves but for those who would seek to do us harm. Instead of striking back with revenge, we are to be flexible and adept enough to instead appeal to their conscience. We are to take all that others throw at us, and meet them with the courage to stand, receive their worst, and disarm them with the blinding light of the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

This is no easy task, especially when we experience ongoing injustice and needless loss of life. To put into practice such teachings as the turning of the other cheek, we need to start small. We need to resist the immediate thoughts of revenge that arise for the smallest of offenses. When someone makes a snide remark, and/or offers demeaning or dehumanizing comments directed at us or others, we resist retaliation. We hold them accountable by not adding more fuel to the fire. Our hope is to receive the offense and mirror back to them what they have done such that their conscience may be convicted. By loving them instead of striking back in kind, we may win back a brother or sister.

To be a disciple of Jesus means we need to be contemplatives in action in the face of cruelty, division, and dehumanization. We need to ground ourselves in the word of God as we return to these challenging teachings of the Beatitudes and antitheses often, believe in them, meditate and pray upon them, keep them at the forefront of our minds and, with the courage and guidance of the Holy Spirit, put them into practice. Doing so will then help us to be centered and intentional when conflict arises. Instead of responding with a knee-jerk reaction, we can breathe and seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance and then choose how best to respond.

Some would say this is naive and impossible. It is true that we will not be able to resist thoughts, words, and acts of revenge and walk the path of forgiveness on our willpower alone. We need to surrender our ego and pride to Jesus, who as the Son of God became one with us in our humanity, experiencing our humanity at its worst, so that we can become one with him in his divinity and become human at our best. As we receive his love, forgiveness, and mercy, we will be transformed. We will be even more transformed when we love, forgive, and extend mercy to others.

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Photo: Jesus has taken our sins, our worst, and our inhumanity upon himself on the Cross to forgive us and show us that there is a way through our darkness into his light.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 15, 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