freedom

Jesus is the light that will lead us out of our darkness.

Yesterday, we celebrated the Epiphany, in which the three magi encountered Jesus. They left changed, no longer following a star to find a king, but bearing the light of Christ from their encounter. Next Sunday we will recall the Baptism of Jesus by John. Today the daily readings jump ahead to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John the Baptist has been arrested. He must decrease as Jesus increases.

Jesus inaugurates his ministry echoing the words of John’s ministry: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). John prepared the way for the Kingdom to come, Jesus himself, in his person, is the Kingdom of heaven. Heaven is not so much a place but a state of communion with God, and who better to embody the reality of heaven than the Son of God in our midst. He who remained fully divine, in communion with his Father, while becoming human and living among us.

Jesus proclaimed his promise of the Kingdom to his people who were suffering. He is the one who has been promised. Jesus is the fulfillment of their greatest hope. Matthew summarized the ministry of Jesus thus: “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people” (Mt 4:23).

Jesus provided hope and healing to those who were losing hope, struggling, and in pain. Jesus taught with authority, providing light that if they were willing to follow would lead them out of their darkness. He did so through not only being the Kingdom in their midst, not only being their light to guide their way, but also being the way, the truth, and the life embodied. He empowered and freed them from their slavery to the sin that kept them bound. He helped them to see that they could not be enslaved by anyone or anything. Jesus helped the people to see that what kept them bound was their separation from God.

Jesus did not only come to the people of Galilee two thousand years ago. His message is offered for everyone. Jesus proclaims his message again to us today, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). There is no better new year’s resolution to begin with than this! Jesus is still present to us, providing hope and healing, providing his presence of love and mercy, providing his teaching which shines a light in our darkness. We too can rise up a follow his light and be freed from our slavery to our own selfishness and sin. As we decrease and allow Jesus to increase, we too like the wise men will be changed. We too can share Christ as we live our lives differently this year.  A life that expresses love, understanding, patience, mercy, and forgiveness.

Photo: Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, January 5, 2025

“Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who takes away the sins of the world.”

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).

The only one who can take away sins is God. The unblemished lamb is the animal that is sacrificed at the Passover meal, commemorating when the angel of death passed over the Hebrews whose doorposts were marked with the blood of the lamb. The next day they were freed from their slavery under pharaoh, and the Exodus event began culminating in their passing through the Red Sea to freedom.

The Son of God became human to become the Lamb of God. He experienced laughter, pain, suffering, love, tears, and all of our human condition even temptation, but he did not sin. The Son of God became human so that what he assumed in his human condition, he could redeem. As the Lamb of God, Jesus approached John for baptism, he took upon himself the sin of the world and submitted his divinity to his human condition and was willing to be baptized for repentance not because he sinned, but so that he entered into solidarity with us in our sin. He was then and is not afraid now to come close. This act also foreshadowed his crucifixion.

The Incarnation, the Son becoming fully human while remaining fully divine, was the premiere act of mercy, in that miracle, Jesus entered the chaos and woundedness of our lives. His willingness to die on the cross is the greatest expression of his love. The same love that he has, continued to and always will share with his Father, in holding nothing back, we can see him doing so visibly when we look upon a crucifix. He was born and died, he gave everything, including his life for each and every one of us.

We cannot redeem ourselves, heal by our own willing it, escape from our own sins alone, nor be restored to who we have been created to be. We need a savior. Jesus is a model to follow and teacher to guide us, while at the same time he so much more. He who is divine, became one with us in our humanity to lead us and free us from our slavery to sin. Each Christmas is a reminder of the gift of the incarnation, that we can be blessed by every day. As we receive his invitation to grow in our relationship with Jesus daily, he grants us the grace to access and share in the divine Love experienced between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus holds his hand out to each one of us today. May we receive his hand, and as our fingers touch his palm may we feel the wound there, touch, as did Thomas, the imprint of the nail that pierced his flesh, and realize he allowed this to happen so that we could have this very moment with him. Even in our wounds, anxiety, insecurities, confusion, fear, and sin, may we resist pulling away. May we feel the warmth of his hand grip ours. Let our gaze be drawn up to see his face, his smile, and so experience his forgiveness, healing, and his infinite love.

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Photo: Blessed at each Mass and second Advent as a priest, to hold up the Body of Christ and say, “Behold, the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world.” May we who behold him and receive his Body and Blood or spiritual communion, believe in him.

Link for the readings of the Mass for Saturday, January 3, 2026

Acknowledging our sins is the antidote to our pride.

“…whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 18:14).

From the Christian perspective, humility is not false modesty. Where someone thanks us for doing something and we say something like, “Oh, it was nothing.” This response is often a conditioned response that, consciously or unconsciously, is given to elicit more praise and to keep the focus on ourselves and what we have done. “Sure it was something, you did all that work…” The more appropriate response would be, “You are welcome.” Then the topic of conversation can move on to other matters.

Humility has to do with our primary focus. Are we focused first and foremost on ourselves and placing the focus and energy in boosting our ego, jockeying for a position that is front and center? Or are we focused first and foremost on establishing that God is the core and foundation of our every thought, word, and deed and we are thankful to him for each breath we take?

We are nothing without God. Without him, we would cease to exist. We may bristle at such statements because our cultural influences often promote that what we have and achieved has come because of our own hard work and merit. There is some truth to the effort and energy we may have expended to achieve what we have, but if we think back, many others also had a part to play in where we are today, including God.

From a heightened sense of self-exaltation, we also tend to have less empathy or mercy for those who may have less or are struggling financially, emotionally, psychologically, morally, or spiritually. We might look down our nose at others thinking or saying outright, “What is wrong with them and why don’t they get their act together?”

Where in point of fact, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” Situations in life, whether we are up or down, can change quickly. The point Jesus is making clear in today’s Gospel is that we are far from how perfect we think we are. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Recognizing this reality is a good place to be, as Jesus points out. Being willing to recognize our sinfulness is the first step to freedom.

The contrite tax collector “went home justified” because he came to terms with his sinfulness and confessed it so he could be forgiven, healed, and restored by God. The Pharisee who felt he needed no help because he “was not like the rest of humanity” closed himself off from the healing balm and reconciliation that he truly needed. His prayer was actually to himself and not to God. He did not see himself as a sinner, because of his own pride and arrogance, and so cut himself off from the love and mercy of God.

Our spiritual life does not begin to mature until we utter the prayer of the tax collector. “O God, be merciful to me a sinner”. If we don’t believe we need God, we keep ourselves at a distance. Until we acknowledge our dependence upon God and allow his light to shine in us to reveal our sins, we are in danger. Our own self sufficiency and reliance skews the view that we are sinners and are in need of forgiveness. “The antidote to pride is the total abandonment to the mercy of God and total trust in his grace to empower us to turn from sin and live charity” (Bergsma, 263).

Photo credit: The light of Jesus shines in our darkness when we are willing to receive him.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, October 26, 2025

Bergsma, John. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C. Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing, 2024.

When we align our will with God’s, we experience freedom.

Jesus continues to call out those Pharisees who follow their own will and put themselves in places of honor instead of God, and then one of the scholars of the law interjects: “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”

Jesus did not soften his words or hold back. He went right at the scholar and convicted him as well, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them” (Lk 11;45-46).

Jesus is clear about his mission, about what the kingdom of God is not and what it is. Jesus is shining a light on the practices of those Pharisees and the scholars of the law that are not fulfilling the Law and the Prophets. I believe that there were those who were. Yet, for those he challenged, he did so in the hope that they would see the darkness that was blinding them. Unfortunately, unlike Bartimaeus (see Mk 10:46-52) who knew that he was blind and wanted to see, this was not true for many whom Jesus confronted.

How about us? Are we aware of our blind spots? Are we willing to allow Jesus to shine his light and love in our direction? Will we cover our eyes because the light is too bright and withdraw further into the shadows, or will we remain still and allow our eyes time to adjust so that the brightness of the Mystery of God will reveal to us that which has kept us bound? Will we justify or rationalize our behavior or will we be transparent, repent, believe in the Gospel, and walk further into the light and the embrace of Jesus? Will we stand in the brilliance of God’s love and truth and let the fire of his love burn away all that is not of him?

Let us resist the path of those Pharisees and scholars of the Law who imposed heavy burdens without being willing to help others along the way. It is important for us to know the Catechism, the Bible, Canon Law, participate in the sacraments, and be people of prayer and service. The purpose of each of these pursuits are not for themselves along though. We do so that we will come to know Jesus and the love he shares with the Father who is the Holy Spirit. We have been created for nothing less than to participate in the very love of God, to become divine through our participation in the life of Jesus. This love and relationship with God increases when we confess our sins, are forgiven, and then having received God’s mercy, share what we have received with others.

Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them. In fact, his interpretation and expansion of the law was much more demanding than the Pharisees or the scribes. The difference was and continues to be, that, Jesus meets us where we are and loves us where we are. He does not lower the bar but raises it. He wants us to realize that we can only follow God’s law with him. Without Jesus we won’t be able to even come close. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing, but with him, all things are possible.

In admitting our weakness and revealing to Jesus our poverty, he then gives us the strength mature, for he is our “rock and salvation” (Psalm 62:2-23). He is the solid foundation upon which we can stand and build. “The whole aim of any person who is beginning prayer – and don’t forget this because it’s very important – should be that he work and prepare himself with determination and every possible effort to bring his will in conformity to God’s will” (St. Teresa of Avila).

In aligning our will with Jesus, we are empowered to fulfill the prescriptions and practices that God has commanded, not for God’s sake but for ours! God’s prescriptions that we receive in the Old and the New Testaments are not to restrict but to free us from our slavery to sin.

In identifying and renouncing our sins, we will experience freedom from the false truths, diversions, distractions, and attachments that the enemy has been poisoning us with. Through daily reading, meditating, and praying upon God’s law and putting them into practice we become like a tree planted near a fresh running stream that will never wither and fade. Our roots will run deep and continue to receive nourishment and sustenance we were created for: the eternal spring of the Holy Spirit which purifies and heals us.

Jesus beckons us to come out from the shadows and into the radiance of his light. As we experience his love and mercy, he encourages us to continue to move out of our comfort zones, attachments, and slavery which is paralyzing us. Jesus calls us to experience freedom. When we trust him and walk with him, our souls will experience the rest that it is starving for, the peace that we yearn for, and the love we have been created for.

Photo: As each sun sets, may we repent from our sins and die to our false selves, so that we may rise the next day with the light of Jesus in our hearts!

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Turn away from seeking signs or wisdom. Seek Jesus instead.

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah” (Lk 11:29).

To understand what Jesus means, we need to understand the sign of Jonah. Jonah was sent by God to go to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, to call them to repent from their wicked ways. The Jews not only considered Nineveh to be a place of decadence, wickedness, and godlessness, but the heart, the capital city of Assyria. Its military which had invaded Israel and conquered the northern kingdom around 721 BC.

We can understand Jonah’s initial refusal to follow God’s lead. Not only did he not want to go to Nineveh, but Jonah also did not want them to receive mercy. He wanted God to punish and destroy the nation who he considered an enemy. Those who have read the Book of Jonah, know that Jonah finally acquiesced, and within hours of his proclamation to the citizens, including the king, they repented and God showed them mercy.

Jesus draws a parallel between the people of Nineveh and his listeners. The people of Nineveh heard and repented to a reluctant messenger. The Ninevites, Gentiles, the sworn enemies of Israel, received God’s mercy when they repented. Now, in their midst was one greater than Jonah, the Son of God, and they were demanding of him a sign. The sign of Jonah was repentance. Jesus, from the beginning of his public ministry, preached the same: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).

Many did not listen to Jesus. We would do well to listen to Jesus’ message. Repentance is a foundational spiritual discipline. We are called to consistently and daily examine our conscience and to come to accept that we live in a fallen world. This is not a pessimistic view. This is an awareness of the reality of our present condition.

By accepting that we live in a fallen world, that there is only so much that we can do by ourselves, we will begin to recognize that we need a savior. The next step that we can make is to acknowledge that we need to repent, to identify and turn away from our sins, and turn back to him who can save us. For apart from him, we can do nothing, yet with God, all things are possible.

St Mother Teresa recognized the need for Jesus and stressed this when she taught her novices that she was not interested in numbers and she was not interested in having a branch of social workers. She and those who followed Jesus were to be missionaries of God’s charity. They were to serve Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor. To do so they participated in daily Mass for an hour so they could bring Jesus and see Jesus to those they encountered each day. After returning from their time of service they participated in adoration for an hour. Empowered and renewed by Jesus, blessed by his mercy and love, they could serve Jesus in those they met in the harshest of conditions.

Jesus calls us, as he did his listeners, to resist seeking signs as did the Jews and wisdom as did the Greeks, but repent and give our lives to him. By emptying ourselves of our preconceived notions and opening our hearts and minds to follow his lead and be conformed to his life, we can be about doing God’s work. As long as we stay connected to him, he will guide and give us the means to accomplish that which he sends us to do.

We stay connected to Jesus by allowing his light to shine in our hearts and minds so that we can better identify our sins. Not to be condemned, but convicted of them so that we, like the Ninevites, will repent and turn our focus back to God. Our goal is to enter a daily rhythm of resisting temptations and when we fall repenting from them as soon as possible.

Slowly our selfish and disordered pursuits will cease to be our priority, we will no longer put our own interests at the center. Instead, we will accept Jesus as the core of our lives, that he may be the guiding light of our thoughts, words, and actions. For we are “called for freedom,” to be freed from our sins so that we can “use this freedom” to “serve one another through love” (Galatians 5:13 ).

Photo: Jesus calls us to repent from anything that separates us from him and his Father so that we can experience the love of the Holy Spirit. Are we willing to repent?

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, October 13, 2025

May we not reject but welcome the light of Jesus.

“Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me” (Lk 10:16).

On the surface, today’s Gospel as well as the first reading and the psalm may sound like a Debbie Downer of a message, but it is actually the road map, the passage that will lead us from the darkness of slavery steeped in our own sin to the light of truth and freedom found in dedicating our life to Christ. Jesus is continuing to prepare the 72 that are about to go out to proclaim his message of repentance. This echoes Mark’s recording of Jesus’ mission statement: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15).

A sin is any actively contemplated thought, word, or action that we knowingly know goes against the will of God and we freely choose to act upon it anyway. This is why many of us prefer the darkness to the light because we do not have to see and name our sins. We hold on to apparent goods or substitutes that we believe will make us happy and fulfill us, otherwise we would not hold on to them. Yet, they are empty promises. After experiencing the lack of satisfaction, once the emotion or passion of the moment or experience wanes, we either seek more to fill the void or hopefully, recognize the false lure and begin to seek something else to fill the void.

If we choose to seek more or seek within the material and world of finite creation apart from God, we continue along a slippery slope that may lead to our ensnarement or addiction. When we instead heed Jesus’ call and repent, allow the light and truth of Jesus into our darkness, trust that he truly wills our good, we can begin to see our sin, name it, repent from it, let it go, be forgiven, be healed, and fulfilled by receiving the true good, the love that God seeks to give and deepen our relationship with him for whom we have been created.

As servants of the Lord, we are invited to repent, to realign ourselves and our lives in such a way that we are saying yes to building a relationship with God. This is a daily, moment by moment, lifetime task of examining our conscience, asking God to reveal to us our sins, and willingness to embrace the humility to see and confess. This process is not just for ourselves.

Having experienced God’s love and forgiveness, we are called to bring the light of truth we have received to those we meet. This does not mean we are perfect. Through the awareness and confession of our sins, we are incrementally more open to receiving more of the love and light of Jesus within us than before, such that he can shine his light through us into another’s darkness and gently guide them to come out of the shadows.

We need to resist though the temptation to go forth and wag our finger of judgment. For then we are only a darker storm cloud approaching those needing a healing balm. This approach can either cause people to slip deeper into their own shell or come out fighting, seeking to dispel us from their midst. Jesus sends us out like the 72 to encounter one another with understanding, mercy, patience, and love. In the beginning, our light needs to be soft, like the morning dawn, so as not to blind those we seek to offer an invitation.

Jesus, this day and each day going forward, please dwell within us. Help us to be open to those you place near us that we may be present to them with your warmth, welcome, and joy. May we respect each person we encounter and be present, so that they may know that they are not alone, that they, in fact, do exist, that they matter, that they are loved as you love us. May we be like the light of the dawn to help awaken those in the darkness of their pain, suffering, and sin. May we be a lamp unto their feet and a light unto their path, that leads to an encounter and embrace with you; our Truth, our Way, and our Life. Amen.

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Image: When we allow the light of Jesus to shine in our hearts and minds, he will lead us to freedom from that which and those who hold us captive.

Link of the Mass readings for Friday, October 3, 2025

We are fit for the kingdom of God when Jesus is first before all and everyone else.

And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God” (9:61-62).

This is one of the three challenges that Jesus offers to potential followers of his in today’s account. As Jesus is continuing on to Jerusalem, to the ultimate gift he will give to humanity, himself on the cross, Jesus invites those who are still with him to embrace the radical call of the Gospel. God is to be first before anyone and everything else. Even the security of home and family are not to hold one back from following Jesus. His listener’s would don’t have missed the biblical allusion Jesus is countering. When Elijah called Elisha to follow him, Elijah allowed Elisha to say goodbye to his family and settle his estate, so to speak, before they left together (cf 1 Kings 19:19-21).

Jesus is showing in his request, not just the demands of being a follower of his but also why. Jesus is God and if that is true, those seeking to follow him are not to do so with any naïveté nor false presumptions. They are to be willing to give all without holding anything back in following him. Demanding? Yes. But Jesus is about to do the same thing that he asks in giving all he has, his very life on the cross.

These three invitations offered by Jesus are not responded to by those he invites. This is most likely on purpose because the invitation is not only for them but for all who hear this invitation or read it today. We are invited to participate in the life of Jesus and build up the Church. The important foundational point is that we understand what Jesus means by the Church. The original Greek term that we have in the earliest manuscripts was ekklēsia. This is more than just a gathering or an assembly of like minds. Ekklēsia means to be called out from.

Jesus reveals to us anything or anyone that we have placed before God, and he calls us to a new way of living. He calls us to participate more intimately in his life and the life of the Trinity. We will do so when we let go of our grasp of the false substitutes that really don’t bring true happiness and fulfillment. Pleasure, power, honor, and wealth when properly ordered can be goods in and of themselves, but placed first and foremost in our lives, they will not fulfill, provide stability, nor will they give us control over our lives that we seek.

Jesus is revealing in today’s message that home and family also cannot be first. By accepting the invitation of Jesus to place him first and follow him, then our lives in this world will be properly ordered. Nothing else will satisfy, nothing and no one. In fact, we put unrealistic expectations on each other when God is not first because no one can live up to our deepest desires of intimacy and communion. Nothing can fully satisfy us because all is finite and we will only seek more. Only God can satisfy our deepest longing.

Once we reorient our life, put God before all else, grow in our relationship with him, then the other matters and material realities of our lives will fall into place. Our relationships with one another will be more realistic and we will be more understanding when those we are in relationships make mistakes and let us down. We will be more loving and forgiving toward one another when God is the foundation of our lives. God will provide all that we need and he loves us more than we can imagine. When we are confident in God as our refuge and our strength, we can appreciate the material things of creation more and being free of the unrealistic expectations we place on family and friends, we can love each other more.

Photo: When we make daily time to spend with God, we experience so much more wonder even in the simplest of moments.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Instead of pointing out the sins of another, let us confess our own.

Logistically, to our modern minds, the setting of this verse may appear confusing. How could this “sinful” woman be standing behind Jesus such that her tears would fall on his feet? When we think of someone sitting and eating, we imagine them doing so by sitting in a chair. Thus, the feet would be under the chair or toward the front of the person.

During the time period and cultural setting in which Jesus lived, the customary practice when eating was not to sit at all but to recline for the tables were lower. From this position of reclining then it would make sense that she, “stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears” (Luke 7:38). She then knelt down, dried his feet with her hair, and then anointed Jesus’ feet with the ointment she brought for him.

She did not rationalize, deny, ignore, or come grudgingly nor wait for Jesus to call her out, she came not asking for healing but with true contrition for her sins. Hopefully, we can be like this woman, and come to Jesus with the same open heart to his love so that we too will experience his compassion and have our hearts pierced with our own sorrow for the hurt we have caused others through our sinful actions.

Those quick to point the finger at other’s sins, like Simon, who judged this woman, are less apt to be aware of the depth of their own sin and thus “the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little” (Lk 7:47). We are not forgiven less because God is not willing to forgive but because God will not go against our free will. Hiding, being in denial of, rationalizing, or justifying our sins, curving in upon ourselves or listening to the father of lies keeps us at a distance. If we are unaware or unwilling to bring our sins forward in a contrite manner, we are cutting ourselves off from the healing forgiveness God wants so much to share.

When we are instead like the woman in today’s Gospel account by expressing the same trust and faith, are willing to bear our soul with humility and sorrow, with our deepest and darkest sins, we will not only be forgiven but experience a deeper outpouring of God’s love. The one who confesses truthfully, fully, and contritely is forgiven more, be loved more, and thus will love more.

We may not want to face our sins and as we open our hearts and minds to the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit we will experience the pain of seeing our sins. We will not physically heal without experiencing the pain of broken bones mending or skin growing back together to make a scar. Jesus experienced the excruciating pain of dying on the Cross. There could be no Resurrection until he experienced his death. When we are contrite, confess, and atone for our sins, the truth will set us free, and we will experience God’s freedom more fully and his love and peace more deeply.

Photo: Just as running water keeps a pool clean and fresh, so a daily examination of conscience helps us to remain open to the purifying flow of the Holy Spirit.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, September 18, 2025

 

Will we reject or hear Jesus’ message?

He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21).

Jesus sat down after speaking these words to his hometown congregation in Nazareth who had just heard him read the passage from the prophet Isaiah. Jesus proclaimed that he was the one to whom Isaiah was talking about. Luke chose to place this event as the starting point of Jesus’ public ministry, of bringing glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives, recovering sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free, and proclaiming a year acceptable to the Lord (cf. Lk 4:18-19).

This is a message of universal healing for all of humanity. Restoration and reconciliation would come and Jesus would be the vehicle to bring all the nations, all people, back into communion and relationship with his Father. The poor mentioned were not just in reference to those experiencing material poverty but to those finding themselves on the margins of society, the outcasts, those on the peripheries. The captives were not only those imprisoned for debts or crimes but those bound in the chains of their own sin and addiction. The blind were not only those who could not physically see but those who experienced the spiritual blindness of pride and arrogance. The oppressed were not just those under the iron fist of totalitarian and dictatorial regimes but those pressed down through their own self imposed anxieties and fears.

In what ways are we in need of Jesus’ healing and restorative power? What is keeping us on the peripheries, apart from communion and fellowship? What sins and addictions keep us bound, what fears and anxieties keep us oppressed? Jesus invites us in today’s Gospel to be healed and to align ourselves with his will and ministry of loving service to others. The same words he spoke to his own hometown he is speaking to each one of us today.

Even though initially moved by the words of Jesus, they could not see past the boy and humble man of Nazareth they had or thought they had known. How could he be the Messiah? They also rejected his universal message that God was inviting Gentiles into the party. Jesus held up as models of faith, the widow of Zarephath who trusted Isaiah with her last bit of flour and oil and Naaman who trusted the advice of a slave girl and the prophet Elisha. Both, Gentiles, and both blessed by God through their trust in him. His own people chose to hold tighter to their biases and prejudices instead of let go and receive the freedom and healing Jesus offered.

How will we respond to Jesus? Will we follow the hometown crowd or ponder his words? Life is too short to allow our pride to get in the way. Examining our conscience and coming to Jesus with a contrite, sorrowful heart for what we have done and what we have failed to do helps us to be more open. Instead of rejecting, let us welcome Jesus and experience his healing hands on our bowed heads and the warmth of his love pouring through and purging us of our sin and pride so that we may participate with him in bringing the invitation of healing, reconciliation, and love to others and help to bring about an “acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk 4:19).

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Photo from freebibleimages.org

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, September 1, 2025

Are we locking the doors to the Kingdom of heaven or helping to open them?

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men” (Mt 23: 13).

Context, in any reading of the Gospels, or any scriptural text, is important, but certainly with today’s reading. Our country is already experiencing enough division, polarization, and racial unrest as it is. These comments have too often been used to fuel anti-Semitic rhetoric. We need to remember that Jesus is Jewish. “The criticisms are leveled with those of power and/or influence as in the prophetic denunciations, not against the whole people of Israel. The aberrations denounced by Jesus were also denounced by other Jewish teachers in the rabbinic tradition. The goal of the denunciations is to highlight the error, to preserve others from it, and perhaps to bring those who err to the way of righteousness” (Harrington 2007, 327).

Those who would use these verses to denounce people of the Jewish faith tradition, just for being Jewish, would be acting in the same way as those for whom Jesus was convicting. Jesus spoke to the specific actions of specific leaders he had encountered who were using their power and influence for their own means and agendas. The hypocritical behavior that Jesus brought to light unfortunately still exists in some of our civil and religious leadership. This is one of the reasons many are disillusioned with authority and institutions. Jesus saw the danger of hypocrisy especially from the perspective of how it can alienate people such they turn away from his Father.

We seek truth, authenticity, and transparency because these qualities are foundational for building trust and relationships. St. Augustine, whose feast we celebrate this coming Thursday, wrote in his Introduction to his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and we are restless until we rest in you.” He experienced a life without God and with him, and regretted the days he had resisted accepting Jesus’ invitation. It is unfortunate how many today have not come to embrace the words of Augustine, because of their experiences with those, who in the name of Christ, have “locked the kingdom of heaven” before them.

It is easy to point out the hypocrisy of others, but Jesus is convicting each of us as well. How have we erred, sinned, and been hypocritical? When have we allowed past hurts and wounds, anxieties and fears, prejudicial and judgmental attitudes, to limit us from living a life more aligned with his life and teachings? We all fall short in living the “Way, the Truth, and the Life” (cf Jn 14:6), but when we are willing to have the humility to be contrite, to recognize and to be sorry for the harm we have done, we have a loving Father with his arms wide open ready to embrace and comfort us, as well as offer us forgiveness and healing.

As we are more conformed to living and loving like Jesus, we have more credibility when we speak up, out, and against any act that diminishes or denounces the dignity of another, while at the same time resisting the temptation to do so in a way that diminishes even those who inflict division and hate. Jesus invites us to convict others and hold them accountable as he did with love and mercy but we need to begin with ourselves.

When we align our thoughts, words, and actions and are willing to be held accountable, we will have more credibility in guiding others. Our goal is not to humiliate, condemn, and/or shame, but to lead others to a place of contrition and reconciliation, such that each of us can be people of integrity, transparency, and holiness. Our hope is to win back a brother and sister and lead them toward the doors of heaven that Jesus opened for us in the humanity he assumed.

Photo: Pope Francis opening the Holy Door at St. Peter back in 2015 for the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Photo credit, Vatican News file.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, August, 25, 2025

Harrington, S.J., Daniel J. The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1, in Sacra Pagina, Ed. Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2007.