god

Not to wriggle free from but to surrender all to God.

Jesus said to the disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.” (Mt 13:47).

The invitation of God is universal and we are all lured by his invitation of love and intimacy. We long to belong, our very substance and essence as human beings is the reality that our ultimate fulfillment can only be reached in communion with the God who has created us. Yet, though drawn, we can resist being caught.

St Augustine (354-430), bishop of Hippo, came to a point in his life where he realized that the flame of his desire for wealth, fame, and pleasure was dimming. He clearly felt moved toward “one reality that cannot decay, from which all other realities are derived.” Though he was caught in God’s net and being pulled in, Augustine still sought to wriggle free, for: “Though drawn to the Path, who is my savior, I shied from its hard traveling” (Augustine 2008, 161).

How many of us echo Augustine’s dilemma? We have experienced God in our lives and feel the invitation to be drawn in, yet, we still seek to wriggle free. We are attracted to God but our attraction to other apparent goods still hold priority of place. At a baser level, we may believe that the minimalist approach is easier. God’s path is too hard.

Harder? Yes, but if we follow the will of God he will give us the strength to endure and persevere.

In reality it is more of an effort to work against God’s will, just read the Book of Jonah! May we instead surrender to the current of the Father’s Love and allow ourselves to be caught in the net of his Grace. At first, anxiety and fear will arise, just like being caught in a rip tide, because the pull may appear too strong, his love too pure. When we surrender to the will of God though, the anxiety will subside, the joy and consolation will arise, as we flow with ease and are empowered by the love of the Holy Spirit.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose feast day we celebrate today, resisted God for a time as well but then realized, during his long period of recuperation from a canon ball strike, a distinction between the invitations of the world and God’s. The intoxications of the world brought a momentary high which would then leave Ignatius wanting. “While reading the life of Christ our Lord or the lives of the saints, he would reflect and reason with himself: ‘What if I should do what St. Francis or St. Dominic did?'” (Gonzalez).

The thoughts of Jesus and the saints did not wane and after reading about them, left him with periods of ongoing consolation. The path that Ignatius then walked led him to sainthood and the Exercises he developed have helped countless, including myself, to experience healing and a deeper and more intimate relationship with Jesus. If you have read my encouragements to imagine yourself in the daily gospels before, you now know that I learned that practice from St. Ignatius. Give yourself some time getting caught in the net of God’s love today, resist the temptation to wriggle free, and offer the Lord all your liberty!

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Photo: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam – In the Ignatian tradition may we do all things for the greater glory of God! St. Ignatius, pray for us!!!

St Augustine. Confessions. Translated by Gary Wills. NY: Penguin Books, 2008.

Luis Gonzalez in The Liturgy of the Hours, vol III, 1975, 1566.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, July 31, 2025

When we make time to be silent, we will receive the greatest of treasures.

Jesus said to his disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Mt 13:44).

God is hiding in plain sight, in our midst, and present to all of us. God’s kingdom is a wonderful treasure just waiting to be found. God’s eternal love and grace is ever reaching out to us. Our soul hungers, yearns, and seeks for that love, whether we know it or not. It is when we seek satisfaction, filling this deepest of our desires in material and finite pursuits alone, that we miss what is present right before us. When we sin, create idols, seek the allure of apparent goods, we block our access to the very union we seek, then we are not satisfied and our desire increases all the more. We can attempt to keep filling that hunger with more or different apparent and material goods and yet, we will continue to feel empty and unfulfilled. God acts in the everyday events of our lives, but we limit being aware of those experiences by waving them off as mere coincidences. Each time we do so, we miss the opportunity the great treasure Jesus offers.

The saints and the mystics are those who have found this great treasure, they have experienced his love, forgiveness, and mercy. They have encountered the living God in the mundane events of their lives and given all to be immersed in his communion. They “are amplifiers of every person’s more hidden life of faith, hope, and love. Their lives help us to hear the interior whispers and see the faint flickers of divine truth and love in ourselves and others. The Christian mystics point the way to fully authentic human life by illustrating what it means to be a human being, what life means: eternal union (which begins here) with the God of love” (Egan 1996, ix-xx).

Like metal detectors that some people walk the beaches with to find a hidden treasure, the Holy Spirit invites us to enter into silence. It is in silence that we will find our truest gift, God who yearns to speak to us in the silence of our hearts. Setting aside time to be still will help us to hear his whisperings in those moments of silence and when we hear and follow through on his promptings, we will begin to hear him in our daily activities.

Opening our hearts and minds to recognize those faint stirrings will help us to recognize God’s ongoing presence. We can also experience Christ by reading, meditating, praying, and contemplating on his Word, as well as the lives of the saints, who are willing to offer us their treasure maps: St Francis of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, St Therese of Lisieux, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and St Mother Teresa. Each have experienced and are urging us on to experience the rich encounter of the God of Jesus Christ.

In spending time regularly in silence with the Holy Spirit, we encounter and receive the love of God and come to realize that we are not human doings but human beings. We can let go of the weight of the stress and strain we have been carrying, of having to process anything, and instead be still and rest in God’s loving embrace. St. Theresa of Avila wrote that, “We always hear about what a good thing prayer is; our constitutions oblige us to spend many hours in prayer. Yet, only what we ourselves can do in prayer is explained to us; little is explained about what the Lord does in a soul, I mean about the supernatural” (Sattler, 135). Spend some time today allowing God to do – so that you can be!

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Photo: Came upon this family during an evening Rosary walk on the campus of St. Mary of the Lake.

Egan, Harvey D. An Anthology of Christian Mysticism, Second Edition. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996.

Sattler, Wayne. And You Will Find Rest. What God Does in Prayer. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute, 2024.

Link for the Mass Readings for, Wednesday, July 28, 2021

“Lord teach us to pray”.

Prayer is God’s initiative. God initiates prayer because he wants to be in relationship with us. When we feel the desire to pray, prayer has begun because this is our first awareness of God’s invitation to relationship. By our very nature, we are prayerful beings, we want to belong, to be a part of, and to be in communion. We seek to receive love and love in return. The challenge is that we can be led astray and seek disordered affections and substitutes for that which and who will fulfill our greatest desire for communion and love which is answering our deepest yearning as a living, craving, hunger and desire to be one with God and each another.

Yet, as Jesus’ Parable of the Sower shows, the desire to pray is not enough. The enemy can easily divert, distract, and steal our desire. We may not know how to pray or how to really pray. This was true for the disciples as well. Even though they prayed, most likely by reciting the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) each morning and evening as well as the Psalms, they saw something different about Jesus in his prayer. So we hear in the Gospel today from Luke: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Jesus then shared with his disciples the model and form of prayer which can help us today as well.

The first movement in our prayer is to acknowledge God’s invitation for dialogue, for relationship, and truth. Jesus teaches, “Father, hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2). The very first instinct is to acknowledge that God, as Jesus teaches, is our Father. In our prayer with Jesus we acknowledge and so recognize that we are children of God. God is God and we are not. God is infinite and we are finite, created beings. May sound obvious but if we don’t get this starting point correct, we will be frustrated with prayer.

We can be frustrated if we approach God like a gum ball machine, seeking to get what we want, when we want, and how we want. We will be frustrated by seeking to bend God’s will to our own. God does not operate that way. God knows what we seek, need, and what will be best for us, better than we do. Our Father will give us that which we need and will fulfill us, especially the best gift of all which Jesus shares at the end of today’s reading: “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13)?

The Holy Spirit, is the greatest gift we can receive. The Holy Spirit, the love shared between the Father and the Son, is who we seek in the depth of our souls. It is in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit that we not only come to know God, we come to know ourselves. The Holy Spirit gently leads us and each time we follow, we begin to recognize his voice and distinguish it from the father of lies. “Each act of fidelity to an inspiration is rewarded by abundant graces, especially by more frequent and stronger inspirations” (Philippe, 22).

As we follow the lead of the Holy Spirit in our prayer, come to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love, we will also be better able to do so in our daily lives and interactions with one another. We will better identify the lies, apparent goods, and even competition of actual goods so that we can clearly follow with each thought, word, and action the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

To get to this point of closer intimacy with God takes intention, daily time committed to meditating, praying, and contemplating his word. Also, when he leads to just be silent, for as St. Mother Teresa taught, “God speaks in the silence of our heart.” Oral prayer is the easiest way to begin. It is the first way to accept God’s invitation to pray. We can pray the Our Father, the Rosary, read Scripture, speak to him directly, and then from our time of vocal prayer, we can meditate and ponder what the Lord has given us to reflect upon. When the Holy Spirit inspires us to then be still and listen, let us do so. Our Father will speak to us in his word, in his silence, and/or sometimes with consolations.

Prayer is not so much about what we do. Prayer is more about lifting our hearts and minds to God and allowing ourselves to slow down enough to be aware of what God wants to do in us. Our Father seeks to helps us to identify our sins so that we can be free and confess them, he leads us to heal those places where we have preferred to keep locked up, and he wants to shine the light on how we are to serve him so that his kingdom will come and and his will, will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

To enter deeper into a life of prayer we need to trust Jesus. That is what made a big difference in the first days of my 30 day silent retreat in July of 2023. I followed the lead of my spiritual director and started to imagine myself sitting with Jesus as I read and meditated upon these words a few times, “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be full of the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19), I leaned over and asked Jesus, “How can I know your love?”

He said, “Trust me.”

I did and that made all the difference in the following holy hours and successive days of the retreat, as well as the last two years.

We have been created to live a life of prayer. Jesus will teach us to pray, just as he taught his disciples. As we trust him and ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God our Father will grant our request. My invitation to you who have read this far, is to set aside some time today, sit in a comfortable quiet place, take a few deep breaths, read through today’s Gospel account Luke 11:1-13 a few times, trust in Jesus, ask for the Holy Spirit, follow their lead, and let God happen!

Photo: Bench view from where I sat with my first encounter with Jesus as related above and during many more of my holy hours back in July of 2023.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, July 27, 2025

“Let them grow together until the harvest.”

“’Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest” (Mt 13:27-30).

One of my favorite trees is the Maple. When JoAnn, the kids, and I moved to Florida over twenty years ago, the thought did not cross my mind that Maples grew in Southern Florida. A few years after we moved into our home, I was walking in our backyard and thought I saw a maple leaf. I squatted down for a closer look and found that not only was it a maple leaf but a sapling with three leaves! I carefully cleared some of the weeds and grass growing among and around it, but otherwise let it be because it was so fragile. As it grew I cleared more around it. Today it is a fully mature Swamp Maple!

A few years ago, I saw a new Maple sapling emerging, though this time, some poison ivy was growing around it. I sprayed poison ivy killer, thinking I avoided the tiny sapling. Unfortunately, I must have gotten some of the poison spray on the Maple leaves because it also shriveled up and died.

I can relate to Jesus’ parable from today’s Gospel. The master warned his servants to let the wheat and weeds grow together until they were more mature at the time of the harvest, so as not to pull up the wheat with the weeds. Weeds in this verse is translated from the original “Greek [as] zizanion [which] refers to a noxious weed that in its early stages closely resembles wheat and cannot be readily distinguished from it” (Harrington 2007, 204). This plant, darnel, as it grows along with the wheat entwines its roots with the roots of the wheat (Mitch and Sri 2010, 180). Both, in their immature state, were indistinguishable and in pulling up the weeds, there was a strong chance that the wheat would be pulled up as well.

Jesus is calling us to resist the temptation of judging one another. Even when there are those who commit heinous acts of evil, we may feel justified in our judgment and condemnation. Jesus says no. We may convict the person of their action and we are certainly to hold each other accountable, but judge and condemn, no. The Father is the ultimate arbiter and judge of someone’s salvation.

All of humanity has been created in the image and likeness of God, each of us are a unique gift to this world. We have been created good, yet all of us fall short of the glory and grace of God and because of our fallen nature we have lost our likeness to God, that likeness has dimmed. God seeks to restore our glory and our likeness which we call growing in holiness. As we do so, we are to assist others in doing the same.

God the Father will judge at the end of time between the wheat and the weeds. Let us leave the judgment to God, and let us instead be about learning and following the teachings of Jesus, repenting, and encouraging each other in the maturation process which can include, convicting others when needed, yes, but also encouraging and supporting each other to heal, be forgiven, and grow in holiness.

We need to resist falling into the temptation of condemnation and gossip and spreading poison in our misguided attempt to be of help. In dealing with one another, let us pray for patience, understanding, and seek forgiveness for our sins. Having experienced the love, mercy, and forgiveness of God, may we be willing to forgive each other. Life, even when going well, is hard. We need the encouragement and support of each other if we are to mature and actualize the fullness of who God calls us to be and strive, through God’s grace, to put his will into action. “Encourage each other while it is still today” (Hebrews 3:13).
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Photo: Some young Maples standing tall in the forefront that I came across on a Rosary walk at University of Saint Mary of the Lake.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, July 26, 2025

Harrington SJ, Daniel J. “The Gospel of Matthew”. In vol. 1, Sacra Pagina Series, edited by Daniel J. Harrington. Minnesota, Liturgical Press, 2007.

Mitch, Curtis and Sri, Edward. “The Gospel of Matthew”. In Catholic Commentator Series, edited by Peter S. Williamson and Mary Healy. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Academic, 2010.

Let us follow the invitation of the Holy Spirit.

“… the shortest way to holiness is faithfulness to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.”

Fr. Jacques Philippe in his book, In the School of the Holy Spirit, offered the above quote in italics from St. Faustina. All of us are called to be holy, to be set apart from the mundane and secular. This call does not make us better, it makes us more human. God invites us through the quiet whisperings of the Holy Spirit to experience something better for our lives, his love.

The question for each of us in this moment is, are we willing to listen to the quiet and gentle invitations of the Holy Spirit? If the answer is yes, then invite the Holy Spirit to lead you and help you to see and hear his guidance. We have experienced his promptings since our youth, but just may not have been aware he has been doing so. Being more intentional in asking to be led, taking some time to reflect to see when and where we actually have received and followed his guidance, will help us to be aware a little more today than yesterday.

May you give yourself a few moments to take some deep breaths and invite the Holy Spirit to lead you and then follow.

My usual postings on the daily Gospel readings will be absent and possibly not daily. I am away for the next twelve days as I continue my studies for the Certificate Program in the Ministry of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola here at St. Mary of the Lake University in Mundelein, Illinois. I still wanted to send some reflections along, so we shall see what the Holy Spirit has planned. Please pray those of us who are leading and those engaged in 3, 5, 8, and 30 days of silent retreat. I will be praying for you!!!

Photo: Ending the evening with some silent one on one time with Jesus.

“Let us build a Church founded on God’s love.”

“At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit” (Lk 10:1). Jesus did not stop with this action, he continued and continues to call people to himself and sends them on mission to proclaim the same words: “The kingdom of God is at hand for you” (Lk 10:9).

To be a disciple of Jesus is to be both about maintaining the Church he instituted and going out on mission. This is why at the end of each Mass the deacon or priest in the absence of a deacon will say, “Go and proclaim the Gospel of the Lord” or three other formulas of being sent to be missionaries in our communities. This is not a call for clergy and religious only but for all of the baptized.

Pope Leo XIV said emphasized this same sentiment well at the close of his homily on May 18: “With the light and the strength of the Holy Spirit, let us build a Church founded on God’s love, a sign of unity, a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the word, allows itself to be made “restless” by history, and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity. Together, as one people, as brothers and sisters, let us walk towards God and love one another.”

There is much here in the Pope’s words to meditate upon and put into action. We are not just to go out and do missionary work, to evangelize and share the Gospel, we are to embody mission. We “are to be a leaven of harmony for humanity.” At the moment of our conception we existed as unique individuals already distinct from our parents. We are endowed with dignity and worth just by the fact that we exist. In embracing that gift and dignity of our lives, in allowing ourselves to slow down long enough to be loved by God, then we can begin to see each other as brothers and sisters and begin to reach out in love toward one another.

The “Church founded on God’s love” is the Church established by Jesus Christ. In Luke recording how Jesus “appointed seventy-two others”, we see the further establishment of the Church leadership that Jesus instituted. This hierarchy echoes the one established by God through Moses (See Exodus 24:1-11). When Moses ratifies the covenant, he has with him Aaron the high priest with Nadab and Abihu, along with the twelve young men offering sacrifices, each representing the twelve tribes of Israel, along with seventy elders. Jesus is following the same pattern in calling Peter as the leader of the twelve apostles, along with James and John, and the seventy-two. Jesus is calling to himself those who would first preach to Israel, the twelve, and the seventy-two, to preach to the Gentile nations, and eventually the whole world.

The deposit of faith that Jesus handed on to Peter and the twelve along with the seventy-two has continued to be shared with each successive generation up to and including our own. We are to continue in our own time to receive the message of Jesus and share it as well. Each and EVERYONE of us are a unique gift to the world that has never been nor will ever be again. Jesus has called us to himself with the purpose to send us out on mission.

I agree with Pope Leo that, “this is the hour for love! The heart of the Gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters.” This is “the hour for love”, for: “The kingdom of God is at hand” (Lk 10:9). Let us go forth as missionary people, as contemplatives in action, to promote peace and reconciliation, to glorify the Lord with our every thought, word, and deed.  Let us open our hearts and minds to God’s love, receive, rest, and abide in his love, so that we may go out to prepare the way for others to receive the love of Jesus as we have. This is the Church Jesus calls us to continue to build up.

Photo: Pope Leo arriving at his first weekly general audience on May 21, 2025 (Credit: Gregoria Borgia, AP, accessed from America Media).

Homily of Pope Leo XIV from May 18, 2025

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, July 6, 2025

As we allow ourselves to be loved by God, we are transformed and become new wine skins.

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

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

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

Following Jesus meant that both the old and new covenants would be preserved. Jesus did not come to abolish the law and prophets, but fulfilled and raised what went before him to a higher level.

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

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

To become new wineskins then, we are called to identify and let go of those selfish and sinful inclinations that keep us constricted, rigid, and curved in upon ourselves. We are to let go of our fears so that we can be healed from them. We also must let go of what appears to be good, but in truth is not the good that God offers. We let go when we give our lives to God and follow his will.

When we do so, we will experience the Father’s love and can then love as Jesus loves. Through this transformation, we are expanded and open to receive the new wine the Holy Spirit wants to pour into us. We are called to go beyond the foundation of our identities that we have found safety and comfort in. We are transformed to be people of integrity, free to follow God’s will in and out of season. Our identity gives us roots and our integrity received through trusting and following the guidance from the Holy Spirit gives us wings to fly.

Each time we come to God in stillness, we will experience opportunities to experience distractions. These distractions become invitations to purify that which we need to let go of, so that we may grow deeper in our relationship with God and one another. With each identification and willingness to let go, our false self begins to be burned away. We become new wineskins, capable of receiving God’s love, and expanding as we follow God’s will and receive the freedom to be who he calls us to be.

Photo: May each of us be full wineskins, filled with he love of the Holy Spirit to overflowing!

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

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

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, July 5, 2025

We don’t have to be perfect to be called by Jesus.

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Mt 9:12-13).

How could Jesus have called Matthew, named Levi in Mark and Luke, to be part of his inner circle and then how could he eat with sinners? Matthew is a tax collector. Tax collectors were, at the least, believed to be collecting money over and above, skimming off the top, the allotted prescribed taxes and at worst, they were considered to be in collusion with the occupying power of Rome. Not only were they considered unethical and unclean, tax collectors were in league with the enemy! And Jesus is sitting down and eating with THEM!!!

In quoting Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” Jesus was drawing reference to the growing Pharisaic influence to aspire to and take on the ritual purity status of the priests sacrificing at the Temple. To be in favor with the religious leadership, to be accepted as part of the religious community, one had to follow certain prescriptions and practices, otherwise be recognized as unclean and while in that state, one did not belong to the community. Sharing table fellowship was a measure of that social construct, so if one was unclean, they were to eat alone.

Jesus would have none of that. Jesus sought to enter into relationship with anyone who was willing, even those who were considered unclean, on the outside, and/or the peripheries. He loved people then and loves us today for who we are and as we are, a beloved child of God. There is no THEM or OTHER for Jesus! He bestowed and bestows his mercy, love, and healing first, as the starting point of any relationship. Jesus calls us to a better and more fulfilling life now, so that it may carry over into eternity. He accepted and accepts people first, builds relationships first, and continues to walk with us to lead us to be better than we are when he meets us.

Jesus reveals to us our sins not with the intention to condemn or shame us, but so that we can see how our sins separate us from the love of God and each other. In revealing our sins, Jesus helps us to see better to make a clearer choice. We can choose God or our sins. We can’t have it both ways, we cannot serve two masters. Jesus also calls us to be perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect (cf. Mt 5:48). Apart from him that is not possible, but with him growing in the love and perfection of God is possible.

The bar of perfection is indeed high, higher than that of the Pharisees; the difference is that Jesus’ mercy, his willingness to enter into the chaos of another, is higher. Jesus meets us in our imperfections, sin, and weaknesses. He enters through our door of our fallen humanity, but, he wants us to exit out of his door so that we can participate in his divinity and be transformed by his love.

Jesus’ teachings are hard, and when we fall he does not kick us in the teeth and cast us aside. He lays down, right in the muck and mire with us. Face to face, he wipes the dirt and tears from our eyes, offers his hand, and helps us to continue on our journey to see and experience that which is good, true, and beautiful.

No matter what we are dealing or struggling with, know that Jesus loves each and every one of us more than we can ever mess up and he does not define us by our worst choices and acts. God forgives and heals as many times as we are willing to go to him, to repent, to turn away from our sins and turn to the love of God. Sometimes when we feel stuck, indecisive, and immobile, we just need to remember to accept Jesus’ invitation, arise as did Matthew in today’s Gospel, and walk with him. Step by step, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we will be transformed as we grow and mature, which is messy because life is messy.

We just need to be patient with Jesus, ourselves and each other. As we experience our healing moments in the midst of our chaos, may we also be understanding of and willing to enter into the chaos of others and allow God to forgive, heal, and love us and through us.

Painting: The Calling of St Matthew – Caravaggio, 1600

Parallel readings: Mt 9:9-13, Mk 2:13-17, Lk 5:27-32

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

Jesus healed the two demoniacs and can heal us as well, as long as we don’t send him away.

Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district (Mt 8-34).

After hearing of the healing of the demoniacs and the herd of swine rushing into the water, the townsfolk came out and begged Jesus to leave. This is also attested to in the Gospel of Mark 5:17. Luke adds that the people asked Jesus to leave because: “they were seized with great fear” (Lk 8:37). Jesus healed two demoniacs in Matthew’s account, one in the Mark and Luke accounts, and the people asked him to leave. Hearing of Jesus’ healing power to expel demons, hearing about his act of mercy and grace, would we too ask Jesus to leave?

Before answering, “No, of course not!” too quickly, how many times have our own judgements, prejudices, and self-centeredness, our own lack of understanding for the bigger picture, our own fears, been chosen over living the Gospel in our own lives? Is our life shaped by the Gospel message of Jesus? (One reason I started sharing these daily reflections on the daily Gospels, I think back in 2017, was to spend time reading the daily Mass readings, especially the Gospels, and invite others to do the same.)

Do we spend time not only reading the Bible but also pray, meditate, and wrestle with the challenge of how we are to live out some of Jesus’ teachings like: love our enemies, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, to turn the other cheek, and to answer in practical, concrete ways, “What you do to the least of these: you do it to me?” Or, if we read or listen to the Gospels at all, do we seek to adjust Jesus’ message, to conform God to our will, to fit the message to our lifestyle, what works for us? Is the radiance of Jesus’ mercy, love and grace too bright for us such that we wince, that we feel it is too much to bear, and we, as did the Gadarenes also say, “Go away!”?

If you are experiencing some slower, summer days, maybe, make some time to read, slowly, meditatively, and prayerfully, each of the accounts of the healing of the Gadarene demoniacs in Matthew’s Gospel and the one demoniac in the Mark and Luke accounts. One of the differences in the Mark and Luke accounts, presents the man who was exorcised asking to follow Jesus. Jesus said to the man: “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19).

The one who was so bound up by possession that he was out of his mind and separated from family and friends, still had some glimmer of hope that he could be healed. He ran up to and prostrated himself before Jesus, was healed, and set free. He then did as Jesus guided him to do and proclaimed what Jesus had done for him to the whole city.

After spending some time pondering these parallel passages, let us also approach Jesus. Let us bring to him that which enslaves and binds us, that which keeps us separated from God and others. Let not our fears get in the way so that we like the Gadarenes send Jesus away but instead, let us open our minds, hearts, and souls to his healing words and touch. Jesus entered unclean territory to bring healing. He exorcised the demons with only the power of his word, on his own authority. May we, as the man possessed did, also surrender to Jesus and hear his words of healing so that we too may experience his healing, mercy, love, forgiveness, and freedom and then go and share how much the Lord has done for us!

Painting: James Tissot, “The Two Men Possessed with Unclean Spirits”

To read the parallel accounts of today’s Gospel see: Mark 5:1-20, Matthew 8:28-34, Luke 8:26-39

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, July 2, 2025

“Quiet! Be still!”

One element on display in this recounting of the calming of the storm at sea is the humanity of Jesus. He has finally succumbed to the exhaustion from being pulled and touched, challenged and accused, the constant interaction through his service of teaching, healing, forgiving, and exorcising, that he not only fell asleep on the boat but was in such a deep sleep that he was as if dead, even through the height of the storm tossed the boat. Also, we see his divinity expressed quite well when his disciples wake him and he calmed the storm immediately with just his words: “Quiet! Be Still” (Mk 4:39)!

The disciples have grasped his uniqueness and have accepted him as their rabbi, their teacher, but they are still having trouble comprehending that he is also the Son of God. The disciples will continue to experience his miracles, but it will not be until after the resurrection and ascension, that their faith will find the maturity to participate in the fullness of the ministry Jesus was grooming them for. Their spiritual maturity opened them up and helped them to be better disposed to accept the Holy Spirit who came upon them at Pentecost. Now through all they had been through, they were tried and true.

Storms arise in our lives, sometimes just as unannounced and as quickly as the squall in today’s Gospel. A health issue, an injury, an economic shift, a relational conflict, the effects of a mistake in judgment or a sinful choice… All can arise at a moment’s notice. We, like the disciples, can sometimes only hold on so as not to be tossed into the sea, or bail out water so we don’t sink. Sooner rather than later though we may just want to turn to Jesus to seek his aid. A helpful point to keep in mind that I received from one of our past retreat directors, Fr. RB is: “Sometimes the Lord calms the storm, and sometimes the Lord lets the storm rage on and calms his child.”

I have taken great comfort in those words as well as the words of Pope Francis who said often, especially during the height of the pandemic in April of 2020, that Jesus cares. No matter the severity of the storm, we can trust that Jesus does care and that he is just as present with us as he was with his disciples in the boat. Even if we brought the storm upon ourselves, Jesus will not abandon us.

Having experienced a storm or two with Jesus then, we are better able to guide others through their own. We can embody the words of Jesus, “Quiet, be still” (Though not share them with the person we are attempting to provide comfort for!), when we are willing to remain during another’s storms, let another know we care with a hug of support, an active listening ear, a heart open with understanding, and our ongoing and enduring presence.

We can trust that Jesus will calm whatever tempest rages exteriorly or within our minds, or have faith that he will guide us through.

After the Storm: Sea of Galilee – photo by Mark Fuller

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, July 1, 2025