love

Prayer helps us to restore our likeness to God.

He took Peter, John, and James, and went up the mountain to pray (Luke 9:28).

Peter, John, and James experienced Jesus’ profound teachings, his powerful signs, his wonders, and they also witnessed his healings, casting out demons, and forgiving of sins, which, alluded to the reality that he was the Son of God. Peter, James, and John, although acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah, still pretty much looked at Jesus as a human being. In the encounter of Jesus transfigured, Jesus revealed to his inner circle of Apostles not only a foretaste of what was to come in heaven but a glimpse of his actual divinity.

Jesus is not 50% God and 50% human. He is fully God and fully man. This is the Mystery of the Incarnation; the reality that the second Person of the Trinity took on flesh and became human. This is an important reality, because in this very act of Infinite Grace, the Son of God assuming humanity, Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, as St. Irenaeus wrote, “opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.” The Son of God became one with us in our fallen and sinful state so that we can become one with him. Through participation in the life of Jesus Christ, we can be restored and deepen our relationship with his Father, and we too can be transformed.

“By revealing himself God wishes to make [us] capable of responding to him, and of knowing him, and of loving him far beyond [our] own natural capacity” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1997, 52). This reality of the invitation of communion with the Loving God and Father of all creation is for all. Authentic joy and fulfillment are achieved through developing a relationship with the God of Jesus Christ.

Many may say they are happy and living a good life without having a relationship with Jesus Christ, the do not need God or his Church, and I would not disagree with them. I would only add that if we are honest with ourselves, there is more to life than the mere material and finite reality we see and what experience with our senses. When we slow down enough, when we are actually still enough, we can experience a deeper yearning for more, and begin to see what is keeping us from the deeper reality Jesus is offering.

Even with great achievement, mastery, honor, and accumulation, there is still a lingering question, “Is this all there is?” We experience consciously or unconsciously a restlessness, we continually search to fill this unease, feeling satisfied for the moment, but eventually in short order, we are left empty, time and time again. This unease is our soul’s yearning, our transcendent nature longing for more, and that longing is for the infinite that the finite cannot provide. St Augustine of Hippo articulated this desire and yearning so well in the opening chapter of his autobiography, Confessions: “You move us to delight in praising You; for You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.”

The Feast of the Transfiguration is an invitation to embrace the fullness of what it means to be human, as the Son of God did through the Mystery of his becoming one with us, all of us, all of humanity, not just a select few. We are invited to embrace the fullness and rich diversity of our humanity; the reality that we are physical, emotional, intellectual, while at the same time, spiritual beings. Our fulfillment and joy come from a balance of nurturing the reality that each and every one of us have been created in the image and likeness of God.

Peter, John, and James, as well as each of the saints, embraced the invitation of Jesus and were healed. The likeness to God that was lost in the fall of Adam and Eve was restored through their lives of prayer, service, and growing in relationship with Jesus. We can see the restoration of the likeness through such biblical imagery as Moses’ face which radiated after his intimate encounters with God and in the transfiguration of Jesus with not just his face but his whole being.

Setting time away with God daily to speak with him, listen, as well as follow the guidance of God will help us to grow in holiness and restore our likeness as well. Our hearts and minds and souls will be expanded and transformed such that we will experience the fullness of our humanity, be purified and perfected by our Father’s divinity. We will also embrace the gift of our common dignity and love others as we are loved.
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Photo: “The person who prays begins to see.” From Pope Benedict XVI accessed from The Gospel of Luke by Pablo T. Gadenz.

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

With each small act of love, we help God to embrace one more person in need.

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.” (Mt 13:31-32).

God can do so much with so little. This is so because even the smallest detail is important to God. Just think of the immensity, not only of our solar system and galaxy but the whole cosmos. Despite the grandiosity and massive expanse of all creation, not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without the notice of God. Even all the hairs of our head he has counted (cf Mt 10:29-30). Our life, who we are, and who we are becoming matters to God.

Jesus is revealing through these parables of small beginnings, seed sown in a field, a mustard seed, and yeast allude to how God begins small and often hidden to fulfill his plan of salvation. What God has begun, he will bring to fruition. The gathering in of the nations is an Old Testament theme that Ezekiel especially highlights when he shares that God will break off and plant a tender cedar shoot and from this small shoot it will become a, “majestic cedar. Every small bird will nest under it, all kinds of winged birds will dwell in the shade of its branches” (Ezekiel 17:22-23). God has a plan for the unity of all of humanity and creation and Jesus is inviting us to be a part of the collaborative effort.

God builds up his kingdom one person at a time and sows his seeds of divine grace which is a movement of the outpouring of his divine love. He watches over us, his children, and shares his life with us. We can accept or reject this love which falls afresh upon us like the morning dew upon the grass. To accept and abide in the reality that God loves us is a gift. When we say yes to the outpouring of God’s love, we become more aware of the gift already bestowed. As we experience and savor this nourishing gift of God’s love we then have something to share with others.

What we will come to realize is that as we give more of God’s love away, we receive more in return. Our smallest thoughts, words, or deeds make a significant difference to those on the receiving end of God’s love flowing through us. We have an opportunity today to think, speak, and act as bearers of our loving God and Father. We can share a smile, a word of encouragement, a wave, and/or a hug, send a text, and/or just follow through on the the myriad stirrings of the Holy Spirit and offer a simple act of the will to love and truly be present with someone. No matter how small a sharing, it will mean more than we will ever know or can even imagine to the one who receives.

Photo: This colonnade at St. Mary of the Lake is fashioned after the colonnade in St. Peter Square. Both represent the welcoming arms of the Church seeking to embrace the people of the world.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, July 28, 2025

“Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” Matthew 20:22

“The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, ‘What do you wish?’ She answered him, ‘Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom’” (Mt 20:21-22).

The context of this request from the mother of the sons of Zebedee, James and John, comes from reading a few verses before the quote above. Start reading at Matthew 20:17 and you will see that Jesus and his twelve apostles are heading toward Jerusalem. Jesus stops to share with them, for the third time, that he will be condemned and crucified.

The request of James and John, through his mother, in the eyes of the world would seem a reasonable request. To them, Jesus was marching toward Jerusalem to claim his throne as king. To sit on his right and left, was an acknowledgment of their willingness to follow him, and serve as support for and witnesses of his kingship. It was also a preemptive strike before any of the other apostles could make that claim. There is a problem with their understanding though.

Jesus’ third statement of his imminent suffering and death appears to be ignored by or it goes over the heads of James and John, again, as well as their mother. The other ten are indignant, not because of the apparent lack of acknowledging Jesus’ upcoming passion, but because they entered into a free for all for position of which of them would be the greatest! It is easy to imagine how chaotic this scene quickly escalated! Saint John Chrysostom offered this insight: “See how imperfect they all are: the two who tried to get ahead of the other ten, and the ten who were jealous of the two” (Chrysostom 1975, 1552)!

This event made an impact for it was recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Mark has James and John speaking for themselves, not their mother, as in Matthew. Luke does not even record the initial request of James and John and instead comes in at the point of the apostle’s dispute. What all record, including the Gospel of John, is how Jesus made it clear that he came to serve, not to be served. To follow Jesus meant, not that James and John would be given positions of honor and power, the sitting at his right or his left, but that they were to serve as he served, to love as he loved.

The right and left that James and John asked for, Jesus shared was not his to give. That assignment would come directly from the Father. He also said, “You do not know what you are asking” (Matthew 20:22). For if James and John did, they would have thought twice about asking him. The ones who would assume the right and left were the two thieves on either side of him as Jesus was lifted up on the cross.

As disciples of Jesus, we too are called to show our love, not a sentimental love, but a love willing to serve and sacrifice for one another. Most of us are not accustomed or naturally disposed to either. A good way to begin is to be truly present to another, done most effectively when we actively listen. We learn this best in times set aside to meditate and pray with God. As we are able to quiet our minds, slow our heartbeats, and listen to God, we can begin to do so with one another.

Listening happens when we look up, put the phone, paper, or magazine down, turn away from the computer and/or turn off the tv. Then as we take a few breaths, we can open our hearts and minds to listen, and hear. When we learn to listen to God and one another, we will hear where the needs are. When we allow our hearts to be moved with compassion, we will be more willing to truly love by sacrificing and serving one another.

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Painting: “St. James the Greater” by Guido Reni. James learned the art of service and became the first to drink Jesus’ cup. St. James, pray for us!

Chrysostom, St John. Homily. The Liturgy of the Hours: According to the Roman Rite. Vol. 3. NY: Catholic Book Publishing, 1975.

Parallel Gospel passages to review:
Mark 10:35-45; Matthew 20:20-28; Luke 22:24-27 and John 13:12-17

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, July 25, 2025

“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

Jesus is willing to save the one.

“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it” (Lk 15:4)?

At first hearing, how many of those present hearing the parable, or us today reading it, would answer yes? To most of us it would not make sense to leave the ninety-nine to go and search for the one that was lost.

What this parable represents is the love that God has for each and everyone of us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. God loves us with an everlasting love and is continually reaching out to us because he is the foundation and source of who we are. He wills our good and wants the best for us, even when we may not see the truth. This parable also represents a microcosm of the public ministry of Jesus.

Jesus met people one on one, person to person. He encountered the blind, the lame, the leper, the Syrophoenician woman, the woman at the well, the woman accused of adultery, the daughter of Jairus, the widow’s son, and Lazarus. Jesus not only healed these people and so many others who were considered to be on the outside looking in, he restored their dignity as human beings. Jesus loved each of them as a unique person.

In crafting this parable of the good shepherd seeking the lost sheep, Jesus may be echoing, Isaiah. He prophesied that because the leadership of his time was not bringing back the stray nor seeking out the lost, God would “appoint one shepherd over them, to pasture them” (See Ezekiel 34:23). Jesus sought out and continues to seek out the lost, no matter how far we have strayed, or messed up, Jesus loves comes for us.

He opens his arms and invites us into his loving embrace so that we may feel and experience the beating of his Sacred Heart. As we enter into that sacred rhythm, all our anxiety, fears, and pain begin to fade away and we begin to heal. We begin to experience our dignity as we experience being loved for who we are, not defined by our worst sins nor by what we do.

We just need to be willing to be found and allow him to lift us up on his shoulders and carry us back into the fold. As we do so and as we continue to experience his love, we will come to believe and say, as did St Paul,“Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Trial, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?… Yet in all this we are more than conquerors because of him who has loved us” (cf. Romans 8:35-37).

Once we slow down enough to place our head on the chest of and experience the beating of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, renew in the rhythm of it, we will experience his peace and rest. We too are to love with the same radical love of the Shepherd who left the ninety-nine to rescue the one, who just happens to be us if we are willing to be rescued.

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Photo: Stain glass window at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, CA

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, June 27, 2025, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Let us build our spiritual homes on the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock” (Mt 7:24).

Jesus speaks to us: in the Gospels, in the silence of our hearts, through our conscience, through the words of others, in our daily activities, and through creation which has been loved into existence through collaboration with his Father and the Holy Spirit.

We can be unaware of the words he speaks, we can hear his words but not listen, hear his words but ignore, listen but not act upon them, or we can do with his words as Jesus encourages us to do. We can listen to his words and put them into action. We can experience the gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit and follow his lead. When we follow the urgings of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, no matter how small of a nudge it is, that step in alignment with the Father’s love will make all the difference. For each affirmation and putting into action their guidance helps us to experience the love of God our Father.

Jesus became one with us so that we can share in the love of his Father. Not one with us, so that we can know about him. Not one with us, so that we can say that we prophesy, cast out demons, do mighty works, cite Bible chapter and verse to show our knowledge or justify our behavior in his name. One with us so that we can share in the very life of God the Father as he and the Spirit does. 

Jesus meets us on our level and when we are willing to follow his lead, he will lead us up to the heights of participating in his divine life. Jesus has been doing just that in his Sermon on the Mount which we have been reflecting upon these past few weeks. If you are just coming in today or need a refresher, this gathering of teachings began in chapter five of Matthew and takes us up to today with chapter seven. Jesus presented us with the Beatitudes, that we are called to be salt and light, he built on the law and the prophets by giving us the six antitheses (“You have heard it said, but I say to you…” statements), he taught us to pray the Our Father, that we are to depend and place our trust in God and not the things of this world, we are to refrain from judging others, we are not to cast our pearls before swine, we are to do to others as we would have them do to us, we are to seek to enter through the narrow gate, and to be aware of false prophets.

The teachings of Jesus in chapters five, six, and seven of Matthew, his Sermon on the Mount, put into practice will help us to build the foundation of our spiritual houses on solid rock. The same rock that Peter built his foundation on, the Christ the Son of the Living God. May we go back through chapters five, six, and seven of Matthew and see which teaching Jesus is leading us to ponder, meditate upon, put into action, and place our next foundational stone of discipleship.

If that is a bit much, we can start with St. Irenaeus who learned from St. Polycarp, who learned from the beloved Apostle John who learned from Jesus. St. Irenaeus taught that Jesus became one with us so that we can become one with him. Jesus entered our humanity so that we can participate in his divinity. Jesus invites us to be in relationship with him, to know him, so that we can know his Father and experience the love of the Holy Spirit that he wants to share with us. The goal is that we can be one as Jesus and the Father is one.

Jesus loves us as we are, and for who we are, right now at this very moment. Jesus loves us more than we can ever imagine. Jesus loves us so much, he invites us to repent and turn away from anyone and anything that may be leading us away from God. He invites us to turn back and walk in the direction of the Father’s arms that are wide open to embrace us. When we experience God’s loving embrace, may we rest there, savor, and abide in his love. Filled up with his love to overflowing, we have a wonderful gift to share.

Photo: The Sanctuary of Madonna della Corona in the province of Verona, Italy. Photo accessed from Italiabsolutely

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 26, 2025

We will experience more peace, even in the face of death, when we follow Jesus and put his teachings into practice.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Mt 6:19-21). Jesus helped his disciples then and is helping us today to be aware of the reality of our world. All that exists is finite and material. Each thing, each being, has a beginning and an end. We need to resist the temptation to be attached to anything, even to our family and friends, because in this life and this side of heaven, nothing and no one lasts forever.

Adopting an attitude of non-attachment to material things can be freeing as long as we do not embrace the opposite extreme of placing no value in created things, thinking that we can destroy and abuse the environment, exploit each other, because neither will not last. We can also be tempted to see all things not spiritual as corrupt and bad, even our material reality as human beings, such that our soul is imprisoned until we die. This extreme will not bring us happiness, joy, or fulfillment either.

Living a life directed by Jesus’ teachings will help us to embrace a more balanced life of recognizing that much of what is material and finite is good, as well as very good, and yet each has a time and a season. We have the opportunity and invitation to be participants in God’s eternal plan of salvation, and we can embrace and enjoy the wonders and gifts of his creation when we don’t hold onto the things of this world too tightly.

We need to resist grasping for and clutching anything material and finite. We will then be freer to embrace and follow the steady movement of the Holy Spirit, which is ever fresh and new. The Holy Spirit invites us to deepen and grow in our relationship with our loving God and Father and one another. Refusing to fill the deepest core of our being with the things of this world will help us to be less distracted and more open to God working in our lives.

When we embrace the reality that our time here on this earth is limited, we will be less apt to take it for granted, and instead realize how precious life is, show greater appreciation, be more present, understanding, kinder, supportive, and patient with one another. We will be freer to let the petty things go and embrace the love that Jesus offers us, so we that will have more love to share with one another through thick and thin.

I don’t mind repeating what helped me and JoAnn in her final months was the gift of knowing that her time was short. We appreciated each moment we had together. What also helped was that even before the news, we had already begun the journey years before of deepening our relationship with Jesus and so each year grew closer to each other. A lot of the material things of this world became less important.

Dealing with death is never easy. Trusting that Jesus opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed and that he conquered death in his resurrection, helps. Instead of denying or keeping death at a distance, we will be better off by facing the reality of death. Doing so helps us to define who and what is truly important in this life and helps us to “store up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:20).

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Photo: Together with less than three months left. Appreciate every moment!

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, June 20, 2025

“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, what makes us any different than anyone else? 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 in meditation and prayer. 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. Where do we fall short or resist putting into practice the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount? Answering honestly 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 those real people we engage with every day.

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Photo: Pope St. John Paul II modeled for us this antithesis when he met, prayed with, and forgave Mehmet Ali Agca at Rebibbia prison on December 27, 1983, for shooting and attempting to kill him on May 13, 1981. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano accessed from catholic sun.org)

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, June 17, 2025

“Offering no resistance to one who is evil” is possible when we are grounded in God’s love.

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 move 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 and 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, he will begin to transform us and forgive and love others through us.

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Photo: The only way we can be transformed by Jesus’ love and put into practice his teachings is to follow the lead of Mary and the Apostles and spend time in mediation and prayer everyday. Stained glass window at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Vero Beach.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 16, 2025

The Spirit of God will reveal the truth of his infinite love for us.

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is the foundation of not only our faith but the reality of all that exists. God has been, is, and always will be. God exists as a communion of three Persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Three Persons in one God, but not three beings.

Anything we say about God is going to be woefully inadequate regarding the truth of who God is. Jesus, as the Son of God incarnate, revealed to his disciples the truth of who he is and who his Father is. As he approached his crucifixion, he began to prepare his disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit. “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth” (John 16:12-13).

We consistently how hard it was for the disciples to understand that he was the Son of God, that he in fact is God. Jesus to explain the Holy Spirit to them he knew would not happen. But the seeds that he planted would take firm root for the appointed time at Pentecost which we celebrated last Sunday. The Holy Spirit would come upon Mary and the Apostles, and then we see them, as expressed in the Acts of the Apostles, coming into their spiritual maturity as they are willing to be led by the Holy Spirit.

We are not going to understand the deepest truth of our faith and who God is by intellect and reason alone. To begin we have a better chance of saying what God is not. God is not a being, not one being among many, nor the greatest of all beings. God is not in the same genus as us, nor in any genus. God is not even a supreme being, because God transcends beyond all space and time. God is completely self sufficient, thus he does not need us for our existence, nor does he need anything to exist. God is the very ground and source of all being.

God is infinite act of existence, or in the Latin of St Thomas Aquinas, ispum esse subsistens, the sheer act of “to be”. This means that God has no limitations. To say that God is three Persons is even harder for us to comprehend because we often in our modern sense use the words person and being synonymously. To use the word person in speaking of God means to speak relationally.

We describe God as Father because he begets God the Son, God the Son is the one begotten. The Son is not generated or created, because the Son has always existed with the Father. This is true because they are not finite beings separate from one another. They are infinite, though distinct, in their relation to one another. God the Holy Spirit is then the Love shared between God the Father and God the Son. God within himself then is an infinite communion because of the infinite giving, self-emptying, and infinite receiving between each other. Each Person gives and receives infinitely, perfectly giving all and holding nothing back.

We will never fully comprehend God because he transcends our finite reality. We will be frustrated also if we treat the mystery of God as a problem to be solved. God is not an equation to formulate but a person that we can encounter and develop a relationship with. This is possible because to be in relationship with God and one another is the very reason we have been created. God draws close to us, he reveals himself to us, he seeks us out, his created beings. We are blessed to live in a time when he has already drawn close to us in the Person of his Son through the love of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit continue to reveal the truth of God the Father to us. When we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and follow his guidance, we too can experience the communion of love shared between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The best way to understand, to know, to build our relationship with God, is not to force God to fit into our finite reality, mindset or limited view, but to be open to, “the Spirit of truth,” and “he will guide [us] to all truth” (Jn 16:13). The Holy Spirit will guide and lead us to all truth when we resist curving or turning in upon ourself and instead make the time to be still, to breathe, to ponder his living word, and lift our hearts and minds to him in prayer. When we do so we will be expanded and transformed by his love and conformed to God’s will. This gift of grace will grow the more we are open to opportunities to be loved and to love in our everyday moments. For where the willing of the good of each other is, God is, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).

When we as fathers follow the will of the Father, when we are willing to be loved by the Holy Spirit and to love our children and others in return, and when we are willing to sacrifice and serve as Jesus, we are at our best. Happy Father’s Day!

Photo: Spending some quiet time receiving the love of God.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, June 15, 2025