transformation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“O woman, great is your faith.”

[A] Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon” (Mt 15:22).

In Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman, Jesus revealed through three responses, some of the darker sides of our fallen, human nature. In his fourth response, he also identified the way to resist these three sinful tendencies.

When the Canaanite woman called out to the Son of David to have pity on her, Jesus first responded with silence. His silence can represent the indifference we feel toward those not like us. We ignore their very presence as if they don’t exist. In the early nineties, while I was in the novitiate with the Franciscans of Holy Name Province, we toured an impoverished inner-city area in Philadelphia. One of the local friars pointed up to the elevated tracks as the commuter train headed past us toward the heart of the city. He shared how the majority of those commuting had no idea of the need, pain, and struggles of those down here below, like the homeless mother and her three young children that I had met that day. Are we aware of those in need around us, or do we ride our own Elevated Train of Indifference?

We can look upon or past people with indifference, but we can also look upon them with disdain or fear. This woman was in dire need and seeking healing for her daughter. She was also a Canaanite. To the ancient Jews she was not only one of the people they considered an enemy in war, but in cultural practices. Canaanites were believed to be immersed in idolatry, immorality, and even committing egregious acts of sacrificing their children.

The disciples approached Jesus and asked that he send the woman away. Was it because they considered her a pest, unclean, a pagan, not one of them… Yet, Jesus did not dismiss her. He replied: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24). Jesus’ response can represent the dangers of tribalism and nationalism, and how it can taint our perception regarding how we perceive those that are outside of our group. Those we consider as not one of us. The danger is that this perspective can grow such that we see others as less than human.

A Lakota elder, Fire Hawk, who became family to me in my early twenties shared how in his youth, he thought about being a priest. He voiced his interest and was told that it was not possible because he was Indian, and after receiving one too many baths in which he was scrubbed down in bleach and water, to wash the red out, he gave up on the idea. Do we dismiss those in need around us, do we not help, or worse crush their dreams because someone has a different national, religious, political, racial, ethnic, or gender identity?

The woman was not deterred, increased her boldness, and walked directly up to Jesus and did him homage. She may have at that point knelt or prostrated herself before and asked him directly for help. Jesus still not only appeared unmoved, but appeared to ratchet up his own uncharacteristic response: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs” (Mt 15:26). This derogatory statement has been hurled at people who have been different for eons. Jesus’ third response can reveal the power of our words and symbols that we use to belittle, demean, and dehumanize. When we place labels on others and begin to believe them, when we think we are superior, we begin to see others as caricatures, as less than human.

Not only do we refuse to help but we also make people, fellow human beings, into an enemy that must be put in their place. On April 18, 2015, I was living in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. In the next town north of us in Jupiter, three white teens were out “Guat-hunting”, their phrase, looking for Guatemalans to rob. That night they found a Guatemalan young man, 18-year-old Onesimo Marcelino Lopez-Ramos, a son and brother. After their encounter, Onesimo was bludgeoned to death with a rock. Onesimo was heading home from working extra hours. When we allow our thoughts to be poisoned, our words will then be laced with venom, and then our actions can become deadly. Are we aware that our attitudes, our words, and our actions matter?

The Canaanite woman retorted, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Jesus’ responded: “O Woman, great is your faith” (Mt 15:28)! This final statement can reveal to us that there is an antidote to indifference, fear, disdain, tribalism, and dehumanization and that is the love expressed by the Canaanite woman for her daughter. She crossed social boundaries, side-stepped indifference, refused to be sent away, risked ridicule, and possible abuse and death because she would not be denied until her daughter was healed. She did not get defensive, did not fight back, because she did not think of herself. She thought only of the welfare of her daughter.

Jesus in his interaction with the Canaanite woman was teaching his disciples and us today a profound lesson by allowing himself to be a mirror. His first response was silence. Those around him were given the opportunity to experience their thoughts about who this woman was to them. When the disciples asked Jesus to send her away, they were revealing something of what they were thinking.

His second response that he was sent “to the lost sheep of Israel” was true. Jesus truly was sent to unite the lost tribes of Israel and unite his people, which was one of the roles of the Messiah. He also knew about the first reading for today about how foreigners who became faithful to God and were willing to follow him would be received in love and welcomed to stay in God’s “house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). Jesus provides the foretaste of that universal fulfillment in this and other encounters with those outside the house of Israel.

His third and most derogatory statement toward this woman who was now honoring him as her Lord, even when Jesus called her a dog, revealed the worst of our fallen natures. Could the disciples, who he had hand picked, who he had been modeling ways of love and compassion, the same ones who were asking to send her away, now be turning into a hurtful mob at these words? If so, they would receive an incredible whip lash. She was not deterred by the degrading, she remained resolute, and replied not in kind, but with one of the greatest one liners of the Bible. “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

Were the disciples ready to pick up rocks or were their hearts finally moved to compassion? Jesus responded: “O Woman, great is your faith” (Mt 15:28). This Canaanite woman full of courage from the love of her daughter stood toe to toe with Jesus and represented the height of the faith that Isaiah was prophesying. Jesus mirrored the fallen and dark side of our human nature. Who modeled love in the face of silence, determent, and degradation? The Canaanite woman.

What does this encounter between this woman and Jesus say to us today? We are to see each other as interconnected, as human beings. What befalls one of us befalls us all. We are sacred beings created in God’s image and likeness, we are all created by the same loving God and Father. Jesus demands that we meet darkness with light, hate with love, and that in everyone we encounter, we engage them with that same love and mercy he bestows upon us. We are to will the good of the other as other, no matter who they are. We are to choose faith, hope, and the greatest of these, love, as the light that guides how we experience one another, especially those who are hurting in our midst.

It is not enough to believe in and receive Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist. If we truly believe we receive him then we need to allow him into the darkest, most wounded areas of our souls where our biases and prejudices dwell. We also must have eyes that are willing to see him present in others. May we allow our thoughts, words, and actions go through the filter of the love of the Holy Spirit. Before we think, speak, or act, let us breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love and then choose to dismiss or continue that thought, word, or action. From this posture, our places of worship, gathering, and homes, in the words of Isaiah, will “be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Painting: “Christ and the Canaanite Woman” by Jean-Germaine Drouais

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, August, 16, 2026

Even with a little faith, when we trust in Jesus and allow him to love us our faith will grow.

Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith.” (Mt 17:19-20).

How do the disciples get from this recurring theme of having little faith in the Gospel accounts to Peter healing a crippled beggar by saying with boldness, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk” (Acts 3:6)? And the man did just that!

A helpful definition “is to say that faith always entails a relationship between persons which stands or falls with the credibility of the person who is believed” (Rahner and Vorgrimler 1965, 164). Faith is not just an intellectual exercise, it is a lived experience. Christian faith is not an impressive idea or ideology, philosophy, or theology. Christian faith is the conviction, belief, and relationship experienced with Jesus the Christ.

The disciples learned from Jesus but more importantly developed an intimate relationship with him, such that the love they received and shared became so strong that there was no more room for doubt, distraction and/or fear, such that they would align themselves with the will of God and do what Jesus did. Jesus referred to the disciples as having “little faith” which is different than them having no faith at all. This faith would grow as the disciples continued to be faithful to Jesus and continued to follow him, even when others walked away.

The disciples did have some moments of doing as Jesus had done, but it was not until Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit descended upon them at Pentecost that everything changed. Jesus had tilled the soil, he helped to unearth the rocks of the hardness of their hearts, he forgave them, and healed them. But it was not until they let him go after his Ascension that they were able to receive the Holy Spirit and by his power working through them they would do even greater deeds than he (cf. Jn 14:12-14)!

We are invited to do the same. If we only read the Gospels or hear them read we may know something about Jesus, but our life will for the most part remain unchanged. When we read, meditate, and pray with the Gospels and put into practice what we read, we will encounter Jesus as did his disciples. We too will come to know and develop a relationship with Jesus, we will experience his love, and our hearts and minds will be transformed. In this way, we are not just reading a dead letter but encountering the living Word, the Son of God, who invites us to share in the infinite dance of Love that he participates in with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

The enemy will do everything in his power to distract, divert, and tempt us from setting aside time to pray with God each day. And when we actually begin to discipline ourselves, enter into quiet time daily, we are invited not to stay there but to go deeper, to move beyond only reading, meditating, and praying. There will be times Jesus invites us to set aside our Bible, notes, journal, prayer cards, and/or vocal prayers of petition, and to just be still, to listen, and receive the love that Jesus and the Father experience, the Holy Spirit.

The same Holy Spirit who empowered the Apostles to fulfill what Jesus had begun with them is quietly nudging us on each day. Please listen! He is inviting us to see more clearly those subtle ways we are being distracted, tempted, and diverted from his guidance and what has been inhibiting the growth of our relationship with God. The love and light of the Holy Spirit will reveal, when we are willing to remain still, where and how, in minute and massive ways, we are refusing to follow the will of God.

One of the reasons that we have also “little faith” is that we rely too much on ourselves. We are invited to stand in the presence of the Holy Spirit and let his fire burn, to purify us from our own misguided thoughts of self-sufficiency. As gold and silver are placed in a crucible and heated, the dross is purified. We are purified in the crucible of our meditation, prayer, and contemplation by the love of the Holy Spirit. Through the purifying love of the Holy Spirit we will see that we cannot save ourselves, that we need a savior, Jesus, with his arms wide open ready, willing, and able to embrace, forgive, and love us unconditionally and continually.

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Photo: A reminder from a mama sandhill crane and her young one to slow down and breathe.

Rahner, Karl and Vorgrimler, Herbert. Theological Dictionary. New York: Herder and Herder, 1965.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, August 8, 2026

Repentance is not punishment, but an invitation to freedom.

“Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented.” (Mt 11:20).

Anyone who encounters Jesus is invited to change. Jesus shines the light of his love and mercy into the darkness of our own fallen nature, where we are wounded, sinful, and misled. He invites us to repentance, healing, and reconciliation. He seeks to help us to understand who we are, the daughters and sons of his Father. A wonderful invitation, but why would we turn away? The darkness may be too dark, or the light may be too bright.

Facing our own darkness and pain is not easy and can be frightening as well as intimidating. We are vulnerable to temptations, distractions, and diversions when we don’t trust Jesus to come into the places where we feel unlovable. He loves us there, because he loves us in our totality. If we don’t allow him in those places of darkness and shame though, we will not experience his love, forgiveness of healing.

Yet the hunger for his intimacy we still seek, so will continue to be tempted by disordered affections to fill the void. We may not be able to sit still and breathe because we want to keep moving so as not to face our fears and the root causes of our suffering, nor let go of our false senses of security, control, and the glitter of apparent goods. The disfunction we know and have become accustomed to, is more comfortable than the promise of new life Jesus offers. We also may not be able to accept the fullness of our goodness, of who God calls us to be, and the realization of who we really are.

Jesus invites us to stop, to breathe, to enter into his stillness and silence where we can hear the word of his Father and experience the love of the Holy Spirit. In this experience of silence, we come to encounter what our lives look like without God and what our lives are with God. The choice to change our hearts and minds becomes clearer when we experience the light and love of Jesus. When we become aware of our sin, our turning in upon ourselves and away from God, Jesus does not condemn us. He inside invites us to repent: to turn away from anything and anyone that is not of God and to turn back and receive his loving embrace and welcome.

God loves us more than we can ever mess up, more than we can ever imagine, and he does not define us by our sins, failings, or worst mistakes. Jesus’ arms are wide open to receive us in the midst of our deepest wounds, fears, pain, sin, and suffering but we must be willing to stop running. We need to be still long enough to experience and feel the pain of our turning away from him. We repent when we allow Jesus to love us in our poverty and pain and then we experience being seen and heard. We are no longer isolated and alone.

The call of Jesus to repent is not a punishment but an invitation to freedom from punishing ourselves in self-criticism and judgment, from the lies that separate from the one who made us to be loved and to love in return. All the saints experienced the freedom for the excellence. The light of Christ revealed their sin, which they renounced, and so saw more clearly their unique charism. Trusting in and following Jesus they were transformed.

With confidence in being seen and loved, they cut the chords and strings that bound them. For a bird tied by even the smallest of strings will not be able to fly until the last string is cut. Let us repent and allow Jesus to reveal the chords and strings that bind us so that he can help us cut them and be set free from the fowler’s snare while there is still time!

Photo: Jesus will let us know what we need to repent from if we are willing to make the time to be still and listen.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Our hearts, thoughts, words, and deeds can dehumanize and depersonalize or provide healing and give life.

As was presented yesterday, Jesus made it clear that he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but he came to fulfill them. In his Sermon on the Mount as recorded by Matthew, Jesus offered practical ways in which we can find fulfillment and happiness by properly ordering our lives by following his way. In today’s account, he introduces the first of six antitheses. With these apparent contrasting statements, beginning with, “You have heard that it was said” followed by, “But I say to you”, Jesus provided for his disciples the way to avoid the trap that some of the religious leaders of his time fell into: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20).

The scribes and Pharisees that Jesus pointed out were those who believed that they were following the letter of the law and/or commanding that others do so, but their hearts were not changed. They may have been adhering to the external provisions, but there was no transformation, their hearts were hardened, they were focused more on their own access to honor and power. They were also imposing strict adherence to the law without providing the support or means for others to achieve what the law imposed. The law became more important than the dignity or value of the person. Jesus recognized the law but also realized that it was in place to help to provide guidance and discipline so one could better resist the temptations of our fallen nature. The law was to be a foundation to be built upon, not the end goal in and of itself.

This and the five antithesis to follow, outlines how: “Jesus calls his disciples to a higher standard than that of the scribes and Pharisees and he brings out the true meaning of the law. External conformity to the law is not enough. The law must be interiorized so that it penetrates one’s heart and leads one to live according to God’s ultimate intentions” (Mitch and Sri, 96).

Just as children need clear boundaries and structures in place to provide a clear path toward healthy development, this is also true for those of us growing and maturing spiritually. We need to learn to crawl, to build strength and balance before we can take those first wobbly steps. With continued support, we are then able to walk and soon run. Jesus is not only providing the means to go through each of these stages in our faith life, figuratively teaching each of his disciples and us today to not only crawl, walk, and run but to also be able to fly as we seek to reach the heights that Jesus is willing to raise us to!

The Beatitudes and six antitheses are challenging when we take the time to read and ponder them because each one of them goes counter to much of the way the structure of our fallen world has been governed for centuries. If we are to catch the fire that Jesus has come to set, we need not only to read, pray, meditate, and contemplate upon on the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount that we are working through, we need to also see their relevance and practicality to our time and place today, not dismiss them but begin to put them into practice. As Christians, our faith ought not to be shaped and informed by our culture, but we are to be shaped and conformed by the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, so to shape and inform our culture.

Today we start with the first antithesis: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna (Mt 5:21-22). The seeds of anger begin to sprout in our mind from our knee jerk reactions to a perceived or actual threat, from our hearts hardened by prejudgments, prejudices, and/or a reflection of our level of spiritual immaturity.

Jesus addresses the known provision against murder. He then builds a hedge around the Torah. Building a hedge is a common practice in which if one does not want to break the law, another law is imposed so as to protect one from even getting close to breaking the first. If we can resist the temptation to react and instead step back for a moment, take some deep breaths, pray, and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will be less likely to criticize, judge, demean or dehumanize another, and then there is much less chance for our anger to grow into wrath, that left unbridled could lead to murdering someone.

Jesus is also saying that our words matter, that they have the power to destroy or to create. Calling someone Raqa, Aramaic for a blockhead or idiot, and then calling someone a fool, would “be liable to fiery Gehenna” (Mt 5:22). How much more egregious are we today? How polarized we have become inside and outside of the Church because of the level of demeaning words, tone, and language that is spoken, condoned, and justified? This has a ripple effect that poisons our children and each of us. We wonder why we are more in a state of anxiety and stress where we see our own leaders no longer speaking with respect but in dehumanizing ways. We can then fall into the same pattern which poisons our family, relationships, politics, and it has even poisoned the Church with growing divisive rhetoric, overt expressions of prejudice, and depersonalization.

Instead of settling for two-dimensional caricatures of one another, we can go deeper when we are willing to spend time with and get to know each other. Jesus challenges us to slow down and see the person before us with dignity and respect. When we resist reacting, giving in to our biases, and prejudgments, and instead recognize the value and dignity of each person, we will have a better chance of building relationships and saying only the good things that people need to hear. We will also be more apt to reform policies and structures that respect the dignity of each person in the womb, after birth, and at each stage and condition of life until natural death.

May we all take some time today to reflect on Jesus’ teaching about how we think, speak to and about, as well as act toward one another. May we examine our consciences and seek forgiveness for those times we have thought, condoned, or justified thoughts, words, and/or actions that have been belittling, dehumanizing, and demeaning directly or while with others. In this way, we can ask God to heal our hearts. “[O]nly peaceful hearts can build a world of peace… The heart is the source of peace: there we must learn to meet rather than clash with each other, to trust and not mistrust, to listen and understand instead of closing ourselves off to others” (Pope Leo XIV, xiv).

Jesus, please heal us and infuse us with your justice, love, and mercy so that we will be inspired to live out your teachings daily. Help us to encounter each other with mutual respect and understanding as our brothers and sisters, no matter our race, ethnicity, creed, and/or gender, and to commit to building a culture of life and dignity for all, not in some abstract utopian way, but in the concrete moments, one person, one encounter, and one thought, word, and action at a time.

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Photo: Making time to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love will help us to better discern our thoughts, words, and actions and allow the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and minds.

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

Leo XIV, Pope. Peace Be With You!: My Words to the Church and to the World. Dublin, Ireland: Harper On, 2026.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 11, 2026

Will we serve ourselves or the owner of the vineyard?

“At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard” (Mark 12:1-12).

Unfortunately, not only did the tenants not offer the produce due to the true owner of the vineyard, but they also beat his servant and sent him back empty handed. This pattern repeated. The owner sent more servants. They were beaten and some killed, and then the owner sent his son, thinking that they would respect him. They killed him as well, thinking that then the inheritance would be theirs. Jesus ended the parable with an account of the swift retribution of the tenant farmers by the owner and the redistribution of the vineyard to others. The chief priests, the scribes, and the elders realized that the parable was directed at them.

The leaders were not happy about being compared to the wicked, tenant farmers. This only deepened their resolve to arrest and persecute him. Instead of digging in their heals, had they saw instead that the parable was an opportunity to see their own sinful behavior of not being faithful stewards, they could have repented and reconciled themselves to the will of God.

We who read Parable of the Tenants may be quick to judge the whole lot: the stewards, chief priests, scribes, and elders. If we do so, we do at our own peril. What does this parable say to us? How have we been good stewards of that which God has given, including our own lives? A common mantra is that this is my body and I can do whatever I want with it. Though this may be a popular cry of individualism and self-autonomy, it is not biblical.

All that we have is a gift from God, including our life and our very being. Each of us is a unique wonder, while at the same time we are not our own to do with as we please. We are God’s beloved children, daughters and sons created in his image and likeness. Our likeness has been dimmed by sin and so feeds our knee jerk and sometimes visceral reaction against the notion that we are not our own to do with as we please. This mentality is fueled by a radical individualism that seeks to be in control. We believe that we know better, that we know what will make us happy and what will fulfill us. So we give in to our pleasures, passions, and wants.

Discipline, temperance, and self-control are shunned. This selfish posture often comes from our unhealed wounds, the whispers of the father of lies, as well as living under the influences of a fallen world. Where God is not first, someone or something will be. This is what gives rise to a cult of personality. These pedestals are often built on the weak legs of the precarious wood of our finite and fallen nature. This is why so many leaders, religious, political and familial, have time and again all fallen off and let us down. They were placed where they never ought to have been placed.

This will continue to be the pattern, just as we saw in Jesus’ parable, which will lead to our own undoing, unless we are willing to let go of our attachment to the things of this world, including our own self-aggrandizement and narcissism. “I, me, mine”, is a debilitating cry.

The tenants in today’s parable looked for what they could get and take from what was never theirs. This grasping for immediate gratification undid the very core of their humanity and led not only to the desecration of the dignity of those the owner of the vineyard sent but lead to their own demise. In idolizing the things of the world instead of the things of heaven, they became undone.

Will we feed on the same radical individualism, or embrace our role as good steward, acknowledging, all that we have, even our very lives, are a gift from God, the owner of the vineyard. Recognizing that God is God and we are not, and trusting in his will for our lives will truly make us happy, fulfill, and help us to embrace who we are: co-redeemers with God. God has given each of us gifts to better his kingdom. May we serve well and seek to bear fruit that will last.

When we fall short, let us acknowledge that God has sent his Son to us. He has come to lead us to all that is Good, all that is True, and all that is Beautiful. He is also the only one we can count on. We need to place our trust in Jesus first, so when others fall, we do not fall with them and/or despair, because none of us are perfect. Each of us have our strengths as well as our weaknesses. As we grow in humility, we will grow in freedom and restore our likeness with God. As Jesus redeems us, we will experience our freedom and healing. As we heal, we can serve to help others who have fallen to experience a true freedom that will last.

Photo: Blessed to serve God and my parish family here at Holy Cross!

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 1, 2026

Not hangry but a holy zeal for God’s house.

Upon a first reading of today’s Gospel from Mark it appears that Jesus woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He and the disciples were heading to Jerusalem, he was hungry, so spying a fig tree in leaf, he walked up to it and when he saw that there were no figs growing, he unleashed the words, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again”(Mk 11:14)!

In the next scene, we find Jesus returning to the Temple. He witnessed the money changers in the outer court, and he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves (Mk 11:15). Good thing for the doves that Jesus only went for the seats!

There was a series of commercials which ran a while back in which a character was very hungry and acting out of sorts until they were able to eat the candy bar being promoted. Once they did so, the character transformed back into themselves. Is this what is going on with Jesus? Is he just hangry? Has his blood-glucose level taken a nosedive? Or is there something deeper going on?

Remembering that Jesus fasted for forty days in the Judean desert, I would speculate that there is something else going on. What is more likely is that Jesus is asserting his prophetic role. As with other prophets recorded in the Old Testament, like Jeremiah, who gathered the elders of the people, then smashed a potter’s flask, then shared that this is what God would do to them for being unfaithful (cf. Jeremiah 19), Jesus is most likely going with a similar hyperbolic display to make a dramatic point.

The fig tree is often a sign for Israel and is recorded as such in both Hosea and Jeremiah. When Jesus comes to the fig tree, his reaction is an expression of the unfaithfulness of Israel not so much at the fig tree. The chosen people are to be faithful to God in and out of season. When the disciples and Jesus passed by the fig tree the next morning, Peter exclaimed that the fig tree Jesus had cursed had withered to the roots. Jesus, not missing a step, mentions to his disciples that they are to: “Have faith in God” (Mk 11:22). By doing so, they will not whither and fade as those not being faithful to the covenant.

Jesus assumes his role as a prophet again when he is casting out the money changers in the temple precincts. It is no minor detail that the tables with caged doves were spared. If Jesus was going off in some kind of unabandoned rage, he would not have thought twice about turning over the tables on them as well. Jesus is making a spectacle that people would take notice. “Is it not written: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples? But you have made it a den of thieves” (Mk 11:17).

Jesus is cleansing and restoring the Temple to its proper place as a house of prayer, but he is also showing that the temple tax that has been paid and the sacrifices that have been offered will no longer be needed. “Jesus’ actions signal the arrival of ‘that day’ prophesied by Zechariah, when the Lord would gather all the nations to worship him in Jerusalem, and ‘there shall no longer be any merchant in the house of the LORD of hosts’ (Zech 14:21)” (Healy, 227).

Jesus is foreshadowing how he will replace the brick and mortar and he himself will become the New Temple. Jesus will be scourged and crucified, he will be the sacrifice offered and the price paid for our sins. The altar will be the new table where his sacrifice will be memorialized and re-presented.

Jesus’ message at the fig tree and the cleansing of the Temple are just as important for us today. As his followers, we are to bear fruit in and out of season, this means that we are to live out his teachings in all areas of our lives, individually and in communion with one another. Jesus has given us all a gift to offer, something that no one else can or ever will quite do in the way we can. This is how we are to bear fruit. Jesus in cleansing the Temple, shows that he is the new Temple. We too are to be a part of this Temple. We are to resist the corrosive and corruptive temptations that assail us.

May we not be transformed by the fallen tendencies of the culture, but instead transformed by the love of God and remain steadfast and true to our calling. Let us be faithful to God’s will as members of the living Temple. We are precious stones, to be polished and refined, that we might radiate the light of Christ to those in our midst.

Painting: Raymond Balze, “Jesus Chasing Merchants from the Temple”

Healy, Mary. The Gospel of Mark. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, May 29, 2026

Jesus invites us to share in the dance of trinitarian love.

“I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father” (Jn 16:28).

This phrase, in one form or another, has been a consistent message in John’s recording of Jesus’ farewell discourse. These words not only show Jesus’ connection to the Father through his coming from and returning to the Father and then his sending of the Holy Spirit, but these statements help to prepare the way for our understanding of the Trinitarian Communion.

Theologians have termed this reality the Immanent Trinity, God within himself. Which is expressed by the divine communion of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All that God the Father is, he gives all, holding nothing back, to God the Son perfectly. God the Son receives all that God the Father has given perfectly, and returns all that he has received, perfectly, holding nothing back, to God the Father. This giving and receiving, this going out from and returning to, this perfect willing of each other’s good, is the purest expression of Love. This Love shared infinitely and perfectly between God the Father and God the Son is God the Holy Spirit.

The Son of God became one with us, sharing in our humanity, so we can also share in his divinity. His ascent and return back to the Father makes this even more possible. Now his divine nature, as the Son, always remained in full communion with the Father. Jesus is one divine Person as the Son, yet he subsists in two natures the divine and the human. The Ascension of Jesus was a point in salvation history, in which the human nature of Jesus transcended our three-dimensional reality and realm, so to enter the eternal present, the immanence of the Trinitarian communion. Because God created all humanity and creation as interconnected with one another, we are now able to share in the intimate, divine dance, or perichoresis, of the Love, shared between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

We are all invited, 24/7/365, with every breath, thought, word, and action, to experience the Holy Spirit, the communion of Trinitarian Love. But this is not an imposition, it is an invitation, meaning no matter how wonderful, no matter that this is what we have been created for and will truly bring us fulfillment and joy, we can reject or accept this offer.

Thankfully, because of the Divine Mercy of God this is an open invitation. Even if we have said no for years, we can say yes at this moment. Once we say yes, even just a little, the love of God grows within us, just like the image of the mustard seed. As we experience the love of God in our own lives, we begin to realize how God is the foundation of our being and all of creation. We realize we are not the center of the universe, that the world does not revolve around us, and that it is not all about us.

We come to see how God is the foundation of all things, how he is present to us in our everyday actions when we participate in the very being and life of Jesus. We do so most intimately when we participate in the sacraments. Jesus is even more present to us in the sacraments than when he was present to the Apostles in person.

We also experience and encounter God through our participation in the three transcendentals, the ways of our being that God has imparted to us to experience him, which are the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. It is through the expression of our creativity in music, dance, and the arts that we come to experience the Beautiful. By embracing our gift of reason and intellect, through prayer, study, and sharing of ideas, we come to know the True. In recognizing the gift of others as human, through our fellowship, loving and engaging one another in the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy we come to experience Love which leads us to the Good.

God has given us the wonderful gift of life not just to endure but to experience fully, even in the midst of our trials, tribulations, and sufferings we are invited to experience joy and love. We just need to remember who we are and open our hearts, minds, and souls to receive the gift of God working in and through us. Just as the Son has been, we are sent to risk, to give our love away, by sharing his love with others. Our offer can be turned down or rejected. Even so, we must resist the temptation to judge or to take offense, but instead to assume a posture of understanding, of being present, and being available to witness and to allow God to reach others through us.

We never truly know the pain and suffering of another, nor what they may be dealing with. Instead of a knee-jerk reaction or adding fuel to the fire, we can instead take a deep breath, seek to be more understanding, and ask God to be present. Ask the Holy Spirit to love us and the person with us. In that simple choice to receive the love of God in a conflict or disagreement, we might become a healing presence that can make a difference.

Each one of us is on a journey. We are invited to open ourselves to the will of God, so that we can experience the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, as well as, perichoresis, the infinite dance of the Love shared between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Our fundamental option, our end goal, is to enter the fullness of the divine dance and communion of the Trinity. What Jesus has brought to us through his Paschal Mystery; his life, suffering, and death, as well as his resurrection and ascension into heaven, is the reality of how we can experience heaven on earth right now.

Fr. John Horn, SJ, teaches that, “The most fruitful human activity that we can experience is to receive God.” Our vocation is to say yes to God’s invitation and to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in the love of the Trinity. So having received, we now have something to give. We can now love others as we have been loved. This is the regenerating and transformative power of the Holy Spirit first activated in our Baptism that can continue to flourish and expand. As our prayer and activity in life becomes more trinitarian and thus more loving, we experience freedom, healing, and spiritual maturity.

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Photo: When we allow ourselves to receive moments to be still to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love, our minds, hearts, and souls experience healing and transformation!

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, May 16, 2026

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

Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night. He was a Pharisee, showing that not all Pharisees refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Most likely, Nicodemus was not there alone as he shared, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God”. Although, Nicodemus did not reject Jesus outright, he did not understand the fullness of who he was either. His heart and mind was open to what Jesus was teaching and he recognized that Jesus was sent by God. His coming at night most likely showed he was also not yet willing to support Jesus publicly and also on the spiritual level conveyed his lack of understanding regarding the message of Jesus.

He was not alone. For throughout the gospels, it is rare that anyone gets Jesus’ teaching on the first presentation, or second or third, if they are willing to stay with him that long. Nor do they get his deeper meanings if they do have some comprehension. Jesus though recognizes the opening that Nicodemus offers and he approaches Nicodemus as he did with his disciples. Where they are willing and open to learn, Jesus met them where were are and sought to stretch and expand there understanding to move from the things of the finite and below to lift them to spiritual insight and the things from above.

Jesus offers the image of being “born from above” to Nicodemus to help him to exercise his spiritual sight and muscles. Nicodemus takes Jesus words on the literal level and asks how someone can be born again and go back into their mother’s womb. Jesus taught Nicodemus that we as human beings are in need of receiving a new life, a life “born of the Spirit.” When we are born from above we are born again a second time. Jesus is speaking of baptism. We are given our life the first time through our parents, being born from below, and through the water and the Spirit are born again and made new. We are baptized into the death of Jesus and born again in the newness of his resurrection.

“This second birth from heaven is baptism. which is an action of the Holy Spirit. Through the water rite, the believer is joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection (Rom 6:4-5) and receives the indwelling Holy Spirit. If the kingdom of God is Jesus himself, then to enter the kingdom is to be given a share in Jesus’ own life. By means of baptism, we are born into communion with Jesus and the Father through the Holy Spirit” (Martin and Wright, 71).

What Jesus has begun to convey to Nicodemus, he will continue. He has done the same with his Apostles, other disciples, as well as anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear. His teachings have continued because there are those who have stuck with even while struggling with his teachings, have been willing to be transformed by them through the Holy Spirit and so have passed Jesus teachings, such as, the life of being born from above through baptism and the other sacraments, on. This continued for generations and in each age up to us our present day.

Christianity is not like Gnosticism, some secret sect of knowledge that is shared with a select, elite few. Neither is Christianity a form of dualism or Manicheism such that our body and all that is material are bad and we need to shed the physical as soon as possible to attain the fullness of our potential through the absolute embrace of the spiritual only. Nor is Christianity Pelagianism, where we just need the proper discipline, will power, and persistence to follow the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus offers us a universal invitation for all to “be born from above”, which means to be baptized in his name, to follow him into his death, to die to our our false sense of self, to our sin, our pride, that attitude and disposition that strives to set apart, diminish, devalue, dehumanize, divide, and polarize, and to rise with him. In being “born from above”, we receive the offer to participate in his divinity through the purifying fire and love of the Holy Spirit and so, instead of rejecting our humanity, embrace the fullness of our humanity, as we are being perfected by our participation in the life of Jesus.

The grace of God builds on our nature, the goodness of the creation he has made and formed into existence through an outpouring of his love. We accomplish this the same way his mother Mary, the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, the disciples, and Nicodemus did. We answer the call to holiness and sanctity. We say, “Yes” to Jesus and give him all we are and recognize all that we have is a gift from God the Father.

Day by day we need to be willing to be lead by the hand of Jesus, the firstborn of the new creation, he will lead us to our healing and guide us to offer our hand to others. May we resist the temptation to put up barriers, to keep others at arm’s length. We are all, every one of us, invited to become saints through our participation in the life of Jesus.

I agree with Pope Francis who in his exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate (“Rejoice and Be Glad”), wrote that we cannot “claim to say where God is not, because God is mysteriously present in the life of every person, in a way that he himself chooses, and we cannot exclude this by our presumed certainties. Even when someone’s life appears completely wrecked, even when we see it devastated by vices or addictions, God is present there. If we let ourselves be guided by the Spirit rather than our own preconceptions, we can and must try to find the Lord in every human life.”

God is present to us in each of our lives. For those of us who have been, may we embrace the gift of our baptism, so to better understand what Jesus was teaching Nicodemus, that we have been “born from above”. Through our dying and rising in Christ, we have better access and a share in the breath and life of the Holy Spirit. In this way, we are transformed and made new by the Holy Spirit when we believe and follow his guidance. We are invited to share and draw deeply from this spring of living water and lead others to the same source.

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Photo: My baptism, July 18, 1965 and my journey to the priesthood begins.

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

Link for the Pope Francis article on “Rejoice and Be Glad”

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, April 13, 2026

May we allow Jesus to open the Scriptures to us!

Despair was creeping in on the pair. The hope of Jesus being the Messiah, the promised one who came to redeem and deliver his people Israel had died a brutal and humiliating death. Even though Jesus sought to prepare his followers for this reality, they could not conceive, believe, or thought possible that the promised Messiah could die.

Cleopas and his companion are in mourning as they walk along the road to Emmaus. They have left Jerusalem and are commiserating among themselves about their dashed hopes. They were so sure that Jesus was who he said he was, now what were they to do? Even though they had heard about the empty tomb from the women, they did not believe, and they left Jerusalem. Jesus met them where they were and wove his way into the conversation and their journey.

When the time for them to part arrived, Jesus motioned to them that he was going to continue on. The pair of disciples urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over” (Lk 24:29). Jesus did just that and he revealed himself to them “in the breaking of the bread”(Lk 24:35).

The account of the road to Emmaus has significant relevance for our own spiritual journeys. How many times have we had an inaccurate understanding of Jesus in such a way that we felt let down? Have we domesticated Jesus, or limited who he is, seeing only one aspect of his totality, attempted to shape or conform him into our image and likeness? Have we prayed for something and then that petition or intention was not fulfilled in the way we had hoped? Have we sought Jesus and felt that he wasn’t there for us in our time of struggle or during those times that we felt that we needed his guidance most?

Jesus is the Son of God and we are not. He meets us as we are, accepts us as we are, walks with us even when we are walking in the wrong direction, but he also calls us to repent and be transformed. He invites us to stretch out beyond our comfort zones, to let go of our safety nets and take off our training wheels. Jesus invites us to nothing less than being transfigured by entering into the participation of Trinitarian Love. This begins when we resist withdrawing into and curving in upon ourselves, and instead are willing to be loved and to be expanded outward beyond ourselves and so to love in return.

We would do well to spend some time each day reading, praying, meditating and contemplating the wonderful daily readings of the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospels. In doing so, our hearts and minds like that of Cleopas and his companion, may also be set aflame. Once this pair encountered the risen Jesus, they corrected their course immediately and returned to the community of Jerusalem, even though it was evening and not safe.

As we put into practice what we hear and receive, we too will begin to: see Jesus more active in the midst of our everyday activities, recognize him in our daily events and even in the interruptions, be more inspired to share the sacrificial love we have received from Jesus, and come to realize that Jesus is among us, closer to us than we are to ourselves. We just need to invite him to walk with us, even when we are heading the wrong way, we can turn around. When we invite Jesus into our lives God will happen and we will come to believe. Alleluia!!!

Spiritual Stepping Stones