Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 11, 2026

Brothers and sisters, when we love something, be it sports, hobbies, another person, et cetera, we sacrifice our time to learn about it, to be with it, and to share with others. How many parents have learned a new hobby because their children love something. Like, for instance, raising rabbits. The love we have others, it overflows from us and out of us and we like the enthusiasm and energy, and we want to share with everyone, especially those we love. And this is supremely true when we love the Mass. The goodness, the truth, the beauty of the Mass captivates us, and we are overfilled with enthusiasm, excitement, and energy and desire to share this with all we love. More importantly, we don't want them just to raise rabbits, we want them to be here with us praying and celebrating and loving God. Archbishop Sheen, Blessed Sheen commented that “If we get nothing out of the Mass, it's because we have made no sacrifice, and no effort to understand what the Mass is.”

Today, we are continuing our discussion on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with the hope that we can bring more out of our worship with active participation, which is not merely attending the Mass. It is entering into the Mystery being celebrated.

Now importantly, some believe that if they are not the priest celebrant, an altar server, a musician, a lector, one of the ushers, or any other job, then their job at the Mass is to passively sit by and watch it go on. Perhaps this is why some are willing to no longer attend a Mass in person; they just watch it on TV. And if I am the spectator, then I can be a spectator at home in a comfortable pew, shaped like a couch. Perhaps.

On the other side are those who become so preoccupied with the job that they are doing, they have missed what Christ is doing through his Church and what's going on. We get hung up on the details and can't see the forest for the trees. And so, to clarify, the priest celebrates the Mass, all the rest assist him including those sitting in the pews.

Another struggle can come from the thoughts that distract us from actively participating in the Mass. Now, some become preoccupied by how often or how others receive Holy Communion. And it's different than the way I believe, right? We have that battle in our Church - one is them and one of us. And the them’s are against us, the vice versa. We can get so worried about what's going on in other people and what they are doing, we are missing what is going on.

Some become preoccupied with our focus on the music, or the type of music or who's singing. Or if Father will continue to sing the songs that I want to sing. Or this little liturgical practice or that liturgical practice. Or which way the priest is facing. I heard people say the priest has his back to us. Interestingly, the same people don't say anything about the parishioners sitting there in front of them. They have their backs to them, too. Moreover, there's seems to be little concern that the priest has his back to the Tabernacle. If we're focusing on what people are doing instead of what Christ is doing, we are missing why you're here. Still others become distracted during the sign of peace treating it as a social moment making sure everybody else is saying hi to you, rather than preparing to turn to the altar of God. It is simple acknowledgement. “Peace be with you” to those around us. We are here for the one on the altar, united, yes, and here is our hope. Brothers and sisters, these things can pull attention away from the purpose of the Mass and what's going on.

Again, the priest celebrates the Mass. All the rest are called to assist him by uniting ourselves to Christ for His sacrifice. But note, active participation is not about what you or I are doing. Well, not what you or me individually are doing. It is not what Christ is doing to his visible body, the Church. It is not in the central action of the Mass, which is Eucharistic sacrifice. It is not merely about performing roles, like singing or responding. They do enhance the Mass, and they are important. Assisting at Mass is about actively entering into the mystery of Christ's sacrifice. This is what we are called to do in the same manner. Singing, responding, and bringing our witness to help us to actively participate in the Mass.

Today in the Gospel we hear about a king addressing a man who was not wearing a wedding garment. And we know that this is pointing to the end times and the wedding Feast of the Lamb. And those lacking proper attire are cast into darkness to eternal punishment. It reminds us to keep our souls clean, the Baptismal garment that we receive, to keep that white, to the Sacrament of the Church.

Now, this parable also highlights God's impartially creating for all those who are called – Jews and Gentile alike. It reminds us that the Lord rewards and punishes us on the basis of one’s successes or   rejection of his call in obedience to his Commandments. I'm reminded of Frank Sinatra's theme song. “I did it my way”. That way will not get us to heaven, by the way.

The man without the wedding garment attended the feast, but he did not truly enter into it. And in like manner, it's possible to attend the Mass without actively entering into it; without actively participating in it. We can't become spectators, and we're not meant to. God did not call people just to have the pews filled. He wanted them to be a part of his feast for his son.

We concede that there is a work for each one of us to come to worship God with a clean heart and properly prepared and this is going to help us with our active participation. Our first step is to come to the Mass, to come to the Church, ten to fifteen minutes before Mass starts - you can still sit in the back. Come ten, fifteen minutes before and in silent prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to help us know our sins and then unite them to Christ on the Cross. Thus, united with Jesus, we are prepared to participate in that penitential rite that comes early on in this sacrifice. And during the penitential rite we ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness for our specific sins. We are bringing those to him and acknowledging that we need his help. In general confession, through the action of the priest, our lesser sins are forgiven. However, this penitential rite does not replace the need for Sacramental Confession which is required for all grave offenses before we can worthily receive Holy Communion.  One of the most common grave sins is missing Mass on Sundays or Holy Days of Obligation because of our own fault. That's the First Commandment.

Next, during the Liturgy, we worthily participate by paying attention to sacred scripture to which God is speaking to us. And we ask the Holy Spirit to make present the Word of God for us. And in the pews, there is a missal to help us focus on Word of God, we can pick it up. We can read them along, and in this way, our eyes and our ears can participate, too. The high point culminates in the readings of the Gospel, which tells us of the life, mystery, and preaching of Jesus Christ.

Now, while the Liturgy of the Word plainly calls for close attention, the whole liturgy, which is the whole Mass, communicates God's trust, and love to those who actively participate. This includes homily. There is the notion that one must memorize the homily. I don't know where this came from because I have not seen anything in the Church teachings that require it. I invite you to consider this: Ask the Holy Spirit to help us learn what He wants us to know and pray to Holy Spirit: “Teach me what you want to know, help me understand what you're trying to say.”  Not every word in the homily was meant for everybody in the pew. So, what does God want us to know today to grow in holiness and ask the Holy Spirit for that.

Thus, set by the words instructed in the homily, we are ready to participate in the sacrifice of the Mass. That is the liturgy of the Eucharist. At the Last Supper, when the Lord was looking forward to Calvery, he institutes the Holy Eucharist. The Cross would not be a distinct sacrifice. It would not be an entirely different oblation, but a new presence of the same sacrifice of Christ. The Last Supper was the unbloodied presentation of Jesus' sacrifice under the appearance of bread and wine. And this is what our Lord told his disciples to do in remembrance of him.

And this is what the Holy Mother Church does at each Mass. We further participate in the Mass when at the offering, we unite our good words and persecutions, to the bread and wine. After the priest offers to pray. You know, our beginning where he holds it up. “Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have received this bread we offer you.” Now if the music is playing during the offertory, you might not hear that, but you can see the priest elevating. So, after he said that, he places on the bread back on the corporal and we unite ourselves with the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Then after that, you bring forward the wine. “Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness, we have this wine to offer you, fruit of the vine and work of human hands.” Then we say in our hearts and minds, “Lord, I offer you all the persecutions I've had to endure for preaching the Gospel, for living the faith - for my guests being upset, I left them while I went to Mass, or whatever. “ We laid that in the challenge with Christ and offered it up. Then, at the Consecration, we unite our body and blood to Christ. After the priest says the words of God's creation, in our mind and our hearts we say to Jesus, “This is my body given up for you, Lord, give to yourself a little teeny spec, dropping an even smaller grain of rice onto the patten.” And after the chalice, “This is my blood. I give it to you, Lord, I unite it to you, for your sacrifice, and see yourselves pour a little bit into the chalice, hearts and minds elevated to God.” You want to do this united sacrifice, his mystical body. We are offering ourselves with Christ.

Brothers and sisters, the priest is not praying by himself while the congregation watches. Nor is the priest performing for an audience. No, the priest celebrates the Mass in the person of Christ the head and the faithful assist him praying with him. When the priest prayed, we are praying with him. When the priest offers a sacrifice, we offer ourselves with him, in him. When the priest speaks to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, we unite our hearts to that same prayer. In the Mass we follow Christ to the Cross and united to Jesus, we give the Father the gift of our life, our fiat, our being to be done according to your will, our obedience, even unto death. The Mass is the sign of our love, uniting the love of Christ in offering ourselves with your own Son, to the Father, for the salvation of others.

The mystical body of Christ is offered in the Mass, and we are part of that if you choose to. After giving worship to God, to unite ourselves to sacrifice of Christ, we are then ready to be reverently and worthily receive Holy Communion, which will discuss more next week.

Today, we hear about the king inviting the guests to the wedding feast. Christ invites us to the wedding feast of the Lamb, to the holy sacrifice of the Mass. The question then is not simply whether we will attend, it is whether we will truly participate in Christ's sacrificial offering. The Mass is essential worship of the Catholic faith, and the Eucharist is essential to the worship of the Mass. We go to Mass to give worship to God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, all our strength, because we love him above all things.

Brothers and sisters, that nobler the gift, the nobler we are to become to receive it. The holy sacrifice of the Mass is the noble participation in the one true sacrifice of Christ.

More to come next week. God loves you and so do I.

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 4, 2026

We are here to grow our understanding of the Mass and increase our fervor - our love for Christ in the Eucharist. The more we learn, the more we love. A quick recap: First we answered why do you come to Mass - to give worship to God. And then, when it's offered at the Mass, the Holy Sacrifice the Mass makes present, Christ, one sacrifice offered on Calvary.

At each Mass, Jesus, the invisible priest, working through his visible, ordained priests, offers as a sacrificial victim, under the appearance of bread and wine, his body and blood. This is the same act of love of the Sacred Heart instituted at the Last Supper. Archbishop Sheen noted that the sacrifice on the Cross is not something that happened 2,000 years ago, it is something that's still happening today. And to better understand how this happens we will look at the Eucharist as a Sacrament.

Before looking at the Sacraments themselves, today's readings remind us why God gives us his gifts in the first place. God did not give us his grace merely to be possessed; God gives it so that we may bear fruit in our lives. In the first reading, we see the God in the vineyard. He prepared it – ‘God spaded it.’ He protects it – ‘God cleared it of stone.” And he cared for it – “God tilled the soil, built a wine press in it.” However, the vineyard fails to bear good fruit, and in their pride, they produce wild grapes. Another translation states it has “stinking things.” They produce “stinking things.” This is because Israel did not appropriately respond to the gifts that they had received from the Lord.

Now, in today's Gospel, Jesus intentionally describes a vineyard using images from Isaiah’s prophecy from the first reading today so that his listeners would immediately recognize that he is preaching about God's people and their response to the gifts he gave them. And instead of producing good fruits, and its good grapes of obedience, faithfulness and justice, the wicked tenants produce wild grapes, stinking things of bloodshed, oppression, aversion, and the like. As a result, when you hear Our Lord proclaiming judgment, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruits” importantly, they forgot that the vineyard belonged to the owner – the vineyard belongs to God - and they had an obligation to produce good fruit.

Brothers and sisters, this is a warning for us today. The work we do belongs to God. In week one, we learned that worship belongs to God. Week two, last week, we learned that the sacrifice belongs to Christ. And week three, that is this week, today, we learn that the Sacraments are about this given that his life may bear fruit within us. The real danger for us then is for you and me that in our pride, we receive God's gift, without allowing him to have to transform us into the image of Christ, to produce good fruit.

Now, as I was driving down to Andrew Kelly’s ordination, I was listening to another talk by our Blessed Fulton Sheen. It might surprise you that I listen to him quite a bit. He remarked that man is the guardian of nature, a woman is the custodian of life. Physical life comes to us through our parents, but divine life comes to us through Christ and his Church. Through Baptism, divine life begins; through Confession, divine life is restored; and through the Eucharist, divine life is nurtured in us. Now, simply put, and Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ that conveys an inward grace, as it unites us to the divine life through the works of the Holy Spirit.

Now, there are seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony and Holy Orders. Of note, the Eucharist is not the first Sacrament one receives. It is the source and summit of all the Sacraments - all the others point to it, like spokes in a wheel pointing to the center. That's the Eucharist, the source summit of our Sacramental life. Each Sacrament gives us unique grace, we are going to briefly discuss three which are associated with the holy sacrifice of the Mass - Baptism, Penance, and Holy Communion.

Now, just as one prepares by washing your hands to respectfully sit down for a family meal, so, too we prepare to respectfully participate in Eucharistic meal. We first prepare by joining with our family through the Sacrament of Baptism where Jesus cleanses our souls, and we become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Bishop Sheen explains, “If I am to live the Christ life I must be born into it. That is the sacrament of Baptism.” An outward sign of the Holy Spirit brings us into divine life.

After our Baptism, we continue to prepare for the Sacrament of Confession where Christ enters into our soul and continues to cleanse out our temple by purifying our sinful practices. As a reminder, this Sacrament is required for all grave sins before one can receive Holy Communion and grave sin is against the Ten Commandments and the precepts of the Church. Additionally, Sheen points out, that “if I am to live the Christ life, I must heal the wounds of my soul caused by sin. That is a sacrament of Penance, also known as Confession or Reconciliation.” Confession is an outward sign in which the Holy Spirit repairs and restores union to divine life. He gives us graces to live Christ's virtuous life. Thus, in preparation for participation at the celebration of the Mass, we commit to going to Confession once a month and for every grave offense. Because it is healing Sacrament, it is not a punishment, but we can talk about that later when we talk about Sacrament of Confession. I will explain more there.

Now, recall that our Lord, Jesus the Paschal Lamb sacrificed once upon the Cross to God his Father. Now, the Paschal Lamb is being consumed in a particular manner, and importantly, in Eucharist, is to be consumed in a particular manner, in worthy reception, and that prescription involves the holy Mother Church. In addition, Bishop Sheen knows that “If I am to live the Christ life, I must nourish myself to stay in divine life, that is through the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist.”  Importantly, the Eucharist, as is all Sacraments, is an action of Christ. But unlike the other six sacraments, the Eucharist is not merely something our Lord does. It is Jesus himself given to us so that we may bear fruit for God.

Brothers and sisters Israel failed to produce good fruit in the first reading. The tenants failed to produce good fruit in the Gospel passage. And God gives us the Sacraments so that we may produce the fruit pleasing to him and the greatest of those is the Eucharist. The vineyard belongs to God. The gifts belong to God. The Sacraments belong to God. God gives us divine life through Baptism, strengthens it through Confession, and nurtures it through the Holy Eucharist so that we may bear fruit for his kingdom.

We have been warned about how we receive these gifts. We are to receive them well. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is essential worship of the Catholic faith, and the Eucharist is essential to the worship of the Mass. And we go to Mass, we go to receive God, to love him with all our heart, all our soul, our mind, and our all strength because we love him above all things.

Brothers and sisters, to know the gift, to know where we are to come to receive it well. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass contains the noble gift of Christ himself. More to come next week. God loves you and so do I. 



 Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 27, 2026

Brothers and Sisters,

In the Gospel and all of God’s inspired verses - there is a lot going on here. We are on the second homily series about the Mass. But I was reminded, as I forgot one part of the Confiteor, sometimes when you get hung up about having a perfect prayer, being perfect, doing everything right at Mass, it becomes about what we are doing, and not what God is doing for us, through us, and in us. And so, I was reminded of that thanks be to God today for doing the best we can and the Holy spirit makes up for the rest, right?

Now, as we continue our homily series, brothers and sisters, to deepen our understanding of the Mass and increase our love for Jesus in the Eucharist, I offer another quote from my beloved Archbishop, Fulton Sheen. He pointed out that “an error in the beginning is an error indeed, it holds all the way through.” Now, I'm pretty sure he's quoting another philosopher, perhaps Saint Augustine but it might be Aristotle. I don't know which one it is, but I do know I heard Archbishop Sheen say it.

Last week, we addressed an error and to clarify a correction of why we go to Mass. The primary purpose of attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is that the Mass essential worship of the Catholic faith and the Eucharist is essential to the worship of that Mass. This week, we will discuss the worship we offer, [hint] and that answer is the sacrifice of Christ. I'm sure you all knew that.

We touched on the fact that our Lord is both priest and victim last week. At every Mass Jesus makes present sacramentally, his one sacrifice offered on Calvary. Again, today we will explore the Holy Eucharist as sacrifice.

Now, some accuse Catholics of trying to sacrifice Christ again. They believe that at the Mass we are essentially re-crucifying him. They're saying that while he died it wasn't good enough, so we have to keep doing it. And this, of course, is not true. Moreover, unfortunately, some Catholics have come to believe this similar error, similar and grave errors about the Mass, and some have even left their faith because of it. Again, as our Blessed Sheen reminds us, if we begin with an error, we will end with an error. So, we have to discuss what the Mass is; what sacrifice is.

 So, importantly, before discussing the Sacrifice in the Mass, we are to first gain a little understanding of sacrifice. Now, today's reading reveals essential truths about sacrifice. The sacrifice is not merely about suffering; it is about loving obedience to the Father's will. In the Gospel, our Lord asks the chief priests and elders which of the two sons did his father’s will? The answer is the first, the son who had initially said, ‘no’, but later, repented and obeyed. Thus, we see that repentance, conversion, obedience, and action, not merely words, are necessary for doing the Father's will.

I was also thinking, as we are reading the Gospel, how many times have we heard in our lives from somebody – “Yes, sir”, “Yes, Mom”, “Yes, Dad”, “Yes, Father”. You know full well they're saying it, but it is not going to happen. Sacrifice is more than saying ‘yes’ from their lips. It is saying, ‘yes’, with our lives, with our actions, and following through. Likewise, God tells us through the prophet Ezekiel that the sinner who turns away from sin and does what is right, who obeys the Lord's commands, he shall live. Spiritual life is not merely about what one says, rather it involves what one does.

Once again, we see in the first reading the themes of repentance, conversion, obedience, and actions. It might remind us that Christ did not come here to abolish the Old Testament, but to fulfill it. We're seeing it throughout scriptures. In the second reading, St. Paul tells us, “Have you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus? Who though he was in the form of God, Christ humbled himself, emptied himself, and became a beacon unto death, even death on a cross.”

Brothers and sisters, that is sacrifice. Not merely suffering, not merely pain, not merely death but importantly, in loving obedience to the Father's will for our lives. As Christ prayed in Gethsemane, “Not my will, but your will be done.” This becomes the pattern for faithful lives: repentance, conversion, obedience, and action. True sacrifice is love is our loving, ‘yes’, to our Father throughout our lives.

Now, having seen through today’s reading and true sacrifice of loving obedience to the Father’s will we are now ready to briefly examine Eucharistic sacrifice - the heart of the Mass. We could talk for hours, days and weeks, on this and still not fully understand it. To understand it properly we look back at the Last Supper and then forward to Calvary. At the Last Supper, Jesus, looking forward to Calvary, institutes Holy Eucharist. As Bishop Sheen also explained, the Cross would not be a distinct sacrifice. It would not be an entirely different oblation, but a new presence of the same sacrifice. So, in the Last Supper, right before Calvary, we see that Christ shows us that it's the one sacrifice offered in a different mode, sacramentally. The Last Supper was an unblending presentation of Christ's sacrifice under the appearance of bread and wine. And this is what our Lord commanded his disciples to continue in remembrance of him. The next day on Calvary, the same sacrifice would be offered in a bloody manner upon the cross. And on that Cross, Christ gives the perfect sacrifice once and for all. The priest is the Son of God; the victim is the son of God. He did offer, human life, in loving obedience to the Father. And the Father accepts this perfect offering as revealed through the Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord. Christ is forever a victim of sacrifice, and we see this, through Saint John, who describes in Revelation what he saw in Heaven: “I saw a Lamb standing as though it had been slain.” Our Lord crucified and risen, the one high priest, is the same one who offers and is offered, who gives and is given.

Therefore, the Mass is not a new sacrifice, a representation of the one sacrifice. Rather the Mass is one same sacrifice of Calvary made present through all time in a different mode - in a sacramental manner. To reiterate, at Calvary, the priest, Christ offered on the cross as victim, to give in his body and blood to the act of love and sacred heart. Giving his precious blood for the salvation of the world. Have you stopped to take him to ask how much blood is needed for Christ to save the entire world from the beginning until the end? One drop was all that was needed, and he gave what? He gave all of it. The super abundant gift of our world shows how much he wants to give and has given for our salvation. He gave it all.

Christ is the one Pascal Lamb that will be sacrificed for the sins of the world. And this one sacrifice is made present to all times. At his heart is our Lord's loving obedience to the Father's will, for the salvation of our souls. Not my will, but yours be done.

Fulton Sheen also observed that Jesus’ sacrifice is not primarily the surrender of his body. It was first his surrender of his will. Importantly the Mass is the sacrifice of the whole time. His whole being is contained upon the Cross. Our Lord recognized all members of his mystical body, and his priesthood and in his victimhood. That means, you and me. In the Mass the Sacred Heart does not only say to the Father, “I love you”. But he also says, “Father, I love you, and so do all these who are here with me united as members of my mystical body.” Jesus offers up himself, including in himself are all our prayers, all our works, and all our sufferings, if we live with you. At every Mass is Christ's perfect act of love and obedience to the Father, and he lovingly invites us to place our own obedience beside his.

Importantly brothers and sisters, we are asked by God to unite our yeses with perfect yes of Jesus. Like the son in today's Gospel the question before us is simply, will we go and work in the Father's vineyard? Will we will follow what he teaches us through his church? Will we say yes to his will for our lives? We are to decide daily who will participate in the same kind of self-sacrificial oath, the same love that our Lord carried out on Calvary. Moreover, we will confirm our response, our fiat: Our will be done according to your will through our actions.

In today's Gospel reading and the reading from the prophet Ezekiel both teaches the same lesson. The one who does the Father's will is the one who pleases him. A good reflection for us, for you and me, is to ask ourselves in prayer, perhaps quietly after Mass for fifteen minutes - we ask - “Lord whatever you are asking me to do and to reflect my striving to obey him whole heartedly, using my gifts.”

Brothers and sisters, the holy sacrifice of the Mass is essential to the worship of the Catholic faith, and the Eucharistic is essential to the worship of the Mass. And we go to Mass to worship God, with all our heart, and with all our souls, with all our minds, because we want him above all things. As a reminder, the nobler the gift, the nobler we are to become to receive it well. The holy sacrifice of the Mass is the presence of one noble sacrifice at Calvary.

Stay tuned brothers and sisters, more to come next week.  Good Bless you.



Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 20, 2026

Brothers and Sisters, this Sunday, and the next four Sundays, for five in total, we will be looking at different aspects of the Mass. This is converted to a deeper understanding of the holy sacrifice of the Masses and to increase our love rather than our participation in the one true worship of Christ.

Now, Archbishop Fulton Sheen reminds us that the more we bring to the Mass, the more we will get out of it. So, on some level, we will have a little more to bring and we will get a little more out of it. So, we start with what the Mass is and why we go.

Now, some Catholics might explain to others why they go to Mass because It makes me feel good. Or that the Mass is a place to connect with the parish family members and friends. Some may even give a reason that the Mass is a place where we can get Jesus in Holy Communion.

However, after observing behaviors of some Catholics, one may conclude that Mass is just a burdensome obligation, a box to be checked. And then, if it's not too inconvenient, you know, if Mass doesn't interfere with one's vacation, or guests visiting, because we wouldn't want to impose our faith on anybody, you know? We don’t even live our own faith out. They sometimes see Mass as something to be squeezed in between other activities of more importance, and something I have to find a time to do, so I can get to the kids' sporting event – a box to be checked again.

Moreover, after witnessing some Catholics who attend Mass, who  come in late, stay just long enough to receive Holy Communion, and then jet off to the parking lot, you know, to beat the rush out of here, one might just conclude that Mass is a type of communion service, where one goes to get something from God, kind of like a spiritual pitstop. I got the tires changed and now I can run the race.

I heard a priest give a homily once, and it wasn't this priest, but I heard a priest, you know, give a homily once, and he said it this way. He said, “I heard a priest say to his parishioners that just a reminder that at the Last Supper, Judas is the one who left first.” [laughter] But I'm not saying it.

However, the point of attending Mass is first not about receiving Holy Communion, as important as it is to frequently, reverently, and worthily receive the Blessed Sacrament.. The first three precepts of the Catholic Church illustrate this point. Faithful practicing Catholics are to attend Masses on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation, to confess sins at least once a year and for every grave offense, and reverently, and worthily receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist at least once a year during the Easter season.

So, let's just round up. We go to Mass sixty times per year; we are obligated to go to Confession once before we are obligated to receive Holy Communion. We go to Mass first. And when we're clean, we can receive totally the Eucharist. That discussion will come in other homilies. Catholics are still required to attend Mass, even if they're not in a state to receive Sacramental Communion because we see that attending the Holy Sacrifice and Mass is not about our understanding, meeting our expectations, or asking what does the Mass do for ourselves. Again, it is not about our understanding, meeting our expectations or asking, what does the Mass do for us. In the Gospel today, the workers in the vineyard approach the workday from their understanding, with their own expectations and thinking their work was about them – ‘look what we have done.’ Whereas the landowner reminds them that the vineyard belongs to the master.

Likewise, to we participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, worship belongs to God. We are not coming on Sunday primarily to get something. We come because God is worthy of our worship. Without God's grace, human understanding is insufficient to grasp what belongs to man, that's justice, the virtue of justice. And what belongs to God, that's the virtue of religion. The Lord speaking through Isaiah in the first reading, says to you and me, to us, “My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways.”  

And just as fish are affected by the water they swim in, so too are we affected by the culture in which we live in. We are living in a culture that says, prioritize convenience. Priority self, our happiness, prioritize feeling. What makes us feel good? That's what happens first until our Baptism, when we are meant to swim in divine water. We're being influenced by the Divine life of Christ, and our God says to us, ‘Come, worship me, seek me first. Love me with your whole being.’ The Mass teaches us to take God's thought instead of the world’s thoughts.

In today's second reading, we hear Paul say to us, “Christ will be magnified in my body.” Notice that Paul is not asking, what can Christ do for me? Rather, he is asking, how can Christ be glorified through me. Christ is glorified for us when we worship God. To worship God is the First Commandment. When you question Christ on the greatest commandment, he replies, “We shall love the Lord and God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.”

Additionally, there is a shift going on here. There's a shift in focus. We are not merely to know about God, but we are to love our God, the worship of Him alone. Christ, in quoting Deuteronomy, says ‘Him alone shall you serve. Holy Mother Church teaches that worship is adoration and honor given to God, which is the first act of the virtue of religion. Paragraph 2096 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church for those who want to go look up the source. And that the public worship is given to God in the Church by the celebration of the Pascal mystery of Christ in the sacred liturgy of the Mass, to adore  God to acknowledge him, as God, as the creator and savior, the Lord and master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful love.

Brothers and sisters, the principal and central act of Catholic worship, is the public celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Mass. And essential to the worship is the Eucharist.

Today, the words Mass and Eucharist are often used almost interchangeably. Mass is a wider expression, however, since it embraces the introductory rites - the literature of the Word, as well as the Eucharist sacrifice, and sacraments. The Eucharist will be addressed in the coming weeks.

Today, we will focus on worship. We worship and adore God, to offer a new covenant sacrifice, Jesus is both priest and victim. At every Mass Christ makes present, sacramentally, his one sacrifice offered on Calvery.  You look more deftly again, this mystery last week. Our Bishop Fulton Sheen, if we know something, we bring it down to our level, so we can understand it. We can see this when we're trying to explain something to children. We bring it down to their level so they can grasp what's going on. But when we love something, we rise to meet its demands. A musician rises to meet the demands of music; athletes rise to reach the demands of the sport. A husband rises to become worthy of the love of his wife. As a husband rises, he becomes worthy of the love of his life. When we love something, we rise to that. The same is true of the holy sacrifice of the Mass. We do not bring the Mass down to our level. Through our love, the Mass rises to the top.

Worship is the act by which we rise to God in love. We do not worship God because he needs our praise. We worship because we are to be transformed by loving Him above all things. So, we see a progression starting with understanding but moving to love. We cannot truly love what we do not know - it's not a one and done thing. It's singular, the more we know, the more we love, the more we love, the more we live. If you are looking down, it looks like a circle. You look sideways, it looks like a screw or a string.

And the more noble the object of our love is, the more we rise to meet it. The more noble an object of our love is, the more we rise to meet it, and the Mass is the highest act of worship on earth. Therefore, rather than asking the Mass to conform to us, we allow our lives to be conformed to the full sacrifice of the Mass. The more highly we hold esteem for our worship, for the holy sacrifice, the more noble our worship becomes, the more reverently we approach the Mass, the more Christ transforms through our participation.

We can approach the Mass wondering, what am I going to get out of it today? Or... we can approach the Mass asking God: “Lord, how can I love and worship you today? “

The holy sacrifice of the Mass is the central worship of the Catholic faith, and the Eucharist is essential to the worship of the Mass. We go to Mass, to worship God, with all our hearts, with all our soul, with all our minds, because men love it above all things. The nobler the gift, the nobler we come to receive it well. The holy sacrifice of the Mass is noble worship.

Stay tuned, brother and sisters more to come on this topic.



Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 13, 2026

No recording available for September 13, 2026

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 6, 2026

Brothers and sisters, “Owe nothing to anyone except love one another” writes Paul to the Romans. The first reading and the Gospel reading remind us that sometimes this love requires fraternal correction. And you may have to tell a dear one clearly and tactfully, without nagging, that certain words, actions, or even a lifestyle, are morally contrary to God's law and Christian virtue. We hear Jesus instruct his followers that “if a brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” We see that we are first to go and talk to the person, not about him or her, not behind his or her back, not at or down to the person, but you talk to one another and to listen to their side, too. What stands out to me in this passage is that Christ does not say, “if your brother or sister annoys you. If your brother or sister disagrees with you, if your brother or sister hurts your feelings,” the Lord does say, “if your brother sins against you”. This requires prayerful discernment to determine if the incident was an actual sin. Or possibility of hurt feelings, perhaps our pride was wounded, potentially his or her action was in response to our own sinful behavior, a variation of all that has been listed for some other reason. It takes careful discernment to decide what's going on. Importantly, whenever there is tension in relationships, especially the family, I was reminded by this quote from Archbishop Sheen, he said, “We no longer have to wear hair shirts in our family or wear hair shirts inside out, rub up against their skin for penance. We don't have to wear them in our faith because we have family members.”

Whenever there are tensions in relationships, family, work, or even within the Church, especially if the relationship completely breaks down, we are tempted to put the other person on trial. Sometimes we tell our stories to others. Sometimes we tell ourselves stories about the motives. We provide witnesses, and we even reverse evidence. What we do is gossip, detract, and create factions. And this is a character assassination, and in effect, it tears someone down behind their back. It goes against the Eighth Commandment “You shall not bear false witness.”

Now being honest with ourselves, we will recognize that at times, we have all done this. We have all the assumed motives for your first grievances of spoken ill of someone, but we should have spoken to them. We've all been tempted to explain away our faults, while, at the same time, magnifying the faults of others. And this is why Jesus first calls us to conversion of heart before he calls us to correct our brother or sister. If we are unwilling to take responsibility for our actions, in our wounded pride, we begin to build a case against another person. We highlight their faults. We question their motives, gather supporters to tell our side of the story, assume our own sins of gossip, detraction, resentment, manipulation, and vision, begin to feel justified. We dehumanize the person until they become the villain of our own story. And once we have convinced ourselves that they are solely the problem, we can justify our behaviors. Behaviors that we normally would recognize as sinful. Thus, we see a pattern emerge - sin, self-justification, accusation, and division.

The Gospel pattern, the pattern for us Christians, - sin, humility, confession, talk to the person, and reconciliation. Additionally, the more guilty we feel, the more tempted we are to make someone out to be that villain. Not because they are entirely evil, or because we necessarily tend to lie. No, but because if they are the problem, then we do not have to face our own part.

Importantly, in Scriptures, Christ gives us a different path. Before we are to speak about another person, we are supposed to speak to the person. Before we are to judge motives, we are to seek understanding. Before we condemn, we are to examine our own hearts. Christ instructs the faithful, his disciples to first take out the log from our own eyes and then we will see clearly to take the spec out of our brother or sister’s eyes.

Today, we hear Jesus say, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother, you have won over your brother.” Christ gives his Church a process for addressing serious wrong beliefs. Always beginning with private conversation, and only aimed at reconciliation, aimed at communion in union with each other in the mystical body of Christ. Even when discipline becomes necessary, the goal remains the salvation of soul and restoration of communion, not punishment. The goal is to bring people in line with Christ’s church. Of note, the emphasis on fraternal correction is placed on reconciliation, not condemnation. This is the focus for us living out our Christian faith. Our Lord's process for correcting others is aimed at winning back a brother or sister not to prove someone else wrong. The focus is on healing relationships. It is about restoration, reconciliation, and communion. Again, not condemning. The Church is called to be led in reconciliation. The goal of correction is not victory, but unity.

Now, the first chapter in reconciliation is not proving another person he is wrong. It is refusing to assume the worst about them. The first step in reconciliation is refusing to assume the worst about them. In the second reading, St. Paul reminds us that love is the lens to which we are to interpret each other's actions. Suspicion asks, how would they hurt you? Love asks, what might be going on, you know? What might be going on in their world?

What is striking about the Gospel message is that Jesus assumes the goal is not proving who is right. The goal is, if you listen, you have won over your brother. It's not about winning an argument, not to win a battle of wills, not to win a power struggle, but to bring a brother or sister back to full union with Christ and his Church.

Christ wants all of us when the relationship becomes strained and trust erodes, and we are tempted to talk about one another instead of to one another. He wants us to come to him in prayer, to seek his understanding, ask for his help, remove the log from our eyes first, and ask for his wisdom, courage, and strength to go talk to and with another person. Not to win them over, but to be able to forgive and to be open to reconciliation. Again, whenever we experience criticism or conflict, our first reaction is to conclude that someone else has sinned against us, but before we reach that conclusion, the Lord asks us to seek his understanding.

Sometimes what needs healing is not another person's sin, not another person's actions, but our own assumptions, our own beliefs. And even when there is real fault, where there's a real injury here, Jesus calls us first to conversion, not to condemnation. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. The Christian response to conflict is not accusation, but reconciliation, desire for full communion. Before we speak about another brother or sister, Christ calls us to speak to them so that the relationship may be healed and communion restored.

So today, as we kneel before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we ask God for the graces to turn away from all of our sin in order that our hearts may not remain hardened and remain in our love for one another. Talk with our brother or sister out of the desire of reconciliation and desire for communion now and for all eternity in our heavenly kingdom.

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 30, 2026

Brother and sisters, today I would like to talk to you about the cost of discipleship. True Christian discipleship requires sacrificial commitment to Christ, even when that commitment brings suffering. You see that in the first reading today when the prophet is trying to stop it and God won’t let him and he keeps suffering.

Now, some people will mistake what Christ is talking about of what the cross their life is, and others, out of fear, neglect or indifference, refuse to pick up their cross.

There is a distinction between the ordinary hardships of life, and the cross Jesus is speaking about that we must pick up daily. The cross does not refer to our afflictions like arthritis or indigestion or any more serious medical conditions. Nor does it apply to inconveniences or difficulties, especially a difficult relationship, at least not in the first place. These things are what come to us in spite of ourselves, it happens in everyday life. The cross that Christ is talking about means the suffering which comes into our lives because of the choices we have made to stand up for the Gospel message. Like Jeremiah speaking on the Lord's behalf. This is the suffering that comes from choosing to follow his truth, his justice, his mercy, and his commandments out of love for our Lord, and concern for the salvation of souls. This is the cross that we bear for choosing to be a faithful Catholica in season and out. Importantly, the love I am talking about here is not merely a warm, fuzzy feeling that you get with people where attachments or desires or camaraderie’s that we share with groups. Love is sacrificial.

Love is to will the good of the other, and the ultimate good is union with Jesus Christ now, in this life and for all eternity. The cross Jesus is speaking of is a cross some people refuse to pick up. The cost of being a Christian. Healthcare workers, for example, include the suffering that comes for standing up for the life of the unwanted child in a womb. Or protecting the child who society is trying to medically, and or surgically transform to feed an ideology, which often leads to lasting permanent damage.

The cross of being a Christian educator includes the suffering that comes from teaching, which is not merely a human construct, but is ultimately revealed in the persons of Jesus Christ. In seeking his truth, we come to know our heavenly Father and follow the way home to eternal life. The cross of a Catholic educator also includes the courage to advocate for parents' rights, respecting and supporting them as the primary educator of their children.

Now, the cross of being a parent includes the suffering that comes from forming children in the faith and helping them to live it out in a world that often opposes it. This includes teaching by word and example that God comes first. Worshipping him every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation at the holy sacrifice of the Mass. Not simply when it is convenient. This also includes accepting the criticism, sacrifice, and heartaches that can come from raising children according to the Gospel, rather than according to the spirit of the present age.

And the cross of being a Catholic includes the suffering that comes from living out the faith. Saving the marital act in one's marriage, remaining faithful to one's marriage vows, rejecting no hope divorces, and defending the permanence of marriage. In the Gospel of Jesus asks for no less commitment from his followers. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, he must renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.”

For the Christian, living on the truth of Jesus Christ requires commitment. Consequently, suffering on some level is almost a certainty.

There are two extremes that Christians are to avoid. One seeks only self-fulfillment and rejects Christ's call to take up the cross. The other focus is only on denial and sacrifice, forgetting that we are also called to seek the good that God intends for each of us. The virtue lies between two extremes. The Christian is called neither to selfishness or self-neglect but to sacrificial love, rooted in proper understanding and human dignity.

The cross is a metaphor for sacrificial love. It has a hard drink to it, and at times requires discipline, hardship, pain, and for some, even martyrdom. Yet there is no achievement without sacrifice. More importantly, sacrifice can bring out the best in us. The world-class athlete, the learned professional, the skilled tradesmen, and especially the loving parent, all understand the truth. They know that love always costs something. The greater the love, the greater the willingness to sacrifice.

Our Lord and Savior out of love for his people and in perfect obedience to the Father's will carried his cross and endured immeasurable suffering. Jesus chose the way of self-sacrifice and suffering. It wasn't that he loved suffering, no, it was because Christ loves God that he suffered. Through his suffering and resurrection, our Lord entered into the glory and won salvation for those who will follow him. Those who will pick up their cross and carry it.  Jesus promised that those who do follow him faithfully here will share in his glory, in heaven, for all eternity.

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 23, 2026

Brothers and sisters, we get an overabundance of opinion polls especially around election times as we head into midterms here. In the Gospel we have an example of an early opinion poll surprisingly concerning the vital question, namely, what is the identity of Jesus?  “Who do people say the Son of Man is? ‘And this is the central question in the Gospel today. It is also a central question for you and me to answer in our lives. We might not be aware that our life depends on how we answer this very question. If we answer this incorrectly, we will get everything wrong. As Aquinas says, “An error in the beginning is an error indeed, it holds all the way through.” Today, it is fashionable to regard Christ as just one of the great religious founders, regarded merely as a great teacher, a holy man, or a prophet. And how one answers this question forms how one listens to Jesus and one’s willingness to follow him.

Jesus knew who he was, and the question was put forward for the benefit of his disciples to help the disciples to clarify their thinking, and Jesus didn't just take this out of thin air. Some people said that Christ was John the Baptist. Others said that he was Elijah, still others say that he was Jeremiah or one of the prophets. In our times, people will say he is like Buddha, or Confucius, or some other teacher. While flattering, these answers were only approximations to the mysteries of Jesus. Our Lord rejected these inadequate definitions of others and encouraged his disciples to speak for themselves.  

So, he said to them, “Who do you say that I am?” There was silence, and then Peter answered, “You are the Christ. That is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus wants us to answer this question for ourselves. Not merely a textbook answer, like we know Peter’s reply. But truly for ourselves. And we answer it not just by our words but through how we live. The mystery of who Jesus Christ is was only gradually revealed to the apostles. In fact, they totally didn’t get hold of it until after the resurrection. Importantly, Peter's answer didn't end the question once and for all. Holy Mother Church has been defending the various heresies that either denied the humanity or the divinity of Jesus. And these had to be settled by the ones who received authority to teach and make disciples of all nations, the apostles and their successors, united in orderly succession, was settled in the Church through her councils. You know, we got our Creed in Nicene which we recite here each Sunday at Mass or on solemnities.  As we recite it here at every Sunday Mass or solemnity, two-thirds of it relates to what we believe, what the Church believes about Jesus Christ.

The Creed is a development of that kernel of faith professed by Peter, which we hear about today, and each of us are in faith, any very question posed by Jesus. “Who do you say that I am”, and it is essential that we make Peter's answers our own, to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, not simply because the Church says so, but also out of our personal conviction. It is crucial that we make the Creed our own profession of faith, not just words we recite at Mass. The more people we have in the Church who believe out of personal conviction, the more the Church will be standing on the rock of Christ with a firm foundation of faith. Even though it is important to be able to profess the truth, it is only the beginning, it is nothing without action. Words without action are empty. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we are all shaped by our convictions. Archbishop Fulton Sheen observed. “And if we do not live as we think, we soon begin to think as we live. In short, either we will change how we live to match what we believe, or we will change what we believe to match how we live.” Many problems people have with the teachings of the Church start not with a problem, but with the way that are living. And the attitudes are made less by the way one thinks, and more, by the way they live, following Christ's commands or not.

The question Jesus asked is not only the question of the Gospel, again, it asks of us today and every day, “Who do you say that I am?” Who do we say that he is by our actions? Do we love God with our whole heart, all our mind, all our soul, and do we love our neighbors. Who do we say Christ is, or how would our actions demonstrate what we actually believe?

Today, as we stand to profess the Creed at this Mass, let us not simply recite the familiar words on page fourteen of the hymn book -let's make them our own. Let us work to make them our own. They are a profession of faith, even more than words upon our lips. May it be a conviction and heart, and a guide for our daily lives. Let us conclude with this prayer, “Lord, grant that the faith we profess today with our lips, that we may believe within our hearts and practice within our lives. Amen.”



Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time August 16, 2025

I had the privilege of attending the Steubenville conference in Spokane. The priest was preaching on blind Bartimaeus. You know, “Jesus, the son of David, have mercy on me.” And the more the crowd tried to silence Bratimaeus, the louder he becomes ”Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me” until Christ comes up and asks Bartimaeus what he wants, which was to receive his sight, and of course, his faith healed him. And the priest talked about the crying out to Our Lord to be healed. And something unexpected happened as the priest was repeating “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me” and pausing for reflection. “Jesus, heal me from my porn addiction”, you hear one voice cry out. And another cry out,” Jesus, heal me from my drug addiction.”  With another “Jesus, heal my family, my mom and dad are thinking about getting divorced.” And this went on for minutes as people were just shouting out, crying out to the Lord for healing, personal healing, for their family. Very deep stuff.

Brothers and sisters, these were teenagers. With their friends sitting right next to them courageously begging God for help, to heal them from their vices. I don't know about you, but as a teenager the last thing I was going to do was to admit to a group of fellow peers what was going on in my life. Heck, I don't think I would stand here as an adult and shout out what I need help from the Lord either. Let's put this in perspective. It was pretty amazing. Afterwards I heard some of the event speakers, the ones that came in, were talking. They had never experienced something like this. It stuck with me. Even now I'm telling you about, I can feel the goose bumps or whatever you call that, the emotion, the spirit. It was beautiful.

Well, brothers and sisters it can be hard to humble ourselves and admit that we need help, and that we cannot completely take care of ourselves, to be childlike, as our heavenly Father. Now, some of us have health concerns for ourselves, family members, or friends. Others have been struggling with a venial sin that will not go away. Drugs, alcohol, pornography, smoking, pick one. Still others are worried about children, grandchildren, siblings, and friends who are falling away from the faith, and are no longer practicing. In some form, many of us are like that mother of the daughter in today's Gospel. We care for somebody who's suffering. We cannot help; we cannot reach. Now, one’s pride can often keep one from asking for what is needed. Some do not like asking anyone for any kind of help. “I don't need any charity. I'm here to fix people. I'm going to solve the problem.” The vice of pride is the queen of the seven deadly sins. It's queen of all sins. And I've said it once, I'll say it again, probably until I die. “I did it my way” is a theme song to hell. I'm not condemning Frank Sinatra, he just picked a good song, but it tells us to go the wrong way to go.

Pride tells us we can do it our way. We don't need anybody. We are sufficient on our own. However, pride can cause us to stop talking to God, especially when we don't get what we want when we want it, how we want it as fast as we want it. What we will conclude, since God didn't say anything, he must want me to do X, Y, and Z. Instead of waiting on the Lord, we wait on ourselves. Another dangerous principle. We will put that off to the side.

In contrast, today we have the Canaanite woman, a mother of a suffering child who did not seem to mind asking God for help. Not once, but multiple times, and she presented herself before our Lord and others as a favor. She humbled herself and persisted. The Gospel text reports that Jesus did not answer her at all. He was silent to her. The Canaanite mother showed us what to do. She didn’t walk away saying God gave up on me and he wants to do it his way, he doesn't care. No, in faith, she persisted. She kept coming to Christ and asking him to heal her loved one. Our beloved disciples, what do they do? “Lord send her away.” Not heal her and make her stop. “Tell her to go away because you don't want to deal with her.” And our Lord points out that his mission is only to the lost sheep of Israel. The mother continues, “Sir, please.” Jesus remarks to her that “the food of children ought not to be thrown to dogs.” Not taking insult from Christ, the mother humbly acknowledges her position, and her lack of providential privilege to the God of Israel, and she asks for unmerited mercy anyways. “Even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of the master.” This woman show both tremendous faith and tremendous ability, and persistence. And we hear our Jesus acknowledge her faith. “O Woman! Great is your faith. Let be done for you as you wish.”  

Woman, less we hear that as a derogatory ‘Woman’, the scriptures have a different point. The Woman will stomp the head of Satan. Woman was not derogatory. “Great was your faith”, and her daughter is healed immediately. This passage came after Christ rebuked Peter for his lack of faith. He's showing the faith of a Gentile person, a woman whom we would call heathen. Look at her faith. The centurion faith, too, is pulled out for how great it is.

At first glance, our Lord's word can seem horrible. He could have immediately offered to heal this poor woman's daughter without making her go through this. And yet Jesus put the woman to the test. And we recall that Christ was able to see the hearts and minds of people and with whom he interacted, he knew what people were thinking. He was there to teach, too. See by comparing the concerned mother to a dog, our Lord is bringing to light what was in the hearts and mind that his followers. The phrase was used by Jewish people to describe Gentiles, and it had a different connotation for us in the West. To be a dog means you're less than human. It means, you only work on your base instincts, or base intuition alone. It means you don't even have a grace of rational intellect. It's a huge insult that is still there today.

Our Lord is bringing this to light. What was in their hearts and mind, even saying, “I have only come to the lost sheep of Israel.”  The people would know that they would only come to the lost sheep Israel. He is showing that he is going farther. He's starting with Israel and going further. It's pretty impressive. Moreover, our Lord's actions were tailored to the faith of this woman, those around her, and the witness her life will bring to all. He sees that she has faith. He puts her faith to the test for her and for her to bear witness to further faith. Faith is stronger when it's tested.

Additionally, St. Augustine observed that when our Lord healed the daughter of this Canaanite woman, he did not go to her house. She came to him. This signifies that the Gentiles are to be saved by his Word. His Word working through his Church. And I imagine in this Gospel passage had a particular importance for Saint Augustine, whose mother was the woman pleading to Christ for her family, afflicted by sinful lives that they were living. Saint Monica, through her prayer, kept boldly coming to Jesus, placing her fears, her worries, and her tears at the foot of the Cross, begging our Lord for the conversion of her husband and son. And guess what? Her husband converted on his deathbed. He was an abusive man. Through her intercession he found the graces to come back to God and repent and be healed. And the son ultimately became bishop. One of whom was St. Augustine, the doctor of the faith, so be careful what your mother's prayed for your children. Pray hard that God’s graces work and dwell in all of us.

Brothers and sisters, the Canaanite woman teaches us that faith does not give up, even if God seems silent. Faith keeps knocking. Faith keeps asking. Faith keeps seeking. Faith keeps trusting. The Canaanite woman never saw her daughter's healing until she first persevered in faith. Saint Monica never saw the conversion of her family until she first persevered in faith. God's timing is not our timing. Importantly, his silence is not his absence.

Brothers and sisters, perhaps, there's someone in our life that we almost all have stopped praying for. He’s given up for. Do not give up. Keep praying, keep bringing them to Jesus, keep entrusting them to his mercy. Keep believing that God loves him even more than you and I do. Don't give up.

Therefore, we ask God for the graces to imitate the Canaanite mother, St. Monica, and those brave teenagers, that we may keep boldly coming to Christ, persevering in prayer, and placing all our trust in Jesus who loves us beyond all measure. And that we may never cease praying for those whom we love knowing that the Lord, who heard the cries of the Canaanite woman, who answered the tears of Saint Monica, and who listened to those teenagers, still hears every prayer offered in faith. 



Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 9, 2026

Brothers and sisters, if you look at this account from one of the other Gospels, you hear that Jesus was intending to walk by the boat, walk past them. He didn't want to stop. As in the first reading, as God is a small steel wind, they went by, or he saw the back of that upper tree, the Old Testament prophet, saw the back.

Brothers and sisters, there seems to be a trend in our time of people denying the miracles of our Lord, reducing them to the natural act, especially the multiplication. That is what has just taken place. Jesus has multiplied the loaves of bread. They wanted to run out and make him bread king. Look, we can fight everybody because we have a source of food here. He just fed them and went off. So, the people are now trying to reduce this. An example of this is, again, denying Jesus a miracle, reducing it in the national kingdom. So, what the thing is here, people are saying that Christ just simply inspired people to share what they already had with them thus feeding people through human generosity alone. Now, this is problematic on notable evidence.

What are we saying in the Old Testament? Elijah, who had the bread and oil multiplied by the widow, which kept him alive for three years. Or about the other prophet, who fed one hundred people with twenty loaves of bread, multiplying that. Or even the manna in Heaven, the miracle from that, and God, which are all prefigurements of the Blessed Sacrament, and the multiplication is also prefigured, as opposed to start with it.

But in our time, or at least in the New Testament time, depending how far back you want to go, we'll go back to St. John's Bosco. He experienced a multiplication of hosts at Mass. So, when he got up, and after he consecrated what was there, he noticed there wasn't enough for Holy Communion. We won't place blame here. That was already done in some other committee. But I will say that St. John Bosco knew there wasn't enough; the altar servers knew that there wasn't enough consecrated; and the sacristan knew that there wasn't enough consecrated. But he went out, after saying the Eucharistic prayers and administered the Sacrament. It never went empty. Everybody was able to receive our Lord in Holy Communion, and all the communicants were fed. And the people, the ones that knew, were amazed. And he said, “Why are you worried about that? Why is this an amazement? But what happens on the altar? Not in amazement. Greater is the holy sacrifice of the altar than the multiplication of communion.”

But, however, let's come back to this modern argument. Are we supposed to believe that the miracle didn't happen? People merely had extra hosts in their pockets, came up, and dropped them in the ciborium and consecrated the hosts themselves? Is that the argument? And if John Bosco has multiplication, why would it be harder for our Lord? Some are saying, regarding today's Gospel, that we cannot know if it really happened. It just a story to help Christians have faith.

How do we know that Jesus truly walked on water? Brothers and sisters, we profess a belief in a virgin birth. We profess that God became man, that he suffered, died, and rose from the dead. We believe that Jesus Christ is truly present, body, blood, and soul and divinity in the Blessed Sacrament. And multiplying bread, and fishes, and walking on water, this is where we draw the line? This is the hard we can't get over? If our Lord did not walk on water and today's Gospel reading is simply a literary device, then it would make logical sense to say the same for the rest. The virgin birth, the resurrection of Christ, the Eucharist. And you see them as merely stories to convince them of nice ideas. And with this type of thinking, there is little wonder why more and more Christians are coming to profess and see Jesus only as a holy man, or merely a good teacher, you know, like the Buddha.

Importantly, our Lord used miracles, supernatural wonders to demonstrate who he is. Jesus says, “Believe the works, and you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” Christ's miracles are meant to authenticate his mission in the eyes of Israel and just corroborate his claims of divinity. By the way they work! We hear at the end of this Gospel, they worship him, Jesus, the Jews knew that only God, who has absolute power over creation, can spend suspend the laws of nature in a miraculous way.

Now, I know that I'm preaching to the choir here, brothers and sisters, and I'm going to say it anyway. For clarification, Jesus Christ is God. He is the only begotten Son, the second person of the Trinity. He is our Lord and Savior. Through him we are united to his sonship and become adopted sons of God and daughters of God, the Father, Most High, through his sonship, we become adopted sons and daughters of God, the Father, Most High. He is who he says he is.

Now, there is a spiritual battle going on. Never forget that. We are being tempted to deny the reality of who Jesus Christ is and thus reject the gift of his salvation. This is the game. It's a real game. It's for keeps. It's for all eternity, a poetic way of saying this, eternity is a long time to be wrong.’ Now, I say that because eternity literally means outside of time. We use time here, poetic, just a poetic way of saying it, to bring the point, the permanency of eternity.

Today, we hear about Jesus miraculously walking on the water and saying to the frightened apostles, “It is I, do not be afraid.” Well, this term, ‘It is I” in Greek, is Ego eimi, “I am". Ego eimi which means I am. We hear that in other places in scriptures. We should hear this passage, as Jesus is saying it: “Do not be afraid, I am.” In addition to Christ's power over nature, by walking on water, his statement points to God's self-revelation at the burning bush, where God says to Moses, “I am who am” Ego eimi. “I am the bread of life.” God is the bread of life. “I am. Be not afraid.”

Moreover, we hear in the scriptures that the winds and sea obey him, Christ. The Old Testament credits God alone with this authority over the sea. Thus, we recall the Old Testament, the power of God at creation is separating the waters from their land - right in the beginning. Also, at the victory of the Red Sea, for the chosen people, where God separated the water and allowed dry land, and again, when Joshua led the people into the promised land separating the water and land.

The events recorded earlier in Matthew's chapter of Christ calming the sea when they were at a storm. Recall that he was asleep in the back of the boat. They were in a sea with an earthquake going on, and he was sleeping. He was resting securely in the peace of God knowing that he had everything in there - his faith in the Father. Our Lord goes beyond merely reassuring his disciples. He claims for himself a divine identity and authority. Choose who he is, his actions. Aware of this, the disciples worship Jesus, saying, “Truly, you are the son of God.” If he were not, he would be guilty of blasphemy, false worship.

The previous experience of the apostles should have given them firm faith and confidence of hope and presence of Christ because they had already been in a boat during a storm with our Lord. And in that boat, they cried out to Jesus, just the way Peter cries out today, “Lord, save us.” And both instances they, in their fear, call upon Christ as Lord. Not as a good teacher. Not someone like the Buddha, a holy man. “Lord.” And both times he rebukes him for having little faith. Our Lord rebukes them with gentleness, from one who understands the weakness of fallen human condition. At times, we too, hear our loving, our Lord lovingly remind us, “For you of little faith. I'm here with you always until the end of time.”

Well, we can draw deeper meaning from today's Gospel as with other Gospel passages and see it as a symbol of the Church. By the way, the message might be saying, “Stay in the boat,” but that's another story. And we don't want to run Peter down. He is the only other person I know that walked on the water. More importantly, these events happened. Our Lord walked on water, and so did Peter with Christ's grace. And this happened to make known Jesus' true identity. Moreover, the good news, which the Church continues to preach, is not merely a literary device, but the Word of God, Christ Jesus himself.

Brothers and sisters, our Lord gave himself on the cross for us, and he gives himself through the sacramental life of his Church that we will come to believe in him, that we may have faith, trusting in him In order that when the storms our lives fiercely hammer us down to the point of where we fear being swallowed up in a sea of doubt, anxiety, and fear, we can, as Peter did, turn to Christ, our Lord, and say, “Jesus save me.” And then, like Peter, we can see Christ's hand reaching down, taking a hold of us, picking us up and pulling us into his arms, helping you and me to remain secure in our Father's love. Now, and for all eternity.



Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 2, 2026

The first reading contains an invitation from the Lord to the prophet Isaiah, and it is addressed to the exiles in Babylon. “Come to a banquet to which food and drink are both free and fully satisfying.” Now, the banquet is the metaphor for the New Covenant; the New Covenant the Lord wants to make with his people in place of the old one that had been broken by the people’s infidelities.

This banquet image is also in connection with today's Gospel. Now, for a moment, let's step back and put it into context. What's going on at the miracles here in the multiplication of the loaves and fishes? We need to recognize that “Jesus, after receiving the news of the death of John the Baptist, his cousin, he retired to a lonely place.” He went out by himself in a boat with his apostles. And then the crowd followed him on foot there. Christ’s heart could never resist suffering. He takes pity on the people who follow after them, teaching them, healing them, and then feeding the crowd. I'm asking for us to we recall the miracle of how after the intercession of Moses God provided manna for his people in the desert and now our Lord, who is the new Moses, feeds his people in the desert.

In this miracle, we see an anticipation of the Eucharistic Feast. The sacrifice and the gestures and words used are exactly the same ones that are used in describing the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. “He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave to him”. These are same words we have in every Mass. The Eucharist, in turn, can anticipate the final banquet of the Kingdom where we are to keep our garments white, the garments of Baptism clean and pure, so we can enjoy and be partakers in the feast of the bride and groom, the Christ of his Church.

Now, Christ provides food for the crowd who saw him as teacher and healer. That God shows his love, a love so strong writes Paul “that nothing can separate one from the love of Him.”

 And then in the second reading, Paul gives us a rundown of different courses and dimensions of creation, human existence, death and life, spirits, angels, principalities, powers, time, things present, things to come, and astronomical forces, the height and depth. None of these is an actual threat to those who remain in God's love. We also hear St. Paul say, “nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God.” And some will come to use those words and say that nothing separates us from the love of God, so not even by sin can separate us from the love of God. Once saved, always saved.

Importantly this is not the claim that Paul is making. He is not saying that salvation is actually absolutely assured for believers but a claim that salvation cannot be threatened by any cosmic forces outside of ourselves. For St. Paul, the only real threat to our salvation is our free will. We are free to reject God's love, and we are free to forfeit. We do this to our sins by turning away from God.

In the letter off to the Romans, Paul brings up four different ways that he identifies this. Also in his other letters, Paul writes in Romans, “Do you not know that if you yield yourself to anyone as obedient slaves, your slaves are the ones whom you obey. Either of sin, which leads to death, or an obedience which leads to righteousness.”

Here Paul is not writing to the pagans. He is writing to a Christian community - those who are already baptized. Those are already believers. He's not saying, don't worry about it - once saved, always saved. He continues elsewhere. Paul states: “Where you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the power of the spirit, we put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Still Paul in his letter to the Romans addressed to those who believe that God's kindness, forbearance, and patience give sufficient guarantee that the threat of punishment of man’s sin in will be averted, universal salvation of all, because God is so good, he would never condemn somebody to Hell. God doesn't send people to Hell. We choose not to go to Heaven. And he respects that choice. He gives us free will and he won't take that away from us. He will never force the cure.

Now, to this position, Paul sternly advised that “Such hope is foolishness. On the day of God’s judgment, his judge, his justice alone will rule, giving everybody their due, according to their works.” Elsewhere in his letters Paul encourages us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And on the day of God’s judgment his goodness will certainly not declare the most saints those who chose to reject his gift of salvation. God will never force himself on us. He gives free will. He invites us. He calls out to us; he constantly reaches out to his Church. He wants us. He will never force himself. Importantly, Paul is reminding us today that despite the trials and struggles we have to go through they are benefits of those who stay united to our Lord, and they do not have the power to separate us. The very things that afflict us are what make us sharers of Jesus' triumph over sin. We can unite ourselves with him, he who overcame sin, and put to death, death itself.

And as always, Paul is quick to clarify that this takes place not by our own power, but through Christ who loves us. It's not what we do, but what he does to us, for us, and we allow us to say yes to him. Thanks to Christ’s grace, no circumstance or created power outside of ourselves can sever the bond that joins us to the risen Lord.

Again, the one thing that separates us from God are the serious and deadly sins we freely choose to commit. God loves us and desires our salvation. Our sin though is a refusal of his love and of his saving gifts. Remaining in sin is a refusal of his merciful love and risks our eternal soul. Importantly, we do not need to fear God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and has great kindness. Our Lord loves us and desires our salvation. He sent his only begotten son into the world to die for us, that we may live in him, to pay the price, that we have a physician in Heaven, heals us through his Church. We have hope in our Lord who provides us with a way to remain united to Him, to renew the eternal covenant in us.

The antidote to our sin, the way we accept Jesus' merciful love, is found in the Sacrament of the Church, especially the Sacrament of Confession which the other side, the fallen angels, want us to fear in order that we will avoid going to Confession and thus choose to remain in our sins. Importantly, there is nothing to fear in Confession. This is one of Christ's healing Sacraments. It is a cure, not a punishment. It is like going to the doctor's office. If we don't tell the doctor what's going on, he or she cannot help us. In the same way Christ cannot, because again, he will not force himself on us. We have to confess what we do wrong and he will forgive, “All will come to me, I will receive. I will not lose any who come to me.” You have that assurance in Scriptures.

When we come to Our Lord to be reunited to him through the Sacraments to the Church a practice that will stay united to God’s grace, includes this prescription, will stay with the physician in pain, a prescription of monthly Confession and Confession for every grave offense, weekly Mass, with worthy reception of Holy Communion and daily prayer. If we have a grave offense, we can receive Spiritual Communion. If we don't, we can receive. The Holy Mother Church teaches that to receive Holy Communion with a grave sin on our soul we risk an offense against the body and blood of Christ. And daily prayer, which is elevating our hearts and minds to God, all the prayers, we have the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Rosary. We have many chaplets, like a chaplet of Divine Mercy, all these formal prayers are great.  But prayer first and foremost is elevating our hearts and minds to God.

Talk to him. Father, thank you for what you have given me. Help my friend, my family, help the firefighters, help those who are suffering. I'm sorry for the way that I said no to you. Pease forgive me. Give me the strength to come back to your Church and be united with you. This is common to God as a son or a daughter, to a loving Father in heaven, as first and foremost.

So, as reminder, our prescription, monthly Confession and Confession for every grave offense, weekly Mass, with worthy reception of Holy Communion and daily prayer. This practice will help us respond to the Lord's invitation as spoken through Isaiah in the first reading: “You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy?”

Our money and our ways here in our life. What are we spending on? That which cannot save you. He can. He does, and he's given us the rule. The Lord invites us to come out of the exile of our sin, to his banquet, where we are fed with true bread from Heaven. The body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But the bread of life freely given is fully satisfying.

So today we ask God for the graces to continue to teach us, to seek Christ before all earthly comforts, in order that we may, through the sacramental life of the Church, we may remain united to his divine love now and for all eternity.

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 26, 2026

The other day I came across a podcast from a Catholic commentator. It was really interesting. He started it out by saying that this was a conversation for ‘serious’ Catholics. Well, what does that mean? If I don't follow his way, I'm not a serious Catholic, right? Then he said, “I'm not trying to say the priests aren't doing their job.” That's a negative argument and it is what you are trying to say. But what he was all about is the fact that priests are preaching too soft homilies. He was visiting a home in another parish and the readings talked about the weed and the wheat and the scriptures talked about throwing the weeds in the fire, but the priest did not preach on hell. So, we need more preaching about hell. And this guy, by the way, wasn't a priest, and I thought it was interesting because, well, he's telling everybody he's not trying to do this. He is doing that, not of his own accord. Who knows what God had that preacher preach on? There are a lot of topics we can preach on. And we as priests spend time in prayer, but who says the priest has to answer to what this guy wants? Well, interestingly enough, I came across another person at the funeral yesterday and he said, “I like homilies that only preach on hell.” Well, all right, Lord, what are you trying to teach me? And it isn't about preaching on hell necessarily.

We do know hell is there, right? It's real, and there are times to preach on it. But the first thing that everybody needs to do is ask, “What do you want me to learn from this, Lord?” Priests ask, ‘What do you want me to say? What do you want me to teach?’ That's how we are going to prepare for this. So, we're coming into a homily, we have our own ideas because we read the scriptures. And so instead of saying, ‘Lord, I want your priest to preach on this,’ how about, ‘What do you want me to learn from this Word? I am your servant. I am here.’

There are so many things we can talk about in each one of the Scriptures. We don't have time. I could be preaching on hell again today with these scriptures. Death, judgment, heaven, or hell. We are all going to die. They'll be a judgment; there will be heaven or hell.  But that's towards the end of the liturgical year and I will be preaching on that at Advent, trust me.

Well, one of the things that I prepared for today’s homily is that there are few who are able to go through life without something painful happening to us. In fact, I would say it's almost impossible for us to get through life without getting some deep wounds that are left on our soul. We can even talk about when someone says, you know, physically, it's worse to be beaten than manipulative and verbal abuse. And I'll ask them, what will last longer? The broken leg or the emotional damage that is left behind? That's another discussion that we can have. I'm not saying that we need to break anybody's legs, but to be careful about the words we use because they last long.

Now, some of the wounds we are carrying, we bring on ourselves, through our own sinful actions, through disobeying God's commandments, lying, cheating, stealing, pick a vice. Other wounds we suffer from from the hands of others, through their sinful actions, especially through betrayals and various things. And yet other wounds happen through nobody's thoughts, but accidents, car accidents, earthquakes, tornadoes, et cetera. There are things that just happen that mark us. Now, some may tend to write off bad experiences as being useless. Nothing can be gained from them; there's nothing that you can salvage. They should be forgotten. You know, what happened in the past is in the past, like Rafiki, in the Lion King. It doesn't matter. It is in past. Once it's gone down river, it's lost forever. We must forget them and move on, yet we know unresolved issues express themselves in unhealthy ways.

Now, St. Paul gives us another way to view these dreadful experiences. In today's second reading, Paul reminds us that God can turn everything to the benefit of those who love him. Our Lord can bring good out of pain, out of betrayal, out of death. Can and does. Now some take Paul’s words here in Romans to mean that all things work out good for those who love Jesus. All things work out good for those who love Jesus. Here in this world, they believe that if one obeys God's law, then one will always be successful. If I'm the person that says, everything’s going to be right. I will not suffer at all. No bad, nothing bad will ever happen. Only good experiences will come. This is known as the ‘Health and Wealth gospel’. The gospel that ignores the true Gospel when it says, “What they did to me, they'll do it to you.” Being true Christians, true Catholics, means we're going to suffer in this life. Unfortunately, that is the result of original sin. And many of us discover the error of the Health and Wealth gospel the hard way: It is not true that no matter how good we are, how much we obey, what we do, bad things still happen. And bad things happen to good people. And good things happen to bad people. That's another homily. Equally false in this belief about the Health and Wealth gospel is that God wills bad things that happen and causes them to happen. ‘So therefore, I'm okay to be bad. God willed this.’ No, he doesn't. There is a difference between God allowing bad to happen and God permitting good to happen. Permissive means to will. God has never commanded evil to happen. We don't understand all that God has commanded and all that he says in those scriptures, but it's not evil. There's justice, which is good. And when bad things do happen Christ is there to help. Not only to pick up the pieces and heal us, but to reap the harvest from the wreckage. He can cause that bad to be good for those who love them. It is important to proudly understand what Paul is saying here.

Listen again, brothers and sisters. “We know that all things work good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” This passage promises that God causes all things to contribute to our ultimate good, even sickness, failure, persecutions, and death for those who love him. And our Lord Jesus Christ says to you and me, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” This is how we know we love him if we keep his commandments. Loving God isn't having a warm, fuzzy feeling. It isn't acknowledging that he is our Lord Savior alone. It is keeping his commandments. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I and my father will come and love you and remain in you.” If we love God, he can bring good out of all things. Not all things are good our Lord taught for us even if we keep his commandment, even if we love God with all our hearts, all our moving. But for those who do love these, those who keep his word, he turns everything into a spiritual advantage. Everything is used for our good and the ultimate good is what? Heaven; to get us to heaven.

 I'd like to take this more, small moment and give a short illustration. There was a king who had a very valuable diamond, and one day an accident happened, and the diamond got deeply scratched, a groove, ran right through it in morning. The king consulted experts to see if anything could be done to save the diamond. But they told them that it would never be able to be repaired, nothing good could come from it. So, the king locked the diamond up in his vault where it lay hidden and useless for years. You know, unused anyways, can't say useless. Then one day, a skillful diamond cutter, a master engineer in his craft, arrived in the capital and at the king's invitation, he examined the diamond. And after examining it carefully, the expert said, “Your Majesty. I will make the diamond look even more beautiful than it was before the accident.” On hearing this, the other diamond craftsman laughed. But the king was delighted and gave him permission to proceed. Bringing all his orders to be to bear on the diamond, the master craftsman proceeded to engrave a beautiful rose on it, using the deep scratch as the stem of the rose. When the king and the other diamonds cutter saw what he had done, they were filled with admiration. It was not a clever cover up. The expert had taken the diamond’s deep scratch and transformed it into something beautiful.

In the same way God can help transform the deep scratches in our hearts, the deep wounds in our souls into a beautiful blessing. God can bring good out of anything, even out of our mistakes, failures, sorrows, wounds, and tragedies. Yes, even out of our own sins. Thus, from painful experiences and difficult times, we learn that God is faithful and loving. Our troubles can bring us closer to our Lord if we like the king, trust Jesus. The expert passing with our wounded heart, Christ will transform it into something beautiful. And Our Lord will give us a new heart to which the beauty of his love can and will rightly shine in the world, darkened by sin.



Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 19, 2026

Brothers and sisters, one of our professors bought in a little package of mustard seeds just to show us how tiny they actually are and then pictures of how big the bush can get. And actually, as I was preparing for this homily it made me think, you know, when people keep trying to go back to what Christ planted on Calvary, when he set the Church out that little mustard seed had grown. It's almost like they're trying to deny what naturally happens when you plant, water, and grow the seed. And that's what we have as this Church now.

However, the focus did become clear in Jesus' parable of the weed, and the wheat address the problem of sinners in the Church today. Now, I heard somebody give a response, someone was complaining, “You Catholics have sinners in your Church; therefore, you can't be the true church.” And this person, a little quicker than I, said, “If you look at the members of your church and see only wheat, only the saints, then you are in the wrong place.” We hear the Gospel today that Christ’s church is going to have both weed and wheat in it until the end of time. The other thing is that if everybody's one hundred per cent correct than somebody's lying. But that's another homily.

I would like to talk about two views in the Church that have emerged from this passage. One is being exclusive, and the other is being inclusive. Over time these views have led some astray into two fundamental errors. First, trying to purge those who are deemed unworthy and second, confirming people in their sins. The exclusive viewpoint holds that the Church is meant only for good people, and the presence of sinners in the Church is always a cause for scandal. Therefore, like the Pharisees attempted, these sinners should be ruthlessly rooted out, weeded out, importantly, for those adhering to an exclusive viewpoint, a saint in their eyes is anyone who looks and acts like they do. Here one is trying to make people in the image and likeness of oneself. Yes, a very bad idea.

As a reminder, Christ did not come to call the virtuous but the sinners, he sought them out, befriended them to bring them to repentance. Our Lord called them to a new way of life, and many responded by changing their lives. Paul, Peter, Mary, the apostles. You and me? Whereas an exclusive viewpoint holds that the Church must be open and accommodating to all. This view tends to deny hard truths to make Christianity more palpable for sinners. “If we were just nicer, people would come back.” Or “You are good, I am good, we are good as we are.” Or how about this one? “God made us this way. There is no need to change. And God loves you for who you are.” Or if my brother says, ‘you knew you, boo’ thereby ignoring the need for repentance and conversion of hearts. Yet Jesus' first words of public ministry were, “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

Repent means to turn back towards God and belief is more than just mere acknowledgment. If we could just acknowledge that Jesus Christ's is the Savior and be done with it, or the demons would be okay then, they were acknowledging it.

Now, also, we hear Christ say to many people after healing them, “Go, and sin no more.” So, the Catholic viewpoint is this that the Church is open to all sinners. However, all are called to repent. All are called to turn away from our sins and turn back towards God, to stop sinning. And it's going to take a lifetime, and his grace is to do that. Christ meets us where we're at and brings us to where he's at. And that's a journey and a conversion.

Now, up to the last judgment, Holy Mother Church will be a mixed bag consisting of saints as well as sinners. Moreover, the Church is meant, the Church is the means through which sinners become saints. We are weeds who through God's graces are converted to wheat. The Church in the world is a Sacrament of Salvation, the sign and the instrument of communion with God and man. And in his patience, our Lord allowed both weeds and wheat to grow up together, both saints and sinners so that they have time to respond to his invitation, his invitation to repentance, and to accept his saving help. You saw my hands, brother and sisters. Each of us is like that field in the parable. We each have wheat and weed growing side by side in our hearts.

Now, I read a story about a man who spent years in his life in Stalin's labor camp, and he had this to say: “I learned one great lesson from many years in prison camp. I learned how a person becomes evil, and how he becomes good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of hearts, there remains … an un-uprooted small corner of evil.”

While we are on this side of the beatific vision, we are being perfected. We are not perfect that requires us to ask God to show us what needs to be healed and ask for his help to do it.

Jesus also knew that people could change. The person might commit a grave sin and by responding to God’s graces the same person comes to repent and be redeemed. St. Paul is a good example of this. At one stage, he was a leader in the persecution of the early Church, present at the stoning of the first martyr, Stephen. And he was converted and went on to become one of the greatest champions of the Christian faith.

The best thing we can do is with God's grace, the help of the Holy Spirit, to take a look into the fields of our own heart. When we find some weeds, there is no doubt we will, we bring them to Jesus in a Sacrament of Confession. Apologize for them, ask for graces to become reconciled with his Church. Also, in prayer, we ask Christ to transform our weeds or purge them from the soil of our soul. Some sins are disordered good and can be reordered with our Lord's help. Whereas other sins are intrinsically evil, they are always evil and cannot be transformed. These sins need to be removed.

The main point of the parable is that up to the last judgment, the kingdom of God on earth, the Church, will be a mixed bag, consisting of saints and sinners. Just a reminder, every saint had a past. Every sinner has a future. Our future is in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who out of great love for us, meets us where we are at, calls us to repentance, and with his help transform us into the wheat of his father.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 12, 2026

Dear brothers and sisters, the scriptures are so rich. There are many things that we can preach on. For instance, it might be a little confusing as it sounds like Jesus is saying that he is closing the ears and the eyes so they don't hear and see, and then they won't be converted. Which begs the question, then why is he here, right? However, we know that is not true, because Christ came to give us the Holy Spirit. And without the Holy Spirit, we do not have eyes to see the Word and ears to hear it. We just have human understanding.

Jesus compared his word, the Word of God, to a seed and it is a beautiful image that both have the potential to grow and enrich. Like all words, they take root and can go in our hearts. And when finally, one is to consider the type of soil, and what they're trying to grow, so they can see if it works with the seeds they are planting. There are some grounds that are conducive to growing certain seeds and others fight against those. Thus, it is important for us to be careful about what or whom we listen to. We are to pay attention to the words we are allowed to take root in our hearts. The soil we have here, a worldly soil, a fallen away soil which is not conducive to the word of God. The soil that is conducive to the Word of God is not conducive to the world.

Now, today, Christ is talking specifically about his Word and the ground in which his present seed is sown, which is a humble, contrite heart. Humility. Humility, recognizing who we are in relationship to God, humble being to him and humble service to our fellow men. And contrition which is more than just sorrow about doing wrong.

Within the human heart there are some who are conducive to growing the word of God, others fight against it. Importantly, in our fallen and human nature, we are not one way or the other. We are not perfect. We are being perfected, which means we are on a journey towards growing closer to God with each step. With each day, in heaven, we will be perfect, cured.

We have some soil in our heart that is resisting God's mind. Now, the Gospel illustrates types of soil that are resistant to God. Soil that is unfruitful comes from three main sources: the devil and his followers, the flesh and the world. Whereas a fruitful source comes from one source - God who is the source of all good.  And it's found to those who are open and responsive to his Word.

The devil represented by the bird eats the seed along the path. But it's only our human understanding alone “Do you not understand what God is trying to say when he's speaking to our heart”, when he catches away, he will not waste an opportunity to immediately comes out to a God Christ to give us. We see this in the Scripture with Peter. “You are in the rock, and upon you of in our church”, and then two sentences, three sentences later. “Get behind me Satan.” Peter did not understand he was speaking through a hardened heart.

The devil is real, brothers and sisters, and many in our culture try to deny it. What a trick he has played on us in our world– to deny evil - because if we don't see it, we don't see a need to prepare ourselves. We need to train to grow in holiness. We ought to see a need to fight. By the way, the Church, the part of Christ that is on Earth, is called The Church Militant.  Our enemy is Satan. Satan influenced our first parents - Adam and Eve. He successfully intentioned them to disobey God's commandment thereby breaking off their friendship to God. Satan wants to do the same to us. He wants to do the same thing. He's trying to influence our mind. He separated us from the love of God to get us ultimately to break the First Commandment. The First Commandment is “To love our Father with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength and all our being.” He wants us separated from God. Communion means union with but if we are not in communion, we are not in union. He doesn't have to get us to worship false gods; he just has to get us to stop worshiping the true God. And he's very cunning.

He tries to influence our mind. You say little things, like, “God won't mind if you have a little fun now. Sow your oats, have your wild time. He wants you to be happy, doesn't he? He made us; this is good. You don't really need the Sacraments. You can just go to God directly, all by yourself. You don't need this church. You don't need to go to Mass today. You have guests over.” Or you are on vacation, “Just relax and enjoy yourself. God wants you to be happy. You are tired. But God's doesn’t want you to be all exhausted.”  How about this one? “The Church just needs to be with the time.” Satan tries many ways to get us away.

The devil uses subtle deceptions to uproot our friendship, he tries to get us to choose his self-centered life over a Christian center of life, or a sacrificial life, humble beings, humble servants. Bishop Sheen observed that before the sin, each time, before the sin, Satan assures us that it is a no consequence. After the sin, he persuades us that the sin is unforgivable.  Look at Adam and Eve. “Surely you won't die. He just doesn't want you to be like him. You'll be as smart as he is.” And after this in, they hide from God. And they ran from God because of the sin and the rebellion. This is what Satan does.

Before the sin, Satan represents himself as a friend of man urging him on to the goal. “Well, the Church is behind the time – it doesn’t want you to be happy. It is stuck. It is a false belief that deliverance is possible. But after what you did, you can't be forgiven” Guess what? We now have a hard time going back to the confession - like I'm going to the principal's office to get our spiritual spanking. Look at the Cross - God paid the place for our sin, and it draws us closer to God. The sacrament of Confession cannot be a punishment. God is our reward.

Bishop Sheen continues and he notes that to doubt forgiveness is the beginning of hell. To doubt God’s love and mercy is to stay separated from him which is the beginning of hell.

The second influence is what Paul calls the flesh. We each have a particular part that draws away from God due to our fallen human nature. We are not one and done. These are the rocks in our soil. They can be tiled out. Our tendency to commit sins are the rocks of our soil in our heart. They are removed with God’s help in the sacrament life in the Church: Baptism, Confession, through prayer, fasting, and alms giving. With these, and with God’s graces, we remove the rocks from our soul. By the way, we put them back when we commit sin. It is not a one and done. Confession is not a one and done. It is a journey across hell.

Now, the third influence is the world. The culture around us, which is a product of human, fallen human nature, is represented by a thorn. This fallen world promises perfect happiness, and money, and cheapness, popularity, or passing pleasures, in all things except God. “You can get there on your own, by yourself, without him.” These are false promises because God, who is the source of all happiness, joy, and love, he alone satisfies the human heart. St. Augustine says, ‘” Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Significantly, we hear about the heart which is conducive to the Word of God and produces much fruit. It is a humble, contrite heart. Humility is recognizing who we are in relationship to God, and that we need his help to mend our life. We cannot do it on our own. How many times we say, “I've tried to stop this vice.” I tried to do this. “I, I, I.” You are right, we cannot. He needs his graces to open our eyes and ears, and we may see and hear him working through his Church. During Christ’s ministry they did not have the Holy Spirit in them; thus, they could not hear God's word. That doesn't mean they didn't have the opportunity to respond to the Gospel. Obviously, the apostles did. The disciples did.

Brothers and sisters, importantly, there's a difference between contrition and remorse. Remorse is a feeling of regret or sadness for doing something wrong for sinning. “Whereas contrition is regret for sin, but it is a real that leads to repentance, turning back to God. To you alone have I sinned.” We can see a contrast between remorse and contrition. King Saul, remorseful at the loss of his kingdom that he lost in a disobedience to God, didn't say, “I’m sorry, I regret it.” Ahab did some pretty, bad evil things. He did rent his garments and have an act of contrition. And David, who murdered someone and covered it up, he had a humble and contrite heart. How about the difference between Judas who lost his apostleship and Peter who ran to Christ on the water?

There's a difference between remorse and contrition. Contrition is a desire to never sin again. Now, we know we have a fallen human nature. It's not, “I can go to confessions, so I can sin again.” By the way, the grace of confession is not so we can receive Holy Communion. Holy Communion is the effect. The grace of confession is final repentance, and we turn back completely to God, and to virtue which means we have to do it multiple times.

This soil of a humble contrite heart receives the Word, keeps it and acts on it and this person can bear much fruit. Our Lord desires that he sees that his fruit - love, and mercy - take root, and grow in every heart, family, community, staring with our own heart, and our own parish family. Our Lord wants the soul of our hearts to be perfect and so out of love for us, the Father has provided for us his help in these Sacraments of the Church. Again, in Baptism, through which we receive the Holy Spirit and His grace. It is in the Holy Spirit that we have eyes to see and ears to hear and understanding in our heart that we may be converted in Christ, heal us. And through the Sacrament of Confession, we are reunited to the divine life as proposed after original sin, which separates us from the love of God and through worthy and frequent reception of the Holy Communion we are nourished by the body, blood, soul, and divinity, of God himself, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Today, we ask out for this grace, that we may continue to amend our lives, that we may constantly have the eyes and ears of our hearts, and minds open to Christ’s understanding. And in Jesus, may he continue to take root in our hearts, growing and producing much fruit – thirty-fold or more. 



Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 5, 2026

Brothers and sisters, today in the First Reading the prophet Zechariah, announces the joyful news that the Messianic King is coming. He is a coming not as a proud warrior, but as a humble and gentle leader, riding on a donkey and Jesus fulfilled this prophecy when he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Moreover, today we hear Christ say to his disciples, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. You will find rest for your souls.” Humility and gentleness are two beautiful virtues, but they don't seem to make much sense in today's competitive world.

In our culture, there is a belief that to get ahead in life, one must be forward, callus, overbearing, and asserting their will. “I got to do it my way.” Frank Sinatra has a theme song about that. You get to Heaven by doing it his way. You go the other place by going the other way. There's a warning. I am not saying Frank is in hell, just so we're clear. [laughter]

There's a belief that we have to be hard to get ahead. The perception is that if you are gentle or humble, people will walk all over you. Thus, gentleness and humility can be equated with timid, passive, and weak people. However, gentleness and humility are not forms of weakness, but rather they are virtues. They are gentleness; they are strength. They are not vices; they are virtues. Vices are our weakness. Vices make us slaves. Virtues set us free, and virtues come from the source. Virtues are excellent and they come from Christ himself for he was gentle and humble of heart.

But starting with gentleness, we see in Scripture that Jesus was gentle, especially towards the weak and the wounded. Those who cannot care for themselves, he was protecting. Orphans, widows, those who couldn't speak up. Now let's make no mistake, brothers and sisters, this Christ was not weak. He was very strong, and when the occasion demanded it, our Lord could be very assertive as when he drove out the money changers in the temple, when he stood up to the Pharisees. I was actually thinking about this homily again this morning, and I was reminded of the country song, Daddy's Hands. Dad’s hands were soft and gentle; there was always love in Daddy’s hands.

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as real strength. It takes a strong, self-confident person to be gentle. And a gentle person knows that growth results from not from forcing, but from nurturing, from advising, from educating. If you love, you are gentle and there are certain tasks that only gentleness can accomplish. To illustrate this, I would like to share a few stories of conversion brought about two gentlemen. The first one is a conversion story involving the Mission of Charity nuns ministering in San Francisco. These are Mother Theresa of Calcutta's nuns. And they would go out two by two and they would talk and minister to the indigenous, to the lonely, the people living on the streets. One time they were about to ask this person who looked like a lady, “Would you like us to pray over you?” As they were ready to start, they felt a tap on their shoulders. “Sister, come here!” Another person had called them over. “Come here, sister. That's not really a lady. That’s a man trying to be a lady.” And you know what they did? They went back. “Do you want us to pray over you? “They asked as he had heard the whole conversation. And the person said ‘Yes.” And they prayed over him. The sisters went out night after night, week after week, and when they found him, they prayed over him along with the other people. Well, eventually, he came back into the church. He stopped identifying as a woman, he stopped working the the streets, he got help, got recovery, he had a full conversion through their prayers, and their kindness to a human being and the power of God. They met him where he was with a gentle, humble heart.

The next one also involves a priest, a monsignor in the Nativity Parish, by St. Patrick's, in Menlo Park. They had perpetual adoration and every once in a while, some of the people would seek out the parish as a place to sit in time with the Lord to pray. But this one is a conversion story involves a gay couple married by the state. They wanted to come back into the Church. They talked to the priest who said, “You're both welcome. This church is open to everybody. But we want to be clear, we don't want to cause scandal. You are welcome here, you are brothers in Christ, but you are not here to cause scandal.” They said, “Well, we just want to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament.” And the priest noted, “You know, we have time at two and three a.m. because those hours are open right now. Please consider coming then. You can pray, and you won't feel outcast. Nobody will be there to interrupt you.” And they did. The two men came, and after a while, guess what happened? They ended up renouncing their lifestyle, getting civilly divorced and coming into full communion with the Church. A person humble of heart brings great conversion to the downcast. A gentle person treads lightly, listens carefully, looks tenderly, and touches with reverence.

Now, looking at humility, the virtue of humility does not mean that we are to demean ourselves. We're not supposed to run around saying, “Look how bad I am!” For example, if a world class ballerina upon receiving a compliment for her dancing skill, were to say, “I can hardly dance! Oh, please stop.”  That's false humility which is a form of pride. It is like Christians who say, “God can't forgive me because I'm so bad a sinner.” Really? You, a created being, are more powerful than the uncreated creator, the infinite God? You are telling me your sins are so bad, and he can't forgive that? Sorry, that's pride. That's not humility; it is false humility. Rather, humility would be for the ballerina to recognize the gifts that she has been given and acknowledge that she cultivated those gifts with dedication, hard work, and persistence. She would say something like this: “I give thanks to God for giving me the graces to dance. The gift to dance, but also the graces and ability to train and grow in this world because of incorporating what he is doing in my life.”

True humility is recognizing who we are in relationship with God because he is the one who made us, who we are in relationship to God. Now, because of our Baptism we are children of God, the Father most High. In Christ Jesus we can talk to the creator of the universe, 92 billion light years in a distance of material and space and time. We can say “That means Father.” And he wants to have an infinite personal relationship with each and every one because as soon as we are in Christ, it is a gift. It's a blessing.

Let's pause for a moment. None of us know what the world is like without the Holy Spirit in it, right? We were all born into this world right now. The Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, and filled their world, and filled them. God was so far off and so distant that people did not have a good, accurate understanding of him. He would talk to prophets, and before Christ was John the Baptist. In Christ we have God as Father, that we can talk to you as Father, not ‘Mr. Father,’ not ‘Lord Father.’ But ‘Dad! I'm your son, I'm your daughter.’

In our Baptism, we are adopted children of God and Father Most High who loves us beyond all measure. We're siblings and friends, of God, the Son, the only begotten Son, who redeemed us on the cross. And we really care of God the Holy Spirit, who guides and nurtures us. We have been given a tremendous gift, and we are blessed indeed and it is false humility to deny that. True humility is that God has given us a gift and we need to acknowledge that.

In those who are not baptized, we are made in the image and likeness of God. We hear this in generations. We are sought out by Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who died on the cross that we may have internal life. We all have dignity. We all have worth, not because of what we do or have done, but because God who made us is working to save each and every one of us. This is where we touch people with gentleness, with reverence, not out of what they have done but who they are in relationship with God. And who we are in relationship with God as his sons and daughters.

Unfortunately, brothers and sisters, we come to identify ourselves by what we do. I'm a mother; I'm a teacher; I'm a doctor; I'm a lawyer; I'm a priest. Notice that I went in descending order. [laughter] Others identify sometimes with their sins, in what we do. I am an adulterer; I am a liar; I am a thief, etc. Pick one of the Ten Commandments or a vice or any other sin - some see themselves only through that lens, and this is important, because how we see ourselves will dictate how we act. It forms our identity, which forms our actions. Do we see ourselves as sons and daughters of God the Father most high who loves you without measure? Or do we see ourselves as fallen human natures in a sin? Or do we see our brothers and sisters in the same lens as we see ourselves through our errors? Importantly, we are not sons of our sins. We are his children, and we are loved beyond all measure because God loves us and paid the price for our transgressions. We are sons and daughters of God the Father most high, first and foremost.

Though we do sin, that is what we do, not who we are. Humility means recognizing our true greatness by acknowledging God who is all greatness. He has given that to us. We have accepted it; we have received it. We're thankful for it.

It is in our Lord who is gentle and humble that we find our true identity. Moreover, humility is the soil which allows all other virtues flourish. To the gentle and humble even Jesus promises peace of soul. We get a whole another homily down this. We see peace as the mere absence of conflict, but recently, he's asleep in the boat in the middle of the sea with an earthquake. That's peace. Another homily. If we were gentler in our dealings with one another, we would have more peace in our home and in the world.

And if we were more humble, we would have more peace within ourselves. Saint Seraphim of Sarov said: "Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved." If you acquire inner peace, and a multitude of people will find salvation near you.

Today, at this Mass we ask God to be gracious and grow in gentleness and humbleness of heart in order to continue to reflect Christ in our lives and find rest in Jesus now and for all eternity. Thank you.