Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 7, 2025

If you have you ever seen the musical Fiddler on the Roof you may remember a playful scene where the husband, Tevye, keeps asking Golde, his wife, "Do you love me?” And in her first response is, “Do I what?” The lyrics are quite humorous, and fun to watch if you have the time. But I thought of that song a few months ago when in the Gospel at a weekday Mass where we heard the story of Jesus, appearing to the disciples after the Resurrection and asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Reflecting on today’s Gospel, I can hear the Lord asking that a question again. “Do you love me?” And I would just wonder if that might be the question that is the basis of our judgment when we meet Jesus face-to-face at the end of our journey here on earth.

We know all, all, have to give an account of our life. And there is very little doubt that what is laid out in that account will give a clear indication of what we valued in life, what we loved. And there Jesus will stand saying, "Do you love me? Or perhaps, “Have you loved me,” or “How have you loved me?” What poverty it would be to have look Jesus in the eye and say, "I love you, Lord, but not as much as I love this other thing, or not as much as I loved I myself.” In today's Gospel, Jesus demands to be our first love. Not the second or the third or somewhere down the line. He demands to be our first love and in strikingly strong language, He tells us that people come to Him without “hating father and mother, spouse, children, brothers, and sisters, and even their own wife, they cannot be his disciples.” Although we can get over that hurdle of the word ‘hate’ by assuming that Jesus used the word rhetorically, it's still a very strong statement. He didn't stumble over that word or accidentally use it. He chose it making a strong point. We should have a strong aversion loving anything more than we love Jesus or putting anything ahead of Him or before Him in our life. We should hate anything that gets in the way of our putting Jesus of absolutely first.

It might be good to make it distinction here. It's not always the ‘thing’ that is the problem. So, for example, if I have an inordinate love of rich food or my favorite music, and I prefer that or I seek that more than I see friendship with Christ, it is not the food and the music that are a problem. It's not their fault, right? It's my disordered attachment to those things. That's the problem. That's what I should hate. I should hate my disordered attachment to those things because that's what gets in the way of my putting Christ first. Likewise, if a person put children or grandchildren before Jesus, before we ask for person to start ‘hating’ them, you would ask that person to put their attachments in proper order. God first, and then others. St. Benedict said, “Christ is the center of all Christian life. The bond with Him takes precedence over all other bonds – familial, social. We can prefer nothing to Christ.” I thought that distinction was fairly obvious, but I just wanted to make that clear – not to hate a particular thing, but rather out attachment to that thing or that relationship.

So when it comes to these things that get in the way of our putting Jesus first in our life, I don't think we are merely talking about the occasional things that pop up -  situations happen, like you are having a bad day and you go to the bank and you snap a little bit of the teller, instead of being patient and kind and loving as Jesus would have you be. That kind of thing may be an obstacle in the spiritual life, but it's not the kind of thing that you look at that you really need to worry about. It happened once. Rather, what we want to look at are the patterns in our life, patterns in our life that point to a mis prioritization of our desires and love. I will give you a few examples. Having a casual attitude about the Sunday Mass obligation. Another is being in an irregular relationship. Perhaps having a marital relationship with someone without the Church blessing on their union. Or being always geared for money; always money, money, money. Or having a complete, or nearly complete lack of self-denial. Always saying ‘yes’ to every urge, every impulse, every desire that we can experience and never saying ‘no.’ Maybe it is a strong habit of self-preference where it always comes back to me, how I think about things and what I want. It could be the use of contraceptives or pornography, or turning to self-gratification, anything else that is contrary to God's design for human sexuality. It could be using other people for our own gain or advantage. It could be the habit of speaking ill of others. It could be a disproportionate interest in sports or other things. So, I think it could be a number of other things, obviously. But I don’t need to point out all of these things, just in the sense that, you know, there's a connection to sin there, but that they are all indicators - that these are patterns in our life. They're all indicators of something being out of order in our heart. They are indicators of places where the Lord is inviting us to look to Him first instead of something else. And Jesus is not in this Gospel saying, “If you don't think that you have what it takes, you should walk away now.” He's not saying, “Look, I am only taking the strongest of the strong. If you don't make the cut, might as well go home.” But I think He is telling us out we have to be serious about these things. We have to take a hard look at our life, make our good examination, and not just once, but on a regular basis to see how we are putting Christ first and what are those areas where we are not.

It is interesting in the Gospel the two examples or illustrations that Jesus gives about constructing a tower or the king marching into battle. He uses the phrase, "…first sit down. Which of you wishing to construct a tower do not first to sit down to calculate the cost. Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide…” What is that “sitting down?” For us, perhaps it's our daily prayer. Because sitting down and not just rattling off a few Hail Mary’s but really taking a look at this issue in our life, the cost of discipleship. Taking stock of these different things in our life that are vying for our heart, grasping for our attention and our devotion, maybe recognizing that we don't always put Jesus first in absolutely everything. But then crying out to God asking for the grace to put Him first. And towards the end of the gospel, the king marches into battle finds that he doesn’t have the strength overcome his enemy. “While he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.”

Perhaps that represents our crying out to God and asking for the grace to put him first. We might recognize, “I know I need to put you first Lord but help me. I am not walking away from being your disciple. I need your help Lord to put things in proper order in my life.” In those times of prayer where we have sat down and considered, maybe you will hear the voice of the Lord “Do you love me?” Perhaps he doesn’t sing but do you love me? Do you love you with your whole heart? Do you love me more than anything else? Will you put me first in your life? Will you be my disciple? 



Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 31, 2025

Sometimes I will be in the middle of talking to someone, and I come to the sudden realization that I've been talking way too much about myself. So, I like to say in that situation, “Well, enough about me, what do you think about me?” [laughter] Jesus gives us a good teaching about humility in today's Gospel, including those of famous words, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” It is interesting to me that today's teaching of humility comes right on the heels of last Sunday’s exhortation to strive to enter through the narrow gate.

On my first consideration of the two topics side by side it seemed like there was a bit of a contradiction, perhaps. When I hear strive, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate for many will attempt to enter, but will not be strong enough,” my thought is ‘Hey, I’ve got it work hard to prove to God that I am worthy enough, that I am strong enough.’ That I qualify for eternal life, basically. Striving as the overall feeling or sense of becoming bigger, and stronger and greater, not so much of this sense of becoming smaller, weaker, or lower. But when Jesus spoke of being strong enough to enter through the narrow gate, He was talking about being strong in the things that matter to God. Not strong in self-reliance, self-sufficiency, self-determination, self-righteousness, the esteem of other people. Most of us come into the world with plenty of that to start out with we don’t have to strive to increase those. Rather, the striving is not so much about building ourselves up in those kinds of things, as clearing our heart of those.

Clearing our heart of self-reliance, and self-sufficiency, self-focus, self-righteousness, and dependence on the esteem of other people and all the rest. The result of striving is not that we get to the point where we can look at ourselves and say, "Yeah, we are pretty good.” The result is not that we become great in that sense, but that we become little or perhaps, that we acknowledge that and even embrace our littleness for what it is, the capacity of God.

I have told you before about what Jesus said to St. Angela of Foligno. He said, “You will make to yourself a capacity, and I will make myself a torrent.” In other words, you make space in your heart for me, and I will fill it to overflowing. That is what we want. That is what we strive for - to empty ourselves of all these different kinds of attachments, especially to self - to make love in space for God to come in and to fill us. There is no contradiction in the end between humility and striving – unless we are striving for the wrong thing. But if we are striving in the spiritual life and growing in our humility, and we are coming to an ever-clearer realization of our own limitations, our own inability to save ourselves and our absolute dependence on God for everything. Everything.

Striving doesn't lead to rejecting and alienating us in our littleness. It leads to accepting and embracing that poverty as the very arena where God wants to come in and accomplish His purposes in us. Striving for humility may seem like an uphill battle. I can't say this of everyone, but I can say this about myself, but as we get older, we tend to get a little more set in our own ways, and we become less tolerant of anything that doesn't fit with our own ways. We can become more attached to our own agendas, our own ways instead of becoming free of those, and detached. Also, our culture highly values self-sufficiency and self-reliance. And it is practically in our DNA inherent in all of human nature and pride comes right along with it. It's all too easy for us to always be asserting ourselves and inserting ourselves and certain situations, maybe from where we don’t belong or elevating ourselves over other people. It might especially be an uphill battle for those who struggle with perfectionism where perhaps the goal is to say, “I'm good. I have got it made. Thanks Lord, I appreciate you, but no need for your call here. I've made it to perfection.” I have probably shared this before but a priest said to me, "Isn’t it a shame when you've got perfectionism, but you don't have the skill to back up?” So true, so true.

We can't just expect that humility is going plop into our lap. It's not in our nature for that to happen. We have to work on it. We have to open our hearts to the grace of God to help us grow in humility. I don't know who it was that said this, but I thought it is a good saying: “Humility is not about thinking less of yourself in terms of like hating yourself, rejecting yourself and all of that but thinking of yourself, less. Not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. So, in thinking of other people, one of the ways we have, one of the pieces of wisdom we have from the Saints, is that the way to grow in virtue is to combat the opposing vice and the way to combat vices is to practice the golden virtues. It is not just a matter of going before the Lord and saying, “Lord, help me to grow in humility.”  We also want to practice combatting pride. Combating that movement in ourselves that exalts ourselves and elevates ourselves.

What if we got in the practice each day of waking up in the morning and saying “Who would come to me today? How can I do some good for them? Who am I likely to meet today and how can I build them up? How can I help? How can I acknowledge, or will I acknowledge in the other the good that I see? Becoming more outward oriented is part of growing in humility. We are not always thinking first of ourselves but of God and of others. And I think one of the best ways we grow in humility is by receiving Holy Communion worthily and attentively. This great Sacrament in which God Himself has become so humble, He is intrinsically humble, but He humbles Himself to feed us with His whole body and blood, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Receiving that Sacrament of such immense humility must also help us to grow in humility ourselves. In the end, Jesus' words are true that  “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” 

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 24, 2025

My dad's older brother George was a Jesuit priest for about ten years and then he not only left the priesthood he actually left the church altogether and began calling himself an atheist. I think for the rest of his life he seemed to harbor some resentment toward the Church. When I was ordained to the priesthood, he sent me a card that I thought was a little snarky. I don't remember every word that he wrote in the card, but I remember that he wrote “Enjoy your new avocation.” In other words, “Have fun with your new hobby.” I took offense. Here I had just finished five years of seminary, laid down my life on the floor of the Cathedral offering myself for Christ and His church and Uncle George was treating it like I was taking up skeet shooting or pottery or something. May he rest in peace.

After eighteen years in the priesthood, I still think his jab was a little rude, but I realize that it is not impossible for the priesthood to become something of a pastime. A priest can begin to treat his ministry like a job, a career or something apart from who he is, and the life God has given him. To tell you the truth, the same can be said about all of us as Christians. Our discipleship can become something of a hobby; something we tend to when we have time; something we truly want to be present in our life and yet something that is in some way distinct from our identity. It can become something auxiliary to us; something on top of who we are. We can come to think of the practice of our faith as something very important to us but not of the essence of who we are, something absolutely necessary.

In the Gospel someone asked Jesus, “Lord will only a few people be saved?” Who knows what made the person ask this question? Maybe the person thought he was already part of the ‘in crowd’ - one of those who would be saved, and he was asking for other people. Perhaps he was looking out to the rest of the world saying, “What do you think about those people over there? Do you think they are going to make it?” A lot of people even today even in the Catholic Church have something of a preoccupation with the question of whether someone else is going to be saved and don’t get me wrong, we care very, very, very much about the salvation of other people. But none of us will ever have enough information to make that judgment from where we stand so I think there are better ways to spend our time.

Maybe this person in the Gospel was honestly just asking, “Lord what are my odds for getting into heaven? What are the odds that I could be saved?”  And if the answer comes along ‘very few’ or if the Lord responded and said ‘Don’t count on it’ or something like that, the person would take a fresh look at his life, I am sure. Jesus does answer the question. He doesn't say, “Oh, I assure you that those others over there? They are out of luck.” He doesn't point to the others at all. So perhaps that is not what the person was asking a question about. And Jesus doesn't say to them, “You've got it made. You are in. Don't worry.” He answers with a commandment, an exhortation. An imperative: “Strive! Strive.” He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate for many I tell you will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”

Striving whether in the in the priesthood or in the Christian life can't be a part time thing, can it? If we are striving for something we don’t just strive when we have time for it – we are constantly committed. We are going after something. We are searching for it. Striving speaks of something serious; something weighty. It is not something to be terrified of. Jesus isn't threatening with these words, but it would seem based on what He is saying here that salvation is not cheap.

Salvation is a ‘free’ gift. Perhaps we could say it is free but not cheap. It costs us something to receive the gift that is freely given. That may seem counterintuitive. It costs us something to receive the gift that is freely given. The gift of the gift does not depend on us – it doesn’t depend on our work, on our performance. The gift is freely given but from our perspective it takes something in order to receive it. And that is the striving. That is the striving to enter through the narrow gate. It is the opening of our hearts each day. It is the eager pursuit of friendship with God. It is the Christian life. It is the fullest living possible of the life of discipleship; it involves a commitment to prayer; the faithful service of our neighbor; the heartfelt worship of God consistently; it means death to sin; persevering in the struggle against sin. All the things that constitute the Christian life. They demand something of us. All of this demands something of us. Salvation is not cheap. We must strive and strive and strive.

Maybe there are some places in our life, some ways in which our Christian life, our spiritual life is sort of off to the side or we make some distinction between our spiritual life and the rest of life. It may be in the context of family, career, social life, leisure time. We tend sometimes to compartmentalize. We will say “I will tend to my faith now. But now I want to do something else.” It's not a question of making room, of making space in our life for God. It is not how everything in our life relates back to our life of faith, our relationship with God, because there isn’t any part of our life that God doesn’t want. He wants the whole thing. He wants the whole thing.

Strive! That is a powerful word. A powerful exhortation from the Lord in today's Gospel. It is spoken to each and every one of us. Maybe some of us are saying, “Lord, what am I supposed to do? What do you want me to do? How am I supposed to be spending my days and weeks?” Maybe sometimes we are saying, “Well, surely Lord you are not asking for something more from me?”  I don’t know. I have a hard time looking at a crucifix and saying that. “Lord, surely you are not asking more of me?” He wants all. He wants all. How can we do it? Today the answer to that question is ‘strive.’ Give yourself to this journey of the Christian life. Do not hold anything back but ‘be  all in.’ 

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 17, 2025

The Lord Jesus says in today's Gospel, “I have come to set the world on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.” What does He mean? “I have come to set the earth on fire.”  Isn’t that a strange thing to say? An interesting turn of phrase - “I have come to set the earth on fire.” I found a helpful footnote for this passage in the Didache Bible. It reads: "God offers us His love, mercy and salvation, and ardently desires that we accept and respond to these gifts. Although these gifts are offered freely and generously not all are willing to receive them. And thus, divisions will occur even within families, further evidence that Christ is a sign of contradiction.” It goes on to say, “In Scripture, fire symbolizes God's presence. His love. His judgment. divine purification and the power of the Holy Spirit to effect change within us. In this passage, the Word carries all of these meanings in various degrees” and then it references paragraph 696 of the Catechism.

So, fire, fire is God's presence, God's love, His judgment, divine purification, and the power of the Holy Spirit to effect change within us. This is the fire that Jesus came to set on the earth, and that He wishes were already blazing there. Now, of course, Jesus says these things before His passion and death and resurrection. So perhaps we can say, in this day and age, in the age of the Church, the fire is already on the earth, but I suspect He would still say that He would like to see it blazing a little bit more fully. But why does He not already see this fire blazing on the earth? It's not because of some failure on His part. It's not that He couldn't, as the Son of God, accomplish what He came to accomplish in setting His fire ablaze in the world. It is because our hearts are not completely, fully open, receiving this, this fire. And that can be for a number of different reasons - maybe it is neglect on our part, neglect of spiritual things, not prioritizing our relationship with God. Maybe it's just the reality of sin in our life, the struggle with sin. Trying to overcome these things that get in the way of the fuller version of a life of God in our soul. Maybe it's fear. We look at a figure like Jeremiah, who belonged completely to the Lord and say, ‘well, he was passed into a cistern and only by the grace of God rescued from death from that cistern.’ Or even the Lord Jesus Himself, who belonged absolutely to the Father and always did the Father's will. Look at what He suffered. Maybe we look at the prospect of really fully opening our hearts to the gift of the fire of God, and we say, that might cost me something. That could be painful. I might suffer because of that. Jesus Himself says, "It can bring division to families.”  We don't want that. We shrink away from the prospect of division coming into our family. Or what persecution? What ridicule might we suffer if we truly, totally belong to God and allowed the fire of God's presence and love, His Holy Spirit, to govern us?

The responsorial psalm this past Wednesday had the refrain: “Blessed be God, who filled my soul with fire.” It's funny how after celebrating Mass year after year, I don’t remember ever hearing that refrain before, but it's wonderful. “Blessed be God who filled my soul with fire.” What if we could pray that every day? “Blessed be God, who filled my soul with fire.” I suspect we don't all wake up in the morning with that sentiment. “Blessed be God, who filled my soul with fire.”  We don’t always feel that zeal, or that ardor, that sort of energy for the Lord. We're not always just falling over with the joy of Lord.

When I was in the seminary, I went through this hospital ministry training program, and at the end of that five-week period or whatever it was, the criticism that the supervisor leveled at me was ‘you are too even keeled.’ I thought that was a good thing! [laughter]. "No, you're just not expressive enough. Sometimes when you go into the hospital room with a patient, you have to do cry with them or whatever.”

Well, anyway, the point of what Jesus is saying is not that we have to publicly, outwardly full of energy, but the fire has to burn within at least. He's not saying you're going to put on some other kind of personality, that's not the way you are. But the fire must burn within. The fire must burn within. The fire, God's presence, His love, His judgment, divine purification, and the power of the Holy Spirit to affect change to within us.

So, just three simple reflections on today's Gospel. First is that we should remind ourselves each day we have already been given the gift of this fire. Any person who is Baptized has received the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we were baptized, God formed this gift, this gift of His fire, His presence, His life, into our soul. So, we already had it. It is a fact. So, that's a good thing to remind yourself of first thing in the morning – “I am baptized. I received the gift of the God in my soul.” Secondly, we can ask the Lord in His goodness to stir up this flame within us, to increase our ardor, increase our zeal, increase our love, increase our openness to receiving in greater and greater measure, the life of God. That our love for God would increase each day, and that it would truly become more and more the motivating and animating factor of our life especially in receiving Holy Communion. This gift of Jesus to us really should awaken something within us; awaken the response of love, pure and fuller love. So, we remind ourselves we have already received the gift, asking the Lord to stir up this gift, and then thirdly, flame, by its very nature, spreads when it is shared. Think about Easter, when we all stand individually holding our little tapers and the flame spreads from one, from the Easter Candle and spreads through the whole church until the church illuminated by that light. This is how this fire also spreads. We share our faith, we share with others about the impact of the fire of God in our own life, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God, His love and mercy, His judgment, divine purification and all the rest. What difference has that made in our life? And if we can share that, then the fire really begins to blaze more and more.

So, that’s three simple things. Remember you received the gift, asking the Lord to stir that flame more and more especially in the Eucharist, and then also sharing that flame. Jesus said, “I have come to set the earth on fire. How I wish it were already blazing.” And if we do these three simple things, then we are going to get closer and closer and closer to seeing that fire really spraying to the earth and enkindling the hearts of all peoples with divine love and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 10, 2025

Much earlier in my life, well before my seminary days, I briefly entertained the idea of becoming a professional musician, a concert pianist playing the piano for an audience. And looking back at that now, I find the idea amusing not just because I don't have that level of skill, but also because I can't imagine myself lasting very long as a concert pianist before I would have a nervous breakdown. There's a big difference between playing for enjoyment alone, or with a small group of friends, and playing for a crowd of strangers who have paid money to hear a flawless performance.

We behave differently when someone is watching our every move. When we have a ‘performance mentality,” we have to show the critics how good we are. Now, there's a flip side of the coin as well, as the old saying goes, “when the cat is away, the mice will play.” If we aren't aware of the presence of the critic or the one of who can deal out the consequences, we might try to get away with things. I remember, as a child, sometimes my folks would be out for the afternoon or the evening, and I was home alone. I would certainly try to get away with things that I wasn't supposed to do when they were not home. Watching TV- I wasn’t supposed to do that at home alone or getting into the sweets and things like that. I am not proud of that; I wish I had been virtuous enough to behave while they were gone the same way I behaved when they were home. Sometimes we try to get away with things and this isn't just for children either. There's a reason that buildings have surveillance cameras. We behave differently when someone is watching what we are doing.

In the Gospel today, we have the two different servants. The one who faithfully distributes the food at the proper time – the servant who is faithful to what his master has asked him to do. And the other servant who, while the master is delayed in returning, begins to beat the servants, and even drinking and get drunk because he senses that the master won't be coming anytime soon. Or maybe I can get away with some things.

I wonder if this principle applies to our spiritual life. The two principles actually. The performance mentality on the one had where we feel that we are on stage and God is the critic sitting in the back row, taking notes, demanding a flawless performance. So, we're scrambling, we're trying to do our best, trying to show God how good we are, and that we're good enough. Or the other extreme, not being aware that God is with us at all times and therefore, perhaps we're not as diligent in this struggle against sin. The lesson in today's Gospel is not that we should lean toward one or the other. Jesus does not encourage us to live in a life terrified of wrath of the Father; terrified that are not going to be good enough; terrified that we will be horribly punished if we choose badly or make some mistake. What father, among any of you, would delight in seeing his children terrified of making a mistake. No.

Of course, the Lord doesn't recommend the other extreme either. While the cat’s away, the mice will play. In the spiritual life, so to speak, the cat is never away. But the Lord God is not a cat waiting to pounce on a mouse. The Lord God is not the divine critic waiting for His children to slip up. God is a loving Father, who looks upon us as children with a great desire that we would flourish as human beings and we that we can grow in charity, grow in holiness, grow in goodness, grow in virtue.

And so, what we want to strive for is not that we would always be on alert that God is watching and criticizing us. We should always be alert that God our Father is looking upon us and looking for us to make a response of love. That our thoughts and words and deeds could be good, not out of fear, or certainly not merely out of fear. But that our thoughts and our deeds and our actions, our deeds and our words will be good as an expression of our love for our Father. Our true love for God, our desire to be glorify God; our desire to please the Lord in everything.

Perhaps today with this Gospel, we have an opportunity to reflect on the many areas of our spiritual life where we might, so to speak, try to get away with things because we are not aware of God's loving gaze upon us. How might our behavior change if we were more aware throughout the day of God's loving presence with us, God's loving gaze upon us. We might reflect on how it is that we even approach that question currently? Do we think of God as the Divine Critic, or as one who looks at us with a longing love.

The other conversation is that we have been entrusted with a stewardship that is ongoing, it is constant, steady.”Much will be much will be required if the person entrusted with much and still more demanded of the person entrusted with the more”. It's not just in certain times when we pray, when we are at Mass, when we're thinking about God, not just in those moments are we called to be good stewards, but at all times. May God give us the grace to be more of His eye upon us, not to stir up fear, but rather to awaken in us a deeper desire to live with the glory of God who loves us so much.

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 3, 2025 Father David Kruse

We enjoy so many more freedoms than any other place in the world. I am talking about personal freedom. What does it mean to have the ability to make our own decisions, our own choices? What do we do with this? Because the culture is telling us something very powerful about our freedom.

About 100 years ago in France, just outside of Paris, there was a young philosopher who developed a theory. And his theory was this: “That my radical freedom as an individual comes before who I am.” And he said it this way: “Existence, my existence, my freedom, my existence, precedes my essence.” My existence, my freedom comes before my identity, what is meant by this, in his philosophy, in the book that he wrote, is that “I determine what I become; I am so radically free, that is one thing over my existence about being a human being, I am so radically free that I determine who I become. I create my own identity. Who are you to tell me what I should do and what I shouldn’t do? I get to decide that. There is no one that's going to tell me how to live my life. I determine how I am going to live my life and who I am going to become in the process.” And that radical philosophy was developed by a man by the name of Jean Paul Sarte.

And that philosophy, friends, has become the dominant influence in our culture. Do you know what he said was an obstacle to his philosophy of radical freedom? Existence precedes essence. I determine my own identity. I determine who I am going to become. Do you know who he said was the greatest obstacle? It wasn’t the state. It wasn’t a political establishment, and it wasn't even the Church. It was God Himself. God was the primary obstacle to living out my freedom. Because he said, “If God exists, I can’t be free. But I am free, so therefore God doesn’t exist.” That is how he reasoned things. By the way, if you haven’t figured it out by now, he was really wrong.

But I illustrate this point because the philosophy that underpins pretty much all of Western culture these days has become the main way of thinking, especially in younger generations, and we see crop up in the last five to ten years, especially with all of the identity movements. “I identify as a cat, and so you treat me as a cat because I have determined that's who I am.” Or “I am a boy, and I have determined that I am a girl; or I am a girl and have determined I am a boy.” I dictate my own identity. I am able to decide who I am. What I decide is what I become.” That's a direct line from Sarte.

So, what does Scripture say? What does the Biblical world view say about our freedom. We are free, for sure. But God has chosen us first. We haven't chosen our own identity first. He's chosen us. At a certain point in time, He has willed you into existence. At the very moment of your conception, He created your soul, an immaterial soul that cannot be created through natural biology. God intervened in your creation, and He keeps you in existence. Did you realize that if God for one single second, a split second, were to stop thinking about you, you cease to exist.

So, think about this. What keeps all of us alive? The laws of biology, right? What keeps the laws of biology working? All the laws of chemistry. What keeps the laws of chemistry working? The laws of physics. What keeps the laws of physics working? We have pretty much reached the bottom end of it. That's when we call God. God holds all of this up. And even if we were to discover some other layer of reality that keeps the laws of physics working, it cannot go on forever.

So, in philosophy we say you cannot have an infinitely regression. An infinite cause of things without a first cause, otherwise, nothing exists. You have to have a first cause at some point, and we call that ‘Person” the Three Persons. We call that which keeps everything else in existence – keeps the laws of physics in existence, which keeps the laws of chemistry in existence, which keeps the laws of biology, which keeps you in existence. That is done by God. So, if He were to stop thinking about you, if you were to figuratively take His hands away, you would cease to exist. That is how much God knows you.

He's always with you. He's chosen you first and has given you an identity. You are His beloved sons and daughters. You are his beloved children. We are His beloved children. That's our identity, and He has given us freedom with this identity to use. And here is the key because Sarte would say our freedom is freedom from anything that can possess us. Freedom from anything that might infringe on our freedom. “Freedom from” is what Sarte would say, and we would say, ‘Freedom for.” God has given us freedom so that we will make decisions that lead us to live a life the way He wants us to live and therefore find happiness.

So, our freedom is meant to be used for something: Toward the salvation of our soul. For Heaven. For walking on a path through this life that leads us home to Heaven. That is what freedom is meant to be used for, and God gives us boundaries, and He gives us rules – the Ten Commandments. He gives us the Church as a good Mother, not as a bad Mother, but as a good mother, to help us choose well.

I leave you with this image. GK Chesterton wrote a famous book called Orthodoxy and, in his book, he gave an image to really reinforce this point about God, and about why He gives us the Commandments, why He gives us a law, why He gives us miracles. GK Chesterton said that there was an island out in the middle of the rough seas, out of the middle of the ocean, raging seas all around this island, and on the side is a big hill, and on the top of this hill was a grassy knoll. There was a wall that surrounded it. Surrounded the grassy knoll. And on the grassy knoll were a group of children, and they were playing, and they were having great times, and they were running around and throwing the ball and being free as children are free, right? So, one day, somebody came and said, "Why are you putting a wall around these children? That is so oppressive. Tear down that wall!” And they tore down the wall. And a short while later, they came back, and they found all the children huddled in the center of the grassy knoll out of fear for being able to run freely and fall over the side of the hill.

The idea, friends, is that God gives us boundaries – He builds a wall saying this is how I want human beings to act. Don't steal, don’t lie. Don't covet, don't kill, etcetera. Worship your Creator, this is the way I want you to witness, and this is the wall I give you. And within that boundary, play! Be completely free, be yourself, and you are free to do whatever you want within these boundaries. And these boundaries are there to keep you safe.

So, friends, I have all of this with you because it actually is related to our readings, not just today, but everything in the Gospels. If we get this point right, and we realize, hey, I am meant for something. I have freedom. Yeah, I can say, I am free to choose whatever I want in my life. But you are meant to use this gift for something wonderful, and that is to live a life where we are chained toward Heaven, and we are walking toward Heaven. And we are meant to use these gifts that we have of our identity as God’s beloved children. The gift of freedom that we have to choose well that leads to happiness - for one thing friends and for one thing only - so that you make it home. That's it. So that we make it home and there everything will be fixed. We will have eternal happiness and all of this, these difficult years of that we have experienced so many of us have experienced will be just distant memories.

Friends, that is where our treasure is meant to be, and our sights, the sight of our mind and the sight of our heart, is meant to focus on, not just when we come to Mass, not just when we're here praying, but every single day of our lives. Make God your primary focus, use your freedom well, and all will fall into place.

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 27, 2025

In the way of praying, we all pray asking God to give us different things. We may be asking God to give us healing. We may be asking God to send employment our way. We might be asking God to give us protection from fire or good test results, or for peace in our family, or consolation in time of grief and loss. We might be asking God to help us in a situation of material need. But also, non-material needs. We ask for wisdom. We ask God to give us courage, patience; we ask God to give us forgiveness, and so many other things.

Perhaps this dynamic deepens and develops a little bit when we find ourselves asking God to give others things more than we ask for ourselves. “Lord, bring peace to those nations that are at war. Give protection and safety to persecuted Christians. Help those who are alone, or in hospitals or nursing homes, those who are homebound, those who are suffering. We pray that God will grant to others what they need.”

But then the dynamic of prayer also deepens when we realize prayer is not just about getting something, but that we go to prayer with the intention of giving something to God. We pray in order to give God praise or to give adoration, to give God glory, to give God thanks. We offer to God in our prayer, our devotion, our actions, offering of love. We offer obedience. We offer our works, our joys, our sufferings each day. We offer with our whole heart and sometimes we pray, and we do not ask for a single thing, but simply go to offer to God our heart, to present ourselves to God as a gift. A gift in response to what God has already given to us in an expression of our love to Him and in our gratitude.

The Lord God has a desire for us in prayer that is deeper even than that of forgiving. At the end of today's Gospel, Jesus says, “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" So, you say, well, you can say, I am not asking to get the Holy Spirit. But the gift of the Holy Spirit is orientated toward something that is right up on par with God’s desire for us and that is union. God is the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit works within us to draw us into deeper and deeper union with God. Closeness to God, conformity to the Lord Jesus in thoughts, in word and deed. The Lord draws us into prayer, not just to give us something or to receive something from us, He draws us into prayer to bind us to Himself, to conform our minds and our hearts to Him, to His mind, to His heart, to His will.

So, the more we pray, the less the getting and the giving matters and the more and more what matters is our conformity to Him. Our desire for God’s will for our life and the whole world – the lives of all people. So, we can ask the question, why pray in an abstract kind of way and sort of get an abstract answer but it also has to come home to us in a vision, where we ask the question of ourselves, why do we pray, why do I pray? Why am I praying right now when I go and sit in the chapel or when I am out walking and praying. Why am I praying? Am I stuck on just asking God for things? I am always asking if I can get this or that. You know, it’s not a bad thing, but my idea is that Lord wants something more.

If I find that when I am always praying asking God for something, might I begin to turn toward offering God something in my heart even more than I ask to receive something? And even beyond those dynamics of asking for and offering, in the hungry reality of my prayer, I realize that God really desires for me union through prayer. The conformity of my will to His.

Some years ago in a homily, I mentioned that the purpose of prayer is not to change God's mind so that He will give us what we need or want, usually ‘want.’ But rather that our hearts would be changed through prayer in order to be able to accept joyfully and gratefully whatever it is that God wills for us. How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit? How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? We want the gift of the Holy Spirit. We want the transformation of our hearts according to the heart of Christ. We want greater and greater conformity to the Lord Jesus, greater and greater conformity to the will of God.

Today in the celebration of Baptism, the majority of you who are here were baptized remember that when we were baptized in our Masses, we receive this gift of the Holy Spirit and it is the beginning of transformation according to the image of Christ. And as we momentarily move into baptism of Silas, we pray for that outpouring of the Holy Spirit on him. Recognizing that what God is doing in him, bringing him new life, drawing him to Himself, God is also doing in each one of us. He wants to do to each one of us. Very much through our prayers each day.

May we have the grace to pray, not just for the things that we need, and not just even to offer ourselves to God but to also to recognize that the Lord is goodness and love is really drawing us into union with Himself. 

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 20, 2025

This well-known Gospel passage is not primarily about choosing how you spend your time, whether in prayer or work or some other activity. Jesus is not pitting prayer against work. Sometimes this message has been used to argue that Jesus is promoting the contemplative life over a life of action. But then the Martha’s in this room always object. They say, “If we just sat around praying all day, nothing would ever get done.’ And okay, they have a point. And although prayer and contemplation are certainly essential to the Christian life, Jesus did indeed send His disciples out into the world to work, to work for the building of the kingdom of God, and Jesus Himself worked. So, prayer and work or action do not mean to be considered as enemies.

Maybe the question is not about how we spend our time exactly. Maybe ‘choosing the better part’ is not necessarily choosing contemplation over action or choosing action over contemplation. Maybe that better part is available to us no matter whether we are working or praying or doing some other activity. And actually, I think we know this intuitively. If we're in the midst of a time of prayer, we know that we can choose to go along with moments of daydreaming or distraction, or we can choose the better part and bring ourselves back to focusing on the Lord. We know that if we're in the midst of a time of work or activity, we can choose to be present and mindful of God, which is the better part, or we can choose in some way to set it aside and say, ‘God, I'm going to do this my own way.’ Kind of like taking the Lord and putting Him on a shelf for a little bit. ‘I love you, Lord, but right now I have to take care of this other thing.  So, you just be over there. And if you would be quiet, I wouldn't mind.”

 Jesus says in John 15, "Abide in me, and I in you.” Abide in me, and I in you. Choosing the better part means that no matter what we're doing, whether praying or working or doing some other activity, we abide in Jesus. We remain in Him. We live from that place of the union with Him. It means we don't set Jesus aside in any way, but remain in Him, abide in Him, and be present to Him.

In the Gospel, Mary is fully present to Jesus. And I think the fact that she is not working in that moment is not really the point. It is not a critical part of this account. She is present. She is sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to him. Her sister, Martha, is busy with the serving but apparently, while she is working, she's not focusing on serving out of love - love for Jesus and love for her sister. She seems to be focused on herself, and she is focused on the unfairness of having to do all the work herself without having any help from her sister.

How might the conversation have gone differently had Martha remained present to Jesus in her heart even while she was working? She was mindful that she was doing this work out of love. I suspect things may have gone differently. To abide in Jesus, to remain in Jesus, is to choose the better part. And it requires a lot of practice because we know, I think, the temptation, when we have other things to do is to set Jesus aside and we create this division between our spiritual life and the rest of life. But Jesus actually wants us to remain in Him no matter what we are doing. And there are many ways we can work on that. We can take up maybe different devotions that can be prayed while we're working or doing other things. We can have sacred music playing in the background or something while we're doing other things. We can just simply try to remind ourselves more and more frequently that the Lord is with us, the unseen guest in every conversation, or at every meal, in every place we go, that He is there, He is present. Even just remembering that He is present helps us to be present to Him. And of course, this Sacraments are a tremendous gift in helping us to abide in Jesus to remain in Him. The sacrament of Reconciliation, Confession, helps us to return to Him perhaps after we have wandered a bit. After we recognize we haven't always been abiding in Him. Of course, the gift of the Holy Eucharist is Jesus' gift of abiding with us in which He invites us also to abide in Him in a special way. Even spending time with Him in Adoration, whether the host is exposed on the altar or reposed in the Tabernacle or receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, there is that beautiful intimate invitation: “Abide in me, and I abide in you.”

 It is good to reflect on how in the living of our mission of life, we abide in the Lord. For where are those places in life where we tend towards setting Jesus aside? Have we created somehow a dichotomy in our mind or in our living between spiritual life and the rest of life? Can we bring those together and abiding in Jesus, choose the better part.

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 6, 2025

I find myself as time goes on loving the Church more and more. It's not because of all of the beautiful structures, the beautiful churches I've seen, or because of the beautiful music, liturgy, and the tradition of the Church, but for the love of God that inspires all of those, and so much else. And also, just coming to know the people of God, not only in their gratefulness, but in every, in all of the moments of life - their devotion, their faithfulness, their perseverance, also their dreams and struggles and the weaknesses, all that goes together to make a Christian life. I have a priest friend who jokingly says, "I love the faith. It's the faithful I can't stand."

And sometimes people do want to just have that relationship with God with no regard for the Church. There are many who regard the Church with sort of an attitude of tolerance at best. They put up with these other people, but the main thing is just that they have their own relationship with God. There are some who despise the Church, perhaps out of misunderstanding, perhaps out of a sense of self-righteousness. A judgment that everyone else in the Church is somehow off base. Some despise the structures or the hierarchy of the Church and the leaders. Some despise their fellow lay people. They don't like this or that thing about the Church. Sometimes people stand in judgment of the Church or reject Her for the imperfections of Her members.

But we have got to love the Church. We've got to love the Church. Because we cannot despise what Jesus loves so dearly. Jesus has taken the Church to Himself, united the Church to Himself. The Church is His Body; the Church is his Bride. The Church is His Beloved. So, we must love the Church - warts and all. We must love the Church.

I mentioned a couple of Sundays ago when we see Jerusalem mentioned in Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, Jerusalem is a prefigurement of the Church. So, what if we read again todays first reading with that in mind?

“Rejoice with the Church and be glad because of her, all you who love her; exalt, exalt, with her, all you who were mourning over her!” What if I regard the Church really as a beloved mother who nourishes us like a mother nourishes her child? Comforts her child. As nurslings, you shall be carried her arms and fondled in her lap; as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; in the Church, you shall find your comfort.”

 Do we rejoice in the Church? How do we love the Church? Do we regard the Church truly as our mother? The trouble, I think, with standing judgment of the Church or despising the Church, or just tolerating the church, or we being leery of the Church - I'm not saying we should be uncritical - but if we have this attitude toward the Church, it's very easy then to stay at the margin of the Church. To stay at the edge, kind of looking in and saying “Well, I really don’t want to be fully associated with those sinners.” No. Or if I don't want to be associated with those who don't think the same way and so forth and so on. We can easily put ourselves at the edge of the Church instead of making us the heart of the Church. And we want to be in the heart of the Church and to share the mission of the Church.

In the Gospel we hear about these seventy-two whom Jesus sends in ahead of Him to prepare His way to announce His coming. They must have something more than a personal relationship to Jesus to be able to go at out and to announce Jesus, and to get people, to help them to prepare their hearts, to receive Him, that they would love them too. They came back rejoicing. They're participating in the mission of Jesus to save the world. If we are not in the heart of the Church, if we find ourselves on the periphery of the margin of the Church, we are not very likely to participate in that mission. Going out and preparing the way for the Lord and preaching the Gospel and making Him known.

We have to love the Church. We have to love the Church and be in the heart of the Church. What is our attitude today toward the Church, to Her structures, Her traditions, Her members, Her leaders? Do we struggle with the temptation to be at the edge or the margin or are we ready to really be in the heart of the Church to recognize that we each have some sort of role in the announcement of the Gospel. Jesus says, “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.” The harvest truly is abundant today - right now in our neighborhood, in our towns, in our county. The harvest is rich, the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.

God give us the grace today to love the Church more and more; loving Christ and His Church, His body, and may we have the grace to recognize that we, like the seventy-two, are sent into the world to bring all people to Christ.

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, June 30, 2025

Summary:

We hear different things about the weaknesses of these saints, and that's fine. It is good to mention that, too, I guess, but it seems like the message that is communicated then is: “Well, if these great Saints have a past as sinners, then there is hope for all of us, too. Maybe we are not disqualified from Heaven because we are still broken and weak and sinful.”

But that isn’t the question. There is no question of whether we qualified to be disciples of Jesus. Everyone is qualified to be a disciple of Jesus. The question is are we open to God? Are we open? Before God there are only two ways we can be. There are only two ways – open or closed. So, you see in the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul perhaps not just a onetime changing from closed to open. Even though Saint Paul’s conversion was a profoundly transformative event, we also see in it an ongoing journey of conversion. Saint Peter didn’t just get it right one time and keep on getting it right. As we all do, these things stumble – they have to struggle to become more and more open to God and less and less closed. 

This is the journey of conversion. This is the description of pretty much all the Saints. They are open to God. Open to God. And for those who underwent conversion over the course of their lives, it was a journey of becoming more and more open. I think in our own human experience it is fairly easy for us to identify these certain moments whether we are open to God or are closed. For example, even in our thought life. How do I think of my neighbor? Am I open to God in that, or am I closed to God in that? How do I think of my family? Maybe some of the members of my family that I am in a struggle with? How do I think of public figures? How do I think of the Church? How do I think of myself even? Am I open to God in the way I think of myself? How do I think of God? 

In our words, how do we speak of our neighbor? How do we speak of our family members? How do we speak of public figures? What is our conversation like? It doesn't mean we are always explicitly speaking about God, we need to have conversations about other things as well, obviously. But in any conversations, are we open God? Is the conversation open to God or is it closed? In our deeds, again, are we open to God? We know whether we are serving God or serving ourselves. We know whether we are open or closed.

I think this is actually something of a useful tool for us to stow in our spiritual toolbox. Just a simple question. Am I open or closed? What if in the course of a conversation that little question flickered through our mind? Do I come open to God in this? Even in the privacy of our home, in the quiet of prayer, perhaps, or thinking about different things, the thought comes mind - am I open to God right now, or am I closed. Could I be more open?

Honestly, we all have to answer the question about openness and or being closed. I am saying that sometimes we are open and sometimes we're closed. None of us is perfectly open all the time. I don't think any of us is all the way closed all the time, either. Here you are, celebrating Mass – that is an example of openness. It is one thing to have a life of prayer, to do good works and to love your families and serve God the way that you love those around you. So, there's clearly openness. But we want to become more and more open to praying each day:

Jesus, I open my heart to you. Help me to open my heart, teach me to open my heart. Give me the grace to open my heart. Help me to receive whatever it is that you wish to pour out to me. Help me not to be closed, help me not to be stuck inside my own thoughts and reasoning, my own understanding. Help me not to be closed in on myself and what I want and my agendas. But help me to be open to you O God.

Just this simple question: Am I open or am I closed can help us so much in our spiritual life. And through the intersession of Saints.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, June 22, 2025

Summary:

I am sure I have shared before about what a central role the Eucharist played in my vocation to priesthood, but also just in my own spiritual development as a young person. Jesus in the Eucharist captured my heart from the time I was just a little boy. The truth of Jesus' real presence in this Holy Sacrament entrusted itself on my soul in such a way that I simply accepted it as an undeniable fact. And I can’t really think of a time that ever fully doubted the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and by God's grace, I hope to remain faithful all the days of my life. 

But also, I found that through the Eucharist, God is always with me. You know, God is present everywhere, we know that by faith. But He is present in a very specific and special way in the Sacrament of Eucharist. And when I encounter Jesus in the Eucharist, I experience His abiding presence. He has made a promise to never abandon us. His promise “I am with you always.” And there's a sense there that He is always available to me. I can run to Him whenever I need him for whatever I want.

People ask me, don't you get lowly as a priest? I very seldom feel alone. I have the capacity for solitude, but I very seldom feel lonely. And even if those feelings creep up, I go straight to the Lord and I know that He is present, and He is there to give me His company and much consolation. The Sacrament of the Eucharist is the Sacrament of Divine love. In the Eucharist we have the very love of God Incarnate and meditating on that Mystery, receiving that Mystery in Holy Communion, reminds me of what I am called to as well. What we are all called to do - imitate the very love of Jesus Christ Himself, and in that Sacrament always pouring out the love of His heart for me, for all of us. 

I can say there's a lot of different effects that the Eucharist has had on my life. One of them is that is ongoing is that I find I have a deeper desire to receive the Sacrament worthily. So, one of my greatest anxieties as a priest has been surrounding my participation in unworthy Holy Communions. Obviously, I distribute a lot of hosts. I mean, if I celebrated 10,000 Masses, I don't know how many Holy Communions I have given. And I worry sometimes, what will be my burden and responsibility for other people to receive Holy Communion worthily or not. Aside from situations where grave public scandal would result from my giving Communion to someone, I sort of settled on the reality or truth that the responsibility for ascertaining one’s worthiness to receive Holy Communion lies with the recipient, and not with me. I am not Padre Pio – I don’t read your soul. I learned recently that in the Coptic tradition, the priest, after washing his hands before the Eucharistic prayer, shakes his fingers out in front of the people to signify that he is not responsible for any unworthy Communions. The responsibility is yours to receive Holy Communion worthily. This is not to say, you just open up the flood gates and give Communion out willy nilly. No. The Sacrament is celebrated and received on God's terms, not on ours so we all have to have the humility to submit ourselves to what God has revealed concerning the Sacrament – through the Scriptures and through Tradition. We are supposed to conform ourselves to Christ, not expect Him to conform Himself to our plans.

In this sacred life, today, with a special feast, perhaps we can simply ask the Lord to help us place Him more and more at the center, especially to place His Eucharistic presence more solidly, more totally, at the center of our life so that when we receive the Eucharistic it is folded into the fabric of our being, and we couldn't imagine living without that. Lord Jesus, help us to open our hearts to You and to receive You with total love and to allow You to accomplish Your purposes in our life.