Reaching Out and Spilling Over!

 

Deacon Dave · Reaching Out and Spilling Over!

Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, May 31, 2026. Gospel of St. John 3:16-18. Theme: Reaching Out and Spilling Over! 

 Today is Trinity Sunday and there’s something a bit unusual about our readings for this Mass. You see, usually for special feast days we have Scriptures that deal directly with the theme of the celebration. For example on Christmas we hear all about the Lord’s birth in Bethlehem and then on Easter we’re retold the story of the Resurrection. But today as we honor one of the most important central mysteries of our Faith, all we get is a very brief mention of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the closing line of our Second Reading. 

 But this silence of the Scriptures really shouldn’t surprise us because no matter how much time we spend searching through the pages of the Bible, we’ll never find any explanation whatsoever as to HOW God can be a Trinity of Persons. But what we will find is a hint or a clue as to WHY this can be true. And it's found in one of the shortest but most powerful verses of the entire Bible but which, for some strange reason, isn’t included in today's Liturgy. And it consists of only 3 words:, “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) The reason for these three words being a clue to the Trinity is because love, by its very nature, is relational, so it can only exist within a communion or fellowship of persons. It can never ever be just a solo affair. And so inquiring minds in the past figured that since God has eternally existed before there was anyone or anything else to love, such as angels or human beings, there must be more than one Divine Person. 

 And so this short three-word verse of Scripture became a starting point in the early Church for trying to grasp and explain the concept of the Blessed Trinity. As a matter of fact it gave rise to about 300 years of popes, bishops and theologians in the early Church discussing and debating this deep divine mystery. And they had to start from scratch, so to speak, because until the year 200, the word “Trinity” wasn’t even in our Catholic vocabulary. It just didn't exist. Of course, they believed in it because Jesus himself had said so, but they had no word to use to describe this mystery of the One True God existing equally and distinctly as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However, they eventually composed an official statement of faith about the Father and the Son in the year 325 AD at the Council of Nicea in Turkey and it was further tweaked and refined to include the Holy Spirit in the year 381 at the Council of Constantinople. And here we are almost 2,000 years later, about to stand and recite the very words of that Creed that they composed. 

 But what the Creed is trying to tell us in precise theological and sometimes hard to understand language is more simply expressed in the opening line of our Gospel today which says, “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son…”. You see, the Persons of the Trinity could not just keep this love between themselves because the very nature of love is to go out of itself and spill onto others. And so, God’s superabundant love moved Him to reach out to the human race even though we had turned our collective back on Him through sin. However, rather than condemning us, the overflowing, pouring out and spilling over love of the Trinity moved the Father to give up His only beloved Son who became man through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

 Then once this Son came into the world He also began reaching out to us, even to the point of spilling out His love as blood upon the wood of the cross. And then, as if all of this wasn’t already enough, the Father and the Son reached out even further to us by sending the Holy Spirit to draw us into their relationship of love. Through this indwelling of the Spirit, who is first poured into us at Baptism and deepened at Confirmation, we actually and amazingly share by grace in the divine life of the Blessed Trinity. 

 And so hopefully we can see that because of God’s reaching out and spilling over of His love, today’s Liturgy calls us to rejoice in the wonderful truth that God binds Himself to us in an interpersonal relationship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And in doing so the Trinity becomes for us, not so much a doctrine to be believed (which it is) or a Creed to be recited every Sunday (important as that is), but an experience of God to be lived every day. For it reminds us that we are truly the sons and daughters of God the Father, whose providence in our lives provides for all that we need and who sustains our every heartbeat. It proclaims that we have become brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has loved us to the point of even dying for us and then rising from the dead so that we could live forever. And it fills us with the joy of the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us as our Bond of Connection with the Trinity, as well as being our Counselor, Comforter and Companion throughout the ups and downs of daily life. 

 To no other religion that now exists or has ever existed on planet Earth has God extended such an awesome invitation and experience to human beings. This is the great gift and unique blessing of Christianity. This is the treasure of Faith that has been handed on to us. This is really what it means for us to stand and say that we believe in God the Father almighty, that we believe in Jesus Christ His only Son and that we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.

This Promise is For You!

 

Deacon Dave · This Promise is For You!

Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday, May 24, 2026. Reading: Acts 2:1-11. Theme: This Promise is For You! 

 Pentecost was such a significant turning point in the story of Jesus and His disciples that it’s called the “Birthday of the Catholic Church”. To clarify, the Church did indeed exist beforehand with Jesus gathering disciples as carried out His ministry. But it existed in a kind of hidden way, very much like an unborn child living and growing quietly in the womb of its mother. However, with the dramatic outpouring of the Holy Spirit this Church-in-the-womb burst forth into the world, kicking and screaming like a newborn baby! Our first reading informs us that the disciples made a lot of noise in Jerusalem on that Pentecost day, boldly proclaiming the Risen Christ and baptizing 3,000 people! And throughout the rest of the Book of Acts we see outpourings of the Holy Spirit happening over and over again along with the same kinds of marvelous events and conversions as at Pentecost. 

 So, what happened to those amazing manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the lives of ordinary everyday Christians such as we see in the New Testament? Their apparent decline was definitely not due to the fault of the Holy Spirit. Rather, we can trace it back to the lack of a dynamic expectant faith among Christians. You see, in the early Church people made a life-changing commitment to Jesus as Lord and received the Holy Spirit with a sense of personal conviction and deep faith, even at risk to their own lives during times of fierce persecution. But then once Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire its practice gradually lost some of its steam as it became an expected social norm. Becoming a Christian was seen by many as a way of climbing the social ladder and enhancing one’s status. In addition, the Faith was often forced upon conquered peoples as Christian kings expanded their territories throughout Europe. 

 In other words, being Christian became the status quo and thus the vital element of a personal conviction of faith in Christ as Savior was missing. For large numbers of people the Mass and Sacraments became just routine rituals. Confirmation, which was supposed to be a kind of sacramental extension of Pentecost, devolved into a religious rite of passage, which often meant passage right out of the doors of the church with the newly confirmed never (or rarely) to return. And not surprisingly, along with all of this came a negligent attitude towards the Holy Spirit and thus also of His gifts. However, there were still devout Christians here and there who did have the right attitude and who were filled with the Spirit and exercised His powerful gifts. Their ongoing presence throughout history reminds us that the spark of the Spirit can never be extinguished and that it can even be re-lit in those who truly desire it. 

 This re-kindling of the flame of Confirmation within us is an example of what the New Testament calls ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit”. It has also been described as a “conversion experience” or a “spiritual awakening” that enlivens our faith and makes Jesus become so much more real and meaningful in our lives! Now, how this spiritual experience might happen and what it might look like will be different for different people because God deals with us as individuals. For some it can begin with a sensational and unforgettable personal religious revival. For others it makes itself known gradually as they begin to sense within themselves a growing desire for prayer or a deepening interest in the faith. They might experience a new appreciation for the Eucharist or find themselves more drawn to reading Scripture than they were before. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is not something reserved for the “spiritually elite” but is a grace that God offers to all believers for as St. Paul says in our second reading, we have ALL been given the One Spirit to drink. 

 Both the Bible and the Church teach that this Pentecost experience of the Holy Spirit was never intended by God to be just a one-day event for the benefit of the disciples of Jerusalem. Quite the contrary! Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the giving of various gifts for the service of others, was meant for every believer in every generation. And this makes a lot of sense when you stop and think about it. Because we are today the same Church as the Church in the New Testament. And the Holy Spirit today is the same Holy Spirit who was poured out on those first Christians. So why shouldn’t the Spirit’s gifts that He distributed then also still be distributed today for the glory of God and the salvation of souls? 

 Well, the good news is that this on-going extension of Pentecost IS still happening today in places where the faith is not treated simply as “status-quo”. Africa, South America and parts of Asia have all exploded with this outpouring of the Spirit. And in a more sporadic way it is even happening right here in our own nation among believers who have enthusiastically re-embraced the faith and re-kindled that spark of the Spirit within them. There are parishes and gatherings where believers invoke the Spirit’s grace and mighty power and thus miraculous healings and beautiful conversions of life take place. This shouldn’t surprise us because the New Testament assures us that God has indeed promised to do such great things for those who turn to Him with confidence and trust. So, if faith seems a bit dormant in your life or if religion feels a bit routine or if you just want something more in your relationship with God, then take heart and have hope because there is no expiration date on God’s promise and His promise is for you!

A New Way of Being With Jesus

 

Deacon Dave · A New Way of Being With Jesus

Homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, May 17, 2026. Gospel of St. Matthew 28:16-20. Theme: A New Way of Being With Jesus 

 Compared to Easter, the Ascension of Christ into Heaven can seem anti-climatic. What I mean is, we spent 40 days of Lent getting ready for Easter. And then we had a marathon of liturgies throughout Holy Week which led us into the 50-day long Easter Season. So, by the time we arrive at the celebration of the Ascension of the Lord, it can seem almost like an afterthought. But in reality this is far from the truth! However, before getting into why the Ascension is such an important event, let’s first deal with what most people get focused on about it: Jesus shooting up into the sky like a rocket! Many wonder why Jesus didn’t just disappear into thin air after saying His goodbyes instead of staging the dramatic event that we read about in the Gospels. Well, the reason for this is twofold. 

 First, in the 40 days after Easter Christ did indeed appear and disappear before the eyes of his disciples several times. It was what they came to expect from Him. It became a case of “now you see Him, now you don’t”…but always with the assurance that He would return. If Jesus had simply vanished from their sight on that Ascension Day, they would have been expecting to see him again real soon. And so he had to convey to His disciples that this time it was going to be very different. 

 And second, we need to remember that God always deals with people where they are at and according to what they understand or know. And so Jesus needed to express the significance of His Ascension in a way that delivered a definite message to first-century Jewish minds. You see, back then they thought that Heaven (as an actual territorial place) was just above the atmosphere, beyond the sun, moon and stars. They also called God the “cloud-rider” (see Psalms 68 and 104). And so as our first reading informs us, the ascending Lord shot up into the sky and rode a cloud into Heaven. So, in this way they were shown visually and unmistakably that this time His going away would be different and final. It would be the end of the era of life with Jesus on planet Earth and the beginning of a new one with Christ as Lord of Heaven. 

 Ok, so now that we’ve dealt with the symbolic mechanics of the Ascension, let’s go back to why it is such an important event. As I once heard a priest say, “The Ascension takes the training wheels off of Easter and lets us ride the Christian life at full speed.” What he meant was that today’s Solemnity is the icing on the cake of Easter, so to speak, because it takes up where the Resurrection left off and expands its significance for us in three ways. 

 First of all, it enabled Jesus to carry out His mission as the Universal Savior who is available to all people of all time and in every place. When He lived His physical life on Earth, Jesus of Nazareth was very much tied to a particular group of people (the Hebrews) and limited to a very localized section of the planet (the Mediterranean Middle-East). His movements were constrained by time and space as well as by geography and politics within the Roman Empire. However, the Ascension has freed Him from all those restrictions! He no longer belongs to any one country but is King of All Nations. He is no longer simply the Messiah of Israel but is Savior of All Peoples. He is no longer bound to communicate in any one language or owned by any one culture. He can now speak to every human heart and be present in every village, city and nation. His healing embrace now encompasses all the world and every single person in it. 

 Second, the Ascension transforms Christ’s way of being with us from the physical to the spiritual, from the visible to the invisible. In His farewell speech at the Ascension, which we hear in today’s Gospel, Jesus promised that He would remain with us always, even until the end of the world. How so? Well, at the Last Supper He said that He would abide within us through our obedient love for Him. In addition, He promised to give us the Indwelling Holy Spirit as our Bond of Connection with Him. And of course there is His ever-abiding Presence in the Holy Eucharist, which is real but invisible, for what our eyes continue to see is still bread and wine even though the reality of it has changed. These modes of invisible but real presence only became possible once He left the physical realm and re-entered into the heavenly. 

 Thirdly, the Ascension foretells that what happened to Jesus will also happen to us. It assures us that there is a real and eternal life awaiting us beyond the grave. The Ascension shows us that this new life will be one that is experienced in both body and soul, and that where Jesus has gone, we His disciples, will also follow. This is why Jesus said at the Last Supper, “I am going to prepare a place for you, that where I am you also may be.” The Scriptures teach us that being ascended into the glory-life of Heaven is not something reserved for just Christ alone but that it is also our destiny as Christians. St. Paul emphasizes the truth of this teaching often in his many letters. 

 So hopefully, we can see that the Ascension is an important part of the Easter Season and is, in reality, its crowning jewel. It assures us that though the Risen Lord is gone from our sight, He is definitely not gone from our lives. He is more present to us now than He ever could have been before, because He is now able to dwell within us instead of just walking beside us, as He was living on planet Earth. This new form of an intimate personal relationship with Christ is made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, which is why the Ascension always points us to Pentecost, which we will be celebrating next Sunday. Jesus Himself pointed to Pentecost at the time of His Ascension, telling the disciples to go back to Jerusalem and pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So, let’s follow the Lord’s instructions and spend the coming week in prayer for a renewed outburst of the Holy Spirit within each one of us!

Getting to Know Our Divine Defense Attorney

 

Deacon Dave · Getting to Know Our Divine Defense Attorney

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 10, 2026. Gospel of St. John 14:15-21. Theme: Getting to Know Our Divine Defense Attorney

In today's Gospel, John brings us into the Cenacle, which is the name given to the upper room in a Jerusalem house where Jesus and His Apostles held the Last Supper. He shares with us some of his memories of the Lord’s farewell speech given to him and his eleven companions on that unforgettable night. You can sense a tone of deep love and concern in the words of Jesus, as He speaks to them about a future without Him physically present in it. But He sought to console and uplift them by speaking of several ways in which their relationship with Him would continue and actually deepen. Chief among these was the promise of the Holy Spirit. 

 Jesus called the Spirit a “Parakletos” which our Liturgy translates into English as “Advocate”. I find this extremely interesting because a “parakletos” was a Greek lawyer, a legal counselor, and more specifically a defense attorney. A paraclete stood next to his client, whispering into his ear what he was to say and how he was to act in the presence of a judge. Now, that makes me wonder …why in the world did Jesus think that we, His disciples, would need the services of a D.A. (which in this case stands for a Divine Advocate)? Well, it was because He knew that the world would treat us no better than it treated Him. He knew that those who worship the world’s “trinity” of power, money and fame would harass those of us who speak out for the persecuted, the poor and the vulnerable. He wanted us to know that when we are called to stand before the court of public opinion the Advocate would be right by our side, inspiring and enabling us to speak the truths that the world needs to hear. 

 And the most important truths that people today need to hear is that they are immensely and personally loved by God. Each and every one of them! As St. Peter tells us in our Second Reading, we need to share with them the story of Jesus Christ, who is the very reason for the hope that is within us. Because the sad reality is that so many of them have never heard this and do not know Him! They have no clue as to how precious they are in the eyes and heart of God. They have been misled by the world to believe that their worth and value is found in what they look like or in their social status or by how much money they have. And so it’s up to us to share the truth with them so that they, too, can begin to have joy in their hearts and hope for their future. 

 This is a big responsibility and an urgent task that we have been given for nearly half of the world’s population has never heard of the Good News of and about Jesus. But we can rise up to the task because we have been given an Advocate, the Spirit of Truth who dwells within us. He will empower us to speak and act. He will provide us with counsel and direction giving us the right words to say in every particular circumstance and to each particular person. However, our sensitivity to the Spirit’s inner voice will depend upon how well we have trained ourselves to listen to and follow His inspirations and directions. You see, this sensitivity can only develop within us to the extent that we devote time to the practice of daily personal prayer from the heart. To really hear our Paraclete we have to make room for solitude in our day and set aside time for prayer and meditation. 

 And this is why I think it's very appropriate that we are hearing this Gospel in the month of May which is dedicated to our Blessed Mother Mary. No other disciple of Christ was as open to the Spirit of Truth or as obedient to the counsels of the Advocate as she was. Her relationship with Him was so intimate, so total and so personal, that she has been called by analogy the “Spouse of the Holy Spirit”. One of the titles we Christians have given to her over the centuries is Our Lady of Solitude, which highlights her devotion to prayer and listening. We would do well to turn to Mary in our prayers this month asking for the grace to find space for this solitude in our own lives so that we can hear the Spirit more clearly and become better bearers of Christ to those who do not yet know Him.

Living With Trust Not Trouble

 

Deacon Dave · Living With Trust Not Toruble

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2026. Gospel of St. John 14:1-12. Theme: Living With Trust Not Trouble 

 There’s a heck of a lot in today’s Gospel that could provide us with countless hours of reflection but I am going to limit myself to Jesus’ opening words that begin with, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Notice the timing of when He said this. It was at the Last Supper when He was well aware that He was about to undergo His cruel Passion. And He knew the terrible havoc this would wreak on his companions. On their part, the disciples saw the seriousness on the Lord’s face and heard it in His voice. They sensed that something terribly upsetting was coming their way. It’s important to realize that it was within this setting that Jesus was inviting them to focus on faith and keep their hearts untroubled. 

 I think what He was counseling was to not let the stress and worry that so easily fill our minds descend into our inner selves where it can rob us of peace. He knows we obviously can’t control what goes on around us so He is telling us to take charge of what happens within us. The many external disturbances of life can only settle in our hearts if we stubbornly hold onto the idea that we are in control of everything. In other words, the stress in our heads becomes stress in our hearts when we persist in the idea that we can fix any situation and solve any problem based on our own merits. And the reason this stresses us out is because deep down in the very recesses of our being we know that this isn’t true! A simple reality check should remind us that there are things we struggle with that are not of our own doing and so they also cannot be of our own undoing. We may be powerless in the face of these sufferings but we are definitely not helpless. 

 And this brings us to Jesus' next few words in today’s Gospel, “Have faith in God; have faith also in me.” Here is where we find the help we need to prevent head-stress from becoming heart-stress. He is inviting us to trust in God (He means the Father) and to likewise trust in Him (because, as we say, “like Father, like Son”). In the Bible, the word “faith” can also be translated as “trust” because the original Greek word means both things. In our American slang we have the same double-meaning for these words. When we tell someone “I believe in you” we are saying in effect, “I trust in your ability”. And so we turn to Jesus and tell Him, “I believe in You…I trust in your ability to help me.” This attitude isn’t a kind of placebo to get through a tough time; nor is it a kind of mind-game to help us transcend the issue at hand. Quite the opposite, faith means dealing with our reality head-on, but confident that God will enable us to face it and get through it in a constructive positive way. The first step in embarking upon this challenge of faith is to mindfully and intentionally surrender ourselves to the power and the care of God. In other words, to trust in Him. 

 But we need to be patient and realize that learning to trust isn’t something that happens overnight or without effort. We know that this is true from our own everyday human experiences. The people in our lives whom we have learned to trust have earned that level of confidence from us not simply by their words, but by their actions. They have shown us in times of difficulty and vulnerability that they were trustworthy by being with us, being there for us and loving us no matter what. Jesus was (and still is) exactly like that. He freely gave up the glory of Heaven and became a man precisely to be with us, to share the kind of life we live with its joys as well as its struggles, and then even more so to die for us. And beyond that, He has promised to remain with us until the end of time and to send the Holy Spirit, whom He called “power from on high”, to dwell within us so that we would never feel helpless and abandoned by God! What more could He do to earn our trust? 

 Upon hearing all this we might be tempted to respond, "easier said than done!” And we’d be right because learning to let go and trust in God IS easier said than done. But the fact is that it CAN be done. But it’s not going to happen overnight. We also say, “anything worth having is worth working for” and this is surely true about a vibrant trust-based relationship with Jesus Christ. We need to work on deepening our personal relationship with Him through daily prayer from the heart, through becoming familiar with His word and deeds in the Gospels, and through the Eucharist in which He comes to abide within us. And as we work on this relationship we will gradually see that we ARE becoming more trustful, we ARE becoming more calm, and we ARE becoming more peaceful inside. We will grow in our experience of that “power from on high” which strengthens us to deal with all these many ups and downs of daily life. 

 But the thing to remember in all this is that Christ never ever pushes Himself into our lives against our will. He desires a relationship that is rooted in love and love demands freedom. So He waits to be freely asked and then once we invite Him in, His care and concern for even the smallest things in our lives become manifest in clearly discernible ways. This doesn’t mean that our issues and struggles will suddenly just disappear. Nor does it mean that our health or financial situation will change for the better overnight. But it does mean that God will see to it that our needs are met in one way or another because, believe it or not, He wants nothing more than to see us happy, both in this world and in the next.

Hearing the Voice of Jesus in a Noisy World

 

Deacon Dave · Hearing the Voice of Jesus in a Noisy World

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Easter, April 26, 2026. Gospel of St. John 10:1-10. Theme: Hearing the Voice of Jesus in a Noisy World 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that He calls out to His sheep and they follow him because they recognize his voice. That paints such a serene and easy picture of how to live as a Christian, doesn’t it? The Shepherd speaks and we the sheep listen and follow. Sounds so simple! But we all know that our world is anything but quiet. And that life is anything but easy. We live in a very busy noise-filled age with the constant hum of daily chatter, with the ever-present distraction of social media, and with countless demands made upon our time. There are so many voices shouting out at us and competing for our attention all day long telling us who we should be, what we should want, why we should fear and how we should live. 

 The bottom line is that we sheep follow our Good Shepherd in a very noisy distracting world. But if we have a hard time hearing Him, it’s not because He has stopped talking. Rather, it’s because we aren’t giving ourselves the time and the space to listen and hear Him. You see, sheep learn to recognize their shepherd's voice by spending a lot of time with him out in the fields. They learn through repeated daily experience what his voice sounds like. It becomes a familiar and trusted voice and so, for their own good they simply listen, obey and follow. By using this metaphor in today’s Gospel, Jesus is telling us that we need to be like that. We need to spend time with Him so that we can become familiar with His voice, recognize it. and then listen, obey and follow. 

The Bible and the saints tell us that the surest way to do this, to develop the skill of recognizing the voice of Jesus, is by spending quiet time with Him in prayer on a regular basis. By “prayer” I don't mean reciting memorized words and favorite devotions, as helpful as these might be at times. What I’m talking about is prayer in its simplest and purest form which means a person-to-person conversation with God from the heart and in one’s own words. The easiest way to describe this is to compare it with a visit between friends who have decided to step away from the busyness of their daily routine in order to make time for one another. 

 And this type of prayer, like any meaningful conversation, is not a matter of one person doing all the talking! In addition to sharing our thoughts and concerns with Christ, we also need to be silent and in that quiet time listen for His reply deep within us. And as we grow in the practice of this type of prayer, we will learn to recognize His voice and distinguish it from all others. Not by its audible tone, of course, because He communicates by unspoken words, but by the impression it makes upon our hearts. We will become familiar with it for we will have tuned the ears of our soul to the frequency of His way of speaking. We will learn that the voice of our Good Shepherd has certain qualities. For example, it doesn’t shout and demand but it whispers with gentleness and peace. It doesn’t accuse and condemn, but forgives and heals and encourages. 

But in order to hear His voice, we must be willing to turn down the volume on everything else around us during our prayertime. This means intentionally making space in our daily schedule for this time alone with Him in silence and solitude. And experience shows that if we don’t plan it, it simply won't happen because life makes so many demands on our day. But the good news is that this doesn’t have to take up a huge block of our time so anyone can really do it. As a matter of fact, one of the Church’s official teachers on prayer, the great St. Teresa of Avila, used to say that even just 15 minutes a day of this kind of prayer will bring us deep into the Kingdom of God. 

 She was so confident about this that she even promised Heaven itself to those who make this daily commitment! That’s a bold statement but she could make it because she knew from experience the transforming power of this kind of daily personal prayer from the heart and in our own words. And you know what she said really makes sense to me because it shows the depth of our desire for God and the sincerity of our intention to grow in our relationship with Him. And I am sure that God certainly will bless and reward such a decision and such a person! 

Now, when it comes to actually planning our daily prayer-time it's helpful to know that it can be done anytime and anywhere. While Eucharistic Adoration is, of course, an excellent time and place for it, not everyone can get to a church and besides, in some places a church is not even open. But you know, we don’t have to be physically before the Blessed Sacrament to be truly present with Christ because the doors of a tabernacle and the walls of a parish church cannot restrain the Living Powerful Presence of our Risen Lord. He transcends those material barriers and radiates far beyond those physical confines. And besides, the Bible affirms that Christ dwells by grace through faith within those who are baptized, so we can always be in His Divine Presence for our prayertime, no matter where we are. 

So, you see, Jesus really makes it quite easy for us to be with Him, to get to recognize His voice and follow Him. He doesn’t demand our time and attention but simply invites it. He wants a real and meaningful personal relationship with each one of us that flows from the freedom of our love and not simply out of the duty of obligation. And we will see that as we gradually grow in becoming people of prayer, something beautiful begins to happen within us. We discover that we are no longer wandering about like lost sheep in a noisy world, but that we are being led. Led through confusion to peace. Led through chaos to serenity. Led through fear to trust. Led even through suffering to confidence in our compassionate Good Shepherd who holds each one of us in His arms close to His Sacred Heart.

The Unseen But Very Present Jesus

 

Deacon Dave · The Unseen But Very Present Jesus

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2026. The Gospel of St. Luke 24:35-48. Theme: The Unseen But Very Present Jesus 

 The story of the disciples on a 7-mile walk to the village of Emmaus from Jerusalem took place on the first Easter Sunday. The two of them were heartbroken and confused because they didn't understand how the One whom they believed to be the glorious Messiah could have been overcome by his enemies and put to death. It was supposed to be the other way around. At least that’s how everyone imagined it would be once the Messiah arrived. In addition they were utterly bewildered by early morning reports from some women in their group who claimed that this Messiah had risen from the dead. We know that they were having a highly animated exchange because the Greek word in this Gospel that our reading translates as “debating” actually means “bickering and arguing". And that’s not at all surprising in times of confusion and trauma. 

 But Emmaus isn’t just about disciples wandering about in a state of depression and disappointment. The deeper lesson in the story is about how Jesus doesn’t abandon us when we go through tough times of spiritual and emotional suffering. It has something to say to those who have become disillusioned and struggle with questions or even doubts about Christ and Christianity. It assures us that Jesus wishes to accompany us on these painful parts of our faith journey just as He does in the happier times. And it teaches us that in doing so Christ doesn’t force Himself into our lives. Notice how He didn’t push his way into the disciples’ company whether it was about joining them on their walk or spending the night with them once they reached their destination. He gave them the space they needed to make a free personal choice. He waited for them to ask and invite. And the same is true as to how He acts with us today. 

 This reminds me of a popular painting of Jesus that shows Him knocking at the front door of a home. There are actually many versions of it around today. But in all of them, if you look closely, you’ll see that there is no doorknob on the outside. It can only be opened from the inside by the one who lives there. It’s a great visualization about how Jesus respects our freedom. He truly wants to be with us as we go through difficulty and suffering, but He waits for us to open the door and allow Him to step into our lives. And while He awaits our decision, He makes Himself available to us, just as He did for those disciples on the road, so that like them we too can ask questions, express our frustrations, and unburden ourselves. And of course He wants to stay with us just as He did with them, bringing comfort and consolation simply by His Presence. But Jesus allows all of this to happen in our own timeframe and on our own terms, so to speak, so that our response to Him will be genuine and free because freedom is really the only way that true relationships can exist and grow, including our relationship with Him. 

 When the disciples reached the end of their journey they still had no idea as to the true identity of their traveling Companion. But there was something about Him that was so appealing and comforting that they didn't want to part company. The way He had explained the Scriptures to them made the smoldering flame of faith begin to burn once again in their hearts. Through Him they were regaining a sense of hope and their disillusionment was diminishing. And so they asked Him to stay and spend the night. And once they freely extended this invitation Christ most wonderfully responded to their need, enabling them to open wide the doors of their hearts to Him. 

 When they sat down together for their evening meal, the Stranger unexpectedly did what they knew Jesus had done at His last supper with His apostles. He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. And suddenly… BAM! They recognized the Man. It was Jesus! And they were once again filled with firm faith and spiritual joy! And then just as suddenly…BAM! He disappeared! But notice most importantly that the Gospel does not say that Jesus left them, only that He was no longer visible to their eyes. That's because the Risen Lord was indeed still there, still truly present to them, but now hidden under the appearance of the Eucharistic Bread. 

 And that brings us to an all-important closing highlight of the Emmaus experience. Through the recounting of this story in his edition of the Gospel, St. Luke wants us to realize that though Jesus is risen and ascended to Heaven, He still abides with us. He still remains among us. He makes His Presence known to those who take time to seek Him through prayer and meditation on the Word of God. And He reveals Himself in a mystical way to those who mindfully receive Him with faith in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. And most of all, the Emmaus experience gives us great hope that even when things seem to be going wrong in daily life, Jesus is right there walking beside us even if we don’t see Him with our eyes. We may not recognize His presence but He is there, knocking on the door of our heart, awaiting our permission to enter and remain with us.