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.

Jesus, I Trust in You!

 

Deacon Dave · Jesus, I Trust in You!

Homily for the Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, April 12, 2026. The Gospel of St. John 20:19-31. Theme: Jesus, I Trust in You! 

 Today’s Gospel opens with ten Apostles (minus Thomas who was absent and Judas who had killed himself) huddled together in a securely locked room. They were filled with fear, convinced that they were next on the Jewish authorities' hit-list. They were terrified that what happened to Jesus was going to happen to them. But I’m sure they were also trapped in their own remorse over how they had treated Jesus. That band of brothers needed to be set free, not only physically from that locked room, but also spiritually from their guilty consciences. 

 Suddenly, the Risen Lord appeared in their midst. It was the first time that they saw Him since the gut-wrenching events of His Passion when they had fled and abandoned Him when He needed them most. But just as nothing stopped Jesus from entering into the locked room, so nothing - not even our worst sins - can prevent the Risen Lord from stepping into our lives. He comes to each one of us just as He came to those downcast disciples, speaking words of pardon and peace to them. But what strikes even more deeply about this story isn't what Jesus said to the Apostles but what He didn’t say. He didn’t speak so much as even one word about how they had treated him. No mention and not even the slightest reference to their infidelity, their denial and their abandonment of Him. Instead, He reached out to them with gentleness and affection. Jesus was showing by actions more than by words that He is our Merciful Savior and Brother who doesn’t keep count of our sins, the way we do. He doesn’t allow them to become an obstacle in our relationship with Him. He doesn’t hold our failings against us for He knows well our human weaknesses and woundedness. 

And this tender reaching out by Christ to heal and forgive becomes even more apparent as our Gospel moves fast forward a week to the Sunday after Easter, to what we now call Divine Mercy Sunday. The disciples were again huddled together but this time Thomas was with them. He rejected the news of Resurrection by reminding his companions that their Master suffered a tortuous execution that ripped open His hands, His feet and His heart. Suddenly, the Risen Lord was once more among them and He called Thomas to draw near to Him. He showed Him the marks of the nails and the spear and invited the doubting disciple to examine those sacred wounds. Why? Because they were proof of His great love for us, a love that poured itself out to the very end. They were like trophies from His victorious battle with death and signs that the impossible has indeed become possible. The power of these sacred wounds transformed Thomas into a firm believer. They enabled him to let go of his guilt and accept mercy. These same glorious wounds, still present and radiating power from the Risen Christ, can do the same for us if we allow their reality and what they stand for to sink into our hearts. 

 Today’s Gospel closes with an invitation to trust in Jesus. When Christ said to Thomas, “do not be unbelieving, but believe”, He was basically saying, “stop wavering and put your confidence in Me.” You see, in the Bible the words “believe” and “trust” are interchangeable and so what Jesus was asking of Thomas, and what he is asking of us, is to trust in Him. This invitation to draw close to Jesus and have confidence in Him is at the very heart of the message of Divine Mercy, which is why the inscription, “Jesus, I trust in You”, is printed on every copy of the image. But we know from the experience of our human relationships that trust in a person is only possible if we have a meaningful bond with them. We simply cannot trust someone whom we do not personally know! 

 Jesus was well aware of this human need and so He called Thomas out from among the group to engage in a meaningful one-to-one encounter with Him. He spoke to Thomas’ personal doubts and needs, dispelling the darkness and enlightening his mind. And our Risen Lord does the same for each one of us if we have the spiritual eyes to see it and the ears of soul to hear it. These spiritual experiences of the Lord may not be as dramatic as that of Thomas but they can be just as real and transformational. It all depends upon how we respond to this grace. Perhaps we will have this personal encounter during prayer or after Holy Communion or while serving the Needy Christ in the sick or the poor. He might also choose to surprise us and make himself truly known when we least expect it, such as when we are out for a walk or in the midst of exercising. But in one way or another He will indeed extend this opportunity to those who need it and seek it and ask for it. 

 One way to seek the grace of a personal encounter with Christ is through the image of Divine Mercy that He gave us. This was actually the main reason why Jesus wanted this picture of Himself to be made and distributed. Look at it and see that Jesus is in motion. He is stepping towards you with one foot slightly behind the other and his hand raised in blessing. He comes to uplift and console you, not to punish or condemn! Notice that the marks of crucifixion that He suffered for you are present on His hands as perpetual signs of the depth of His love for you. Let go of any guilt you carry and welcome His healing mercy into your soul. Ponder the beams of light emanating from within Him that symbolize the blood and water poured out for you when His Sacred Heart was pierced on the cross. Let those red and crystal beams remind you that He has chosen to become one with you by Baptism and Eucharist. But most of all look at the inscription, “Jesus, I trust in You” and let it be engraved in your heart, because as Jesus told St. Faustina: “Those words say it all.”

The Mystery of the Empty Tomb & the Missing Body

 

Deacon Dave · Mystery of the Missing Body & Empty Tomb

EASTER SUNDAY HOMILY The Mystery of the Empty Tomb & the Missing Body 

 As we just heard, two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, early in the morning of the first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalen was making her way to the tomb of Jesus. When she saw that it had been opened and was empty, her first thought was that the Lord’s body had been stolen. And many people today have jumped to the same conclusion when they hear the Easter story. Unable to wrap their minds around the possibility of Resurrection, thievery seems like the most obvious explanation for the Missing Body and the Empty Tomb. But if this was so, then we must ask…who did it and why? According to the documented facts, there are only three possible culprits: the Romans, the Jewish leadership or the Disciples of Jesus. 

 Could it have been the Romans? Highly unlikely since they were the ones who carried out the bloody crucifixion and they had no vested interest in staging a fake resurrection. Then, how about the Jewish leaders? If so, they could have then produced the corpse for all to see and put an end to Christianity with its myth of Resurrection right at its beginning. So, that leaves us with the Disciples. Perhaps they robbed the grave and then spread the fake news of the Resurrection? Hardly so. They were locked away in hiding out of fear for their lives and there’s no way they could have overcome the heavily armed Roman guards at the tomb. Besides, their future destinies showed them to be honest men of integrity who even under gruesome torture did not recant their belief in the Resurrection nor admit to a lie. 

 Once we rule out the possibility of grave robbery, there are only a few possible reasons left to try and explain the mystery of the Missing Body and the Empty Tomb. But none of these stand up to intelligent investigation. However, it’s important that we look into them, because like any evidence presented for consideration, the testimony of the Gospels needs to be examined. So, let’s take a quick look at three other objections besides thievery that skeptics have made to the Good News of the Resurrection. 

 The first one attempts to discredit the authenticity of the Gospels themselves. It holds that the Easter stories are really just fabricated myths or religious fables but not actual historical events witnessed by real people. Well, the majority of historians and archaeologists who have carefully studied the Gospels in the same way that they do all ancient writings, have consistently disagreed with that position. They declare that the Gospels meet all the strict criteria for historical authenticity. And while these scholars can’t tell us what the stories mean from the point of faith, they can and do assure us that they document personal eye-witness evidence that is credible and historically reliable. 

 The second objection asserts that the appearances of the Risen Christ were simply a matter of hallucinations caused by extreme emotional trauma. This could be possible on an individual level but we know that on at least one occasion about 500 people saw the Risen Lord at the same time and in the same place. Psychologists tell us that it’s utterly impossible for everyone in that crowd to have had the same hallucination. Besides, many of those eye-witnesses testified that the One whom they saw and touched was flesh and bone, mysteriously transformed and awesomely glorious, but still the same Jesus of Nazareth whom they had known and loved. 

 The remaining reason given for the Missing Body and the Empty Tomb is that Jesus wasn’t really dead when He was placed in the cave. He was simply unconscious with undetectable signs of life. And then He revived revived and somehow got out of the cave before Sunday morning. This proposal doesn’t consider how a man who had been horribly tortured and crucified the day before could somehow move a 1-ton stone door that usually required at least 2 men with a lever. And it completely glosses over the fact that Jesus was crucified by Roman soldiers who were experts in death by crucifixion and who speared the Lord’s heart to make double-sure that He was dead. 

 So, when all is said and done, we can see that none of these objections have any real merit. And so we are left with the only explanation that is consistent with the hard cold facts and it is the one that the Gospels proclaim: Jesus of Nazareth, once crucified and buried, has truly and bodily risen from the dead, proving that He is indeed the Divine Son of God and the Savior of the world. Furthermore, the Resurrection affirms that everything Jesus taught was not just the wisdom of a holy man but in actuality the Truth of God that sets us free: free from darkness, free from fear and free from the finality of death. And so the question that Easter poses to each one of us is this: Am I willing to believe it or not? 

 And if not, then how come? Am I afraid of what a relationship with Jesus might cost me, of what changes it might bring to my life? Well, many with that same concern ended up being happily surprised to discover that Christ made their lives much better, not worse. Do I hesitate to believe because I know I’m a sinner and think I’m not good enough for Christ? If so, then simply read the Gospels and see just what kind of people Jesus preferred to hang around with. 

 The Risen Lord invites anyone and everyone to come to Him and believe in Him, anytime and anywhere. Even right here and right now. All it takes is your permission to enter and He will begin changing your life from the inside out. He will give you real hope for the future. He will bring you the peace of heart and mind that comes from knowing that even your deepest darkest sins can be forgiven and their guilt removed from your personal history. By abandoning doubt and embracing faith, you will come to discover that the real happiness that you've been seeking, the kind of happiness that you have a right to enjoy, has a name and a face: and it is Jesus of Nazareth, our Living Lord and Savior.

Tonight We Leave Fear and Darkness Behind Us Forever!

 

Deacon Dave · Tonight We Leave Fear and Darkness Behind Us Forever!

Easter Vigil Homily: Tonight We Leave Fear and Darkness Behind Us Forever! 

 Tonight’s Liturgy began in darkness. But then the light of the Paschal Candle, symbol of our Risen Lord, led us into this church. And from that single holy flame of Easter Fire our candles were lit and the Light of the Risen Christ began to increasingly dispel the darkness around us. 

 Now, this wasn’t just an annual Easter ritual. It's a sign, a prophecy, of what Christ the Light does for those who believe in Him, who trust in Him. It brings a bright message of hope into our lives because the truth is, we all experience and often live in darkness. Not just the darkness of outside, but the darkness inside us, the darkness caused by uncertainty and anxiety, by grief and insecurities. But most of all the Bright Light of Easter deals with the deepest darkest universal human fear within each of us which is the fear of death. 

 We don’t like to talk about death. We try to push it aside when the thought arises. We try to distract ourselves from its inevitability by filling up our lives with noise, plans, and busyness. We do all in our power to try to deny it, to avoid it or, at best, to delay it. But every so often, it catches up with us and when it does, it haunts us. Even the strongest of believers has to deal with this fear. 

 The apostles experienced it. By sunset on that first Good Friday, their hope that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah bringing them a whole new life of joy and freedom was crushed. Like their Master, that hope was now dead and gone, buried in a tomb. Frozen by the fear of death, for they figured that they were next on the Jewish authorities' hit-list, they were locked away in hiding and the room in which they were huddled together was like a dark corporate tomb. 

 But then suddenly, as the night began to give way to light on that first Easter Sunday, everything changed. As we just heard, Mary Magdalen and her companion arrived at the tomb of Jesus and discovered that His body was gone! An angel appeared proclaiming that He was risen and then sent the two women off to share this Good News with the others! But Christ intercepted them on their way, manifesting Himself before them in a real and solid bodily form! And what did He say to them? “Do not be afraid!” 

 The very first words from the Risen Christ were not instruction, nor correction, nor even an explanation of what had happened. They were words of reassurance: “Do not be afraid.” He was comforting them with the truth that death no longer has the final word and so fear of it no longer needs to have a place in their hearts. Why? Because He has gone ahead of us through the darkness of death and conquered it finality. It’s now the doorway into a new, glorious and resurrected existence for us who trust in Him and have been baptized into His Body. 

 Think of it this way. If we had to walk through a dark and unfamiliar tunnel alone in the pitch blackness of the night, we would be terribly afraid. But if someone whom we know well walked just ahead of us, and kept calling back, “I’ve made it through—it’s safe—just keep going, follow me,” our fear would begin to lessen. And soon enough it would disappear altogether because we were given reassurance by someone whom we trust that everything was going to be ok. 

 Well, this is precisely what the Lord Jesus has done for us and our fear of death. This is why we celebrate this Holy Night with such great solemnity and jubilation! This is the Night that changes everything for this is the Night when Jesus burst out of the tomb! This is the Night when darkness began to dissipate as the Light of Christ began to radiate throughout the world! This is the Night when the glory of the Risen Lord shines up on us, assuring us that death does not win. That sin does not win. That darkness does not win. 

 Easter proclaims that Christ wins! And as St. Paul told us in our Epistle tonight, we also win because by Baptism we are made one with Him and so His victory is also our victory. This is why we baptize catechumens on this Night and this is why we who are already Christians renew our Baptism on this Night. And so tonight is a time of rejoicing! Tonight, Christ goes before us so that, enlightened by His Resurrection, we can leave the fear and the darkness of death behind us forever!

Come Forth! Be Unbound!

 

Deacon Dave · Come Forth! Be Unbound!

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent, March 22, 2026. Gospel of John 11:1-45. Theme: Come Forth! Be Unbound! 

 When St. John’s Gospel tells us about Jesus’ miracles, such as today’s Raising of Lazarus from the dead, it's important to realize that the story carries two layers of meaning. The first is a recounting of an actual event in history. In other words, it’s passing on to us what Jesus said and did on a particular occasion. The second layer is the story’s deeper spiritual meaning. It has a lesson for us that is symbolized by the events of the story and verbalized by Jesus. The message it delivers is intended for all people everywhere, and so we believe that through the Holy Gospel Jesus is truly speaking to us today. And, by the way, this profound reverence we have for Christ’s word is why the Book of the Gospels is held up for all to venerate at Mass; it’s why we stand out of respect to hear Jesus speaking to us from it; and it’s why the Book of the Gospels is kissed upon finishing the proclamation. 

 And in today’s Gospel Jesus has a very encouraging two-part message for us. The first is that physical death is not an end to our existence. It is a kind of “sleep” from which our bodies will awaken in the resurrection of the dead and be reunited with our immortal souls to live a glorious eternal life as we profess every Sunday in the Creed. And the second is that He has the power to set us free to live a new life here and now, so that we can be reasonably happy in this life and then supremely happy forever in the next. He desires to raise us up from spiritual death; to call us out of our spiritual tombs and unbind us from whatever holds us back from living a truly free and happy life. 

 To understand what He is talking about, we need to remember that there is more to us than just our mortal bodies and our physical life. We also possess immortal souls that can experience illness and death but in a totally different way than that of the body. This spiritual disease can be a kind of “silent killer” in that we can look and feel great on the outside but be spiritually sick and dying on the inside. Without truly realizing it, we can walk this earth as part of the “living dead”, so to speak, as people who are enclosed in tombs, not made of stone like that of Lazarus, but built of our own making. We can be spiritually bound up like a mummy, consigned to a spiritual grave that we have dug for ourselves because of our addictions, or persistent grudges, rampant consumerism or many other avenues of spiritual destruction. 

 And Jesus is deeply distressed and weeps over our condition just as he did for Lazarus. He doesn’t want to leave us there so He speaks to us the same powerful words that He spoke in the Gospel today, “Come forth! Be unbound!” He calls us to come forth from the tomb of materialism and be unbound from the lies that tell us we’re only worth what we look like and what we possess. To come forth from the tomb of isolation and be unbound from loneliness. To come forth from the tomb of resentment and be unbound from broken relationships. To come forth from the tomb of anxiety and panic and be unbound from fear and worry. To come forth from the tomb of addiction and codependency and be unbound from chaos and self- destruction. And just as He had people roll back the stone from Lazarus’ burial site so that he could walk out a new man, so He will likewise send people into our lives who can help us remove whatever is preventing us from leaving our spiritual tombs behind. But we have to trust and believe. 

 Now, if we don’t think we have the faith it takes for us to come forth from our tombs and be unbound, then we can draw hope from the example of Lazarus’ sister, Martha. Did you notice that the Gospel tells us that she had to “come to believe” that Christ was Who He said He was? Those three words “come to believe '' should give us great encouragement! They tell us that, though Martha had some faith, she was still growing, open to Jesus and willing to trust Him, but yet not quite there. And I am sure the same can be said of us. Perhaps we too believe but are “not quite there.” Perhaps we too, have something more to absorb, something more to experience about Christ so that we can “come to believe” more fully as Martha did. But be that as it may, even if our faith is weak or little we can still come humbly before him as she did and tell Him what we need. I’m pretty sure her faith didn’t reach perfection until she was once again hugging her brother Lazarus in her arms! 

 Martha shows us that we can begin to trust in Jesus’ power even before understanding fully who He is; even before really grasping the extent of what He can and wishes to do for us. She demonstrates that our faith grows as our experience of Jesus grows. She shows us that our relationship with Christ, like all relationships, is a dynamic ever-deepening reality. And now through this Holy Gospel she invites each one of us to come to believe as well. She invites each one of us to reach out to Jesus and trust in Him. She invites each one of us to listen with confidence to Christ when he tells us to come forth from our tombs and be unbound. As Easter draws near, let’s ask the Lord to grant us the liberating grace of hearing His voice in our hearts. Let’s ask Him for the confidence and trust in Him that we need to take those all-important first steps out of our self-made tombs to step forward to receive a new lease on life!

We Are Each the Man Born Blind

 

Deacon Dave · We Are Each the Man Born Blind

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), March 15, 2026. Gospel of St. John 9:1-41. Theme: We Are Each the Man Born Blind 

 Sometimes those of us who came to faith after having gone through a lot of bad “stuff” (to put it politely) wonder, “Why?” Why did we wait so long? Why did the light not begin to shine until after so many years of wandering and wondering? Or why didn’t I just accept the faith that my family tried to pass on to me which would have saved me so much grief? The disciples asked Jesus pretty much the same type of question when they first encountered the Man Born Blind in today’s Gospel. They were also asking, “Why?” And Jesus’ reply to them is pretty much the same that He would say to us about our lives, “...It’s so that the works of God might be made visible.” 

 This doesn’t mean that we were intentionally put into bad situations just so God could end up looking all great and powerful! What He means is that even the wrong turns and bad decisions that we made in our lives can be used by God to bring us out of the darkness and into the light. And you know, the Man Born Blind also had other dark issues to deal with besides lack of vision. For example, even though he was living on the street as a beggar we learn that he has local parents whom people knew. That's why the Pharisees were able to send for them. And then when we hear them speaking about their son they sound cold and detached from him. It seems as if there was no love lost there. Finally, there seems to be uncertainty about his age because the parents are called to come and testify in his place. Now in Judaism a boy was considered a man with legal rights around age 13 , so it seems that our Blind Man’s age was hard to tell by appearance. So he may very well have been but a young teenager. The poor guy! His own parents apparently kicked him out of the house, abandoning him to live on the streets! Talk about dealing with baggage and issues! And I’m sure that like the disciples and like us, he also asked God, “Why?” and wondered if good would ever come his way. 

 Back in the days before Jesus entered our lives, we were like the Man Born Blind. We were also afflicted with lack of vision, but it was of the spiritual sort and we wondered if good would ever come our way. And just as the man’s physical disability made him open to the hope that Jesus could help him, so also our personal forms of darkness made us reach out in hope for the healing touch of the Lord. Situations such as addiction with its repeated cycles of recovery and relapse, or the pain of failed relationships with its broken hearts, or the financial situations that made life a stomach-turning rollercoaster…or whatever stuff we were dealing with, became ways in which Jesus was able to walk into our lives and begin to light up our world. And then once we opened up and allowed Christ in, our spiritual vision started to come into focus. And then the more we experienced how much better our lives became because of Jesus, the more we wanted to know Him. It was as if the lyrics to the beloved hymn, "Amazing Grace” began to ring true in our lives, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see!” 

 Like the Man Born Blind, after we experienced the healing touch of Jesus our understanding of Him went through a deepening process, which is still happening in our lives today. The Gospel shows us that once the man was healed he went from Sight to Insight to Faith in his relationship with Christ. At first, when he was going just by Sight he described his Healer as “that man called Jesus”. His knowledge of the Lord was very surface-level and incomplete. This is probably where many of us were when we first met the Lord. Perhaps we knew the main highlights about His life from Bible stories, but was that pretty much it. Up to then in our lives we were looking at Christ only with ordinary Sight, much the same way that we would have looked at any admirable figure. 

 But then the man was brought into a situation where he had to think more deeply about who this Jesus was and what He had done for him. He begins to see that He was more than just “that man” and declares, “He is a prophet…God is with him!” The man is progressing from Sight to Insight, which means that the light is getting a bit brighter. I bet most of us also found ourselves in a similar situation. What I mean is, we were pretty sure that there was something more to this man named Jesus than met the eye, because our lives started getting better, but we weren’t exactly sure what that "something more" might be. There was something different about him that attracted us and so we began to learn more about Him. We were moving on from Sight to Insight as we started praying, started reading the Bible and started attending Mass again. 

 But it wasn't until the Man Born Blind stood up and boldly spoke out about Jesus that we went from Insight to Faith. The light of Christ then began shining so brilliantly within him that he exclaimed, “I do believe!” Then he bowed down and worshiped Jesus. So you see, all the “stuff”, all the bad news of his former way of life ended up becoming good news that brought him to this New Beginning and Fresh Start in life! And you know, it’s a very real possibility that if we had never gone through all our “bad news”, then we too might never have ended up finding the Good News of and about Jesus. So, are we now ready and willing to go follow the Man Born Blind further and go public in our relationship with Christ? Are we open to becoming intentional disciples who stand with Jesus no matter what the cost? Are we willing to embrace life as authentic Christians and be done with a half-baked, half-hearted approach to our faith? These are the kind of questions that the Gospel of St. John wants us to ask ourselves once we come to realize that we are each the Man Born Blind.

We Are the Woman at the Well

 

Deacon Dave · We Are the Woman at the Well

Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, March 8. 2026. Gospel of St. John 4:5-42. Theme: We Are the Woman at the Well 

 Today’s Gospel presents us with the longest recorded one-on-one conversation that Christ had with another person during His public ministry. It opens with Jesus, tired and thirsty, stopping for a rest at a well in Samaria. He encounters a woman who intentionally comes to draw water at noon because she knows that her neighbors will not be there. The women of the village always carried out this laborious task in the cool of the morning or the breeze of the evening but never in the blazing noonday sun. So, why did this woman come at midday when she had good reason to believe none of her neighbors would be there? 

 Well, to find out we need to do a little bit of ancient detective work. We are told that she had gone through five husbands and we know that in her culture, women had no legal right to choose a spouse or to initiate divorce. So this meant that she was not the instigator of these multiple relationships but rather, was a victim of serial abuse, being repeatedly used and then discarded by a procession of men. Each had their way with her and then just left her behind. This chain of abusive treatment would not only corrupt her self-image, but would also give her a reputation in the village as being “damaged goods”. It surely placed upon her shoulders a burden of false shame and so it’s no wonder that she sought to evade her peers at the well. 

 But Jesus reaches out to this deeply wounded woman to bring her the good news that there is hope for a better life ahead. And in doing so it moves him to ignore three cultural taboos of Judaism. First, Jews did not have anything to do with Samaritans, who centuries before had broken rank with Israel and formed a new hybrid religion. They were considered traitors who were cursed by God. Second, Jewish men did not speak to strange women in public. Ever. And third, mingling with her was considered spiritual contamination, a kind of guilt by association. In doing these things, Christ was intentionally ignoring deeply embedded cultural prejudice and discrimination, but as we all know, that’s “vintage Jesus”. He was always reaching out to those who were social outcasts, no matter who they were, no matter where they came from, and no matter what they may have done. 

 As the story unfolds, the woman gradually opens up to Jesus and He, in turn, gradually reveals more of Himself to her. This dynamic interchange shows us that Jesus respects our freedom. He invites but He never forces. He meets us where we are and works with us there, gently encouraging us to go deeper, to have confidence in Him. Notice the various ways the woman addresses Jesus, which reveal that she is undergoing this process of deepening her understanding of who He is. Initially, she calls him “Sir’” as she would address any man. Next, she realizes that He is more than that. He is a devout teacher, perhaps a mystic, and so she calls him a “prophet”. Finally, a light clicks on inside of her as she senses something even more unique about this holy man and ponders if he might be “the Christ”' (which means “the Messiah” in Greek). 

 But the mystery about who He is deepens as Jesus offers her a ‘Gift of God’ that He calls ‘Living Water’. Now, in their desert culture, “living water” meant fresh running water as opposed to stagnant well water and so she is quite excited to hear about such a treasure! And she gets even more excited when Jesus tells us that she won’t have to labor for this Living Water day after day. She is thinking about earthly things, of course, but Jesus is elevating her thoughts towards heavenly things. He's using Living Water as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit, the Bearer of God’s grace, that He wants to pour into her heart. Just as springs of running water refresh and revive her physically, so the fountain of Living Water will heal and transform her from interiorly. Jesus knows that this is really what she has been thirsting for and truly needs. 

The Gospel wants us to see ourselves reflected in this spiritually wounded woman. Like her, we have all been broken by our sins and the sins of others. Like her, many of us may think of ourselves as “damaged goods” and carry on our shoulders a burden of false shame. And so Jesus invites us through this Gospel to come to Him and have our burning thirst for love and acceptance satisfied by the Living Water that He offers us. The story then reaches its conclusion by showing us how Christ’s Living Water has kicked into action. We now see her as a changed woman who races back to her village filled with excitement over the holy man whom she had met. She now runs back to the village precisely to seek out her neighbors instead of avoiding them. And once there she draws attention to herself by exclaiming, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have done. Could this be the Christ?” What a twist in the story! What a turn of events! What a change of heart! The Living Water of God’s grace has overcome her desire for isolation and begins to heal her social relationships. The once rejected and scorned woman has cast her false shame aside and has now become a bold messenger of God’s love to her peers! 

 But you know, today’s story isn’t just about this Samaritan Woman. It’s also about us. St. John was inspired by the Holy Spirit to record this event in his Gospel to remind us that we are each that woman at the well. We each need to follow her example by opening up our hearts and lives to Jesus. It’s encouraging us to be like her and not to hide anything about ourselves from Him out of fear of judgment because that’s not how He operates. Instead, when we honestly own up to Him about who we are and what we have done, He responds by giving us a greater outpouring of the Gift of God, the Holy Spirit. And then as He did for that woman, He will drench us with healing streams of Living Water, causing new life to spring up within us, from which will flow abundant faith, confident hope and life-changing love.

The Transfiguration & Christian Meditation

 

Deacon Dave · The Transfiguration & Christian Meditation

Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, March 1, 2026. Gospel of St. Matthew 17:1-9. Theme: The Transfiguration & Christian Meditation 

 In our 2,000-year heritage of Christian spirituality the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus has been cherished by monks and mystics as an example of having an spiritual experience of God through prayer. It teaches us that if we seek a deeper understanding of who Christ is and what he means in our lives, then we need to spend some time with him away from the daily grind. This is what Peter, James and John did on that memorable day when they went with Jesus up Mount Tabor. They were caught up in an awesome revelation of Christ as the Beloved Son of God and through this spiritual experience their relationship with him was deepened, personalized and strengthened. 

 For centuries the Transfiguration story has been used as a guide for practicing the form of Christian prayer that is called meditation. It’s also known by other names such as prayer of the heart, contemplation, quiet prayer or sometimes just plain and simple pondering. And it’s very different, worlds apart really, from the types of meditation we often hear about today such as yoga-mindfulness or Hindu transcendentalism. These eastern forms of meditation encourage people to empty their minds, to get in touch with their so-called inner-energy and focus on themselves. But Christian meditation is the polar opposite. It’s not at all about focusing on oneself or trying to become empty inside. Rather, it’s all about focusing on God and being filled up with the Divine Presence. We can find in this Gospel story the recipe for a spiritually fruitful prayer time which depends upon three key ingredients. 

 The first of these is solitude. Jesus brought the three disciples up a mountain, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life and apart from the noisy crowds that were always around them. This teaches us that we need to intentionally find someplace where we can be alone and undisturbed for our prayertime. We need to get away from the many distractions that life throws at us, so that we can devote quality time to our relationship with God in peace and quiet. Mystics have often compared our rendezvous with God in prayer to a Divine Romance which, as for any couple, can only blossom in time spent alone together. Only in this solitude and silence can we hope to hear God’s whispering voice speaking to our hearts and minds. 

 The second ingredient is to spend time gazing upon Jesus as the disciples did on Mount Tabor. One way to do this is by turning to the Gospels. Jesus promised that he and the Father would come and dwell within those who cherish his Word (see John 14:23) and so by faith we know God is truly with us in this endeavor. We reflectively read a passage of the Gospel and use our imagination to picture Jesus doing and saying what we are reading. We ponder the story and take our time with it. In doing so we are like Peter, James and John looking at the transfigured Jesus and just taking it all in. We permit thoughts presented to us in prayer to penetrate our minds and hearts. This personal time with Jesus and his Word deepens our faith and enriches it, much like the way chili or pasta sauce increases in flavor the longer we allow it to simmer on a burner. 

 Lastly, like Peter we speak with Jesus. We ask him to show us what he wants us to learn from this experience. We obey the command of God the Father and listen to his Beloved Son as he speaks to the ears of our heart. His words might come to us as a phrase or an idea or perhaps an image that comes to mind. We respond to Jesus, sharing with Him the thoughts, feelings and insights that have come to us in our time of solitude with him. The key here is to relate with Christ in all honesty, letting go of our facades and defenses. We open up our hearts to him in vulnerability, just as he opened his heart to us when it was pierced on the cross. 

 Then after our meditation we come down off the mountain of our prayer. Like Peter, James and John we return to our daily duties, treasuring our prayerful experience of Jesus. St. Teresa of Avila, whom the Church holds up as a great teacher of meditation, declared that a person who devotes even just 15 minutes a day to meditation will surely be saved and reach Heaven. Now, she was confident and bold in saying this because she knew by experience the personal spiritual transformation that comes from meditation. She knew that if we practice this form of prayer regularly, we will become more aware of the presence of God dwelling within us and see the finger of God touching everything around us. She knew that through this prayerful pondering Christ would become more real. more meaningful and more personal in our everyday lives. St. Teresa was confident that God, who is never outdone in generosity, would see to it that this relationship with him that we took time to nurture here on planet Earth would reach its most beautiful and ultimate expression in the divine intimacy and ecstasy of Heaven.

The Problem & the Solution

 

Deacon Dave · 260222_002

Homily for the First Sunday in Lent, February 22, 2026. Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Gospel of St. Matthew 4:1-11. Theme: The Problem & the Solution 

 The great scientist, Albert Einstein, was once asked what he would do if he had just one hour to solve a perplexing problem. He replied: “I’d spend 55 minutes getting to know the problem, and then I would only need 5 minutes to come up with the solution.” In other words, we can’t arrive at a successful solution if we don’t first really understand the problem. And this is exactly what our readings are hoping to do for us today on this First Sunday in Lent. The first one from Genesis investigates the root cause of a universal human Problem that resides within each one of us. And then the second reading from St. Paul shows us where we can find the Solution. 

 So, first we start with the Problem. Everyone knows by experience that there is something off-whack deep within us. It’s a kind of inner-force that moves us to say or do things that we know we shouldn’t but which makes them seem so darn appealing. At other times, this Problem manifests itself as a kind of emptiness within us that we try to fill up by doing more or by buying more or by becoming more. So, why do we have this inner disturbance? Where did it come from? How did it start? Well, to answer these questions the first reading brings us back to the beginning of the human race. It tells us the story in symbolic language that passes on some very important truths. It tells us about the creation of Adam and Eve, and how God gave them an ideal garden as their home. Its lushness represents the perfect life they lived in blissful harmony and intimacy with one another and with their Creator. But then something went terribly wrong that gave rise to what we now identify as the Problem. But to understand what happened, we have to take a closer look at the two special trees mentioned in the reading. 

 The Tree of Life symbolized the ideal existence humans enjoyed with one another and with God. This state of holiness and happiness was intended to last forever and be passed on to all of us who are their descendants. God very much desired this for them (and for us) and this is why the story says that the couple were welcome to eat freely of that fruit! But the other tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was forbidden to them. It symbolized the choice to sin which would allow evil to make its debut in the world. You see, up to this point the couple had no experience of sin because they had not yet eaten this forbidden fruit. 

 But their ideal life drastically changed when Satan came into the story. It pictures him as a serpent because to the Hebrews, such a creature represented danger, sickness, suffering and death. He slithered into the garden and sowed the poison of doubt about God’s goodness in Eve’s mind. She passed this temptation onto Adam and together they fell victim to the devil’s lies. They committed what we now call “original sin” because it took place near the origin or beginning of our creation. As a result, human beings lost access to the sweet fruit of the Tree of Life and now could only eat the bitter fruit of struggle and conflict, of angst and confusion. The subsequent chapters of the Book of Genesis show us that this original sin spread its infection to all mankind. 

 So, that’s how the Problem of Adam and Eve became our Problem. And the thing is that no matter how hard we try, we can’t overcome it on our own. We can’t fix ourselves. And it’s not that we don’t try! For goodness sakes, we collectively spend billions of dollars a year on self-improvement! We think that if we look better, if we dress better, if we have a better job, or move to a better place, or find a better spouse, or whatever, then we will finally be happy, peaceful and whole deep inside! But these things don’t do the trick because the Problem is something within us and not outside of us. It's a spiritual disease but we keep trying to medicate it with material remedies. 

 But fortunately, our Liturgy doesn’t leave us stranded at this dark spot of hopelessness. It goes on to the Second Reading from St. Paul who tells that there is indeed an effective spiritual remedy to the Problem. He bases his teaching on the fact that since it was a sinless man (Adam) who first brought evil into the world, then what humanity needed was another sinless man but one who would be far superior to Adam. He would need to be a man motivated by total love and who had such perfect obedience to God that it would undo what Adam’s selfishness and disobedience had done. But the dilemma was that no human being could fill this role because all descend from sinful fallen Adam, so all would be equal to or even less than him. This left humanity in a seemingly impossible predicament! 

 However, nothing is impossible to God who came up with the Solution and it was this: He himself would come down to planet Earth and become that Perfect Man, that New Adam. In him both divinity and humanity would come together and this would make him infinitely greater than the first Adam, and yet still a real man. This meant that everything that Jesus did, God was doing because he wasn’t a split personality! And so, every aspect of being human, from conception through death, was healed and sanctified from the inside out because God himself was doing it, God himself was experiencing it. And to illustrate that Jesus is indeed the Solution, the Gospel today presents us with the story of how this Perfect Man, this New Adam, triumphed over Satan’s temptations. It’s the polar opposite of how the Problem first started in the first place in the garden when Satan was the one who had the victory! It assures us that from the very start of his mission as the Messiah, Christ pushed the Reset Button that put humanity back on our original track with God. 

 But as with any Solution, it can’t work if it’s not put into practice! So, the most important thing for us this Lent is to intentionally recommit to following Jesus so that through him, with him and in him we can push the Reset Button in our own personal lives. The very purpose of Lent is that we refocus on our personal connection with Christ and deepen our union with Him. We can do this in many ways but especially through a more mindful reception of the Eucharist and by daily prayer with meditation on his Gospel. Lent invites us to join with Jesus in overcoming the Problem by fasting which strengthens our spiritual muscles and by giving alms for the poor which helps us to share in his compassion for others. Then as the 40 days of Lent move forward, and if we keep faithfully applying this Jesus-Solution in our lives, we will see that the Problem is becoming less of an issue and we can have a more sure hope that by the time Easter comes around, we’ll start tasting the sweet fruit of the Tree of Life once again.

What’s Supernatural Cardiac Surgery?

 

Deacon Dave · What’s Supernatural Cardiac Surgery?

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 15, 2026. Gospel of St. Matthew 5:17-37. Theme: What’s Supernatural Cardiac Surgery? 

 In today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims that he didn’t come to abolish or replace Judaism, but to fulfill it. This may sound strange to Christian ears because we know darn well that we don’t follow the Torah (Law) of Israel. We eat pork. We don’t have to be circumcised or follow umpteen rules about ritual washing. We even moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. So, isn’t the Old Testament Law abolished? No, it’s not. Rather, it has been fulfilled for us in Jesus, whose words and actions brought to full bloom the promises that God made to Israel. And when something has been fulfilled, its function is over and it passes away because it’s no longer needed. This is quite different from being abolished and done away with! 

 You see, in God’s original plan, Judaism was always meant to develop into Christianity. The coming of the Messiah was supposed to result in a smooth transition from the Old Israel into the New, Improved and Expanded Israel, with membership no longer restricted just to Hebrews but now open to all who place their trust in Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah and Lord. And, indeed, it originally started out that way but, as we all know, it didn’t end up that way. At first, Christianity was seen as a branch of Judaism but by the end of the first century, Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah were expelled from synagogues throughout the Mediterranean world. Christianity then began to express itself as a separate and distinct religion. But we never forgot where we came from and this is why we still read from the Hebrew Scriptures in our liturgies and revere the Old Testament as part of the inspired Word of God. 

 In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus is showing how the Law becomes fulfilled, that is, finds its ultimate meaning, in his teachings. You see, over the centuries, the Law became vital to the Jewish people as a way of preserving their unique identity in the midst of a pagan world that was all around them. It helped to keep them faithful to the Covenant with God and enabled parents to impress upon children a sense of their heritage as the Chosen People. This role of the Torah became so magnified that the original 10 Commandments were expanded over time to become 613 detailed regulations for proper Jewish living! And we all know, when the law becomes too burdensome or ridiculous, people begin to ignore it and conform in public only for the sake of staying out of trouble. And this was the general spirit of things when Jesus came onto the scene. 

 He brought a new and refreshing approach to understanding and living God’s law. He often scolded the Scribes and Pharisees in public for making the Commandments a burden too heavy for anyone to carry. He regularly called them out for abusing their roles as spiritual teachers and, as a matter of fact, they are the only people in the Gospels whom Christ condemned with harsh words! Jesus taught that spirituality and morality must come from the heart and not be concerned with just external actions. This flew in the face of the Jewish leadership’s approach which was based on going through the motions regardless of how one felt about it. If on the outside everything looked good, if everything was done according to the letter of the Law, then they considered themselves righteous or devout. Wherever their hearts might be in all of this didn’t really come into the picture. 

 But Jesus taught a much deeper and transformative way of being guided by the Law. For example, as we see in today’s Gospel, he said that we are not to be satisfied simply because we haven’t murdered anyone, but are to dig deeper to discern if we are harboring anger or resentment towards others in our hearts. We’re not supposed to pat ourselves on the back just because we haven’t committed perjury, but go beyond this and see if we are guilty of gossip and destroying a person’s reputation. Overall, he is pointing out that both good and bad, both vice and virtue, begin deep within us. They are a matter of the mind and heart before they are manifested in our external actions. 

 Christ calls us to live the Commandments with a new outlook, with a new approach, with a new mindset. Now, he knows that while our intentions may start out as good, the tug of sin easily pulls us down and can even make us feel powerless in our moral struggles. And so he comes to our aid and gives us a share in the Holy Spirit who works with us from the inside out. Jesus himself called the Spirit “the power from on high.” (Luke 24:49) and told us that it’s a power which can be ours for the asking. This empowering Gift of the Spirit was foretold by the prophet Ezekiel who said: “He will give you a new heart and place a new Spirit within you; He will exchange your heart of sin for a heart of love and put his Spirit within you to enable you to follow his decrees”. (Ez 36:26-27) 

 We can look at the Holy Spirit and the Risen Lord Jesus as a kind of divine medical intervention team who are performing supernatural cardiac surgery on us. This is the spiritual procedure in which Ezekiel’s prophecy is fulfilled within each one of us so that we come out on the other side as new and transformed persons! The Church, through the experience of the saints, has learned that we can do our part to promote a successful outcome to this procedure by our prayer, Bible reading, works of mercy, and reception of the Sacraments. Throughout this spiritual therapy and rehabilitation, God gradually replaces our weak hearts of sin with strong hearts of love that will enable us to live the Faith as it was meant to be lived, not as a burden to be carried but as a blessing to be shared.

Salt + Light

 

Deacon Dave · Salt + Light

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 8, 2026. Gospel of St. Matthew 5:13-16. Theme: Salt + Light 

 In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues his famous Sermon on the Mount. He tells us that we are to give public witness to him and that by doing so his Gospel will make the world a better place. He compares us to salt and light in order to graphically illustrate what he’s talking about. 

 Like salt that enhances food, our lived Christianity is meant to bring out the best in us and inspire others to become curious about the Faith. The social teachings of Christianity can bring goodness to a culture and help preserve it from moral corruption. But Jesus warns us that if we lose our saltiness, that is, if we lose touch with our Christianity and begin to think and speak and act just like everyone else then we become useless for carrying out the mission of drawing others to Him. 

 Moving on to the example of light, we all know how vital it’s to our daily living! Among other things, it brings us clarity of vision in otherwise dark places. In the same way, the more people see our Christian behavior, the clearer it can be for them to find the pathway to happiness in this world and the next. The inner peace and strength we possess through the ups and downs of life might enlighten them to investigate a relationship with Jesus Christ for themselves. 

 But in addition to changing individual persons, the salt and light of Christianity can - and indeed has - changed the world! Western culture as we know it would not be ours to enjoy today had it not been for Christianity sprinkling the salt of the Gospel and diffusing the light of Christ throughout the world for the past 2,000 years. We should be humbly and properly proud of how our faith has helped to make the world a better place, especially today when Christianity’s moral and social influence is being ignored or even openly attacked. We need to remind others of this indisputable fact. 

 Christianity’s salt and light has fueled many scientists to make vital discoveries in their fields. Notable examples are Copernicus, the priest who discovered that the sun is the center of the universe; the Jesuit priest George Lemaitre who came up with the Big Bang Theory of the universe’s origin; Gregor Mendel, a monk who gave birth to modern genetics; and Louis Pasteur, a committed lay Catholic and pioneer of infectious disease control. Christianity’s salt and light also gave inspiration and encouragement to classic works of the fine arts such as Michelangelo & Leonardo DaVinci in sculpting and painting; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & Johann Sebastian Bach in music; Dante Alighieri & J.R. Tolkien in literature. 

 Christianity’s mission to be salt and light motivated heroic figures who stood up on behalf of women, children, the dying and the disabled. Before Christianity arrived in various parts of the world, women were considered property along with a man’s life-stock; children were regarded as not much better than slaves; the dying were abandoned in the wilderness; and the disabled were killed for being thought of as cursed. In response to such things, Christianity spoke up loudly for the sanctity of marriage and the equal dignity of women. Christianity threw its collective arms around the vulnerable and the disadvantaged protecting their right to enjoy a truly human life. Missionaries established hospitals, schools and medical clinics in countries that were too poor and underdeveloped to provide these social services. And the Catholic Church remains today the single largest sponsor of educational, social and charitable aid in the world. 

 Christians who took up Jesus’ call to be salt and light became leaders in the civil rights, human rights and right-to-life movements. The slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglass was a Christian minister and Harriet Tubman, mother of the famous Underground Railroad to Freedom was also a devout Christian. St. Katherine Drexel, a Philadelphia socialite, gave her whole life as well as her multi-billion dollar inheritance for the education and social promotion of Black and Native Americans. And of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a minister who, together with the mostly Christian communities of the Southern USA pressed forward through bloody violence until racial equality became the law. And today pro-life activists carry on this civil rights crusade for the equality and dignity of millions of unborn children. 

 So, with all this in mind and knowing what a Christian is called to be, let’s ask Jesus for the grace to never lose our saltiness; for the grace to never cease to be light in the darkness. The Christians who have gone before us, and who made such an impact on the world, show us what the Gospel can do when it is truly lived out in flesh and blood reality. Their witness gives us absolutely amazing testimony that both people and places can be transformed by coming into contact with the salt and light of Christ that flows out of ordinary Christians like you and me.

The Pursit of Happiness

 

Deacon Dave · The Pursuit of Happiness

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 1, 2026. The Gospel of St. Matthew 5:1-12. Theme: The Pursuit of Happiness

 ​In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins his famous Sermon on the Mount by proclaiming the Beatitudes. While “blessed” is the traditional English translation for the Aramic word the Jesus uses to start off each Beatitude, in everyday use it meant “happy”. Happiness is a goal that we all seek. It’s what we are all striving to attain as we make our way through this difficult world. Even our Declaration of Independence ranks it right up there as a God-given right along with the pursuit of life and liberty! And so Jesus is telling us that real happiness, the kind that satisfies the innate desires of the human heart and endures forever, is to be found in living the values and principles of his Gospel. 

 Jesus begins by praising those who are “poor in spirit”. That “in spirit” part is very important because it’s referring to a heart that refuses to be enslaved by material things. And this applies to both the wealthy and the poor. Both are susceptible to the green-eyed monster of greed! Consumerism drives us to buy way more than what we need and slick advertising misleads us into thinking that happiness consists of possessing everything we want. But Jesus says that true and lasting happiness comes to those who are not possessed by their possessions, but who live a life of uncomplicated simplicity. The poor in spirit trust in God to help them provide for all their needs. 

 “Blessed are they who mourn” may sound a bit odd at first, because who thinks of grief as a blessing? But what is being praised here is a heart that has empathy for the pain and suffering of others. A person can only truly mourn if they have a compassionate heart and Jesus declared such people to be blessed because they have not closed themselves off from the suffering of others. He promises that God will reward and comfort them in their own sorrows and struggles. 

“Blessed are the meek” refers to the “humble” or “lowly”, to those who count for nothing in the eyes of the world. They are the “nobodies” who are without power, prestige or position in society. They will be filled with happiness in God’s kingdom while those who oppressed them will be dealt with in God’s justice. They will inherit the new world which Christ will bring about when He returns in glory. ​

 Jesus used a familiar experience when speaking about the Beatitude of righteousness, which means living a godly life. His listeners were working class people living under an oppressive tax-heavy government and in their poverty they knew what it was like to go to bed with an empty stomach. Many of them also lived by the desert wilderness where water was precious, so they knew what it was like to be extremely thirsty. Jesus says to them, in effect, “Happiness will come in abundance to those who cherish life with God even more than they desire food for their aching stomachs and drink for their burning thirst.” 

 The next Beatitude, that of mercy, calls us to treat those around us with kindness and to extend forgiveness to those who harm us. Jesus is saying that if we show compassion and forgiveness to others, then we will experience the same from God in return. It’s kind of a matter of “what goes around, comes around”. So, if we want God to be merciful and forgiving to us, we must be merciful and forgiving to others. It’s a non-negotiable. There’s no other way around it! 

 Moving on, we come to “Blessed are the pure in heart” which people often misinterpret to mean sexual purity. But being pure or clean of heart in biblical language means striving to do things with the right intention, that is, out of love for God and others. Jesus told us what order our priorities in life should be: God first, others second, and ourselves last. Happiness comes to those who have their priorities in life straight for they will be blessed here and now as well as bask in the Presence of God for eternity. 

 The famous Peace Prayer of St. Francis can help us put the next Beatitude into practice. It spells out for us the definition of a peacemaker as one who sows love where there is hatred; pardon where there is injury; faith where there is doubt; hope where there is despair; light where there is darkness; and joy where there is sadness. Peacemakers as those who promote unity and harmony among others which makes them a reflection of God their Father. 

 The last two “blessings” about those who are harassed for their faith actually form just one longer Beatitude. Jesus warns us that persecution of all kinds will indeed come our way because of our relationship with Him. He was ridiculed and slandered during His ministry and ultimately persecuted in His Passion. And we should not expect to be treated any differently. But He promises eternal happiness to those who suffer injustice because of their fidelity to him and to his Word. Their true friendship and loyalty will not go unrewarded. 

 The Beatitudes are non-negotiables for citizenship in the Kingdom of God. They are not simply passive blessings because we happened to be baptized but they are a call to actively embrace a Gospel-based lifestyle in imitation of Jesus. Do I realize that this is what I signed up for when I made a commitment to Christ? And now knowing this, do I still want to press forward with that commitment? The reward for doing so is great because it is guaranteed to bring us the ultimate happiness that we all seek. Those who embrace the Beatitudes are among God’s faithful remnant whom Zephaniah praised in our First Reading. They are living examples of the people St. Paul talks about in today's Second Reading, where he says that God’s power is at work in those who are despised by the world which counts them as nothing. But Christ disagrees with the world and counts us as “something”, that is, as his friends who are worthy of inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven!

"He sat down and taught them..."