Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord (April 20, 2025)

Brothers and sisters, we have good reason to rejoice and be glad today - this is the day that the Lord has made!

We have just shared in the experience of Peter and John as they ran to the tomb and peered in. With John, we have had the opportunity to see and believe: Jesus who was crucified and died is now risen!

St. Paul reminds us that what we celebrate today must mean something for our daily living. If we really believe that Jesus is risen, then we must make a sincere effort each day to set our hearts on heavenly things.

Jesus left his place at God’s right hand to live among us; now he has returned to his Father and invites us to live in him. We must try to be intent on things above rather than on things of earth. This is a daily struggle for most of us. It’s just too easy to become intent on our own needs and wants, our own suffering and pain. These can easily distract us from the things that we say really count - from seeking to do God’s will and not our own and trying to love others as Jesus has loved us.

The Lord has made this day for our salvation. In a few moments, we will share once again in Jesus’ saving mystery by renewing our baptismal promises as a community of faith. But renewing them is not enough. We are called to give witness to our renewal by the way we live our daily lives. Our words and deeds must flow from the same source: the saving grace that flows from Jesus’ death and rising.

May we learn to ask for God’s grace each day so that we may live this new life. Then the words we say and the actions we do will proclaim to everyone we meet the truth we celebrate today: Jesus is risen! He is alive in us!

Easter Vigil in the Holy Night (April 19, 2025)

Tonight, the liturgy has immersed us in the story of our God’s great love and mercy. Beneath this pillar of fire, the Light of Christ, we have remembered the wonder of creation.

God looked at everything he had made and found it very good. We have sung the praises of God as we walked with God’s people through the waters of the sea. We have heard God’s promise to feed his people without cost. And, we have remembered that God’s loving mercy has redeemed us through the death and rising of Jesus.

These past few days, we have eaten with Jesus at table and shared in his passion and death. Tonight, we are here to celebrate the final glorious words of good news: Jesus is risen! He has conquered sin and death. He now lives for God.

We have been baptized into the death of Jesus and have risen with him to share his new life. We heard St. Paul tell us: “Consequently you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”

Something new has happened to us as we share in the resurrection of Jesus.

As parts of his Mystical Body, we must take seriously the renewal of our baptismal promises: to reject sin so as to live in the freedom of God’s children. We cannot let these be idle words, easily repeated. They are our commitment, made in love, as a return for all that Jesus has done for us.

Our daily efforts to let Jesus live in us more fully are our humble and grateful response to Jesus who has died and risen for us.

This evening’s celebration of Jesus’ resurrection is a powerful reminder of Jesus’ great love for us. May our celebration lead us to a more faithful living of the new life Jesus has won for us.

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord (April 13, 2025)

Today’s Scriptures have taken us from Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to his last meal with his disciples and through his passion to his death on the Cross.

In the midst of all this drama is Jesus, who has chosen to be the Suffering Servant for our salvation. St. Paul reminded us that Jesus did not regard equality with God something to hold on to. He chose to empty himself and became human like us.

Then, as a further sign of his love for us, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross. All of this for love of you and me.

As we remember Jesus’ great love for us, may we humble ourselves this week and open ourselves to receive the fullness of his love. Like him, let us not cling selfishly to what we have and who we are; rather, let us share selflessly what we have and who we are with others.

Fifth Sunday of Lent (April 6, 2025)

In Jesus we begin to understand the wonder contained in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Remember not the events of the past; see, I am doing something new.” That wonder takes on a personal face in the woman caught in adultery.

Her recent past is all too evident; she was caught in her sin. Now it’s time for punishment. Jesus silences the accusing voices around her when he tells them: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And we’re told they leave one by one. Imagine how surprised the woman must have been when Jesus speaks to her: “Is there no one to condemn you? Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” God is certainly doing something new here.

The truth is: Jesus knows our sins better than anyone, even us. But he chooses not to condemn us. Jesus doesn’t ignore our sins. He fully agrees with his Father that sin must be punished. But Jesus loves us so much that he freely decides to take our punishment on himself. On the cross, every penalty for all the sins ever committed was placed on Jesus. He chose to suffer for us and never blamed us.

God makes his loving mercy clear to us in the death of Jesus on the cross. Jesus continues to say to us: “Neither do I condemn you, Go and sin no more.” God chooses not to remember our past; God is doing something new in us. All the more reason for us to turn to Jesus in our sins. He will forgive us and strengthen us against temptations in the future.

This morning, Jesus is telling us once again: have confidence in God’s mercy and forgiveness. How will we respond? Are we willing to bring our sins humbly to the Lord and ask forgiveness? Where else can we experience a love that forgives so freely? Then, in our gratitude, let us heed the words of Jesus: “Go and sin no more,” and know that Jesus makes that possible with the help of his grace. May our gratitude express itself in our willingness to forgive others.

As we continue to prepare ourselves to celebrate the great events of our salvation, may we learn more fully to humbly receive God’s mercy and forgiveness, and gratefully take hold of grace as strength for our resolve for the future.

May we always have a sense of wonder as we experience our God doing something new in us each day. Let us also be open to God’s desire to do something new in the lives of others through us.

Fourth Sunday of Lent (March 30, 2025)

We have just heard Jesus tell us a very familiar story – a story of arrogance, foolishness, loss, and humility; a story of love which forgives and celebrates; a story of anger, hurt pride and invitation to learn.

The father stands at the center of the story – a person filled with unconditional love. The father is willing to give all to his children. The younger son presumes his father’s generosity and then foolishly wastes what he’s been given. His father is waiting patiently for him to come to his senses and runs out to embrace him when he returns. The father’s all-embracing love is capable of accepting his son in all his foolishness and welcoming him home with a party.

The older son is angry at his brother’s return and hurt that his father is so generous with someone so foolish. What he’s seeing simply isn’t fair. We’re told that his father leaves the party, and we hear him invite his son to grow – to learn to see with his father’s eyes, with the eyes of love.

It’s probably easy for us to identify with the younger son. There have been times when we have arrogantly and foolishly chosen to have our own way and we’ve experienced our own disasters in the process. How generous our God has been with his forgiveness!

We might even find ourselves in the place of the older son. We try so hard to be faithful and watch as others live as they want. It’s doesn’t seem fair that forgiveness is so free. What about us who try so hard?

The point of Jesus’ story is that we are invited to take the place of the father.

We’re invited to discipline ourselves to love unconditionally. We’re invited to discipline ourselves to forgive unconditionally because that’s what love does. We’re invited to discipline ourselves not to make judgments about others. Love accepts each person where he or she is at the moment. We’re invited to learn to trust that our efforts to love are pleasing to God. Our God is always loving us unconditionally, and everything God has is ours.

Jesus never tells us the ending of the story. Perhaps that is our invitation. Are we willing to come in and join the celebration? Are we willing to discipline ourselves to love as our Father loves us?

Third Sunday of Lent (March 23, 2025)

Today’s parable of the barren fig tree can make us very uncomfortable.

What is Jesus telling us?

God expects something from you; so get busy doing it? God certainly desires that we bear fruit. But it’s important that we remember that fruit comes not so much from what we do but from what God does through us.

Jesus uses the fruit tree for a purpose. Think about how fruit comes about. The roots of the tree receive nutrients from the earth, and the leaves receive energy from the sun. The tree produces flowers that are pollinated by wind and insects -- all outside sources – and fruit is the result.

The main work the tree has to “do” is remain receptive to everything that God provides for it. In the same way, God makes us fruitful through his presence in us. God wants to fill our talents and abilities with his power so that we can bear fruit for the kingdom.

In today’s first reading, Moses is attracted to the burning bush not because it’s on fire, but because the fire wasn’t destroying the bush. In the same way, as God dwells in us and shows his life through us, we will burn with the brightness of the Lord. Our natural personalities and gifts won’t be destroyed. They will have a new power to draw other people to the Lord who lives in us.

God’s great desire is to live in us so that we can be fruitful. God wants us to do the works of Jesus today so that God’s kingdom becomes more evident in today’s world. Lent is a time to let God nourish his fire within us through prayer, reading Scripture, and serving our brothers and sisters. When we allow Jesus to live in us more fully, our lives become more and more fruitful because Jesus is living and loving through us.

Let us continue to seek our Lenten nourishment from our God. Let us ask him to bear the fruit that he has destined for us.

Second Sunday of Lent (March 16, 2025)

As we continue our Lenten journey, we hear the encouraging words which Francis de Sales wrote to us at the beginning of the Directory, quoting St. Paul:

“My brothers (and sisters), whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord.”

Like Abraham before us, the Lord has made a covenant with us – a covenant sealed with the blood of his only begotten Son Jesus. Like Peter, James and John, we have heard the voice of the Father: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

Each day, we come here to Eucharist to listen as Jesus speaks to us in the Scriptures and feeds us with his body, given up for us, and his blood, poured out for us. And today, we have prayed that the Father of light will restore our sight that we may look upon Jesus who calls us to repentance and a change of heart.

All of this is part of the “plentitude of our God” that we have been encouraged to reflect upon – and for good reason. When we allow ourselves to be immersed in God’s over-whelming love, we will understand more clearly our need for repentance and a change of heart.

As we are embraced by God’s love, the love of Jesus impels us to become more like him in everything we say and do. When we allow ourselves to dwell in the heart of Jesus more completely, we understand more clearly the importance of our responding to one another with greater patience and understanding, with greater gentleness and forgiveness. We are better able to look at others with the eyes of Jesus. We will appreciate more fully that Jesus sees our faults and failings as reason for his compassionate love. And that can help us change our hearts in responding to the faults and failings of our brothers and sisters.

As our Lenten journey continues, let us be encouraged by Francis and Paul. As we stand firm in the Lord, may the love of Jesus, the beloved Son, grace our efforts to change our hearts.

First Sunday of Lent (March 9, 2025)

Isn’t it good to be reminded again that Jesus was tempted by Satan?

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus is like us in all things but sin. We can be tempted to say, “Of course, He didn’t sin; Jesus is God.” But that thinking denies the truth that the Scriptures take such care to present to us: Jesus is the Son of Man, as well as the Son of God. Jesus’ temptations remind us that Jesus is human like us. They also help us to understand how Jesus dealt with temptation. That gives us a model for our own experiences of Satan.

As we take time to reflect on today’s Gospel account, it becomes obvious that Jesus learned to keep His attention focused on His Father’s love for Him. His great desire was to respond to that love by doing His Father’s will.

After His long fast in the desert, Jesus is hungry. Satan encourages Him to use His power – change stones into bread. Jesus responds, “bread is temporarily filling, but there’s more to my life than eating.” Doesn’t Satan present us with the same temptation at times? Something we need would make us feel good right now. Jesus is reminding us to ask a question: is there more to my life than this need? Is this immediate desire calling me to be more dependent on God’s loving care for me?

Then Satan tempts Jesus with power and glory if He’s willing to compromise His Father as God. Jesus responds, “I have one desire in life- to serve my Father’s love.” Often enough, Satan presents us with opportunities for some kind of power and glory if we’re willing to compromise our values. Jesus reminds us to look into the eyes of God when we’re trying to make decisions in our daily living.

Finally, Satan tempts Jesus to test God’s care for Him. And Jesus tells Satan, “My Father’s word is enough.” How easy it is for us to try and control God’s care for us: “If you’ll just give me this sign, I’ll know you’re looking out for me.” Jesus tells us: trust in God’s providence for you; God doesn’t lie.

As we continue our Lenten journey, preparing ourselves to celebrate the great events of our salvation, we could benefit greatly by some prayerful reflection on Jesus’ responses to Satan’s temptations.

Jesus shows us where we can find the source of strength we need when we are tempted: our God’s abiding presence and care for us.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (March 2, 2025)

Today’s selections from the Book of Sirach and Luke’s Gospel suggest a powerful standard by which we can judge the heart and mind of another person: the subject and manner about which one speaks.

Pretty obvious, isn’t it? Negative people tend to speak negatively. Jealous people speak resentfully. Judgmental people speak suspiciously. Their conversations tend to weigh others down.

By contrast, positive people speak positively. Happy people speak graciously. Energized people speak enthusiastically. Their conversations tend to lift others up.

If the eyes are the windows to the soul, conversation seems to be expressions of the heart. 

Francis de Sales writes in his Introduction to the Devout Life: “Just as physicians learn about a person’s health or sickness by looking at the tongue, so our words are a true indication of the state of our souls.” (Part III, Chapter 26) This diagnosis has several aspects.

First: how do we speak of God? “If you are truly in love with God you should often speak of God in familiar conversation with others…just as bees extract with their mouths nothing but honey, so your tongue should always be sweetened with its God…always with attention and reverence.” (Ibid)

Second: how do we speak of others? “Be careful never to let an indecent word leave your lips, for even if you do not speak with an evil intention those who hear it may take it a different way.”  When one’s heart is filled with evil or rancor or intrigue, their tongues are no longer like the sweet ones of the bees but become “like a lot of wasps gathered together to feed on corruption.” (Part III, Chapter 27)

Third: how balanced is our conversation? “It seems to me that we should avoid two extremes,” observes Francis de Sales.  “To be too reserved and to refuse to take part in conversation looks like lack of confidence in the others or some kind of disdain.  On the other hand, to be always babbling or joking without giving others time or chance to speak when they wish is a mark of shallowness and levity.” (Part III, Chapter 30)

What do the content and tone of our words tell others about our hearts?

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 23, 2025)

Today’s gospel offers us the great challenge for a disciple of Jesus:

“Love your enemies, do good to those who dislike you, bless those who speak ill of you and pray for those who mistreat you.” “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful.”

We all know how difficult this is to do.

We’ll never be able to do it without God’s grace, without learning to be very conscious that God is present with us each day, without asking God for the strength of his grace many times each day. The invitation of Jesus to love those who get in our face, who know how to push all our buttons, goes against our natural feelings of irritation and anger. Jesus seems to be asking too much.

What Jesus is asking of us is to be all that grace enables us to be. By our baptism, we have been given a share in the life and love of God. Jesus has become our brother; we are children of our heavenly Father by grace. Divine life is in us and that life enables us to live as Jesus lived. Jesus is asking us to learn to live by the new life we have been given. Because of grace, we are able to be merciful as our Father is merciful. Jesus has shown us how to love those who irritate us, how to forgive those who injure us.

St. Francis de Sales recommends several practices that can help us remember the strength of divine life within us.

Begin the day with a short prayer of awareness: “My God, you are here loving me today; help me to remember you’re with me as we go through the day.” Then, talk with God about the grace I will need to deal with particular people in my life who can irritate me or have mistreated me. During the day, when I know I’m going to meet such a person, I ask God’s help that I may relate with that person in a way that is pleasing to God. Then, each evening, thank God for the times when grace gave me strength and ask pardon for the times I forgot to ask for God’s help and failed because I tried to do it on my own.

The key is learning the discipline of remembering that I share divine life. When my prayer leads me to greater awareness of God’s loving presence each day, then I will more likely become dependent on the grace God makes available to me. Then the challenge that Jesus offers – to love my enemies – is not so impossible for me to try to meet. I can meet it because I trust in God who lives in me.

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 16, 2025)

A barren bush in the desert or a tree planted by running water – which of these images reflects your choices in life? Have you chosen to trust other people or are you trusting in the care of the Lord?

Jeremiah reminds us that, if we choose to trust in the Lord, then together we can face whatever life brings to us. God is with us, nourishing us even in the heat and drought of daily living.

Jesus asks us to take our trust in the Lord with us into our world and find ways to share it with the less fortunate – people who are poor, hungry, suffering and alienated. Jesus’ presence and message is meant for those who are ready and willing to focus on God rather than themselves, in order to experience the blessings of God given through others rather than holding on to the good things of life for themselves.

When you and I have learned to trust in God’s care, we are willing to share whatever we have with the poor, to give whatever nourishment we can to those who are hungry, to bring moments of joy and care to those who suffer, and to welcome into our circle of friends people who feel left-out. As disciples of Jesus, we are to be evidence of the kingdom of God present among us – by the way we live each day.

When we have learned to accept our own poverty, hunger, sufferings and alienation as human beings and are open to the many ways that God’s care has touched our lowliness and drawn us into his circle of friends, then we are better able to be more like God in caring for the lowly around us. Then we can be good news to our brothers and sisters.

During this ordinary time of the year, we are being taught about being better disciples. We are being taught to grow in more confident trust in God – that God is loving us and caring for us at every moment as his children.

St. Francis de Sales offers us an image that we can take to prayer each day:

“In all your affairs lean solely on God’s Providence, by means of which alone your plans can succeed. Imitate a little child, whom one sees holding tight with one hand to its father, while with the other it gathers strawberries or blackberries from the wayside hedge. Even so, while you gather and use this world’s goods with one hand, always let the other be fast in your Heavenly Father’s hand and look round from time to time to make sure that He is satisfied with what you are doing, at home or abroad. Beware of letting go, under the idea of making or receiving more—if He forsakes you, you will fall to the ground at the first step. When your ordinary work or business is not especially engrossing, let your heart be fixed more on God than on it; and if the work be such as to require your undivided attention, then pause from time to time and look to God, even as navigators who make for the haven they would attain, by looking up at the heavens rather than down upon the deeps on which they sail. In so doing, God will work with you, in you, and for you, and your work will be blessed.”

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 9, 2025)

What a wonderful set of life-vocation stories in today’s Scriptures.

Isaiah experiences (sees) the Lord of hosts in the Temple. He is humbled: “Woe is me, I’m doomed. I’m a man of unclean lips.” The ember carried by the seraph removes his wickedness. And Isaiah is ready to go forth: “Here I am, send me!”

Jesus has confronted Paul on the road to Damascus. Paul acknowledges that he is not worthy to be an apostle. And yet he preaches faithfully: “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

Peter reluctantly puts out into deep water at the command of Jesus – and witnesses nets so full that they are breaking. He kneels before Jesus in great humility: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Jesus gently tells him not to be afraid: “From now on you will be catching men.” Peter and his mates leave everything and follow Jesus.

Each of these encounters with God became life-changing. Isaiah will speak God’s word for his lifetime, whether he is accepted or rejected. Peter and Paul engage in “catching men” for the rest of their lives until they are ultimately killed for their preaching.

How many times in their lives as apostles would they be asked again to ”put out into deeper water and lower your nets”? Often their security was not to be found near the shoreline but with Jesus in the deep water.

Jesus’ invitation always seems to be “put out into deep water.” As we grow older, the invitation to let Jesus live in us more fully leads us into the deeper waters of our own life and that of our community. We can only fill our nets with the grace of God when we’re willing to leave our own security and trust in the invitation to come deeper.

Like Isaiah, the Lord will remove our sins and failings that keep us close to shore and prepare us to go deeper. Like Peter, we will hear Jesus gently tell us: “Do not be afraid.”

May our willingness to put out into the deep with Jesus lead us to be able to say with St. Paul: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.”

Presentation of the Lord (February 2, 2025)

In our first reading today, the prophet Malachi speaks about the coming of the Lord to the Temple. All the people seek the Lord’s arrival, for he will bring judgment and purification, turning them toward pleasing the Lord.

St. Luke’s record of the coming of the Lord to the Temple doesn’t quite seem to fit Malachi’s picture at first hearing. Yet if we look a little deeper, we can see the foreshadowing of Malachi’s prophecy.

Simeon recognizes in the child Jesus the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Messiah. He announces that the child in his arms will be a “revealing light to the Gentiles and the glory of God’s people Israel.” He also tells Mary that her child is destined to be opposed. His life and death will cause some to fall and others to rise.

He will lay everyone’s thoughts bare as final Judge.

Today’s reading from the letter to the Hebrews helps us to understand what’s behind the words of Simeon. The writer takes great pains to try to explain why Jesus is the perfect mediator-priest. As he tells us, Jesus was flesh and blood, fully human as you and I are. He became like us in every way, so that he might be our merciful and faithful high priest before God on our behalf. Since He was both human and divine, he could offer a sacrifice worthy of expiating the sins of the entire world. By his death on the cross, he was able to rob the devil of his power and free us from the fear of eternal death due to sin.

But for Jesus, atonement for our sins wasn’t enough. He also wanted us to know that he had shared our experience of suffering, so he can understand us when we turn to him in our suffering. Jesus is truly our brother; he is also our Savior. We can confidently approach him for he is God’s mercy and compassion incarnate.

He is always interceding for us. He is light for us in our darkness, and glory for us in our suffering. He will be true to his promise of sharing his glory with us.

The child in Simeon’s arms is the same Jesus we hold in our hearts. We can have the same confidence that Simeon had: “Now, Master, I can live and die in peace; you have fulfilled your promise. My eyes have witnessed your saving deed in Jesus. He is my light and my glory.” So let us confidently take hold of Jesus each day and let him be our light as we journey with him in the darkness of this life today and every day.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 26, 2025)

During this third year of Sunday readings,  we will hear the Gospel of Luke proclaimed during ordinary time.

Luke begins his Gospel by telling us that he has investigated carefully the events of Jesus’ coming among us. He wants to write them down in an orderly sequence for Theophilus, a person who loves God, so that he (and we) may realize the certainty of what has been taught to us by word of mouth.

Luke is writing his Gospel about forty or fifty years after Jesus’ death and rising. So far, the life and teachings of Jesus had been passed down by word of mouth. Luke is moved by the Holy Spirit to write out the events of Jesus’ life so that the ever-growing community of believers may have greater certainty about them as they share the good news with new members.

Luke begins Jesus’ public ministry in a synagogue. We heard Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and then tell the people that God is fulfilling this prophecy in him. He has just been anointed by the Spirit in his baptism in the Jordan. Now he comes to bring good news to all who trust in God’s goodness. What he will say and what he will be doing is meant for those who have been suffering – captives, the blind, the oppressed.

God has heard their cries and honors their faithful longing for salvation. God has sent Jesus to bring them liberty, recovery, freedom. He has come to proclaim a time that is God’s.In Jesus, all who have waited will experience the loving-kindness, the mercy, the compassion of God.

You and I suffer our own forms of captivity, blindness, and oppression. Have I, have you, been waiting for God? Do we trust in God’s goodness and care for us? Luke reminds us: Jesus is God’s loving-kindness, God’s mercy, God’s compassion, present among us. How is Jesus speaking to you, to me, in our suffering? What is he asking of me, of you? How is Jesus’ gracious presence with me, with you, good news? How can his presence make a difference in the way you and I want to live today?

This is a year acceptable to the Lord. Jesus desires to love us and journey with us. Are you, am I, willing to make an unconditional journey with Jesus, trusting that he is leading us home to our Father’s house? If we are, then let us make a conscious choice each day to call on Jesus often during the day and use the grace that he will surely give us.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 19, 2025)

As a first step in "going public" goes, this first demonstration of Jesus' divine power is, to say the least, an understatement. No miraculous healing. No exorcism of demons, no raising someone from the dead. Instead, He simply prevents the caterer from running out of wine at a wedding reception.

Many might consider this a misuse - nay, even a waste - of Jesus' saving power. Initially, even Jesus Himself seems to feel that His power could be used better - and later - elsewhere.

Not Francis de Sales. He sees that there is more to this miracle than meets the eye. Here is an example of how God's power permeates all human experiences, even the most ordinary. We are speaking here of the practice of the "little virtues," a notion precious indeed to St. Francis de Sales and a hallmark of his understanding of Christ's saving power. In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote: "It may well be that a very small virtue has greater value in a soul in which sacred love reigns with fervor than martyrdom itself in a soul in which love is languid and feeble." (Book 11, Chapter 5) Put another way, the little virtues, the expression of care or concern in seemingly ordinary circumstances, may be "found more pleasing in God's sight than great and famous deeds performed with little charity or devotion."

Still, there is a place for great displays of love: "I do not say that we may not aspire to outstanding virtues, but I say that we must train ourselves in the little ones without which the great ones may be false or deceptive." (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 159)

Jesus may have been tempted to believe that changing water into wine was beneath His divine - perhaps even His human - dignity. In the end, however, the needs of others were more persuasive than the desire to make a "big splash" in the eyes of others. Ironically, it may have been Jesus' willingness to employ His heavenly powers for such a down-to-earth request that enabled His disciples to "begin to believe in Him."

His greater, more famous and once-in-a-lifetime displays of power would, indeed, come later. But whether on the cross of Calvary, or at a simple wedding in Cana, the power, the promise, and the person were one and the same.

The moral of this miracle? Nothing is too small for the Kingdom of God.

Baptism of the Lord (January 12, 2025)

Today we complete the Church’s celebration of the unbelievable good news that God has fulfilled his promise to be Emmanuel - God with his people.

As we hear Luke recount the baptism of Jesus, heaven and earth are joined together as the Spirit descends on Jesus and we hear the Father’s voice announce Jesus’ true identity: “This is my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.”

To help us understand the full meaning of the Father’s words, we have also heard the words of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus fulfills his prophecy: he is the Servant, the Chosen One, on whom the Father’s favor rests. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him, and he will bring forth God’s justice to all the world. The wonder of this revelation is that he will bring about this justice with meekness and gentleness, especially toward the downtrodden.

That’s the message we have received and the challenge we are offered by our baptism. Because Jesus wants us to share his very life, the Spirit of God has descended on us and dwells in us, and the Father speaks the same wonderful words to us that he spoke to Jesus: “You are my beloved son or daughter, with you I am well pleased.”

Our Father has grasped us by the hand, and he wants us to be the living signs of his continuing care for all his people, especially the downtrodden.

Our Father wants to remind us at the beginning of each day: “You are my beloved son or daughter; with you I am well pleased.” If we take the time to listen to his words each morning, they offer us direction for our day.

God’s loving word has to be an uplifting start to our day! Let us take the time to listen.

Epiphany (January 5, 2025)

Today we celebrate the manifestation of God to the world in the person of Jesus.

The magi were men of the East who were wealthy and educated. They were able to see the signs of the times concentrated in a single star and came to honor a great one born into the world. Naturally, they began by seeking him in a palace, since they came looking for the King of the Jews.

They eventually find a poor infant born to parents who were far from home. They bend their knee before the helpless infant and offer gifts of great value to a child that is poor. Station in life is forgotten in the presence of this child whose star they had followed.

We are invited to follow the example of the magi. We know that Jesus is God become flesh and blood like us. He has told us that God is so passionately in love with humanity that he entered the human condition in order to redirect human history back into its proper order – the establishment of the kingdom of God.

He came to remind us that each of us is created by God and destined for God. Our destiny is eternal union with our God. As one of the Sunday prefaces reminds us: “So great was your love that you gave us your only Son as our redeemer. You sent him as one like us, though free from sin, that you might see and love in us what you see and love in Christ.”

Today’s feast offers us a challenge for this New Year. Can we become like the magi, and lift our eyes from our preoccupations with our own petty concerns, so that we can see the glory and splendor of our God all around us? Can we receive the good news that Jesus has shared with us, by humbling ourselves before the helpless, seeing in them the presence of our God? Can we announce the good news by acting justly and peaceably?

Another new year offers each of us an opportunity to deepen our faith and widen our love. It offers us opportunity and grace to grow. May we have the wisdom of the magi to see the signs of our time and follow the lead of grace.

We too will find Jesus with Mary His mother. May we learn to humble ourselves before Him in the many forms He will take each day and offer Him all that we are and have in loving service.

Holy Family (December 29, 2024)

Today’s Gospel focuses our attention on the Holy Family, as members of a wider family, the family of God. The Father has bestowed His great love on us in calling us His children, brothers and sisters of Jesus who has shared His very life with us. Our Father’s final gift to His children will be seeing our God as He is – full union with our God forever. The Spirit has been given to us as the pledge of God’s everlasting love.

As God’s children, we are asked to reflect on a strange incident in the life of the Holy Family. What might we learn? When Mary and Joseph discovered that the boy Jesus was missing, they didn’t waste their time arguing about who was to blame. Together, they went to search for Jesus. When they find Him in the Temple among the scholars, they expressed their anguish about missing Him. Jesus focused them by reminding them that they should expect to find Him in His Father’s house.

Jesus was asking them to trust Him, even if they didn’t fully understand.

In our experience in the family of God here at Childs, there are often enough misunderstandings and anguish of one kind or another. We can lose sight of Jesus in these difficult moments. Jesus instructs us, as He did Mary and Joseph: “Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?”

Each day we come here to find Jesus in our Father’s house. Like Mary and Joseph, we can tell Jesus about our misunderstandings and anguish. Jesus always invites us to put them in His hands, then hear our brother’s comforting words to us and join Him in offering our sufferings with His to the Father. And He feeds us with His own Body and Blood and gives us His peace. Healed and nourished, we can go forth to grow in wisdom, knowledge and grace as a more united family of God.

May our Eucharist on the feast of the Holy Family encourage us to live more fully as children of our Father, as brothers and sisters of Jesus.

Christmas Day (December 25, 2024)

The Scriptures recall “in times past.” Think back to the stories of Moses’ encounters with God. Moses asked God to see his glory, not his face. In the cleft of the rock, Moses is protected by God’s hand and sees God’s back as he passes by.

In today’s Gospel, John tells us “we have seen his glory,” but even more. Divinity has become visible in the Word made flesh. In the face of Jesus, we see God’s face and live to tell about it. And even more wonderfully, we learn that the divine desire to share life and love culminates with “the pitching of his tent” by the Word of God among his people.

With the birth of Jesus, God inhabits the “tent” of human flesh, not in a place apart, but right in our midst. God makes “grace upon grace” directly available to every single person.

John wants us to know the deep intimacy of God’s love which is revealed to us by the “only Son” who is “in the bosom of the Father.” This divine intimacy is shared with all Jesus’ disciples. You and I make visible in every generation the face of God in human flesh.

Our Christmas celebration reminds us how blessed we are. As de Sales reminds us: “Let us stay at our Savior's feet, saying with the heavenly Bride: 'I have found him whom my soul loves, I hold him, and I will not let him go.’”

May we live each day joyfully, as we manifest the Savior dwelling in our midst.

Christmas Vigil (December 24, 2024)

Tonight, we celebrate once again the most wonderful news: the long-awaited Messiah-Savior has come to live among us!

The Son of God has taken human flesh in the womb of Mary and comes among us as an infant, humbly wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Mary and Joseph attend their child with great care and watch in wonder as shepherds come to adore their child and later wise men come with gifts befitting a king.

It’s easy tonight to get caught up in the wonder of the moment and forget to consider the great gift we have been given in Jesus. St. Francis puts it this way: “In becoming (human), Jesus has taken our likeness and given us His.”

Jesus is our God, loving us here and now, inviting us to love in return. He comes with saving grace to restore us as children of God. He comes to live in us so that our hearts can be at peace – peace with God and peace with one another.

Our celebration tonight is a reminder that God’s favor rests on us. Our God shows us once again that he loves us immensely. We have nothing to fear.

Jesus comes to us tonight not just as an infant in a manger. He also comes as the Bread of Life in Eucharist, promising us life and happiness that will never end. He challenges us to let him live in us more fully – as St. Paul says: to reject godless ways and worldly desires and live a life that is balanced, just and holy, as we confidently await our blessed hope: the return of Jesus and the completion of the kingdom.

In this Christmas Eucharist, Jesus comes to us again. As we receive him as a gift and later kneel before the infant in the manger, let us be quiet and say nothing. Let us allow Jesus to reach out and hold our hands and tell us how much God is loving us tonight.

Then let us ask him to stay in our heart so that we can share the love we are receiving -- giving it as a gift to all who come into our life. Every day you and I are a bearer of Jesus, God’s love among us! Let us rejoice in the good news we celebrate tonight.