Working towards the eternal (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

God’s love is eternal, 
and it is to work towards the eternal 
that we live in him. 

--Fr Patrick Michaels,
Homily, October 31, 2025 

    Chapter 10 of Matthew tells of the mission and commissioning of Jesus’ apostles (yes, apostles, the only time Matthew uses this word), and it is full of challenges. In this chapter, Jesus gives the Twelve clear instructions and tells them of the coming persecutions, exhorting them not to be afraid when they are made to suffer for his sake – a sobering message. 

    The next part of the gospel passage is no less disconcerting: Are we really to spurn our families, set ourselves against our fathers & mothers? Yet Jesus teaches us that our first priority must be God himself, because if we love God first and foremost, we can love others – family, friends, all – more fully. To embrace God's love is to be transformed by it, and for the better, though many who are hostile to faith don't understand this concept, really. But once transformed, we can be even more loving to all.

    Jesus further tells the apostles to take up their cross, and to lose their life for his sake. Jesus' own suffering on the cross is an exemplar for them of complete devotion to the will of God, and also a model of generosity in sacrifice. 

    So many martyrs followed the apostles' commission, and for this, they lost their lives. But oh, the gain!  Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it, Jesus says. To embrace an existence in which God, Jesus is our first love, to discern our path by means of his Word, to carry out his mission in our world… This is how we find true life, the life that is God's love, growing within us, a love we are called to share with the world, a love we will know in its fullness one day, in perfect union with our Lord, in heaven. 

--Suzanne T., 
Communion Service,
November 24, 2015 

Image source: St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companion Martyrs, https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-andrew-dung-lac-and-companions/  

The promise of eternal life (Fr. James Martin)

And whoever gives only a cup of cold water 

to one of these little ones to drink 

because the little one is a disciple, 

amen, I say to you,
he will surely not lose his reward.

--Matthew 10:42 

    Eternal life is a hard thing for even some devout Christians to believe. But we have to remember that Jesus does three things to help us accept this promise. First, he tells his disciples about eternal life, [for example,] in John 6. Second, he shows his disciples what it looks like by raising Lazarus from the dead, in John 11, proving that Jesus has power over death. Finally, he definitively reveals the pattern of eternal life, the “first fruits,” as St. Paul says, at the Resurrection. 

    But if that doesn’t “convince” you, look at it this way: God is love. God loved you into being and entered into a loving relationship with you, at the moment of your conception. Why, then, would a loving God let something like death end that loving relationship? No, God has a place prepared for each of us, a place where we will dwell with God until the end of time. Hope in this. Trust in this. Most of all, believe in this. 

--Fr. James Martin 

Image source: https://divinewordmedia.com/2020/06/27/hospitality-exemplified-amidst-covid-19/
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Our greatest cross (Thomas à Kempis / St. John Vianney)

If you carry your cross joyfully,
it will carry you. 

--Thomas à Kempis

         On the Way of the Cross, you see, my children, only the first step is painful. Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses. 

--St. John Vianney

Image source: Hieronymus Bosch, Christ Carrying the Cross, detail (c.1505-1507), https://faithmag.com/take-your-cross-and-follow-me
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The kindest people (Fr. Greg Boyle / Bianca Sparacino)

The only non-delusional response
to everything is kindness.

--Fr. Greg Boyle

    The kindest people are not born that way, they are made. They are the souls that have experienced much at the hands of life. They are the ones who have dug themselves out of the dark, who have fought to turn every loss into a lesson. The kindest people do not just exist, they choose to soften where circumstance has tried to harden them. They choose to believe in goodness, because they have seen first hand why compassion is so necessary. They have seen firsthand why tenderness is important in this world. 

--Bianca Sparacino

Image source: Maureen Merrell, Preparing Bread for Elisha, available for purchase at: https://maureenmerrellart.com/products/preparing-bread-for-elisha-woman-bible-elisha
Quotation source 1: Fr. Greg Boyle, paraphrasing author George Saunders, in his commencement address at Santa Clara University in 2024, which is worth a watch! https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=892881732706997
Quotation source 2

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 28, 2026: Whoever receives a prophet will receive a prophet's reward...

Whoever receives a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward… 
We are defined by our acts of kindness!

    Whenever, in the Second Book of Kings, the prophet Elisha comes to Shunem, he is treated with kindness by a woman of influence who, along with her husband, recognizes Elisha as a holy man of God. Appreciative of her repeated kindness and upon learning that she has no son, Elisha promises the woman, This time next year you will be fondling a baby son. Although she is at first skeptical, the woman will come to cherish this divine gift and sing the goodness of the Lord, following Psalm 89. 

    Did Jesus have this story in mind when, in Matthew’s Gospel, he says, whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward? Speaking to his disciples, Jesus sets forth a series of challenges, each of which contains both an invitation – Whoever… – and a clearly defined consequence: Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of my disciples to drink will surely not lose his reward! Jesus is sending his disciples out into the world to proclaim the good news, and he wants them to know that for every condition he sets forth for discipleship, there is the possibility of a lasting recompense. The conditions of discipleship are not always easy: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, Jesus says. But to put Jesus first is to open oneself to absolute, infinite love; it changes you and it changes your capacity to love. If the disciples go forth with such love for the lost sheep of Israel, that love will reach out and draw those to whom they speak into relationship with Jesus. And the rewards are infinite: eternal life! 

    Our baptism into Christ Jesus has the power to draw us into the death of Jesus so that we can then rise with him to new life. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live in him, as the Letter to the Romans states. Baptism redefines us; it redefines the parameters of our existence and of our identity, allowing us to enter more profoundly into the life to which he calls us. We, like the disciples, are on a journey to do just this: to open our hearts to the Lord in such a way that our hearts are also absolutely open to everyone in our life and in our world. May we, like the woman of Shunem, be defined by our own acts of kindness, as we come to know the fullness of life in him, and become conduits of that life to all. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

A light from the shadows shall spring (J.R.R. Tolkien)

All that is gold does not glitter,

not all those who wander are lost;

the old that is strong does not wither,

deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

a light from the shadows shall spring;

 renewed shall be blade that was broken,

the crownless again shall be king. 

--J. R. R. Tolkien
 

Image source 1: Palms from the previous year are burned to create ashes for Ash Wednesday, February 2020, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Mill Valley, https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2921086967952706&type=3 
Image source 2: The Paschal Fire, April 2025, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Mill Valley, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1123130969852316&set=a.1116337687198311
Quotation source

God wishes the salvation of everyone (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

    Many great saints and mystics were either borderline or full-blown universalists. This means that they believed that there is universal salvation. 

    Their reason for believing this is not the perennially popular (and bad!) argument: ‘If God is all-loving and merciful, how can He send anyone to hell?’ 

    Rather, they argue from the power of God’s love: ‘God wishes the salvation of everyone and is, ultimately, powerful enough to bring it about. 

    If we believe in the power of love to heal and to create freely its own response, surely God’s perfect love will eventually bring even the most hardened sinner to accept it. If human love, weak and imperfect as it is, can melt hard hearts, won’t perfect love eventually penetrate every kind of resistance? 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI 

Image source: Wayne Pascall, Prodigal Son, available for purchase at: https://www.waynepascallart.com/584174/prodigal-son/
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