Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 2, 2026: The hand of the Lord feeds us...

The hand of the Lord feeds us...
What feeds you? 

    Our readings this Sunday all focus on the ways God provides for our needs, feeds us, in other words, in ways we can perhaps only begin to appreciate… First, the prophet Isaiah reminds the people of Israel that God has never failed to meet their physical needs, sending water, wine, and milk for the thirsty and grain for the hungry and poor, those who have no money. 

   More importantly, though, God meets their needs with food that nourishes the soul, in the deepest sense: Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life, he says. In other words, take in my Word, digest it, let it fill you and feed you entirely… for the Word is more satisfying than any tangible food; it is our means to an ever-renewing covenant with God. These sentiments are echoed in Psalm 145, in which the psalmist stresses God’s loving willingness to give us our food in due season, again, with a focus on meeting our spiritual needs with God’s justice, grace, and mercy. 

     It is perhaps not surprising, then, that this week we hear Matthew’s version of the Loaves and Fishes, the quintessential example of Jesus providing for the people with overwhelming love. Taking bread, blessing it, breaking it, giving it: the point is not just that Jesus did this, once or twice, but that he does it, every day, through Eucharist, entering fully into relationship with us, every day, though we may not be ready for it. And the implicit message to the disciples – his intermediaries in the distribution of this communal meal – is that they too are sent forth (as are we!) to feed others with God’s Word, with God’s infinite love, finding their need and healing that need with grace. 

    What can separate us from the love of Christ?, Paul asks the Romans. His answer? Nothing – nothing on heaven or on earth – can stand between us and the love of God. We may struggle to live this love; that is our challenge is a world that is afraid, a world whose defenses against anguish, distress and persecution are high. But with open hearts, we are capable of true justice. Filled with the love of God present to us in Eucharist, we ourselves are not only fed, we are able also to feed others, capable of being life-giving to those we meet, capable of being food for the world. 

    What feeds you? God’s love.
 Allow it to fill you, so that you might feed others in turn! 

This “vintage” post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 26, 2026: More precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces...

More precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces…
What is our true treasure? 

     We have this ultra-positive image of King Solomon. But is it really justified? When, in the First Book of Kings, God appears to Solomon in a dream and says, Ask something of me and I will give it to you, Solomon requests an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. Sounds good, right? Sounds humble? But what will Solomon do with the gift – this treasure – he is given? In point of fact, Solomon will soon begin to marry foreign queens and build his own home before building the Lord a temple. 

    Moreover, Solomon’s desire to be able to distinguish right from wrong brings to mind Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; their sin, after all, is to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God does affirm Solomon’s request as a way of affirming the humility with which it requested, but Solomon must then choose to use the wisdom he is given to fulfill God’s will, recognizing that he needs the Lord and the power of the Lord’s love in his life. This is the goal of the psalmist in Psalm 119: The law of your mouth is to me more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces, he sings. Why? Because God’s commands (and laws and decrees) are God’s way of remaining close to us. Like the psalmist, Solomon needs to have a listening heart and to remain open to relationship with the Lord. Alas, this will prove harder than he imagines. 

    When all is said and done, our relationship with the Lord – our union with God – is our greatest treasure. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples four parables, each of which is meant to reveal something about the treasure that is the kingdom of heaven where we will be eternally in right relationship with God. There are different ways to pursue the kingdom. One person comes upon the treasure by accident, while another is actively searching for fine pearls. In every case, however, discernment is required to separate the good of life from the bad, in order to draw closer to God and deepen our relationship with him. 

    We cultivate that relationship in the here-and-now through our temporal relationships on earth. Paul reminds the Romans that all things work for the good for those who love God. We are called to be a community for each other in the Body of Christ, as we are conformed to the image of God’s Son. We are called according to God’s purpose, to fulfill his will, which is that all may be one. When we enter in to be in his Body, then his image is the image we set forth – not in judgment or domination, but in compassion and mercy. For that is his will: that his compassion and mercy might flow out from us, to his world – a true and powerful manifestation of his kingdom… on earth! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 19, 2026: Your might is the source of justice...

Your might is the source of justice…
Just how open is God’s kingdom? 

    Jesus spends a lot of time in Matthew’s Gospel teaching the crowds about the kingdom of heaven, particularly through the use of parables. We are pretty familiar with the image of the mustard seed, which grows into a large bush where the birds of the sky come and dwell (ordinary mustard seeds do nothing of the sort!) and the image of the yeast, which suggests that God’s kingdom expands in ways we cannot imagine. More complex is the parable of the weeds among the wheat, in which good seed grows and bears fruit, but darnel, a pernicious weed, grows as well. When asked, Do you want us to go and pull the bad weeds?, the master gardener instructs his workers, No, if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with them. God is patient, not judgmental; like the farmer, God is willing to wait until all have a chance to show themselves. And, as Psalm 86 reminds us, the Lord is good and forgiving, open to all who seek to live in right relationship with him. 

    This notion of God’s expansive compassionate justice is announced in the Book of Wisdom as well. Though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, the author of Wisdom states, and with much lenience you govern us. Rather than simply annihilate the enemies of God’s people, God gives all good ground for hope because God permits repentance for sins, not only to the people of Israel, but to all. God has the care of all. Moreover, should we ever be tempted to impose our own judgment, we should remember what Paul tells the Romans: the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. The Spirit joins us in our groanings, enabling us to pray for our world and its sinful brokenness. God is the one who searches hearts, and only God is called to judge them. 

    Jesus’ parables reveal a secret: the reign of God is here and the reign of God works more profoundly than we could possibly imagine! We are called to do whatever reveals his love – to let him rule our lives, direct our hearts, rule our hearts. In so doing, we will see that reign dawn and division decrease. But if we give into fear, we lose the very thing we put our faith in. It’s God’s way we follow, God’s justice we enact… not our own. And God’s kingdom is large enough to hold all! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 12, 2026: Whoever has ears ought to hear...

Whoever has ears ought to hear…
 Are we really listening? 

    In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ parable of the sower has one point and one point only: the kingdom of heaven is at work among you and is producing beyond anything you can imagine. Yes, Matthew records the early Church’s alternative, analogy-based reading of this parable, which has to do with all those seeds that “fail” and bear no fruit, but ultimately, as Jesus tells the crowds, the seed that falls on rich soil and produces fruit produces a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold – the fruitful harvest promised by Psalm 65 and then some. It is impossible, and the impossibility is the point! God can do things beyond human imagining, no matter the soil, no matter the conditions. God is at work. God is going to produce. God is going to bear fruit. So be open to God and to where God is leading. The blessing comes for those who participate in the miracle that God is unfolding – but it’s God who is at work, accomplishing this miracle. So open your eyes, open your ears, and hear his Word! 

    Jesus’ message echoes that of the prophet Isaiah, who reassures the people who have returned from exile in Babylon and are beginning to rebuild that God’s word will achieve the end for which God sent it. Isaiah’s message of hope and encouragement suggests that God knows prosperity will come through his word. Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, so God’s word accomplishes God’s works, and in God’s time. What God creates is extraordinary, beyond our comprehension; we have but to be open to all that God’s creation has to reveal to us. 

    Mankind tends to limit creation, its value and abilities, to limit what is possible for God. But God doesn’t, and God expects us to participate! As Paul tells the Romans, creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God. God desires that all creation share in union with Christ, and so creation is groaning in labor pains, waiting to give birth to revelation. We eagerly anticipate the glory to be revealed to us in all its fullness, and so we live in hope… because our God is a God whose activity is fruitful beyond anything we can imagine! We have but to hear the word and understand it, allowing God to bear fruit in us to be that very revelation Paul describes! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 5, 2026: Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me...

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…
Does Jesus rule your heart? 

     Christians generally look to the Book of the Prophet Zechariah as a prophecy about the coming of Jesus. Your king shall come to you, the Lord says through the prophet, a just savior, meek and riding on an ass. In his gospel, Matthew will use this very passage to describe Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But before Jesus gets there, no one seems to comprehend the nature of his kingship, particularly in the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida where he has gone to preach. And yet Jesus prays: I give praise to you, Father, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike. Jesus speaks a prayer of praise for all that is unfolding, all that will lead to the salvation God has promised. Even the obstinate failure of many to understand – which will lead to Jesus’ death – is part of that promise, for Jesus must offer all for the sake of all mankind. His is not the meekness of the weak, but the gentle, humble heart of our King who gives himself for expiation of our sins. 

    It is only once we open ourselves to that truth and allow Jesus to rule our lives that our vision can be expanded past the tangible and we can truly know him, know Christ. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves, Jesus says. It is invitation, not coercion. Jesus’ yoke is his love for us; to accept it is to open ourselves to his love and to allow him to dwell in us and rule our hearts. Our job is simply to let him steer and guide us.. Then we will find the kind of peace prefigured by Zechariah, when all the implements of war (the chariot, the horse, the warrior’s bow) shall be banished, and we shall shout for joy, praising God’s name forever, as Psalm 145 exhorts us to do. 

    How do we open ourselves to the truth of Jesus’ tremendous gift? As Paul tells the Romans, it is the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead who will give life to our mortal bodies also. If we live for the sake of the love revealed to us in Jesus Christ, if he lives in us through baptism, then we are participating in his love, and what we choose to do with our enfleshed bodies reveals that love. If we allow his Spirit to come and work within us, we are set free, and it is freedom that brings peace in the way that God has wanted to rule throughout all of Scripture – ruling our hearts with his love. 

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

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 21, 2026: Lord, in your great love, answer me...

Lord, in your great love, answer me…
 What does salvation look like? 

    Humankind’s understanding of what constitutes salvation has evolved greatly over time. When the prophet Jeremiah prays to the Lord, he is hoping to be saved from his former friends, now his enemies: Perhaps he will be trapped, Jeremiah imagines them saying, then we can prevail! Jeremiah’s community has no concept of an afterlife, and so Jeremiah believes that any vindication he might see – in the form of verification of his prophecies – needs to happen in his lifetime. Ultimately, however, Jeremiah has confidence in God’s love: to you I have entrusted my cause. Jeremiah has much in common with the author of Psalm 69, who has become an outcast to his brothers, a stranger to his mother’s children. Yet, like Jeremiah, the psalmist knows that he must not change his message simply because he feels threatened. Instead, he will trust in the Lord’s help, for bounteous is God’s kindness and mercy. 

    When, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus sends out the Twelve, his principal request is that they fear no one. Fear makes us defensive, and if the disciples are defensive, then Jesus will not be able to be present to the communities the disciples are hoping to reach. Rather than fear, therefore, the disciples must remain confident that Jesus is with them, present to them at all times, that they might go and love and heal their world. They have entered into relationship with Jesus, and consequently they know salvation. To deny him before others would be to deny their own identity. Clearly, Jesus has every confidence that his Twelve will remain faithful, and thus be effective in their ministry. 

    Paul will remind the Romans that the vindication of all mankind comes from the one God has sent, for the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflows for the many. When Adam and Eve chose control over relationship, sin entered the world, but Jesus’ unselfish, generous gift is not like the selfish transgressions of Adam and Eve. Indeed, God’s response to transgression is a generous and absolute love. We know salvation because we know Christ. So long as we remain in him, we too can trust in the bounteous kindness of the Lord, entrusting our salvation to his infinite mercy. 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 14, 2026: Jesus' heart was moved with pity for them...

Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them….
How is God’s infinite compassion active in your life? 

    God’s patient compassion for humankind is extraordinary. In the Book of Exodus, while Israel is encamped in front of Mount Sinai, Moses goes up the mountain to God, who proposes to establish a bond between himself and the people: If you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people. God has cared for the people of Israel constantly, bringing them out of Egypt, bearing them up on eagle wings, that they might become a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. In no other faith tradition of the time was there established this kind of relationship in which God is bound to the people as they are bound to God. We are his people: the sheep of his flock, Psalm 100 proclaims, he made us; his we are! God’s compassion toward his people is evident in his infinite kindness and faithfulness, forever! 

    Jesus’ compassion for humankind is likewise extraordinary. In Matthew’s Gospel, seeing people who are troubled and abandoned, Jesus’ heart is moved with pity, and he addresses their needs. Then Jesus sends out his disciples to be his presence in the world, to reveal him to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The disciples are sent out to take eternity to the world, to gather the lost sheep back to the God of infinite compassion, restoring them to relationship with their Lord. That restoration, Paul tells the Romans, finds its fullness in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thus we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. We can’t effect reconciliation, but God can and does, in an extraordinary and ongoing way; we can but participate in that forgiveness that is already active, and celebrate it! 

    The compassion of God is extraordinary, beyond our ability to comprehend, yet it is revealed again and again and again every time we open ourselves to it. That infinite compassion is meant to work in our lives as well, recreating us as a kingdom of priests, sent out to bring the promise of eternal life to all the world! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 7, 2026: We all partake of the one loaf...

We all partake of the one loaf…
Do you hunger for God? 

    God cares for God’s people in so many ways. In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that the Lord, your God, has fed you with manna in times of hunger and brought forth water for you from the flinty rock. Manna was alien to the people of Israel; they had never experienced it before. In their time of need, God provided the people with something extraordinary, something outside of their experience, taking them to that which unknown, and thereby leading them closer to him. 

    But the ultimate extraordinary gift of God the Father was his Son Jesus, John’s Gospel reminds us, the living bread that came down from heaven. Word made flesh in the Incarnation, Jesus gives his flesh for the life of the world, true food and true drink. This gift, which we remember into each Eucharist, invites us into life in him, invites us to participate in the life he offers us. We receive him into ourselves that we might live in him and he in us, and we in God. Frustrated with their failure to live as one body, Paul challenges the Corinthians, asking, The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? If it isn’t, it should be! The Corinthians struggle (as, so often, do we) because fear tells them they need to remain in control, but union with Christ is only possible when we recognize that we, though many, are one body, one body in Christ. 

    In the desert, to thirst and to hunger is to know what it means to be human and to hunger and thirst for God, desiring encounter. Intimacy with God is elusive, and yet to follow God’s commands is to enter into life with him, to enter into that intimacy that we – and God – so ardently desire. Eucharist is our extraordinary opportunity to gather, to know that intimacy, to be one in him, that he might be one in us. God created us to thirst and hunger for him; in communion, we take Christ into ourselves, that we might be transformed. What more extraordinary way might God show his love for our world than this?

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 31, 2026: Blessed are you, O Lord...

Blessed are you, O Lord…

How can we pray to a God who is Three Persons in One? 

    From the beginning of time, humankind has had trouble capturing an image of our ineffable God. In the Book of Exodus, when Moses goes back up Mount Sinai, taking along the two new stone tablets on which the Lord will again write his commandments, God proclaims his name and then offers three important insights into his own identity: he is the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity. Having stood with the Lord, Moses can invite him to come along with them on their journey through the desert and receive them as his own. In this scene, we do not get a complete picture of God in God’s fullness, but we do get a sense of what it means to experience the presence of God in a grace-filled moment of theophany on the mountain. 

    In John’s Gospel, Jesus tries to help the Pharisee Nicodemus to understand that God sent Jesus, the image of the intangible God, for the salvation of all, because God loves all: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life. Jesus, God’s Son, incarnate, is God’s gift, freely given – he is the very grace of God, an embodied invitation to Nicodemus to be born again. It is an invitation Paul will extend to the recalcitrant Corinthian community: Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace. The Corinthians do not yet know union because they can’t get beyond their own worldly divisions. Paul’s wish for them is essentially Trinitarian: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Such a multi-dimensional experience of the Lord’s presence would indeed allow them to rejoice! 

    The three Persons of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – are bound in love to one another, indeed, so perfectly in love that they are one. We may not be able to get our minds around this concept very easily, but if we are one in Jesus, we are one in God and one in the Spirit and they are one in us. Yet this relationship is not static; there is a dynamism to the Trinity that invites us to grow in knowledge of the Lord who has given us life, welcoming the transformation such knowledge entails, that we might have an ever better experience of how God is active in our lives, everywhere, always, involved in everything. Then we too can rejoice and pray, as in the canticle of the Book of Daniel, Glory and praise to our God who is exalted above all forever! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 24, 2026: We were all given to drink of one Spirit...

We were all given to drink of one Spirit…

Are we ready to become sources of living water for our world? 

    We are a people of hope, hope in a promise. Our first reading for the Vigil Mass of Pentecost is the Genesis story of the Tower of Babel, whose inhabitants desired to make a name for themselves, an act of pride that ultimately led to division. Come, let us build ourselves a city and so make a name for ourselves, they say. But God then confuses their language and scatters them all over the earth. In so doing, the people are humbled, but, sadly, they are also divided. It is that division that Pentecost reverses. 

    We see hope for the people of Israel in the remaining readings for the Pentecost Vigil. In the Book of Exodus, Moses reminds the people that God desires relationship with them, so long as they hearken to God’s voice and keep God’s covenant. Unfortunately, they do not do so, and yet God remains faithful, promising the prophet Ezekiel that he will open their graves and have them rise from them, and bring them back to the land of Israel. The prophet Joel similarly speaks of God’s desire for renewal: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; then everyone shall be rescued who calls upon the name of the Lord. Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, renewal and reunification were not yet possible, but in John’s Gospel, Jesus promises that, not only will they be restored to God, but his disciples will become a source of living water pouring out to renew the earth. And, at the time Paul writes to the Roman community, although the Spirit has come to all believers, Paul knows our ultimate union in Christ will be in heaven: we hope for what we do not see, and wait with endurance. 

    The readings for Pentecost Sunday turn our attention even more closely to the workings of the Holy Spirit. When, in John’s Gospel, having risen from the dead, Jesus comes to the disciples who are hiding behind locked doors, he breathes on them, saying, Receive the Holy Spirit! They are now fully one in him and he in them. At last, filled with the Holy Spirit, they are ready to give witness and speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim – a total reversal of the sin of Babel, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles. The language the disciples now speak is a language that is universal, for it is the language of love, and they are returned to the world, that rivers of living water can flow from them onto the world. 

    As Paul reminds the Corinthians, we were all baptized into one body, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. It is the Spirit that banishes division, the Spirit that makes our union in Christ possible. And so, may we pray, as we hear in Psalm 104, Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth. In Pentecost we are created anew, drenched in the Spirit, that we too might offer hope as we proclaim that Jesus is Lord… to all! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 17, 2026: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you...

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…
Are we ready to exercise the power of Christ’s love? 

    We are always in a state of misunderstanding. Faith can and will lead us to understanding, but it is a process, not a fiat. The early Christian community was left with many questions when Jesus ascended to heaven: When will he be back? How will he return? In the Acts of the Apostles, they ask outright, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Before he ascends, Jesus needs them to finally recognize that his power is not intended to topple regimes but to win hearts. The power Jesus gives his disciples – and that he gives us – is the power to love and to love profoundly, to love past barriers. We are still working toward mastering this power. 

    It helps to remember, as Paul tells the Ephesians, that if the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, then we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call. Christ, in dying and rising, did the one thing that could bring salvation: he offered himself for all humanity, a superlative act of love that made him king eternally, seated at the right hand of God in the heavens. But the throne of which Psalm 47 sings, the throne God mounts to shouts of joy, is also and always, for Christians, the enthronement of Jesus Christ in us, for all eternity. 

    To believe this is to have true knowledge of him, which then empowers us – who, like the eleven disciples in Matthew’s Gospel, worship, though we doubt – to go and make disciples of all nations, revealing his love that we choose to participate in, secure in the love that makes him king of our hearts, with us always, until the end of the age. 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 10, 2026: Always be ready to give an explanation...

Always be ready to give an explanation…
What role do we play in the revelation of God’s infinite love? 

    It is through relationship that God is revealed. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his disciples at the Last Supper that, while he will not longer be visibly or physically present to them after his death, he will ask the Father, and he will give them another Advocate, the Spirit of truth. This Spirit will remain with them and will be in them. Jesus came to bring us to God, to give us access to God’s infinite love. All that Jesus said and did points to that and was working to make that happen. To be church is to find our union in the love of God revealed in the death and rising of Jesus and revealed in the Spirit at work in our lives. If we as a church are one, then we share in the relationship shared by Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit. And we can only enter into that union through surrender, which requires that we keep his commandments. Our true identity lies in our connectedness, in the participation of all as one. 

    After Jesus’ death and rising, then, it was left to the Twelve and to the disciples that came after them to continue to reveal God’s infinite love to our world through the Spirit that dwelt in them. In the Acts of the Apostles, Philip proclaims the Christ to the people of Samaria, and then Peter and John also come to Samaria and pray for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. The disciples are channels through which God works, through whom God is revealed, and that revelation is cause for great joy! 

    That joy is to be evident in our communal witness to God’s action in our lives: Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; sing praise to the glory of his name, Psalm 66 reminds us. Such joy is precisely what allows us to, as the First Letter of Peter recommends, give an explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope, with gentleness and reverence. Our challenge is to make sure Christ is revealed in our answer, and that the love of God is manifest in our response. In this way we can further Jesus’ purpose in coming, as in our words and deeds, we too offer access to God, revealing God’s love to all, so that all the earth can indeed cry out to God with joy! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 3, 2026: Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do...

Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do…

How much God can accomplish through us,

if only we are one in Christ! 

   One of the single most important takeaways from the beginning of Jesus’ Last Supper Discourse in John’s Gospel is the fundamental union of Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, with his Father, from the time of the Incarnation to Jesus’ death on the cross and beyond: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, Jesus tells his disciples. Through his death, Jesus gives us access to divine life as well: I am going to prepare a place for you, he says. We are baptized into Christ’s death so we might join him in resurrection. But the place he prepares is here, now – it is relationship. Jesus calls us to be fully alive in him, here and now, on earth as it is in heaven. How? Where I am going you know the way, Jesus tells his disciples; I am the way and the truth and the life. Jesus, the perfect revelation of God’s infinite love for all creation, teaches us the way. Love is the way. Love is truth. Love is life. Love is what we are called to. 

   Although, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles, the early Christian community had its growing pains, with Hellenists complaining against Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution, the community is still very much grounded in their faith in this truth: that they too are called together, as a community, to act in concert as a community for the benefit of all, through love. They can only do so if they recognize the centrality of the Spirit and the importance of the wisdom they gain from the word of God, placing their trust in the Lord, as Psalm 33 reminds them to do. 

   The importance of interdependence is reinforced in the First Letter of Peter, which calls upon the Christian community of the author’s time to let themselves be built into a spiritual house, not a tangible structure but rather an intentional union in Christ, the cornerstone of our faith. Like the community in Acts, these Christians must work not only to meet the needs of their own, but call others to faith, for this is the work of God, and to do the work of God, they must be one in Jesus who is the revelation of God. Together we are called to learn the way and the truth and the life that is Jesus, and to build upon all that he accomplished, allowing the Lord to work through us for the benefit of our world.

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 26, 2026: What are we to do, my brothers?

What are we to do, my brothers?
What does it take to be saved? 

    In John’s Gospel, having just healed the man born blind, Jesus points out to the Pharisees that they themselves are blind, for they have failed to hear Jesus’ voice and follow him, even when he demonstrates irrefutably that he is the Messiah. The Pharisees ignore and deny God’s action; they are the thieves and robbers of whom Jesus speaks, those who will not enter through the gate to salvation that is Jesus. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, Jesus tells them, but they pay him no heed, refusing to listen (let alone believe!), refusing to accept their identity as sheep and cling instead to their own self-interest. The Lord is manifestly not their shepherd. 

    After Jesus’ death and rising, the Christian community will cling to Jesus’ promise of salvation. In the Acts of the Apostles, the crowds ask Peter and the other apostles, What are we to do, my brothers? Peter reassures them that Jesus’ promise is intended for them as well: Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is made to you and your children and to all those far off. God raised Jesus, thus opening a door; they have but to step through it to access eternal life. Likewise, although they may have gone astray like sheep, the author of the First Letter of Peter tells his community, they have but to return to the shepherd and guardian of their souls, Christ, who suffered for them. As Christians, they may suffer for doing what is good, but they have been called, and must follow in Christ’s footsteps, in order to live for righteousness. 

    It is through Jesus that we must go in order to embrace our identity as Christians; we cannot pass through the gate without being touched by his life, his sacrifice, and participate. We too must be patient when we suffer for doing what is good, and hold to his promise of salvation. All who listen, follow and believe will be saved. Are we ready and willing to embrace that promise and believe, as Psalm 23 reminds us, that the Lord is our shepherd, too? 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 19, 2026: Were not our hearts burning within us?

Were not our hearts burning within us?
How has God been revealed to you? 

    As two of Jesus’ disciples travel to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, Luke tells us, they are downcast, devastated and in deep pain. Their rabbi Jesus has just been crucified and they are lost, trying to find their way in the darkness. In their dejection, the travelers encounter a man who can offer them some insight: Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Jesus’ history is very logical and succinct, bringing new insights and awareness to the travelers. The Lord is very present to them in this moment, a presence they sense viscerally, although they comprehend all only once he has disappeared: Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? At that moment, they sense the grace of God present and working in their lives. Jesus has, as Psalm 16 suggests, shown them the path of life, remaining in their line of vision to lead them; their hearts are glad and their souls rejoice! 

   In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, having just received the Holy Spirit, similarly asks the crowd to look more carefully, and to remember what they have witnessed: Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. Jesus’ works, his words, were all part of God’s plan; God was revealed through Jesus, and they have but to open themselves to the fullness of this revelation to be filled with joy in God’s presence once again. They are not dealing with human whim, but with the love of God, which so far surpasses any expectations they may have had. 

    Attentiveness and awe are also at play in the First Letter of Peter, whose author exhorts his audience, Conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning. Why? Because Jesus, known before the foundation of the world has been revealed in the final time for them. Jesus has shown them how to find God in absolute love, in God himself willing to sacrifice the entirety of himself for the sake of that love. All those who knew the Lord in person or know him through the witness of others – ourselves included – are called to be filled with wonder at what God is unfolding in us, for God works through us as well, if only we allow God to show us the path of life!

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 12, 2026: All who believed were together and had all things in common...

All who believed were together and had all things in common…
 Do we find our common identity in Christ? 

   When, in John’s Gospel, the resurrected Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors, he enters into a community of believers, but believers wracked by fear. Peace be with you, he says to them (twice). Jesus wants to put his faithful flock, those who have maintained their faith in him and remain true to him, at ease. Breathing on them, Jesus invites them into new life in him: Receive the Holy Spirit. This gift will allow the disciples to be the first community through whom God will be revealed; their faith – including Thomas’ – will allow them to believe past the limitations we normally place on our world, so that they might bring his mercy to that world. For this, they will, as Psalm 118 states, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting. 

    It is the union that grows among this community of believers that we find depicted shortly thereafter, in the Acts of the Apostles. They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers, Luke tells us. That communal life becomes integral to their identity; the meals they share are celebratory, exultant, for in them they express true devotion to each other and and to the common good, growing in their identity as the Body of Christ. 

    By the time of the writing of the First Letter of Peter, the Christian community is one that has not known Jesus firsthand: although you have not seen him, you love him. Yet, through baptism, a new birth to a living hope, they too have been transformed through the death and rising of Jesus. Their communal identity develops both from the trials they are facing together and from their indescribable and glorious joy at knowing they are saved. Like this community, we have not seen Christ yet we love him. And like them, we too can give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting!

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 29, 2026: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…

Will we choose love? 

   When, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus enters into Jerusalem upon a simple beast of burden, he does so as a king who is meek and humble. For all that his procession is triumphal – Hosanna to the Son of David, the very large crowd shouts to honor him, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! – Jesus himself holds to the humility he embraced when, as the Letter to the Philippians tells us, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness. Emptying himself of all rights of divinity in order to be human, Jesus seeks not to control but to love humanity with a love that is merciful, that forgives, a love that includes even us. 

   And so, as Jesus enters into his Passion, though he may be degraded like the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, his back beaten, his beard plucked derisively, and also scoffed at and mocked, in fulfillment of Psalm 22, yet love is still at work. Jesus has benefitted from many gifts; he knows how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them, and he knows how to listen, ears open, that he might hear all that God expects of him. Like the Suffering Servant, Jesus has confidence in the ability of God’s love to transcend all things… even the worst that we as human beings can come up with. 

   Thus, even from the Cross, Jesus remains a witness to God’s love, enduring the torture and pain out of love for humankind, love even for those who are visiting pain upon him, love even for those close friends who betray him, as all do, one after another. Judas never sees that Jesus’ love is greater than his own betrayal of his Master. Yet, at the Last Supper, Jesus’ disciples all drink of his forgiveness and mercy and love, taking that love into themselves, preparing to bring his love to the world. We do the same in Eucharist, participating in his sacrifice, that we too – though we sin – might know God’s deep and abiding love for us, and bring it to bear upon our world. In the midst of pain, Jesus chooses love. Will we?

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 22, 2026: Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live

Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live…
Can we find new life in Christ? 

   De Profundis, as Psalm 130 is more commonly known, speaks to the experience of an individual who has found himself in dire need of God’s mercy: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, the psalmist sings, Lord, hear my voice! It is a psalm that would perhaps have brought comfort to the people of Israel exiled to Babylon: For with the Lord is kindness and plenteous redemption; and he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities. In the midst of this difficult exile, the people of Israel hear words of restoration from the prophet Ezekiel, words of hope and promise that only God can provide: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Their identity will come not only from the land that will be restored to them, but from God’s spirit implanted in them: I will put my spirit in you that you may live, God promises. To be in relationship with the God who loves them is to have the life God promises. 

   Jesus’ friend Lazarus has not fallen out of right relationship with the Lord as the people of Israel had. But in John’s Gospel, Jesus uses his good friend’s illness as a means through which he can reveal the Father’s work through him and with him, that all might come to believe. When, even in the midst of her grief, Martha expresses her continued trust in Jesus’ plan, Jesus reassures her definitively: whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live. If Lazarus can be raised, set free from death itself, then all have the opportunity to be freed from their fear of death, and live. We can live, as Paul tells the Romans, in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in us. Physical death, even a body dead because of sin, is as nothing so long as the spirit is alive because of righteousness, for the one who raised Christ from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies also. If Jesus dwells in us, if we allow him entry, then we can be alive in Christ, finding new life in him and giving resounding witness to the glory of God! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 15, 2026: I was blind and now I see...

I was blind and now I see…
Are we aware of the Lord working in our lives? 

    When, in the First Book of Samuel, the Lord sends Samuel to Jesse of Bethlehem to anoint David, the Lord’s chosen one, the Lord can work through Samuel because Samuel is open to the Lord’s presence in his life. As instructed, Samuel scrutinizes each of Jesse’s sons in turn, but the scrutiny of God sees only David: There – anoint him, for this is the one! God tells Samuel. David too will need to be open to the Lord’s revelation as it unfolds in his life. When he is open to the spirit of God, that spirit will fill him with grace. And, as Psalm 23 reveals, David is aware of God’s presence in his life: The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want, the psalmist David sings. The Lord never ceases to accompany David, giving David confidence and comfort in all that he must do. 

    Jesus’ healing of the man blind from birth in John’s Gospel is yet another opportunity for the revelation of God’s light at work. The blind man does not ask for healing, yet he becomes a witness to Jesus, the light of the world, come to do the works of the one who sent him, God’s vessel through which light shines in the world. Yet, even as the man is healed, the Pharisees’ blindness becomes more acute, and they ridicule the man’s faith in Jesus. However, the man continues to live in faith, actively aware of and witnessing to God’s presence in his life: I do believe, Lord, he says to Jesus, and he worships him. 

   Like the man blind from birth, we were once in darkness, but now are light in the Lord, as Paul tells the Ephesians. We are to live as children of the light, stepping into the light of faith which reveals to us the path on which we walk with the Lord. Because of our own fear or desire for control, we can become blind to the light of Christ. But our awareness of Christ’s presence in our lives brings us from darkness to light. In every situation there is always grace, grace and the light that is of the Lord. God asks us to be ever aware of his presence, to enjoy a growing appreciation of the light that never leaves us, and to give joyful witness to his light… for our world. 

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