World Day of Prayer for Creation

Collect for Care of Creation

 Lectionary: 432

We have not received the spirit of the world
but the Spirit who is from God,
so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.
And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom,
but with words taught by the Spirit,
describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.

Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has called for the Church to join all nations in prayer for the Care of Creation. Today's first reading from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians reminds us that we speak as the Holy Spirit teaches us, and not simply with worldly wisdom. 

(Information about this World Day of Prayer is found here, with suggestion for our today's readings: Wisdom 13: 1-9; Colossians 1:15-20; and Mt 6, 24-34, or Mt 8, 23-27.)

There is a basic agreement between our concern for spiritual things and the world's growing concern for the planet on which we live. We regard the Earth and its living things with "words taught by the Holy Spirit," as Saint Paul says; and not simply in economic, scientific, or ideological terms. Those languages may be used to identify issues and raise alarms; but they cannot comprehend the origins or the full complexity of the crisis. 

King Solomon, regarded as the Divine Author of the Book of Wisdom, names the problem in Chapter 13: 

Foolish by nature were all who were in ignorance of God,

and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing the one who is,

and from studying the works did not discern the artisan....

Without that foundational belief in God who is Truth -- and Truth who is God -- we cannot agree on anything, regardless of its importance. Our languages are scrambled by different expectation and needs; not even the international language of science, with its facts, hypotheses, and theories, can overcome the curse of Babel. That very illusion is romantic, at best, and we all know how romantic stories end. 

Saint Paul's song of creation, as we find in Colossians 1: 15-20, identifies Jesus' role in creation:  

for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

If have issue with others, ourselves, and our world, they are reconciled in him, 

For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,

and through him to reconcile all things for him,

making peace by the blood of his cross.

 

And finally, the Lord speaks reassuring words to us in Saint Matthew's Gospel:

Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

The ecological crisis is a spiritual crisis, and demands far-reaching spiritual change. If that seems like an endless, hopeless quest -- as promising as Sir Gawain's Quest for the Holy Grail -- every attempt to "fix the problem" politically, economically, and scientific sounds even more implausible. 

Realistic solutions to infrastructural problems are always partial, controversial, expensive, time consuming, and finally unsatisfactory. But everyone on Earth can find reassurance in the Lord's authority to rebuke the wind and seas. Long before the crisis is resolved the Faithful find peace in our amazement at Him. 

Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 427

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside,
but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.

An age that cannot love reality as it is cannot enjoy ontology. They prefer image of the way things might be, should be, would be, and could be -- if only.... 

They insist that impressions and appearances are more real than reality; even as they invoke "Truth," which Christians know as one of God's names. 

Power in this world must keep up appearances, even when its contradictions blind us like snow flakes in the headlights. One of those statements, avowals, and declarations might be true, but which one could it be? When salesmen become politicians we can expect heavy snowstorms. When we support their every action, suggestion, and opinion we agree there is no truth. They endorse John Lennon's song Strawberry Fields -- "Nothing is real." 

That alternate way of thinking began with the serpent's suggestions to Eve: 

“You certainly will not die! God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.”

The Wisdom Psalm 119 teaches us to hate hypocrisy and love God's teaching.  Jesus used hypocrisy  freely to describe his opponents. Unwilling to see the truth he lived and spelled out to them, they could only insist on their alternate facts and artificial wisdom.

You can tell hypocrites by watching their lips: "If they're moving they are lying." Hypocrites tell you what they want you to hear; or what they think you want to hear; or what they hope might be true; or what might persuade you that it's okay to repeat such nonsense to others. Having neither interest nor investment in truth, and confident that no one believes that truth exists, they fabricate and prevaricate, and hope to get away with it for as long as possible.  

Only those who love the truth and are willing to make enormous sacrifices to the truth can speak the truth. Where the hypocrite hopes to die before the truth appears, lovers of truth know that "the Word of the Lord endures forever." They pray daily "Thy Kingdom come!" They will live forever in the truth and are willing to invest everything in it. 

I like to remember the old woman who gave everything she had to the Temple, although it was only a few copper coins. She gave her all. It didn't appear to be much, but the Lord saw it. He insists that we give our all, even if it seems our lives are worth little. We give it all, and God decides what it's worth. 

Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Lectionary: 629

But Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,
"Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him."

The question has been raised, "Was Nathaniel, aka Bartholomew, mentally handicapped. The exchanges between today's patron with Philip and the Lord, as told in Saint John's Gospel, might suggest it. His question about Nazarenes might echo the popular humor of any region about a neighboring region. Just mention an Iowan to a Minnesotan! It's an immediate, humorous, thoughtless, and perhaps insensitive reaction to a word. 

Nathaniel's amazed reaction to Jesus' remark about him, uttered in spontaneous simplicity, apparently prompted the Lord's caricature of him -- "There is no duplicity in him." Does that suggest a form of mental impairment? 

Patristic references to Nathaniel as an author and apostle to India, and a different reading of today's text suggest that this Apostle had above average intelligence; but he is nonetheless invoked today as a patron saint of autism. And it's good to see that many organizations, religious and secular, now welcome the talents, abilities, and eager generosity of people with disabilities. When I entered the seminary as a high school freshman in 1962, the standards were more arbitrary than reasonable. African-American applicants were often turned away as if that too were a disability. 

Saint John's account reminds us of the cynicism of this world about anything new or unexpected. Although our culture prides itself on its willingness to explore the unexplored and go where no man has gone before, there is also room for cynical reactions to religious truths. A scientific age dismisses philosophy, once known as the "mother of all sciences;" and theology, the "queen of all sciences." 

Many scientists frankly dismiss the idea of philosophy although the entire enterprise is founded on certain necessary ontological principles. That things can be counted with numbers, and predictions made about how many things there are in a set with multiplication and division, are assumptions based on the principle that things are as they seem. If reality is an illusion, as some philosophes insist, then nothing is predictable or reliable. 

The Gospels speak truth to us, a truth which is deeper than a philosophy limited to research, facts, hypotheses, and theories. The Truth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has been revealed to us; and Nathaniel's amazement expresses our human, joyful astonishmnet at the Good News. We are privileged and delighted to share that exhileration with him despite naysayers.

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene

 Lectionary: 603

Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh;
even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh,
yet now we know him so no longer.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.

There are many websites singing the praises of God in many languages with the symbols of many religions, but there are an awful lot of pornographic sites appealing to the same audience. Amid that widespread horror, Pope Francis named Mary Magdalene as "the Apostle to the Apostles" and gave her a feast day apart from Saints Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. 

According to one survey, 40% to 50% of American men view pornography weekly or daily; and many women. Pornography provides most Americans with their first experience of sex, and earliest sexual memories; and profoundly effects their expectations, suppositions, and presumptions about sexual relationships. They are led to believe the purposes of sex are pleasure, gratification, relaxation, diversion, entertainment and spiritual fulfillment. Procreation, however, must be avoided -- at all costs.

While pornography was certainly widespread long before the Internet, it has grown to proportions beyond anyone's imagination, and it threatens families, society, and nations with universal disintegration. There is evidence that pornography viewed by children is the root cause of sexual dysphasia; and may arouse homosexual desires even among persons from the most stable, healthy, religious families. 

Politics, of course, plays a part in the story, especially as researchers who might research the causes of sexual disorders like homosexuality have been denied sponsorship and grants. The same thing happened when tobacco producers suppressed cancer research, and gun manufacturers squelched the notion that gun ownership is a health risk. No money means no research means no "proof" of certain obvious, common sense facts. And without "scientific proof," the gullible majority believes whatever they're told to believe. 

However, politics and ideologies cannot suppress truth, and the Church can still celebrate Saint Mary Magdalene despite the rage of foes. Although her past is only suggested by the scriptures and even her historical identity is unclear, the Church has always known her as one who repented for her past sins, loved the Lord intensely, and was the most prominent among his female disciples. She was the only single individual whose conversation with the Risen Lord the Gospels report in detail. 

(Saint Luke said that Peter also had a vision (Luke 24:34 and 1 Cor 15:4); and the Church has long supposed that the Lord must have appeared to his Blessed Mother on that first Easter Sunday.) 

Saint Mary Magdalene, the "apostle to the apostles," reminds every Christian that to know the Lord we must do penance. And just as she turned when she saw the Lord and turned again when she heard him call her name, so we must turn and turn again in the practice of our faith. Baptism is not sufficient for salvation without the sacraments of Eucharist, Confirmation, and Reconciliation. We also need the sacraments of healing, priesthood, and marriage. 

The last, in particular, heals our imagination, orientation, and relationships to family, neighbors, friends, and foes. Through the Sacrament of Marriage we establish proper relationships with spouses, children, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews. Even those who never marry witness the beauty of chaste married couples and are healted. 

Through the Sacrament of Marriage parents discover the creativity of God who made us in his own image and likeness. Before they can speak children demand that their parents, "Grow Up!" They must put aside the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and impulses of children. "It's my turn now!" the children say. Penance enables that maturity for married and unmarried alike. 

Today, as we pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, let us pray to Saint Mary Magdalene for vocations to Christian marriage; that is, for monogamous, stable families where men and women invite God to be the Spirit and Head of their household; and where children are born, saved, formed and raised into adulthood. 

Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Collect of D-Day
Eighty-two years ago

 Lectionary: 358

For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine
but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truthand will be diverted to myths.
But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist.

As we pause to remember D-Day and the horror of World War II, we hear Saint Paul's warning about "myths." I am reminded of an excellent lecture I heard many years ago; it concerned myths and American spirituality, and was presented by a Lutheran minister. 

He spoke of the American imagination which separates symbols from reality. We are hugely entertained by Mickey Mouse and his companions. We might use those imaginary characters to teach our children certain moral lessons, but we don't expect mice, ducks, or dogs to interact in human language with each other or with us.  

Gene Roddenberry famously created Star Trek to address American social issues of racism, sexism, and xenophobia. Although his Captain James Kirk continually searched for vulnerable women, especially among his subordinates, the show was greeted as a leading edge in thoughtful, ethical entertainment.

However, influenced by the entertainment, some people regarded warp speed travel and transporter beams as entirely possible despite the resistance of common sense. Trekkies were convinced they were watching actual scientific developments that would certainly come. But because increasing acceleration requires more energy, Einstein predicted that accelerating to the speed of light would require all the energy in the universe! It ain't gonna happen. 

Nor did Roddenberry account for sin. The show expected that, by the 25th century, poverty would be eliminated from the Earth -- and the entire populated universe. (Although, if interstellar travel were possible, the first 21st century explorers would not yet have arrived near the nearest star by the 25th century.) 

And, as our common sense Redeemer said, "You always have the poor with you." Greed, jealousy, ambition, and anxiety will create inequity and injustice until the Judgment Day. As G. K. Chesterton said, 

"Original sin is the only doctrine that's been empirically validated by 2,000 years of human history."

Many of the myths spawned by Star Trek found no scientific support, neither proven nor speculative. And yet many otherwise-intelligent people believe them, as Saints Paul and Peter warned us. 

However, to my astonishment, the Lutheran lecturer told his colleagues, Catholicism offers a way out of America's faith in idle myths. (I was the only Catholic in the room.) The Catholic Church's faith in the Blessed Sacrament represents the Incarnation of Jesus. We believe in certain historical facts which have mythological significance for us: he actually rose from the dead, and he sent his apostles to make disciples of all nations. And the myth of transubstantiation is real, an actual fact. 

The New Testament's use of the word myth gives it negative connotations. However, we need those myths that are grounded in reality. Beyond historical facts like Mary's virginity, Jesus's divinity, and his resurrection, we believe in and share the Body and Blood of Jesus at every Mass. They are true, credible myths because they shape our lives and lead us to a promised destiny that is as real for us as the bed we sleep in and the food we eat. They can be disproven only for those who have no faith in God, no joy in life, and no hope for humanity.

Fifth Sunday of Easter

 Lectionary: 52

Where I am going you know the way."
Thomas said to him,
"Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me."

When  a president of the United States wants to put his own face on American currency; some of us wonder where this is going. Similarly, the Lord's disciples wondered how soon Jesus might arrive at his full stature as Messiah of the Jewish people and Lord Emperor of all nations. His assurance, as usual, was "Trust me." 

Throughout the Gospel according to Saint John, the Lord continually demanded that his disciples, the crowds, and his opponents believe in him. He provided signs to show that God his Father had approved and endorsed him, although the signs were never quite as overwhelming as we might prefer. He changed water into wine but only the servants knew about it. He told the Samaritan woman that she'd had five husbands and was living with another one, who was not her husband. Now how did he know that? 

He reminded Nicodemus that the Spirit of God blows where it will; it doesn't take a great theologian to figure that out. He healed several sick persons; but some of them might have recovered anyway. He predicted that Lazarus' apparent death was only sleep, and then, as if waking him up, called him out of the grave although he'd been buried four days before. Now That was Something; but a lot of people were not impressed. 

And through it all, from the day he stirred up a one-man riot in the temple until he stood before Pontius Pilate and said, "My kingdom is not of this world." Jesus insisted that we should trust Him and believe that what he said would come to pass. 

During his last supper, the Apostle Philip made one final request, which no one would think unreasonable, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." And Jesus replied with exasperation, 

"Have I been with you for so long a time

and you still do not know me, Philip?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

Beginning with the Enlightenment, somewhere in the late 17th century, the western world began to prefer the human sciences to God's Word, Jesus, and the Church. Our distaste for medical research conducted on cadavers, some pre-scientific ideas about cosmology, and some stories in the Bible like Noah’s Ark and the Great Flood, made God’s Word and our beliefs seem out-dated and frankly useless. 

When 19th century scientists acted as if they, their facts, and their theories were infallible, only some Catholics were persuaded when Pope Pius IX replied by calling himself infallible. However, when 20th century scientists backed away from their infallibility, the Church was left with an infallible Pope, and none too sure what it means or how to respond to it. The world was moving on without the leadership and authority of the Church.  

But we still believe in Jesus. We believe that he came from and returned to God his Father, that he has been raised from the dead, and that he remains with us forever in the Church and the Eucharist. We also believe in the spiritual authority God has given to His Church, especially as we find the world insisting on their right to abort babies, execute trapped, defenseless criminals, and mangle the human body to fit popular fads. 

And we share the world's post-modern skepticism about human knowledge in general. In this 20th century we saw too many sciences like phrenology, eugenics, and racism discredited. In the name of eugenics the Nazis murdered somewhere between eleven and seventeen million non-combatant souls: Jews, little people, disabled, homosexual, Jehovah's Witness, Catholics, gypsies, and so forth. Not to mention the casualties of endless wars that came with the Enlightenment. 

Religious people in general -- Jews, Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants -- are not overwhelmed by the ideologies of the Enlightened age -- from Marxist communism, to socialism, feminism, and transgenderism. When we're told that religious wars killed a lot of people in 17th century Europe, we remember the Napoleonic wars which killed as many as six million people between 1803 and 1815. The United States has never engaged in a religious war but our patriotic wars have cost the lives of millions of soldiers, sailors, flyers, and civilians. 

We use the sciences; we listen respectfully to ideologies, we understand that wars will never cease in this world, but we believe in Jesus Christ. And we strive to live by the standards of decencies and reverence which He, through the Holy Spirit and the Church, still teaches us today. We believe with all the more intensity and personal conviction that he remains with us – each and every one of us – to this day. In the prayers of the Church, the Most Blessed Sacrament, and our personal lives, we feel his presence. We recognize the Voice of the Good Shepherd. We believe that God hears our prayers not because we’re especially good people but because we pray in the name of Jesus. We have his personal assurance. 

When the Lord insisted that we believe in Him he also taught us to believe in ourselves in the face of a world which discounts, ignores, and tries to manipulate every one of our thoughts, words, and deeds. They don’t need slaves anymore; they want users, consumers, and heroes to admire prettiest images and believe that images are truth, goodness, and beauty.

We have heard the Lord say, and we believe, he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Our life begins in his life. Our love – whether it be for spouses, family, or neighbors – begins in his love. Because we love God with all our hearts, souls, mind, and strength, we can love others as he has loved us. We do unto our neighbors as we would have them do to us, which is kindly, with generosity, compassion, and restraint. Always, our passion is for God. 

We believe in the One who said, “Trust me.” Our faith in Him has sustained us through many centuries. We have known doubt and fear, but he has always come back to us, and always drawn us to himself. For He remains, even in the 21st century, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

Thursday in the Octave of Easter

 Lectionary: 264

And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have."
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.

Seeing the Risen Lord, the disciples doubted their own senses. Perhaps they anticipated Descartes' cogito and supposed everything is an illusion. But the truth is intrusive, and often rudely tramples over doubts, hesitation, and disbelief. The truth insists that it is here. It is very real, not an illusion, and will not go away! 

The Lord pushed aside their astonishment and said, "Look at my hands and my feet.... Touch me and see!" 

They saw and believed. But perhaps it is better said: "We saw and believed!" because the Church that saw the Risen Lord that Sunday evening is the same Church that has met every Sunday ever since. The eyewitnesses were not destined to live forever on this earth, but witnesses are. Baptized into the Body, we tell everyone of our experience; and people join us even in the twenty-first century. 

We are the same people who  gather and find his risen Body among us. That is the work of the Holy Spirit and despite scandals from within and persecution from without, we have never lost the living memory of his being here with us. 

We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the credibility of heroic men and women; we have never needed or asked for this world's facts to know that God does not and never will abandon his people. 

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!

Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.

Take to heart these words which I command you today.

Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.

Many Christians today worry that their children are not accepting the testimony of their elders. They not only ignore the false rugs; they drink the Kool-Ade of disbelief. Their parents need not worry. The tomb of Jesus has become the Church's womb of faith. Waters of rebirth burst out of the  baptismal font and usher a new generation of faith into the world. These newborn want to remember what their unfaithful parents tried to forget. The Holy Spirit sparks their curiosity, fans their desire, and leads them to the altar of the Eucharist. 

We have only to see and believe! 

The Resurrection of the Lord 2026

..

 The Mass of Easter Day
 Lectionary: 42

Peter proceeded to speak and said:
“You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power....

The world might not want to hear the Good News of Easter, but they have the right to hear it; and we have an obligation to announce it. 

You might think people who don't want to know their rights should not have them; or maybe they don't really have them because they don't know about them. Perhaps they've never heard of them. But rights are funny things. 

Stories are told and movies are made about the search for lost heirs who have inherited a fortune. We take it for granted that African American slaves were freed by Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation and should have been freed on January 1, 1863. But thousands of men and women, freed by the proclamation, were never told about it until June 19, 1866 -- more than three years later. So we should not be surprised that billions of people have yet to hear the Good News which we must announce to them. They have every right to know; and to know just how enormously important the Gospel is for them.

Perhaps some Texas slaves were told in 1865 that the rumors of Emancipation were not true; and they saw no evidence of their being true. So, to be on the safe side of their master's good will, they ask nothing more about it. It didn't really matter until that first Juneteenth Day, when they celebrated.   

And we know that millions of Americans who know all about their rights neglect their right to vote for their local officials and state representatives. They might bestir themselves to vote every four years, for the President of the United States, after months of intense harassment from every news source. But their quadrennial votes mean almost nothing because of the electoral college. 

There is great tragedy when people lose their rights because they never used them; and perhaps never know about them. The first clause of the first amendment insists upon our American freedom to worship as we choose, but I fear we might lose that right if too few people exercise it. The history of the Church is very familiar with governments and nations trying to suppress and persecute our faith out of existence. It could happen here because too few people actually worship God. And it might happen especially to that Church which does not accept so many false doctrines of our nation. Kings and tyrants have always wanted their subjects to worship the god they worshipped. It gives them better control! And if our governors worship no god, that’s what they want for us. We’ll be managed into oblivion by bureaucracies, regulations, and standard operating procedures.  

As Christians and Catholics we remember the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Lord, and have a deep conviction about what these mysterious events meant at the time, and still mean today. We know the facts of God's Kingdom and his Saving Deeds, and they impel us to speak, even to people who don't want to be reminded. They have a right to hear, and we have the right to speak of, and celebrate, our faith. If they wish us to go away, we might do that for a while, as the Hebrews left their slavery in Egypt. But we won't go far because we were sent here, we belong here, and we are glad to be here, a free people in a nation of captive consumers. 

 

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

Lectionary: 233

Then Abraham said,
'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.'"

Saint Luke, the Evangelist who gave us the Lord's parable about Lazarus and Dives, began his tract with a statement about his purpose and method: 

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.

He began his Acts of the Apostles with a similar statement, 

'In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught."

With two groups of adults here at Mount Saint Francis, I have been reading Luke's Gospel and Acts of the Apostles, and I see how careful he was to present a reliable "narrative of the events" that occurred in Galilee and Jerusalem. If he was not as scrupulous as some historians might be today, he was also less affected by the cynicism which dismisses God as an actor in human affairs. He interviewed eyewitnesses, studied documents, and reported what they had heard, and seen, and touched with their hands. 

The facts as Saint Luke reports them are as reliable as their witnesses, and the fact that history does not recall a resuscitation of any other human being proves only that we know of no other similar incident. (We suppose the sun will rise tomorrow because it always has, but suppositions about the future are not the same as knowledge of the past.) 

The Lord's resurrection and its reporters met with much skepticism at the time, as all the evangelists agree. Even when they saw the Risen Lord "they thought they were seeing a ghost." The sages of Athens scoffed at Saint Paul's account of the resurrection because, they said, it can't happen. 

But it did happen. Or, at least, there is no reason to believe it didn't happen except for one's refusal to believe those who saw, heard, and touched him. Critics might argue it can't happen, or piously believe that God should not mess with our minds that way; but that resort to the subjunctive neither proves nor disproves anything. 

In Jesus's parable, when Abraham tells Dives that his brothers will not "be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead," the Evangelist and his congregations know that's precisely what happened. Many refused to believe it although it happened. They'll make the same decision and face the same consequences as the unfortunate soul in "the netherworld, where he was in torment." 

Two millennia later there are even more who refuse to believe what we have seen and heard. They neither accept our testimony nor attest to our integrity as witnesses because they don't want to. They'll often point to our mistakes, failings, and sins to buttress their obstinacy; but those excuses will not serve them when the Lord appears again as Judge to settle matters once and for all. They have not repented although someone from the dead came to them. 

Optional Memorial of Saint Hilary, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

 Lectionary: 306

“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”

We've all studied at several institutions of learning; and hopefully we learned not only to study but the extraordinary value of learning. The discipline improves our minds, teaches good habits, and creates valuable citizens. 

But, very often, we assumed what our teachers assumed, that the facts and figures we memorized had a remote kind of existence apart from ourselves. They would exist whether we learned them or not. The distance of the moon from the Earth is predictable and stable, and hasn't changed in millennia. Most of us cannot tell that distance and don't need to; it has no authority and little meaning unless we happen to be NASA engineers. 

When Jesus taught with authority he wasn't teaching facts and figures. His disciples were not memorizing anything, not even a catechism. But they were learning a new way of thinking, feeling, acting, and being. Although they had always recognized the authority of one human being over another, they were learning that this particular human being had divine authority over them; and would be rewarded with infinitely more authority as he underwent his passion, death, and resurrection. 

They began to appreciate that authority as they heard Jesus of Nazareth announce Eight Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount; and they saw his authority when he healed a leper. They may have felt something similar to Abraham's experience as he watched fire and brimstone consume Sodom and Gomorrah. They must have wondered, "Who is this man? What kind of man is he that he can draw us to him? Where did he get such authority, and where will it take us?" 

They wondered and they asked but they could not know the answers until they appeared radiantly before them. Only in retrospect would they realize what the Lord had done for them. And then, with the authority of that knowledge, they would tell the world. 

Every Christian must experience the personal authority of Christ before speaking of him. They must know his right to judge and condemn, and his right to demand that they repent, turn away from sin, and be reborn in the Gospel. They must know his authority to heal the traumas of their past, even as they learn about the love they should have found in parents, siblings, and friends. They must be prepared to go where he sends them, say what he commands them to say, and stand down when he would have them withdraw or retire. 

They must learn not only his authority to forgive sins but also the authority he has given them to forgive those who sinned against them. There is no reason to hold resentments, nor can they afford to hold them. Resentments are like useless property; they only encumber us with their dead weight. The Lord's disciples want and ask for the authority to forgive immediately whenever they experience a hurt or disappointment. They want nothing to taint the purity, joy, and freedom of being alive in Christ. 

The Epiphany of the Lord 2026

Lectionary: 20

...the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations 
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit...

Epiphany is such a wonderful word, and it's well represented by a blazing star -- perhaps a supernova -- which overcomes darkness even on our distant, dark planet, and provides guidance for distressed travelers. 

The epiphanic excitement of the New Testament writers -- Saint Paul, the Evangelists, and others -- about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is palpable. Their stories and teachings are saturated by the same fresh excitement which animated Christians of the first century. They were despised, ostracized, and persecuted at times and in many places, but their joy overcame the darkness of Jewish resistance and Roman contempt. To this day we feel and enjoy the same energy as we hear of the Magi coming first to Jerusalem, and then to Bethlehem. 

Epiphany and revelation imply the discovery of a truth – a mystery – previously unknown, unimagined, and unforeseen. This truth comes with certainty and indisputable authority. Those who know Jesus of Nazareth know that he is the Son of God even as they embrace him also as the son of Mary and one of our own kin. They see no contradiction between his divine and human natures, despite the confusion it causes among those who have not seen the light or believed the word. 

And yet, for all its mystery, the revealed truth also makes perfect sense. The gospel speaks very clearly to our confusion today. For instance, the Gospel takes a familiar old saying that every mother teaches her child, “Don’t do to others what you don’t want done to yourself’.” Hindus, Zorastrians, Buddhists, and Jews said the same thing.  What could be more obvious? But Jesus retuned the old saying, and turned it into a revelation that now seems obvious: "Do to others as you would have them do to you.” We’re not passive victims anymore. We can do this! We can take the initiative and show fairness, kindness, and generosity first, without waiting for someone else to begin! Why had no one ever thought of that? It took a divine revelation to show us the obvious. 

Revelation – or epiphany – is never weird, alien, or ridiculous as it leads us out of darkness and ignorance to the truth about God, ourselves, and the world in which we live. Because it also shows our sinful tendencies to bigotry and arrogance, and reveals our preference for sheepish stupidity, it teaches us the humility to receive knowledge as a gift. Researchers – that is, those who wish to know the truth and work for it –  learn to recognize the truth, and are given the grace to receive it worthily. 

But when we speak about truth we should be clear about facts. All the facts in the world don't add up to the truth. The word fact comes from the Latin word, facere; that is, to make, as in manufacture, factor, facetious, and fictitious. Things that are made. Facts are manufactured, man-made items with many useful purposes, but the truth puts everything in perspective. And often discards old facts as nonsense. 

Even entire sciences like phrenology, geocentrism, the Gaia hypothesis, miasma theory, and racism are discredited and dismissed. Millions of people today suffer under ideologies like Marxism, capitalism, fascism, and Nazism. Desperate for easy answers, they cling to ideas that are clear, simple, and wrong. Those who love the truth never regret seeing old lies and old liars discredited. To paraphrase Psalm 37, “I have seen wicked ideas spreading like crabgrass. When I passed by again, they were gone; though I searched, I could not find them.” 

But there are people who prefer lies, hate the truth, and react ferociously when they hear anything that even suggests the truth. The magi’s questions about a newborn King of the Jews aroused suspicion and fear in the holy city of Jerusalem. They were already a frightened populace suffering under King Herod's arbitrary rule, the city's mercurial politics, and the Pharisees' obnoxious self-righteousness. The possibilities of a newborn king and regime change were profoundly unsettling. We should not be surprised that Herod ordered the slaughter of helpless babies in Bethlehem after hearing what the Magi said. Those who have not heard the Gospel, or have heard and rejected it, often do the same thing. 

Today we suffer under many misguided, atheistic ideologies. They control our politics and dictate the nation’s policies. They have a lot of energy, coupled with fear, suspicion of strangers, and false assumptions. They judge ideas and people by agreement or disagreement; friends agree with them regardless of their moral integrity; and their enemies disagree, regardless of the common humanity we all share. 

We grow up in this environment of ideologies. I, for one, was told early on that the Russians were bad people and Americans were good. Europeans were socialists and stupid; Americans were capitalists and clever; Catholics were right; Protestants were wrong; Jews missed their opportunity; but everyone else might be saved if they became Catholic. These beliefs were neither happy nor inspiring; they defined the limits of people I might trust.

I remember the 1950s and the church of that time well enough to remember why we needed some updating. There was too much Jansenism, and too much Pharisaism, too many triumphant Catholics thinking that they were better than any one else, and too many gamers who played with rules. 

But ideologies, because they are neither the truth nor the gospel, change, fluctuate, appear, disappear, reappear as something else, and continually tell us we must keep up with them or risk being uninformed, backward, and stupid. They are not Good News, and no one is happier for believing them.. 

Today I don't find very many people happy about being Republican or Democrat or feminist or gay or espousing any other ideology. They need to hear the good news of Jesus as I needed to hear the good news of Jesus in the 1950s.

The light still shines in darkness; we see it in our churches, and we wait with hopeful joy and great confidence for the second coming of the Lord, when Justice and Mercy will embrace, and the world will know that Jesus is Lord.

Christmas Weekday

Lectionary: 206

See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.

Amid an international maelstrom of liquid facts and amorphous identities, Saint John reminds his beloved, "we may be called the children of God." 

Responsible parents, assailed by their teenage children who compare them to other children's parents, must often say, "Because you are my children! That's why!" 

Perhaps belonging to God feels like bondage -- the New Testament writers insist they are servants of God and saints like Maximilian Kolbe prefer the word slaves -- but maturity proves that God's servants enjoy extraordinary freedom. Because we are governed by a higher authority, we can feel joy and sorrow without fear of divine rebuke even as human authorities tell us how we should feel. We know who we are: children of God made in his image, male and female. 

We study the ancient sciences of theology and philosophy to discover the sources of today's misguided sciences, ideologies, and fads. Does anyone remember phrenology? Or the once-popular but resurgent eugenics? I think we can safely forget the goth that was so popular a few years ago; and the children who argued, "I can't help it if I'm goth! Or gay! Or trans! Or incel. Or whatever. Without the knowledge of God, they'll be something else by this time next year. 

We love the God who has saved us even as our unfortunate neighbors doubt his existence. As Zechariah, the Father of John the Baptist, sang:

...rescued from the hands of enemies we worship him 

without fear

in holiness and righteousness.... (Luke 1:74)

We carry this joyous freedom into 2026. Freed from fear we call a crisis a problem, study its history and how our forebears addressed it, and ask the Lord to guide us. 

Optional Memorial of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

Lectionary: 182

In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost." 

Despite the possibility of a second visit with what appeared to be a heavenly woman, Juan Diego took a different route into Mexico City. The only father the young man had known since early childhood was sick,  His uncle needed medical care and the lad had no time for visions. 

Like many mistakes we make, his facts and his impulse were good; his conclusion was wrong. But we can admire him for his dedication to a beloved elder; he is acting as a Good Shepherd might act. Fortunately, the Queen intercepted him on his different route, reassured him about his uncle, and gave the young catechumen a new direction for his life. His conversion provides one more example of Heaven's kindly concern for everyone. 

Many things in life are very hard and we often use them to blame God for its challenges, obstacles, frustrations, and disappointments. Angry, anxious Christians sometimes cherry-pick the Bible for its more gruesome passages and use them to portray God as arbitrarily cruel. The promises of the prophets, the Psalms, the Lord's parables, and his personal witness refute that. 

As the Son of God, Jesus knows God as his Father and insists that His will and the Father's are identical. Despite the many challenges that we personally experience, and the horror stories that others tell, we accept the Word that Jesus has spoken. Our God is benevolent and extraordinarily generous. 

I think of the example of listening to someone while they speak to a mutual friend over the telephone. You cannot hear what the other party is saying but you follow the conversation easily. When you hear a clever remark, you know how the other replies and laugh with them.

We watch Jesus in constant communication with his Father and we follow their conversation. When we see him approaching Jerusalem with utter confidence; when we witness his passion and death on the cross; when we see him raised from the dead: we see the God who cannot be seen. And we are satisfied that we know the One whom we should adore. He sent the Good Shepherd to save us. 

Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Lectionary: 494

And passing into holy souls from age to age,
she produces friends of God and prophets.
For there is nought God loves, be it not one who dwells with Wisdom.
For she is fairer than the sun
and surpasses every constellation of the stars.

Unlike Hebrew, the English language and our usage make a distinction between wisdom and cleverness. A clever magician might be a foolish businessman; some of the most brilliant artists and poets cannot manage their money well. Adroit politicians often misuse their power. 

As we use the words, the wise are those who seek wisdom in all their affairs. They have book learning, accept helpful advice, value their own experience, and keep a reasonable perspective on current and passing events. They are not quick to judge or act, but know when to act. They honor timeless truths, respect history and tradition, and adapt with the times. They act uprightly without self-righteousness; and they lead by example and with the limited authority they're given. 

The scriptures might acknowledge the foolishness of youth and wisdom of age, but the proverbs, parables, and teachings seem to expect the foolish always to act foolishly. Fools are mired in stupidity while the wise grow in wisdom. 

But occasionally, as in the Lord's parable of the prodigal son, fools can regret their foolishness and turn aside from it. Jesus gave us that wonderful parable without telling us if the reunited family learned from the experience. Did the older son welcome his brother? Did the Father admit he should not have acceded to his son's unreasonable demands? Did the older son recognize his obsequious self-righteousness? Did the prodigal son really learn from the experience? Did his remorse become repentance? Did he find a useful role in the household although he had no further claim on his father or his brother? Or did he stay, a parasite despised by servants and family? 

Those are questions we resolve, but not by speculating about how Jesus should have finished his tale. Recognizing that I might be the prodigal son, the foolish father, or the resentful son, I make my own life decisions about regret, remorse, and repentance. With sufficient study, counsel, and reflection, I might learn from experience. No one said acquiring wisdom is assured or easy. 

Americans can expect little help from our schools. Their customers apparently want only degrees and certificates. Educational institutions seem mostly caught up in surviving in a competitive market by training workers with facts and skills. They have invested heavily in STEM, with little concern for the moral development of individuals into citizens ready to make hard choices in a democratic society. 

Our Catholic tradition should honor its teaching authority -- the Magisterium-- in all its institutions, from parishes, to retreat centers, shrines, schools, and hospitals. Their  mission is not to amuse or entertain but to prepare the faithful to meet and address hard choices gracefully and wisely. We bank on the resources of tradition, liturgy, and scripture. We repent when it's appropriate, learn from our mistakes, and speak the truth whether convenient or inconvenient. 

And the Holy Spirit, moving among the faithful and in the murkier world outside, welcomes our efforts. 

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 457

And another said, "I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God."

Today's gospel describes two men among the crowds who took enough interest in the phenomenon of Jesus to come out and hear him. The first volunteered to follow him, and Jesus invited the second. But the Lord rejected the volunteer; and when the second hesitated, the Lord withdrew his invitation. 

Whether one's vocation is to priesthood, religious life, marriage, or consecrated celibacy, the initiative is the Lord's. We do not call ourselves to him. Nor do we decide to follow him without his personal invitation. 

In the United States millions of Catholic children have been educated in our elementary and secondary schools in the hope that each one would hear the Lord's personal invitation and follow him. It was surely given to each one as they approached adulthood. The call may have entailed any of thousands of different ways to live one's life, from priesthood to marriage or consecrated celibacy. But many young people never heard it. Some never expected his call; others could not hear him amid the cacophony of other voices; many ignored him. 

When Jesus finished his parable about those invited to a wedding banquet, he sadly remarked, "Many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22: 14) Anyone who attends the Church for more than a little while understands his sadness. They might add to his remark, "I've seen 'em come; and I've seen 'em go." 

Why some people refuse and others accept the invitation will always remain a great mystery, beyond the reach of sociologists, demographers and pollsters. It has to do with the human will, which is just as mercurial as politics and the economy. (Both are studied by experts who call their work science; they deal in statistics rather than facts.) 

Those considered most likely to become happy, eager disciples of the Lord are sometimes the first to disappear; while others who look to all the world like losers, turn eagerly to him. 

Nor can anyone's vows of marriage, priesthood, or religious life guarantee their perseverance. Their vows are given in response to God's initiative, but they are only indications of intent. They must be proven daily and many times a day; and everyone who has made these promises knows of their failure to keep them on innumerable occasions. 

Yesterday we heard Saint Luke say, "When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem." Just before that, in the same chapter, he declared, "Unless you take up your cross daily, and follow in my footsteps, you cannot be my disciple." (Luke 9:23)

To know Jesus is to follow him resolutely to Jerusalem; and those who follow him for more than a few days understand the challenge. Nothing happens easily or automatically in human life. We must make it work daily and many times a day. And take nothing for granted, neither ourselves, nor our commitments, nor the Lord.  

No one knew that better than today's patron saint, Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church. 

"Life passes so quickly that really it must be better to have a very beautiful crown and a little trouble than to have an ordinary one without any trouble. And then for a suffering borne with joy, when I think that during the whole of eternity I will love God better."