Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” John 20:21 Happy Divine Mercy Sunday! God the Father sent Jesus on His saving mission. It was a mission of mercy. He came to free us from the captivity of our sins and death, sin’s logical consequence. Jesus’s victory over sin and death was His gift of mercy to us. Mercy is God’s name. God revealed…
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God. – John 3:21 Have you noticed that the sun sets later each evening now? The vernal equinox—the start of spring!—is just a week away on March 20. The light will increase from now until it begins to decrease after the summer solstice on June 20. Interestingly, this is just a few days before we…
There was a time when I could not forgive. I’m not proud of this, but it’s true. I wanted to forgive. I asked many people for advice on how to forgive. But still, forgiveness eluded me. You see, I grew up in a house characterized by addiction, neglect, and abuse. For many years, I carried around the wounds from those years. In fact, I still carry them and probably always will. But the choice to…
Our first reading tells of the apostles in the early days of the Church. It was a time of togetherness, sincerity, and joyful praise. They met in their homes to worship, pray, and eat together. They shared all that they had, and Love—yes Love with a capital “L”—united them. The Holy Spirit had come upon them just before this at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). It was this Spirit of peace and unity that gave them the…
Our readings for this Sunday lay out the reason for this penitential season of Lent: sin, repentance, and salvation. Our first reading reminds us of mankind’s first sin: the disobedience of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3: 1-7). In our Psalm, we acknowledge our sinfulness and cry out for God’s mercy: “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned” (cf Psalm 51: 3). In our second reading, St. Paul explains that our plea for mercy has…
A voice proclaims: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low; The rugged land shall be a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. ~Isaiah 40:3-5 Jesus, prepare my heart for Your coming. Show me the…
The story of Zacchaeus climbing the tree to see Jesus reminds me of the story of the men who went around the crowd and opened the roof of a house so their friend could be healed (Mk 2:1-12). Or remember the woman who only touched Jesus’s clothes and was cured of her hemorrhage (Mk 5: 25-35)? What lengths people went to so Jesus might heal them! We might suppose that Zacchaeus subconsciously wanted to see…
The very first Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). In the Gospel passage of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14), the tax collector who “would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner’” (Luke 18:13) demonstrated that he was poor in spirit. In his humility, he was repentant and…
Have you heard of the term “affluenza”? It’s been defined as “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more” (Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic). Basically, the theory is that the need to consume and the desire to have more than others drive people who are financially well-off to a type of “sickness” where they don’t understand the consequences of their own actions due to their…
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?” (Lk 15:4). Thanks be to God for His mercy! If Jesus didn’t seek out His lost sheep, how many of us would be living in sinful ways? How much good would be left undone by us if He would have let us wander off…