A birthday is worth celebrating because it marks how we have grown from one year to the next. Birthdays give us the opportunity to remember and express our appreciation for those in our lives. Although this is uncommon, birthdays should also be an opportunity to express gratitude to our mothers who brought us into this world; a day like this is just as much a celebration of the mother as it is the child. In the Church, we will occasionally celebrate the Feast of someone’s Nativity if their birth played an integral role in Salvation History. One of thos Nativities celebrated belongs to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a day in which we should celebrate the life of Mary and express gratitude to her for making the most significant decision in the history of humanity by saying yes to the will of God in bearing Christ. Her Nativity is also a celebration for those who brought Mary into the world, specifically her mother Anne, whose holiness laid the foundation for the perfect holiness of her daughter.

In Scripture, there is no mention of the childhood of Mary. There is no mention of her own birth because the focus of the Gospel writers was to emphasize her true identity, namely as the mother of God. But we are not born immediately with the defining aspect of who we are; this is something we discover and grow into. Even Jesus had to grow in wisdom and strength in the sight of the Lord before he was ready to embark on his mission. Reflecting on this, it should make us quite curious who Mary was before the angel Gabriel appeared to her. What was her childhood like and what was it about her daily life in childhood that made her the perfect candidate to bring the Incarnate Word into this world? It is assumed that Mary was about 15 years old when Jesus was born, which gives us 15 years of real-world experience before she adopted her identity as the mother of God. All we know was that Mary was betrothed to Joseph, so in this life before Christ, she most likely lived in hopeful anticipation for the coming of the Messiah as most Jews did at this time. She oriented her life towards serving her community by getting betrothed, by praying ardently as a woman of faith, and by doing those mundane things that were expected of a young girl her age. Her calling to be the mother of God radically transformed the trajectory of her life, but it was something that she was meant for even at the moment of her conception. No one else could have risen to this responsibility; these 15 years were a period in which she was preparing for her role as the perfect mother.

33 years later, her son was put to death, resurrected from the dead, and ascended into Heaven. At this time, Mary was hardly the woman she was when Christ was born. After Christ, Mary seems to have used the pain and suffering she underwent during her son’s passion to feed the prayer life of the early Church. She must have recounted the steps her son took during the way of the cross, she must have reflected on holding his body as he was taken down, and she must have transformed her own passion into a focused prayer life that allowed the community of Christ’s followers to thrive. This is the life of the Church lived out perfectly in the person of Mary. Before Christ, from her nativity to the annunciation, Mary spent those years preparing for her role as mother. During the life of Christ, she kept those moments with her son in her heart so that she would one day share them with his Church. After Christ, she used her suffering to grow the Church through the light of the Resurrection. Mary is the Church personified. On her birthday, pray for her intercession that we model the Church today after her holy life in preparing for Christ, appreciating his presence, and transforming our suffering into love.

This Gospel passage focuses on Joseph, a figure who is crucial to the story of Christ’s coming, but who also may be overlooked in the Gospels considering how little detail there is about him. Joseph is a figure that serves two purposes for us when we read this story: he, unlike Mary, became Christ’s parent unknowingly and subsequently represents the more humble aspect of our human nature (as compared to the sinlessness and perfection of Mary), while at the same time revealing to us by his actions that he was willing to be a father figure to Christ and the prototypical “father” of the entire Church.

Although we have the important details of Joseph’s role in the story of Christ, there are many things that are overlooked. We know that Mary was young, likely a teenager, when she became betrothed to Joseph, who would have been much older. Considering that they were betrothed to be married, Joseph was merely following the customs of his culture and could not have possibly considered the consequences of choosing someone like Mary to marry. When Mary was revealed to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit, Joseph virtuously decided to quietly divorce her instead of making this information known to the public, which would have brought great dishonor to her and her family, and perhaps even public punishment. As everyday believers who sometimes find it difficult to relate to the perfection of Mary’s humanity, Joseph is someone who we can more easily empathize with in this situation. Imagine the emotional burden that must have been on him to learn of Mary’s pregnancy, but to still do the right thing by attempting to divorce her quietly. On the other hand, we can empathize with Mary, who risked being shunned for simply assenting to the request from God that she be the one through whom divinity would enter into the world. Just as much as the humble Joseph lived to serve Mary, Mary needed Joseph to welcome her into his home with open arms, to overlook any perceived societal flaws, and to recognize that she was not only someone worth marrying, but someone worth protecting as the embodiment of all that is good with the human race. 

According to some writing on Joseph’s decision to quietly divorce Mary, some have speculated that, instead of the divorce being a result of perceived infidelity, Joseph chose to part from Mary because he knew the scope of her holy role as Mother of God and that he felt unworthy to be the husband of such an honored and esteemed woman. God, however, desired that this specific man, Joseph, remain with Mary in order to serve as a father figure to the child Jesus. He came to Joseph in his dreams to ask Joseph to stay with her because He desired Joseph to be there for Christ. Joseph accepted this responsibility. There is no indication of how he might have felt after this dream. Was he nervous? Doubtful? Or did he have a complete change of heart and go back to Mary without a second thought? We may never know, but we do know that Joseph acted here in the same way that so many of our own father figures do: without a thought of himself, and with the best intentions for his family in mind. As Jesus’ father figure, Joseph formed him and showed him what it meant to be a father figure, which Christ expressed towards his own followers later on. But it began with Joseph trusting in God’s guidance and with his unending love for his spouse and the child to come.  

We are completely powerless without the grace of God. From the very beginning of human history up to the present age, we are constantly finding ourselves subject to the power of sin, either in our own free will or in struggles with our neighbors. The only way we can possibly fix this is not by any human means; we are only capable of overcoming sin and its effects when we completely give ourselves over to God, conform our will to His, and say yes to whatever He asks of us. In return, He merely makes His presence known among us. We spend our entire Christian lives preparing ourselves for the eventual manifestation of God in our midst. In Scripture, we are told by God Himself that He is already with us.

What does it look like for God to be in our midst? In Scripture, we repeatedly find three examples of how God makes His presence known among us, first in His promise (from the Old Testament), second in His followers and in His Church (In the New Testament), and third in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, God made man (In the Gospels). For example, consider Isaiah 7: the Lord speaks to Ahaz, the king of Judah (a descendant of David and an ancestor of Christ himself), and promises that He will give him a sign of his protection against his enemies. In his foolishness and under the impression that he is not worthy of such a sign, Ahaz turns down what God has to offer him and instead tries to depend on human strength. God, however, is insistent on this gift, though it will take hundreds of years for this gift to manifest: the sign is a child born to a virgin, who is given the name Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” Ahaz would have understood this to be a child born of his own time, but Emmanuel did not come into the world until Christ. God offers this promise to Ahaz despite the initial rejection; this is analogous to the way in which we continuously fall into sin, yet God is insistent on remaining available for us to be forgiven. Those of us who know we are forgiven and try to share the presence of God with others are actively living the Christian lifestyle; an example from the New Tetament epistles is Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome, telling them (and us today) that these Christians who remain faithful to acknowledging the presence of Christ are the actual body of Christ manifested in his Church. We are the presence of Christ to the world in our faithfulness. God is in the world and with His sinful people through us, the Church. Eventually, the promise is fulfilled in the acceptance of Mary. Mary assented to her calling and said yes when all other humans (like Ahaz) said no. In that moment, with her words, “may it be done unto me according to His word,” Jesus Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, soon to be born to a virgin, fulfilling the promise made immediately after the Fall of man. Finally, God is with us. 

The focus of this Gospel passage is not necessarily the annunciation, but the reception of such a monumental moment from the perspective of Joseph. In a very real way, Joseph was the first member of the Church who had to learn about Christ’s arrival. Upon learning of it from the angel of the Lord, it is written that Joseph “took his wife into his home.” Mary held Salvation within her womb and Joseph brought both the Christ and the Christ-bearer into his home. We are asked to do the same; even in this moment when it is not outwardly apparent that God is with us, we emulate Joseph if we invite Him into our lives. He will come soon, now it is our duty to prepare a place within ourselves for Him.

Joseph must be one of our primary models as we try to navigate life through the Christian faith. There have been plenty of great and powerful saints throughout the history of the Church, but Joseph has a particularly special place in our history. He was the one who God chose to be the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was the one who God chose to raise Jesus according to the customs and traditions of the Jewish faith. Through Joseph, Christ is linked back to God’s promise of the Messiah to David. Through Joseph, Mary was protected through her pregnancy. Joseph wasn’t just a father figure to Jesus Christ, he is a father figure to all believers in more ways than one. 

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he explains that the Law was passed on to the Jews as the means by which they should ordinarily live their daily lives (this still applies to believers today). But the father of Judaism and the catalyst of all believers, Abraham, did not have this Law when God chose him to be the father of many nations. All Abraham had at the time was his faith and the power to assent to God’s will. It was because of his faith, not how closely he followed the Law, that Abraham was chosen for this role. This is the same situation for Joseph because he proved to God his faith over his emotions. As he was betrothed to Mary, we can deduce quite easily that he must have loved her deeply; imagine the pain and confusion he experienced upon learning of Mary’s pregnancy. According to the Law, it was completely within his right to turn Mary over and to have her stoned to death. Instead, his love for her motivated him to divorce her quietly for her sake. It was because of this loving action, not a dependence on the Law to carry out his emotions, that God propositioned him to be the protective father figure of the savior of all mankind. It was an act of faith that led Joseph to take on this role, and he is remembered in heaven and on earth as the great fatherly saint.

There is one word we must equate with Joseph: fatherhood. He was a father of faith, chosen by God to be the arbiter of the mystery of God Incarnate, which superseded the Law of justice with God’s providence and mercy. Although God acted outside of the Law to bring the Savior into this world, that same Savior was taught by his foster father and raised with the Law, and worked with it to spread a message of hope and salvation to the world. Today, we should see Joseph in our priests, who are father figures of our parishes and churches, and whose love and faith for the Church allow them to form us in the Law while still offering us the mystery of the altar. We should thank Joseph everyday for being a model to our priests and for assenting to God’s will to be the father figure of our Christian faith.

Before the darkness of night gives way to the light of day, things are hardly visible. We use the old adage, “it is always darkest before the dawn,” because it is true; it is as if darkness does not want to give up its position to the rising sun. But as the sun rises in the sky and darkness subsides, its brilliance in contrast to the deep darkness that preceded it gives light and vision for the rest of the day. When the Greeks would look up into the sky and see the arrival of the sun, they would call it epipháneia - “an appearance.” They would use this term whenever something suddenly appeared, whether that was an enemy rising from the horizon towards them, a deity to share with them a divine message, or the dawn welcoming a new day. When they stayed alert to what was happening around them, the appearance of something that stood out was described as an epiphany. 

We usually use the word epiphany today to describe an idea that pops up in our heads that completely changes the way we approach something. In the context of the Gospel, though, the word “epiphany” takes on a much more special meaning. In the Church, we celebrate the great feast of the Epiphany: the moment that humanity as a collective recognized the appearance of our Savior, and completely changed the way we approached our relationship with God. The Epiphany is marked by the appearance of magi who come from a distant land to pay homage to the newborn Christ. These magi are fascinating and complex characters in the study of Scripture. They are not Jews, but feel the urge to approach the land of the Jews to pay homage to a Jewish child. They read the stars in the sky to guide them towards him. They gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which prefigured Christ’s identity as priest, prophet, and king. 

If the Epiphany is the appearance of our Savior, then the Magi are the ones who we must look to in order to understand how he appeared. The Magi were not the first visitors to the child; this privilege belonged to the nearby Jewish shepherds. But just as God first revealed Himself through His chosen people before extending His grace to all on earth, the Magi affirm that the saving power of Jesus Christ is not limited to any one group, but to all who approach him. Just as the Greeks recognized the appearance of dawn, the Magi looked into the sky and recognized the appearance of the Light of the Earth by means of a star. This prefigures Jesus instructing us to pay close attention to the signs of his last coming. Lastly, the Magi recognized Christ for who he truly was: a priest, a prophet, and a king. We must also recognize this in order to understand how he reveals himself to us. For now, we simply celebrate that he has finally appeared.

The Liturgical Calendar ends with the celebration of the Feast of Christ the King, recognizing that in the end, Christ ultimately triumphs over sin and death and establishes his glory throughout all of creation. When the Liturgical Calendar begins again, we move into the season of Advent, preparing for the coming of Christ as a child born into a human world. There is literally nothing more humble or vulnerable than a newborn baby, especially one born into poverty like Christ. In this state of humility, we may have difficulty in recognizing his glory and divinity, yet over a month later, we celebrate and remembere that there were other rulers with power of their own who came to adore the Christchild and to recognize his power over all the world. 

The magi came to Bethlehem from the East to offer Christ gifts fit for a king. By all accounts, these magi were individuals who had tremendous authority and influence in their own distant lands. Considering the amount of energy, resources, and time they put into seeking after the Christchild, the predicted coming of this newborn king of the Jews must have been read in the stars by them and their people long before Christ’s actual birth. We can imagine the surprise that they must have felt upon arriving in Jerusalem and discovering that the current king was unaware of such a birth. They must have been even more surprised to discover that the star which led them to the newborn king was indicating the child who could be found in a feeding trough for animals in a cave outside the comforts of the city. The Magi teach us a valuable lesson here: for generations, they and their people were preparing for the birth of the king of kings. When the time arrived, they dedicated themselves to travel great distances to find him. When every indication they had pointed to someone unexpected, they changed their expectations rather than reject the possibility of a humble child being this promised king. How often do we ignore what God offers to us because it is not what we expected? How many people became complicit in the death of Christ because he was not who they expected? This was never an issue for the Magi; instead, they trusted in what they knew were proper calculations and genuine signs from God. They offered this poor and humble newborn gifts fit for a king - gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold for an earthly king, Frankincense for a priest who will offer the ultimate sacrifice, and Myrrh for the one who is anointed, the Prophet, the Messiah, the Christ. God will reveal Himself to you in unexpected ways. Do not ignore Him simply because it is not what you expected; rather, conform yourself to His method of communication, and you will be blessed with the gift of being called one of His own. 

The most significant lesson to be learned from the Magi though is that they were promised to us as people of God. The prophet Isaiah tells Jerusalem that “the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.” In Christ, in his Church, and in the Blessed Sacrament, we have the greatest treasure ever known to the world. All the people of the earth will flock to what is of most value; they did when Christ was born, and they will today. As stewards and guardians of this treasure within the Church, we must cherish it and protect it so that when others come to recognize and adore it, it will be ready to be shared with them.

When we sin against God, we are always hurting someone else by our actions. The victims of any sin do not deserve to be victimized, but still suffer from the results of someone’s selfish decision nonetheless. The root of all sin is a selfish pride that blinds us to the pain of others. The selfishness of sin blinds us from recognizing empathy. When we look at the birth of Christ, which king Herod felt threatened by, we also recognize a great injustice towards those who were most innocent, undeserving of their fate: all boys in the area of Bethlehem younger than two were put to death because one man wanted to hold onto his own power. 

We recognize these boys as special martyrs in the Church - the Holy Innocents, who were put to death because of selfishness, but which allowed Christ to continue towards his mission on earth. We are not sure how many individuals would have been killed in this massacre, but we must recognize that Jesus was inextricably linked to this horrific event. There is one belief that as Christ suffered in the garden of Gethsemane before his arrest, Satan attempted to dissuade him from going through with his passion and death by any means necessary, including guilt. According to this belief, Satan accused Christ of being responsible for the deaths of the Holy Innocents, who only died because of the prophecies of the Magi about Christ. On a very disordered level, this might make sense; if it were not for the birth of Jesus Christ, these young boys would have survived. However, every Christian can see the flaw in this rationale. It was ultimately Herod and his selfishness that caused these boys to die, not anyone else. Additionally, through the pain and suffering that must have arisen due to the murder of these boys, God extracted something far greater and far more beautiful for which these boys sacrificed their lives: the salvation of humanity through the mission of Christ. 

Even if we are able to recognize the flaws of Satan’s accusation, we may still try to guilt God in the same way that Satan might have guilted Christ about the Holy Innocents in the garden, especially when we are in an emotional state. When we suffer, it is all too common for us to blame God for allowing us to experience harm or suffering brought about by the selfishness of another person. But we know that God only permits the painful results of sin out of respect for free will and to extract much greater things out of our suffering. The Holy Innocents were victims of senseless, selfish sin, but in their martyrdom, they teach us a very valuable lesson: regardless of our suffering at the hands of others, God will make all things new. He will soon wipe every tear from our eyes, and bring light to the darkness. We pray that the Holy Innocents may intercede for us in asking God for the virtue of hope in times of despair.

From the very beginning of his life, Christ experienced persecution at the hands of sinful and selfish humans. His entrance into the world was a victory for every soul from the past, at that moment, and in the future, but as human beings, we can sometimes ignore the significance of the ultimate victory over sin and death by emphasizing instead the importance of the present moment and the temporary things that comprise it. When the savior of the human race, God made Man, came into this world, his life was threatened when Herod considered the birth of Christ to be a threat to his own temporal authority. Christ was forced to flee to Egypt with his parents, and many innocent babies were slaughtered as a result. These were the first souls to die for the sake of Christ; in Christianity, there is no greater sign of holiness than this. 

Their massacre was the clearest expression of human cruelty, and their deaths were completely due to the personal free choice of a single man who was so insecure about the limits of his human power that he exercised everything he could to hold onto it for merely a few more years until his own death. These souls are the epitome of innocent victims. When those who are innocent become victims of cruel behavior, a natural response for many is to wonder how God could allow such horrific things to happen to those who deserve it the least. St. Thomas Aquinas answered this question in tremendous detail, but encapsulated his thoughts into one statement: God permits bad things to happen so that He may extract a greater good out of our sinful choices. The deaths of the Holy Innocents was due to the choice of Herod. However, Herod must have assumed that the child whom the magi visited was counted among the slaughtered; as Christ remained exiled in Egypt, he was protected from what would have happened to him had he remained in Bethlehem. Had that happened, he would not have been able to offer the perfect sacrifice on the cross for us - the persecution of innocent souls marked the beginning of Christ’s entrance into this world, so that he as the Most Holy Innocent victim could live a life of sacrificial love from beginning to end. 

There is a favorite saying among the faithful that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. The blood of the Holy Innocents, the first martyrs, was the seed of the public life of Christ, the very foundation of the Church. These few drops enabled salvation to be expressed in its fullness through the life of Christ. This is not just in terms of enabling Christ to live long enough to preach and to be put to death; the story of the Holy Innocents ought to call to mind the story of the first Passover, when the blood of the lamb was placed on the doors of the Israelites and the firstborn male child of the Egyptians was killed by the angel of death. The death of innocent young children, from the sons of Egypt to the sons of Bethlehem, seems cruel and unnecessary. But there are two victims in both stories: the Innocents and the Lamb. Both the Innocents and the Lamb are killed so that the people of God may be strengthened to carry on their journey home to God. Christ was safe from the massacre of the Innocents so that he could carry out the sacrifice on the cross when his time came. Just as it was in his situation as an infant, his sacrifice on the cross keeps us safe so that we may be ready when our own time comes and we are led where we do not want to go. We venerate the Holy Innocents in gratitude. The blood of the Innocents prefigured the blood that flowed from the side of Christ when the Church was established on the cross. We are both cleansed and prepared by this blood of the innocent.

With the birth of Christ, humanity was not just introduced to its salvation from the offering of the Heavenly Father. While it is true that Christ came into this world in order to conquer sin and death, he also came to empower us to participate in this victory, regardless of how distant we are in time from his birth and his resurrection. One of the most important things that Christ came to do was to establish his Church on earth so that we can continue to be a part of his Mystical Body, to participate in his sacrifice, and to perfect what it means to be a human being. The Church itself took him his entire life to establish so that it would be perfect; after all, it is how we unite ourselves to our Heavenly Bridegroom, and just as a husband and wife work up to the consummation of their union, Christ made sure to take his time before establishing his union with us. The moment the Church came to be was on the cross, immediately after Christ had given up his spirit, and he was pierced in his side. Like Adam at creation, what came from his side was his Bride, though in the physical form of blood and water. 

This moment was the culmination of 33 years that Jesus spent on earth. The vessel through which he offers salvation to the world, the whole point of the Incarnation, is the Church. But we know that Christ had his heart set on the establishment of his Church long before this scene in the Gospel. Consider his words to Peter when he told him that upon the “Rock” of the great saint he would build his Church. The Church had yet to be established, but Christ chose a very simple and even flawed human being to be the foundation for it. The word Church is a unique thing in the time of Christ; we have a good understanding of what the Church is only because Christ chose to use this word to describe the purpose of his work on earth. The Greek word Ekklesia referred to a community of people gathered for a common goal. In Christ, this was not a mere community but an extension and an embodiment of his own Being. Where would Christ have learned this concept? How did he formulate the idea of a tight-knit community built around the worship of the Father through the Son? It’s quite clear - his own earthly family was the prototype for the Universal Church. The moment of Christ’s birth was not just the moment when God came into this world. It was also the establishment of the Holy Family in its fullness. There existed a selfless husband who gave everything up for the sake of his bride in Joseph and a perfect wife who obeyed and served her spouse in Mary, but it was only through Christ that Joseph became the guardian of salvation and Mary became the Mother of God.

The modern family ought to be a reflection of the Holy Family. The Catholic Church has rightly defined the family as the “domestic Church.” Within it, you have a father and a husband who provides for the family as a whole, just as Joseph did for the Holy Family, and just as priests do for the Church. Within the family, you have a wife and mother who cradles, embraces, and forms her children to be properly prepared for going out into the world, just as Mary did in the Holy Family, and just as the Mother Church does for us, her children. Within the family, you have children who take what was first offered to them perfectly and selflessly by their parents and then share it with the world - Christ took the formation he received from Mary and Joseph and let it guide his public ministry. As a Church, we are called to emulate Christ precisely in this way; take the formation you received as a child of the Church, and spread it to the world. At the heart of this mission is Christ himself. It is in this way in which we attain salvation and offer it to others.

Advent is a time when we should be focusing on going to the Lord, asking for forgiveness for our sins, and preparing for his coming. As followers of Christ, though, we have the unique understanding that the concepts of our faith that matter most, such as the mentality of Advent, can be lived out and experienced through physical, tangible things. From the simple fact that the intangible God made Himself tangible through the human person of Jesus Christ to the fact that the same Christ remained with his followers in a physical way through the Eucharist, we can see just how important the material world can be to our understanding of the faith. In the same way, God deemed it fitting that the nature of Advent (preparing for Christ) be personified in a real, human person - Saint John the Baptist.

God opened Himself up to be accepted by humanity in steps. First, He set apart Israel as His chosen people, to be the recipients of His presence in order to leave an indelible mark on humanity through a human community. It was through this chosen nation that God sent His Son into the world as a descendant of David and as the “shoot sprouting from the stump of Jesse”. But Christ came into this world to call upon all nations to be his chosen people should they accept. We knew this would happen. We knew Christ would come into the world and sanctify the world through those who answered the call. We heard this message from all of the prophets in Old Testament time. In this Gospel passage, we are introduced to the last and the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist. Like all prophets, John came with a message of warning to the people of Israel - that the coming of the Son of God was soon at hand, and therefore preparation and repentance were crucial before then. But John had the unique role of both preparing the way of the Lord, as prophesied 700 years earlier by Isaiah, and by introducing the world to Christ’s public ministry. It was not until Christ was baptized by John that he began to preach the Gospel message; therefore, if we are to consider John the Baptist as the personification of the season of Advent and the act of preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord, we ought to learn from John exactly what the real meaning of Advent is: we know Christ, we acknowledge Christ and his true identity, and we send the message of Christ out into the world. Advent is preparation for Christ’s coming. Christ is here. We are the instruments that God chooses to use to reveal the presence of Christ to the world. Christ walked among the crowds long before John baptized him, but it was only after this baptism that Christ made his presence known. In the spirit of Advent, we ought to be like John, preaching a message of repentance and preparation, then sharing Christ to the world. 

Ultimately, the season of Advent is uniting us to the people of Israel in the Old Testament through the continuity of Salvation History; just as they anxiously awaited the coming of the Messiah, we are anxiously awaiting the return of the same figure, the Son of Man. This unity is seen perfectly in the personification of Advent in John the Baptist: the role of the prophets in the Old Testament was to prepare the way of the Lord. As the last and greatest of these prophets, John bridged the Old with the New. Just like John did in baptizing Christ, when we share the message of Christ, we unite the world, past and present, under a common anticipation for the Lord.

The Baptism of the Lord is certainly one of the most mysterious moments in the life of Christ. It is monumentally significant, given the fact that it is through this moment that Christ begins his public ministry and begins establishing the everlasting expression of his own identity as the Word to the world; the public ministry of Christ is what leads the evangelists to compile the stories for their respective gospels, and which introduced them to the person of Christ and revealed to them that he was both the long-awaited Messiah and the Son of God. We must put all emphasis on the fact that this was the moment Christ chose to initiate his public ministry. Even more mysterious, though, was the act itself; baptism was a recognition of one’s own remorse and repentance, precisely the thing that Christ did not need to undergo at all. Yet, he walks in the steps of his people out of solidarity with them and uses it as the sign to “go public” with his identity. 

There are occasional traditions outside of the Gospel about the ministry of John the Baptist and the actions of Jesus before his baptism. Through the Gospels, we are kept in the dark on what exactly happened between the finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple at age 12 and his Baptism around the age of 30. In these extra-biblical traditions, though, the ministry of John the Baptist became intense and frequent right before the arrival of the “Lamb of God.” John knew that the one for whom he was preparing the way was soon at hand. Meanwhile, Christ would recommend and instruct those whom he encountered to go to John to be baptized; if these traditional accounts are true in any aspect, Christ put much emphasis on the act of John’s Baptism. However, John’s Baptism was not like ours; we were cleansed from our Original Sin by being baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, but John’s baptism imparted no such grace. It was an outward expression of interior repentance, but something still meaningful was found within the symbolism of such a ritual. When the appointed time came, Christ went to the Jordan River to undergo what he might have instructed countless others to do - to be baptized by the great baptizer. John’s response to being asked to baptize the one who Saves is appropriate: how could it be that the Savior be baptized by one who needs saving? We are certainly familiar with the events that transpired at Christ’s Baptism, but we often neglect Christ’s response to John’s amazement at the situation: “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” 

Why now? Why is his baptism necessary to fulfill all righteousness? Who is he referring to when he says “us”? This was the time that God had preordained for the world to come to recognize the divinity of Christ for the first time. He revealed this through His fullness in the Holy Trinity - in the voice of the Father, the personhood of the Son, and the presence of the Spirit. He wanted to show that baptism is the way in which we are brought as closely as possible to Him in His fullness, which is why we must be baptized in these three names. Christ didn’t need to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness, but the fulfillment of all righteousness is something that he deemed necessary to invite us into; in that sense, our baptisms are necessary to fulfill all righteousness. It is fitting for all of us, through baptism, to fulfill all righteousness - the “us” refers to the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist, the one who baptizes, the one who is baptized, and you. It is all of us who participate in the mystery. Christ chose this to be a monumental mystery in his life because it is something for us - a gift through shared participation. 

When God became Man in the Incarnation, He desired to be human in every way possible in order to be in solidarity with His Creation. It was the ultimate act of love; rather than setting expectations for our behavior from above, He came down to us in order to set a concrete and tangible example of how to perfect our humanity. The most special detail about the life of Christ is that he did not do anything that we are incapable of doing: the power to heal was given to his disciples, the ability to perform miracles was established within his Church, the teaching authority was handed over to the leaders of his Church, and the opportunity to express love in its fullest form through sacrifice and death was lived out and is continued to be lived out by his great saints. He even invites us to participate in his victory over death by taking up our crosses and following him. Through Christ, and only through Christ, we are capable of reaching the fullest potential of our humanity.

Christ’s solidarity with his sinful people is best realized in his action of undergoing baptism; there was no need for him to do so since there was no reason for him to repent. But just as it was in his death, he underwent the act of being baptized with us and for us. The meeting of all three Persons of the Trinity at this moment culminates in the words of the Father descending from the heavens: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Just as Christ’s humanity reveals to us the potential we can reach through the power of God, these words from the Father are not just directed to the person of Jesus Christ; they were directed to every person who chooses to undergo the promise of baptism, to turn themselves over to Christ, and to obey God in all they do. Obviously, this is not an easy task with the temptations of sin around us throughout our lives. But we must remind ourselves what Christ did after baptism - he did not begin preaching, nor did he start proclaiming his identity as Messiah, but rather went into the wilderness alone for 40 days simply to pray for strength in the ministry he was about to embark on. Every year, we have the opportunity as Christians to place ourselves in solidarity with Christ for those 40 days through the season of Lent. When we enter into that penitential season, we are encouraged by those words from heaven: we are the beloved sons and daughters of the Most High, and He is well pleased with us. We then go into the “wilderness” of penance, sacrifice, prayer, and fasting throughout the season of Lent to gain a clearer picture of our own individual ministries, primarily by ridding ourselves of the distractions of this world and working up to what awaits us at the end.

Jesus went into the wilderness to pray. His prayers were always intimate conversations he had with his Father; they revealed to him his mission and the sufferings he would undergo. He resisted the temptations of the world around him, he was ministered to by the angels, and he fasted, not only for the sins of the world but also for the strength to express his love for his people in a pure and perfect manner. God expressed His solidarity with us by accompanying us on earth as one of us. Lent is the perfect opportunity for us to reciprocate that solidarity by joining Christ in those 40 days, praying to our Father, ridding ourselves from distractions, and strengthening ourselves so that we may also be there for him at the end of Lent as he goes to the cross for us. Christ has revealed that to live in love is very demanding and requires sacrifice, but this is the perfection of human nature. Lent gives us this perfect opportunity.

Every aspect of our humanity grows off of those same aspects we find and learn from other people. If we desire to become more knowledgeable, we seek the guidance of those who are already knowledgeable. If we desire to become more skilled in an area, we seek after the advice of those who are already skilled in that area. Every single one of us has come across a person or persons whose words, deeds, or ideas captivated us and urged us to follow them. Our entire personalities may be defined as an amalgamation of all of the ideas of our most significant role models. This is how it should be. If we find the right people and listen to them, recognize our limitations and our room for growth, and actively put in the effort to form ourselves into more complete individuals, we will become something entirely unique while at the same time taking the best of others and manifesting it in one person.

Jesus was human, and it is necessary for us to understand that he needed others to form his behavior in certain ways. Although his divine nature allowed him to perfect his human nature, his human nature was built up by those around him, and especially those whom he admired. There is no question that the individual who had the greatest effect on Jesus during this formation process was John the Baptist. In the Gospels, it appears that Jesus was a follower of the message of John. In this Gospel passage, it explicitly tells us that Jesus carried on preaching John’s specific message once John was imprisoned. Where this story deviates from our own stories of formation is that John’s original message was about Jesus: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” referred to the fact that Jesus was at hand. Usually, the ideas or messages of others captivate us because they open our eyes to the possibility of participating in something greater than ourselves. For Jesus, to preach his own presence to the world was the greatest thing any follower could hope to participate in. 

This passage, however, speaks about more than what distances Christ’s disposition from ours; rather, it allows us to empathize with him from a place of humanity. The man he most admired, whose message stirred him to action, has been silenced and swept away from those who could hear his message. If we place ourselves in Jesus’ position here, it is heartbreaking. But Jesus uses this as an opportunity to advance John’s message. Even though John was silenced, imprisoned, and eventually put to death, his message lived on in the teachings of Christ in a much more profound way. Those ideas that stir us to change our lives never die when we use them as means by which we live our lives. If these ideas are true and good, they will never die, even when those who promote them are silenced. 

The influence and power of Christ’s presence was enough to cause some men to leave all they knew behind just so that they could follow him. Unlike ours, the words of Christ were perfect in their expression of the thoughts and desires of God - Christ wasn’t just the Son of God, he was the Word of God, the fullest expression of divinity according to our senses. This Word was far more powerful, far more appealing, and far more meaningful than what other humans can express in their speech. We must remind ourselves that the story of Christ, his life as expressed in the Gospels and the proclamation of this Word at Mass, is the real and true presence of God among us. 

The message of Christ’s public ministry was not just mercy and compassion; it was love expressed through the warning words of a prophet. John the Baptist went throughout Israel, baptizing people and preaching that the Kingdom of God was near. When John the Baptist was arrested and his public ministry was put on hold, Christ began to go out more openly, preaching a similar message. However, Christ was the Kingdom of God that John was warning people about and preparing the way for. As Matthew tells us in this Gospel passage, Jesus’ message was “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Kingdom was finally here because God, out of love, gave it to us. In order to participate in His Kingdom, though, we need to repent for our sins. This is what Christ, and John the Baptist before him, so desperately wanted the people to hear. Some heard it and followed it, but others didn’t. Some continue to hear the words of the Gospel today but actively reject them. Christ and the morality and spirituality he preached are inseparable; unlike us sinful humans who may say one thing and think another, this did not exist in Christ. His Word was perfect and precisely expressed what it was he wanted the world to know about him, His Father, and their love for us. For those who kept their hearts open to the Word of God, hearing it as it spoke to them was a direct encounter with the divine. The Word said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once, they left their entire livelihoods behind so that they could follow him and serve him. When we read the Gospel or when we experience the Word of God at Mass, are our hearts stirred in the same way as those Apostles? It should. If not, we are keeping our hearts only slightly ajar in the case there is  something else we might want to pursue. Christ cannot enter into our hearts if we are not entirely open like the Apostles. If you treat the Word of God as divinity itself expressed perfectly through Christ, you will find that this is the way to communicate to God. This is how we speak to Him, which all of us so desperately want to do. Through His Word, He speaks back to us. Listen to Him. Read the Scriptures and find out what God is trying to express to you.

The Word of God and the message of Christ is one. It is undivided, with no room for division within it; through the Gospels, we do not have Christ’s opinions and thoughts on every single thing that causes division within Christianity today, but the Church has carefully constructed her official teachings around the original Word of the Gospel. Christ continues to speak to us today and make his Word known throughout the world through his Church. We must listen to what is being told to us both through the Gospel and through the Church so that we can remain obedient and open to the message Christ wants us to hear.

How should faithful Catholics carry themselves? Who within the story of the Gospels is most indicative of what it means to be a Catholic? Among all of the individuals who followed Christ, we can find different aspects of the Christian life: in Peter, we find listening to the Holy Spirit. In Mary Magdalene, we find undying loyalty. In the Virgin Mary, we find perfect holiness. In even smaller figures, such as the widow who gives all she has in the form of two small coins or the centurion who asks for the healing of Christ for his servant, we find total charity and faithfulness. When you put all of these individuals together, you get a perfect Catholic, someone who we are all called to be in living out our faith. This was no mistake nor was it at all coincidental: Jesus chose these people to be our models. 

Jesus’ choices for his followers is particularly important to us because he is indirectly telling us that these are who we ought to model ourselves after. However, those men who we are particularly aware of being chosen by Christ are very mysterious. When it comes down to it, we actually know very, very little about the twelve Apostles. We hear about the calling of some of them, the actions of even fewer, and some hardly anything. If these men are so important that Christ would choose them to be the main figures to spread his message, why do we not know very much about them? These men are merely the messengers, and the mystery behind who they are proves to us two things: first, evangelization and spreading the Gospel is not about us. Second, we are reminded of the importance of tradition, rather than merely Scripture, to reveal to us the formation of our Church. This Church was built upon the foundation of Peter, who was uniquely set apart by Christ for this role. How did the vicar of Christ and the leader of the Church after Christ come to encounter his Lord? Tradition (and the Gospel of John) tells us that it was through his brother, Andrew, that Peter met Jesus. Andrew knew and followed Christ and led his brother to his fate as the first Pope by introducing him to Christ. In his very essence as a figure in the Church, Andrew embodies the element of our Catholic identity that we might sometimes forget: we are meant to lead people to Christ and to do so humbly and hiddenly. 

Peter was without question a great and powerful leader for the Church through his decision to follow the Lord to his death. He was famously crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die in a similar manner to Christ, a powerful testament to his particular role as first Pope. Andrew, a humble man whom we know little about in comparison, was the one who led Peter to this moment. It was because of Andrew that Peter met Christ, was given the keys to the kingdom, and the Church was established. Andrew died in like manner through crucifixion, though his cross was in the shape of an X. This is just as powerful an image and a testament to Andrew’s role as a “middle-man” between Christ and Peter, as the orientation of his own cross was somewhere between the two. Andrew embodies this identity as a connecting point between the world and Christ. Like Andrew, we are meant to be that connection between those we love and Christ. On this feast of Saint Andrew, remind yourself of what is possible for those whom you introduce to Christ; they could be future saints. You are merely asked to be that messenger. Share the gift of Christ with humility and hiddenness, and God will see.

What does it take for us to be happy? In the modern age, we understand happiness to be making ourselves content. Even if this is fleeting, we define our happiness by contentment, which can easily be attained through wealth, material possession, or any type of selfishness. However, this was never how human beings in the past considered happiness. The ancient Greeks used a word for happiness, makarios, which was a far more substantial expression of what it meant to be happy; the Latin translation of this word was beatitudo, which we translate into English as blessedness. Throughout human history, we have known deep down that to be happy is to do what makes us blessed. In this Gospel passage, Jesus outlines exactly how we are able to do so.

When Jesus Christ gave his Sermon on the Mount, the greatest expression of his earthly teaching, he encapsulated the instruction he gave through a list of exhortations meant to radically change the way we seek out lasting goodness in our lives. The beatitudes are not just a recommendation on how to live or how to treat those around us; they are promises that those who undergo the trials and difficulties of these beatitudes will be rewarded with true happiness. On the surface, the beatitudes seem completely irrational: who wants to be poor in spirit? Who wants to mourn? Who wants to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness? Who wants to be insulted and persecuted? In fact, the complete opposite of all of these beatitudes are precisely the things that modern culture and society tell us will make us content. We want to win, we want to conquer nature, we want freedom from pain, we want justice, success, honor, and long and healthy lives. There is nothing necessarily wrong with these things, but they are fleeting. Christ spent his entire public ministry moving from crowd to crowd out of a sense of pity for them due to their suffering and how they lived. His solution, though, was not to comfort them with little things that bring about temporary contentment. He didn’t put an end to their mourning or their pain or their humble positions in the world. Instead, Christ offered to them something that was lasting and that would make them blessed in the eyes of their Creator: he offered them the kingdom of Heaven, an inheritance, true satisfaction, mercy, the ability to see God, and the gift of being called children of God, all these being accessible precisely through that from which we seek relief. Christ knew what the human heart was actually hungering for in those crowds because it was through him that the Father created the Heavens and the Earth and all that exists within it. It was through the Word of God, made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, who created human beings and the human will. He knows that contentment is not enough for us; we need to seek out blessedness. Through the beatitudes, he taught us exactly how to do it. 

The message of Christ is utterly simple, but it is also counterintuitive. When the world offers you freedom from hardship and pain, you will naturally want to accept alleviation. However, the beatitudes speak to us that there are moments when hard work, virtue, and even suffering that we put into our lives can produce good fruits for those around us and for ourselves. It seems counterintuitive because it is perfectly selfless. To give up things for yourself can only benefit others. If this is how Christ wants us to understand true happiness, then we can be assured that true happiness is only possible through serving our neighbors. Happiness is a fruit of real and true love, to will the good of another, to offer up your comfort and contentment for their sake. Christ did it for us, and we should do the same for our neighbors.

At one point in history, cities and towns were built up around a common church. The church served as the base for all important life events, as a means to keep time by the ringing of the bells, as somewhere people could announce important messages, and as the lifeblood of the community. A church never served these many functions because it was a pleasant looking building in the center of town; any building could have been built up for this purpose. The church became the heart of the community because the people who lived within its boundaries understood that the purpose of the church, specifically the Mass and the conferral of sacraments, was the source and purpose of everything done in life. It united the community, gave them a common purpose, rooted out individualism and selfishness, and multiplied those things that became hallmarks of civilization, such as culture, art, and philosophy.

What is at the center of our communities in the modern age? Quite frankly, nothing. Communities no longer exist in the way they did in the past. The communities of today are not based on boundaries or geography, but loosely on ideology and interests. We don’t know our neighbors anymore, and the use of technologies such as cars or virtual meetings eliminate the possibility of us running into new people to meet. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with joining a pop-up community of like-minded people, the necessity of a close-knit community in which we live is no longer felt. In the past, the community included people that some may have liked and did not like, people who shared similarities and people who were different. But the citizens of these communities needed each other for survival. A town needed farmers, doctors, businessmen, priests, teachers, all living in extremely close proximity to each other. Like a family, they could not separate themselves from each other because of mere disagreements. They needed something to focus on beyond themselves, a focus that they could share even with those they did not enjoy being around. Faith played this role. The church gave hope and light to a community. And this was not simply a practical thing; the presence of Christ in a community made the community unified out of a common love for something beyond themselves.

The Church could serve the exact same purpose in the world today. However, it is no longer the case that cities and communities are built around a physical church building. Now, the Church is experienced in the communities of the world through its members. As Christians, we are the Church that can reunify our communities. As Christ says in this Gospel passage, we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. But what purpose do we serve if we, the Church, lose our flavor but still call ourselves “the Church”? What purpose do we serve if we hide what illuminates us? We can only be considered true followers of Christ if we desire that the world loves and accepts Christ in the same way we do. The world, made up of individual communities no longer united in anything substantial, can only accept Christ if we share him with them. As individual members of the Church, we are powerless without each other. We are powerless without the church building, the sacraments, and the Mass. If we truly desire unity, we must go back to the one thing that unified all people regardless of distance, age, nationality, interests, or anything else: to love and to serve Jesus Christ.

Gift-giving is a central theme of Christianity: the Father gave His only Son for us, the Son gave up His life for us, we are asked to give our entire selves back to God, and we are asked to give our entire selves for the sake of our neighbors. The purest expression of love is to give and expect nothing in return, and in the context of Christianity, we are not just gift-givers but also gift-receivers. The gift we have received, namely Jesus Christ in both his body and in his Word, is not meant to be retained or hidden, but to be shared with the entire world. We are loved because we have received from God. We love by giving the gift of God to our neighbor and the gift of ourselves back to God.

We are not just recipients of a gift from God; we are also gifts ourselves, instruments that God has chosen to express His love to others besides us. Hopefully, you might consider the people who you care about most in your life as gifts to you. God placed them in your life and they have made you a better person. You are also a gift to other people, but part of this immense honor is a certain amount of responsibility - you must make sure that you are the best gift you can possibly be. In this Gospel passage, Christ calls his followers the “salt of the earth.” Christ is sharing his followers to the world, which includes you; but when you go out into the world and you have lost your flavor or your zeal or your passion for the message you were sent out to share, you become unpalatable. It does not matter what words come out of your mouth or what you claim to be preaching, your words will not be received if it is not backed up by an unquestionable authenticity and love for your role as both gift and gift-giver. As we live in a post-Christian society, we can see first-hand how many in the world today are rejecting the gift of Christ; we know that it could not possibly be because Christ is not worth having or receiving. The problem lies in the way in which we share the gift. If we do not share Christ with both love (expressed in kindness and truth) and passion (expressed in our excitement and our constant desire to live by his example), he will not be received by those with whom we want to share him. People respond to passion and love because it is written in our nature as human beings. We recieve this from God Himself: in the book of Revelation, Christ instructs John of Patmos to share a message to the Church in Laodicea, saying, “I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot… So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” The best gifts, those which are most memorable, are those with flavor, with passion, with zeal, with love. Love is not boring. It is not flavorless and it cannot be expressed with any amount of indifference. Love can be both hot and cold because it is an expression of care, but it is never lukewarm. Our gift of love to the world, the gift of Christ, must never lose its flavor. 

The “salt of the earth” title also implies that it is the followers of Christ who also flavor the world around them. Sharing Christ requires passion and zeal in our evangelization efforts, but the entire world becomes listless, boring, and flavorless without knowing the Word by which it came into existence. Our survival as humanity depends on a knowledge of and a relationship with Jesus Christ. The world cannot know Christ unless he is shared with others through his followers. We must be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, illuminating the work of God and attracting our neighbors so that all may learn the passion, zeal, and love that comes naturally with a proper understanding of Jesus Christ.

How does one go about in the world proving that they are wise and intelligent? Well first, to actively attempt to try to prove your wisdom and intelligence most likely indicates that these are areas you need to work on; intelligence is expressed in your problem-solving, but wisdom is expressed in your humility. Those who are truly wise would understand that they do not need to prove their wisdom or their intelligence because it is evident in the way they carry themselves. But why would you want to prove to the world that you are wise and intelligent? Because it indicates that you are following the right path in life, pursuing things that are good for you, and showing others how they might be able to also pursue wisdom and intelligence. 

Wisdom and intelligence cannot come from within an individual, but it can be developed from outside of ourselves. Those who are wise and intelligent tend to be successful leaders whose work stands the test of time, and they all have one thing in common: a foundational code of ethics. One cannot be wise and intelligent when pursuing selfishness or evil, because although their intelligence might indicate something to be in their best interest for the moment, their wisdom should be able to tell them that this is not beneficial in the long run. Therefore, those who are wise and intelligent need a moral code that is objective and true. God gave this code to the Israelites in the form of the Law, specifically the Ten Commandments. He even went so far as to let Moses tell the Israelites that observing this Law will give evidence of their wisdom and intelligence to other nations and to future generations. If we really study these commandments, we realize that these are incredibly effective rules to live by for any community or any individual, regardless of religion. And when we look at the societies and cultures that lived by this Law, especially the Jews, we see evidence that they stand the test of time. Those societies that abandon this Law eventually wither away.

If we keep this point in mind, we would understand that it would be unwise and unintelligent for Jesus Christ and the Christian Church to abolish the Jewish Law for something new. The Law was given by God directly, and it has proven to be an effective protection against the natural erosion of man-made societies. This point is so important that Jesus and the Gospel writers insisted on clarifying that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law. But he did come to fulfill it, to give it meaning, and to give us a reason why the Law was given to us in the first place. God wants us to flourish and prosper, but we cannot prosper without Him. The Law is not a prison that forces us to be close to God; it is rather the means by which we remain faithful to God so that we are always under His protective watch. Even the smallest letter of the Law given by God is necessary for us to model God’s kingdom here on earth.

There is a shifting dynamic within the world that is clearly visible to us in the present age as we move into a new society. Fewer and fewer people are becoming Christian, many are turning from the Faith, and believing in God may soon no longer be the norm. However, we are still in an age where we can actively and openly live our faith without any fear of genuine and outright persecution. There may come a time in the future, though, when the Church will suffer from injustice and evil, while the world turns away from us. Because of the state of the Church in the modern world, we must carefully remember two key ideas: first, we must not despair in the potential for persecution, and we must not become prideful in a vain quest for martyrdom. Second, we are only seemingly in a transition period, but we are still free to evangelize to the world. Because of this freedom, there is no reason for us not to go out into the world while we can.

Saint Augustine taught often about the distinction between the City of God and the city of man. Without God, we are utterly powerless; this is why the cities of men, monuments of human achievement, have both risen and fallen in spectacular fashion. Without serving God as the motivation for all our behavior, we will never achieve the aims we desire for ourselves or for our communities. However, even when we serve God fully, there will come moments when the life we have planned for ourselves and the things we work towards do not go according to plan. In these moments, even when it is painful and brings suffering upon us, we must continue to serve God. The Church is suffering right now. With the loss of attendees and the rise of distractions in the outside world, Our Mother Church has lost some of her children. She now asks us to go out into the world to bring them back through the words of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. As a Catholic who wishes to see the Church of Christ flourish on earth, how can you do this? Listen to Christ’s words in this Gospel passage: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” We may pick and choose certain decisions made by Christ to justify ourselves picking and choosing the laws and doctrines of the Church that fit our desires. No one will take seriously the messengers of a Church who do not follow the divine Law they were given.

The Law both instructs us and tests us. It is an instruction and the instructor itself. It is the will of God, which in its perfection is God Himself. The Law was given to us by God so that we may live according to His will and show Him the lengths to which we are willing to go to indicate our sincere love for Him. Following the Law of the Church fully and faithfully speaks volumes to those who may not be Christian or Catholic. It indicates that we firmly believe in the Church, not as a man-made institution that serves the city of man, but as the City of God on earth. If you are faithful in following the smallest letters of the Law and sharing it with the world, you will be faithful in the greatest and most testing moments of the Faith.

One of the great tragedies of our time is the division we find in all areas of life, from politics, to the home, to even within the Church. This division is rooted in the chief sin that can be found in every element of human suffering: pride. It was pride that led humanity to disobey God in the garden, to build up the tower of Babel in our own name, to worship the golden calf at the base of Mount Sinai, and to put to death anyone who challenged our worldviews, even if he was the Son of God. When we look at our own personal sins, we can only be moved to repentance when we set aside our pride and instead take on the humility that is natural to our being. As creatures of God, we were bestowed with an intellect that reflected His own, but sin came into the world when we falsely assumed that we were the creators of our own power.

Pride eliminates our ability to recognize when we are wrong. If someone were to confront you with all of the sins you are currently holding onto, would you recognize your need for repentance or would you become angry that the truth has been revealed about you? Every one of us has been in this situation, and to be confronted with our sins can be humiliating and uncomfortable. But sometimes that is necessary for us to come to the point of humility that is necessary for our souls. No one is perfect, but that does not mean we give up on eliminating that in our lives which prevents us from perfection. Pride in our own sins can also lead us to foster pride in the hearts of others. Because of the natural law that is affirmed in Scripture and by Christ (“I have come not to abolish, but to fulfill”), and which has been clarified and codified by the Church under the authority of Christ and the inspiration of the Spirit, we know what constitutes sin. This is divine knowledge, and to say otherwise is to lead others directly to sin because of our own selfish pride. We cannot use Christ as a blank canvas on which we transcribe our own desires and worldviews, but so many of us still do. In reality, Christ is the perfect embodiment of Truth itself, and he is subsequently perfectly merciful but also perfectly just. Depending on our mood or our position in life, we may overemphasize his mercy or overemphasize his justice to fit our own world.

Christ’s words in this Gospel passage are uncomfortable, but true: unless our righteousness surpasses that of those solely focused on the Law of God, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We may like to envision Christ as someone who ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, and brushed shoulders with sinners and outcasts, which is true. But he always called for and offered true repentance. For us sinners who have taken him up on this offer (including all those baptized into his Church), we have a far greater responsibility on our shoulders. Jesus clearly did not do away with the Law; in fact, his clarification of the Law is far more demanding and far more difficult, especially in the modern world. We even hear that those called by Christ are held to an even higher standard than that of the scribes and Pharisees! These demands are not restrictive; they are liberating. They liberate us from sin, from the chains of this world, so that we can experience the full potential that God has given us in our intellect and our free will. Humility is the first step.

Who should be considered the holiest person living today? Holiness is difficult to define, especially since we as a society are moving away from recognizing objective goodness and objective truth. Historically, the way in which we could measure holiness was always in the context of religion and the ways in which religion offered a moral structure, both in how humans ought to treat one another and in how humans ought to treat God. Now, it is nearly impossible to convince others that one becomes more holy the more they embody religion; however, holiness is only attainable through active participation in something beyond your individual self. Holiness is a perfect union between upright moral behavior, relationship with God, and denial of self for the sake of others. To perfect holiness in these terms is only possible in the context of religion, and only possible in the One True Faith that preaches perfect morality, was established by God Incarnate, and is built upon the ultimate act of love in the death of Christ.

Even with all of these elements that can only be perfected in Catholicism, there are very few Catholics who live up to the potential for holiness that our faith offers. In fact, many of us fail in this regard so considerably that we are surpassed in holiness by others who are not even Catholic. As Catholics, though, we have no excuse; we know exactly what it takes to not only be holy, but to be the holiest person alive. We know exactly what it looks like to conform ourselves to the moral teachings of the Church, which are true and just. We know exactly what it looks like to have an active and prayerful relationship with God, especially through regular participation in the Sacraments. We know exactly what it looks like to deny ourselves for the sake of others and to offer ourselves entirely to our neighbors. The steps to holiness are very simple; it’s simply a matter of doing them with consistency and love. When these elements are perfected, you start to see just how much it can change the world. So many of the great saints in Church History managed to not only perfect holiness according to metrics laid out above, but they were able to do so in the context of their unique personalities and skill sets. St. Jerome was very different from St. Therese of Lisieux, who was very different from Pope St. John Paul II, yet all three seemed to recognize the metrics for holiness and work their way to meet those metrics according to their vocations and their personalities. Even more beautiful, though, is to think of who the “holiest person alive” is today: chances are, this person is not a cleric or a theologian or a public figure known for their piety. They might just be the person who sits near you at Mass, who you see in the confession line, or who goes to serve the homeless. Perfect holiness is expressed in exactly the same way it takes for us to be holy - it is perfectly simple. 

Jesus tells us that, unless our righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. Knowing how hypocritical these scribes and Pharisees were, this might initially be a hopeful or even easy thing for us to imagine. However, righteousness implies a sense of morality, and even if the scribes and Pharisees failed in every other aspect of holiness, they prioritized and even perfected the moral teachings of the Law. Jesus is telling us that this won’t be easy. However, we know how simple it is. Every day, and even every moment of our lives, it takes an active assent of our own free will to be holy. Keep at it, and maintain hope in the possibility of being considered one of God’s great saints.

A life lived in truth is one that is incredibly freeing and, most importantly, incredibly simple. Every single person understands that a single lie could unravel into a situation that necessitates multiple lies and falsehoods to cover up the initial action. A life in falsehood is an existence that is demanding, fruitless, constantly in need of treatment and attention, and ultimately brings no happiness or contentment. Lies are harmful, regardless of whether or not they are shared with good intentions. That being said, a life of truth cannot be separated from a life of charity. To share the truth with others is good, but it must be accompanied with a promise to walk with those who may find that coming back to the truth can be difficult. There is a balance to Truth: In all things be charitable, but to allow others to continue to live in falsehood is fundamentally uncharitable.

What does this mean for the Church today? We need to understand that a life in Truth flourishes both within us in our conscience and decision-making, and outside of us in our behavior. For the interior life of Truth, we listen to Christ’s instruction in the Gospel about the act of swearing. What is the purpose of swearing on anything? It automatically communicates to others that you are open to either lying or telling the truth as it fits you in other situations; what Christ desires instead is that we always speak the truth, that our yes means yes and our no means no. This is an interior truthfulness that communicates to others that, no matter what, we are not guided by our desires in what we say, but instead by what is true.

Truth makes life simpler, but it does not make it easier. We sometimes find ourselves relapsing into making decisions out of our own desires rather than out of what conforms to the Truth. Even holy saints of the Church like Paul and Barnabas eventually separated over a disagreement regarding their course of action, although they remained united in the faith. Disagreement is an unfortunately common part of the human experience, and these two holy men who held onto the Truth were not immune to it. But what we must remind ourselves is that both Paul and Barnabas never confused their own desires with the Truth that they were instructed to share with the world. In the Church today, there is widespread disagreement on how to evangelize to the world. That disagreement will remain as long as we are human. However, if we remember to hold onto the Truth that is uncorrupted by our desires, we will remain united by the Holy Spirit, who desires that we speak to the world one unified message that frees others from the burden of falsehoods that otherwise run rampant in the world around us.

The most important part of the Jewish religion for its practitioners is called the Shema, a prayer that encapsulates their faith from its very foundation: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and strength.” These words are not even to be found in the list of the Ten Commandments; they are set apart, with love of God being at the forefront of faith. When Christ was tested and asked what the greatest commandment was, he replied with the Shema, but added another element that he claimed could be found as the basis of the Law and the Prophets - love your neighbor as yourself.

When God became man, He did so with the ultimate motive of showing us how to live as human beings. His sacrifice on the cross was the ultimate act of love, and by offering himself, he taught that there is no greater love than to lay down your life for another. Jesus was a Jew; he studied the Law, prayed the psalms, and read the Scriptures because the Jews were God’s chosen people. They were the ones through whom God would come to know and love the rest of humanity. All that Judaism stood for, the entirety of the Law and the Prophets, was absolutely crucial to the teaching of Jesus Christ. However, because the Jews had a particularly intimate relationship with God, they prioritized their humility and subservience to their almighty Creator, which is clearly indicated by the importance of the Shema in their faith. To them, humility and subservience to God was the best way they could express their love for Him with their heart, their soul, and their strength. But Christ, who was God made Man, came to remind his own people that love of neighbor is just as much a part of this Greatest Commandment as love of God is. He wanted us to know that we cannot properly love God if we are not loving our neighbor. Love of neighbor should look identical to the way we love God: to be humble before others, to serve them, and if need be, lay down our lives for them.

In this Gospel passage, Jesus continues to teach during the Sermon on the Mount, emphasizing that God does not want us to do the bare minimum of what it takes to express our humanity. He wants us to go out, to do more, to reach our full potential, which is only possible through love. Revenge and retribution are not to be exercised by humans; instead, we must never turn our backs on our neighbors, even when we are hurt by them. This is to fully realize the teaching of Christ that there is no greater love for another than to offer yourself entirely to them, no matter what. Loving those who are like us and hating those who are different is truly the bare minimum; humans are naturally predisposed to love, but it is in differences and conflict that lead us to hate. Instead, we are called to love even in the face of differences and conflict. It might take an active decision of the mind, a deliberate stirring of the soul, and a showing of strength to do so, but this is exactly how we are called to love. To love God, we must love our neighbor.

There are many fantastic stories and legends associated with the great saints of the Church. Most are probably exaggerated, especially those attributed to Saints who lived long ago, but these legends reveal to us certain truths about the personal charisms of the saints and the faith that they fought to preserve. Saint Anthony of Padua is one of these who has quite a few legends associated with him. Anthony on his own is already a legendary figure: he was one of the first Franciscan friars, his command of the Gospel and his ability to teach and preach were unmatched, he was canonized as a saint less than a year after his death, and he has been granted the rare distinction of being named a Doctor of the Church. Naturally, great stories would evolve out of the life of such a magnificent figure.

Most likely, your familiarity with St. Anthony is not based on a legend about his life, but on the patronage he has been granted by the Church. He is the patron saint of lost items, and it is very common for Catholics to pray to him and ask that he help them find what they have lost. He was named the patron saint of lost items because of a legend: Anthony had an invaluable book of the Psalms which contained his notes for preaching and teaching that was stolen by a friar who left the Franciscans. When Anthony prayed that it be found, not only did the thief return the book, but he also had a change of heart and returned to the order. The other legends of Anthony’s life tend to have a common theme, which can be found in this one, as well. As a teacher who had mastery of the Gospel and who also actually lived it out, Anthony was the enemy of heresies and those who espoused them. He not only was able to overcome the work of heretics, but most importantly, he was able to show them the errors of their ways and help them return to the truth of the Gospel. When it comes to lost items, those that are most in need of being found and rediscovered are those lost souls who have rejected the message of Christ. Anthony was able to do so not by his own power, but by the power of the Gospel.

Heresies and heretics are as old as the Church itself; whenever the Church has solemnly declared a doctrine or a dogma (indicating that it is from God Himself and could never and will never be reversed), there have been figures within the Church who reject those teachings. There has never been an exception to this, even today. In fact, it is increasingly common that those who would call themselves Catholic reject even the most fundamental teachings of the Church. There could be many reasons for this, but the most common is also the most human: sometimes accepting the truth of our faith is inconvenient to the life we desire. When we are faced with the truth that we do not want to hear, we might lash out on the messengers of truth out of our emotions. We might even be on the receiving end of that lashing out. If so, remember the words of Christ in this Gospel passage. Embracing persecution for the sake of truth is the greatest tool for affirming the truth to the world. Remember St. Anthony. He not only spoke the truth, but he used it to help find lost souls. He reminds us that when we speak the Gospel, the truth will never be lost, nor will those souls who seek Christ.

It is natural for human beings to seek out ways to set themselves apart from others, whether that be for personal gain, attention, affection, or something else. This is a result of a much more deeply rooted desire to feel loved and appreciated, which can easily be done when we are distinct from everyone else. You can see this tendency manifest itself in religion, too, especially in some form of gnosticism. The idea of gnosticism comes from its etymology, based on the Greek word for knowledge; the gnostics believed that they had special, privileged esoteric knowledge not available to other groups and given directly to them because they were set apart. Such a thought process will automatically make a religion exclusionary, and true religion must be compatible with logic and reason that is accessible to all human beings so that they may come to experience the Truth. In this desire to be set apart, is it at all possible for Catholics to fall into this falsehood of an exclusive club of believers?

When an outsider comes into Catholicism, they may feel that the Church is exclusionary because our most important aspect, the Eucharist, is available only to Catholics who are in a state to receive it. Despite the fact that literally almost every other aspect of our faith is open and accessible to all, the careful reception of the Eucharist can still bother those looking in from the outside. However, the Eucharist is not some gnostic prize for the select few; rather, the very nature of the Eucharist is the most powerful gift offered to all human beings. The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ was given to us as a gift when Christ offered his life for our sake, even when it was our hands that brought death upon him. In the Eucharist, as it was in his death, the teaching of Christ to “love of our enemies” is manifested and embodied. We ought to consider more deeply what it means to love our enemies. Jesus tells us that it is easy to love our friends or to show kindness towards those who are familiar or show kindness to us. We are easily capable of true goodness when we are in our comfort zone. But true love is expressed even when it is not accepted or reciprocated. In Christ’s sacrifice, he was not giving his life up just for those who followed him or who loved him dearly. He offered his life also for his own executioners, even as they mocked him and tortured him up until his dying breath. Christ’s sacrifice was entirely open to the entire world. The body of Christ was offered to the worst sinner and the greatest saint simultaneously.

As Christ instructs us that we need to work on copying him in this way when we enter into the world, he implies two things: the first is that this is exactly how we set ourselves apart in the world as we so deeply desire. The second is that this will lead to perfection; ironically, perfection is only attainable when we are also putting in the work. If you were to receive the Eucharist unworthily, God will not miraculously make you perfect because you yourself have not indicated in any sense that you wish to strive towards perfection. The reason St. Paul spoke about the worthy reception of the Eucharist is due to these words of Christ: “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This seems impossible, but when we strive towards perfection ourselves, Christ lifts us up the rest of the way. We are set apart by being perfect saints, perfecting the life we were meant to live. There is no secret knowledge one must have or some secret gift one must be given before attaining perfection. We are only perfected through something that is offered to every human being - the Body and Blood of Christ. 

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was a German mystic from the 18th century who reportedly received visions throughout her life of the entire life of Jesus Christ. As a faithful and holy Catholic nun, she never took her visions to be the literal truth of Christ’s life, and only accepted what is included in the Gospels to be true and worthy of belief. Still, she considered her visions to be her personal “picture book”, enabling her to develop a more personal relationship with the characters she knew from the Gospel. Among her visions of the public ministry of Christ, Emmerich also reported to receive extensive visions of the life of the Virgin Mary, from her conception, to her childhood, to her betrothal. Even in these private revelations of someone we know very little about, the spiritual lessons in these stories are a wonderful treasure.

Much of what Emmerich claimed to learn about Mary in her visions were already widely accepted extra-biblical traditions held for thousands of years by the faithful: she saw Mary immaculately conceived when her parents Anne and Joachim embraced in the halls underneath the Temple. She saw Mary consecrated as a Temple Virgin. She saw Joseph present his staff as a potential suitor, which blossomed into a lily, indicating he was the one God set aside for her. She even saw extensive visions of her glorious Assumption into Heaven, witnessed by the living Apostles. But Emmerich also claimed other aspects of Mary’s life otherwise unknown to the world. Most interesting among these facts is that Mary’s family came from a long line of deeply holy and pious Essenes, and that her parents were incredibly wealthy. What we know about the meekness of the Virgin Mary and the humble origins of Jesus Christ seems to contradict that these simple Jews from Galilee ever experienced riches and fortunes. But Emmerich saw that Joachim and Anne, though humble as they were as well, had more money than they knew what to do with. However, Emmerich states how this affected Mary’s immediate family: they always divided their wealth into three equal parts. The first part went straight to the Temple as a donation. The second part was used to serve the poor and needy. The third part they kept and invested, and it always returned more than what they previously had, allowing more money to go to the Temple and more money to go to the poor and needy. Once Jesus was born, Mary had given away her parents wealth, save for the simple house she inherited in Nazareth.

Whether this vision is true or not, it teaches us an incredible lesson that is actually biblical: wealth does not make you a better person or a worse person, but rather emphasizes the type of person you already are. If you are charitable and humble, it will make you more so. If you are prone to selfishness or greed, it will make you more so. This goes for spiritual wealth, too. To be a practicing Catholic requires an investment of time and effort, which rewards itself through the fruits of the sacraments. But if we use this investment to accentuate the hypocrisy of pride and judgment, like those who Christ warns us not to become in this passage, not only do we lose these fruits, but we make it impossible for them to accrue profit. Like money charitably and humbly spent and invested, our prayer life humbly given accrues profit through those others who we motivate to grow in their faith and prayer life. All of this is foolishly spent if we use it for selfish gain. The great and holy saints Anne and Joachim instilled humility in their daughter, which made her worthy of becoming the Mother of God. With the blessings God gives you, whether they be physical or spiritual, use them humbly so that they may grow exponentially.

The Lord’s Prayer encapsulates the way in which all people should pray; it is a prayer that is not exclusive to any one denomination, nor is it necessarily unique to Christianity. The language of this prayer handed down to us by Christ himself can be a way in which anyone unfamiliar with prayer or a recognition of God can begin the process of conversing with the Divine Creator. This prayer is perfect in two ways: not only is it something accessible and formulaic that could be used as the first prayer a person might recite in their journey towards God, but it is given to us directly from God Himself, specifically in the person of Jesus Christ. Moreover, these are the words of the Son to His Father in Heaven. Clearly, Christ is showing us by example how we are to approach God through prayer - first and foremost, He is a Father listening to the requests of His children. Therefore, we must approach Him as His children.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord’s Prayer also teaches us the formula that all proper prayers should follow when we approach God. It begins with a recognition of God’s power and glory: “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.” After that, we begin to list our petitions, which are the reason why we are coming to God in prayer: “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.” When we move on from these initial petitions, we then tie our petitions to a promise to God that we be more like Him: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Our last petition is a recognition of our weaknesses and our dependence on the guidance of God: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” At the core of every prayer we give to God, whether it is one that we recite from memory or one that comes directly from our hearts, we are ultimately asking God for something. The purpose of a prayer, just as it is when asking a parent for something, is not to expect that we get exactly what we desire; prayer is actually a way in which we express to God clearly that there is something that we desire enough to approach Him with, and if it conforms to His will, that we may be granted our request. Prayer is our way of openly admitting to what God already knows we want; once we express those desires to Him, we are showing Him that we want Him to be a part of the process by which we might attain them.

Every prayer includes petition, even when we simply want to express our love for the glory of God. We sin all the time, and sinning makes us believe that we can go through our lives without the help of God. If we return to a life of prayer for atonement, petition, or even praise, we are asking God that He accept us and our behavior to conform to His will. This is ultimately what we achieve through the Lord’s Prayer. We glorify God, we petition Him for our needs, we ask for forgiveness, and we promise to live in a manner that best exemplifies His own desires for us. There is a reason this prayer is the foundation of interior worship of God. Christ knew what we needed and he taught us how to properly ask God to guide us towards our desires. 

If we are going to prioritize the act of praying within our faith, we need to understand its purpose and usefulness. To those who may not be religious, prayer might seem like a waste of time. But prayer serves a psychological function that anyone could appreciate, while at the same time being the way in which we communicate with God. Catholicism properly lived is a life of prayer. It takes every action, every word, and every part of our existence and turns it into an instrument of communication with the Divine. Prayer is not simply speaking with God through the thoughts within our minds; prayer utilizes our words, our behavior, our conscientiousness, our movement, and anything else that allows us to express ourselves. 

It is erroneous to think of God in terms of deism - that He is our all-powerful Creator, but is so separate from us that He operates outside and away from us without intervening in our lives. God is actually present at all times, especially in all those who we encounter and who are made in His image and likeness. Because of His omnipresence, it is necessary for us to communicate with Him constantly. In the same way we try to communicate with others with our words, our emotions, our creativity and artistic expression, and especially our mannerisms and physical actions, we do the same with God. We recite formulated prayers or speak directly to Him in a personal and familiar manner, we express our emotions outwardly hoping that He sees our inner emotional state, we construct great art and do good work to praise Him or to call on Him, and we perform actions of charity, ritual, and liturgy to manifest our spiritual need for Him. While this is representative of our role in communicating with God, He does respond. However, He responds according to His own will and its proper time. Prayer is not a conversation in which we speak and immediately receive a response. God does not operate this way. Prayer is instead like the act of planting seeds: putting in work now and cultivating it over time while working with God so that the fruits of our labor are revealed at their proper time. If we are careless in our prayer life or expect the fruits of our labor to grow “out of season”, we will wrongly assume God has ignored us.

Prayer is good for our nature, and psychologically useful, as well. We know a relationship will become unhealthy when it turns into two people using each other and appreciating each other only for what they can receive from the other. Proper and loving relationships are those in which the other is appreciated for themselves, with no expectations beyond that. Proper prayer forces us to treat God in this way. And just as it is when we form proper relationships with others, the fruits of that goodness begin to be revealed in due time. All that is required is patience and appreciation. Although prayer is necessary communication, it is properly oriented. Do not expect a conversation with God in prayer. Rather, view prayer as a collaborative effort that establishes the will of God on earth. 

For every person who lives in the world today, there is ultimately going to be a single thing towards which they orient their entire life. This single thing is the reason why they get out of bed in the morning, why they go to work, why they grind through the obstacles in life, why they won’t ever give up. For some, this might be their families, their spouses, their children, or even their friends. For others, this might be career success, wealth, or fame. What we must understand about life, though, is that because life naturally has suffering and things we must overcome, we are constantly gaining something valuable, regardless of whether it is material or immaterial. Whether those things we gain by trudging along through life are experience, relationships, or money, this is our treasure. If you are not wasting your life, you are naturally gaining treasure. But there is one truth regarding the treasure we all earn in our lifetimes: we cannot take it with us.

If our treasure is valuable experiences,  those experiences will be forgotten once we die unless we use them to spread the kingdom of God. If our treasure is the plethora of relationships we developed over time, they will be meaningless once we are alone before God at our judgment, unless we helped those with whom we had relationships grow in their own relationships with God. If our treasure is monetary or material, no amount can buy our salvation. Our money is worthless unless we use it to build up God’s Church so that more people can access the sacraments and charities that the Church offers. Christ provides us a severe but crucial lesson in the Gospel: “Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” Everyone recognizes that our treasure is the culmination of our lifes’ work.  Sadly, so many people elevate their treasure to become that one thing that motivates them and drives them in life. These two must be separate; our treasure is the culmination of our lifes’ work, but the motivation for living should always be to use our treasure to serve God, so that the fruits of any work we may have done during our lives grows exponentially. The Kingdom of God grows on earth exponentially only if we work for it. We ask for this every time we recite the words given to us by Christ: “Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Why would we ask for this if we are not willing to work for it?

We must never forget that our existence does not end at our death. For so many throughout history and even in the present age, the death of others is a convenient way in which we can cultivate our own will; we see this through political assassinations, celebrating the death of our enemies, or carelessness in the face of population control. The selfishness of our acceptance of murder is the result of a foolish desire to hold onto our treasure for ourselves, rather than sharing it with those who remain after we pass on. No matter what, we will all die and we will all leave behind our treasures for those who remain. Will the treasure you cultivated and shared lead others to eternal life? Your motivation for life should be your own salvation and the salvation of others; let that guide you to build up a treasure in life that leads others to glorify God.

We can look at our lives in two ways: as a whole or in the day-to-day. Ironically, our outlook on these two ways of defining our lives are often completely different. When we look at our life as a whole, we concoct these giant plans for our futures, we romanticize our capacity and what we are capable of, we are easily caught up in the ideal. But when we look at our life in the day-to-day manner of living, there’s very little room for idealizing and romanticizing, and perhaps even less room for appreciating the small and insignificant moments. We could apply this dichotomy to elements within our lives, as well. You may get excited about marrying the love of your life and spending the rest of your life with them, but you also might neglect the nuances and difficulties you encounter from day to day. You might be swept up in the idea of moving to a new place or landing your dream job, until you recognize that your new home doesn’t have everything you want or until you have a bad day at the office.

Ultimately, this issue is about over-romanticizing those things that are naturally good and beautiful. When we over-romanticize, we neglect that what is truly good and truly beautiful presents an opportunity for us to grow and become better versions of ourselves through overcoming difficulties. There is no such thing as a perfect life, a perfect home, a perfect job, or a perfect spouse, nor should there be. In the imperfections of what we adopt into our lives, we find an avenue towards our own perfection. The day-to-day difficulties we encounter in the good and the beautiful make us better people. This can be easily solved by appreciating the little moments in our lives that go unnoticed. St. Therese of Lisieux, a humble young woman who was under-educated and often over-emotional, became the greatest modern saint and was declared a Doctor of the Church simply because she proposed that we should appreciate those seemingly insignificant moments in life because we are insignificant compared to the greatness of God. Through our insignificance and “smallness”, God works wonders for all of creation. In the insignificant moments of our lives, God works wonders for us. 

Still, there is a risk in appreciating and valuing the day-to-day; we may become hyper-focused on the smallest of details, which can lead to stress and a desire for control over the uncontrollable. God asks us to rid ourselves of the stress and need for control by trusting in Him. Pope Saint John Paul II had a favorite saying: “Do not be afraid!” He initially uttered these words because he felt an urging by the Holy Spirit; Clearly this was a message that many souls needed to hear during his papacy and in the modern age, when so many of us are hyper-focused on knowing everything and having control of everything in our lives. To not be afraid and to trust in God is a message directly from Christ, as we hear in this Gospel passage. God will work wonders through us and for us, but we must let Him work. Make decisions boldly and seriously for yourself, but be open to where God leads you through those decisions. You will find that the little things, the day-to-day moments, ultimately define the big picture of how you lived your life for God.

No one is truly independent. Humans are naturally social beings, and we require interactions with other humans in order to live a healthy and happy life. When humans congregate, as our nature intends us to do, we simply cannot survive without any type of leadership or authority. Oftentimes, this means that a single individual needs to lead a group. Of course, because we are fallen creatures, the allure of power not only attracts those who would abuse it, but it also occasionally corrupts those who take on leadership roles with good intentions. However, this does not take away from the fact that we still need guidance and leadership, and flourish when we have good leaders.

Every aspect of our beings were formed by someone else. We were raised by our parents, learned how to act and behave, learned how to talk, and learned about ourselves through them. Our individual skills were honed by experiences with others who imparted them on us through teaching. If we were truly self-forming creatures, we could not talk, think, or behave in any proper way. It is an act of humility to acknowledge that we are dependent on others whose skills are superior to ours in certain ways, which many people are reluctant to do. This is especially the case if you do not acknowledge the natural subservience of humans to God. Without an understanding of this metaphysical master-servant relationship, we can hardly apply any type of understanding to those relationships that are reproduced among humans.

We simply cannot control our lives independently in the way we think. It is a natural requirement for us to have “masters”, namely those who we entrust with our lives and our formation. If we choose to reject our heavenly master, God, we will become enslaved by sin and selfishness. Sin is a cruel master that torments its slaves. If we acknowledge God as our true master, we do not become slaves. Instead, we become servants serving a master who is gentle, kind, and compassionate, but also just and fair. Even the masters of sin, namely Satan and his demons, understand that they are inferior to God. Their existence depends on the free will given to them by God, the ultimate authority over all of creation. Through the same gift of free will given to us, we can choose our master. Our options are to be enslaved by sin, or to serve and love the One who serves and loves us.

The Bible is filled with all of the wisdom of the world. Literally everything that the human heart has been able to discover about our existence on earth can be found in Scripture because Scripture is the fulfillment of God’s message to us. As a collection of books, the Bible is meant to speak to us through the literary genres that are presented within it. For some of us, we might understand God best through the beauty of poetry. For others, we can discover God’s work in the world through the study of history. Perhaps there are even people who can read the letters within the Bible and understand the true belief of those who wrote them, or those who can read between the lines of the mythological literature of Genesis or the apocalyptic literature of Revelation. Taken as a whole, though, the Bible seeps into all of the crevices of the human heart so that we can get a complete picture of how God wishes to reveal Himself.

One of the most ineffective and useless ways of studying Scripture as the Word of God is by ignoring it as a single Word. If we do not read the books of the Bible together, we will never understand the purpose of God’s chosen people. We will never understand why God chose to come into the world to save us. We will never understand the power of sin in the world. Most importantly, we would never understand the person of Jesus Christ, especially his message. Every believing Christian has a tendency to pick out passages or read into the Bible their own worldview to justify their behavior; however, as we must always keep in mind, we are called as Catholics to conform ourselves to God and His Church, not expecting God or His Church to conform to us or to the world. If we were to do so, it would be as if a child has decided to make the decisions for a household, expecting their parents to obey them. There is a natural order to the authority of the world - God is at the forefront, and all humans are below Him. Because all humans are created with an equal dignity and an equal capacity to be called by our Creator, it is our responsibility then to form each other and to challenge each other to live up to our God-given potential. 

Because of the tendencies of modern society, we can easily fail at helping each other be more holy and more obedient to God and His Church. In fact, many of us Christians will isolate a few words from this Gospel passage to defend our inaction against those things that limit human capacity: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged.” But Christ follows this message with even more important words: “As you judge, so will you be judged.” We may naturally take this message to mean that we should expect less from others because we are incapable of achieving great things, but what if we took this as a positive message rather than a negative one? What if we raise our expectations for our neighbors because we raise expectations for ourselves? After all, this is what God wants. He wants us to be as perfect in our humanity as He is in His divinity. He wants us to be responsible for each other and for the salvation of our souls. This is a message found from the beginning of Scripture to its end: we need to strengthen each other so that we may fulfill the roles that God has bestowed upon us as His creation.

Jesus has many quotes and sayings that are worthy of isolating and following. Regardless of how people might feel about Christianity and the Christian life, it’s actually quite difficult finding anyone who disagrees with the teachings of Jesus. If Jesus were only a philosopher or someone who based their entire legacy on their teachings, he would still be considered one of the wisest, most profound, and most revolutionary figures in history. But he was so much more than a mere teacher; his teachings were simply a precursor to his very active and very real commitment to share the divinity of Heaven to the world. When others choose to follow the words of Christ alone, though, they are bound to encounter a moment when Christ seems to deviate from the reputation history has cast upon him, namely as a carefree pacifist who only preached love and acceptance.

In reality, Christ expressed real and passionate love for humanity, not mere tolerance that seems loving. As a teacher, Christ was actually very demanding and firm with his followers, which ultimately cost him many disciples who were more interested in the idea of Christ rather than who he actually was. We see the same thing today. Many people will consider themselves as followers of Christ, but reject so much of what he actually taught because they either would rather pick and choose when to agree with him or they were never taught the entirety of his teaching ministry. This wouldn’t be such a problem if Christ was simply a teacher, but his divinity makes this reality heartbreaking. In the person of Christ, we find total human fulfillment, and it should be our goal as Christians to invite the world to come to know this Christ. We absolutely must not avoid things Christ said simply because it is too demanding or too unpleasant; Christ is the totality of Truth, and so is his message. This Gospel passage has three remarkable sayings by Christ that are shared back to back to back; none of them are easy to hear or to follow. First, he calls us to appreciate what is being shared in his words. If we do not realize that Christ is the Truth, we would receive his teachings like a dog or a swine would appreciate something expensive or holy. Second, he shares with us the synthesis of his teaching message: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.” This is the entirety of the Scriptural message, and it’s how we actually live out his teachings. Finally, Christ shares with us the harsh reality that it is far easier to reject him and that most people will do so simply because of the inconvenience of his call. He wants us to enter the narrow gate.

In these three pearls of wisdom, we find the trajectory of the Christian life: we have the calling (what is being shared with us is holy and valuable, and should not be taken for granted), we have the journey (the Golden Rule is God’s Law that makes us live according to the Divine Will), and we have the destination (the Narrow Gate). Christ is clear: he did not come to be pleasant and easy for people to follow. He came to challenge people to rise to their God-given potential. He does not judge us on our pasts or our present abilities; as long as we are willing to cherish all of his teachings and to actively live a life modeled after him, every individual is capable of maintaining a direction that will lead them through the Narrow Gate.

The Golden Rule is found throughout most of the world’s religions and ethical philosophies. It is probably the most important rule for all humans to live by in order to flourish, and its presence throughout the world indicates that it is most likely deeply ingrained in human nature. But Christ’s take on the Golden Rule differed slightly from those found elsewhere throughout history. Whereas others teach that we should not treat others in ways we would not want to be treated, Christ offers a challenge instead: treat others the way you would want to be treated. It’s not enough to stand by and avoid hurting others; we must actively help others and practice charity.

Christ’s Golden Rule is well known and should be repeated to everyone and anyone. But we tend to forget what Christ added immediately after giving his Golden Rule - “this is the Law and the Prophets.” What did Christ mean by this? Scripture according to the Jews (and what Christians refer to as the Old Testament) consists of three parts: the Law (Torah), the Prophets, and the Writings. The Law was the first five books, the very foundation of faith in God and the heart of Judaism. The Prophets were those books written by prophetic figures, who shared to the world a message of necessary repentance and love for God. The Writings were the books of literature that spoke to the heart through poetry, reflection, and praise of God. As a devout Jew and a teacher in the synagogues, Jesus carefully studied the Law and the Prophets. We also know that he reflected much on the Writings, given that he recited them often and used them to reveal his own identity to the world, particularly through the Psalms. But when Jesus presents his Golden Rule, he does not merely say that Scripture (the Law and the Prophets) is about this rule. He says that Scripture IS this rule. Everything within Scripture is found in this rule by which we are called to live.

Scripture is ultimately a message of love from God to us. Love's fullest expression is found in charity, which is why God gave His only Son for our sake as the ultimate act of caritas. By living according to Jesus’ Golden Rule, in which we are called to actively show caritas to others rather than just avoid hurting them, we are sharing the foundational message of all of Scripture. To Christ, it’s so simple: if even the most wicked people can shower those they love with charity, then imagine what charity our all-powerful and loving God showers upon us, His own children. This is the type of love that is not just received; it is the type of love that motivates us to share it to others upon receiving it. Everything we know about God, everything we’ve studied about Him for thousands of years, and the very foundation of our shared faith in Him all comes back to one singular thing: caritas.

For many Catholics, the practice of our faith is simply part of our life. Whether we grew up in the faith, reverted to it as we grew older, or even converted to it, being Catholic tends to be a defining part of who we are and how we perceive ourselves. But how much room does your faith fill in your life? The answer to this question varies wildly from Catholic to Catholic; some people are only nominally Catholic, others will receive the Sacraments every once in a while, others will make sure to at least go to Mass every Sunday, and others actively live their faith in almost every moment. Christ does ask us to evaluate the role of faith in our lives, but doing so requires striking a balance. Our faith should be the center of our lives and the source for literally everything we do, but we must be careful of falling into either religious indifference or scrupulosity.

If we actually believe in the Truth of the Catholic Church, that it is the Church established by Christ and remains the fullness of God’s revelation, then we must accept a very uncomfortable truth: Satan is actively working to undo the spiritual power of the Church. Satan’s primary goal, which was a result of his own fall from Heaven, is to justify his decision of turning away from God’s authority by leading others to turn away from God according to their natural dispositions. Catholicism has been the source of conversion, salvation, and redemption for many souls because of her divine origin. If the Catholic Church is the Church of God on earth, as we believe, then clearly we are going to be the primary target for Satan to get humans to reject God. This can easily be done by targeting those who already reject Truth and reject the faith, but when it comes to faithful Catholics, getting us to turn away from God’s will requires more creativity. In this way, Satan will attempt to distort and confuse us regarding what is true and what is not, what is Catholic and what is not, what is of God and what is not. When Satan is actively at work under the disguise of something or someone seemingly holy, how can we recognize when it is not of God?

Christ instructs us how to recognize the work of evil in the world: watch for the fruits. If it is of God, good fruits will be produced. If it is not, good fruits will not be directly produced. For example, there have been various claims of Marian apparitions throughout the world that have been rejected by the Church after being investigated; some are considered fabrications while others are considered to be the result of evil forces acting under the disguise of holiness. When we trust in the works of God, we must acknowledge that we are spiritual targets. But in these moments, we should keep in mind the story of Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes. After the Virgin Mary appeared to her as a mysterious woman, Bernadette sprinkled her with holy water and asked that if the vision was from God, the woman could stay. If not, she must go. The Virgin Mary smiled and bowed. Bernadette later followed the instruction of Mary and dug in the ground until a spring was discovered. This spring has been a popular pilgrimage site in which many people have been healed. Bernadette exercised caution until she saw the good fruits. God has empowered us with reason to discern what is holy and what is not. All we have to do is look for the fruits.

What is the will of God? If we are called to do His will, how do we know if we are doing it? Like a parent, our obedience to God is the most important way we can show Him our willingness to serve Him and our desire to be with Him. The Commandments that God gave to His people are ways in which we can begin to understand this obedience. The first Commandment instructs us to love and serve God alone, and there should be nothing we love and serve more than Him. The faithful who recognize the authority of God may not all recognize the Will of God. Acknowledging His sovereignty is not necessarily loving or serving Him. If we have true faith in the Truth of God, following his Will is loving and serving Him by loving and serving others. This cannot be done exclusively through prayer or testament, but by our physical actions. We love God and follow His Will by our works. 

It does not seem to be enough to simply call out to God or to proclaim Him as our Lord, as we hear Jesus instruct his followers in this Gospel passage. Instead, following the will of God is listening to His commandments and doing what he asks. A historically contentious debate within Christianity has brought up the question: Are we justified by faith and works or by faith alone? James writes in his letter in the New Testament that faith apart from works is dead. He makes clear what Jesus preaches through analogy; Jesus lays out that works are crucial to our faith, and to have faith without works is like building a house on sand rather than stone as its foundation. Works are the foundation on which we build our faith in Christ, but they must be done in union with the proclamation of our faith.

Why is it that confessing our faith in Christ is not enough? Acknowledging the Truth does not necessarily mean that we are allowing Christ to work within us. Even the Devil acknowledges the power of God and the divinity of His Son. Good works, on the other hand, are manifestations and evidence of our sincere faith. If our faith is the house which we build, and the foundation is our works, then we must make sure that our foundation is strong. We want to invite others into our lives, to show them the Truth as we have received it. But this will only work if the house can remain standing, especially in stormy times. Live out your faith to those around you. It will strengthen you when the storms come. 

To be made unclean in the time of Christ was a bodily experience. This occurred when one came in contact with the degeneration of the body as it relates to the fall of Man - whether that was the punishment of Eve, a brush with death or the dead, or literal physical decomposition. In that time in history, people saw a particular link between the bodily and the spiritual, which was all the more prevalent considering the frequency of diseases that we have since eradicated or are able to cure. In the case of leprosy, the body literally fell apart, which was a clear indication to the faithful at the time that the individuals who suffered such a disease were particularly guilty of sinfulness.

We’re often told today that such a theory, like physical suffering being a consequence of personal sin, is silly and no longer worthy of believing, especially because we have a better understanding today of sickness and disease. However, the physical sufferings of individuals like the leper in this Gospel passage is actually a consequence of sin. The corruption of the physical world is a consequence of the corruption of the human spirit; what Christ taught in his public ministry, though, is that everyone is guilty for the sufferings of individuals like this leprous man because we all have individually and actively chosen to partake in sin, even those who excluded him out of judgment. If sin never entered into the world, we would not suffer from such diseases and sicknesses; but even if we might suffer from physical ailments that others do not does not necessarily mean we are more or less sinful. The degeneration of the body, however it may happen, is a mere consequence of humanity’s sin. The degeneration of the soul is not a consequence, but an active and individual choice. More dangerous, though, is the fact that the degeneration of the soul cannot be seen, even by the one who degenerates his own soul. This is because when we fall into sin, we do so by letting little sins turn into many sins, and many sins turn into greater sins, until we have lost sight of our own wickedness. But Christ healed the body as an indication of what power he had in healing the soul: the leper came to Christ to be healed. He asked Christ to heal him only if Christ willed it. Christ willed it because the man asked and approached with humility, and he was made clean.

The leprosy of the man made him a social outcast among his people who were otherwise ritually clean. This allowed him to recognize the effect of such social uncleanliness, which made him more desperate to be healed. When our souls suffer the same deformation and degeneration, we have a much more difficult time recognizing it; however, there is a feeling of exclusion we ought to recognize in this case that is similar to the leper. The communion of saints is a perfectly “clean” community in which we so desire to participate, yet find ourselves unworthy because of our sinfulness. Do you feel like you would fit in and be welcomed among the holiest men and women in history? Your answer is most likely not; instead of despairing in our unworthiness or rejecting entering into this communion, we ought to take the feeling of our uncleanliness seriously. All it takes is to approach Christ in humility with a desire to be made clean, which can be done by him alone. He desires that we be among the clean and the holy. He does will it. But it can only be done when we go through him, not out of some sense of fear of missing out, but instead out of a deep desire to be actively participating in the life we were meant for - to worship, love, and serve God, not alone, but with everyone else.

When we are preparing for the coming of our Lord, we are setting up a place for him here on earth where he may reside. Which space would you give to the most special visitor? What should this space look like? How might it benefit from a change in decor or layout, or maybe even a deep cleaning? The rooms that we prepare for our most anticipated guests in our homes are always going to look different for the guest than it does normally. We understand that if we were to present a special guest with our standard way of living, it may not be up to their expectations, and it certainly is not how we want to portray our own lifestyles. It would be unthinkable to invite someone and put them in a room that has not been cleaned or ordered, simply because there was not enough time or energy to do so.

We are warned by Christ more than once that when he returns, it will be like a bolt of lightning - sudden, unexpected, and allowing no time to prepare if we are not ready. If we have no time to set our houses or lives in order when he comes, our best hope seems to be pleading with him not to come into our houses or our lives. In this Gospel passage, this is the exact situation. A gentile centurion’s servant has been paralyzed, and he is left with no option but to go to the one who he has heard so much about. He knows Jesus is a healer, and he is in a desperate moment. As a gentile, though, his home was not ordered for the arrival of the king of the Jews; it was common for gentile pagans in the land of Galilee at this time to keep their idols in their homes, worshipping them and offering incense. It would be entirely inappropriate for Christ to enter into this house of sacrilege, so the centurion pleads with Christ: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; but only the say the word, and my servant shall be healed.”

Are our own houses and our own lives places where God can be honored or are they places where sacrilege can occur? There is a reason why we speak these words of the Centurion immediately before the Eucharist at Mass: under our “roofs” (perhaps referring to our lifestyles, bodies, etc.), there is hardly a place worthy for God to reside. That does not mean we offer him a place in its soiled state, nor should we simply throw our hands up and say to God, “I have no place for you”, as those innkeepers said on the night of his birth. Rather, we should start now setting aside a place that is worthy for God to reside within us, so that when he comes, whether that be in the Eucharist or from the clouds in the sky, we can have him reside comfortably with us.

Every time you attend Mass, you should take in the immense gravity of the moment of going up to receive communion. All of Salvation History, from the fall of Adam to Eve to Noah’s Ark to Abraham’s covenant with God to Moses leading the Israelites to the promised land to the anointing of King David to the birth of Christ to his crucifixion and resurrection, has led to this single moment - that you may unite yourself as one with the true body of Christ. None of us are worthy to receive such a gift, yet Christ offers it freely to us; all that is asked of us in return is to not desecrate his body with our own through sin. Occasionally, this means refraining from receiving the Eucharist, and that’s okay. Christ continues to offer himself regardless. But if we understand just how significant this moment is, we would be incredibly careful about receiving him into ourselves.

If this is the moment to which all of Salvation History has led, we must place ourselves in the correct mindset to recognize it as such. Our last action before receiving the Eucharist, then, should encapsulate where our hearts, minds, and spirits should be. This last action is a recitation of the words we hear in this passage from an unnamed centurion who approaches Christ, though we change one word: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” As we humbly approach Christ to receive him, we must act like the centurion; Christ said that, even amongst his own people, he did not find anyone with as much faith as this centurion, merely because of these simple words. They are words of humility and they are the words of someone who asks for a gift that they do not deserve, yet are being offered freely as long as it is received gracefully. For the centurion, he was asking for the healing of his servant, one whom he loved because he was responsible for him. We ask for the healing of our souls in the Eucharist, because we are responsible over the state of our souls through our free will. If we sincerely ask for the healing of our souls through the body of Christ, we ought to do what is in our control before approaching Christ. We must show repentance, we must go to the sacrament of Confession, we must carefully receive Christ as he offers himself. 

Throughout life, we are steadily approaching Christ. All the while, Christ is rushing towards us to meet us at the end of this journey. Like two lovers, this is a mutual journey towards one another: Christ runs towards his bride (the Church) and his bride runs towards him. If we do not wish to approach Christ, he will respect that act of free will. But if we repeat the words of the centurion, indicating that we truly desire that he be a part of us in the simplest of ways, even if it means through his word alone, Christ will acknowledge our desire to seek him and come to us. Christ is coming, but he’s not simply coming to fulfill a goal, to cast his judgment on the earth, or to renew heaven and earth. He is coming to meet us. He is coming to take us away with him because it is our hearts’ greatest desire. We can expedite this meeting with our Lord by approaching the altar, finding Christ in the Eucharist, and receiving him worthily. Though we may never be worthy of him, he deems us to be so as long as we share the simple faith expressed in the centurion: even in the smallest of ways, we are absolutely convinced that Christ can bring new life to the world, even new life to our own souls.

As foundational pagan societies, both Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece shared a nearly identical pantheon of gods and goddesses, representing and personifying the various elements of their culture. This was the mainstream culture of the time of Christ himself; although he was a Jew who worshiped the One True God, he lived among pagans, preached to them, and was killed under their authority. The Romans and Greeks were successful in having such a prominent influence on the culture of the world simply because they were very successful in military matters and especially wars. To these pagans, war was an art, a way of life, and a means to an end. Naturally, the god of war was going to be revered and placed in high esteem by these war-driven societies.

The god of war in Roman mythology was Mars, the same figure known to the Greeks as Ares. Mars was considered the primary protector of the Roman Empire by the Romans themselves; there was nobody more important to them. According to the Greek mythology of Ares, this god of war was accompanied and aided by his two sons: Phobos (Greek for “fear”) and Deimos (Greek for “terror”). Warfare could only be carried out successfully if fear and terror struck the hearts of the enemies that these societies fought against. When we begin to look at Catholic theology, we start to see just how great the influence of evil was on these earliest persecutors of the Church. Our title for the fallen angels, demons, derives from the Greek word for terror given as a name to the son of the god of war. There are two ways that this plays into our understanding of Christ as conqueror in the context of the Gospel. When the boat of Jesus’ disciples was at risk of being destroyed by a storm, the disciples were struck with fear and terror. Jesus slept. He was not afraid of the storm and rebuked his disciples for not having faith in his presence on the boat. Could the mission of the Son of Man really be brought to an end by a simple storm at sea? Jesus calmed the storm because he had power over it. 

First, this Gospel was significant to the early Christians in the same way the story of Noah’s Ark was significant. The threat of the Romans and the persecuting pagan majority was a storm that struck fear and terror into the hearts of those Christians who wavered in their faith. But their boat, the Church, had the presence of Christ within it; as long as he remained present and they stayed on the boat, they were protected from the terrifying storm that surrounded it and desired to destroy it. Second, this story is significant to the Church today. Although we are not presently threatened by physical war and persecution like the Church of the past, we are now threatened by spiritual war and persecution, led by the same demonic forces that aided the god of war in pagan mythology. Do we give in to the fear and terror of these forces? Of course not. How could we when we have the presence of Christ in our boat who ultimately has all power and authority over the storm? Just as Jesus slept during the storm, Jesus now waits for the appointed time to silence any threats to his Church. As we hold onto the safety of our boat, we must remain steadfast in our faith that his presence is the only thing that keeps us safe.

Jesus was known to travel frequently to places that other Jews opted not to visit. In order for Christ to truly attest to the fact that he came for the salvation of all, he went out of his comfort zone to the gentile regions near Galilee and Judea so that he could reveal his work just as he had been doing in the predominantly Jewish regions. Sometimes, this work was efficacious, while at other times he was actively rejected. When we consider our own concepts of justice and fairness, it can be difficult to accept that God permits some to be born among those who worship Him in fullness, such as the Israelites or the Catholic Church, while also permitting that others are born into groups that reject Him and His Law. However, Christ is meant to be a figure who we are called to emulate in our own behavior as Christians; we have inherited an indescribable gift, and we must go out and share it with those who do not yet have it.

The Jews of Jesus’ time lived among the pagan gentiles. Even if they preferred to stay away from each other, they knew each other well and lived within each other’s cultures, which enabled Christ to preach and minister to the gentiles rather openly. We can find great similarities in this relationship between Jews and gentiles in the first century to our own experience as Christians living in a secular society. At one time, Christian principles defined our culture and our society, but this is no longer the case. Now, Christians are the ones who are permitted and tolerated to live out their faith, as long as it does not interfere with the irreligious identity of modern society. When Christ went into the territory of the Gadarenes in this Gospel passage, he was a Jew going into gentile territory. For Jews, swine were unclean animals that were forbidden in every sense of the word; yet for the Gentiles in this area, swine were their livestock, their source of income, and an important part of the community. In the present age, many people now make their living in industries that go against everything that Christianity stands for, yet it is perfectly acceptable to modern culture. The Gadarenes had grown to accept the presence of two severely tortured souls, even to the point that they avoided going near where they were because they had grown so violent. Our own modern society has also slowly grown to accept the omnipresence of demonic influence in our lives, which manifests in violence and social discord. We have simply grown too used to it to do anything about it, even to the point that now it is often widely accepted. 

When Christ in his fullness comes into the presence of the demons, they grow agitated knowing that their time is at an end. They request to be sent into the swine, which Christ grants. In this scene, swine are interpreted differently depending on if you are a Jew or a gentile. For Jews, the swine are a sign of uncleanliness and their destruction is preferable. For gentiles, they are a sign of business and livelihood, so of course they would be distraught when Christ permits their destruction. When the essence of Christ through the proclamation of the Gospel is revealed to a post-Christian and irreligious world, society is radically changed for the better. However, this first requires the complete abandonment and purging of all those things that make us unclean, even if our livelihoods depend on it. This means sometimes giving up one’s career, hobbies, or relationships. Some are not yet ready to make that leap. Others are so used to the presence of the demonic that they grow to prefer it and its culture of death. But Christ came for all of us; he wants the gentile, the pagan, and the irreligious to accept him. When we all free ourselves from the grip of sin, everything then becomes worth sacrificing in order to follow him.

In 2015, the Diocese of Salt Lake City began to investigate a possible Eucharistic miracle that occurred within one of its parishes. A consecrated host was dropped during distribution. It was placed in water to dissolve, but after a week without dissolving, it began to appear as if it were bleeding. After the investigation, it was revealed that the host had actually just developed red mold; a miracle had not occurred. At first, the news of this might have been a bit disappointing. Eucharistic miracles do happen, and it was exciting to think that one had occurred in this situation. But we must be careful when we consider the presence of evident and empirical miracles; God never reveals Himself or His work through the senses in this way arbitrarily. There is always a lesson attached.

If we truly believe in the Catholic teaching that the Eucharist is the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ, we simply do not need a Eucharistic miracle to reveal this. Either way, the reality is the same - it is actually the body of Christ. When we start to look into those Eucharistic miracles that are supported by scientific investigation, they often occur when doubt about the Real Presence begins to affect the faithful. The most famous example is probably that of Lanciano, Italy, when the consecrated host turned into actual human flesh in the hands of a priest who doubted the Real Presence. Eucharistic miracles validate what we already believe about the Eucharist every time we go to Mass. We don’t need them. God grants these miracles out of His own will, and they may speak deeply to certain people and strengthen them in their belief in the Real Presence. But if our faith guides us in our belief in the Real Presence of the Eucharist, we will be strengthened and comforted by the fact that a miracle unseen to the physical senses happens at every Mass. The “accidents”, or the physical characteristics, of bread and wine remain, but the substance of the Host, what it actually is, changes into the body and blood of Christ. Invisible miracles of grace versus visible miracles of grace is the focus of this Gospel passage. Jesus is practicing his real ability to forgive sins, a change that occurs on a metaphysical level, when he is accused of deception and blasphemy. He asks his critics, what is easier - to say your sins are forgiven or to perform a physical miracle? To validate his metaphysical healing of the soul, he shows that he is capable of physical healing, which is actually far less miraculous than the healing of a soul.

Miracles are a wonderful gift from God. But as Christ reveals to us in this passage, miracles can occur both metaphysically and physically. Transubstantiation is a metaphysical miracle, one that is far more miraculous than a manipulation of nature according to our senses. We can experience this miracle on a daily basis in the Mass, but we become far more wrapped up in the excitement of our basic senses witnessing a physical miracle. What does this say about our faith? Do we not appreciate the miracle of the Holy Spirit descending upon the altar at every Mass to take what is the work of human hands and make it divine? Appreciate the physical miracles that occur in the world, but do not see them as the only miracles. God works far greater miracles into our lives daily without us even noticing them. Reflect on the words of Christ when he said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.” 

Humanity’s success in evolution and understanding of the natural world can most likely be explained by our willingness to cooperate with each other in a very complex way and on a very broad scale. Still, this is difficult to do. When we congregate in communities, it only seems natural that most of us aspire to positions or roles that are considered great. We can even see this in young children; when asked what they want to be when they grow up, how often will children say things like a professional athlete, a rock star, an astronaut, or president? How many children will respond by saying they want to be an accountant, a sales associate, or a factory worker? Clearly, we all wish we can ascend to prominent roles with celebrated reputations, but in order for our communities to truly succeed, we need those people who can fill the roles that are neither glamorous nor necessarily desirable to do.

Just as this is true for individual communities, this is also true of the Body of Christ. As members of the Church, we each have our own individual roles that allow the Body of Christ to flourish. Not all of us can be priests. Not all of us can be liturgical musicians or ministers. However, all of us can use our God-given talents and time to do what we can. Sometimes that means we participate in the liturgy. Sometimes that means we volunteer for charities associated with the Church. Sometimes that means being a catechist or an evangelizer of the faith. What we absolutely must not do is assume that any individual can simply take on any role in the Church. This is not true in secular human communities, it was not true of Christ’s followers during his time on earth, and it is not true of the Church today.

A wonderful example of just how harmonious each individual has the potential to be in the life of the Church is through the figure of Matthew, who wrote this Gospel. The twelve Apostles were individually set apart by Christ for a lofty position that required enormous responsibility. Matthew was privileged to have been chosen as one of the twelve, but it does not stop there. Jesus uses the call of Matthew, who was previously a reviled tax collector seen as a traitor to his people, to send a message to everyone around him: anyone can be called, regardless of their past or their reputation. But when we are called to fill the role designated for us by God, we need to prepare ourselves for that role by rejecting sin and giving ourselves completely to Him. 

Your life is a well-structured collection of all of your past decisions, the things you’ve built up over the years, and the objects or relationships you worked very hard to attain. What would it take for you to abandon it all? Think of all the responsibilities you have and the people you have been placed in charge of; what would motivate you to leave what is essentially the result of your entire life’s work? It takes something either truly special or a momentary lapse in judgment to do something so intense and consequential for the rest of your life. But this is exactly the thing that the Apostles who were called directly by Christ did; Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their nets and boats and their entire profession and livelihood to follow this mysterious miracle worker who challenged them to catch men instead. It was either an interior illumination or a severe lapse in judgment that led them to do this; it could not have been simply curiosity.

These four Apostles gave up their source of income to become followers of Christ. They had families to support, homes to maintain, and a business to run, but all of that was deemed secondary to following Christ. We could not imagine how difficult such a decision was, but they would not have done so if their hearts were not so stirred. The calling of Matthew, however, is far different. Matthew was called alone; he did not have others to validate his choice in following Christ. Unlike the call of Nathaniel, who was first motivated to meet Christ by Philip then chose to follow Christ after he recognized a supernatural knowledge in Christ’s words to him, there is no miracle attached to the call of Matthew. Even with this unique attribute in the call of Matthew, it becomes even more mysterious when we realize that Matthew was probably the least likely of the Apostles to follow Christ after being called. Matthew was at a customs post - he was a tax collector, a Jew who was seen as a traitor to his own people for taking money from them and giving it to their enemies in the Romans. There was considerable wealth attached to this occupation, but it could only attract one type of person: someone who did not care what his contemporaries thought of him, and someone who apparently had no loyalty. By all the evidence, Matthew had a comfortable life, considerable wealth, and a propensity not to base his life choices on how it made him appear to others. In other words, he did not need a teacher or a mentor to follow. He seemingly had everything one could possibly need to get along in life.

Yet, all it took for Matthew to leave it all behind was a simple call from Christ: “follow me.” There was no miraculous catch of fish. There was no preternatural knowledge of Matthew’s past like Nathanael. There was no indication that Christ was someone special, holy, or even divine, besides an interior realization within Matthew himself that he was being called directly by God in this mysterious person. You don’t have to just ask yourself what it would take to leave everything in your own life behind like Matthew. Ask yourself this: what would it take for you to simply listen to what God wants you to do? Do you need a miracle? Do you need a sign of divine intervention? Learn from Matthew. All you need to listen to the voice of God and to follow him is to have an understanding of the movement of your heart. This is God’s preferred way of reaching us. This is how He will call you; you ought to be ready to answer and follow Him.

God is perfectly merciful and perfectly just. It might not be possible for us to understand this fully because of our own human limitations; we either focus entirely on justice or entirely on mercy. But for God, His justice is His mercy, and there are ways for us to begin to understand how He responds to our behavior by seeing how Christ acted in his humanity. Christ’s first act of mercy was coming down into a world of sin to call us out of it and to unite ourselves to God. His first act of justice was revealing to us that we have been enveloped by our sin. His second act of mercy was giving us the opportunity to abandon our sin without judgment of our pasts. His second act of justice was using our response to his call as our true decision to respond to our sinfulness.

Matthew is a publican, someone who collected taxes from his own people on behalf of the Roman Empire. There were plenty of scandalous careers in the time of Jesus, but there was none more despised than publicans; you weren’t just doing something morally wrong, you were actively working for the enemy of your own people. Matthew is in the act of working this shameful job when he is called by Christ; while he is sitting at his customs post, Jesus calls him by saying, “follow me,” and Matthew immediately leaves his post to follow Christ. This simple story is the epitome of God’s expression of justice and mercy. Christ looks beyond the customs post to see the human being sitting within it, and he calls him away. Matthew cannot follow Christ if he remains in his post; he has to abandon it and the responsibilities that come with it in order to go after Christ. Most importantly, this is the story according to Matthew himself since it is his Gospel. Matthew does not hide his past as a tax collector nor does he care about his past because he is so delighted in his present as a disciple of Christ. The most important detail for us as readers, though, is that Matthew was called away from sin while in a state of sin. Christ called him as a sinner, but Matthew does not remain a sinner. In a similar way, Christ does not judge us in our sin before we are called, but he does not want us to remain in our sin after we are called.

Christ does not chase away sinners, but he does chase away sin. We need to be aware of this in the Church today. We are either too quick to condemn the person because they are sitting behind the customs post without thinking about whether they’ve been called away from it yet, or we encourage the person to listen to the word of God while they remain seated behind the customs post. As Christians, we are called to go after the lost ones where they are, but we must bring them back into the fold; the Church is very clear about what is and is not sinful, and most of us are guilty of being sinners. But in his mercy, Christ offers us a way out. It is our responsibility, then, that we encourage our brothers and sisters to leave behind sin so that they can experience the fullness of God’s mercy in the context of His justice. God does not define us by the sins of our pasts, but we cannot let the sins of our pasts become the sins of our present. 

Fasting and abstinence are crucial parts of our participation in the Christian life, especially in the season of Lent. If you talk with anyone about their own Lenten journey, chances are they will focus on those things that they are actively trying to give up or sacrifice for the 40 days as an act of penance. The purpose of this, and the purpose behind fasting in general, is to take upon ourselves the discipline of saying no to something enjoyable (but not inherently sinful) to remind ourselves of the lengths Christ went to in order to save us from sin. It both reminds us of our sinfulness and encourages us to actually do something about it. Essentially, it makes our daily activities intentional; if we constantly consume enjoyable things, enjoyment becomes expected and distracts us from the pain of our sins.  There is also a reward to intentionally sacrificing these things for the sake of penance: it makes us appreciate life’s little enjoyments at their proper time.

While we spend the 40 days of Lent offering up a thing or two we otherwise enjoy in our daily lives, fasting and abstinence are occasional. Fasting, which focuses on the amount of food we eat, is obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Abstinence, especially when it comes to meat, is obligatory on Fridays in Lent; historically, it was every Friday of the year. There are a few exceptions. When it comes to health or other dispensations, those who are unable to fast or abstain from certain foods are asked to instead perform intentional acts in the Lenten spirit of penance and charity. If a feast day falls on a Friday, the rules for abstinence are suspended. Additionally, Sundays are always celebratory; those things that are good and that you enjoy but have given up for Lent out of penance can be enjoyed. On the surface, and probably especially to those who are not Catholic, these seem like arbitrary rules. If something is good, why give it up for 40 days? What is the purpose of giving up meat? What good does denying yourself food do for others? Why suspend these rules on feast days and Sundays?

To clarify, giving up good things for a time does allow us to appreciate them more when we have them in moderation, but most importantly, it makes us intentional about what we choose to consume. We are not mindlessly indulging ourselves simply because it is in front of us. Meat, historically considered a luxury, is indicative of those good things that we should appreciate through moderation. Fasting from food, a daily necessity, is a sincere act of penance, which should be the focus of our Lenten journeys. However, our faith is primarily celebratory: Christ’s victory over sin and death supersedes the pain of our sin. Therefore, we dedicate feast days and the Lord’s day to celebrate the fact that the bridegroom is with us. There is a proper time for penitential fasting, a proper time for abstinence and self-sacrifice, and a proper time for celebrating God’s power.

We are called as Christians throughout our lives to reorient ourselves and our choices to more closely align with the elements of our faith that prioritize true charity. We are always asked to pray, we are always asked to offer sacrifices for the sake of others, and we are always asked to give back what we might have in excess, but in seasons such as Lent, these actions of praying, fasting, and almsgiving become front-and-center in our lives. Immediately, we are going to encounter a problem if we define our Lenten spirituality by these three things: if we are always called to pray, fast, and give, why do we only remind ourselves of this for 40 days out of the year? The truth is that this should be the norm for us as Christians, with an even greater emphasis on the three during Lent. We should always be praying, but we should pray more during Lent. We should always be fasting from our attachments, but we should give them up entirely during Lent. We should always be giving back, but we should give back more during Lent.

If we do not let prayer, fasting, and almsgiving be active elements within our daily lives as Christians and only pick them up during Lent, we will not be prepared for the demands that they entail. Prayer is a conversation with God; those who have the deepest prayer lives and pray often understand how God speaks back to them. Those who might pray sparingly will grow frustrated when they realize God does not speak back to them in the way they expect. When this happens, prayer seems tedious and pointless, and patience in discerning God’s responses is lost, leading to a return to sparse prayer. Fasting is one of the most difficult aspects of a penitential spirit if not done with sincerity or with an understanding of its purpose. If we as Catholics only followed the rubrics in the precepts of the Church by fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, we will become agitated and short-tempered because of it; ironically, this is precisely what Jesus warns us against when he tells us not to let our penance show. Fasting is not done as a discipline, but as a release from the attachments of this world for the sake of acknowledging that our relationship with God is all that is necessary in this life. When we go into the proscribed days of fasting with this mentality, we take it on joyfully and offer the discomforts up to God. Ultimately, we see fasting’s merits rather than its side-effects. Almsgiving is something that should be done regularly and generously throughout our lives. However, if we go into Lent without having conditioned ourselves to generosity, we will once again grow bitter and resentful for having to give up what we have hoarded for ourselves for the other 300+ days of the year. 

The Christian life and the liturgical year should offer us an opportunity to prepare for Lent to pray more, to fast more, and to give more. We should already be making these pillars of our daily lives. Just as exercising regularly gets us to a point where we enjoy making ourselves healthier, constant praying, fasting, and almsgiving prepares us for the time of year when we are asked to make these things central to the practice of our faith. More than this, though, are the fruits that come from an active life of penance: God sees what we do and why we do it. He delights in our charity and is overjoyed by our expression of love to Him and to our neighbors. In so doing, we develop a closer and more intimate relationship with Him in which we begin to see how He always reciprocates - He is more clear in His responses to our prayers, He satisfies our needs when we give up our wants, and He is incredibly generous to us when we are generous with ourselves.

In the context of human history, the span of an individual life is quite brief. There comes a point in our lives when we realize that we have “grown up” and it happened much more quickly than we thought. As children, our lack of life experience causes us to see the passage of time as excruciatingly slow. This breeds impatience and a desire for us to bypass certain moments so that we can get to the more important things. But as our experiences build upon each other and time passes more quickly, we regret not appreciating those little moments of our youth. We start to hold onto whatever we can in case it passes us by just like all those things from our past. Life experiences are plentiful, but they are meaningless without relationship. What we really desire as we grow older is to have truly appreciated the people who were a part of our lives who gave us those experiences.

Another element of growing older is seeing those closest to you move on - children moving out when they reach a certain age, friends spending less time with you because they get married, family members passing away as they get older, etc. There’s an element of sadness when we reflect on this, but does God give us these people in our lives just to take them away due to circumstance? If we look at this life as a way in which we can form ourselves to become ready for eternal life with God, we start to see these people in a different context: they came into our lives at certain points to affect our journey towards God, but they are not ours to keep. This is the case for every single person alive; therefore, there comes a point when we come into the lives of others to affect them, but also a point when we must move on. Our relationships with others should be a way in which we can hone our love for our creator, and to manifest that love when new people come into our lives so that God’s love can spread throughout our lifetime. If we really want to understand this, we should look to the figure of Christ, especially through his words in this specific passage. He was criticized by two groups who were in a period of waiting: John’s disciples were awaiting the one whom John the Baptist preceded, and the Pharisees were awaiting the Messiah. Because of this period of waiting that defined these groups, they lived as they should - by fasting and offering personal sacrifices for who they were awaiting. But Jesus’ disciples were not in a period of waiting for their beloved; he was already with them. There was no need to fast or to offer personal sacrifices at that time.

Jesus fostered a lifestyle of appreciation in his followers because he was among them. How often do we wish we appreciated those lovely things in our past while we still had them, or those relationships that meant so much to us while our loved ones were still with us? Jesus told John’s disciples and the Pharisees that there would come a time when he would leave, and his followers would need to fast and make personal sacrifices in anticipation for his return. But this Gospel reflects on appreciating the moment. There will come a time when you mourn the moment your loved ones leave. But Christ was meant to be present at this moment. Certain individuals are meant to be with us at this moment. Are we appreciating them and contemplating why God has placed them in our lives now?

When Jacob received a vision of a stairway leading up to Heaven, he awoke from his sleep immediately aware of the fact that what he saw in dream was something real and true about the spot where he was. God was with him, though he could not see this when he was awake. Therefore, he erected an altar there, anointed it, and named the place Bethel, which means “house of God.” All of this came from a dream. As we sleep on any given night, we are constantly dreaming regardless of whether we remember our dreams or not. It would be foolish to base real-world decisions simply on that which you dreamed about, but Jacob was stirred by the reality of his dream, recognizing fully within his heart that there was a correlation between the ethereal and the temporal at this moment.

After he built the altar on this spot, Jacob made a vow: “If God remains with me… the Lord shall be my God.” There is a popular children’s prayer before bedtime that has been recited for centuries, which states: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Something that is elicited from this prayer about our state of being in sleep is that we are unable to take on the opportunity of handing ourselves over to God willingly; our rational faculties seem to be paused and we are therefore entirely dependent on the grace of God in that moment. This sweet little prayer is meant to remind a child that they are entrusting their entire self, body and soul, to God in the moments when they are entering into the unknown. This is precisely what Jacob meant when he was about to embark on his own journey into the unknown, vowing to God that he would worship Him and Him alone if He remained by his side. All of this was spurred on, though, by a mystical encounter in the state of sleep through a dream. When we hear the well-known story in this Gospel of Jesus raising a little girl from the dead, we should take Jesus’ claim to her loved ones seriously: “The girl is not dead but sleeping." Does this mean that they mistakenly thought she was dead when she actually was just sleeping? Does this mean that Christ lied in order to calm the hearts of those present? Or does this mean that Christ understands something more about the state of death and the state of sleep than we do? Clearly, it is the last one; the girl’s family would not grieve if she only slept, and Christ would not lie. In this moment, Christ is trying to tell us something about death: we are entering the unknown, entering into a state in which we have no control and we become entirely dependent on God’s providence. This is the same state of being asleep, and why it is so important to instill this idea in children to entrust their souls to God before embarking on a journey to the unknown.

Dreaming and sleeping are inextricably linked. The story of Jacob tells us that this could be a method by which God communicates to us when we are in a state outside of our control. The story of the little girl being raised from the dead tells us that God has the power to raise us, the power to be with us through the unknown, and the power to communicate with us when we aren’t able to communicate back to Him. To put it simply, God remains with us. He remains with us when we are unaware, and He remains with us when we can fully experience His tangible presence. If we are to be followers of God, we need to take upon ourselves the same vow of Jacob: If God remains with us, He is to be our God and we are to be His children.

The Gospel is a very valuable treasure. However, this treasure affects us in ways that other treasures do not; whereas material treasure tempts us to hold on to it for ourselves in selfishness, the treasure of the Gospel motivates us to share it with everyone we know, especially if our appreciation for it is properly ordered. There was a very specific reason why God shared the treasure of His son with us, and why he remains with us today in the Gospels: so that everyone may come to believe and have eternal life through the Son, because no one can come to the Father except through the Son. When we receive the Truth of the Gospel, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, who urges us to share it with as many people as we can, just like the Apostles on Pentecost. 

Jesus was very careful regarding his public works; everything he did as a sign for others was meant to teach something valuable about his divine identity. Some of his works that he did out of pity or love for those who suffered may not have ever been recorded in the Gospels at all. Those that were recorded were done so with us (the modern Church) in mind, so that we may implicitly learn about his nature from the details of these scenes. However, there are things recorded in the Gospels that seem counterintuitive; multiple times, Jesus strictly warns the recipients of his works and miracles that they are not permitted to share with anyone what had happened. How could Christ expect these individuals, who have received the greatest treasure of all, not to share it with everyone and anyone? There are a few possible explanations as to why Christ gave this instruction. Sharing this information distracts the soul with outward appearances, rather than inwardly reflecting on the merciful power of God. If the focus is on outward appearances, those who were cured or received these signs might enjoy this new life being freed from previous bonds, making them easily fall prey to new sins. Additionally, disciples would always be present (since they were able to record these events), and this instruction taught them that they should not seek public honor for the work of God. It also could have simply been instructed by Christ so that numbers of curious individuals with no authentic appreciation for the truth of his work were kept at a minimum.

These instructions are rarely obeyed by the recipients of these miracles. Whether or not this was a just action might not be of much importance to us as modern Christians. We are called by Christ to share his works publicly. Ultimately, it is our responsibility to go out to the world around us and share the Gospel, especially after the Resurrection. But we must trust that when we are instructed by Christ to do what seems counterproductive, it is for good reason.

For those of us who have spent our lives as members of the Catholic Church, we can easily fall into the trap of taking for granted or growing bored with the story of the Gospel. In fact, the story of the Gospel is so widely known even outside of the Church that most simply assume that they know the story of Christ. The general understanding of certain miracles, like changing water into wine or walking on water, to the awareness of the claims about his divinity, especially his resurrection from the dead, are known by everyone. We can easily make the mistake of falling into two categories, though: rejecting the validity of these miraculous things or forgetting the power behind them. Both errors begin from the same place though - a denial of the truly miraculous nature of the life of Christ.

When we have heard the same Gospel readings every year, we start to believe that we understand them and have taken all possible things away from them in terms of meaning. If there’s nothing left to analyze, we will inevitably grow bored. On the other side of things, some people who may not share our faith may know about Christ’s miracles and life because they have heard about them so often, but their severe dearth of biblical knowledge causes them to assume that it is a figment of someone’s imagination at a point in history long past. Those who have a healthy relationship with Scripture, though, will understand that the stories in the Bible consistently reveal new things to us the more we read it; however, this requires diligent and active reading, not a passive listening to a story once a year at Mass alone. A perfect example of this can be found in this Gospel passage. The details are pretty simple: Jesus heals two blind men. On the surface, the miracle is a typical and rather normal supernatural feat for Christ. To tell someone who does not believe in the divinity of Christ that he healed the blind will not move them; of course we would believe he could do that. But Christ never performs miracles just for the sake of it because they always reveal a Theological truth or a lesson about him. This miracle is understood very well only in the context of the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah tells us that the time of all fulfillment of the Lord’s house is soon at hand. The evil and the unbelieving will be faced with the Truth, and the faithful will find the peace they so earnestly seek in God. But there are signs that occur that show us that we are in the age of the new Heaven and the new Earth, one of them being “the eyes of the blind shall see.” There is no natural cure to blindness. It is not possible for humans to restore sight to the blind by touching the eyes and demanding that they be opened. We forget just how miraculous these signs and wonders are because we have heard about them so often. But the real takeaway of this miracle is not the act itself performed by Christ; it is rather the revelation that we are now approaching the end times because we are currently living in the age of Christ, the one who had the power to give sight to the blind, and to give hearing to the deaf. Now is the time of Christ, and we are waiting for his promised return. Continue to be aware of the signs that reveal this to us, even if you have seen them or heard them countless times before.

Some individuals are called for certain responsibilities in life. We see this calling as “leadership”: some people have the necessary personality and qualifications for it, while others don’t. Essentially all of human society is organized in structures with individuals at the top who are responsible for the trajectory and the vision for the entire group. Leadership is part of our very nature, so why does it seem that only some are capable of being leaders? In reality, every human person has the capacity for leadership because it is in our nature. At the moment God created human beings, He granted to us dominion over all of creation so that we may lead and orient the rest of creation to recognize God and behave according to the will of our Creator.

This can be a daunting realization. Sometimes it’s far easier to say to yourself and those around you that you are a better follower than a leader. After all, leaders need to make the tough decisions, they apparently need to be heartless at times, unaffected by the influence of emotion. If you consider yourself as someone who is afraid of making big decisions on behalf of a group, of being “heartless” to others, or of setting aside your emotions to make decisions, you probably think you are incapable of being a leader. But there are so many times in life when we are thrust into leadership regardless of whether we choose to be or not: parents are natural leaders, those who are older than others are natural leaders to those who are younger, employees are sometimes required to be leaders among their peers. Humanity does not consist of leaders and followers; we consist of leaders of varying degrees of responsibility. With this in mind, we must be aware of how we should approach being leaders when we are inevitably thrust into that position. Being decisive and avoiding the influence of circumstance certainly help, so it is only natural to be nervous if you are indecisive or easily influenced in your decision-making by others. Look at the figure of Christ. We might consider him to be perfectly prudent, cool under pressure, and the ideal leader at all times, but this does not mean he was unaffected by those he chose to lead. In this Gospel, we hear about a unique perspective of Christ: Matthew speaks about the interior heart of Christ, that he was moved by pity for the crowds. He did not pity them because they attempted to influence him with false humility, but because he recognized their true needs. As leaders, we need to recognize the true needs of those for whom we are making decisions.

When you are in a position of leadership, there will be people trying to use you and influence you according to their desires. The leader of every Catholic on earth, Pope Benedict XVI, once famously said upon his elevation to the papacy, “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.” He understood the responsibility of his office. He recognized his fears, and he asked those for whom he was responsible to strengthen him in the face of those who had nefarious motives. He learned this from Christ, his own Good Shepherd. When we are called to lead, we should model ourselves after him and after Christ. Leadership inspired by Christ will bestow upon us the ability to recognize both good and evil influences. As Jesus said, “I know my sheep, and mine know me.”

Multiple times throughout the Gospels, we hear the word “pity”. Jesus was moved with pity for the crowds who came to be healed, so much so that he performed the miracle of the loaves for them. When two blind men approach him to be healed, they ask that he have pity on them. He was moved with pity for those who approached him, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Pity is what stirs the heart when one encounters the suffering of someone else, and this stirring of the heart evokes a desire to do something about the suffering. When Christ pities the crowds, his heart desires to do something for his people. When they ask for him to have pity on them, they are asking for that suffering to be alleviated. 

Pity moves Christ to act, though his pity is expressed in a way that emphasizes either his divine nature or his human nature. When he heals the two blind men, he is revealing his divine power over the disorders of the natural world and its fallen state. No human being can do this except through the power of God. In this Gospel passage, however, his pity is expressed in a very human way. The suffering that the crowds are experiencing is spiritual, and it is caused by a lack of guidance - they are sheep without a shepherd. Jesus’ response to this is not to call them immediately to him as their shepherd; instead, he goes to his Apostles and empowers them so that they may become shepherds to the lost sheep. There are so many decent souls that are calling out for God, but they must be brought to God by Christ and his followers. Due to the limitations of his human nature that he intentionally took on, Jesus could not go to the ends of the world preaching his message. His disciples served as the instruments by which so many, including ourselves in the present age, were brought to an authentic understanding of God. 

If pity moved Christ to cure the suffering of these people, and the disciples were the instruments by which the people were spiritually cured, then the message that was given was the antidote to suffering: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The healing power of this phrase is that it focuses us on our journey to God, to whom all things are oriented. It frees us from the distractions of our everyday lives and reminds us that the time is at hand when all things beside us will fall away, and we will be face to face with our Creator. If you pity those who do not have the light of Christ within them, remember that Christ called you just as much as he called the disciples in this Gospel. Share with those who suffer spiritually that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and that God will soon bind up the wounds of His people.

We spend all of our lives in a state of waiting. Some people wait for things to get better in their life, whether that be monetarily or socially or anything else. Some people wait for what they know to expect in the future, such as their children moving away from home or retiring at a certain age. Waiting implies an understanding that some things are completely out of our control, and the most we could do is be patient. Imagine, then, being a member of the nation of Israel before Christ, anxiously awaiting the coming of the Messiah who would alleviate all issues, all difficulties, and all problems from their lives, especially as it related to their enemies. However, when their savior finally came to them, many did not recognize him nor did they listen to him. Christ is still with us; we live in the age of Christ because his Church still remains with us, completely dedicated to living out his words. Yet so many still reject him and his Church, while still waiting for something in life that can give them peace and contentment. Just like many of the Jews of Christ’s day, those in waiting right now are not aware that what they seek is ready for the taking.

The language of this Gospel passage is particularly touching; it gives us a glimpse into the emotional attachment Christ has for his own people, and his love for them is expressed in a way that even us sinful human beings can recognize - affection. Jesus’ heart is moved with pity for the crowds he is serving. He looks at the state of their lives, and realizes that they are troubled and abandoned. This is what stirs his heart to pity. They are described as sheep without a shepherd. Now, look at the world around us today; if the person of Jesus Christ was living in the world today as he had been during his public ministry, it seems that he would find far more people “troubled and abandoned” today. The reason we are given for the crowds as being troubled and abandoned is because they have no leader. They have no one to guide them or to form them in goodness and love. In an atheistic society, or even one like ours where materialism and personal satisfaction become the gods of our age, you have no Father. You have no shepherd. You are left without anyone or anything to guide you, and you will inevitably become troubled and abandoned. Still though, the concept of waiting for good things to come seems to be written in our very nature, and it will not go away by living for yourself. Instead, all that happens is that those who are waiting do not recognize that that which will give them ultimate satisfaction is in front of them, and they reject it.

Jesus’ response to seeing the crowds through the lens of pity and love was not to solve their life problems for them or to perform an act to explicitly show them that the guidance they so desperately sought was present in him; instead, his response was to call his disciples to reap the fruits of the harvest. This is the essence of what it means to be a member of his Church: There are far more troubled and abandoned souls in our world today than there were at the time of Christ. You may even know many of them. Christ has entrusted his word to be shared though his disciples - us, the Church. When your heart is moved with pity for your neighbor who has no guidance and no one to love or to be loved by, take the place of Christ for them. Share the Gospel. Without cost, we have received as Christians. Without cost, then, we ought to give and to share the gift we have been given.

As creatures of our Heavenly Creator, we look around at the world and we recognize that all human beings are His treasured possession. Every single one of us, regardless of our age, race, religion, or anything else, is equally beloved by God and are thus equal to one another. As members of the ontological hierarchy, we have been given a responsibility of care for the rest of the world because God delights particularly in humanity. With this concept of equality in mind, we can begin to see God as a parent with multiple children; it would be unthinkable to imagine Him to have favorites, or that He did not love any individual part of His creation. Some of us obey Him more than others, some worship Him more than others, some know Him better than others, but despite this, we ought to take solace in the fact that He loves us all equally. So how could it be that this same God would set aside a small nation as His own “chosen people”, given priority over all other nations? How could it be that one Church of the many who claim to follow Him could be considered “His” One, True Church?

God’s words reveal to us that equality among His creation is not equality of priority: “You shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine.” This sounds like favoritism, and only Israel applies. However, there is an extremely important caveat He adds before these words: “IF you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant…” The word “if” is profoundly important here; it contextualizes the choice we have to follow Him when we are called. While it is true that the Israelites were given special access to a unique relationship with God before anyone else in the world in the time before Christ, not all members of Israel chose to accept this opportunity; worship of God was repeatedly rejected or corrupted by the sins of these same people. If they did not hearken to His voice or keep His covenant, they could not count themselves as His special possession. This means that the actual number of people who were truly dearer to God than all other people was significantly smaller than the tiny nation of Israel. When God opened up the door to any and all to be considered as part of His “chosen people” through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, more accepted this calling and this opportunity, though not all. Today, more and more people are rejecting this place close to His heart.

What are we to learn from this? One, God doesn’t necessarily have favorites, but He equally reciprocates love and attention to those who give it to Him more than others. Two, when Christ says the harvest is plenty but the laborers are few, he is revealing to us that God calls us all to be His chosen, regardless of our nation or background, yet very few accept it, just as very few accepted it in Israel. Third and most importantly, Christ did not just die for those who accept Him as lord and savior; Paul tells us that he died particularly for the sinners and for those who reject him. If we are part of God’s “chosen people” as we believe because of our membership in His Church, then we ought to realize that we are not spoiled favorites; instead, we are held to a standard to aid God in reaching out to the sinners and to those who reject His Son. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, we can participate in the love the Father so desires to shower upon each and every member of His creation. To be part of the chosen few is a privilege insofar as it is a calling to love more, to give more, to serve more. It is an emulation of God to our fellow human beings. Few accept this responsibility, but those who do are God’s special possession. 

Within modern human culture, particularly American culture, hard work has been elevated as the prime virtue among participants in society. If you were to describe someone as a hard worker, the implication there is to describe the individual in a positive light. Hard work has the potential to lead someone to become virtuous, but it is by no means virtuous by its nature. To participate in society is to give back to the community according to your work and skill. Work is virtuous; even before the Fall, God instructed Man to tend to the garden in which he was placed. However, work is meant to enthuse us to honor God and neighbor. It should be done with joy and with an ever-growing skillset. A honed skill makes working easier and more enjoyable, not harder.

The virtue in work is not in the efforts we exude; even God rejected some work that was done for His glorification. He rejected the offering of Cain, allowed the sons of Aaron to be consumed by an unauthorized fire they built for Him, rejected Saul as king after he saved the loot of the enemies of the Israelites to be offered to God, and chastised the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah for giving God meaningless offerings. As Christians who might try our best on a daily basis to please God by the way we live and the way we serve Him, this has the potential to be a devastating realization: God appreciates quality over quantity, even when it comes to prayer, offerings, and service to Him. If this is the case, “hard work” is utterly meaningless if the work we are doing is not of an acceptable quality. This is not merely because God is a selective receiver to what we offer; to give to Him something incomplete, whether that is a prayer or a sacrifice, reflects the incompleteness in our paths towards perfection. Christ very clearly instructed us to be as perfect as his Heavenly Father, and the first step is to focus ourselves on what we need to cultivate and hone. We have a few ways of doing this. First, find what it is that you can uniquely offer to the community, to your neighbor, and to God; this is different from person to person. Second, focus on this one thing. If you are to become a jack of all trades, you become a master of none. We as a Church have enough people to fill all necessary roles, so we must become masters in that one area in which we are most inclined to fill. Third, work so diligently in that one area so that it becomes second nature to you, so that the work becomes easy (not hard), and that it elicits joy within you whenever you offer it.

Christ reiterates this message that we succeed when we are led by passion and love, not just by our efforts. All the salt in the world is meaningless if it is tasteless. All the light in the world is pointless if it cannot be seen. All the hard work you put into life has no return if you are unable to make it quality work. Humans were never equipped to be multitaskers; we were equipped to live in community, to depend on the quality work of each other as we focused on how we could best serve each other. When you begin to feel pressured to work harder in all the aspects in your life, take a step back and reevaluate what this means: do you need to work on all of the numerous qualities that make you an individual? Probably. Do you need to put an unhealthy amount of effort in all of your endeavors and tasks? Probably not. Work hard on the one thing that brings you closer to God and neighbor; what that is depends on you as an individual. Through that, your skill and your service compound, and you love and serve everyone around you more joyfully.    

The wisdom of God is unending. As Christians, we must be very careful to remember this because we are at a particularly high risk to make excuses to deny this claim. The God we worship in the person of Jesus Christ is the same as the One, True God worshiped by the Jews thousands of years before the Incarnation. The God we worship as Christians put into Law many expectations and rules that the Jews were painstakingly careful about observing. The entire Law, as Christ tells us, can be summed up in the Great Commandment: you shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, your soul, and your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. The risk we run into as Christians is interpreting this Great Commandment to mean whatever we want it to. Admittedly, this commandment lacks quite a bit of explanatory detail, so how did Christ want us to understand such a command? It’s quite simple - all we must do is look at the Law summed up in the Ten Commandments, which deal with very specific ways in which we ought to treat both God and neighbor.

One of the most important things that Christians must remember that came from the mouth of Christ is read this specific Gospel passage: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Jesus did not forgo or ignore a single law of the Jews given to them directly by God. How could he if he himself was God? We can recognize the strictness that the Jews live by in their observance of the Law, but certain laws and regulations were necessary before the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Laws like the Ten Commandments are solidified in their authority by our very nature; nothing that has occurred or will occur can negate the things God requires of us in the commandments. However, there are certain things that were no longer necessary after the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ because they tended to relate to the laws of sacrifice and cleanliness. The “laws” Christ flouted, though, were not given to the Jews by God, but invented by later leaders with no basis in Scripture. Many Christians believe that some of the “rules” for being a follower of Christ preached today by his Church fall under the same category. An excuse that is often used may be that Jesus was a rebel, which should empower us to rebel against that which we personally deem unjust. Another excuse may be that “Jesus never said anything about this or that, therefore he had no opinion about it.” Both of these excuses use the same hubris that led certain Jewish leaders to create their own laws because they considered their own individual consciences, however malformed as they may have been, to supersede the will of God clearly laid out in the Law and untouched by Christ’s offering. There is only one Law - it is God’s, and it is unchanging. 

We read in these words of the Gospel of Matthew just how much more strict Christ was in his demands than the Pharisees he criticized, though we always hear the opposite. We must pay particularly close attention to one harsh teaching of Christ from this Gospel: if your right eye or right hand causes you to sin, gouge it out or cut it off, because it is better for you to lose a body part than lose your soul. Jesus wasn’t being dramatic or hyperbolic; he was the Word Incarnate, and did not need to use exaggeration or hyperbole. Jesus’ words are literal - the root of what is causing us to sin, namely our temptations, must be cut out if we are to be his followers. It’s never as simple as an eye or a hand, but is usually our ego and our pride. Cut these out, follow his Word, and follow the Law. Do not assume that you know more than the one who instilled the ability to know within you.