Fr. Greg Heille, OP

Father Greg Heille from Aquinas Institute of Theology continues his reflection on 1 Thessalonians, moving from chapter 4's message of resurrection hope to chapter 5's teaching about being "children of light." He explores how Christians, while acknowledging that life can change instantly like "a thief in the night," are called to live differently because of their faith in God's goodness and transformative power. Drawing from Psalm 27, Father Heille emphasizes the importance of Christian community in supporting one another through life's struggles, encouraging believers to lift each other up and live virtuous lives together as they glimpse God's light "in the land of the living."

Father Greg Heille from Aquinas Institute of Theology reflects on grief, faith, and resurrection following the recent death of his Dominican community brother. Drawing from 1 Thessalonians 4, he explores how Christians can maintain hope while grieving, sharing his personal struggle with loss despite having strong faith in resurrection since age 16. Through the lens of the Good Samaritan parable, Father Heille emphasizes how believers can express resurrection faith by lifting each other up during times of need and loss, even when we can only see God's presence dimly in this life.

The readings for Mass today have a series of warnings against greed, which causes us to try to possess things rather than to takes care of them and put them to the best use for all. We are called to virtue, to be stewards of creation, rather than to greed.

In our reading today from the Book of Leviticus, we hear about the Jewish concern for land justice and food equity, having rules that overcome the inequities of agricultural land ownership. In the United States, 14% of the food is produced by black farmers, though they only own 4% of the agricultural land. Also, in St. Louis, MO there are food deserts in the black community and people working to fix them. Worse still, is the crushing food and land injustice in Gaza that drives the unrest. To create a world of hope, we need to work at overcoming these injustices.

St. Paul urged us to hold on to whatever was true, honorable, and just (Phil 4:8). Bartolomé de las Casas heard the preaching or Fray Antonio Montesinos OP about the evils of the Encomienda system and gave up his own encomiendo and slaves to become a Dominican friar and spent his life working to free the indigenous people of the Americas and develop and helping to develop what became the foundation of international law so that all people could be free. We owe it to God to relearn our own history to see what still needs to be done.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul assures us that we are not strangers, but citizens of the household of God. When our faith falters, we can lean on this ancient community of faith to pull us through.