A Word of Hope

Again from Abruzzo, Italy, Fr. Jimmy looks at Jesus' injunction to enter through the narrow gate in light of the first reading from Isaiah—that God came to gather people from every nation—concluding that the narrow gate is to have a broad minded view of inclusivity. We are not to have a narrow view of who is saved in our church, nor allow a narrow nationalism in our country—a challenging perspective!

Today's reflection is from the Abruzzo Mountains in Italy, where Fr. Jimmy is visiting his ancestral homeland. Jesus tells his followers that they should do everything the religious leaders say, but they should not follow their example because they do not practice what they preach. Fr. Jimmy ties this to Pope Francis' warnings against clericalism, and also applies it to leadership outside the Church, noting that political leaders should also see themselves as servants, and not as entitled to special treatment. In the same way, each of us needs to practice what we preach.

This Friday reflection celebrates the Queenship of Mary, which falls one week after the Assumption, exploring how Mary represents the completion of Christ's mystery fulfilled in humanity. Fr. Bob begins with a brief sung prayer to the "Holy Queen" before explaining how Mary, as the most perfect one who offered herself completely to God's invitation, becomes the sign of completeness - as Mother of God, she is Queen of Heaven since Christ is King. The reflection then connects to the Gospel's question about the greatest commandment, noting how Jesus chose Deuteronomy 6 ("Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul") over the more obvious first commandment from Exodus. The speaker emphasizes a profound insight: what we are truly devoted to, what we genuinely love and believe in, is what we obey - love becomes the non-negotiable of our lives.

Today we hear the troubling story of Jephthah's vow from the Book of Judges and Jesus's parable of the wedding banquet, exploring our tendency to make bargains with God rather than seeking true conversion. Speaking from St. Catherine of Siena House in Grand Rapids on the memorial of Pope St. Pius X, Father Keller examines how Jephthah's tragic sacrifice of his daughter reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what God desires - God never wants human sacrifice but seeks our heart's conversion. The Gospel's wedding banquet parable reinforces this theme, showing how people reject God's invitation by prioritizing worldly concerns, and how even those who attend the banquet can be spiritually unprepared (symbolized by the man without a wedding garment). Father Keller warns that even faithful churchgoers can fall into the trap of trusting in their own works or worldly things rather than centering their lives in God.

In today's Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the landowner who hired workers all throughout the day, but in the end, paid them all the same. This parable strikes us differently depending on if we identify with the ones who got more than they expected or less. Of course, the parable is about getting into heaven, something none of us has earned, so we should all see ourselves as given more than we deserve and simply feel gratitude, but sometimes we still get into a spirit of comparing ourselves with others, and that always eats away at our happiness. Which will you do today?

Father Charlie reflects on the Scripture readings for Monday, August 18th (20th week in ordinary time), examining the challenging theme of human nature's tendency toward repeated sin. Drawing from the Book of Judges, where the Israelites repeatedly fell into idolatry despite divine guidance through judges, and the Gospel story of the rich young man who approached Jesus seeking salvation, Father Charlie explores how we all struggle with habitual sins that seem impossible to overcome. While acknowledging the disappointing cycle of confession and repeated failure that many experience, he offers hope through the Gospel's message that true transformation comes not just from following commandments, but from a genuine conversion of heart that allows God's grace to gradually replace our patterns of sin with acts of charity, love, and trust in God.

Speaking from a beautiful garden in Madison, Wisconsin, Fr. Scott connects his friend's retirement passion for gardening with the spiritual call to passionate prophetic action. Using Jesus' words about lighting fires and Jeremiah's willingness to face persecution, he challenges viewers to identify what they're passionate enough about to risk everything for. Addressing current world crises like Gaza and Ukraine, he calls for moving beyond comfortable inaction to light the fires of change our broken world desperately needs.

Brother Edward reflects on the Gospel story of Jesus blessing the children, connecting it to the reality of children suffering in war zones around the world today. He challenges viewers to hold together both the joy children bring to families and the responsibility to care for suffering children globally, emphasizing that neglecting the world's most vulnerable children would offend the Christ who welcomed and blessed all children. The message calls for both prayer and action to bring peace and protection to children in conflict areas.

Brother Edward reflects on the Assumption of Mary, connecting today's Gospel about true blessedness with Mary's role as the perfect disciple. He explains how Mary's "yes" to God's plan made her the prototype of faithful discipleship, and how her Assumption into heaven - body and soul - serves as both a reward for her faithfulness and a promise of our own future resurrection if we truly hear and keep God's word in our lives.

In today's Gospel, Jesus challenges his disciple to forgive one another not seven times, but 77 times. This absurd number mirrors God's absurd love for us in giving his son for our salvation, and in St. Maximillian Kolbe's absurd love that led him to offer himself for death in place of another. Father Yamil draws a powerful parallel between the Gospel's call to forgive abundantly and the saint's extraordinary act of love toward his executioners and fellow prisoners.

In today's very short Gospel, Mt 18:15-20, Jesus tells his disciples about the power of community—how to correct one another, how whenever two or more are gather in his name, he is there, and about their ability to forgive sins. May our experience of communion in community live up to this potential!

Jesus tells his disciples that they need to be childlike to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Children can be truthful (sometimes embarrassingly so), affectionate, and humble, but they can also be the opposite of these things. We are to imitate them in their good qualities, not their bad ones.

In today's first reading, Moses tells us that what God wants from his people: to "befriend" the immigrant, because we were once ourselves all immigrants. What was true of the Jewish people, is true of most Americans—98% of us were once aliens. As we deal with our broken immigration system, we need to recognize that God requires us to befriend immigrants, to feed and clothe them. Do we live up to that minimum standard?

Jesus told his disciples that they should be ready at any moment, like a good servant who awaits his master's return from a wedding. A good servant awaits his master because he knows and trusts him, just as the master knows and trusts his servant so that he can leave him in charge. Our faith in God has to be based on our real relationship with God, and when it is good, it gives us hope for the future. Faith and hope, based in reality, work together.

Today we hear the Shema: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." Though it was said long ago to the Jewish people, it is our call as Christians today.

Today we celebrate the Feast of our Holy Father Dominic, the joyful and sociable friar who was always talking about God or with God. One might think that a man of constant prayer might not be so sociable, but for Dominic, God was at his side in everything he did, and this brought joy into every encounter he has with others. You and I could also live our days in the presence of Christ, and so infuse everything we do with divine and holy joy. Try it today!

In today's Gospel, Peter saying to Jesus, "God forbid that you should suffer" earns him a harsh rebuke, that he is thinking as human beings do, not as God does. It is difficult for us to see the people we love suffer and trust that God is at work in the midst of this suffering, and has already prepared a resurrection to redeem it. So today, try to put on the mind of God when accompanying people who suffer, trusting that God indeed has a plan to save this person.

On this Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, we hear how Peter, witnessing the event, wanted to make three tents on teh spot to fix it in memory. But we are not called stay in these sacred moments, but to use them as fuel for our spiritual journey, which will be difficult sometimes. So today, remember the moments when you have been on that mountain top with God, and let it empower you to go back down that mountain and share the Good News with a hungering world.

In our Gospel today, the disciples are in a storm at sea and Jesus comes walking on water towards them. Frightened, Peter asks Jesus to prove it is really him by having him come to him over the water. Peter starts to come, but then is afraid, and has to be rescued by Jesus.
Life is often frightening, but Jesus is always beckoning us to leave the safety of our boat, to trust in him, walk towards him over unsafe waters, to do the work we need to do. And Jesus will always be there to catch us if we fall. Have faith and overcome your fear.

Today we celebrate the memorial of St. John Vianney, the Curé D'Ars, who, though he was not considered a stellar candidate for priesthood, turned out to be such a good confessor that he would spend up to 18 hours a day in the confessional to meet the demands of pilgrims who came to confess to him, telling God that it was worth the suffering to help the people. In our first reading today, Moses is so tired of listening to the people grumble in the desert about having to eat manna (again!) that he asks God to just kill him. In the Gospel, Jesus tries to get away on his own after the death of John the Baptist, but ends up feeding the multitude "because they were like sheep without a shepherd." All three of these are examples working overtime to answer God's call to care for the needs of the people in front of them. We need to trust our own vocation and call, and trust that God will give us the strength to fulfil it if we only ask.

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.

In our Gospel today, the people of Jesus' hometown needed him to prove he was worthy before they would believe in him. Do we need God to work our own private miracle for us before we believe? Our faith in God should not be transactional, "give me this and then I will believe." Faith is a relationship with God which should naturally deepen as a response to the love God pours out on us each day. May you know and grow in Christ's love.