My soul glorifies the Lord! (Luke 1:46)

Today in the readings, we have Saint Paul encouraging the Corinthians to imitate his example. In the Church in Corinth there were several problems and divisions. But Saint Paul says his aim was always clear. He compares his life to that of an athlete taking part in a race — of course every athlete trains and then runs only in order to win the prize! For Saint Paul, the prize was saving others by proclaiming the Gospel to them free of charge. He says, “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel.” Dear brothers and sisters, how wonderful if we too could live our lives with this clear aim! To save others by proclaiming the Gospel to them, but, as Saint Francis of Assisi said, with our lives first, and then, when necessary, to use words. In the Gospel, Jesus warns us of a possible danger: we can become hypocrites if we preach, but do not practise it first ourselves. In today’s Eucharist, let us all pray for the grace to be preachers of the Gospel, but to first start by practising it ours...

Dear brothers and sisters, A very Happy Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary! Today the Church celebrates with joy the birth of Mary. It is believed, according to an ancient tradition, that Mary was born of her parents, Joachim and Anne, in their advanced age. The homilies of both Saint Andrew of Crete and Saint John of Damascus, from the seventh and eighth centuries, mention this, and it has been a tradition in the Church. The Church believes that Mary was conceived without original sin and, most importantly, born and lived without sin — a work of grace . God predestined this and made it happen, as Saint Paul says in the Letter to the Romans, as we heard today: those whom He foreknew, He called; those that He called, He justified; and those He justified, He has brought into glory. What this means for us is that God has a wonderful plan for each one of us too. God does not give His special grace to Mary just for Mary. No! It is for each one of us. All the graces that God g...

Today in the Gospel we have Jesus healing a man with a withered hand. Jesus healed on the Sabbath. God heals wounds. In the Book of Exodus God says that “I am the Lord, your healer” — in Hebrew Yehovah Rapha . The name Raphael, the name of one of the three Archangels, means God heals . In the Psalms we read that God binds up the broken hearted (Psalm 147:3) . In the New Testament, Jesus heals all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. In other words, God reverses the effects of sin. We know that death and sickness came into the world as a result of sin. Jesus shows by his healing that He reverses the effects of sin. At the same time today we also have the Pharisees and scribes who are unable to see what God is doing and instead focus on whether Jesus is breaking the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath. Due to spiritual blindness they are unable to see the good. We too will encounter people who are unable to see the good and instead focus on the negative always. However Jesus engages in pa...

I n today’s Gospel we find two themes. The first is that Jesus’ disciples seem to be doing well, seem to be enjoying life: they eat and drink, while the disciples of John and the Pharisees appear to be fasting. For the Pharisees and the scribes this is a contradiction. In reality it is a trick question. The Pharisees and the scribes cannot understand Jesus and his ministry. They cannot see what is happening, because their hearts are hardened and blinded. The lives of the people around them are changing for the better — the Kingdom of God, the reign of peace, joy and righteousness, is entering into people’s hearts — but none of this matters to those who seek to judge Jesus and his work. Saint Paul, in the first reading, says that it means nothing to him if anyone presumes to judge his ministry: he says that only God will judge rightly, according to the truth. Jesus answers the Pharisees with the same image that John the Baptist had used in speaking of him: the image of the Bridegroom. ...

Today, in the Gospel, we meet an extraordinary man, Simon Peter. Let us notice a few things about him. First, Jesus got into Peter’s boat. The Catholic Church is called “the barque of Peter,” because this is the boat Jesus chose in order to teach the world. Peter is a fisherman, but he is a different kind of man. For when Jesus said to him, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch,” Peter did what the Lord told him, in the obedience of faith: “but at your word I will let down the nets.” Today let us take home this word of Peter: “Master, we have toiled all night long and caught nothing; but at your word I will let down the nets.” In our own lives, like Peter, we must be driven by faith. There is another beautiful word of Peter, when he sees the miraculous catch: “Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” Normally, men amazed at such a catch look closely at the fish, because more fish means more money. Peter, instead, lets himself be touched in the depths of his h...

Today's reading and the Gospel highlight the difference between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the world, and between the man moved by the Spirit and the man left to his own strength. Only the Spirit of God — and the man moved by the Spirit — knows the depths of God, the secrets of God, the many gifts of God. Saint Paul is a man moved by the Spirit. With what courage he proclaims: “We have the mind of Christ!” In the Gospel, the people were astonished at Jesus’ teaching, because his word had authority. This authority comes from the breath of the Spirit of God, who created the whole world and man for himself. We then see a man possessed by an unclean spirit that tormented him. The devil always disturbs the work of God. But let us not be afraid: Jesus shows that his power is stronger than the power of the demon. In this Eucharist let us pray to the Holy Spirit to give us the wisdom to know the mind of God, so that our hearts and minds may be filled with love and peace, and to gi...

Dear friends, Every Sunday we gather in our church, around the altar, to encounter our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Head of the Church — yes, but He is also the Head of our families, of our home. He is , as the Apostle Paul says, Father — but a Father with the tender heart of a Mother ( Ephesians 3:14-15 ; Isaiah 66:13 ) . Just as it was two thousand years ago: the crowds went out to meet the Lord, they touched Him, they listened to His Word. And some had a profound experience — certainly not all, but those who sought the voice of God and His will with all their heart. As today's Psalm says: “O God, you are my God,at dawn I seek you;my soul thirsts for you,my flesh longs for you,in a dry, weary land without water…” ( Psalm 63:2 ) In this Eucharist, Jesus Christ, gentle and loving, comes and washes us all, just as He washed the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper. What Jesus did that evenin...

Dear friends, Saint Augustine is one of the greatest saints of the Church. Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of his mother Saint Monica, whose prayers obtained for him the grace of conversion.  Augustine was a restless and intelligent young man, who escaped from his home and his prayerful mother in search of what he thought was a “better life”. Religion to him at that time was something boring. While Augustine rose through his career and became a skilled orator who followed what he thought was the most fashionable form of wisdom and knowledge, he had to go through a lot of inner struggles to discover that this wisdom could not satisfy the longings of his soul.  The unfailing prayers of his mother led him to Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, and Augustine became a catechumen. Even in this state, he had to go through several humiliations before finally he acknowledged his emptiness in front of the Lord. The long-awaited encounter with Jesus Christ came one day when, under a fig tr...

Today is the memorial of Saint Monica. She lived in the fourth century and is famous as the mother of Saint Augustine. She prayed for his conversion. God granted him the grace of a profound conversion, and he became one of the greatest saints of the Church. Today we have a Pope who is an Augustinian. Two points from today's readings and Gospel, based on the life of Saint Monica. One. “Trustworthy is God.” What does this mean? For our whole life, trustworthy is God — in the midst of our tribulations, illnesses, obstacles, and so on. God will not allow a suffering greater than what we can bear. In our sufferings, God does not abandon us, but gives us the grace and the strength to go forward. When Saint Monica faced a crisis, she did not cease to fear the Lord, but turned to God with all her strength. If we fear the Lord, we will receive many, many blessings. Two. “Stay ready.” Stay ready, because at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man is coming. We are called to become faithful...

Dear friends, In today's readings, the Lord speaks to us to live orderly lives , working with our hands. This is what the Gospel teaches us. Every Christian is called to build the city of God, to work with God and so that God may work through him or her. Every day, God is working through us, if we allow ourselves to be guided by Him — in our families, in our workplaces, God works good and lasting works. Therefore let us never lose our faith; God works miracles in our daily lives when we have faith! Faith, Hope and Love — these three things are eternal and part of every good work that God works through us . Without faith, hope and love, our works and our lives, no matter how good they look on the outside, how magnificent they are, no matter how much the world around us may appreciate us, become hollow and useless. Jesus compares the pharisees and the scribes to whitewashed tombs. They look good on the outside, but inside they are full of filth. Without the supernatural virtues of fa...

Today in the readings we find Jesus rebuking the scribes and the pharisees for their blindness and hypocrisy. He calls them blind because they neglect the most important teachings of the Law of God — justice, mercy and faithfulness — while at the same time concentrating their attention on the payment of taxes and tithes. He calls them hypocrites because they clean the outside while the inside remains unclean. Jesus asks us to pay attention, observing first the most important commandments without neglecting the others. Justice consists in giving to every man and every woman what is due to them. To be just requires courage and strength. Let us turn to our own lives and ask God for the strength and the determination to be just. We will meet difficulties if we try to practise justice, if we try to be fair and to give to each one what belongs to them. But the Lord says: blessed are you if you are persecuted for the cause of righteousness . The world has a different conception of justice, ...

Dear friends, A few words on the Feast of Saint Bartholomew. Today is the Feast of the Apostle Bartholomew. In the Gospel of John he is also known by the name of Nathanael, and so today we have the reading from the Gospel of John about Nathanael. In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke we find the passage in which Saint John the Baptist says to the pharisees: “ Do not be proud and do not say among yourselves: 'We are descendants of Abraham.' God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ” This is precisely what our Lord did with the Apostles. He took twelve stones and made of them precious stones upon which his Church would be built. Our reading from the Book of Revelation tells us that the heavenly Jerusalem is built on twelve precious foundation stones . The prophet Isaiah also tells us that the Lord will lay in Zion a precious stone as a foundation, and whoever relies on it will not be put to shame . In the same way, Psalm 118 tells us that the stone rejected by th...

Dear friends, Today we hear in the Gospel Peter's profession of faith . This passage is one of the most important in the whole New Testament, because it opens the door for us to understand who Jesus Christ really is. Who is Jesus Christ? There are probably as many opinions about Jesus as there are people in the world: a religious leader, a good man, one who worked miracles, a teacher, and for some, God made man. Jesus asks this question of his disciples after being with them for two years: after performing many miracles and signs. They have heard him teach and seen him heal. They have seen him cast out demons. They have also heard him announce the Kingdom of God. In today's passage there are two questions. The first is: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” What do others say about him? What does the world say about Jesus? Jesus wants to hear from his disciples what the people around them think of the Master they are following. The disciples answer willingly: there are four d...