God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering

As iron is fashioned by fire and on the anvil, so in the fire of suffering and under the weight of trials, our souls receive that form which our Lord desires them to have.--St. Madeline Sophie Barat

(Gospel text: Mt 11:28-30)

Jesus said:

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for yourselves.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

Imagine yourself coming to Jesus with this huge burden on your back. Jesus takes the burden off your shoulders. Before you even can thank Him and walk away unburdened, He takes a load off of His back and puts it on yours. For some reason, however, His yoke is easy and His burden light (Mt 11:30). Why? Because this is Jesus' burden, He is bearing most of the weight. In a way, you become another Simon of Cyrene helping Jesus carry the cross (Lk 23:26). You even come to find that you are rested and strengthened in carrying this cross.

The irony here is and what the human race tries to rationalize way is, you're made to carry this cross.

Realistically, we cannot be unburdened in this life on earth. We can only be re-burdened with Jesus' burden, the cross. Pretending that we can unburden ourselves makes life more burdensome. We make life harder by trying to make it easier. Paradoxically, the most dreaded burden by main stream society today, that is, the cross, is the easiest to carry because Jesus carried it. It is in striving to carry the cross that we enter into His rest (see Heb 4:11).

Take up your cross daily (Lk 9:23) and get the best rest you'll get on this earth.

Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present

“Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.”

(Gospel Text: Mt 11:25-27)

At that time Jesus exclaimed:

"I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,

for although you have hidden these things

from the wise and the learned

you have revealed them to the childlike.

Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father.

No one knows the Son except the Father,

and no one knows the Father except the Son

and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

Have you ever played peek-a-boo with a baby? They can barely talk, but they rock with laughter when they see your face. It’s so fascinating to them that they can play this game long after we adults get bored with it. As children get older, they move on to games like hide-and-seek, but it’s really the same game. Even if they hide in the most obvious places, it’s a huge success when the one who is “It” finds everyone. Children just love to discover and explore.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us that if we want to find him, we need to be like children. That doesn’t mean that he considers things like maturity and education to be bad. And neither does it mean that we should treat the spiritual life like a game of hide-and-seek. But it does show us how deeply Jesus treasures the curiosity and joy of discovery that most children have.

Notice, for example, the fact that Jesus makes this prayer immediately after he laments the lack of openness he experienced from the people of Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida (yesterdays gospel at Mass). They had seen so many miracles, but they just could not see the wonder and promise that they held.

So what does this mean for us?

First and foremost, it means approaching each day with a sense of anticipation: What will God show me today? How will he surprise me? What insight will he give me about his love or about my walk with him? It also means committing your day to the Lord every morning and telling him that you want to find him there, in whatever way he wants to reveal himself.

Jesus wants our walk with him to be full of new discoveries. He doesn’t want us to be content with what we experienced yesterday or what we learned last year. Instead, he is inviting us on an ongoing journey. Today, ask him to give you a child’s heart, one full of curiosity and eager to know what lies around the next corner in your relationship with him.

Hope never abandons you, you abandon it

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. – Pope John XXIII

(Gospel text: Mt 11:20-24)

Jesus began to reproach the towns

where most of his mighty deeds had been done,

since they had not repented.

"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst

had been done in Tyre and Sidon,

they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

But I tell you, it will be more tolerable

for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

And as for you, Capernaum:

Will you be exalted to heaven?

You will go down to the nether world.

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,

it would have remained until this day.

But I tell you, it will be more tolerable

for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

What was the central theme of Jesus’ preaching today in the gospel? “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 4:17). As I have been pondering over this passage I have not rejoiced over the failure of the towns referenced in it (Chorazin,  Bethsaida, Capernaum). I thought to myself: The Lord also went through our towns, our neighborhood, our homes, and... did we pay any attention to him?, did I take notice of him?

But Jesus didn’t only proclaim the coming kingdom; he demonstrated it in all he did. He healed every disease and sickness among the people. The blind received sight, the lame walked, those who had leprosy were cleansed. Even the dead were being raised. The signs of the kingdom were posted in plain sight, and Jesus expected people to see them.

The healings, acts of deliverance, and miraculous feedings should have drawn the attention of the people living in the towns around Galilee. There was Jesus, offering them a new life filled with God’s blessing and presence. There he was, demonstrating the kingdom and telling them that repentance was the only entrance requirement. There he was, offering so much and asking so little. But only a few embraced his word.

The kingdom of God is still visible today. We see it when someone is freed from guilt and shame in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We see it as we experience the love of our heavenly Father, and our fears melt away. We see it when the Holy Spirit brings a passage from Scripture to life. Wherever we see charity, patience, or self-control, we see the kingdom on display. Most of all, we see the kingdom of God when our hunger for Jesus is satisfied in the Eucharist.

Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God to earth, and that’s just what he has been doing for the past two thousand years. He has never stopped building that kingdom in individual hearts and in the network of relationships that make up his Church. We are privileged to see it and we are called to embrace it. So today, let the fire of his love soften your heart and melt away any indifference. Let your pride and self-sufficiency fall away so that you can come under his gentle yoke. As you do, you’ll experience the freedom that only citizens of this kingdom can know!

For whom did Jesus suffer? For all sinners

Just as an animal becomes a stronger beast of burden and more beautiful to behold the more often and better it is fed, so too confession - the more often it is used and the more carefully it is made as to both lesser and greater sins - conveys the soul increasingly forward and is so pleasing to God that it leads the soul to God's very heart. - St. Bridget

(Gospel Text: Mt 10:34-11:1)

Jesus said to his Apostles:

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.

I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

For I have come to set

a man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

and one's enemies will be those of his household.

"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,

and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

and whoever does not take up his cross

and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it,

and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

"Whoever receives you receives me,

and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet

will receive a prophet's reward,

and whoever receives a righteous man

because he is righteous

will receive a righteous man's reward.

And whoever gives only a cup of cold water

to one of these little ones to drink

because he is a disciple?

amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."

When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples,

he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

If you are anything like me, you probably started shifting around in your seat uncomfortably when you heard today’s Gospel. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, tells his Apostles that he has not come to bring peace, but the sword. He has come to turn family members against one another and household against household. Can Jesus really mean what he is saying?

All of us have friends (even very close friends) who are not Catholic, or even Christian. Is Jesus telling us to cut these people out of our lives and ignore them? No! We are called to love everyone and to strive to be Christ to everyone, especially those who do not know him yet. Jesus is warning us, though, that it can be easy to become caught up in the world and forget about God. Even folks who attend Mass every Sunday faithfully can very easily just go through the motions of prayer without actually praying. Please allow me to illustrate.

We know that if we leave dirty clothes in the laundry basket for weeks, they will start smelling bad. If we leave them there long enough, they’ll begin to rot; we won’t even be able to put them on. That’s why we do our laundry every week.

Well, in a similar way, God is calling us to wash ourselves every day from the things that threaten to spoil our hearts. He calls us to examine our consciences every day and repent of anything we find there that is displeasing to him. He also calls us to the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we can be cleansed deeply and restored to his presence. Why? Because our Father wants us to become holy. He doesn’t want us just to live; he wants us to thrive and take on his own divine nature!

So here’s the question: are you walking with an unwashed soul? Even if you go to Mass regularly, it’s still possible that you have “bloody hands” that need to be cleansed. If that’s the case, then get to Confession! It’s not enough just to go to Mass, if there isn’t the will to change. It’s not enough to say your prayers every day if you aren’t opening your heart to the Lord.

Go and confess your sins. Disarm them by naming them humbly and openly to a confessor. Then let your heavenly Father embrace you, heal you, and set you on the path toward holiness. He is always ready to open heaven for you so that you can be filled with his power and grace.

"If you are what you should be, then you will set the world on fire."

"If anyone is seeking God, know that the Beloved is seeking that person much more." - St. John of the Cross (Gospel text: Mk 6:7-13) Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick-- no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them." So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. In our culture, we say: "Ready; get set; go." Jesus says something different: "Ready; don't be 'set upon the things of this world' (Phil 3:19), and go." To get ready to go for Jesus doesn't mean that we pack our bags; rather, it means that we get rid of our baggage. Jesus "instructed them to take nothing on their journey but a walking stick — no food, no traveling bag, not a coin in the purses in their belts" (Mk 6:8). Jesus practiced what He preached. He went out with nothing. When God became a human being, He emptied Himself (Phil 2:7). When He was born, there was no room for Him except in a stable (Lk 2:7). When Jesus did His public ministry, He had nowhere to lay His head (Lk 9:58). “What I desire depends on how I answer the question,” ‘How am I?'” i.e. “What is my truth?”   When people ask you about how you are today, you seldom answer the question honestly. You may not even have asked yourself how you are, and if you did, well, you wouldn’t want to share your true condition with everyone. Desire is often prelude to the gift. I make a distinction here between “wants” and “desires.” Wants are natural, pedestrian, easily experienced. Desires are deep-down things, taking time to feel them and worth the adventure of the seeking. In the Spiritual Life, prayer becomes the intersection of God’s desire and our desire, which does take our time to find beneath the layers of selfishness and fear. God meets us where our deep desires percolate. This however requires us to be honest with ourselves, as well as patient. In today’s gospel the Twelve disciples did not argue, they did not worry about going hungry, they simply followed the call and went. I guess we have to ask ourselves the inevitable question, “Do we do the same?”