We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.

We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are. - Thomas Merton

(Scripture Text: EPH 4:1-6)

Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace;
one Body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.

Unity requires humility.

Understanding that other people are just as important and just as beloved of God as we are is vital to establishing unity. Our fallen nature likes to think of the world revolving around us—but it really doesn’t. The devil also tries to convince us to push to get our own way, or at least to have the last word. But humility seeks to build up other people and to make sure their voices are heard and their con­cerns are acknowledged.

St. Paul in today’s scripture passage urges us to be patient and to bear with each other in love. He knows that unity takes time. It must be cultivated and maintained. Few things bring about unity more powerfully than the decision to sac­rifice our own agenda for the good of another.

Finally, Paul gives us the most important key to unity: the Trinity. One Spirit … One Lord … One God. How does their unity look? Jesus obeys the Father. The Holy Spirit speaks the words of Jesus to us. The Father glorifies the Son. Each Person honors the others before himself. If we want an envi­ronment of unity, we can start by contributing to an environment of honor. We can look to each other’s needs before our own, reverencing the beauty that God has created in them.

Clearly, it takes work to bring people together. But it’s well worth it

“The greatest homage we can pay to truth, is to use it.”

 “If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.”  - C.S. Lewis

(Gospel Text: LK 12:49-53)

Jesus said to his disciples:
"I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

 Easier said than done.”

How often do we repeat this phrase in our daily lives? We use it so often it’s become a clichéd excuse for inaction when confronted with some obstacle, either real or imagined. We casually dismiss advice and suggestions as too insurmountable.

Less often, however, someone will respond with “Well, I did,” or “It worked for me.” Nothing is as disarming as hearing someone else has done exactly what we’ve shrugged off as “easier said than done.” These instances are cause for pause, to be certain, and can make us rethink our own perceptions of what we can, and should, do.

In our reading, Jesus reminds us that following his word brings about certain challenges and divisions, assuring listeners (and readers) that a Catholic life is not always easy. Nonetheless, he still calls upon us to follow his teachings and to submit ourselves to God at any cost.

“Easier said than done.”

It’s a challenge.

It’s a challenge for us to do as we ask others to do, to be what we ask others to be, and to live a life that may cause divisions. But that’s what being a good and honest human being calls for, at times. When confronted with a hypothetical, it’s easy for us to imagine (or hope) what we’d do in a trying situation. We must remind ourselves (or, rather, allow God to remind us) that, though the righteous path is often “easier said than done,” we are more than an empty promise to ourselves and God, but we are doers.

“Forever is composed of now’s.”

There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.  – James Baldwin

(Gospel Text: LK 12:39-48)

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Be sure of this:
if the master of the house had known the hour
when the thief was coming,
he would not have let his house be broken into.
You also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

Then Peter said,
"Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?"
And the Lord replied,
"Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward
whom the master will put in charge of his servants
to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.
Truly, I say to you, he will put him
in charge of all his property.
But if that servant says to himself,
'My master is delayed in coming,'
and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants,
to eat and drink and get drunk,
then that servant's master will come
on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour
and will punish the servant severely
and assign him a place with the unfaithful.
That servant who knew his master's will
but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will
shall be beaten severely;
and the servant who was ignorant of his master's will
but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating
shall be beaten only lightly.
Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,
and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more."

“As Soon As” – This phrase is something people say regularly.

‘I’ll volunteer more as soon as my schedule dies down a bit. I’ll give money to charity as soon as I have some extra cash to spare. I’ll start praying more often as soon as my life settles down a bit.’ Though we all have good intentions, many days seem to end with us wishing we had been able to do more.



In today’s Gospel, Jesus is calling us to live as though the world were to end each and every moment. Whenever I hear this Gospel I find it exhausting even to contemplate such a high-intensity Catholic life. How can we maintain such a lifestyle?



I don’t believe there has to be a drastic difference between being Christ-like and living our daily lives. I believe Jesus is simply calling us to integrate his love and compassion into our lives every day. With this, our “As Soon As’s” quickly turn into “How Can I’s”: ‘How can I make my co-worker’s day? How can I show kindness to the cashier? How can I show love to my family?’



St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order who educated me, encouraged others to see God in their daily lives. It seems a natural extension to try to reflect God’s love in our daily lives as well.

Each and every baptized person is a disciple and is empowered with grace. We all know the rules. We all need to be ready and stay ready, because we do not know the day or the hour. If we knew exactly when Jesus was coming for us, we would certainly be prepared. But we don’t know, so we have to stay alert and be ready at any time.

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

“Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is "timing" it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.” ― Archbishop Fulton J Sheen

(Gospel text: LK 12:35-38)

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants."

Think about the way Jesus lived when he walked the earth. He spent his first thirty years living a quiet life, waiting for just the right moment when he would burst on the scene and begin proclaiming his gospel. He was always ready for the call, but he knew his time had not yet come. Even today, he is in heaven, ready and waiting for the moment when his Father will send him back to earth. And in this in-between time, Jesus has passed the baton to us. Baptized and Confirmed in His Spirit, we should make sure that every day we are dressed and ready (Luke 12:35) for whatever challenges come our way. Even if it is simply to wait for our turn to run, we can still offer every act of sacrifice and love, no matter how heroic or mundane, as a prayer to the Father.

Each day that passes brings your race closer to a close. Before you know it, you will lay down the baton.

So take your mark! Draw courage from the heroes of the faith who have completed their course, the saints. They’re cheering you on, just as your Father is.

Get ready. Get set. Go!

“Property has its duties as well as its rights.”

One day Mother Teresa was tending to the wounds of a leper. A nasty, utterly disgusting job. Someone said to her, "I wouldn't do that for a million dollars." To which Mother Teresa replied, "Neither would I."

(Gospel Text: LK 12:13-21)

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
"Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me."
He replied to him,
"Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?"
Then he said to the crowd,
"Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one's life does not consist of possessions."

Then he told them a parable.
"There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, 'What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?'
And he said, 'This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, 'Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!'"
But God said to him,
'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?'
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters to God."

There’s a difference between being greedy and being rich. 

According to the Oxford Dictionary, greed is defined as the intense and selfish desire for something.  Some rich people can be greedy, but some people can have a lot of money and choose not to spend it on all their personal needs (they provide for their children, they have children and are open to life, they give some money to their church, or give some to a charity).  In other words, it seems to me that Jesus is okay with us having a lot of money, as long as we use our money wisely.  If we use our money to provide for our families and give to the poor, we’re using our money wisely.  What he doesn’t want us to do is to get sucked into our consumer society, which can be a big influence in everyday life. 

Our consumer society tells us that we’re not cool if we don’t have the newest item or make this amount of money.  What the consumer society doesn’t tell us is that we often cannot live without the blessings of God in our life that we all have, no matter how rich or how poor we are.  We often forget that people, like our family and our friends, and the feeling we get after helping those who suffer are the greatest rewards and the greatest “things” you can have in life.  We can’t experience those great things in life if we spend all of our time at the office and constantly worry about earthly possessions.  We often times don’t know what we have until it is gone, so we must take the time to enjoy these God-given blessings. 

In today’s gospel, Jesus warns us that our life could end at any given time and we could stand in front of Jesus tomorrow with our fate before us. We must wonder, have we taken the time to enjoy what’s most important in life or have we been too worried about material possessions?

God plans as does a mother cooking the family meal, making enough for everybody. All the family has to do is share. If the first one to get the bowl takes too much, the last one goes without. Since we pray: "Give us today our daily bread," let's act accordingly (Mt 6:11).

Grow "rich in the sight of God."