TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

18 OCTOBER 2026

 

          Our Scripture readings today speak of vocation.  The word “vocation” comes from the Latin word, vocare, which means “to call.”  We Catholics speak of a vocation through the lens of a state in life.  Most of you have been called to live as married couples.  Others are called to live as members of a religious order, both male and female.  I have been called to the priesthood.

            However, our readings speak much more broadly of “vocation.”  They reflect the Second Vatican Council’s understanding of vocation as a “universal call to holiness.”  God chooses to call everyone to some kind of holiness.  The prophet Isaiah says that God called the Persian king Cyrus to free the Chosen People from their exile in Babylon.  Cyrus was a pagan and had no idea who the God of Israel was.  But that does not stop God from naming him as his anointed, as his Messiah or savior.  In calling Cyrus, God grasped him by the hand, even though Cyrus did not know him.  Cyrus responded to God’s call in defeating the Babylonians and allowing God’s Chosen People to return to Jerusalem and their Promised Land.  Isaiah makes it clear that even through Cyrus does not believe in God, there is only one God, and there is no other.

            In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees and Herodians flatter Jesus by calling him a teacher who is a truthful man.  However, they are not interested in knowing any truth.  These two groups agree on nothing.  The Pharisees oppose Roman rule and regard it as an unjust burden on God’s Chosen People.  The Herodians cooperate with the Roman rule and prosper because of it.  To trap him, they ask Jesus if it is lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not.  If Jesus answers that it is not lawful, the Herodians will call him a rebel and report him to the authorities, as they had done previously to a Galilean teacher and had him executed.  If Jesus answers that it is lawful, then the Pharisees will accuse him of being in league with Rome and supporting an unfair tax that puts unjust burdens on the people.  Instead of falling into their trap, he asks to see a coin.  He asks them whose image is on the coin.  They reply, “Caesar’s.”  We are familiar with the first part of his answer, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.”  It reminds us that we need to pay our taxes every April 15 as faithful American Catholics. 

            But we often forget the second part of his answer, “…and to God what belongs to God.”  Everything belongs to God, including Caesar himself, who was made in the image and likeness of God, as are all of us.  That is the message sent by Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy to the church of Thessalonica.  And through this living Word of God, it is the message they send to us.  Like them, we live out our universal call to holiness when we work as a labor of love for others.  Some of us have been called to work as married couples.  Others have been called to work as religious men or women.  Some of us have been called to work as priests. No matter what our individual states in life may be, we share a team approach to the universal call to holiness by working together to make the presence of God more visible in a divided and hateful world.

            As Paul reminds the Thessalonians, he reminds us that we endure with hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, especially when we experience difficulties and pain and challenges in our individual vocations.  Last week, we priests participated in a workshop focused on how we can face the difficult situations that we encounter in our particular vocation.  As with married couples, our ultimate hope rests in our faith that the Lord is present in the grace we have received from our Sacramental commitment.

            As we live out our common call to universal holiness, Saint Paul reminds us of our conviction in our faith and beliefs.  In each of our vocations, the Lord has clearly manifested himself to us.  We remember those times and continue to make the Lord’s presence more visible.

 

TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

11 OCTOBER 2026

 

          Those who gave up everything to become disciples of Jesus of Nazareth certainly would have known the prophecy of Isaiah (our first reading).  Convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they expected he would fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah in a glorious victory on a famous mountain, like Mount Sinai, or the Mount of the Transfiguration, or in the beautiful temple on Mount Zion.  Their hopes would have been shattered when he was executed on a horribly dark day on Mount Calvary outside the city walls.  Instead of being clothed in glory and surrounded by faithful witnesses, he died a horrible death stripped of everything, surrounded by thieves, and buried in a borrowed tomb.

            After his resurrection, they began to understand how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy in unexpected ways.  He had destroyed the veil that veils all peoples.  In other words, he had removed the need for a veil to be worn at funerals.  He had destroyed death forever by entering death himself.  Grateful for his complete gift of self, they obeyed his command to carry the Good News to the ends of the earth.  God had wiped away their tears and had provided them with a feast of rich food and pure choice wine in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.  Nourished by this Sacrament and guided by the Holy Spirit, they had the courage to give themselves in loving sacrifice to all who would open themselves to this message of salvation.

            We share this same understanding of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.  In today’s parable, Jesus builds on that understanding.  The king in the parable is God, the Father.  His son, Jesus Christ, is the faithful bridegroom who as given himself totally to us as his bride.  God continues to invite everyone to the great wedding feast at the end of time.  Through the missionary activity of the Church, God does not force anyone to accept the invitation.  Too many people are so tied up with the ordinary affairs of life that they make excuses for not responding.  Others brutally murder the Lord’s servants, as committed Christians have been martyred over the centuries.  The Father continues to invite everyone, bad and good alike

            The Father also invites us to repent and to make sure that we clothe ourselves with righteous deeds.  That is what happens to the man who is not dressed in a wedding garment.  There is no dress code in the kingdom of God.  But the Lord expects us to wear our baptismal garments.  When we were baptized, we were clothed with a white garment.  That white garment stands for our efforts to embrace the Mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and make mystery more completely a central part of our daily lives, turning away from sin and growing more fully in the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. 

            The king refers to the man without a wedding garment as “my friend.”  There is only one other time in the Gospel of Saint Matthew that Jesus refers to someone as “friend.”  That is when he calls Judas Iscariot his friend before he betrays him with a kiss.  He calls each one of them a “friend,” because he gives them one last chance to repent and change their minds.  Both refuse, and both are cast outside in the darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

            After his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Saint Paul spent his life proclaiming the Good News to Gentiles throughout the Mediterranean world.  He knew times of abundance and times of being well fed.  He also knew times of humble circumstances and hunger.  Fed by the Eucharist, he never lost sight of the wedding banquet at the end of his life.  He encourages us to imitate his example and continue to turn more completely to the love of Christ Jesus, trusting that God will supply whatever we need.  In turning more completely to Jesus Christ, we are preparing ourselves to participate at the Wedding Feast at the end of time.

 

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

4 OCTOBER 2026

 

          The prophet Isaiah uses a vineyard to describe the care of God in taking his people from slavery in Egypt and transplanting them in the Promised Land.  Vineyards played a critical role in the life of the people of ancient Israel.  They produced the grapes that were made into wine, the important drink that nourished people and provided work for laborers.  The vineyard became an image for what God had done.  God took his cherished vine from Egypt and transplanted it in the Promised Land.  With great care, God placed his people on a fertile hillside like a landowner would plant a vineyard.  God spaded the hillside, cleared it of stones, built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press.  But Isaiah laments that instead of finding good grapes, God found wild grapes.  His people had forgotten the care he had taken into settling them in the Promised Land. They chased after false gods and abandoned the Covenant.  As a result, their enemies defeated them and trampled down the vineyard God had planted.

            Jesus uses that same image in his parable directed at the chief priests and elders of the people.  His Father is the landowner.  They are the tenants placed in charge of the vineyard.  For centuries, God had sent prophets to instruct the tenants on how to produce good fruit.  But the religious authorities ignored some, killed others, and dragged his only son outside the vineyard to kill him.  Because the religious authorities refuse to listen to this parable, the vineyard is taken away from them and given to a people who will produce good fruit.

            Instead of judging the religious leaders who refused to listen to this parable, we must realize that the Lord is speaking to us.  We are the current tenants entrusted to producing good fruit for the vineyard.  The stone rejected by the builders has turned hard, stony ground into fertile soil.  Now, we are entrusted with the work of producing good fruit.  For many decades, our bishops have set aside the month of October as “respect life month.”  They urge us to use this month to be tenants in the vineyard to produce the good fruit of respecting human life from the moment of conception through natural death.  Sadly, that is not at the heart of our current secular society.  Instead of regarding each human life as a gift from God, too many people regard human life as worthwhile if it is productive.  That transactional view of human nature means that we can determine the worth of another human being based on how useful they are.  In this view, it is easy to exclude people because of their disabilities, their ethnic makeup, their place of birth, their racial makeup, their advanced age, or any aspect factor not deemed to be useful.  Last week, I heard a story on the radio about the current debate about immigration and ICE activity.  In a small town in a very red state, the reporter marveled that the people of the town rallied around their immigrant neighbors and blocked ICE agents from coming into the town.  But, as the reporter continued the story, it became clear that the townspeople did not act out of concern for their inherent dignity.  They were more concerned that the removal of their neighbors would hamper the work of the major industry in town and cause the price of beef to go up.

            The Lord has given us the task of producing good fruit in his vineyard.  We need to build a wall of peace that guards our hearts and minds.  Then, we can make our requests known to God by prayer, petition, and thanksgiving.  Like Paul, we can learn from each other.  We rely on what we received from our elders who have gone before us and handed down our tradition.  We hear the Word of God spoken to us each Sunday.  We see how we can carry out our mission to bear fruit.  With the support of this community and the strength of the Eucharist, we can practice ways of seeing each human being made in the image and likeness of God.  As faithful tenants trusting in the Lord’s love, we can bear much fruit in this vineyard God has given to us.

 

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

20 SEPTEMBER 2026

 

          The prophet Isaiah tells his people to seek the Lord while he may be found.  They are in exile in Babylon.  Some of them have abandoned God’s law and have become scoundrels and wicked.  Others have become so complacent in Babylon that they have resisted God’s call to return to Jerusalem from their exile and rebuild their nation.  The prophet insists that God can be found, because he is near.  Then the prophet describes the Lord whom they seek.  God embodies mercy and generosity.  Speaking for God, the prophet affirms the obvious:  God’s thoughts and ways are far from human thoughts and ways.  They are ways of compassion and reconciliation.

            After his dramatic encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Saint Paul never stopped seeking the Lord.  By seeking the Lord and trusting in the Lord’s presence in his ministry, Paul has become the Apostle who has spread the Good News throughout the known Mediterranean world.  In his proclamation of the Gospel, he has urged countless converts to seek the Lord and trust in his presence in their lives.  Today, we hear his letter to the Philippians.  Although he is confined in prison, he continues to seek the Lord.  He does not know what will happen to him.  But, because he is so confident in the ways the Lord has responded to his seeking, he says that it does not matter whether he will die soon or remain alive.  He prefers to die in the Lord, because he trusts that his earthly life is already centered in Christ.  But he is also willing to continue his earthly life, because he trusts in his fruitful labor.  Even his current suffering bears fruit.  His example encourages the Philippians (and us) to seek the Lord even when they are suffering.  He may be the last of the Apostles.  But he knows that the reward of faithful discipleship applies just as much to him as to those twelve Apostles who had been with the Lord in his ministry and in his death, resurrection, and ascension.

            Today’s parable gets our attention, because we tend to sympathize with those who started working at dawn and got paid the same amount as the workers who came at sunset.  Like those who worked all day, we think that this pay scale is not fair.  We wonder if those who got paid for doing very little will encourage people to become lazy.  That is why Jesus tells us this parable in the first place.  We tend to think only in human terms.  But Jesus insists that his ways are not our ways, echoing the argument made by Isaiah the prophet in his day. 

That is why today’s Gospel parable speaks to us as surely as it spoke to the original listeners.  The landowner is God.  The vineyard is Israel.  The harvest reflects the final judgment.  The first workers hired to work in the vineyard are the religiously observant of Jesus’ day.  But the landowner finds that there are still others who are seeking to work in the vineyard.  The landowner goes out five times to hire those who continue to seek, with the last being tax collectors and sinners who have responded to Jesus’ call very late.  The Lord is aware of so many people who are seeking him, even without knowing it.  And he responds by sharing the fullness of his justice and mercy not only now, but at the harvest time.

We open ourselves to the Lord’s mercy and justice when we realize that we are created in the likeness of God.  We do not earn mercy and justice, nor are mercy and justice owed to us.  The Lord’s mercy and justice are pure and simple gifts.  Today’s parable encourages us to be like Saint Paul and turn more completely to the Lord, so much so that we realize that we are in Christ Jesus, whether we live or die.  The parable also calls us to turn to the Lord while he is near.  If we live our faith more completely, then we might attract more people to the Lord, whether they know they are seeking or not.

 

 

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

13 SEPTEMBER 2026

 

          Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive?  As many as seven times?”  Peter thinks he is being generous about offering forgiveness, because 7 is a biblical number meaning “a lot.”  But Jesus shocks him by saying that he needs to forgive him not seven times, but seventy-seven times.  There is no limit to the times we need to forgive.

            His parable explains the reason for unlimited forgiveness.  The king represents God.  The servant represents us.  The servant owes the king a huge amount.  The Old Testament has two primary metaphors for sin.  The first is that sin is a weight to be carried around.  The second is that it is a debt that needs to be paid.  The servant carries a heavy weight and has acquired a debt that needs to be repaid.  Because of the power of sin, we can never remove the weight of our sins or repay the debt we owe.  God, represented by the king, removes the weight from our shoulders and repays the debt through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            The king treats the servant harshly when he refuses to forgive the much smaller debt of a fellow servant.  He hands him over to torturers not because the other servant deserved to be freed of the weight of his debt, but because the king himself had forgiven the servant’s debt.  Jesus says that we are expected to do the same – to forgive others by taking the weight from their shoulders and forgiving their debts.  We must treat others with mercy, because God has forgiven us by lifting the weight from our shoulders and erasing our debts.

            This message can be very difficult, especially for those who have suffered greatly from the sins of others.  Part of the problem is that we do not fully understand the essence of mercy, forgiveness, lifting weights from those who have hurt us, and letting go of their debts.  Forgiving another person does not mean that the evil done by that person is ok.  Nor does forgiveness mean that we have to like the person who hurt us so badly or even be part of their lives.  Especially for those who have been abused or who living in abusive relationships, it is critical to move away from the offender and try to begin life anew.  Jesus calls us to take this radical action, not because the offending person deserves it, but because of what God has done for us.

            Years ago, I encouraged a woman to join the RCIA process in our parish.  She had been away from the Church for many years and wanted to resume the practice of her faith.  As she participated in RCIA, she revealed the deep hurt that caused her to walk away from the faith in the first place.  When her five children were all under the age of 10, her husband abandoned the family.  She was devastated and nursed her anger for years.  Her children and grandchildren wanted her to come back to the church, because she was so angry and short with them all the time.  I encouraged her to use the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and she did.  Even though she confessed her anger and hatred often, that bitterness remained.  One day, as she was working on her job at the local hospital, she saw her husband for the first time in decades.  As he was being wheeled into the emergency room, she saw that he was in terrible health instead of having a good life after abandoning her and their children.  At last, she was able to let go of her anger and be at peace.  She finally realized that her hatred and anger had no effect on him.  Instead, she had become a bitter mother, grandmother, and friend.

            We forgive others only because God has forgiven us.  I’m also convinced that one of the graces of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the courage to offer that mercy to others.  I have also learned that this kind of radical forgiveness cannot be accomplished by us alone.  At a certain  point, we need to humble ourselves and go through professional therapy to be healed.  We need the grace and mercy of God to forgive as Jesus has forgiven us.

 

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

6 SEPTEMBER 2026

 

          When we say that we are going to church, we generally speak of going to a particular church building.  There are all kinds of church buildings.  Our church building is pretty small, like the church building across the street.  Other church buildings are much larger, with varying degrees of importance.  The bishop’s church building is called a Cathedral, because that is where his cathedra, or chair, is.  The church building at Notre Dame is called a Basilica, because it has a special connection with the Vatican.  Other church buildings are huge, like the buildings of mega churches.  But what all of these buildings have in common is that the building is a house for the ekklesia, which literally means “the called-out ones” – a group of people who have been called out to a meeting.  When go to church, we are actually saying that we are going to an assembly, a gathering, a meeting.

            A couple of weeks ago, Jesus spoke of establishing this ekklesia, this church.  He established it on the foundation of Simon Peter’s profession of faith.  With the rock that is Simon Peter and his successors, the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against it.  Today, he mentions this assembly again and promises that where two or three are gathered together in his name, there he will be in the midst of them.  Today, there are more than two or three of us here, and we trust his presence in this assembly.  In the midst of this assembly, he speaks to us in his Word and is truly present in bread and wine transformed into his Body and Blood.

            Even though the Lord is always present in our church, in our assembly here, we know that conflicts will arise.  That is why Saint Paul insists that it is so important to love one another, a love that sums up all the commandments.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives some important steps on how to love when someone has offended us.  The first step involves taking the one who has offended us aside and confronting the person with the truth.  Authentic love is not about arguing or trying to prove a point.  Authentic love means that we approach the person as gently as possible to speak the truth.  The goal is not to win an argument.  The goal is to change the sinful behavior of that person, knowing that all of us have behaved in ways that involve committing sin and doing damage.  This is a difficult but important first step, because it is much easier to complain to others behind this person’s back.

            If that fails, Jesus tells us to take one or two other members of the assembly with us.  The goal is not to prove a point.  It is to allow the person to hear the story from other people who know the facts.  If that does not work, we need to tell the church.  Only after everything else has failed should we bring in other members of the assembly.  If that doesn’t work, then we need to treat the offending person as a Gentile or tax collector.  That means that the offense is out of our hands and cannot be resolved.  At this point, it is clear that there is no way to soften a hardened heart.  We can only begin the process of hearing the truth in today’s Responsorial Psalm so that we can soften our hearts and give the ultimate judgment over to the Lord.

            This type of expressing authentic love is very difficult, because it takes so much time and energy.  It is always easier to gossip about the offense, telling everyone who is willing to listen.  As a confessor, I find that the sin of gossip is prevalent so often.  Taking the issue to the church is a very rare occurrence.  Gossip involves the entire church.  Ironically, gossip does much more damage to the fabric of a parish and the presence of the Lord within that assembly.  Jesus Christ tells us to take the time to confront wrongdoing and forgive.  He gave the ultimate example when he spoke the truth to Pontius Pilate at his mock trial and then forgave those who brought him to a horrible death on the cross.  He expects the same of us, his Body, the Church.

 

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

30 AUGUST 2026

 

          Last Sunday, Jesus gathered his disciples at Caesarea Philippi, at that massive rock dedicated to the Roman god Pan.  He asked what people were saying about him.  He listened to them and then asked who they thought he was.  Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus affirmed that Peter’s correct answer was a revelation from God and said that he would be the rock of his Church.  The gate to the netherworld would not be the gate to Hades at the huge rock at Caesarea Philippi.  Simon Peter became the rock to keep the gates of the netherworld from prevailing against his church.

            Today, Jesus continues to teach his disciples.  As the Christ, the Son of the living God, he now reveals the mission he has received from his Father.  He will not be a warrior Messiah to drive the Romans away.  Instead, he is the Suffering Servant who will go to Jerusalem to suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and scribes.  He will be killed and on the third day be raised up.  Shocked to his core, Simon Peter takes Jesus aside to rebuke him: “God forbid, Lord!  No such thing shall ever happen to you!”  Simon Peter cannot imagine a crucified Messiah!  Jesus turns to Peter and yells, “Get behind me, Satan!”  Peter was tempting Jesus to turn his back on his Father’s will, just as Satan had done in the desert at the beginning of his public ministry.  He accuses Peter of being an obstacle to him.  In other words, in relying on his human instincts, the Rock of the Church has become a stumbling block.

            Instead of telling Peter to get away, Jesus tells him to get behind him.  He invites him to come after him and learn how to be a faithful disciple.  Coming after Jesus means that he must deny himself.  Jesus needs to be at the center of his life, teaching him the lesson of sacrificial love.  He must carry the cross that comes with behaving as Jesus Christ, willing to give himself in humble service to all.  Following behind Jesus Christ involves conducting himself as his Lord does.  He must think and speak words of love.  He will need to imitate the actions of Jesus Christ.  He must be willing to forgive others and make a commitment to performing works of mercy.  Simon Peter will learn all of these lessons.  After the Lord’s death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit will strengthen Peter in his role as the rock of the Church, even to the point of physically giving himself to be nailed to a cross to share in the Lord’s rising.

            Saint Augustine became a disciple of Jesus Christ when he was baptized, Confirmed, and given the Eucharist at the Easter Vigil in Milan.  Once he got behind Jesus, he denied himself and made him the central focus of his life.  He then accepted a number of crosses.  He turned aside from the Manichaean heresy that encouraged him to do whatever he wanted with his body and embraced the practice of celibacy.  It was not easy.  He was reported to pray, “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet!”  He faced the death of his mother, Monica, as they were preparing to get on a boat to return to Africa. After he was ordained a priest, he reluctantly submitted himself to become the Bishop of Hippo.  He wrote his famous Confessions to say to the people of Hippo: “With my history, do you really want me to be your bishop?”  He spent the rest of his life faithfully serving the Church of Hippo and refuting any number of heresies.  Like Jeremiah the Prophet, he was often tempted to refuse the speak the full truth of the faith.  But the truth became like a fire burning in his heart.  He carried the cross of making many enemies in becoming one of the most important theologians of the Catholic Church.

            We ask for his intercession today, as we continue to walk behind Jesus, as we learn how to deny ourselves, and as we learn to embrace the crosses that come from our decision to make Jesus Christ the center of our lives.