Weekly Reflections

CCAS Administrative Assistant 6/17/26 CCAS Administrative Assistant 6/17/26

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 21, 2026

When doing what God calls you to do, do not be afraid.

Matthew 10:26-33

Jesus said to the Twelve: "Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father."

REFLECTIONS ON THE GOSPEL

Some Thoughts on Today’s Scripture

“Even the hairs on your head are counted.” A lovely illustration of God’s love for me personally. Let me respond to the love expressed here. Spend a few moments contemplating this image.
Will I get a chance to acknowledge Jesus before others today?. Perhaps through a kind act if I cannot find the words.
Jesus reminds me that I do not have to have all the answers or convince everyone. In God’s time, not mine, all will be made clear.
But Jesus mentions fear five times here: does fear sometimes make me betray the truth? Perhaps I may know what to do in a situation but I do nothing for fear of the reactions of others. I ask to believe that God knows me fully and values me limitlessly, so I need not fear.
Jesus reminds me that I do not have to answer everything or convince everyone. In God’s time all will be known.
I give thanks to God for what I have learnt in my prayer. I pray for the courage I need to let my experience of God be evident in my life.
I resist being distracted by the value of sparrows or the quality of my hair and pray that I may receive deeply Jesus appreciation and love of me.

First Impressions by Jude Siciliano, OP

You can sense the background to today’s selection from Matthew’s Gospel. In this passage, Jesus tells his disciples three times, “Do not be afraid.” The early Church must have been a community that knew fear well. Jesus is preparing his followers for rejection, misunderstanding, and hardship because of their faith. Following him will not always make life easier. So, he tells them, “Fear no one.” He reminds them that they are never abandoned by God. Most of us know fear in one form or another. We worry about our families, our health, our future, and the divisions in our world and Church. Some of us carry quiet fears that others never see loneliness, failure, grief, or uncertainty about what lies ahead. Fear can shrink our hearts and tempt us to live cautiously, protecting ourselves rather than trusting God. It can also cause disciples to withdraw into closed communities, contrary to Jesus’ command to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Fear can place limits on that mission. Jesus assures us that we are held in God’s care and do not need to let fear rule us. Christian courage is not the absence of fear; it is the decision to trust God in the midst of fear. I remember the stories the Sisters used to read to us about the early martyrs. They seemed like superhuman examples of courage. Yet those martyrs were human beings like us. They were not fearless people, but people who believed that God’s love was stronger than whatever threatened them. The Gospel challenges us to ask what fears keep us from living our faith more openly. Sometimes we remain silent when we should speak a word of kindness or truth. Sometimes we hesitate to forgive, to serve, or to stand with those who are suffering because we fear criticism or discomfort. Jesus calls us to live with confidence, knowing that our lives rest in the hands of a faithful God. The courage ordinary Christians need today is often quiet and steady rather than dramatic. Most believers will not face prison or martyrdom, but they do face pressures that test their faith every day. It takes courage to remain honest in a dishonest environment, to forgive when resentment feels easier, to defend the dignity of the poor and forgotten, to remain faithful in marriage and family life, and to continue praying when God seems silent. Christians also need the courage not to be ashamed of their faith. In many places, believers are tempted to keep religion private, avoiding any mention of hope, mercy, justice, or the Gospel for fear of criticism or rejection. Jesus’ words, “Do not be afraid,” are spoken precisely for moments like these. He reminds us that we belong to God and are precious in God’s sight. Can we trust God where we are? The Gospel says yes—not because life is easy, but because God does not abandon us in the middle of it. God is present in hospitals, prisons, schools, workplaces, broken homes, lonely apartments, and uncertain futures. Trust does not mean that we understand everything. It means that we believe that even when we feel weak, forgotten, or afraid, God still holds us in loving hands. Many ordinary Christians carry hidden burdens: caring for aging parents, struggling financially, grieving losses, worrying about children, facing illness, or trying to hold on to faith in a divided world. The courage Christ asks of us is to keep walking with him through all of it. Sometimes the greatest act of faith is simply getting up each day and believing that God is still with us. Jesus points to the sparrows and reminds us that not one of them is forgotten by God. Then he says, “You are worth more than many sparrows.” That is the foundation of Christian courage: not confidence in ourselves, but confidence that we are known, loved, and accompanied by God every step of the way. In summary, the Gospel for this Sunday tells us not to be afraid. Jesus knows that his disciples will face opposition, misunderstanding, and even rejection. Courage is not something needed only by martyrs and saints of long ago. Ordinary Christians need courage every day: courage to forgive, to speak honestly, to remain faithful in difficult marriages and families, to defend the vulnerable, to resist dishonesty at work, and to continue believing when prayers seem unanswered. The reading from the prophet Jeremiah (20:10–13) shows us what that courage feels like from the inside. Jeremiah is not fearless. He hears the whispering around him: “Denounce him!” Even his friends are watching for him to fail. He feels isolated and threatened. Many Christians know something of that experience. A young person may feel pressure for living differently from the crowd. A worker may face ridicule for acting with integrity. A believer may feel alone in a culture that often treats faith as irrelevant or naïve. Yet Jeremiah does not end in despair. He says, “But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion.” That is the heart of Christian courage. Courage is not pretending that we are strong enough by ourselves. Courage comes from trusting that God stands beside us in our weakness and uncertainty. Jesus says in the Gospel that even the sparrows are known by God and that “you are worth more than many sparrows.” God’s care is personal and constant. The courage Christians need today grows from this trust: God sees us, knows our struggles, and does not abandon us. Sometimes courage means taking a public stand for justice or truth. More often, it means quiet perseverance: continuing to love when it is costly, continuing to pray when faith feels dry, and continuing to hope when the world seems cynical. Jeremiah teaches us that faithful people can feel afraid and discouraged and still trust God. Our world often admires power, success, and self-sufficiency. But Christian courage looks different. It is the courage to remain compassionate in a harsh world, truthful in a dishonest world, hopeful in a despairing world, and faithful in a distracted world. Today Jeremiah’s words become our prayer as well: “Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor.” The believer’s courage finally rests not in human strength, but in confidence that God remains faithful through every trial.

Quotable

One of the most frequently cited Christian calls to courage comes from Pope John Paul II at the beginning of his pontificate “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ.”

Justice Bulletin Board by Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

“But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion.”—Jeremiah 20:11

I find it interesting that today’s readings fall on Father’s Day. The readings speak to not being afraid. From Jeremiah remembering that God is on his side despite the opposition he faces; the psalmist feeling like an outcast because of following the Lord who does not reject the abandoned; to the disciples whom Jesus has instructed to not be afraid. I think of my Dad (and actually, both my parents) who fearlessly lived through the Great Depression and World War II. They were always great examples for me of steady perseverance in the face of the obstacles they faced together during their lives. Not living in fear is both a mindset and a spiritual strength. As Christians, we can look to the lives of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the disciples, to model the ways to live or become fearless. The challenges we face today often bring fear of the unknown and how we handle them is a testament to those who have inspired and inspirited us. We, in turn, become a testament for others. I came across the following sweet poem, anonymous in authorship, that I have adapted for its timeless message.

Our Lord and Lady keep a garden.
A garden of the heart;
Where planted are all the good things,
That give our lives their start.
They turn us to the sunshine,
And encourage us to dream:
Fostering and nurturing
The seeds of self-esteem.
And when the winds and rain come,
They protect us enough;
But not too much because they know
We would stand up strong and tough.
Their constant example
Always teach us right from wrong;
Markers for our pathway that will last
a lifetime long.
The next time life becomes fear-filled, fear not.
We are our Lord and Lady’s garden,
We are their legacy of heart.

Faith Book

Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home.

From today’s Gospel reading: So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

Reflection: Jesus knows that fear can keep us silent about our faith. He reassures us that we are precious in God's eyes – worth far more than many sparrows. Because we are loved and valued by God, we can face life's challenges with confidence. When we acknowledge Christ in our words and actions, we witness to the One who never stops claiming us as his own.

So, we ask ourselves:

What fears keep me from openly living or speaking about my faith?
Do I truly believe that I am precious and loved by God, even in my weaknesses?
How can I acknowledge Christ today through my actions, words, or choices?

Thinking Small and Big by Daniel J. Harrington

As New Testament Christians we hope for right relationship with God,eternal life with God and the full coming of God’s kingdom. The ground of our hope is Jesus, especially as the risen one. Nevertheless, in our everyday lives we sometimes may lose hope, perhaps not about ultimate realities but about our health and safety, about loved ones, about the future and so on. There is much to be afraid of in our world. Today’s Scripture readings can help us sustain our hope by thinking on both a small and a large scale. Sparrows, small birds that congregate in groups and make nests, were very common in the Holy Land in Jesus’ time. Some people trapped and sold them. They were very cheap, but so small they yielded very little meat. Nevertheless, poor people bought sparrows to eat and also to offer as sacrifices at the temple. The point of Jesus’ saying about sparrows is that these birds were among the most insignificant creatures that people in Jesus’ time and place could imagine. Today’s selection from Matthew 10 comes from near the end of Jesus’ instruction to his disciples as he sends them forth to carry on his mission of preaching and healing. He was asking them to live simply and to expect opposition and rejection. Jesus holds up the image of the sparrow to reinforce the disciples’ trust and hope in God. After warning the apostles about the dangers facing them, Jesus reminds them that his loving Father, who exercises care for insignificant creatures like sparrows so that not one of them drops to the ground without God’s knowledge, will surely care for them (and us). We are worth more than sparrows, and so we can trust God to love us and care for us. In this way the tiny sparrow becomes an image of hope. When we become confused, frustrated and fearful, we may find clarity and hope in this image: if God cares for sparrows, how much more does God care for us and want what is good for us. If Jesus’ image of the sparrow can help us to think small, then Paul’s meditation on Adam and Christ in Romans 5 can help us to think big enough to place our hopes and fears in the broad framework of salvation history. Paul uses Adam as an image of fallen humankind, enslaved under the dominion of sin and death. He holds up Christ not only as the symbol of redeemed humankind but also as the one through whom we have been freed from sin and death and freed for life in the Spirit. Paul emphasizes that the gift of freedom given to us through Christ far surpasses Adam’s transgression. As humans we all carry within us the figures of both Adam and Christ. While it is often easier to see Adam around us and in us in our everyday lives, the challenge of Christian life is to let the risen Christ shape our very self and let his life be our life. To do so, we need to think both small and big.

Praying with Scripture

• What frightens you most and causes you to lose hope at times?

• Do you have a special image (like the sparrow) that restores your confidence and hope?

• Where do you find Adam and where do you find Christ in your life and in the world around you?. 

Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., is professor of New Testament at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry (formerly Weston Jesuit School of Theology) in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

PREPARATION FOR THE SESSION

Adapted from Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2025

Presence of God: Jesus, As I come to you today, fill my heart, my whole being, with the wonder of your sacred presence. Help me to become more aware of your presence in my life, and more receptive to that presence. I desire to love you as you love me. May nothing ever separate me from you. (1-2 minutes of silence)

Freedom: Jesus, Grant me the grace to have freedom of spirit. Keep me from being bound by desires and actions that are not good for me or others. Cleanse my heart and soul that I may live joyously in your love. (1-2 minutes of silence)

Leader: Where am I with God? With others in my life? What am I grateful for? Is there something I am sorry for, words or actions that have hurt others, and which I now regret? I take a moment to ask forgiveness of God and of those whom I have hurt. God, I give you thanks for your constant love and care for me. Keep me always aware of your presence in my life. (2-3 minutes of silence)

OPENING PRAYER

Jesus, when I get a chance to acknowledge you before others today, help me to trust I am doing your will. Give me the strength and the courage to believe in myself and in my value to you and to live my life with honesty and with compassion for others. Help me to do your work I your world.

COMPANIONS FOR THE JOURNEY

From “First Impressions”, A service of the Southern Dominican Province:

Matthew’s community must have been going through an experience similar to Jeremiah’s in the first reading —living and speaking about their faith were causing pain and fear among them. Like Jeremiah in the first reading, they may have even been quite vocal in their bewilderment and disappointment because things weren’t turning out the way they had hoped. Otherwise, Matthew would never have recorded these frank and consoling words of Jesus. Jesus is reminding his followers that because of him, they will suffer persecution. The saying about the sparrows has ominous tones: God knows when even a minuscule sparrow “falls to the ground.” There is a hint here of the disciples themselves having to face even death (“fall to the ground”) as Jesus’ followers. I don’t know if I have to fear being killed or imprisoned for my faith; but living that faith does have its costs and may even cause pain, or at least daily sacrifice and inconvenience. They are not to be afraid because of the small, seeming insignificance of their project in the light of the world powers around them. Now---the good news is “concealed” and “secret,” known by only a few. Now--- Jesus speaks in “darkness” and his message is “whispered” to them. But someday all will be “revealed” and “known.” In our modern world of high speed internet access, million-dollar television commercials and “gliterrati,” living out our faith in Christ can make us feel out-shouted, overridden and insignificant. Judging from the more dominant voices and forces around us, our Christian approach to life can seem diminutive and without influence as the world makes decisions that affect the destinies of present and future populations and of the planet itself. Jesus promises his message will be “proclaimed on the housetops.” How? Some people in our history have been very forthright proclaimers, they have been like people standing on roof tops for all to see and hear. But most of us are afraid of such heights and our call might be less spectacular, but still requiring courage. I read this Brazilian proverb recently, “Your head thinks form the spot you plant your feet.” We have planted our feet with Christ and he invites our heads to think and our hearts to feel from that spot. We must, if we are standing with Christ, acknowledge him by lives and words that are recognizable as having him as their source. Jesus predicts a sign by which we will know we are being faithful to him---when we are standing on his side of honesty, concern, forgiveness, trust, community, etc----we will stir up opposition. His message will stir up strife. He is aware that, just as he found resistance to his teaching, so will his followers. So he tells them, “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body...,” for they have power, but only over the body. God’s power is more sweeping and total, in fact, Jesus says, God “...can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” But the disciple is not to fear, because God cares about each of us and every part of us, right down to the hairs on our heads. If birds fall under God’s care, how much more do we? This reminder about God’s care for us isn’t a guarantee we will have an easy ride as God’s servants. Jeremiah has already voiced the feelings of abandonment, disappointment and dismay one might feel in the face of the rejection God’s witnesses often experience. Jesus uses the example of sparrows falling and dying and God’s concern for them, to reassure us that in the face of trials and even death, God will care for us. Jesus is not going to leave us alone, however, he will not exempt himself from our struggles. He says he will “acknowledge” us before God. This image suggests he stands with us and claims us as one of his own. When the going gets tough, he is right in the thick of things with us. Last week Jesus once again called us and sent us out. If we have reflected on our lives this past week, we know being sent into the world to live our beliefs in Christ is “easier said than done.” It’s a rough world out there for those who want to practice their faith. We come back here this Sunday for a breather from some harsh realities; but also to be refueled so we can do what we know Jesus would have us do.

LIVING THE GOOD NEWS

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today's reading and discussion? Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions which follow.

Reflection Questions:

What part does fear play in the actions of the world, say, in economics, in political decisions, in war, in individual defensive behaviors?

Have I ever taken on a worthwhile project only to discover that I have bitten off much more than I could chew?
What did I do?

What frightens me most and causes me to lose hope at times?

Do I have a special image (like the sparrow) that restores my confidence and hope?

Where do I find Christ in my life and in the world around me?

“Jesus did not call us to be successful, He called us to be faithful.” (St. Teresa of Calcutta) Do I agree?

Have I ever at any time allowed fear of someone or something to control me so that I was unable to speak the truth?
How did I feel?

Have I ever been intimidated by peer pressure so that I did something I did not want to do or failed to do something I thought I should do?

Have Iever had an opportunity to acknowledge to Jesus before others?
How did it turn out for me?

I think of a time when I was anxious about an event and it turned out fine.

Can I remember that I do not have to have an answer for everything in the world that is difficult or confusing?

Can I trust in God and let God take care of the things that I cannot?

CLOSING PRAYER

Don’t forget to provide some prayer time at the beginning and at the end of the session (or both), allowing time to offer prayers for anyone you wish to pray for. I give thanks to you, Lord, for what I have learned about myself and about you in my prayer this week. I pray also for the courage I need to let my experience of you, Jesus, be evident in my life. Help me to turn fear into resolution, turn despair and hopelessness into joy.

FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Weekly Memorization: (Taken from the gospel for today's session) Do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Meditations:

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions: Let us explore the notion of fear and the power of fear. There was a very popular TV show called Monk, that explored the adventures of an obsessive-compulsive genius detective who had at least 38 documented phobias. On the show’s website a tongue-in-cheek dictionary of phobias was provided. Among the phobias listed were some creative entries:

Altophobia: Fear of heights.
Arachibutyrophobia: Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth
Ballistophobia: Fear of missiles or bullets.
Ecclesiophobia: Fear of church
Frigophobia: Fear of cold
Gamophobia: Fear of marriage
Glossophobia: Fear of speaking in public or of trying to speak
Homilophobia: Fear of sermons
Obesophobia: Fear of gaining weight
Peladophobia: Fear of bald people
Phalacrophobia: Fear of becoming bald
Phasmophobia: Fear of ghosts
Testophobia: Fear of taking tests

We all have fears. Many things we fear for no reason. Some things we don’t fear that we should. In this Gospel Jesus describes the proper locus, or place, of fear. What is it? What things do I fear that I should not, and what things do I not fear that I should?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship: Julian of Norwich was a medieval mystic who had revelations from Jesus she called "Showings", and which are considered some of the classic writings of Western Spirituality. This is taken from one of her “Showings”: And these words: “You will not be overcome”, were said very insistently and strongly, for certainty and strength against every tribulation which may come. He did not say: “You will not be troubled, you will not be belabored, you will not be disquieted”; but he said: “You will not be overcome”. God wants us to pay attention to these words, and always to be strong in faithful trust, in well-being and in woe, for he loves us and delights in us, and so he wishes us to love him and delight in him and trust greatly in him, and all will be well. (Julian of Norwich, Showings, p.315). It is easy to trust God when things are going reasonably well. Trust in God, and especially hope in God, are harder to come by in times of stress or sorrow. Think of something that is worrying you right now, and try to read over these words of Julian, praying for a greater faith and hope in the God who loves us so much.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination: Psalm 69 (from 12 Sunday A)

1) Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
2) I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.
3) I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
4) Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.
5) You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you.
6) Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me.
7) For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.
8) I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children;
9) for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
10) When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn;
11) when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me.
12) Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.
13) But I pray to you, Lord in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.
14) Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters.
15) Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.
16) Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love in your great mercy turn to me.
17) Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.
18) Come near and rescue me; deliver me because of my foes.
19) You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you.
20) Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.
21) They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
22) May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and[b] a trap.
23) May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.
24) Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them.
25) May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
26) For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt.
27) Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation.
28) May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.
29) But as for me, afflicted and in pain—may your salvation, God, protect me.
30) I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.
31) This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hooves.
32) The poor will see and be glad—you who seek God, may your hearts live!
33) The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people.
34) Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them,
35) for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it;
36) the children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.

One thing we forget about the psalms is how honest and raw they are. The Jewish people, in speaking with God, in lamenting their situation, do not necessarily use their “inside voices”. This shows us how close the Jewish people felt to God that they could be truly authentic ion their despair and anger, and truly trusting that they would be heard. In the following psalm, imagine that you are listening to the psalm writer as he is complaining to you. What is the situation that has him so upset and afraid? Which of his complaints to you really sympathize with? Which seem to be exaggerated? Is the exaggeration understandable, given his humanity? Have you ever been in a situation where you have been overwhelmed by despair and fear? If not, can you think of some instances in which someone might feel this way? How do you react to his desire to have his tormentors punished and really hurt? How do you think Jesus would respond to verses 22-28? Which of the verses in this do you identify with; which do you disown? Now imagine that you are God, listening to this kind of anger and fear constantly. What does it tell you about the love and understanding of God that God has so much patience with all of our kvetching? What do you want to say to God in return?

Write you own psalm to God (short or long) about your life right now… Be honest.

POETIC REFLECTIONS

This poem is a revision of an earlier set of Paradoxical Commandments by Kent Keith. A related version is engraved on the wall of Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough.
Give the best you've got anyway.

You see,
in the final analysis it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.

Fear by Raymond Carver
Fear of seeing a police car pull into the drive.
Fear of falling asleep at night.
Fear of not falling asleep.
Fear of the past rising up.
Fear of the present taking flight.
Fear of the telephone that rings in the dead of night.
Fear of electrical storms.
Fear of the cleaning woman who has a spot on her cheek!
Fear of dogs I've been told won't bite.
Fear of anxiety!
Fear of having to identify the body of a dead friend.
Fear of running out of money.
Fear of having too much, though people will not believe this.
Fear of psychological profiles.
Fear of being late and fear of arriving before anyone else.
Fear of my children's handwriting on envelopes.
Fear they'll die before I do, and I'll feel guilty.
Fear of having to live with my mother in her old age, and mine.
Fear of confusion.
Fear this day will end on an unhappy note.
Fear of waking up to find you gone.
Fear of not loving and fear of not loving enough.
Fear that what I love will prove lethal to those I love.
Fear of death.
Fear of living too long.
Fear of death.
I've said that.

CCAS Administrative Assistant 6/8/26 CCAS Administrative Assistant 6/8/26

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 14, 2026

Our mission is not just not nurturing our own personal spirituality or even the spirituality of the Church; we have a mission to the world.

Matthew 9:36-10:8

At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon from Cana, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

REFLECTIONS ON THE GOSPEL

First Impressions by Jude Siciliano, OP

Jesus sees the “troubled and abandoned” crowds and he has a concern. He must have help to address their needs, So he calls together the Twelve – his first official disciples. He shares his vision with them; he invites them to see what he sees. They accept his invitation to follow him and to see with his eyes. But that doesn’t mean they would have gotten together socially – joined a bowling club together or had each other over for a 4th of July barbecue. We know that from the list and brief descriptions Matthew gives of the first disciples. Simon and Andrew were brothers. They probably got along, but what did their families think of their dropping their fishing nets to go off with the itinerant preacher? Not all families share our ideals. The woman I described said that her parents thought she could make more money working for a bank, or a brokerage house: after all, she has the skills necessary to lead a team and raise two million dollars. James and John were also brothers. Mark says Jesus gave them the nickname, “sons of thunder”—Boanerges. It doesn’t take much imagination to deduce how they got that name! Then there was Matthew himself, a tax-collector, a traitor to the cause of Israel because he collected taxes for the Romans. Simon was of the Zealot party. Zealots were super-nationalists, burning with zeal for the liberation of Israel. Some were terrorists against the Romans. I wonder what it would be like to invite the tax collector and the Zealot over for tea! There are moments in the gospel when the apostles’ diverging personalities flared and Jesus had to reign them in. How did he do that? By continually keeping their vision clear; reminding them of the purpose for which he invited them and by urging them not to follow their own interests and priorities. He said that if they wanted to follow him they would have to make personal sacrifices, put aside their differences and focus instead on the needs of others. “Pick up your cross daily.” Jesus brings this unlikely group together; he and his vision are the binding elements that keep them from fragmenting. Little by little he helps them look out at the world around them – with his eyes. He knows who they are; how different they are. And even though he is not finished with them yet; even though they may feel inadequate to the task, without degrees in Philosophy and Theology, not religious experts – he sends them out. They have been learning to see with his eyes and to notice and tend to those who are sick, those considered unclean, the lepers of society; the dead in body or spirit; those possessed of other spirits, who are “not themselves,” because they are crazed and distracted. Those Jesus sends are to invite the very ones Jesus would have invited, so that they too will learn and receive what the disciples learned and received from Jesus. Many of us here in church today probably aren’t part of the same social circles. We certainly aren’t all family members. Probably there are some here we’d wish would just go to another church! We are here, not because we are naturally drawn to each other, but because we were baptized. The same water was poured over us and the same words said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We have been called out, named the way the Twelve are named for us today. And like them, we too are sent. We are like that woman who works for the homeless. As she said, “Each of us has to look around us.” In some way, where we live, work, recreate and go to school, we are called to see with Jesus’ eyes, and act accordingly. No one can tell us exactly where and when we are to respond to Jesus’ call. We will just have to look out and see and hear the way Jesus did. And through our baptism, that is what we are being prompted and empowered to do. Today we pray for each of us: “Help us see what you want of us, help us not settle on being just occasional Christians, but “full time Christians.” Give us sensitive sight, your eyes, for the world. We pray too for those recently baptized, that our example will help them have vision and sensitivity to those who need them.”

Quotable

Galilee was neither a religious nor an intellectual center; it did not wield political power. According to biblical literature it appears to have been outside the mainstream of Israeli life...the Galilean Jews were regarded with patronizing contempt by the “pure-minded” Jews of Jerusalem. [As a mixed race, a person from ] Galilee was a sign of impurity and a cause for rejection. The Pharisees looked down upon “the people of the land” because they were ignorant of the law. The Sadducees looked down upon them because they were somewhat lax in matters of religious attendance and familiarity with the rules of temple worship...Yet throughout all this the Galileans maintained a refreshing originality in Judaism. It was a combination of the commonsense, grass-roots wisdom of practical experience, their more open and personal relations with foreigners and their relative distance from Jerusalem. Their hospitable and fertile land gave them a warmer, more optimistic outlook on life than the Judean Jew had...The Galilean faith in the god of the [ancestors] was thus more personal purer, simpler and more spontaneous. It was not encumbered or suffocated by the religious scrupulosities of the Jewish intelligentsia.
—Vigilio Elizondo in, GALILEAN JOURNEY: THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN PROMISE. (New York, Orbis Books, 1983) pages 54-5)

Justice Bulletin Board by Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

“I bore you up on eagle’s wings” —Exodus 19:4

The Israelites have escaped from the slavery of Egypt thanks to the Lord. Why did God do this? After all, the Israelites were mere slaves, the least of these. God acted out of love creating a sacred relationship. We will see that the Israelites do not always honor this relationship by failing to act in ways that testify to God’s compassion to others beyond their own. Whenever the Church becomes more attentive to her own well-being than to her mission to be Christ in the world, she fails to honor God. What is this mission to be Christ to the world? In his book, A New Way to Be Church: Parish Renewal from the Outside In, Jack Jezreel, founder of JustFaith, writes, “How can we possibly follow Jesus and not find ourselves in the company of our sisters and brothers who are hungry, homeless, and hopeless?…If our churches are not forming or trying to form real-life saints committed to the abandoned and downtrodden, then what are they doing?” (21-22). Jezreel believes “that every facet of Catholic life in most parishes is being shortchanged” because, as he writes, “the vision of God’s love and justice and Jesus’s proclamation of the reign of God and the life journey of compassion and integrity outlined in Catholic social teaching and the Gospels are central, critical ingredients of our mission, our self-identity, and our vision” (21). In most parishes, we have more ministries inside the walls of the church than those that go out beyond those walls. We must look at our parishes, and ourselves, and ask, “How much of the life of my parish is done outside its ‘walls’? What am I doing to be Christ in the world? The Vatican II document on the laity makes it clear that Christian social action is the laity’s pre-eminent work and goes so far to say that “the demands of justice must first of all be satisfied; what is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift in charity” (8). Clearly, for the laity, this call to mission to be Christ to the world must be instilled as the way of Jesus and as the way to life with God. God bore us up on eagle’s wings so we can spread God’s love to others.

Faith Book

Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book”is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home.

From today’s Gospel reading:At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd.....Jesus sent out the twelve after instructing them thus... “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

Reflection:Many of us here in church today probably aren’t part of the same social circles. We are here, not because we are naturally drawn to each other, but because we were baptized. We have been called and named--- the way the Twelve were called and named for us in today’s gospel. And like them, we too are sent.

Through our baptism we are being prompted and empowered to see with Jesus’ eyes and respond to the needs of those around us--- where we live, work, recreate, go to school and in the world.

So, we ask ourselves: Can I name a specific way in which I have been called to follow and serve in Jesus’ name? What do I need to do to respond better to my call to be a Christian in the world?

Some Thoughts on Today’s Scripture

Jesus is addressing His disciples before he sends them out to heal, witness and cast out demons. He tells his disciples that all they have received from Him was free, without payment and now they must in turn do the same.

Every one of us is being called to be a harvester. Each one of us can reach a corner of the harvest field that is accessible to no one else. These include my family, my neighbours, my work colleagues and others who come into my life. I may be the only person who brings Jesus with his healing and compassion into their lives.
There are so many people who need to hear the message of love and compassion in their lives today. Where can I harvest?
Jesus was compassionate, living out a mission of mercy in proclaiming Good News and bringing healing. He gave authority to his disciples to do the same, asking them to do so generously. It was a gift that they had received and they were to share it in the same spirit. His kingdom was near, a kingdom of mercy that offered hope and love to all who would accept it.
I am part of a broken world that needs compassion. Jesus went out to all the cities and villages reaching out to those in need. In what way am I a lost sheep? How does that feel? In my prayer I ask the Lord to help me recognise and minister to the lost sheep of this time?
‘Curing every disease and every sickness’ is an essential part of the spread of the Gospel. It is not only the miracles of the saints or the work of the medical professionals, but we all have a duty to visit the sick.
Jesus asks us to pray that he sends labourers into his harvest. Again, it is not just the religious professionals, priests and religious, that he is going to send. We need to be open ourselves to being sent as ‘missionary disciples,’ like Pope Francis says.
Jesus had compassion on the people who were harassed and helpless. What about me? Do I feel the need of his help in some part of my life?
He tells us to pray to send labourers into his harvest. So, let’s do it! Am I free to help the mission in some way?
The Twelve are to perform cures, to cast out devils (and even to raise the dead - all in the day’s work, as it were). Indeed, something totally new has to be stirring!
A shepherd-king has suddenly arrived - Jesus, full of compassion, is bringing heaven close to earth.
Humanity is being launched on a new trajectory, is being taught the ways of a new kingdom - the people are being led forward from the ordeals of the past to a future that is all brightness.
Jesus, in this gospel account I see you engaging with vigilant eyes and ears to the cry of the suffering world of your day. To them you were the compassionate one, bringing balm to the wounded places of their lives.
Lord, the cries of the poor and broken hearted are evident in the mass migration daily beamed into my living room. Let me not forget that you summon me today, to be your eyes, your ears and your hands of compassion. May I respond with loving compassion to all who come to me.
Do I know any people who are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd? Let me hold them before my mind's eye for a moment. Can I now imagine Jesus looking at them? How does he see them?
If I feel harassed and helpless, how does he see me? I ask for the grace to look on the world around me with the compassionate eyes of Jesus?
The compassion of God is meant to spread throughout the world. So Jesus calls others to action. The community of Sacred Space is also called. How strong is my compassion?
We ask for the blessing of energy and devotion to others in their time of need. We may do many things for them, and that is good. But sharing the Good News that God has ‘come near’ and is close to us may be the most valuable thing we can do for people in distress.
I travel in imagination with Jesus as he makes his journeys. I ask him what gives him so much energy to serve the sick, many of whom must have been frightening to look at and to touch. He chats with me about compassion, and I ask that my small heart may grow to be as compassionate as his. I sense his compassion toward myself, and it comforts me.
Jesus has a mission for me. Who are the ‘lost sheep’ today whom he may want me to help? Am I generous enough to do what he asks of me?
How do I see the crowds? Do I focus on their violence or mindless greed? But so many are like sheep without a shepherd, without direction. I am often like that myself. They call for compassion, as I give without payment. This is more complex than it seems. Lord, you do not tell me to avoid money as such, but to avoid payment for preaching the Gospel. I should give freely what I have freely received. In my prayer today I ask: What place does money have in my heart?
In Jesus' time, people believed that those who had serious psychiatric illnesses were 'possessed' by demons. Even today we talk of alcoholics as being possessed by the 'demon' drink. Maybe I need to examine my 'demons.'
Jesus' good news was the love and forgiveness of God poured out on people like you and me. When we love and forgive others, especially the poor and those on the margins, we spread the good news of God's kingdom, God's reign of love.
The harvest is plentiful and ripe. I think of the people around me and ask God to enlighten me to notice where there is opportunity to reap, gather or to acknowledge goodness. I bring what is good before God, giving praise and thanks.
There is so much good that is not noticed, so many blessings that are unacknowledged. I pray for a deeper appreciation of the rich harvest that is around me.
In the Gospels, sickness is clearly not treated as a mere medical problem. Once again, sickness (like sin and even like death) is ultimately ascribed to the activity of the Evil One. The demonic power was feared. So Jesus saw his mission as : hand-to-hand combat with the Enemy.
- Even some of those meant to be spiritual leaders of the people, allowed their motivation to come under the diabolic influence – like the Pharisees here who perversely ascribe Jesus’ miracle to the devil-in-chief.
- No wonder, then, that the people as a whole could at times feel confused, pulled this-way-and-that, harassed and dejected : Jesus was quite clear that they had both bad and good guides / shepherds.
- Jesus had important work to do – the harvest – and was going to need co-workers to share his mission.
- I bring to mind those who feel harassed and helpless. I pray for the compassion that Jesus had: that I may recognise those in need around me and be a shepherd to them.
- Jesus recognised many missed opportunities as he looked at the people around him. I ask God to help me to recognise the rich harvest around me, that I may use the opportunities I might otherwise miss.
- In face of the helplessness and harassment that many suffer, Jesus reminds us to turn to God. We work as though everything depended on us, but pray as though everything depended on God. He is the Lord of the harvest. It is his world, not ours. We do what we can, glad to be of service. But God did not create us to help him out of a jam. The work of the world's redemption is never complete. When we have done our best, we turn to our father in heaven and say: /Thank you for giving me a share in this work. Now over to you, Lord./
- The heart of Jesus is characterised by compassion. He could enter into the lives of others, particularly the lost and the needy, and they knew he cared. He seemed to care for them with a greater care than sometimes they had for themselves. Sheep without a shepherd roam in circles and they may even be led off by a false shepherd. Thus it is with us. Prayer is the field where compassion may be sown, for those near and those far away.
- I bring to mind those who feel harassed and helpless. I pray for the compassion that Jesus had: that I may recognise those in need around me and be a shepherd to them.
- Jesus recognised many missed opportunities as he looked at the people around him. I ask God to help me to recognise the rich harvest around me, that I may use the opportunities I might otherwise miss.
- The harvest is plentiful and ripe. I think of the people around me and ask God to enlighten me to notice where there is opportunity to reap, gather or to acknowledge goodness. I bring what is good before God, giving praise and thanks.
- There is so much good that is not noticed, so many blessings that are unacknowledged. I pray for a deeper appreciation of the rich harvest that is around me.

Commentary on Matthew 9:35-10:1,6-8

The promises of the First Reading are shown being fulfilled in the person of Jesus in the Gospel, and they are arranged in two sections. First, Jesus is shown constantly on the move, teaching in synagogues all over the region, proclaiming the Good News of God’s reign coming among them and bringing healing to all who are sick and diseased. Matthew does not use the title of Good Shepherd for Jesus, but he does indicate the deep compassion of Jesus for all those are harassed and depressed, people with no direction in their lives, who are like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus is clearly the Shepherd who can lead them back to where they belong. Second, He then says to his disciples that there is a huge harvest waiting to be reaped. Up to this he has been working alone but he needs help, especially so after he is gone. There are very few people available to work in the harvest field. He then calls the Twelve and hands on to them his own powers to liberate people from evil powers and to heal all kinds of sickness. The harvest is still great and the need for labourers is as great as ever. In asking the Lord to send labourers into the harvest, we have to ask ourselves what is the role of each one of us. It is not just a question of priests and religious. Jesus was not talking to priests and religious (there was no such thing at the time the gospels were written) but to every one of his followers – to every one of us who has been baptised. Every one of us is being called to be a harvester. Each one of us can reach a corner of the harvest field that is accessible to no one else. These include my family, my neighbours, my work colleagues and others who come into my life. I may be the only person who brings Jesus with his healing and compassion into their lives. And what are we to do? Let people know that the Reign of God is very close, because God himself and Jesus are so close. Once we say Yes to God and his Son, they become part of our lives. And we are to do the same work he told his disciples to do:

Heal the sick: by our sympathy and support, which can often do more than any medical treatment.
Raise the dead: clearly not literally. But there are many who are intellectually, emotionally and socially dead. They are physically alive but they have stopped living meaningful lives. We can help them to find life again.
Cleanse the lepers: all those people who are on the fringes of society, whom we neglect, ignore, despise, reject, avoid. There are the dropouts, those suffering from addictions (drug, alcohol, pornography, etc.) the homeless, single mothers, ‘sex workers’… let them know they are accepted and loved by God.
Cast out devils: help people liberate themselves from the demons of fear, anger, hatred, violence, from drugs, alcohol, nicotine, sexual abuse (themselves and others), greed for money…

There are so many people who need to hear and to experience the message of Christmas. And, there are many, alas, for whom Christmas is bad news, a time of misery, depression and loneliness. Let’s change that.

PREPARATION FOR THE SESSION

Adapted from Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2025

Consciousness: Where am I with God? With others in my life? What am I grateful for? Is there something I am sorry for, words or actions that have hurt others, and which I now regret? I take a moment to ask forgiveness of God and of those whom I have hurt. God, I give you thanks for your constant love and care for me. Keep me always aware of your presence in my life. (2-3 minutes of silence)

OPENING PRAYER

Jesus, your good news of the love and forgiveness of God being poured out on people like me is both a comfort and a challenge. Help me to reflect your care and compassion to all those I meet. Help me to be disciple.

COMPANIONS FOR THE JOURNEY

From “First Impressions” 2023, a service of the Southern Dominican Province

Recently a woman described her work to me and brought this gospel to mind. She works for a charitable foundation that addresses the needs of homeless families, with special attention to poor children. As a baptized person she takes her vocation as a Christian very seriously. She said, “I never think of religion as something I do once a week at church—with a few prayers thrown in during the week for good measure. I realized years ago that my faith has to be the center of my life and influence everything I do, every decision I make—that I had to look out at the world with the eyes of Jesus. That’s what my baptism means to me.” My friend said she wanted to look out at the world with the “eyes of Jesus.” I think of her because of what Jesus saw in today’s gospel. It begins: “At the sight of the crowds Jesus was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd.” The woman I described said she became very aware of the needs of the poor. She felt that things were stacked against them. When budget cuts were made they were the first to suffer; they were the bottom of the totem pole—especially the homeless and those who had no political clout. So, she took a position with a small agency, an advocacy group for homeless families. “Frankly,” she said, “I earn less money than I would have elsewhere; but I believe I have a call.” She works and advocates for homeless families, working to get yearly grants to serve them. She has to raise two million dollars a year. She has a board of 30 volunteers who must work on that project of fund raising with her. “And that’s the rub,” she said, “those 30 people! They are very nice, but some drive me crazy! They are not always efficient and available. This last time, as we got down to the wire finishing off the paper work, I had the hardest time gathering their necessary signatures. A few left for vacation trips and hadn’t signed the proposal. I went chasing after them so we could meet the deadline and raise the crucial two million dollars we needed to serve our clients. We would collapse without the money and people would suffer. Some people could drive you crazy! The only thing that holds us together is our vision of the needs of others—those needy families. We have a project and we think alike on it. Thank God, otherwise there are days when I could strangle some of them!” Jesus sees the “troubled and abandoned” crowds and he has a concern. He must have help to address their needs, so he calls together the Twelve—his first official disciples. He shares his vision with them; he invites them to see what he sees. They accept his invitation to follow him and to see with his eyes. But that doesn’t mean they would have gotten together socially—joined a bowling club together, or had each other over for a 4th of July barbecue. We know that from the list and brief descriptions Matthew gives of the first disciples. Simon and Andrew were brothers. They probably got along, but what did their families think of their dropping their fishing nets to go off with the itinerant preacher? Not all families share our ideals. The woman I described said that her parents thought she could make more money working for a bank, or a brokerage house: after all, she has the skills necessary to lead a team and raise two million dollars. James and John were also brothers. Mark says Jesus gave them the nickname, “sons of thunder”—Boanerges. It doesn’t take much imagination to deduce how they got that name! Then there was Matthew himself, a tax-collector, a traitor to the cause of Israel because he collected taxes for the Romans. Simon was of the Zealot party. Zealots were super-nationalists, burning with zeal for the liberation of Israel. Some were terrorists against the Romans. I wonder what it would be like to invite the tax collector and the Zealot over for tea! There are moments in the gospel when the apostles’ diverging personalities flared and Jesus had to reign them in. How did he do
that? By continually keeping their vision clear; reminding them of the purpose for which he invited them and by urging them not to follow their own interests and priorities. He said that if they wanted to follow him they would have to make personal sacrifices, put aside their differences and focus instead on the needs of others. “Pick up your cross daily.” Jesus brings this unlikely group together, he and his vision are the binding elements that keep them from fragmenting. Little by little he helps them look out at the world around them—with his eyes. He knows who they are; how different they are. And even though he is not finished with them yet; even though they may feel inadequate to the task, without degrees in Philosophy and Theology, not religious experts—he sends them out. They have been learning to see with his eyes and to notice and tend to those who are sick, those considered unclean, the lepers of society; the dead in body or spirit; those possessed of other spirits, who are “not themselves,” because they are crazed and distracted. Those Jesus sends are to invite the very ones Jesus would have invited, so that they too will learn and receive what the disciples learned and received from Jesus. Many of us here in church today probably aren’t part of the same social circles. We certainly aren’t all family members. Probably there are some here we’d wish would just go to another church! We are here, not because we are naturally drawn to each other, but because we were baptized. The same water was poured over us and the same words said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We have been called out, named the way the Twelve are named for us today. And like them, we too are sent. We are like that woman who works for the homeless. As she said, “Each of us has to look around us.” In some way, where we live, work, recreate and go to school, we are called to see with Jesus’ eyes, and act accordingly. No one can tell us exactly where and when we are to respond to Jesus’ call. We will just have to look out and see and hear the way Jesus did. And through our baptism, that is what we are being prompted and empowered to do. Today we pray for each of us: “Help us see what you want of us, help us not settle on being just occasional Christians, but “full time Christians.” Give us sensitive sight, your eyes, for the
world. We pray too for those recently baptized, that our example will help them have vision and sensitivity to those who need them.”

LIVING THE GOOD NEWS

Because of the failings of contemporary religious and political leaders locally and globally, who in our times are like “sheep without a shepherd?

Do I ever feel in need of the Lord’s compassion?
Do I truly experience the compassion of Jesus in the difficult events of my life?

Who are the troubled and abandoned in my little corner of the world?
Do I know anyone who is lost, rudderless, like a sheep without a shepherd?

Has there ever been a time when I felt overwhelmed by issues I had to deal with or tasks I had to accomplish?
Did I seek help?
How did I handle it?

Do I trust God?
Do I believe that God really loves and cares for me?

How has God demonstrated “kindness” to me?
What gifts have I received “without cost”?
What gifts have I given to others thus far in my life?
What is left for me to give?

How has God called me, specifically, to be a divine representative?
With whom have I shared God’s love?
Do I ever unconsciously blame people for the demons they are wrestling with such as addictions, mental health, loneliness, poverty?

Has there ever been a time in my life when it was clear that I was called upon to help another, or others?

What excuses do we commonly give for our inaction on behalf of those who need our care?
In this gospel, Jesus tells his apostles to go out only to the lost people of Israel, not to Samaritans or Gentiles. Does this bother you?

Do I understand the meaning of "the people of God"?
Who belongs?
Why?

Jesus suggests that the way to proclaim the fact that the Kingdom is at hand is to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. What does this mean for me as a disciple in everyday terms ?

Jesus calls his disciples to “give without cost”. How does this mandate affect my attitudes about money?
What does this tell me about charitable giving and generosity to others?
Do I think of my money/possessions as mine or as God’s?

CLOSING PRAYER

Don’t forget to provide some prayer time at the beginning and at the end of the session (or both), allowing time to offer prayers for anyone you wish to pray for.

(Adapted from Sacred Space 2023, a service of the Irish Jesuits)

Jesus, in this gospel account I see you engaging with vigilant eyes and ears to the cry of the suffering in your world. To them you were the compassionate one, bringing balm to the wounded places in their lives. Lord, the cries of the poor and broken-hearted are evident in the news beamed into my living room daily. Let me not forget that you summon me today, to be your eyes, your ears, and your hands of compassion to all whom I meet.

FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Weekly Memorization
(Taken from the gospel for today's session)
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

Meditations

A meditation in the Franciscan style/action: What are we to do with the mandate given to the Apostles, and by inheritance, given to us? A good place to start is with the corporal works of Mercy:

to feed the hungry
to give drink to the thirsty
to clothe the naked,
to give shelter to travelers,
to visit the sick,
to visit the imprisoned,
to bury the dead. (This can include being present to those who are grieving)

Spend some time at the end of each day reflecting on when you did more than avoid sin; but reflecting on the positive good you created by reaching out to others.

A meditation in the Ignatian style/imagination: (from Sacred Space) I travel in imagination with Jesus as he make his journeys. I ask him what gives him so much energy to serve the sick, many of whom must have been frightening to look at and to touch. He chats with me about compassion, and I ask that my small heart may to be as compassionate as him. I sense his compassion towards me, and it comforts me.

Literary Reflection

Father Ed Ingebretzen, S.J., captures the spirt of the gospel:

Lonely Christ
Lonely Christ
I pray to you.
You are a puzzle to me
as those I love
always are.

My soul is at odds
with the words.
What mad reach of mine
touches any thread of you?
Or what of mine, arms or eyes,
ever shares with people
where they may lie—
as they always do—
in a hard place!

What of mine shall make good
their taking of a breath,
their rising, caring, feeding
their sleeping in fear—
what shall make good
their slight faith,
their enormous promises
made in iron
for a child, man, a woman—

what of mine shall be with the people
as they caress a special grief
fondled again and again
In bludgeoned love?

What do I bring
with which to clutch
the merest hint of your shadow?

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Three very powerful movies tell the stories of those Jesuits and Trappists who, in times of oppression and danger, risked their lives—gave their lives, even, to help those who needed help and care.

The Mission
Silence
Of Gods and Men

CCAS Administrative Assistant 6/3/26 CCAS Administrative Assistant 6/3/26

Corpus Christi

June 7, 2026

Christ is with us in the Eucharist; we are the body of Christ.

John 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

REFLECTIONS ON THE GOSPEL

First Impressions — Body and Blood of Christ, June 7, 2026 by Jude Siciliano, OP

Today we celebrate Corpus Christi – The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. It is the third in a series of “big feasts,” preceded by Pentecost and last week’s Trinity Sunday. Next week we return to Ordinary Time, counting, with a few exceptions, the Sundays until Advent. Today’s solemnity developed in the Church during the Middle Ages as a way to focus special attention on Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. We celebrate the Eucharist at every Mass but today invites us to praise and reflect more deeply on the gift Jesus gave at the Last Supper: his Body and Blood offered for the life of the world. The feast began in the 13th century and was promoted by a Belgian nun, St. Juliana of Liège. At that time there was growing theological reflection on the Eucharist, as well as debate about how Christ is truly present in the bread and wine consecrated at Mass. The feast helped strengthen the Church’s teaching that Christ is truly and substantially present in the Eucharist – not merely symbolically but really present under the appearances of bread and wine. In our Brooklyn parish, today’s feast was an occasion for a Eucharistic procession. The consecrated host was carried through the streets while the congregation followed behind, praying and singing hymns. We had a sense of walking together with Christ, not just within the church walls, but into our everyday lives in the world. We were expressing devotion but also making a public proclamation of faith to our Protestant and Jewish neighbors. What drew some of us kids to the procession – besides our principal, Sister Albina’s orders – were the snacks we had afterward in the church basement. The readings for Corpus Christi emphasize themes of covenant, sacrifice, nourishment, and community. We are reminded today that the Eucharist is not only something to be adored, but also a call to become the Body of Christ for others through lives of charity, reconciliation, and service. Today we celebrate that our God has come close to us and does not leave us. The Eucharist reminds us that Christ continues to feed, strengthen, forgive, and unite us as God’s people. We are called again to gratitude, reverence, and renewed commitment as we endeavor to live what we profess at the altar. In today’s Gospel (John 6:51–58), Jesus speaks words that startled his listeners and continue to challenge us today: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” He does not merely describe himself as a teacher who offers wisdom and guidance. He offers his very self as food for the life of the world. At the heart of today’s feast is this astonishing gift: Christ remains with us, nourishing us through the Eucharist. Many found Jesus’ words hard to understand. They understood only physical hunger and physical bread: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” But Jesus was speaking about a deeper hunger within the human heart – hunger for meaning, forgiveness, communion, hope, and eternal life. The Eucharist answers that deeper hunger because it is not simply a sacred symbol; it is Christ giving himself completely to us. Every time we come to the altar, we are invited into communion not only with Christ, but also with one another. The Eucharist is never a private devotion alone. We receive the Body of Christ so that we may become the Body of Christ in the world. Bread is broken at the altar, calling us to become people who are broken open in love and service for others. Today’s feast reminds us that God does not remain silent or distant. In Jesus, God chooses closeness. The Eucharist is Christ’s abiding presence among us: strengthening the weary, forgiving sinners, comforting the sorrowful, and drawing the Church together across every boundary. Today we are invited not only to adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, but also to recognize him in daily life: in the poor, the forgotten, the suffering, and those who hunger for compassion and dignity.

A Brief Look at the Deuteronomy Reading

The reading from Deuteronomy prepares the way for understanding the Eucharist by recalling God’s gift of manna in the desert. Moses reminds the people that during their years of hunger and wandering, God fed them with “food unknown” to them, teaching that “not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Placed alongside the New Testament Eucharistic readings, the faithful learn that just as God fed Israel on the journey through the wilderness, Christ now feeds God’s people on their journey through life with the “living bread come down from heaven” in the Eucharist. Deuteronomy emphasizes memory and gratitude: “Do not forget the Lord.” Corpus Christi is also a feast of remembrance – not mere recalling but entering again into Christ’s saving gift made present in the Eucharist. Israel survived because God nourished them daily; so too does the Church. Believers are spiritually sustained by Christ’s Body and Blood. Just as God fed Israel in the wilderness, so too our lives can feel like a desert marked by hunger, testing, and uncertainty. The Eucharist is food for pilgrims, strengthening believers just as manna strengthened Israel. The Deuteronomy reading helps us see the Eucharist not simply as a ritual meal, but as God’s faithful provision for God’s people on our journey toward the promised Kingdom.

Quotable

“Carrying the Blessed Sacrament through the streets means bringing Jesus into the daily life of the people.” —Pope Francis, Corpus Christi Homily, 2019

Justice Bulletin Board by Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

“We, though many, are one body.”—1 Corinthians 10:17

Today’s scripture passage made me think of a term made popular by Saint Pope John Paul II—solidarity. I have an old book of inspirational thoughts called Leaves of Gold (Coslett, 1948) that I like to open on occasion and then reflect upon the words I find written there. One of its little pieces of wisdom seems to be a good definition of the meaning of solidarity. There is an old legend of a general who found his troops disheartened. He believed it was owing to the fact that they did not realize how close they were to the other divisions of the same army on account of a dense growth of small trees and shrubbery, Orders therefore were given to “Burn the underbrush.” It was done and they saw they were not isolated as they had supposed but were part of one great army. . .So let us burn the brushwood. . .of prejudice, mistrust, and separation. We all have far more in common than we think. We are all under the same great Captain. (127). Our U.S. Catholic Bishops have expressed the same sentiment: We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a shrinking world. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/solidarity.cfm Taking our understanding of solidarity a step further, the First Letter to the Corinthians states in 12:26, “If one member of Christ’s body suffers, all suffer.”What is the solution for Catholic Christians? The USCCB document, Economic Justice for All (365) gives us the answer: We have to move from our devotion to independence, through an understanding of interdependence, to a commitment to human solidarity. That challenge must find its realization in the kind of community we build among us. Love implies concern for all - especially the poor - and a continued search for those social and economic structures that permit everyone to share in a community that is a part of a redeemed creation (Rom 8:21-23). How are you practicing solidarity? What steps are you taking to bring down the human walls of prejudice, mistrust, and separation? We are one body.

Faith Book

Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home.

From today’s Deuteronomy reading:Moses said to the people, “Remember how for forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert....”

Reflection: “Remember,” Moses instructs us. And so, we do. We recall how the bread of life has fed us day by day, often in ways we did not recognize at first. But now we do and now, at this community meal, we remember and give thanks.

So, we ask ourselves: The last time I went through a difficult period, who or what gave me strength to continue my desert journey? How can I now serve the “bread of life” to another who is finding the daily journey hard?

First Impressions — The Body and Blood of Christ, June 11, 2023 by Jude Siciliano, OP

The author of our Deuteronomy reading today recalls how God helped the enslaved Israelites in the past. God freed them, stayed with them and fed them for 40 years as they traveled the punishing desert to freedom. At first it sounds like the author is merely recording a historical event “way back then,” when God did marvelous deeds for a desperate people. But while the events recalled in Deuteronomy happened long before the author’s writings, the text is not just giving a look-back to a bygone age when God acted powerfully on the people’s behalf. There are two key expressions in the reading that tell us the writer of Deuteronomy was addressing the present, not merely reminiscing. The reading starts, “Remember how…”, to remind the people that God fed them in their wanderings. God stayed with them despite their complaints and infidelities. The suggestion to the readers: just as God did not abandon the people back then; nor will God abandon us now on whatever difficult journey we find ourselves. But, God will strengthen us as we are confronted by present trials and temptations. To make the point Deuteronomy says it again: “Do not forget.” As difficult and life-threatening as their lives became, God guided the people, helped them survive the poisonous snakes and scorpions (how dangerous was that!) and gave them water from the rock. God did the unexpected -- water from rock -- and still is surprising us along the way of our journey. It is a repetitious narrative throughout both Testaments: humans cannot “solve,” or “thrive,” under our own powers
through life’s stresses and temptations. But, we can count on God not to leave us on our own. Help may not come immediately, as the Jews learned during their difficult, 40-year desert trek, but God was with them each day along the way and promised to stay with them -- and us. Which leads us to today’s gospel, further proof of God’s tender and parental care for those who turn to God in need. John is inviting us, by suggestion, to follow Deuteronomy’s urging to “remember” and “do not forget.” Guided by our Jewish roots, followers of Jesus are invited to also remember what God is doing for us now in Jesus. Prior to today’s passage Jesus had miraculously multiplied bread for the people. His miracles stirred the crowd to see him as the Prophet. Jesus is going to feed the hungry crowds, with himself, “living bread.” Jesus is invoking in his listeners’ memory what God once did for their ancestors and continues to do for them. The desert wanderers would never have survived without God’s daily and concrete care -- bread and water in the desert, each and every day. They were not self-sufficient and neither are we. By using food to teach us, Jesus is reminding us that we are dependent on God’s constant care. The wilderness described in Deuteronomy is not only past tense, but present tense as well. Our community of believers needs nourishment in this struggling time of disaffection, betrayals, fatigue and loss. At this point we can also name our personal wilderness experiences: our loss and discouragement; our hurts and fragile faith; our questions about ourselves and God. Jesus has not stayed “on high” leaving us to confront the challenges to our faith on our own. We are not self sufficient; he is our “living bread,” who has joined us in our wilderness stumblings, misdirections and missteps. He is the surest sign of God’s love for us and in our hunger for that love we are like infants dependent on our parent God to
feed us the bread we need at this moment of our sojourn—Jesus Christ. Chapter 6 in John is a long, bread discourse in which Jesus is offering himself as real food. We pause and reflect on where we have gone looking for meaning and nourishment and have come back even hungrier than when we started. Did we think material things and bodily pleasure would satisfy us? And they didn’t. So then, where shall we find a life-giving bread that will not disappoint? We who believe in Jesus find the gift of life in his very person. John is writing in eucharistic language directing us to the flesh and blood of Christ we find in our eucharistic celebration, in the meal we share with one another around this table. It is real food and real drink and in eating and drinking it we will be equipped for the service and witness we are called to make in Jesus’ name.
Here at this Eucharist we experience eternal life. Here we meet the very broken flesh and poured out blood of Jesus that God gives us; the same generous and loving God who fed the hungry and searching Jews in the desert. We the hungry will feed on the “living bread” that is Jesus and then, like him, we will go forth to feed the hungry and be for them the living bread we have become in Christ.

One Good Book for Us All

Donald Senior: Jesus: A Gospel Portrait (New York: Paulist Press, 1992, paper)
This is a book not only for the preacher, but for the general reader interested in learning the fruits that biblical scholarship can provide to help us better know the person of Jesus and what made him someone people would follow, sacrifice and even die for. The author examines how each gospel developed and expanded the message of Jesus for their times and community’s needs. For a fuller review of this book go to our preaching webpage: https://www.preacherexchange.com/ and click on “Book Reviews.”

Justice Bulletin Board by Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director, Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral Raleigh, NC

“He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger.” —Deuteronomy 8:3

One thing that I know about Catholics---when we get together, we like to eat! And, I want to add that we like for other, less fortunate, people to eat also. So today, my column salutes the parishioners of ministries at Holy Name of Jesus that strive to make the world a better place by reducing hunger. Catholic Parish Outreach (CPO), the Triangle’s largest food pantry, has
been in existence for 46 years and currently provides one week’s worth of healthy groceries every 30 days for those who are food deprived. In 2021, CPO distributed over 1.5 million pounds of food to over 58,000 individuals with a small staff and over 600 volunteers to residents of Wake, Franklin, & Johnston Counties. The growing client base has resulted in five moves to larger facilities since 1977. The only thing sad about these statistics is that they indicate that feeding the poor has become a growth industry. For over 20 years, dinners at the Helen Wright Center for Women are served once a month by two alternating teams. Approximately, 60 homeless women are served a nourishing sit-down meal. Again, this represents an increase in need. Oak City Cares Meals Ministry serves on the 2nd & 3rd Saturdays of every month. This ministry began at Moore Square where one of our teams was even serving food when a tornado came through downtown Raleigh on April 16, 2011. Both teams prepare food from home and bring it to a city facility on South Wilmington Street to make sure the homeless will get something to eat on weekends. Then there is the Women’s Center Lunch Ministry that provides nutritious
lunches for homeless, single women throughout the year. Now, I have run out of space and I haven’t mentioned all of the
ministries, like Walking with Moms in Need, who host the CPO baby collection in August for formula and food, and Farm Workers summer meal for migrant workers, and the gifts of food to families of those who have died or parishioners who are recovering from surgery (like me, this past January!) What a grace you are, Holy Name of Jesus, to those who hunger.
Let’s also advocate to end hunger and, wink, we can always use more cooks!

Faith Book

Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home.

From today’s Gospel reading: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

Reflection: In some Christian traditions there is an “altar call,” a moment when those who have heard the Word of God are invited to come forward to “accept Jesus into your life.” Each time we come forward to receive the eucharistic bread and wine we are expressing our desire to take Jesus into our lives. We are responding to an “altar call” after having heard
the Word. We come forward to receive the One whose life can shape our lives. In receiving his body and blood, his life, we are asking that our lives reflect, as his did, our compassionate and forgiving God.

So we ask ourselves: How does my receiving the Eucharist shape how I live my life? If I never again received the Eucharist, what difference would that make?

Transubstantiation/Consubstantiation/Real Presence: A Little Theology Lesson

Reference: Enclycopedia of Cathollicism, Father Richard McBrien, General Editor

A little prequel: To understand this concept one needs the clarification of what being (ontos) really is. A little ontological definition from the University of Notre Dame:93. Substance is being existing in itself; accident is being existing in another as its subject. -- Being is known either as something which subsists in itself without needing to be sustained by another, or as something which needs a subject in which and by which it may exist. In the former case, being is called substance; in the latter, it is called accident. Thus "Peter" is a substance, because he exists in himself; "white" is an accident, because it does not exist without a substance in which it inheres. Substance is also defined negatively as that which is not in another as its subject; or descriptively as that which sustains accidents. But from the fact that a substance exists in itself, we are not to infer that it excludes the idea of a cause which produces it, but only that of a subject in which it inheres. To define substance, with Descartes, as "that which exists in such a way as to need nothing else for its existence," is to open the door to pantheism.

Transubstantiation: Teaching of the Church that the substance of bread and wine offered at the Eucharist is changed into the substance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The term emerged out of medieval attempts to resolve the conflict between seeing bread and wine as mere signs or asserting their change into the body and blood of Christ even in their physical components. In the late eleventh century theologians described the change that occurs at the Eucharist in terms of the change of the substance of bread and wine, which undergoes transformation into the Lord’s body and blood. The term “transubstantiation” itself is only found in the twelfth century, and was subsequently used at Lateran IV ( 1215). Under the influence of Aristotelian thought, theologians gradually came to distinguish between the substance of the Eucharist ( the body and blood of Jesus Christ) and the accidents of bread and wine (weight, texture, color. etc). these remain even as the substance of bread and wine changes into Christ’s body and blood. In response to opposition to transubstantiation from the Reformers of the sixteenth century, the Council of Trent in 1551 affirmed that the substance of bread and wine is changes onto that of Christ’s, adding that ”this change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly named transubstantiation. Trent’s use of the word was intended not to explain how the change takes place but to provide a term that describes what takes place. Theological attempts in the latter part of the twentieth century to define the substance (transignification and transfinalization) led Pope Paul VI to insist in Mysterium Fidei ( 1965) that the new meaning and finality of the consecrated bread and wine are grounded in the new ontological reality of the presence of the body and blood of the Lord.

Real Presence:This is a teaching of the Catholic Church that Jesus Christ is present at and in the ‘eucharist his body and blood, humanity and divinity, under the form of bread and wine. The NT attests to the faith of Catholics and other Christians that Christ is present in and tohis church in a variety of ways. As the risen Lord, he is no longer bound by the constraints of a particular time and place and thus can be present when his disciples gather together to pray, invoke his name for healing, proclaim his gospel, forgive sins, suffer for his sake, and assemble to remember his Last Supper with his disciples. Fundamental to the recognition of this presence was the church’s experience of the power of the Spirit of the Lord transforming it into the community of his body and empowering it to continue his mission. (See accounts of the Last Supper: Mt 26:26-30; Mark 14 22;26; Luke 22 14-20;John6 6:52-56 1 Corinthians 11:23-25; John, Chapter 6. There is strong evidence of the belief of the first-century church in the presence of the body and blood of Christ.) Throughout the first millennium, the faith of the Church in Christ’s real Presence went relatively undisturbed. But some controversy developed in the ninth century and developed further in the eleventh century between extreme positions that saw the bread and wine as merely signs or as totally changed, even in their physical elements. Out of these controversies came the Church’s teaching on Transubstantiation ( see above). Contemporary Church teaching and theology has placed the doctrine of the Real Presence within the context of the many ways in which Christ is present in the church. Paul VI (1965 in Mysterium Fidei). He identifies them as prayer, works of mercy, preaching, governance, the Sacraments, and finally The Eucharist, a way the surpasses all others. Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy spoke of Christ’s presence not only in the consecrated bread and wine, but also in the proclaimed word, the person of the minister, and the worshipping assembly itself. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist flows from his total self-gift on the cross and his will to make that gift effective for all people throughout history.

(Adapted from articles by S.T.D. professor of Systematic Theology, Seminary of the Immaculate Conception)

ENCOUNTER CHRIST REFLECTIONS AND MEDITATIONS

Music Meditations for the Week (All are on YouTube)

I am the bread of Life—John Michael Talbot
We Remember—Marty Haugen
Panis Angelicus—Pavarotti--the Duets with Sting
Mozart Ave Verum Corpus—Holy Thursday Catholic Community at Stanford
One bread, One Body—John Michel Talbot
O Salutaris Hostia—Cathedral singers, Richard Proulx, conducting

Opening Prayer

From The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Literal Translation and a Contemporary Reading, by David Fleming, S.J.—Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will—all that I have and all that I call my own. You have given it all to me. To you Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me (p.141)

Companions for the Journey

From Father Michael Marsh: “ Do You Have Life?

A friend of mine called last week. She asked, “How are you?” It’s a common question, one we ask and are asked every day. You and I both know the standard answers and I gave them. I said, “Fine. I’m doing well. Things are really busy right now. I’m good.” She laughed and said, “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” I suspect I’m not the only one who’s had this type of conversation. Most of us have these kind of conversations several times each day. We offer the usual answers. Sometimes we add something about our family, our health, where we have been, or what we have been doing. More often than not those conversations focus on the circumstances of life. We might be fine and busy, getting our work done, meeting deadlines and commitments, fulfilling obligations, volunteering our time, and loving and caring for our families but there is a difference, a vast difference, between doing life and having life within us. Doing life or having life; that’s the issue Jesus is concerned about. That’s the focus of today’s gospel. It is important enough that it has been the subject of the last several Sundays of gospel readings. Each week has brought us closer to the unspoken question behind today’s gospel: Is there life within you? That’s a hard question and one which many will avoid or ignore. They will turn back and walk away rather than face the question. “Fine,” “busy,” “good,” and “doing well” do not answer the question. They cover it up. The question pushes us to discover the hunger within us and the life Jesus wants to feed us. That’s what Jesus has been after these last few weeks. Three weeks ago 5000 hungry people showed up. They were fed with five loaves and two fish. They didn’t understand. They thought it was about loaves and fish. It was really about life and where life comes from. Two weeks ago Jesus challenged us to consider the bread we eat. Is it perishable bread or does it endure to eternal life? Last week Jesus declared himself to be the bread of life, the living bread they came down from heaven. Today he says, “Eat me. Drink me.” This is the only way we ever have life within us. Jesus is very clear and blunt about it. His flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. Any other diet leaves us empty and hollow, hungry and bereft of life would never end. In that moment we are in the flow, the wonder, and the unity of life, and it tastes good. “Very truly, I tell you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you.” Those are ominous words, words that haunt and challenge us to consider whether there is life within us Jesus is talking about more than just physical or biological life. He’s talking about that life that is beyond words, indescribable, and yet we know it when we taste it. We get a taste of it when we love so deeply and profoundly that everything about us dies, passes away, and somehow we are more fully alive than ever before. Sometimes everything seems to fit together perfectly and all is right with the world; not because we got our way but because we knew our self to be a part of something larger, more beautiful, and more holy than anything we could have done. We were tasting life. There are moments when time stands still and we wish the moment Most of us spend a fair amount of time, energy, and prayer trying to create and possess the life we want. In spite of our best efforts sometimes we live less than fully alive. Sometimes the outside and inside of who we are don’t match up. We ask ourselves, “What am I doing with my life?” We wonder if this is all there will ever be. Is this as good as it gets? We lament at what has become of us and our life. Nothing seems to satisfy. We despair at what is and what we think will be. Despite family and friends we find no place in which we really belong. Those questions and feelings are not so much a judgement on us, but a diagnosis of us. They are symptoms that there is no life in us. We are dying from the inside out. There is, however, treatment for our condition and food for our hunger. Life in Christ, not death in the wilderness, is our destiny. The flesh and blood of Christ are the medicine that saves; what St. Ignatius called “the medicine of immortality.” One dose, however, is not enough. We need a steady diet of this sacred medicine, this holy food. Jesus is our medicine and our health. He is our life and the means to the life for which we most deeply hunger. We don’t work for the life we want. We eat the life we want. Wherever human hunger and the flesh and blood of Christ meet, there is life. In the eating and drinking of Christ’s flesh and blood he lives in us and we live in him. We consume his life that he might consume and change ours. We eat and digest his life, his love, his mercy, his forgiveness, his way of being and seeing, his compassion, his presence, and his relationship with the Father. We eat and drink our way to life. So leave nothing behind. Push nothing to the side. Clean your plate! “Whoever eats me will live because of me,” Jesus said.

Living the Good News

Reflection Questions:

Do I see Jesus as the face of God actually near at hand—“God with us”?
What does it mean to live in Jesus?

How easy is it to get snarled up in the theology of the Real Presence on this occasion?
How can this be an intellectual exercise and a distraction?

Some early believers were horrified at this assertion of Jesus. How do Jesus’ statements about eating his body and drinking his blood challenge me?

Do I spend more time trying to understand this mystery than actually experiencing this mystery?
What message do I take from this gospel that I can use in my everyday life, my everyday relationship with God?

What is the difference for me between doing life and having life?
What do I want from life?
Do I think it is what Jesus wants for me?

This passage follows an earlier and very famous one on the feeding of the five thousand.
How does the motif of God feeding his people enrich my appreciation of Eucharist?

What is the reason for keeping people from this table of life we call Eucharist?
Whose table is it?
Who gets to decide who is welcome at the table and who is not?

When I receive communion, do I think of union with Jesus or union with those around me? Both?

How do I respond to the living presence of Jesus within me?
In what ways do I make the Eucharist truly meaningful for those in my life?

When I receive the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, do I reflect on my identity as a member of the body of Christ?
What is my response to this gift of Jesus?

Who are members of the body of Christ?
What are our obligations to others in the body of Christ?

Closing Prayer

Don’t forget to provide some prayer time at the beginning and at the end of the session (or both), allowing time to offer prayers for anyone you wish to pray for.

Lord, you have given me everything, my life, my loved ones, my faith; you have given me your very self. Help me to do the same for all whom I meet. Help me to be the Body and Blood of Christ for others.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today's session: I have life because of the Father; so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

For the Week Ahead

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions: (Adapted from “Sacred Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits) In the Eucharist, we deepen our relationship with Jesus, not mechanically, but by becoming more and more like him over the years. We meet God in this mysterious and dramatic way: God gives himself to us, and we try to shape our lives into a loving gift for God. In heaven there will be no Eucharist as we know it, because our bonding with God will then be complete.

So I ask myself:

How am I fostering my relationship with Jesus?
Have I become more like him? What do I need to let go of or what do I need to do to be more like Jesus?
Do I consider my life a loving gift for God? What can I change about my life that makes the gift of this life of mine more truly loving?

A Medidation in the Augustinian Style/Memory: (From Father Paul O”Reilly, S.J.) "I am the living bread that has come down from heaven." I think I know how John the Baptist must have felt when everywhere he went people kept asking him "Are you Elijah – come back from the dead?". Everywhere I went in Guyana, people always used to ask me: "Are you related to Bryan O'Reilly?" To which I had to respond: "only as brothers in the Lord". It seemed to disappoint them hugely. Even so, it was a great joy to be able to report to Bryan the great love and affection that people in Guyana still felt for him after his many years of service to them as a Jesuit missionary priest. Fame may be a passing bubble, but love is not. After he retired from the Missions (at the age of 82) he went to work in our parish of "Corpus Christi", Bournemouth in England. For the patronal feast of his parish he wrote a short poem for his parish newsletter, expressing something of what it means to him to have served the Eucharist all his life. Believing it worthy of a wider audience, his superior sent it out to our Province Newsletter. And, believing it worthy of a still wider audience I am sharing it with you here.

{For the best effect, take it somewhere quiet on your own and say it slowly and aloud.}

Corpus Christi
All absolutely empty.
Feelings have gone.
I gaze upon the crucifix.
And strive to ponder on the Eucharist.
Thoughts move along to the view
my window of the church of Corpus Christi.
The garden, the bushes and the trees
A strange vision will appear at times
As I hear the chimes, and these
Remind me of so many things.
Our Lady sings in the breeze
That blows across the garden and the trees
And I listen to a voice that speaks most clearly
"This is my Body – This is the cup of my Blood."
A flood of memories pour into my mind.
The very fabric of my being.
And now I am seeing bright clear
The vision that is mine here – at Corpus Christi.
No one will ever understand – why should they?
Contrition – Compassion – Wish-filled yearning – explains it all.
I hear the call "Come Lord Jesus – come".

A meditation in the Ignatian style/Imagination: Read Matthew 14:13-21 (The first story of the feeding of the four thousand). Imagine the scene in which the people follow Jesus to a "lonely place" and then are stranded without food. Try to place yourself in the story as one of the disciples. At which point do you become concerned enough about all these people that you speak to Jesus? What concerns you? That he crowd will become restless and angry, that it might turn on Jesus and as disciples you might get caught in the middle? Are you afraid that some will fall ill? Are you afraid that some will take food from others? How do you respond when Jesus tells you to handle the problem? What does this story reveal about my attitudes of scarcity vs. abundance? What Eucharistic overtones do you read into this story? What does this say to you about Eucharist and the world? What does this story say to you about bread (real bread) for the world and our obligation to provide it?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action: (This excerpt is from Justice Notes for Corpus Christi from the Southern Dominican Province in 2007 and is still relevant today) "Whoever eats this bread will live forever." (John 6:51) Each of today's readings speaks of being fed and they lead us to think about the growing crisis of world hunger. "Rising food prices are fueling the global hunger crisis. It is taking an immense toll on the world's poorest people, who typically spend up to 80 percent of their income on food. As many as 100 million more poor people could be made worse off by this burgeoning hunger crisis. After 30 years of progress against hunger and poverty, that is a setback that the United States and the rest of the world cannot afford to let happen." http://www.bread.org/learn/rising-food-prices.html "The prayer which we repeat at every Mass: "Give us this day our daily bread," obliges us to do everything possible, in cooperation with international, state and private institutions to end or at least reduce the scandal of hunger and malnutrition afflicting so many millions of people in our world, especially in developing countries." (Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI, 2007) Did you know:

854 million people across the world are hungry, up from 852 million a year ago
Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes—one child every five seconds.
35.1 million people in the US—including 12.4 million children—live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors reports that in 2006 requests for emergency food assistance increased an average of 7 percent. The study also found that 48 percent of those requesting emergency food assistance were members of families with children and that 37 percent of adults requesting such assistance were employed.

What can you do? Pick a concrete action. Do it.

Poetic Reflections

Enjoy this lovely act of faith so movingly expressed by Mary Oliver.

The Vast Ocean Begins Just Outside Our Church: The Eucharist
Something has happened
to the bread
and the wine.

They have been blessed.
What now?
The body leans forward

to receive the gift
from the priest’s hand,
then the chalice.

They are something else now
from what they were
before this began.

I want
to see Jesus
maybe in the clouds

or on the shore,
just walking,
beautiful man

and clearly
someone else
besides.

On the hard days
I ask myself
if I ever will.

Also there are times
my body whispers to me
that I have.

This poem is just as appropriate for Corpus Christi as it is for Pentecost and for Holy Thursday. Enjoy.

Gather the People
What return can we make
for all the Lord has done in our lives?
We bring bread, wine, our clay dishes
and our clay feet
to this altar
and we pray that we may here
make a beginning—
that somehow in our days
we can begin to see the promises
the Lord has made us.

The promises do not always
glow with obvious light, or
overwhelm us by their obvious truth.
No matter what anyone says,
it is difficult to understand an invisible God
and belief is not always
the easy way out.

So we gather the people
and we tell the story again
and we break the bread
and in the memory of the one
who saves us,
we eat and drink
and we pray and we believe.

We gather, we pray, we eat.
These things are for human beings.
God has no need of them.
Yet he himself gathered the people,
prayed, broke bread
and gave it to his friends.

And so the invisible God became
visible
and lives with us.

—by Ed Ingebretzen, Psalms of the Still Country

CCAS Administrative Assistant 5/27/26 CCAS Administrative Assistant 5/27/26

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

May 31, 2026

Jesus is God’s love made visible.

John 3:16-18

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

REFLECTIONS ON THE GOSPEL

From Thomas Merton, The Hidden Ground of Love, pp157-158

(nb:The brackets [ ] are editorial adjustments for inclusive language)

The contemplative life is then the search for peace no I an abstract exclusion of all outside reality, not in a barren negative closing of the senses upon the world, but in the openness of love. It begins with the acceptance of my own self in my poverty and my nearness to despair in order to recognize that where God is there can be no despair, and God is in me, even if I despair. That nothing can change God’s love for me, since my very existence is the sign that God loves me and the presence of his love creates and sustains me. Nor is there any need to understand how this can be or to explain it or to solve the problems it seems to raise. For there is in our hearts and in the very ground of our being a natural certainty which co-exists with our very existence: a certainty that so insofar as we exist, we are penetrated through and through with the sense and reality of God even though we may be utterly unable to believe or experience this in philosophic or even religious terms. O my [brother/sister], the contemplative is the person not who has fiery visions of the cherubim carrying God on their imagined chariot, by simply [one] who risks one’s mind in the desert beyond language and beyond ideas where God is encountered in the nakedness of pure trust, that is to say the surrender of our poverty and incompleteness in no longer to clench our minds in a cramp upon themselves as if thinking made us exist. The message of hope the contemplative offers you then, [sister/brother], is not that you need to find your way through the jungle of language and problems that today surround God: but that whether you understand or not, God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, calls you, saves you and offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing you have found in books or heard in sermons. The contemplative has nothing to tell you except to reassure you and say that if you dare to penetrate your own silence and risk the sharing of that solitude with the lonely other who seeks God though you, then you will truly recover the light and the capacity to understand what is beyond words and beyond explanations because it is too close to be explained; it is the ultimate union in the depths of your own heart, of God’s spirit and your own secret inmost self, so that you and He are all truth in One Spirit. I love you, In Christ.

Commentary on Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18

We have now come to the end of the many weeks which were taken up with the celebration of and reflection on the “Paschal Mystery.” It began with Ash Wednesday, went through Lent, the celebration of Holy Week and Easter, the weeks following Easter and culminating in Pentecost and the handing on of Jesus’ mission to his Church. We return now for the rest of the liturgical year – the ‘Ordinary’ Sundays of the Year – and they will bring us right up to Advent and the beginning of another liturgical cycle. But, traditionally this transition is commemorated each year by our celebration of the Feast of the Holy Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most fundamental in our Christian faith, but it is also a doctrine which many of us have difficulty coming to terms with. We often refer to it as a “mystery” and therefore something which can be affirmed, but is not to be understood and need not be explained. “Just believe it,” is something people may be told. In the New Testament, the word “mystery” (Greek, mysterion) refers primarily to some truth which God has made known to us and which we otherwise would not have discovered. The Trinity, that in God there are three Persons, really is a mystery in this sense. It is also, of course, difficult for us to understand how one being can be three persons just as it is difficult for us to understand how Jesus can be both God and human (the mystery of the Incarnation).

Three possible reactions
We can react to this situation in three ways:
1. by saying it is all rubbish anyway;
2. by not thinking about these things at all;
3. by trying to reduce them to categories which are within our human comprehension.

None of these approaches is very helpful. Rather, we should try to understand as much as we can, and say as much as we can while acknowledging that we can only go a certain distance. However, We can go far enough to satisfy our hunger for truth and to have some understanding of our God. One thing we can say right at the beginning. We are not dealing with outright contradictions or trying to believe the impossible. We are not being asked to believe that 3=1. We are asked to believe that in the one being we call God, there are three Persons, who are, in the words of today’s Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer, …three Persons equal in majesty, undivided in splendour, yet one Lord, one God, ever to be adored. Rather than getting ourselves tied up in theological knots, we would do far better by reading prayerfully over the beautiful Scripture readings of today’s Mass. Here there are no abstruse theological explanations or speculations. Rather the emphasis is not on what, or how, or why, but in very practical language, on the tangible way the Persons in the Trinity relate to us.

A God who is very close
The message coming loud and clear through these readings is that our God is not far away, that he is not “up there somewhere”, a kind of scary, long-bearded policeman in the sky. The message coming through is that our God is close by and he cares. In the First Reading (from Exodus) Moses is told that God is the: Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness Oh, we really need to hear that and to become utterly convinced of it, especially when we find times rough and painful. In Greek drama of classical times, one could recognize the character being played by the mask that he/she wore. As well, in Chinese opera, there is something similar where the faces of the players are elaborately painted so that one can know which role is being played – a king, a general, a concubine, a soldier, etc. The mask was called a prosopon. In Latin this word was translated as persona. Even today in programs of plays we may still see the actors listed under the heading Dramatis Personae, the characters or the roles in the drama. So, in a certain sense, there are three personae or roles in our one God. With the difference that in a play, the role is assumed for the duration of the drama, while in God, the roles are permanently identified with God himself. It might be helpful to us to look at these three roles of God as they are presented to us in Scripture.

God the Father*
While traditionally Scripture speaks of God as Father, we know that in God there can be no gender differences. We call God Father in the sense of the Parent who gives life and nurture. God as Father is the originator, the source, the conserver of all life, of all that exists. Says the Acts, In him, we live and move and have our being. God as Father is no puppet operator in the clouds, but an indwelling Lord. God is IN all his creation but is not identified with it. The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said that “the world is charged with the grandeur of God”. Through the Father, our God is to be sought and found in all things, which he has created and keeps in being. From the simplest minerals which are alive with atomic energy, to the most gifted and creative human being, to the outermost galaxy. And so we have the lovely prayer of Moses in today’s First Reading; Let my Lord come with us.

God the Son*
If we can speak of God as Father/Mother, then the “only begotten” must equally be spoken of as Son/Daughter. The Only Begotten as such, can be neither male nor female even though incarnation de facto took place in a male. However, the Creed which we will soon recite says of the Son/Daughter that homo factus est, which should literally be translated “was made human” or “became human”. The word homo- in Latin, like anthropos in Greek, does not specify gender; both men and women are homo. We know the Son, of course, best through Jesus, born of Mary in Bethlehem. In him, there was the mysterious combination of the divine and the human in one Person. Jesus was totally God and totally human – not half and half. This is a truth as far beyond our comprehension as the Trinity itself. Jesus is the revelation, the unveiling in human form of our God. The message of this revelation is purely and simply to let us know that God, that the Father, loves us with an overwhelming love. John tells us in today’s Gospel passage: God [Father] loves the world so much that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God [Father] sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. God is not concealed behind the humanity of Jesus, but is seen precisely in that humanity. When is Jesus most clearly revealing of the Father? In his miracles? Certainly. But surely Jesus is most clearly revealing the heart of the Father when he is at his most human. We see the Father God most clearly in Jesus in his compassion for the weak, the needy, the sinner; in forgiving the sinner and his enemies; in healing the physically and mentally sick; in integrating the social outcast back into the community; in his unconditional acceptance of all irrespective of class, religion, or gender. Yes, our Father God really loves the world and that has been shown to us by the Only Begotten in Jesus.

God the Spirit
Finally, we see God as indwelling Spirit. The Spirit is described first as the subsisting Love that is generated between the Father and the Son. Again, of course, we cannot speak of either “he” or “she,” still less of this Love as “it.” The meaning of the Spirit in practice means that God is indwelling in all creation and revealing himself through it. Wherever there is Truth or Love or Beauty, there is God. Every act of truth and integrity, every act of love and compassion, every act of human empathy, every act of solidarity, forgiveness, acceptance, justice in people is the Spirit of God working in and through us. When such actions appear in us, they are a sign that we are open to the Spirit and that he is working in us and through us. Let us pray today with Paul in the Second Reading: Try to grow perfect; help one another. Be united; live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you…And Paul concludes with the lovely greeting we often use at the beginning of the Eucharist: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,the love of God [Father] and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” And finally, One last afterword. The two great mysteries of our faith are the Trinity and the Incarnation. They are combined in a marvellous simplicity in the Sign of the Cross with its accompanying words. Let us try to say this simple prayer with ever greater meaning and awareness and form the cross on our bodies with care and dignity. St. Ignatius of Loyola had such a love of the Trinity (as the result of some mystical experiences) that every time he began celebrating the Eucharist with the Sign of the Cross he broke down in tears and could hardly go on. Let us, too, rediscover the Sign of the Cross as a means of getting in touch with the God who loves us so much that he sent his Son and fills us with his Spirit.

*There is no sexual differentiation in God, so we can speak with equal validity of the First Person as Father/Mother and of the Second as Son/Daughter. The Spirit, too, is both male and female. This is the language of the Scripture texts reflecting the times in which they were written. It is not the words that are important, but their meaning.

First Impressions by Jude Siciliano, OP

First some background. Today is the feast of “The Most Holy Trinity.” At first glance it may seem like an unusual celebration. We are used to the major feasts of the year celebrating particular events in the life of Christ: e.g. the Nativity, Easter, the Ascension. But today’s feast isn’t originally based on one event in the life of Jesus. Instead, it arose from the Church’s desire to honor the mystery of God revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. From the earliest centuries Christians were already praying and baptizing in the name of the Trinity, as Jesus taught in Matthew 28:19. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” The early creeds of the Church, especially the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, with deeply Trinitarian. Christians believe in one God, yet expressed God as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. In the fourth century major theological controversies forced the Church to clarify its teaching on the Trinity, addressing such questions as the divinity of Christ, or the Holy Spirit. The great teachers of the time, such as, Athanasius, Basil, Augustine, etc. defended the doctrine: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal and eternal: three persons in one God. In 325 the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople (381) helped to define the teaching of the Trinity more clearly. At our liturgical celebrations today, we will recite the Nicene Creed. We celebrate today’s feast on the Sunday after Pentecost. This is meaningful: after celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we pause to contemplate the fullness of God’s inner life revealed to us through salvation history. But remember: the feast of the holy Trinity is not simply doctrine to be explained, but a mystery to live out in our daily lives. God is an eternal communion of love, and we are invited into that communion through Christ in the Holy Spirit. Before we move to the Gospel’s teaching let’s look at traces of the Trinity in the Hebrew Scriptures. In our reading from Exodus, Moses encounters God on Mount Sinai, after the tragedy of the golden calf. The people had broken their covenant, yet God doesn’t come forth punishing them but extending mercy. God passes before Moses and proclaims God’s name and character: “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” This passage shows us the Trinity is not simply a doctrine about God’s inner life; it is a revelation of who God is towards us. The Trinity teaches that God is a communion of love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Exodus is already giving us hints of that divine love. Today we are reminded that God is personal, compassionate, forgiving and faithful. The God of Moses meets is not distant, vengeful or cold, but One who desires covenant and closeness to the chosen people, despite their resistance. We Christians will come to see that this mercy is fully revealed in the Father who sends the Son and in the Holy Spirit who remains with the Church. Note Moses’ response. He bows down in worship and asks God to remain with the people. “If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff necked yet pardon our wickedness and sins and receive us as your own.” The Trinity is not simply a teaching to be explained; it is a mystery into which we are invited. We are drawn into the life of our God through forgiveness, covenant and communion. So, our Exodus reading invites us to enter and celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity by revealing the deepest and most intimate truth about God: God’s nature is merciful love, faithful presence and saving communion with humanity. The gospel today presents again the central message of the Bible: God loves the world. Instead of coming down on us humans for our sins God loves us, frees us from our guilt and offers us eternal life. The opening verse (3:16) is a summary of the whole gospel message, “God so loved the world….” In a few words we come face-to-face with the mystery of who our God is and how God has acted towards us. If you can tell a tree by its fruit, then you can learn about God by what God has done for us: loved us and demonstrated that love by the concrete sign of Jesus’ life. Love is what moves God to get involved with us. And more, Jesus tells us, God wants to give us eternal life now. Today’s gospel passage is from a conversation Jesus is having with Nicodemus. Jesus tells him that we can put faith in Jesus and what he reveals about God’s love for us – or we can self-judge ourselves by rejecting Jesus. If we do put faith in Jesus we have eternal life. We usually think of “eternal life” as something that will begin for us at the moment of death and go on and on without end. But that’s not what eternal life is in John. Jesus says that believers can “have eternal life.” He is speaking in the present tense and is offering the gift of eternal life to us – beginning right now! What might this gift of “eternal life” look like in our lives? First of all, it is union in the very life of God. We have that intimacy with God through our union with Christ and the Holy Spirit in Baptism. This union frees us from fear of judgment. In Jesus we can see the true nature of our God – who already loves us. Now we are living in a new age and have passed from death to life. For John, Jesus is our saving gift in this present moment and through the Spirit, believers can recognize God’s gifts already present to us. Not on our own human efforts, but through our faith, we can have optimism, peace and gratitude to God. We can also accept the challenge faith puts before us – to be instruments of the peace and reconciliation to others that Jesus has already given us. No image can capture the holiness and greatness of our God. What words can describe God? God is more present to us than we are to ourselves. God is at the very core of our being; the source of all we are and can do. The contradiction we must admit today on this feast of the Trinity is this: the closer we get to God, the more alien we feel from our world and its ways. The closer and more comfortable we feel with our world, the more distinctively alien we are from the God the Scriptures reveal to us.

Quotable
When it is asked three what, then the great poverty from which our language suffers becomes apparent. But the formula three persons was coined not in order to give a complete explanation by means of it, but in order that we might not be obliged to remain silent. —Gregory of Nazianzus, in “Christology of the Later Fathers,” by Ed Hardy

Justice Bulletin Board by Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

“We were all given to drink of one spirit”—1 Corinthians 12: 13

Do you find it hard to believe sometimes that we have one spirit in common? On the surface we seem so different. We come with different life experiences and have such a variety of interests and causes that we feel take priority... the spirit seems to get lost in the weaving of lives and attitudes. Yet, if we keep that one spirit as our guide, our lives will be formed in a transformed way. Pentecost is not just another day. If we had a picture of a person of spirit, what would we notice about them? Looking beyond the superficial, would we discover a person touched by the dove of peace, a person on fire with passion and love for others, a person who is just and life-giving like water? Looking further at that person, would we discover the creative wind of service in their actions? Would we not notice them at all? A person of spirit can appear as ordinary as anyone else and at the same time, full of revealing light. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit empowers the believer to spark the flame of this inner person who is so hidden. Announcing we are loved and anointed in an incomparable peace, we are to spread this love and peace to others, including, and especially, those who are not like us. We begin to see as God sees and act as God acts. God’s priorities for a just world become our priorities. The prophet Joel states that God will one day pour out divine spirit “upon all mankind” (Joel 3:1). Joel envisioned a world in which all people would be enlivened and transformed by the divine life breathing within them. This is a world-altering change in your own thinking and being. Pentecost will have arrived. Imagine, just imagine, a people of spirit creating a world of unity amid diversity; a just world filled with love and peace for all. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who, by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy your consolations. Through Christ our Lord, let us drink of the one spirit, the spirit that connects us all. Amen.

Faith Book

Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home.

From today’s first reading: (Exodus 34: 4b-6, 8-9) Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets. Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out, “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.

Reflection: Who is this God who is so revelatory to Moses? Who is this God who is about to take the Israelites, a broken and recalcitrant people and make them new again? This is the God who chooses to be with us, despite our own unworthiness. This is the God who comes in a cloud; who may not be seen but certainly is experienced. And what do Moses and the people experience of this God? How shall they “name” God? Judging from today’s story God is patient and compassionate; takes the initiative to reach out to us; is not dissuaded by our sins; is faithful to us, even when we have built our own idols to worship; can take a broken people and make them whole again.

So, we ask ourselves:

From my present experience: What name would I give God?
Has the reality of God changed for me in recent years?
What events in my life influenced that change?

ENCOUNTER CHRIST REFLECTIONS & MEDITATIONS

PREPARATION FOR THE SESSION
Adapted from Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2025

Presence of God: Jesus, As I come to you today, fill my heart, my whole being, with the wonder of your sacred presence. Help me to become more aware of your presence in my life, and more receptive to that presence. I desire to love you as you love me. May nothing ever separate me from you. (1-2 minutes of silence)

Freedom: Jesus, Grant me the grace to have freedom of spirit. Keep me from being bound by desires and actions that are not good for me or others. Cleanse my heart and soul that I may live joyously in your love. (1-2 minutes of silence)

Consciousness: Where am I with God? With others in my life? What am I grateful for? Is there something I am sorry for, words or actions that have hurt others, and which I now regret? I take a moment to ask forgiveness of God and of those whom I have hurt. God, I give you thanks for your constant love and care for me. Keep me always aware of your presence in my life. (2-3 minutes of silence)

OPENING PRAYER
From St Ignatius of Loyola:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.

COMPANIONS FOR THE JOURNEY

Barbara Brown Taylor, a scripture scholar and preacher, quotes Robert Farrar Capon, who says that when we humans try to describe God it’s like a bunch of oysters trying to describe a ballerina.

From “First Impressions”, 2023, a service of the Southern Dominican Province: How can God be one and three? How can God be three and one? How can Jesus operate on his own? Who is the Holy Spirit; is it the spirit of God? The spirit of Jesus? How can one come to us, leave and then send another, as Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit after he left? Don’t be discouraged by these questions. Since the beginning the greatest saints and scholars have tried to answer questions like these, and have come up short. We are going to be disappointed if we think the Scripture readings chosen for this feast will help us “explain” the Trinity. The feast doesn’t pose a problem to be solved; but a mystery to be celebrated -- the mystery of God’s wonderful ways of interacting with us. Those ways are more numerous than even the Bible can describe, or enumerate. But that hasn’t kept the scriptural authors from trying! We may not be able to explain the Trinity today, but we get help from the Scriptures so we can be more aware who our God is, how God relates to us and how we are to respond in our daily lives. We earthly creatures build barricades of one kind or another. We put “those people” on one side and ourselves and those like us, on the other. We keep “them” over there and, as evidenced by the local and international news today, we will distance ourselves from them, hate and even kill them. After all, the logic concludes, they deserve to be punished because they are so bad. If it were up to me and I had God’s power, I would wreak vengeance on all the evildoers in the world. “Enough is enough!” I would come down hard with my divine hammer of justice. Martin Luther had a similar instinct. He said if he were God and knew what God knows about the world, he would just put an end to it all and submit it to hellfire. But he wasn’t God, nor am I. On this feast of the Trinity, we need to relearn who God is and how God operates. We do that by turning a believing ear to the Word of God. Contrary to our way of thinking God acts differently from us. The Word teaches us that we are made in the image and likeness of God and so, we are called to imitate that God whom the Bible reveals to us. Earlier in the Exodus account Moses had asked God, “Show me your glory, I pray” (33:18). God responded, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim before you the name, ‘the Lord’….But you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live” (3:19-20). God tucks Moses into the cleft of the rock and covers him until God passes by. Moses is allowed to only see God’s back (32:23). Then God speaks and it is necessary for us to hear the description of who our God is, “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” Thus, along with Moses, we hear an oft-repeated biblical description of God. Is it not also how our gospel reading describes God for us today, “God so loved the world….?” God’s love has been constant and faithful, proven by the gift of the Son for us. This is a good time to ask how does our own image of God and our actions, measure up to the revelation of God the Scriptures present to us today and throughout both the Hebrew texts and the New Testament? In 2 Corinthians Paul encourages the community, “to mend your ways.” He instructs them to live together in love and peace. His concern is for the unity of the church community. He knows well the dissension among those Corinthians, the barricades between rich and poor, old timers and newcomers. On their own they could never reflect the peace and unity he wants for the community of believers. But grace can make it possible and so he prays, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Our church today has the same human tensions Paul observed among the Christians in Corinth. So, as we hear his prayer, we pray it for ourselves. Who is this God Paul preachers and calls upon to bless the divided Corinthians? Paul clearly believes that our triune God loves us, freely graces us in Jesus and, through the Holy Spirit, is the source of our communion with each other. The gospel today presents again the central message of the Bible: God loves the world. Instead of coming down on us humans for our sins, God loves us, frees us from our guilt and offers us eternal life. The opening verse (3:16) is a summary of the whole gospel message, “God so loved the world….” In a few words we come face-to-face with the mystery of who our God is and how God has acted towards us. If you can tell a tree by its fruit, then you can learn about God by what God has done for us: loved us and demonstrated that love by the concrete sign of Jesus’ life. Love is what moves God to get involved with us. And more, Jesus tells us, God wants to give us eternal life now. Today’s gospel passage is from a conversation Jesus is having with Nicodemus. Jesus tells him that we can put faith in Jesus and what he reveals about God’s love for us—or we can self-judge ourselves by rejecting Jesus. If we do put faith in Jesus we have eternal life. We usually think of “eternal life” as something that will begin for us at the moment of death and go on and on without end. But that’s not what eternal life is in John. Jesus says that believers can “have eternal life.” He is speaking in the present tense and is offering the gift of eternal life to us—beginning right now! What might this gift of “eternal life” look like in our lives? First of all, it is union in the very life of God. We have that intimacy with God through our union with Christ and the Holy Spirit in Baptism. This union frees us from fear of judgment. In Jesus we can see the true nature of our God—who already loves us. Now we are living in a new age and have passed from death to life. For John, Jesus is our saving gift in this present moment and through the Spirit, believers can recognize God’s gifts already present to us. Not on our own human efforts, but through our faith, we can have optimism, peace and gratitude to God. We can also accept the challenge faith puts before us—to be instruments of the peace and reconciliation to others that Jesus has already given us. Jesus did not wish to see anyone condemned. Today’s reading shows that once we acknowledge Jesus as the one who will determine our life’s orientation, then we judge ourselves by his life and teachings. In his own life he shows what faithfulness to God entails. If we reject him we bring on our own self-condemnation (“Whoever does not believe has already been condemned.”) Sent by God, Jesus unites time and eternity. In him our future is made present. No image can capture the holiness and greatness of our God. What words can describe God? God is more present to us than we are to ourselves. God is at the very core of our being; the source of all we are and can do. The contradiction we must admit today on this feast of the Trinity is this: the closer we get to God, the more alien we feel from our world and its ways. The closer and more comfortable we feel with our world, the more distinctively alien we are from the God the Scriptures reveal to us. —by Jude Siciliano, OP

LIVING THE GOOD NEWS
What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion? Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions which follow.

Reflection Questions:
Do I treat the Trinity as an unsolvable theological puzzle or as a model for personal relationships?

When I pray, to which person of the Blessed Trinity do I most often do so?
Why?

From Daniel J Harrington, S.J.:
Who is God for you?
How do you explain this to someone?
How does your experience of God correlate with the approach found in the Bible?
Do you often invite God to “come along in your company?”
Why or why not?

Through Him and with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours Almighty Father. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are each unique. Can there be unity in diversity?
Can I praise the uniqueness of those in my life, or do I want them to think, believe and act as I do?
Can I, upon reflection, share in the rhythm of God’s own life?
How?

Adapted from Sacred Space: a service of the Irish Jesuits:
It has been said that if we lost all of the four gospels except John 3:16, that would be enough for us. Pope Francis put it this way: “When everything is Said and done, we are infinitely loved”.
Do I believe this in my heart?

John’s entire gospel is “God is Love”. What does this passage say to you about God’s love for you?

What is the most common Christian interpretation of Jesus’ death on the cross?
Do you think of The Cross as punishment/reparation or as love/self-donation?

Do you believe that “whoever does not believe has been condemned?”
How do you interpret this sentence?

St Augustine said: “Are you looking for something to give God? Give him yourself.” So to love is to give oneself.
To whom or what do I give myself?
Is there something I am withholding?

What do I give God (obedience, prayer, Mass attendance, good works, personal sacrifice)?

Father William Bausch wrote: We are at our best, most human, most moral, most divine, when we are in loving relationships. I think of some of my relationships: Do I give love or merely receive it?
Do I act lovingly towards even the most annoying people in my lie?
Do I believe my loving relationships are a mirror of the loving relationship that is the Trinity?

CLOSING PRAYER
Don’t forget to provide some prayer time at the beginning and at the end of the session (or both), allowing time to offer prayers for anyone you wish to pray for. (The first sentence is from Thomas Merton.)

How far I have to go to find you in whom I have already arrived! God, You are puzzle to me in so many ways. Keep me from distracting myself with endless theological questions, and keep me from giving up on knowing you better. For you know me, with all my faults, and love me utterly. That is all I need to know.

FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Weekly Memorization:
Taken from the gospel for today’s session: God so loved the world that He gave His ony son.

Meditations:
A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking questions: How do you explain the sentence: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life?” One theory, resurrected every now and then is called Divine Retribution, which posits that God’s anger at sinful humanity could only be appeased by God becoming human and dying to assuage that anger. Otherwise, God, in his righteous sense of true justice, would keep all of us from union with himself because we, as heirs of Adam and Eve and sinful people ourselves, do not deserve salvation. Jesus purchased our salvation with His life. Another possibility is that God “gave his only son” to show us how to live. If so, His death was a fully expected outcome of being human; in addition, his kind of death was not wholly unexpected, given what he was preaching. The death of an innocent Son of God proclaims solidarity with all those in the world who have suffered abuse, who have been wrongly accused, who have died violently in their innocence. Which theory do you prefer?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking questions: Read the following hymn from Philippians 2:5-8. “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” Do I see in Jesus a reflection of my own humanity? Do I seek to emulate Jesus in not desiring rank and power for myself? Am I, like Jesus, motivated by love to act as I do? What am I willing to endure for the sake of someone in my life whom I love? What am I willing to endure for the sake of God whom I love?

A Meditation in the Franciscan style/Action: The following was taken from Praying with Julian of Norwich, by Gloria Durka. “I saw and understood that the high might of the Trinity is our Father, and the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our mother, and the great love of the Trinity is our Lord; all these things we have in nature and in our substantial creation. Thus in our Father, God almighty, we have our being, and in our Mother of mercy we have our reforming and restoring, in whom our parts are united and all made perfect man, and through the rewards of Grace of the Holy Spirit we are fulfilled. (excerpted from Julian of Norwich, Showings pp. 293, 295) Reflect for a time on the image of God as our Mother with wisdom and mercy, reforming and restoring us. Does this image offer you a new way of experiencing God’s love? How have you shared your wisdom and mercy lately? Bring to mind some of the ways in which you have been a wise counselor and merciful mother to people in the last week or so. Think about some ways in which you have increased in your own love of God. Compare your love for God with what it was when you were a child. Thank God now for this increasing in your life. Pray for awareness of how you can help someone else think of God’s love as being like a mother’s love—someone in your family, a friend who is distressed, or someone else who is in need of love and loving.

A Meditation on the Franciscan Style/ Action: Read 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13. Imagine God saying these things to you. “Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace…” How do you see yourself concretely living out these exhortations? Where do you need some extra help from the Spirit? Pick one circumstance in your life which needs to change, or one relationship which could use improvement and talk to God about ways in which you need to change. Then do it.

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship: Think of someone you love. How often does she come to mind? Do you have a pet name for him, or do you have several? Does thinking about her make you smile? What do you do that you know makes him happy? How do you picture God (Do you pick one person of the Blessed Trinity, or do you pick all three symbolized by two men (one old, one young) and a bird?) How often during the day do you think of God? What do you call God? (Anne Lamott says she has a friend who calls God ‘Howard”, as in, “our Father Howard in heaven.) If you don’t have a pet name for God, try to think of one—it tells you something about your relationship to God. What do you think would make God happy? Do you do it? St. Peter, when asked by Jesus if he loved him, responded in the affirmative, but used the Greek word philia instead of the Greek word agape—a more self-rewarding kind of love, which prompted Jesus to tell him that love for Jesus meant feeding Jesus’ sheep—caring for others. How often does your love for God (or for only one of the Trinity) motivate you to care for others?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship: (From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits) It has been said that if all the Gospels ahd been lost early on except “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”, that would be enough for us. Once we know that God loves the world to bits, we have hope. God is hard at work to save us—from evil and faiure and ruin and darkness. God’s plan is to bring all of us imto eternal life. Pope Francis puts it daringly: “When everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.” (The Joy of the Gospel). Let this be my mantra for today and every day. Relationships are transformed when I catch on to the fact that the other person in infinetely loved. I speak to God ( in whatever personal I imagine) in thanksgiving for being loved so much.

POETIC REFLECTIONS

Thomas Merton, monk and poet, enters a mystical realm as he contemplates the Trinity:

For the sound of my beloved,
The voice of the sound of my Three-Beloved
(One of my Three of my One Beloved)
Comes down out of the heavenly depths
And hits my heart like thunder;
And lo! I am alive and dead
With heart held fast in the Three-Personed love.
And lo! God! My God!
Look! Look! I travel inThy Strength
I swing in the grasp of Thy Love, Thy great Love’s
One strength,
I run Thy swift ways, Thy straightest rails
Until my life becomes Thy Life and sails or rides
Like an express!

—from Collected Poems

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How does this poem help us see different “persona” of God as reflected in the Trinity?

From Narrow Places by Ed Ingebretsen, S.J.

From narrow places
the strength of our voice
rises:
our every breath
is prayer,
the great poem of need,
a constant scattering
of praise.
Early
we reach to God
in the claim of our hearts,
while he,
our father,
mothers us
in his

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Read the following poem Do you see in this an affirmation of God’s love for us?

Gather the People by Ed Ingebretzen, S.J.
What return can we make
for all the Lord has done in our lives?
We bring bread, wine, our clay dishes
and our clay feet
to this altar
and we pray that we may here
make a beginning--
that somehow in our days
we can begin to see the promises
the Lord has made us.
The promises do not always
glow with obvious light, or
overwhelm us by their obvious truth.
No matter what anyone says,
it is difficult to understand an invisible God
and belief is not always
the easy way out.
So we gather the people
and we tell the story again
and we break the bread
and in the memory of the one
who saves us,
we eat and drink
and we pray and we believe.
We gather, we pray, we eat.
These things are for human beings.
God has no need of them.
Yet he himself gathered the people,
prayed, broke bread
and gave it to his friends.
And so the invisible God became
visible
and lives with us.
—from Psalms from the Still Country