Gospel Reflections
Enjoy a reflection on Sunday's Gospel written by an Daughter of St. Francis de Sales.
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (October 13, 2024)
In today’s Gospel Jesus challenges us to let go of everything to follow Jesus, who brings true wealth. St. Francis de Sales speaks similarly:
To let go of our external possessions means we have to abandon everything into Our Lord’s hands. Then, we must ask Our Lord for the true love He desires us to have for them. You can possess riches if you merely keep them in your home and not in your heart. You may take care to increase your wealth and resources provided it is done not only justly, but also honestly and charitably, and you use them for the honor and glory of God. We must love God first of all, and then after that, others.
To live Jesus, we must also give to Our Lord our imaginary possessions, such as honor, esteem and fame, so that in all things we seek God’s glory. Our possessions are not our own. God has given them to us to cultivate and wants us to make them fruitful for the Kingdom on earth. Hence, we must take good care of them and use them as God wills.
To be free from our possessions means to cut out all that is superfluous and not of God in our lives. Yet, no one prunes vines by hacking them with an axe but by cutting them very carefully with a pruning hook, one shoot at a time. We must do the same with ourselves and take one step at a time. We can’t arrive in a day where we aspire to be.
This holy pursuit of doing God’s will in our lives is a huge undertaking. Still, it is not as great as the reward. A generous person can do anything with the help of the Creator. At every moment give the very heart of your heart to our Savior. You will see that as this divine Lover takes His place in your heart, the world with all its futile pursuits will leave you, and you will live joyously in the total and perfect liberty of spirit as a child of God.
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (October 6, 2024)
In today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals to us that God made marriage a holy committed relationship. St. Francis de Sales speaks similarly about marriage:
Marriage is equally holy in the rich and in the poor. The preservation of holy marriage is of the highest importance for the state since it is the origin and source of all that flows from the state. If only our Savior were invited to every marriage, as He was to the marriage at Cana. The wine of his consolation and blessing would never be lacking.
Married people ought to have that mutual love that the Holy Spirit in Scriptures so highly recommends to them. The first effect of this divine love is an indissoluble union of the hearts, affections, and love of the husband and wife. The second effect of this divine love is the inviolable fidelity of husband and wife to each other. The third fruit of marriage is the birth and nurturing of children. Marriage is the nursery of Christianity. It is a great honor to you who are married that God empowers you to cooperate in so noble a work of creation in giving birth to children and properly nurturing them.
Husbands and wives, advance more and more in the mutual love you owe to one another, take care that your love does not degenerate into jealousy of any kind. It often happens that just as a worm is bred in the ripest, most tender apple, so also jealousy grows in the most ardent and compelling love of husband and wife. Jealousy never gets in where friendship is based on true virtue in both persons. Love and fidelity joined together always produce intimacy and mutual trust. Why then do you not cherish each other with a completely holy, completely sacred, and completely divine love?
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 29, 2024)
As always, the Scriptures challenge us in several ways.
The disciples in the Gospel, as well as Joshua in the Old Testament, are concerned that others outside their group are exercising God’s power. Jesus, and Moses before him, remind them (and us) that God can use anyone he wishes to work his wonders among his people. It’s very easy for us to become like the disciples and forget to rejoice that the Spirit of God works in many unexpected ways. Do I, do you, keep our eyes and hearts open each day in expectation that the Spirit of God may visit us in unexpected ways and through unexpected people?
The words of St. James offer us a challenge. The Oblate community has worked hard to provide us with all we have here. We have much more than many of our brothers and sisters. How do we live our vow of poverty when we have our needs taken care of so well? We can identify with our poor brothers and sisters by being grateful often each day. We can share our sufficiency through our hospitality to guests. And we can remember our brothers and sisters who have much less than we do, and cut short our complaints when we don’t have everything we may think we need.
When we take the time each day to be aware of God’s abundant providence, we also continue to be aware of our own ingratitude. We are aware that there are things about us that draw our attention away from God’s graciousness. Jesus challenges us to total concentration on the God who loves us. If something causes us to sin, cut it off. Jesus is not calling us to mutilation, but he is calling us to decision-making. If we are serious about responding to the great love God has for us, then we will make serious efforts to accept God’s grace throughout the day and choose to move beyond those things in us that lead us to be self-centered.
We have all lived long enough to know the things about us that tend to distract us from God’s loving providence. De Sales reminds us that these tendencies ought to become the subject of our morning preparation of the day. Together with God, we can develop a graced plan which will help us to become more dependent on God’s grace during our day. In this way, we learn to make practical decisions that “cut short” our tendencies toward selfishness and self-centeredness and refocus our attention on God who is providing for us.
Let us not overlook the challenges of today’s Scripture readings. They call us to grace.
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 22, 2024)
At Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan, the Father had identified Jesus as his Son, the beloved one in whom he is well pleased. This is a reference to the “suffering servant” in the prophet Isaiah. The servant must suffer and die to fully actualize his identity.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins to prepare his disciples for what is to come. He identifies himself with the “just one’ in the Book of Wisdom which we heard in today’s first reading. He will be put to the test to give proof of his gentleness and patience. He will be condemned to a shameful death – and God will take care of him.
Mark comments that the disciples did not understand the saying and were afraid to question him. Apparently, they distracted themselves by arguing about who was the greatest among them.
Jesus was not distracted and continued to teach them about himself and how they were to live. “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Jesus is among them as servant – the “suffering servant.”
The child Jesus places in their midst and embraces is how they are to receive him: peaceably, gently, without inconstancy or insincerity, open to wisdom from above.
Jesus comes to us as the “suffering servant” – Savior and Lord. He invites us to embrace him as he did the child. May we not allow ourselves to become distracted by petty, personal concerns. Let us accept Jesus as the First and Only in our lives, for he has shown us how to be the last and the servant of all.
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 15, 2022)
Today’s Gospel passage is the turning point in the Gospel of Mark.
Jesus asks his disciples an innocent-enough question: “Who do people say that I am?” And we hear the various ways that people are seeing Jesus. Then Jesus asks the crucial question: “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter responds: “You are the Christ – the Messiah.”
We heard Jesus begin to tell them that he, the Messiah, is going to be rejected, suffer, die, and rise after three days. Peter is shocked and begins to argue with Jesus. Imagine his surprise when Jesus calls him “Satan.” “You’re not thinking as God does, but rather as human beings do.” And Jesus goes on to tell his disciples that, in order to follow him, they will have to take up their cross. They will have to lose their life in order to save it.
If they weren’t confused at first, they must be very confused now. Do I want to follow someone who offers me suffering and self-denial? That’s not a very appealing invitation.How is this “good news”?
What is “God’s thinking” that Jesus is talking about? We need to look at the larger picture of Jesus’ message. St. John tells us: “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son so that we might have life.” Jesus has come to show us how much God loves the world. He reveals God’s great desire for us – that we share in divine life and love. Jesus loves us so much that he is willing to give his own life for us – to suffer and die – so that we can be reconciled to God and share God’s life.
The Father’s love for Jesus is so great that Jesus’ willing death for us is transformed into new life in the resurrection. Self-denial and suffering are not ends in themselves. They are the inevitable consequences of unconditional love. When love is patterned on divine love, no cost is too great for the one who loves.
Divine love is always life-giving – eternal life-giving. Jesus’ love was so focused on us that self-denial and suffering, even death on the cross, became the means of salvation and reconciliation. You and I now share in God’s life and love because Jesus’ love for us was unconditional.
Jesus offers us the challenge: love one another as I have loved you. Loving others as Jesus loved will have its costs. Jesus has shown us that the costs are life-giving. When we embrace self-denial, suffering, and even death, because we love, they will always lead us to resurrection – new life – eternal life.
May we know Jesus’ great love for us and learn to love generously as Jesus did.
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 8, 2024)
We have just heard that curious command of Jesus: “Don’t tell anyone about the miracle you’ve just witnessed.” And Mark tells us that the people went about telling of Jesus’ power to heal. Why would Jesus make such a strange command?
Jesus knew human nature all too well. He knew how easily we are attracted by power, by the miraculous. He also knew that power can distract us from examining reality.
Today’s Scripture readings call us to look beyond the miraculous, the powerful and seek to understand reality. Jesus makes the deaf hear and the mute speak clearly to point to the reality that God is present among his people. He is the fulfillment of God’s promise made through the prophet Isaiah. Jesus is trying to tell the people whose hearts of frightened: “Be strong, fear not! Here is your God; … he comes to save you.” Jesus’ power to heal reveals the compassionate faithfulness of God.
But he’s concerned that the people will be distracted by the miraculous and never come to understand who he really is and why he has come. And we all know that his concern was justified. Many found it difficult to identify the miracle worker with the crucified Savior.
The words of St. James remind us that we are part of the human family, and we are susceptible to the distraction of power. The attractiveness of power can blind us to reality in everyday living. How easily we are attracted by wealth, power and position. How often we choose to pay attention to people who have and ignore those who do not have. Power distracts us from the reality that all of us are equally made in the image and likeness of our God. And Jesus reverenced the needy as well as the well-off as deserving of God’s compassionate love.
The Scriptures seem to call us to look more deeply within ourselves. What has my God told me about reality? Does power distract me from that reality? Jesus desires to live in each of us as crucified savior, as well as miracle worker. Each person desires to be reverenced for who he or she is by creation, as well as for what he or she says or does.
May we ask for the grace each day to discipline ourselves to see through power and love the reality of our God and our brothers and sisters.
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 1, 2024)
Today, the Scriptures focus our attention on two basic attitudes that are to characterize us as a community. The first: the law of God (the word of God) is meant to change our hearts, and then our actions. The second: God’s word is meant to be lived, not just heard.
Jesus reminded the Pharisees in today’s Gospel that good and evil come from what is in our hearts, not from some outside law. Jesus keeps calling us to a change of heart. That is the only way that our actions can truly be holy actions. When we allow ourselves to be open and receive the immense love that God has for us and understand how passionately God desires us to live in his love, then our hearts will profoundly change. As a result, we are better able to hear God’s word for what it is – a word spoken to us because he loves us and desires us to be one with him.
We all know what happens in our life when someone absolutely loves us: how free we feel to be our self, how openly and generously we act, how much we seek to do what pleases the one who loves us. The same is true when we open ourselves to the love God has for us. God’s love for us is unconditional and everlasting; God loves us just because he made us in his image. I know we have all heard those words many times. But do you, do I, really believe them?
Have we spent time with God alone and asked God to open us to experience the depths of his love for us? God desires to do just that if we are willing to spend quiet time with him.
When we do begin to understand and accept God’s great love for us, then we are drawn to love in return. Loving God with our whole being is the gift we receive, and that love overflows to touch the lives of all around us, especially those who need to experience God’s love.
Today’s Scriptures call us to look more carefully to our God who loves us, and then look inside ourselves, at our heart. Am I hearing God’s word as a word of love for me? Am I letting God’s word of love change my heart? Do I spend enough time with God so that I am renewed by his love?
God’s love is what makes us the Body of Christ, a community of faith. May we be wise in choosing to live by God’s love.
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time August 25, 2024
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 25, 2024
In today’s Gospel, Jesus urges us to remain faithful to Him and to live in the “spirit that gives life.” St. Francis de Sales notes:
Our Savior came to recreate humanity. When we live in the Spirit of Jesus, we transcend our ordinary life in order to live a loftier life. We are so filled with divine love that we are like the stars whose light is totally absorbed in the sunlight. God lives in us, and our only desire is to unite our will to God’s Will.
To progress in living in the Spirit of Jesus, we must first of all accept ourselves as being less than perfect. Don’t lose heart, be patient, wait while joyously carrying out your daily activities. Do everything you are taught in a spirit of gentleness and fidelity. Develop a spirit of compassion. After we have planted and watered, we must realize that it is for God to give the increase to the trees that are our good inclinations and habits. For this reason, we must wait to obtain the fruits of our desires and labors from divine Providence.
If we are not progressing, as we desire, let us not be disturbed. In living a holy life our whole life is destined to be a practical testing. Let us remain at peace so that calmness always reigns in our hearts. It is up to us to cultivate our souls well, and we must faithfully attend to them. But as for a plentiful harvest, let us leave the care of that to our Lord. The laborer will never be blamed for not having a fine harvest unless he or she did not carefully till and sow his or her field. Our unwavering dependence on God assures us that we are solidly planted where God wants us to be.
I have no doubt that our Savior is holding you by the hand. If you stumble, it is only to let you know that if you let go of His hand you would fall rather than stumble. For those of us who love and hope in God, our weakness is not as great as God’s mercy.
(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time August 18, 2024
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 18, 2024
Today’s readings tell us what we need to remain spiritually healthy on our journey through life: live wisely, address one another in spiritual song, try to understand the will of the Lord, be filled with the Spirit, praise God, give thanks, and feed on the eternal life-giving Bread of Christ. St. Francis de Sales notes that this advice aids us in living God’s Will for us:
Even the heart, where we wish to begin, must be instructed as to how it should model its outward conduct and bearing so that other people can see not only holy love but also great wisdom and prudence. Since God has stamped in us an infinite desire for truth and goodness, our soul wisely sees that nothing in this world gives it perfect contentment until it rests in the things of God.
While God’s overflowing love only gives, our frailty has need of God’s divine abundance. God takes great pleasure in giving us graces that lead to eternal life. Our hearts, no matter how frail and weak, are preserved from the corruption of sin when nourished by the incorruptible flesh and blood of the Son of God. Therefore, whoever turns to the sacrament of the Eucharist builds up their soul’s health.
Our Lord loves with a most tender love those who are so happy as to abandon themselves wholly to His care. They let themselves be governed by His divine Providence. They believe that God sends them only events and things that profit their spiritual well being. God wills that we live a life of truth and goodness and that we be saved. Therefore, when your distress is at its height, very gently put your heart into the hands of our Savior, who will help you be healthier. Let us then give our entire will to God who wisely instructs and enlightens our heart so that we as well as others come to know and live the will of God.
(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 28, 2024
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 28, 2024
Today St. Paul urges us to love one another with humility, gentleness and patience. St. Francis de Sales refers to these virtues as the “little virtues”:
Let us try to acquire those little virtues such as patience, humility and gentleness toward our neighbor. Know that patience is the one virtue that gives greatest assurance of our reaching holiness. While we must have patience with others, we must also have it with ourselves. Patience helps us to possess our own soul so that we may do the will of God, the source of our greatest happiness. Those who want to aspire to the pure love of God need to be more patient with themselves than with others.
Patience with ourselves leads to humility. Deep interior humility begins with recognizing the multitude of blessings God has bestowed on us. We will enjoy and rejoice in them because we possess them, but we will glorify God because God alone is the author of them. We must use our gifts and talents in the service of God and our neighbors. Those who are humble are all the more courageous because they place their whole trust in God. Turn to our Lord who has given His life for you. Humility perfects us with respect to God and gentleness with respect to our neighbor.
Little by little bring your quick mind around to being patient, gentle, humble, and affable in the midst of pettiness, childishness and the imperfections of others who are weak. These little virtues, ones to be exercised in our daily life, in our household, our place of work, with friends and with strangers, any time and all the time—these are the virtues for us. God, who is infinitely kind, is satisfied with the small achievements of our heart. When we nurture our heart with virtue and good projects that allow us to serve God and our neighbor, our heart performs marvels.
(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales.)
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time August 11, 2024
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 11, 2024
In today’s first reading, St. Paul begs us to exchange our life of anger and malice for a life of kindness, compassion and forgiveness that mark us as the children of God. St. Francis de Sales tells us how to move from anger to kindness or gentleness:
One of the best exercises in gentleness that we can perform is with ourselves. To allow gentleness to reign in our hearts we must not fret over our own faults. While reason requires that we be displeased and sorry when we commit a fault, we must not keep our hearts drenched in bitterness and spitefulness that spring from our self-centered love, which is disturbed at seeing that it is imperfect. This constrains our ability to love.
All angry people think their anger just. Believe me a father’s gentle, loving rebuke has far greater power to correct a child than rage and passion. So too when we have committed some fault, if we rebuke our heart with more compassion for it than passion against it, repentance will penetrate more effectively. If we fall into anger let us say: “Alas my poor heart, here we are, fallen into the pit we were so firmly resolved to avoid! Well, we must get up again and leave it forever.” With great courage, confidence and trust in God’s mercy return to the path of virtue. When your mind is tranquil, build up a stock of gentleness. Speak all your words and do all your actions in the mildest way you can. Remain in peace. No one is so holy as not to be subject to imperfections.
However, we are called to practice the freedom of the children of God who know they are loved. They freely choose to follow the known will of their heavenly Father who nourishes them with the Bread of Life, his Son Jesus. We must walk on then, as brothers and sisters united in gentleness, compassion and forgiveness. God always loves us even in our weakest moments. We, too, must do likewise, first with ourselves than others.
(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time August 11, 2024
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 11, 2024
In today’s first reading, St. Paul begs us to exchange our life of anger and malice for a life of kindness, compassion and forgiveness that mark us as the children of God. St. Francis de Sales tells us how to move from anger to kindness or gentleness:
One of the best exercises in gentleness that we can perform is with ourselves. To allow gentleness to reign in our hearts we must not fret over our own faults. While reason requires that we be displeased and sorry when we commit a fault, we must not keep our hearts drenched in bitterness and spitefulness that spring from our self-centered love, which is disturbed at seeing that it is imperfect. This constrains our ability to love.
All angry people think their anger just. Believe me a father’s gentle, loving rebuke has far greater power to correct a child than rage and passion. So too when we have committed some fault, if we rebuke our heart with more compassion for it than passion against it, repentance will penetrate more effectively. If we fall into anger let us say: “Alas my poor heart, here we are, fallen into the pit we were so firmly resolved to avoid! Well, we must get up again and leave it forever.” With great courage, confidence and trust in God’s mercy return to the path of virtue. When your mind is tranquil, build up a stock of gentleness. Speak all your words and do all your actions in the mildest way you can. Remain in peace. No one is so holy as not to be subject to imperfections.
However, we are called to practice the freedom of the children of God who know they are loved. They freely choose to follow the known will of their heavenly Father who nourishes them with the Bread of Life, his Son Jesus. We must walk on then, as brothers and sisters united in gentleness, compassion and forgiveness. God always loves us even in our weakest moments. We, too, must do likewise, first with ourselves than others.
(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time August 4, 2024
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 4, 2024
In today’s Gospel we experience Jesus confronting the crowd with the purity of their intention in following Him. While the crowd seeks perishable food, He desires that they seek Him, the ‘Bread of Life’, ‘food that endures for eternal life’. St. Francis de Sales tells us how we can prepare ourselves to have the ‘Bread of Life’ come into our lives:
The greatest intimate union that Our Savior is able to share with us is His divine life. To prepare ourselves for this union we must first clear our memory of our worldly concerns, and all that is not lasting. After we make the decision to put aside our worldly-mindedness, we must adorn our memory with all the gifts that God has given us: creation, divine providence and redemption.
Next, we must purify our will by getting rid of our disordered affections, even for good things. We need to look at what and on whom we are fixing too ardently our affections. Little by little we must order these affections so that we can say to Our Lord with David: “You are the God of my heart and my eternal lot.” Excessive love and affection for children, parents, friends, possessions, and material things become obstacles for the Holy Spirit, who desires to flood our hearts with divine love that is not perishable.
Our Savior comes to us, so that we may be all in him. You have only to be thankful for the simplicity of faith that God has given you. Ask God to continue to give you this very precious and desirable gift. Nourish yourself the whole day long with holy thoughts on the infinite goodness of our God. Rest in the providence of God, for God will never fail to supply what is necessary for your wellbeing. Praise God in this life, and you will glorify God with all the blessed in Heaven.
(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 21, 2024
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 21, 2024
Today’s readings remind us that our God is a God of compassion. St. Francis de Sales frequently stresses God’s loving care for us especially in adversity:
Our God is the God of the human heart. When our heart is in danger God alone can save and protect it. Just as God is the maker of all things, so also God takes care of all things, and sustains and embraces the whole of creation. Consequently, God wishes to make all things good and beautiful. Especially then, let us believe that God watches over our affairs, even in adversity. We do not always know the reason for our trials, but we must admit that in our own affairs, we are sometimes the source of our afflictions.
While we must be careful and attentive to matters that God has committed to our care, we must not be anxious, uneasy or rash about them. Worry disturbs reason and good judgment and prevents us from doing well the very things we are worried about. Gentle rains make open fields fruitful in grain, but floods ruin fields and meadows.
Thus, undertake all your affairs with a calm mind and do them in order one after the other. If you try to do them all at once or without order, your spirit will be so overcharged and depressed that it will likely sink under the burden without achieving anything. In all your affairs strive quietly to cooperate with God’s plan for you.
God gives us a rich abundance of means proper for our salvation. By a wondrous infusion of God’s grace into our hearts, the Spirit makes our works become God’s work. Our good works like a little grain of mustard seed have vigor and virtue to produce a great good because they proceed from the Spirit of Jesus. You may be sure that if you have firm trust in God’s compassionate love and care for you, the success that comes to your work will always be that which is most useful for you and the believing community.
(Adapted from St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, Introduction to a Devout Life).
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 21, 2024
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 21, 2024
Today’s readings remind us that our God is a God of compassion. St. Francis de Sales frequently stresses God’s loving care for us especially in adversity:
Our God is the God of the human heart. When our heart is in danger God alone can save and protect it. Just as God is the maker of all things, so also God takes care of all things, and sustains and embraces the whole of creation. Consequently, God wishes to make all things good and beautiful. Especially then, let us believe that God watches over our affairs, even in adversity. We do not always know the reason for our trials, but we must admit that in our own affairs, we are sometimes the source of our afflictions.
While we must be careful and attentive to matters that God has committed to our care, we must not be anxious, uneasy or rash about them. Worry disturbs reason and good judgment and prevents us from doing well the very things we are worried about. Gentle rains make open fields fruitful in grain, but floods ruin fields and meadows.
Thus, undertake all your affairs with a calm mind and do them in order one after the other. If you try to do them all at once or without order, your spirit will be so overcharged and depressed that it will likely sink under the burden without achieving anything. In all your affairs strive quietly to cooperate with God’s plan for you.
God gives us a rich abundance of means proper for our salvation. By a wondrous infusion of God’s grace into our hearts, the Spirit makes our works become God’s work. Our good works like a little grain of mustard seed have vigor and virtue to produce a great good because they proceed from the Spirit of Jesus. You may be sure that if you have firm trust in God’s compassionate love and care for you, the success that comes to your work will always be that which is most useful for you and the believing community.
(Adapted from St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, Introduction to a Devout Life).
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 14, 2024
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 14, 2024
In today’s Gospel we experience Jesus giving authority to carry out His work to the Apostles, and how their faith in Him leads to good works. St. Francis de Sales notes:
A living faith produces many great and good works. However, we see that strong and healthy people must often be stirred up to put their strength and skill to proper use. The hand must lead them to their work. While a soul that is heavily burdened has the power to believe and hope in God’s love, it does not have the strength to see clearly if it does. Its distress has such a hold on it. Yet, our Savior never lets us go out on the road alone. The Spirit of Jesus is always with us, urging us on and appealing to our hearts and driving them forward so as to use well the holy love He places in us.
A tender mother leads along her little child, helps him and holds him up as long as she sees a need for it. Now she lets him take a few steps by himself in places that are very level and not too difficult. Then she takes him by the hand and holds him steady. At times she takes him up in her arms and carries him. It is also the way that our Savior takes constant care to lead forward His children. He enables them to walk before Him. He holds their hand in difficulties. Therefore, when all things fail us, when our distress is at its height, our abandonment into the hands of our Savior cannot fail us. He will carry us along in hardships that He sees as being unbearable to us if we let Him.
In many ways, God’s care preserves those who have faith in the teachings of Jesus. Our entire good consists not only in accepting the truth of God’s word, but also in persevering in it. Hence, we ought to have great courage and trust that God will assist us in all that we do for God’s glory. Let us rouse our faith. Give it life in believing fully in God’s love and care for us. Then all our works will bear fruit like those of the Apostles.
(St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God; Sermons of St. Francis de Sales, L. Fiorelli, Ed.).
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 7, 2024
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 7, 2024
In today’s Gospel we see Jesus experiencing rejection and being amazed at the lack of faith people have in Him. St. Francis de Sales speaks of faith as consenting to God’s love:
There is often a long period between our first awakening from unbelief and the final resolution we make to believe fully in God’s love and care for us. There are many difficulties that occur between the first movement of faith in the God of Jesus Christ and our full consent to believe. St. Augustine delayed for some time before consenting fully to the teachings of Jesus Christ. But St. Ambrose said to him: “If you do not believe, pray in order that you may believe.”
During this period we pray like St. Augustine who cried out: “Lord, I do believe, but help me in my unbelief.” That is to say, “While I am no longer in the dark night of unfaithfulness, for the beams of your faith light up the horizon of my soul, I still do not believe as I ought. The knowledge that comes to me through faith is still weak and mingles with unbelief.”
God continually draws our hearts until we find the teachings of Jesus pleasing. Till we reach this stage, God’s goodness never fails to reach us through inspirations. However, we are free to consent to God’s loving appeals or reject them. Mighty rivers, coming upon open plains, spread out and take up ever more space. Similarly, if we do not reject God’s holy love, it goes on expanding with continual increase in us until we are entirely converted. Holy love guides us through our journey of forgiveness. It consoles us, animates and strengthens us in our difficulties. Hence faith includes a first start of love that the heart feels for the things of God. Let us not reject this gift of faith.
(Adapted from St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God.)
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time June 30, 2024
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 30, 2024
Today’s readings remind us of God’s desire for human wholeness as God forms us, not for death, but for eternal life through faith in Christ. Through this life-giving faith, God calls us to share the abundance of our gifts with those in need. Francis speaks similarly:
God’s desire that we be made whole has been shown to us in so many ways. God shows us that we are made for eternal happiness: first by creation and then by Jesus’ coming. In becoming human, He has taken on our likeness and given us His. Is it any wonder that this beloved Lover of us wants us to love one another as He has loved us?
Nothing urges on a man’s heart so much as love. Our Lord suffered death with so much love in order that the whole human family may become divine. The self-giving love of Jesus presses down on us in a special way. He desires that we live in Him. To God’s glory then we must bring home all our works, actions, thoughts and affections.
God wills for all humans to be eternally happy. Our will must correspond to God’s will. Thus we must will our own wholeness just as God wills it. To the extent that God gives us the means to make ourselves whole, we must accept all the graces God has prepared for us and offers to us. How earnestly we ought to summon up our courage to live according to what we are. We ought to imitate as perfectly as possible Him who came into this world to teach us what we need to do to preserve in ourselves this beauty and divine resemblance which He has so completely repaired and embellished in us! It is this divine resemblance that we ought to recognize and help to preserve in our neighbor who is also God’s child. Let us walk then in the way of love as God’s most dear children.
(L. Fiorelli, ed. Sermons; St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God).
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time June 23, 2024
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 23, 2024
St. Francis de Sales, the “doctor of love,” had his own perspectives on judgment. Specifically, he cautioned against rash judgment. He observed: "Fear, ambition, and similar mental weaknesses often contribute to the birth of suspicion and rash judgment" when it comes to our perspectives of other people.
He continued: People “who have drunk in pride, envy, ambition, and hatred think that everything they see is evil and reprehensible. To be cured...I say, drink as deeply as you can of the sacred wine of charity. The sin of rash judgment is truly a spiritual jaundice that causes all things to appear evil to the eyes of those infected with it.”
Put another way, judgment is ultimately in the eye -- or the heart -- of the beholder. “If your reflections are kind,” remarked Francis, “your judgments will also be kind. If your affections are charitable, your judgments will be the same.”
Obviously, if our affections are neither kind nor charitable, our judgments of other people will be, at best, unkind and uncharitable. Such a practice is incompatible with anyone who is trying to be a “new creation” in Christ.
Unfortunately, we know from our own experience that it is all too easy to waste our time judging the motives and intentions of other people. If this weren't bad enough, we seldom keep such opinions to ourselves, but often share such judgments with third parties, leading to “uneasiness, contempt of neighbor, pride, self-satisfaction, and many other bad effects, chief among them being slander.”
Perhaps Francis de Sales really put his finger on the issue and summed it up when he wrote: “It is the mark of an unprofitable soul to amuse itself with examining the lives of other people.” The old ways of looking at other in terms of mere human judgment have passed away: what are we doing to keep it that way? Besides, on any given day, we probably have more than enough to do when it comes to examining our own lives, don’t we? Why spin our wheels, then, by dissecting the lives of others for our own amusement…and to our own shame?
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time June 16, 2024
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 16, 2024
Today’s readings help us to keep things in perspective. Make no mistake – we are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. While we are charged with a tremendous duty - advancing the kingdom of God - the most effective means to accomplishing this great calling is to pay attention to detail – that is, buy doing little things with great love.
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales made the following exhortation:
“Put your hand to strong things, by training yourself in prayer and meditation, receiving the sacraments, bringing souls to love God, infusing good inspirations into their hearts and, in fine, by performing big, important works according to your vocation. But never forget…those little, humble virtues that grow like flowers at the foot of the cross: helping the poor, visiting the sick, taking care of your family, with all the responsibilities that accompany such things and with all the useful diligence which prompts you to not stand idle.”
“Great opportunities to serve God rarely present themselves, but little ones are frequent…you will profit greatly in God’s sight by doing all these things because God wishes you to do the.” (III, 35, pp. 214 – 215)
God gives us a rich abundance of means proper for our salvation. By a wondrous infusion of God’s grace into our minds, hearts, attitudes and actions the Spirit makes our works become God’s work. Our good works - like planting miniscule mustard seeds here or like scattering small seeds there - have vigor and virtue enough to produce a great good because they proceed from the Spirit of Jesus.
As it turns out, little things do really mean a lot in the eyes of God. In fact, they mean everything!