The Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Saturday, June 13, 2026

Luke 2, 41-51

Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. 

This feast was first celebrated locally in France in 1648 and was instituted for the universal Church in 1805.  It was at first celebrated in February.  As war raged throughout the world during the year 1944, Pope Pius XII dedicated it to the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, moving the feast celebrating it to August 22, the octave day of the Solemnity of Mary’s Assumption into heaven.  In 1969, Paul VI moved the feast to the Saturday following the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and the Feast of the Queenship of Mary from May 31 to August 22 so that it fell on the octave day of the Assumption.  The devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary commemorates the overflowing love of the Blessed Virgin for her Son Jesus and also for us, whom the Lord gave to her as her children while he hung dying on the Cross.

The present Gospel passage was set in the lectionary for this feast because it tells of the love of the Virgin’s heart for her Son, an ongoing love that grew as she thought upon him and his deeds and actions, just as ours will if we do this.

“Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old.”  St. Luke could have written this verse in another way: When Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, after he turned twelve.  Luke could safely assume that Theophilus, to whom he was writing, knew that the Jews all went up to Jerusalem at this time so he need not have included the words “each year”.  He does so, however, to emphasize the piety of the Lord’s parents.  They practiced their religion with great devotion and so fostered their Son’s love for his Father in heaven as he grew according to his human nature.  “When he was twelve years old.”  Luke is careful to point out this detail: Jesus is now an adult in the Jewish world.  This allows him, for the first time, to separate himself from his human parents in order to begin the work set for him by his Almighty Father.  Luke will make a similar statement about the Lord’s age at the beginning of his Public Life: “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age” (Luke 3, 23).  He does so to show that the Lord obeyed the custom of the time, that a man could not begin to teach as a rabbi until he had reached his thirtieth year.  

“After they had completed its days.”  We note the precise information that Luke has, as though coming from the Blessed Virgin herself.  According to the Law, the people would eat unleavened bread for seven days after the Passover and then come together for an assembly to worship God.  The Holy Family, then, stayed in Jerusalem for about a week.  It would be interesting to know if they stopped by Bethlehem as they came or went in order to see members of their extended family who would have still lived there.

“The boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem.”  The Greek word translated here as “boy” has a broad range of meanings including “young man”, “son”, “servant”, and “attendant”.  It implies a young man not yet married, for then another word, meaning both “adult man” and “husband” would be used.  “Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances.”  The men and women traveled in separate caravans, and at the age of twelve Jesus could have walked with either Joseph or Mary.  One of his parents must have sent a message to the other inquiring about Jesus, and then they would have known that Jesus was not among them.  Supposing he was walking with other relatives in the throng, each would have searched through the particular caravans, enlisting others to help them.  It would have been a big job.  But when Jesus was not found, Mary and Joseph dropped out of the crowds and went together back to Jerusalem.  They must have figured that if Jesus was in the city, he would have to be in the Temple courtyard, presumably in the women’s court, the only part of the Temple he had gone into to that time.

“When his parents saw him, they were astonished.”  In verse 47, the people are astonished at the Lord’s knowledge; in verse 48, Mary and Joseph are described as “thunderstruck” (as the Greek word means) at seeing him there, sitting in the midst of a group of teachers.  They might have reacted this way because they saw him “sitting” there, ringed around by the teachers, as though students, in the posture of one who was himself teaching.  The gulf between teacher and student has shrunk dramatically in our times so that teachers often cannot control their students and even fear them.  In ancient times, a teacher was revered by student and public alike.  To be known as the student of a prominent teacher amounted to a mark of honor and a sign of intelligence.  Therefore, the sight of the young, unschooled, Jesus seated as a teacher while holding spellbound older men recognized as teachers must have come as a shock, even given their knowledge of his divine origins.  It was also, for them, the first sign since his Birth and the days following of his divinity.

“Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”  Mary speaks before Joseph can.  She reveals her heart to us in her.  She calls him “child”, according to the Greek, that is, a male child, not so much “son”.  “What did you do thus to us”, literally.  She is not simply asking him the reason for his acting as he had. According to the Greek, it is as though Mary knows that from now on, their relationship with him has changed.  It is a sign of the day when Mary will come to him while he is preaching and he continues preaching without greeting her (cf. Matthew 12, 46-50).  The Greek word translated here as “anxiety” actually means the much stronger “pain” or “torture”, so that Mary was saying, “Child, what have you done thus to us? Your father and I were searching for you, suffering torture.”

“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  Jesus confirms his Mother’s understanding of the change in their relationship with him.  He also answers her address of him as “child” by speaking of choosing to be in his Father’s house than with his human parents.  He is an adult now, not a child, and is free from then on to make his own way in life.  It is a hard blow for any mother to hear, but a much harder one for this Mother, who loved her Son with a love beyond all telling.  The Lord also reminds her and Joseph that they knew this day would come.  According to the Greek, he asks them, “Had you not known that I must be in my Father’s house?”  That is, from the beginning.

“But they did not understand what he said to them.”  They did not understand fully what he said to them, for he spoke to them as an adult and with authority as he would later speak to the crowds.  

“He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.”  He could have gone off from Mary and Joseph after that or he could have stayed in Jerusalem, but he went home with them out of his love for them and to show us his humility through his obedience, though he did not owe it.  “And his mother kept all these things in her heart.”  The Greek says, His Mother “kept safe” or “held fast” all these “words” or “sayings”.  She treasured all his Son’s words and actions.  She clung to them tightly throughout her life.  Her keen intellect caught it all and she forgot nothing.  

In understanding something of her love for her Son we can apply the words of the Bride from The Song of Songs to her: “I sat down under his shadow, whom I desired: and his fruit was sweet to my palate.”  She was happily content to be his Handmaid even as he became her Son, and she watched and listened to him, enjoying his fruit, his love for her.

The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday, June 12, 2026

 Matthew 11, 25–30

At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.  Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” 

This feast was first celebrated in 1670 in France through the efforts of St. John Eudes. A hundred years later it was established on the first Friday after Corpus Christi in connection with the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.

“At that time Jesus exclaimed.”  The context for this Gospel Reading is that the Lord is speaking after he has warned various cities he has visited that  they will be condemned at the end of the world because they have not repented despite his preaching and miracles.  He even compares them to Sodom, upon which God poured fire and brimstone for its sins.  Following this, the Lord praises his Father for revealing his mysteries to “little ones” while withholding them from “the wise and the learned”, by which he first of all meant the Pharisees.  But the Father does not hold his truth back from anyone: he simply accepts its rejection by those who nourish a high opinion of themselves.  These “little ones” of whom he speaks are the ordinary people, illiterate and not schooled in the intricacies of the Law so that they are dependent on the scribes and Pharisees to know what it means.  They follow Jesus when they hear his voice and his clear message of salvation because he loves them.

“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.”  The Son praises the Father for revealing his mysteries to “the little ones” while those great in their own estimation reject them.  The Father reveals these through his Son, and the Son delights in doing the Father’s work, and zealously performs it.  “Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.”  That is, it is no accident of fate or alteration of the Father’s will to reveal these mysteries to the little ones after the great ones had rejected him: it is his purpose, for God’s glory is made more manifest through the little and the poor than through the wise, the powerful, and the rich, just as an artist shows the greatness of his skill through the use of poorer brushes, canvasses, and paints than if he had used the best that money could buy.

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father.”  Following his short prayer of praise to the Father, the Son speaks of his relationship with him.  These verses remind us very strongly of the language Jesus employs in doing this as recorded in the Gospel of St. John.  The Lord does not employ and figures of speech or memorable images to teach about this relationship.  Rather, he speaks about it very plainly.  He begins by teaching that the Father has handed “all things” over to him.  After his Resurrection he will say something similar: “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28, 18).  In this way the Son explains that he is equal to the Father. “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”  Here, Jesus speaks of himself explicitly as the Son of the Father.  Having established his equality with the Father, he goes on to teach that knowledge of the Son comes only through the grace provided by the Father, and that true knowledge of the Father comes through the Son.  The first part of the verse brings to mind words that the Lord spoke after feeding the crowd of five thousand: “No man can come to me, unless the Father, who has sent me, draw him” (John 6, 44).  The second part reminds us of John 14, 6: “No one comes to the Father except through me.”  The Father draws us to the Son through love of our Savior, which leads to faith; and the Son reveals God as Father to us.  At the end of time, it is the Son who calls the righteous into heaven to be in his Father’s Kingdom: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, 34).

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”  These next verses also seem apart from what went before and may have been spoken by the Lord at another time, possibly after the Apostles returned from their first mission, but Matthew, recalling the words, did not recall the circumstances and place them here.  He is speaking this to “the little ones” of whom he spoke above, so it could be that Jesus has returned to this theme.  Those who labor and are burdened are those who strive to do God’s will in their lives in the face of opposition and temptation.  The “rest” Jesus promises that he himself will give is spiritual refreshment here, and eternal rest with him in heaven.  “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”  The “yoke” of Jesus is his Cross, but the Lord does not give it to us to carry alone, for he Carrie’s it with us.  The fact that he takes up his Cross for our sake proves beyond any doubt that he is “meek and humble of heart”, and through his Cross we can be made thus too.  We “learn” from Jesus through reading the Gospels and through prayer.  We learn about him in the Gospels but we know him through prayer, especially before the Blessed Sacrament or the crucifix.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” His Cross — doing the will of the Father — is “easy” because he gives us both the example and the grace we need to do this.  His burden — the suffering we undergo in carrying his yoke — is “light” because of the reward he sets before us.

Thursday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, June 11, 2026

Matthew 5:20-26

Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.”  The Lord Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount.  In the first Gospel reading taken from this Sermon, the Beatitudes, the Lord laid the foundation for holiness as imitating they ways in which he was poor in spirit, pure of heart, merciful, etc., not as others may be said to be.  The next reading after that, used at yesterday’s Mass, showed how a person, holy through this imitation, was made “salt” for the earth, a “light” in a room, and a “city” on a hill, bring others to the Lord.  In this third Gospel reading, the Lord emphasizes that this holiness or righteousness is of a kind not seen before in the world.  And so he says, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.”  The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was merely on the surface and did not involve a radical reorientation of the heart.  They carried out the commandments — or their interpretation of the commandments — but they did not do this out of love.  The Christian’s righteousness must surpass theirs through acting from the heart, which is conformed to that of Christ.  And because the Lord’s heart gushes forth love for us, our hearts need to gush for love of him and of our neighbors.  This love is enabled by grace: “God is able to make all grace abound in you: that ye always, having all sufficiently in all things [for yourselves], may abound to every good work” (2 Corinthians 9, 8).  

“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.”  The Lord gives an example of the righteousness he calls his followers to.  The scribes and Pharisees might follow the letter of the law in not killing, but what is necessary to please God is the change of heart through grace which prevents a person from being enraged at another to the point of desiring his death.  “Whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin.”  Even calling names is forbidden.  “Whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.”  “Raqa” and “You fool” have approximately the same meaning.  Perhaps the distinction is that one person is talking to another person about a third person, and says that the third person is a raqa, but “You fool” is said directly to someone.  “Gehenna” is a valley outside the Old City of Jerusalem which was popularly identified of as the valley spoken of in 1 Enoch where the damned would suffer punishment.  The identification probably has to do with the fact that human sacrifices were performed there during the reigns of the wicked kings of Judah who ruled after Solomon.

“Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar.”  The Lord speaks of the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem, to which various kinds of offerings such as thanks-offerings or sin-offerings would be made.  The reference assures us that Matthew wrote his Gospel before the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.  Making the prescribed sacrifice at the altar was of the greatest importance, and so the Lord is saying that reconciling with one’s brother was even more important than that.  Again, this is about following the Law with one’s heart and not merely following its letter.  The Pharisee would sacrifice first and then make peace.  The Lord says, in essence, making peace with your brother is the condition for offering the sacrifice at the altar.

“Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him.”  This next saying is related to the preceding in that both are about reconciliation, but since it does not fit in with the theme of true righteousness and superficial righteousness, it may be a separate saying of the Lord’s that Matthew set in this place.  The meaning of the saying assumes that one person has harmed another in some way and that the one who caused the harm ought to realize that he will be found guilty and punished, so the proper course is to swallow one’s pride and ask for terms from the one he has harmed and to accept what is offered because a judge will be more severe than the plaintiff.  This is the humble confession of sins with the firm purpose to sin no more and to make amends.  “Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”  The defendant, once convicted, would be given a fine so heavy that he would need to sell all his property to pay it off, and even so he might not have enough.  But if he can pay it he can be released from the prison so he has hope.  We can understand this as the Lord teaching about purgatory, a concept already current among the Jews, as we find in their writings in the years before the birth of Jesus.

We pray Almighty God to make us truly sincere in our acts of piety, done for the love of God and neighbor, and not for show or out of habit.

Wednesday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, June 10, 2026

Matthew 5:17-19

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

There must have been a fair number of people saying that the Lord was abolishing the Law or the Prophets.  Why would they think that?  This can be understood with the Lord’s teaching about himself as found in the Gospel of John, for instance in his conversations with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman.  He taught them that he was the Son of God and that he would be killed so that all who believe in him might be saved (cf. John 3, 13-16); and that he would give the “water” of eternal life to those to whom he willed (cf. John 4, 14).  This made it seem as though following the Law and believing the writings of the Prophets had no purpose: salvation would be achieved without them.  If that were the case, then this Jesus of Nazareth must be “abolishing” (or, better, “overthrowing”), the Law and the Prophets.

“I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”  The Old Law was given to the Hebrews in the time before grace, and as such it was a Law they were capable of upholding.  In the time of grace, the Lord revealed the fullness of the Old Law, for now, with the necessary help of grace, that could be carried out. “Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.”  That is, not the smallest part of the New Law which the Lord reveals in his Sermon on the Mount.  “Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.”  Indeed, those who reject the Law and teach others to do so through bad example and scandal, shall not have any part of the Kingdom of heaven, as they have rejected the Law that leads to it.

“But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”  Among these are parents who practice the Faith and teach it to their children, as well as priests and men and women religious who both practice and teach the Faith.  In fact, the best way to teach it is to obey it so that others may see it.  All of us, no matter what our state of life may accomplish this and become great in the Kingdom of heaven.

Tuesday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, June 9, 2026

Matthew 5, 13-16

Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lamp-stand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”  

The Lord Jesus here continues his Sermon on the Mount, following the Beatitudes.

“You are the salt of the earth.”  Ancient people used salt very carefully due to its expense.  Its high price came from its scarcity and at the same time the high demand for it.  It also came at great cost in terms of financial outlay and in human life, for which reason slaves and condemned persons were used to mine it.  Salt preserved meat, including fish; seasoned foods; and cleaned wounds.  In addition, in Leviticus 2, 13, the Hebrews were told, “Whatsoever sacrifice you offer, you shall season it with salt: neither shall you take away the salt of the covenant of your God from your sacrifice. In all your oblations you shall offer salt.”  Thus, salt became a sign of the Old Covenant.  “Neither shall you take away the salt”: salt seasoned the meat being sacrificed to God.  In this way, we can understand salt as grace, for grace, cleansing a person from sin and preserving him from the corruption of evil, seasons him so as to offer himself to God in Christ.  In calling his disciples “the salt of the world”, he calls them the means through which many people would be saved: by their preaching repentance, encouraging them in their living a life worthy of Christ, and in offering the,selves to God, body and soul.

“But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?”  This verse is more literally translated, “But if the salt should be made useless [or, tainted or foolish], with what can it be salted [or, seasoned or kept fresh]?  That is. if salt loses all its properties, not just that of taste.  Or worse, that it could be tainted with something poisonous.  This can occur because, through foolishness, a person does not pray or meditate on the mysteries of our salvation, or study Church teaching, or begins to make excuses for not following the Lord’s commandments.  Then, it is “no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”  Once the Christian loses the grace he was given, he is of no use for the spread of the Gospel.  He will be “thrown out” into “the outer darkness: where there shall be weeping and the gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8, 12).  He will be “trampled” by his enemies.  This “trampling” refers to a practice in ancient times in which a victorious army forced their defeated foes to lay on the ground in a long line so that they could march over them.  Psalm 44, 5 alludes to this: “Through you [O God] we push down our foes; through your name we trample down our assailants.”  In this case, the “trampling” would be done by demons.

“You are the light of the world.”  The light without which the darkness would prevail.  Light makes it possible to see and also enables crops to grow and animals and people to stay warm.  So does the Christian help unbelievers to see Jesus Christ, aid in their efforts to follow him, and provide a good example for them.  “A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.”  A city is set on a mountain because it is difficult to attack there, to make it prominent so as to attract trade, and to act as a sign of a ruler’s glower and glory.  The Christian is set on the formidable rock which is the Lord Jesus, who defends him from evil, attracts unbelievers to him, and through his good works glorifies himself and the Father.  “Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lamp-stand, where it gives light to all in the house.”  Going to the trouble, in ancient times, of lighting a lamp, a person will hardly put it under a basket.  First, it will not provide light from there, and, second, it may catch the basket and then the house on afire.  The lamp is lit and set in a high place so that it may illuminate a wide space.  Just so, a person is filled with grace and given the gift of faith in order “to be raised up” — set apart by the charitable works he does  — in order for him to provide the illumination of the Gospel to as many people as possible: “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”  

Monday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, June 8, 2026

Matthew 5, 1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The Old Testament contains many “beatitudes”, sayings that begin with the word we translate into English as “blessed” and usually understand in the supernatural sense.  For instance, Psalm 1, 1: “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence”, and,  Psalm 31, 1-2: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” There are many others besides.  We can read these as telling us what particular behavior God prefers and will reward.  We can also read them as statements defining the true lover of God.

The Lord’s Beatitudes recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew can be read in this way as well.  The true Christian is “poor in spirit”.  He is blessed in this poorness  of spirit rather than wretched, and to him belongs the Kingdom of heaven.  He is poor on spirit in that he has followed the words of Christ: “If you will be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me” (Matthew 19, 21); or, in the sense of Psalm 51, 19: “A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise.”  We can understand “poor in spirit” in both senses: the one whose heart in contrite and humble, realizing that his salvation comes from God alone, gives up his previous life in order to follow Christ.  We can understand this very literally, with St. Matthew as our example; or, for those called to remain in the world, in the words of St. Paul: “The time is short. It remains, that they who have wives be as if they had none:  And they that weep, as though they wept not: and those who rejoice, as if they rejoiced not: and those who buy as if they possessed not: And those that use this world, as if they used it not” (1 Corinthians 7, 29-31).

Similarly, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.”  The true Christian mourns for his sins and is meek, though resolute, as Moses was called “a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon earth” (Numbers 12, 3) and yet followed God’s commands, leading the Hebrews to the Promised Land despite all their rebellions.  The Christian, mourning his sins and behaving with meekness, will be comforted and will inherit the land — a place in heaven.  The Christian is also blessed in his “hunger and thirst for righteousness”, and in the world to come for he will be “satisfied”. The Christian is a merciful person, and so he “will be shown mercy”. The Christian is one who is “clean of heart”, which makes him capable of seeing God. This is true cleanness, not achieved by multiple daily washings of the hands as the Pharisees demanded but through the washings of vigilance and penance.  The Christian is a peacemaker, and in this way he will become a child of God.

The Christian is the one who is “persecuted for the sake of righteousness”, that is, for living an upright life.  He is criticized and insulted  for not joining in the wicked behavior of those who do not belong to Christ.  His righteousness will bring him the Kingdom of heaven.  The Christian is also insulted and persecuted and slandered because of his belief in Jesus Christ.  He is blessed in this and rejoices that he has been chosen to suffer for him, as did the Apostles: “And they indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus” (Acts of the Apostles 5, 41).

These, then are the marks of the true follower of the Lord Jesus which we should also show so that, distinguished by our mercy and meekness and the other virtues all around us may know we are Christians and may desire to serve the Lord as well.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, Sunday, June 7, 2026

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.”

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ was instituted by Pope Urban IV in 1264.  For some years prior to that the feast was localized in parishes and dioceses in Central Europe.  The institution of the feast followed a short period of controversy among theologians as to what exactly happened at the moment of the consecration of the bread and wine at Holy Mass.  This controversy led to the devising of the term “transubstantiation”, which has been used ever since.  Originally, this solemnity was celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, but this region’s bishops have decided it should be celebrated on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday.  Celebrating this feast on a Thursday links it with the celebration of Holy Thursday during Holy Week, during which the Lord Jesus instituted the Most Blessed Sacrament and the Holy Mass.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”  The Lord Jesus Christ makes this declaration following the miracle in which he fed a crowd of five thousand from a few loaves of bread and fish.  He calls himself “the living bread”.  This contrasts with manna, which was not living.  But if the manna preserved the lives of the Israelites during their forty years in the wilderness, then “living” bread should do far more than that.  Jesus calls himself “the living bread”: Moses never called himself “manna”, so Jesus is claiming a greatness beyond that of Moses.  Jesus further identifies himself as the living bread “that came down from heaven”.  So what is this bread, if it is not the manna that came down from heaven?  Jesus says that it is “the bread that I will give [which] is my flesh for the life of the world.  Thus, Jesus teaches that he has come down from heaven, that he possesses true flesh, and that he will offer his flesh for the life of the world — its redemption for sin.  He will trade his life for its.

His hearers quarrel among themselves rather than ask Jesus what he means: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  They take very literally the Lord’s words, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.”  They concentrate on the eating rather than on the receiving of eternal life.  But their arguing among themselves as though they had the wisdom to understand him which made asking him directly unnecessary.  Since they do not ask, the Lord does not explain, but repeats with greater emphasis: “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.”  

Jesus says to them: “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”  It is as though he were prompting them to ask questions, but they do not.  His flesh and blood are “true” food and drink just as his flesh is “living” bread.  They are true food and drink in that what we eat and drink is modeled in its creation after the Lord’s Body and Blood.  The food and drink we eat and drink is based on and to some extent participates in the Body and Blood of our Lord.  His Flesh and Blood is not like our ordinary human food; our human food is like his Flesh and Blood.  “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”  Jesus here teaches the doctrine of Holy Communion.  Unlike ordinary human food, the true food the Lord offers us, his own Body and Blood, puts us in communion with him whose it is.  That is, in such a unity that he shares his divine life, which he has from the Father, with us: “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.”  We should think of Jesus gesturing to himself with his hand, here.  “Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”  The manna, he is saying, was a sign of the true bread that would come down from heaven, centuries later, for the redemption of the world.  

Those who heard the Lord on this occasion struggled to understand and believe because they were convinced that he was the son of David who would lead them to victory over the Romans.  This was what the Pharisees had told them the Messiah would do.  The Messiah was not supposed to give his life for the life of the world, he was not supposed to give his flesh and blood as food and drink to those who wanted to live forever.  The Lord challenges their preconceptions of the Messiah, which the people believed him to be, but they harden their hearts and will not accept a different vision, even one offered by the Messiah himself.  

As we celebrate this great solemnity, let us rejoice in the food and drink — which is the true food and drink — which the Lord Jesus gives us so freely, and which enables us to share in his divine life.