The 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 20, 2026

Matthew 20, 1-16

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.”  The Lord’s keen insistence on comparing the Kingdom of heaven to everyday places and situations disconcerted the Jews of the time because, led by the Pharisees, they interpreted very literally the word of the Prophets concerning the Kingdom such as, “But in the days of those kingdoms, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never by destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people: and it shall break in pieces, and shall consume all these kingdoms: and itself shall stand for ever” (Daniel 2, 44).  And who would be the Ruler of this Kingdom? “The Lord has said to me: You are my son, this day have I begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the Gentiles for your inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for your possession.  You shall rule them with a rod of iron, and shall break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2, 7-9).   Passages from the Scriptures that talked of a suffering Redeemer were simply not discussed.  We see this, for instance, in the case of the Ethiopian official who came to Jerusalem to adore God in the Temple (cf. Acts of the Apostles 8, 26-39).  Because of the thorough misconception of what the Kingdom of Heaven really was, the Lord spent much time teaching about it.  

In this parable, the landowner, that is, Almighty God, goes out at the beginning of the day to hire laborers.  Here we should reflect that before him, we are all laborers.  Now, the situation in the parable is a very common one in human history and remains so today: day laborers lined up at a central location, hiring themselves out for a day’s wage.  These are not necessarily skilled workers.  They do not know a trade, such as blacksmithing or carpentry.  They will work out in the sun from dawn until dusk and make just enough to eat for that day and maybe to afford a place to sleep that night.  “You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.”  Perhaps not many laborers were to be found at dawn and so the landowner goes out at a later hour, though still early, and hired those whom he now finds.  He will give them what is “just”, presumably meaning the usual daily wage adjusted for the later start.  “And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise.”  Now, either the landowner has underestimated the amount of work that needed to be done that day or he returned to town hoping that more laborers would turn up, since he had known all along that he did not have a sufficient number.  “Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around.”  This late hiring suggests a further possibility: that the landowner was determined to hire everyone who wanted a job.  His purpose was less about the work than about hiring workers.  This seems absurd, and the people hearing the parable for the first time must have felt this, particularly in light of what else the landowner does.

“When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage.”  The landowner stands custom on its head in paying first the last-hired.  The only possible reason for this action would be to show forth his extensive wealth and his wide generosity.  This ought to remind us that, ultimately, all that God does is for the sake of his glory.  This is not an easy idea to understand because we humans tend to think that everything he does is for our sake.  We do this because our wounded human nature causes us to think that everything is always all about us.  But it is not.  God created the universe in order to glorify himself and he sent his Son into the world in order to glorify him.  As Jesus taught the crowds about his coming Passion and Death in obedience to the Father, he cried out, “ ‘Father, glorify your name.’ A voice therefore came from heaven: ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again’ ” (John 12, 28).  He is infinitely perfect and is infinitely worthy of all glory.

“What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?”  Here those who have worked the full day object to the perceived lack of what is “right” and expect more, but they have received everything they lawfully agreed upon, regardless of what anyone else received.  In spiritual terms, we can see this as the Gentiles who are converted “late in the day” whereas the Jewish Christians believed from the beginning.  Since St. Matthew is writing to Jewish Christians, he may have meant for them to take the Lord’s words as a counsel not to nurse jealousy towards these “later” arrivals to the Kingdom.  We may also see this as an exhortation that it is never too late to convert, even up to the moment before death.  This does not diminish the long day’s work of those who went to work at dawn, for we who truly love God do not work in his vineyard solely for heaven, but also for the sheer joy of pleasing him.  Along with this there is the undeniable fact that the one who works the longest and hardest for something enjoys it more than the one who does not.

“Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”  These words also concluded yesterday’s Gospel Reading, when the Lord Jesus explained how those who put earthly wealth before their spiritual welfare would be “last”, that is, condemned, while those who gave up everything to follow Jesus, making themselves the “least” of men on earth by holding in contempt what earthly people prized (and so meriting their enmity) would be “first”, that is, judged worthy of the eternal joys of heaven.  Let us be God’s good servants, rejoicing in the rewards he gives to us, which are greater than we could hope for.

Saturday in the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, September 19, 2026

Luke 8, 4-15

When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable. “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”  Then his disciples asked him what the meaning of this parable might be. He answered, “Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.  This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation. As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

The Fathers interpret the reasons for the lack of fruit in various ways.  In the main, they teach that the “path” that the seed of Christ’s teaching falls on is an unteachable heart, one so set on sin and wickedness that it does not even consider a different way to live.  The seed is “trampled” in contempt.  The “rocky ground” the seed falls on allows the plant from the seed to begin growing, but in a short time it withers due to “lack of moisture”: the carelessness and sloth of the one who receives it withholds the nourishment which the Gospel, sown in the mind through hearing, requires for growth.  The seed that falls “among thorns” is choked by covetousness and lust.  On the other hand, the seed that falls on “rich soil” signifies the teaching of the Lord that has been embraced and treasured, and is shared with zeal, so that others fall in love with it as well so as to be likewise “fruitful”.  

It is possible for those of us who are firm believers at the present moment to grow cold in our faith and even for it to die.  We see this all the time in all sorts of people.  Often young adults who move on to college stop going to Mass and then stop believing all together.  Adults may stop believing when they are shaken by the scandals in the Church.  Others simply fall into disbelief because belief and faith require work that they are not interested in doing.  How can we prevent this from happening to us?

First of all, we must pray.  In order to pray, we need to make this a regular practice that nothing keeps us from.  We can schedule prayer in our day as monks, nuns, and priests do who pray at set times of the day.  Prayer is necessary because it leads us to the love of God: we cannot love someone we do not talk to.  Lack of prayer eventually results in the loss of faith, and may lead us, step by step, to become the hardened ground of the “path”, holding religion on contempt. 

Second, we must fortify our faith with a deeper understanding of the Lord’s teachings.  We can do this through reading the Scriptures, especially the Gospels, by studying the doctrines of the Church, and by learning about the saints.  We can also get to know the writings of the Church Fathers and to become familiar with Church history.  These things provide the “moisture” our faith needs in order to grow and flourish.

Third, we need to worship God at Holy Mass on Sundays and holy days —and during the week, if possible.  Learning about the Mass enables us to worship God more fully, so that we may become more open to his gifts.  We ought to avail ourselves of the Sacraments, the chief conduits of grace in our world.  Making a monthly confession, for instance, is a good practice.  In this way, we put down strong roots which will keep us from destruction in any storm.

Fourth, performing good works is necessary.  We should perform good works for ourselves and for others.  Good works for ourselves would be restraining our desire to buy things we do not need and to avoid anything that could be a near occasion of sin.  Good works for others may be as simple as a smile or a greeting, or in some way caring for the sick, the poor, and the troubled.  It could be teaching CCD or ushering at Mass.  Through works such as these we become “fruitful” for others in bringing the Faith to them.  We also combat the vices of covetousness, lust, and sloth in these actions.  By continuously working for the good, we do not give temptation any attention.  Thus, we become “the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

Friday in the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, September 18, 2026

Luke 8, 1-3

Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.  

During the three years of his public life, the Lord Jesus primarily preached the repentance of sins and the coming of the kingdom of heaven “from one town and village to another” within an area of less than forty miles long by less than thirty miles wide.  Between one and two hundred towns of any size existed there in Galilee at that time, with many more villages and hamlets, some inhabited by as few as fifty people.  Possibly one hundred thousand people lived in the region.  It is moving to think of the Lord limiting himself to this tiny corner of the world, away from the big cities such as Rome and Alexandria, going to the little out-of-the-way places to hunt for his lost sheep, if only to find one of them in any given village.  He does this methodically and thoroughly, as is clear from his sending his seventy-two disciples in pairs to all the towns and villages he would visit, teaching the Apostles how they are to work when they receive the Holy Spirit.

We catch some of the day-to-day routine of the Lord’s work in the verses from today’s Gospel reading.  The writers of the Gospels tell us of the most significant encounters, words, and miracles, but much of the work the Lord did could be summed up just as St. Luke puts it: “Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.”  He would have preached the same message in the various places where he stopped, healed the people who came to him for healing, and then moved on to the next town.  Jesus and his Apostles and the women who assisted them would have spent a lot of time walking in the countryside, on roads when there were roads.  Jesus would have led the way with Peter, James, and John close by, then the other Apostles and maybe some followers who had gravitated to him, and then the women.  Luke gives us the names of a few of the women, and mentions that Jesus had healed them in some way: “Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, [and] Susanna.”  He also tells us that there were “many others” who “provided for them out of their resources.”  The Greek word translated here as “resources” means, more specifically, their “goods”, “property”, and “possessions”.  We know from the other Gospels that the mother of the sons of Zebedee was one of these, as well as the mother of the Apostle James the Lesser.  Not all would have had the “resources” of the steward of Herod Antipas at their disposal, but each did or gave what she could.  Their quiet dedication would prove more resilient than that even of the Apostles, for some of them were on Cavalry with the Lord and his Mother, marked where the Body of the Lord was buried, and came early on Easter Sunday to provide the anointing which they could not do as the sun set on Good Friday evening.  According to the Gospels, to these humble servants Jesus appeared before he appeared to anyone else. 

The tenacity of the faith of these holy women gives the good example that whoever we are, we do the work of the Lord wherever he goes, offering what we can for him out of our talents, abilities, and wealth, through each day.

Personal Note: I’m still recovering. It goes very slowly. I’m starting to eat solid food again, a little. Please continue to pray for me.

Thursday in the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, September 17, 2026

Luke 7:, 36-50

A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

The anointing of Jesus which is recalled in today’s Gospel reading bears a similarity to the anointing of Jesus by Mary, the sister of Lazarus, of which St. John tells us in his Gospel (12, 1-8), but various details tell us that these are two separate events.  The woman in St. Luke’s account, for instance, is known as a “sinner”, while the woman in St. John’s Gospel is Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus.  Again, here, Luke tells us specifically that the woman anointed the feet of Jesus, and John tells us that it was his head.  

Jesus also uses each anointing to make very different points.  In John, the Lord says that Mary has anointed him in preparation for his coming Death and burial.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes the occasion to teach about the forgiveness of sins.

Luke says that, “There was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.”  Luke does not tell us which city this occurs in.  Since Luke locates Jesus in Galilee during this part of his ministry, this may have occurred in Capernaum, the city Jesus moved to after leaving Nazareth.  The “sinful woman” of whom Luke speaks would not have come to the synagogue to hear the Lord preach but could have heard him when he taught on the shore, as he did on at least one occasion.  She could very well have known some of those whom he had healed from their diseases or whom he had released from the devil.  As a prostitute, though. she would have kept her distance.  From her subsequent actions, we know that she possessed a certain humility, a recognition of her own lowliness.  Perhaps she had thought of going before Jesus on previous occasions, but she had shrunk from this out of her shame.  Here, a strong urge, a prodding by the Holy Spirit, moved her from within and she determined that come what may, she must humble herself before the One who had touched her heart, however remotely.  We can wonder if she had heard the story of how the Lord had forgiven the sins of the man carried on the mat by his friends, and desired with all her heart to be forgiven too.

She brought with her “an alabaster flask of ointment”.  Alabaster is a soft stone that is easily carved.  In ancient times the highest quality alabaster was mined in a particular place in Egypt.  A bright white stone, in those days it was often carved into vials for perfumes and ointments.  “She stood behind him at his feet” must mean that she positioned herself behind him, since she could hardly have kissed his feet from a standing position.  She “began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.”  Why does she cry?  Perhaps she was overpowered by the Lord’s powerful presence.  She may have looked into his eyes briefly and seen the love for her in them, a love which she had never felt before in her life from anyone.  At the feet of this holy man, she would certainly have wept over her sins.  She completely abases herself here, her hair disheveled, sitting on the floor where only the lowest servant would have gone, subject to shameful rejection.  But she would rather be there at the feet of Christ than anywhere she had ever been.

The Pharisee, who had most likely invited Jesus to his house to learn from him who he claimed to be, reasons: “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”  This is a fair question.  If the woman is unclean, then she makes Jesus unclean by her touch.  Would not a prophet know the clean from the unclean?  Jesus, without making any claims, shows himself to be something more than a prophet by taking up the man’s unspoken question.  In so doing, he brings up the Pharisee’s shocking lack of courtesy: he had provided no water for Jesus’s feet, had given him no kiss, and had not anointed his head, all expected ways of welcoming guests.  This behavior on the part of the Pharisee came through no accidental oversight but was purposeful and calculated to make clear that Jesus was not honoring him by his visit; he was honoring Jesus by inviting him to his house.  The omissions flew in the face of eastern culture which prized the guest, and represented a jarring breach of etiquette.  It is, in fact, a sign of contempt.  Jesus contrasts this with the behavior of the woman who has washed his feet with her tears and hair, kissed his feet, and anointed them with her perfume.  

“So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”  A better translation might read: “Her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much.”  There is no justification for “she has shown great love.”  For one thing, this would have the verb in the perfect tense, whereas it is in the aorist.  The aorist tense is used to show that a single action happened in recent past, and so Jesus is referring to her washing, kissing, and anointing his feet, rather than some action completed before this one, as indicated by the use of the perfect tense.  This woman did not love in the past, but now she did.  The word translated here as “hence” (that is, “therefore”) actually means “because”.  The lectionary translation makes it sound like the woman loved because she was forgiven, rather than that she was forgiven because she loved.  Jesus then implicitly compares to the Pharisee the woman’s state with his own: “Her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much.  But he who has not loved much is not forgiven much.”  We note here that Jesus is referring to love for himself, as well as claiming to be able to forgive sins, which only God can do: “He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven . . . Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’ ”  He makes an unequivocal statement here regarding his divinity, and the people at table with him know it: “Who is this who even forgives sins?”  

Jesus shows here how love and faith lead to forgiveness and salvation.  Love of Jesus leads to faith in him, which leads us to seek his forgiveness knowing that he is himself the source of forgiveness, and this leads us to peace with him, and salvation.  It all begins with the spark of love, which induces humility in us, allowing us to truly love.

Let us look deep into the eyes of the love of God in prayer and fall deeply in love with him so that we might also rejoice in hearing the words, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Wednesday in the ,24th Week of Ordinary Time, September 16, 2026

Luke 7, 31-35

Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’  For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

The Lord refers to a children’s game of the time in order to point out to the people around him that they were not truly seeking to learn from him, particularly concerning his identity, so much as they were trying to impose an identity on him and so control his words and deeds.  The Lord rebukes them for this, and in so doing tells them that they are acting childishly.

“The people of this generation.”  The Hebrew word for “generation” is dor, and like its Greek equivalent, it has a more general meaning than the one we usually associate with the English word.  Dor could mean generation as in a period of forty years), or an age, or a cycle of time.  The Jews of the time of Jesus believed that they were living in the sixth age, that of the Messiah; the seventh age being the age of the Sabbath.  The early Christians adapted this, understanding the sixth age, or generation, as beginning with the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and concluding with the end of the world and the final judgment.  The resurrection of the just and their entrance into heaven would inaugurate the seventh age or eternal Sabbath.  Jesus is speaking here of this sixth age, which continues to the present time.  The people of “this generation” attempt to interpret him according to their ideas, conceits, ideologies, cultural norms, and even their own personal sinfulness.  Many seek in Jesus a political liberator, a mere heroic example, a wise man, a misunderstood prophet, a wandering story-teller, or a man as sinful and given to weaknesses as any of us.  So few these days (or any other days) seek to understand him as he knew himself to be.  This requires, among other things, setting aside all preconceptions and foreign cultural prisms — indeed, our pride.  More than anything else, it is this pride that makes Jesus so hard for people to know.  Only the little ones, the child-like, can know him well.  The merely childish cannot.

“For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ ”  In preparation for the feast of grace the Lord would bring when he came, John and his disciples fasted often.  They fasted to such a degree that people felt intimidated, and so they accused him, at least among themselves, of being “possessed by a demon”.  But the people seeing that the Lord and his disciples did not fast, said, “Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”  In this way, they also let themselves off the hook: Fasting is bad, just look at that John the Baptist fellow; and, There is no need for us to talk with sinners so as to bring them back, just look at that Jesus of Nazareth character.

So let us throw off our pride and learn who Jesus truly is, which we can do through the study of the Gospels and through gazing at him on the crucifix and at the altar.

The Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Luke 2, 33-35

Jesus’ father and Mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the downfall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

The commemoration of the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary became a subject of meditation, prayer, and preaching during the Middle Ages as a consequence of the renewed devotion to the sufferings of the Lord, especially fostered by the Franciscans.  An example of this devotion to Mary is the hymn Stabat Mater, now often sung during the observance of the Stations of the Cross.  We first see this feast honoring her sorrows celebrated in the 1400’s in Germany, and it became a universal feast in the 1600’s.  By this time, popular devotion recognized seven particular sorrows: the prophecy of Simeon; the flight into Egypt; the loss of the Child Jesus in the temple; the meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross; the Crucifixion; the taking down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross; and the burial of Jesus.

What came to be known as the first of her sorrows is recounted in the Gospel reading for the feast.  Following the harrowing journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem (the Virgin, heavily pregnant, is often pictured as riding on a donkey on this occasion, but most likely that is not true), the giving birth in the stable, the visit of the Magi, and the Infant’s circumcision and naming, Joseph and Mary took their Baby the short distance to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated to God, as per the law regarding the first-born male.  They would have stood in line with dozens of other couples with their new-borns, with nothing to distinguish them.  At the point when it is their turn in the temple, the elderly Simeon approached them and took the Child in his own arms to announce that “this Child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.”  The Greek text may be more literally translated as, This One is appointed for a sign [to be] spoken against.  The literal translation helps us to see that Jesus was not merely “destined”, as though by disinterested fate, but was “appointed” by a Superior to a station or position.  The Child was in fact appointed as a “Sign”, against whom people would speak, presumably those whose “downfall” was signified by his Nativity.  The Evangelists all use the Greek word we translate as “sign” to mean an event or an appearance that provides confirmation of a claim, or as an indication of supernatural power.  For instance, in Luke 11:16: “And others tempting, asked of him a sign from heaven.”  The Pharisees press Jesus to give them some physical proof of his divinity somehow greater than that which he had already shown them.  Or, in Luke 21, 7, when Jesus speaks to his disciples about the end of time: “Master, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign when they shall begin to come to pass?”  Jesus then warns them of “signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars” (v. 25).  

All this, the Virgin Mary heard and pondered.  And then Simeon told her that she would play her own part in the Lord’s “contradiction”, his Passion: “And you yourself a sword will pierce”.  The Greek helps us out again: And a sword will pass through your soul.  Now, the word translated as “sword” can also mean a “piercing sorrow”.  This “passes through” the Virgin’s psyche, which can mean “soul”, or, literally, “breath”, which takes us back to Genesis 2, 7: “The Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath [psyche] of life, and man became a living soul.”  That is to say, A piercing, mortally wounding sorrow will pass through your very being.  Her sorrow will be utterly unlike any sorrow any person has ever felt.  But this agony will have a purpose: “So that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”  In the Greek, the “thoughts” may be either good or bad.  The intimate connection of which Simeon speaks between Jesus, appointed as a Sign, and her suffering points to the fact that Mary did not suffer only on account of Jesus, but also with Jesus — tied to her Son in a way no other ever could be, through the purity of her faith in him as the Son of God.  And Jesus knew exactly how much she herself sacrificed on account of him and with him as he gazed down at her from the Cross and committed her to St. John’s care.  The thoughts of many hearts are “revealed” through Christ’s Passion and her suffering within it: those of the Apostles, those of the Sanhedrin, those of Pilate, of Judas, and the hearts of those alive today, for the Passion of Jesus reveals the extent of God’s love for man, and the story of the human race since that time is the story of how mortal men and women accept or reject it.

By living holy, penitential lives, we too may stand by Mary at the Cross of Jesus, looking up into the eyes through which infinite love cascades out to us, and prepare ourselves for our own resurrection.

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Monday, September 14, 2026

John 3, 13–17

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”  For 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.

On October 28 in the year 312, the general Constantine fought his rivals for the imperial throne at the Battle of Milvan Bridge.  According to the Church Father Lactantius, before the battle, Constantine received a vision of the Cross of Christ, and he was told that, “In this sign, you shall conquer.”  Subsequently, Constantine had the Cross marked on the shields of his soldiers.  After fierce fighting, the opposing general drowned in the Tiber River as he tried to escape, and Constantine emerged as the victor.  One of his first actions as emperor was to make Christianity a legal religion within the empire.  Later, his mother, St. Helena, went to Jerusalem and funded an excavation which resulted in the finding of Golgotha and three crosses, one of which was thought to be the Cross of Jesus Christ.  Another Father, writing around the year 400 tells us that these three crosses were touched to a woman who was deathly ill, and at the touch of the last, she fully and instantly recovered.  This was deemed proof for the true Cross.  A feast was later celebrated in honor of the Holy Cross on September 14, the date on which it was brought into the new basilica Constantine had built for it.  

Interesting legends surround the origin of the wood for the Cross.  One, from the Middle Ages, tells that it came from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil from which Adam and Eve ate, committing the Original Sin.  The idea that the Lord was crucified on the hill in which Adam had been buried is perhaps connected with this.  Another, from the same time, has it that the wood came from the bridge over which the Queen of Sheba walked to meet King Solomon.

What we honor on this feast is not so much the wood itself as the fact that our Lord and Savior died upon it for our sins.  We celebrate a love stronger than death, more powerful than hell (cf. Song of Songs 8, 6).  We regard the wood of the Cross as a relic and honor it accordingly.  We show our love for the Cross of Christ on Good Friday when we kiss or otherwise venerate the crucifix during the celebration of the Lord’s Passion.  When we kiss the crucifix, we kiss the infinite love Christ continuously pours out upon us.

In the Gospel reading for this feast, Jesus says to the Pharisee Nicodemus, “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven”, thereby claiming his divinity, but in the next breath he tells him, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”  Here, the Lord speaks of the fact that he has taken up a human nature purposely that he might be “lifted up”.  By believing in him as God and man, we might be saved: “So that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”  But what is it to the eternal God, supremely joyous in himself, and having no need of anything, as to whether sinners are saved?  According to the punctuation in the lectionary, the following words were a commentary by St. John on what the Lord had just said. From ancient times, it has been held that the Lord himself said them: “For 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.”  That is, God did this for the sake of his love for us.  Love does not act out of need, but out of desire for the good of the beloved.  Even a partial realization of his love stuns us.  By essentially trading his Son for us, he shows how great is his love is for us.    “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”  Even with all the contempt the people of the world have shown the Lord throughout our history, he sends his Son into the world to tells us of his love for us, and even more, to show us how great his love is by dying on the Cross for us, as though to say, There is nothing, my beloved, that I would not do for you.