What a Gospel passage we have this Sunday! What a gem! Notice the overall movement of the scene. We begin with a glimpse of Jesus’ prayer life, of His divine intimacy with the Father. Then, in the same breath, He turns and opens His arms to the weary, inviting them into that same intimacy.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us “whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me”. This is a challenging Gospel to take to heart! There are many difficulties and challenges in life and it is worth reflecting on what are the crosses that God is asking you to carry today and in general.

We so often forget who our Father is. And when we do, it can be easy to get swept up in the fears and anxieties of life. But these words of the Gospel are such a profound reminder! We have nothing to fear, because our Father is literally God. He is love itself, he is strength and protection itself, he has conquered death and darkness and he offers us the most glorious inheritance in Heaven. So on this Father’s day, let us step into our true identities as sons and daughters of this magnanimous Father, and let’s allow his perfect love to cast out all of our fears.

When Jesus looks at the crowds, He does not see a mass of people. He sees faces, stories, wounds, longings. He sees each person as someone infinitely loved by the Father.

The Gospel says that He was moved with compassion because they were “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9). Before Jesus sends the apostles out, He first allows His heart to be touched by the people.

“Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” In its most palpable sense, we celebrate the fulfillment of these words today in the Solemnity of Corpus Christi—the Body and Blood of Christ. Jesus, having ascended locally into heaven at the right hand of the Father is still present with us—body, blood, soul, and divinity in what Catholics have perpetually considered one of the greatest gifts God gave the Church—the Most Blessed Sacrament.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
These are the words the priest begins in prayer at every Mass. They are words first spoken by St. Paul as he concluded his letter to the Corinthians and summarize today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

Today is the beautiful and powerful solemnity of Pentecost! Fifty days after Easter, we hear in the Gospel today about the descent of the Holy Spirit. Jesus breathes on his disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and He loves us unconditionally. The best way to cultivate this relationship is to invite the Holy Spirit into your heart: “Come, Holy Spirit”.

The Gospel proclaimed today emphasizes a concept that is the very heartbeat of our faith: DIVINE INTIMACY. To be a Christian is not simply to follow a set of rules or to study a historical figure; it is to know God closely, personally, and deeply. Today, in the Gospel of John, Jesus provides us with a beautiful and definitive truth: "Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God"

In this passage we also see Christ telling His disciples that love requires action. Saint Ignatius of Loyola reminds us that “Love ought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words.” It is important that we put our love into action. Take a look at our mothers: we know they love us not just by their words, but by their beautiful deeds. How is Christ calling you to put your love for Him into action?

Let not your hearts be troubled! What a wonderful message we get to receive right from Jesus Christ Himself this Sunday. Our Lord and Savior often tells us not to fear. How great a consoler He is, the true healer of all wounds! He is constantly reminding us of His love and the desires He has for us through the gifts, for instance, that He gives us in our day-to-day lives, and also through Scripture: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3). God is so good!

What is life in abundance? The world might say that it means having everything we want, or being very wealthy, or having once-in-a-lifetime experiences from time to time, and the list goes on and on. But the saints would tell us that Jesus speaks of a deep, abiding, joy and hope that the world cannot give, and persists in the bleakest of life circumstances.

In today’s Gospel when two disciples (unknowingly) meet Our Lord on the road to Emmaus, they tell him that it has been three days since the Passion and death of Jesus in Jerusalem, and that they have just heard the astounding rumor that the tomb is empty and that Jesus has been raised. You would think that this news would have filled them with hope and kept them in Jerusalem, and yet—here they are, walking on the road away from Jerusalem on Easter Sunday, despondent and unmoved. They don’t even recognize Jesus standing before them, when just a few days earlier they had been hoping that he was the Messiah. When Jesus calls them “foolish and slow of heart,” he is certainly justified! But he does not give up on them.

Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the "solemnity of solemnities," which culminates in Divine Mercy Sunday - that is today! Why do we turn our attention to God's mercy during the holiest time of year? It is woven throughout all scripture and comes to its fullest expression in the Resurrection. We hear this most explicitly in today's second reading from St. Peter, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy (IN HIS GREAT MERCY!) gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

With great humility and an almost desperate jubilation, we approach the great mystery of the Resurrection. A very happy Easter to everyone — the sacred day without which true “happiness” would be only a passing shadow or a wishful dream. As Saint Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised... if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.”

But He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Today our humble King riding His donkey asks permission to explore your inner Jerusalem.

Palm Sunday reflects the paradox of Christian life: exultation and sorrow woven together in a single mystery. The spiritual life is not a steady climb upward, but a journey with deep valleys, unexpected turns, and sacred plunges. Palm Sunday reveals this pattern in Jesus Himself and in us.

In today’s Gospel reading about the resurrection of Lazarus, it struck me that twice in this passage, Jesus was “perturbed. Jesus is fully human and fully divine. He must have experienced a wide range of human emotions. Feeling troubled and perturbed is not a feeling that I often think about when meditating on the life of the Son of God. However, I find it consoling to know that Jesus can relate to us and our feelings - whether positive or negative - because He felt them all too.

“Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance, but the LORD looks into the heart.”

Our readings today deal, in different ways, with sight and appearance. In our first reading we see Samuel anoint God’s chosen king from the sons of Jesse. God bypasses Jesse’s seven older sons, despite their “lofty stature,” before anointing David, the youngest and most unassuming.

Later, in the Gospel, we hear the story of Jesus giving sight to the man born blind…

In our Gospel today, we meet the Samaritan Woman. The Church gives us this reading while we are still at the front end of Lent. The rush of Ash Wednesday and a new liturgical season are over, and we have now fully entered the desert. And in the desert, we are reminded of our desire. Perhaps you have already slipped once or twice in your Lenten fasts. The truth about humanity is that we are made with infinite desire. The Lord alone can satisfy these caverns within us, and it will be our life’s work to understand that truth and live it.

In our Gospel this week, Peter, James, and John get a momentary glimpse of Jesus in all of his divine glory, radiantly transfigured into the God that he is. After years of talking to Jesus as a friend, eating with him, camping with him, seeing him at work in his humanity, they suddenly catch sight of his brilliant divinity unveiled. Understandably, they cower in the face of this awesome appearance.

In the Gospel today, we see Jesus led into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights to fast. There, He is tempted by Satan. But before we look at these temptations, it’s important to examine what happens just before this.

In Matthew 3, Jesus goes to the Jordan to be baptized. As He rises from the water, the heavens open and a voice proclaims, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” What a stark contrast. One moment, the beautiful assurance of Christ’s identity. The next, intense fasting and temptation.