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.

We must admit, our Gospel today is very challenging! So much so that it could be a temptation for us to dismiss this section of the sermon. For example Jesus tells us, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.”

What are we to make of this? Haven’t most of our eyes caused us to sin at some point in our lives? What is Jesus trying to say? This is where the wisdom of the Church is an enormous gift.

You are the salt of the earth. Salt enhances taste not by adding flavor, but by chemically altering how our taste buds perceive bitterness and sweetness. If salt were to lose its taste, it would be useless to any dish — nothing can substitute for salt.

The Beatitudes in today’s Gospel remind us that God does not operate in the ways of the world. The world rewards power, wealth and admiration while God rewards those who are poor in spirit, meek and persecuted. When I prayed with this Gospel passage, I was convicted that I had gotten stuck in thinking the way that the world does. That I needed to expand my mind and be open to what God is trying to tell me, even if it doesn’t make sense right away. When we are surrounded by so many voices, from social media to television shows, it’s important to once again immerse ourselves in the Word of the Lord. As we hear in Isaiah 55:8 “For my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts”. The best way to become familiar with the voice and the will of God is to read Scripture.

Today’s Gospel highlights how intentional God is through the way He calls His Disciples. Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John are all fishermen, and Jesus calls them by saying “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” He meets them where they physically are, using language that is custom-tailored to their profession, just like He will come to you wherever you are and speak to you as His beloved child. I encourage you to try to open your eyes to the ways God is trying to particularly love you!

The Gospel presents us with a profound moment of transition and revelation. We see John the Baptist standing with his disciples when Jesus walks by, prompting John’s famous declaration: “Behold, the Lamb of God!” This encounter is much more than a chance meeting; it is the fulfillment of a lifelong journey of faith and a blueprint for our own lives as baptized Christians.

We greeted the Christ-child just a few short weeks ago, but in today’s readings Jesus emerges as a man embarking on his public mission. In the first reading, Isaiah prophesies that God will send his “chosen one with whom he he is pleased,” and that he will place his spirit upon him. Isaiah says that this “servant” of God will bring justice to the nations, not by shouting in the streets, but in gentleness, teaching truth and bringing light. In the Gospel, we see Isaiah’s prophesy finally come to pass: Jesus comes, in humility, to be baptized by his cousin John. In that moment, God sends his spirit upon Jesus, proclaiming that “this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Today with the wise men, rejoice at the sight of the star of the Lord- the child Jesus, who “is the light of all mankind” (John 1:4). Let us all welcome this light into our hearts. Letting Him into our hearts, after all, is the most fitting way to “pay him homage” and “open our treasures to him, ”as the wise men did long ago on this most special feast. The darkness has not, and will not, overcome the light of the newborn King. May His light enter all of our hearts today!

Today the Church celebrates the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Together they are the greatest model of family life. But what is it about their family dynamic that makes it so great?

We often picture the Holy Family as portrayed in Christmas cards. And while I’m sure they shared many serene, beautiful moments, that image can give us a very unrealistic sense of what their life was actually like.