November 1, 2024 This homily is for this publication only as I am at St. Gregory Abbey in Oklahoma

Revelations 7: 2-4, 9-14 + Psalm 24 + 1 John 3: 1-3 + Matthew 5: 1-12

Growing up in a very “Catholic home,” I was surrounded by saints. There was a statue or two in every bedroom, and easily that many pictures on walls. Their stories were known by all the kids because the Sisters would fill in their lesson plans with those stories when the material ran short. The classrooms had more statues than our home.

The Jesuit, James Martin, published a book called: “My Life with the Saints.” In that book he says that he could easily recognize himself, or at least parts of himself in their stories. I can’t make that claim. The Saints that the Church has recognized for their outstanding holiness never lived my life. They would find it dull and far too routine. I sometimes think that if they had lived my life, they wouldn’t have become saints! The Saints that I really know about had heroic lives, some suffered terrible cruelty, and some were murdered or surrendered their lives for their faith, for the sake of justice, or simply for other people. If I’m really honest with myself, I am not sure today that I could do that.

Yet, when I really think about it, I suspect that those great heroic Saints never set out to be heroes or planned to be saintly. Not long ago, on the evening news, a man who had jumped into a lake to pull a woman and two children out of sinking car was being interviewed on camera. The person holding the microphone commented on the fact that the lake was full of alligators, and she called him a hero. He blinked, shrugged his shoulders and said: “I just did what needed to be done.”

Maybe that’s what it really takes to be saintly, doing what needs to be done. I think that’s what Mother Theresa would have said, or Theresa of Avila, or the Curé of Ars, or John Paul II. They just did what needed to be done. Now and then I run into people who are trying to be saintly. I find them to be a bit odd, sometimes phony, and their pious behavior does not attract nor interest me. I’m not sure we can “try out” for holiness. It seems to me that holiness and sanctity are consequences of humble, sincere, simple lived by someone who just does what needs to be done not for some recognition or reward, but because there is someone else in need. 

October 27, 2024 at Saint Peter and Saint William Catholic Churches in Naples, FL

Jeremiah 31: 7-9 + Psalm 126 + Hebrews 5: 1-6 + Mark 10: 46-52

In the mid 1700s the slave trade was very lucrative business for English sailors and captains. A teenager named, John Newton was out of control with alcohol and he ended up on a slave trader. His behavior on board landed him in chains becoming a slave to the captain of the ship who eventually sold him to another ship where he was put him in charge of the holding pens for slaves. It is said that he was the cruelest man on the ship. He found and read a copy of “The Imitation of Christ.” It frightened him, and he closed the book. Not long after that, a terrible storm nearly tore the ship apart, and for the first time, he prayed in fear. When the storm calmed, he began to read the New Testament and in the story of the Prodigal Son he could see himself. The damaged ship barely made it to shore. He went straight to a church to pray, but his conversion didn’t last long, and he ended up back in the slave trade where in West Africa he contracted malaria and nearly died. This time, the fear made a difference and even though he made three more voyages taking slaves to the Caribbean, he recognized that he had been blinded by power, ambition, and money.  He ended up as an active abolitionist working to put and end of slavery in England. As a Pastor for 23 years, his sermons often reflected on the theme of God’s grace, and he left us the hymn we all know so well. “I was blind, but now I see.” 

We are nearing the end of our journey with Jesus to Jerusalem narrated by Mark. In just four weeks, it’s over. Then we shall pick up the Gospel of Luke for the coming year with Advent. When Jesus turned his face and started toward Jerusalem in chapter eight, a blind man was healed. Now nearly at the gate of the city there is another blind man. You might find it interesting to compare the stories. They are quite different in several ways that say something about what has happened to Jesus as well as his disciples along the way. This is the final miracle story in Mark’s Gospel, and it is the only time when someone cured has a name.

As Mark tells it there are two issues of notice. The disciples still don’t get it. They just don’t “see” what Jesus has been doing and what his ministry is about. They try to keep Bartimaeus quiet and want him out of the way. I find it remarkable that “Jesus stopped.” Determined as he has been to get to Jerusalem, right there near the end, he stops because someone calls. What he is about, what he must do, where he is headed all comes to a halt for a poor man, a nobody, sitting at the side of the road shouting. Then, he asks the question that echoes down through the ages to us today. “What do you want me to do for you?” When that question is first asked, Bartimaeus knows what he needs. He knows he is blind, and that is his first grace.

When Jesus Christ asks that question of us, if we do call out to him, what are we going to ask for? This is an invitation to consider what we really want from Jesus. We will do no better than learn from Bartimaeus. He calls Jesus “teacher.” I think Bartimaeus is the teacher here teaching us what to ask for. We are blind people. We just don’t really see. It’s not a matter of the optic nerve. It’s a matter of really seeing, perceiving, understanding who we are and what our blindness allows. There is a spiritual blindness like an epidemic in this world. With all our laser technology, cornea transplants, and Cataract surgery, too many of us a still blinded by ambition, power, money, and prestige.

We do not see what our life-style does to someone else. We do not see the face of Christ in anyone who questions or threatens our privilege and comfort. We refuse to stop too often when someone calls out. We ask Jesus for things that really will not transform our lives and bring peace and justice. Yet, Jesus still asks offering help, and his hand reaches down to our hands to lift us up and offer a new way of life. Following him on the “way” will not lead to any superiority or sophistication, but into a world in which everything has meaning and is real and belongs. Our teacher wants us to be well and to see again – to see as God sees. When that happens, we can sing that old hymn and really mean it.

October 20, 2024 at Saint William & Saint Peter Catholic Churches in Naples, FL

Isaiah 53: 10-11 + Psalm 33 + Hebrews 4: 14-16 + Mark 10: 35-45

When I read these verses from Mark’s Gospel, I always wonder exactly why the other ten were so angry. Was it because they didn’t ask first and James and John beat them too it? Or, was it because it was such an inappropriate question. We’ll never know the answer, but it is worth thinking about if we put ourselves into the moment. What we see is that self-interest and a quest for power have fractured the very community Jesus has been forming. The whole situation sounds too much like us these days. The ideal of a more perfect union has fractured by a lot of self-interest and a quest for power. “It shall not be so among you” says Jesus Christ. My bet is that he shouted that at them in frustration and disappointment. 

What is on display here are the symptoms of communal life disrupted by distrust and division. They don’t want to serve. They want to be served. With that, the entire mission of Jesus is revealed, and its success or future is called into question.

I think it is important here to realize that Jesus does not criticize James and John for asking to sit at his right or his left in glory. He simply suggests that they are not clear about how you get there. We have the benefit of knowing what they did not know. At the time this discussion happens, they have not yet been to Calvary. They do not yet know that the “glory” of Jesus will be revealed from a Cross. Even though we may understand that intellectually, our position of privilege in this world still makes it hard to see what this gospel makes clear. Glory is not about power or winning. It is about something quite the opposite.

Jesus asks a question here, “What do you want me to do for you?”  He will ask the exact same question of a blind man named, Bartimaeus a little later when he gets to Jerusalem. Guess which one sees clearly enough to follow Jesus “on the way.”

This is the question at the heart of this story. What do you want Jesus to do for you? If we have some power or influence and use it for a good purpose then we might want Jesus to keep things as they are or even increase our influence so that we can do even greater things in his name. If we are somehow powerless against neglect or abuse, a victim of prejudice or hate we might ask Jesus to make this world more fair, just and loving. We might ask Jesus how a whole community like us might change things, give up something and give ourselves away on behalf of others and give us enough love and courage to really want to serve rather than be served.

I’m glad that Jesus did not scold or judge James and John but rather continued patiently to teach them his way and the possibilities they could not see at the time. He came as a ransom to set us free. If we can only begin to acknowledge how we have been enslaved by a desire to secure our privileges and to be served grace has begun to set us free, free to ransom others by service and sacrifice. This is not an idea. It is a frame of mind and a way of life called discipleship.

October 13, 2024

This homily was not delivered as I am attending the 100^th anniversary of the Cathedral in Oklahoma City.

Wisdom 7: 7-11 + Psalm 90 + Hebrews 4: 12-13 + Mark 10: 17-30

This man who stops and questions Jesus at the beginning this week’s Gospel introduces two key terms worth our thoughtful reflection: “good” and “inherit.” In the conversation with this man, Jesus is not trying to deny his own goodness, but he is asking the man if he really knows what he is saying and why he is saying it. Not interested in flattery, Jesus pushes the conversation further suggesting that this man is confused about what is good. He can’t seem to distinguish between what is good from goods.

Goodness is an attribute of God. One look at the two words in print might give us some clue. Any thing that is good in this world is good because it comes from God or comes from God’s creation. On the other hand, the word can be used to identify riches or material possessions not because they reflect God’s glory but because they satisfy our desire to possess and consume. What we see is that this man cannot let go of his “goods” because he can’t see what they are and where they come from. Then, there is this matter of inheritance. An inheritance implies a relationship or a kinship with a willingness to wait and receive. The man does not seem to understand this. He wants some “thing.” What he needs is some “one.”

What we hear in this story today is not a critique of this man, but an invitation to look at our own lives and evaluate what we own and how what we own leads us to see and express the glory of God remembering the source of all that is good. There is nothing in the Gospel that demands that we become like Saint Francis and give away all our possessions. However, at the same time, every line of the Gospel warns us about the ways a desire for more goods, more prestige, more luxury or more power diverts us from our greatest potential.

With all his wealth, a man who seems to lack nothing ends up being told by Jesus that he does lack something. All of his abundance has created a lack that can only be filled or satisfied by a relationship with a person rather than with things. He lacks what he needs most, an ability and willingness to follow the way of Jesus Christ. This rich man is really a poor man too content with his riches or his “goods” to see what is really good – a relationship with the one Good – God. All those goods have led him to settle for less because they seem to be the best offer around. The inheritance he could have is a reward that comes when goods become good by being circulated, both given and received not possessed or owned.

In the end, keeping the commandments does not make any of us good. It just makes us keepers of the rules. This man in the Gospel keeps the rules, but yearns for something more. He has a lot of stuff, and he knows and feels that it still is not enough. He needs someone. He comes to the one who can give him what he longs for. But, at that moment, he is too confused about what is good and how to inherit failing to understand that having an inheritance means having a relationship. It seems like a sad story the way it ends, but maybe it is more of a beginning. Maybe he will, having reflected as we do now on the message of this Gospel, he will return ready and open recognizing what is really good and where it all comes from.

October 6, 2024 at Saint William Catholic Church in Naples, FL

Genesis 2: 18-24 + Psalm 128 + Hebrews 2: 9-11 + Mark 10: 2-16

These verses of Mark’s Gospel are not about divorce at all. The troublemakers are there to trap Jesus with a question about divorce. They want to get Jesus to say something that will get him into trouble with Herod whose divorce was a hot topic at the time – a topic that cost John the Baptist his head. Jesus does not fall for their tricks. He talks about marriage.

Reaching deep into the well of our heart’s desires Jesus repeats the words of the Creator, “It is not good for man to be alone.” Going further to reveal God’s will and God’s plan, the Genesis story puts Adam to sleep so that it is clear that this is only the work of God. A rib is taken. Unlike the creation of every other creature, this creature will not be less, separate, or different from man. This is bone from bone, flesh from flesh. There is equality here intended by God, and that is the real revelation and response Jesus gives to those troublemakers. For them, this idea had to be disturbing.

At the time, marriages were arranged. There was no thought about love and commitment in marriage. As a result, divorce was a constant issue that could even upset the economy. When the response of Jesus brings the suggestion of God’s action in this relationship there is something new to think about. This is no longer about economics or providing children to help with work. Marriage, like everything else, has changed with the coming of Christ. The purpose of his Incarnation and the motive for his mission is to restore the perfection of that Garden where everything was perfectly in harmony and peace as God had intended.

No longer just a relationship between two people, Jesus speaks of God’s intention for marriage to be a covenant between two people and God. The binding force in marriage, as Jesus sees it, is not vows or even the love of the two people for each other. The binding force is God’s own presence in that relationship. He makes the point by saying: “What God has joined together……” Recognizing and cultivating God’s presence in a marriage brings joy in good times and hope in sorrow. As God intends and Jesus teaches, marriage is a living sign of God’s presence in our midst. It is the manifestation of the love of God, a love that knows neither condition nor limit in its ability to give and forgive. Jesus appeals to all of us to embrace the Spirit of love that is the basis of God’s love.

Yet, we know only too well that no human relationship is without sin, and sometimes promises are broken. While living with this reality, we must hold fast to the promise that God is always radically faithful, and there is nothing that will divorce us from God’s love. Entering into and maintaining a marriage relationship requires a commitment that must rely on God. What these verses ask of us is a serious consideration of radical faithfulness. First comes faithfulness to God, and with that, we can be faithful to one another in the promises we make.

September 29 2024 at Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL

Numbers 11: 25-29 + Psalm 19 + James 5: 1-6 + Mark 9: 38-42, 45, 47-48

It’s easy to let our attention be drawn to John or Jesus in this scene. I suspect that many are preaching about them today speaking about a host of issues that may arise from this incident. Hospitality could be one of the issues since there seems to be a refusal on the part of the disciples to welcome this outsider. The issue of who is “in” and who is “out” would make a great sermon too. Cups of water given could be another theme. At the same time, digging into what this says to the early church for which Mark is writing may reveal a great deal about their challenge.

As you might have guessed by now, I’m not going there. After more than 50 years of praying and listening to this Gospel, I have worn out those themes. Weeks ago, as I began to study and listen once again, I began to think about the third person in this episode. He’s the one with no name. I’ve decided that I like this guy, and I like the way he works.

You may have noticed that there is no suggestion that his work casting out demons is a failure. John did not say that this man was “trying to cast out demons.” He was doing it successfully. So, I wonder what’s the problem here? Then I remember that just a few verses earlier, the disciples came to Jesus disappointed and frustrated because they had met failure in casting out a demon. It almost seems that they are a bit jealous of another’s success or that they are frustrated because someone can do what they cannot.

For me, this whole scene is a reminder that the work of Jesus Christ, the work of the church, the work of healing, forgiving, feeding, and caring for people troubled by all sorts of demons and evil is not just for the official, approved, or designated persons. It is not reserved for those with time to spare or those trained in some special way. 

There is no doubt that things done through all kinds of Church programs are beneficial. However, at the same time, we can often get so focused on the program that those who do not have the time for training, meetings or reports get ignored and discouraged. They may well have other responsibilities that go with raising a family, caring for a loved one, while working to put food on the table. When they are done with that, they are tired and do not have the energy for “Church Work.” Sometimes they may even feel as though they are not good disciples.

I would suggest that this Gospel might give us cause to re-think all of this and recognize what Jesus sees. The work and ministry of Jesus Christ and his Church can and even must continue within and without the official program or approval of the Church. I think of men and women working doing double shifts in hospitals. I think of daycare workers who wear themselves out caring for little children for more hours than the parents do. I think of our first responders who are there when we need them, of mechanics who keep our cars running so that we can be where we need to be. 

There are no boundaries when it comes to the need to continue the work of Jesus Christ. It takes no “religious vocation” to be forgiving, healing or kind. There is no “them” or “us” when it comes to charity and offering that cup of water. You don’t need a membership card to let people see the face of Christ and know the love God. I do know for sure that those who serve in the name of Jesus will be drawn into deeper friendship with him, and we can all do that.

September 22 2024 at Saint William Catholic Church in Naples, FL

Wisdom 2: 12, 17-20 + Psalm 54 + James 3: 16- 4:3 + Mark 9: 30-37

Jesus is slowly making his way toward Jerusalem. He knows what has happened to every prophet before him. Aware of the animosity and power of his opponents, he knows what is likely to come when they get to Jerusalem. He has left the safety of Galilee where his opponents have no power and moved into their territory. I think it is important to realize that Jesus Christ did not choose that cross. The choice he made was not to avoid it or fight it. Jesus did not want to die on a cross. His prayer after the last supper in that garden should make that clear to us. His Father did not want that either. But having set us free in this life, God does not use power to coerce or force us to do anything. God so loves the world that God will have nothing to do with coercion. God just makes the best of our mistakes and bad choices, and with love saves us sometimes in spite of ourselves.

So, here are the chosen twelve. They hear what Jesus says about what is to come. The first time he told them about it, Peter argued with him, and he got a scolding for it. So, it’s not surprising that this time, they all just keep quiet. Probably because they were beginning to understand what he was saying, they are afraid what it might mean for them. Their talk among themselves tells us what they were afraid of, giving up their ambition and dreams of glory.

Knowing their ambitions Jesus decides to redefine it. In place of ambition to rule others he substituted the ambition to serve others. For the ambition to have others do things for them, he substituted the ambition to do things for others. He did not tell them that they should not seek greatness. He simply showed them where true greatness was to be found not in being the master of others, but rather in being the servant of others, especially the weakest members of the community.

This tends to be a problem for us, because we sometimes define or evaluate people in terms of the job they do. If we learn that a person is a doctor, our estimation of the person soars. But if we learn that a person is mowing grass for a living, our estimation stays earthbound. It’s silly business because we know that there is something more important than the job, namely, the kind of human being behind the job.

The mistake the apostles made was to put the job, or the position, first. In their eyes, the greatest among them was the one who had the highest position still hanging on to their hope that Jesus would set up an earthly kingdom where they would be important and in charge. The message they get is that to earn the top spot, they had to go to the bottom. In order to be served, they would have to serve first. They would not be sitting on high thrones and soft cushions. They would be on their knees with a basin of water in one hand and towel in the other washing the feet of the little ones.

For all of us, it is not what I do but what I am that is important. We have to do things that we can be proud of. Feelings follow actions. Jesus tells us what they are. They are deeds of love and service. He set the example himself by never taking the easy way or avoiding the difficult way. He gave his life in the service of others. No one can go higher than that. He is the greatest in the Kingdom.

September 15 2024 at Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL

Isaiah 50: 4-9 + Psalm 116 + James 2: 14-18 + Mark 8: 27-35

Mark has no pity when it comes to Peter, and I have always thought that the tradition suggesting that Peter is Mark’s primary source might well be true. Peter never seems to sugar-coat anything, and he has no trouble sharing his struggles with understanding, loyalty, and faith. He gets it wrong today as he often does. He has the right word, but the wrong definition. He says: “Christ,” but he has no idea what that means. It is much the same for all of us. We may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah and Savior, but we may be even more confused than Peter about what that actually means.

So, Mark sets this up at Caesarea Philippi. It was a circus of worship places and temples with altars set up to every concept of divinity from the gods of the Greeks to the god-head Caesar.  In that setting, Jesus asks the Twelve that question about what people are saying and what they have to say about his identity. Up to this point of Mark’s Gospel Jesus has been reluctant to have people believe in him because of miracles, and for the first time in this Gospel he speaks about dark things ahead, rejection, suffering, death and resurrection. These are all things the Twelve are unable to grasp.

Peter speaks up for everyone confessing his faith in Jesus as the Messiah using the word: Christos. In his mind this is the Messiah of victory and salvation. But when Jesus begins to speak of a Messiah who will suffer rejection and death, Peter objects. His objection is not hard to understand because we often do the same thing.

Everyone prefers a popular, happy, Jesus who heals and comforts. Peter wants to write a job description for Jesus, and we do too. Jesus gets fashioned according to a prosperity gospel that turns him into the dispenser of a comfortable, trouble-free life of prosperity, easy to like.

Jesus get fashioned according to a psychotherapeutic gospel who makes us feel good with kind of “I’m OK and You’re OK” so let’s just skip along avoiding challenges that might suggest I need help.

No matter, we cannot make Jesus be what we want and do what we want. We cannot have the kind of Savior who is going to pop up and fix everything that bothers us. That is, what I like to call, a new kind of idolatry. That is a false God of my own creation. The practice of fashioning a god that does what we want goes on all the time. I once read that John Calvin claimed that man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.

There is stern warning in this Gospel ordering disciples away from that kind of thinking because they will not understand what it means to confess Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, until they have stood beneath the cross. The temptation to look for someone of power; one who claims the earth, rules it with strength, and will drive off anything that frightens or hurts us is great and dangerous. It is always easier to believe in a distant God of power than in the Suffering Servant of Isaiah who cries out in pain on the crosses of the world and suffers in humanity. It’s easy to believe in Jesus when we feel good. It’s not so easy when he does not stop our hurt. 

The life of a disciple has both joy and sorrow. A life of joy with no sorrow becomes like the earth with only sunshine and no rain; a barren desert. Both suffering and joy, are always part of life for a real disciple.

September 8 2024 at Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL

Isaiah 35: 4-7 + Psalm 146 + James 2: 1-5 + Mark 7: 31-37

The route Marks provides at the beginning of these verses would suggest that he knew nothing of that geography or that there was something wrong with his GPS. It would be like going to Baltimore via Seattle and Houston. For Mark, travel details are just a way of moving the story along. What matters is the destination. Jesus is out of his own neighborhood. He has gone to the other side of the tracks, so to speak. He is not now in friendly territory among his own kind. His compassion and healing presence are in no way limited to a select or privileged few. The inclusiveness of the Kingdom cannot be ignored or dismissed. 

The early church Mark writes for originally was struggling with the challenge of including people who were different, who spoke other languages, had other customs and different color skin. What Mark reveals here is just as important for us as it was for them, and we may not dismiss the Word of God and still claim our faith in Jesus who so easily ignores all borders and boundaries. He does not see them.

For those who first witnessed this event and for those who heard of it from them, their excitement is not hard to understand. As promised in the book of Isaiah, the Messiah’s arrival would be marked by the blind receiving their sight and the deaf being able to hear. What Jesus is doing fulfills this promise in a way that no one can miss. It’s no wonder people can’t stop proclaiming what he has done.

The whole point of these verses though is not the disability of that man, but the identity of Jesus as the Christ who heals and redeems bringing a new creation of mercy and wholeness. As the story goes on, more details reveal the human tenderness and compassion that leads Jesus to take this man away from the crowd. There is a suggestion of personal intimacy as Jesus he touches him, and by taking him away from the crowd Jesus saves him from embarrassment and the stares of onlookers. There is here a wonderful suggestion of respect for someone often avoided and ignored. Then with that, Mark describes a very real human emotion when he tells us that Jesus sighed. There is here a solidarity with human suffering that leads Jesus to sigh with distress and sadness. 

All of these details clarify the identity of Jesus Christ as God’s presence, giving us every reason to believe that God knows no limits or borders, and that God still looks with distress upon any of us who suffer and with compassion on anyone who has been pushed to the sidelines for whatever reason. That personal relationship nurtured in the privacy of one’s trust in Jesus will save, restore, and open our ears to the Good News we find in the Gospel and open our mouths to proclaim God’s love and mercy.

September 1, 2024 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint Agnes Churches in Naples, FL

Deuteronomy 2: 1-4, 6-8 + Psalm 15 + James 1, 17-18, 21-22, 27 + Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Well, that wasn’t much fun listening that list of our sins was it? It wasn’t any fun reading either! After almost 55 years of hearing confessions, I can tell you that this list just about covers it all. My guess is that those Pharisees were sorry they ever brought up the whole matter of the law. Being publicly called hypocrites and having the teaching of one of your own prophets thrown in your face didn’t exactly open the door to a polite conversation. So, Jesus turns to the crowd, that’s us, and asks us to “hear and understand.”

Jesus attacked the thinking of those Pharisees for two reasons. First, they believed that if they would just carry out correct external practices they were a good person no matter what their hearts and thoughts were like. Second, their definition of religion depended upon rules that were mostly made by people rather than God. This kind of thinking leads to believing that keeping the law will guarantee salvation. And so, this episode could lead us back to that old question, “What must I do to be saved?”

Christ did not come to do away with the laws and commandments of religion. Those old rules the Pharisees are disturbed about kept people healthy. Washing was and still is, a good thing. What Jesus is saying is that keeping the rules is just not enough. He gave us the Beatitudes. He said, “Be humble. Be just. Be charitable. Be merciful. Be gentle. Be forgiving. Be respectful.” 

In spite of what Jesus teaches, Phariseeism isn’t dead. It is alive and well in government and in every bureaucracy where people put red tape before the needy. They say they are only doing what they have to do, and are never uncomfortable when doing their duty hurts another. As a current example, some on the Arizona border with Mexico are accusing Catholic Charities there of breaking the law by feeding hungry people who cross the border.  It’s the same thing still going on. It works in religion too. Some who call themselves religious often claim to be keeping tradition while they confuse human tradition with God’s commands. This Gospel warns against the tendency to equate human precepts with God’s will.

This Gospel speaks not to Pharisees or Scribes, but to all of us disciples with a warning about anything that pollutes the human heart and destroys human relationships. We have to examine all the ways we behave, looking into our own hearts. All these sins we just heard of are external offenses against others, and they are first conceived in the heart.

When the word of God has taken root in us, everything becomes a religious practice. This word can come to us through the teachings of our faith, through the example of good people around us. However it comes, when it does take hold of us our inner eye is opened, our heart is softened, and we turn instinctively to God like a flower turns to the sun. When this happens to us, God’s law becomes sacred, religious practice is cherished, and we are filled with the power that saves.