Homily for Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (Year A - 6/15/2026)

Last week, I met with a young man who came to me about two years ago after he did something that almost cost him his marriage. His wife did not give up on him or their marriage; however, she also did not allow herself to be “passive” in her response to his actions. Rather, she supported him as he sought professional help and held him accountable, which he needed. At the end of our meeting, he said that “marriage is hard.” I told him that I completely agreed with him. Love, as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ teaches us, is an act of the will. I told him that a husband and his wife wake up every morning and renew the vows that they made with each other on their wedding day, to will the good of each other for the sake of their marital bond and their families.

I share this experience because, in today’s Gospel, Jesus “forbids even [the] proportionate retaliation” that was allowed in the Old Testament laws found in the Books of Numbers and Leviticus, such as “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” In the marital relationship, this is akin to husband and wife “keeping score” - you did this so I get to do this. However, marital love is as Saint Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 13:4-8): “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

Moreover, in marriage, husband and wife are called to go the extra mile out of love for one another. This is similar to what Jesus teaches us, saying: “Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.” Additionally, in marriage, husband and wife are called to give 100% of each other and, when one of them can only give 99% or less, then the other is called to go that extra mile to make up the difference. It is as Jesus teaches us, saying: “Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow." Going back to the story of the young man that I met with last week, his wife did not turn her back on him after what he did. Rather, she went the extra mile to help him become the man and husband God intended him to be, for her, for him, for their marriage.

My sisters and brothers in Christ, as you might have discerned from what I have shared, marriage and family life help us to live out these teachings of Jesus with those who we love. We learn not to keep score. We learn to go the extra mile. We learn that we do not turn our backs on those we love. From these lessons learned in marriage and family life, we can then learn to do the same for our neighbors who we might not have as intimate a relationship with, such as our friends, our co-workers, or even strangers we encounter in our daily lives.

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061526.cfm

Prayer for Father's Day (6/21/2026)

My prayer for all fathers:

Pope Francis wrote, in Patris Corde, that the “greatness of Saint Joseph is that he was the spouse of Mary and the father of Jesus.”

Good and gracious God, our Father in heaven, we ask for your blessing upon all fathers and men who you have called to be spiritual fathers to many. Strengthen them to be tender and loving husbands to their spouses and fathers to their children. Imbue them with your wisdom that they may be men of faith, hope, and love, courageously answering your call to protect and lead their families as Saint Joseph protected your Son, Jesus, and his Mother, Mary. May they have the humility to turn to you not only in times of challenges but every day of their lives, knowing that they can entrust themselves and their families to your divine love.

We ask this through the intercession of Saint Joseph, the Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Worker, the Protector, and the Terror of Demons. Amen.

Links:

Prayer for Father's Day (6/18/2023) https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2023/06/prayer-for-fathers-day-6182023.html

Prayer for Father's Day (6/16/2024) https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2024/06/prayer-for-fathers-day-6162024.html

Prayer for Father's Day (6/15/2025) https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2025/06/prayer-for-fathers-day-6152025.html

"Reclaiming Faithful Fatherhood" Initiative: https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2024/05/reclaiming-faithful-fatherhood.html

Patris Corde - KC Austin Chapter - A Report of the Spiritual Director (3/23/2026) https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2026/03/patris-corde-kc-austin-chapter-report.html

Homily for Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A - 6/8/2026)

Yesterday, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the first reading that we heard from the Book of Deuteronomy, “Moses said to the people: ‘Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.’” Then, in today’s first reading from the First Book of Kings, we heard the Lord said to Elijah: “‘Leave here, go east and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan. You shall drink of the stream, and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.’ So [Elijah]  left and did as the LORD had commanded.”

The Lord God tested Elijah to see if it was his intention to keep his commandments and Elijah did as the Lord had commanded him. This is important for us not only to understand with our minds but to live out in our hearts in the dailyness of our lives. Since Pentecost and the end of Easter, we have observed the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, which serves as a reminder to us that God is a Communion of Three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - God, and he calls us into communion with Him and with each other. Then, we observed the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, which serves as a reminder to us “that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.” That Word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14). And when he ascended into heaven, the Word of God promised to be with us until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Jesus keeps his promise to us in the Eucharist.

After these blessed and grace-filled times in the liturgical year, we now entered fully into Ordinary Time in the life of the Church. It is like Peter, Andrew, John, and James coming down the mountain after witnessing the Transfiguration of the Lord. Or, for many of us, it is like leaving an amazing, grace-filled retreat and returning to the dailyness of life. Where do we go from here? Jesus gives us the answer in today’s Gospel, instructing us to live our lives according to his Beatitudes so that we are blessed and our lives become a blessing to others. This is the call to holiness, the call to discipleship, to which Jesus calls all of us to, saying: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).

When we take this approach in our lives, then Ordinary Time is turned into a time of “ordinary holiness.” I want to leave you all with these lyrics from the hymn, “Ordinary Holiness” - “Ordinary holiness. . . In the sacred day-to-day. . . Living out the Gospel. . . In a quiet, humble way. . . We are called to be the light. . . In the shadows of the night. . . Answering the call of grace. . . Seeing Christ in every face. . . In the families we love. . . In the neighbors that we greet. . . In the broken and the lonely. . . Whom we gather with to meet. . . You have poured Your love on us. . . Given strength for every chore. . . Turning ordinary pathways. . . Into steps to Heaven's door.”

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060826.cfm

Homily for Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr (Year A - 6/1/2026)

In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus’ parable of the tenants. In the parable, God is the “man [who] planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower.” We are the “tenant farmers” whom he “leased [the vineyard] to” when he “left on a journey.” In other words, we are stewards of the manifold blessings and graces that God has bestowed on us in our lives - from our families to our jobs to our gifts and talents, essentially, everything that we have, most especially, our own lives and one another. The servants in the parable represent the many prophets that we hear about throughout the Old Testament, whom the people of God put to death. 

After sending his servants, the owner of the vineyard decided to send his beloved son. This should sound familiar to us because we heard it in the Gospel yesterday on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (John 3:16-18):

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. [And here is the hinge, my sisters and brothers in Christ] Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Now, what struck me the most in the parable of the tenants is what the man said when he sent his beloved son. He said, “They will respect my son.” Unfortunately, not only did the tenant farmers not respect his son, they seized him and put him to death.

And so, my sisters and brothers in Christ, we ask ourselves this question: “Do we respect the Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?” Or do we reject him like the “stone” that the builder rejected? God does not need our respect; however, we have respect, or fear, of the Lord for our own good. It is as Saint Peter wrote: the “grace and peace be yours in abundance through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” so that “through the knowledge of him” we “may come to share in the divine nature” of the Son of God who humbled himself to share in our humanity.

Saint Peter tells us how we can grow in our relationship with our Jesus Christ, namely by making “every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.” This is what Jesus teaches us in the Great Commandment, saying: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). Love leads to mutual affection, to devotion, to endurance, to self-control, to knowledge, and, ultimately, to virtue that increases our faith in and relationship with God.

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060126.cfm