Holy Family Catholic Church-Birmingham

08/28/2026

To All,

Last week, I mentioned that we would see in our Gospel reading this week that Peter still had a lot to understand about the kingdom of heaven. In our Gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 16:21-27), after Peter has confessed that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and Jesus acknowledges that He will build His church “upon this rock,” Jesus then explains to the disciples what will happen: “that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scrobes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

Matthew then tells us that Peter, obviously startled by such words, takes Jesus aside and says, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing will ever happen to you.” And Jesus, who had recognized that Peter’s previous confession had to have come as a revelation from God, now sees where this is coming from: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Peter, as did many of the other disciples and many of the people, saw Jesus in terms of being a king in the worldly sense, as we see when Jesus does enter Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-11). But that is thinking as human beings do. And that is why the devil tempted Jesus this way in the desert (Matthew 4:8-11).

God’s ways are not our ways! Thanks be to God! And so, Jesus says, “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. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?” For me, Jesus is talking about the temptation to sell our soul, be false to who we are and who we are called to be, in order to gain material wealth or dominance over others.

As St. Paul writes in our second reading, “Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” The “renewal” of our minds occurs when we realize again how much God loves us in Jesus Christ. When we are conformed to God’s love and mercy toward us, we can discern how God calls us to treat each other and care for the world. As tempting as it might be, God neither calls us to hate nor to fear. God doesn’t call us to greed or selfishness. Instead, we are called to show the same and mercy to others as is shown to us, time and time again.

We need not give in to despair or apathy. Instead, we are called to deny ourselves, take up the crosses that come when we choose to love, and follow Jesus in forgiveness and mercy. To run from the cross is to run from love.

May we open our hearts and our minds, and let God’s grace renew us in love and hope.

I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.

In Christ,

Phil, CP

08/27/2026

08/21/2026

To All,

In our Gospel reading for Sunday (Matthew 16:13-20), Jesus asks his disciples what the people are saying about Him. They answer that the people consider Him as one of the prophets. So, then He asks them what do they think. And Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” After Jesus affirms this answer as coming from God, He says, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”

In the last few years, I have focused a bit on Jesus saying, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” I focus on that because the Gospels tell us that Peter had to go through a lot to be able to receive the keys to the kingdom. There was a lot he didn’t understand as yet. We will see this in next Sunday’s reading.

Peter still had to experience Jesus’ death and Resurrection. He had to receive the Holy Spirit. And finally, he became a martyr for the Gospel.

Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection still do not fit the conventional understaning of the world. For the last few Sundays, as we have been moving through St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, we see that Paul has been trying to understand the acceptance by the Gentiles and the rejection by the Israelites of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In our second reading for this Sunday (Romans 11:33-36), he seems to finally accept that it is beyond his power to fully comprehend the situation and surrenders to the wisdom of God: “Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Or who has given the Lord anything that he may be repaid?’”

What Paul says about the acceptance by the Gentiles and the rejection by the Israelites could just as well be said about the mystery of our faith: Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection for our salvation. The extent of God’s love for us is still beyond our full comprehension or our power to fully describe it. Both Peter and Paul had to go through a lot to have some understanding of God’s love and mercy toward us. But even without understanding everything, both were willing to be martyred for their faith.

We may not completely understand God’s love for us (“who has given the Lord anything that he may be repaid?”). We may not understand why certain crosses come into our lives. But the Cross of Jesus tells us that we can trust in God’s love for us, even when we’re carrying some cross. Jesus’ Resurrection tells us that we can live in hope; that we can continue to share God’s love with others, working for justice, caring for the earth, and making peace.

I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.

In Christ,

Phil, CP

08/14/2026

To All,

In our Gospel reading for Sunday (Matthew 15:21-28), we hear about an encounter between Jesus and a “Canaanite woman.” This is another encounter between Jesus and someone who is not a Jew. For me, this encounter challenges us how we are to relate to those considered “other.”

The reason the Canaainite woman comes to Jesus is that her daughter is “tormented by a demon.” At first, Jesus does not respond to her at all. The disciples ask Jesus to send her away, and Jesus’ response to them is. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Meanwhile, the woman has not left. She comes up to Jesus, does Him homage, and again pleads with Jesus to help her. And then Jesus says something startling to our modern ears, in what appears to be quoting some proverb: “It is not right to take the food of children and throw it to the dogs.”

If the encounter ended there, I can imagine some people thinking and saying, “See! Even Jesus says those people should not get anything we get. America is for Americans!”

Thankfully, the encounter doesn’t end there. The woman stands her ground, and says to Jesus in reply, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the tables of their masters.” And then Jesus says, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And Matthew tells us that the woman’s daughter was healed.

I have heard and read various interpretations of why Jesus responded in the way that He did. Was the exchange between Jesus and the woman some kind of Middle Eastern banter? Or was Jesus doing this for the edification of the disciples? Or was Jesus really changed by the encounter to think that His mission might go beyond the “lost sheep of the house of Israel?”

There is something else I read in the commentaries that helped me consider what all this means for us today. The commentaries say that when the disciples ask Jesus to send the woman away, they are actually asking Jesus to give her what she wants. And I think they ask Him to do this so she will stop bothering them.

In having that exchange, for whatever reason, Jesus actually engages the woman and recognizes her faith and also, I think, her determination. In dealing with those considered “other,” we can be ruled by bigotry, or indifference, or even by a sense of charity that allows us to remain aloof, and therefore dismiss them. Or we can actually engage others and interact with them with the love Christ has for us. That is the challenge!

May we not dismiss others as unworthy of God’s love or ours. May we actually encounter others as beloved of God and seek justice for all.

I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.

In Christ,

Phil, CP