09/07/2026
Deacon Brad had a really great sermon this weekend. He agreed to share it.... so here it is if you missed it!
Mark Twain once said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
There is a lot of wisdom in that.
When we tell the truth, the story never has to change. But when we begin bending the truth, hiding the truth, or creating our own version of the truth, eventually we have trouble remembering what we said.
But today’s readings take us deeper than simply saying, “Don’t lie.”
They tell us that truth is something we owe one another.
God tells Ezekiel that if he sees someone going down the wrong path and says nothing, he shares some responsibility.
That’s a difficult message.
Because our culture often says, “Mind your own business. Let people do whatever they want. Who are you to judge?”
Certainly, Jesus warns us against self-righteous judgment.
But there is a tremendous difference between judging someone and loving someone enough to tell them the truth.
Jesus makes that clear in today’s Gospel:
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”
Now notice what Jesus does not say.
He does not say, “Go tell five other people or post on social media what he did.”
He does not say, “Hold it all inside until you finally explode.”
He says: Go to your brother.
Speak directly. Speak privately. Speak truthfully.
And the goal is not to prove that you’re right. The goal is reconciliation.
For Jesus says, “If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.”
That is Christian correction.
Not winning an argument, but instead, Winning back a brother.
And that is why St. Paul’s words today are so important: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.”
Sometimes love means forgiving someone. And sometimes love means looking someone we care about in the eye and saying: “I love you too much to pretend this is okay.”
That takes courage, because truth is not always popular.
Venerable Fulton Sheen, who will be beatified later this month, once said:
“Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right.”
Sheen also warned about a false kind of tolerance — the idea that being loving means we must accept every belief, choice, and behavior as equally good.
He observed that our problem is often not intolerance, but too much tolerance of what is false or harmful.
Sheen goes on to say, Christian love is not broad-mindedness that says, “Anything goes.”
True love always wills the good of the other.
And sometimes that means speaking a truth they may not want to hear.
Truth is not determined by opinion polls, social media, or whatever happens to be popular.
Because ultimately, truth does not change — because God does not change.
Scripture tells us: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
The world changes. Cultures change. Opinions change.
But Jesus Christ does not change.
And Jesus did not say, “I have an opinion.”
He said: “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
So ultimately the question is not: “What do I think is true?”
The question is: Am I willing to let Christ lead me to the truth?
And sometimes that truth hurts.
Today’s Psalm says: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
Because before we worry about correcting someone else, the Word of God first asks:
What truth is God trying to tell me?
Maybe I need to forgive someone. Maybe I need to apologize. Maybe there is a sinful habit I keep excusing.
God does not reveal our sins to humiliate us. He reveals them because He wants to heal us.
And that is exactly what happens in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
We walk into the confessional and do something our culture increasingly finds difficult:
We tell the truth about ourselves. No excuses. No blaming. No pretending.
“Father, forgive me, for I have sinned.”
And then something extraordinary happens.
Jesus takes the truth about our sin and meets it with the truth of His mercy.
And that reconciliation prepares us for the greatest truth we encounter here at every Mass.
In a few moments, you will come forward and receive what appears to be ordinary bread and wine. Yet you hear: “The Body of Christ.” “The Blood of Christ.”
And when you answer with a strong “Amen!” you are saying that you believe what you are about to receive:
Not because a majority believes it. Not because society approves of it. But because Jesus said it is true.
The Eucharist is not merely a symbol.
It is Jesus Christ — the Truth Himself — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
So today, ask for two graces:
First, the courage to speak the truth in love when someone needs to hear it.
And second, the humility to receive the truth in love when you are the one who needs to hear it.
Because if today you hear His voice… harden not your heart.
Listen to the Truth.
And come to this altar, where Truth is not merely spoken or believed…
Truth comes to us in the flesh — and feeds us — with His very Body and Blood.
