20th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026 - A mission to all nations & OCIA invitation

 

As I’ve shared before, during college seminary I had the great privilege of studying for a semester in the Eternal City of Rome. And that semester included quite a few trips to St. Peter’s Basilica. In fact, even before really getting our bearings, now my dear priest friend Fr. Matthew Pfeiffer and I, went to St. Peter’s on our first day in Rome. Like countless pilgrims before us, we made our way through the streets of Rome, into Piazza San Pietro, the large piazza located directly in front of St. Peter’s Basillica, surrounded by that iconic colonnade.

The colonnade was designed by the Italian architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII in the mid-1600s. 284 Doric columns surround the piazza to resemble the welcoming arms of the Church, like a mother embracing all of her children. What a beautiful symbol for the nature and mission of Mother Church to embrace and gather all the peoples of the world.

The Scripture readings on this 20^th Sunday of Ordinary Time have this theme of the universal embrace—the universal mission of the Church—a mission to every race and culture. The Church is to be a home and hospital and sign and instrument of communion for the entire human family.

The Lord Jesus died for the salvation of all peoples of all places. And while his mission was to save all of humanity, he never traveled outside of the Holy Land, to Rome or Spain or Athens or the Canary Islands or to these shores of course. Rather those countries and the rest of the world would come to know Christ’s salvation, through us, through the preaching and teaching of His body, the Church.

The Church is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in the first reading: “my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.” In the Psalm, as well, we offer the prayer of the people of God that one day, “all the nations of the earth” might praise God, together.  In the second Reading, St. Paul explains how God's mercy is for all people--all of us are sinners, but Christ died for all, so that all people might be reconciled to God.

And then in our Gospel reading, we hear of this gentile woman approaching Jesus for salvation for her daughter. And she wasn’t just any Gentile, she was a Canaanite, one of the great historic enemies of the Jewish people. And for coming to Jesus, begging salvation from him, Jesus praises her. She receives praise that not one of Jesus’ disciples, not one of the apostles receives. The Lord says to her, “great is your faith!” And her faith becomes a conduit of healing and deliverance for her family.

Salvation, healing, deliverance, the joy of knowing Christ in this life and in life everlasting. This is why we approach Jesus in faith, this is why we take membership in his Church so seriously. And this is why we need to take seriously our call to evangelize. Because God wants all peoples on earth to know and love Jesus Christ and be saved. And that happens through our witness—showing the world that being Catholic matters, and that it is vitally important, eternally important.

Do you talk about the Church with love? With joy? Do your children and grandchildren hear from your lips that the Mass matters, that confession is a gift, that prayer is vital to you, that Jesus Christ has changed your life? Do your neighbors and coworkers know that your faith is not simply a private hobby, but the center of who you are?

Evangelization does not always begin with a theological argument. Often it begins with a simple witness: “I go to Mass because I need the Lord.” “I went to confession and found peace.” “I will pray for you.” “Would you like to come to a church event with me?” “Our parish has been a place of grace for my family.” These are not complicated words. But spoken with sincerity, they can open a door.

And we should not underestimate the power of invitation. Many people are waiting to be invited. Many people who have drifted from the Church are not hostile; they are wounded, distracted, embarrassed, or unsure how to return. A personal invitation from someone they trust may be the first step of their journey home.

The Canaanite woman’s faith became a conduit of healing for her daughter. So too, our faith can become a conduit of grace for others. Our prayer, our gentleness and sincerity, our love for the Church, our willingness to speak of Christ—these can become instruments by which the Lord brings healing and deliverance to families, to parishes, and to souls.

This weekend, in the bulletin is a flyer for OCIA formerly called RCIA—the program and process for Adults to become Catholic. Maybe some of you here are not members of the Church. Please know you are welcome to find out more about full membership in the Church, give me a call or shoot me an email. For those of you who are already full members, that flyer can be given to someone who isn’t. There’s likely someone in your life, who you can invite. I recommend praying for them this week, and then making the invitation. Pray for the openness to God. And pray for your own courage to make the invitation. You can simply say, hi, I’ve been praying for you, when my pastor brought this up at church, I thought of you, if you are interested, please know you are more than welcome and I’d be willing to pray with you and answer any questions that I can and find out answers to those I don’t know.” It’s a simple invitation that will change peoples lives for the better.

It's an act of love to care about a soul enough to want them to experience the fullness of life that is available to us as Catholics. For out of love, Christ died for all. And out of love Christ sends us to gather all of humanity into the arms of mother Church, to embrace and live his truth, to be filled with his life and his grace, and thereby become the people God made us to be, and to receive the gift of eternal life through faith for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

1st Week of Advent 2025 - Monday - The Centurion's Advent Faith

 “"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” On this first weekday of Advent we read the powerful Gospel passage of the faith of the Centurion. The Centurion, a non-Jew, like us, believed that Jesus had the power to heal.

Out of all of the Gospels, why does Mother Church present us with this Gospel in particular on the first weekday of Advent?

Advent starts with desire: the ache for God to come close, to save, to heal, to set things right. The Centurion’s simple cry—“Lord… only say the word”—is the voice of every human heart waiting for Christ. Advent begins not with the instruction to make sure we buy the right presents or decorate our homes with the right amount of tinsel, but with a plea for mercy—humble longing, confident trust, and the recognition that we cannot save ourselves.

The fact that the Centurion is a Gentile is a signal that Christ came for all nations. So, On Day 1 of Advent, the Church reminds us: The Messiah is for the whole world. This echoes a constant theme we’ll hear from Isaiah throughout this season: of all nations streaming toward the mountain of the Lord.

The Centurion believes without seeing — Advent is a season of unseen hope. Jesus does not go to the house. He speaks a word. The servant is healed. Advent involves this kind of faith: a willingness to trust God before the fulfillment is visible, to believe the promises before the manger is filled, to hope for what we do not yet see.

And yet, this exchange between Jesus and the Centurion certainly foreshadows Christmas, at which we celebrate that God enters under our roof—not because we are worthy, but because He is merciful. 

Hence, the Centurion teaches us how to wait for Christ: with humility, with faith, with hope in God’s power to save, with a universal vision of a Messiah for all people, with the readiness to welcome Him under our roof

It is the whole spirituality of Advent packed into a single moment of great faith.

As the Lord enters our roof in the celebration of Mass today, in Word and Sacrament, may we learn from the humble Centurion in preparing well for Christmas for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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With humble trust in the Lord who speaks the saving word, let us present our prayers and petitions.

As we begin a new liturgical year and the season of Advent, we pray for the gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love to fill the Church, the world, and our hearts.  Let us pray to the Lord.

That Christ may guide the minds of those who govern us to promote authentic peace and justice according to God’s Holy Will. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the protection of our armed forces, police, and firemen and all those who risk their lives to preserve our security and freedom. For peace in those war-torn areas of the world and God’s protection of persecuted Christians. Let us pray to the Lord.

That, like the Centurion’s servant, those in need of healing—physical, emotional, or spiritual—may experience the saving word of Christ spoken over their lives. Let us pray to the Lord.

That as we receive the Lord in Word and Sacrament today, we may welcome Him with humble longing, confident trust, and a renewed desire to prepare well for Christmas.

For our beloved dead: That those who awaited the Lord in faith may now behold the fulfillment of every promise in the Kingdom of heaven.

God our Father, in Your mercy You sent Your Son as Savior of All nations. Hear these prayers we bring with faith, and grant us the grace to welcome Christ under our roof with humility and hope. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

October 1 2025 (school mass) - St. Therese of Lisieux - The Little Way and the Mission of the Church

 The month of October begins with the feast day of a beloved saint of the Church, St. Therese.

Therese was born and raised in a profoundly religious home—where the Catholic faith was devoutly practiced and cherished. Therese’s parents, Louis and Zellie have also been declared saints due to the evidence of their profound holiness. All four of Therese’s older sisters became nuns. And from a young age, Therese also had a burning desire become a nun as well—to dedicate her life to prayer in the Carmelite Convent. 

And so at the age of fourteen, Therese traveled with her father to Rome to meet the Pope, to personally ask his permission for Therese to enter the Carmelite convent in the city of Lisieux. And it was granted.

The Carmelite convent that Therese entered had a very strict rule of life. The nuns lived a hidden life of prayer, silence, and sacrifice. the sisters ate simple meals, they wore a plain habit, like St. Clare is wearing in her statue. The nuns did not interact with people from the outside world, not even with members of their family, and they were not allowed to leave the convent grounds. Even their conversations were limited, because silence helped them to listen more closely to God’s voice.

Their days were carefully ordered, beginning very early in the morning with prayer, Mass, and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. They prayed the Liturgy of the Hours together several times each day, lifting up the needs of the whole Church. When they weren’t in the chapel, they worked quietly at simple tasks like cooking, sewing, cleaning, and gardening.

But St. Thérèse didn’t see this way of life as gloomy or depressing. Therese and her sisters chose a simple, quiet life, in order to focus their minds and hearts on Jesus, and to do a very important work for the Church—praying. While we are engaged in working for Jesus and spreading the Gospel out in the world, Therese and Carmelites like her pray for us—that we can be faithful and have the strength and wisdom we need for our duties.

Therese prayed for the success of the mission of the Church—to go to all nations and make disciples of Jesus. That’s the mission of the Church. That’s why I’m here. That’s why Corpus Christi Academy exists. That why St. Clare parish exists. That’s why the diocese of Cleveland exists. We have a mission. To help people know, love, and follow Jesus Christ to the best of their ability.

This is why St. Therese took up this very strict way of life. Because she believed in the mission of the Church, and wanted to do everything she could to support it—which included praying many hours a day, fasting, doing penance, and doing small sacrificial things with great love. 

And this is another reason why St. Therese is so beloved by Catholics. She reminds us that often, the most powerful thing we can do for the mission of the Church—is to do small things with great love. Our conversations, teaching in the class room, learning in the class room, how you behave, how you treat people in the lunch room, on the playground, on the sports field, at work, the stranger, the person who annoys you, in everything we do, we are to pour into it, the love of God. May St. Therese help us to do all things with great love for the mission of the Church for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

4th Week of Easter 2024 - Monday - Universal Love, Universal Mission

 During the Easter season we consider the Church’s call to spread the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.

The Lord, in his first recorded post-resurrection appearance to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, mandates them to “go and teach and baptize and make disciples of all nations. 

We are sent to all nations and peoples because God loves all nations and all peoples. Our universal missionary mandate is grounded in the eternal and universal love of the Most Holy Trinity. God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" writes Paul to Timothy.

And even though this mandate was clearly enunciated by the Lord, it was certainly a challenge to the early Christians. Remember the earliest Christians including the apostles were Jews. The Jews were treated with suspicion and disdain even then, not to mention, they were a conquered people, non-Romans in a Roman controlled world—fisherman and farmers in a world controlled by military might. On top of that, their whole religion was about avoiding contact with the Gentiles, who were considered unclean for a variety of reasons.

Now, yes, there are many scriptural prophecies of how God would use the Jews to gather all nations, how the nations of the world would stream up to Jerusalem to glorify God. But Jesus’ commission wasn’t just to wait around in Jerusalem, waiting for the nations to magically appear—Jesus’ commission was to go out and gather, to put out into the deep. 

In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, St Peter explains to the early Jewish converts in Jerusalem how he himself was initially hesitant to go out to the Gentiles, but God kept reminding him, like in the dream he described, not to call unclean what God has made clean. Not only was there a mission to the Gentiles, but through Christ, the Gentile is made clean, equally clean—a brother in the Lord.

Those of us of non-Jewish descent must be eternally thankful that Peter and Paul and the early Church overcame their fears and heeded the mandate. And as they did, so must we, in our own day, in our age, to all people in all places—not just waiting for others to come to us, but to go out and teach and share.

For, the Great Commission given by Jesus is not merely a suggestion but a mandate to actively go out and share the Good News with the entire world. Like those early Jewish converts we must allow the Holy Spirit to fill us with courage to reach across cultural barriers, prejudices, and the fear of rejection—to be motivated by authentic Trinitarian love for all people for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

That the love and goodness of the Good Shepherd may be evident in the charitable self-giving of Christians towards the poor; for unity among believers, protection from worldly errors and evils, and the gathering of scattered humanity into the one flock of Christ. 

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ—especially in places afflicted with violence, corruption, injustice and oppression.

That our parish may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received. 

For those who suffer from physical or mental illness, addiction or grief; and for the consolation of all the afflicted. 

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.