6th Week of Easter 2026 - Monday - Witnessing with patience, humility, and hope

 There is an old insight from classical philosophy, found in Aristotle and developed by St. Thomas Aquinas, that every human action is done “sub ratione boni” — “under the appearance of the good.”

We make moral choices because they appear to be good for us. We eat breakfast because it appears good, we come to church, we follow the commandments because they appear good to us.

Aquinas would say that sin often works this way. Even sin, in the moment of sin, appears good. The thief steals because it appears to be a good way to pay his bills. The addict returns to his addiction because it appears to give him relief. In sin, we fixate on a partial or apparent good, but in a disordered way. Sin chooses a lesser good against a greater good, or an apparent good against the true good.

That helps us understand the frightening words of Jesus in today’s Gospel:

“The hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God.”

Jesus here explains how individuals can become so deluded, their reasoning so disordered, that they think persecuting the Church is the right thing to do.

St. Paul knew this from experience. Before his conversion, he persecuted the Church. He thought he was serving God by stoning Christians to death. So many martyrs died at the hands of people, not who loved evil for evils sake, but thought they were doing the right thing—just like we do when we sin.

But this is why the Church must give witness to the truth. Because the Christian never gives up hope for conversion. The persecutor Saul became the Apostle Paul. The enemy of the Church became one of her greatest saints.

So we witness, not with hatred. Not with bitterness against those who persecute us. But with patience and hope, and humility, knowing how easy it is for people to become deluded—after all we’ve been deluded ourselves at times.

"When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify.”

We must not lose hope when the world becomes deluded and full of hatred toward the good. The Lord essentially promised that it would. But even deluded hate-filled souls can be saved.

So may the Spirit grant us rightly formed minds and hearts, but also hearts filled with patience, humility and hope, that we may witness, as we have been told we must, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Knowing that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, who guides the Church and strengthens us to bear witness to Christ, let us offer our prayers to God with confidence.

For the Church: that she may always bear faithful witness to the truth of Christ with courage, humility, patience, and hope. Let us pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer.

For all who govern nations and shape public life: that they may not be deceived by false goods, but may seek truth, justice, peace, and the dignity of every human person. Let us pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer.

For those who persecute the Church, oppose the Gospel, or are blinded by hatred and confusion: that the Spirit of Truth may enlighten their minds, soften their hearts, and lead them to conversion. Let us pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer.

For those caught in sin, addiction, falsehood, or discouragement: that they may recognize the true good, find freedom in Christ, and receive the grace to walk in the light. Let us pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer.

For the sick, the poor, the suffering, and all who feel afflicted or abandoned: that God’s mercy may strengthen them and that Christian witness may bring them consolation and hope. Let us pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer.

For the faithful departed: that, purified of every darkness and falsehood, they may behold God face to face in the fullness of truth and life. Let us pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer.

Father of Truth, hear the prayers of your people. Send forth your Holy Spirit to form our minds, purify our hearts, and make us faithful witnesses to your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns forever and ever.

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - Blessedness comes from following Jesus

 In the Lord’s great sermon on the mount, he teaches his disciples how to pursue blessedness. What is blessedness?

Blessedness was a topic that even the ancient Greek philosophers used to debate about. To seek blessedness, is to seek our highest human good—to seek the best way to live—to become our best selves. Many in our modern culture say there is no such thing, that we can’t make such judgments: “my way is just as good as your way.” But, the ancient greeks would say that is foolish, because it’s quite evident to anyone paying attention that some decisions help us to pursue human flourishment and some do not. Sitting around doing drugs and playing video games 18 hours a day is not human flourishment. Letting your intellectual gifts go to waste, becoming addicted to food or drink or pursuing wealth at the expense of other people, using your body in ways that bring you shame—these things are far from human flourishing; certain human choices are filthy, obscene, perverted and corrupt, morally unbefitting. 

And so the the philosophers were really serious about pursing wisdom they loved wisdom, that’s what philosophy means, philo-sophia, the love of wisdom. Because it is wisdom enables you to pursue blessedness—our highest good.

The ancient Greek Philosopher Aristotle loved to make distinctions, and Aristotle differentiated between two different types of blessedness. The first type of blessedness was the Greek word eudaimonia: an earthly well-being that comes through living a virtuous life, a life where the passions are brought under control, where happiness is the fruit of putting your life in order. But there is something missing here. Eudaimonia seems like it is obtained through human effort. Well, what about grace, what about God? What about the blessedness that belongs to God?

Well, Aristotle used another word for that— “makarios”—the blessedness of the God, the blessedness of the gods enjoying divine life up on Mt. Olympus.  Because of their divinity, the gods don’t experience hunger, suffering, or depression, they enjoy a fullness of existence because of their divinity…a blessedness beyond human experience.

But at the very end of Aristotle’s writings on the virtuous life—his Nicomachean Ethics, he also hints at the possibility of humans seeking “makarios”, the blessedness of the gods.

Well guess what word St. Matthew uses in his original Greek Gospel? Makarios, when Jesus promises beatitude—blessedness to his followers, it’s not simply that first kind of blessedness—contentment from having your life in order. The Greek of Matthew’s Gospel has that second type-- “markarios”—on the lips of our Lord. The blessedness of heaven—the blessedness of God can be yours, Jesus promises, if you are poor in spirit, pure of heart, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, if you suffer for his name.

Eudaimonia and Makarios become linked in the Christian life. We do grow in happiness, contentment, a joy, when our life becomes ordered in pursuing the highest pursuits. But the highest pursuits are not pleasure, wealth, and power, or even perfect athleticism, oratorical skill, or strategic ability. The highest pursuit is the pursuit of God—to seek first the kingdom of God, to seek first the life that God wants for each of us.  

And unlike Aristotle and Plato and every human philosopher, Jesus isn’t a mere preacher of the blessed life. He doesn’t just tell us about blessedness, he says follow me, imitate me, do as I do, and you will be blessed.

The greatest homily Jesus ever preached was not the Sermon on the Mount overlooking the Sea of Galilee. His greatest Sermon was his whole sinless life in obedience to the Father, which culminated in his mounting the pulpit of the Cross.

So, let's consider all the ways Our Lord Himself fulfills each of the beatitudes and teaches us to follow Him in practicing the beatitudes in each of our lives.

First, Jesus was poor in spirit, so poor he didn’t even have a place to lay his head (Lk 9:58). He treasured God the Father and his kingdom as his greatest gift. We become blessed when we value and pursue the things of heaven over the things of earth.

Secondly, Jesus mourned. He wept over Jerusalem for its near wholesale failure of recognizing that He is the Way which leads to true peace. He likewise wept over the death of Lazarus, when the powers of death overcame his dear friend. We become blessed when we repent, when we mourn those times when we turned away from the path of Christ and mourn when sin and death have sway in us and others.

Thirdly, Jesus was meek. To be meek is to have strength and power, but keep it appropriately bridled. He set his face with determination toward Jerusalem, he accepted the chalice of God’s will, knowing the suffering it would entail, he carried the cross through the streets of Jerusalem, laying down his life willingly for others. As sovereign of heaven, he could have called down the might of legions of angels to slay his enemies, but rather he freely lays down his life. We become blessed when we exert our strength, our energy, our time, talent, and treasure for the sake of the Kingdom--to use our strength not to oppress, but to lift up.

Fourthly, Jesus hungered and thirsted for righteousness, saying that his very hunger, his very “food [was] to do the will” of his heavenly Father, which was to make us righteous. We become blessed when we labor to help others achieve the righteousness for which they were made.

Fifthly, Jesus was merciful. He is the very face of mercy: extending mercy to the outcast, the adulterous, the untouchable leper, the grieving parent, the paralyzed friend. We become blessed when we extend mercy—engaging in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

Next, Jesus was pure in heart. Sin had no place in his mind our heart. We are blessed when we make no place for evil, perversion, corruption, greed, wrath, lust, pride, envy or sloth, to dwell in our minds and hearts

Next, Jesus was a peacemaker. He established the definitive peace treaty between God and man and signed it in his own blood. We become blessed when we accept the mission to announce God’s peace to the world.

Lastly, Jesus was persecuted for the sake of righteousness. From the scribes and Pharisees, to the scoffing passersby, to the false witnesses at his trial, to the Roman soldiers, to Herod, to Pilate, to the thief on his left, so many reviled him, persecuted him and uttered all kinds of evil against him falsely. We become blessed when we, like him, speak the truth in charity and stand up for what is right even when that means suffering for it.

How are you being called by God to pursue blessedness? What does it mean for you to allow the blessedness of Christ to grow in you and animate you, to become the driving force in your life, in your family’s life? I encourage everyone here to spend time with the Beatitudes this week. Mathew’s Gospel, chapter 5. Go Line by line, word for word. What does it mean in the concrete details of your life, to be poor in spirit, pure of heart, merciful. How might God be calling you to willingly embrace persecution for the sake of righteousness? 

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand this teaching, and learn from Jesus’ example, so that you may follow him more closely and inherit the promise of blessedness God wants for you, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Monday - 10th Week of OT 2017 - The roadmap to eternity

The Greek philosopher Aristotle taught that man’s highest goal, the motive behind all of his actions, is happiness.  The desire for happiness is the one goal that unites all of humanity.  He used the Greek word “eudaimonia” to describe “earthly happiness” that comes through living a virtuous life, a life where the passions are brought under control of the right reason, a life where one pursues the highest things.

There was another greek word, “makarios”—used to describe the blessedness and immortality of the gods. And at the very end of his Nicomachean Ethics, in which he spends so much time explaining what it takes to achieve eudaimonia, earthly happiness, he hints at the possibility of man seeking “makarios”, the blessedness of the gods.

Today’s gospel reading begins Jesus’ great sermon on the mount, from which we’ll be reading from for the next three weeks. And Jesus doesn’t just hint at the possibility of blessedness for his followers, the very first word of his sermon, is markarios, blessed are you, blessed will you be. Jesus speaks of our deepest longing, we are not made simply for a short earthly life. We are made for eternity, and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the roadmap to eternity, to blessedness.

Jesus will show that eudaimonia and makarios are linked: eternal blessedness will certainly involve earthly virtue. However, our deepest longing isn’t simply earthly happiness, our deepest longing is union with God. And Jesus promises that, too!

So often, we look for happiness and joy in all the wrong places, so Jesus in this Sermon is going to help lead us out of this spiritual slavery, this constant pursuit of looking for happiness where we shouldn’t. Jesus teaches us to seek first the kingdom of God, to build our houses on the solid rock foundation of his teaching, so that we may filled with true life.

Just as Moses gave the 10 Commandments of the Law upon a mountain, Jesus, on a mountain, gives a new Law, not simply an ethic, but a roadmap to union with God, to communion, to intimacy.

As I did last time these readings came up, I encourage you to read through chapters 5 through 7 of Matthew’s Gospel in one sitting. Jesus speaks these words to every age of the Church, to every person. May we receive his teaching with open minds and hearts, and strive to be faithful to all he taught, that we may achieve the end for which we are made, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her, preserving her from error, helping her to rejoice in the Truth of the Gospel.

That the faith may be practiced in all Christian families, for strengthening in charity among spouses, that parents may be examples of faith to inspire their children that the young may learn and practice virtue and prayer.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.

For the healing of divisions caused by heresy, and moral and doctrinal error among Christians.

For those who do not believe in God and for those who have fallen away from the Church.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, especially for the sick and victims of war and terror and natural disaster.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.