We are not as cunning as we think we are!  When I was little, there were two punishments I received: soap in the mouth or spanking. However, as a 5 year old, I had a brilliant idea to get around this form of punishment. Of course, I had to test my theory, so I went into the doorway of the kitchen where my mom was and said a curse word. This triggered the consequence of a punishment, but I ran to the couch where I sat down and covered my mouth thinking I had beaten the system! Little did I know the strength of my mom, and I came to realize that my plan had failed.

In our Gospel this weekend, the Pharisees think that they are cunning and can entrap Jesus by asking him a simple question about paying taxes to Caesar, “Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” (Mt 22:17) If Jesus would say yes to paying taxes he would be implicit with a foreign power and the people would revolt. If he said no, the Roman Empire would punish him for encouraging dissidence among the people. 

Jesus, however, asks to see a coin.  When the Pharisees present the coin, it shows the hypocrisy of Caesar by carrying an image of the Emperor who claimed to be a god. Then Jesus bypasses their entire trap by replying with the simple phrase, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”(Mt 22:22)

This is a challenge to us too. We know that the coins belong to Caesar, and in our daily lives this means being a responsible citizen and giving respect to the proper authorities. What is God’s?  It is our very selves. We all bear the image of God within our souls, and are called to give our very lives back to God!  This may seem like an impossible task, but God reveals through Christ that he is willing to model what he is asking of us; Jesus Christ offers us his very self!

Let us reject any ways of trying to outsmart God by avoiding that which he is asking of us. God calls each of us to know him and love him, even if we are not aware of it or if we try to ignore or outsmart him. He says this same thing to the Persian King Cyrus in the first reading: “I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not” (Isaiah 45:4). Everything we have we owe to the goodness of God, and he desires that we put him at the center of our lives. Let us turn away from those things that prevent us from giving ourselves over to the Lord.

Father Michael

Hello! I am so grateful to have gotten the chance to meet many of you at the parish. For those that I have not gotten the chance to meet, my name is Jonathan Hernandez. I am the seminarian assigned to Our Lady of Mercy by the Diocese. Perhaps you may have noticed that during the summer months this year I was absent. I was asked by my vocations director to stay at our cathedral and do a program called CPE (Clinical Pastoral Experience). This program was extremely helpful for my vocation. Through that experience I received the opportunity to serve at a hospice center, a homeless shelter, and bring communion to the sick on a consistent basis. I was able to encounter others’ sufferings in different forms and was in a privileged place where I was often let into places of deep suffering. Often faced with a loss of words this summer, I felt the Holy Spirit guiding me in how he wanted me to minister to each person I was with. I felt Christ wanting to heal his sons and daughters.

This summer experience made me realize that I too was suffering in ways that I didn’t acknowledge. As a seminarian, I experience a constantly shifting environment. Often, I am bombarded with activities, homework, and responsibilities. This can all be very tiring. While praying with the suffering of Christ, I realized at a heartfelt level that suffering should point outwards. Suffering is part of the human experience, and we weren’t meant to take it on all by ourselves. At the minimum, it should be given to Christ. Furthermore, it is when our suffering points outwards that we realize our suffering has a greater meaning. For example, we are called to love our neighbor even though this isn’t the easiest thing to do. Our neighbors often hurt us in words and deeds. Scarred by their actions, we can wallow in the injustice, or we can allow ourselves to feel the hurt, bring it to Christ, and try our best to treat them with the love and respect they deserve as people made in the image of God. Even if they do not reciprocate, we are loving as Christ loved.

What I have just described, is made possible only through a life anchored in Christ. It is his grace and his strength that allow us to abide in his vineyard. We hear St. Paul affirm this in the second reading: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). When we refuse to give our sufferings to God, we are pointed inwards, and this can become a truly dangerous place to be. In the Gospel reading today Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding feast. As the King came in to meet the guests, there was one who was not dressed properly: “…how is that you came in here without a wedding garment?” (Mt 22:12) May this remind us to put on the life of Christ, configure and unite our thoughts, words, and actions to him. Give him your sufferings, and live for others, so that you might not be caught without a wedding garment!

God bless you, Jonathan

As soon as I was old enough, my parents would put me in charge of watching my two younger siblings when they would go out. If they didn’t listen to me, I would put them in time-out, which meant they were pretty much in time-out every time my parents went out. One day they decided that they wouldn’t listen to me anymore, so I called my parents because they were ganging up on me!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable about a vineyard owner, who at harvest-time sends servants, and ultimately his son, to collect his produce from his tenants. The tenants did not accept them as representatives of the vineyard owner, and in disrespecting them, ultimately disrespected the vineyard owner, showing that they would rather be their own master.

Because my siblings did not respect my authority as the one my parents put in charge when they were gone, they did not respect my parents. They wanted to be in charge of themselves. The only problem was that my parents had not asked me to discipline my siblings; they had only asked me to keep an eye on them. In my own way, I was taking advantage of being put in charge, and trying just as much as my siblings to be a law unto myself.

Do we also reject the authority of God? Maybe we do this in outright ways by choosing to sin, but very often this happens in more subtle ways. We might feel a tug to pray but choose to watch TV instead. We might know that we need to reach out to that one person who really annoys us, but we instead choose to ignore them and talk to our friends. Or maybe there is one part of our life that we don’t want to surrender to Jesus yet because we don’t want to give that thing up yet.

Jesus ends the parable by saying, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” He doesn’t do this as a master over a servant, but as a loving Father.

In John 15, Jesus calls Himself the True Vine, and us the branches. We can bear fruit if we abide in Him. Instead of desiring to be in charge of ourselves, we become so united with Jesus, the Vine, that our wills become one. We are no longer hired servants working for wages, but we simply want to do His will because we know this is what will make us truly happy, and because, as beloved children of the Father, we desire to return that love He has given us.

Unlike my siblings’ desire to do whatever they wanted when my parents were gone, or my desire to take over when they put me in charge, we are called to surrender to God. By doing this, we are able to bear fruit because we have united ourselves to the True Vine, Jesus Christ.

Father Frank

As someone who studied math, when I come across this Gospel, I think of the other possible sons that the man in the Gospel could have had. The first son says he will not work in the vineyard but changes his mind and works, while the second son says he will work but never actually does. Couldn’t the man have had a son that said yes to the father’s task and actually completed it? Wouldn’t that be a perfect son, like me? Or couldn’t the man have had a son that said no, and then didn’t complete his task? Wouldn’t that be a son who was completely depraved and separated? 

Of course, you could make up those possibilities, but Christ only puts two options in the story for a reason. Why? Well, none of us are perfect and none of us are completely depraved from God’s grace!  And yet, don’t we put ourselves and others in those categories all the time? 

How often do we try to pursue perfection, not only in our work and relationships, but also in our spiritual life? How many of us walk around thinking that nothing is wrong, and that everything is just fine?  It’s an allusion that usually moves from indifference to despair. Usually those who believe they are perfect eventually see their allusion crumble and end up falling into despair! It confirms what the prophet Ezekiel shares with us in our first reading: “Thus says the Lord: You say, ‘The LORD’s way is not fair!’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?” (Ezekiel 18:25) 

The Lord is not expecting us to be perfect, but to seek his mercy and love and to turn back to him when we fall. To live a life of conversion means that we can never stop turning back to him.  Let us not fall into this unfair way of thinking: where we feel either too perfect for the Lord, or too far from calling out to him in our failures.  Let us always trust that it is never too late to be redeemed by him. When we call out to him, the Lord will always respond!   

Father Michael

When I was about three years old, I was on vacation with my parents and grandparents, and we stopped at a McDonald’s. I was excited to explore the Play Place, so I decided to climb to one of the highest points, where there was a tunnel that crossed the entire Play Place. When I got to this tunnel, I looked out the window down at where my parents and grandparents were sitting, and I was too scared to move on. My mom saw this, so without thinking, she went into the Play Place, climbed all the way up to where I was frozen in fear, and brought me down safely to the ground. My grandparents would often tell me that story, reminding me, “Your mom climbed into the Play Place to get you.”

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the patronal feast of our parish. But what is mercy? Mercy is love when it comes in contact with evil. In the Old Testament, one of the words for mercy is rahamim. It refers to those strong feelings of tenderness and compassion that a mother has for her child.

This is also the kind of mercy that God has for us. When He sees us sunk in the misery of sin, He is not distant from us, but like my mom climbing into the Play Place, He rushes to rescue us. And He doesn’t just rescue us by sending someone else to take care of it, but He Himself becomes man and suffers and dies for us so that we can be with Him forever in Heaven.

At this moment of Redemption, Jesus gave us His mother to be our mother also. Just as Mary gave her “yes” to God at the Annunciation, she also gives her “yes” at the Foot of the Cross to God’s loving plan of salvation even though it means the death of her Son, showing mercy to the entire human race. And this “yes” does not end there, but she continues to show this mercy to all her children who call on her. The mercy she shows to us always paves the way for us to receive God’s mercy.

But for many of us, it can be very difficult to receive mercy because we feel unworthy, or because it is difficult to face our sins. But in spite of this, we need to be open to receive God’s mercy like little children because without it, we are helpless. A child does not do anything to earn the love of his or her parents, but simply receives it as a free gift. In the same way, we need to recognize our need for God’s mercy, to accept that mercy for the free gift that it is, and to thank God for it. Like my grandparents who reminded me that my mom climbed into the Play Place to get me, we can sing with Mary, “The Lord’s mercy is from age to age.”

Father Frank

There is a story about when St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who received visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, spoke to a priest about her visions. The priest did not want either one of them to be deceived, so he told her that if Jesus appeared to her again, to ask Him one question. He told her to ask Him what the last mortal sin he confessed was. When Jesus appeared to her again, Margaret Mary asked Him the question, Jesus looked at her and said, “I don’t remember.”

Even though God knows everything, after He has forgiven our sins, it is as if that sin never happened. It is truly forgiven. Yet in the First Reading, it says, “The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail.” In order for us to be forgiven, we first need to forgive. This is what we pray in the Our Father: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” If our hearts are not open to forgive others, how can they be open to receive forgiveness? 

But how do we forgive? We have to start with what forgiveness is not. It is not saying that what the other person did to us is okay. I think that because we think that this, we end up like the unforgiving servant trying to choke his fellow servant, saying, “Pay back what you owe.”

Instead, we need to acknowledge that what they did hurt us. Sr. Miriam James Heidland, SOLT, says that with Jesus, we even need to make an account of what that person did to hurt us. We do this, not to hold on to what they owe us, but instead to acknowledge the hurt we experienced. But as we do this, we also need to acknowledge that justice is most likely not possible on this earth. That other person might not even be aware that they hurt us or even be sorry.

Because justice is not possible on this earth, we know that God will bring about justice, if not in this life, in the next. Forgiveness is letting go of what they owe us, and instead giving that up to God, Who will bring about justice. Forgiveness is saying that I acknowledge that you hurt me, but I give that hurt, and you, to God.

If God forgives as if He forgets our sins, are we called to forget how that person has hurt us? The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.” When we forgive, God can even transform those painful memories into sources of healing for us and the other person.

I also invite you to pray with this Forgiveness Meditation from Sister Miriam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTDWS6V3_Ow&t=393s

Father Frank

I remember when I was 12 years old, my dad turned 50 and my oldest sister decided to follow a rule that I believe she created: namely that every 50-year-old man needs a dog! Even though it was a gift for my dad, I had wanted a dog for a long time so you can imagine my joyful reaction. We named her Tippy, and she was a wonderful dog. 

It didn’t take me and the rest of the family too long to find out that the dog was a wonderful scapegoat.  I’m sure you have heard the line, “the dog ate my homework.”  Well for me it was perfect. Tippy made all the dishes dirty, Tippy made the room messy, and Tippy somehow left the toilet seat up! Tippy, as a joke, gave way for me to run away from any responsibility for my actions, and remove any need I had for correction.   

This idea of running away from responsibility and correction isn’t new. This blame game isn’t new, and in fact we see this in the story of Adam and Eve after the Fall. Eve blames the serpent, and Adam blames God!  

What is the Lord asking of us? Our Sunday readings point to the need for and importance of fraternal correction: “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother’” (Mt 18:15). We need to be willing to correct each other out of love. The Gospel gives us concrete steps by starting fraternal correction in private, then bringing it up with another person, and if that doesn’t work finally bringing it to the Church.   

To give fraternal correction is hard, especially with the conflict that it brings to light.  So where do we start? How do we grow in one of the most important aspects of our faith? I believe that we need to first begin by being open to correction ourselves. Let’s not jump to excuses and blame but accept in humility that we are not perfect, and that we need to change to grow closer to Christ and one another! Once we realize our own brokenness and need for correction, we are more likely to help our brothers and sisters- not out of judgment, but out of understanding and mercy in order to draw them to the Lord.  (And if that’s too hard, I guess you can always just get a dog!) 

Father Michael

I hate vocation stories…or at least I used to. I always struggle with the fact that so many of these stories, after dealing with the twists and turns of that person’s vocational journey, seemed to end with seminary as if it were the solution to all their problems. But I have to tell you that that is not the case, as I learned the hard way.

As I entered seminary, I believed that it would be like my past experiences of college, but when I tried to joke and be myself, it was badly received, so I pulled back and was quiet. I was told that my theology degree would help me get out of introductory classes, but I found myself fighting tooth and nail to prove that I knew anything. And an irrational fear of the human pillar of seminary formation—of being told I wasn’t human enough—was quickly realized in my first formation meeting. I felt like Jeremiah in the First Reading, who said, “You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped.”

In a similar way, in the Gospel we heard last week, Peter has just heard that Jesus would “give [him] the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” But then in today’s Gospel, Jesus turns around and predicts His Passion, which seems to go completely counter to what Jesus had just said to him about the Kingdom of God. So it’s no wonder that he says, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”

As I continued through seminary, I continued to feel this heaviness, and whenever it became too overwhelming, I would find myself saying to myself: “I don’t want to be here.” The last time I preached, I talked about listening for God’s voice in the silence. But when we listen for God’s voice, there is the risk also of hearing our own or the enemy’s voice. When I brought the situation to my spiritual director, he very simply and bluntly said, “And whose voice do you think that is?”

When I was able to recognize that that voice was not from God, this did not remove the sufferings, but allowed me to see this as part of God’s Plan. Instead of being a passive participant in my life, I felt God calling me to take an active role in my spiritual life. Jesus tells us, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

We are also called to take an active role in our spiritual lives, taking up the crosses that God allows to come into our lives. However, as we carry our crosses, we do not do this alone, but always following after Jesus. I don’t hate vocation stories anymore because I know that it’s only part of the story, that discerning our vocation is part of the Cross, but a Cross that ultimately leads to the Resurrection.

Father Frank

One of my favorite memories from my childhood was Saturday afternoons. After a busy morning of chores, we would spend the afternoon watching cooking shows. One of my favorites was Julia Child, and one of the episodes can teach us a spiritual lesson.  In the episode, while she was flipping a potato pancake, she flipped it a little too enthusiastically, so that it fell off the pan onto the stove. She then picked up the pancake, put it back in the pan, and looking directly at the camera, said, “Well, if you’re all alone in the kitchen, nobody will know.”

As we come to the end of August, many parents have already taken their kids to college, school is starting up, and a new year of ministry is beginning here at Our Lady of Mercy. As we do this, there is often a drive for perfection. Maybe we have high expectations for the year, or we have goals to make it even better than last year. But all too often, the year doesn’t turn out how we planned. And because of this, it can be tempting to give up.

The same can be true of our spiritual lives. Maybe we plan to pray every day, but get to the end of a busy day realizing that we forgot to do it. Or maybe we feel that every time we go to Confession, we confess the same sins. So what are we supposed to do? St. Benedict has a short but profound phrase that can serve as our motto: “Always we begin again.”

Sometimes we become so discouraged by the fact that we have messed up that we don’t want to try again. But the Bible tells us: “For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again” (Proverbs 24:16). We can’t just let the potato pancake sit on the stove, but we need to pick it up again.

The ability to get up again does not come from a “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” kind of attitude, but rather an attitude of humility. Our desire to wallow in our mistake comes from a pride that says, “How could I have done this?” But in humility, we are called to come to Jesus—not just when we feel good about ourselves—but when we are at our lowest, we need to admit our mistake and allow Him to lift us up once again.

It is precisely in that moment of allowing Jesus to lift us up again that we begin to grow in holiness. It is then that we realize how much we need Jesus and learn to rely on Him. We need to remember St. Benedict’s phrase, “Always we begin again,” so that we don’t remain in our mistake, but, with Jesus’ help, start fresh, whether that means returning to the Sacrament of Confession, or picking a potato pancake up off the stove and putting it back in the pan.

Father Frank

Sometimes we come across a Gospel reading where we initially hear it and don’t know how to react!  This Sunday’s reading of Jesus initially rejecting the Canaanite woman is perhaps one of them. We may see Jesus’s treatment and response to her harsh and difficult to comprehend. Isn’t our faith in Jesus Christ based on his willingness to die for EVERYONE? Why does Jesus ignore this woman and then compare the Canaanite people to dogs? 

I’m sure there are various ways to approach this Gospel passage. One approach is to ask the question, “Could Jesus be testing the woman’s perseverance even in the midst of persecution, which is something the Apostles will eventually have to learn themselves?” I, however, would like to approach today’s Gospel with this main proposition about our own brokenness:  When God’s actions don’t match up with our will, we seem to always perceive God’s actions as harsh and questionable. 

Have you ever wanted God to act or respond to a problem in your life? And what happened when your prayers were not answered in the ways you wanted them to?  Did you throw a fit? (As I have done many times) Did you feel like God didn’t have a plan for you, let alone love you? 

Yet, what is clear throughout the Scriptures is that God loves all of us and desires to bring salvation, not only to the Israelites, but to all people (cf. 1 Tim 2:4). We fail in our perception of God’s plan in not understanding that God doesn’t always act the way we want Him to. We don’t see God’s greater picture of salvation. Jesus Christ came to fulfill the covenants (promises) given to the Israelites first, and then spread salvation to the whole world.  Hence Christ said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). And then after his death and resurrection he said, “Go, therefore and make disciples of ALL NATIONS, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:16-20).  God’s plan from the very beginning was to bring all nations, including the Canaanite woman, into His Body the Church. Yet, in its proper time and way! 

Sometimes when God doesn’t act or respond the way we want Him too, we feel that God is harsh and unresponsive.  But what we need to realize is that the Lord’s love and plan is greater than our own.  He desires the good and salvation of all people, including you and me!  Let’s, yes, learn from the Canaanite woman in perseverance, but more importantly trust in the Lord when He doesn’t respond in the way we want Him too!  

Father Michael