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Very few people believe that there is anything to be taught about love. The act of loving is seen as easy, but finding someone or something worthy of one's affection is seen as more challenging. When we talk about someone being "attractive," we usually mean that they have a desirable set of traits. What is considered physically and intellectually attractive changes over time. Love relationships among humans follow the same pattern of exchange that governs the commodity and the labor market, which is hardly surprising in a culture where the marketing orientation predominates and where material success is the outstanding value.

During my Bible Study with people in the parishes, I have found that the Parable of the vineyard workers from Mathew 20:1-16 is a story that annoys a lot of people rather than inspire. Their sense of justice seems to put the landowner in some bad light. Here is a retelling of this story in the Mediterranean cultural context. Judah Bensirah, is a day laborer who has been struggling to find work because of the influx of laborer’s from the North. He was lucky during the harvest seasons of barley, wheat, and figs. During the past week, due to his good connections, he found work in the vineyard of a kind landowner not too far from home.

Living under a ruthless foreign power like the Roman Empire and in a society where rivalries were rampant, Jesus dared to teach about forgiveness as a major theme. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; for this is the Lord's prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Peter is curious as to the maximum number of times he must forgive someone who has wronged him. Peter wants to know how many times he must forgive that person. Jesus tells Peter a parable about forgiveness with disproportionately large numbers because he knows Peter wants to use numbers to explain the concept of forgiveness.

The training of young adults, teachers, and professionals in leadership, management, media, spirituality, and personal growth has been an additional hat I have worn since my college days and throughout my priestly ministry. Playing a game was a common thread that ran through many of the sessions. A good example can be found right here. One person in each pair was blindfolded while the other guided them to a new location through touch alone (verbal communication was forbidden). The sharing session that followed this Trust Walk exercise was surprising as some were anxious and fearful while others enjoyed the adventure. Our personal lives have many twists and turns and on some turns, we walk quite blind. Today’s Gospel narrative is quite an ‘eye opener’ in bringing light to the dark paths of human relationships.

In the Gospel text of today – which is the continuation of last Sunday’s, when Jesus asked the disciples: “Who do you say I am”, and Peter made that powerful claim: ‘You are the messiah, the Son of the living God” – Jesus continues to talk about His impending suffering and death.  For the disciples this is unacceptable. There is doom for their aspirations for power and their ride to fame will have a short-fuse end. In their understanding – as it is perhaps in our own expectations – happiness is the absence of suffering.  Peter once again becomes their spokesperson: “Heaven preserve You Lord, this must not happen to You” (Mt 16: 22). 

Today's gospel story places the action it describes in Caesarea Philippi. Jesus takes the disciples on a three-day trek of over 40 miles to the mountainous area to the north of Capernaum. This journey would have given them some privacy from the hectic lifestyle of preaching and healing ministry. The setting in the mountains is beautiful, and it is a traditional setting for encountering  God by humans, especially in the Old Testament. The Greek god Pan, the patron deity of shepherds, also had a temple in Caesarea Philippi and the temple to Caesar Augustus  was in the vicinity too.

The theme of the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time is that God wants everyone to be saved. The Israelites find out in the first reading that non-Jews, who keep the laws of the Lord, worship the same God. The second reading features Paul's description of his work among non-Jews. And in the Gospel, Jesus cures the Canaanite woman's daughter.

This Sunday, the Word of God speaks the truth to the face of conventional ideas about what it means to be great. It shows us that God comes to us when we are at our weakest, and it extends an invitation to change our lives and the way we relate to others. We need to be humble and brave enough to let go of our need for control and accept God's will as it is.

For the past three Sundays, the Gospels have focused on the image of the Kingdom of God through parables. The Lord's Transfiguration Feast appears to be the series' final celebration, but its description of ‘the kingdom’ goes into greater depth and complexity than those that came before it. Considering the foregoing, it follows that God's kingdom is a space of great aesthetic and spiritual comfort. We have to climb the mountain first, though. Climbing a mountain is not a simple task, requiring perseverance, dedication, and self-control.

One of the greatest gifts we've been given is the capacity for free will, also known as the ability to make a decision from a set of alternatives. Humans have been endowed with free will by God. So, we're going about our days, making our own decisions, and exercising our independence. Options abound in this life. Every day, God gives each of us the opportunity to choose the path we believe will lead to our greatest good.

Since its earliest days, the Church has preferred to tolerate varying degrees of commitment and holiness, as expressed by the phrase, "let them grow together until harvest." God has been described in the Bible as "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness," so an accepting mindset is consistent with that description of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. The world, which is often quick to judge, quick to anger, and eager to uproot weeds even at the cost of damaging the good plants, could learn a lot from a Church that is kind and lenient toward its own members and toward everyone else.

You can learn a lot by searching "the vision of God" on Google. This search result contains many articles and essays that discuss God's plan for humanity. For example, we are given directives for discovering God's will for our lives. Some inspirational words are offered by others about how vision helps us accomplish great things. Vision gives us purpose and direction in life, just as the promise of a gold medal motivates an Olympic athlete through years of grueling training. Therefore, we would be equipped to realize God's plan for us, if we had a clear understanding of that plan. God, we are assured, wants us to succeed greatly.

Some of the common themes in homilies that we hear in Church are that we are God’s children and disciples of Christ, and we are the kingdom of God. While this is true, the lived experience in challenging times tends to question these foundational beliefs. And that is the hurting truth: just because we're God's children doesn't mean we won't go through hardships. The severity of the storms is not mitigated. Being a child of God is often equated with some sort of Disneyland Fast Pass for life's difficulties, and this idea seems to be widely held. We often pray that we get preferential treatment at the waiting line of a doctor’s appointment or let off with a smile for speeding because we are God’s favorites.

The catechesis on discipleship presented in today's Sunday gospel reading consists of two stages. Jesus lays out the first requirement for becoming a disciple: the ability to make Jesus the primary allegiance of the disciple and to follow the Master down the path of love and self-denial. In the second, Jesus offers a reward to those who warmly welcome the "Kingdom" missionaries. This second step is mirrored in the first reading from the 2 Kings chapter 4. Here, we hear about the warm welcome that Elisha receives from a Shunammite woman.

There are two things that we all have in common: we are all going to die, and we all have some fear about it. For many, however, the fear is so intense that they avoid the topic of death completely. Medical experts tell us that the anxious feeling we get when we're afraid is a standardized biological reaction. It is pretty much the same set of body signals, whether we're afraid of getting bitten by a snake, getting turned down from a dinner invitation, or getting our yearly health checkup as we age. The idea of no longer being here on earth arouses a primary existential anxiety in all normal humans. Consider that panicky feeling you get when you look over the edge of a cliff or high-rise building.

On the Feast of Corpus Christi, we proudly took Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Tappan. I appreciate the fact there were many who joined the procession in prayer, worship, and witness to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. I thank Ernest Rispoli and the Knights of Columbus for all the preparations they made to make this event a very meaningful expression of our faith. I also thank the Orangetown authorities and the Police Department for their assistance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: On this, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we welcome Rev. Fr. Steve Neier C.O. our newly ordained priest of the NY Oratory to celebrate his first Mass in the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) the best writer of the 20th century, once said that one of the reasons he believed in Christianity was because of its belief in the Trinity.  If Christianity had been made up by human persons, it would not have at its very center a concept that is impossible to grasp or explain: the idea that God exists as one but within in three persons. How do we understand the Trinity? We don't!

Today is Pentecost Sunday. After a period of fifty days of rejoicing over the resurrection of Christ, we have come to the definitive end of the Easter Season. In Palestine, there were two harvests each year. The early harvest came during the months of May and June; the final harvest came in the Fall. Pentecost was the celebration of the beginning of the early wheat harvest, which meant that Pentecost always fell sometime during the middle of the month of May or sometimes in early June. The word 'Pentecost' comes from a Greek word which means 'fiftieth' – the fiftieth day after the Jewish Passover.

This Sunday rounds out the seven Sundays of Easter, the season of the Church's explicit celebration of the resurrection and its meaning for Christian life. At the same time, this seventh Sunday, coming between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday, focuses exquisitely on the transition between the departure of Jesus' physical presence to his followers and the birth of the Church with the end-time outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We, who live in an era long after the event of Pentecost, these readings cherry picked for our reflection can help us to understand our present moment in time.