Friends, this weekend, instead of reflecting on the Sunday Mass readings as I typically do, I felt the Holy Spirit moving me to talk about what everyone else is talking about: the decision of the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade. May our whole nation, whether liberal or conservative, come together to support the dignity of every human life.

Today’s Gospel finds Jesus with a huge crowd of people, and he miraculously provides for their physical hunger. At Mass we see how Jesus miraculously provides not for our physical hunger but rather for our spiritual need. As Jesus satisfied the empty bellies of the people, in the Eucharist he heals and fills the broken hearts of those who approach him with faith.

On Trinity Sunday we celebrate the radical secret that God kept hidden for thousands of years, which was only manifest in the fullness of time, when his own Son took on human flesh and announced the coming of a third Person who also shared equally in the divinity of the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit. And this very Love that flows between Father and Son has been poured into our heart.

Our last Mass with our seniors was the Memorial of St Bernardine of Siena, who left his legacy and mark on Siena by inspiring many to place a symbol of the name of Jesus over the doorposts of their homes and businesses. 500 years later many remain. What will be YOUR legacy?

Today’s Second reading for this Ascension Sunday is taken from the letter to the Hebrews, and the book’s author has an interesting interpretation of the event of Christ’s Ascension into heaven. He sees Jesus, like the human high priest in the Temple, entering into the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum of the dwelling place of God. But Jesus does not enter like a human high priest with the blood of a bull or goat, but rather with his own blood, effectively atoning for the sins of the whole world and of all time. Now Jesus continues his priestly ministry of reconciliation through the men he has called to act in his person here on earth until we all attain to be with Jesus in heaven’s inner sanctum.

Today we use the Gospel for the 7th Sunday of Easter, taken from Christ’s great “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17. Christ prays a number of times “that they might be one.” Do we live out Christ’s desire for unity in the Church?

“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Jesus says these words when he sees Judas slipping out of the Upper Room to betray him to the Jewish authorities. It might seem like a strange moment to claim glory. Yet this is precisely what Jesus came to do: To give up his life for us on the Cross. To Jesus, this being-for-others is his glory. If we love as he loves, we will discover God’s glory in the same way.

In this homily from the 2nd Sunday of Easter we talk about what it means when Jesus says in Revelation, “Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever”. Jesus is not talking about simply his human soul but also his human body, a point emphasizes by all of the Resurrection accounts. Today we talk about how the resurrection of Jesus’s body tells us about the importance of our own body.

John’s Gospel gives us a very interesting detail in the last encounter we hear about in that Gospel between Jesus and his apostles. Peter is with the other disciples on the boat, and as soon as he recognizes that Jesus is in the water, he puts on clothes and jumps in the lake! In today’s homily for we explore the deeper meaning behind this enigmatic detail.

When the Apostles are gathered in the Upper Room and Jesus appears to them, the first word he says to the is “Peace”. If there were any question about whether he would accept them back as friends and companions after they abandoned him in his time of need, he clears it up here and restores their relationship with himself. He reconciles them to himself and to God the Father. Then he says, “As the Father has sent me so I send you.” In other words, as Jesus came to the world to reconcile people back to God, so now Jesus sends out his apostles—the first bishops and priests—to do exactly the same thing: Reconciling sinners back to God.