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Why are you Catholic?  What motivates you to practice your faith? A vibrant, growing Church is an evangelizing Church, a community of disciples not afraid to proclaim and live the gospel to the hilt. 

The Body and Blood of Christ, our sacramental food and drink… this is the nourishment that fuels our souls, this is what gives us the spiritual energy we need to pray, to love, and to serve as Christ taught us.

We celebrate today the most basic truth of our Catholic faith, the mystery of three persons in one God. There are many ways to describe the mystery of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  

E pluribus unum… out of the many, there is one. This is such a great motto for our country.  On Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate this sacred formula here at Ave Maria Parish and the wider Church. 

Our times of transition, those “in between” times in life, are often very trying, very stressful times, filled with worries.  Such is the case with the disciples as Jesus approached the end of his Easter appearances and prepared for his departure from their sight, his ascension to glory.

In Jesus’ farewell address just before his Ascension into heaven, Jesus breaks the news to his disciples that he would be leaving them very soon. 

When we receive a gift -- any gift regardless of its size or value – it is a sure sign to us that we are loved, appreciated, and supported in our lives. During this Easter season, we are celebrating the divine gifts of Christ’s resurrection and our baptism into Christ’s Body, the Church. 

Today, we celebrate Christ as our leader in the work of salvation. The gospel presents Christ as the Good Shepherd.  If we heed his voice and follow him wherever he takes us, we will be safe and sound, and well fed in everlasting life.

My friends, the life of faith begins with recognizing Jesus and his many presences in our Church and world.

The patron saint for doubters is featured in today’s gospel. At first, Thomas stubbornly insisted on seeing and touching the nail marks in Jesus’ hands and the spear marks in his side before letting go of his doubts that Jesus had risen from the dead. 

Love is stronger than death.  This line is from the Canticle of Solomon in the Bible, and I think it says it all on this Solemnity of Christ’s Resurrection. This is the good news we celebrate at the empty tomb of Jesus this Easter Sunday.

There is so much more in the biblical account of the Passion of Jesus Christ than a sad tale. 

As we face the prospect of death either in the foreseeable or in the distant future, faith in Jesus is our abiding hope and eternal salvation. The readings today certainly give us hope. 

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do innocent people suffer? Why does God allow evil in our world? Why me… why us… why them, O Lord?

The Scripture readings today are all about thirsty people. First, we have the Israelites, grumbling, griping to Moses that they had nothing to drink as they made their way through the desert.

One day on a mountaintop, in the company of Peter, James, and John, Jesus was transfigured and his identity was revealed as the beloved Son of our heavenly Father, the glorious fulfillment of Moses and the law, and of Elijah and all the prophets. They got a whole new insight into Jesus, the Lord and his mission. 

My friends, Lent is certainly a time to acknowledge our sinfulness, but not to obsess about it, not to beat ourselves up over it. As St. Paul puts it, the grace of God far surpasses the sin of human beings. And so our focus this season should really be on God.  

In today’s gospel, Jesus gets even more pointed about what it takes to be a full-fledged disciple of his, and to walk the Way of the Cross with him on the Road Less Travelled. 

The bottom line of this gospel passage today is that Jesus is calling us to live by a higher moral standard than what our civil law requires or our culture preaches.

Today’s excerpt from St. Matthew’s gospel uses two images for the Church which speak to the mission Christ has entrusted to us.