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Perseverance in Faith

August 16

Reverend Robert Gillelan

Bishop Robert Barron is possibly the Catholic Church’s most vocal evangelizer. He writes about it, he preaches about it, our faith in relation to our culture. One of the things that he consistently repeats is that we need to understand that we cannot interpret our Catholic faith through the lens of secular ideologies. I think our gospel today is an extraordinary way to show how this is true.

And so, in hearing the gospel, let’s apply a secular ideology from DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and interpret the gospel through that lens. So, first of all, this Canaanite woman who is a pagan approaches Jesus and addresses Him as Lord and the son of David.

So, she is giving expression to some level of faith, and she wants Jesus to help in expelling a demon from her daughter. How does Jesus respond?

He doesn’t say a word. Basically, he ignores this poor woman. Because Jesus ignores this poor woman, now we have to label our Jesus as a racist and sexist. Jesus is a racist, because Jesus is Jewish, and the poor woman is a Canaanite, and He doesn’t help her.

So, Jesus is also a sexist, because He’s a man, but she’s a woman, and Jesus does not help a woman in distress. So, Jesus is already a racist and a sexist.

But the woman doesn’t give up. She has strong faith, and she continues to plead with Jesus to help And what does Jesus say? He says, I have come only from the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That makes Jesus a bigot.

First He’s a racist and a sexist, and now Jesus is a bigot. Because Jesus is Jewish, and she is pagan. And the Jew is not helping the pagan

So now, He’s a bigot on religious grounds.

But the woman, because of her faith continues to press Jesus to help her. And what does Jesus say? He says it’s not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.

Now he has called this woman a dog. Now he is engaging in hate speech. How can this possibly be? Jesus, a racist a sexist, a bigot and a hater?

Well, Jesus is God and God is love so Jesus is love incarnate walking around on earth. Jesus is not a hater. Jesus is love.

Jesus is none of those labels that a secularist, ideological description would label him. He is none of those things. He is love incarnate, and so what He is doing is, He is loving this woman and drawing faith out of her to the point where this woman gives such an exceptional response. She continues the metaphor, Jesus called her a dog, fine.

Even the dog eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table. Wow.

Such wit and wisdom, such faith. And Jesus loves it, and he says that this woman has great faith. The theological meaning of all this is, you know, she is a Canaanite, and a pagan, but she has shown great faith. So this is Jesus’ extending salvation, the offer of salvation, beyond the boundaries of Judaism.

That’s the big theological picture of this gospel. But I think this speaks to us about perseverance in the faith.

Sometimes Jesus is going to push us. Sometimes Jesus is going to make us work for it.

And we don’t want to roll over and play dead just yet.

Jesus gives us the grace and the faith and the help to stand strong in the face of opposition. Even when it seems to be coming from Jesus himself.

I think also this clearly shows that Bishop Barron is absolutely correct. That we cannot interpret our faith or our spiritual lives through the lens of secular ideologies because they just don’t work.

On the other hand, we as Catholics should be using our faith to interpret secular ideologies, to understand why they do not always work. So today we have this great gospel.

And we have this great advice from Bishop Robert Barron to use the correct tools at our disposal. To understand our faith. And to practice our faith. And to interpret our faith and the gospel and the entire Bible through the lens of the Catholic faith. Let us remember that that faith teaches us that it is God’s will that all be saved. God has a will for universal salvation.

And that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. Let us remember that it comes on His terms not ours.

The Assumption

August 15, 2026

Reverend Robert Gillelan Homily

In celebrating the solemnity of the assumption, we celebrate that at the end of Mary’s life, as the Doctrine says, when her early life was concluded it doesn’t say specifically whether she died or fell asleep, Eastern Catholics call this feast day the dormition indicating that their belief is more that Mary went quietly asleep, and then was assumed, body and soul, into heaven. And that God granted her grace and privilege, without going to the grave, because of her immaculate conception being conceived without sin, then living her life to the life of great holiness. And so, for us, she is this beautiful sign of hope that where Mary has gone from the world, we hope to follow.

As you heard in my reading, this is also our patronal feast day, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s in the name of our parish.

Do you know that this is also the anniversary of the consecration of this parish? Sort of.

Because the document in the sacristy right back there, tells us that this church was actually consecrated on August 14th, 1977.

Bishop Daly then mandated that August 15th would be the date we’ll be celebrating the dedication, because it’s the feast of the Assumption. Now, I’m curious, how many of you were here on August 14th, 1977, for the consecration of this church?

I see a few of you were here on August 14th. Well, that was 49 years ago, so….

But, the consecrating a church, what does that mean? It means sanctifying this specific building for the exclusive worship of God.

That is a great new ceremony for those of you who are here and experienced it. A consecration of the church is done by a bishop.

Secondly, it is usually done when the church is debt-free. So, congratulations. In 1977, after just a few years, the church had paid off its mortgage. So, there is no outside encumbrance, no financial institutions or banks or mortgages, so that it is unencumbered and can be dedicated solely to God and the worship of God.

One of the main features of that, when the bishop comes to consecrate the church, is he smears it with prism in 12 places on the walls. You can see, around the church, there are 12 candles that are lit. And it’s custom to light those candles on this feast day.

We also light them at Christmas and Easter. But that’s where, or in the vicinity, where the bishop put prism on the church and consecrated it in that way, symbolic of the foundation of the 12 apostles.

Also, Bishop Daily would have anointed this altar holy chrism. And the relics. Now, in some churches, on the day of consecration, relics are actually placed within the altar.

So, I assume these were pre-placed were probably already in place, or did they come later. So, on that day Deacon believes that these relics were placed in this reliquary in the altar.

This is the first church in the world to have relics of the first three American saints. Saint John Newman, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. And why?

Why would we do that? Why would we put relics in the altar? Because the ancient Christians used to go to the graves of the saints and worship there.

And at some point in the ceremony, these altar candles were lit as a sign of Christ as a light in the world. So, an altar cloth would have been placed on the altar. The altar itself was anointed, symbolic of the altar being the sign of Christ himself.

And then the altar cloth, the sign of the table of the Lord. The altar being not only the altar of sacrifice, but the banquet of the table, from which we received our sacred body and blood of Jesus Christ.

I think that is most of the highlights of a consecration ceremony, but it is a very, very profound experience to be a part of. And if you say, well, you know, I’ve heard that Catholic churches sometimes get sold.

How can that be? Well, they can be.

They are relegated to profane, but not sordid use. And of course, sordid is in the eye of the beholder. In Steelton , two Catholic churches were sold. One is a Muslim mosque now.

And another one is a Hindu temple. And in Pittsburgh, St. John the Baptist Church is now a micro brewery. And I’ve been there, and the beer vats are in what we call the sanctuary. But that’s only after these churches have been kind of decommissioned. The proper term is relegated to profane, but not sordid use.

But we can let go of those sordid affairs today because we are here to celebrate what God has done for our Blessed Mother and raising her up body and soul to the glory of heaven. And also to give thanks to Almighty God for the gift of this beautiful church that for us is dedicated fully and entirely to the worship of the one true God, His Son and our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we are able to do so in the power of the Holy Spirit. So happy feast day and happy anniversary.

Faith vs Fear August 9

Matthew 14: 22-43

Homily by Father Robert Gillelan

I like St. Teresa of Ávila’s comments regarding St. Peter in this gospel. This is what the saint tells us.

“I have often thought that St. Peter lost nothing by throwing himself into the sea, even though later he was afraid. These first impulses are a great thing.”

Those first impulses of faith that St. Peter had that impulse of faith, the trust in the Lord and the urge to step out of the boat were a great thing.

But then it all fell apart in the middle when fear overtook faith. But in the end, Jesus stretched out his hand and saved St.

Peter from drowning, saved by the very hand of God.

I think there’s something that we want to see here. Maybe something that helps to explain why faith is hard to come by when it is competing with fear. But first of all, let’s consider that before Jesus walked on water, Peter and the other disciples witnessed numerous miracles of Jesus. And the thing about all of these miracles is that the disciples were basically spectators to these miracles. They were not asked to be participants.

This is the list of miracles that Jesus performed in the sight and presence of Peter and the disciples.

Cleansing the leper, healing the centurion’s servant, healing Peter’s mother-in-law , calming the storm and sea, healing two possessed by demons , healing the paralytic, raising Jairus’ daughter, healing two blind men, a mute man, and healing a man with a withered hand, then feeding 5,000 people, and then Jesus walks on water and invites Peter to do the same.

How could one not, after witnessing all of those miracles, come to understand the truth of the name of Jesus, He is the son of God. He has shown His hand.

He has shown that He has power over human illness. He has shown that He has power over spiritual, demonic evil.

Power over nature. And now walking on the water, he shows that He has all the power over the laws of physics. So how is it that in the end, Jesus says to Peter, Oh, you of little faith. Why did you doubt?

As I said. Faith and fear compete.

And one of the things I think we want to remember about that is that Jesus said that fear is useless. What is needed is trust.

I think the other translation is do not be afraid, just have faith.

For us human beings, that’s a pretty big ask. Because we are actually hard wired for fear.

The part of the brain that deals with fear is the amygdala. And the amygdala coordinates our bodies’ rapid response to fear. That’s hard wired in us.

So as St. Teresa of Avila says, the initial impulse of Peter to get out of the boat to go to Jesus was good. But then the amygdala got active. And Peter became aware of the wind that was blowing , the waves and the darkness of the sea wanted to swallow him up in death.

Fear overtook him. And that fear overtook his faith. He lost his focus on Jesus the source of his salvation. But Jesus did not abandon him. Jesus was there to save him by reaching out his hand and saving him.

Clearly, the theological role of the story for us is to be aware that we do not allow our fears to compromise our own faith . To do that, I think we actually have to practice.

This is one of the reasons why perhaps it was hard for Peter before all of this. Remember, Peter and the other disciples were merely spectators through all of these miracles that Jesus was doing. Now, Jesus asked him to be a participant, to be the object of what he was about to do. So Peter had to muster his own faith and trust and courage in Jesus.

And as Saint Teresa said he did it for a little bit. And then he lost sight of Jesus.

And fear overcame him. And he sank.

But again, he rejoiced that Jesus was there to save and so, in the end, it’s a win, really, for everybody.

I think that’s a message for us. To be aware that fear can have a very compromising effect on our life of faith.

Which is why Jesus says, fear is useless. What we need is more trust in him.

And so, let us especially think about that as we live our life of faith. And so, let us pray that, as Saint Teresa says, we want to follow that impulse of faith and trust and remember to stay focused on Jesus.

Especially when the waves of fear sweep over us. When the winds of doubt blow through our minds.

And when the sea of hardships tries to drown us. May we learn to follow that impulse of faith and trust in Jesus.

So, like those disciples, we may also say, truly, He is the son of God.

Abundant Graces of the Eucharist

August 01, 2026 Father Robert Gillelan homily

The gospel of the feeding of the 5000 plus has since ancient times been interpreted with the symbolism of the Eucharist and the abundant graces that flow from the Eucharist. Because Jesus fed all of these people and there was an abundance of food left over from twelve baskets.

This has been interpreted as a kind of foreshadowing of the super abundant races flowing from the Eucharist. But what are those graces?

And do they show up in our lives? It’s a realistic question.

Where are the super abundant graces showing up in my life as a faithful catholic who comes to Mass and receives holy communion maybe on a daily basis or on a weekly basis? Where were those abundant graces when Aunt Sofie, herself, a daily mass communicant, got cancer and died?

Where were the abundant graces of the Eucharist then? Well, the abundant races of the Eucharist are not ordered to preserve a human life.

The abundant races of the Eucharist are ordered to preparing us for eternal life.

And where were the abundant graces of the Eucharist when I failed my math test? Came to Mass on Sunday, received the Eucharist, went to school and failed my math test.

Where were the abundant graces then? Well, the Eucharist and its graces are not ordered towards a kind of intellectual prowess. These graces are ordered to spiritual strength.

How about my addiction? Why don’t the abundant races of the Eucharist wipe out my addiction? To anything. Fill in the blank. Whatever it is.

Because the abundant graces of the Eucharist do not supplant human nature. In other words, Jesus will help us to beat it, but he’s not going to do all the heavy lifting by himself.

And where were all of the abundant graces of the Eucharist when I come on Wednesday to adoration? Adoring the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus in the Eucharist, grace is flowing and my mind is filled with dryness and distractions.

The graces of the Eucharists are not always ordered to comfort. Sometimes these graces are ordered to shake us up a bit and to test our faith.

When it comes to the abundant graces flowing from the Eucharist. We have great expectations. But we need to make sure that our great expectations are the right expectations. The Catechism and our Church teaching would tell us that the graces flowing from the Eucharist, the fundamental graces flowing from the Eucharist would be these, first of all, that when we receive the Holy Eucharist, the grace that we receive is union.

Union with Jesus Christ. Union, actual union. Body, blood, soul, and divinity. As the Eastern Catholics would say, our souls become divinized.

We actually share in the divine life of God himself and the person of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that should alone blow our minds. Because we leave here every time changed.

So, the very first objective grace that we receive is union with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And because everyone in this Church who receives Jesus in Holy communion and becomes one with Him, We all become one with each other in the body of Christ. Even those people in here that we don’t like so much. We become one with them as well in the body of Christ.

Because we are invited and receive this union with Jesus, we are invited to COMmunion. A communion with the teachings of Jesus.

This is why, you know, in the Church there can be such scandal regarding reception of Holy Communion. A reception of Holy Communion is a very strong sign that those receiving it do, in fact, strive to live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

And so, it’s scandalous when people live apart from those teachings and demand that, as we see in our world today, sometimes public figures demand that they be allowed to receive Holy Communion even when they are living apart from the teachings of Jesus Christ. This is also the reason why we don’t have what we call an open communion where we invite, for example, all of our Protestant brothers and sisters to receive Holy Communion. Because, when we receive Holy Communion we are saying, they are giving a sign of a communion with the teachings of Jesus.

And so, if they should receive in our church, or if we should receive in theirs, it can be seen as a false sign of a unity that does not truly exist. So, these are fundamental graces of unity and communion with the teachings of Jesus.

Another phenomenal grace is the deepening of love. Because Jesus is love.

And so, when we receive Him, we receive His love and His instruction on how to love God and one another. The greatest commitment.

And when you think about it, love is really the answer to every problem we ever have had, or ever will have.

Jesus doesn’t always give us what we think we want or what we expect.

As our psalm says, He gives us what we need. When we receive Him in Holy Communion, we are receiving love.

Finally, a fundamental grace that we receive is that of forgiveness. That’s why Jesus died and gave Himself to us in the Eucharist.

So that He will forgive us our sins. You should know that actually receiving the Eucharist forgives our venial sins. When we come to Mass, we start with the penitential rite. If you’ve all brought your venial sins, they are all wiped out by the abundant grace of charity in the Eucharist.

Now, the mortal sins, you’ve got to go over there and see me in confession But for your venial sins, Christ in His sacred body and blood forgives them with the reception of holy communion.

So when you think about it, who could ask for anything more? When we receive communion, we are receiving the abundant graces that Jesus knows that we need. We are united with Him spiritually in the depths of our souls, which invites us to embrace His teachings and to live in communion with Him. And that’s our way, our truth, and our life. We receive His love and in return are asked to share that love with the world. We receive His forgiveness and are asked to be a forgiving people ourselves.

So let us think that when it comes to receiving abundant graces, it is true that God and the person of Jesus Christ will not be outdone in generosity. As our psalmist says so beautifully, the hand of the Lord feeds us, He gives us all we need.

The Kingdom Is Jesus

Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 13:44–52

Reverend Robert Gillelan

July 26, 2026

Editor’s Note: The opening paragraph of this homily was not fully captured in the recording. The following introductory paragraph paraphrases Father Bob’s explanation to provide context.

(A simile is a figure of speech that compares one thing to another using the words “like” or “as.” Jesus uses similes throughout today’s Gospel to help us understand what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.)

Or the Kingdom of Heaven. Those two terms are interchangeable, depending on which Gospel you are reading.

So let’s begin with the Kingdom of Heaven.

What is that? Pope Benedict XVI gives us what is arguably the best definition of the Kingdom of Heaven.

He says: “The Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus Christ.” Period. That is the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not a place. It is not a thing.

It is Jesus Christ and everything about Him.

And so, when we come to know Jesus and love Him and serve Him, when Jesus becomes our way—our spiritual way, our moral way—when Jesus becomes our truth, our reality from which we live our lives, when Jesus becomes our very life, when our hearts beat with His, then we have entered the Kingdom of Heaven because we have entered into the life of Christ, and Christ has entered into us.

And so, when we think of that, that’s awesome. It’s incredible. That’s what Jesus is trying to say in that first simile. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure or a pearl of great price.

Jesus is invaluable. Jesus wants all of us to embrace Him as our MVP—our Most Valuable Person. And remember, from weeks ago, He said that even among our families, if you are going to be My disciple, you need to love Me even more than your family.

Jesus doesn’t say that because He’s an egomaniac, as if HE needs us. In our crazy world today, we need Him. Jesus is a necessity. He is not a luxury. We need Jesus and all that He has to give us in order to survive—and even thrive—in this world today.

So that’s why Jesus says that when we find Him in this beautiful interpersonal relationship, when we find ourselves living in His grace and friendship, we have truly found the greatest treasure, the greatest gift that He can give us.

The second simile that Jesus gives us. Is the one that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that is thrown into the sea, and it comes back full of all kinds of fish.

Just as the fishermen collect the good fish and throwing out the bad ones, Jesus says this is a metaphor for the Final Judgment.

At the end of time there will be a judgment where the good, the righteous, and the wicked will be separated. For the righteous there will be eternal reward. For the wicked there will be eternal punishment—wailing and grinding of teeth.

And so Jesus is saying that He is in charge now. That’s what’s going to happen at the end. You know when we speak about hell—which Jesus is speaking about in that second analogy—there are lots of people who don’t believe in hell.

Many of them are in that group of 75% of Americans, according to Pew Research, who are not affiliated with organized religion. They do not believe in hell. I don’t know if you’ve ever met someone who says they don’t believe in hell. But when we hear that, you might want to employ what C. S. Lewis said a long time ago.

C. S. Lewis gives us what he called the trilemma. It’s not a dilemma. It’s a trilemma.

Because when somebody says, “I don’t believe something that Jesus Christ said,” Jesus said there is the reward of Heaven and the punishment of hell. Why don’t you believe in that part about hell? So what are you saying? Are you saying that Jesus is mentally defective and making a mistake? Or are you saying that Jesus is evil because He is a liar who is trying to deceive us? Or are you going to admit that what Jesus says is true because Jesus is God, and He wants us to have the truth and the fullness of life?

C. S. Lewis says you can’t sit on the fence when it comes to Jesus. Either He is the Son of God, or He is not.

The third simile that Jesus gives us is the one about the guy who goes into the storeroom and brings out both the old and the new. I think this may very well be a reference to the Wisdom of Solomon. I think this is a reference to being wise. Pray that we come to understand Jesus through the Old Testament.

That we take the Old Testament and do our best to understand that, so that we can see how Jesus is, in fact, the fulfillment of so many of the Old Testament prophecies.

In that way we will come to know Him and understand God’s plan of salvation better.

And so Jesus gives us these three things about the Kingdom of Heaven, which are really all about Him. He gives us these things to think about, and they may sound a little disconnected. But maybe our Lords train of thought on this was: “ You know I want you to embrace Me as your MVP—your Most Valuable Person in life—who gives you the spiritual and moral guidance you need.

Who becomes your truth.

The reality that you live by.

And that I, Jesus become your life.

That My heart beats with yours.

If you live in this way, living in My grace and friendship, you will receive your heavenly reward. And in the meantime, use all the resources that I have given you to come to know Me, understand Me, love Me, and serve Me more deeply and more devoutly.

And if you do all of this, you will have found your treasure— the pearl of great price.”

The Dark Side of the Good News

Matthew 13: 24-43

Homily July 19, 2026

Reverend Robert Gillelan

In the seminary, we called this gospel, “ The Dark Side of the Good News” because the parable deals with evil. In this parable, Jesus is giving us a kind of a reality check so that we understand some things about evil.

To begin with, we need to understand that Jesus, in this parable, is speaking about evil. He is not speaking about some kind of a high school prank whereby a kid sows a few weeds in a farmer’s field.

Jesus is very specific about the weed. It doesn’t come through in our translation, but Jesus is specific about the weed that was sown in the wheat field. And that weed is darnel.

Darnel is toxic to humans. It’s poisonous. If you ingest enough of it, it will kill you. And so that’s part of the danger and the problem with this weed.

But another problem with it is that it mimics wheat. It looks like wheat. It has been called “wheat’s evil twin.” So you’ve got this two-fold problem with this weed.

It was a very, very serious problem. In the Roman Empire, there was a penalty for doing exactly what the Gospel describes in the parable. If you sowed darnel in somebody’s crop field, you could be prosecuted to the full extent of the law because it posed such a danger to other human beings ingesting it and dying.

So I think the first thing about this parable is that we don’t shy away from evil. We understand what evil is.

According to Augustine and Aquinas, evil is privation—the absence of good. Or it could be, as the parable describes to us, the corruption of good. Just as the weeds corrupted the farmer’s wheat field, so evil can be a corruption of the good.

I think another point of this parable is that we need to give high fives to those farm workers who recognized that this evil weed was present in the wheat field, and they went and told the master.

That is symbolic of us being able to identify evil in our lives and in our world today. And that can be difficult, because evil can mimic good.

Evil can mimic good.

Just think about it. Think about some of the hot-button issues today.

Think about abortion and how pro-abortionists present abortion. They present it as something good. They brand it as a right, as healthcare. “It’s your body. It’s your choice.” That’s not how God brands abortion.

God brands it as the direct and intentional killing of an innocent human life.

So evil is mimicking good. Evil is being presented as something good.

And with transgender issues, and biological males competing against girls and females in sports and entering into their locker rooms, the people who are for that present it as something good. They present it as justice for an oppressed group of people, while at the same time it is an injustice to girls and women.

Evil presenting itself as something good.

Embryonic stem cell research. Oh, that’s good, isn’t it? Because stem cells are really good in medical and scientific research. But after they harvest the stem cells, then the embryos are destroyed. And embryos—human embryos—are nascent human beings.

So that’s evil.

We can’t do an evil to get something good. Yet it’s often presented as something not only good, but wonderful because of the benefits of medicine and science.

So I think one of the really important messages of this Gospel is that we become able to identify evil in our lives and in the world today.

You know, one of our petitions is going to be that we will avoid making harsh judgments. And when we make these kinds of distinctions and point out evil in the world, we will be judged as being harsh and haters. But part of that Gospel is Jesus wanting us to be able to discern what is good and what is evil.

Which brings us to the next part, which the parable doesn’t really address. What are we going to do about it?

When we identify evil, what are we supposed to do? The parable, by itself, sounds like we’re supposed to sit on our hands and wait for Jesus to take care of it at the end of time.

But that’s not the point of this parable.

The point of the parable is to never lose hope, even in the face of evil in the world.

We know that the core message of Jesus is to go out and preach the Good News, which is repentance. Turn away from evil and turn to God. Turn away from evil and turn to what is good.

That was the mission that Jesus gave to His disciples. That’s the mission they accepted at great cost. And that’s what they did. The Apostles went out and preached repentance. They did this in a world that was unbelieving and often evil.

We are called to go out and to live the Gospel in thought, word, and deed as we encounter and confront evil in our lives. And to do it with patience, perseverance, and prudence.

Because Jesus knows that we are not going to conquer all the evil in the world all the time. And so what is left over at the end is for Jesus to take care of at the end of time.

That’s our faith. Our faith in Him who will destroy evil at the end of time and, as the parable says, will punish the evildoers.

So that’s the dark side of the Good News.

But it’s good news for us because it makes us aware of such an important spiritual issue in our lives: evil.

This parable invites us to try to be aware of it, to discern it, to be able to identify it in our lives, and then to be able to address it with prudence and perseverance.

And to be able to live our lives by proclaiming the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in thought, word, and deed, and having the faith to know that in this life we will not conquer all evil. But in the end, Jesus will. That gives us hope.

So, as we continue, let us not be afraid to address the evil that is in our world.

Let us do it with the mind and the heart of Christ.

And let us pray that when it is our turn to be judged, the harvester will take us into His barn as wheat and not the weeds.

Amen.

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Jesus’ Gentle Yoke

Homily by Reverend Robert Gillelan

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 5, 2026

Matthew 11:25–30

Jesus in the Gospel today extols the child-like while criticizing the wise and the learned. And in criticizing the wise and the learned, He’s probably thinking of the scribes and the Pharisees, maybe the Sadducees and the philosophers, who think that they have the intellectual, the religious, and the moral high ground on everything.

Because of their arrogance, they reject Jesus and His teachings. So when Jesus says that God is hiding some things from them, that’s only a manner of speech. God isn’t hiding anything from anyone. It is the wise and the learned who are hiding from God, from God’s truth manifested in Jesus Christ.

So it’s not a good day for the wise and the learned, but it is a very good day for the child-like, whom Jesus refers to as the “little ones.” The little ones are those who are humble of heart and childlike in their trust of Jesus and in their acceptance of Him and His teachings.

These are those who are most likely to be able to accept the yoke that Jesus is offering, the yoke that Jesus is talking about. He says in that Gospel that He wants His disciples and, by extension, all of us, to accept His gentle yoke, which is easy.

His yoke is easy, and the burden is going to be light.

We all know what a yoke is.

It’s a great image for Jesus to use. We know that it’s that wooden beam that joins, for example, two oxen together, to keep them together, to get the job done.

Jesus is using that and He’s spiritualizing that, saying that He wants us to be spiritually joined to Him, spiritually united, spiritually tethered to Him, so that life will be better. That’s what He’s offering.

He’s not saying life will necessarily be easier, but it will be better if we are ready, willing, and able to live our lives yoked with Jesus.

When we hear that, we might think, “Well, wait a minute. I remember last week’s Gospel in which Jesus said that the demands of discipleship are hard.” So how can His yoke be easy if the demands of discipleship are hard?

Remember those three things He laid out for us?

We’ve got to love Him more than we love our families.
We have to learn to suffer redemptively.
We have to learn to take up our crosses.
And we have to lose ourselves in Him in order to find the fullness of life.

And that stuff is hard.

So how can His yoke be easy?

Well, this is one of the counterintuitive things about often what Jesus says, that it’s hard for us to conceptualize, but we can only find its truth by living it.

We’ve got to do it.

We need to learn to take on the yoke of Jesus to find out what that really means.

When we do, when we live our lives in Christ and through Christ and with Christ, we find out that the weight of the world gets lighter because Jesus is helping us to shoulder the load.

We find out that direction in life becomes clearer because we are following the lead of Jesus.

We find out that divine assistance is always at the ready because Jesus is right there.

We take consolation in that promise of Jesus that with Him, He will give us rest, rest for our souls when we need it.

Of course, the part that Jesus doesn’t say is, “I’m also going to push you. I’ll give you rest, but I’m also going to push you when you need to be pushed.”

So just as things go better with Coke, for those of you who are old enough remember that slogan, “Things go better with Coke. Things go better with Jesus when we accept His yoke.”

That rhymes, doesn’t it?

Yeah.

So that must be divinely inspired.

So a French bishop once wrote about this, that when we hear about this taking on the yoke of Jesus, it can be scary because we don’t think it’s going to be easy or the burden will be light.

We think it’s going to increase the burden of life because you know Jesus has all these demands.

But this is what the French Archbishop writes about why would anyone be afraid to take on the yoke of Jesus.

“What then are we afraid of? Can we have too much of God? Is it a misfortune to be freed from the heavy load of the world and to bear the light burden of Jesus Christ? Do we fear to be too happy, too much delivered from ourselves, from our pride, from the violence of our passions and the tyranny of this deceitful world?”

In other words, why would we not want to take on the yoke of Jesus Christ?

So as this weekend, we conclude our celebration of our 250th anniversary of throwing off the yoke of British tyranny. May we be reminded and pray through the intercession of Mary and Jesus and the saints to not be afraid to take on the easy and the gentle yoke of Jesus Christ.

The Costs of Discipleship

Homily by Reverend Robert Gillelan

June 28, 2026

You know, the world loves to do things on its own terms. Jesus makes it very clear in the Gospel today that there’s one thing we can’t do on our own terms, and that’s discipleship. Jesus gets to determine who is a disciple, and he also lays out conditions for discipleship.

And boy, are they hard. They are off the charts hard, the things that Jesus says are the conditions for being a disciple. If you want to follow him, these are the things you’ve got to do. And he starts off with what is arguably the messiest one that often doesn’t end too well.

1. Loving Jesus Over Family

Jesus says, “You’ve got to love me more than your family.” Love Jesus more than family. Now, that may sound harsh, but it shouldn’t surprise us at all because the commandments have the exact same structure.

The first three of the Ten Commandments are about God, how to love God. The fourth one is honor thy parents. So by extension, that’s about the family. So first comes God, then comes family. And that’s what Jesus is saying.

But the question is, when the rubber hits the road and our families have these situations, what are we going to choose? Are we going to choose the blood of family or the water of baptism, which connects us to Jesus? These are often very, very difficult situations, making a choice22 between family values and Jesus’ values.

When it comes to those inevitable situations in life where family values and Jesus’ values are in conflict, we should approach them always in charity, in truth, and striving to be as faithful as we can to Christ and let the chips fall where they may.

Because often in these situations, no one leaves happy—not family, and perhaps not even Jesus at times. So we can only do our best there. But let us remember those three virtues that always need to be in play: charity, truth, and fidelity to Jesus and His teachings.

2. Embracing Redemptive Suffering

So as if that first one isn’t hard enough, Jesus kind of piles on with the second one, which is about suffering—that we must learn to carry our part, our portion of the cross. Jesus is talking about embracing suffering and learning to suffer well.

And he calls us to that because he knows what suffering can do for us. And he knows it can make us bitter, but He also knows it can make us better because He died on that cross. He suffered and died on that cross, and His suffering and death was redemptive.

As the world tells us that your suffering has absolutely no meaning, Jesus says, “Yes.” Look for that meaning. Dig for that meaning. Make something of your suffering.

As Saint Teresa of Calcutta had said, “Don’t waste a minute of your suffering.”Because it can be redemptive when we offer it up to the Lord, when we nail it on His cross, when we pray that something good, something greater than myself, may come of this suffering. Or through this suffering, whether it’s emotional or physical or spiritual, that I might be changed, that I might be transformed more and more into the image and likeness of Christ. So Jesus knows that suffering has value. We need to find it and let the Lord show us.

3. Losing Your Life to Find It

So we have those two, which are incredibly difficult: choose Jesus over family, learn to suffer redemptively, and now lose your life.

Lose your life in order to find it. Because if you try to find your life in this life by pursuing money and possessions and fame and power, you’re going to end up losing your life. You’re not going to find the meaning, the fulfillment, the peace, the direction that you sought.

The Reward of the Journey

So three huge conditions that Jesus lays down which define his disciples:

* Choosing Jesus over family

* Learning to carry our portion of the cross and of the sufferings that come into our lives

* Losing our lives in Christ so that we live in Him and with Him and through Him.

And if we do all that, then the whole second half of that Gospel is about participation awards. Jesus is giving out the awards to everyone who participates. Either participates by doing something little, by supporting a true disciple of Jesus who is proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus, or if it’s us who are trying every single day to fulfill those conditions and live as an authentic disciple of Jesus, He says, “We will not leave without our reward.”

And that’s the good news here today, that we come here and we are refreshed by his word and refreshed in this sacrament to give us the strength and the energy to try to not always take the path of least resistance. But Jesus lays out a path of great resistance in those conditions. And that’s the path that he wants us to take as his true disciples. And that’s the path that his disciples took.

So remembering their discipleship journey, let us think about ours. And let us remember that the discipleship journey, our privilege and the grace that it is to follow Christ, may very well be the greatest opportunity we’ve ever had in our lives to find meaning and direction, fulfillment, and peace.

Let’s not waste it.

Courage to Proclaim
Reverend Robert Gillelan Homily
12 Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 21, 2026

Jesus said to his disciples, “Live faithfully. Do not be afraid. Do not deny me.” But we have to go deeper, because Jesus is saying some truly amazing, astounding things in this Gospel, and we can kind of skip right over them because it sounds so familiar to us.
“Be faithful. Do not be afraid,” which, by the way, is Jesus’s most common commandment in the Gospels. And “Do not deny me.” Okay, so we know all that. But what is Jesus really saying here? He is talking to his disciples about what discipleship is going to cost them. There is going to be a cost to their following Jesus, and this is in the context of persecution.
Right before this Gospel passage, Jesus is telling his disciples that people are going to hate them. He is sending them out to preach the Gospel, to preach the kingdom values. But he says, “People are going to hate you for that because they hate me.” And why do they hate him? Because they think he is Beelzebul.
Beelzebul literally means “the master” or “the lord of the house.” Some believe Jesus is actually the demon lord of the satanic kingdom on Earth. So, they believe that Jesus is demonic, evil incarnate, and anyone associated with him is also evil. If they don’t believe that, they believe that he is, at the very least, in league with demons.
Jesus is telling his disciples that when they go out and preach, people are going to think they are evil, and there is going to be pushback. There is going to be hostility in proclaiming this message. So, they are going to have to be courageous. “Do not be afraid.” Jesus says, “I have your back. I am going to be with you.”
They need to be courageous in order to preach this message because there is going to be a lot of opposition. Then, Jesus puts a very fine point on it, and this is where it gets pretty amazing. Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid of those who can kill the body. Be afraid of the one who can cast both body and soul into Gehenna.”
Now, stop and think a little about what that means. How many of us are afraid of people who can kill us? Probably everyone, right? Jesus is saying, “Don’t be afraid that when you go out there and preach this message, you might get killed, because that is the reality. That is the world I am sending you into—a world where, when you preach this message, someone might kill you. But don’t be afraid of that person. Be afraid of God, who can damn your souls to Gehenna, who can cast body and soul into the fires of hell. Have a healthy, reverential respect for God, but do not fear men.”
Another fine point he makes is this: as you are going out there and proclaiming the message and risking martyrdom, make sure you don’t deny me, because if you deny me on Earth, I am going to deny you on Judgment Day. Yeah, that puts a different spin on everything, doesn’t it?
Jesus is very, very serious about the mission of these twelve. He needs them to go out and proclaim his kingdom, or it won’t get done. He is giving them a reality check that as his followers—as his disciples become apostles—they are the ones to spread the kingdom of God on Earth. He says, “Don’t be afraid. I have your back.”
I think that is the situation we find ourselves in today. We really have found ourselves in it for the past 2,000 years. It can be very, very hard to be a Catholic, hard to live Christian values in this world—very hard. We often face opposition.
I want to read to you something that Cardinal George of Chicago once wrote. I think this was about 30 years ago, so he was very prophetic. Cardinal George wrote regarding being a leader in the Catholic Church and facing opposition and hardship: “I expect to die in bed. My successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. And his successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization.”
That is why we have the vocation of living our discipleship, following Christ, to rebuild civilization, to reform society by seasoning it. Remember, we are the salt of the earth. That is the seasoning: seasoning society with kingdom values. Jesus says, “In doing that, you are going to face opposition and hardship, but don’t be afraid. I have your back. Do it in good times when it’s easy. Do it in hard times when it’s really hard. But I need you to do it.”
This is why we come here every Sunday: to hear that word of inspiration and reassurance, and to receive the Eucharist to help us with the courage we need to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in thought, word, and deed. So today, let’s pray for that courage, that we will be reminded that Jesus has our backs. Let’s keep in mind his most common refrain, his most common command: “Be not afraid.”