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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.”
God Equips the Unsuitable
Homily by Rev. Robert M. Gillelan, Jr.
June 14, 2026
In the course of salvation history, whether it’s about nation building or kingdom spreading or church founding, our God has a long history of not choosing the equipped but equipping those He chooses. And we see that in our first reading.
God wants the 12 tribes of Israel to become a holy nation, actually a special possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And Moses is going to be their leader.
Moses doesn’t think he’s equipped for the job because Moses has a stutter, and he thinks, “Well, that’s not going to be helpful,” and God says, “No problem. I can work with that.”
So how does God equip these Israelites to become a holy nation?
Well, He gives them the 10 Commandments, and He says, “Follow these 10 Commandments. And if you do so, you will be a kingdom of priests because you will be offering your daily life as a sacrifice pleasing to Me every day.
Offering your life as a sacrifice to Me, that’s living a holy life. That’s what’s going to make you a holy nation.
And as you’re a holy nation by following the 10 Commandments, you’re going to reflect My glory to all the pagan nations around you and draw them to Me, the one true God of Israel.”
And we know from our knowledge of the Old Testament that sometimes that goes just great, and sometimes it doesn’t.
And then if we fast forward 2,200 years to Jesus, we see Jesus taking a page out of the playbook of God choosing 12 tribes.
Taking the 12 tribes of Israel, Jesus chooses 12 men, 12 disciples, in order to begin to spread His kingdom.
And you know, when we talk about being qualified for the job, being equipped for the job, let us take a look behind the curtain and just learn a little bit about who these 12 men were. And we might say they were quite a motley crew.
So we’ve got Simon the Zealot. He was from Cana. He had nationalistic tendencies. He wanted the Romans out of Israel. As a zealot, he would like to go to war to accomplish that end.
Then you’ve got Matthew. So mind you, Simon is against the Romans, but Matthew is working for the Romans because he’s a tax collector. So some see him as a traitor, and I think it’s very unlikely that Matthew and Simon got along.
Then you’ve got five Galilean fishermen: Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Thomas. So there’s the fishermen.
Then there’s Philip, whose name is Greek. And that intimates that he may have been a Greekified Jew, a Hellenized Jew, a Jewish person who was very comfortable welcoming in secular society, the Hellenized secular society, into Jewish culture and religion. So maybe tending more than a pious Jew, maybe more of a secular Jew.
Then there’s Bartholomew. Do you remember what Bartholomew said when he was introduced to Jesus? Talk about being the cynic in the group.
Bartholomew said, “Can anything good possibly come out of Galilee?” That’s what he said about Jesus.
And then there’s Judas Iscariot, and we know what happened to him. But before that, let’s understand his place in the 12. Judas was the only disciple who was not from Galilee.
So you’ve got eleven from Galilee up north, and you’ve got Judas by himself who comes from the southern portion, Judea. Whatever role may have played in his decision, that’s where he was demographically in the 12.
Jesus equipped this motley crew with His authority, His authority to go out and exercise demons, to cure the sick, and to preach the Kingdom of God.
And in so doing, they became the apostolic foundation for our one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.
Speaking of Church, maybe some of you know what happened this past Thursday evening when the bishops of the United States consecrated our nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The bishops were down having meetings in Orlando, Florida.
They went to the cathedral. And on the eve of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, they consecrated our nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
And they write why they did it. Because consecration is an act of faith.
It is an acknowledgment that history is not simply the story of what human beings can accomplish. It is the story of God’s faithful love at work in the world.
We give thanks for the blessings of these past 250 years, but we do so with humility, recognizing in faith that every nation stands in need of God’s mercy, wisdom, and guidance.
We consecrate our nation, not because it is perfect, but because it is beloved by God.
And so, as God’s beloved, may we, as one nation and through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, be equipped with every grace and blessing to fulfill our vocation to be God’s special possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, to God’s greater honor and glory.
Amen.
St. Mary’s Church • Lebanon, Pennsylvania
Homily Transcript Prepared from Audio Recording
THE EUCHARIST: REAL PRESENCE
Corpus Christi Sunday
June 7, 2026
Jesus knew that it was going to be shocking, especially when he got to the part about eating His body and drinking His blood.
As we heard in the Gospel, some of the Jews began to quarrel among themselves. We know that some of Jesus’ own disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can bear it?” And they left.
And still others were likely standing there, scratching their heads and asking the question, “Is this guy talking about cannibalism?” But down through the centuries, at least for the first 1,500 years of the Church, Christians, with the help of the Holy Spirit, did believe that the Eucharist was truly the Body and Blood of Christ. And they also believed in the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, that it flowed from our Lord’s sacrificial death on the Cross.
That is until we get to the 16th century and Martin Luther. When Martin Luther came on the scene, he broke communion with the Catholic Church because he had a different understanding of the Eucharist. Now, Martin Luther did believe that Christ was truly present in the Eucharist, but he did not believe that there was a sacrificial connection between our Lord’s sacrifice on the Cross and the Eucharist. He believed the Eucharist was given out of God’s graciousness, God’s magnanimity, God’s goodness to human beings.
Whereas Catholics understand that every time we celebrate Mass, the sacrifice of Calvary is represented again ritually, sacramentally, spiritually, in an unbloody manner. And as we offer Jesus back to the Father, Jesus gives us His sacred Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity for our well-being and redemption.
And Martin Luther said that the sacrifice on the Cross happened once in history. It’s over and done with. That’s not what happens in Mass.
And then there was another reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, and he believed that the Eucharist was merely symbolic. It was not truly the Body and Blood of Jesus. It was representative, symbolic. And, of course, we Catholics don’t believe that either.
And even today, as all of these reformers moved away from the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic faith and our understanding of Communion, they left our understanding of Communion behind. And today there are Protestant denominations who don’t even have Holy Communion.
Now, this is not to denigrate those other denominations. It’s simply to say, historically, that is what has happened.
As these different reformers broke away from the Catholic Church, they broke away from the fullness of the understanding of the Eucharist. And I wonder if anyone who lacks understanding of the Eucharist and wants to understand the Eucharist has paid any attention to all of the Eucharistic miracles that have happened down through the centuries.
Eucharistic miracles have happened from the 8th century, the famous one at Lanciano, Italy, up until the 21st century. We’ve had, I believe, at least four verified Eucharistic miracles.
And what these miracles do, apart from showing us how hard God is trying to help us fully understand, is answer a lot of the objections of those who lack understanding. So let us consider what these Eucharistic miracles show us.
And by the way, when there is a suspected Eucharistic miracle, the Catholic Church vigorously investigates it with independent sources. These are the findings of these Eucharistic miracles.
For example, when a host changes in appearance or substance during Mass, or appears to bleed, the Church investigates. And those that are deemed true miracles, not able to be explained in any other way, this is what has been found: that that host has been transubstantiated into living cardiac tissue, myocardial tissue, from the left ventricle of a heart.
The tissue contains white blood cells, indicating it was taken from a living person. We’re not talking about some dead fossil here.
We’re talking about living heart tissue. That’s what science found.
That speaks to what Jesus said: “I’m going to give you my flesh. And if you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have my life within you.”
Also found is that the blood is type AB positive, which is rare, and it’s the universal recipient. It’s also the blood that was found on the Shroud of Turin, type AB. And so this type AB positive blood, being the universal recipient, speaks theologically to Jesus willing everyone’s salvation, welcoming everyone to Him as the source of salvation.
Also found is that this tissue has undergone severe trauma. The tissue sample shows signs of inflammation and distress consistent with a person who has suffered severe physical trauma, like someone being crucified on a cross. This connects the sacrifice to the Eucharist. “Take this, all of you, and eat. This is my body, which will be given up on the Cross for you.”
And finally, a DNA profile is found. Tests confirm the samples contain human DNA. Jesus was God and man.
Yeah, it’s hard to wrap our minds around that. But again, this is God trying so hard to help us accept the truth of what Jesus says about Himself as the Bread of Life, the gift of the Eucharist.
So maybe we don’t need that proof. If you’re here today, likely you don’t need that kind of proof. But it’s very interesting to know, isn’t it? And I think we should pray that all those who lack the fullness of this kind of understanding may come to the fullness of the truth and realize what our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist desires to give them: everything, Himself, and salvation.
So let us remember those beautiful and profound words of Saint John Vianney, who said that the Eucharist, our Lord’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, is God’s greatest gift to humanity. If He had something more precious, He would have given that.
Happy Feast Day.
The Trinity: God’s Closeness
Homily by Rev. Robert Gillelan
Holy Trinity Sunday • May 31, 2026
There are times we pause and reflect on our parents with grateful hearts as we remember all the sacrifices that they made on our behalf and all the different ways, great and small, that they showed their love for us. And I think that’s a way to celebrate this Sunday of the Holy Trinity: looking back with grateful hearts and thanking God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Trinity, for all the sacrifices they have made on our behalf and all of the ways that they have shown us their love.
In the readings today, especially our first reading, we kind of get that started when we go back about 3,500 years to maybe the 15th century BC, where we see God and Moses having this conversation on Mount Sinai for a second time. The Israelites have worshiped falsely the golden calf, and Moses is upset, and he breaks the Ten Commandments, and so he has to do it all over again.
He goes up on Mount Sinai with fresh tablets, and there God speaks to him. And God identifies Himself as being a God who is merciful and gracious and slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, and let’s face it, that’s everything you want in your God. So it’s good news. And Moses says, “Look, I really need your help because this is a stiff-necked people. They are very stubborn. I’m going to need your help.” And, of course, He agrees, and salvation history moves forward. But when we look at this in a broader sense, what’s happening here?
This is a transcendent God, a God up in the heavens, who is initiating, who is desiring this relationship with these people, really representing humanity. This transcendent God wants a relationship with humanity. He chooses the Israelites. And in order that this relationship, this personal, interpersonal relationship, will work, God gives them Ten Commandments.
And we remember that God said, “If you follow these ten things, we’re going to have a good relationship. If you don’t follow these ten things, we’re not going to have a good relationship.” This is God covenanting with His people Israel and entering more fully into the human experience as a transcendent God.
Okay, now we move forward. Fast forward 1,500 years to Jesus. Jesus is not transcendent, is He? Jesus is imminent. He is God with us, walking around on this earth, flesh and blood, God incarnate. And now God, who has come down from the heavens, who is with us, wants an even deeper personal relationship with humanity when Jesus chooses His twelve disciples. That relationship gets pretty deep because He calls them friends.
So now humanity is on a friendly basis with God, who is walking around down here on earth. In order that this relationship works out, Jesus teaches His disciples many things, giving primacy to love, teaching them how to love God and one another. And to cap all of this off, to show how much God loves us, Jesus, God incarnate, dies on the cross for our salvation, remembering that Jesus said that’s the greatest thing you can do: for one person to lay down his or her life for a friend.
And then Jesus ascends to the Father, and the Holy Spirit comes to us. The Holy Spirit, not transcendent anymore but not really imminent in the way that Jesus was, but God in pure spiritual form. Jesus tells us that His Spirit will be with us to guide us into all truth and to remind us of everything that Jesus said and did, and to sanctify us, to help us, to nudge us in the right direction so that we may live our lives in holiness, in God’s grace and friendship, and also, as we hear in so many of our liturgical prayers, to bring the Church, the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church, into a stronger union.
You know, if there’s anything we can say about our God, it is that our God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Triune God—is very persistent. For millennia, this God in three Persons has shown this burning desire to be close to humanity and to be one with humanity and has done everything in His power to make that happen. You know, if that’s not something that you really resonate with, well, maybe try this: God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, could not imagine this universe without you in it.
And then how about God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer? Saint Augustine tells us that if you were the only person on earth somehow in need of redemption, Jesus would die on the cross for you alone. And then the Holy Spirit, who is with us always, reminds us of this love—the love of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit—which is almost unfathomable in our minds. That is the love in which we live. That’s the love that, especially when we celebrate this Eucharist, is being poured into our hearts.
So with grateful hearts, let us praise the Holy Trinity, undivided unity, Holy God, mighty God, God immortal, be adored.
Happy Feast Day.
The Church’s Two Birthdays
Reverend Robert Gillelan May 24, 2026
Today on Pentecost we celebrate a birthday of the Church, and we call it a birthday because Pentecost marks the end of our Lord’s Paschal mystery, His Paschal mission, His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus ascends to the Father so that the Holy Spirit can descend and shower upon those disciples all of the gifts that the Holy Spirit has to give to embolden them, to inspire them, to empower them to go out to all the world and proclaim the good news. And the apostles did that, and the Church has done it for almost 2,000 years.
We know that because the Catholic Church has a presence on all seven continents and in almost every nation on Earth. So we call this a birthday because it represents the birth of the missionary Church, the missionary character of our Catholic Church. But there is another birthday, so think about it for a minute. What might be the other birthday of the Church?
Correct. It’s Good Friday. Good Friday is the other birthday of the Church because Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Augustine say so. In their theology, the Catholic Church was born on Good Friday when Jesus died on the cross and His side was pierced with a spear and outflowed blood and water, the sacramental signs of sacramental life in the Church. And those signs mean water, baptism, and blood, the Eucharist, the two fundamental sacraments of the Church.
John Chrysostom and Saint Augustine saw in this just as Eve came forth from the side of Adam, so the Church came forth from the side of Christ.
When we think about birthdays, we think about gift-giving. And at this point, we should think about the gifts that Jesus and the Holy Spirit have poured out in copious amounts into the Church.
Let us start with Jesus and consider that as Jesus was preparing to give birth to this Church that we belong to today, He didn’t just give us two sacraments, baptism and Eucharist. He gave us seven. And let’s consider why He gave us those seven sacraments, because He knew we would need spiritual help at spiritually decisive times in our lives.
✔️He gave us baptism to initiate us into the family of God.
✔️He gave us the Eucharist to spiritually nourish us on our spiritual journey.
✔️He gave us confirmation to strengthen us.
✔️He gave us the sacrament of reconciliation to forgive us.
✔️He gave us the sacrament of anointing of the sick to heal us.
✔️He gave us the sacrament of holy orders so that priests and deacons could serve the Church.
✔️He gave us the sacrament of holy matrimony as a service to the family and the Church and society.
Absolutely brilliant that Jesus gave us all of these spiritual helps, not to mention all of His teachings, which give us moral and spiritual guidance in life. Let’s not forget, the Ten Commandments handed on to Jesus and to us in the Catholic Church to give us moral guidance.
And then there’s the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who did not come to the Church empty-handed but came to give us seven gifts: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord. Just think of that.
In the words of George Gershwin “Who could ask for anything more? “
Think of that!
We have the Ten Commandments. We have the teachings of Christ enshrined in the teachings of the Catholic Church. We have the seven sacraments. We have the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us, to heal us, and to help us to grow in holiness, to live in our Lord’s grace and friendship.
All of that is why we call the Church the Sacrament of Salvation, because we have everything we need and everything that we could want to help us to get to heaven (and basically on our way not to kill each other and tear each other apart.)
So today, as we celebrate these birthdays, and you can take or pick whichever one you want, I like to put them together and think instead of a date or a point, I like to think of a birthday process. Jesus and the Holy Spirit put an awful lot of thought into this to give us what we have today.
All of this, the Church, is under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has taken over the operation of this whole enterprise that we call ‘Holy Mother Church.’
It is the Holy Spirit whose principal job description would be to lead us into all truth, which Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would do, and to keep us unified in our search for truth and holiness, and to be the foundation, the fundamental of our spiritual lives.
So whether you might put Friday as a birthday or whether you might Pentecost as a birthday for the Church, let us celebrate that birth of the one holy Catholic and apostolic Church born of blood and water and the Holy Spirit. May we rejoice in the abundant gifts that Jesus and the Holy Spirit have poured into our Church directly towards our salvation, and may we go forth like those first disciples encouraged to proclaim the good news.
Happy Feast Day.
The Gospel Changes the World
Homily by Reverend Robert Gillelan
May 17, 2026 For 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has been changing the world and changing lives. Consider that for 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has been upsetting worldly philosophies and ideologies and proposing instead the one true holy Catholic and apostolic faith.
And for centuries, the Catholic Church has opposed a society and creation of chaos and anarchy, and instead has proposed law and order as an expression of the divine plan for society and creation. And speaking of law and order, yesterday I came back from jogging on the rail trail, and as I was entering through the chapel
door on Cumberland Street, three little boys came up to me, maybe the ages of 6 to 10 years of age, and the oldest one said to me, “Hey, mister, are you running from the police?” And I said, “No, I’m running because I’m jogging.” And then the littlest one said, “Are you sure you’re not running from the police?”
And so I showed them my key and I told them I was the pastor of this church, and that seemed to settle everything. So that’s the good news that we have the neighborhood watch group. They’re on duty, so I suggest maybe you don’t run to your cars.
The Catholic Church, in the past century, has opposed the economic and political platforms of socialism and communism and has promoted instead the dignity of the human person with inalienable rights given to us by a creator and not by the state.
And the Catholic Church, for 2,000 years, has upset subjectivism and relativism in all of its forms and has promoted human freedom guided by the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus Christ. And all of that began with Jesus and the apostles.
And as we hear in our first reading today and in the Gospel, this is why the apostles went back to that room after our Lord’s Ascension to wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, who was going to come to them and empower them to fulfill that commissioning of Jesus Christ, go out to all. the world, and proclaim the good news, because that good news is going to change the world and change lives. And that’s why Jesus we hear the Gospel today, that Jesus prayed for his disciples.
That’s actually called the high priestly prayer of Jesus, and it happened at the Last Supper. Jesus knew the seriousness of the undertaking that he was handing over to his disciples. And I think in a very special way, we see how the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ changed the world when we read through the Acts of the Apostles. And in the Catholic Church, we’ve been doing that after Easter, and, it’s a beautiful Bible study on how Saint Paul and his preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ began to change the world order. (And by the way, I just found out at the Mass at Fatima that Dr. Scott Hahn is doing the same thing. He’s on the Hallow App , so if you get Hallow, you might want to check out Dr.
Scott Hahn. But just consider how the preaching of Saint Paul and his companions changed the world.
And for Paul, we’re talking about in his missionary journeys to Turkey, Greece, and Rome, and his preaching changed the religious order of things. Because when Paul started preaching Christ crucified, it very much upset many of the Jewish groups, and they tried to expel Paul from their midst.
They threatened him. They stoned him almost to death.
They put him in prison because he was preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. So Paul’s beginning to change the world order relative to religion.
He also changed the moral order of things. And he changed that because when Gentiles or pagans became Christians, they were commanded to start eating kosher and giving up incestuous and illegitimate marriages so that they would not scandalize the Jewish Christians.
And for the Jewish Christians, they too had to accept the new moral order. No moralism going to be the lex talionis or an eye for an eye.
It was going to be, now that you’re a follower of Christ, you need to learn to love your enemies and pray for your persecutors. Paul is changing the moral order.
And then there’s the social order. Paul’s preaching changed that too.
He started to break down barriers because it was Paul who said there’s no more Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, but everyone is invited to fellowship around the table. Paul also began to change the economic order of things.
He expelled a demon from a slave girl, and this slave girl went to his possessed, was able to tell fortunes, and so her master, who’s making a lot of money, called her for fortune telling. But Paul exercised that demon, and now she was spiritually free, but she wasn’t bringing in the money that she had accrued because she
wasn’t able to tell fortunes, and that slave owner had Paul beat and thrown into prison.
Also, when Paul told the silversmiths and their union that they need to stop making silver idols because that’s idolatry. And Paul started a riot when he did that. Kind of reminds me of when some of you who are old enough remember, I think it was 1997, when Oprah Winfrey made a comment about eating beef and all the Texas cattlemen sued her.
So Paul was also affecting the economic order by his preaching of Jesus Christ. And finally, we know that he met his end by going up against the political order because he preached Jesus Christ as Lord, and that was a threat to Caesar, and it also disturbed the Roman peace, and Paul was eventually beheaded.
So in all of these ways, we see how the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ changed the world and changed lives. And that’s what the Gospel and its preaching is supposed to do for us.
It is supposed to transform our lives by these kinds of values. And it’s really important to get this right, that the Gospel is supposed to inform our political, economic, social, and moral views, not the other way around.
Our political, economic, social, and moral views are not to form our faith. It’s our faith that becomes our groundings and our foundation.
And that was the secret sauce: Jesus and the preaching of his Gospel that changed the world and changed lives. And we too, as baptized Catholics, are commissioned to do the same, to go out to all the world and proclaim that good news.
So may we not keep that secret to ourselves. May we be bold in our proclamation of the faith to God as greater honor and glory.
The Ascension: Letting Go
Homily by Reverend Robert Gillelan
May 14
Before Mass, Deacon reminded me of our beautiful Ascension stained glass window over here. So as you leave Mass today, if you don’t have a good view of it now, you might want to be inspired by it as you leave.
But also, over here in this corner, we have the beautiful stained-glass window of the Nativity, our Lord’s Incarnation, which, ties in to the Ascension because our Lord’s Ascension is really the crown of the Incarnation. Theologically, the Ascension, celebrates the completion of our Lord’s earthly ministry, what we often refer to as the Paschal Mission, Paschal meaning the Passover, passing over from death to new life in the Resurrection. But it’s really all of the life of Jesus, beginning with his Incarnation, coming to earth as God and man, his public ministry, beginning with his baptism in the Jordan, his suffering, death, Resurrection, post-Resurrection appearances, leading up to what we celebrate today, our Lord’s Ascension.
And Jesus goes to heaven because, in his own words, “I must go so that the Holy Spirit may come,” so that God’s plan for human redemption and salvation may be fulfilled. And so Jesus goes to his throne in heaven amidst the trumpet blasts, and he takes his seat at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, where Jesus intercedes for us as our High Priest, Prophet, and King. He intercedes for us prayerfully as Priest, as Prophet, we continue to hear his word, and as King, we invite the Lord, we ask the Lord to become the ruler of our hearts, and we acknowledge his authority over all creation until he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And all of this is our hope as that beautiful opening prayer to Mass said, that where Jesus, the head, has gone, we, the body, hope to follow.
So these are beautiful theological points as we celebrate this most important feast day. As I was looking through preparing for Mass, and I was setting up my note back there, which is called the Sacramentary, I noticed that on the opposite page, on one side are my prayers, and on the other side is a beautiful painting.
It’s a painting of the Ascension, but it’s a lot different than that window because, in my book Jesus isn’t yet airborne. He is still on the ground, and the disciples are all around him in very close quarters.
One of them has fallen asleep on him as he’s standing there, and the other one is clinging to his cloak. And the image or the sense that I got from that is that they were saying, “Please don’t go.” And so that made me think, well, maybe there’s, you know, amidst the beautiful theology of this day, there’s a more personal and spiritual message for us. Is there something that we are clinging to, that we need to let go of in order that the Holy Spirit may come to us, in order that God’s plan in us may be fulfilled?
And I’m not talking about sin here. We know we need to let go of sin in our thoughts. I’m talking about something good because Jesus was good. Is there something good in my life that I’m clinging to a bit too fiercely, that I need to, at the very least, loosen my grip on or let go?
Could it be a person I’m clinging to? How about an idea?
How about a memory? How about a feeling?
Or how about a thing? As we all know the saying, we can get too much of a good thing, and this is why the spiritual writers speak to us about detachment, letting go of those things in life that impede God’s will being accomplished in our lives.
And again, during this month of May, we have our Blessed Mother who said to the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” So let us rejoice today that Jesus has gone home to heaven where he continues to intercede for us and help us. May we spiritually prepare ourselves in nine days for the celebration of the birth of the Church and the giving of the Holy Spirit. And let us consider if there is something in our lives that we need to stop clinging to so that the Lord may send his Holy Spirit and God’s will may be accomplished in us.
Happy Feast Day.
Reverend Robert Gillelan
May 14, 2026
Sixth Sunday of Easter / Mother’s Day Homily
Choose Your Camp
Father Bob Gillelan
May 10, 2026
Jesus tells His disciples that if they want to continue to love Him, they need to keep His commandments. But then Jesus says it will not be so for everyone.
Jesus predicts that there will be people in this world who do not know God, who will not accept the Spirit of Truth, who is the Holy Spirit. And because they do not know God, because they do not accept this Spirit of Truth, they will not love the Lord according to His commandments.
Jesus presents this as a sad reality.
He is also setting up what St. Ignatius of Loyola later developed into one of his meditations. Jesus is kind of setting up two camps: those who are going to obey His commandments and love Him by doing so, and those who will not.
It was St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the 16th century, who wrote a series of spiritual exercises for lay people. One of those spiritual exercises was a meditation on the “Two Standards.” By “standards,” he meant banners or flags.
The goal of this meditation was to choose your camp, to choose your flag. Are you going to pitch your tent in the camp of Jesus or in the camp of Satan?
This is a wonderful meditation to make a conscious, visual act of the will — a visual intention that we truly want to strive to live our lives in God’s grace and friendship.
And we might be surprised how easy it becomes to migrate from the camp of Jesus to the camp of Satan.
We see that very much in our world today. People who have either knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or unconsciously, migrated from the camp of Jesus to the camp of Satan.
We might use the analogy of moving from the Spirit of Truth to living our lives according to the spirit of lies.
Exorcists, who deal with the demonic on a daily basis, give us some signs and warnings about what to look for in the spiritual life — indications that demonic influence may be at work.
One of those signs is rebellion.
Rebellion against God and the things of God — things that are good and right and just and holy and true.
Rebellion is why there are demons in the first place. Demons and devils were originally good angels who rebelled against God. And now their stock and trade is to tempt us to rebel against God and against all that is right and good and just and holy and true.
Another sign of the demonic is an inability to use right reason.
Often, when people fall into serious sin, the intellect becomes darkened, and they are unable to reason clearly about what is right and good and just and holy and true.
A perfect example might be people who are otherwise very intelligent, perhaps even highly educated, but cannot define what a woman is because their minds have become darkened and corrupted by transgender ideology and its lies.
Another sign of demonic influence is what is called the principle of inversion.
This happens in temptations all the time — when something evil is presented as something good. That is how temptation works. Something we know is wrong or sinful is presented as good, or at least “not that bad.”
But this can also happen in extreme ways.
For example, with abortion, demonic influence would say that abortion is something good, that it is “healthcare,” when in reality it is a violation of the commandment: You shall not directly and intentionally kill innocent human life.
Inversion. Good becomes evil, and evil becomes good.
And perhaps a final sign — though there are more — is violence and destruction when all else fails.
Get violent. Destroy.
We see this principle in mass murders followed by suicides. It is not enough simply to kill others; Satan also incites the person to take his own life.
We also see this in the culture of death around us, where we have moved from a cancel culture to what can become an assassination culture — destroying or killing what you do not like or agree with.
So what Jesus says in the Gospel today is not merely something soft, warm, and fuzzy — “If you love me, do your best to keep my commandments.”
There is a real spiritual imperative here: that we strive to live according to the teachings of Jesus and the Holy Spirit whom He has given us.
The Holy Spirit keeps us in a place of spiritual safety, gives us the guidance we need to have a healthy spiritual life, and ultimately helps save our souls.
So, with all this talk about demons — Happy Mother’s Day.
And I mean that sincerely, because Mary, our spiritual mother, is the terror of demons. They absolutely hate her, and they fear her.
In one account, an exorcist described how difficult it was to expel a demon. At one point, Our Blessed Mother was invoked, and the demon was heard saying to the other demons, “Oh no — she’s here.”
Our Blessed Mother is a powerful intercessor for us against temptation.
And on this Mother’s Day, let us also, with grateful hearts, thank our own mothers — living and deceased — who have been so instrumental in passing on the faith to us and teaching us to obey the commandments in order to love Jesus as He loves us.
Let us pray with grateful hearts that all mothers today will be blessed, and that we may continue to be blessed by their faithful example.
And as Peter said so beautifully in the first reading, may we consecrate the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts so that we may know the Lord, obey Him, and follow His Holy Spirit and truth.
So that we may continue to know, love, and serve the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Service & Unity in the Early Church
Homily based on Acts 6 John 14: 1-12
In our first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear that something was wrong. But before we get to the problem, let us first understand what the Acts of the Apostles is.
It is St. Luke’s second volume. In his Gospel, he tells the story of Jesus; in the Acts of the Apostles, he continues that story—describing beautifully and powerfully the formation of the Church, built on the foundation of the Apostles under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
So with all that going for it, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, as we hear in today’s reading, something did go wrong. The Greek-speaking widows—Jewish women who believed in Jesus Christ—were being overlooked in the daily distribution, while the Hebrew- or Aramaic-speaking widows were being cared for.
This problem was brought to the attention of the Twelve Apostles. And they addressed it.
But what is important is not just that they fixed the problem—it is how they fixed it, and what that says about us as a Church.
When the issue arose, the people brought it to the Apostles. Why? Because they were the leaders of the Church—placed there by Jesus Himself. Already we can see a structure forming, a kind of hierarchy, and a respect for authority within the Church.
The Apostles responded by praying and then laying hands on seven men, consecrating them as the first deacons. This is where the ministry of the diaconate finds its origin—what we read in Acts chapter 6.
The word deacon comes from the Greek word meaning service or ministry. These men were entrusted with caring for the corporal needs of the community—especially those who were being neglected—while the Apostles devoted themselves to prayer and the preaching of the Gospel.
Here we see the growth of the Church:
the development of ministries,
a division of labor,
and different people serving in different ways.
And we also see the catholicity of the Church.
“Catholic” means universal.
From the very beginning, the Church was for everyone. It did not matter whether you were Jewish or Greek, what language you spoke—Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, or Latin. The Church would care for all.
Everyone is invited to come to know the Lord—who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
So in the Acts of the Apostles, we learn a great deal about ourselves and about the Church. But that is not the only place we learn who we are as Catholics.
Every Sunday, when we profess the Nicene Creed, we proclaim that we believe in the four marks of the Church: that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
Each of these is essential.
One — The Church is one because it is the single Church founded by Jesus Christ, entrusted to St. Peter and the Apostles to govern and to spread throughout the world.
Holy — The Church is holy because it has been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, especially at Pentecost. When we cooperate with that grace, we ourselves grow in holiness.
Catholic — The Church is universal. It exists throughout the world, present across nations and cultures, calling all people into communion with Christ.
Apostolic — The Church is built upon the Apostles, who handed on the teachings of Jesus. Through them, and their successors, that same faith reaches us today.
Just think about how important those Twelve Apostles were—because through them, we have received the fullness of the faith and the spiritual blessings we experience today.
So perhaps today we might renew our interest by spending a little time reading the Acts of the Apostles. There we come to understand more clearly who we are as Catholics.
“Oh—that’s why we are the way we are.”
The Acts of the Apostles can be very revealing.And so, with humility, gratitude, and praise, let us give thanks for the gift of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church—through which we come to know, love, and serve the Lord our God in Jesus Christ, who is our Way, our Truth, and our Life.
Amen.
https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Jesus, the Bread of Life — and the Gift of Faith
Homily by Father Bob Gillelan — April 21, 2026
When we hear Jesus speaking to the people in today’s Gospel, He reminds them of something very important:
it was not Moses who gave their ancestors bread in the desert—it was God.
In doing this, Jesus is revealing something deeper:
God is greater than Moses.
And then Jesus goes even further—He begins what we know as the Bread of Life discourse, referring to Himself as the Bread of Life.
This is a turning point.
Jesus is not simply another prophet like Moses.
He is greater than Moses. But the people do not understand.
At the same time, in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear about St. Stephen, who is boldly preaching about the Resurrection of Jesus. For this, he is accused of blasphemy—
blasphemy against Moses, the Temple, and even God. And as we heard today, they stone him to death.
St. Stephen becomes the first martyr of the Church—the proto-martyr—giving his life for the truth of Jesus Christ.
We begin to see a pattern.
The Jewish people had such a deep reverence for Moses—the great lawgiver, the great leader—that for many, Moses became an obstacle to recognizing Jesus as the Messiah.
Even today, many still do not accept that Jesus is divine.
But this doesn’t only apply to the past.
Even today, many Christians believe in Jesus, but struggle with His teachings—
especially when it comes to difficult issues like:
- the dignity of human life
- marriage and family
- human sexuality
- the sacraments
Some accept Jesus—but not fully.
Some accept parts of His teaching—but not all.
So what do we make of this?
We are reminded that faith is a gift.
Faith is not something we arrive at on our own.
It is a theological virtue given by God—a grace that opens our minds, our hearts, and our wills to accept the truth of who Jesus is.
So today, we are invited to do two things:
First, give thanks for the gift of faith that we have received.
Second, remember those who came before us—
those like St. Stephen, who gave their lives for that faith.
There is a famous saying from Tertullian:
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
Because of their witness, the faith has been handed on to us.
May we, like St. Stephen,
have the courage to profess our faith boldly,
to live it faithfully,
and to remain rooted in the truth of Jesus Christ—
the Bread of Life, given for the world.
Hearts Burning at Mass. April 19, 2026
https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
(Lightly edited for clarity from recorded audio.)
In today’s Gospel, I think we can see a foreshadowing —a foreshadowing of the Liturgy of the Word, and a foreshadowing of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In essence, a foreshadowing of the Mass. ecause when Jesus appears to the disciples, He opens the Scriptures to them. And their hearts bur vithin them. That is the foreshadowing of the Liturgy of the Woro
And then, at the end of the day, they have a meal with Him, and they break bread. And as they break bread with Him, they come to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread as Lord and Savior, the Risen Jesus Christ. And that corresponds to the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
And the response to all of this is clear: their hearts burn within them, and then there is joy.
A Question We All Ask
Which leads us to ask a very reasonable question. When we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, why doesn’t my heart always burn within me? Why is it that I don’t always feel close to Jesus in the celebration of the Mass, if this is the source and summit of what we believe? Why don’t I have the same response as the disciples?
What Gets in the Way
Well, the saints and spiritual writers of the Church have some answers. Have you ever been to Mass and allowed your intellect to be distracted? The intellect is easily distracted. Have you ever allowed your imagination to daydream? How about your will? Is your will in the right place, or have you ever thought, “I really don’t want to be here-l’d rather be somewhere else.”
Temptation and Sin
Even the saints experienced temptations during Mass. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Francis de Sales, Padre Pio-all experienced this. Why not? It is the perfect place for distraction. And then there is sin.
Serious sin darkens the intellect, impairs judgment, and weakens the will, and we can lose the grace the Lord wants to give us.
Our Humanity
And sometimes, it is simply our humanity. How do we feel? Are we tired? Are we distracted? Are we burdened? All of this affects how we encounter the Lord at Mass.
Our Agendas
And then there is one more thing: the agendas we bring with us. We come with a list-people we promised to pray for, things we want Jesus to fix, and situations we want Him to change according to our will. The problem is that our agenda can overtake the Lord’s agenda.
The Lord’s Agenda
And His agenda is much simpler. He wants to come near to us, to explain the Scriptures so our hearts burn within us, to reveal Himself in the breaking of the bread, and to draw us into communion with Him.
A Spiritual Suggestion
So here is a suggestion-try to leave your agenda outside the church. Notice the statues of our Blessed Mother surrounding the church. In each one, she stands with arms open, inviting us to give her everything we carry—our worries, our distractions, our agendas. She receives them and brings them to her Son, so that when we enter, our minds can be clear and our hearts more open to a deeper communion with Christ.
Final Reflection
If we have ever wondered about our experience of Mass, let us take the counsel of the saints and turn to our Blessed Mother. Let us entrust our burdens to her. Perhaps we can think of her not only as Mary of the Assumption, but also as Mary, the Gatherer of Agendas.
Let Us Pray
Through her intercession, may our hearts burn within us, and may we come to recognize our Lord in the breaking of the bread. Amen.
