The world is a scary place: school shootings, violence, hatred, and more. What in the world is going on?

It is through Christ's sufferings that we find redemption. He did not come to save us from our sufferings, but he came with compassion.

How often do we cry out to God to end our sufferings, to take away our pain? But yet it still remains. What is God's answer? The cross.

Gospel: John 3:13-17

#suffering #violence #cross #Jesus #Catholic

If you are familiar with Middle Eastern culture, you are aware of the close-knit nature of families, which provide opportunities for safety, employment, and marriage prospects. In today's Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that to follow him, they must give up their families, which can be a heavy cross. He is asking them to give up everything, which breaks the social norms.

This hasn't changed in 2,000 years: He is asking us to not live of this world, just in it.

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33

#cross #family #Jesus #disciple #catholic

Our dignity comes from Him and no one else. We try, each and every one of us, to prove our dignity over and over and over. But we don't need to prove the dignity that we have in Christ because it is God who gives it to us, not any one human being.

All the saints understood that humility means depending upon God rather than ourselves. The saints lived in the Truth that they were sons and daughters of the Father, that they were weak but were made strong in Christ.

Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14

#homily #Jesus #Catholic #humility #dignity #saints