Christ Is Our Light

Deacon Kevin Gingras

June 14th, 2026

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061426.cfm

Exodus 19:2-6a     Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5 

Romans 5:6-11     Matthew 9:36—10:8  

Jesus looked upon the crowds and: 

His heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus does not look at the crowd with annoyance, judgment, or indifference. He looks at them with compassion. He sees their struggles, their fears, their wounds, and their longing for God. Jesus indeed loves us the same way and understands we all live in difficult times. He sees our struggles, our hurts, and our longings - His heart is still moved with pity for all of us.  

It’s good to have him on our side for sure because, oftentimes, we are too hard on ourselves.  For example, when I receive the Eucharist, I expect that warm feeling inside, to be overwhelmed that I just consumed My God and the God of my ancestors.  If we receive in good standing, without mortal sin, then why don’t we have those Jesus feelings, all warm inside and all that!  Why don’t we return to our pews weeping with joy for what we just consumed?  I know for me, I start to doubt my faith, and I begin to think I might be doing something wrong!  I’m not receiving Jesus correctly! We mustn’t be so hard on ourselves!  Remember who Jesus picked to be his closest followers while on Earth. They are listed in today’s Gospel. Jesus picked a tax collector, somebody who would betray him, another who denied Him 3 times, and who Jesus even called Satan, and two fella’s who fought over who was the greatest!  Ok, so that probably doesn’t make you feel much better thinking about how bad they might have been!  Maybe just remember that Jesus is indeed on our side!

One thing we must remember when we don’t have that magical feeling after receiving the Eucharist is that our spiritual DNA has been damaged by the sin of Adam and Eve at the very start of Sacred Scripture.  Today we must remember that:

God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

We are sinners, yes, sin is darkness, yes. Satan tries to twist our thoughts to make us think that our sins define us.  Sin does not define us! Sin is darkness, and we are not meant to live in the dark; we are meant to live in the light, the light of Christ! Christ in the Eucharist! It’s confession that shines the light of God’s grace on sin so we can see sin for what it is and remove it from our lives and be brought back fully into the light of Christ.  The more we go to confession, the easier it becomes to see that sin and even the near occasions of sin, and avoid them!

Our first reading tells us that:

if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession … You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”

Because of Adam and Eve, we were born into sin.  By our baptism, we are brought into the light of Christ and become priests, prophets, and kings!  That doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?

Jesus looks upon His church members, upon us, and sees people searching for meaning, he sees families facing challenges, young people seeking direction, and many who feel lost or forgotten. He sees us exactly where we are, and His response is not condemnation but mercy and love.

This week, through prayer and adoration, thank Jesus for bringing us out of darkness and into the light by our baptism, by our reception of the Eucharist, and by the sacrament of confession.

I’ll leave you with these words from St. Maximus of Turin

The light of Christ is eternally glowing with luminous radiance and can never be extinguished by the darkness of sin.” 

Care for your Soul

Nov 17, 2019, Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111719.cfm

In our first reading today Malachi is not talking about Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks when he says:

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven and that day will set them on fire.

Our ovens will indeed be blazing but hopefully, the day isn’t coming when your turkeys will be set on fire!  

The second reading is what I want to post on my fridge for my older children to see as Paul writes:

we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat

In reality, Paul wasn’t trying to get his kids to rake the lawn or do the dishes in his letter to the Thessalonians, instead, he was talking about those among them who stopped working.  Some Thessalonians were so certain that the end times were imminent that they decided they should stop working to wait for Christ’s return. It makes me wonder if the blazing wrath that Malachi discusses will come to those who decide to do nothing until the Lord of Hosts returns.  To be that lazy is foolishness, for Christ himself told us we know not the hour of His return. If we sit around and do nothing we become like the wicked lazy servant from the parable of the talents who, out of fear of his master buried the money entrusted to him in the ground and gained nothing more with it.  The instruction from Paul to those Thessalonians is clear:

Such people we instruct and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to eat their own food.

These words can seem to conflict when we hear the Gospel.  We have not been lazy when it comes to fixing up our church here at Holy Family Parish.  We have done a lot of work to make it look like something new. It looks fantastic and people are always talking about how nice it is now and then today we hear the words of Jesus in Luke:

"All that you see here--the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."

Say what?  Should we have bothered with all that fuss?  After all, there will be a day that comes that this church will no longer be here.  Let’s all pray that it is hundreds of years from now but it will happen. Do Jesus’ words make this building irrelevant?

No, this building is important to all of us and how we worship, VERY important.  I think today I want to focus on how Jesus’ words are not all about the building where they worshiped, but instead, His words should get them to focus on the state of their faith in Jesus Christ and how their perseverance in times of trouble will secure their lives.  Today in time this also holds true. This church is important, I’m not trying to say it has no purpose. It is where we gather together, where we laugh together, where we cry together and most importantly where we hold our sacred Liturgy together. Those are very important roles, however, what is more significant, what is totally indestructible and will live forever, is our soul.  We have done well to take care of this building that houses our worship but do we do as well taking care of our souls?  

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 366 has to say this about the human soul:

The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not "produced" by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection

Some of us, myself excluded, go to the gym, work out, eat right, try to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night (ok, I’ve nailed the sleeping part of this), we try to take care of our bodies as we should. It’s important!  Just read the first letter to the Corinthians chapter 6:

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.  

So we should care for our bodies but our souls need care as well more than our bodies and more than this church building as those will pass away but our souls are eternal!

Now I could make a bad joke here that I change my oil and rotate the tires and wash and wax my Kia Soul, my car, often enough but I’ll spare you from that.  Instead here is a list of things Jesus said in the Gospels about things we can do to keep our soul healthy.

• Matthew 6:24 - Don’t love money more than God.
• Matthew 14:31 - Avoid doubt.
• Matthew 18:8 - Take sin seriously, VERY seriously.
• Matthew 22:39 - Love others and yourself too.
• Matthew 5:44 - Even love your enemies.
• Matthew 6:33 - Seek God first.
• John 12:25 - Follow and serve Jesus.
• Mark 8:36 - Don’t gain the whole world and lose your soul.
• John 14:6 - Jesus is the way.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, there are other things we can do, and things we should avoid to grow closer to Christ and strengthen our souls.  The way we need to think as we are doing or saying something is “will this bring me closer to Christ or are we walking away from Him instead. We all need to be like Peter:

Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”