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.” 

Our citizenship is in Heaven

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

March 16, 2025

Second Sunday of Lent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031625.cfm

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18    Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14

Philippians 3:17—4:1    Luke 9:28b-36

St. Paul, in his first letter to those Roman folks living in northeastern Greece in the city of Philippi, says exactly what I want to get across today:

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body.

Paul is emphasizing the second and final return of Christ that we today still wait patiently and prayerfully for when we will be joined to our glorified bodies that Christ portrays in today’s Gospel:

While Jesus was praying, his face changed in appearance, and his clothing became dazzling white.

So not only will our bodies be glorified but our clothes will be quite clean to boot!  Today’s Gospel really juxtaposes Jesus's physical and spiritual nature quite nicely.  Last week, we heard of Jesus out in the desert for forty days without food.  He then was tempted by Satan.  Jesus, in his humanity, was hungry, but he won that battle with Satan. As a sidenote, yes, you can live without food for forty days. I Google it:

In extreme cases, some people have survived for over 60 days without food

Now, on to us, how do we fare during temptations from Satan or hardships that our physical nature must endure? Which one calls us harder, the physical or spiritual?  It is truly an ongoing battle with Satan!  We must win!

The Transfiguration illustrates to us what we were designed to be; we are designed for glorified bodies in Heaven.  Unfortunately, for a brief span of time, we are stuck here on earth, and we are not designed to be of this earth. Earthly bodies have negative emotions and pain, both physical and mental.  Earthly bodies require maintenance, exercise, water, food, and diet.  When it comes to trying to diet or fast, a piece of pie always draws me in! I almost always respond more to the physical. 

When it comes to pain, I respond to its physical earthly nature very quickly.  Fr. David’s homily struck me last week when he talked about banging your head.  That very Saturday morning, I was working on the bottom of my garage door, so I had it mostly up but not all the way.   Three times, I turned quickly and banged my head against the door.  On the third time, I actually told God to send the garage door to the abode of Satan!  I quickly realized the garage door did nothing to me.  I’m the one who put it at that height; I’m the one who turned quickly to get something and hit my head against it.  I laughed a bit and said a quick Hail Mary, asking for more patience and forgiveness for my sin!  

We see the physical, we feel the physical, just ask my head!  Unfortunately, humans rarely see or feel the spiritual.  I came across an article that said that the boundaries of human vision are not exact and may vary between individuals.  The visible light range is a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, making up only about 0.0035% of it.  We only see 0.0035% of what’s out there!  Imagine if we could see more of it, even 2% of it!  Abram experienced the spiritual, which is visually represented in the first reading.  Cutting up animals and walking between them was a way to ratify contracts in those days and was common.  What God did with Abram was ratify a covenant.  God was the smoking fire pot and flaming torch that passed between the animal halves ratifying his covenant with Abram.

Now imagine what we would see if we could when Heaven and Earth meet during the Eucharistic Prayer and consecration!  Imagine how strong our spiritual life would become then!  It might even beat the physical life!

Most of us have probably experienced some physical hunger on Ash Wednesday a few weeks ago. What about spiritual hunger?  That should be stronger. Imagine if you couldn't get to church to receive the Eucharist for a period of time. It was almost five years ago that we had just such an experience during the COVID lockdown. Please, God, may we never experience that again!  During that time, did you feel a spiritual hunger?  Did you hunger for Mass and the Eucharist? 

As this Lent progresses on, ask the Holy Spirit to give you a hunger for Mass, a hunger for the Eucharist, a hunger for the sacrament of Confession, and a hunger to spend time with our Lord and Savior in Adoration.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you that desire so that your soul may be nourished as we approach Holy Week.  Pray to Saint Michael, asking him to defend us in battle.  Remember that our bodies are only here on earth for a short span of time and that “our citizenship is in Heaven” and that time is eternity!

Saint Augustine reminds us to:

Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.

But deliver us from evil!

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

January 21, 2024

First Sunday of Lent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021824.cfm

Gn 9:8-15     Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9.

1 Pt 3:18-22     Mk 1:12-15

Our Gospel today has an interesting line:

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.

A simple line, but read it again. The Spirit who was with Jesus a moment ago at His Baptism drove Him into the desert to be tested. Then Satan tempted Jesus.  The Son of God.  Satan wanted to win Him over to the dark side.  Jesus would have none of it.  Think about that for a minute.  How much more will Satan go after us?  There are many ways he will try to win us over to the dark side.  

About a week ago, I saw an article about the top 20 myths about world religions that people believe.  It was in a secular paper, not a religious one.  Anyway, one of the top 20 myths was Yoga Is Just Physical Exercise. The article continued:

In the West, yoga is often seen merely as physical exercise. However, in its original context within Hinduism and Buddhism, yoga includes a range of practices aimed at spiritual enlightenment, not just physical fitness.

Catholics must be extremely cautious with Yoga.  We are both physical and spiritual beings and it cannot separate the two. Many of the poses in Yoga invoke pagan gods such as Virabhadra, a god created by Shiva to murder Shiva’s relative.  The pose has three parts and is called the Warrior pose and it imitates the sequence of that murder.

Reiki seems to be another form of Western “healing” that is catching on at an alarming rate.  Reiki is a Japanese form of supposed stress reduction and healing invented by Mikao Usui from Buddhism in the late 1800s.  An article quoting Beth Anderson, a Catholic who went to a Reiki practitioner in 2004 states the following:

“I was asked to sit in a chair and there was a little ceremony to ‘open me up’ to the Reiki energy,” she recalled. “There was clapping and ringing of bells over me. It felt a little like a sacrament.”

Further on it goes on to say:

“I was told by another Reiki master that I should do a ‘past life regression,’” she said. “I had always been dead-set against doing that, but then somehow I got to a place of temptation where I almost did it, and that scared me.”

This delves into reincarnation and is not something we as Catholics can believe or participate in.

There are many other things we sometimes look to as harmless fun.  Horoscopes, or astrological signs should not be used to guide our lives. Satan uses these to take our thoughts away from God and it is God alone who should be our guide through prayer and petition, not the stars.  This type of false guidance or protection also comes through things like wearing crystals. Crystals are indeed a deception from Satan, that something of God’s creation is magical or worse, can make us think that creation is greater than the Creator who is God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say:

All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead, or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion…Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. 

I wish I could delve into each of these more but just being aware of the dangers I hope is enough.

Remember Solomon, who asked for, and was granted 

a heart so wise and discerning that there has never been anyone like him nor after him will there be anyone equal.

Even he was tempted by Satan and turned to false Gods as we see in 1 Kings 11:8-11 

Solomon did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart turned away from the LORD… So the LORD said to Solomon: Since this is what you want, and you have not kept my covenant and the statutes which I enjoined on you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.

We are in Lent, a time to fast from something, and maybe one of these things just discussed will be something we now fast from. We should fill that void with something holy instead.  Matthew 12:43-45 tells us

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a person it roams through arid regions searching for rest but finds none.  Then it says, ‘I will return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning, it finds it empty, swept clean, and put in order. Then it goes and brings back with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that person is worse than the first. 

There are alternatives to Yoga such as SoulCore, Catholic FIT or Pietra Fitness.  Sometimes it might even be good to offer up our suffering to join in the redemptive suffering of Jesus’ passion.  Of course, the best way to remain safe from the temptations of Satan is prayer and frequent reception of the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist.  Find groups of like-minded people.  Come to our Thursday night Eucharistic Revival meetings.  Attend a Catholic retreat like the Emmaus at the beginning of March.  Find something to fill that void with good things that will help you resist the temptations of the Evil One.

Remember what Saint Anthony the Great said:

Expect temptation to your last breath!

**May St. Michael the Archangel defund us in battle**

The Highest Priestly Prayer

 Deacon Kevin Gingras

May 26, 2021, 7th Sunday of Easter

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051621-Sunday.cfm

Who doesn’t love love?  I love love.  We have heard a lot about love lately in the readings.  Why?  We are still within the Easter season and this is the season in which we celebrate God’s incredible love for us more than ever.  God sent his son to earth, not to condemn us but to love us, to save us.  His son died demonstrating God’s immense love for us.

In today’s Gospel we read from John 17 - entitled The Prayer of Jesus or Jesus’ Prayer for his Disciples.  This whole chapter 17 of John’s Gospel has also been called the “highest priestly prayer.”

Now the first thing we need to determine is who Jesus' disciples are. Who does this prayer apply to? In the New Testament, the word disciple is most often applied to Jesus’ Apostles.  In our first reading, we see that Matthias was counted with the eleven Apostles after Judas’ betrayal to get the number to 12 again so it would match the 12 tribes of Israel.   A disciple, however, is meant to be a broader statement as we see in John 4:

And now it became known to Jesus that the Pharisees had been told, Jesus is making more disciples and baptizing a greater number than John.

Today in time, any follower of Jesus is a disciple of Jesus.  That means me and you, all of us, everyone on earth, as a matter of fact, is called to be a disciple of Jesus.

Now let’s break down the “highest priestly prayer” looking at each petition in order.

1. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me - Jesus will soon be dying and then ascending into heaven, he knows this.  He is asking his and our heavenly father to shepherd us as Jesus did while on earth. Jesus knows we will need watching over still!

2. So that they may be one just as we are one - The Son and the Father are one in unity.  We, as a Catholic Church, must also present as one.  We need this part of the prayer now more than ever! The discord that is rampant now, even within the Catholic Church is crazy, we need to correct that and become one!

3. So that they may share my joy completely - I’ve been told in the past by a very wise priest that you can only know true joy through Jesus.  Here Jesus makes it very clear that he desires us to share that joy with him in its entirety!  What a beautiful part of this prayer!

4. I do not ask that you take them out of the world - Jesus knows that his disciples will face hard times in the world.  He isn’t asking for relief from that, he is asking for them to have strength for these hardships. We too will face hardships, following Jesus doesn't mean life will be easy, it means we have somebody to lean on, to go to when life gets difficult. Place your troubles at the foot of the cross, give them to Jesus.

5. That you keep them from the evil one - Satan is always busy trying to steal souls from Heaven.  If anybody knows this it’s Jesus.  Satan was bold enough to pounce when he thought Jesus was hungry and weak after His 40 days in the desert.  Jesus held strong, we must hold strong as well!

6. Consecrate them in truth - Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” following  Jesus’ statement that it is the Son of God who testifies to the truth and everyone who belongs to that truth listens to His voice.  Read the New Testament, know what Jesus taught, learn from Him - be consecrated in the truth, the truth that is held within the Bible, and the truth that is cared for by the Catholic Church.

Once we have that truth, joy, and unity from this prayer we can’t keep it boxed up to ourselves!  We are called to go out into the world and share that truth, joy, and unity.   On May 23 we will celebrate Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit came down like tongues of fire and they were given the gifts of the Holy Spirit in an incredibly special way.

The Church needs a new Pentecost now.  Don’t let Jesus’ prayer for us be in vain!  When we do finally open fully it’s up to you to help us gather the flock back when we do!  We can’t do it alone, we need you!  If you know somebody who has been away, is waiting for the dispensation to be lifted approach them now.  Ask them back and more importantly pray, pray that those who have been away will return.  Only here, in church, can we get the full sacrificial nature of the Mass.  Only here in the church can we receive the true body of Christ.  Only here can we really meet that joy that Christ prays we will obtain.

Let's also try to live by the words of this message from Pope St. John Paul II:

“The Church of Christ is always, so to speak, in a situation of Pentecost: she is always gathered in the Upper Room in prayer, and at the same time, driven by the powerful wind of the Spirit, she is always on the streets preaching”

We are a Covenant People

Deacon Kevin Gingras

Feb 21, 2021, 1st Sunday of Lent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022121.cfm

We are a covenant people.  The covenant we heard about in our first reading from Noah changes things as covenants often do.  It came at a time right after the world was cleansed through a flood, a global baptism if you will.  A little earlier in Genesis 6:5, we read:

the LORD saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but evil

This flood lasted for 40 days and was necessary to cleanse the world of its evil ways.  This covenant’s promise from God is “that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood”.  That promise is welcome assurance these days, the way things are going.  If not for that promise of God every time it started to rain, I would get a bit apprehensive.

God has made other covenants with us as well.  The Abrahamic covenant from Genesis 15 where God promised Abraham and Sarah descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

There is the Mosaic covenant from Exodus 19 where the Israelites who also passed through waters of the Red Sea to salvation; another form of baptism; are given the 10 commandments and the laws of God.  When Moses received the 10 stone tablets of God’s commandments he was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days.

In today’s Gospel, we hear of the start of a new, Messianic covenant as Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days.  This was the covenant the prophets foretold of, a Messiah, Jesus Christ will be the fulfillment of this covenant.

In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus was tempted by Satan after his desert wanderings.  We must remember that Jesus was 100% human as well as 100% divine (throw away your math major on this one, this one takes faith) so he was tired, hungry, and thirsty when Satan approached him.  Satan may have been thinking that this would be one of his only chances to have a shot at corrupting Jesus.  Jesus passes these tests with Satan and the angels minister to him.

This is an important moment in our salvation.  Imagine if Jesus failed that temptation what things would be like today.  He had to pass - he was the “New Adam”, he came to undo the closing of paradise that was caused by the sin of disobedience of Adam and Eve.  God had established his first covenant with Adam and Eve.  The first covenant to be broken.

Jesus, the New Adam, along with his mother Mary, the New Eve had their work cut out for them, it wouldn’t be easy but fortunately, as Paul Harvey used to say, we know the rest of that story.

Our covenant now is a covenant of salvation, not an earthly salvation but a Heavenly one instead.  A covenant that lasts for eternity.  It’s a covenant marked by the body and blood, marked by the very Eucharist which we are here to celebrate today especially when the priest will change mere bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.  These words from Matthew may sound familiar (I hope so anyway):

Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.

Our part in holding up this Eucharistic covenant, yes, we play an active role in this, is to try our best to stay worthy to receive it.  It’s not a magic pill that we just show up, receive and walk away, all saved, I wish it worked that way but it doesn’t.  We hear about that in the first letter to the Corinthians:

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.

We must fully understand and realize what Jesus’ death and suffering mean for us, for me, for you, individually, you yourself must grasp what he has done for you in this covenant.  To not try and do this is a sin against the Lord himself. 

What better time than lent to do this.  To examine ourselves.  We fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, we abstain from meat/flesh on Fridays but why?  To remember that Jesus sacrificed himself, his very own flesh on Good Friday.  We fast to remember and focus more on our spiritual dimension, our heavenly dimension, and to put aside our earthly dimension just for a bit. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes my earthly body tells me when I’m fasting: “Hey big guy, you haven’t fed me in a bit, how about a nice big sandwich?”.  It takes practice and persistence to master this, keep at it!

We should also focus on Metanoia - meaning changing our lives to focus on penance and conversion, making ourselves right with the Lord.  Fast for Metanoia!

Confess your sins to a priest, do it at least once this lent, the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us to confess our serious sins at least once a year.  What better time than now to cleanse ourselves, like our baptismal waters cleansed us so many years ago.  Make ourselves worthy to properly receive Jesus in the Eucharist so that, as  Saint Pope John Paul II said:

"United with the angels and saints of the heavenly Church, let us adore the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Prostrate, we adore this great mystery that contains God’s new and definitive covenant with humankind in Christ."

Tend the Garden of Your Soul

July 19, 2020 - 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071920.cfm

“Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?” is how the nursery rhyme goes, not Kevin Kevin - well, I wouldn’t even know how to rhyme that! I am a terrible gardener and that’s because it takes work that I just don’t enjoy. Tilling the soil, weeding, planting, weeding, watering, and more weeding!  The Gospels have been all about gardening lately and it’s something that’s a bit tougher for me to relate to.

We heard the parable of the sower last week and this week we hear about an enemy planting weeds in our garden.  Now that is something I CAN get to grow -  weeds!  I can also get grass to grow very nicely where that doesn't belong - like in my driveway!

The weeds in this parable are what our enemy Satan plants and the specific weed that Jesus was referring to is called “darnel”, a poisonous weed that looks just like wheat when it first starts off.  If the workers try to pull out the weeds then they will mistakenly get some of the wheat too.  Harvest time is the proper time for judgment and we must leave that to God and not become judges ourselves.  God will be the one who judges who are the weeds to be burned up and who are the wheat to be saved.

Now how do we make sure we are not weeds?  We must take heed of the first reading from Wisdom that tells us:

“For neither is there any god besides you who have the care of all, that you need show you have not unjustly condemned.”

The word god in this verse is lowercase, not the one true God, the Father.  We shouldn’t be following the stars and reading our horoscopes nor allowing money and jobs and other things to be our lowercase gods in our lives.  

Instead, we must understand that God the Father is the only one who is in charge of everything including every human’s judgment.  Let God do His thing, let Him alone be the judge. This gives us much more time to spend tending our own spiritual garden which is something we should never be lazy about.  I don’t like to spend time weeding and caring for a real garden so I don’t do that, but I certainly care enough not to let my spiritual garden get choked by the weeds of sin or wither and die due to a lack of spiritual care.

One way to water our spiritual garden is to pray. If we don’t know how to pray ask the Holy Spirit for help as Paul tells the Romans in the second reading:

”The Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.”

Pray often and always.  Rosaries, novenas, prayers of petition and intercession, and don’t forget prayers of praise and thanksgiving, too!

Once we have the garden watered we have to watch for the weeds of sin.  Go to confession regularly.  This will get the weeds of sin when they are small and can’t take over the garden of our soul too much. Remember what the first reading from Wisdom said:

“...and you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.”

We should fertilize our garden through Mass, the Eucharist, and Scripture.  For some, it’s hard to get to daily Mass but we can still do the daily Mass readings on our own.  Another good source of fertilizer is reading Catholic books or the Bible.  Right now I’m reading “The Sacraments We Celebrate,” by Peter J. Vaghi, a Catholic Priest.  Even when it comes to things we might think we understand fully it’s ok to realize that isn’t true by picking up a good book and learning some more!

If you don’t know where to begin, just ask. Ask Fr. Rich, or any priest or any deacon or anybody you know studies the faith.  The key is to water, weed, and fertilize your spiritual garden always, it is a never-ending job until we all reach eternal life with God!

As Saint Catherine of Siena once said:

“Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice and plant virtue.”