“It’s easier to say ‘no’ now and ‘yes’ later than to say ‘yes’ now and ‘no’ later.”

These words of a holy man ring in my ears when I think of this great Parable. I don’t know if he was referring to this parable, or if he was just saying that sometimes we have to say “no,” but once again, this little-known parable is very timely, as we are now in the harvest season: the man in the parable is God and His vineyard is the Kingdom of God.

“Go out and work in the vineyard today.”

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Of all the parables, this is my absolute favorite. I have been studying it for over 15 years, and I am still learning more about it. Why so? Because I’m still learning about the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. I also see it as the Parable of Hope. I was turned on to this parable by Stu Long while we were in Seminary. He told me the story of when he was working at Harbor View Hospital in Seattle. He was taking a course called Clinical Pastoral Education (or CPE), learning the ropes of hospital ministry.

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The first will be last and the last will be first. Now that really is a paradox, and we just can’t understand it. Maybe this is one of those parables we can ignore or just forget? It is so unfair, and it certainly does not fit into our style of life these days. Maybe it is a mystery, just as life is a mystery. Isaiah is right when he says, “God’s thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways God’s ways.” We will never understand God’s ways nor His generous love unless we let God be God with a deep trusting faith, knowing Him as Father who cares for all that He has created.

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As we reflect on the parable of the unforgiving servant, the merciless servant, we hear echoes of Scripture.

1. As in Matthew’s Gospel, “So will my heavenly Father hand you over, unless each of you forgives your neighbor from your heart.” As we forgive our neighbor, God will forgive us.

2. As we know from the Beatitudes, “Blessed are they who show mercy, for they shall receive mercy.”

3. And especially as we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses, AS WE forgive those who trespass against us.”

These words should haunt us and make us uneasy. AS WE!

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Have you ever experienced how the floodgates of grace open up when we honor the will of God and purposely decide to forgive? This is available to all of us in Confession. However, we all have the power to forgive: The French Dominican theologian Fr. Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange, who once taught the future Pope John Paul II, in his great book Life Everlasting, tells us of the transformation of a Jewish man that he personally knew and who had the courage to forgive. He relates how: “I knew a young Jew, the son of an Austrian banker, in Vienna. He had decided on a lawsuit against the greatest adversary of his family, a lawsuit that would have enriched him and his family.

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“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

This is one of my very favorite lines in all of the Bible. In one astounding phrase, split up in two short and simple parts, Jesus tells of the mystery of God’s presence always among us:

Recall how Jesus sent His disciples out two by two, to proclaim Him.

It also speaks to our need for the Sacraments. It speaks of our need for right relationship and also of our community most perfectly gathered together in the Sacrifice of the Sunday Mass. We begin Mass with the Sign of the Cross and the Apostolic Greeting, followed by what we call the Penitential Rite, where we ask God to make us pure and worthy of standing in His presence and worship in a fitting manner.

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It is that time of year when schoolchildren everywhere are writing essays on what they did or learned over the summer. In each of the summers that I have had the privilege of serving this parish, we have presented a “Monday Movies” series. One of the things that many may not realize is how much I learn from those who participate in all of the programs we offer. This year’s series has been no exception. The movies this year dealt with a particularly tough topic: martyrdom. The discussions following the films induced a great deal of reflection and learning for me, and I am grateful to all who participated in the series. So, in anticipation of this week’s Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), and in union with our young people who must also write such essays, below are some reflections on what the three movies and subsequent discussions about martyrs have taught me.

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We continue our journey through the heart of Matthew’s Gospel and move into a theme that’s very prominent in the teaching of Jesus: the cost of following Jesus Christ and the mystery of serving, suffering and The Cross. So, the Gospel this week is Matthew 16:21- 27. What does this lead up to? Well, the Last Judgment parable in Matthew, Chapter 25.

“For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man according to what he has done.”

As we mark Labor Day this year, yes, there is much work to be done.

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Today’s first reading opens with a dramatic accusation: the prophet Jeremiah accuses God of seducing him into becoming a prophet and deceiving him about the personal suffering his mission would involve. Throughout his prophetic ministry, from about 628 to about 580 B. C., Jeremiah appears the most plaintive and heartbroken of all the prophets. He is burdened by a ministry he does not want and pained by the hostility of his own people, which he deeply resents. He is commissioned to tell the people of Judah and Jerusalem that their sins have earned them defeat and exile. He warns them that God’s help is not automatic, that they might as well surrender to the invading Babylonian armies, because God will not help them.

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Simon Peter said in reply: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” “The Keys of Peter Sunday” should be the name of this Sunday. It marks the handing over of the keys to the kingdom of heaven, which represent Authority in the Church and the Kingdom.

I would like to think that when we reach the gates of heaven, we will meet St. Peter, and he will have some questions for us. They won’t be difficult or trick questions. However, they will evaluate us on whether we have lived our faith while in this world. In other words, St. Peter will want to know if we were listening and attentive, and if we learned anything about the Kingdom of Heaven.

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The miracle stories hold a special fascination for all of us. They tell us about the mercy, the compassion and the love of our God for all that He has created. They show us the power and providence, the care and concern of a loving Father. Miracles always announce a new age in the history of our world: that God’s kingdom is both here and yet to come. But there is even more. We need to look beyond the miracle story to see and understand what that kingdom is all about.

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“O Woman, great is your faith.”

A little teaching first: the Hypostatic Union is a theological term used with the Incarnation to explain the revealed truth that Christ’s one divine person subsists in two natures. Simply stated, this means that in the Person of Jesus there are two natures: divinity and humanity, and they are in complete unity without any mixture, change, division or separation, as the great Council of Chalcedon stated. So, Jesus Christ is both God and Man. This is a great mystery; hypostasis (upostasis) means, literally, that which lies beneath as the basis or foundation.

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In the first reading from 1 Kings 19, Elijah waited for the Lord’s passing by a Mt. Horeb cave. The Lord was not in the strong, heavy wind, in an earthquake, or in a fire, but Elijah heard the Lord in a tiny whispering sound. Silence is critical for our time invested in contemplative prayer to hear that still, small voice, whether right then or later, as the saints teach us. The holy, miracle-working priest and monk, St. Charbel, invested eight hours each day in silent adoration prayer. There is a shrine to him and a monthly healing Mass right here in Phoenix.

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The last time I was at the Sea of Galilee, on top the mountain of the Beatitudes overlooking Tabgha, the place where Jesus miraculously fed the Five Thousand, we watched as a big storm brewed up from the south side of the Jordan River valley and was headed north and right toward us. Our tour guide was already on the phone to the boat operator to cancel our Holy Hour on the Sea scheduled for later that night. The weather forecast was talking in terms of a ‘hurricane’ blowing in from the Mediterranean Sea, then making landfall and then heading north as it so often does. All of the pilgrim and pleasure trips scheduled on the lake later that evening were cancelled.

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This great Feast of The Transfiguration of the Lord is one of my favorite feasts. The Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit all together in one place, just as they were at the Baptism of the Lord. The relatively new Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, like “The Chosen” television episodes, have given much attention to the life and ministry of Christ. The first time I visited the Holy Land in 2014, the place I wanted to visit the most was Mount Tabor, the mountain of the Transfiguration.

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Once every few years, the Church hears the gospel of the Transfiguration twice on different Sundays. Every year we hear it on the Second Sunday of Lent; and when the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6) falls on a Sunday, it takes precedence over the regular Sunday readings.

Raphael’s image of the Transfiguration is one of the most popular paintings of this gospel. In it, the great master presents viewers with real-life questions about what one chooses to emphasize in life. The image was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de Medici (who would become Pope Clement VII) as an altarpiece for his home chapel in late 1516 or early 1517.

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