Humility is not such a popular practice in the world. We can bear witness to this fact anytime we go to the grocery store, Walmart, or are driving through the roundabouts of Chino Valley. Life hands us opportunities all the time, it’s just a matter of if and how we pay attention to them. One might say man Oh man, what has gotten into people today? They rush through those things without skipping a beat, or without concern for who might be in the way. They fail to practice the yield. Jesus challenges us to think about practicing the yield.

Today’s Gospel affirms us on the road in which we find ourselves in union with the Lord. Luke is determined to show us what matters most in keeping our eyes on the prize of eternity with God. His disciples ask him, “Lord will only a few be saved”…then Jesus proceeds to speak of the narrow gate, which conveys that the road to heaven is narrow because we must deliberately strive for it in or daily lives. Heaven is not an automatic guarantee. This points to our Catholic understanding, unlike the teaching of a televangelist who explains once saved always saved, we realize too that salvation is something to be gained everyday otherwise there is the potential risk of losing it. Yes, it is possible to be a believer in Jesus, it’s even possible to say we love Jesus, but if we are not living up to what that really means, then the possibility of paradise lost becomes real. How do we manage to put our soul in jeopardy? How might we be in danger of losing our salvation? We do so by lacking authentic conversation.

I have come to set the earth ablaze! We are to be set apart and to be purified. Every Christian must be pure to enter heaven, if we are not then heaven is not an option, maybe Purgatory is, but the purity of heaven means just that, it is the purest sense of our being. Purity speaks of the holiness we are called to live, being holy means, we are saints now, called to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. We are no longer slaves to sin, but rather we have put aside our childish ways. There is no such thing as putting on false pretense as Christians because God sees right through us. We know we are who we say we are by our fruits, our behavior, the words we speak, all being a reflection of Christ. It means we do not seek to get even, or to set the record straight, but we stand firm in the truth of Christ and forgive and move on.

Today’s gospel is a continuation of the message Jesus addressed to the various people he encountered including the rich man. Jesus consistently says do not be afraid and get your priorities straight and your affairs in order sooner than later, for you know not the hour when the bridegroom shall return. He also says to keep our priorities straight, and not to be too consumed with the things of the world, do not seek to fulfill one’s happiness with temporal things but seek the Lord always in the things of heaven.

One of the biggest gestures for us as humans is to think in terms of eternal things and the promise of our eternal salvation. Redemption is real and everyone is worthy to be redeemed, all that is needed is our desire. How do we desire the Lord every day, and is He our heart’s true desire? The urgency and message of preparedness and awakening is not a suggestion, but a mandate from the Lord to be vigilant and ready for we do not know the hour of his return, but he is coming. How does knowing this cause us to respond to Jesus?

The gospel today challenges us to think about where our priorities belong. In scripture, Jesus often uses the relationship the rich man has with his stuff. Today is no different as he tells the parable that brings to life the dismay of the rich man who chooses to focus on things like greed, or acquiring things, and storing them up for a later day. Why do we obsess with so many worldly things as believers? It becomes easy to become firmly planted and become consumed by possessing things. It is a sad truth that we become skewed in our priorities. People attach themselves to people, places, and things, when at any given moment these aspects of life yes can become a source of joy, but are with us for only a brief time. We know this because people hold-on and struggle with change, even when the change involves death.

The Our Father, given to us by Jesus himself, is a profound reminder as to how we are to understand our relationship with God. We are called to be perfect like our Heavenly Father is perfect. MT 5:48 Jesus when asked by the apostles to teach us how to pray, is a response enveloped principally in the love of God. Remember God is love, God is all about relationship and an encounter that by its very dynamic changes us to desire and to seek God at all times. This prayerful relationship also challenges us to become mature in the spiritual life, which many a churchgoer struggles with because of ego, or conjured up ideas of what is perceived as holy but is not.

The story of Martha and Mary is a story ripened with time, that moves us to contemplate the depths and dimensions of our relationship with God.

Jesus in his public ministry is all about connection and choosing the better part of things. We find ourselves also caught in the balance of being aware of our choices and what consumes us. What draws us closer to God and what are the things that take us from God. People often spend time doing a lot of stuff being busy for the sake of busy.

You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

These are the words to everlasting life. Jesus amazingly makes it clear when asked what is necessary, what is the basic requirement to get to heaven. Jesus never said one must be pious but said one must be perfect like the Heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus never said one must put on external practices of perceived holiness in order to look holy, instead he said take care to not be concerned with the outside of the cup, but clean first what is within (Mt 23).

Today we honor St. Peter and St. Paul.

Both are apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, but both came up in very different ways. St. Peter was a fisherman, most likely tough as nails, stubborn, profane, a gripe, and struggled with faith. St. Paul was a persecutor of Christians, proudly assailing them and dragging them off to prison. Both were Jewish, but St. Paul was a Hellenistic Jew raised in Greek culture. St. Peter personally knew Jesus, sat with Him at table, walked with Him and talked with Him. St. Peter demonstrated some of the most disappointing sides of human nature with his struggles with faith, trusting in Jesus, spirit of anger, complaining, and if that was not enough, he denied Jesus.

Today marks the second of two Catechetical Sundays that occur on the tails of the Easter Season. Corpus Christi Sunday brings into focus the awe of the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, or Holy Communion. Trinity Sunday last week, solidified the awe of the presence of God among His people through the Most Holy Trinity, as three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Corpus Christi Sunday brings to focus our love of the Lord present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. It’s interesting to note that the Church places these catechetical days within the calendar because it’s important to see the Holy Mass as an opportunity to unpack the rich meaning of our faith as it pertains to some of our most profound mysteries and treasures.

Coming off the heels of the Easter Season that culminated with Pentecost Sunday, the Church now gives us the first of two consecutive catechetical Sundays to instill in us a deeper love of our faith and the teachings of the Church. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity speaks to us at the heart of God, in knowing Him at His foundation given in the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Throughout the centuries great debates have taken place over God as Three Persons, and the reality that the Sacred Trinity is a mystery and has been a mystery since the Church began to articulate it.

Pentecost Sunday is the culmination of the Easter Season, when our fifty-day observance comes to an end, yet we still live out our inner essence as Easter People. This aspect of the Christian faith is the core of what we believe, as we have cherished the hope, the joy, and the promise of eternal life.

Let us pray that as the Holy Spirit falls upon us this Pentecost, as we prepare our inner dwelling to be the place of welcome, to take on the inner disposition required for the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and make us holier, more faithful, and desiring of the converted life.

The fifty days of Easter are dedicated to the contemplation of the profound meaning of the Paschal Mystery, the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In these days we commemorate with vivid meaning the “pasche” derived from Greek and Hebrew the combined mystery of the Pache or Easter event in Jewish Passover and Christian Easter, which celebrates true freedom from the bonds of slavery, as the Jews were liberated and how Christians are freed from attachment to sin and death. It’s a victory celebration really of epic proportions that moves us toward the promise of eternal life.