One of the themes that Paul addresses consistently in these two letters is the need to remain firm in faith and teach clearly and with conviction the basics of the Faith and principles of the Christian way of life to the flock. “Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.” Paul knows that Timothy is facing opposition from non-Christians and even from some Christians who are confused or who have wandered from the path to Christ.

Paul also knows that this aspect of being a pastor can be a real challenge, and so he exhorts Timothy to be strong. “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” As Paul calls upon Timothy to be courageous, he links this call with the grace to be full of love and self-control. He is to be courageous and clear in his teaching, but also to be full of charity and self-control. He is not to lord it over the flock, nor to beat them over the head with the truth, but to preach the good news with patience, wisdom, perseverance and charity.

Paul goes on: “Bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Christians experience the hardship by learning to live the Gospel before preaching it and by proclaiming it within a culture that does not want to hear it. But part of the hardship is also to fight our natural tendency to speak harshly or rudely out of frustration, anger and impatience with those whose faith is weak and who have been duped by the false arguments of many in our world today. Paul is exhorting Timothy and us to speak with charity, never compromising on the truth, but always mindful of the tone we use, the timing and frequency of our challenges, and the support that we offer to those to whom our words are addressed. Do we spend enough time praying with, encouraging and building up those to whom we are teaching the Faith?

In the light of Paul’s words to Timothy, it is timely to recall that the Church in the United States has named the first Sunday in October “Respect Life Sunday.” We all know that the beautiful, Christian understanding of the dignity of the human person — based upon the word of God revealed in nature as well as Scripture and tradition — runs contrary to moral principles of many in our modern culture. The Church’s effort to proclaim that dignity and help our nation guarantee that dignity at every stage of life is challenged on many levels from various sectors of society. We do well to head Paul’s words to Timothy as they relate to this huge, modern-day battle.

I have been very encouraged in recent years by the faith and conviction of many of the young people in the Church today on this issue of respect for life. I find them embracing in ever greater numbers over the past 20 years the Church’s teaching regarding the dignity of human life from conception to natural death with fervor and devotion. I find them being bold in their willingness to stand up against our culture and to “guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.” The number of young people who participate in pro-life organizations and demonstrations, who volunteer at nursing homes, and who advocate for those on death row is growing. I think that a driving force in the effort to proclaim the good news about life is the young Church.

So, Paul’s words to Timothy are ever more relevant today. The young people of the Church need to be encouraged to speak clearly and with conviction the truths of our faith, especially pertaining to the fact that every human being was made in the image and likeness of God and therefore has an inherent dignity given by our Creator. We never have the right to take the life of an innocent human being. We need to encourage them to be courageous in the face of persecution. We also need to travel with them, like St. Paul, as we challenge them, care for them with the love of Christ, invite them to develop virtue and grow in their self-control in the face of opposition, and to remember that we teach loudest with the example of our lives.

Mike was always hunched over and he walked slowly with a cane. That night, I saw him enter the narthex of the Church, pause and angle his body so that he could look up at the crucifix, and make a slow, reverent sign of the cross. This simple act was so beautiful that it caught my attention. Then, he ambled his way into the church. When he came to his favorite pew, he put his cane in his left hand, grabbed the pew with his right, and somehow managed to genuflect before Jesus, present in the Blessed Sacrament. It seemed like it took forever. He shook from the strain (and the pain) the whole time he was genuflecting. Unable to get all the way back up, he plopped into the pew. This humble, reverent act of love for God will be etched in my mind for the rest of my life.

Sirach, one of the great Old Testament books filled with the wisdom of God, exhorts us today, “My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.”

I came to grow in my great respect and love for Mike Vida that summer. I would often stop by the hardware store just to say hello. I would make an extra effort to catch him after the novena and have a brief conversation with him. His faith was tangible. His humility was attractive. While Mike was not super talkative, I always felt uplifted and encouraged from being in his presence. I sensed as a young man that Mike had found favor with God.

Jesus praises the grace of humility in the Gospel today as well: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus is teaching us that we can work with God and grow in the virtue of humility. We can humble ourselves. By praying for the grace to be humble, truly desiring it, imitating it in those holy souls that God sends into our lives, and regularly practicing acts of charity, we can develop this elusive virtue.

Mike Vida was a visible example of how humility starts with God and our faith in Him. When we know deep within our soul that we are handcrafted by God out of His personal love for us, it puts life into a certain perspective. When we accept the truth that we depend upon our Heavenly Father for our very existence (every breath we take, every smile we receive, every morsel of food we eat, every heartbeat we enjoy), we begin to laugh at our own pride. How can we be haughty when we know that all of our gifts, talents and successes flow from His loving hand? St. Paul asks: “What do you possess that you have not received?” (1 Cor 4:7). Mike Vida was gifted in many ways as a family man, businessman and Christian. He used those gifts to bless others and to build the kingdom of God. We found out at the time of his death that he was an anonymous benefactor for a number of charities and projects, including the upkeep of the beautiful little plot of land on Route 1 marked by the large crucifix that memorializes the arrival of the Brent family to Virginia.

Humility begins with God and gently flows into all of our other relationships. This same faith empowers us to see everyone around us as a beloved child of God, equally deserving of God’s blessings and love as I am. Our faith makes us realize that our gifts were given to us so that we might better serve our neighbor and build up a culture of life and love. This awareness of how we stand before God and neighbor stares in the face of the attitude of entitlement. Rather than thinking that we are entitled to respect, honor and a life of ease, we see ourselves as blessed so that we can share with others the bountiful blessings of God.

Humility is also a friend of truth. Humility invites us to be honest about our faults, weaknesses and sins. It keeps us on our knees, praying for God’s strength, mercy and assistance. At the same time, humility invites us to be honest about our gifts and talents as well. Humility demands that we discover them, cultivate them, and put them to use for the greater glory of God. The saints are humble because they know the source of their gifts, but also because they responded to God’s invitation to use their gifts to love and serve in extraordinary ways. St. Paul, St. John Bosco and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta were beautifully humble and yet achieved the heights of holiness and charity as they responded to God’s guidance and grace in their lives. Their humility did not keep them from such heights; rather it propelled them toward those heights.

Ben Sirach was indeed a wise man. He knew how critical humility is in the life of the believer. It opens us to the fullness of life in God, it makes our witness in the world more powerful and it brings us into favor with our God.

As Christians, we usually grasp the need to be profoundly grateful to God for creating and redeeming us in love and for holding us in the palm of His hand at every moment of the day. When that gratitude is real, when it courses through our veins, we actually begin to desire the things that matter most to God.

St. Paul reminds us in the first reading that one essential part of becoming rich in what matters to God is to root out the desires that lead us astray from God, those parts of us that he calls “earthly.” “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and the greed that is idolatry” (Col 3: 9).

Because of original sin, our human nature is dented. Our human nature is certainly not ruined, but it is wounded. We do not naturally gravitate toward the good with the same quickness and ease as before the epic fall of Adam and Eve. Because of their sin, every human being has inherited concupiscence, a weakness or dent in our nature. As Christians, we recognize this fact of our existence and actively keep an eye on and strive to surrender to God the tendency to look in the wrong places for the happiness for which we were made. A good gardener knows that he must regularly weed his garden if he wants the flowers and vegetables to flourish.

So then, what are those things that matter most to God?

Humility matters to God. The example of Jesus’ life screams “humility.” He was born in a cave, and His first crib was a manger. He grew up in the insignificant town of Nazareth, and His (foster) father was a carpenter. He never owned a house, and He never got a college degree. He died among criminals, nailed to a tree and abandoned by most of His closest colleagues. Clearly, Jesus modeled a life of humility. For us Christians, humility is the fruit of realizing that God is God and we are not. It is the fruit of recognizing that everything that is good in me and outside of me was created by His loving, almighty hand. Humility is attractive, disarming and uplifting to others. Humility is definitely one of those things that matters to God.

Prayer matters to God, too. One of the most fundamental and attractive elements of Christianity is that God created us out of love to live in a loving union with Him. Through the redeeming work of Christ, we are invited to be drawn up, as God’s adopted children, into the very life and love of the Holy Trinity. We are created to be in relation with God. This means that we need to spend time with God, worshiping Him, praising Him, telling Him we are sorry for our sins, learning from Him, being in His presence, accepting His tender love and making Him know that we are grateful for His boundless gifts. We need to spend time with Him nurturing our relationship. That is prayer: spending time with the Beloved. Prayer matters to God.

Serving our neighbor with a generous heart matters to God. Once again, the example of Jesus’ life shines brightly for all to see. He spent nearly every waking moment (when He was not in prayer) humbly serving His neighbor, with a particular eye for those who were in pain or on the fringe of society. After washing His disciples’ feet and shocking them with His humble spirit of service, Jesus said, “You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (Jn 13:13-15). Seeing our neighbor in need, being moved to compassion for him or her, and doing something to address that need matters to God.

Jesus becomes poor that we might become rich. He teaches how to be rich in what matters to God. He teaches us to manage our account and to build up treasure in heaven by rooting out sin, developing the virtue of humility, learning how to pray well and serving our neighbor in need with a generous heart.

Once we encounter the living God and come to know His love, we are motivated to change our lives. It is His extraordinary love that beckons us to turn from our sinful ways and discover the fullness of life. His love casts out fear from our lives and invites us to come face to face with the truth of our human condition. We are quick to see our sins, admit them honestly, confess them regularly and walk humbly on the journey. We are also profoundly motivated to do good and to develop virtues that help us to live the truth in the face of life’s many challenges. Gradually, we stop living for ourselves and start living for the Lord. St. Paul reminds us that faith changes our whole perspective on the world: “I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” God’s love is the greatest motivator for lasting change in our lives.

Finally, authentic faith, the fruit of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, sets our hearts on fire with a desire to invite others to join us on the journey with Christ to the Father. Our faith becomes a treasure that we can’t imagine not sharing with others. We want, like a little kid who just received an awesome birthday present, to show it to everyone. The inner drive to invite others into this awesome way of life flows naturally from our faith in Christ. It is also something that He calls us to do. God uses the many gifts that He has given to us to enable us to do this work, but the most important way we respond is by the example of our lives.

We see how important the witnessing of our faith is to Jesus in the Gospel this week. He sends out a group of 72 disciples ahead of Him, in pairs, to every place He intended to visit. They were to prepare hearts and minds of the people to receive Jesus when He came to visit their villages. We get a sense of Jesus’ sorrow that more people are not willing to do this work when He says: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvest. Go on your way.”

The Christian life is a journey marked by three stages: discovery of the love of God, allowing God to radically change our lives and being sent to let the light of Christ shine through us in the world. Am I making progress on the journey? Am I giving Christ the chance to transform my life by spending enough time with Him in prayer, sacraments, Christian fellowship and humble service of my neighbor?

The Eucharist is the Lord’s greatest gift to His Church because it is the gift of Himself: “This is my body.” It is the most important way in which the Lord fulfills His promise to remain present to His flock until the end of time. Consequently, it is the source and summit of our Christian lives.

Our understanding of the Eucharist begins with the institution narratives in Matthew, Mark and Luke. That understanding is deepened by the ancient signs in the Old Testament that prefigure the Eucharist, such as the sacrifice of Isaac, the paschal lamb, and the manna in the desert. Our understanding is further deepened in the New Testament by the bread-of-life discourse in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel and in Paul’s writings in his first letter to the Corinthians.

St. Paul’s testimony is particularly important because he is an additional source for our teaching on the Eucharist as he states clearly that his knowledge and understanding of the Eucharist came directly “from the Lord.” He did not rely upon a presence at the Last Supper like Matthew and John because he was not there. He converted after Jesus’ ascension. Nor was Paul a disciple of Peter or any of the Gospel writers. Plus, it is generally held by the Scripture scholars that Paul wrote this letter before the Gospel writers penned their inspired works. Still, his description of the institution of the Eucharist on the night Jesus was handed over correlates beautifully with the accounts in the Gospels.

Jesus was greatly interested in handing on to his followers at the end of His life a divinely inspired way to remember his love and his saving work, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus’ last days on earth made up the Father’s masterpiece, His greatest work. Jesus, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, became sin for us, suffered and died on a tree between two criminals. This sacrifice, coupled with the ensuing resurrection, encapsulated the greatest act of love that the world has ever known. Jesus chose not to leave it up to us to celebrate that supreme act of self-giving. So, He left us a memorial. He gave us the Eucharist.

The truths taught by God and proclaimed by Christians are unique on numerous fronts. They state that almighty God stooped down to earth and fully embraced our humanity. They state that God suffered greatly at the hands of His creatures. Specifically, Jesus was handed over, arrested, put through a false trial, unjustly accused, scourged, mocked and nailed to a cross. These truths demonstrate that His love for us is beyond all description and that He would stop at nothing in order to bring us healing, reconciliation and new life that will last unto eternity. Jesus wanted us to have a simple, clear way to remember and proclaim these awesome deeds. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”

I want to finish with a prayer to assist us as we celebrate the great Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Lord Jesus, through the graces of the Mass, increase my awareness and appreciation for the sacrifice that You made of Your life to the Father on my behalf. Set on my heart a longing to be united with You through the precious gift of holy Communion. May I be a Christian who gratefully and joyfully proclaims your death because it brought me to new life. May I rejoice in gathering together with my brothers and sisters in the Lord each Sunday to worship You, honor You and give You thanks. May I leave Mass with an urgent sense that I have been sent out share the wonders of Your love with a broken world. Amen.

Pentecost was marked by an abundant release of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The first major consequence of this outpouring is that it initiates a radically new relationship between the individual and God. God’s love for us is so real and personal that He desires to come and dwell within us. Jesus refers to this great mystery in our Gospel today. Our Lord says to His disciples, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” The divine indwelling is made possible by the Holy Spirit which is poured into our hearts through faith. We are made temples of the Holy Spirit at our baptism when we are anointed with the Holy Chrism and filled with the Holy Spirit. Love desires intimacy and God’s love for us leads Him to choose to make a home for Himself in the hearts of His children.

A second major consequence of the coming of the Holy Spirit is the transformation of our lives. Knowing and experiencing that God is near, we are greatly strengthened and filled with His peace, even in the face of life’s many challenges. Immediately after speaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit in Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you . … Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” The lives of the saints bear witness to a marvelous strength that enabled them to endure enormous crosses and face tremendous persecutions with unexplainable peace and courage. St. Clare’s ability to stand strong in the face of a band of Saracens at the door of the monastery comes to mind as an example of peace and courage in the face of great physical danger.

A third major consequence of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is guaranteed guidance. Christ’s teaching was a critical part of His saving work. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus established the Church for a variety of reasons, one of which was to preserve, protect, and defend the truths necessary for our salvation as well as apply them to new cultures and future realities down through the ages, like advances in science and medicine. The Church needs clear guidance for this part of Her mission. The Holy Spirit, poured out upon the Church, is the guarantee of that guidance. Jesus refers to this role of the Spirit when He says to His disciples: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

This promise of God’s guidance to the Church is a tremendous grace for the Christian. It only makes sense that God would have a plan for preserving and handing on the great deposit of truth that He bestowed upon the world when He sent His only begotten Son among us. It is a comfort to know that the Church was given the grace of the Holy Spirit to teach infallibly on matters of faith and morals for all of history. So many of the saints have given up their lives and countless others have endured persecution because they were willing to stand up for the true faith. St. Athanasius is one example that comes to mind. He spent great time and energy in the fourth century as a bishop defending the divinity of Christ against the growing heresy of Arius. He refused to tolerate the supporters of this heresy and spent seventeen of his forty-six years in the episcopate in exile.

As we approach the end of this beautiful Easter season, it is fitting to ponder anew the many graces and fruits of the Holy Spirit. We do so in order to deepen our faith in this vital gift that was the culmination of Jesus saving work. We do so also to stir into flame the fire of the Holy Spirit that has been given to each of us in baptism (and confirmation), that is renewed every time we receive holy Communion, and that sends us into the world to be living witnesses of the Risen Lord.

The resurrection is so significant that the Church does not think that it can be properly celebrated in one day. So, we celebrate Easter Sunday for eight days. The Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, concludes the octave of Easter. Now we proceed to celebrate the Easter season which lasts for 50 days.

Our Lord’s resurrection confirms Jesus’ claim that He came to redeem the world, to free us from sin, reconcile us with our heavenly Father, to restore peace to our souls, to offer us new and abundant life. Our redemption flows from the resurrection and is the direct fruit of Jesus’ divine mercy, offered so freely, so generously and so humbly to every sinner, no matter how grievous the offense.

Venerable John Paul II declared in April of 2000 that the Second Sunday of Easter also be named “Divine Mercy Sunday.” The pope was inspired by the life and teaching of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who lived during the early part of the 20th century. Inspired by her deep faith in the risen Lord, and guided by personal revelations that Jesus made to her, St. Faustina had a heart that burned with love for the Lord and the desire to spread the Good News, particularly about Jesus’ divine mercy. She was convinced that the truth of God’s mercy is the very heart of the Good News and must be boldly proclaimed to the whole world.

On one occasion, St. Faustina heard these words: “My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire the feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. … Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sin be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.”

(St. Faustina helped to spread devotion to Divine Mercy through a variety of means, including a revealed image of Christ, the Divine Mercy chaplet, a novena to Divine Mercy and the 3 o’clock devotion.)

Today’s Gospel reading proclaims the moment when we understand that Jesus instituted the sacrament of mercy. On Easter Sunday night, Jesus entrusted again His whole mission to the Apostles and the Church when He said to the Apostles: “‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’” Clearly, the proclamation and conferral of God’s mercy is at the heart of His mission, and it was entrusted to the Church, particularly through the priestly ministry of the Apostles and their successors.

May we never stop marveling at the height, depth and breathe of God’s mercy. May His mercy renew and transform our lives. May the proclamation of His divine mercy be always at the very center of the Church’s words and deeds. May we share St. Faustina’s ardent desire to be proclaimers and carriers of His mercy to every heart in every corner of our world.

While the most remarkable element of this parable is Jesus’ depiction of the Father, I want to start with the two sons. They have a way of representing us all. Most of us find ourselves like one or the other at different points in our lives. The younger son struggles with being immature on several levels and wanting to find meaning in the pleasures of life. The second struggles with pride, thinking that he is better than the younger son and that he has it harder than the younger.

The younger son is quite brash. He basically slaps his father in the face. He asks for half of the father’s inheritance before the father has passed away. Then, he squanders that inheritance on a life of dissipation, foolishly pursuing pleasure without concern for others. He ends up broke and tending the pigs on a farm which, for a Jew, symbolized that he had reached the depths of despair and humiliation. When he has literally nowhere to turn, he decides to go home to his father and ask for a place among the hired hands.

The older son, on the other hand, has a hardened heart. He seems jealous of his father’s affection for the younger son. He can’t understand why the return of the prodigal is so important to the father when he himself has been so responsible over the years. He can’t bring himself to celebrate his brother’s return. He even gets angry with the father for being so quick to take the profligate son back into his home.

The power and the beauty of the parable lie in Jesus’ depiction of the father. The father starts by giving half of his inheritance to a young son long before his death, an unheard of act of generosity. While the son was still a long way off, the father catches sight of him, giving us the sense that the father was constantly looking down the road, anxiously waiting to glimpse his son in the distance. This father would not rest until he has his son back by his side. Furthermore, the father is “filled with compassion” upon his arrival, not anger or contempt. Then, the father runs to his son, embraces him and kisses him. The robe, ring and sandals were clear symbols for the Jew that the young man was being reinstated as a son in the family because what he had done earned the punishment of being cast out of the family and permanently banned.

What do you think was dearest to the father’s heart, his estate or his son, his reputation or his son, his frustration or his son?

This is certainly the family of which I want to be a member. This is the father I want to call my own. This is the house where I want to spend eternity.

We are invited by this great parable to ask ourselves some questions this Lent. Which brother do I resemble these days? Am I being young and immature with my use of the Father’s gifts? Am I in pleasure-seeking mode? Am I thinking that the world revolves around me? Am I convinced that life is all about good times? Am I aware of the needs of those around me? Am I forgetful of where my gifts come from and that I have been given them to use in the service of others?

Am I like the older, hardened son? Do I regularly look down on others with disdain? Am I frustrated because I try so hard and others do not? Am I proud of my progress on the journey of life? Do I constantly compare myself with others? Do I have a difficult time when others receive the attention of friends, family members or colleagues at work?

Jesus uses this parable to paint a picture of our heavenly Father whose mercy is deeper than the oceans and endures forever. With a Father like that, how can we ever be afraid to come home? How can we not be moved to look over our lives, see where we have gone astray, and come back to Him with humble and contrite hearts?

Why should we place our trust in the Lord?

On one level, it only makes sense. We depend upon God for our very existence. God created us and holds us in existence at every moment of our lives. So, we would not exist if it were not for His creative love, as well as His desire to enter in to a personal relationship with each of us. This means that every one of us is the fruit of an intentional act of God who had an idea of us in His mind from long before He gave us physical life. God made us unique, with our own set of gifts and talents and our own personality, so that we could both be in relation to Him and reflect is divine image in this world. So, we should trust in the Lord because He created us in love.

In addition to blessing us with life and offering us the opportunity to engage Him in a relationship marked by intimacy and friendship, God redeems us from sin and death in Christ. In a powerful demonstration of a lack of gratitude to almighty God for blessing us so abundantly, every one of us have used our God-given freedom to turn our backs on Him, to shun Him and resort to our selfish and sinful ways. We have said “No!” to our heavenly Father, refused to follow the path marked out for us, and deeply hurt Him and others close to us.

Consequently, God has added to the extraordinary goodness of His creative love by showering upon us an even greater blessing, the love which manifests itself as mercy and which brings about reconciliation with Him. “For God so love the world that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life.” We human beings participated in the act of putting His only-begotten Son to death on a cross by our own personal sins. Then, God used that hideous act to bring about our redemption. His goodness, patience and love are beyond our comprehension.

It is the gift of faith in God, the awareness of God’s creative and redemptive love – extended to us as individuals – that leads to trusting in Him and not in the things of this world. The love of God is so real, so powerful and so generous that it transforms our lives. It heals us from sin, from a lack of meaning and direction and from desperation in the face of life’s trials. It brings us life, restores hope and makes us strong in the face of suffering. God becomes a stream of life-giving water in our lives constantly refreshing us and cleansing us. “He (who trusts in the Lord) is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.”

This life of faith, this opportunity to really trust in the Lord is what Jesus is describing when he says that the poor are blessed in this week’s Gospel: Blessed are the poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. It contrasts with putting our trust completely in ourselves, in others or in the things of this world, like money or prestige. Our consumerist culture works very hard every day to convince us that we will find our happiness in the pleasures that luxuries provide such as nicer cars, larger houses and fancier vacations. Putting our trust entirely in these material things or even in people and not God always leaves us empty, unfulfilled and often hurt. No one can take the place that God must have in our lives.

Our Christian faith teaches us that true and lasting joy comes from living in a close union with God, allowing Him to take away our stony hearts and replace them with natural hearts, and learning to love others as He has loved us. It invites us to place all our trust in God, not in the things of this world.

Heavenly Father, pour anew the Holy Spirit into my heart. Stir up in me a profound awareness of your creative and redemptive love. Help me to become poor in spirit, aware that You are the source of my greatest riches. May I learn to turn to You, the font of life, love and meaning, in all of my needs.

“They have no wine.” These words of Mary to her Son suggest that the couple, probably a poor one, has run out of wine and will soon be embarrassed before their guests. On another level, John is proclaiming a deeper truth about the human condition. Wine, especially for Jews, symbolizes joy. Human beings, suffering from both original sin and personal sin, have lost the first grace that God poured upon us at creation and the resultant joy that comes from living at peace with ourselves and with God. As human beings estranged from God, we have no wine.

“Do whatever he tells you.” Mary knows that she does not have the answer to either quandary, the wine or the lasting joy, but she knows Who does. She points the wedding servers with confidence and faith to her Son. This famous command defines Mary’s existence in time and eternity. She is the Queen Mother who knows quite well that her Son came to redeem the world from sin and sadness and renew the world with forgiveness and joy. Her desire is to point the whole world to Jesus.

“Fill the jars with water.” Jesus provides the wedding feast with an abundance of choice wine. John makes it clear that the miracle produced about 160 gallons of surprisingly good wine. On a deeper level, our Saving Lord does not come to earth as our Redeemer to offer a bland feast with sparse pickings. Rather, Jesus comes to fill His beloved children with joy and life. “I have come that you might have life, life in abundance” (Jn 10:10). Jesus comes to remove the stain of sin that drags us down, restore us to an unfettered, intimate union with God our Father, heal our broken hearts and restore the joy of life. “You have kept the good wine until now.”

“Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana.” We cannot overlook the fact that Jesus’ first miracle in John’s Gospel took place at a wedding. Jesus’ work at pouring new life and grace into the world had to involve marriage and family life. The family is the pillar of society. Since Jesus came to renew humanity, it would necessarily involve the outpouring of new life into the precious union of man and woman, which is the best, most complete place for the procreation and education of children. It is most fitting that Mary would encourage her Son to perform the first of His signs at a wedding.

The joy that comes from knowing Christ and being created anew dwells in the Christian even in the face of great trials. The saints often bear witness to this deep-rooted joy. St. Maximilian Kolbe, known for giving his life as a substitute for a fellow prisoner at the concentration camp in Auschwitz during World War II, knew a profound joy in the midst of extreme suffering.

After convincing the German soldiers to let him take the place of another man chosen to die as a punishment for the death of a prison guard, he was condemned to die by starvation. He lived much longer than expected and retained a remarkable, positive attitude during this period of torment. He continued to pray with the inmates, hear confessions, sing hymns and maintain a spirit of joy while starving to death. This faith-filled resilience to their torture so disturbed the German soldiers that they changed their plan and killed him with an injection of carbolic acid. St. Maximilian’s faith and the joy that flowed from it were a source of light and hope for many prisoners.

Jesus Christ, through His suffering and death, has restored grace, life and joy to our broken world. Faith in Jesus results in a renewal of the human heart that brings extraordinary strength and joy, even in the face of trials and suffering. Christ’s transformation of water into wine is a great symbol of the new life and joy that God longs to give us. “You have kept the good wine until now.”