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When I meet people throughout our Diocese who read my columns, they often ask if I would write on such and such a topic. One common request is to expound on a theme I had previously written about on forgiveness and the Lord’s Prayer.

If one is looking for the secret to material success – to being rich, prosperous, and powerful, our Biblical readings this Sunday provide little help. On the other hand, if one desires to be Christ-like, to reflect the love God has so abundantly bestowed upon us, then these readings very clearly point the way.

In just a few days, Pope Francis will solemnly open the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, formally inaugurating Holy Year 2025. During this time of special grace and opportunity, the Holy Father encourages people throughout the world to become Pilgrims of Hope striving for “a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the “door” (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation … ” (Francis, Spes Non Confundit, 1).

This Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King, the final Sunday of our liturgical year. Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925 to combat the progressive secularization of Western culture. The Holy Father was dismayed by the increasing influence of anti-Christian values in the mainstreams of society, morality, and government; his hope was that increased attention to Christ the King would “hasten the return of society to our loving Savior” (Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, 1925). The late Holy Father’s observations remain even more of concern in our own day, and thus our readings this weekend attempt to rekindle our own religious ardor by portraying Jesus’ kingship as a matter of loving service poured out for the sake of the truth, that is, his progressive revelation of his Father’s Heavenly Kingdom.

Our readings this Sunday offer words of hope and encouragement to people of faith. Jesus’ restoration of vision to the spiritually clear-sighted yet physically blind Bartimaeus, the assurances of Jeremiah that God will never abandon his faithful people, and the Letter to the Hebrews’ reminder that our High Priest, Christ the Lord, is both patient and merciful, all serve to powerfully reassure us that, while a life of faith is not always easy, it is always overwhelmingly rewarded. Our task is to embrace and live this faith.

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)- This Sunday we come to the conclusion of the Bread of Life Discourse in St. John’s Gospel (Chapter 6).

The readings this Sunday again enliven our hope in God’s merciful love.

“Who can this be that the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41). The disciples’ question highlights their unbounded amazement at Jesus and the miracles he worked. This Sunday’s Gospel presents the great miracle of Jesus calming of the sea, demonstrating his authority even over the powerful forces of nature. St. Mark also uses this Gospel to shore up the faith of the early Christian community during their time of trials.

“Did anything so great ever happen before?” (Deut. 4:32). Moses asked this question to help his people realize how precious they were in God’s sight. From the beginning of creation, Moses fervently argued, God had showered great favor upon his people. He presented all of Israelite history as a long string of God’s saving interventions in the affairs of his chosen ones. Now, these beloved people must respond properly to God’s goodness by following his commands – not out of fear, but so that they and their descendants might prosper.

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is traditionally known as Good Shepherd Sunday because one of the Gospel passages portraying Jesus as the Good Shepherd is always read on this day. Jesus’ title as the Good Shepherd is one of the most ancient ways of describing him; he is referred to as such by both himself and others throughout the New Testament. Christian art, even as early as the catacombs, is full of portrayals of Jesus with a sheep held lovingly upon his shoulders.

Our first reading this Passion Sunday is generally referred to as the Third Servant Song. Taken from the Section of the Book of Isaiah known as Second Isaiah, this text is third in a series of four Old Testament passages that highlight the salvation and victory won through the suffering of the faithful servant of the Lord. Written over 500 years before Jesus’ own passion and death, this text is vitally important because it so well captures the way that Jesus himself might have understood the events of Holy Week.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31b). St. Paul’s dramatic question in his Letter to the Romans reveals a faith completely certain of God’s providential love for his people. In Paul’s mind there was no question that God would always intervene to bring about the ultimate salvation of those whom he redeemed even at the cost of his only Son’s blood. This sense of assurance is the theme of our readings this Second Sunday of Lent.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B). As we move further into this liturgical year with our eyes particularly focused on St. Mark’s Gospel, we begin to sense the themes that will be important for Mark’s particular brand of storytelling. Our Gospel this Sunday provides important information about the unique power and authority with which Jesus proclaimed his teaching.

God always goes first. Salvation history teaches us that Almighty God, out of his own gracious and loving goodness, freely decided to share the life and love of the Trinity with humanity, the capstone of his creation. God stepped out of mystery and revealed himself to us. Even when humanity responds as God wills, it is always God who has gone first, who has reached out, prepared, invited, and, in fact, loved each and every human person so that we might know him, love him, and serve him. Christians respond to that call, when either by themselves, or through their parents, they are Baptized. Another term for this “call” is our “vocation (from the Latin word ‘vocare,’ which means ‘to call’).”

On this next to last Sunday of the church year, our first reading comes from the Old Testament Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs attempts to capture the essence of practical wisdom which illumines the experience of everyday living. It portrays the particular genius of a life lived amid the wonder and awe of God’s presence.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, the unfolding of God’s plan is seen in St. Peter’s increasing faith and in the mission of strengthening the faith of others that the Lord entrusts to him. Guided by divine inspiration, Peter’s faith developed rapidly from being so weak that he almost drowned when crossing the sea to meet Jesus to the point where his faith-filled insight was strong enough for him to proclaim boldly that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, St. Matthew focuses our attention on the central theme of all Jesus’ preaching – the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom (Reign) of God refers to God’s dynamic Lordship over all creation, that is, to God’s will being fully embraced and executed by all he has made.

This Sunday the Church marks the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, thus offering a special opportunity for us to celebrate the great truths that we proclaim so often in prayer — in the Apostles’ Creed we profess that Jesus “ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty,” and in the Nicene Creed at Mass every Sunday we similarly declare our faith that Jesus “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” In the earliest eras of the Church, the Ascension was usually treated simply in the larger context of the Resurrection or Pentecost, but beginning in the late 3rd century in the East and shortly thereafter in the West, the important message of this particular part of the salvation history became a topic of interest in its own right.

“And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him” (Mt 27:31). With these somber words, St. Matthew begins his account of Jesus’ crucifixion. The forces of sin and darkness that had conspired against Jesus throughout his ministry were now to have their way — Jesus would die on the cross, the most painful and humiliating means of execution allowed in the Roman Empire. But, the supreme irony of all this was that this very death, the seeming moment of evil’s triumph, would become the center point of all history, the moment when the power of sin and darkness would suffer its ultimate defeat.