Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection for - Sunday, June 21, 2026

Happy Father’s Day!

Like most fathers, I cannot think of any sacrifice that would be too great to make for my son.  Yet, I know that the way that I feel about John is only a small and imperfect representation of the infinite and perfect love that God our Father feels for each of us. There is no comparison between our human ability to love and the love that God feels for us.  I was only blessed to have one child, but I imagine that a man who has 10 children takes the same level of interest in each of the ten as I do in my one.  God takes that interest to a level that we cannot even imagine.  It’s not that God loves humans in general, He is a Father who knows and is totally committed to each one of His children individually.

The day my son was born everything about him was precious and wonderful—each finger and toe seemed like a separate miracle. God loves us in that kind of detail. As Paul writes, “even all the hairs of [our] head are counted.” We don’t earn or deserve His love and attention.  God knows and loves us better than our parents, husbands, wives, families, or friends. In fact, He knows and loves us more than we know and love ourselves. Of course, the analogy of God as our father is admittedly imperfect because the failings of some earthly fathers might cause us to doubt God’s perfect love for us.  However, we must remind ourselves that, while earthly fathers may be good or bad, God is a perfect Father.

As fathers who try to follow the example of our Heavenly Father, we must be committed to our two most important responsibilities: faith and action. A dad must have faith in his own abilities as well as in his wife and in his children. He has to build a relationship of trust which helps his family to have faith in him.  He must also always be willing to act to protect his family, to prevent a wrong, to fix a bad situation, to repair a broken relationship, to comfort those he loves, and most importantly, to be certain that his family has a faithful relationship with God.

May God bless all fathers!

Fr. Mike

Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection for - Sunday, June 14, 2026

Last Monday, I flew to New York to visit my 94-year-old dad in the hospital.  I feared that his illness would not end well.  However, as he grew increasingly restless in the hospital, he became more determined to spend his final days here with his son, grandson, and great grandson. He willed himself out of the hospital and on to a plane. I truly admire his determination! In today’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking about needing that same kind of relentless determination to recruit enough “laborers” to get His Word to the “lost sheep” of Israel.  He cannot rest, and cannot allow his disciples to rest, until there are more laborers tending to the sheep.

While I was in New York, I ran the streets of Staten Island where I grew up and noticed the large number of Catholic Churches. As Staten Island grew during the early and middle parts of the 20^th Century, each neighborhood, and each ethnic group within that neighborhood, had its own Catholic church, school, and a minimum of three priests. While the population of Staten Island has doubled, there are now fewer parishes and substantially fewer priests. In fact, the entire Archdiocese of New York ordained only two priests this year.  The harvest is indeed “abundant,” but, unfortunately, the laborers are few. Here in the Diocese of Orange, the story is much brighter, but the need for laborers remains significant.  We must never cease asking the master of the harvest to send more laborers.

When Jesus instructs us to “ask,” He means that we should pray.  Prayer is His answer to the problem of a great harvest and few laborers. We must remember only God can give the increase. We can do all the planting and watering we want but God is the one who provides the growth. Prayer is a critically important step. Prayer is the first way that we participate in evangelism in our church.

The other critical step is to go.  He sends His disciples to the lost sheep to tend to their needs.  The are transformed from followers to leaders, from spectators to participants.  When we pray for an increase in laborers, we must also consider that Jesus may be calling us, or those we love, to be laborers in the harvest as priests or religious sisters or brothers. 

Fr. Mike

Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection for - Sunday, June 7, 2026

The Feast of Corpus Christi celebrates the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This doctrine is derived from the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and several of Paul’s letters. In the 13th Century, a German priest, who doubted the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, experienced a Eucharistic Miracle in which drops of blood dripped from the body of Christ immediately after the consecration. Pope Urban IV established this feast to commemorate that miracle and to reinforce belief in the real presence.

We believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist because of His words and deeds. Whether He says, “I am the bread of life” or distributes bread saying, “this is my body,” He is clear that He is truly present in the bread. From His words at the Last Supper, to the work of the apostles, to the sacrifice of martyrs, to the teaching of the early Church Fathers (and continuing for nearly twenty centuries), our belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist has never been diminished or changed in any way. Given this reality, our attitude of faith must also be an attitude of deep reverence for this long held truth.

People attempt to show reverence for the Eucharist in a variety of superficial ways: kneeling instead of standing, receiving on their tongues instead of in their hands, receiving from the priest instead of the Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion. However, as the Lord often reminded the Pharisees, superficial reverence means very little to our Lord. Deep reverence cannot be seen, it is in one’s heart.

Unfortunately, while many people admit that they are sinners, they tend to minimize the severity of their sins, rarely go to Confession, but still receive the Eucharist. We cannot reverently receive the Eucharist if we angrily take the Lord’s name in vain while driving to mass or if we gossip outside the church before mass. We manifest a deeply reverent attitude toward the Eucharist by being in a state of grace when we receive it. That means being fully reconciled with God through Confession and/or contrition. We cannot reverently receive the Eucharist if we are guilty of mortal sin and have not been absolved of that sin or if we are guilty of venial sin and have not made a sincere act of contrition.

Fr. Mike