Catholic Preaching

Catholic Preaching

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Catholic Preaching episodes

  • The Resurrection of Jesus and the Mission of the Church, TPMS-USA Quarterly Training, April 8, 2026

    Msgr. Roger J. Landry

    Saint Mary Our Lady of Grace Church, St. Petersburg, Florida
    Quarterly Training of The Pontifical Mission Societies USA
    April 8, 2026

     

    To listen to an audio recording of the presentation, please click below:

    https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.8.26_The_Resurrection_and_Mission.mp3

     

    To download a copy of the slides of the presentation, please click below: 

    4.8.25 The Resurrection and the Mission to the Nations

     

    The post The Resurrection of Jesus and the Mission of the Church, TPMS-USA Quarterly Training, April 8, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

    52 min
  • What the Lord Teaches Us About Mission in Emmaus, Easter Wednesday, April 8, 2026

    Msgr. Roger J. Landry

    Saint Mary Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, St. Petersburg, Florida
    Wednesday of Easter Week
    April 12, 2023
    Acts 3:1-10, Ps 105, Lk 24:13-35

    To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

    https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.8.26_Homily_1.mp3

     

    The following text guided the homily: 

    • In these readings of Easter Week, the Church helps us to ponder the dramatic transformation that Jesus’ Resurrection is supposed to have in our life. We have seen over the course of the last two days the stunning metamorphosis in Mary Magdalene and the 3,000 people listening to St. Peter on Pentecost Sunday. Today we see the massive change wrought in the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate and the astonishment and amazement of all those who were accustomed to seeing him at the gate. We also see the transformation in the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
    • It’s important for us to resist the temptation for Easter to become routine, seen in the biggest change in us resulting from the liturgical remembrance of Jesus’ resurrection being that now we can consume the sweets and booze we gave up for Lent. The celebration of Easter is supposed to lead us to the newness of life St. Paul described at the Easter vigil, helping us to be dead to sin and alive for God in Christ Jesus. The power of Easter is meant to bring about in us the long litany of effects the Church sang about in the Exultet on Saturday night. The whole Church — Peter, John, their successors and the entire Mystical Body — says during the Easter season to us and through us to others, “Arise and walk,” be raised and start journeying, freely, following the footsteps of the Risen Lord knowing that he accompanies you along the way. The power of Easter is meant to do something in us far greater than what happened in this crippled man in Jerusalem. But for that to take place we need to participate in this transition.
    • Let’s examine the change that’s supposed to occur by entering into the experience of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus in today’s Gospel. We could describe the change as a heart transplant. In the seventh Old Testament reading at the Easter Vigil, Ezekiel prophesies that the redemption Christ will bring will involve God’s sprinkling clean water upon us — our Baptism — removing from us our “stony hearts” and replacing them with “hearts of flesh,” full of his own spirit within us. We could rephrase that heart transplant in the words of today’s Gospel as a transition from “slowness of heart” to a “burning heart.” When Jesus anonymously and gently upbraids the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, he didn’t say, “How slow of head or how dull of mind you are not to believe all that Moses and the prophets taught,” but, “How slow of heart.” Their hearts were literally retarded because they were unwilling to let go of some of their previously conceived notions. Eventually, after Jesus takes them on an interior journey as he spoke to them along the way, their hearts began to race and burn. That pilgrimage retraced the steps of salvation history showing how all of it pointed to how the Messiah needed to suffer to help the two disciples — who had been leaving Jerusalem and symbolically the place of God, and who had been heading into the sunset instead of the rising sun — see that Jesus’ crucifixion and death were not a contradiction of the Jews’ Messianic hopes but a confirmation. Jesus helped them to grasp that what happened to him was the fulfillment of the killing of the just man Abel, the sacrifice of Isaac, the Passover lamb led to the slaughter, the just man beset, the Suffering Servant, Psalms 22 and 69 and so many others. That spiritual pilgrimage on which the anonymous Wayfarer led the two disciples during their seven-mile downhill walk into the darkness of the night reawakened their hearts and heads. They were transformed. They first asked him to stay to stay with them to keep the experience going. Then they recognized him in the “Breaking of Bread,” the celebration of the Eucharist, because their hearts and their eyes had recalibrated. And finally, even though they had journeyed seven miles downhill as dusk was descending, they were now willing to run seven miles uphill in external darkness but internal illumination to share with joyful alacrity what they had just heard.
    • What Jesus does with the disciples on the road to Emmaus shows us the path of our being evangelized and the path of our being instruments in continuing his mission. This is what Pope Francis said on July 28, 2013 speaking to the bishops of the world gathered in Brazil for World Youth Day. He asked poignantly the stinging question whether we today in the Church — including bishops, priests and preachers — still have the ability to warm people’s hearts. We can’t light the tapers of others’ hearts unless the paschal candle of our own heart is lit by Christ. But that’s the essential question: are we on fire with the flame of God such that we can light others on fire? What does having that fire that flows from the Risen Jesus, that comes from the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, require? How do we rise and walk and help others like Peter and John helped the cripple at the Beautiful Gate? We can identify three clear elements from today’s Gospel that we need to be effective missionaries of Christ and his resurrection.
    • The first is an ardent familiarity with Sacred Scripture. Jesus lit the two disciples’ hearts aflame through Sacred Scripture. Holy Writ still has that capacity to ignite us, but we need to know it. We need to hunger for every word that comes from God’s mouth. We have to relate to Jesus in his word through which he gives us the words of everlasting life. We have to care for every crumb of Sacred Scripture, St. Jerome said, just like we would care for every particle of the Eucharistic host. When with spiritual poverty, we approach the treasure of Sacred Scripture in this way, then we become capable of doing what St. Peter did to the crippled man at the gate: giving Jesus Christ’s light, giving his healing, giving “Silver and gold I have not, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, rise.” That’s the first means by which we bring people to share in his resurrection.
    • The second element is a willingness, even a hunger, to allow Jesus to enter into our conversation, into our daily life — and he enters far more subtly than he did with Cleopas and the other disciple on the Road to Emmaus! — and then, together with Christ, approach people and enter into their conversations, especially those who are wandering away from “Jerusalem” into the “sunset” westward away from the east of Christ the “rising sun.” This requires a courage, first, to be a disciple full-time and, second, to meet people where they’re at, to enter into their night without losing our light, to go to the peripheries not just of geography but of existence and try to accompany them back toward the Lord. Jesus didn’t say to the two disciples on Emmaus Street, “Where the heck are you going?,” but entered into their conversation, their questions, their doubts. Pope Francis says that this is part of the methodology of mission that we learn from Jesus.
    • The third element is to recognize that the reasons for people’s departure from Jerusalem contain within the seeds of their return. What makes someone downcast, like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, contains the seeds of seeking things above. The two disciples were leaving because they thought that Jesus’ crucifixion showed that he couldn’t possibly be the Messiah, but after Jesus opened up their hearts and their minds to the fact that the Messiah had to suffer, they embraced the reality in its fullness. The same thing still occurs. If a teenager has left the faith because of the death of loved one for whose healing the teen prayed, the reason is fundamentally because the teen believes that God should love the teen’s loved ones even more than the teen does and want that loved one’s happiness and health. But we can enter into the night of mourning and show that God’s desire is for that person to be full of life and happiness forever — and that’s what we pray for whenever he comes to call a loved one. If someone has abandoned the Church over the clergy sex abuse scandals, it contains the seeds of a desire that God’s ministers should be holy; when the person finds holy ministers, it lays the ground for the route of return. If someone abandons the Church over the Church’s supposed homophobia, because the person things that everyone should be loved and embraced no matter what the person’s sexual attractions, we can show that love and embrace that goes beyond simple superficial hospitality, but rather a concern for the person’s eternal well being, opening the person up to the fact that the Church’s teachings on chastity are not to stifle love among those with same sex attractions but to keep those persons truly loving rather than using. If a person has left because Mass is boring, or the preaching is poor, or community is inhospitable, these are all signs pointing to the seeds of return when this Mass is celebrated by clergy and communities on fire, where preaching is on fire, when the community is like the early Church. When we find others wandering away from God, lost in the cosmos, we must seek why and then see how Christ through the Church wants to fulfill or transcend those desires. When we find others heading out into the night, we don’t condemn them and write them off; rather, we enter into their journey to ask why they’re leaving, where they’re going, and discover what they’re truly seeking, in order to help them grasp, concretely in their experience, how they’re really seeking the Risen Christ and what he has made them to receive.
    • Are we still capable of warming hearts? The answer is an emphatic yes. But whether we do or not depends on how we respond to Easter graces. Christ still has the fire to ignite our hearts just like these two disciples, just like Peter, Mary Magdalene, the 3,000 on Pentecost, and so many saints. And if we allow him to do that to us, we will be able to go out along the paths of the world to encounter so many for whom Christ died, help them to learn how to turn around toward the heavenly Jerusalem, and with them, go out to light the hearts of the world ablaze. He seeks to do it here, in the “breaking of the bread,” in the Holy Eucharist preceded by the heart-igniting liturgy of the Word. If we allow him to do his thing and stir into a flame these graces, we will be filled with God and his holy joy so that, like those in Jerusalem marveled at the healed former cripple, others will be “filled with amazement and astonishment” at what has happened to us and God wants through us and his Church to do to them!

      •  

      The readings for today’s Mass were: 

      Reading 1
      Acts 3:1-10

      Peter and John were going up to the temple area

      for the three o’clock hour of prayer.
      And a man crippled from birth was carried
      and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day
      to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple.
      When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple,
      he asked for alms.
      But Peter looked intently at him, as did John,
      and said, “Look at us.”
      He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
      Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
      but what I do have I give you:
      in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
      Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up,
      and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.
      He leaped up, stood, and walked around,
      and went into the temple with them,
      walking and jumping and praising God.
      When all the people saw him walking and praising God,
      they recognized him as the one
      who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple,
      and they were filled with amazement and astonishment
      at what had happened to him.

      Responsorial Psalm
      Psalm 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9

      R.(3b) Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.

      or:
      R. Alleluia.
      Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name;
      make known among the nations his deeds.
      Sing to him, sing his praise,
      proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
      R. Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
      or:
      R. Alleluia.
      Glory in his holy name;
      rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
      Look to the LORD in his strength;
      seek to serve him constantly.
      R. Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
      or:
      R. Alleluia.
      You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
      sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
      He, the LORD, is our God;
      throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
      R. Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
      or:
      R. Alleluia.
      He remembers forever his covenant
      which he made binding for a thousand generations–
      Which he entered into with Abraham
      and by his oath to Isaac.
      R. Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
      or:
      R. Alleluia.

      Sequence — optional
      Victimae paschali laudes

      Christians, to the Paschal Victim

      Offer your thankful praises!
      A Lamb the sheep redeems;
      Christ, who only is sinless,
      Reconciles sinners to the Father.
      Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:
      The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.
      Speak, Mary, declaring
      What you saw, wayfaring.
      “The tomb of Christ, who is living,
      The glory of Jesus’ resurrection;
      bright angels attesting,
      The shroud and napkin resting.
      Yes, Christ my hope is arisen;
      to Galilee he goes before you.”
      Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.
      Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!
      Amen. Alleluia.

      Alleluia
      Psalm 118:24

      R. Alleluia, alleluia.

      This is the day the LORD has made;
      let us be glad and rejoice in it.
      R. Alleluia, alleluia.

      Gospel
      Luke 24:13-35

      That very day, the first day of the week,

      two of Jesus’ disciples were going
      to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
      and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
      And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
      Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
      but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
      He asked them,
      “What are you discussing as you walk along?”
      They stopped, looking downcast.
      One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
      “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
      who does not know of the things
      that have taken place there in these days?”
      And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
      They said to him,
      “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
      who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
      before God and all the people,
      how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
      to a sentence of death and crucified him.
      But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
      and besides all this,
      it is now the third day since this took place.
      Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
      they were at the tomb early in the morning
      and did not find his Body;
      they came back and reported
      that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
      who announced that he was alive.
      Then some of those with us went to the tomb
      and found things just as the women had described,
      but him they did not see.”
      And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
      How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
      Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
      and enter into his glory?”
      Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
      he interpreted to them what referred to him
      in all the Scriptures.
      As they approached the village to which they were going,
      he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
      But they urged him, “Stay with us,
      for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
      So he went in to stay with them.
      And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
      he took bread, said the blessing,
      broke it, and gave it to them.
      With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
      but he vanished from their sight.
      Then they said to each other,
      “Were not our hearts burning within us
      while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
      So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
      where they found gathered together
      the Eleven and those with them who were saying,
      “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
      Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way
      and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

       

       

      The post What the Lord Teaches Us About Mission in Emmaus, Easter Wednesday, April 8, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

      20 min
    • Catholic Social Teaching in the Mission Ad Gentes, Mt. Angel Seminary, April 7, 2026

      Msgr. Roger J. Landry

      Mt. Angel Seminary, Oregon
      Catholic Social Teaching Class MT 501
      April 7, 2026

       

      To listen to an audio recording of this talk, please click below: 

      https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.7.26_catholic_social_teaching_and_the_missio_ad_gentes.mp3

       

      To download a copy of the slides of the presentation, please click below: 

      4.7.25 Catholic Social Teaching in the Mission Ad Gentes

      The post Catholic Social Teaching in the Mission Ad Gentes, Mt. Angel Seminary, April 7, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

      55 min
    • Beholding, Adoring, Imitating and Proclaiming Christ on the Cross, Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, April 3, 2026

      Msgr. Roger J. Landry

      Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Manhattan
      Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion
      Good Friday 2026
      April 3, 2026
      Is 52:13-53:12, Ps 31, Heb 4:14-16.5:7-9, Jn 18:1-19:42

      To watch a video of the homily, please click below: 

       

      To listen to an audio recording of the homily, please click below: 

      https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.3.26_Good_Friday_Saint_Patrick_s_Cathedral.mp3

       

      This text guided the homily:

      • Later during this Liturgy of the Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, Deacon Joe, holding a covered crucifix and flanked by candle bearers, will solemnly sing three times — at the back of the Cathedral, in the center of the nave, and at the top step of the sanctuary, respectively — “Behold the Wood of the Cross on which hung the salvation of the world,” and we will all respond, “Come, let us adore.” Each time he does so, the crucifix will be more exposed, he will lift the Crucifix a little higher, and he will intone those words at a higher pitch. Then Archbishop Hicks, the priests and a representation of the faithful, will approach to venerate the Cross by genuflecting and kissing the wood or the corpus, a veneration that will continue after the liturgy for hours. “Behold the Wood of the Cross on which hung the Savior of the world: Come let us adore.” “Mirad el árbol de la cruz, donde estuvo clavada la salvación del mundo. Venid a adorarlo.”
      • Beholding and adoring the Cross, beholding and adoring Jesus, the Savior of the world pinned to that wood, is what we Christians do today all across the globe. To many, it is a strange, indeed shocking, liturgical rite. They look at the Cross as the instrument of Jesus’ torture and death, as the most painful and shameful form of ancient Roman execution, and they wonder why and how we would ever want to behold it rather than totally turn our eyes away from it. If one of our loved ones died by capital punishment, we would never genuflect, not to mention kiss, the electric chair, or noose, or guillotine that robbed them of their life. Yet that is what we do today. Because we Christians recognize that for Jesus, the Cross is not just a sign of literally excruciating torture and death, but of the love that made even that much pain bearable. Today we celebrate that love. We sing, “Lift high the Cross, the love of Christ proclaim, till all the world adore his sacred name.” “Alcen la cruz, emblema de su amor, que’el mundo al fin conozca al Salvador.”
      • As we ponder Jesus’ sacred head surrounded by crown of piercing thorns; meditate upon the scourging that left him with 195 muscle-ripping, bone-exposing lacerations all over flesh; examine the five-to-seven-inch nails going through the nerves and bones of his hands and feet and the side pierced by a soldiers’ sword; stare at the body that Mary once bathed as a baby now bathed in blood; and witness the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy from today’s first reading as Jesus became spurned and avoided by people, a man of suffering, led like a lamb to the slaughter, one of those from whom people hide their faces, held in no esteem: we recognize that he willingly did all of this out of love for you and for me. Out of love, he bore our infirmities and endured our sufferings. Out of love, he was pierced for our offenses and crushes for our sins. Out of love, he took upon himself the chastisement that makes us whole and healed us by his stripes.
      • When most looked him on Golgotha, they saw ignominious defeat. We see invincible love. In fact we see the happiest person in the history of the world, the one who came so that his joy might be in us and our joy complete (Jn 15:11), at the supreme moment of his triumph, when he cries out from the Cross, “It is finished!,” meaning “mission accomplished!,” rescuing us from the domination of sin and from eternal death and making eternal life and love possible. That’s why we call this Friday good. And so as we behold the wood of the Cross on which our Savior and salvation hung, adore that Redeemer and venerate that wood, we genuflect and kiss with gratitude the greatest image of his divine love for us. Like the bronze serpent God had Moses make and elevate before the Israelites in the desert as the antidote to the lethal poison of the saraph serpents, so Jesus lovingly allowed himself to be lifted up on the Cross as the antidote to our sins and the death to which sins lead. Looking at Christ on the Cross, we can behold him who knew no sin becoming like sin for us, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians (2 Cor 5:21), and we witness how our Savior by that means sucks out the venom of every way the ancient serpent has sought to poison us. That’s the first thing we do on this Good Friday: As others — like the chief priests, soldiers, passersby and even thieves on Calvary — shout “Come down from that Cross!,” we behold and adore the love of our Savior lifted high on the Cross for us. Eso es lo primero que hacemos en este Viernes Santo: contemplamos y adoramos el amor de Jesus, elevado en la Cruz por nosotros. Pero no podemos detenernos allí.
      • But we can’t stop there. Jesus doesn’t want us to stop there. We remember the time he first told his disciples that in Jerusalem, he would suffer greatly from the elders, chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised, they resisted. St. Peter actually had the chutzpah to rebuke him, saying, “No such thing shall ever happen to you!” Jesus, who had just changed Simon’s name to Peter or Rock and promised to build his Church on him, changed his name again to Satan, instructed him to get behind him, and told him that he was thinking not as God thinks but as human beings. He told him to get behind him because Peter was trying to lead him — and specifically lead him away from the Cross. Jesus wanted Peter and all of us to follow him. And then Jesus made the journey ahead explicit. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mt 16:13-25). Elsewhere he would say that to be his disciple, we must in fact do these three things: reject selfishness and self-centeredness, pick up our Cross daily, and follow in Jesus’ footsteps along the way of the Cross. As the converted St. Peter, eventually thinking as God thinks, would write to the first Christians, “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps” (1 Pet 2:21). And there’s no way to avoid the fact that his footsteps were bloody.
      • This is something most of us resist fiercely, just like Jesus’ first followers. As my predecessor as National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the USA, soon to be beatified Fulton Sheen, used to say when he would light this famous pulpit on fire by his preaching, many of us are staurophobic, literally, we fear the Cross. We’re allergic to self-denial, to pain and suffering and want to do almost everything we can to avoid it. We try to water down Jesus’ words as if he couldn’t really mean them and we look for crosses made of Styrofoam, covered in soft velvet, on wheels. Como San Pedro en el patio del sumo sacerdote, cuando la criada le preguntó: «¿No eres tú también uno de los discípulos de ese hombre?», Pedro, aunque su espíritu estaba dispuesto a morir por Jesús, su carne temía el sufrimiento que implicaba incluso admitir que era seguidor y amigo de Jesús. Like St. Peter in the high priest’s courtyard, when the maid with an attitude asked, “You’re not one of this man’s disciples, are you?,” Peter, even though his spirit was willing to die for Jesus, his flesh feared the suffering involved even in admitting he was a follower and a friend of Jesus.
      • On one level, this fear of the Cross is totally understandable. Pain, suffering and death are, of course, what theologians call ontological evils and weren’t part of God’s original plan; but in Christ, the evils of pain, suffering and even death can be converted into moral goods, when they are borne with love for God and for others. When Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, he’s calling us to love God and others with all our mind, heart, soul and strength. When he summons us each day to take up our Cross, to embrace the sufferings and difficulties he permits, he’s providing the means by which we can die to ourselves and come to experience more and more his own love and life. He said during the Last Supper that no one has greater love than to lay down his life for his friends — a love that culminated today on Good Friday on Golgotha — and he wants us, through the various crosses we need to embrace, to be able to experience and exercise that greater love, as we give our bodies, our blood, our sweat, our callouses, even lives for God and others.
      • The cross is a school of love and Jesus is our teacher. To be a disciple is to be a student in that school. (Para ser discípulo, debemos inscribirnos en la escuela de la cruz.) Our schooling begins on the day we first become Christian, when at our baptism, as soon as our parents pronounce our name, the bishop, priest or deacon marks us on the forehead with the sign of the Cross of our Savior and has our parents and godparents retrace that Cross. We renew our matriculation in that school every time we make the sign of the Cross over ourselves. But these cannot be empty gestures. They need to be true commitments. For a Christian, we can’t say about Jesus, ourselves or others, “Come down from that Cross!,” because we know that every day is one on which we are called to imitate the love we behold and adore on Good Friday, strengthened by the reality that the Risen Lord Jesus accompanies us and intercedes for us to be able to love by his standard.
      • In the early Church, many resisted this summons to follow Jesus along the path of cruciform love. They didn’t just fear the Cross, but they morally rejected it. St. Paul wrote to the first Christians in Philippi that many of them “conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach. Their glory is in their ‘shame.’ Their minds are occupied with earthly things” (Phil 3:18-19). Instead he urged them to have in them the “same attitude that was in Christ Jesus” who, though he was God, humbled himself to take on our humanity and became obedient even to death on the Cross (Phil 2:5-11). There are still many today, including Christians, who act as enemies of the Cross of Christ. They prioritize and idolize their pleasures. They seek to accumulate money rather than give it away, obtain honors rather than give the glory to God, seize power over others rather than wash their feet. They wage war, rather than seek peace. They hate their enemies rather than love them. They hold grudges rather than forgive 70 times 7 times. They retaliate rather than turn the cheek. They close their hearts, their homes, their wallets and their borders when Christ comes to them in the distressing disguise of the poor, hungry, thirsty, naked, immigrant, imprisoned, physically or psychologically ill, homeless, trafficked, unborn, dying, or otherwise in need. Rather than following the Good Samaritan and lovingly taking up the cross of inconvenience, they feel religiously justified to pass by on the opposite side, to wash their hands of the situation like Pontius Pilate did in today’s Gospel. In an age in which many are indeed enemies of Christ’s Cross, Jesus is renewing his call to you and me on this Good Friday to become friends, indeed lovers, of the Cross. Jesús quiere ayudarnos a convertirnos en amigos y amantes suyos en la Cruz.
      • Several years ago I preached a parish mission in Sugarland, Texas. There was a young girl there named Caeli, who was begging her pastor to allow her to make her first confession and holy Communion at the age of 4. She was truly a young mystic, having revealed to her in prayer, among other intimations, when snow would fall in Houston or where a litter of hypoallergenic kittens were being born across town in a park that she could have despite her father’s cat allergy. She also had inexplicable illnesses that baffled the experts at the famous MD Anderson Medical Center in Houston. Her pulse, for example, would descend from 70 to the low 30s almost instantly, putting her life at risk. She used to write me letters soliciting spiritual advice. In one letter she described that after one of these episodes with her blood pressure, she was in the hospital as the medical staff was trying in vain to find a vein to take a blood sample. She said she felt like a pin cushion as they probed different parts of her body. She wrote me — I think she was only six at the time — confessing that the way she got through it was simply meditating on how the needles that pierced Jesus on Good Friday were much bigger and worse. She told me in another letter that once her doctor, a specialist born in China and an atheist, asked her whether she was in pain. She replied she was. He asked her to describe the pain on a scale of one to ten. “About an 11,” she said. The doctor then queried, “Why then, Caeli, haven’t you said anything, or complained, or cried at all?” She responded with great simplicity: “Doctor, I didn’t say anything because I’m offering all of the pain in prayer so that one day you will become a Catholic.” This was a little girl who lived in the school of the cross and at a precocious age was becoming a very advanced student. She was accepting her sufferings and converting them into love.
      • Each of us is capable of doing the same, because Christ who calls us to love by his standards, will provide the help we need. But we need to make a choice, just like Caeli did, to get over our fear or even our hatred for the cross and embrace Christ’s path. One of the most famous Latin hymns for Good Friday is the Vexilla Regis Prodeunt, written by Saint Venantius Fortunatus, a sixth-century French bishop. It literally means “the Banners of the King go forward” and in the next line it describes that those royal banners are the arms of the Cross. Christians are called to march behind that banner, by living with the cruciform love to which our crucified Savior summons us. In his famous spiritual exercises, St. Ignatius gives us a meditation on Two Standards, Christ’s and Satan’s, and has us imagine the words Christ will give to us, the deceptions Satan will try to employ, and finally the counsel of our Lady. Today all three of them are here as we make our choice. The verses of the hymn Lift High the Cross urge us: “Come, Christians, follow where our Captain trod, Our King victorious, Christ the Son of God. Led on their way by this triumphant sign, the hosts of God in conquering ranks combine.” Bajo este signo de su gran poder el pueblo de Dios zvanza sin temor. Let us receive Christ’s help, Mary’s prayer, and each other’s encouragement and support to place ourselves under the Vexilla Regis, under the standard of Christ on the Cross.
      • The last point is that it’s not enough for us to enroll, full-time, in the school of the Cross and follow Jesus down that path of sacrificial love. When we really understand the love of Christ on the Cross, we can’t keep it to ourselves. We have to make a commitment to become a missionary of the Cross. Tenemos que comprometernos a ser misioneros de la Cruz. After his conversion, St. Paul made this commitment. It began with his being transformed by Christ through the many sufferings the Lord permitted: assassination attempts, betrayals, imprisonments, beatings, scourgings, stonings, shipwrecks, nights treading water in the middle of the sea, famines, cold, exposure and the sufferings he experienced because of the infidelities the first Christians (2 Cor 11:23-28). By means of all of these, he was able eventually to write, “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:19-20). Through the Crosses daily accepted and endured, he had become one with the Crucified Jesus, and by faith in Christ, whom he knew loved him personally and died for him, he was now living in him. That’s why he was able to exclaim to the Galatians, that he would “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” (Gal 6:14). That’s why he was also able to confess to the Corinthians, “When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:12). His preaching would become all about the enduring love of Christ on the Cross. He stated explicitly, “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:23-24). San Pablo proclamó el poder y la sabiduría de Cristo crucificado. Even though he said the Cross was scandalous to the Jews because they thought the Messiah would evict the Romans, not be crucified by them, and a folly to the Greeks, because how foolish do you have to be, they thought, to walk into a public execution, St. Paul knew that Christ on the Cross is the manifestation of the power and wisdom of God. The power to conquer even sin and death. The wisdom of how to do it through humble love to convict of us our pride and humble us to receive his salvation. Many in the world think that true power is measured by nuclear arsenals, or underground warehouses of drones, or warships, but the Cross is ultimately far more powerful. Similarly many think wisdom abides in academics at elite universities, but instead it is found in a humble Master pinned to timber on Calvary. All of us as Christians are called to recognize, receive and proclaim that power and wisdom, the power of Christ’s love for each of us demonstrated to the extreme. All of us are called are called to be missionaries, evangelizers of the same Christ on the Cross who love you and me and gave himself for us.
      • Last month I was in Nigeria for the Pontifical Mission Societies, to try to strengthen our brothers and sisters there and to see how the support of American Catholics every World Mission Sunday is helping them build and rebuild Churches, seminaries and convents, and support the growth of the faith. More Christians died last year in Nigeria than in the rest of world combined, with some numbers as high as 8,000. Two dozen were slaughtered last weekend in Jos. Despite the cross of persecution our Nigerian brothers and sisters have to endure, they have the highest percentage of Mass attendance in the world: 94 percent. The next highest is Kenya at 73 percent. Here in the USA, it’s less than 25 percent. I had the privilege to celebrate Mass and preach at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Owo, where, on Pentecost in 2022, terrorists attacked during Mass, killing 41 and injuring hundreds. I was there on a Thursday afternoon. The large Church was packed with about 600 people. In the front row was a woman in a wheelchair, colorfully dressed like Nigerian women always do. She had been shot and paralyzed by the terrorists, her family members had been killed; she was there beaming. One of the altar boys had lost both of his parents in the attack; he wants to become a priest. Some of those present had lost children as young as two. There was a 50-person choir of parishioners that was so great they could sing anywhere in the world. It was so moving. At the beginning of my homily, I said that there are few Churches known all over the world: St. Peter’s in the Vatican, Notre Dame in Paris, St. Patrick’s in New York. But I said to them that one day St. Francis Xavier Paris in Owo will be known to Catholics everywhere, not just because eventually their 41 family members will become known as the Martyrs of Owo and pilgrims will flock there from all over Africa and beyond, but because of the faith of all the parishioners that despite the continued risks that something like what happened on June 5, 2022 could happen again, they still come out, almost 100 percent of them, to celebrate the triumph of Christ on the Cross presented on the altar, a lesson that teaches that death, even crucifixion, even terrorist attacks, don’t have the last word, but faith in the love of God and in the power of the resurrection has the last word. As I preached, they nodded their heads vertically, they smiled and many applauded, a sign that they heartily acknowledged the truth of what I was trying to say. They are a living witness of what it means to lift high the Cross, the love of Christ proclaim, till all the world adore his holy name. Estamos llamados a dar testimonio de Cristo crucificado en nuestra situación de libertad religiosa, así como lo hacen nuestros hermanos y hermanas nigerianos en medio de la persecución y la pobreza. We are called to give a similar witness with our gift of religious freedom and all the resources God has placed in our hands, as the Nigerians do in the midst of suffering, persecution and poverty. Christ will strengthen us just like he emboldens them.
      • As together, moved by St. John’s account of the Passion, we behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the Savior of the World, as we adore him Crucified for us, as we seek to imitate him by following him each day along the path of cruciform love, and as we resolve to know and proclaim nothing but Christ crucified, we make our own the prayer and the commitment contained in what I believe is the most beautiful English hymn ever written: “When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ, my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” That is what we celebrate, lift up and profess today. God bless you!

        •  

        The readings for today’s Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion were:

        Reading I
        Isaiah 52:13—53:12

        See, my servant shall prosper,

        he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.
        Even as many were amazed at him–
        so marred was his look beyond human semblance
        and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man–
        so shall he startle many nations,
        because of him kings shall stand speechless;
        for those who have not been told shall see,
        those who have not heard shall ponder it.

        Who would believe what we have heard?

        To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
        He grew up like a sapling before him,
        like a shoot from the parched earth;
        there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
        nor appearance that would attract us to him.
        He was spurned and avoided by people,
        a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,
        one of those from whom people hide their faces,
        spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

        Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,

        our sufferings that he endured,
        while we thought of him as stricken,
        as one smitten by God and afflicted.
        But he was pierced for our offenses,
        crushed for our sins;
        upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
        by his stripes we were healed.
        We had all gone astray like sheep,
        each following his own way;
        but the LORD laid upon him
        the guilt of us all.

        Though he was harshly treated, he submitted

        and opened not his mouth;
        like a lamb led to the slaughter
        or a sheep before the shearers,
        he was silent and opened not his mouth.
        Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,
        and who would have thought any more of his destiny?
        When he was cut off from the land of the living,
        and smitten for the sin of his people,
        a grave was assigned him among the wicked
        and a burial place with evildoers,
        though he had done no wrong
        nor spoken any falsehood.
        But the LORD was pleased
        to crush him in infirmity.

        If he gives his life as an offering for sin,

        he shall see his descendants in a long life,
        and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.

        Because of his affliction

        he shall see the light in fullness of days;
        through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,
        and their guilt he shall bear.
        Therefore I will give him his portion among the great,
        and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty,
        because he surrendered himself to death
        and was counted among the wicked;
        and he shall take away the sins of many,
        and win pardon for their offenses.

        Responsorial Psalm
        Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25

        R   (Lk 23:46) Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

        In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
        let me never be put to shame.
        In your justice rescue me.
        Into your hands I commend my spirit;
        you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
        R   Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
        For all my foes I am an object of reproach,
        a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends;
        they who see me abroad flee from me.
        I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;
        I am like a dish that is broken.
        R  Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
        But my trust is in you, O LORD;
        I say, “You are my God.
        In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
        from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.”
        R  Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
        Let your face shine upon your servant;
        save me in your kindness.
        Take courage and be stouthearted,
        all you who hope in the LORD.
        R Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

        Reading II
        Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9

        Brothers and sisters:

        Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
        Jesus, the Son of God,
        let us hold fast to our confession.
        For we do not have a high priest
        who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
        but one who has similarly been tested in every way,
        yet without sin.
        So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
        to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

        In the days when Christ was in the flesh,

        he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
        to the one who was able to save him from death,
        and he was heard because of his reverence.
        Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
        and when he was made perfect,
        he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

        Verse Before the Gospel
        Philippians 2:8-9

        Christ became obedient to the point of death,

        even death on a cross.
        Because of this, God greatly exalted him
        and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name.

        The passion narratives are proclaimed in full so that all see vividly the love of Christ for each person. In light of this, the crimes during the Passion of Christ cannot be attributed, in either preaching or catechesis, indiscriminately to all Jews of that time, nor to Jews today. The Jewish people should not be referred to as though rejected or cursed, as if this view followed from Scripture. The Church ever keeps in mind that Jesus, his mother Mary, and the apostles all were Jewish. As the Church has always held, Christ freely suffered his passion and death because of the sins of all, that all might be saved.

        Gospel
        John 18:1—19:42

        Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley

        to where there was a garden,
        into which he and his disciples entered.
        Judas his betrayer also knew the place,
        because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
        So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards
        from the chief priests and the Pharisees
        and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
        Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him,
        went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?”
        They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
        He said to them, “I AM.”
        Judas his betrayer was also with them.
        When he said to them, “I AM, “
        they turned away and fell to the ground.
        So he again asked them,
        “Whom are you looking for?”
        They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
        Jesus answered,
        “I told you that I AM.
        So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”
        This was to fulfill what he had said,
        “I have not lost any of those you gave me.”
        Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it,
        struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear.
        The slave’s name was Malchus.
        Jesus said to Peter,
        “Put your sword into its scabbard.
        Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?”

        So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus,

        bound him, and brought him to Annas first.
        He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas,
        who was high priest that year.
        It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews
        that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.

        Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.

        Now the other disciple was known to the high priest,
        and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.
        But Peter stood at the gate outside.
        So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest,
        went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.
        Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter,
        “You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?”
        He said, “I am not.”
        Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire
        that they had made, because it was cold,
        and were warming themselves.
        Peter was also standing there keeping warm.

        The high priest questioned Jesus

        about his disciples and about his doctrine.
        Jesus answered him,
        “I have spoken publicly to the world.
        I have always taught in a synagogue
        or in the temple area where all the Jews gather,
        and in secret I have said nothing.  Why ask me?
        Ask those who heard me what I said to them.
        They know what I said.”
        When he had said this,
        one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said,
        “Is this the way you answer the high priest?”
        Jesus answered him,
        “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong;
        but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”
        Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

        Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm.

        And they said to him,
        “You are not one of his disciples, are you?”
        He denied it and said,
        “I am not.”
        One of the slaves of the high priest,
        a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said,
        “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”
        Again Peter denied it.
        And immediately the cock crowed.

        Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium.

        It was morning.
        And they themselves did not enter the praetorium,
        in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.
        So Pilate came out to them and said,
        “What charge do you bring against this man?”
        They answered and said to him,
        “If he were not a criminal,
        we would not have handed him over to you.”
        At this, Pilate said to them,
        “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.”
        The Jews answered him,
        “We do not have the right to execute anyone, “
        in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled
        that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.
        So Pilate went back into the praetorium
        and summoned Jesus and said to him,
        “Are you the King of the Jews?”
        Jesus answered,
        “Do you say this on your own
        or have others told you about me?”
        Pilate answered,
        “I am not a Jew, am I?
        Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
        What have you done?”
        Jesus answered,
        “My kingdom does not belong to this world.
        If my kingdom did belong to this world,
        my attendants would be fighting
        to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
        But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
        So Pilate said to him,
        “Then you are a king?”
        Jesus answered,
        “You say I am a king.
        For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
        to testify to the truth.
        Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
        Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

        When he had said this,

        he again went out to the Jews and said to them,
        “I find no guilt in him.
        But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover.
        Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
        They cried out again,
        “Not this one but Barabbas!”
        Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

        Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.

        And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head,
        and clothed him in a purple cloak,
        and they came to him and said,
        “Hail, King of the Jews!”
        And they struck him repeatedly.
        Once more Pilate went out and said to them,
        “Look, I am bringing him out to you,
        so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
        So Jesus came out,
        wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.
        And he said to them, “Behold, the man!”
        When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out,
        “Crucify him, crucify him!”
        Pilate said to them,
        “Take him yourselves and crucify him.
        I find no guilt in him.”
        The Jews answered,
        “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,
        because he made himself the Son of God.”
        Now when Pilate heard this statement,
        he became even more afraid,
        and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus,
        “Where are you from?”
        Jesus did not answer him.
        So Pilate said to him,
        “Do you not speak to me?
        Do you not know that I have power to release you
        and I have power to crucify you?”
        Jesus answered him,
        “You would have no power over me
        if it had not been given to you from above.
        For this reason the one who handed me over to you
        has the greater sin.”
        Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out,
        “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.
        Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

        When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out

        and seated him on the judge’s bench
        in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
        It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.
        And he said to the Jews,
        “Behold, your king!”
        They cried out,
        “Take him away, take him away!  Crucify him!”
        Pilate said to them,
        “Shall I crucify your king?”
        The chief priests answered,
        “We have no king but Caesar.”
        Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

        So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself,

        he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull,
        in Hebrew, Golgotha.
        There they crucified him, and with him two others,
        one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
        Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.
        It read,
        “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”
        Now many of the Jews read this inscription,
        because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city;
        and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
        So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate,
        “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’
        but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.”
        Pilate answered,
        “What I have written, I have written.”

        When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,

        they took his clothes and divided them into four shares,
        a share for each soldier.
        They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless,
        woven in one piece from the top down.
        So they said to one another,
        “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “
        in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:
        They divided my garments among them,
        and for my vesture they cast lots.
        This is what the soldiers did.
        Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother
        and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
        and Mary of Magdala.
        When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
        he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
        Then he said to the disciple,
        “Behold, your mother.”
        And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

        After this, aware that everything was now finished,

        in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
        Jesus said, “I thirst.”
        There was a vessel filled with common wine.
        So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop
        and put it up to his mouth.
        When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
        “It is finished.”
        And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

        Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

        Now since it was preparation day,

        in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,
        for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,
        the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken
        and that they be taken down.
        So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
        and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
        But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
        they did not break his legs,
        but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
        and immediately blood and water flowed out.
        An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
        he knows that he is speaking the truth,
        so that you also may come to believe.
        For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:
        Not a bone of it will be broken.
        And again another passage says:
        They will look upon him whom they have pierced.

        After this, Joseph of Arimathea,

        secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews,
        asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.
        And Pilate permitted it.
        So he came and took his body.
        Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night,
        also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes
        weighing about one hundred pounds.
        They took the body of Jesus
        and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices,
        according to the Jewish burial custom.
        Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden,
        and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
        So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
        for the tomb was close by.

        The post Beholding, Adoring, Imitating and Proclaiming Christ on the Cross, Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, April 3, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

        34 min
      • Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, April 3, 2026

        Msgr. Roger J. Landry

        National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
        Daily Reflection for April 3, 2026

        Here is the video of today’s reflection.

        The YouTube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:

        I am Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. I’m here in the chapel in our New York office on Good Friday. As we ponder the cross that we’re looking at and the love that Jesus took with him to the cross, we also see that that cross is mounted on these very strong steel girders here in our chapel to symbolize that the cross ultimately upholds the entire world. The Carthusian order has had as its motto, “Stat crux dum volvitur orbis.” The cross stands firm while the whole world revolves. That at the end of time this tree of life is going to be here. And so this Good Friday we ponder Jesus on the cross. That Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to bear crucifixion in order to save us. We will sing in the Good Friday liturgy, “Behold the wood of the cross on which hung the savior of the world. Come, let us adore him.” We come to adore Jesus on the cross because we recognize the extraordinary love that made even crucifixion bearable. Many of us are ashamed of the cross. Saint Paul wrote to the Philippians saying, “That your God is your bellies. Your glory is your shame because your enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ.” Jesus doesn’t want us to be enemies, he wants us to be friends and lovers of the cross. That’s why after he announced three times that he would be betrayed, handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, he would be scourged, crucified, die, and on the third day rise. He immediately followed that up when people were scandalized by the fact that Jesus would be crucified, that the Messiah would be murdered by the Romans rather than kick out the Romans. He turned to his closest followers and he said, “The cross is not just about me and my future. The cross is about you and the future of any disciple. If anyone wishes to be my disciple, Jesus said, he must deny himself, pick up his cross daily, and follow me.” And so the Christian life is a school of the cross in which Jesus, the master, teaches us. It’s not a school of masochism in which we’re full of pain, it’s a school ultimately of love that can bear that pain. At the beginning of our Christian life something significant happened. Our parents and our godparents and the priest or deacon or bishop who baptized us made a sign of the cross on our foreheads and then asked our parents and godparents to do the same. It wasn’t just an act of blessing. It was a sign that the whole church exists so that we, marked with the sign of the cross, can become a sign of the cross and of the love of the cross. That’s what the cross ultimately symbolizes. So today as we pray with our Holy Father Pope Leo, as we pray for missionaries who are trying to preach Christ crucified to the ends of the earth, let us with that beautiful hymn, “Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim until all the world adore his sacred name.” God bless you.

        The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
        Gospel
        John 18:1—19:42

        Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley

        to where there was a garden,
        into which he and his disciples entered.
        Judas his betrayer also knew the place,
        because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
        So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards
        from the chief priests and the Pharisees
        and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
        Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him,
        went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?”
        They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
        He said to them, “I AM.”
        Judas his betrayer was also with them.
        When he said to them, “I AM, “
        they turned away and fell to the ground.
        So he again asked them,
        “Whom are you looking for?”
        They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
        Jesus answered,
        “I told you that I AM.
        So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”
        This was to fulfill what he had said,
        “I have not lost any of those you gave me.”
        Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it,
        struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear.
        The slave’s name was Malchus.
        Jesus said to Peter,
        “Put your sword into its scabbard.
        Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?”

        So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus,

        bound him, and brought him to Annas first.
        He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas,
        who was high priest that year.
        It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews
        that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.

        Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.

        Now the other disciple was known to the high priest,
        and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.
        But Peter stood at the gate outside.
        So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest,
        went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.
        Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter,
        “You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?”
        He said, “I am not.”
        Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire
        that they had made, because it was cold,
        and were warming themselves.
        Peter was also standing there keeping warm.

        The high priest questioned Jesus

        about his disciples and about his doctrine.
        Jesus answered him,
        “I have spoken publicly to the world.
        I have always taught in a synagogue
        or in the temple area where all the Jews gather,
        and in secret I have said nothing.  Why ask me?
        Ask those who heard me what I said to them.
        They know what I said.”
        When he had said this,
        one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said,
        “Is this the way you answer the high priest?”
        Jesus answered him,
        “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong;
        but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”
        Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

        Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm.

        And they said to him,
        “You are not one of his disciples, are you?”
        He denied it and said,
        “I am not.”
        One of the slaves of the high priest,
        a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said,
        “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”
        Again Peter denied it.
        And immediately the cock crowed.

        Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium.

        It was morning.
        And they themselves did not enter the praetorium,
        in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.
        So Pilate came out to them and said,
        “What charge do you bring against this man?”
        They answered and said to him,
        “If he were not a criminal,
        we would not have handed him over to you.”
        At this, Pilate said to them,
        “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.”
        The Jews answered him,
        “We do not have the right to execute anyone, “
        in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled
        that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.
        So Pilate went back into the praetorium
        and summoned Jesus and said to him,
        “Are you the King of the Jews?”
        Jesus answered,
        “Do you say this on your own
        or have others told you about me?”
        Pilate answered,
        “I am not a Jew, am I?
        Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
        What have you done?”
        Jesus answered,
        “My kingdom does not belong to this world.
        If my kingdom did belong to this world,
        my attendants would be fighting
        to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
        But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
        So Pilate said to him,
        “Then you are a king?”
        Jesus answered,
        “You say I am a king.
        For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
        to testify to the truth.
        Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
        Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

        When he had said this,

        he again went out to the Jews and said to them,
        “I find no guilt in him.
        But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover.
        Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
        They cried out again,
        “Not this one but Barabbas!”
        Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

        Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.

        And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head,
        and clothed him in a purple cloak,
        and they came to him and said,
        “Hail, King of the Jews!”
        And they struck him repeatedly.
        Once more Pilate went out and said to them,
        “Look, I am bringing him out to you,
        so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
        So Jesus came out,
        wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.
        And he said to them, “Behold, the man!”
        When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out,
        “Crucify him, crucify him!”
        Pilate said to them,
        “Take him yourselves and crucify him.
        I find no guilt in him.”
        The Jews answered,
        “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,
        because he made himself the Son of God.”
        Now when Pilate heard this statement,
        he became even more afraid,
        and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus,
        “Where are you from?”
        Jesus did not answer him.
        So Pilate said to him,
        “Do you not speak to me?
        Do you not know that I have power to release you
        and I have power to crucify you?”
        Jesus answered him,
        “You would have no power over me
        if it had not been given to you from above.
        For this reason the one who handed me over to you
        has the greater sin.”
        Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out,
        “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.
        Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

        When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out

        and seated him on the judge’s bench
        in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
        It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.
        And he said to the Jews,
        “Behold, your king!”
        They cried out,
        “Take him away, take him away!  Crucify him!”
        Pilate said to them,
        “Shall I crucify your king?”
        The chief priests answered,
        “We have no king but Caesar.”
        Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

        So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself,

        he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull,
        in Hebrew, Golgotha.
        There they crucified him, and with him two others,
        one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
        Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.
        It read,
        “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”
        Now many of the Jews read this inscription,
        because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city;
        and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
        So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate,
        “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’
        but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.”
        Pilate answered,
        “What I have written, I have written.”

        When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,

        they took his clothes and divided them into four shares,
        a share for each soldier.
        They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless,
        woven in one piece from the top down.
        So they said to one another,
        “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “
        in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:
        They divided my garments among them,
        and for my vesture they cast lots.
        This is what the soldiers did.
        Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother
        and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
        and Mary of Magdala.
        When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
        he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
        Then he said to the disciple,
        “Behold, your mother.”
        And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

        After this, aware that everything was now finished,

        in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
        Jesus said, “I thirst.”
        There was a vessel filled with common wine.
        So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop
        and put it up to his mouth.
        When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
        “It is finished.”
        And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

        Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

        Now since it was preparation day,

        in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,
        for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,
        the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken
        and that they be taken down.
        So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
        and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
        But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
        they did not break his legs,
        but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
        and immediately blood and water flowed out.
        An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
        he knows that he is speaking the truth,
        so that you also may come to believe.
        For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:
        Not a bone of it will be broken.
        And again another passage says:
        They will look upon him whom they have pierced.

        After this, Joseph of Arimathea,

        secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews,
        asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.
        And Pilate permitted it.
        So he came and took his body.
        Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night,
        also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes
        weighing about one hundred pounds.
        They took the body of Jesus
        and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices,
        according to the Jewish burial custom.
        Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden,
        and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
        So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
        for the tomb was close by.

        The post Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, April 3, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

        4 min
      • Models for Christian Fathers in the Rebuilding of the Church Today, Successful Fathers Conference, Dallas, March 28, 2026

        Msgr. Roger J. Landry

        Successful Fathers Conference
        Dallas Country Club, Dallas, Texas
        March 28, 2026

        https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.28.26_The_Mission_of_Christian_Fathers_Today_Part_III_1.mp3

        The post Models for Christian Fathers in the Rebuilding of the Church Today, Successful Fathers Conference, Dallas, March 28, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

        34 min
      • Life is Worth Living to the Utmost: Perennial Lessons from Blessed-to-be Fulton Sheen, Cottonwood Lecture, March 27, 2026

        Msgr. Roger J. Landry

        Cottonwood Lecture, Dallas, Texas
        March 27, 2026

         

        To listen to an audio recording of tonight’s talk, please click below: 

        https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.27.26_Sheen_Dallas.mp3

         

        The following outline guided the talk: 

        • Introduction on the beatification of Archbishop Sheen and my own long-time devotion to him.
        • Ten Lessons from Sheen
          • Holiness is possible
          • The importance of study
          • Knowing Jesus personally
          • The importance of a daily Eucharistic holy hour
          • Joy in teaching the faith
          • Missionary to missionaries: Zeal to Spread the Faith
          • Using the means we have
          • Magnanimity
          • Overcoming struggles
          • Love for Mary

            •  

            The post Life is Worth Living to the Utmost: Perennial Lessons from Blessed-to-be Fulton Sheen, Cottonwood Lecture, March 27, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

            57 min
          • Believing in Jesus as the I Am, Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent, March 24, 2026

            Msgr. Roger J. Landry

            Saint Thomas More Cathedral, Arlington, VA
            Regional Meeting of The Pontifical Mission Societies
            Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
            Memorial of St. Oscar Romero
            March 24, 2026
            Num 21:4-9, Ps 102, Jn 8:21-30

             

            To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

            https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.24.26_Homily.mp3

             

            The readings for today’s Mass were: 

            Reading I
            Numbers 21:4-9

            From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road,

            to bypass the land of Edom.
            But with their patience worn out by the journey,
            the people complained against God and Moses,
            “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
            where there is no food or water?
            We are disgusted with this wretched food!”

            In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,

            which bit the people so that many of them died.
            Then the people came to Moses and said,
            “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
            Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us.”
            So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
            “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
            and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.”
            Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
            and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
            looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

            Responsorial Psalm
            Psalm 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21

            R.        (2)  O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

            O LORD, hear my prayer,
            and let my cry come to you.
            Hide not your face from me
            in the day of my distress.
            Incline your ear to me;
            in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
            R.        O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
            The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
            and all the kings of the earth your glory,
            When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
            and appeared in his glory;
            When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
            and not despised their prayer.
            R.        O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
            Let this be written for the generation to come,
            and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
            “The LORD looked down from his holy height,
            from heaven he beheld the earth,
            To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
            to release those doomed to die.”
            R.        O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

            Verse Before the Gospel

            The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;

            all who come to him will live for ever.

            Gospel
            John 8:21-30

            Jesus said to the Pharisees:

            “I am going away and you will look for me,
            but you will die in your sin.
            Where I am going you cannot come.”
            So the Jews said,
            “He is not going to kill himself, is he,
            because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”
            He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
            I belong to what is above.
            You belong to this world,
            but I do not belong to this world.
            That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
            For if you do not believe that I AM,
            you will die in your sins.”
            So they said to him, “Who are you?”
            Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
            I have much to say about you in condemnation.
            But the one who sent me is true,
            and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
            They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
            So Jesus said to them,
            “When you lift up the Son of Man,
            then you will realize that I AM,
            and that I do nothing on my own,
            but I say only what the Father taught me.
            The one who sent me is with me.
            He has not left me alone,
            because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
            Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

             

            The post Believing in Jesus as the I Am, Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent, March 24, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

            9 min

          About Catholic Preaching

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          Father Roger J. Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, who works for the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York.

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