Matthew’s Gospel this week offers us a challenge: if you don’t love God first and foremost, even more than you love your parents or children – or anything “earthly” for that matter – then your love of God is less than it should be. We often carve up our views of the world around us as “secular” or “sacred.” For some, especially when they feel an attachment to the things of the world, this becomes“secular” versus “sacred.”

If that seems to be your view from time-to-time, be cautious … be very cautious! Today’s Gospel should be taken as a stern warning from Jesus in this very circumstance.  Let me give an example from Church history.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and Napoleon III recalled all the French troops who had been defending the Pope and the Vatican; this allowed the Italian army to easily breach the Vatican defenses, and for 59 years following that, each pope was a prisoner of the Vatican, never leaving for fear of arrest or capture. The treaty signed in 1929 created the sovereign nation of Vatican City, 44 acres as the smallest sovereign country in the world.

What followed however was a remarkable change in the global role of the Church. For more than 1,000 years, from 756 AD, the popes had standing armies, had to defend the middle third of Italy, the “Papal States” in wars and attacks, and had all the civil struggles of a secular country … including strikes of workers, and less-than-noble care for their own poor. This political control and responsibility was lost in 1870.

By being freed of these secular demands in 1929, it also freed the Church to offer a more vocal message about the Gospel. Prior to this, when the Church might criticize a foreign government for human rights abuses, they could easily counter with asking what and how the Vatican cared for their own local poor, and not all of that history was positive.

Today, the popes and the Church hierarchy are free of secular responsibilities, by and large, and they have been a significant mediator and voice to improve the conditions of people, especially the poor and immigrants, throughout the world. The challenge for each of us then becomes: how can we make decisions and act so that we don’t prioritize secular success over authentic witness to the Gospel. Jesus spoke clearly about this: love the poor, love your enemies, and love your neighbors – otherwise you are not freely and fully loving God.

     Jesus said, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”What a wonderful Gospel passage to hear
this weekend, as we have the privilege to welcome to OLGC Deacon Benedict Quiambao, whose diaconal ordination I was happy to attend just four weeks ago in Trenton’s Saint Mary’s Cathedral! Deacon Ben will be with us, gaining parish experience, until mid-July. Then, following a short summer vacation, he will return to complete his academic studies in the Fall semester at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary. Deacon Ben will then return to OLGC full-time in the beginning of 2027, continuing his experience of parish life in anticipation of his ordination to the priesthood in June of 2027.

     You may have questions for Deacon Ben, and I assure you he is a wonderfully happy young man, easy to speak with, and looking forward to meeting you as well. Later in this bulletin, I have asked Ben to write a short introduction for himself as a visitor to OLGC, and his journey from the Philippines to New Jersey. Be sure to say “Hello” to Deacon Ben when you see him after Masses at our Church.

     There is a profound need to continue in prayers for vocations, to both the priesthood, diaconate, and to religious life. Each of these ministries strengthen our Catholic Church. Priests are busy – I know this personally! But our role is not a job, but a true vocation, called by Jesus himself. In our second reading this week, Saint Paul’s Letter to the

Romans, Paul equates living our lives for Christ as dying for others. Where serving as a priest is concerned, that reference may seem harsh; do I consider myself as having “died” in order to serve as a parish priest? Of course not!! I actually feel like I am getting away with something every day, with the blessing and privilege to be your priest. Perhaps we could use that “dying” metaphor in a different context. Think of a movie, or show you may have anticipated being released; you might have exclaimed, “I’m just dying to go to the [insert performer name here] concert!” For some of our parishioners, this might have been last year’s Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert. In this way, it is a climactic excitement implied by the phrase; that is a better reflection of my excitement as a priest, and that is true for most priests. We are blessed to serve as priests, to serve you every day.


     Let us continue to pray for more men to consider becoming laborers in the field of parish life. Let us pray to God, the Master of the Harvest, for his gracious blessing!

The scripture readings this week, the 12^th Week in Ordinary Time, are challenging. They confront an immediate and ever-present danger: sin. Each reading highlights that we are surrounded by sin, or sinful people, and that our human tendency is to yield to temptation. That human weakness is a direct result of the Original Sin which we all inherit from Adam and Eve, theologically known as “concupiscence.” This is an age-old problem; Saint Paul wrote (Romans 7:14), “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."

As Christian men and woman, we do want to do good; however, when temptation wins, we often do what we wish we could resist. There are many reasons for this human weakness: misguided standards of success; peer pressure; political correctness; jealousy, etc. While the Sacrament of Baptism removes original sin from our souls, it does not fully heal the wound left by that sin, so the inclination remains throughout our lives. So, what are we to do, give up? Give in? Let the Evil One win? Of course not; we fight back!

I have shared with many of you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation my idea of the “Theology of Replacement,” where I explain that especially when a sin becomes a habit, we must do something to break that habit … to replace the broken action with a positive action. Our Church has taught about “capital vices” since they were originally written about by Pope Gregory the Great; they are not sins by themselves, but when we yield to the desires. What is important to know is that for each of these vices we find a corresponding virtue which combats the vice. In our Gospel this week, Jesus confronts sin in a positive voice; He tells us that in the face of evil and danger, if we remain faithful, God is with us, and God will always, always prevail. 

Take time this week to consider this list; pride, listed first among the vices, I believe is the root of all sin. It is, in fact, the original sin of Adam. Consider your own particular weaknesses … examine your conscience, and ask, what habits that are positive might I choose to replace the old habits which I wish I could hide. The positive virtues are already gifts of God, given to each of us. We have only to open them up, and celebrate that our God is an awesome God, a loving Gift-Giver. Let’s place humility, chastity, patience and all virtues before our eyes each day, to be the best disciples Jesus believes we can be!