Whoever Loves Father or Mother More Than me is not Worthy of me . . .

 

(Thirteenth Sunday of the Year (A): This homily was given on June 28, 2026 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Matthew 10:37-42.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Thirteenth Sunday 2026]

Bishop Fulton Sheen once said: "It's only because we are loved by God that we are loveable."  This should help us to make sense of the hard saying we heard at the very beginning of today's Gospel reading.  In that passage from Matthew 10 Jesus said, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."  Why would Jesus say such a thing?  Well, before we can answer that question, we've got to deal with a more foundational one: Why do we love?  Or, to put it another way: What is it that motivates us to love another person?  It's the good that we perceive in the person, is it not?  John loves Jane because he finds something good and attractive in her: her compassion, her joy, her patience, her kindness.  But the fact is: everything that's truly good comes from the hand of almighty God.  As we are told at the end of Eucharistic Prayer number 3, all good things have their source in the Lord, even those good things which come to us through other people.  So yes, John loves Jane because of her compassion, joy, patience, and kindness; but the only reason Jane is compassionate, joyful, patient and kind is because God has given her the grace to be that way.  This is what Bishop Sheen was getting at when he said that it's only because we are loved by God that we are loveable.  God, who is love, places some of his love inside of us, and that grace is what makes us attractive to others.  Consequently, it makes perfect sense for Jesus to tell us in today's Gospel that our love for him must be primary.  We are to love him with all our heart, because if it were not for him, there would be nothing loveable in us or in anyone else.  In fact, if it were not for Jesus, we wouldn't even exist!  As St. Paul reminds us in Colossians 1:16, "In [Christ Jesus] everything in heaven and on earth was created, . . . [and] in him everything continues in being."

This is a very important lesson to remember, especially when someone close to us dies.  Here's a very common scenario.  This kind of thing happens all the time: a loved one (we’ll call him “Uncle Joe’) passes away, and several members of his family get angry at God.  They blame him for Uncle Joe's death, as if the Lord were some kind of divine assassin.  What these family members have forgotten (or failed to realize) is that God is the one who created Uncle Joe in the first place.  If it had not been for the Lord, Uncle Joe (with all his good qualities) would never have existed.  They have also forgotten (or failed to realize) that God was the source of all the blessings and good things that they experienced during their lives through this deceased relative.  Uncle Joe's love, his acts of kindness, his compassionate words—these were all inspired by the Lord's grace.  So here they are blaming the God who gave their uncle life, who blessed their lives through their uncle, and who sent his Son to die so that they could live with their uncle forever! 

What's wrong with this picture?!!!

A man from town told me about a conversation he once had with his daughter. She was 8-years-old at the time.  The girl said, "Daddy, do you love me?"  Her father, who was understandably anxious to emphasize his affection for his daughter, responded, "I love you more than anyone else on this earth."  The little girl said, "But what about God, daddy?  You're supposed to love God more than me."

God bless that little child, because she was absolutely correct!  Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, would have heartily approved!  He would definitely have commended her for her very perceptive insight.  It’s my prayer at this Mass that all of us will be equally perceptive in our lives.

 

The ‘Response Crisis’ and What we can do About it

 

(Eleventh Sunday of the Year (A): This homily was given on June 14, 2026 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Exodus 19:2-6a; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36-10:8.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Eleventh Sunday 2026]

“The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”

That verse, from today’s gospel reading from Matthew 9, has a certain application to all of us, but it has a particular application to priests.  It’s no secret that in many places today (including our own diocese) there is a shortage of priests.  Many parishes that used to have a resident pastor no longer do, and many priests currently active in ministry are overseeing two and sometimes even three church communities.  As of July 1, for example, Fr.  Mahoney will have two churches to worry about: St. Pius and St. Clare’s.  Fr. Frank Francese from Westerly will have three to be in charge of:  St. Joseph’s in Hope Valley; St. Vincent’s in Bradford; and Our Lady of Victory in Ashaway.  That kind of work overload is becoming more and more common these days all over the country.  Some dioceses are doing well with vocations, but most are not.

Some say that in all this we’re experiencing a “vocation” crisis, but that’s inaccurate.  In fact, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a vocation crisis.  A vocation is a “call” (that’s what the word means).  To say there’s a vocation crisis is to say that God isn’t calling enough men to serve him in the ordained priesthood.  But that can’t be true.  The Bible says that God always supplies our need (Philippians 4:13). So obviously the Lord is calling enough men to the priesthood to supply for the needs of his Church at the present time. However, some of those who are being called are not responding to the Lord for one reason or another.  It may be because of the attractions and temptations of the world; it may be for some other reason. 

So yes, we have a crisis, but it’s not a vocation crisis, it’s a response crisis!  And some who initially say yes to the Lord and get ordained don’t persevere in their yes.  After a period of time, they leave the priesthood.  That’s yet another dimension of the problem. 

Is there anything that we can do as individuals to help change this?  Are there any concrete actions we can take in order to promote and support priestly vocations in the midst of the present response crisis in the Church?  The good news is: Yes, there are!  I’ll share three of them with you this morning.

The first thing that we can and should do, of course, is PRAY.  No surprise there, I’m sure. That’s what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel text: “Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”  We pray for vocations here at our Sunday Masses every weekend.  Hopefully you also do that in your personal, daily prayer time—at least every once in a while.

The second thing we can and should do is ENCOURAGE: we should encourage young, single men that we know who are serious about their faith to consider the possibility that God is calling them to be priests.  Now here we need to remember that there’s a very big difference between encouraging and nagging.  Encourage—yes; nag—no.  If you know a young man who seems to possess the personal and religious qualities that would make him a good priest, tell him so!  Then give him the time and space he needs to reflect on what you said.  Sometimes that’s all the encouragement that’s needed.  I thank God my mother never pressured me about the priesthood.  Her attitude was, “Raymond, it’s your decision.  If you discern that God wants you to be a priest, then I want you to be a priest.  But if you discern that God does not want you to be a priest, then neither do I.  One way or the other, I will support you.”

That kind of encouragement meant a lot.

In addition to praying for vocations, and encouraging potential vocations, we also need to make the effort to LIVE our vocation—our personal vocation—as well as we can.  That’s the third thing we can do to address the response crisis.  Young men will say yes to the call to be priests if they’re surrounded by priests and lay people who live their vocations well—who live their vocations joyfully, especially if their vocation is to marriage.  I had a theology professor at Providence College who pointed out something one day in class that I’ve never forgotten.  He pointed out the fact that when you look at the history of the Church, what you see is that in those periods of time when the institution of marriage was strong, the priesthood was also strong; whereas in those periods of history when marriage was weak (as is the case today), the priesthood was also weak.  Which really shouldn’t surprise us since both marriage and priesthood involve permanent, lifelong commitments.  It’s inspiring for a young man who is discerning a vocation to the priesthood these days to be surrounded by married people who are resisting the cultural trend and are living their vocation well—and who have been positively influenced by the priests in their lives.  That can make a big difference.

Our former Holy Father, Pope Francis, said it well (and I’ll leave you with his words): “No vocation is born of itself or lives for itself. A vocation flows from the heart of God and blossoms in the good soil of faithful people.”  By our prayers, by our words of encouragement and by our faithfulness in living our personal vocation, may we be among those faithful people.

 

The Faith/our faith and the Holy Eucharist

(Corpus Christi 2026: This homily was given on June 7, 2026 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Exodus 24:3-8; Psalm 116:12-18; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Corpus Christi 2026]

A Catholic bishop was doing missionary work in a foreign country.  One day he was having a conversation with a well-educated Muslim man.  The Muslim said to him, “I don’t understand your Catholic beliefs about the Eucharist.  How is it possible for ordinary bread and wine to change and become the Body and Blood of Christ?  It seems impossible.”

The bishop paused for a few seconds to collect his thoughts; then he responded, “You were very small when you were born—but you didn’t stay that way, did you?  You physically grew because in a certain sense your body ‘changed’ the food you ate into flesh and blood.  Well, if your own body can transform bread and wine into flesh and blood, then so can God!  In fact, the Lord can do it far more easily.”

The Muslim then shot back, “But how is it possible for Jesus to be wholly and entirely present in such a little host?”

The bishop answered, “Look, for a moment, at the landscape before you, and think how much smaller your eye is in comparison to it.  And yet, within your very small eye is an image of that vast countryside.  Isn’t it possible for God to do in reality what is done in us by way of likeness or image?”

Finally, the Muslim said, “But how is it possible for the same Body of Christ to be present at the same time in all your churches and in every consecrated host?”

The bishop responded, “Nothing is impossible with God—and that answer ought to be enough for us.  But the physical world also gives us an insight into this phenomenon.

Take a mirror, for example, and throw it onto a hard floor.  It will immediately break into many pieces.  But, amazingly, each piece of that broken mirror can carry the same image that the whole mirror formerly reproduced.  Likewise, the very same Jesus reproduces himself in each consecrated host—not as a mere likeness, but in reality.  Thus he is truly present—Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity—in every one of them.”

When we pause to reflect on the Holy Eucharist—which Catholics all over the world are doing on this Corpus Christi Sunday—we must always make a very important distinction: it’s the distinction between “The Faith” (capital T and capital F) and “our faith” (lowercase o and lowercase f).  What the bishop shared with that inquisitive Muslim man was “The Faith.”  With the help of some very good analogies, the bishop made clear to him exactly what the Catholic Church believes and teaches about this sacrament.  When Jesus said, for example, “This is my Body” and “This is my Blood,” the Catholic Church maintains that Jesus meant exactly what he said!  He wasn’t speaking symbolically or metaphorically, as some of our Protestant brothers and sisters believe.  And the Catholic position is certainly verified in Scripture passages like John 6, where Jesus speaks very clearly and very realistically about the Eucharist: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.’… ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Did this Muslim man become a believer after his conversation with the bishop?  We don’t know—but, quite frankly, he probably did not!  The bishop’s very good analogies—his excellent efforts to explain The Faith—probably didn’t bring this man to a personal belief in Christ and in the Eucharist (at least not right away).  This is why I said that when it comes to this sacrament, we must always distinguish between “The Faith” and “our faith” (i.e., our personal faith).

For a Catholic, of course, the two should be identical: what the Church officially teaches about the Eucharist in the Catechism should be exactly what we personally believe in our own heart.  Our personal faith should be The Faith.  But it might not be!  In fact, the polls indicate that it’s actually quite common these days for members of the Church to reject at least some aspects of Catholic Eucharistic teaching.  And they usually manifest their rejection in their actions.  Catholics, for example, who receive the Eucharist at weddings and funerals down at Christ Episcopal Church (and at other Protestant churches), clearly do not fully embrace Catholic teaching on the Eucharist.  Catholics who come to Communion after missing Mass on a Sunday or Holy Day without good reason—and without going to Confession first—clearly do not fully embrace the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist.  Catholics who need to have their marriages validated and who still come to Communion do not fully embrace the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist.  Catholics who fornicate, masturbate, contracept, or commit some other mortal sin, and come to Communion without repenting and going to Confession first do not fully accept the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist.

My simple prayer at this Mass is that this situation will change where it needs to change—here in our community and throughout the world—because the graces of the Eucharist are awesome and many.  But those graces become operative within us only to the extent that we accept the Church’s teaching and act accordingly.  Or, to put it another way, if we want all the blessings that come with receiving Holy Communion, “The Faith” must be our faith.

 

E-Mails From Hell, And What It Means To Believe

 

(Trinity Sunday 2026 (A): This homily was given on May 31, 2026, at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read John 3:16-18.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Trinity Sunday 2026]

A couple from Minnesota decided to go to Florida in January to escape from the cold winter weather and enjoy some fun in the sun.  They planned to stay at the same hotel where they had spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.

However, because of their busy schedules and previous commitments, they were forced to fly down on separate days.  The husband booked his flight for Thursday, and his wife was scheduled to join him on Friday.

When he arrived in Florida on Thursday afternoon, the husband checked into the hotel.  When he entered his room, he was pleased to see that there was a computer on the desk in the corner, so he decided to send a quick e-mail to his wife back home.  (This was before people could get their e-mails on their cell phones.)

Unfortunately, however, he accidentally left out one letter in her e-mail address. 

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, Texas, a widow had just returned home from her husband’s funeral.  He was a minister who had died of a heart attack a few days earlier.

The widow decided to check her e-mail, expecting to find some letters of condolence from concerned relatives and friends.

She read the first message in her mailbox, screamed, and fainted.

Her son rushed into the room, found his mom on the floor, and then looked at the computer screen.

There he found these words:

To: My loving wife.

Subject: I’ve arrived.

Date: January 15.

I know you’re surprised to hear from me.  They have computers here now and you’re allowed to send e-mails to your loved ones. 

I’ve just arrived and have checked in.  I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow.  Looking forward to seeing you!  Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

P.S. It sure is hot down here!

There are two morals to that little story.  Number one, make sure you don’t leave out any letters in e-mail addresses; and number two, never forget that there is something at stake in this life!

When that poor woman in Houston received that misdirected e-mail, her minister husband was hopefully in heaven with his Lord and Savior—or at least in purgatory.  But the “other place” was a definite possibility for him—and his dear wife knew it! 

In today’s Gospel text from John 3, Jesus makes it clear that hell is also a possibility for each and every one of us and for every human person.  Furthermore, he indicates that this is not something that happens by accident.  It happens by choice: by choosing those attitudes and behaviors that put us on what Jesus later called the “wide road that leads to destruction.”

But before he gets into that dimension of things, Jesus clearly states that God wants something better for us—namely, heaven—and that God has done everything necessary to make it possible for us to get there.  He says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

In Trinitarian terms (this, remember, is Trinity Sunday), that text says, “The infinite and perfectly happy Triune God loved us so much, that the Second Person of that Trinity took on mortal flesh and came into this world of suffering and pain, in order to rescue us from the eternal consequences of the sin we have freely chosen.  Later, after he had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, the Son (and the Father) sent us the Holy Spirit—the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity—to give us grace through Baptism and the sacraments—the grace we must have in our souls to enter into his eternal kingdom.  God did all this so that the world might be saved through Jesus.”

Only after he expresses this positive truth does our Lord mention the possibility of going to hell.  In that regard, he says, “Whoever believes in him [Jesus there is referring to himself] will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Which leads to the obvious question: What does it mean to ‘believe’?  Does it simply involve saying Amen to a set of intellectual propositions, such as we have in the Nicene Creed? 

The answer is No!  Belief is more than that!  Belief, according to Jesus, is not simply a “head trip.”

When our Lord tells us we must “believe,” he means two things: yes, we must assent with our minds to the Creed and the Catechism; but secondly—and just as importantly—we must obey with our lives! 

Belief, for Jesus, always implies obedience.  This is crystal clear, incidentally, from a very interesting line that we read later on in John 3.  In verse 36 of that chapter it says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.”  Notice that instead of saying, “whoever disbelieves in the Son,” the text says, “whoever disobeys the Son.”  Disobedience, not disbelief, is presented as the opposite of belief.

Obviously for Jesus—and for John, the author of the 4^th Gospel—belief and obedience were pretty much synonymous.

And that’s the way they should be for us—and for everyone who claims to be a believer in Jesus Christ.

The philosopher Descartes once said, “I think, therefore I am.”

In a similar fashion, every Catholic and every Christian should say, “I believe, therefore I obey.”

May that be our common philosophy of life, as disciples of the Lord.  If it is, then even if they do allow e-mails out of hell someday in the far distant future, we can be confident that our relatives and friends won’t be receiving any of those e-mails from us.