Dear Family of God,

From the Bible we know that there are two kinds of death, one is physical, and the other is spiritual or the death of our soul. The cause of both deaths is the envy of the Devil, who tempted Eve to commit the first sin. Death is a consequence of sin. Adam and Eve did not die physically when they disobeyed God, but they annihilated their soul, they were separated from the presence of God.

One of the things I love to do but I’m not good at is swimming. I grew up in a town that has one of the biggest rivers in Nigeria, River Benue. In fact, at one point my family lived very close to the bank of the river. Unfortunately, none of my siblings, including me, learnt how to swim. This is because some of our friends and relatives drowned in the river. That made us have a phobia for large bodies of water.

Dear Family of God,

God is in charge so “walk by faith and not by sight” (2Cor. 5:7).

If we have faith, we can be “full of confidence” like Saint Paul. We know that the Lord is with us, guiding us, working out all things for good, and drawing us into the fullness of life (cf. Rm. 8:28). We will experience a lot of obstacles and we cannot see yet our true final destination.

It’s summer. It’s June, and it’s hot. And although the summer has just begun, it feels like we are already in the “dog days of summer.” There can be a ho-hum attitude about the summer days as they roll on—hot and interminable.

A similar mindset can afflict us as Catholics as we think about ordinary time in the liturgical year. It is easy to get excited for Advent as we prepare for Christmas, or to be in a spirit of penitence as we enter the practices of Lent longing for Easter. But Ordinary time? It can feel so, well—ordinary.

Dear Family of God,

This weekend we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, given to us out of His great love for each one of us and that we will be able to participate in the holy exchange of love of the Holy Trinity, and be eternal like God. Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (John 6:51).

Recently, I attended a gathering of mostly Protestant pastors and ministry leaders (I was one of two Catholics in the room) to talk about the “evangelization temperature” of the city, i.e. how we are doing in proclaiming the Gospel to Phoenix and the surrounding cities. During the event, we heard a few speakers explore the theme of evangelization from various angles. One idea that I found inspired was a practice the first speaker said she did at her Church in Florida.

“The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).

According to Dr. John Bergsma, “The story is told of the little boy whose father asked him, “what is faith?” the boy replied, “It’s when you believe things you know aren’t true.” This sums up the popular attitude toward the Christian faith in modern Western Culture. Both outside the Church and many inside as well, think the faith consists in clenching one’s teeth and believing things that are probably false. But that is not the teaching of Jesus. Jesus taught what is true and taught us to seek the truth. It is not the Church but the culture that believes things that are not true.”

Everyone wants to know “who they are.” It’s the reason why children who have been adopted, when they get older, have often a deep desire to meet their birth parents. They may love their adopted parents and be grateful that their biological parents chose life and had the courage to put them up for adoption—but still, they want to meet their biological parents to know who they come from, and the insight that gives them to who they are today.

In today’s Gospel Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” This command is foundational to the entire Christian life. It is simple and yet difficult. Most of us find it much easier to love an invisible God than a neighbor who is often in the way of our preferences, sensibilities, and personal rights. Loving others just seem to be the most difficult part of being a Christian. But if you have been baptized, know that you have all it takes to love others because you are connected to the source of love, the Holy Spirit. In Romans 5:5 St. Paul says, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Dear Family of God,

This weekend we will be reminded by Jesus remain in Him and we can do nothing without Him, like a branch that withers when cut from the vine. So, how do we remain in Him?

How do we remain in Jesus? St. John has the answer: “Those who keep His Commandments remain in Him, and He in them, and the way we know that He remains in us is from the Spirit, He gave us.” To remain in Jesus is to keep His Commandments, “and His Commandments is this: we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as He commanded us.”

Today is called “Good Shepherd Sunday”. One of the remarkable qualities of a good shepherd is his willingness to lay down his life for his flock. Christ did that for us. He laid down His life for us on the cross. At every mass, He continues to lay down His life for us.

When I was a kid, a friend at my home parish told me, “If you get to Mass by the Gospel reading, it counts!” As a lifelong late-arriver, it’s something I have told myself many times, especially in my earlier years as a Catholic. If the “it counts” is justifiable on a pathetically minimal scale of liturgical legalism, then the Gospel reading today shows how insanely wrong-headed it is, and how helpful it is to re-think the Mass in its light.

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. It’s a day to revisit our idea about who God is. I believe there are some people who still imagine that God’s standard for holiness is very unreasonable. People who think God is more interested in finding faults in us than in seeing our efforts to love and please Him. People who think God enjoys it when people end up in hell. The truth is all these perceptions about God is very false. Until we rid ourselves of these ideas, we will never come to a place of true love and friendship with God.