I am so excited. Our Newman Center just got a new statue of St. Joseph. It was handcrafted in Germany, it is absolutely beautiful, and my favorite thing about it is that the baby Jesus, the Lord of the universe, is holding the world, but is being held by his dad, St. Joseph, and the baby Jesus is safe and resting in his dad’s arms. St. Joseph was a good father, and he must have learned how to be a good father by imitating the Heavenly Father. St. Paul, in the second reading for this Sunday, speaks about being imitators of Christ. The Macedonians imitated the Thessalonians, the Thessalonians imitated St. Paul, and St. Paul imitated Christ. The Christian life is one long chain of imitators. We are called to imitate the holy men and women; we’re called to imitate the saints, and we are called to imitate the Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ. Friends, you don’t have to be original. You have to imitate Jesus.
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Best Practical Self-Help
So lately, my internet algorithm has been leading me to practical self-help stuff. So apparently, I need help. But the reality is, most of us attend self-help groups because we want to grow. We want to grow in our social skills and our health: Jesus and the gospel offer efficient guidance. Jesus says, Don’t store up treasures and riches for yourself. That will not fulfill you, that will not satisfy you, that will not bring you…
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Be Jesus for Others
Sometimes we imagine two extremes: people who follow rules without love, and others who talk about love without any truth or commitment. But Jesus gives us something completely different.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus says, “This is my commandment: love one another.” Love isn’t just a feeling we fall into, it’s something we choose. It’s active. It’s sacrificial. It’s becoming like Jesus for the people around us.
That’s the challenge of the Christian life: not just to feel love, but to live it. To choose, again and again, to be Christ for others.
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Stop Social Climbing
Stop social climbing. That should be the tagline for this Sunday’s gospel. Jesus is saying that, trying to gain social status, trying to reach the highest seat, which we will never truly satisfy. Jesus is saying, Your identity is in me. When we forget about our identity in Jesus, that’s when we try to gain status. That’s when we try to find love in all of the wrong places. And so Jesus says, “Stop doing that and see me….
