Imagine if Luke Skywalker never left Tatooine, or imagine if Frodo never left The Shire, or imagine if Eleven never left Mike Wheeler’s basement and just stayed there. All of these heroes were meant for something. They had a purpose, and they lived it out. And we are called to do the same thing. In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus pities the people because they are like sheep without a shepherd, and…

Let’s play the what-if game. In the gospel for the Sunday, what if Peter left Jesus? We wouldn’t have the Eucharist. We wouldn’t have a pope. We wouldn’t have the Catholic Church. We wouldn’t have the sacraments. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift would never have met. But seriously, Jesus Christ stakes everything, all of salvation, on the mere chance that Peter would say yes and stay with Him. That’s how important…

I was just in the Gulf of Mexico, went to the beach, and saw something crazy. I saw a father placing his 2-year-old son on the edge of the water, and he sat there and let his son walk forward. The son took one step into the ocean, looked back at his dad, smiled, turned back, and took one more step forward, and he kept doing this. This little 2-year-old boy felt safe amid a vast, powerful, dangerous ocean because he knew…

So it’s about time we talked about Quidditch, which is obviously a real sport. After consulting many experts, the reality is that the most important position is not the seeker, the keeper, or the chasers; the two beaters on the field are protecting the rest of the team, enabling everyone to feel safe. If this makes no sense, stay with me. In the second reading for this Sunday…

Let’s talk about fire and water, and I’m not talking about the Pokemon types. In the gospel for this Sunday, Saint John the Baptist says that he will baptize with water, but Christ will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit. Fire represents life, but it also represents death. Same with water. When the Israelites went through the Red Sea, water was life-giving. The Egyptians went through the same Red Sea, and…

Spiritual nostalgia. It is so real. It is wanting to experience your feelings again during that amazing God moment. It’s wanting to experience again that feeling you had when the Cubs won the World Series. In the gospel for the Sunday, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain and reveals his glory. They feel they experience the realness of Jesus’ divinity, but then they go down the hill, and Jesus seems to have…