\u201cFor God so loved the world<\/em> (italics mine) that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.\u201d (John 3:16).<\/p>\n<\/div> Or there is this: \u201cA thief comes only to steal and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.\u201d (John 10:10). God\u2019s vision for us is abundant life and eternal life. But we seem ready to decide that there are those who are evil or contemptible, and therefore outside of God\u2019s love and care simply because they are not like us (Please insert your designated group here).<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can we participate in God\u2019s vision? In our Gospel reading (Luke 17:5-10), Jesus\u2019 disciples ask Him, \u201cIncrease our faith.\u201d And Jesus replies, \u201cIf you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, \u2018Be uprooted and planted in the sea,\u2019 and it would obey you.\u201d If we believe in God\u2019s vision for us, are we willing to have hate and fear and prejudice, out of which comes discrimination and injustice, uprooted from us? Are we willing to have greed and despair and apathy, out of which violence often comes, uprooted from us? And are we willing to help uproot these things from the world? Or would we rather be stuck in the ground with them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Believe me, uprooting is hard work. I don\u2019t profess to know much about forestry or the life of trees, but it seems to me that it is one thing to cut down a tree, but quite another to pull out the stump. That is why we need faith in God\u2019s grace, so that we can continue to work for God\u2019s vision for us. We need God\u2019s grace so that, in the words of our second reading (2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14), we do not fall into \u201ca spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.\u201d We need the faith of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,: “How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n May hate be uprooted from our hearts, and, in following Jesus, may we be oriented towards justice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Christ, May hate be uprooted from our hearts, and, in following Jesus, may we be oriented towards justice.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[4],"class_list":["post-8381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunday-homilies"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/passionist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MDRC-Night-Cross.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
Phil, CP<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"