Archive for September, 2026

Being Faithful Sons

September 27, 2026

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

Today Jesus tells us a parable about a father and two sons. The father comes to each one and says, “Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.” One son says “Yes, sir,” but does not go. The other son initially refuses, saying “I will not [go].” But then afterwards he changes his mind and goes. So what is this parable about?

In its original context, Jesus is contrasting the Jewish leaders who had rejected St. John the Baptist with the tax collectors and prostitutes who had accepted him. The Jewish leaders, while speaking faithful words, failed to respond to God’s word through John. Meanwhile, sinners who had been disobedient before began to act rightly in response to God’s word. Jesus criticized the chief priests and elders for their stubborn disbelief despite seeing those good fruits. Since we have seen Christ’s good fruits in others, Jesus expects us to faithfully respond to him too.

Another fulfillment of this parable is seen between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jewish people had followed God in the past, but many balked at accepting Jesus. The non-Jewish Gentiles had not followed the true God in the past, but many went on to become Christians. A third interpretation of this parable applies to us today: God is our Father and we are his sons. Like the Lord says in our first reading through the Prophet Ezekiel, it is important for us who profess faith in God to follow through in action. For “when someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.” However, if we have done wickedness and sincerely repent, turning to do what is right and just, permitting Christ to save our souls, then we shall surely live.

We are called to go and serve our Heavenly Father. If we have refused him in the past, then we should change our minds and begin doing his will. The tax collectors and prostitutes turned away from their greed and lust. Why did those sinners change? Why would we? One might ask why that one son changed his mind and went to work in his father’s vineyard? I can think of three possible motivations: first, the fear of punishment and desire for reward; second, the force of conscience to do what is right; and third, for love of the father.

The first motive avoids punishments and seeks rewards. St. Thomas Aquinas notes that even under the New Covenant “the fear of punishment and certain temporal promises have been necessary… to incite [some] to virtuous works.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph #1964) Christian hope confidently looks forward to divine blessings and the beatific vision of God while piously fearing to offend God’s love and incur just punishments. (CCC #2090) Such punishments in this life or the next are not “vengeance inflicted by God from without,” but consequences which flow from the nature of sin itself. (CCC #1472).

A second motive for conversion is the influence of moral conscience. As the Second Vatican Council taught, “Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart…. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.” (CCC #1776) Our consciences, which command us to serve Truth and Goodness, also insist that we form our consciences and enlighten our moral judgements using reliable teachers and sources. So while teachings of Christ’s Church on private conscience are important, we must also heed what she teaches about what is right and wrong.

The ultimate and final motive is love. St. Basil writes that “if we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages… we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands… we are in the position of children.” (CCC #1828) “The New [Covenant] Law is called a law of love because it makes us act out of the love infused by the Holy Spirit, rather than from fear; a law of grace… a law of freedom… [that] lets us pass from the condition of a servant… to that of a friend of Christ… even to the status of son and heir.” (CCC #1972)

How can we develop a greater love for God? One way is to consider what Christ did for you. For “though he was in the form of God… he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness… he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Our Savior did what was right, for love of God and love of us, enduring great suffering to receive supreme rewards. Now his name is above every name. Jesus Christ is Lord. Contemplate Jesus Christ on the Cross for you and ask him to deepen your love for God.

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“Three To Get Married” — The Matthew Elmhorst & Sofia Zambori Wedding

September 26, 2026

By Fr. Victor Feltes

In 1952, a TV network let an unlikely gentleman host a show during a timeslot nicknamed “The Obituary Slot.” 8 P.M. on Tuesday nights put him head-to-head against NBC’s “Mr. Television” Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra on CBS. The broadcaster, the DuMont Network, had such low expectations for this new show that they classified it as a public service and paid its host no salary. The show only had a simple set, no band, no guests, just a chalkboard and a Catholic auxiliary bishop giving a talk. But then, like a mustard seed growing in a garden, the show became huge, attracting up to 30 million viewers a week, frequently ranking number one in the ratings. His engaging presentation of Christian insights won the host a 1953 Emmy Award as the “Most Outstanding Television Personality.” He said in his acceptance speech, “I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.” His show was called “Life Is Worth Living” and its host was Blessed Fulton J. Sheen. He was born in El Paso, Illinois in 1895. He passed away as an archbishop in 1979. And last Thursday, September 24th, he was beatified in St. Louis, Missouri; that is, the Catholic Church declared him to be a Blessed now in Heaven. Watch him on YouTube and read his books. He is a remarkable teacher. If he were preaching at this wedding, what might he say?

Blessed Fulton Sheen wrote 66 books, including one in 1951 about spousal love entitled, “Three to Get Married.” This intriguing title’s meaning is that a successful marriage requires three participants — a husband, a wife, and God. Sheen wrote that “Love of self without love of God is selfishness; love of neighbor without love of God embraces only those who are pleasing to us, not those who are hateful. … How can one love self without being selfish? How can one love others without losing self? The answer is: By loving both self and neighbor in God. It is His Love that makes us love both self and neighbor rightly. … The closer we live to God, the closer we are bound to our neighbor; the farther we are from God, the farther we are from one another. Christian love, which loves everyone either as a potential or actual child of God, redeemed by Christ, … loves the other, not because of attractiveness, or talents, or sympathy, but because of God. To the Christian, a person is one for whom I must sacrifice myself, not one who must exist for my sake.”

Sheen would later write that in marriage “every man promises a woman, and every woman promises a man that which only God alone can give, namely, perfect happiness. One of the reasons why so many marriages are shipwrecked is because as the young couple leave the altar, they fail to realize that human feelings tire and the enthusiasm of the honeymoon is not the same as the more solid happiness of enduring human love… In the first moments of human love, one does not see the little hidden deformities which later on appear. … The passing of time wears out bodies, but nothing can make a soul vanish or can diminish its eternal value. Nothing on earth is stronger than the fidelity of a heart fortified by the Sacrament. … Pleasure is the play of the now-moment. Fidelity is an engagement with the future. When the future is eternity, and when the soul knows that it cannot be saved unless it is faithful to the spouse, it remains faithful even when faced with infidelity.”

We heard Jesus declare in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Sheen teaches that “the pure in heart shall see God, because they always do His will. Purity does not begin in the body but in the will. From there it flows outward, cleansing thought, imagination, and, finally, the body. … Life is impure only when the will is impure.” Sheen notes that “Love is primarily in the will, not in the emotions or the glands. The will is like the voice; the emotions are like the echo. The pleasure associated with love… is the frosting on the cake; its purpose is to make us love the cake, not ignore it. … What some people love is not a person but the experience of being in love. The first is irreplaceable; the second is not. One of the greatest mistakes the human heart can make is to seek pleasure as a goal of life. Pleasure is a by-product of the fulfillment of duty; it is a bridesmaid, not a bride. … A good husband wants to love and to have a happy life; a wicked husband wants to be loved and to enjoy himself. The good man seeks a woman to complement his imperfection and to work toward mutual enrichment. The evil man wants to immolate a woman in order to enjoy himself.” And the same things could well be said about a good or bad wife.

Bishop Sheen taught that if romantic love does not climb with God to God it falls. “If, like the flame, it does not burn upward to the sun, it burns downward to destroy. … As life goes on, [the couple] become not two compatible beings who have learned to live together through self-suppression and patience, but one new and richer being, fused in the fires of God’s love and tempered of the best of both.” Matthew and Sofia and all couples here, please heed these words: It takes three to be married well. You need Christ as your companion and model in daily prayer, weekly Mass, and regular Confession, growing in love and goodness as you serve your loved ones’ sanctity. Remember: The self-sacrifice of Calvary and ecstatic joy of the wedding feast of Cana are meant to be joined in you in Jesus Christ.

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The Cost of Unforgiveness

September 12, 2026

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

In Jesus’ parable today, a servant owes his king an extraordinary debt. Our English translation obscures the amount but in the original Greek text it is 10,000 silver talents, with each talent being about 75 pounds of silver. In the ancient world, it would take a day laborer more than 150,000 years to earn that much from wages. That’s an amount akin to something like seven billion dollars today. How could a servant get himself into a hole of debt that deep? How wealthy would a king have to be to be owed so massive a debt? It is an amount unrepayable for any ordinary person, but this servant’s king is very rich in compassion. The servant pleads and his lord has pity. He forgives the man’s entire loan and lets him go.

Now this forgiven servant was a lender himself. One of his fellow servants owed him (in the original Greek) 100 denarii. That’s 100 days’ wages in the ancient world, something like $15,000 today. That’s not nothing but it’s a much smaller amount than seven billion dollars. The newly debt-free man seeks out this fellow servant and starts choking him while demanding, “Pay back what you owe!” Despite his neighbor’s pleading for patient mercy, the forgiven servant confines that man to debtors’ prison until he should pay back his debt in full.

Now their fellow servants are deeply troubled to see this and report the situation to the king and master of them all. The king summons that unforgiving servant and pronounces a swift judgment: “You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?” And then in anger, the unforgiving servant is thrown into debtors’ prison until he should pay back his debt in full.

Jesus tells us this parable and then declares: “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.” Therefore this is a parable about God and us. The king in this parable represents God. And the servant, whose unrepayable debt to the king will only be forgiven if he forgives his neighbor, represents you and me.

God is our King to whom we owe everything. He is all-good and deserving of all our love. So when we sin in rebellion against him it creates a debt we cannot repay ourselves. But thanks be to God, forgiveness is offered through Jesus Christ when we repent and seek mercy. However, Jesus notes elsewhere in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” “Our Father, who art in Heaven,” will “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Now some folks feel alarm at this teaching because they fear they cannot forgive. Typically they believe that they cannot forgive because they think “forgiveness” means things it doesn’t.

Forgiving is not the same thing as forgetting. You can’t make yourself have amnesia and forget; you might remember someone else’s misdeed for the rest of your life. Forgiveness doesn’t mean saying what a sinner did wasn’t serious or wrong. If the sin committed was gravely wrong, to say otherwise would be untrue. Forgiveness doesn’t mean the offense no longer hurts. Only grace and time can heal some wounds, but we can still forgive while feeling pain. Forgiveness doesn’t necessarily mean pretending nothing happened. Sometimes going back to the way things were before would be imprudent or even wrong. But you can forgive someone even before they can be trusted. You can forgive even before they are sorry for what they did. Because forgiveness means loving someone despite the wrongs that they have done. Jesus did this from the Cross. He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” while he was still in terrible pain and before they were sorry.

Is there someone you are worried that you haven’t forgiven? Then pray for them, since you cannot hate someone and pray for them, willing their greatest good, at the same time. Is there someone you find it hard to pray for? Then that’s whom you should pray for, for their sake and for yours. If you reach the pearly gates and see someone inside whom you hate, you will have to wait outside until you can love that person whom the Lord has reconciled to himself. Forgiveness loves someone despite their sins like Jesus loves us. Jesus came to reconcile us to one another and to the Father. So have mercy. Jesus heals the wounds of sin and division. So have mercy. And Jesus intercedes for us with our Father. So have mercy on others, too.

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Things Jesus Didn’t Say

September 6, 2026

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

There’s an amusing meme or running joke online quoting the many “Things Jesus Never Said.” These quips can be snarky and insightful. For instance, Jesus didn’t say at the Last Supper, “This is sorta like my body.” Jesus never said to the crowds, “Don’t follow me until you’re perfect.” Jesus didn’t say, “I only care about people who look like me.” Jesus didn’t say, “You can tell whom I love most by who has the most money.” Jesus didn’t say, “No one comes to the Father except through me but others’ opinions about this are all equally valid.” Jesus didn’t say, “Live your truth and do whatever makes you happy.” Jesus didn’t say, “Serving me will always make you popular.” In the style of this meme, let’s retranslate today’s Gospel into things Jesus never said:

“If someone sins against you, go ahead and tell anyone and everyone about that fault, except for that one person alone. (The offending person might not listen to you and giving them the silent treatment guarantees this.) Instead of talking to that person, connect with one or two others (over coffee, on the phone, on social media, or during a work break) to testify to your personal grievance. If your allies listen to you, your gossip may spread throughout your whole community. And that person who offended you—who is surely and always 100% in the wrong—will be treated like a tax collector or a telemarketer.”

All of that, of course, is not what Jesus said. Jesus tells his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.” Approaching someone privately avoids public embarrassment so the other person is more likely to hear you, and approaching someone directly allows them to explain themselves. Maybe you will come to understand each other better and the issue will be resolved. And that’s a win!

“But,” Jesus says, “if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you…” Having another person or two with you for this next conversation may help to mediate a solution to the matter or help you and your offender see the issue more objectively. Interpersonal conflicts are often not entirely one person’s fault, and even if one person is more at fault, recognizing one’s own role in the conflict can result in more peaceful resolutions.

After that, Jesus says, “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” Rather than taking ordinary conflicts immediately to the highest level, see if an issue can be resolved at a lower level between you. This approach will result in less resentment and more community harmony, and where true peace is possible, that is Christ’s will for us. But sometimes an offender’s obstinacy makes that peace impossible, so corrective consequences or punishments should follow. Like a father disciplining his children for their own good, correcting others can be an obligatory act of love.

Another thing Jesus did not say is: “Tolerate one another as I have tolerated you.” Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Loving people and just tolerating their behaviors are different things. If a thirsty person is about to drink a cup of poison, what should we do? Remain silent and detached, or rather say, “Stop, please! That will kill you. Please let me help you, here’s water instead. I care about you”? We are called to love people enough to call and help them toward conversion and fullness of life.

In today’s first reading, God tasks the Prophet Ezekiel to be a watchman for Israel. Whenever the Lord commands Ezekiel to warn his wayward neighbors, if Ezekiel refuses to speak, Ezekiel is told he will be held responsible for the sinner’s death. Now it does not appear that the Lord was expecting Ezekiel to personally, individually correct every sinner in Israel, and it would be unrealistic to expect you or me to fraternally correct every sinner in America today. However, if there’s a case where we suspect our intervention could greatly bless someone or save their soul, how can we be silent? If a poison is poison, we ought to say so. If we refuse to intervene when we could have helped, we may be judged someday for that dereliction of duty. And consider how wonderful it will be to be the catalyst for others’ conversions and salvation.

In addition to what Jesus taught in today’s Gospel, here are three tips for fraternal correction: First, share the truth with love. Hitting people on the head with your “truth bat” makes it harder for them to hear you. People often only care what you believe if they believe that you care about them. So share the truth with love.

The second tip is the importance of giving personal witness. Pope St. Paul VI wrote that “modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” If you want to be heard, do not just talk the talk but also walk the walk.

And a third and final tip for fraternally correcting others is to pray. Pray for courage and wisdom and opportunities to help others this way. God wills us to be his ambassadors and instruments of mercy, love, and reconciliation. So pray for God’s grace to be effective in fraternal correction.

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Remaining in Prayer — The Jake Borofka & Lauren Anderson Wedding

September 5, 2026

By Fr. Victor Feltes

Jesus tells us to remain in his love. He says, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love…” Jake and Lauren, my impression has been that most of what the preacher preaches at a wedding is quickly forgotten. So today I wish to share with you and all the couples here one important key to remaining in Christ’s love and in your love for one another. That valuable key is… praying together.

We see this in our first reading from the Book of Tobit. On their wedding night, Tobiah and Sarah pray beside their bed for God’s blessings upon their marriage. And “they said together, ‘Amen, Amen.’” There are married couples who have shared a bed for many years who have not shared their personal prayers like this. Perhaps they pray together at Mass and that is good, even essential, for Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” Perhaps they pray together before meals, giving thanks to God and asking his blessing on their food. (Hopefully, they pray at restaurants too, willing to acknowledge Christ before others.) But couples who pray together, praying for each other, sharing the prayer intentions of their heart, are sharing their hearts with each other and the Lord.

We hear St. Paul tell the Corinthians that “love is patient, love is kind.” He reminds them that ‘love is not jealous, not pompous, not rude, not self-seeking, not quick-tempered, nor bitter,’ because the Christians of Corinth, Greece were having trouble living together in love. Jake and Lauren, sharing your intimate prayer requests will help bond you together in love. When times of friction come and it’s harder to like each other, if you pray together you will know that you remain allies who are daily willing each other’s good. As the Book of Ecclesiastes says, “Where one alone may be overcome, two together can resist. A three-ply cord is not easily broken.” And down the road dedicate time to pray daily with your children. Not just here at church or before meals, but at bedtime and other occasions in the day. This will help bond and bless your family for generations. For as the psalmist says today, “The mercy of the Lord is everlasting upon those who [reverently fear him], upon children’s children is his righteousness, for those who keep his covenant.”

Jake and Lauren and all you couples here, for the rest of your lives together: please remember to pray together, so that you may remain together in Christ’s love.

Posted in Homily, Marriage and Family, Prayer, Wedding Homilies | Leave a Comment »

Noble Deeds — Funeral Homily for Kenneth “Ken” Mullen, 79

September 2, 2026

By Fr. Victor Feltes

I invite you to reflect on these people in our readings today: the slain Jewish warriors in 2nd Maccabees, St. Joseph of Arimathea, and the holy women at Jesus’ tomb.

Our first reading came from 2nd Maccabees after God’s people had prevailed in battle. The Jews routed a Greek army of 3,000 foot soldiers and 400 cavalry and only “a few of the Jews were slain.” But when the Jews came to bury their fallen brothers, the text says “under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which [God’s law forbade] the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had fallen. … Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out.” Then the Jewish commander, Judas Maccabeus, “took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to 2,000 silver [coins], which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice.” The narrator concludes that “in doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind… Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin.”

Another person who performed the noble task of burying the dead is written about in all four Gospels: St. Joseph of Arimathea. He was a rich man from the Jewish town of Arimathea, whom Scripture calls virtuous and righteous and a secret disciple of Jesus. He was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, that Jewish Council which had condemned Jesus to death, but Joseph never consented to their decision or action. Joseph was awaiting the coming of the Kingdom of God and before Good Friday he probably believed that Jesus was the Christ. But the Jewish imagination did not envision that the promised Messiah, their conquering king, would be condemned and executed. Jesus’ shocking death complicated how Joseph regarded him, but Joseph remained convinced Jesus was a good man and, with faith in the resurrection of the dead, still wanted to do a good thing for him. We just heard St. Luke record in his Gospel how Joseph “went to Pilate and asked for the Body of Jesus. After he had taken the Body down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb in which no one had yet been buried.” Joseph did this work of mercy for his friend Jesus and is remembered and honored for having done it to this day.

The holy women at the tomb loved Jesus, too. They came to do him final kindnesses, bringing spices they had prepared for covering his remains. But they never had the chance to complete that funerary rite, for when they arrived at the Easter tomb the body of Jesus was gone. The angels informed them he had “been raised.” Those women had tried to do something good for Jesus that day but he was blessed far more than they had imagined possible.

Connie, Carol, and Diane, you remind me of St. Joseph of Arimathea. We are here for Ken today because of you, his sisters. Despite the complicatedness of your past relationships with Ken, you still wanted to do this good and holy deed for him. You describe Ken as a good, kind, and gentle man. He had his flaws and weaknesses, as all men have, but you also spoke of his beautiful virtues. You love him and you have sought to have our greatest prayer, the Holy Mass, be applied for the good of his soul.

Ken grew up Catholic but many years ago he left the Church to venerate God elsewhere. Now I would caution anyone against that grave and dangerous error, but that mistake does not leave us without hope for Ken’s soul. There is good reason to hope that those Jewish soldiers who died with pagan amulets under their tunics were helped in being cleansed and saved through God’s Old Testament sacrifices. But those rituals only pointed ahead to a greater sacrifice to come. How much more effective for Ken’s eternal soul will be the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ offered in this Holy Mass?

Today, for the first time in my priesthood, I am celebrating a funeral Mass without the presence of the deceased’s person’s remains. But Connie, Carol, and Diane, like those holy women on Easter morning who came together to do good for Jesus though his Body was absent, may God bless your beloved one this day even more greatly than you can imagine.

Posted in Funeral Homilies, Homily, Mass, Saintly People, Salvation History | Leave a Comment »