6 September 2026 #areyouasaintinthemk
It’s the twenty-third Sunday in ordinary time and we’ve covered a lot of ground over these past few weeks. We’ve heard about what constitutes faith: death to self-interest (Aug. 30); Where to evangelize: in the messiness and chaos of everyday life (Aug. 23); What types of people represent faith-full-ness: the Canaanite woman (Aug. 16); and that The Lord speaks to us in the ways we need to hear him: Peter in a storm and Eliajah in a whisper (Aug. 9). In the Church’s wisdom she wants us to think about how we live out our lives.
The Church has given us a number of examples in the feast days we’ve recently celebrated: St. Lawence, the man who believed the poor and infirm were the treasures of the Church (Aug. 9). St. Clare, the woman who gave up wealth and marriage for radical poverty and a love for the Lord (Aug. 10). Maximillian Kolbe, the priest who exchanged his life for a family man in Auschwitz (Aug. 14). Sts. Monica and Augustine, the mother-son duo who revolutionized Catholicism on a very personal level (Aug. 27/28). So many ways to think about how to live our Catholic life out loud. Each witness to the faith is unique – and so is yours.
There’s one theme, however, that ties these people and ideas all together: how they won over others and changed lives. And those lives changed others’ lives too. And then communities were built on moral acuity and taking care of your neighbor. Sounds easy, right?
It’s harder than we think and here’s why: loving your neighbor (Paul) does not mean letting them continue in habitual sin (Ezekiel)… it means speaking to them in love and with the utmost care then continuing to pray for them if they do not listen (Jesus). Again, sounds easy, right? Except for when you are on the receiving end. And therein lies the rub. It’s very easy to correct others. And very hard to take correction of our own. Yet both are necessary.
Yet this is the secret to all the saintly people we know, both in heaven and those who still walk the earth. They receive fraternal correction with grace. Because the goal is heaven, and anyone who corrects a sinful behavior is doing us a favor, though it may not seem like it at the time. He/she is taking years off our purgatory sentence as well us helping us live an abundant life in Christ.
I’ll be honest. “The Church” has not done a great job in the last 60 years or so in talking about sin. She still believes that all life is sacred from conception to natural death… life begins at conception and the ending of this sweet soul (abortion) still violates the sixth commandment “thou shalt not murder.” She still believes that the sufferings of the elderly and infirm have redemptive power, so euthanasia is murder too. She still believes in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman… when God said a man shall cleave to his woman, it wasn’t metaphoric. She still believes that the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy are a must-do necessity, not an option. She still believes that every person is deserving of respect and care, particularly the ones who are forgotten, maligned, and dismissed because of their outward appearance.
In our ordinary lives in these ordinary times, it might be worth peering into the looking-glass of our actions and contemplating how the Lord might see them.
#areyouasaintinthemaking?