The message of reconciliation goes out to all. It is not restricted – it is universal. When you read the book of Jonah, you will notice that – as many others in the Old Testament – tried to restrict it to the chosen people alone. When God first asked Jonah to preach repentance in the pagan city of Niniveh, he refused and tried to run away. He believed that forgiveness and reconciliation was exclusively for the people of the Old Covenant. He went to Niniveh when he was forced but he went unconvinced of the universality of salvation. Whether he ever did accept it we do not know. The mission of the Apostles was initially pretty much restricted to the Jewish people. But, before He left the earth, Jesus made their mission universal: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Good News to every creature". (Mk. 15:16).

The number one minister of reconciliation is the Church. As members we must all, one way or another, participate in her ministry of reconciling people with God. In this we must not be reluctant and restrictive as Jonah was. We must imitate the four apostles of the gospel in their promptness and generosity.

At Mass we pray, "Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world . . ." One of the many titles for Jesus is "The Lamb of God". A tremendous meaning is contained in this title. Jesus is the sacrificial lamb given over to death for our salvation. John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God to his disciples who in turn went to see for themselves. They responded to Jesus’ invitation to come and see. We know they went with Jesus, but what did they see and come to understand?

The gospel does not tell us specifically but we can imagine that the disciples ate dinner together, asked questions, and listened to Jesus as He taught the people, and they came to understand that they had found the Messiah.

By God’s grace we become members of Christ when we respond with our free will to Christ’s invitation to "come and see". We can posture ourselves to listen to God, as Samuel, and to listen to Jesus, as did the disciples. In this way we can recognize the Messiah and come to be members of the Body of Christ. We, too, should be able to say, "I have waited, waited for the Lord" and have responded with enthusiasm to be His disciples.

The word epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphaneia, meaning divine manifestation. Today’s feast is about the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah and Savior of the world. We know the story well. Three kings from afar came bearing gifts for the newborn king.

Today’s readings reveal God’s eternal plan for salvation in the birth of Jesus. When He was born, Jesus was revealed not only to the shepherds and Magi, but to all nations. Our salvation history unfolded and humanity has been renewed. Jesus came as God’s new covenant to His people. All nations belong to the human race; all have a common divine origin and share a common bond with God. All nations share in God’s justice and mercy. We all share in God’s plan for universal salvation.

Racism is one of the most serious problems that we Catholics have to combat in our communities. It is the attempt to control and have power over others. When have we last shared meals in our homes with those of a different race, a different color or ethnic background? Ethnic cleansing did not stop with Adolph Hitler, it continues in our world today. In a society as advanced as ours, where information and technology change overnight, why does it remain so difficult to recognize the equality of all? Sexism in our society, domestic abuse in our homes or racism in our neighborhood, is not what today’s feast is about.

There remains a universal tone in today’s scriptures. Jesus came to save all people, whether Jew or Gentile, Israelite or Greek. The dignity of all humans is based on their creation in the image and likeness of God. Our equality does not mean uniformity, but calls us to recognize the differences and the value of each in our gifts. Equality creates solidarity because it sees in each person a brother or sister deserving of love and respect.

Endings and beginnings collide in today’s readings, just as they do in "real time." Eleven P.M. opens "the last hour" of 2011. Midnight ushers in the new year, charged with all the hopes and dreams implied in the very first "in the beginning" (John 1:1).

Today we are poised between the past and the future – the perfect opportunity to take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re going. So sit with the Lord for a half hour or so today and look back over 2011.

One way to do this is to adapt the examination of conscience that St. Ignatius Loyola recommended for daily use. This simple five-part prayer helps reveal where God has worked in your life, as well as where you’ve fallen short. And having studied these divine "footprints" you see more clearly where to walk in the future.

1. Begin by thanking God for His blessings, great and small. Let your mind recall events and experiences from the past year and express your gratitude.

2. Ask for the grace of self-knowledge, especially to know your sins and be rid of them. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see what should be brought to light and to know how greatly God cherishes you.

3. Now review the year in more detail, month by month. Consider the highs and lows, the victories and defeats. Ask "Where did I experience God’s presence and accept his invitation?"

4. If you turned up some faults and failings ask God’s forgiveness. Plan to go to confession and, if need be, to make things right with anyone you’ve wronged.

5. Now it’s time for resolutions! Enlightened by your backward look, you can move forward to set good goals for 2012. Do it with confidence, for the God who poured out His grace in the past is with you to make this a year of grace upon grace.

Every day, every prayer of every day should contain joyful, spontaneous thanksgiving to the Lord. So the question for us as Christians is: Are we truly thankful every day and are we expressing our thanksgiving in our daily prayer for all that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit mean to us? Every day is a special day, and a gift for which we continually are thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all of you!

The woman in Proverbs is concerned about others more than about herself. The men in the Gospel are concerned about the master’s money more than their own. At least two are industrious stewards of the master’s money, and they are accountable to the master when he returns. The third is worried more about his own hide. He resents what appears to him to be favoritism. Being "industrious" and "reliable" do not interest him. He feels he has been dealt a poor hand in life and maybe the world owes him a living.

The main lesson today is that God is in charge of our lives. The talents and opportunities given to us vary, but we each have our own gifts and opportunities. We are expected to act responsibly and industriously with whatever we have received.

These readings come to us at the end of the Church year. They remind us that there is judgment awaiting all of us. The Master returns to ask what we have done with our lives. The letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians warns us that, "we are children of night and day. We belong neither to darkness nor to night; therefore, let us not be asleep like the rest, but awake and sober."

Why were the Saints, Saints?

Because they were cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful:
Patient where it was difficult to be patient:
And because they pushed on when they wanted to stand still,
And kept silent when they wanted to talk,
And were agreeable when they wanted to be disagreeable.
That was all. It was quite simple and always will be.

The Second Day of November we celebrate those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. It is the whole month we remember all the dead. The most important insight about those who may possibly be in purgatory is that they are saved, however, that salvation continues to be in process. It is holy to pray for the dead in purgatory because they are part of us and part of the communion of Saints. It is on this communion of salvation, then, where we set our sights. We trust that Jesus will be true to His promise of salvation to the Holy Souls in this month. In a special way, we help them by our prayers and our offer of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The names of your loved ones written on envelopes will be placed on the altar during the month of November. As we pray for them let us be mindful of our solidarity with the human race which has been called to salvation by the saving act of Jesus who will be true to His promise for all time.

To grab hold of one Scripture verse and isolate it can be risky and dangerous, as when Jesus talks about plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand if it causes us to sin (Mt. 5:29-30). To do so would be barbaric and destructive and would go against all the healing brought by Jesus into the world. These passages remind us that no one should make a superficial interpretation of God’s word. To understand what Jesus means by this passage and others we must be guided by the teaching of the Church and look at the entire context of Sacred Scripture.

What Jesus is teaching us is that God alone is the real Father, not merely as a term of respect or honor, but as a reminder of our very close relationship with Him – all fathers – whether spiritual or by family relationship – are called to be reflections of the one heavenly Father. Jesus reminds us that the fullness of fatherhood is to be found in God alone, our Creator who waits lovingly to be acknowledged as Our Father.

Many people are not quite sure what it means to love God. A person can know what it means to love a wife or sweetheart or children or parent. It’s not difficult to understand the idea of loving a friend or loving one’s neighbor or even loving one’s enemies. We can acknowledge that God exists, is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good; but is God really something or someone we can love?

Jesus made loving God His first commandment. He added that the second commandment – to love your neighbor as yourself – is like the first. Perhaps He meant that obeying this second precept satisfies the first as well. He made it clear that whatever good works people do to their fellow human beings they do to Him as well. When we love others, we love Jesus; and when we love Him we love God.

We can love God. We can love Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, by following His command to love our neighbor. We can achieve an intimate relationship of love with him through the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. By obeying His commandment we can enter His kingdom of love and happiness in eternal union with His Father.

The Romans believed that their emperors were divine. Therefore, to possess Roman coins meant carrying around the graven image of a human god. The Pharisees knew this when they challenged Jesus. Paying the census tax to Caesar symbolized more than just submission to a foreign government. It had religious connotations. If Jesus was a true prophet, He should speak up against Jews possessing pagan coins. If He was a true messiah, He should deliver them from the oppression and taxes of the foreign government – or so they thought.

We don’t know how they happened to have the Roman coin that they showed to Jesus. If they pulled it out of their own purses, which is likely, it revealed their hypocrisy. However, Jesus wasn’t just interested in exposing their hypocrisy; He wanted to make a point about the True Messiah.

If we belong to God, Jesus is engraved upon our hearts. We have been rescued from the destruction of sin by the Messiah. We have let Him deliver us from the oppression of evil that was caused by our sins.

Whose image do others see when they look at your life? When people see you, do they see Jesus engraved upon you? To the extent that they do, that’s the extent to which you belong to the kingdom of God!

As Christians, we know that our goal is not far from that overused advertising claim. We are called to change everything by being obedient to God’s commands and doing His will. This is what conversion is all about. What is truly awesome is that conversion really does change everything. The call to change is clear in all the words of God.

The Gospel teaches that we are to be attentive to the change of heart and mind to which obedience calls us. Clearly, the son who changes his mind and does his father’s will by going into the vineyard is an example to us. To drive home His point with the chief priests and the elders, Jesus acknowledges the conversions that public sinners, like tax collectors and prostitutes, responded to when they heard John the Baptist’s powerful call to obedience to God’s will, repentance and conversion. Conversely, the hardness of heart and the resistance to conversion of so many of the chief priests and elders is not only disappointing to Jesus, it will be the essential cause of the worsening conflict between Him and them. It will ultimately lead to His arrest and crucifixion.

When we strive to follow the example of Jesus, by emptying ourselves of selfishness, we allow God’s grace to work in us, and changes can come about in our lives. These changes may entail big challenges and sacrifices, yet the result we are seeking is worth it. May we be united in the common call to obedience and conversion – these really do change everything!

God the Father is like a vineyard owner who gives equally to all. Since we cannot earn our way into heaven, equal benefits are not an injustice to those who labored longer. Rather, God gives complete and perfect love even to those who only discovered a relationship with Him at the last minute. He can do no less.

The first reading reminds us that as high as the heavens are above the earth, God’s ways are greater than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We think that justice (fairness) means equal treatment, but that harkens back to the Old Testament concept of justice: "an eye for an eye". Jesus raised justice to its highest level, which means being equally loving and kind to all, whether they deserve it or not.

We don’t have to understand God’s higher ways. We only have to be grateful that God loves us even when we are unloving. No matter how undeserving of His love we might be, He still gives us the same amount of love that He has for the holiest of saints. He loves us as much as He loves Mary, the Blessed Mother of Christ! "Am I not free to do as I wish with My own love?" He asks.

When have you felt undeserving of God’s goodness? What evidence proves that He never stopped loving you? What did He do for you? How has your own opinion of yourself interfered with feeling His love?

The strongest word here is "AS" – the same as, just like, in equal measure.

If there is anyone we have not forgiven, if there is anyone we cannot pray for with love, we’d better keep our mouths shut during this part of the prayer to Our Father, who is the Father of all. Sometimes, we mix "Forgetting" with "forgiving". Jesus never said that we must forget what the debtor owes. Forgiveness means remembering – and learning from the memory – without demanding repayment or retribution. Unforgivensss is a form of punishment: it’s payback time. For example, if we remain angry, we hope that our anger or coldness will somehow punish the sinner into repentance. Well, guess what? That never works.

Here’s something else we do that never works: holding a grudge to protect ourselves from getting hurt again. Grudges do not free us from the pain of bad memories. It chains us to them. When we free others from the debts they owe us for hurting us (whether they seek it or not, whether they’re still alive or not) we free ourselves and our healing begins – OUR healing! It’s the most loving gift that we can give to ourselves, as it’s a gift of love to others. Even when they don’t recognize our gift – God does.

Who angers you because they don’t deserve your forgiveness? What are you gaining from unforgiveness and resentment? What will you lose if you forgive?

What is the most difficult part of forgiveness? What steps do you take for pushing yourself into truly letting go of unforgiveness so you can find healing? Sharing this with others will spread good ideas that could change someone’s life.

First, we speak to the sinner. When we know that someone is harming himself and others (all sins are harmful even when we can’t see the harm), if we don’t try to impart this knowledge to him or her at least once, our silence is unloving and uncaring. Once we’ve shared the truth, even if the sinner does not change, we’re free of any guilt. But we’re not free to stop loving the sinner, and so we take one or two others with us in a stronger effort to help the sinner to understand what’s wrong and to repent. And if that fails, we try again with still more backing.

When every attempt to help someone has failed, only then do we quit and part company. In reality, it’s not us who is walking away. The sinner is the one who has chosen the path of separation. However, remember how Jesus treated the Gentiles and tax collectors (the outsiders, the separated ones): He never stopped loving them. He still chose to die for them.

Whose sins have really disturbed you lately? What have you done about it? How loving and caring have you been in handling it? What bothers you about the way some people have pointed out your sins or the sins of others? How could they have been more compassionate? Share the story of a time when someone successfully led another into repentance and growth. Why was the effort effective?

When you host a huge dinner party or complete a large project or overcome difficult obstacles, do you give yourself time to recuperate and let God minister to you? After spending time alone with His Father, Jesus was so uplifted by the experience that He walked on water!

Jesus frequently spent time in prayer. He probably went off by Himself to pray a lot more often than what is written in scripture. So why did Matthew mention it here? What was significant about this particular prayer time? Through Matthew, God is showing us how to achieve a well-balanced faith. We need periods of prayer-filled solitude to restore our energies and renew our vision of what God is inspiring us to do. We all have work to do for God in our families, in our workplaces, in social gatherings, in our parishes and in every problem that arises. Giving of ourselves to others will always drain us; to thrive and grow in our usefulness to God, we must allow Him to replenish us often.

Prayer helps us to prepare for whatever lies ahead, even when we don’t know what we’re walking into. What we gain from the lord in our time alone with him is a gift designed for our benefit and for responding to the needs of others. It strengthens our faith, teaches us how to walk on water, and sends us to the next shore where people who need God’s help are waiting. God wants to minister to them through us. Are you prayed up and ready?

How much time do you spend in quiet aloneness with the Lord? Is it enough to restore the inner peace that comes from staying in touch with God? Or do you feel drained and unprepared to continue?