February 22, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Genesis 2: 7-9; 3: 1-7 + Psalm 51+ Romans 5: 12-19 + Matthew 4: 1-11

The time Israel spent in Egypt was relived by the Holy Family’s time in Egypt, and the temptation story is an instant replay of Israel’s temptations in the desert. Now, Jesus relives their time in the desert, with one fundamental difference according to Matthew; while Israel had failed the tests, Jesus passed. While Israel turned to other gods, Jesus held fast to God alone. These temptations not only look back, but they also look ahead for they will be the temptations faced by all of us who will follow him.

In each of the trials, Jesus remains focused on God. This is a direct refusal to buy into the “What’s in it for me” attitude that easily pushes us far from the Kingdom of God. No matter what Satan offers him, Jesus stays focused on God. It would be great having as much bread as there are stones in the desert. It would be wonderful to feel safe enough to jump off that tower and know he would be safe and sound. Having all the fame and power in the world would be a dream come true. The question here is this: does he choose prosperity, satisfaction, safety, and power, or does he choose God? The kingdom of God is realized in those who, like Jesus, orient their lives toward God and not around the things God provides.

There is a subtle and important difference between celebrating the good gifts of God and turning them into idols. The ultimate temptation that is the sum of these three is to love the gifts more than the giver, and the surest test of this comes when the gifts are gone. If the giver of those gifts has been forgotten as the gifts become the most important thing, there is no evidence of the Kingdom of God. What usually happens when the gifts are gone is a terrible emptiness and loss because the giver of the gifts had long been replaced by the gifts themselves. We enjoy the gift of good health, and suddenly we get terribly sick and feel abandoned by God when the truth is God is the one abandoned. We enjoy security, power, safety and all it provides for us. If it falls apart those have made those gifts all they care about, are lost and helpless.

The temptation of Israel was to love the gifts of God more than the giver. We face the same temptation. We see it all the time. The wealthiest, most secure, and powerful nations are godless, lonely, and “what’s in it for me” is the question that drives every decision with never a thought about what might be God’s will. Somehow, the more we get, the less thought there is about God. I look at so many young people who have so much stuff and so little awareness who really provides it all. Their phones and toys, cars and sports, are more important than worship on Sunday. The golf course, games, and good life become more precious than the creator of it all.

We are living the temptation story. It was told of old Israel. It was told of the Son of Man, and it’s still being told to this day. We must remember that the Kingdom of God can only be realized with and by those who orient their lives toward God and not the things God provides.

February 18, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Joel 2: 12-18 + Psalm 51 + 2 Corinthians 5: 20 to 6: 2 + Matthew 6: 1-6 and 16-18

When you give alms. When you pray. When you fast. It all presumes that we do give alms, pray, and fast. If we have not, then the next forty days are a joke or there is something to be done. Then there is this matter of the hypocrites. That’s usually somebody else, but maybe not. That Greek word, “Hypocrite” means a stage actor, and in Greek plays, the actors wore masks that hid their true identity.

Our age with its strident individualism can easily use this text to exalt private prayer and spirituality over corporate worship. It is the need for recognition so rampant in our culture that Jesus challenges with these words. Public prayer and worship give testimony to the presence of God and the grace of God working among us. Claiming that private prayer is the best for you can quickly become a cover up for not praying at all. There is danger here. For disciples who are sincere, worship in a community gives public praise to God becoming an act that may draw others to faith.

The same danger applies to almsgiving and more. Charity can be given out of pride or guilt, to manipulate or control. It can be a bribe or pay back. Ultimately it is about motive, and it is the motive about which Jesus speaks. When I was in the seminary, I never had a book bill, and for all those semesters, I was puzzled. The store manager would tell me nothing. Years after ordination, the widow of our family doctor told me that he had covered my expenses for the whole time. It was recently revealed at his funeral that my old Archbishop in Oklahoma City had won several million dollars in the Texas Lottery. Through an attorney he remained anonymous, quietly funding social justice projects in the Diocese until the money was gone. No recognition for either of those two, but I can tell you that their alms giving motivated me and countless others to a new level of generosity springing out of gratitude and the humble recognition that everything we have is a gift.

And when it comes to fasting, we ought to realize that this is not something just for lent, and it’s not a seasonal diet. It is about sacrifice and discipline. It is a challenge to a culture that is overweight and overindulgent. It’s not about giving up candy or movies. It is about saying “no” or “enough.” It is about taking seriously the enormous amount of food displayed so temptingly at the door of a grocery store and the fact that more than half of humanity is hungry right now. It is about wondering what we can do about it and making some decision.

I think that Jesus is firing a warning over the bow with these words, and there really is Good News here. It is about a treasure in heaven. Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving form the basic structure of life for us. Used rightly, these will free us to live in the abundance of God’s gracious and merciful goodness. They free us from “not enough” worry. This is good news, and more than enough reason to live with hope.

February 15, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Sirach 15:15-20 + Psalm 129 + 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10 + Matthew 5: 17-37

Oscar Wilde once observed that “as one reads history, one is sickened, not by the crimes the wicked have committed, but by the punishments the good have inflicted. A community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of a crime.” It’s a long way of saying that revenge keeps the cycle of violence or evil going. As I often say to people who confess anger as a sin. There is nothing wrong with anger. Jesus was angry many times, but he was never angry about anything done to him. His anger was in response to things done to the innocent, the week, and the helpless. There is a time when anger is appropriate. But, when anger turns to revenge, we have let the evil enter our souls becoming part of it.

Love your enemies is one of the most revolutionary things ever said. Most revolutionaries say that the enemy must be destroyed. Most of us have a hard-enough time trying to love our friends. After a few years of marriage, many discover that loving your spouse becomes a challenge, and something you have to decide to do every day.

All of us have some “enemies,” or at least some people we positively dislike. If we take time to think about why we dislike them, our reasons are probably a bit shallow maybe even silly. The fact is, there is a deeper reason that has nothing to do with anything offensive or something they have done or said. The real reason underneath it all is that they bring out the worst in us. Enemies expose a side of us which we usually try to keep hidden from our friends, a dark side of our nature which we would rather not know about. The enemy stirs up ugly things inside us which is why we hate them.

It seems to me that to love one’s enemy is not, in the first place, to do them good. Rather, it is to allow them to be different, to be themselves, and not try to turn them into a copy of ourselves so that we may be able to love them. The first movement then toward loving an enemy is simply to let them be – let them be themselves.

I do not believe that Jesus expects us to feel love for our enemy because the love he expects is not a feeling, it is an act of will. It is a decision to respect, tolerate and be patient with someone for whom we do not have loving feelings. Jesus is not talking about feelings. He is talking about love as God knows it. The only way we can love in the way Christ asks of us is with the help of God. When Christ asks us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, the perfection he is talking about is the perfection of love. God loves his children unconditionally. He loves them not because they are good but because he is good. If we want to be good, then we learn from the example of Jesus Christ how to live in peace with those who are not a copy of ourselves. One of us is usually enough.

February 8, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Isaiah 58: 7-10 + Psalm 112 + 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5 + Matthew 5: 13-16

In a world full of salt shakers, we have to work our brains around what Jesus has to say to us today, because what was precious when he first spoke these words is utterly common today. Yet, the Word of God always speaks to the present, and his direct address to us by saying, ‘You are the salt of the earth” suddenly does not suggest today that we are something rare and precious anymore. Now this living Word speaks to us in the present time when salt shakers are everywhere, and there are more kinds of lightbulbs for sale with more different colors than the rainbow and more different base sizes than any of us can figure out.

If Jesus is speaking to us today about something precious and rare, he would have said: “You are Gold. You are Uranium.” But no, it’s still about salt and light that he speaks. These may not be the most glamorous or important elements in the universe, but today they are worth more than anything else, because they are life-giving and useful for the well-being of the world.

Salt is a little thing, but just a pinch of salt can make a big difference. It is not much different with light. Whether it is a candle or a 1000-watt spot light, when it’s dark, a candle will do just fine. What Jesus would have us see is that these things, salt and light are quite ordinary, and at the same time quite useful, and that’s the point.

Look at us, no one is asking for our autograph or trying to take selfies with us to tell their friends about. We are simply ordinary people living ordinary lives. We are as common and almost as numerous as a salt shaker or one of those hundreds of light bulbs in Home Depot or Lowes, and here is the point. Jesus speaks today to ordinary people to remind us of something and perhaps clarify the purpose of our existence.

It’s about being useful. Like ordinary salt or ordinary light, we are here to be useful, beneficial, life-giving elements in this world. We are not here to consume, reproduce, play bridge or golf, or watch football on the weekends. The time we have here is provided for us to make a difference. It does not have to be something big all at once. It might just as well be something small that can make as much difference as a pinch of salt or a candle in the darkness.

We were not made to be hidden. There is a mission, that if taken seriously, will fundamentally shift how we plan our days, in terms of what we do, how we do it, and why. “You” says Jesus Christ, not someone else, and not at another time. “You are the salt of the earth.” “You are a light made for shining.” These are not words from the past. We just heard them right now, and every one of us who hears the Word of God must make a difference and be useful every day.

February 1, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Zephaniah 2:3; 3 12-13 + Psalm 46 + 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31 + Matthew 5: 1-12

Let’s try that again: Blessed are rich who can take care of themselves. Blessed are those who never know a loss. Blessed are the powerful. Blessed are those who are realistic and compromise their principles at every turn. Blessed are those who demand an eye for an eye. Blessed are the clever alert and seizing every opportunity for gain. Blessed are those bold enough to make war. Blessed are those who do good things expecting great praise. Blessed are those who follow Jesus until it gets tough.

That’s the way most of this world works, the world into Jesus was born and the world in which he first spoke on that hillside. It really has not changed much which ought to make us a little uncomfortable since so many have given their lives to change it, revealing for us those who have God’s favor. If we can believe what Jesus says, the truly blessed are ultimately and actually the gentle, the merciful, peace makers, and the poor.

The Beatitudes are not a code of ethics, an instruction for righteous living, or a list of tasks that once complete will gain God’s favor.  These Beatitudes describe those who have God’s favor, the victims of a society that is far from the Kingdom of God. These are words of hope and encouragement. They acknowledge that God knows the poor, the sad, the meek, the merciful, pure of heart, and peacemakers. God knows who waits for justice and those who are persecuted. They have God’s favor. They are the Blessed ones. At the same time, the Beatitudes are not calling anyone to become victims. They simply call our attention to those who are victims. So that perhaps, we might bless them too with attention, favor, respect, and concern. Perhaps by our willingness to walk with them, share their suffering, and lift them up, we might also begin to know what it is to be Blessed.

Years ago, a parish I was leading began to support, frequently visit, and share what we had in abundance with a large orphanage in Haiti. What we all discovered is that in coming to know them, what we gave was far less than what we gained. They were more of a blessing to us than anything we gave to them. As Cardinal George of Chicago years ago said at a gathering of wealthy donors: “The poor need us, and we need the poor to keep us out of hell.” What we can see through the Beatitudes is a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God must be like and will be like when we truly chose to make it our home.

January 18, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle, St Finbarr & Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Isaiah 49: 3, 5-6 + Psalm 40 + 1 Corinthians 1: 1-3 + John 1: 29-34

There is hardly a more consistent thread running through all four Gospels than the effort to reveal the identity of Jesus Christ. Matthew and Luke begin that revelation by presenting a Genealogy through which they begin to establish who is this man. Midway through Mark’s Gospel after dropping numerous clues, Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am.” Today John goes straight to the issue in the 29^th verse of the first chapter by having the Baptist announce the identity of Jesus. He is the one on whom God’s Spirit comes to rest like a dove.

Until the identity of Jesus is confirmed, what he does means very little. Until then he is just a man from Nazareth, a carpenter. Yet, he speaks with authority and reveals God with powerful signs and words. His baptism is the defining moment that sets the trajectory of his life and begins his ministry. Not until that moment is it really clear what and how his life and his mission will unfold.

It is the same for you and me. Our baptisms establish who we are and what we are about. Sadly, the reality and the importance of this moment has slid into something that happens just because it’s what we have always done or because Mom and Dad expect it. As a result, our real identity is vague at best, and our mission is never quite clear or consistent.

As a people baptized into the Spirit of Jesus Christ our mission is to become so like him that others might recognize him in us. The only way this is possible is because we listen and learn imitating him with our thoughts, words, and deeds. All of that happens because we come to trust his presence in our lives so much so that we communicate often by prayer, hear his word in our assembly at the Eucharist, and consume his body and blood. As Saint Augustine said: “We become what we receive.”

This day and the Gospel we proclaim is as much about our identity as it is about the identity of Jesus Christ. We are reminded that we too are beloved by God, called by God, with a mission to be God’s presence to those who seek the face of Divine Love. When life confronts any of us with questions and doubts, we know and can proclaim that we are with Christ, in Christ, and for Christ who lives in us. To be his body in this world is the essence of our faith and the joy of the Gospel.

January 11, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Isaiah 42: 1-4, 607 + Psalm + Acts 10: 34-38 + Matthew 3: 13017

If any of you have had the opportunity and privilege of visiting the Holy Land, you surely saw the Jordan river. Having seen countless holy cards, and paintings of Jesus coming up out of pristine blue waters and stepping onto the lush green grass, I was shocked and a little put off by what I saw. At the place where we stopped, it was little more than a ditch with brown muddy water barely moving down to the Dead Sea. Some in our tour struggled down through the rocks to touch and collect some of that water. Several people waded in to it. I didn’t want to get near that water let along touch it. I have no idea what the Jordan River may have been like 2,000 years ago, but I suspect that what artists imagined might have been true. What we have now is probably a good example of how this earth and its precious water has been treated.

That evening, I reflected on my reluctance to go down to that water, and how willingly Jesus did. It occurred to me that the Son of God left the glory of heaven to come down to this earth and mingle with the likes of us. Willing to touch lepers, be seen with known sinners, and even though innocent, suffer the agonizing death of a criminal.

There is something more to think about, something more revealed than just a conversation with John the Baptist and a voice speaking to all confirming who it is that has come up from this water. Matthew tells us that the heavens were opened. There is new communication between us and God. This is a decisive moment in human history. Not only did I begin to understand that this moment Matthew describes is another way of seeing the Incarnation, I began to see what science is leaning toward, that all life forms began in the water and eventually, came up onto the land.  There is so much more to this story than just a day in the life of Jesus or John. It is an opportunity to see and come to grips with the truth and reality of God coming into human life.

We are all searching for God. If it sometimes seems difficult to find God, it might be that we are looking in the wrong places. Instead of looking into beautiful basilicas or churches, or looking to mountain tops, maybe we should be looking in the ghettos. If Jesus went down into that river, he got dirty. Sometimes, it seems to me, if we really want to follow Jesus Christ, we need to get dirty as well. It could be that when we do, we may be surprised at the beautiful light shining out from where we least expect it.

We may not celebrate the Baptism of the Lord without celebrating and remembering our own baptism, which is a decisive moment in our history. It is the moment when we choose whether or not we shall live as Christ lived or not. How we are to do that is revealed in the readings we heard before this Gospel. They offer some guidance: inspire justice make us open to all people.

January 4, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint William Parishes in Naples, FL

Isaiah 60: 1-6 + Psalm + Ephesians 3: 2-3, 5-6 + Matthew 2: 1-12

In the first four chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, all the names of Jesus Christ are put before us. First the name, “Christ” comes at the end of the Genealogy that centers upon being the anointed one as David was anointed in the Book of Exodus.  Then in dream, Joseph is told to give the child the name, “Jesus”, which means, “God Saves.” Then Matthew reaches back to the prophet Isaiah calling Jesus “Emmanuel” which mean God is with us. With the story we tell today, another name is given: “King of the Jews.” Interestingly, that name will not be spoken again in Matthew’s Gospel until Pilate speaks at a trial. One last title or name is yet to be affirmed, and that will come next weekend.

For now, it is King that matters, and the news that a real king has been born in the royal city of Bethlehem from which came King David, frightens King Herod. There is a threat here because Herod is not a real king. He is a usurper. He has no right to the throne. He seized it by murder, and the presence of someone who does have a right throws him into a spasm of violence. Suddenly, good news becomes bad news. The old order, the old kind of power and authority that uses fear, threats, and violence is finished. A new kind of King who rules by love and whose authority comes from service and the care of others is on the rise. Dark days are fading as light and hope comes from Bethlehem.

For us, there is here a lesson on power and authority, what it should look like if it comes from God, and how it should work. Slowly we have seen our Church embrace this revelation in our own life-time. The days of throwing people out with excommunications, of threatening hell fire as a motive for doing the right thing rather than love have gone. We have seen a new face of authority in leaders who serve the poor, embrace the lost and draw those on the margins into the embrace of the church. One day, we may see this same face of authority and leadership around the world when civil leaders with power and authority set aside threats and fear to reach out, embrace, comfort and respect everyone who stands before them.

At the heart of all of this there comes the inspiration that springs from the prophet who promised Emmanuel. We have sung it over and over again: Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and we have just celebrated as best we can the birth of this child called: “God Saves.” It is almost too much to hope for, to understand, and to hang on to.

For me there is a name and three words that hold up my hope, give me peace, and give me light on the darkest of days. “Emmanuel:” Three words: Godwith us! Think of it, God with us. We have the ultimate companion revealed to us in Jesus Christ as forgiving love and a life-giving spirit. The last words of Matthew’s Gospel are: I will remain with you always.  Then there is God WITH us. Not reigning from an imperial throne or some distant heaven. God is WITH us living, walking beside us, listening, holding, protecting. And finally, God with US. No matter where we are, who we are, what color we are or where we are from, it is us that God has come to be with.

This Epiphany day invites us all to face the stunning reality of Emmanuel. God With Us. This Epiphany day urges us to decide what it is we will follow in this new year urging us to set off toward it with the bold and adventurous hope that can only spring from faith.

January 1, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL

Numbers 6: 22-27 + Psalm + Galatians 4: 4-7 + Luke 2: 16-21

Is this feast about Mary or about God? We ought to think about that. When we say that Mary is the mother of God, the focus should shift to the identity of her son. Just seven days after we celebrate the Birth of Christ, we are proclaiming his identity.

Not long after Pentecost and the birth of the church, there began to be trouble over the true identity of Christ. Even among important leader/bishops, the challenge of how to understand and express the nature of a man who was both human and divine caused a lot of polarization. It got the point in some places where violence erupted, and communities were torn a-part. Was Jesus only acting like a human because he was so divine or was he a human that assumed or was granted some divine powers. The issue became so serious that the very unity of civil/political society was at stake.

By the year 381, the Emperor, Constantine had had enough, and he ordered all the Bishops to a small town out in the middle of nowhere away from their urban comforts. He ordered them to sort it out, and eventually they did, but not without a lot of trouble. The result was the Creed that we recite on Sundays and special occasions.   It settled the identity of Jesus by declaring that by the Holy Spirit, the Son of God became man born of the Virgin Mary.

You might think that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t. Now the status of Mary became the point of dispute into the 4^th century when another Council was called, this time at the urging of the Bishop of Rome. Ephesus was the place, and it was 451. Finally, at this Council it was affirmed that Mary was the Mother of God hoping to put a stop to those who called her the Mother of Christ. Of course, pronouncements never really settle anything if you are the opposition, and the controversy took a long time to settle down.

For every one of us, there is still the need to clarify the identity of Jesus Christ and get ourselves in line with what has been revealed. In these days, it seems to me that the Divine Nature has become primary in the faith of too many when in truth neither human or divine is primary. We run the risk of still throwing the identity of Christ, fully divine and fully human out of balance. When that happens, we forget what it really means for God to enter into human life. We forget that God knows how we feel, how we suffer, how we struggle, and what we fear.

The fracture of the Christian Community is still a cause of shame, and for me, Mary is our hope for unity. Like any mother who sees her children at odds, not speaking to each other, and refusing to come together it is my hope that she will call us back together. Today we take time to clarify our own faith in Jesus Christ while at the same time call upon the mother whose children are still not at peace with the hope that we may all be one and joyfully celebrate the mystery that God has chosen to be one with us.

December 28, 2025 at Saint Peter and Saint William Parishes in Naples, FL

Sirach 3: 2-6, 12-14 + Psalm + Colossians 2: 12-21 + Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23

Many are away from us today having gone somewhere to be with their families. Some of you have come here to join family members for Christmas. There is no way to negotiate this holy season without thoughts of our families. We do so with all kinds of emotions from tender memories to painful ones of loneliness and sadness. Unlike the Holy Family fleeing Herod, we cannot flee our family memories. We have been shaped by them: good, bad, or indifferent. Families can be safe and comforting or fearful and angry, breeding resentment. Some are a mix of both.

We all navigate family waters as best we can. If our memories are positive, we have to listen to God’s call to share what we have known with those whose lives we touch. If memories are hurtful, we find a way to walk with God on a path of healing out of the heartache. If we are still living with hurtful individuals, we can listen to God’s voice that urges us to find tolerance, love, and safety.

A very real family is put before us today inviting us to wonder and imagine how and why they are so “holy.” Thinking that it was because of the Divine Nature of the son in this family boarders on heresy because his divinity never interfered with his real and true humanity. The holy ones here are the mother and the father. Two obedient children of God who know how to listen, ponder, and seek to do the right thing and the will of God.

The real story of this family is untold. We know nothing about their lives together except that they were faithful to the customs and practices of their faith. The only clues we get to what that family life was like comes from things Jesus said and did as an adult. We find him compassionate and tender with a widow whose only son has died. We find him comfortable in many homes, but seemly often at the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. In that home we find him unbothered by a little spat between the woman. Of all the parables, the “Prodigal Son” presents a father who acts more like a mother than a wealthy patriarch. I do believe that he spoke that parable out of his own experience at home. Jesus became a human being revealing God because he was raised in a family made holy because they listened to God who called them to compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. That’s what made that family holy. They put on love which is the bond of perfection.

I wonder sometimes if in God’s plan this three-person family is not a reflection of the ultimate Holy Family which we call the Trinity. In that family there is a powerful exchange of love beyond human limits giving us the Jesus who reveals an unconditional and extravagant love beyond our imagination. Jesus was formed by that love, and his mission is to form us and draw us into that holy family.

Christmas is not over. It has just begun, and it will not end when the tree comes down. There is some light in the darkness of these times. It is a light that comes from God who must be hoping that we will allow the light of His Son to shine not just in this holy place but in our homes where we shall become holy as we were meant to be, Peace be with you, friends.