Wheat, Mustard, Dough, and God’s Kingdom

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus once again presents parables about the coming of God's Kingdom. Pope Leo XIV commented on this reading in his Sunday Angelus address, and he emphasized that God does not follow the criteria of worldly powers in His ways of drawing us to Himself. 

God's omnipotence is the omnipotence of love. He gives Himself freely and draws forth from within us the response in freedom of our own adherence, transforming us through His enduring love rather than imposing Himself by violence. We are called to follow God's plan of love in our way of perceiving the circumstances of this present life and in our love for others: with patience, perseverance, respect for the dignity of every human person, and confident hope that the Father's love will prevail through the gift of His Son Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

This is not easy for us Christians. We want God to "win" — or, rather, we think we want Him to "win" — according to our ideas of earthly success, which cannot encompass the mystery of His love. It is easy to slip into the pattern of wanting the victory of goodness according to our own measure, as the vindication of our power to control our own lives and our presumed superiority over others. It is easy to forget the Cross. But we have hope, because the Lord's ways are ever-greater and He has come to dwell with us. He calls us continually to give ourselves, go beyond ourselves, adhere to Him, and — in union with Him and by the transfiguring grace of His Spirit — to love one another as children of the Father, as brothers and sisters; to love our neighbors and even our enemies.

Here is an excerpt from the Pope's words today (courtesy of Vatican website):

"Following the parable of the sower, Jesus continues to address the crowds using a series of images: the good wheat and the weeds, the mustard seed and the yeast in the dough (cf. Mt 13:24–43)...[;] through these parables, Jesus reveals something important about the manner in which God works in our lives and in history. 

"We sometimes expect God to do something spectacular; we want him to intervene from on high, immediately uprooting the weeds of evil. We imagine a strong and powerful God, and, unfortunately, we also model our way of being Christians and way of being the Church on this image. However, the Kingdom of God spreads even amidst the weeds, requiring us to train our vision so we can discern the good that sprouts despite the darkness of evil, and avoiding rash judgments. It comes like the smallest of seeds and thus calls for patience in accompanying these processes, so that we can recognize it in the little things of daily life and in the simplicity of ordinary existence. It grows invisibly like yeast in flour, and so we are freed from discouragement and invited to have faith even when it seems that God is absent. In fact, he is always with us, and his love is always ready to help us.

"God’s way of acting must also become the way in which we live, both as individuals and as the Church, amidst the reality that surrounds us. We are called to adopt a Gospel-centered approach, without hastily opposing others through arrogant judgments, without imposing ourselves through power and force, and without losing trust in God’s work.”

~Pope Leo XIV, Angelus of Sunday, July 19, 2026

Low Water

“Low Water” (July 2026).

Bonaventure's "Tree of Life"

Today is the feast of Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274), Bishop and Doctor of the Church, and early follower of the charism of Saint Francis of Assisi. This outstanding contemplative theologian bequeathed to the whole Church numerous writings that inspire and guide Christians in prayer, aiding them to dwell on the Person of Jesus Christ and grow in love for Him.

The Lignum Vitae presents twelve meditations on the life, death, resurrection, and glorification of Jesus. Bonaventure "imagines" these meditations as twelve branches and their fruits that extend outward from the Cross of Jesus. The Cross is the new tree of life, the fruit of which Jesus provides for us by His redeeming death that frees us from our sins.

Bonaventure's contemplative imagery was soon illustrated in brilliant detail by the late medieval Florentine painter Pacino di Bonaguida (around the year 1310) in his famous altarpiece which is pictured above (for more information and "high definition" views, open link HERE).

Of these compelling meditations, I wish to cite an excerpt from the final one, which addresses Jesus as the goal and fulfillment of all things:

"As all things are produced through the Word eternally spoken, so all things are restored, advanced and completed through the Word united to flesh. Therefore he is truly and properly called Jesus, because there is no other name under heaven given to men by which one can obtain salvation (Acts 4:12).

[Prayer]

"Believing, hoping and loving with my whole heart, with my whole mind and with my whole strength, may I be carried to you, beloved Jesus, as to the goal of all things, because you alone are sufficient, you alone are good and pleasing to those who seek you and love your name.

"For you, my good Jesus, are the redeemer of the lost, the savior of the redeemed, the hope of exiles, the strength of laborers, the sweet solace of anguished spirits, the crown and imperial dignity of the triumphant, the unique reward and joy of all the citizens of heaven, the renowned offspring of the supreme God and the sublime fruit of the virginal womb, the abundant fountain of all graces, of whose fulness we have all received."

~Saint Bonaventure, Lignum Vitae 48

A Seed Among Thorns

“The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit” (Matthew 13:22).

This is from today’s Gospel. I recognize myself here.

Worldly anxiety and the lure of riches… I struggle with the obstructing power of these “thorns.” The lure of riches, indeed. Not so much material riches (though I wouldn’t refuse them if they came my way), but the “riches” of scholarly knowledge and reputation and influence? Those thorns still threaten to choke me. 

Worldly anxiety? These are anxious times, and they call for a deepening of faith and trust. It’s easy to make exhortations about this, but the things of this life (even the good things) stir up a deeper possessiveness in us than we realize.

I am still too attached to “this world.” Lord, have mercy on me. Increase my faith. Jesus, draw forth from within my heart a greater trust in you, a greater love for you.

The "Search" of Saint Benedict

July 11th is the Feast of Saint Benedict.

Saint Benedict was a man who went off into the desert in search of God. He sought to dedicate himself to God alone.

He had no project.

He did not plan to establish a monastery.

He did not plan to found a religious order.

He did not plan the preservation of the classical learning and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.

He did not plan to feed the poor, care for the sick, found schools, or become a counselor to the great and powerful.

He did not plan to lay the foundations for so much of what was true, good, and beautiful in the remarkable Christian-inspired civilization of the Latin Middle Ages (notwithstanding its many great flaws and inadequacies).

He sought only to give himself to God. He found God in the desert. He found Him in silence and prayer. He also found Him in obedience, which for Benedict meant responding to the little things that God gave him. It meant loving God in those first followers who sought him out. It meant helping them to live together as brothers. It meant writing his directives down, as a rule "for beginners."

Silence, prayer, obedience, humility, love. These are still the things that really matter. These are the things that build up the heart of the Church and shine light on the pathways of our journey to eternal life. But we must acknowledge all of God's gifts: it is also this radical self-forgetfulness out of love for Christ that builds up the world. Saint Benedict was not aware of this, but God used him nonetheless, and for centuries in the West he has been known as the "Father of Europe." By seeking God after his example and according to his rule, Benedict's followers would also change the history of the world. Benedictine monasteries rose out of the ruins of the Latin Roman Empire, preserved and fostered valuable achievements of late antiquity, and inspired and helped shape the institutions of the new peoples who built Western Europe's Christian-inspired culture.

In the forgetfulness, distraction, and opaqueness of today's global epoch, with its immense material power and its many genuinely good (though often ill-directed) achievements and aspirations for a more equitable and humane world, are there "new Saint Benedicts" who are willing to forsake themselves to search for God and inspire others to join them?

The Second Decade of "Remembering Christina Grimmie"

Last month completed a decade of remembering the late, legendary Christina Grimmie by her frands worldwide. July 10th marks the first month of the second decade (i.e. ten years and one month) of our ongoing appreciation of the courageous young singer, songwriter, and musician, her gift of herself, and her legacy.

I have participated in the enduring phenomenon of "Team Grimmie" over that period, both through writing and various artistic projects generating memes and/or digital artistic images (mostly portraits) based on photographs of "still shots" from her many videos. Her remarkable face has led me to appreciate the delicate art of portraiture (in what ever medium it is pursued) as a way of "searching for the human face" in its unique expressiveness.

Over these past ten years, my attempts at portraiture are, at best, "incomplete," but nearly all of them fail to express the human visage — at once familiar and mysterious — with concrete precision or even in successfully evocative caricature. Christina has not been my only subject. I have accumulated a huge digital file which serves as something between a virtual wastepaper basket and a place to store partial efforts that I believe might still have some potential.

So-called tools of "artificial intelligence" have, in my experience, expedited a few technical matters but have engendered many more problems, as their "algorithmic prejudices" frustrate the intent of my particular artistic sensibility. I am not interested in generating images from descriptive words, but rather in molding the image in its "digital plasticity" which is a "hands on" work of practical design that ranges from photographic enhancement to a kind of two-dimensional digital "sculpture." I also form "natural scenes" based on my own photographs.

I'm moved by the human face, but I'm also in search of how all these new (and constantly changing) technologies might be gathered together as "materials" for a new form of genuine art. Art springs from the human urge to "make" something beautiful and the human "intuition" that guides and governs (with an often unyielding sternness) the creative process. Ultimately, the artist him-or-her-self must must be contented with the completion of the work. No technical "tricks" or shortcuts can substitute for the discrete prompting that leads the artist to construct a work of art as a personal expression.

When it first appeared more than a century ago, photography was spurned by "real artists," and it took generations for the photographic medium to become widely used and  recognized as a crafted image of personal expression and communication. Digital programs and AI will certainly improve their capacity to "generate pictures." But an artist remains frustrated insofar as an “independent process” replaces his or her own personal involvement — the "work" of bringing forth something beautiful from "within" but also "incarnated" through an engagement with external materials. An algorithmic fabrication of a picture — even a good picture — is something essentially different from an artistic work in which I have in some significant manner invested myself. It may seem that AI can do “everything” to make a great picture, but the artist feels no connection to these pictures, and becomes frustrated and bored. I still believe the artist can gather these technological materials and make something “different,” some that is — in a certain sense — “original,” even if the artist is the only one who “sees” it. Eventually, vivid new forms may be recognized more generally, and others will be able to distinguish genuine personal artistic expressions of beauty from AI’s mass-collated-data “imitations.”

Christina Grimmie wrote music, which I also did in my youth and may yet return to. But for now, she inspires me to wrestle with a brave new world of pictorial art, seeking human faces as I have "seen" them — which remains more difficult than it might seem, but remains an artistic task that I find worth discovering and cultivating.

Joseph Zhang Dapeng: A Chinese Martyr

The Catholic Church in China maintained a continuous vital history from the time of the first Jesuit missionaries in the late 16th century until the upheavals of the mid twentieth century. At first, the Church took root in various regions through the preaching and ministry of European missionaries. The Jesuits had built up enough credit with the imperial court in Beijing to gain permission for evangelization efforts all over the Empire in the 17th century. However, Rome eventually became convinced that the Confucian practices of ancestor veneration that were so deeply woven into the whole fabric of Chinese culture constituted pagan religious superstitions, and declared that Chinese Christians could no longer participate in these family and civic rituals (a prohibition that was lifted by Pope Pius XII in 1939). This decision was one of the forces that alienated the Qing dynasty from the Church, and in 1724 Western missionaries were officially banned from China.

Although enforcement varied, persecutions broke out in different places throughout the period that is considered the “Golden Age” of the Qing dynasty. Priests were in short supply. Nevertheless the Gospel continued to fascinate Chinese people who came in contact with it, often instilling within them an urge to share it with others. Catholic communities grew and expanded by the force of their own Christian witness. Meanwhile, many ordinary Chinese sought greater truths that would speak to their unsatisfied hearts. They were drawn to “brotherhoods” of Buddhists and Taoists who had practices of meditation, fasting, and other techniques that promised to bring inner enlightenment and vitality.

One such seeker was Zhang Dapeng, a silk merchant born in 1754 in Guizhou. While he sought spiritual truth, his business ventures flourished and his extended family rose to prominence in the region. Zhang Dapeng was married, but he had no sons. In traditional China, men of means often obtained a “secondary wife” in such circumstances, in an effort to have a son to carry on the family lineage. As he approached middle age, Dapeng married a “second wife” and she gave birth to a son.

Meanwhile his friend and business partner sent his own son, Wang Zheng, to Beijing for the civil service examinations. There he encountered Christians, was baptized, and returned to Guizhou as Xavier Wang Zheng, a young man on fire for Christ and the Gospel. He began drawing others to conversion, and his witness grabbed the attention and interest of “Uncle” Dapeng, who also studied Xavier’s books and catechism. Dapeng began to believe, and wished to seek baptism, but he was hindered by the fact that he had two wives. His brothers and other relatives also raised violent objections, fearing that Dapeng’s conversion would disgrace the whole family. Dapeng struggled to choose Christ over his social status, which meant a great deal to him.

It was a catechist — Laurence Hu Shilu — who accompanied him during this struggle and guided him to make the courageous decision to convert. He stood against the opposition of his brothers (though they continued to harass him and his fellow Christians). He provided for his “second wife,” both financially and by introducing her to a Catholic man who would become her husband. Finally, at the age of 47, he was baptized Joseph Zhang Dapeng. The former silk merchant began a new life of witnessing to Christ’s saving love while also keeping one step ahead of his brothers and civil authorities. After much fruitful labor, Joseph was finally captured and executed on March 12, 1815.

Saint Joseph Zhang Dapeng is among the group of 120 Chinese martyrs canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II in the year 2000, who are celebrated as a group on the Universal Roman Calendar on July 9th. He also has a personal day for the commemoration of his own martyrdom on March 12th.

There are No “Coincidences” in Real Life

God is present in this moment.

Whatever the circumstances may be, he is using them as elements of a Person-to-person dialogue with us.

He seeks out each one of us; He has personalized the whole, vast, apparently random and chance-filled universe.

He takes all the multitudes of forces that come together and make up the situation of reality at any given moment, and fashions them — from all eternity — into a love song that He wants to sing to each of us personally.

He calls out to us, and awakens in our hearts the desire to seek Him.

It is not just in a distant, far-off way that we seek God in the midst of an apparently meaningless life. God has chosen to share our lives in a mysterious closeness. He comes to us in every circumstance so as to call us to recognize His presence, to draw us to Himself — even through suffering and weakness — and to evoke from us the response of confidence and love.

There are no "coincidences" in real life. In the ultimate truth of things, which has to do with their place in God's plan, no event is insignificant; no situation we find ourselves in can be called "meaningless," because in Jesus Christ, God has chosen to dwell in this world, and to shape everything into the possibility to discover Him through love, through joy, through suffering freely embraced, through sharing His mercy.

After all these years of life and joy and suffering and hope, I still believe that this is true. There are moments that are vivid, full of prayer and gratitude. There are other moments that are confusing, when I don’t know how to seek Him or can’t seem to “find” Him, or when the pain, the limits of my life, the exhaustion seem overwhelming. Far too many moments, however, I ignore Him, take Him for granted, or give in to distraction or boredom. Still, He is here. He dwells with us, walks with us, draws us gently and with great patience, and gives us what we need, step by step. 

I believe this, which is to say I know this by the grace of faith. It sustains my hope, and stirs the still-tiny flickering flames of supernatural love — agape, caritas — that He has enkindled in my heart.

God is present in this moment, in my moment. He has entered into the very flesh and blood, the very humanity of the ordinary moments of my every day, by becoming my companion in Jesus Christ, my brother… and your brother.

This means that we are brothers and sisters of one another, and cannot truly live any other way.

“Entering into the Dynamic of Love…”

Pope Leo visited migrants and refugees on the Southern Italian island of Lampedusa on July 4, 2026.

Hot Summer in July 2026

July is here. The huge heat wave that roasted Europeans last month seems to have made its way to North America. Triple-digit temperatures (100+ degrees) are in the forecast in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States for at least three days, with more days in the upper 90s (that’s in the “Fahrenheit” system still used in the U.S.A.; the international [Celsius] scale used by the rest of the world marks these temperatures somewhere between 37 and 38 degrees).

The “extreme weather alert” warnings definitely apply to people in my condition. I’m stuck indoors. At least we have air-conditioning. I’m still going to have to pace myself. It’s very hot right now.