“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”
–St. Augustine.
Today the Church continues reading from S. Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, a region just north of Phrygia and Pisidia in the Province of Asia Minor (southern Turkey). This letter was intended to be circulated to the various churches S. Paul had founded on his missionary journeys. He begins the epistle by citing his apostolic authority as well as the opening salutation: “To the churches of Galatia…”
So-called Judaizers had come into the region after S. Paul, and were perverting the Gospel. These teachers were insisting that converts to Christianity had first to comply with the Law of Moses, including circumcision. S. Paul viewed this matter with such urgency that he forgoes his traditional epistolary opening formula of thanksgiving and commendation to his readers (cf. Phil 1.3-11).
In the portion of this epistle appointed for this today, S. Paul summarizes his argument. The Judaizers are primarily concerned with their own reputation amongst the Jewish community, particularly in Jerusalem. By their adherence towards the Law, especially the defining ritual of circumcision, they avoid being thrown out of the synagogue.
S. Paul contrasts this perspective with that of “the cross of Christ.” Christ completes the Law by his perfect sacrifice; he is the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world. The Law was not able to make men righteous, but functioned to reveal our specific transgressions against God’s express will.
Placing ourselves under the Law would only negate the work of Christ on the Cross. It would bring us back into bondage, for as S. Paul reminds his readers, no one is able to keep the Law perfectly, save Our Lord. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
Then S. Paul explains the heart of the Gospel: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Where the Law keeps us in bondage to sin, Christ releases us from the hold of sin. His death on the Cross defeats the hold that sin has on us as well as the effect of sin, namely death.
Tomorrow, we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. We rejoice in the Cross for on that instrument of death, as S. Paul states, the world becomes dead to me and I become dead to the world. By “world”, S. Paul means that realm over which Satan rules. All of our besetting and not so besetting sins have no hold over us in this new reality.
The action of making the “sign of the Cross” reminds us that we are no longer held under sin’s control, but we have found freedom in Christ. Just as we were marked with the sign of the Cross in Baptism, whenever we sign ourselves, we make a declaration: God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
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“Surrogacy is by its nature evil and incompatible with Christian faith and morality. The desire to have children cannot be interpreted as a right to have children, because a child, in the ontological sense, as a human being, is not the property of its parents.”
–Polish Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
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HOW SHOULD WE TREAT SOMEONE WHO DOES US WRONG?
BY: Fr. Francis Maple (September 6, 2026).
Ezekiel 33:7-9 & Matthew 18:15-20
There is something I find hard to do – and I wonder if you feel the same. It is pointing out to others the wrong they are doing. I feel I should mind my own business yet in today’s Gospel Jesus says, “If your brother does something wrong go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.”
This too is the teaching in the first reading. Ezekiel says, “If I say to a wicked man: Wicked wretch, you are to die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked man to renounce his ways, then he shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death. If, however, you do warn a wicked man to renounce his ways and repent, and he does not repent, then he shall die for his sin but you yourself will have saved your life.”
Obviously, the matter you are going to approach your brother about must be something serious. So, Jesus lays down a procedure which begins with praying about this matter for the correct approach, that we make our brother see the folly of his ways and repent, and that the aim of our approach is not going to bring about a rift between the two of us. Certainly, no good will come if we approach him in anger!
“Now,” Jesus says, “go and have it out with him alone.” That means that we are not to gossip to another person about the matter. We must make our brother see that we are not there to gloat over his sin but that we have only his best interest at heart.
Jesus says, “If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.” Our approach has been right and successful and the Holy Spirit has softened his heart.
Jesus continues, “If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you.” The persons we take should be wise, gracious and impartial, not hot-tempered and judgmental. The goal is not to put the offender on trial, but to persuade him to see the wrong and repent.
Jesus goes on, “But, if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community.” Jesus hopes by now he will see the seriousness of his wrong and that he will listen to the community.
Lastly, Jesus concludes, “If he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.” What did Jesus mean? Is Jesus really telling us to abandon this stubborn and obdurate offender and treat him like a social outcast as the Jews treated pagans and tax collectors? Something tells me the answer is ‘Yes’ because of the gradation of treatment we are to use in bringing our brother to repent. Didn’t Jesus once say, “Do not throw your pearls before swine?” Again, how did Jesus treat Herod at His trial? He spoke not one word to him.
Yet another part of me thinks I am sure Jesus would not tell His church to freeze anyone out. I think Jesus would always want us to leave the door of communication open. Jesus refuses no one who is ready to receive pardon and healing! The call to accountability is inevitable and we cannot escape it, both in this life or at the Day of Judgment when the Lord will return. But while we have the opportunity we must not give up on stubborn offenders, but instead make every effort to win them with the grace and power of God’s healing love and wisdom.
Lord Jesus, make me an instrument of your peace. If ever I am in a situation where correction has to be given, may I go through the procedure you have laid down and bring about peace and reconciliation.
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The Culture of Outrage
BY: Thomas Igwe (September 6, 2026).
We live in a culture that seems increasingly angry. Open a phone, scroll through social media, read the comments beneath a news story, or listen to a public debate, and there is often no shortage of outrage. Someone has said something offensive, someone has done something wrong, someone belongs to the “wrong” group, and the response is immediate: condemn, criticize, mock, expose, or cancel. Sometimes outrage is justified. Christians should never become indifferent to injustice, abuse, dishonesty, poverty, or the suffering of others. The prophets were not silent before injustice, and Jesus Himself did not remain indifferent to hypocrisy and the misuse of religion. But there is a difference between being rightly disturbed by evil and allowing anger to become a permanent condition of the heart. Perhaps one of the questions Christians need to ask today is this: Have we learned how to oppose what is wrong without despising the person who is wrong?
Jesus gives us a difficult example. He could speak with extraordinary firmness against hypocrisy, yet He never ceased to see the human person. Even when calling people to repentance, He did not reduce them to their sins. He confronted the sinner while leaving the door open to conversion. This distinction is important because outrage can easily become self-righteousness. We begin by opposing an idea or condemning an injustice, but gradually we begin to enjoy condemning people. We stop asking what is true and begin asking who deserves our anger. We stop seeking conversion and begin seeking humiliation.
Social media can make this temptation even stronger. A few words can turn a stranger into an enemy. A person becomes a label: conservative or liberal, rich or poor, immigrant or native-born, religious or secular, educated or uneducated. Once we reduce a person to a label, it becomes easier to forget that there is a human being behind it. Christianity offers a different way. St. Paul writes, “Speak the truth in love.” Truth matters. Justice matters. Moral courage matters. But for the Christian, truth cannot be separated from charity. We are not called to choose between truth and love. We are called to unite them. This does not mean remaining silent when something is wrong. Christian love is not weakness, and forgiveness is not the same as pretending that evil does not exist. There are moments when Christians must speak clearly and act courageously. But even when we oppose evil, we must resist the temptation to become hateful.
The Good Samaritan offers another answer to the culture of outrage. Jesus does not ask us first to determine whether the wounded man belongs to our group. He asks us to become his neighbor. Compassion begins when another person’s suffering becomes more important than our categories.
Perhaps, then, Christians need a different kind of courage today: the courage to be concerned without becoming consumed, to disagree without becoming contemptuous, to defend truth without humiliating others, and to seek justice without losing mercy. Before joining the next outrage, perhaps we should pause and ask: Is my anger leading me toward truth, justice, and love—or simply toward another person’s humiliation? The world does not need Christians who are merely louder in their outrage. It needs Christians who are deeper in their charity, clearer in their truth, steadier in their patience, and stronger in their love. We may not be able to silence the culture of outrage. But we can refuse to let outrage become the culture of our own hearts.
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Tucker Carlson and the Muslims do not get to make up their own Jesus
You cannot love Christ while denying him
BY: Everett Piper, The Washington Times (September 7, 2026).
On one of his recent podcasts, Tucker Carlson said, “The people in charge don’t want you to know this, but Muslims love Jesus.”
Is this true? Do Muslims really love Christ?
The answer is no, and not only do they not love him, but they also deny who he even is.
Proof? Let us go to one of Islam’s most “holy” sites, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and read what Muslims actually say about Jesus there. What did Muslims choose to inscribe on this building in the seventh century as they were conquering Christendom?
Here is a summary, written on the outside of the building: “There is no god but God. … He begetteth not nor was begotten. … Praise be to God, who hath not taken unto Himself a son.”
Here is what is written on the inside: “O People of the Book … Jesus is but a messenger of God. … Do not say, ’Three.’ Desist! God is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son.”
Now, you might be asking, “Isn’t this a direct contradiction to how Jesus defines himself? Did Jesus not say he was more than just another ’messenger,’ and did he not say he was both God and God’s Son?”
The answer is yes, and here are just a few examples:
In John 8, Jesus says, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am,” and thus, he claimed the same name that Yahweh did when he defined himself to Moses.
In John 10, Jesus doubles down and says, “The Father and I are one” and “whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” a claim of godhood so clear that the Jewish leaders immediately accused him of blasphemy and tried to kill him for it.
In Matthew 12:8, Jesus unequivocally states that he is “Lord of the Sabbath,” a title reserved for God himself.
Then there is John 3:16, the quintessential Bible verse, which reads: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” a declaration that God indeed has a son, and that Jesus himself is that son.
The record is irrefutable. Jesus never pretended to be just another messenger of God, but instead, he repeatedly said he was God: the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Lion of Judah, the Good Shepherd, our redeemer and our Lord.
Jesus was not just another wise man. He was the “Word” and “the Word was God,” and the apostles went to their deaths saying so. Thomas called Jesus his “Lord and [his] God.” John declared him to be the one “true God.” Paul said, “In Him all the fullness of deity dwells.” Peter called Jesus his “God and Savior.” The writer of Hebrews was more than clear: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.”
The bottom line is that Mr. Carlson and the Muslims he seems so oddly determined to defend and elevate do not get to make up their own Jesus. In that vein, Mr. Carlson would do well to read these words from C.S. Lewis:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.
“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Pretending to love someone while at the same time accusing them of either being insincere or insane — or even worse, a demon from hell — is at best self-refuting if not blatantly hypocritical.
You cannot love Jesus while at the same time denying him. It just does not work that way.
“Many will say to me, ’Lord, Lord …’ and I will say to them, ’I never knew you. Depart from me.’” —Jesus, The Sermon on the Mount.
GFK
Observations From The Fifth Estate 