With the school year kicking off, Fr. Dom ties together three straight Sundays of readings around one line from St. Catherine of Siena, which is also this year's parish (OLC) theme: "Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire."
And that only happens when the three virtues we're given at baptism, faith, hope, and charity, actually get put to work.
He starts by walking back through the last two weeks. Elijah, hiding in a cave from a queen who wants him dead, finally hears God in the whispers of the wind and that's what steadies his faith.
Then Peter, watching the storm swallow the boat, doesn't ask Jesus to calm it. He asks to get out and walk toward him instead. Fr. Dom's point: faith, hope, and charity don't get unlocked when life is calm. They get unlocked when we actually step out of the boat.
From there he circles back to last Sunday's gospel regarding the Canaanite woman who won't take no for an answer, even after Jesus tests her with a hard line about dogs and table scraps. Her comeback earns her one of the only "great is your faith" lines in all of scripture. Wit is one of her strong suits.
Fr. Dom notes the real audience for that moment was the apostles, who'd wanted to send her away. Jesus was showing them the kingdom was bigger than they thought.
Which brings him to today's gospel: Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi, standing in front of a pagan temple built over what people believed was a literal gate to the underworld. "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And Jesus hands him the keys right there. Fr. Dom shares that this exact passage is what pulled him into the Catholic Church in the first place.
He wraps it all up together: every one of them had faith, hope, and charity unlocked by leaning into something hard, not by avoiding it.
That's the challenge this week: let God do the same in you.
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