Saints Sergius and Bacchus Chapel
Palm Springs, California
Give in to the voice that says you’re too weak, not good enough, settle for the easier way — or take up your cross and go through your fears into the life of the Spirit. Karl Rahner called it the fundamental option. For all of us, the choice is the same: death or life. Choose life.
Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” — but did he even understand what he was saying? Between Shebna and Eliakim, between Pan and Yahweh, between the good popes and the self-serving ones, Scripture keeps handing us dichotomy rather than clarity. Growth doesn’t come from certainty, but from the willingness to sit with what we don’t fully understand.
There are no winners without losers — that’s how human exclusivity works. But that’s not how God sees it. The Canaanite woman, an outsider in every category, receives what Peter, the insider, was just found wanting in: great faith, rewarded without regard to status, nationality, or standing.
We expect God to fix what’s wrong. But our Scriptures show us that we encounter the power of God not in the solution, but in the difficulty itself — not in the wind, earthquake, or fire, but in a still, small voice; not calming the storm from a distance, but walking through it and saying, “Come. Do not be afraid. It is I.”
Took, blessed, broke, gave — the four eucharistic words. Jesus took not the disciples’ abundance, but their poverty, and blessed what was there rather than complaining about what wasn’t. Eucharist as trust: giving from our little, believing God will make it enough.