August 2, 2026

Dear Parishioners,

Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans – the part we have this Sunday (chapter 8, versus 35-39) – is one of the most beautiful things Paul ever wrote. What will be able to separate us from the love of Christ?

We’re used to hearing the message that God loves us unconditionally. Nothing new there. So, I would venture to say when we listen to this second reading at Mass, our hearts won’t be moved. It doesn’t mean we doubt that God loves us. It’s simply that we’re so familiar with hearing ‘God loves you’ it doesn’t penetrate to our heart. It’s like hearing “I love you” everyday from your spouse. Not a bad thing. But it doesn’t necessarily melt us. 

And yet, if it was so obvious and evident that God loves us and nothing can separate us from God loving us, Paul wouldn’t have needed to write it. There must have been people doubting God’s everlasting love. Paul himself must have doubted it too. And if saints can doubt it, well, then, we can doubt it too. We just might not be fully aware that we are doubting God’s love for us, but it happens.

Some people might doubt God loves them when they sin. You sin, small or large, and you think God has rejected you, pulled his grace away from you, and doesn’t love you. He’s abandoned you–at best–and/or will punish you–at worst. Obviously that’s not true. Paul doesn’t even list sin as one of the potentialities for God not loving us. He says, Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? He doesn’t say, Will sin separate us from the love of Christ? No, he doesn’t include that because it’s so obvious to him that sin cannot separate us from God. Sin does just the opposite. It draws God even more to us, makes him love us even more. So, hopefully your sins don’t weigh too heavily on you.

Where doubt can creep in about whether or not God still loves us is in the face of suffering. Again, look at Paul’s list–anguish, distress, persecution, etc. If God loved us so much, we think (perhaps subconsciously), why would God allow this to happen to me? We think love means benefits and happiness. If we’re receiving no benefits and are not happy, then it must mean God has withdrawn his love from us. 

Think about when you are grieving a loss, be it your loved one who has died, the loss of your health, the loss of a friend, the loss of your job, or the loss of a dream (to be married, to have children, to have a particular vocation or experience). This is a very painful state to be in. The temptation is to think, again, that God has withdrawn his love for us. We feel abandoned and alone. Or, if we don’t go in that direction, we just figure there is no grace in this at all. It’s just a tough state that we need to get through.

The invitation from our Lord is to trust that not only has God not stopped loving, but that he is, again, loving us all the more and pouring out even more grace in this moment of pain. Trusting in God won’t take the pain away. That’s not the goal. Trusting in God will, however, activate our hearts and bring us into a deeper experience of divine love. 

In the Gospel scene, Jesus takes a few loaves of bread, blesses them, breaks them, and then gives them out. He could have just blessed and gave. Each person could have received a whole loaf. Jesus wasn’t being stingy. He wanted the experience of breaking. He wanted us to know there is something special in being broken. This is why he let the crowd go out to the desert and grow hungry in the first place. Not to torture them, but to love them.

It’s for us, when our hearts are broken, to place them in contact with the broken heart of Jesus, who suffers alongside us. “His heart was moved with pity for them,” we hear. Recall, Jesus was mourning the death of his cousin, John the Baptist, when he came across the crowd in the deserted place. Christ’s Sacred Heart is pierced continually with anguish. So too is ours. If we can place our heart next to his, love will be exchanged and graces will pour forth for the Church.

The heart-to-heart contact happens when we pray. It also happens when we receive communion at Mass. The priest intentionally takes the large host and breaks it during the Lamb of God. He is breaking the Lord’s heart and placing his own broken heart on that paten. The priest is also placing all the broken hearts of the people on that paten as well. I’ve always thought the paten (the plate that holds the large host) is like a crucible–a heat-resistant container that melts substances and fuses them together. Our hearts are all fused with Christ’s at the Mass.

That, by the way, is what “full, active, conscious participation” in the Mass means. It’s not singing or being able to do readings (or understand the readings) or give out communion as a Eucharistic Minister, etc. True and proper participation happens at an unseen level. It’s each one of us bringing our hearts to the altar and letting Christ love us, particularly in the face of suffering.

There’s an oldie by the Everly Brothers called “Bye, Bye Love.” It’s a great tune, and one I enjoy singing and playing on the guitar, but it’s not true. We don’t have to say farewell to love. We may lose out on one love, but we gain the greatest love of all, that of our Lord and Savior.

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This Sunday, August 2nd at the 9am Mass Sr. Pia Shelton and Sr. Molly Bernadette Spiering, Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, will be making vows for their religious life. This will take place after the homily. The sisters make temporary, simple, vows each year until they make their perpetual, or final vows, and we are fortunate to be able to have Sr. Pia and Sr. Molly Bernadette profess their simple vows this year at St. Paul of the Cross. We will have a light reception afterwards downstairs in the Holy Family Chapel to celebrate their commitment. 

At the same time, we do have some sad news about our beloved Sr. Pia, who has been acting as our school campus minister for the past year. Sr. Pia’s community has called her to another apostolate, so she will be leaving her role on our staff. (Sr. Molly is also being transferred to a convent on the east coast.) While Sr. Pia will still be located at the convent in Des Plaines, we will miss her regular presence around the parish. She has been a great blessing to us, and we wish her all the best. Please keep Sr. Pia, Sr. Molly, and their community in your prayers.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. James