Our Culture Has Forgotten This

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2026

There's always been a certain tension in the Church regarding how we should view bishops, the Pope, and priests because, on one extreme, there's such a thing as clericalism, where we put the clergy on a pedestal and believe they can do no wrong. And, of course, on the other extreme, we have this notion, "Well, they're just a man." And so, we don't have to consider them any more important or more respected than anyone else.

Speaking to this notion of "they're just a man," St. Augustine, for his entire life, struggled with lust. St. Jerome, for his entire life, struggled with anger issues. And I can guarantee you St. Peter, till the day he died, was as impetuous and rash as he was at the beginning. And yet, they're saints.

So, how do we look at people, especially priests and bishops and the Pope?

Well, that's where our first reading comes in. Notice the relationship between the woman and Elisha. Why does she think there's something that should be done for him? Because he is a holy man of God. That is the way we should view everyone. What is their relationship with God, and how do we respond to that?

That's also the point of the Gospel reading when Jesus is talking to the Apostles and He tells them, "Whoever receives you receives Me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. And whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives even a cold cup of water to one of these little ones because they are a disciple, surely they will not lose their reward."

What He's saying is we should recognize the relationship people have with God.

Here's where it becomes tricky, because all of us should have a relationship with God. In our second reading, St. Paul tells the Romans that we have been baptized into Christ. We're called to be Christians. We're called to have a relationship with God.

There is no one you will ever encounter that God doesn't love, that God doesn't love as much as He loves you. No one.

And so, we should treat each other with respect.

This is one of the scourges in our culture. We have become so coarse that we abhor the idea that someone should deserve respect, certainly that they deserve more respect than me, which, of course, runs totally counter to St. Paul telling us when he says, "Always think of others as more important than yourself."

Our culture won't let us do that. Yet, that's Christianity.

Our job is to see others as more important than us, to see others in light of Christ, to see others as beloved of Christ.

I spend a lot of time on Catholic social media, and it's absolutely horrendous how people talk about each other, to each other, and even about the Pope and bishops and priests. We lack respect. We lack love.

Our responsorial Psalm this morning was, "Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord."

Think back to the first chapter of Genesis when God creates the world. Five times, at the end of His creation, He observes, "It is good," until the sixth day.

On the sixth day, He creates us, and He says, "It is very good."

We, as Catholics, believe that no one is created bad because God has created us as good. That does not mean we don't do bad things. It does not mean we don't do stupid things. I'm a perfectly good example of that.

But we can recognize that somebody did something stupid. We can recognize that somebody did something sinful. But we cannot say that person is bad because we don't know. Even politicians.

Our job is to see everyone as a child of God, a beloved of God, someone striving to be holy.

We're not there yet. No one's going to give us an upper room because we're holy people of God. But we're working on it, and we should treat each other as children of God striving to be saints.

At least I hope all of us are striving to be saints.

Let's not undermine that by how we treat one another. Let us treat each other with respect, even with love, and especially our priests.

And Jesus, I trust in You.

Amen.