Victor Cancino, S.J.

September 14, 2025, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: This Sunday’s Exaltation of the Holy Cross did not historically come about to focus on Christ’s passion but to reflect on the instrument used during that crucifixion. The cross was a psychological weapon, and the discovery of the true cross in the fourth century allowed the faithful on this feast day to reflect on the cross as an instrument of God’s power over death.

September 7, 2025, the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time: This Sunday’s Gospel reading presents a much more difficult challenge to anyone who wished to follow after Jesus. A disciple must hate “father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life” (Lk 14:26). How can anyone understand these unreasonable demands?

August 31, 2025, the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Gospel compares two guests discerning their seat arrangement at a wedding banquet. Choose wisely.

August 24, 2025, the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time: Jesus’ response to the question—“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”—remains puzzling.

August 17, 2025, the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: There remains a glimpse of hope, according to this Sunday’s psalm, for those who wait in the Lord. But the readings also provide a meditation on lament before the realization of renewal or resurrection. 

August 10, 2025, the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: This Sunday’s readings offer three different lenses to examine what is perhaps best left mysterious: how faith works within one’s tradition.