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Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist, who worked with Paul to spread the Christian Church around the vast Roman Empire. 2000 years later, the Roman Empire is gone but the Church remains—but now, like then, the Church struggles to be heard amid the noise of the wider society. May our life in Christ animate us to be sign of the Kingdom of God so that it might spread throughout our society and around the world.

In today's Gospel, Jesus again condemns the Pharisees for being on the side of those who killed the prophets, demanding that they change on the inside, hear his critique, and thus change the way they behave. They do not listen to him. Are we open to Jesus' challenge to change our hearts, and will this change be reflected in new actions that show our love for God, for ourselves, and for those most in need?

Peter confesses Jesus as the Messiah, but then rebukes him when Jesus predicts the suffering and death he must endure. Jesus is solid in his faith and so can accept the violence of others and respond in love. Peter is not solid in his faith. Are we? If we follow Jesus, we will not be ashamed when the world bullies us, or taunts us, or inflicts violence upon us, and we, like Jesus, will respond with love.

On this Feast of the Exultation of the Cross, we are pushed to ponder why we should celebrate this violent means of death. One thing it teaches us is that by dying this way, Jesus shows us a better way to counter the violence we see in the world by not responding in violence, but through inner strength, keeping our eyes on God's plan and responding to all things with love.

Though Jesus was God, he was humble enough to accept not being recognised for who he was. If we have this sort of humility, even though we might be slighted in a thousand ways, we can find peace in our own day. Let Jesus be our guide.

Jesus said, "I am the bread come down from heaven," and he still comes to us today through the Eucharist, in which the bread and wine are transubstantiated into his body and blood. As St. Augustine said, when we worthily partake of this sacrament, the Eucharist does not become part of us, we become part of Christ.

On this Feast of Mary Magdalen we remember how she turned around and encountered Jesus on the morning of his resurrection, the same, but different. Can we turn and encounter Jesus in a new way today?

Jesus had pity on his people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus is still the Good Shepherd and can bring us together, especially when we pray.

Jesus said, "where your treasure is, there also will your heart be" as he invited us to see that God is indeed our greatest treasure. Recognising this will allow us to live with integrity as our values and heart will be in line with how God made us.

Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father...", in which we are invited to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and become personal outposts of it today and here.

As we finish the Book of Acts, Paul proclaimed Jesus as Lord in the center of the Roman Empire, where Caesar was proclaimed to be Lord. You and I have the same task living in modern empires.

In a famous scene from the Gospel of John, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him perfectly, and all Peter can do is reply that he loves him as a brother. So Jesus accepts this as a starting point in order to help Peter move towards a more perfect love. In the same way, God meets us where we are in order to help us get to where we want to be.