About seventeen years ago, I was attending the FOCUS National Staff Training in Champaign Illinois. FOCUS stands for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. That’s where I first met Father Mike Schmitz, long before his podcast The Bible in a Year made him one of the most recognizable Catholic voices in the world. I remember hearing him preaching at a daily Mass back then and thinking “Man oh man this guy is incredibly gifted.” Since then I’ve listened to countless homilies, talks and podcasts from Father Mike. And I’ve been thankful for the countless times he’s shared an insight that has stayed with me for years.
Thank you for taking the time to read this homily for the 13th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME -JUNE 28, 2026 – Your support means a great deal to me, and I’m deeply grateful for the many who share these messages with their friends, families and social media followers. If you’ve found meaning in these words, I’d be grateful if you’d share them with others who might benefit.
And for those who prefer listening, you can find the audio version on SoundCloud HERE or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes HERE. Your comments, messages, and the way you’ve embraced these homilies continue to inspire me. Sincerely in Christ -Father Jim
One of those insights was something he mentioned not too long ago about the word priority.
He pointed out that historically, “priority” referred to the thing that came first… The thing that had the biggest claim. The thing that took precedence over everything else. Today we constantly talk about priorities. We have family priorities – work priorities – financial priorities – fitness priorities – vacation priorities – retirement priorities – social priorities…
Everyone has their lists.
But there’s a problem.
If everything is a priority, then nothing really is.
And suddenly today’s Gospel sounds a lot less shocking.
Because Jesus isn’t talking about one priority among many.
He’s talking about the Priority.
On first glance those words we heard today: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me… Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me… are incredibly jarring. They’re not the gentle, comforting words we expect from Jesus. In fact if this were someone’s introduction to Christianity they might think that sounds unreasonable. Isn’t family important? Wasn’t there a commandment about honoring our father and mother (spoiler, there was – it’s the fourth one…) Didn’t Jesus Himself care for His own mother Mary? Of course is the answer to all those questions.
Jesus is not telling us to love our families less.
He’s telling us that loving Him must come first.
And that’s an incredibly important distinction.
He’s not asking for a place somewhere on the list. He’s claiming first place.
And that’s what makes being a Christian different from being a religious or “spiritual.” Many people think faith means adding a little God into an already busy life… We add Him alongside everyone and everything else… A little prayer – get to Mass – do some good deeds. But Jesus never presents Himself as one option among many. He says I must be first.
It sounds radical, because it is.
It’s interesting how often we admire that same kind of single-minded dedication in other ares of life without questioning it.
Think about Michael Phelps – the most decorated Olympian in history. That didn’t happen by accident. It wasn’t luck or simply genetics that made him the best of the best. His entire life had been ordered around a single goal – to become the greatest swimmer in the world. It wasn’t just his training, diet, and sleep. It was his schedule, his social life, his vacations, his family, his daily habits. Everything was organized around that one pursuit. It wasn’t one of his priorities. It was THE priority…and it worked. He won a record 28 medals and is considered one of the greatest athletes of all time.
Which is why so many people were shocked when they learned later how he battled severe depression and felt completely lost after reaching those heights. Here was a man who had reached the summit. The dream he had organized his entire life around had come true.
And yet he found himself asking the same question so many people ask after getting everything they thought they wanted:“Now what?”
How could it happen to someone who has so much going for him?
Because success can accomplish many things – but it cannot save us.
Achievement can satisfy certain desires – but not the deepest longings of the human heart.
That’s why Jesus’ words are so important. He’s not demanding first place because He’s insecure or his ego needs it. He isn’t competing with our families, our dreams or our ambitions. He’s telling us the truth about reality. That only God belongs in first place, because only God can hold first place. Or as St. Augustine more eloquently put it “You have made us for yourself O Lord and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Every one of us knows that restlessness. We tell ourselves:
“If I could just get this promotion…”
“If I could just get married…”
“If I could just retire…”
“If I could just buy that house…”
“If I could just get through this problem…”
And then we get there. And the heart starts searching again.
That’s what St Paul is reminding us in today’s second reading from his letter to the Romans. He says something that should be underlined in all of our bibles and etched into our hearts “we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death…” Think about that. For too many of us, we think of it as a rite of passage, a celebration welcoming this beautiful new life into our families – our family of origin and now the family of God. And there’s truth in all of that.
But St. Paul is hitting on the essential truth of what Baptism means in the life of a Christian that maybe we lose sight of when we’re baptizing infants, but is more evident in the lives of adult converts and is meant to be true for all of us:
The old self dies –
The self that placed something other than God firt dies.
The old way of living dies. And a new life begins.
Being a Christian isn’t simply about making Jesus to my life. It’s about surrendering our lives to Him. Every relationship, every responsibility, every ambition, every decision must now be viewed through the lens of Christ because Jesus Christ is the center of all history, all creation…
That’s why this little story from the second book of kings in the first reading is so simple and beautiful. We heard about this woman of means in the ancient city called Shunem. She notices Elisha. She can see and hear he’s a prophet. She recognizes that God’s presence is in him. So what does she do – she makes room for him -literally. She tells her husband to build a room where he can stay whenever he comes to town. She’s rearranging her home so that God’s presence has a place there. She doesn’t squeeze God into her already crowded life. She reorganizes her life around Him.
Think about our lives – we make room for the things that matter. We make room for work, for entertainment, for sports, for streaming services, for social media, for our phones (the average person checks their phone 200 times a day)
The question today’s scriptures leaves us with isn’t whether God exists somewhere in our lives – obviously He does or we wouldn’t be here. The question is whether we’ve made room for Him…whether we’ve actually given Him first place.
Because there’s no sugar coating or watering down Jesus’ expectations. The Gospel moves from talking about fathers and mothers and sons and daughters to something even more demanding: Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Anybody can say Christ is first.
The cross is where we find out if it’s true.
Because it is easy to follow Jesus when it’s convenient, when things are going well, when His teaching match our preferences and personal beliefs. But what happens when following Jesus actually costs us something? When we’re required to forgive, despite how hard it is… When honesty costs us, generosity stretches us… When prayer interrupts our plans.. When fidelity demands sacrifice… When discipleship becomes inconvenient?
That’s when we discover what truly comes first.
The Saints understood this… Not because they hated life or their families or the many good and beautiful things of this world. They loved those things deeply.
They simply loved Jesus Christ more. And because of that – everyone and everything else they loved, was loved better. That’s the promise – when we love Jesus first -we become better spouses, better parents, better sons and daughters, better friends, better priests – better disciples… Because everything finds its proper place. When God is first, everything can be loved rightly
Which means the question Jesus leaves each of us with today is actually very simple.
What is first?
Not what do I say is first. Not what do I wish was first. Not what used to be first.
What is first right now?
If someone looked at my calendar, my bank account, my conversations, my worries, my dreams, my habits, my screen time, my decisions—what would they conclude is sitting at the center of my life?
Because something is.
Something already occupies that place.
And Jesus stands before us today—not angrily, not selfishly, not as a rival to the people and things we love—but as the One who created us, redeemed us, and knows us better than we know ourselves. And He says, “Put Me first.”
Not because He wants to take anything away from us.
But because He wants to give everything its proper place.
The truth is that every one of us will build our lives around something. A career. Success. Money. Family. Comfort. Recognition. Pleasure. Politics. Ourselves.
And sooner or later every one of those things will fail under the weight of being asked to be God.
Only Christ can carry that weight.
Only Christ can satisfy the restless heart.
Only Christ can walk with us through suffering, through death, and into eternal life.
So perhaps the real question is not whether we have priorities.
The real question is whether we have a priority.
Because in the end, the cross reveals whether we have priorities or a priority. And if Jesus Christ is truly first, then everything else—not less loved—but better loved, falls into its proper place.
Because when Christ is not first, eventually nothing makes sense.
But when Christ is first, everything else finally does.
