The Call to Trust Christ's Faithfulness
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Sunday, August 23, 2026The Call to Trust Christ's Faithfulness21st Sunday in Ordinary TimeIn today’s Gospel, Jesus makes a remarkable promise: “I will build My Church.”
He makes that promise to Peter—a man He knows completely. Jesus knows Peter’s strengths and weaknesses. He knows Peter will misunderstand Him and even deny Him. And still He chooses him. Peter is flawed—but chosen.
That is good news for us, because so are we. Christ does not wait until we are perfect before He calls us. He knows our weaknesses and failures. He calls us as we are, and His grace begins to make us what He created us to become.
The Church does not rest upon Peter’s perfection—or ours. She rests upon Christ’s faithfulness.
Those words have special meaning as we look toward the 80th Anniversary of St. Martin of Tours next year. Our anniversary Scripture comes from Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build.”
For nearly eighty years, Christ has been building His Church here through generations of ordinary people—priests and religious, parents and grandparents, teachers and parishioners. None of them perfect. But chosen.
Now He has chosen us. We are part of what Christ is building.
Each Sunday, Christ gathers us around His Word and gives us His Body and Blood, drawing us together into His Body, the Church.
This week, let us trust Christ’s faithfulness. The One who has chosen us will give us the grace we need.
Christ is still building His Church.
Fr. Paul