For from the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. 

From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. That particular passage, along with the beautiful parables and images that Jesus offers us that particular passage really bowled me over as I was reflecting on these readings. 

From the fullness of your heart, the mouth speaks. And it made me remember a story from a long time ago. Seventh grade, Sister Anna Kleda’s class, seventh grade. In seventh grade, we noticed that one of our classmates, Tom, was missing a lot of school. He was out day after day, week after week, for a long time. And we were praying for Tom, of course, and we were wondering, “what’s going on with Tom?” Until we heard back, probably two or three months after he’d been in and out of class, he received the diagnosis of leukemia in seventh grade. We didn’t know what leukemia was back then. I didn’t really have my mind or heart wrapped around leukemia. 

But quickly, as we noticed, Tom was still missing a lot of seventh grade class. We learned what leukemia was, cancer of the blood. He was getting on and off better and worse and finished up seventh grade, and then eighth grade came, and sure enough, a lot of it was at home, some back in school. And we all graduated eighth grade together. Tom still struggling with leukemia in and out of the hospital. It turns out that Tom and I then went o the same high school together, Quigley seminary south, on 79th and western, when there was such a thing. We went to Quigley together, and we all became part of the freshman class. 

Now, Tom, at this point, because of the chemo, had lost almost all of his hair, so his cancer journey was pretty noticeable. He tried out for the baseball team, and he didn’t make it to the baseball team, but that didn’t keep him off the baseball team. He decided he was going to be the manager of the baseball team. He wanted to be a part of student government, so we served together as student government representatives in freshman year. Sophomore year, more chemo, more hospitalizations, more time out of school in sophomore year, and then eventually, Tom lost his battle with chemotherapy. He lost his battle with leukemia, And he passed away in our sophomore year. 

The story of Tom came back to me. I graduated high school 35 years ago. The story of Tom came back to me because on Facebook, not too long ago, somebody posted his picture, and the tribute to Tom, after 35 years, spoke to the fullness of Tom’s heart, his generosity, his joy, his love, his kindness, his gentleness, the people remembered in elementary school and in high school as he struggled with this horrible disease called leukemia. 

The fullness of your heart speaks from the mouth. What’s going on in our hearts, friends? What’s happening in our hearts? What from the Gospel? What from Jesus? What from our faith is going on in our hearts? That allows, then, our mouth, our voice, our words to overflow from us. Pope Francis, remarkably, calls us to the joy of the Gospel. He prays and he believes that the joy that we have in Christ Jesus, as being Jesus’ brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of God, he talks about how that joy should be so infectious that it boils out of our hearts through our lips and that people come to know Jesus because of who we are and how we share joy with our brothers and sisters. My buddy Tom had the joy of the Gospel. That is for sure. My buddy Tom had the joy of the Gospel, 

and it’s remembered 35 years later through his classmates, through my classmates, through Facebook. 

What about the joy of the Gospel for you? What about your relationship with Jesus? What about the healing that Jesus offers or the everlasting life that Jesus offers or the joy or the challenge to love your neighbor or the challenge to forgive an enemy? What about your relationship with Jesus Provides and produces joy in your heart that bubbles over into all that you say and do? If a jury was, if you were on trial for being a Christian catholic follower of Jesus, would you be found guilty? 

Jesus invites us to soak in and to receive all the joy and the hope and the love that he offers and then let it spill over from our hearts to all those we encounter. Amen. 

For from the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. 

From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. That particular passage, along with the beautiful parables and images that Jesus offers us that particular passage really bowled me over as I was reflecting on these readings. 

From the fullness of your heart, the mouth speaks. And it made me remember a story from a long time ago. Seventh grade, Sister Anna Kleda’s class, seventh grade. In seventh grade, we noticed that one of our classmates, Tom, was missing a lot of school. He was out day after day, week after week, for a long time. And we were praying for Tom, of course, and we were wondering, “what’s going on with Tom?” Until we heard back, probably two or three months after he’d been in and out of class, he received the diagnosis of leukemia in seventh grade. We didn’t know what leukemia was back then. I didn’t really have my mind or heart wrapped around leukemia. 

But quickly, as we noticed, Tom was still missing a lot of seventh grade class. We learned what leukemia was, cancer of the blood. He was getting on and off better and worse and finished up seventh grade, and then eighth grade came, and sure enough, a lot of it was at home, some back in school. And we all graduated eighth grade together. Tom still struggling with leukemia in and out of the hospital. It turns out that Tom and I then went o the same high school together, Quigley seminary south, on 79th and western, when there was such a thing. We went to Quigley together, and we all became part of the freshman class. 

Now, Tom, at this point, because of the chemo, had lost almost all of his hair, so his cancer journey was pretty noticeable. He tried out for the baseball team, and he didn’t make it to the baseball team, but that didn’t keep him off the baseball team. He decided he was going to be the manager of the baseball team. He wanted to be a part of student government, so we served together as student government representatives in freshman year. Sophomore year, more chemo, more hospitalizations, more time out of school in sophomore year, and then eventually, Tom lost his battle with chemotherapy. He lost his battle with leukemia, And he passed away in our sophomore year. 

The story of Tom came back to me. I graduated high school 35 years ago. The story of Tom came back to me because on Facebook, not too long ago, somebody posted his picture, and the tribute to Tom, after 35 years, spoke to the fullness of Tom’s heart, his generosity, his joy, his love, his kindness, his gentleness, the people remembered in elementary school and in high school as he struggled with this horrible disease called leukemia. 

The fullness of your heart speaks from the mouth. What’s going on in our hearts, friends? What’s happening in our hearts? What from the Gospel? What from Jesus? What from our faith is going on in our hearts? That allows, then, our mouth, our voice, our words to overflow from us. Pope Francis, remarkably, calls us to the joy of the Gospel. He prays and he believes that the joy that we have in Christ Jesus, as being Jesus’ brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of God, he talks about how that joy should be so infectious that it boils out of our hearts through our lips and that people come to know Jesus because of who we are and how we share joy with our brothers and sisters. My buddy Tom had the joy of the Gospel. That is for sure. My buddy Tom had the joy of the Gospel, 

and it’s remembered 35 years later through his classmates, through my classmates, through Facebook. 

What about the joy of the Gospel for you? What about your relationship with Jesus? What about the healing that Jesus offers or the everlasting life that Jesus offers or the joy or the challenge to love your neighbor or the challenge to forgive an enemy? What about your relationship with Jesus Provides and produces joy in your heart that bubbles over into all that you say and do? If a jury was, if you were on trial for being a Christian catholic follower of Jesus, would you be found guilty? 

Jesus invites us to soak in and to receive all the joy and the hope and the love that he offers and then let it spill over from our hearts to all those we encounter. Amen. 

For from the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. 

From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. That particular passage, along with the beautiful parables and images that Jesus offers us that particular passage really bowled me over as I was reflecting on these readings. 

From the fullness of your heart, the mouth speaks. And it made me remember a story from a long time ago. Seventh grade, Sister Anna Kleda’s class, seventh grade. In seventh grade, we noticed that one of our classmates, Tom, was missing a lot of school. He was out day after day, week after week, for a long time. And we were praying for Tom, of course, and we were wondering, “what’s going on with Tom?” Until we heard back, probably two or three months after he’d been in and out of class, he received the diagnosis of leukemia in seventh grade. We didn’t know what leukemia was back then. I didn’t really have my mind or heart wrapped around leukemia. 

But quickly, as we noticed, Tom was still missing a lot of seventh grade class. We learned what leukemia was, cancer of the blood. He was getting on and off better and worse and finished up seventh grade, and then eighth grade came, and sure enough, a lot of it was at home, some back in school. And we all graduated eighth grade together. Tom still struggling with leukemia in and out of the hospital. It turns out that Tom and I then went o the same high school together, Quigley seminary south, on 79th and western, when there was such a thing. We went to Quigley together, and we all became part of the freshman class. 

Now, Tom, at this point, because of the chemo, had lost almost all of his hair, so his cancer journey was pretty noticeable. He tried out for the baseball team, and he didn’t make it to the baseball team, but that didn’t keep him off the baseball team. He decided he was going to be the manager of the baseball team. He wanted to be a part of student government, so we served together as student government representatives in freshman year. Sophomore year, more chemo, more hospitalizations, more time out of school in sophomore year, and then eventually, Tom lost his battle with chemotherapy. He lost his battle with leukemia, And he passed away in our sophomore year. 

The story of Tom came back to me. I graduated high school 35 years ago. The story of Tom came back to me because on Facebook, not too long ago, somebody posted his picture, and the tribute to Tom, after 35 years, spoke to the fullness of Tom’s heart, his generosity, his joy, his love, his kindness, his gentleness, the people remembered in elementary school and in high school as he struggled with this horrible disease called leukemia. 

The fullness of your heart speaks from the mouth. What’s going on in our hearts, friends? What’s happening in our hearts? What from the Gospel? What from Jesus? What from our faith is going on in our hearts? That allows, then, our mouth, our voice, our words to overflow from us. Pope Francis, remarkably, calls us to the joy of the Gospel. He prays and he believes that the joy that we have in Christ Jesus, as being Jesus’ brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of God, he talks about how that joy should be so infectious that it boils out of our hearts through our lips and that people come to know Jesus because of who we are and how we share joy with our brothers and sisters. My buddy Tom had the joy of the Gospel. That is for sure. My buddy Tom had the joy of the Gospel, 

and it’s remembered 35 years later through his classmates, through my classmates, through Facebook. 

What about the joy of the Gospel for you? What about your relationship with Jesus? What about the healing that Jesus offers or the everlasting life that Jesus offers or the joy or the challenge to love your neighbor or the challenge to forgive an enemy? What about your relationship with Jesus Provides and produces joy in your heart that bubbles over into all that you say and do? If a jury was, if you were on trial for being a Christian catholic follower of Jesus, would you be found guilty? 

Jesus invites us to soak in and to receive all the joy and the hope and the love that he offers and then let it spill over from our hearts to all those we encounter. Amen. 

For from the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. That particular passage, along with the beautiful parables and images that Jesus offers us that particular passage really bowled me over as I was reflecting on these readings. 

From the fullness of your heart, the mouth speaks. And it made me remember a story from a long time ago. Seventh grade, Sister Anna Kleda’s class, seventh grade. In seventh grade, we noticed that one of our classmates, Tom, was missing a lot of school. He was out day after day, week after week, for a long time. And we were praying for Tom, of course, and we were wondering, “what’s going on with Tom?” Until we heard back, probably two or three months after he’d been in and out of class, he received the diagnosis of leukemia in seventh grade. We didn’t know what leukemia was back then. I didn’t really have my mind or heart wrapped around leukemia. 

But quickly, as we noticed, Tom was still missing a lot of seventh grade class. We learned what leukemia was, cancer of the blood. He was getting on and off better and worse and finished up seventh grade, and then eighth grade came, and sure enough, a lot of it was at home, some back in school. And we all graduated eighth grade together. Tom still struggling with leukemia in and out of the hospital. It turns out that Tom and I then went o the same high school together, Quigley seminary south, on 79th and western, when there was such a thing. We went to Quigley together, and we all became part of the freshman class. 

Now, Tom, at this point, because of the chemo, had lost almost all of his hair, so his cancer journey was pretty noticeable. He tried out for the baseball team, and he didn’t make it to the baseball team, but that didn’t keep him off the baseball team. He decided he was going to be the manager of the baseball team. He wanted to be a part of student government, so we served together as student government representatives in freshman year. Sophomore year, more chemo, more hospitalizations, more time out of school in sophomore year, and then eventually, Tom lost his battle with chemotherapy. He lost his battle with leukemia, And he passed away in our sophomore year. 

The story of Tom came back to me. I graduated high school 35 years ago. The story of Tom came back to me because on Facebook, not too long ago, somebody posted his picture, and the tribute to Tom, after 35 years, spoke to the fullness of Tom’s heart, his generosity, his joy, his love, his kindness, his gentleness, the people remembered in elementary school and in high school as he struggled with this horrible disease called leukemia. 

The fullness of your heart speaks from the mouth. What’s going on in our hearts, friends? What’s happening in our hearts? What from the Gospel? What from Jesus? What from our faith is going on in our hearts? That allows, then, our mouth, our voice, our words to overflow from us. Pope Francis, remarkably, calls us to the joy of the Gospel. He prays and he believes that the joy that we have in Christ Jesus, as being Jesus’ brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of God, he talks about how that joy should be so infectious that it boils out of our hearts through our lips and that people come to know Jesus because of who we are and how we share joy with our brothers and sisters. My buddy Tom had the joy of the Gospel. That is for sure. My buddy Tom had the joy of the Gospel, and it’s remembered 35 years later through his classmates, through my classmates, through Facebook. 

What about the joy of the Gospel for you? What about your relationship with Jesus? What about the healing that Jesus offers or the everlasting life that Jesus offers or the joy or the challenge to love your neighbor or the challenge to forgive an enemy? What about your relationship with Jesus Provides and produces joy in your heart that bubbles over into all that you say and do? If a jury was, if you were on trial for being a Christian catholic follower of Jesus, would you be found guilty? 

Jesus invites us to soak in and to receive all the joy and the hope and the love that he offers and then let it spill over from our hearts to all those we encounter. Amen.