Good Tuesday morning. The world kept moving overnight. Here's what happened, and what your faith has to say about it.
✝
|
Pope Leo XIV
Pope at Angelus: Faith opens our eyes to suffering humanity
Pope Leo XIV reflected on Jesus' healing of the man born blind at Sunday's Angelus, teaching that faith opens our eyes to see humanity and its struggles as God sees them. The Pope's meditation connects the Gospel to our moral obligation to recognize suffering around us.
Angelus Address
|
✦ ✝ ✦
John 5:1-3,5-16
"There was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now at the Sheep Pool in Jerusalem there is a building, called Bethzatha in Hebrew, consisting of five porticos; and under these were crowds of sick people – blind, lame, paralysed – waiting for the water to move. One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years, and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in this condition for a long time, he said, ‘Do you want to be well again."
| Rosary Mystery of the Day | |
| ✝ |
Today's Mysteries |
Tuesday: Sorrowful Mysteries |
Sorrowful Mysteries
- 1. The Agony in the Garden
- 2. The Scourging at the Pillar
- 3. The Crowning with Thorns
- 4. The Carrying of the Cross
- 5. The Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord
The Objection
"If you just believe in Jesus, you're saved. Why do Catholics add all these rituals and sacraments? That's works-based salvation."
The Catholic Response
Catholics absolutely believe salvation comes through grace, not human effort. But Jesus Himself instituted concrete, physical means of delivering that grace: "Unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). The sacraments aren't earning points; they're encounters with Christ, channels He chose because He knows we're body-and-soul creatures who need to touch, taste, and hear His love (CCC 1127-1129). Even St. Paul, after his dramatic conversion experience, still had to be baptized (Acts 22:16).
CCC 1127-1129 | John 3:5 | Acts 22:16 | CCC 1131
| ? |
Test Your Faith IQ |
Scripture |
In today's Gospel, how long had the man at the pool of Bethesda been ill before Jesus healed him?
- A) 12 years
- B) 18 years
- C) 38 years
- D) 40 years
Answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
 Photo: ABC News
ABC News
U.S.-Israel military operations against Iran escalate with the confirmed killing of Iran's security chief Ali Larijani.
| ✝ |
FAITH & THE WORLD |
Isaiah 2:4 |
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again."
Just War Doctrine (CCC 2307-2309)
The Church teaches that war is permissible only as a last resort, and every possible avenue for peace must be exhausted first (CCC 2308). Targeted killings of officials may feel surgical, but the Catechism demands we ask whether the damage inflicted is proportionate and whether civilians are being protected, not just whether a military objective was achieved.
Reflect → When you hear about an enemy killed, do you feel relief or grief, and what does that reaction reveal about your heart?
 Photo: NPR
NPR
The U.S. pressures NATO allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz while a federal judge blocks RFK Jr.'s changes to children's vaccine policies.
| ✝ |
FAITH & THE WORLD |
Proverbs 11:14 |
"For lack of guidance a people falls; security lies in many counselors."
Solidarity and the Common Good (CCC 1941, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis)
John Paul II defined solidarity not as vague compassion but as "a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good" (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 38). Whether it's allies sharing the burden of a shipping lane or a judge checking executive overreach on children's health, the principle is the same: no one person or nation should bear alone what affects everyone.
Reflect → Where in your life are you trying to carry a burden alone instead of asking for help?
 Photo: Fox News
Fox News
The NRCC launches a program to recruit and fund Trump-aligned candidates in competitive House districts ahead of midterms.
| ✝ |
FAITH & THE WORLD |
Jeremiah 17:5 |
"Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord."
Political Responsibility (CCC 2244-2246)
The Church doesn't endorse parties, but it does warn against treating political loyalty as a substitute for moral discernment (CCC 2246). When any movement asks for alignment before asking for virtue, Catholics should hear Jeremiah's warning ringing in their ears.
Reflect → Do you evaluate candidates by their character and policies, or by their tribal loyalty?
![[GOOD NEWS] 19 Cities Including London, San Francisco, Hong](https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/credit-Olha-Zaika-Unsplash-e1773739828410.jpg) Photo: Good News Network
Good News Network
Nineteen major cities across the globe have significantly cut air pollution since 2010, proving clean air is achievable with sustained effort.
| ✝ |
FAITH & GOOD NEWS |
Genesis 2:15 |
"The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it."
Care for Creation (Laudato Si', 13-14)
Pope Francis wrote that the Earth "now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her" (Laudato Si', 2). These 19 cities show that when humans take their role as stewards seriously, creation actually heals. That's Genesis 2:15 in action, not as poetry but as policy.
Reflect → What's one concrete thing you could change this week to better care for the air, water, or land around you?
![[GOOD NEWS] Man who raised and released an orphaned otter fi](https://www.upworthy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/origin-48.jpg) Photo: Upworthy
Upworthy
A man who rescued and raised an orphaned otter named Leya films her returning to his kayak for affection long after her release into the wild.
| ✝ |
FAITH & GOOD NEWS |
Psalm 145:9 |
"The Lord is good to all, compassionate toward all his works."
Goodness of Creation (CCC 339, 342)
The Catechism teaches that each creature possesses its own goodness and reflects, in its own way, a ray of God's infinite wisdom (CCC 339). An otter swimming back for cuddles is a small, ridiculous, beautiful icon of what love looks like when it's given freely: it comes back, not because it has to, but because it was real.
Reflect → Who in your life keeps 'swimming back' to you with love, and have you stopped to thank God for them?
| ☩ |
Saint of the Day |
March 17 |
Saint Patrick
Patrick was kidnapped from Roman Britain at age 16 by Irish raiders and spent six years as a slave herding sheep in freezing rain. After escaping and returning home, he had a dream in which the Irish people begged him to come back. He did, returning to the land that enslaved him to bring them the Gospel.
Today is his feast day, and his story mirrors the Gospel's pool at Bethesda: sometimes God sends healing through the very person who knows suffering most intimately.
Trivia Answer
C . The man had been ill for 38 years (John 5:5). Many scholars note this mirrors the 38 years Israel wandered in the desert after Kadesh-Barnea (Deuteronomy 2:14), suggesting Jesus is offering a new exodus from spiritual paralysis.
|
|
