APRIL 20, 2026 FATHER STEVE DEMAIO
Today we have a beautiful Gospel of Jesus just finishing feeding the
people with the five loaves. And they cross the sea, and they look for
him, and he says: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the
food that endures for eternal life.”
And immediately I went, as we are celebrating this week of vocations to
the priesthood, this work for the food that endures for eternal life, this
nourishment, this bread from heaven, and immediately went the
Eucharist, and the great gift of the priesthood.
That Jesus promised to be with us forever, and that he would nourish us
with his own body and blood, that he would give us eternal life, through
his body, through his blood.
And then, how is he going to do that?
Then he took the twelve Apostles, he broke the bread, and he said: “This
is my body, this is my blood. Do this in memory of me.”
And then we begin to see, after his death, after his resurrection, after his
ascension, and ascending of the Spirit, we begin to see the Church being
nourished by his body and by his blood.
We begin to see the Apostles, we begin to see the deacons, and the
priests, and we start to see this Church willing to give their life for this
food that endures.
And for me, it’s beautiful to see all of the things in the early Church, and
how we still have deacons, right, we still have the priest, we still have
the bishops.
We still have so many who are willing to lay down their life so that the
people of God, the flock, can be nourished by Jesus’ body and by Jesus’
blood.
And we see that in the bishops, in the priests, in the deacons, this acting
in the persona Christi.
You know, acting in the person of Christ.
But there’s a beautiful distinction that we see in a lot of the Church
documents, that all of us as baptized Christians are called to act in the
person of Christ.
Right, we’re called through our baptism to really live the faith, that Jesus
Christ lives within me, and then I’m called to live this life of faith.
But what it says in the documents is that the bishops, the priests, the
deacons, they’re acting in persona Christi capitis, the head.
And there’s this beautiful unique gift that is given to them, that they can
then act in the person of Christ, the head.
And for the bishops, for the priests, to celebrate the Mass, for me, it’s a
beautiful, beautiful gift, as I reflect on my own priesthood.
We had the First Communion. The little kids came to our church, and
there was a First Communion. And one of my brothers in community,
I’m Legion at Saint John Bosco, we live in community, and Father
Branden, who also does the TV Mass, I’m sure you know him from the
TV Mass, he was talking to the little ones. He was talking about the
vestments of the priests, and he was talking about the stole.
And he made this beautiful connection of the stole with the lost sheep.
That this, as we put on this stole around our necks, it very beautifully
can be the image of this lost sheep that we place upon our necks, this
kind of desire for the lost sheep, the desire for the people of God.
And then we don’t act in our own name.
That I am not the Good Shepherd. Father Branden is not the Good
Shepherd. But as we put on this stole, we are acting in the name of the
Good Shepherd. We are acting in the name of Jesus Christ, with his
authority.
And so then I don’t go out and say my own words. I go out, and I say:
“This is my body, this is my blood.” Not mine, but Jesus’.
“I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
“I absolve you of your sins,” right, acting in the person of Christ,
bringing mercy and grace, bringing the sacraments, bringing this food
that endures forever.
How beautiful, this gift.
In the first reading, we see Saint Stephen, right, full of power, full of
grace, but not his power, not his grace, but the power and grace of Jesus
Christ risen from the dead.
And so the beauty for us is this invitation to allow our hearts to be
conformed to the Good Shepherd, right, to Jesus Christ.
And he’s been giving us this gift that we can act in his name.
For many years, I was far away from the Church. From basically
eighteen years old until twenty-four, I was very far from the Church, not
praying, not going to Mass. But at a certain point, I desired to do
something good for the world, and I was working in non-profit work,
and trying to build community, and education, and trying to build up
community through non-profit work. And eventually I was sent down to
Zambia, Africa, and I did work with the Salesian Sisters.
And the sisters are a little bit tricky, and they decided to invite me to go
and help with Mass, go bring the kids to Mass, go pray the Rosary with
them, try to get involved. Even though it wasn’t my job with the non-
profit, they would invite me, and I would go. Over those six months that
I was there, I was really beginning to have this conversion of heart, to
really see that everything that I was taught as a kid was true and was
beautiful.
And seeing the witness of the sisters, and the priests, and the brothers.
And at a certain point, we were praying the Rosary. And it was this
candlelit Rosary. The sisters had a home for the girls at risk, and so there
was all these orphans, with the volunteers, with the sisters, and we were
all praying the Rosary together. It was at that moment, when I look back
at it now, that it was this invitation to spiritual fatherhood.
That there were people out there who didn’t have a family, who didn’t
have a good family life, who didn’t have the resources, or the support, or
the security. And that I was being invited to enter into this gift of the
spiritual fatherhood of the priesthood.That’s when I was twenty-four,
and I took a year to discern, and then entered the Salesians at twenty-
five. And now I’ll be celebrating my fifth year of priestly anniversary
this June.
So just really recognizing the great gift of the priesthood.
And there’s many, many young men who are being invited, but we’re
trying to pray. You know, pray for vocations, pray for the courage to say
yes. But also to create the environments where young people have the
ability to discern, and to pray, and to have experiences of service.
To really create that environment, and recognizing the gift.
Right, I’m still a sinner, I still have my personality, I still have my
difficulties, but there’s been a great gift.
I really just encourage all of us to pray for the priests, that they may
have the humility to allow their hearts to be conformed to the Good
Shepherd.
To really act in his name, to serve as he desired us to serve, and to really
lay down our life for the flock, for the sheep, for everybody that is put in
our path.
And so, as we pray for vocations this week, I’m really asking for this
great gift, that we may flourish as priests, and to continue to be of
service for the Church.
