Forth Sunday Easter Deacon Louis Zemlick Love Grow Choose Life

Acts 2:14, 36-41 CCC means: Catechism Catholic Church CCC363,440,447,449,597,595,731,746,1226,1262,1287,1427,1433 conversion.

Psalm 23:1-6 CCC1293 Anointing Sacraments wake up.

1 Peter 2:20-25 CCC612,618, Symbols of suffering for Us.

Gospel John 10:1-10 The Church CCC754,764,2158 Everyone's Name is Sacred, remember this your whole life especially when naming your children, it bears dignity and demands respect. God calls us ALL by name listen and respond.

God Bless Deacon Louis

Our Lady of Guadalupe pray for us and our world leaders.     

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone. This is Deacon Louis Zimlik here in the Diocese of Kalamazoo. We're glad you're with us here today for this fourth Sunday, and Easter is the 26th of April. I didn't do a long thing on Saints for the Week, so I apologize for that. But we do have some Saint Peter Chanel, priest and martyr, Saint Louis de Montfort Priest, one of my favorites. I'm so glad I looked at the calendar on the 28th. And Saint Catherine of Sienna, Virgin and Doctor of the Church and Saint Pope Pius. That's on the 29th, Saint Catherine of Siena, and then Saint Pius, the fifth Pope on Thursday. So got some great readings today, and we'll go right into that. So feel free to share this podcast with anyone you know, or just give them the address, deaconlouisemlock.com. It'll come up on most of the podcast platforms. So here we go for the fourth Sunday of Easter. And our first reading is from the Acts of the Apostles, verses chapter 2, verse 14A, and we'll read 14B just for just because we need to, and then 36 through 41. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed, Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and it jumps to that, jumps to thirty six. When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, What are we to do, my brothers? Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promises made to you and to your children, and to all those far off, whomever the Lord whomever the Lord our God will call. He testified with many other arguments and was exhorting them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Those who accepted this message, his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Our psalm reading today is from Psalm twenty three, verses one through six. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, and burdened pastures he gives me repose. Besides restful waters, he leads me, he refreshes my soul. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. He guides me in right paths for his name's sake, even though I walk through the dark valley I fear no evil, for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Our next reading is from first Peter chapter two verses twenty Bull read A twenty B through twenty five. Beloved, if you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to you this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He commended he committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was insulted, he returned no insult. When he suffered he did not threaten. Instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that free from sin we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and the guardian of your souls. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Our gospel reading today is from the Gospel of John chapter ten, verses one through ten, a reading of the holy gospel according to John. Glory to you, O Lord. Jesus said, Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. As the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out, when he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice, but they will not follow a stranger. They will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers. Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate of the sheep, I am the gate for the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy. I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. May the words of this gospel wipe away our sins. Well, welcome everyone. My name is Deacon Louis Zimlich here in the Diocese of Kamazoo, Michigan. We're glad you're with us here today on our podcast for this fourth Sunday of Easter. And some beautiful readings today. And of course, this is uh takes place as Acts of the Apostles right after Pentecost, which is going to happen here in 40-some days. Um I don't have the exact number. Didn't have the well, I had the exact close to the exact number last week. But uh Pentecost is, as I look at my calendar here, I hate to roll away from you like that, but uh ascension of the Lord, and then Pentecost is the 24th of May. 24th of May. So here we are, you know, almost um 30 days, 32 days, no, 32, 30, 28 days, 28 days to Pentecost. Wow, it's going by quite quickly. This coming of the Holy Spirit, but this Holy Spirit is constantly being poured out upon us every single day. Go to Mass. Single most important thing you could do this weekend, do this day, do any day, is to go to Holy Mass to pray. And I'll tell you this, my brothers and sisters, when I preached a couple of weeks ago, I was, you know, just telling people, you know, as nice as I can, enter into the Mass, listen to the prayers that the priest, that Jesus is saying, as the priest acts persona and Christ as the man Jesus Christ. It is totally different, totally different than a Protestant church, totally different than the Lutherans, totally different than the Baptists, totally different than the Pentecostals, or the Muslims, or the Sikhs, or the Hindus. Totally different, totally different. We participate in the Mass. We are all baptized as priest, prophet, and king. Okay? And the Mass is all about that. It's all about us participating in these scriptures, as we do in the first part of the Mass, Liturgy of the Word, and then Liturgy of the Eucharist, but also participating in the prayers and the creeds beforehand. And before we do all of these things, we have to participate in the scriptures. Now let's participate in the mass and participate in the scriptures too. Now let me point this out here. This is very interesting. Peter's speech at Pentecost, which is what this is, Acts 2.14. And what's left out is B. Okay, we do A, but then they sanitize, have to sanitize for political reasons because we might hurt somebody's little bitty feelings, you know, or something. I can't believe you'd say that. You know, this is 2026. Come on. We have to grow up and stop doing this. Stop sanitizing things. And you know, for priests and deacons and bishops, don't sanitize it to the point where the meaning is taken away. You know, we have people who are being martyred, Christians who are being martyred all over the world. Let us tell people listen, Jesus is God. Jesus is love. God is love. God is not hatred and vengeance and cruelty and chopping people's heads off. That is not God and it's not religion. It's not. Neither is it to you know say something so derogatory about another person that, oh well, yeah, they're all going to hell. That group of people, they're all going to hell. Those people over there, yeah, they're all going to hell too. And yet we have Christian churches who preach that kind of attitude towards the Catholics. Oh, yeah, they're just a bunch of idol worshippers. It's sick. It's sickness. And if you sit there and you listen to that garbage going into your head, just like if you're listening to some podcast of some crazy person who hates Jewish people or hates Palestinian people or hates Muslims or hates anybody, stop listening to it. It's poison. It is absolute poison. Because what is it against? It is against what Jesus is telling us is to love. To love our enemies. Pray for those who persecute us. Right? But we're not, but we're not, okay, a little alert there, but we're not pacifists either. Okay? Not pacifists either. So even though I love the I love the Amish people, you know, they're all they always wave, they always wave. But all the pacifist countries out there, they don't exist anymore. You know why? Because they're all conquered. See? The world's a rough place, too. We need to defend ourselves, we need to have borders, we need to have rules and regulations. And if you're gonna act ridiculous and do ridiculous things, then you're gonna win ridiculous prizes, which includes prison, basically, okay? Or your your freedom's taken away from you. You get to go back to the old your old country where they do things that they used to do 4,000 years ago. And it's not good, okay? Especially when the mistreatment of women. This is a basic thing that you know, somehow we finally got it right in this country 100 years ago, but we're still working on stuff. Still, still working on stuff. Okay, here I go. Boy, we're getting excited here, aren't we? Okay, Peter's speech at Pentecost. Yes, that was my water bottle. Sorry about that. So Acts 2, 14. So B that's taken out is you who are so I'll start at the beginning. Verse A. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, raised his voice. And somebody say to me, and you're in my preaching, oh, you preach like a Baptist preacher, you know, you're raising your voice. Yeah, I'm getting the Baptist preachers. When the Baptist preachers say good things, I'm I'm all for it. Say those good things, witness to Jesus. Tell people to grow up. I think that's the greatest homily anyone, greatest preaching anybody can give us. Grow up. Get with it. You think things are gonna change, everything's gonna be shiny bright, everything's gonna be good and fancy-free. No, it's gonna be disastrous, gonna be terrible. Death and destruction. Yes. That's truth. That's truth. And yeah, what would what do we want? We want we want people to lie to us. I was talking to somebody about this the other day. That you know, we want earthly kings so that we can get what we want. So that we can think we're gonna get what we want. Everybody who's addicted to politics, whoever you're, you know, you got an R, you got a D, you're an I'm independent. Oh, I'm independent. Yeah, but you bet your whole life, your happiness on politics, it's a waste. A waste of time, a waste of energy, and absolutely a waste of money. And the only reason why the oligarchs give all that money to those politicians is so that they can take more money away from us, the little regular people. The little regular people. So here we go. Man, we're off on a tangent, aren't we? Sometimes tangents are fun. So, Acts 2.14, this is what they took out. B. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, You who are Jews, indeed, all of you staying in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and listen to my words. Listen to my words. I say one more time. Listen to my words. But I think the big problem they have is that you who are Jews. I think that they've that's that that part, the first part, and the last part. They got a problem with that because you call certain people out, certain groups of people that are misbehaving, acting wrongly, acting horribly, and then you say, Listen to my words. You who are criminals, listen to the words of Jesus, you who are addicted to alcohol and drugs, and making a fool of yourself. Listen to Jesus, get sober. You know, I was at a meeting a week ago, um, a couple days ago. Just beautiful words. God is love. I haven't even gotten to the catechism yet. I apologize for that. I haven't even gotten to the catechism yet. Just think about this. Because getting sober and recovery and 12 steps and all that is all about one thing, as I hold up two fingers, all about one thing, maybe two things. It's all about growing up, it's all about maturing. And the second thing is it's all about choosing. I've been addicted, flat out, addicted to alcohol, and I know I know the hell that that is, but I also know what it took for me on my knees still every day to get on my knees and ask God to help keep me sober and sane today. Dear God, please keep me sober and sane today. The sanity part is so that I make the right choice because we really do choose when the obsession is lifted from us, when the grace is poured onto us, when the when Jesus Himself, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, uplifts us with that love, the love of a mother, the love of a brother, the love of a father lifts us up. The love of the Holy Spirit lifts us up. We can choose rightly. That's what it's about, and it's about love. And you know what? If you've if and the Catholic Church has got the best of the best on everything, so here we go. All right, 1 Peter, what was left out, verse A. But what credit is there if you are patient when beaten for doing wrong? Okay, so this is very interesting, right? So they take this out. So verse 19 is for anyone who bears pain unjustly suffers because of consciousness of God. That is a grace. Verse 20 A, which is left out, but what credit is there if you are patient when beaten for doing wrong? See, we should be punished when we're supposed to be punished, but we don't want to take responsibility. And even the people in the church, I hate to say it, Rome. Come on. We want to be grown-ups, we don't want to be little babies, we want to be grown-ups. Treat us as such, treat us as such. The world treats us as such, believe me. All right, here we go. Catechism of the Catholic Church 440. This is in regards to the Acts of the Apostles, the scripture from Acts chapter 2. This is what the church teaches. Uh, this is how I preach on this. Of course, you can hear that what I'm preaching on. I haven't I've been preaching since the beginning of this program, and and I haven't even mentioned anything about the catechism, but now I'm going to mention something about catechism. I want to mention something else before I mention something about catechism. My brothers and sisters, pray for people who are struggling with suicide, families who are struggling with it, people taking their own lives. You know, the church, you know, a thousand years ago or whatever, you know, yeah, it's a sin to do such a thing, right? But it's mental illness, my brothers and sisters. The church knows this today, okay? And um, you know, if believe me, it is the most horrific, unnatural act that any of us could ever do. But when this despair sets in, we need to help. This is the reason to take your children to church, to teach them to pray, to let them see you praying. Okay, whether you're going to go to church or not, see them, let them see you pray. Pray with them, let them know. You know, sometimes I heard this interview, and this this uh young person was talking about how they just wanted to turn their mind off. The noise. The same thing happens with me, and I can remember back at this. Still can today, excuse me, still can today with the extreme thinking, and we self. Medicaid, right? To shut down the noise. But the most important thing for us to do is to meditate, to sit quietly, to let go and let God. It may sound really trite or whatever, you know, because, and of course, there's always multiple problems, you know, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, um, divorce, you know, um uh PTSD issues from military or or whatever, childhood traumas. It's never the answer. That's all I can say. It's never the answer. Love is the answer. And my brothers and sisters, sometimes the sick person who's in our family, it's not so much about the sick person, it is about the family. See, even when someone gets cancer, okay, you have someone in your family who has cancer, and you say, Oh, well, you should go see the priest, or you should you should pray more. It's like, no, we all need to. All of us. Because when one person is sick, we're all sick. You hear that? You know, some of you don't want to hear that. You don't want to hear that, well, I'm not sick, I'm I'm okay. They're the person with the problem, they've got the drinking problem, they've got the thinking problem, they've got this problem, this, this, and that, and the other thing. Or maybe even to the extent of resident, well, I can understand why they like that. You know, all the trouble they got into. That's sick. That's that's that's more mental illness. Okay. But we're all sick together. Humanity, all of us. All of us suffer. Where one suffers, we all suffer. That's what the scriptures are telling us this weekend. I want to get to the gospel because I'm gonna run out of time. Okay. Check the podcast on all of the catechism teachings. I know I say this every week and I always run out of time. You know, and but I don't want to do these shows for I don't want it to be a whole hour either. You know, I want it to be, I want it to be, um, I want it to be 30, less than 30 minutes, so that you know it's it's bite-sized, so to speak. Only after the resurrection will Peter be able, only after his resurrection will Peter be able to proclaim Jesus messianic kingship to the people of God. Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus whom you crucified, this Jesus who we crucified. Okay? The Jewish people is just it's a metaphorical in many ways, my brothers and sisters. It's every religion that's out there, it's every group that's out there, every economic group that's out there, every color of skin, every nationality. We all did it. We all killed God, we all killed Jesus. See? And we refuse to take responsibility for it. Refuse to, because we are little brats, immature little brats. Yes, we are. Yes, I am. Okay, the grace of baptism, even to the point that we don't baptize, we don't baptize our children anymore, we don't get baptized anymore, we don't get our families baptized anymore. But the Acts of the Apostle says, baptize, baptize, baptize, baptize. Confirmation, confirmation, confirmation, confirmation. These are all sacraments, my brothers and sisters. The world has not believed in him, the world has not repented. People say, well, Jesus came, God came, everything's still the same. We haven't repented. We haven't believed. We haven't. In the church's preaching, this call is addressed first to those who do not know Christ and the gospel. Also, baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental conversion. It is by faith in the gospel and by baptism that one renounces evil and gains salvation. That is the forgiveness of all the sins and the gift of a new life. Okay, there it is. 1427 of the Kazatechism, more to come. We got two more minutes. And I think I don't even think that was on the that was uh that was uh was that on the gospel? Oh, it's on the Acts of the Apostles. I haven't even gotten to the other stuff yet. Anointing, this anointing, that is from our psalm reading. Be anointed, and you're anointed when you receive baptism, when you receive confirmation, the anointing of the sick, anointing, anointing, anointing, agony at Gethsemane. First Peter, by accepting in his human will that God's Father will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, and for he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. Right? Wow, amazing. Just a couple more minutes left. All right, then our gospel, jump into our gospel. I just got to read this, the symbols of the church, uh, the names and the images of the church. The seed, the beginning of the kingdom, are the little flock of those whom Jesus came to gather around him, the flock whose shepherd he is. They form Jesus' true family. True family, my brothers and sisters. 764 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. To those whom he thus gathered around him. He taught a new way of acting and a prayer of their own. That's Matthew five, six. Okay, here we go. Finally, this think about this your own name, the Christian name. God calls each one by name, everyone's name is sacred. The name is the icon of the person, it demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it. Each one of us, my brothers and sisters, each one of us bears that holy Christian name. So, my brothers and sisters, be a peace, be in prayer, be a grown up, try to be a grown-up, right? And I know for me, my brothers and sisters, the only way this has happened for me, the transforming effect of this has been by grace. Just I get on my knees, I ask God to help keep me sober and sane. I try to do the next right thing, and my life is better than I could have ever imagined. Trials and tribulations, absolutely. Struggles and pain, you better believe it. Agony, sometimes. But my brothers and sisters, we love you. God loves you, Jesus loves you. Blessed Mother loves you. May Almighty God bless you. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you all. We love you.