Fifteenth Sunday ot 7/12/2026 Wake Up, God Creates, Bury the dead, Desire God Dcn. Louis Zemlick

Isaiah 55:10-11 read all of 55 no CCC teaching CCC means Catechism Catholic Church. read it don't be ignorant.

Psalm 65:10-14 No CCC teaching

Romans 8:18-23 CCC280 GOD Creates CCC400,671,735,1046,1721,2572,2630 WE Catholics are called to Pray all day.

Gospel Matthew 13:1-23 CCC29 Desire GOD wake up the world lies to you,CCC546 Proclaim that God is real, CCC1724 Be a real Christian die to this broken world help Jesus save US

DeaconLouisZemlick.com Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Pray for us

Jesus save Us

God Help Us

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, everybody. This is Deacon Louis Zemlik here in the Diocese of Kalamazoo. We're glad you're with us here today for this 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, our podcast here, and we also call it Epiphany Radio, Epiphany podcast, out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Diocese of Kalamazoo. So we're glad you're with us here today and some uh great readings as usual. And uh also to think about you know some of the stuff that's some of the things that are going on in the world, how important it is in the Catholic Church for us to pray for one another, especially those who we have loved ones who have passed away. And and we see this returning to the traditions of the church, you know, uh the young people starting to see this. And of course, we've seen kind of the tragedy, I've seen kind of the tragedy of some of those traditions being ignored too, uh, including you know, with with people who you know don't uh bury their parents out of the church and don't even not even necessarily even have uh any type of religious um uh service or have a priest or a deacon, someone there to you know read some scriptures and and and especially in internments as as well, you know. So if you know people that have got grandma sitting on the shelf or mom and dad or a brother or sister, you know, I assure you, my brothers and sisters, you know, no judgment, okay, because we know how it is with families. It can be very difficult, you know, divided, you know, you might have five people in your family, only one really even goes to church, goes to the Catholic Church anymore, goes to Mass. And, you know, maybe one or two go to other churches, but you know, they don't believe in anything religious either, you know, but maybe they just go to a Bible church once in a while, or they just go at Christmas time. But my brothers and sisters, it is so important. And as I read the scriptures, and this is really on my heart because I've got a lot of this going on this summer, you know, where um funerals, okay, and internments, saying prayers at the graveyard, having the names of your loved ones put into the record book at a local Catholic church, so that 100 years from now, or 10 years from now, or 1,500 years from now, people can look back at their ancestry and can see these things, can find their graves, can know that they were taken care of in a in a respectful manner. And I know that it's very difficult in families, you know, as I mentioned earlier, how there can be division and that type of thing. But I'll tell you what, we can do uh we're very flexible. The Catholic Church is very flexible on these things. We love to see a mass, we love to see that. But we also understand that that's not always possible. So we can, you know, we can just do a s a short uh service, you know, at the funeral home. But at the bare minimum, have your loved one interned in a cemetery where the grave is blessed, where the ground is blessed by the priest or the deacon or the bishop. The ground is blessed right there on the spot that happens. See, it doesn't necessarily need to be a Catholic cemetery, see, and and if and if there's military honors, that type of thing, you know, you can have a deacon or a priest meet you out there, and believe me, there's no charge for this. Okay? It's always nice if you can give the deacon or the priest, you know, gas money, you know, or buy them lunch or whatever, you know, do the do the right thing there, you know, to to uh you know, uh their time is worth something, you know. And uh and and you know, that's kind of a sadness too in the church, too, you know, where people go to church at Christmas and they put five dollars in the basket. Five dollars a year is what they give the church. Yet you expect the church to be there Christmas after Christmas after Christmas. I'll tell you what, brothers and sisters, the church is hurting in that regard, too. And for a lot of reasons for the church has made a lot of mistakes, right? A lot of lawsuits, a lot of really missteps as far as you know getting people in the church bad, bad people, getting rid of the bad apples. In any case, that's a whole other subject, right? Um, but it's done a good job in the last 20, 30 years of really, you know, not following the the uh psychological laws of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Well, while people can be rehabilitated. Well, no, they can't. Sexual abuse, people who do sexual abuse cannot be rehabilitated. Their cynicism rate is horribly high. And so they have to be fired. They have to be released, they have to be defrocked, they have to be kicked out. Uh not out of the church, of course, but they need to be, they need to not work for the church, they need to not work around children. So look at see how we get when we go down these little rabbit holes every so often, right? Where we're where we're, you know, we start talking about one thing and another. But listen, if you know someone who has grandma or grandpa sitting on the shelf, have them call your diocese, your local diocese, wherever you are, because I'm sure there's people outside of Michigan who listen to this podcast, and just to call the diocese and say, listen, can I get a priest or a deacon to intern? That means to bury my mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle at a cemetery, you know, instead of having them sitting on the um the coffee table, you know, and it brings closure, my brothers and sisters. It's very important to bring closure in these situations. So there's my long speech on that. I had to get it out. I had to, you know, I know it's six minutes worth of uh me talking, but um believe me, it's important. It does the family good, it does us psychological good, um, it does us uh spiritual good. You know, we're doing the spiritual works of mercy by burying the dead and doing it in a respectful way. So this is uh July 12th, 2026. Also uh coming up this week um on the 14th is St. Kateri Tickawitha. Um the um uh on and I think I no, I guess I didn't print off a uh she's the Lily of the Mohawks uh from upstate New York. And there's a beautiful uh there's a beautiful uh uh uh St. Kateri up north here in Michigan and and uh across to the woods. I believe that's the name of the parish there is is uh St. Kateri. So and then we also have uh St. Bonaventure on the 15th of this month, and then Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the 16th. So um we're gonna start right off with the scriptures for this weekend, the 15th Sunday in ordinary time. Start with the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 55, verses 10 through 11. Thus says the Lord, just as from the heavens the rain and snow came down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows, and bread to the one who eats. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. A responsorial psalm is Psalm sixty-five, verses ten through fourteen. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest. You have visited the land and watered it. Greatly have you enriched it. God's water courses are filled. You have prepared the grain. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest. Thus have you prepared the land, drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods, softening it with showers, blessing its yield. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest. You have crowned the year with your bounty, and your paths overflow with a rich harvest. The tilled meadows overflow with it, and rejoicing clothes the hills. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest. The fields are garmented with flocks, and the valleys blanketed with grain. They shout and sing for joy. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest. Our second reading is from the book of Romans, chapter eight, verses eighteen through twenty three. Brothers and sisters, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us, for creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God. For creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord, but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption the sh the and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groan groaning in labor pains even until now. And not only that, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we await for adoption, the redemption of our bodies, the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. And our gospel reading is a long reading. You probably won't get the long reading in a mass, you'll probably get the short reading, unfortunately. But this is the full reading, Matthew chapter 13, verses 1 through 23. We're going to read the whole thing. Understand there's only four teachings in this long gospel reading, so it's very much pointed towards studying the scripture. Study the scripture very well. Very well. Especially when you think about funerals and the end and you know our time when our time is up here on earth. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew, glory to you, O Lord. On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore, and he spoke to them at length in parables, saying, A sower went out to sow, and he sowed. Some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground where there had been little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell amongst thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit a hundred or sixty or thirty fold. Whoever has ears ought to hear. The disciples approached him and said, Why do you speak to them in parables? He said to them in reply, Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven have been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has more will be given, and he will grow rich from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but they do not see, and they hear but they do not listen or understand. Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says, You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see. They have closed their eyes, at least they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I heal them. But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears because they hear. Amen. I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see but did not see it, and hear what you hear, but did not hear it. Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals it away. What was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy, but has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. Then the seed sown amongst the thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word, and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirty-fold. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. May the words of this gospel wipe away our sins. Wow, my brothers and sisters, welcome to the Epiphany podcast program. My name is Deacon Louis Emly here in the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan. We're glad you're with us here today. We're a little bit more than halfway through. Beautiful scriptures today, beautiful gospel to really pray and meditate on. And if you weren't with us uh earlier in the podcast, we talked about the internment or funeral services or the Catholic Mass for your loved ones, to have prayers made, but also for people to be laid to rest, to not leave them sitting on the shelf for years and years and years, to bring closure to these things, to bring closure to our earthly death, right? And to look forward to the resurrection and to know that your loved one hopefully is in the kingdom of heaven. And also for you to try to move towards that so that you can be in the kingdom of heaven, hopefully reunited with your loved one. But this takes this takes work, my brothers and sisters. This is the Catholic Church. It's faith and works, it's both through the grace of God, faith through the grace of God, works through the grace of God. Many of these works are the works of Christ, including the burying of the dead, right? Including the burying of the dead, including going to mass, including making contributions to the soup kitchens and the shelters, and to help one another, to love one another. Okay, so here we go. Isaiah, this is so beautiful, but Isaiah chapter 55, read the whole thing. Um, eight and nine are really kind of really good to read because we don't we think we know what is the best thing. You know, the best thing to do is just let grandma and grandpa sit on the shelf there until let someone else take care. It's not good. It's not good. It's very, it's not good. It's not good. So here we go. Isaiah 55. This is eight and nine before ten. So eight is this. This is God. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, oracle of the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. This is God, my brothers and sisters. And we may think, you know, we're all that and a bag of chips. We may think, well, you know, I got a big house and I've got I've got cars and I got big businesses and all that. But in the end, my brothers and sisters, it's all over with. All those things are left behind. The question is, do you have a relationship with God? Are you do you see yourself in this this gospel reading? Let me go through here real quickly. Okay, Isaiah, there's no teaching in the catechism of the Catholic Church, but it is quite oft, it is quite uh obvious, and God makes it obvious too. I was listening to a radio program, people are like, well, if God could just prove Himself to us, I'm thinking to myself, look at creation, look at the trees, look at the ants, look at the animals, look at the rivers, look at the mountains, look at the weather that changes every day from extreme heat to extreme cold. Here we are in Michigan, it's you know 90 degrees, right? But we also know that in six months it's gonna be nine degrees, right? It's gonna the temperature's gonna drop 80 degrees. People say, Oh, it must be global. We're doing something, we're polluting too much. I don't think so. It's been going on for a long time. The planet is alive, the planet is living. Do we need to do some things to fix pollution? Oh, yeah. Look at the terrible job we've done with the the cleanup of the paper mills. Hasn't happened. It's terrible. Got a huge mound of garbage down on Cork Street. Huge mound of garbage, right? That's our that's our that's our uh our thank you from the paper companies and our politicians, both statewide and federally, who have not helped us, have not done a good job, have not been good stewards. And most of them don't believe in God. They believe in their own self-will. They believe just in money, the God of mammon, and that's what they do. You look at the you look at the drug use, you look at the homeless issues, alcoholism, and drug addiction. And what have we done? We've legalized more of it. You look at how Seattle is, it's just like Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo is just a microcosm of Seattle. You know, we got bike lanes and we got all this other garbage, but we got people dying in the streets. Dying in the streets. And we call ourselves, or we're a good community because we're very liberal in our politics and we're very inclusive. We take care of all these things. It's a bunch of garbage. We do not. We do not take care of our people, we do not take care of the poor, we do not take care of the destitute, we do not. We lie to ourselves, we and we lie to ourselves because we do not follow God, and we do not follow God's ways, and we destroy human life, and we destroy babies. We are vicious and heartless and godless. See, so what is your role? What is my role? My role today is to explain to you that listen, we're all in trouble. God creates, my brothers and sisters, Romans 8, Catechism of the Catholic Church, CCC 280. Put that in your browser and read that. Read CCC 400 in regards to Romans. Because of us, God, man, and woman, we are now subject to decay and death because of our decision. And our decisions. You can go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Yes, it's there. Yes, yes, yes. Oh, sure, Deacon Louis. Yeah, it's the fall and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. We do it every day. Choose money over helping the homeless. We choose bombs over babies. Okay? I'm not I'm not a pacifist. I'm not saying that we don't need to protect our country or anything like that. But I'm telling you, we we're that that the war business is a big business. It's a big business, too, right? Lots of money. Catechism of the Catholic Church. God's gift to us is hope. 735 of the catechism. 671 of the catechism. There's also some, so these are all these listings, because I'm gonna run out of time. I don't want to run out of time, but all these listings for these are on the podcast. DeaconLouisemlinck.com. Check out the podcast. Look at these catechism teachings in regards to Romans 2572, the prayer of faith, um, 2630. We pray for every everyone and everything at every mass, at every day, at every hour in the Holy Catholic Church. See? And you know, we're doing we're trying to do our part. Are we perfect? No, we're not. But I can tell you what, at least we're talking about it. At least we have the freedom still, maybe not for long, but we still have the freedom to go to Catholic Mass. Okay, now our gospel today. Read the whole gospel. 13, chapter 13, Matthew chapter 13, verses 1 through 23. And I'll show you, tell you what the sickness of the church is. Okay? Here's the sickness of the church. The sickness of the church is is that the shorter version is Matthew 13, 1 through 9. 1 through 9, which is pretty nice. It's it's pretty fun, and it's all good, and it's and it's and it's and it's and it's no big deal. It's not it's not any big deal. But when you get into the real meat and potatoes of this, it's you shall indeed hear but not understand. You shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people. They will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, least they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I heal them. Boom. Okay? Now I was listening to my priest, uh Father Ben, and he was preaching this awesome priest and Kelms, and he's preaching, and here's this, you know, 20-some-year-old with his eyes closed. You know, just I'm gonna I'm gonna pretend I'm sleeping. Well, listen. It's not time for sleeping, it's reality time, brothers and sisters. Open your eyes. Open your eyes. And you know, I was really happy to hear too, on a lighter note. I'm just gonna say this open your eyes, do the right thing, go to mass, get on your knees and pray. Rebuild your relationship with God. Stop listening to the garbage that God doesn't exist and that uh uh that everything's going to hell in a handbasket because of Donald Trump or because of the Republican Party, which is a bunch of garbage. Because the Republican Party, my brothers and sisters, 150 years ago is the one that really started Abraham Lincoln, don't forget, on a stape, Abraham Lincoln, a good Christian man who helped to end slavery. Well, slavery still exists in this world and in this country, in a certain sense, when you deny people the right to own a house, you deny people a right to education, when you deny people the right to raise a family, to get married and raise a family and to have a house and to live, that's slavery, my brothers and sisters, and that exists right now with the socialists and the communists and with the Democrat Party and what they've done for the last 50 years is disgraceful and disgusting. And they have closed their eyes, they've closed their eyes to God and to the truth. Now you can think I'm a nutcase for saying this, but it's the truth. It's the truth. I don't always talk about it, but with a gospel like this, a gospel like this, and you see the short reading, and the church has its part to play in it too, it's partially to blame too. Because there's lots of churches out there, Baptist churches, Protestant churches, Catholic, liberal, liberal Catholic churches that will preach that, oh, everything's fine. Everything's good, everything's good here. Nothing to see here, everything's fine, everything's not fine. Everything's not fine. Things could be so much better for so many people and so many people who suffer just because you know, I got mine, too bad for you. You know, I own 10 or 15 or 20 houses. It's too bad that you don't even have one. You know, it's very sad, it's very sick, and I'm calling all of us, all of us, rich and poor alike, to conversion, for the rich to share, and for the poor to have faith and believe, and believe, and not to give up, to learn how to for all of us to learn how to love, to learn how to forgive, and really to learn how to pray and to open our eyes, open our eyes to the love of Jesus Christ, open our eyes to the reality of what's going on in the world, the selfishness that goes on in the world. And I'm very happy to see, too, you know, and and and and the lies that have gone on in Europe. You know, you have these people who come over and they watch the World Cup and they're, oh, these American people are so nice. They're not crazy, they're not a bunch of haters. Because we're not. We're good. But the politics, they teach us to hate one another. They manipulate us because they are without God. They are without God. So, my brothers and sisters, pray for their conversion. May Almighty God bless you. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. We love you. Talk to you next week.