WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.620 Our Lady of Grace Homelies are brought to you by a generous parishioner who encourages you to join in prayer for Mission Church's worldwide. 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:11.880 Explore the frontiers of Faith Podcast for further insights into these missions. 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:13.460 - The Lord be with you. 00:00:13.460 --> 00:00:17.460 (congregation laughing) A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. 00:00:17.460 --> 00:00:27.739 (congregation laughing)(congregation laughing) Then they came to Capernum and on the Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. 00:00:27.739 --> 00:00:35.460 The people were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. 00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:38.859 And their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit. 00:00:38.859 --> 00:00:41.659 He cried out, "What have you to do with us? 00:00:41.659 --> 00:00:45.700 Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? 00:00:45.700 --> 00:00:58.899 I know who you are, the Holy One of God." Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet, come out of him." The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. 00:00:58.899 --> 00:01:02.979 All were amazed and asked one another,"What is this? 00:01:02.979 --> 00:01:09.480 A new teaching with authority?" He commands even the unclean spirits and may obey him. 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:14.280 His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee. 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:17.659 The Gospel of the Lord. 00:01:17.659 --> 00:01:42.540 (congregation laughing)(congregation laughing) There are two movements in these readings that we have today that seem at first blush to be rather contradictory. 00:01:42.540 --> 00:02:02.180 We have in the Gospel people who are astonished and amazed are the words that Mark uses in the Gospel, astonished and amazed at the authority of Jesus that he is very clearly speaking and acting by the power of God himself. 00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:26.860 But then in the Psalm and in the first reading, though we won't be able to talk about the first reading, we hear that despite that realization of God's authority and God's truth, it's a real possibility, it's a real danger that we can harden our hearts toward here. 00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:36.699 So we have on one hand being so convicted by Christ and on the other hand, turning away from him and not responding. 00:02:36.699 --> 00:02:38.819 Let's look at this. 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:52.620 So first the Gospel, Jesus first teaches with authority and what that means is that his teaching is coming up from within himself, that Jesus is not referring to other rabbis that he has heard before. 00:02:52.620 --> 00:03:02.979 He's speaking from his own person by his own authority and what he is saying resonates deeply in the hearts and minds of his listeners. 00:03:02.979 --> 00:03:05.539 They realize that what he's saying is true. 00:03:05.539 --> 00:03:12.300 It speaks to their hearts, it moves them deeply and makes them experience the authentic presence of God. 00:03:13.180 --> 00:03:24.099 And then Jesus backs up that authoritative teaching with proofs in action of his authority and he does something that only God could do. 00:03:24.099 --> 00:03:26.060 He performs in exorcism. 00:03:26.060 --> 00:03:38.500 And the people after seeing this exorcism are amazed, St. Mark says, and they say he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. 00:03:39.580 --> 00:03:46.699 We see the incredible power of God at work there that God and his power are second to nothing. 00:03:46.699 --> 00:03:51.419 Not too long ago I went over to have dinner with my family. 00:03:51.419 --> 00:03:57.740 They were gathered for some special event and like as happens often enough I arrived late. 00:03:57.740 --> 00:04:01.979 And then when I got there to my mom's place, I was starving, was so hungry. 00:04:01.979 --> 00:04:18.939 As I walked in the door of my five-year-old nephew jumped up from the dinner table and he ran to meet me and he stood in my way and then he informed me that he was a ninja and that I was not allowed to enter the house. 00:04:18.939 --> 00:04:24.060 And he raised up his little ninja hands to show that he was going to keep me from going in and getting dinner. 00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:34.540 And so what I did is I grabbed that little ninja wrist and with one arm I picked him up and I threw him on the couch and I went over and I ate food. 00:04:36.540 --> 00:04:39.500 That's the power that the people witnessed in Jesus. 00:04:39.500 --> 00:04:44.060 That demon didn't stand a chance. 00:04:44.060 --> 00:04:54.220 One word from Jesus's mouth and the demon gets thrown out of the man who was possessed like a five-year-old ragged-all ninja. 00:04:54.220 --> 00:04:57.500 That Jesus's power is second to none. 00:04:57.500 --> 00:05:01.339 And the people in the synagogue were astonished, it says. 00:05:01.339 --> 00:05:05.259 But do they all become his disciples? 00:05:05.740 --> 00:05:07.019 No. 00:05:07.019 --> 00:05:09.660 They're astonished. 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:12.699 But do they do anything in response? 00:05:12.699 --> 00:05:14.620 No. 00:05:14.620 --> 00:05:17.259 How is that possible? 00:05:17.259 --> 00:05:25.500 How is it possible for us that we're flabbergasted by the authority of Jesus, by the truth that he speaks? 00:05:25.500 --> 00:05:27.339 And we don't respond. 00:05:27.339 --> 00:05:29.899 How can we do that? 00:05:29.899 --> 00:05:35.019 I think the key that unlocks that question. 00:05:35.420 --> 00:05:38.139 That contradiction that we're seeing in these readings. 00:05:38.139 --> 00:05:42.139 The key that unlocks it is love. 00:05:42.139 --> 00:05:47.339 This is how great God's love is for you. 00:05:47.339 --> 00:05:53.500 That that power that he'll use on a demon, he would never use it on you. 00:05:53.500 --> 00:06:12.620 You have the ability to hear the authoritative teaching of Christ, to understand that he is God, to hear him speak as God himself, to know that his word is true, and yet still to say no, to resist. 00:06:12.620 --> 00:06:19.180 And that resistance is what the Old Testament calls over and over again, hardening our hearts. 00:06:19.180 --> 00:06:30.060 In the Psalm, if today you hear his voice, it pleads, "Hard and not your heart." Jesus will never compel us to love him and to follow him. 00:06:30.060 --> 00:06:37.180 We always have the choice available to us of closing our hearts to him, of giving him no place within. 00:06:37.180 --> 00:06:40.939 And the reason that we choose that, I think, is an absolute mystery. 00:06:40.939 --> 00:06:45.740 I think that even we're frustrated with ourselves that we act in that way. 00:06:45.740 --> 00:06:58.060 But I think that the words that come from the mouth of that demon in the gospel give an incredible insight into that mystery that we have all experienced in our lives about rejecting God. 00:06:58.060 --> 00:07:04.620 And so just a quick parenthetical note, yes, demons are real and yes, they're very active. 00:07:04.620 --> 00:07:08.699 And demons are at their core liars. 00:07:08.699 --> 00:07:17.660 And the goal that demons have, the vast majority of us, is their goal is to plant seeds of lies into our minds. 00:07:17.660 --> 00:07:35.100 And we see that happening today, as that demon is being expelled from his host in the gospel, as he's being shown for what he really is as a final act of rebellion, he plants a lie in the minds of all of the people who are in that synagogue. 00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:50.779 And he says to Jesus, "Have you come to destroy us, Jesus of Nazareth?" And that is the fear that motivates our hardness of heart. 00:07:51.899 --> 00:07:56.939 The fear is, if I open my life to Christ, he will destroy me. 00:07:56.939 --> 00:08:04.060 He will take everything that makes my life happy and full and bearable. 00:08:04.060 --> 00:08:13.019 So at its core, the lie goes like this, "God does not understand me. 00:08:14.620 --> 00:08:22.060 God does not love me. And God does not want what is good for me. 00:08:22.060 --> 00:08:31.259 Have you come to destroy us?" In 2006, there was a blockbuster movie that was released called Blood Diamond. 00:08:31.259 --> 00:08:48.299 And it's a complex story, but part of that movie is a story that centers on a man in Sierra Leone called "Name Solomon." And Solomon has a young teenage son named Dia. 00:08:48.299 --> 00:08:53.500 And at the beginning of the movie, Solomon's Son Dia is captured. 00:08:53.500 --> 00:09:12.460 And he's forced to become a child soldier. And what you see in this movie is that the life of a child soldier is truly horrific, that they're forced to do terrible things. And they go and they do even more terrible things just in order to numb the pain that they're feeling. 00:09:12.460 --> 00:09:35.340 So Solomon, this man eventually goes and he finds his son and he goes to rescue him. And there comes the moment toward the end of the movie in which Solomon encounters his son, Dia, after he has been gone, capture taken away from him for so long. And he realizes that all of that pain had changed, Dia. 00:09:36.379 --> 00:09:45.500 The pain had changed his son. And Dia, when he sees his father approaching him, holds up his handgun and points it directly at his father. 00:09:45.500 --> 00:10:04.379 The Solomon looks at his son and here's what he says. He says, "Dia, what are you doing? Dia, look at me. What are you doing?" And he goes on, "You are Dia Vendee of the proud men they tribe. 00:10:04.379 --> 00:10:41.259 You are a good boy who loves soccer in school. Your mother loves you so much and she waits by the fire for you. Dia, I know that they made you do bad things, but you are not a bad boy. I am your father who loves you. And you will come home with me and you will be my son again." And Dia hears that. He slowly lowers his gun and he lets his father come up and embrace him. Sometimes, Hollywood gets it right. It's rare, but sometimes Hollywood gets it. 00:10:41.259 --> 00:11:24.620 The reason that we harden our hearts against God is because we have come to believe the lie, that he does not love us, that he does not want what is good for us. And in our pain, we start thinking if I let Christen, he will destroy me. No. He's come to bring us home to the Father. So if today you hear his voice, hard and not your hearts, I want to finish with a question here. I want you to look at your own life and I want you to ask, where is that point of resistance in your own life? 00:11:26.940 --> 00:11:34.779 Where is that area in your life where you have hardened your heart against the truth of Jesus? 00:11:34.779 --> 00:11:39.259 What's the first thing that comes to your mind even as I ask that question? 00:11:39.259 --> 00:11:56.700 I know, it makes me cry too. Whatever it was that came to your mind, that's the Lord's voice. He's bringing that to the surface. And it's there that he wants to meet you. 00:11:56.700 --> 00:12:04.379 He showed you that part of your heart and he calls you to return. So how will you respond? 00:12:04.379 --> 00:12:22.460 Jesus loves you far too much to force you to follow him. But he speaks to us today. He invites us to trust him and he invites us to open wide our hearts, to let him in so that he can lead us to new life.