Speaker 1: Strive to enter into the narrow gate, for many will attempt to enter, but few will.
Speaker 1: That was the gospel for this Sunday, and one of the things that I want to talk to you today, michelle, is who is that few, or what does that mean?
Speaker 1: Like, how do we want to be make sure that we're part of that few?
Speaker 1: So that's the topic for today.
Speaker 2: Wonderful.
Speaker 2: So, to start us off, welcome to Heart of the Homily podcast.
Speaker 2: Coming to you from St Augustine Catholic Parish and Student Center in Coral Gables, florida.
Speaker 2: I'm your host, michelle Lopez, I'm Father Vigoa, and together we'll be revisiting the Sunday's gospel and really digging deeper into its message and how we can take it into the rest of our week.
Speaker 2: We want the heart of the homily to transform and shape how we pray, think, live and love.
Speaker 2: So, father, this is our first podcast.
Speaker 2: We're so excited.
Speaker 2: Maybe you can share a little kind of the why behind our yes to commit to being able to share and have these conversations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this is crazy, Michelle, that we're actually doing this podcast.
Speaker 2: How many years have we been talking about doing something like this?
Speaker 2: A long time, actually.
Speaker 2: We did our little thing during COVID, so it's a little it's good to be redeeming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm so grateful to Miami Community News for allowing us this beautiful opportunity to just break open God's word and to share with people.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're in the car, maybe you're at home or you're in a hospital or somewhere and you're able to listen to us and we're able to share our word.
Speaker 1: But I remember when we were, we did this a lot during COVID.
Speaker 1: Remember we did those?
Speaker 2: town halls.
Speaker 2: Yes, we took church online.
Speaker 1: You remember that we had to kind of figure out how to be church in a whole different way.
Speaker 1: It was crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was crazy and it was amazing.
Speaker 2: I think it transformed our community, I think the way that we even see mission, the way that we see reaching people with the gospel.
Speaker 2: So this is very fitting to come in peacefully now, like peacefully in a setup like this, to be able to continue sharing the good work that God is doing within our community.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 1: I think that a lot of the good stuff that has come out, a lot of the good fruits that have come out and that we're living at St Augustine, really were some of the things that we were doing when we were in lockdown because we really had to think outside the box, and so I love it, and so you know I can't tell you how many people and you hear this all the time say Father, can you just share your homily, can you post it, or can you send it out in an email blast.
Speaker 1: So we decided we started live streaming, right, and that kind of forced us, because even before the live streaming, people were saying, well, why can't you put it on a podcast or something?
Speaker 1: And so then when we were shut down, we went into full, let's do this, and it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: And then we've kept it up.
Speaker 1: A lot of parishes, I think, they don't live stream that anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not as often.
Speaker 2: Of parishes, I think they don't live stream that anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not as often.
Speaker 2: So it's great that we have kind of many different social media and communication channels that we're trying to reach and be available and present on.
Speaker 2: And what I love about the homily, or the focus that we're doing on the podcast, is your homily is being able to take the fruit of your own prayer and labor with the word of God and then being able to say like okay, how do we not just leave the homily in the pews on Sunday but like take it into the whole of our week in our life?
Speaker 1: So yeah, and that's what I want to encourage people that read the homily, I mean read the gospel or the readings before you go to mass, always kind of prepare you for what is Sunday, the Sunday teaching, and you're familiar already with God's word, and then listen attentively, whether you go to my mass or you're going to another mass, but the readings are the same.
Speaker 1: So our hope and dream is that, okay, maybe you didn't go to my mass, you didn't hear my homily, but the same kind of structure, the same points, the same ideas are there, and so then we get to break it open and discuss some of the points from the homily.
Speaker 2: Which I'm very excited about, because there's been times after your homily I text you like Father, wow, this point or that point.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so we can maybe go ahead and begin kind of looking at this Sunday's homily.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, father, maybe you could share a little bit about what the gospel was.
Speaker 2: Just to give context, it's from Luke 13, 22 to 30.
Speaker 1: Right, give context.
Speaker 1: It's from Luke 13, 22 to 30.
Speaker 1: Right, so for the last two Sundays Jesus has really been giving us some strong teachings about salvation and he's giving some parables, some context, to really bring the point home.
Speaker 1: So, and I love to think that those who were listening to him were kind of wait, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: You know, because right away from the gospel this Sunday, you hear his disciples saying well, wait, so how many will be saved?
Speaker 1: Give us a number.
Speaker 1: But it's fascinating to me that Jesus doesn't give a number, he doesn't give a percentage, a statistic.
Speaker 1: He says strive to enter through the narrow gate.
Speaker 1: And that's where it's all at.
Speaker 1: It's not about comparing myself or thinking this or that.
Speaker 1: It really comes to what am I doing?
Speaker 1: Where's my relationship with the Lord?
Speaker 1: What am I doing to strive for holiness, to really prepare myself for that encounter with Christ?
Speaker 1: You've heard me say this a thousand times.
Speaker 1: We live on this earth for three days.
Speaker 1: It goes by quick, and St Paul says work out your salvation with fear and trembling, not because God is harsh, but because heaven is worth it, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's powerful.
Speaker 2: That's very powerful.
Speaker 2: Why do you think Jesus avoids giving numbers, like when he's talking about the narrow door?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that it's fascinating because, like this weekend when, in the homily, I gave the example of athletes which, by the way, we had, five Miami University of Miami football players at the 530 vigil mass.
Speaker 2: That's epic.
Speaker 1: Huge guys there.
Speaker 1: And you know I'm talking about sweating and doing the drills and conditioning and all that.
Speaker 1: And they're like, yeah, sweating and doing the drills and conditioning and all that, and they're like yeah.
Speaker 1: But I gave the example of athletes where if one of these athletes were to say one of these coaches, hey, how many of us do you think are going to go to the NFL?
Speaker 1: Right, the coach would be like why are you worrying about that?
Speaker 1: You got a game that you need to be worrying about.
Speaker 1: You need to give it everything that you have.
Speaker 1: You need to really just throw yourself into this.
Speaker 1: And that's what Jesus is saying to us.
Speaker 1: Wait, why are you worried about all this other stuff?
Speaker 1: You know, life is crazy, life is hard.
Speaker 1: It's going to throw you curve balls.
Speaker 1: Worry about what's the most important.
Speaker 1: What's the most important?
Speaker 1: Are you going to get to heaven?
Speaker 1: Which is why I love what the Pope said.
Speaker 1: Did you hear what the Pope said at the Angelus yesterday?
Speaker 1: No, which was fascinating because he himself, you know, in the Angelus he addressed, and, echoing the same emphasis, jesus challenges those of us who presume we're already safe, and the Pope said that.
Speaker 1: You know, he's reminding us that following Christ demands humility, self-sacrifice and the courage to serve others, even when doing what's right runs counter to prevailing culture.
Speaker 1: Again, that's this idea that and this is something that we've talked about a lot at St Augustine's is structure.
Speaker 1: Routine discipline really helps you to start forming your life so that you're prepared for that final encounter.
Speaker 2: It makes me think about how our world is very much obsessed with, like, the seven effective tools for this, the seven effective tools for business, to be a good leader, to be all these things.
Speaker 2: And and really the same thing applies to the spiritual life If we're not being intentional about setting up a plan for a growth and holiness, then how do we expect to do, you know, to grow and to be challenged and to really um be transformed?
Speaker 2: I know, for me, because I grew up playing sports, um, when I came into the faith especially St Paul when he talks about, you know, fight, the good, fight of faith, all those things it was really the first time being able to look at my life and if I wanted to grow, knowing, like, like, how much time, sweat and blood I put into sports, like, how much am I going to give to my spiritual life, how much am I going to pour into being able to set up some structure so that God's grace can work and be active in my life to transform me.
Speaker 2: And I think it's wonderful to see that those things, those great habits that we can use for worldly things, which is not a bad thing but we should apply them to our spiritual life too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, and the beauty of all that is is that, um, we have an opportunity.
Speaker 1: The sad part is we all think that we have all the time in the world.
Speaker 1: Oh, don't worry, you know it's, it all get worked out in the end it's, you know?
Speaker 1: Um, yes, but we need to worry about our salvation.
Speaker 1: You know, after mass yesterday, after one of the masses, a father who and he was saying this in front of a bunch of people, so it was made public, you know he was saying that his, his son, had been murdered and he was worried for his son's soul and crying, he said I want my son to be in heaven, but he was away from the faith and from everything that you're talking about, the homily.
Speaker 1: I don't think that he was able to hear those words and prepare his soul for that face to face with God.
Speaker 1: You know, I spoke to him for a little bit, but one of the things that I mentioned to him is that God desires everyone to be saved, you know, and I asked him, I said did your son survive?
Speaker 1: Was he alive?
Speaker 1: For after he was shot, he was like, yeah, he was alive for many hours.
Speaker 1: A couple hours after, I said I can guarantee you, when he was there lying on the road, he was saying God help me, lord help me I've seen this so many times and almost up to the end, that the Lord gives that opportunity almost to the very end come to me.
Speaker 1: That's why it's important to teach our kids, to instruct them in the face, form them and said you have that opportunity, even to the very last minute, that you have breath to be able to say come.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, do not deny me being able to see you face to face.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's powerful and, at the same time, even us and those listening like we don't have to wait till a moment like that to be able to really begin to have a deep and personal relationship with Christ, to be able to know his love and to prepare ourselves for the banquet of heaven.
Speaker 2: And I think it's an invitation to be able to see like living for Christ here and now, like it's being fully alive and like that's what his desire is for us is.
Speaker 2: You know, it's not blood, sweat and tears for nothing, but it's for the prize of great glory.
Speaker 2: But you taste it here, you know, through that relationship with Christ as we um, yeah, as we live our life.
Speaker 1: You know one of the things that I tell people at funerals, because a lot of times people from all walks of life come to funerals, people that are very close to God, people that haven't been to mass in a long time, people that are away from the Lord, and I always remind people that every funeral is an opportunity to take stock of where you are with the Lord, to remind them look, there's a box here with someone's body in it and that's where we're all going.
Speaker 1: You know, like that famous church in Rome where all the bones you remember this saying it says it says when you are.
Speaker 1: We once were when we are.
Speaker 1: Now you also will be.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like the path that you can't escape it, and so I tell that at the funerals and I say to them listen, you got to be very careful.
Speaker 1: This is an opportunity to really see where you are and to make amends and to turn to the Lord, and he receives you 100% Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah and Father.
Speaker 2: So one of the things that was coming to mind as you were sharing, that was really powerful for me from your homily was you said it's possible to be sacramentally near but spiritually far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and what does that look like today and how can we guard against that?
Speaker 1: Because it seems like something that sneaks up on you.
Speaker 1: When I was writing the homily I was thinking about that, because so many people come to mass, let's say daily mass, or so many people are very faithful to the Sunday mass and this is no judgment, I'm just saying what I see and how people that come to confession or spiritual direction, they're not living the faith.
Speaker 1: They come to Mass, they'll go to the Eucharist, they'll receive Jesus in the Eucharist, but then they'll get in the car and they're ugly to their kids or they'll be just responding away or their behavior or their vices or their secret life or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: There hasn't been that conversion or that turn to the Lord.
Speaker 1: So we could be very sacramentally close, meaning we're very close.
Speaker 1: We go to Mass every day, maybe we say our prayers, but has there been this transformation?
Speaker 1: Are you spiritually living the Word, what God wants to give us?
Speaker 1: But we can only do that through confession, through reconciliation, through living a life of penance, of fasting, to being able to really make a plan to change for once and for all.
Speaker 1: Because I always tell people the way that you know that you're growing in holiness is when those difficult moments, when you want to lash out, when you want to be indifferent, when you want to be ugly, when you want to say a bad word or when you want to lash out, whatever that is, then you know that if let's say that you're able to, well, okay, you know what, I'm not going to say, that I'm not going to respond that way or I'm going to just be silent.
Speaker 1: I'm going to pray for that person.
Speaker 1: Then then you know that you're growing in holiness so we can be sacramentally very close, involved in everything, and spiritually very far.
Speaker 2: It's kind of scary.
Speaker 2: It's scary to think that we can kind of be blind in that too, but it's a good wake up call to be able to know that.
Speaker 2: You know, even if on the outside we have the holy things that look holy or appear to be like, what God actually wants is is the heart, and that's much more, that's much deeper and harder to give.
Speaker 2: Because, you know, I think we live in a culture where, like, everyone wants to look nice on the outside, look the fit um for the role, and even in we can fall in that in our own faith life Like, oh no, I go here, I check off these boxes, but yeah, that transformation, that interior conversion, is what Jesus is after and for our own good, for our thriving, for our being fully alive and who God's created us to be, and nothing less.
Speaker 2: So what would your encouragement be of?
Speaker 2: Like steps for someone to make if maybe they feel like they're the ones in the pew that are checking the box off but they don't have that conversion, they don't have that contact with, like, the living Christ?
Speaker 1: What I would say is, I would say if you haven't been to confession in a long time, that's your first step to go and find.
Speaker 1: You can check the internet, find a really good examination of conscience.
Speaker 1: I always tell people go to church an empty church, sit there with your journal, go to the Blessed Sacrament and just go through every commandment, go through it all and write it all down.
Speaker 1: I love when people come to confession and they bring a list.
Speaker 1: I mean, I do that when I go to confession.
Speaker 1: I bring my list.
Speaker 1: So I'm like bring your list.
Speaker 1: It keeps you organized, it keeps you that way you don't forget something, right?
Speaker 1: And so that's my first thing I would say are you going to confession?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because when you're going to confession, it's a sacrament that you're receiving and you're receiving a grace that helps you.
Speaker 1: It helps you in that journey and also, too, it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because you want to stay in grace.
Speaker 1: So maybe I won't lash out or maybe I won't say, tell this lie, or I won't do this or I won't do that.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I don't want to fall out of God's grace, right?
Speaker 1: So that's what I would say first is confession and then a very well-meaning, intentional relationship with the Lord, prayer service, mass, and then, really, how do you change your life so that others can see that you are a christian?
Speaker 1: Because that's the ultimate kind of okay, I want to get to a place where people see me as a christian because it has to be where, like, I want what you have.
Speaker 1: But if you're ugly and you you're, you respond bad and, yeah, you go to mass, but you're really given bad witness.
Speaker 1: You're like, why would I want to be a Christian?
Speaker 1: I don't want to be what like, I don't want to be like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and what comes to mind too is when, even when you talk about prayer growing in that relationship with Christ, I think that's a real pivotal moment of of changing conversion, when that, um, god becomes no longer distant but like close and like a friend, and we know what the qualities we need to make a good friendship.
Speaker 2: And that's like the spending of time, the sharing of hearts, um, and I I think a lot, of, a lot of people sometimes have an understanding of prayer that's very elementary, kind of like when they learned it in fourth grade, the Hail Mary, and it stays there.
Speaker 2: And so they're like okay, well, I pray, I say my Hail Mary's.
Speaker 2: Where it's like okay, that's good.
Speaker 2: We need the roped prayers to be able to remember the truth and the great God who we're praying to.
Speaker 2: But that intimate, spontaneous heart conversation is, I think, the hardest thing to get into the habit of making space in someone's life to actually do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like from the gospel this weekend you heard the people knocking on the door.
Speaker 1: Right, they're saying but Lord, we were with you, we were in the plaza, we were eating and drinking and we were conversing together and then the Lord says I don't know you, I don't know you.
Speaker 1: That's probably one of the saddest things.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine standing at the pearly gates and somebody's and and you know St Peter says, come back.
Speaker 1: So he says he says he doesn't know you.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because you didn't spend time making a relationship, fostering a relationship with the Lord.
Speaker 1: It's that day to day.
Speaker 1: It's like exactly what you were just saying.
Speaker 2: And I think too, it's, um, you know, if you think about heaven being a banquet, uh, like the greatest party of all time um, if you know the host of a party you're going to like you'll do whatever.
Speaker 2: If you know the host of the party is a great like knows how to throw a party, then you like make your schedule available to attend and you like nothing's getting in my way, like I'm going to this party.
Speaker 2: They know how to throw a party and they actually know, like how to throw one that like I desire, I'd like.
Speaker 2: So, when I think about the banquet of heaven, it's like it's the biggest party of all time.
Speaker 2: But if I don't trust that the host is like a good party thrower, then like, do I really want to go?
Speaker 2: Do I really want to make it there?
Speaker 2: Is it a waste of my time?
Speaker 2: Like I'm not going to do much to like receive the invite or to attend.
Speaker 2: And so it makes me think about, like how, um, we really have to get to know, like the host, we have to get to know Jesus, and when we do that, we know that we want to do everything we can to attend his banquet of heaven.
Speaker 2: Um, yeah, so, so good.
Speaker 1: I, I, you know one of the things that I tried to stress in which I have to say it's, it's such a balance, right, because, like, not this Sunday, but the last Sunday when we had our opening mass for the 8pm, it was also a very powerful teaching, right.
Speaker 1: And so Christ is also talking about our salvation and being ready for that moment, and and how do we get there?
Speaker 1: And I was preaching to the college students but there was, like, this desire in me to kind of tone it down.
Speaker 1: It was like don't, don't come out of the gate so hard.
Speaker 1: But then it was like no, why are you watering it down?
Speaker 1: They desire truth and they want to know.
Speaker 1: And a lot of students say thank you for preaching that, um, and a lot of students say thank you for preaching that it's, it's about.
Speaker 1: Well, how do you communicate that without offending or turning people off?
Speaker 2: but they have to know the truth, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2: I think, going back to just another part of your homily that I'd love to kind of bring up, is like the striving.
Speaker 2: So we talked about the start of our conversation, about um conversation, about really that in the Christian life we have to strive, we have to like train like an athlete does.
Speaker 2: So what does that look like?
Speaker 2: Like the striving in not only habits, but kind of like in someone that's wanting to grow a little bit deeper, like what would be things to really put into their life besides confession, prayer.
Speaker 2: It sounds like an attitude adjustment or like a kind of a reorientation of how they are seeing things.
Speaker 2: But what are other things for someone to move from being complacent to striving?
Speaker 1: Well, I think what the biggest thing is striving is doing things when you don't want to, things when you don't want to, when you know you have to, but you just don't feel like it and it's.
Speaker 1: It's getting, it's, and you mentioned this earlier.
Speaker 1: We're, we're living in a world and kind of a society where everything is there, it's like everything's comfortable and looks beautiful and perfect, and and so we're, we're, we're kind of training our people to to live that kind of very comfortable, sanitized, beautiful kind of life.
Speaker 1: And that's not the reality.
Speaker 1: The reality is that life is messy and the cross is real, and if you don't understand the cross, you're going to suffer a lot, because suffering just for suffering sake sake is not good, but suffering can be redemptive, and so I think that what I mean by striving is you got to kick your butt in gear every single day.
Speaker 1: You got to be able to wake up every morning and say I choose you and be very organized and structured, and say this is what gets me through the day, this is how I stay connected to the Lord.
Speaker 1: This is the prayers that I want to do.
Speaker 1: You know, your alarm clock goes off at 545 or at 6, 637, whatever time you wake up and there's a routine, you say, okay, this is what I'm going to do, Just like you brush your teeth and you wash your face or you take a shower before you got to do the prayers.
Speaker 1: You got to have that personal time with the Lord.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because that's going to set the pace for the rest of the day, but also it's part of that striving, of reminding you that you got to live a holy life.
Speaker 1: You got to strive to seek holiness, to desire holiness, to desire a different way of being.
Speaker 1: You got to strive, and what strive means is do it, even when you don't want to do it.
Speaker 2: I think St Teresa of Avila has a quote about praying for that desire.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Even if you find yourself without a desire for holiness, without a desire for God, the first step is saying Lord, give me that desire Right.
Speaker 2: And like being humble enough to say, like, if God is asking this of me, then like he can well up these desires from within me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I always tell people, like, if you want a good habit, start doing something exactly at the same time every single day.
Speaker 1: Before you know it becomes a habit.
Speaker 1: But you got to show up.
Speaker 1: But just like everything, yeah, just like like everything, yeah, just like absolutely everything in life, if you want to be successful in your job, if you want to be whatever it is that you're trying to do and you want to do it, well, you've got to show up.
Speaker 1: You've got to do the work.
Speaker 1: Someone's not going to come and do it for you.
Speaker 1: You've got to do it and you've got to do your own work with your relationship with the Lord.
Speaker 2: And that's super hard because I think a lot of people I know, even for myself, when I started growing in my faith, I just thought it was going to happen, kind of like, okay, I love you, jesus.
Speaker 2: Like now, like make it happen.
Speaker 2: You know, but even with the sacraments, like they're not magic tricks, there's like God collaborates with us and it's in that messiness of like holiness being in that everyiness of of like holiness being in that every day, it's like choosing, like you were saying, choosing Christ every day and beginning to do small things that will help build like a life that's strong in, in, in faith.
Speaker 1: And that's why I love working with people who are excited about the faith, who are new to the faith or have had a new conversion to the faith, because what's important is to say to them that there will be dry spots, that the faith is not magic, it's not all of a sudden.
Speaker 1: Everything's perfect.
Speaker 1: Oh, I followed Jesus, so my life has to be perfect.
Speaker 1: Now and then something happens or something goes wrong and say, but why?
Speaker 1: I'm a Christian, everything should be perfect, everything's good.
Speaker 1: I love you, jesus.
Speaker 1: Why are you doing this to me?
Speaker 1: And so it's in that teaching of faithfulness, being there and showing up.
Speaker 1: Because why?
Speaker 1: Because it's fascinating, because it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Our Christian faith, our joy, our gratitude doesn't depend on circumstances.
Speaker 1: It's there.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because the underlying is Christ has died, christ has risen, christ will rise again and he has promised us new life in him.
Speaker 1: And because of that promise, my mood doesn't depend on it.
Speaker 1: So I have to be joyful, I have to be grateful, I have to live with the faith and the certitude that I am loved and I am a son of God and that he has so much that he wants to give me.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't.
Speaker 1: And the sad thing is that people live from moment to moment I'm happy now because of this, whatever pleasure I'm doing maybe I'm, you know, reading a book or watching this but then, as soon as that's over, I go into crashing into this melancholy or restlessness or anxiety, until something else, another circumstance, can kind of pull me out of that.
Speaker 1: So then, how do we get to a place where it's this constant right, where it's a very healthy balance?
Speaker 1: Well, you get to that place when you, when you realize that Christ is there in all moments.
Speaker 1: What does that look like?
Speaker 1: And how does that translate into my life?
Speaker 1: Because if you don't know that, if you haven't stretched that muscle we were talking about being an athlete then it's going to seem so foreign to you, like maybe what I'm saying right now.
Speaker 1: Someone's listening saying what the heck is he saying?
Speaker 1: What's he talking about?
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's talking about, but if you're living it and you're stretching that muscle, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: It takes a lot of work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and that's the beautiful, I mean that's the heart of the gospel, for what you were talking about, father, is like that Christ has come to give us a joy that the world can never give.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: And a joy that's consistent and permeates all circumstances and situations in our life, but it comes through what you were saying before, kind of putting in the effort, putting in the work, which doesn't mean we work our way to salvation, but we always have to collaborate with God and knowing that we have to do our part and he meets us there and fills it with grace that transforms, that elevates us.
Speaker 1: Look, the two gospels that we've had the last two weeks are hard for sure, and they are gospels that we need to really take to heart and come to a truth that lies outside of ourselves.
Speaker 1: Say okay, what does this mean?
Speaker 1: How do I wrestle with this?
Speaker 1: How do I really strive to work on being different, strive to get to know him better, to strive to develop a relationship, strive to wake up and go to mass, go to daily mass, or go to a ministry at our, at St Augustine's or at your own parish?
Speaker 1: Or how do I strive to make the effort to be more in tune with a God's life, a holy life, a life in Christ, a life in the parish right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Because if you want to go through the narrow gate you have to do the things that will point you in the direction that the narrow gates even in you know, and I think that's you know, holiness is more caught than taught or like done on your own.
Speaker 2: It's like caught by being involved in community, being involved in a life of a parish, to be able to really grow and develop that personal relationship with Christ even more deeply.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and in Faustina's diary she, um, she mentions that that very narrow road, like she has that vision.
Speaker 1: She has those two visions.
Speaker 1: She sees that really wide road where everybody's having fun it's amazing party and people are just dancing and going and they don't even realize that they're falling into the abyss, like the road just ends and it just drops into this horrible abyss.
Speaker 1: And then she has a vision of another very narrow, rocky, horrible road that they're on and he, she sees all these people are like on their knees, they're falling, they get back up, they're all scraped and banged up and bleeding and they're really struggling to get to the to the end of the road.
Speaker 1: And then what happens?
Speaker 1: She sees that when they get to the end of the road, it's this beautiful paradise, sees that when they get to the end of the road, it's this beautiful paradise.
Speaker 1: And all those people forgot all the pain that they just went through to get to that ultimate promise of Christ, you will be with me always, right, and it's like I mentioned at the end of my homily yesterday.
Speaker 1: It's like you don't want St Peter to say you know, the Lord says he doesn't know you, sorry, he can't come in.
Speaker 1: What he wants to say is yeah, you know what, he knows you, he knows you loved, he knows your heart.
Speaker 1: Come, come into the kingdom.
Speaker 1: Right, and I would just say for this week, keep thinking about what does that mean, strive to enter into the narrow gate, struggle with that, think about it and you personally, like, how can I worry or take to heart that desire, that to enter into the narrow gate?
Speaker 1: But what does it mean to me?
Speaker 1: Right, because it can mean that can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people.
Speaker 1: But what does it mean to me?
Speaker 1: How I want to get to heaven, because I should be the desire of everybody.
Speaker 1: I want to be with the Lord for the rest of eternity.
Speaker 1: But how do I get there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's a great question to be able to ask, no matter where you find yourself, whether you are a faithful daily mass goer or just starting on the road or have a lot of questions.
Speaker 2: Um, to strive to head in a direction is like that first step to be able to say like, what can I do today and what habits you know, what effective habits can I start implementing to be able to head in the direction of the narrow gate, to be able to really come to know Christ and his church and his love for me.
Speaker 2: So this has been such a wonderful first homily podcast, or the Heart of the Homily podcast, and we just hope that everyone has enjoyed this conversation, that it's helped you reflect more deeply on Sunday's gospel and to be able to take it into the rest of your week, especially with that question of striving what are you striving for and how do you allow the Lord to help you strive for holiness more deeply in your daily life?
Speaker 2: So, if you love this episode, share with a friend or a family member.
Speaker 2: They might need to hear it too.
Speaker 2: And, of course, we encourage you to learn more about our parish upcoming events or join us for sunday mass.
Speaker 2: You can visit our website at sanagustinchurchorg that's all spelled out s-a-i-n-t-a-u-g-u-s-c-i-n-e, churchorg or see our instagram account.
Speaker 2: But also, if you would like to listen to father's homily, you can go to our website, click on the thing that says listen to today's homily and enjoy the full episode, or the full episode of really Father's homily and what we've been talking about today.
Speaker 1: This has been fun.
Speaker 1: I hope to grow this, and so if you're watching this or you're listening to this, give us a like, share it, and maybe it kind of explodes and we can do this all the time because I think it's fun.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so thanks, father, thanks for showing, it's been fun.
Speaker 1: Take care.