SPEAKER_00: Hey St.
SPEAKER_00: Augustine's, how's it going?
SPEAKER_00: Another episode of The Heart of the Homily.
SPEAKER_00: Is that what it's called?
SPEAKER_02: The Homily Podcast, yes.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: It's great to be here.
SPEAKER_02: And um again, we hope our homily or we hope our podcast helps you take the homily into the week.
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna unpack um what we were talking about yesterday, which um was from the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just gonna read it to start us off, and then we'll um well actually before we start that, Father, you sound a little different.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Um just wanted to raspy voice.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't it sound sexy?
SPEAKER_02: It sounds great.
SPEAKER_02: You need some jazz music to go along with it.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I this happens to me like once or twice a year.
SPEAKER_00: I overextend my voice all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And I've been talking so much the last you put me to work.
SPEAKER_00: We've got at these conferences and things.
SPEAKER_00: And um I don't know, you know, it's fascinating because um I like to use my voice almost like an instrument, especially during mass.
SPEAKER_00: And I've noticed that like on Sundays I'll go home and like have a little bit of sore throat.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, you don't have a sore throat.
SPEAKER_00: It's you've been overextending your voice.
SPEAKER_00: And so once or twice a year I'll lose my voice completely.
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
SPEAKER_02: That is crazy.
SPEAKER_00: And people are like, oh, you're sick, or you don't feel well.
SPEAKER_00: Like I feel perfectly fine.
SPEAKER_00: I just can't talk.
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, thank you for asking.
SPEAKER_02: Good.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I was gonna say you sound, you sound even better than you did yesterday.
SPEAKER_02: So I do persevere and I could not.
SPEAKER_00: I think I do sound better.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, yesterday was And actually I thought I thought it kept people's attention because your voice sounded a little different.
SPEAKER_02: People were like, this is serious business.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And a couple one gentleman in particular said to me, because you had to go slower and more intentional, like I was listening more intently.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, wow, maybe that's another tool.
SPEAKER_02: And uh be careful with that.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want it to happen very often, though.
SPEAKER_02: So only once a year.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
SPEAKER_02: But um wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: Well, we're glad to have you back.
SPEAKER_02: And uh looking forward to unpacking the gospel and the homily from yesterday.
SPEAKER_02: Um so I'll just kind of share.
SPEAKER_02: The the gospel was from Luke chapter 17, and it's short and sweet, so I'm gonna give an opportunity to read it.
SPEAKER_02: So it says, as Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
SPEAKER_02: As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him met him.
SPEAKER_02: They stood at a distance and from and from there raised their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have pity on us.
SPEAKER_02: And when he saw them, he said, Go show yourselves to the priest.
SPEAKER_02: As they were going, they were cleansed.
SPEAKER_02: And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice.
SPEAKER_02: And he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
SPEAKER_02: He was a Samaritan.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said in reply, Ten were cleansed, were they not?
SPEAKER_02: Where are the other nine?
SPEAKER_02: Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?
SPEAKER_02: Then he said to him, Stand up and go.
SPEAKER_02: Your faith has saved you.
SPEAKER_02: Powerful.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like what a beautiful and powerful scene.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put you on the spot.
SPEAKER_02: Go for it, please.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know when else we read this gospel?
SPEAKER_02: Um nope.
SPEAKER_00: Thanksgiving Day.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, is there a gratitude weekend?
SPEAKER_02: That would be it, actually.
SPEAKER_02: That would be it.
SPEAKER_00: On Thanksgiving Day, we'll hear the same gospel.
SPEAKER_02: That makes sense.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's so much to this gospel, too.
SPEAKER_02: And um so, Father, what um what part inspired you?
SPEAKER_02: Because you kind of wove together all of the scriptures, the first reading, the second, and the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Like, what was your main inspiration for sure?
SPEAKER_00: I thought this weekend, and it doesn't always happen that way where all of the readings just tie back into the main theme of gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I was when I was reading, when I began to write this, I I was thinking about um I remember my aunt always said a saying that Estee Lauder, I don't know if you know Estee Lauder, Estee Lauder's makeup things, and she said that every woman likes a small gift.
SPEAKER_00: And so I remember, like when she would have a dinner party, she'd give like a lipstick or something.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember I was at one of these dinners and I was like, you know, younger or whatever, and this cousin of mine received a little lipstick.
SPEAKER_00: And you you would have thought that they were given to her like a million dollars, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But I remember it just changed the whole room of this wow, you thought of me?
SPEAKER_00: Like and so it that came to my mind when I was thinking about how gratitude can even just change everything, everything shifts.
SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned in the homily, the air seems softer.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's something that happens, it can take the ordinary and make it holy.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a component that I wanted to kind of unpack, and that is that gratitude and faith go together.
SPEAKER_00: They're inseparable.
SPEAKER_00: Inseparable.
SPEAKER_00: And and one of the things that I I want to talk about, which I want to break open the first reading, this Naaman and Alicia, which when you read the first reading from Sunday, it doesn't break it open in the sense that there's no context.
SPEAKER_00: So when you're reading it, you're kind of, okay, what's going on here in the scene?
SPEAKER_00: So that's why when I wrote the homily, I wanted to give a little bit of context.
SPEAKER_00: And um and so that's what I developed in the in the homily saying, well, here you have this general, all these metals, armor, very powerful man, but on the inside, or behind that armor, is leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: And he's suffering from this horrific disease, and he hears about this prophet in Israel, a pagan, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's not Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: And um, so he goes in search of.
SPEAKER_00: But what I love about it is that he gets there, Alicia doesn't even pay him no mind, he doesn't come out.
SPEAKER_00: He sends with another attendant, hey, all right, fine.
SPEAKER_00: Go and wash in the Jordan seven times.
SPEAKER_00: And Naaman is furious about it.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, what?
SPEAKER_00: That's it?
SPEAKER_00: That's all you're gonna ask me to do?
SPEAKER_00: And um I and I think that there's a another line that you can take from that.
SPEAKER_00: Um as our human condition, we want more.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we we we want to be in control.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: I will give a penance to someone at confession, and it won't be a crazy penance, it'll be something adequate to what the penitent just confessed.
SPEAKER_00: And they won't be happy with that.
SPEAKER_00: They'll say, no, I deserve to be punished.
SPEAKER_00: I deserve something stricter, something harder.
SPEAKER_00: And and they're missing the whole point.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They're missing the whole point that, okay, if I if I asked you to do something really hard, they would do it.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to connect is God's mercy is so amazing that he loves you so much that he's saying, even your even the punishment, even the penance, you can't control.
SPEAKER_00: I am God and you are not.
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to, we want to control every aspect, even our penance.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so you see there, Naaman wants to control everything, but then he lets his pride down and he goes into the muddy waters of Jordan seven times and he comes out.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the scripture tells us, with a skin, uh, almost like a baby.
SPEAKER_00: And then he begins to understand.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what's fascinating is that when I was writing this homily, I wrote the words that gratitude made him into a believer, and then I continued writing the homily.
SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't until I delivered the homily that I understood what I wrote.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_00: Like, and that happens to me a lot different times when I'm writing a homily, that even through my homily, I am being touched.
SPEAKER_00: That the Lord is so the Lord is like, these are my words.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: The preaching is my words.
SPEAKER_00: And so how powerful that gratitude made him into a believer.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that if we apply that to our own lives, yes, our faith life where we want to know the Lord and believe in the Lord, but there's something that if we live a life of gratitude, then we begin to believe in a deeper way.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And I think what you're also saying is like we we begin to see like what's actually real, what's actually happening.
SPEAKER_02: It kind of opens up our eyes to see what's happening.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's funny, Father, as you were talking about the confession examples, like, uh, yeah, that was definitely me when I came back into my faith.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, Father, that's it.
SPEAKER_02: Like, don't I get like a slap in the face by someone?
SPEAKER_02: Like, like really, um, but recognizing in the and the priests I went to for confession, you know, especially like a life confession that I did when I first came back to the church.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then the penance was so simple.
SPEAKER_02: And I remember being like, like, are you sure?
SPEAKER_02: How about like seven rows?
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'll give you ideas on like what I can do to make this really hard to make it.
SPEAKER_02: But that was that was the gift of mercy of like I can just receive the forgiveness that has already been bought for me.
SPEAKER_02: Um and that that is what really began that transformation, that healing like within me was recognizing so easy God wanted to give me mercy and didn't want to complicate it.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I wanted to complicate it out of my own pride.
SPEAKER_02: And um, but I was grateful the priest helped me to receive the gift.
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I think that you know, we could call it the scandal of simplicity.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's the whole I want to be in control.
SPEAKER_00: I also too Naaman comes out of the water and then he confesses and he says that there is no other God but the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And then in the scripture from this weekend, it says that he took two mule loads of dirt, earth, back with him.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people at at the end of mass were asking me, what did that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Did he want to be buried with that dirt or this or that?
SPEAKER_00: And I I should have maybe explained it in the Holly, but there's only there's only so much.
SPEAKER_00: There's only 15 minutes of Yeah, and so it's kind of hard.
SPEAKER_00: Like But I wanted to just to hit on that too, because Naaman wants to bring back a piece of holy ground, right?
SPEAKER_00: That and and also too, we gotta understand that in that in that time frame that we're talking about in Naaman's time, gods were territorial.
SPEAKER_00: Remember?
SPEAKER_00: So bringing back the God, the dirt, the earth where where the God of Israel dwells, I want to be able to come back to that.
SPEAKER_00: Also, I think that the dirt reminded him of his conversion, of his belonging to uh of of this land, of wanting to belong to these people in a sense.
SPEAKER_02: Humility of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I think also, too, um, there's this universality of faith, like a foreshadowing that Jesus, when he comes, and he and he talks and later on Paul through his letters, that faith is not contained to Jerusalem, right?
SPEAKER_00: That God comes to save all people.
SPEAKER_00: And this understanding that here we have Naaman taking dirt from Israel back to his place, saying um kind of the foreshadowing of the universality of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Um so I thought I thought that people picked up on that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's kind of interesting, it's fascinating.
SPEAKER_02: Um It's also very human, like to like when you when you encounter something so beautiful, so profound that it changes you, like it's very human to take a rock or take a dirt.
SPEAKER_02: You know, like that's very much um, you know, a token of under like remembrance.
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like the healed man right now is carrying God's presence into foreign soil.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot that can be unpacked there.
SPEAKER_00: Um but just beautiful in how gratitude turns him into a believer.
SPEAKER_00: And how would he not be grateful?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine the the the scandal of leprosy and being isolated and separated and marginalized because it was so contagious.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And something you said in your homily was that gratit gratitude completes the miracle.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: And it kind of moves us into like this belief and trust and like a real concrete faith.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I think that that's something that people should take to their prayer life, to meditation, maybe if you're doing like a Lectio Divina or you're praying with the scriptures, or even if you're praying with this, with this gospel, is saying, where even in your own life has a miracle completed the journey?
SPEAKER_00: Um, or a healing completed the journey, or this, or just simple gratitude of being overwhelmed with gratefulness where it completes the journey.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: It reminds me of um something from my own life where um having gratitude, um being able to um like step back and reflect on like what is happen, like what is God doing in my life um helps me not miss like the miracles that do happen.
SPEAKER_02: Instead of and sometimes um I think even in a story from the Old Testament that you're talking about when we're focused on like it has to look this way, that we we miss, we can miss what God is actually doing when we're so narrow-minded, or like it, you know, the miracle has to happen this way, or um being able to step back and be grateful of like, Lord, you are at work.
SPEAKER_02: And if I don't see it, like you're doing it.
SPEAKER_02: And like that radical trust of um trust and also be know that God is doing a miraculous work in our life and being open to seeing it.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell And that takes a lot of work.
SPEAKER_00: And it's something that I don't remember if I said this yesterday in the homily or if it was something from today.
SPEAKER_00: Or I think I think I mentioned it both.
SPEAKER_00: It's that part of uh renewal where it's that everyday conversion, where it's receiving Jesus in the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mentioned the homily coming forth as that uh Samaritan who who came back to Jesus in Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Almost being like that Samaritan receiving Christ in the Eucharist and and and having the gratefulness of understanding all that God has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not the same old, same, oh, I'm in the communion line, let me go and receive, okay, it's time to get up for communion.
SPEAKER_00: Are we really conscious?
SPEAKER_00: Are we really truly understanding that I'm standing in line in the communion line to receive the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it just, oh, let me have the cookie?
unknown: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And I I think that's a beautiful invitation of like if that's the pinnacle of our week, receiving the Eucharist, the the Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02: Um, if we're living a life of gratitude, then we're bringing like our whole week of thankfulness, our whole like week of like seeing God at work and saying thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Like the gr-I don't know, like what a beautiful way to like receive the Lord at Sunday Mass, but then also if we're doing that work of like living a reflective life and seeing and being grateful every day, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Then like this beautiful moment of like gratitude meeting gratitude, you know.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think that's part of this too, is that gratitude takes uh work.
SPEAKER_02: It takes our part of like stepping back and like actually having the eyes to see.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: And if we go to the gospel and we see these ten lepers, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because what's fascinating to me is that as I mentioned in the homily, that they they cry out to Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because they're not going to get close.
SPEAKER_00: They know the law and they should not be approaching anyone.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're screaming out, Jesus, Master, have pity on us.
SPEAKER_00: And Christ doesn't say, be healed, or I heal you.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Go show yourselves to the priests.
SPEAKER_00: But what that says to us is that the lepers obeyed or yeah, they obeyed before they even saw any results.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go, I'll go show myself to the priest.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's something that we can apply to our lives where faith demands of us before there's evidence.
SPEAKER_02: Because they were healed on the way.
SPEAKER_02: On the way.
SPEAKER_02: Like as they're walking.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: So faith demands that we move that we be on the way before there's evidence.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's the hardest part.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Because we want to see it and then we'll follow.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not how Jesus's.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, show me a sign.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Show me that it's from you.
SPEAKER_00: Show me this, show me that.
SPEAKER_00: And so faith demands of us start moving.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, heading in the direction.
SPEAKER_02: And what a beautiful encouragement of just just like being obedient to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Like that in that the healing always takes place and it's gonna be and it's on the way.
SPEAKER_02: I think it's such a um instructive really point that Jesus is also making, I think, to us.
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, because a miracle was an instant.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like a process.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I love that one about the where the person is blind and he Jesus uh, you know, it's in stages.
SPEAKER_00: And how often do we want proof before we're obedient?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And Father, something from your humble Yasha, you said gratitude isn't about circumstance.
SPEAKER_02: Could you share a little more what um kind of was what you were talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that that what I meant there is that we're so quick to always need um well, I'll say it this way.
SPEAKER_00: What I meant by not by circumstances is it's very easy when everything is going well to say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Um it shouldn't even when you want to or you don't want to, or it it's it's living in this perpetual thanksgiving of always being grateful.
SPEAKER_00: Not just when it's I'll give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: I I remember um a friend of mine was on a trip with his adult son and wife, and they would have dinners together, and um the dad said to the son, you know, I I want to say something, I don't want to upset you, but whenever the waiter comes or people come, you never say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you ever say thank you?
SPEAKER_00: And the son said, I I didn't even realize that I wasn't saying thank you.
SPEAKER_00: So it's it has to move beyond just the circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: It has to be this, I'm always living this perpetual gratefulness, whether it's something that someone has done for me, whether it's a beautiful day, and you just walk down, you're just amazed by how gorgeous this the day looks, or or it's in this constant thanksgiving to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: And um because we need to live in that way to constantly be thanking God.
SPEAKER_02: And I think the disposition is knowing everything's a gift.
SPEAKER_02: Like if that's like the disposition that we have towards ourselves, towards the world, towards God, then it's really easy to be able to say thank you, because all is gift.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: We've not been, we're not owed anything, but all is gift from God.
SPEAKER_02: Um and then even with the the lepers, right?
SPEAKER_02: The ten that were healed and only one came back to say thank you.
SPEAKER_02: I I remember for that story, we some packs makes them like, how do they not all run back?
SPEAKER_02: You know, like what happened there?
SPEAKER_02: And um I don't know if you have some insights, Father.
SPEAKER_02: Like, what happened with the other nine that like distracted them or prevented them from not being able to come back and thank the giver of the gift?
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a lesson for us.
SPEAKER_00: I think that there are people who are just ungrateful.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a lesson for don't be like that.
SPEAKER_00: Um And also we can get so caught up in the miracle itself that we forget to thank who we got the miracle from.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's easy to imagine a birthday party or a Christmas where you're so overwhelmed with some great gifts that you're you forget.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I I need to say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Um so I really think that the nine were so overwhelmed with what just happened to them that again, it's what you were talking about earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Are we attentive enough to have that self-awareness to constantly be living in this perpetual thanksgiving to take the space to know who you are and that giving thanks is everything.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it reminds me of St.
SPEAKER_02: Ignatius of Leola talks a lot about gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: And basically that kind of the heart of most sin is in gratitude towards God.
SPEAKER_02: Kind of like that pride of um being ungrateful.
SPEAKER_02: But it's also, I think, a again a great anchor point in our own life of our own spiritual life that gratitude is something that flourishes faith.
SPEAKER_02: And we have to practice it.
SPEAKER_02: It's not something that comes natural for all people.
SPEAKER_02: Some people are very, you know, optimistic, which is different than gratitude, but um it is something to practice, to exercise gratitude, to be aware, to look around and um and to do that often.
SPEAKER_02: Even I think about, again, St.
SPEAKER_02: Ignatius with his exam and prayer.
SPEAKER_02: You know, part of that is looking at your day and thanking God and being aware of God's abundant gifts even in one day, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I have to say that I'm grateful to God that I I think I have that.
SPEAKER_00: I may not have other things, I may not have other gifts, but I like to think that I live in this perpetual gratefulness.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's intentional, but I think like I mentioned a couple weeks in the homily, it has to be like a muscle.
SPEAKER_00: Or it continues to be exercised.
SPEAKER_00: Um, because then if you're if you're exercising it like a muscle, it becomes like second nature.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how I try to live my life.
SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, it's it has to be part of who we are, that everyday.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And so maybe, Father, as we um kind of start wrapping up, um perhaps we can look at the second reading.
SPEAKER_02: I know uh St.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, um his letter.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe give us some insight in from your homily, because um when you were talking about that gratitude in all circumstances, I think about Paul.
SPEAKER_02: You know, he's writing his beautiful letters in prison, you know.
SPEAKER_02: So put some insights there.
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: And that's when I was writing the homily, this is my favorite part was just thinking about St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, because he had every reason to be bitter, miserable.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not, and he's chained and he's um probably starving.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he's actually giving thanks to Almighty God because he remembers who he was.
SPEAKER_00: He remembers he was Saul, that he was persecuting Christians, he hated Christ, he was hunting down believers.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's looking at his life, and I'm sure you know, you're in prison, you got a lot of time to think.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And and to say, wow, I've been saved.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy has given me salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And so there you again have that gratitude of turning you into a major believer, right?
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, he says that Jesus has done this for me.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's what the one of the points that I wanted to mention is that when we come to the Eucharist, is we're very good at asking God for things.
SPEAKER_00: And rightly so.
SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of problems, or maybe you're going through a diagnosis or you're going through a very difficult time in your life, or whatever it is, it's normal to be able, it's normal to go to God with these things.
SPEAKER_00: And and God wants to help his children, as I mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of times people in their prayer life, that's all they do.
SPEAKER_00: The way they know their prayer life is it's just asking, asking, asking.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to teach people how to pray, uh, to sit in silence, to be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: Um but what I wanted to kind of switch it up a little bit was yes, you there will be times where you're gonna be asking and asking, but when you're coming up to receive the Lord in the Eucharist, think about everything that He's done for you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't think so much of what you don't have, but what you do have.
SPEAKER_00: Um I've been dealing with some young people who are in very serious situations with illness and dying, and and and they they come to say and living saying, health is everything.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about the accumulation of things.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have health, there is nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And it it's that just being able to go to the Eucharist and say, thank you, Lord, for my health, for the breath in my lungs, and to be able to serve you again today.
SPEAKER_00: Um but you have Paul there in prison, and um he becomes proof that gratitude doesn't come from comfort, it comes from Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And what I love about the word in that, in that gospel, I mean in that second reading, that letter from Paul, which is is so powerful, it says, the word of God cannot be chained.
SPEAKER_00: I can be chained, I can be, I can be, you can do whatever you want, you can abuse me, you can torture me, whatever it is, but you will never be able to chain the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you talk to any of these hostages and some of the people who have been in living in capac in captivity, they will tell you, you can take everything from me, you can take food from me, you can take sleep, you can take whatever it is, but you will not take God away from me.
SPEAKER_00: And you hear some of these hostage stories, and and they will walk around their cell praying the rosary, they will fight the craziness in their head from isolation by having that conversation with the Lord, having a prayer life in captivity.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's powerful what Paul is living and that he he gives to us as a firsthand experience is you cannot chain the word of God because that's how powerful and how our Lord takes care of us.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: But every mass, I as I was saying, every mass needs to be that school of gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think that if you live gratitude every single day, you live differently.
SPEAKER_00: You stop comparing yourself to others, you start stop judging, you stop being a miserable person because there's this self-preservation, this self very selfish kind of nature to us that it's all about me, me, me.
SPEAKER_00: But when gratitude is applied and when it's uh a living with gratitude, your life changes.
SPEAKER_00: You see the world differently.
SPEAKER_00: Your behavior, the way you respond, the way you look at things, the way you see the world is completely different than if gratitude is not there.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I one of the things I wanted to stress so importantly was that faith and gratitude are inseparable.
SPEAKER_00: They go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And even with that, you know, practice.
SPEAKER_02: The practice of gratitude can increase our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you want to grow in faith, and easy, first thing attainable is to start practicing gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and really like being able to step back and look at um everything that you're grateful for and being able to uh just know that God is with you and um allow that faith to really blossom.
SPEAKER_00: You know, St.
SPEAKER_00: Justin Martyr wrote, he wrote a lot, and I apologize for clearing my voice a lot.
SPEAKER_00: It's again a lot of this uh laryngitis.
unknown: St.
SPEAKER_00: Justin Martyr writes about the early communities and their main thing.
SPEAKER_00: Before there was these beautiful cathedrals and beautiful churches and nice fancy vestments and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: The whole church, the whole people, all of the people came together to do what?
SPEAKER_00: To give thanks.
SPEAKER_00: And that was the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: And he explains there in detail the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: It was about giving thanks.
SPEAKER_00: Every Mass, from the simplest parish to the grandest basilica, is really about an act of gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: It's an act of gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: Wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: And Father, as we wrap up, what would be some um a challenge to give or a takeaway for those who are listening um that want to maybe grow in gratitude or really be able to see how um that will help increase our faith?
SPEAKER_02: What are some uh maybe action challenges or anything that you think to put in practice?
SPEAKER_00: I think I would say practice gratitude, even in the simplest forms.
SPEAKER_00: And then ask yourself right now, if we are you're listening, who do I need to say thank you to?
SPEAKER_00: I love people when I open the door and they say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many times I'm like at CVS, I'll leave the door open.
SPEAKER_00: And someone will they won't even say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to shout out, oh, you're welcome, but I don't.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't look good in a collar.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, it's um that's the challenge that I would say is let's be more thankful.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And then ask yourself today, who do I need to call or who do I need to think about?
SPEAKER_00: Who do I need to lift up in prayer that I need to thank?
SPEAKER_02: Because you're right, it changes things.
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Changes things.
SPEAKER_02: It changes things.
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02: It changes people, it changes the feeling in a room.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think that's it's such a powerful way to express God's love is through gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say pray to have the heart of that leper.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine looking down and maybe seeing your hand cured or your skin cured?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of running to wherever he was going to his family, he returned back to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Fell on his knees.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You are the source.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And then the other nine went away, but this guy received salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Your faith has saved you.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine a double miracle, the biggest miracle.
SPEAKER_02: The biggest miracle.
SPEAKER_02: The one that he'll take with him when he's going to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_00: The one he'll take with him.
unknown: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly right.
SPEAKER_00: So be that leper.
SPEAKER_02: Be that leper.
SPEAKER_00: The one who comes to the feet of Jesus every single day and says, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Because all of us, every single one of us every day have something to thank God for.
SPEAKER_02: So what a good challenge as you go into your week, hopefully taking this homily from the pews into your week.
SPEAKER_02: And I'll practice it right now.
SPEAKER_02: So thank you, Father, for being here today.
SPEAKER_02: And thank you to community news.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, community news, you're the best.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having us and for always uh supporting our ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And check us out.
SPEAKER_00: Spread the word.
SPEAKER_00: Tell people about this podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We want it to grow.
SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So thanks, Michelle.
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're looking for a home, come visit us, St.
SPEAKER_02: Augustine Church in Crow Gables.
SPEAKER_02: We welcome you and look forward to seeing you next weekend.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Have a good week.
SPEAKER_00: Take care.