SPEAKER_02: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Heart of the Homily Podcast.
SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Michelle Lopez, with Father Rigoa here.
SPEAKER_01: How's it going, Michelle?
SPEAKER_02: Good.
SPEAKER_02: Very excited for another uh round of our podcast.
SPEAKER_01: So another week.
SPEAKER_02: Another week.
SPEAKER_02: I know.
SPEAKER_02: Time flies.
SPEAKER_02: I can't believe November is almost over.
SPEAKER_01: We're flying solo today.
SPEAKER_02: I know, it's just us.
SPEAKER_02: Um it was wonderful to have Pam on the show last week.
SPEAKER_01: It was good.
SPEAKER_01: It was a different dynamic.
SPEAKER_01: I thought it was good.
SPEAKER_02: It definitely was.
SPEAKER_02: Um so today, and really the purpose of our podcast, if this is your first time tuning in, is we hope that you're able to take the message of the Sunday homily just from Sunday into the rest of your week.
SPEAKER_02: So that it's inspiring and encouraging and helping you live your faith in your daily life.
SPEAKER_02: Um so I'm gonna open up just with like a sneak peek of um some of the content from your homily father.
SPEAKER_02: And really, all three readings yesterday were um kind of connected to the end time since we're nearing the end of the liturgical season.
SPEAKER_02: So um so this is kind of a little opening that will help us unpack our conversation today.
SPEAKER_02: So the end of the world doesn't begin with fire or thunder, it begins with a choice, a choice to remain faithful when everything around you falls apart.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus never promised his followers comfort, he promised them courage.
SPEAKER_02: And today he looks us in the eyes and says and says, You will be hated by many because of my name, but by your perseverance, you will secure your life.
SPEAKER_02: The question is not whether the world will test your faith.
SPEAKER_02: The question is, will you stand?
SPEAKER_02: Will you stand firm?
SPEAKER_04: Who said that?
SPEAKER_02: Kind of dramatic.
SPEAKER_02: That was from you, Father.
SPEAKER_02: That was pulling a lot of what you said in your homily um to a little opening.
SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
SPEAKER_01: That that was powerful.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's also intense.
SPEAKER_02: End of time sounds serious, you know.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people, um, yeah, a lot of people think of the apocalyptic language is something unsettling, it's something that's scary, something that they don't want to confront or even talk about.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: People don't like to talk about death or um judgment day.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but it's important.
SPEAKER_01: The church is doing something very important because as you said there um in the beginning, we're supposed to be shaken awake to go into Advent.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe, Father, you can give us a little context of um for our listeners that maybe don't know too much about the liturgical year.
SPEAKER_02: And of course, maybe give us some context.
SPEAKER_01: Well, liturgical year, we uh in the normal calendar, we start January 1st is our our new year, right?
SPEAKER_01: We end our liturgical year with the feast of Christ the King.
SPEAKER_01: And so then a brand new year begins Advent.
SPEAKER_01: And so we will begin year A, because we are in year C right now.
SPEAKER_01: It's A, B, or C, and we're in year C.
SPEAKER_01: So now we go back into year A.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we start that in the season of Advent.
SPEAKER_02: And actually, in your homli, um you said something that was great.
SPEAKER_02: You said that during this time, as we look at the liturgical year closing, the church doesn't let us drift into the holidays, which is what everyone's thinking about right now.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but she confronts us with eternity.
SPEAKER_02: Why is that so important right now, especially as we see the world already?
SPEAKER_02: I saw Christmas lights the other day and I was like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_02: Like Christmas is here?
SPEAKER_02: Like, we're not even in Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the beauty of the church and and in her wisdom, when we when we go into Advent, we're already talking about end times, but when we go into Advent, there's also that understanding that Christ will come again.
SPEAKER_01: Christ comes to us at Christmas, the incarnation of Christ, God made flesh, but also to God will come again.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's already as if uh we're we're learning, we're we're studying it, we're we're meditating on those end times, preparing our heart, our soul to persevere in the faith, to be good Christians, because we don't know when that encounter will be, whether it's uh uh someone meets the Lord tomorrow or the end of the world, we don't know, right?
SPEAKER_01: So we don't know when we're all gonna have that encounter with the Lord, but we have to be ready and be prepared.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and so we have these seasons that help us to prepare and understand and and dive in.
SPEAKER_01: And like this Sunday, as I said, it's the this this is the space now where we're really focusing on end times.
SPEAKER_02: Which should be like an exciting thing as Christians, right?
SPEAKER_02: For Christians, it should be an exciting thing of like knowing that um the final times would be ushered in and like eternity will start.
SPEAKER_02: Like that shouldn't be something that we're kind of like, oh no, wait, no.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the thing is that you know, God ha creates this beautiful world.
SPEAKER_01: It's it is it is a beautiful world.
SPEAKER_01: And we always want to grab onto it and and and and have as much of it as we can.
SPEAKER_01: And there's also that understanding, well, I don't want to die.
SPEAKER_01: I want to stay here forever.
SPEAKER_01: There's a funny story, I'll tell you to this, that uh I don't remember it, or I don't know if you remember the name Tammy Faye Baker.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that name?
SPEAKER_02: Um no.
SPEAKER_01: She was a she was uh I don't remember if it's in the 80s, but it was with uh her husband was Jim Baker, and they had the they had created this tele uh it was on TV, so it was televangelist.
SPEAKER_01: And it was one of the early ones that started up on TV, and it was um PTL, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And uh anyways, I don't want to go through the whole Tammy Faye Baker with Tom uh Jim Baker, but there was a funny, not funny, there was a CNN, Larry King is interviewing her towards the end of her life.
SPEAKER_01: I think this is the day before she died, and she had this horrible cancer, and she was there with her husband.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, she had divorced Jim Baker by then and had remarried, and uh Larry King says to her, Tammy, you've loved the Lord and you've served him for many years.
SPEAKER_01: And uh are you are you looking forward to that encounter with the with uh Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And Tammy Fay Baker says, Well, Larry, I love Jesus, but I just don't want to be on that next bus.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think anyone does, right?
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's this idea that um I would natural fear of death.
SPEAKER_01: Right, natural fear of death, but are we preparing our hearts for that encounter?
SPEAKER_01: And and these readings that we're gonna be reading in right now is is focusing on those end times.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, our second reading, which I didn't cover, uh St.
SPEAKER_01: Paul uh to the Church of Thessalonica is reminding those listen, if you're not gonna work, you're not gonna eat.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people think that that reading has to do with laziness, where they had some people in the community where others were doing more for then, and and that's not the case.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul is saying here is that these communities really felt in their heart that Christ was returning at any moment.
SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
SPEAKER_01: So if it's imminent, he's coming at any moment.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I have to work?
SPEAKER_01: Why do I have to build anything?
SPEAKER_01: Why do I have to focus on family or do anything at all?
SPEAKER_01: Because Christ is about to come at any moment.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul's saying, yeah, that may be true, but he may not come in your lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: And so you need to build society, you need to uh establish a family and and teach the faith and and prepare your heart for that encounter.
SPEAKER_01: Because it may come today, or it may come in 50 years.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's been 2,000 plus years and Jesus is still uh hasn't come.
SPEAKER_02: So Yeah, and at the same time, I mean, in our own lifetime, we will have a coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly right.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that that reality um needs to be something that we live our life by.
SPEAKER_02: Like that that becomes, you know, it starts transitioning from being something very scary to something that could be welcomed.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: Be welcomed, and and that we in the season of Advent we say, Come, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we say like with anticipation that he would come again.
SPEAKER_02: And so the kind of that transition of um fear to faith in anticipation, because it's not um the end of the world scary, everything's but it's like um a new era will usher in that we the fulfillment of our heart will be experienced, you know, like that's right.
SPEAKER_01: And the early Christians lived with that urgency because they lived that they it was part of who they are, who they were, and um that expectation of Christ's return was always on their mind.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they lived it in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Right, and that's why the readings that we're reading echo that kind of urgency that the the early Christians lived.
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's very countercultural today because right now, as the church comes to a close of her liturgical season and we start Advent, which is the new season of waiting for Christ coming at Christmas and his second coming, it's so wild to me because like right now we're focusing on all this, you know, it could sound like intense stuff of death and new life, but um, the world is like trying to ignore all that, you know, and like it does the holidays and like all these different where we hold them both together, you know.
SPEAKER_02: We're um we're I think really if we enter into the liturgical seasons that the church gives us, then there's more layer, there's more depth to our face, or there's more anticipation of Christ's coming, but also um a freedom to enjoy the holidays, like a freedom to like appreciate the moment that is being given to us um and and live it better.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, go around how many Christmas trees have you already seen and Christmas lights?
SPEAKER_02: I've seen a lot.
SPEAKER_02: I've been like, what happened?
SPEAKER_01: I did I did even on campus, even on campus.
SPEAKER_01: I was walking back from the Catholic Student Center, you know, there's that new beautiful residential hall.
SPEAKER_01: I'm looking in the windows, I can't tell you how many students already have a Christmas tree up.
SPEAKER_02: It's so interesting.
SPEAKER_02: It's very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: And the and the and the thing is that this apocalyptic language isn't meant to scare anyone.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: It's meant to clarify, it's meant to strip away uh any illusions and remind us on a constant basis of what lasts.
SPEAKER_01: This is what's gonna last.
SPEAKER_01: This is what it's important.
SPEAKER_01: Set your life and your hopes and your dreams on this because everything else fades, everything else will disappoint.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the church is trying to tell you.
SPEAKER_01: Focus on this, build your life on this.
SPEAKER_02: And in focusing on that, we actually enjoy now much deeper on a whole new level of gratitude and peace.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: So the two do go together, although it sounds a little contrary at first.
SPEAKER_01: And like as I said, it's unsettling.
SPEAKER_01: It could be uneasy if this is something that you're hearing for the first time, or maybe you've come into the faith uh recently and you're sitting at church and you're saying, wait a minute, this is well, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: You will be handed over and you will be persecuted and you will be sent, you know, to prison and you will be hated because of my name.
SPEAKER_01: Wait, what?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, when he starts talking like that, kind of gets your attention also like, wait, what is what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: Like, and he doesn't sugarcoat anything, right?
SPEAKER_02: It's not all flowers and rainbows, Jesus, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Well, people like that kind of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Jesus people want is the fuzzy bear and cotton candy and rainbows and I love you.
SPEAKER_02: We've never had an image with all that with Jesus before.
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of disturbing.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but Father maybe you can share a little more about um, again, this this message uh underneath it is remaining faithful to Christ no matter what, and sharing in his victory and that promise that he's giving us.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: And I think what I was trying to drive home is that it's not a comfort project.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a comfort project because a lot of times, and I've heard this in confession, I'm doing the right things, I'm saying my prayers, and I'm still going through difficulties.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still, or the Lord hasn't answered my prayer, I don't see anything moving in this section, in this part of what I'm trying to pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we need to teach people to grow in the faith and mature in the faith because it's not a comfort project.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't come here to promise you that you're not gonna have difficulties.
SPEAKER_01: He says it in the gospel, he says it right there.
SPEAKER_01: He says it to their to the disciples up front.
SPEAKER_01: So if he's saying it to them, how are we not gonna experience that?
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's very true.
SPEAKER_02: And although our our world kind of offers us comfort in thinking that we're gonna be happy if we're just comfortable, and our faith offers us um greatness, that through greatness, even the struggle, whether it be persecution or other things, like in the struggle, like grace builds and transforms us.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_01: And that's and I hope what people are are seeing is that don't be discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: It's gotta, you gotta see faith as a transformative project.
SPEAKER_01: It's not all is lost.
SPEAKER_01: It's this, no, I want to continue to grow, I want to continue to be better, I want to learn.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's where you get on the other side of it, where you see it as okay, it's not a comfort project.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, but it's it is it's a transformative project.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_02: And Father, I just want to make sure we have time because um the story of St.
SPEAKER_02: Paul Mickey and the martyrs that you shared in your homli.
SPEAKER_02: Um had you heard that before?
SPEAKER_02: I actually, there's a movie about that um particular story.
SPEAKER_02: There's a movie about them, and I saw that like years ago, and it was like super intense.
SPEAKER_02: I remember being like, wow, I never knew this, and now like I have images in my head that are really transformative.
SPEAKER_02: Um, because I think what's unique about their story, and you mentioned this in the homli, is because of these martyrs, they left such an imprint on the people that although all the leadership of the church was gone, the lay people were so inspired by their faith that the church remained.
SPEAKER_01: That's the most astonishing part.
SPEAKER_01: That that's what when I when I I read this a long time ago, but what really, really just blew my mind was that after the expulsion of priests and and uh destroying all churches and really squashing the Christian faith, Japan entered 250 years of Christian science.
SPEAKER_01: People were petrified to say or to tell anyone that they were Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And so the sacraments were forbidden, churches were demolished, Bibles were banned.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so what happened is that a lot of the world and even Japan kind of thought, oh, well, we Christianity has just disappeared from from our country.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but then in I think it was 1865 when they begin, uh missionaries return back to Japan.
SPEAKER_01: Um they see that they're Christians, and they're proud to be able to tell these missionaries we've kept the faith alive.
SPEAKER_02: That's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's like, how do you do, how did you do that?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Do you you they're forming their children, they were baptizing, they were passing on the faith, they were telling the stories, they were teaching them how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: They were uh why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus Christ is a person, and that's who we love, and that's who we follow.
SPEAKER_01: Not a dogma, not a philosophy, as important as all of that is, but first and foremost, we follow Jesus Christ, the person, the incarnate God.
SPEAKER_02: And even when I think about they're stripped of the comforts of having leadership, going to a church, you know, like the the comfortness of even practicing our faith is stripped from them.
SPEAKER_02: Like they're they were challenged to allow let the faith grow roots that were so deep that the storm of that persecution weren't gonna, you know, take it over.
SPEAKER_02: And I think even in our lives, sometimes like our faith can be very comfortable.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, and I I think not even like COVID times, like that was a shakeup for so many people.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, God used that for good in so many ways of like, yeah, the churches weren't open.
SPEAKER_02: Can you believe that?
SPEAKER_02: Like for the first time, like you just don't get all you want all the time, you know, and really um having to choose to have faith and let it um grow roots that were very deep so that it can withstand the storm of the time.
SPEAKER_01: Well, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: It it no army could destroy Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because all those years the faith was already built into their bloodline.
SPEAKER_01: It was inside, it was who it was their identity.
SPEAKER_01: This is who I am.
SPEAKER_01: Look, the the women's retreat that you guys had uh this weekend, powerful.
SPEAKER_01: That was the whole theme of the weekend.
SPEAKER_01: What is my identity in Christ?
SPEAKER_01: If that's solid, you're gonna pass that on.
SPEAKER_01: And it it becomes who you are.
SPEAKER_01: It's part of the bloodline.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, and the faith is more caught than taught, which is kind of like at the heart of the issue of our culture today, I think, with um many people want to teach the faith or send their kids to get taught the faith, but it's I mean, faith is caught by witness and example, and that's the way it sticks.
SPEAKER_01: Well, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh one of the things that I mentioned in the in the homily this weekend is that our faith demands of you something, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, if if you believe these words, right, then it demands of you a responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Paganism, superstition, that doesn't require you, that doesn't require nothing.
SPEAKER_01: It requires nothing of you.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity demands transformation, and that's where if you come to know Christ, then it's I want to live for you, I want to love you, I want to serve you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you if that's an honest uh not challenge, but an honest desire that you have, well, then you're gonna change.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you continue to do and live your life the way that you're doing, then there's that that's that's your ego.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's you want to control everything, and it's it's faith on your terms.
SPEAKER_01: So that's not following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But conversion, what does it do?
SPEAKER_01: It challenges the ego, it challenges you to change your habits, your uh your vices.
SPEAKER_01: That's why every agent has it has had its resistance against the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they don't they it's it's it's very threatening when the gospel confronts sin, comfort, or power, opposition appears.
SPEAKER_01: And that you've seen it uh everywhere, all through Roman persecution, the French Revolution, the Mexican uh Christeros.
SPEAKER_01: And then right now, where I I was reading something recently that in the 20th century there have been more Christian martyrs than all 19th centuries put together.
SPEAKER_01: And then the 21st century, the 21st century is on a trend to be the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Think about what's happening in Nigeria right now, where all these Christians are being killed.
SPEAKER_01: And people think, well, you know, um more Christians were killed in the early church or in the persecution when the church is sort of developing itself.
SPEAKER_01: And um, no, 20th century had the most martyrs of Christians than any other century.
SPEAKER_02: That is not the first thought, usually, honestly.
SPEAKER_02: You know, because I it's especially over here, I think in the West, like it's so out of sight, out of mind.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Um, that it's kind of like, really?
SPEAKER_02: Are you sure?
SPEAKER_02: Like there's doubt over even the statistic because it's not something that we see or even on the media see very often.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's a startling statistic.
SPEAKER_02: And also, I think that's kind of like a wake-up call of like, you know, um on the other side of the world, you cannot say I'm a daughter of God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Like on the other side of the world, like to proclaim I'm a child of God and like that Christ is king, right, is not something friendly.
SPEAKER_00: And we take it for granted.
SPEAKER_02: And we take, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: We take it for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's because we don't even live it.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's the thing is like those truths, I'm a child of God, like Christ is king in my life.
SPEAKER_02: Like those truths should radically change the way we see the world.
SPEAKER_01: And does anybody see that?
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody know that?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Because in telling this story about Paul Mickey, the seminarian, I was trying to share with everyone about this idea that it's in, you know, the authorities were so threatened by it.
SPEAKER_01: So they wanted to squash that right away.
SPEAKER_01: And they needed to do something very radical to make sure we're not gonna spread Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: That's not gonna fly here.
SPEAKER_01: We're we gotta do something right now, nip it in the bud so that we can just get rid of this, this uh this religion.
SPEAKER_01: And so they had that uh, I think it's fumi-e or something, it's Japanese for stepping on in it, but it was stepping on the crucifix.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're a follower of Jesus and you love Jesus, you would never dare step on the crucifix, right?
SPEAKER_01: But so a lot of people did.
SPEAKER_01: They would conform to me.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because of fear, they didn't want to die, persecution.
SPEAKER_01: But many people said, no, I will go to my death before stepping on the crucifix.
SPEAKER_01: And so then they they said, well, then we're going to crucify these uh these 26 Christians, we're gonna put them up on crosses, and that that spectacle will scare them off.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it unleashed a miracle.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: And I I think that the question for us uh today is where am I tempted to step on the crucifix?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not literally, but in small ways we do it when we hurt Christ, when we're hurting the body of Christ, how in small ways am I tempted to step on the crucifix?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, and it's not something that people are gonna see.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's right, that's the challenge there.
SPEAKER_02: Is it's not um, it would be easier to look at a crucifix and say, like, no, I won't, I won't.
SPEAKER_02: But like what you're talking about, especially here, is it's no one, it's between you and the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Like no one's gonna see you step on the crucifix.
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like that interior struggle and battle to choose Christ or choose yourself or choose the world.
SPEAKER_01: But also, too, you're you're stepping on the crucifix every time you soften the gospel or a church teaching.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I I am stepping on the on the crucifix.
SPEAKER_01: I may not see it that way, I might not understand it that way, but it's it's again, it's that idea that I determine truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so I can pretty much say, Oh, I can do it this way, I can do it that way.
SPEAKER_01: Um so that's the temptation.
SPEAKER_01: It's where where in what areas of my life do I soften the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Or do I treat faith as something private, like in the sense of it's a private comfort rather than a public witness, like you were just talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Do they know that you're a daughter of God, that you are his beloved, that I follow the Lord, that there are things that I won't compromise, that there are behaviors that I won't enter or I won't engage in.
SPEAKER_01: Even as simple as around the water cooler, where you're where you're gossiping about one of your fellow workers or you're assassinating somebody's name, things that you can go along with people, but there has to be this one definitive uh act and that says, I'm not gonna step on the crucifix.
SPEAKER_01: That's stepping on the crucifix.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and even that phrase is a good one to like kind of put in the pocket.
SPEAKER_02: It's a good question to ask because it makes it very it's it's very striking, you know, it's very uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: Very uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_02: Which is a good thing for us to kind of get out of comfort zone and see that some of our choices and actions are actually doing that, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Um and I think a good reflection is where is Jesus asking me to be courageous?
SPEAKER_01: Or where because people, and and I know this through confession.
SPEAKER_01: They know what they need to do, they know what the right thing to do is, but they can't get around to do it either for whatever reason.
SPEAKER_01: And so you already know it.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, where in my life right now is Christ asked asking me to be courageous?
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't have to be all in, it has to be where I'm making some sort of a little bit of progress moving forward.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_02: It's in those step-by-step steps.
SPEAKER_02: Step by step.
SPEAKER_02: Even when we think about, remember when I was in college learning about the martyrs, I was like, man, maybe I should just go to China or someplace and like just, you know, be a martyr.
SPEAKER_02: That way I could be a martyr for Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And then I I realized as I was like thinking about that and being fascinated by their stories, I was like, I'm not even willing to dine to myself in my daily life here.
SPEAKER_02: Like, how can I how do I think I'm gonna have the courage all of a sudden to lay down my life in a big way, if in the small moments I can't even be courageous?
SPEAKER_02: And for me, that was a real call to like a deeper conversion, to be able to really choose Christ in the small daily sacrifices and things, so that in the greater moments that however they might come later, I probably isn't gonna be martyrdom, like, you know, Saint St.
SPEAKER_02: Paul and Mickey, but um, like, how can I be ready to be able to say yes to Christ and choose him over all things and have that eternal perspective?
SPEAKER_01: Have you thought about that?
SPEAKER_01: I've thought about those.
SPEAKER_01: Like when you hear the stories about the Mexican uh persecutions, or even in Cuba when they were uh uh killing the opposition, and they would scream out, Viva Cristo Rey, uh long live uh Christ the King.
SPEAKER_01: And I always and I say, you know, off the bat I'll say, Yeah, yeah, of course I'll be like that.
SPEAKER_01: But then deep down, would I have that courage?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I pray to God that I have that courage.
SPEAKER_02: Me too.
SPEAKER_02: And that's and that's really where um I really feel like the Lord has convicted my heart long ago of like then in the in these small, these small moments matter.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: You know, these small things.
SPEAKER_01: It all matters.
SPEAKER_01: That's a very good point.
SPEAKER_01: Like speaking truth charitably with love, like everything that we communicate, you it yeah, sometimes we want to bring uh a small argument or or trying to prove a point and you have a bazook on your hand instead of something, you know, do it charitably, do it with love or or forgiving someone who doesn't deserve it.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Or staying faithful when the world is is mocking our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Those little things, um, choosing integrity over convenience or whatever it is, how do you see and again, this is something that we've talked about many weeks in a row is that self-awareness that you have to help you in your daily life where you're seeing, okay, what does my faith look like?
SPEAKER_01: How can I how can I have my faith as a priority in my life?
SPEAKER_01: And what are these things that I need to change so that I can be more faithful to God?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the over overarching theme for this Sunday was your perseverance will sit secure your lives, right?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's the promise that these martyrs hung on to and they clung on to.
SPEAKER_01: That was their lifeline.
SPEAKER_01: What okay, I'm up on this cross about to die, and I'm being tortured.
SPEAKER_01: And um, but what's why?
SPEAKER_01: That promise that Jesus makes, you will be with me for all eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Stay faithful, persevere in the faith.
SPEAKER_01: They will hate you, they will put you to death, but that's not the end.
SPEAKER_01: The cross is the victory, and I already won that for you.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm promising you that I'm preparing a place for you that just trust in that.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so powerful.
SPEAKER_02: Father, what are ways that you feel like um people maybe cower being persecuted in like our daily life over here?
SPEAKER_02: Like in like what are ways that we can maybe be more courageous to withstand persecution that happens.
SPEAKER_01: But we're gonna have trials, we're gonna have persecution in our homes, in our marriages with our children, even in the university, in our different cultures.
SPEAKER_01: But the way that it starts is faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to go to mass, you don't feel like it, you got a soccer game, you got a luncheon, you got something better.
SPEAKER_01: It's being able to wake up in the morning and say, Mass comes first.
SPEAKER_01: And then being a leader in your family, even if you're like the eldest son or whatever, or the youngest daughter, and saying, I want to go to mass and tell the family, no, we're going to mass.
SPEAKER_01: So it starts with these small behaviors that with time they become routine and becomes just part of who you are in every day.
SPEAKER_01: You start going to mass every single Sunday, it just becomes of who you are.
SPEAKER_01: So, what I would say is those takeaways are how do we live our lives in such a way that we're persevering in the faith with every action that I take?
SPEAKER_01: Going to mass regularly, going to mass on Sundays, celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be every week, but it may be once a month or every two months or every six months, whatever it is, but you're celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation because that keeps you in check.
SPEAKER_01: It really helps you to say, Am I persevering?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think it's it's a great reflection to be able to say, like, if tomorrow they were going to start persecuting Christians, like, is there enough in your life that would actually like you would qualify?
SPEAKER_04: Right.
SPEAKER_02: Like, would you be like one of the ones that they would say, like, for sure they're a Christian?
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's it's a good reflection to we want to live our life in a way that people know that we love Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: People know that we are putting him at the core of our life.
SPEAKER_01: And also there's there's something to that too, is where does my behavior uh just people are not drawn to it because they say, wait, you go to church and you're a c you say you're a Christian and you love Jesus and that's the way you act.
SPEAKER_01: I don't wow, if it's not working for you, uh and and I don't want to be a Christian like that.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's that whole what what's the witness?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we need joyful witnesses.
SPEAKER_02: I know Pope Francis had a quote about that we need, we don't need any more Christians that look like they always come from a funeral.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02: We'd be like, um, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, we need joyful witnesses and also men and women of integrity.
SPEAKER_02: And you think about, you know, the saints that we hold up for inspiration, they live lives of great integrity, you know, in moments that were convenient and inconvenient.
SPEAKER_02: And I think for our own life, knowing that um, you know, we will experience persecution, it might not look like, you know, the martyrs that we talked about, but it's it's a part of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_02: And to not be afraid of it, but we know what to do when it happens, which is to be faithful, to persevere and exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that I wanted to say was that um if these martyrs, and we've had martyrs in every century and every nation, we've had courageous people who have persevered for the faith, who have hung on and have believed in the promises of Christ, who have been persecuted and who have been killed for the faith.
SPEAKER_01: And what I want to say is that if if they were able to do that, let's say these uh these Japanese who were up on a cross, and well, am I able to do it in my own small way?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: They were singing and and praising God and and and saying prayers from being while being tortured and and being crucified on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: Am I able to do it at my workplace?
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So It's, I think perseverance is the Christian superpower.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And if we understand that that's what's going to save your life, at the end of the day, because there will come a day when you're not going to be able to practice your faith the way you want, or you're not going to have the health for it, or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: So do it now.
SPEAKER_01: Do the hard work now so that it's it's that is your superpower.
SPEAKER_01: That's your ticket into heaven, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because faith survives every persecution when it's lived intensely and it's lived uh with the promise of understanding that promise that God gives us.
SPEAKER_01: The cross is not defeat, it is the compass that keeps us true.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what a what a call as we enter into the last weeks of um this beautiful liturgical year.
SPEAKER_02: So looking back, like, thank God for this past year and being able to look at Advent that's approaching us, which is kind of like a reset button for us.
SPEAKER_02: Um I think that's a great invitation of these next two weeks to look at like how are we doing in our life of faith and maybe how we can reset as we approach Advent.
SPEAKER_02: And where do we need to persevere?
SPEAKER_02: Where do we need to lean in a little bit more to be courageous and um not be afraid to be a man and woman of integrity?
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think of it, even in those small ways.
SPEAKER_02: I remember, oh my gosh, I remember in college when I was coming back in the faith, I was so afraid to make the sign of the cross at lunch.
SPEAKER_02: Like really.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, well, this is so and I remember battling within myself and being like, why do I care what people think?
SPEAKER_02: Like this is so silly.
SPEAKER_02: And I started reading the lives of the saints too, and I was like, Michelle, these people are dying for the faith, and you can't even like sign to the cross at lunch because of what people might say.
SPEAKER_01: That is something that that is very true.
SPEAKER_01: You're hitting home to a lot of people who are listening because we'll have people that uh we'll have married couples that won't even pray together.
SPEAKER_01: There's just that awkwardness and just feel weird.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, when you're out as a family at lunch, are you making the sign of the cross and you're saying a prayer there where people are watching you?
SPEAKER_01: Are you being a witness?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And I think in those things, or does that embarrass you?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and no matter where you find yourself with that, I think it's taking that next step of being like, no, like this is a small way to be faithful and to tell people like I'm Christian and unashamed.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's what we need more of is witnesses that are unashamed to live their faith beautifully and to make the sign of the cross in public and like to do things like that that um identify them and let them be named as a Christian, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Um and it's the whole thing is when you fall in love, you want to tell the world that you're in love.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: And hopefully when you fall in love with our Lord, it's it's a it's a love that you want to share and you're you're proud to show it everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: I love Jesus and uh let's make the sign of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And I think as we close up our time, it's a great thing that to ask, is there any area that maybe we feel that kind of shame or that shyness about our faith?
SPEAKER_02: And it might be a good time to look at like why and to step back and in light of eternity, what should you do?
SPEAKER_01: You know, be courageous.
SPEAKER_01: I would say be courageous, persevere.
SPEAKER_01: Uh perseverance will secure your lives.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Be faithful every day.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to know everything, you don't need to know how to act at every moment.
SPEAKER_01: Little baby steps will get you there.
SPEAKER_01: But stay on the course.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Stay on the course.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're going through a hard time, go see your parish priest, make an appointment, go to confession, but get on the right track and stay on it.
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so much, Father, um, for this great conversation.
SPEAKER_02: And um, as always, if you were local, join us St.
SPEAKER_02: Augustine Church in Coral Gables.
SPEAKER_02: Um, uh share this podcast with whoever you'd like.
SPEAKER_02: And we hope you join us, join us next week.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Miami Community, Community News.
SPEAKER_01: Have a good day.
SPEAKER_01: God bless.