SPEAKER_00: Today the church gives us one of the most bracing lines in all of the gospels.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father.
SPEAKER_00: Strong words.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling us that discipleship is not proven by words, by titles, or even by the works that we do.
SPEAKER_00: It's in his name.
SPEAKER_00: We must have a life that actually reflects his will.
SPEAKER_00: And today we celebrate this Mass in the chapel of Saint Stephen, dedicated to the memory of Saint Stephen, the very first martyr of the church, whose blood was the seed of the early Christian communities.
SPEAKER_00: It's here that we humbly remember that Saul, the man who would later become Paul, as Hannah was teaching us earlier today, stood by and consented to Stephen's death.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't just a bystander, he was an accomplice.
SPEAKER_00: And yet here we are standing beside Paul's tomb, praying at the very chapel dedicated to the man whose martyrdom Saul once approved.
SPEAKER_00: Only God could write that kind of story.
SPEAKER_00: Only grace can take a man with blood on his hands and shape him into an apostle who would spend the rest of his life pouring out his own blood for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If Paul's past did not disqualify him from holiness, then neither does ours.
SPEAKER_00: But once Christ sees Paul's heart, everything changed.
SPEAKER_00: Paul didn't just call Jesus Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He allowed Christ to become the very center of his identity, the fire of his mission, the judge before whom he knew he would one day stand.
SPEAKER_00: We saw, Hannah explained to us, the judge there, the very first one that meets us when we walk in.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't want to see Jesus as the judge.
SPEAKER_00: They want Jesus the comforter.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have to say with such conviction, we all appear before the judgment of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Paul lived each day with that truth before him, not in fear, but in honesty and freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And in the heart of today's gospel, Jesus is not trying to scare us or to frighten us.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to shake us to be awake, to awaken us.
SPEAKER_00: The tragedy is not being a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: The tragedy is being a Christian in name while refusing to let the gospel touch our lives and take root in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus warns that some will come to him on the last day with impressive spiritual resumes, but hearts that never truly surrendered to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Paul refused to live that way.
SPEAKER_00: His faith carried weight.
SPEAKER_00: It had consequences, obedience and integrity.
SPEAKER_00: From his witness and from the gospel, we take three simple truths today.
SPEAKER_00: Conversion must become a lifestyle, not a moment, but something that really truly takes heart.
SPEAKER_00: Your life must reflect that conviction of knowing Christ and wanting to.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Doing God's will matters more than saying God's name.
SPEAKER_00: And we must live today in the light of the last day when Christ will judge our every action.
SPEAKER_00: Today in this chapel of the church's first martyr and in the presence of the apostle who once persecuted him, we ask for the grace to be faithful disciples, whose lives match the words that we preach, the words that we say and how we live our lives, so that when we stand before Christ, the judge, we may hear not, I don't know you.
SPEAKER_00: May we always hear, we hope to hear the words of Jesus say, Welcome home.
SPEAKER_00: I prepared a place for you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for Holy Mother Church, for Pope Leo, all bishops, priests, and religious that they may live in holiness.