SPEAKER_00: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Heart of the Homily Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Michelle Lopez, and I'm here with our pastor, Father Ragoa.
SPEAKER_03: How's it going, Michelle?
SPEAKER_03: Happy Monday.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Happy Monday indeed.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And finishing into the Easter season, it's kind of crazy that it's almost done.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: We're in the last week before Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: So exciting times.
SPEAKER_00: And we celebrated yesterday the Ascension of the Lord, which is very beautiful and a lot to unpack today.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll actually start us off by reading the first reading, which is from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter one, verses one to eleven.
SPEAKER_00: So in the first book, Theopoliths, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
SPEAKER_00: He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, about which you have heard me speak, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: When they had gathered together, they asked him, Lord, are you going to are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?
SPEAKER_00: He answered them, It is not for you to know the times or season that the Father have established by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria until the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
SPEAKER_00: While they are looking intently at the sky as he was going, two men suddenly appeared, dressed in white garments, and stood beside them.
SPEAKER_00: They said, Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus who had been taken up from you into heaven, will return in the same way as you had seen him going into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it's a little bit longer.
SPEAKER_00: Is that the right reading?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's the way you look at me, but I was like, Oh my gosh, did I read the wrong reading?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a bit longer than I thought, but um It is actually hearing me read it, I was like, wow, this is good.
SPEAKER_03: But let me tell you, I have always wanted to preach on what I preached this past Sunday.
SPEAKER_03: Every time this feast day comes, um, I'm I love that those I'm just fascinated by those 40 days that after Easter Sunday to the ascension, where Jesus shows up.
SPEAKER_03: And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Mel Gibson is doing a movie on that post-resurrection time of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_03: And um, but if you think about those 40 days, what they must have been like for the apostles, right?
SPEAKER_03: They have been probably disoriented, exhilarating, terrified, hope-filled weeks.
SPEAKER_03: Why?
SPEAKER_03: Because the Jesus that they watched die on a Roman cross, the Jesus that they have helped wrap in a burial cloth, they thought for sure he's gone forever, and then now is with them again.
SPEAKER_03: Think about it how that just must like blow your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and also like I'm sure they were amazed at like, okay, well, is this is this now forever?
SPEAKER_00: Like, are we gonna hang out here forever?
SPEAKER_03: You know, is this the the the Jesus now that just like appears through locked doors and walks right through walls?
SPEAKER_03: The one that shows up on the road to Emmaus, walks seven miles with two disciples, they don't even recognize him.
SPEAKER_03: Is this the Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: But then, you know, he breaks bread.
SPEAKER_03: Um, I love the story where he's standing there on the shore of Galilee cooking fish over a charcoal fire.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
SPEAKER_03: There's something about those 40 days.
SPEAKER_03: I don't think we've ever really, at least I haven't really thought about it or talked much about it.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's amazing because it's a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Like 40 days is is not 40 hours, it's not, it's like 40 days.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, just what Jesus might have spoken to them about, like been with them, like the healing that must have happened in the reconciliation, and then just like also the empowerment, and I'm sure prepare preparing them for this next step, which is the ascension of him going to the father.
SPEAKER_03: But I do think also there must have been some whiplash.
SPEAKER_03: They don't know whether to grieve him or to chase him, they don't know whether to lock the doors or go preach out in the streets.
SPEAKER_03: They're living in this very strange 40 days, and so when you think about the ascension, at least it's you your mind says, absolutely, it needed to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_03: And something like I mentioned at the in the homily was that Jesus Christ sets the church in motion, right?
SPEAKER_03: When he goes to the Father.
SPEAKER_03: Um and I and I just love it because now they're standing on that hill outside of Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, the same hill where um Jesus was sweating blood the night before he died.
SPEAKER_03: And yeah, it's the same hill where the city of Jerusalem spreads out below.
SPEAKER_03: And you know, if we've been there and a lot of people love that postcard kind of view.
SPEAKER_03: If you're standing there in Mount Olives and watching all of Jerusalem, it's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_03: But it's it's incredible that something happened that none of them are prepared for, right?
SPEAKER_03: And they're just as Jesus is taken up, as the scripture you just read, but as Jesus is taken up, I I I for me it's almost like they must have froze.
SPEAKER_03: Like, what is going on here?
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: Like this human being is just like now being like taken up into the sky into a cloud.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure it's like, okay, are you coming back?
SPEAKER_00: Wait, what's what's the next chapter here?
SPEAKER_00: Which the mercy of God is so good.
SPEAKER_00: The two angels, right, that were sent to be like, um, um broad daylight too, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like what a mercy that the Lord knows even knows them and knows like that they're gonna need that extra, even that nudge, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself just went into the, you know, to be with the Father and that amazement that the disciples need more nudging, you know, to take the I mean picture the scene: 11 grown men, fishermen, former tax collector, hardened working class, first century Jews, men who have seen everything over the last three years, uh, walked with Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: They saw the exorcisms, multiplication of loaves, dead man walking out of a tomb, uh just all of the miracles and all the beautiful things that they saw.
SPEAKER_03: And you know, Friday afternoon when the sun went dark over Calvary.
SPEAKER_03: These are not delicate men, these are men who probably didn't flinch easily, right?
SPEAKER_03: And so they're standing there frozen.
SPEAKER_03: And like you said, this these two men, as the scripture says, dressed in white, come up to them, and I just love that line.
SPEAKER_03: It's like, what are you what are you looking at?
SPEAKER_03: What are you staring at up in the sky, right?
SPEAKER_03: But men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
SPEAKER_00: That question, Father, is is such a good one to focus on because it's like you mentioned in your homily, it's it's a question being asked to us at different moments in our own spiritual walk, like with the Lord, our own faith walk.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's the same question.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why are you still standing there?
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I I think that the first thing that heaven is saying about the ascension that it it's we're not talking about a creed, we're not talking about the doctrine that the the Lord left.
SPEAKER_03: We're we're not talking about a hymn, we're talking about a question.
SPEAKER_03: The very first thing that happens after the Lord goes up to the Father, these angels ask a really important question.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: Guys, uh, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_03: Why are you just still standing there?
SPEAKER_03: And it's almost like, and and maybe they were standing there for a while.
SPEAKER_03: Like you said earlier, like, wait, is he gonna come back?
SPEAKER_03: Or because he was with us and he wasn't, and he's back with us again.
SPEAKER_03: So so I I get what you're saying too.
SPEAKER_03: It it okay, let maybe we should just stay here because it's right.
SPEAKER_03: Have you ever been like uh like a fourth of July uh where with fireworks and they're like spectacular, right?
SPEAKER_03: And it's like and then they do the last grand finale, but then there's another little grand finale, and then you're just like, wait, is there more coming?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00: I love that um that image because I think I mean that's that's the amazement I would have been in of just like wow, yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's it over, is it done?
SPEAKER_00: What's up next?
SPEAKER_03: So I could see where they were just standing there saying, Wait, is is this over?
SPEAKER_03: And so when those two men show up, they're like, Why are you just still standing there?
SPEAKER_03: Because they must have been standing there for a little while.
SPEAKER_03: It wasn't like two minutes, and then these guys show up.
SPEAKER_03: It must have been like, wait, like two hours.
SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh, you know, you know, but we gotta let that sink in for a little bit because I think that there's a massive spiritual lesson for us, and that's something I was trying to just break open in the homily, because heaven's first reaction to the ascension is not a solemn theology.
SPEAKER_03: Heaven's first reaction is get moving.
SPEAKER_03: We're meant to be on mission, right?
SPEAKER_03: And I think it tells us something super important.
SPEAKER_03: It tells us about that God views spiritual paralysis as a no-no, something that we gotta be very careful.
SPEAKER_03: We have to be for the other.
SPEAKER_03: We have to, all right, let's get going.
SPEAKER_03: There's work to do.
SPEAKER_03: Get up.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and Father, what you're saying too is really beautiful because you know, the paralysis is not coming from something negative, it's something beautiful and amazing, and like, and that can happen in our spiritual life, is we could receive a beautiful consolation or something that's so incredible, but it's never for us to just stay.
SPEAKER_00: It's to transform us to go out in love, to serve, and to move.
SPEAKER_03: Even yeah, you're right, and even complacency, right?
SPEAKER_03: Um, like we're in a beautiful place, maybe, and you're spiritually feeling good, and but it it doesn't challenge you to do more.
SPEAKER_03: It's just I go to mass, I say my prayers, and uh I'm pretty happy.
SPEAKER_03: And uh, so this is a good comfort, comfortable place to be.
SPEAKER_03: Um so there's that danger too.
SPEAKER_03: I think that that's a a little bit of a paralysis as well, being too comfortable, right?
SPEAKER_03: Because what the angel is essentially saying, stop staring, there's work to do.
SPEAKER_03: Uh we're gonna ask you to move, get going.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I even think you kind of highlighted um kind of the the danger also of just like spiritually waiting, kind of um the the common temptation to uh be like, well, I'm waiting for things to change so that I can I can move, you know, or like a waiting for something to in order for us to respond to God's call or respond to move into a different direction.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I think sometimes there can be like excuses of thinking like, okay, well, you know, like once Jesus comes back after he left, and then and then like, you know, I don't know, just excuses of like once these things happen, then I can actually do something, then I can actually begin to be serious.
SPEAKER_03: I think you're making a good point.
SPEAKER_03: I actually received an email, I got a or actually it was a message from a one of our parishioners, he just graduated from high school, right?
SPEAKER_03: So listen to uh just incredible.
SPEAKER_03: He's just graduating from high school, and he says, uh, hey father, I was thinking about your homily yesterday, and you're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_03: I tend to put things off thinking I have all the time in the world, and there isn't that urgency to um to change my life, to change my behaviors.
SPEAKER_03: And he said, Maybe that's something that that you could talk more about, he said.
SPEAKER_03: And he said, and even quoted St.
SPEAKER_03: Augustine, he says, uh, I want to love you, but not yet, or I want to change my life, but not yet, right?
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so if you have a high school senior that just graduated and is gonna start college soon, asking that important question, right?
SPEAKER_03: It it is an important question because um one of the things that he was saying is it if we believe that all of this is real and it's true, then why isn't it changing your life?
SPEAKER_03: And why is it that faith then is just one thing among the many things in your life?
SPEAKER_03: Um so it's it's it's if you have young people thinking about that, why because the world is attractive, right?
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of stuff that's going on, and and you could be pulled in this direction, in that direction, and yeah, I want to be faithful to God.
SPEAKER_03: But what I'm trying to say is I don't want you to look at faith like a burden, like something that ties you down, that is is a struggle in the sense that it's painful, and oh, I gotta do this, I gotta say my prayers, I gotta, I gotta be more faithful to the Lord, I gotta go and help out the soup kitchen.
SPEAKER_03: No, if that's the case, then something's off.
SPEAKER_03: It's got there's gotta be something where we re-evaluate because it it's love should compel you to change.
SPEAKER_03: Love should compel you to help the other to move and and to do what the Lord is asking of you, because if it's not love, it will be a burden.
SPEAKER_00: That's so true.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's so true.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's great to be able to ask that question, kind of what excuses or fears keep me from keep me spiritually passive or keep me thinking like, oh, tomorrow, or I'll have time later to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And that always is um, yeah, such a I think a temptation temptation that everyone faces thinking that like we have time when you know nothing tomorrow's not guaranteed, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But like what we do today, like we need to focus on like the present moment and being able to be faithful to where God has us now.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that is a big thing I think young people face too, is thinking, like, okay, well, you know, once I graduate and I get a good job and then like I have a lot of money, then I'll go serve at the super, you know, like once I have the extra spare time, and that's not real.
SPEAKER_00: That's not reality.
SPEAKER_03: Or maybe when I get married and I start having kids, we'll start back at the church.
SPEAKER_03: And because that's a time when I want to bring my kids to know the Lord and can't don't delay.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, now is now is the time.
SPEAKER_00: And that hearing the angels, right?
SPEAKER_00: What why are you still standing there?
SPEAKER_03: What are you still standing there?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you looking for here?
SPEAKER_03: It's not here, and it's not condemning anybody, right?
SPEAKER_03: So it's not shaming anyone.
SPEAKER_03: It's like it's it's the angels are not yelling at the apostles, the angels are waking them up.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a spiritual nudge.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, heaven's tone in this passage is gentle, but I I really believe it is a wake-up call.
SPEAKER_03: Like a parent who wants to uh, hey, you gotta get to school, set the alarm, get going, come on, the day is young.
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I think the tone is grace.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because grace does not shame you for standing still, grace asks you a question that makes you realize you've been standing still, right?
SPEAKER_03: And then Grace points down the hill towards the road that you're meant to be walking on.
SPEAKER_00: I love that proposal, like it's a nudge that proposes a question to make it make the answer come from the inside, right?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of it being something place an obligation on the outside, you know, like Grace kind of compels us to choose in a deeper way to to move and to respond.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I think that that's what we've been talking about all of these weeks and uh Easter and now next Sunday we'll celebrate Pentecost.
SPEAKER_03: But how are we growing, right?
SPEAKER_03: What where where what are the steps we need to take to to change or to hardwire or rewire our brain to see that it is out of love that my behavior uh compels me forward in a uh in a forward motion?
SPEAKER_03: A lot of people love that one homily.
SPEAKER_03: I think it was towards the beginning of the Easter season where it was move, not moving, right?
SPEAKER_03: A lot of people had some feedback on that and they said, absolutely, I need to put my butt in gear because I'm not moving.
SPEAKER_03: And there when you said that, I was like, I think that that is what we're talking about today, right?
SPEAKER_03: Why are you still standing there?
SPEAKER_03: Are you doing something?
SPEAKER_00: And it makes sense because of your kind of the next point that was kind of in your homily father about that the ascension is not about Jesus leaving, but he him becoming more present.
SPEAKER_00: And so the the movement or like why are you standing here, move is for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, being equipped to go on mission, being equipped to live the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'd love to you speak a little bit more into that because I think when we do think of the ascension, we think about like, okay, bye, Jesus, see you later.
SPEAKER_00: Like, great to have you here, but that's it.
SPEAKER_03: Well, I I think that one of the things that I said was that Jesus now moves from outside of time and space, right?
SPEAKER_03: And he's available to every single person that seeks him.
SPEAKER_03: Um, because if you wanted to see Jesus, you either had to go to Galilee, to Nazareth, to Jerusalem, figure out where on the road he's at and uh camp out or or follow the thousands of people.
SPEAKER_03: I'm sure a lot of people were just hanging on every word he said or hoping he would do another multiplication of the loaves or something.
SPEAKER_03: But um, and so you have all these people that if you wanted to see Jesus, then you had to go where he was.
SPEAKER_03: But as I mentioned the gospel in the homily, um, proximity does not mean that you're close to Jesus in in the sense in the spiritual sense, because there were a lot of people who were very close, rubbing elbows and shoulder to shoulder, who rejected him, right?
SPEAKER_03: And and wanted uh a different path.
SPEAKER_03: And so proximity is is not the thing, but we see that now Christ ascends to the Father to set the church in motion.
SPEAKER_03: Um, but then he is available to us.
SPEAKER_03: I will he makes that promise, I will be with you always.
SPEAKER_03: And and we see it.
SPEAKER_03: We see it in in the Eucharist, we see it in every hospital room, we see it where those who are are deeply suffering, those who are in trouble, in prison cells.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus is there, right there next to you, and and he wants to be there.
SPEAKER_03: And so I think that that's if you see the progression of Jesus doing the will of the father and how he had to die, he had to suffer, die, and resurrect, and then go back to the father so that he could send the advocate, send the Holy Spirit to put the church in motion.
SPEAKER_03: And what's the church in motion for to save souls, right?
SPEAKER_03: To to give our lives completely to the Lord to be able to go to heaven, right?
SPEAKER_03: Um, it's not just to die one day, we're not just here to die one day, we're here to really foster that love relationship with the Lord that helps others to to understand to benefit all of the treasures that that that the Lord wants to give us.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think that is such an incredible part of our faith that um I remember even when we were in the Holy Land Pilgrimage Father, thinking about that when we went to like the wall um of the temple, like the wailing wall.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and just thinking about um yeah, but that because of Jesus and because of the ascension, like I don't have to go to the Holy Land to to meet him.
SPEAKER_00: But like where I find myself, like inviting Jesus, like I can meet Jesus anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And that um blows open the this real tangible relationship with God that's offered to us.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go again to the Holy Land to meet Jesus to begin your faith, but like where you find yourself, Jesus meets you and he blows open space, time, and you know, history for that.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's um this is an incredible part of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And tying it to the ascension and understanding that is it's um makes sense to the the whole of the story that we were moving through Easter ascension into Pentecost.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I think that that's where our we've been talking about this for the last couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_03: It's where that relationship begins to happen.
SPEAKER_03: And where you have because we're really good, we know the Father, right?
SPEAKER_03: And hopefully we know that we're son or or daughter of the Father, and that we're beloved and and cared for, and we love Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_03: And as I said today in the daily mass, um we don't really know the Holy Spirit, but part of our Catholic faith is to know the Trinity and and know the three persons, because as you're mentioning, it is it is part of who we are, it is we die in Christ, right?
SPEAKER_03: So it is through our baptism that we die in Christ, and that that and and thank God that we do, because the resurrection is guaranteed, right?
SPEAKER_03: He's broke he broke open the gates of heaven for us to show us the way back to the Father.
SPEAKER_03: And um, but if we begin to really train our minds that it is a Trinitarian God, it is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, um, because Because as we will see this Sunday for Pentecost, it's it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that one the church survives, right?
SPEAKER_03: Um it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that I can forgive, that I can fight temptations, that I can be the person that the Lord is asking me to do and to be, because it's not gonna happen just on sheer willpower.
SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry, it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_03: It has to be through the power, calling down the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: One of the things that I tell, and you've I you've probably heard me say this, but um, one of the things that I tell uh couples that when they're fighting or where they're having arguments, um, and this can work anywhere, but one of the things that I tell them, I said, listen, if you're in the heat of it, you excuse yourself and say, okay, I need to go to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_03: Let's take a two-minute break.
SPEAKER_03: And what you do is you go to the bathroom, you get down on your knees, and you start praying, come, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: That's all you have to say.
SPEAKER_03: You don't have to say any fancy prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Come, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: And I guarantee you, when you walk back out of that bathroom back into that fight, it's gonna be a different fight.
SPEAKER_03: Why?
SPEAKER_03: Because you just called down the power of God.
SPEAKER_03: And it's what you're saying.
SPEAKER_03: It's it's it's now God is outside of that time and space.
SPEAKER_03: I I don't have to know Jesus by going to the Holy Land.
SPEAKER_03: I know Jesus right here, right now, with the promise, with the bow, with the conviction to say, I want to know you.
SPEAKER_03: I want to change my life for you.
SPEAKER_03: And then I want to help others know that same love because I have come to know that fulfillment.
SPEAKER_03: I have come to know that peace.
SPEAKER_03: And so it's not because of circumstances, but it's because of the deep love and deep relationship now that I'm building with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So beautiful, so good.
SPEAKER_00: And that power of the Holy Spirit to transform and to heal our humanity is um essential for us growing in holiness.
SPEAKER_00: And it makes me think of like the other part of the ascension that um I don't know, sometimes we forget is that the ascension is Jesus being going to the Father like body and soul.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like his body is going, like the redemption of our body and like the goodness of our body is shown through the ascension too.
SPEAKER_00: And that it's not something that hinders us from following him, but actually it is and in through our bodies that we become holy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, because I think sometimes, um, and that's the beauty of Christianity, is that the heart of it is like the human person has been redeemed, body and soul.
SPEAKER_00: So like no more is it like, oh gosh, this my this body is getting me in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: But like Jesus, even in the ascension, is showing us that like all of it, all of humanity, all of our humanness is redeemed and is now something that can be made holy and made good, and being something that leads us towards God and not away from him.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because I think that and it's beautiful what you just said because we love to complicate it, right?
SPEAKER_03: And and it's exactly what you're saying.
SPEAKER_03: It's this wholeness of truth, this wholeness of who we are and and who the Lord is just pointing it out to us and say, just love, right?
SPEAKER_03: And and and not in a corny kind of goofy way, but in in the sense that know who you are and know that you are loved and that I am here, and and that promise that I gave is there.
SPEAKER_03: And it's um because if you think about, all right, we just celebrated the ascension, we celebrate Easter Sunday, 40 days goes by, the Lord goes back to the Father, but why to send the Holy Spirit just to turn around and send the the the other part of the team down to be with us always, right?
SPEAKER_03: And um how comforting is that?
SPEAKER_00: So comforting, and that's where you know in your homily you talked about uh Christianity was never meant to remain kind of private or comfortable, but that call to go out, so going from like spectator to witness, I think in the scene of the ascension, we see that of like the spectator of the apostles being able to be like, wow, that was so amazing, or like, where'd you go, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: But then the angel saying, Okay, like why are you still here?
SPEAKER_00: Like, move, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So going from watching and admiring and seeing to witness to being.
SPEAKER_03: And that's what I would love to just give.
SPEAKER_03: If we if there's any message this week to to give, is that it's for us to kind of meditate, even meditate on my own life, but how am I being there for the other?
SPEAKER_03: How am I moving?
SPEAKER_03: How do I see my faith as the need to witness, the need to give testimony that it's not about just Jesus and me and oh, this beautiful, wonderful spirituality, but it's am I doing something to go out and further the mission?
SPEAKER_03: Who am I talking to?
SPEAKER_03: Who am I sharing the faith?
SPEAKER_03: I would challenge you this week, talk about talk to someone instead of just frivolous conversation or sit down and start talking about Sunday homily or a passage you just read or something, but make it faith-based where the two of you, three of you, are all of a sudden out of nowhere, just start talking about your faith.
SPEAKER_03: I promise you, when you finish that conversation, your heart's gonna be on fire.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great challenge.
SPEAKER_00: And it can be so simple as to just ask good questions, you know how how is Jesus, you know, working in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, or sharing this is how Jesus has worked my in my life recently.
SPEAKER_00: This is how my Easter season has been, you know.
SPEAKER_03: Or how what's did you feel the presence of Christ this week or this day, right?
SPEAKER_00: It can be so simple.
SPEAKER_00: And that's really moving us from what you were talking about, Father, with like from comfortable Christianity to mission-oriented Christianity, and something from just attending mass to living mass to that mission call, even through the mass.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can share um, yeah, what kind of what is some bold, authentic witness like look in a daily life?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are some examples of what that could look like?
SPEAKER_00: Um, and what you just mentioned, one of like moving the conversations a little deeper.
SPEAKER_00: But what else kind of comes to mind, father, about living mission, especially from being sent from the mass?
SPEAKER_03: I would say live with integrity.
SPEAKER_03: Ask yourself, does my behavior compel people to move towards a faith, or does my behavior turn people away from the faith or turn people off from the faith?
SPEAKER_03: That's a Christian.
SPEAKER_03: I don't want to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_03: But I would say this week, I would meditate on that.
SPEAKER_03: Even in your workplace and people that you associate with, how do they see you?
SPEAKER_03: Do they see you as uh a missionary, a person who is on mission, who has been sent by the angels saying, hey, get moving.
SPEAKER_03: Are you one of those that after the mass, when the priest says, go forth, the mass is ended?
SPEAKER_03: Well, the mass is ended, yes, but it doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_03: It's in go forth, go out into the world, proclaim Christ, evangelize, set the world on fire so that they can know that there's a truth that lies outside of ourselves that desires relationship, that desires communion, so that you can have eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_03: And so I would say that's I would say integrity.
SPEAKER_03: Live this week with intentionality of those who are around you say, wow, they practice a faith.
SPEAKER_03: They're serious about their faith, they love the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: And it's not just always the dirt, the jokes and the conversations and the gossiping and the judging.
SPEAKER_03: It it elevate your conversations to a higher realm, not to scold anybody, not to shame anybody, but just to say, you know what, I'm trying to practice a little bit of a higher integrity in how I live my life.
SPEAKER_03: So that hopefully it inspires someone to come to church or to come to my Bible study and to live differently.
SPEAKER_03: Why?
SPEAKER_03: Because the relationship that I have with the Lord compels me to love and to live differently.
SPEAKER_00: That's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And what a great um encouragement, I think, to take on this week.
SPEAKER_00: And that intentionality is it changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: Like if we can live with intentionality in our daily life, um, knowing that, you know, I I even think again, going back to the ascension of Jesus leaving and the apostles having to move, like they're carrying on Jesus' mission.
SPEAKER_00: And we see through Pentecost that they believe that they go to the end of the of the world for that.
SPEAKER_00: And like, do we believe that?
SPEAKER_00: You know, do we believe that we're actually part of Jesus' mission?
SPEAKER_00: Like that his mission continues through us.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we get comfortable kind of like, oh well, yeah, Jesus, do your thing over there.
SPEAKER_00: Or it's like, no, he's wanting to use you.
SPEAKER_00: Like you, his hands are yours, you know, his feet are yours now.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and giving him permission to work in some some new ways so that we can live with that integrity and intention every day.
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's that's the message for this week.
SPEAKER_03: And uh I think it's powerful and it sets us up for a beautiful Pentecost Sunday.
SPEAKER_03: So awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks, brother, for this conversation.
SPEAKER_03: Thanks, Michelle.
SPEAKER_03: We'll see you next Monday.
SPEAKER_03: God bless.