SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Heart of the Homily Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Michelle Lopez, and I'm here with our pastor, Father Bigoa.
SPEAKER_00: How's it going, Michelle?
SPEAKER_01: Doing wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: Another Monday.
SPEAKER_01: Another hot Monday in June.
SPEAKER_01: Um, definitely feels like it feels like summer, which is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: The last two days, I don't know about you, but I either last two or three, the sun just feels like more intense.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it feels really intense.
SPEAKER_01: I feel like I have like a like a stroller shape or a tan, like from walking the baby outside.
SPEAKER_01: I have like a stroller tan.
SPEAKER_00: It is, I mean, it feels great, but it's it's and it's not as human, which is crazy, which I think it's because of the niño or niña that we have this year.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not as humid, but wow, the sun feels like we're in Arizona or something, like really, really intense.
SPEAKER_01: It is intense.
SPEAKER_01: Um, which today we are looking at um yesterday's Hamley, Father, from Sunday, which is the twelfth Sunday in ordinary time.
SPEAKER_01: So we're back in ordinary time, nothing ordinary about it though, like you normally say.
SPEAKER_01: Um and we're gonna read from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter ten, twenty-six to verse thirty-three.
SPEAKER_01: Um so Jesus said to the twelve, Fear no one, nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be unknown.
SPEAKER_01: Nor secret that will not be known.
SPEAKER_01: What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the house tops, and do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
SPEAKER_01: Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body and gehenna.
SPEAKER_01: Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin, yet not one of them falls to the ground without your father's knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
SPEAKER_01: So do not be afraid, you are more worth more than many sparrows.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly father.
SPEAKER_01: But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly father.
SPEAKER_01: Father, this gospel is so beautiful, but it's also there's like a it kind of goes back, it's like intense and then sweet, and then intense and then sweet.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of has like a lot to it.
SPEAKER_00: Um so true.
SPEAKER_00: Um this gospel or the homily resonated with a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's um something day-to-day people struggle with fear, people struggle with anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Um and just how interwoven in that you see how Jesus takes care of us in the sense of saying, do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And what I the way I started the homily was every tyrant, every dictator um understands human nature to their benefit, in the sense that one of the things people miss is that um fear is the currency of control.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you control these people.
SPEAKER_00: And the Romans knew this, the communists know this, uh, the Nazis knew this, the Cuban regime knows it.
SPEAKER_00: Um you don't have to control everyone physically, you simply have to make them afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Afraid of losing their job, losing their way of life, the their culture, uh afraid of being excluded.
SPEAKER_00: I saw this.
SPEAKER_00: Um, of course, I'm Cuban American.
SPEAKER_00: My parents uh are Cuban.
SPEAKER_00: I was born in the United States, uh, but I still identify very much with the Cuban story and the Cuban culture.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but I saw this, and and you come to, and I've traveled a lot to Cuba because of the work that we've done and how we've helped the church in Cuba, and and I traveled with the archbishop, he's been great in the way of how so supportive to the Cuban bishops, and we've gone to for different ceremonies all related to church uh stuff, but uh the and I saw this firsthand, how because when you think about it, like how does a government or a s uh this a system, a state control people?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not what they do is they recruit their little minions, right?
SPEAKER_00: So in your neighborhood where you live, right?
SPEAKER_00: So let's say that there's 10 houses or 15 people.
SPEAKER_00: Well, one neighbor is in charge of those 10 houses, and so they are watching everything that everyone is doing in those 10 homes.
SPEAKER_00: And so you do a misstep or you do something that is not with the the mission of the government or um the whole propaganda of of this communist uh regime, they will route you out.
SPEAKER_00: And you will have people knocking on your doors, militia or state people either arrest you for something super frivolous.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they want to set an example to everyone else that's around and say, be careful.
SPEAKER_00: You step out of line, we're either gonna arrest you, we're gonna come here, we're gonna make your life impossible.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw that firsthand.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's how they control people.
SPEAKER_00: It is through total and complete fear.
SPEAKER_00: We will get you.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And um, and so that's where I wanted to uh to start off.
SPEAKER_00: It is this question of the tyrant or the dictator is not asking, oh, who are these people underneath me?
SPEAKER_00: Or who are these people that I'm governing?
SPEAKER_00: They're are they smart?
SPEAKER_00: Are they intellectuals?
SPEAKER_00: Are they um what kind of people?
SPEAKER_00: No, there's the question that they're asking is what do they fear?
SPEAKER_00: What do these people fear losing so that I can then control them through fear?
SPEAKER_01: That's really scary, Father.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking about that, and Jesus, and that's what Jesus began.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's what Jesus begins the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He says, fear no one.
SPEAKER_01: And what a what a call, you know, even in the face of a fear like that, to fear no one.
SPEAKER_01: Father, what do you see are the most common fears people are struggling with today that fall into like this control or this slavery?
SPEAKER_01: Because you kind of also said that um fear isn't just an emotion, it's something that can become like a slavery.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think that that's now bringing it back to our context, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because we have to live our context, we can't live someone else's context.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, you're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_00: So, like the person is abused, what are they fear of losing?
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I wanted to kind of drive it home because a lot of people are, and one of the things that I see a lot is people are afraid of losing what they have in the sense that I have financial security or I've built this, I'm afraid of losing it.
SPEAKER_00: And so I will clutch it uh and grit my teeth because I don't want to ever lose what I got.
SPEAKER_00: And so it turns out that people don't want to lose that, they don't want to lose their health, they don't want to lose uh their marriage, their status, um, the approval of their children, of strangers.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people spend a lot of exhaust their time uh because they worry what people think about them.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this whole economy of things that people just have anxiety over because they're so afraid of losing it.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And when you think about um, I like how you kind of brought it like what are what are us in the pews kind of afraid of?
SPEAKER_01: Because although the example that you gave of um people under like a dictator, um, the fear looks different, but that can be very much experienced in our own life, in our own internal experience, not necessarily someone knocking on our door, but kind of like the enemy knocking at our door and like you know, using fear as a tactic to um scare us away from God or even um doubt God and his plan for us.
SPEAKER_00: Well, because the world will pull you away, right?
SPEAKER_00: The world wants to distract you, the world wants to, and I'm not uh somebody mentioned to me not not too long ago, it's like, well, the world is not all bad.
SPEAKER_00: I agree, the world is not all bad.
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm saying is if you focus all your time and all your energies on uh satisfying what the world is asking of you, you're gonna run into some real uh roadblocks because what the church is trying to teach you is there's where's the will of the father in all of this?
SPEAKER_00: Does that come first?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you the way you live your life and you everything dictates on what the world is at status, applause, whatever it is?
SPEAKER_00: I think that you're better off and you're gonna feel healthier and more fulfilled when you're first following the will of the father, and then everything else falls into place.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can have nice things, you can have a nice career, you can do a lot of beautiful things of what this world, because the world is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And why do people people don't want to die?
SPEAKER_00: People want to continue living in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it is beautiful, but when it's rightly ordered, and it when because when we have disordered affections, disordered passions, that's where it becomes crazy.
SPEAKER_00: And and we can have the anxiety, we can have the the sinful habits.
SPEAKER_00: It it just it it takes on a whole monster of itself.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but when you have that base of well, what is what is the will of the father in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Um, right?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'd like how you're saying Father 2 is is like things being rightly ordered, because you know, living in the world but not being of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so, but God is looking after like our heart, which is kind of what you were talking about in this homely too of um the person who fears God in a way that frees us, and that's different than you know, fearing God where we operate out of fear.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Augustine says our lives are ordered around what we most love.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And show me your greatest fear and I'll show you your greatest attachment.
SPEAKER_00: It's right there.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and if your greatest And it's not always sinful, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not talking about just of of sinful stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It's but but it's very revealing of well, where's your priority?
SPEAKER_00: What it or even what's your fear, because what's the attachment?
SPEAKER_01: What comes to mind is you know, Jesus saying, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Which is again saying the same thing, but where is where's our treasure?
SPEAKER_01: Where's our heart and our treasure?
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that revealing kind of what we can um where the the fear might be.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I think it makes sense that if we fear God, like losing relationship with God, then that's rightly ordered in the sense that um it's not about, you know, um losing relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Gosh, my God, tongue-tied there, but kind of rec recognizing that if our greatest fear is losing the relationship with God, then everything else is gonna be rightly ordered because that's at the heart of um how we're created, but also where happiness would be is like happiness is tied to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's the one thing we should have a little bit of fear about, you know, we're not rightly ordering our life to that end.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I wanted how I wanted to explain it through Aquinas, through Thomas Aquinas, because most Catholics think fear of God means being fear of God means being scared of God.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_00: Um Aquinas says no.
SPEAKER_00: And uh as I mentioned, there's two types of fear.
SPEAKER_00: There's the servile fear, yeah, your fear of being beat because you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, or there's consequences for for messing up, there's fear of hell, fear of getting caught, which is not a bad thing.
SPEAKER_00: You should have that.
SPEAKER_00: You should be fearful of not being caught, but um, but it can start a conversion because it's immature type of way of living, I think.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then there's the servile, uh, the the filial fear, which is the the fear of the son, and it's what you were talking about earlier.
SPEAKER_00: It's this fear of losing intimacy with someone you love, uh, of disappointing the love, uh, disappointing the father, disappointing or hurting a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Um I don't we could use a marriage example.
SPEAKER_00: It the thing is, I don't remain faithful because I'm afraid my wife will punish me, right?
SPEAKER_00: I remain faithful because I love her and I cannot imagine betraying her.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to betray her.
SPEAKER_00: It would hurt me because I'm hurting her, and that's filial fear.
SPEAKER_00: Aquinas says that that is the fear that remains even in heaven, but not fear of punishment, but oh, reverence, uh what one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, the thing is that the saints, the saint isn't someone who is terrified of God, the saint is someone who is terrified of losing God, not being in God's company.
SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, I think that you're right.
SPEAKER_00: It's that how do we get to that place where I love you, Lord, so much that I don't ever want to be separated from you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be away from my relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to have that fracture, I don't want to be in mortal sin because why?
SPEAKER_00: Mortal sin separates me from God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't want to be in that state because I don't want to be outside of it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be right there up under you.
SPEAKER_01: Brother, I think what you're hitting on is uh I think a lot of people actually struggle with that because many people grow up with that servile fear being at the heart of their understanding of who God is.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's kind of like this, you know, wanting to follow the commandments because they're afraid of punishment.
SPEAKER_01: Um, what how do you move from there to the filial fear?
SPEAKER_01: Like what would be ways to help?
SPEAKER_01: Because I think also it's generational too when you're being taught.
SPEAKER_01: Um, because I think about my parents, for example, I feel like that's a lot of kind of how they understood God for a very long time, was kind of out of fear.
SPEAKER_01: Like fear of the Lord was like fear of the Lord, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it wasn't something of about relationship, but more about rules.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then that's I think that's very common to a lot of people because growing up, that's how they either had that's what they experienced with a parent, or um very tough, very strict.
SPEAKER_00: And so any little misstep, I'm gonna be castised, I'm gonna be punished.
SPEAKER_00: And so there is a fear to that, and then then we can translate that into our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: But I think that once we begin to mature, and something like what we're doing now in Bible studies and the formation nights that we try to do is is trying to form hearts and to rewire the brain to see God as when He is showing us our mistakes, our weaknesses, it's not to shame us, it's not to punish us, but it's to correct and form and mold so that we're a new creation, uh, a new opportunity to start uh again uh in this relationship that is not based on I do this because I'm afraid, but I do this because I'm afraid that I don't ever want to be away from your love.
SPEAKER_00: And and that's the shift.
SPEAKER_00: It's not easy.
SPEAKER_00: I think that it that's it's from mature immaturity to maturity.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say to anyone, take your time.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you?
SPEAKER_00: This is a great opportunity to listen to what we're saying here today and say, where am I in this spectrum?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because there are people who are still, they see God the relationship with God the Father in that same way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so afraid.
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid of being punished.
SPEAKER_00: I'm being afraid of if I do this, God's gonna God's gonna strike me down.
SPEAKER_00: And um that's not how God works.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and Father, you shared in your helmet about the filly of fear being connected to freedom.
SPEAKER_01: Kind of what's the um where does that come in as far as just this um that I guess it's not operating out of fear and control, where we think about fear, we think about control like you were mentioning before, and then like this philia of fear being connected to freedom, though.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think and we we touched upon this a little bit before, but fear of speaking openly, fear of criticizing, fear of being reported, fear of consequences, fear of self-censorship, all those things that maybe we can see clear examples of a government or a state that's trying to control people.
SPEAKER_00: I think that we can uh understand it in those terms because the brilliant thing about these totalitarian governments is eventually the government doesn't need to silence people because people silence themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Um that's why Christians were always dangerous to these type of regimes.
SPEAKER_00: And I mentioned that in the homily because freedom, as you were mentioning or asking about, freedom is that I've come to know the Lord in such a way that He knows me, He sees me, He can understand everything that I'm going through, but there's this great love with the Father, with with God, that I am no longer enslaved by what tries to control me.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So I get to a place where I am completely free.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw that, and I'll give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: Um, when we were in Cuba with the Archbishop, he was uh he gave this probably the best homily I've ever, one of the best homilies I've ever heard in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And and it was so cool the way it just the Holy Spirit, he was writing it a couple days before in a restaurant on a piece of paper.
SPEAKER_00: And I was just watching him sitting up by the bar and he was writing his uh really what later turned out to be a really important, I think, homily or document, because what happened was that he we were in Cuba for Pope Benedict the 16th's visit, and then we got to Havana, and then the Cardinal of Havana gave him his cathedra to sit at the chair and to for the pilgrims to celebrate Mass there at the cathedral, and we were able to open it up to anyone who wanted to come.
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of Cubans who knew that we were there, friends, and just the word got around that the Archbishop of Miami was gonna celebrate Mass.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, so a lot of people came.
SPEAKER_00: And so in that homily, the Archbishop spoke some real hard truths, hard truths about freedom, about control, about your conscience, about what God calls us to, about doing the will of the Father, and and and then being able to uh point to the government and say, they also need to see this and understand this, and and um so after mass, we were in the sacristy, we were taking all of our vestments off, and one gentleman came and knelt down in front of the archbishop, kissed his ring, stood up, and then he said, crying, he said, I can't tell you for the hour and a half that I've been here, I felt like a free man, not under communist rule.
SPEAKER_00: I felt completely free.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine myself anywhere but here, listening to your words and saying, This is what freedom is.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's again, it's all of that where it can't, it's it's not compromising your conscience.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that's why these governments have always feared Christian people.
SPEAKER_00: And it frustrates them.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you think about Cuba, like the only outside of the government, the only other organization that has someone everywhere is the Catholic Church.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's a priest everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_00: And so a bishop can call his priest and then immediately the whole diocese knows what's going on or what or instructions from the bishop.
SPEAKER_00: And so they fear that, right?
SPEAKER_00: The government fears that because here's an institution that wants to promote truth, wants to to to live for the people, and they don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it makes me think of the gospel where it says, uh, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot get it.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if I were them, I'd be very afraid if that if people were living according to the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's exactly it, is is wow.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Father, um, gosh, also in your in your homily, you know, you really focused on uh that the saints were not people who felt no fear, saints were people who refused to let fear make their decisions.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and really like courage is um choosing faith despite fear.
SPEAKER_01: And I know you mentioned Jeremiah um as well, um, kind of in your homily.
SPEAKER_01: Anything else you'd like to kind of share about?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I just I think that um something that is a a real phenomenon is that people are walking around with a lot of anxiety, and and often people think that anxiety Anxiety comes from uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: That's partially true, but I would say a lot of anxiety anxiety comes from wanting control over outcomes.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this a million times.
SPEAKER_00: And how true it is to a lot of what we how we see our relationship with God, how what discipleship is, and how we continue going back to that saying, give up control.
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to know: will my child be okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh will this test come back positive?
SPEAKER_00: Will my marriage survive?
SPEAKER_00: Is my business gonna succeed?
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna be able to financially uh support this?
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna be able to retire?
SPEAKER_00: But what I would just want to say is that certainty belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: Trust begins when we accept that God knows what we do not know.
SPEAKER_00: The sparrow, I I love that.
SPEAKER_00: The sparrow passage is really about divine providence.
SPEAKER_00: Think about this tiny bird, uh it's like a super insignificant bird.
SPEAKER_00: But the God who knows every sparrow also knows your future.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Because anxieties often my attempt to assume responsibilities that belong to God.
SPEAKER_00: So it was important for for to stay to put into this homily this real reality that so many people are struggling with.
SPEAKER_00: Because you want to say, I trust God, I love you, Lord, I trust you.
SPEAKER_00: But I still am a mess sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've had I had someone, uh I had a gentleman tell me your homily was what I needed, it spoke to my heart, but I worry about everything.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I want to be able to say, let's work through that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you said that the antidote to fear is knowing that you are loved by a father who sees everything and forgets nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
SPEAKER_01: Father, that was just a real beautiful line.
SPEAKER_01: And I think you know, I'd love our listeners just so that so can the antidote to fear is knowing that you are loved by a father who sees everything and forgets nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And you kind of talked about the sparrow being like an example.
SPEAKER_01: Well, think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Think yeah, think about how how much or think about do we really truly understand how much we're loved, how he knows everything, or it doesn't escape him, it does not go unnoticed.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that there's something very comforting when you come to really understand that there's nothing about your life, about your difficulties of what you're going through, that is not um that that it's that it goes unnoticed by God.
SPEAKER_00: It does not go unnoticed by God.
SPEAKER_00: And then he continues to say, do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me.
SPEAKER_00: I I know that this is not your timeline the way you want it to be fixed, or or but if you can just trust and I think knowing that that's the father's heart changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: And I I know for um for myself, going going back to that truth over and over again in my life, especially in the things that do worry me, is like knowing that all those worries are actually important to God to hear from me.
SPEAKER_01: Like he he's not like, okay, get over that and move on.
SPEAKER_01: But he delights in allowing me to share my heart with him and to be able to say, you know, this and this and this, and like, and also knowing that he's the only one that really knows my sorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Like he's the only one that really knows my anxieties and how they affect me, and being able to bring that to him, but then also not just bring it to him, but give it over to him.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that step is the challenge sometimes is um not taking back what we've surrendered, yeah, but being able to be like, I placed it in your hand and it is yours.
SPEAKER_00: One of one of the things I was thinking about earlier is like, what's the most what is the most what common fear that people have?
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people think that it's death.
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid of dying.
SPEAKER_00: And but I think when I was researching this, studies consistently show it's public speaking.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, really?
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: I think more people fear standing in front of a crowd than of dying.
SPEAKER_00: But and and I was thinking about um, I was thinking about this earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Was uh there's a I don't know if you ever watched the Jerry Shy uh Jerry Sein Seinfeld.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, that's a pro Jerry Seinfeld once joked, he says at a funeral, most people would rather be the in the casket than giving the eulogy.
unknown: Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00: You have to ask why, but there's some truth to that because deep down we fear rejection.
SPEAKER_00: We fear embarrassment, we fear what people think, we we hold so dear what someone else thinks of us that it can ruin you, it can collapse you into just this uh anxiety because you're constantly thinking about what someone thinks about you, or if you make a comment or if you make a mistake, it plays over in your mind like you're the you know, the most important thing in the world, and that that one mistake they're talking about it 24-7, which they're not because they're thinking about their uh mess and and their lives.
SPEAKER_00: But I I think that many social media platforms operate by triggering fear, too.
SPEAKER_01: That's true, that's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Fear of missing out, fear of being left behind.
SPEAKER_00: You see how everything is beautiful and wonderful and so well put together, and a lot of people are fearful of not measuring up, and so I I'm afraid for a lot of our young people because fear is creeping into their everyday and how they think and how they operate.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they're looking at all this social media stuff and they're saying, wait, my life doesn't look like that, right?
SPEAKER_00: I just didn't go to Ebiza on this amazing yacht and I I don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: My job sucks.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm very afraid where if we're not really grounded in the faith, we're not really grounded in discipleship, you're gonna allow all of these distractions, uh, all of these things to really look at your life and say, wait a minute, but if you are grounded, say, no, my security is in you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You bring me fulfillment and meaning.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think as we kind of start wrapping up, um, gosh, what you've shared, Father, are some great questions I think of, you know, what fear has the strongest grip grip on my heart right now?
SPEAKER_01: Like, what a great question to maybe ponder this week as we're talking about fear.
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
SPEAKER_01: And then being able to, you know, bring that to the father.
SPEAKER_01: And then also I just, you know, what would change if I truly believed that I was known, loved, and cared for by the Father?
SPEAKER_01: Like the gospel was talking about in relationship to the sparrow?
SPEAKER_01: Like knowing that this, I don't know, the hair, the number of hairs on your head are counted, like that, like that's such a deep knowing that we can't even come like understand.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but how would that change if I if I really believed that that was how the father cared for me?
SPEAKER_01: That even like the hairs of my head are numbered, um, like would that change my anxiety?
SPEAKER_01: And it and it would.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it would.
SPEAKER_01: Um, because I'd really believe that he is uh not just involved in my life looking from the outside, but absolutely like involved my life in every part from the in from the inside.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: Um well, I think about um again, all through the gospel, interwoven there, Jesus is saying, be not afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought a lot about Pope John Paul II, Saint John Paul II, because the first words of his pontificate were do not be afraid, open wide the doors to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And think about that if you really, really believe that, or if you said it, or if you meditate on that, and you think about his life, like the Cold War, communism, or even just like today, nuclear threats, global uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: But Pope John Paul II, when he was saying this about his pontificate, he didn't start with political strategies, he started with fear from the very first words out of his mouth is don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because every renewal begins there.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the message today.
SPEAKER_00: A fearful Christian cannot change the world.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're really truly serious about discipleship, then it goes back to that question that you asked.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, what's holding me back?
SPEAKER_00: What is what am I really fearing?
SPEAKER_00: What am I what what what's the the thing that keeps me up or that it keeps coming through my mind and kind of sometimes can paralyze me?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and allowing that grip, um that asking the Lord to take that grip, you know, that it can no longer have that grip and control over our life.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: But being able to really allow the Lord to to heal and that shift from fear to um that filial trust, um, being able to know that the father cares for me and will care for that thing that I'm gripping onto with my strength and um Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I you know, again, just going back, the freest person in the world is one who cannot be threatened.
SPEAKER_00: If you can't be bribed, threatened, manipulated, or intimidated because you treasure your treasure is in God, then nobody controls you.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the martyrs were so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Rome had swords, the martyrs had freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And freedom won.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where where we what we need to take to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that's a great invitation as we wrap up our podcast here for um for our listeners um to be able to go back and read the gospel and then to take some of these questions in consideration.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's the to be truly alive is to live without fear, is to live with this confidence in the Father's love and his plan for our life.
SPEAKER_01: And but we have to step back and be honest of like what are those things that have the grip on my heart?
SPEAKER_01: Like, what are those things that I'm afraid to lose?
SPEAKER_01: Exactly right.
SPEAKER_00: I would say take a leap of faith, trust, go outside of your comfort in the sense that if that's not your go-to or your mode of operating, try it.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Lord, I know that you know everything, you know every hair on my head.
SPEAKER_00: You see it all, I'm gonna trust you.
SPEAKER_00: Because I know that you want to take care of me.
SPEAKER_01: Wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks for this conversation, Father.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you all have a great week.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Michelle.
SPEAKER_00: We're we would talk in here at uh Heart of the Homily.
SPEAKER_00: We're so excited because such great things are happening and so many people are listening to us and passing it along.
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SPEAKER_00: Have a good one.