SPEAKER_00: Today the church gives us one of her greatest teachers, Saint Aphonsus Ligori.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever struggled with guilt, if you've ever wondered whether God could really forgive you, if you've ever thought holiness was only for extraordinary people, then Saint Aphonsus has something to say to you.
SPEAKER_00: Before he became bishop, before he founded the Redemptrist, before he was declared a doctor of the Church, Aphonsus was one of the most brilliant lawyers in Italy of that time.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he was so gifted that by tradition we know that he had gone years without losing a single case.
SPEAKER_00: Then came the case that changed his life.
SPEAKER_00: He was absolutely convinced he was right, but during the trial he discovered that he had overlooked one crucial piece of evidence, and he lost the case.
SPEAKER_00: Walking out of the courtroom completely humiliated, he said words that changed history.
SPEAKER_00: World, I know you now.
SPEAKER_00: Courts never again.
SPEAKER_00: He left his legal career, became a priest, and spent the rest of his life defending a very different kind of case.
SPEAKER_00: Not cases before judges, but souls before God.
SPEAKER_00: At the time many people believed God was waiting to punish them.
SPEAKER_00: Some priest would preach a spirituality of fear.
SPEAKER_00: People stayed away from the confessional because they thought that they could never be good enough.
SPEAKER_00: Alphonsus fought against that, not by watering down the faith or the gospels, but by teaching that truth is God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: He reminded people that God desires our salvation more than we do, and that changed countless lives.
SPEAKER_00: Today's readings show us why that message was so necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah tells the people the truth.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist tells King Herod the truth, and neither men speak to win popularity.
SPEAKER_00: They speak because they love God and they love the people enough to tell them what they need to hear.
SPEAKER_00: John knew exactly what it would cost him.
SPEAKER_00: He could have remained silent, could have remained comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: He could have said, Well, it's none of my business, and he could have compromised.
SPEAKER_00: Instead he simply said, It is not lawful.
SPEAKER_00: And those words cost him his freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually they cost him his life.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel reminds us that truth always has a price.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people reject the truth because it asks them to change.
SPEAKER_00: Herod is a fascinating character.
SPEAKER_00: He knows John is a holy man.
SPEAKER_00: He even liked listening to him, but he never changes.
SPEAKER_00: He wants inspiration without conversion.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that a temptation for all of us?
SPEAKER_00: We enjoy listening to good homilies, we enjoy reading spiritual books, we enjoy learning about the saints.
SPEAKER_00: But sooner or later the gospel asks us something.
SPEAKER_00: It asks us to repent, to let go of sin once and for all, to become different people.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Aphonsus understood this balance perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: He never compromised the truth.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he never stopped preaching hope.
SPEAKER_00: He used to tell people that the greatest deception of the devil is convincing us either that our sins are too small to matter or too or too great to be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Both are lies.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is serious, but God's mercy is greater.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Aphonsus loved the confessional.
SPEAKER_00: He spent countless hours hearing confessions before he knew something we sometimes forget.
SPEAKER_00: People don't need condemnation, they need conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Conversion only happens when people encounter both truth and mercy together.
SPEAKER_00: One without the other doesn't save.
SPEAKER_00: Truth without mercy crushes.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy without truth deceives.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus offers both.
SPEAKER_00: As we celebrate this feast day of Saint Aphonsus, perhaps the best way to honor him is to ask ourselves one question.
SPEAKER_00: When God shows me an area of my life that needs to change, well, do I respond like Herod who listens but never converts?
SPEAKER_00: Or like Alphonsus, who allowed one humbling moment and completely redirect how he lived his life?
SPEAKER_00: Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.
SPEAKER_00: The difference is not perfection.
SPEAKER_00: The difference is whether we allow God's grace to reshape our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So on this beautiful feast day, may God and may Saint Aphonsus Ligory, lover of our lady, tireless confessor, great preacher of God's mercy and doctor of the church pray for us, that we may never be afraid of truth.
SPEAKER_00: May we never be feel that we are beyond God's reach and God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: He desires us, and he wants us to convert our ways.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.