Heart of the Homily
Join us as we revisit Sunday’s Gospel and homily by Fr Vigoa, digging deeper into it’s message and how we can take it from the pew into the rest of our week. We hope “heart of the homily” podcast helps to transform and shape how you pray, think, live and love this week.
Heart of the Homily
Episode 004 - Podcast | Beyond Lukewarm Faith: The Call to Complete Surrender
Father Vigoa and Michelle Lopez unpack prioritizing our relationship with Christ above everything else.
• The cross is Christianity's defining symbol – not a crown or throne – reflecting our call to embrace suffering
• Lukewarm faith seeks blessings without surrender and lacks urgency in spiritual growth
• Jesus demands first place in our hearts, reordering all other relationships properly
• Embracing our crosses transforms suffering into redemptive experiences
• St. Maximilian Kolbe's story demonstrates how faith can transform even the darkest circumstances
• Identifying your specific cross and bringing it honestly before God is the first step toward transformation
• Young people should use easier seasons to build strong spiritual foundations for future challenges
• Priests carry the weight of others' crosses while learning to surrender these burdens to Christ
Hello everyone, welcome to Heart of the Homily podcast coming to you from San Augustine Catholic Parish and Student Center. I'm one of your hosts, Michelle Lopez.
Speaker 2:And I'm Father Vigoa.
Speaker 1:And we are so delighted to have you with us. Today. We are revisiting this Sunday's gospel and homily, diving deeper into its message and how we can take it from the pews into our daily life, and we really hope the Heart of the Homily podcast helps to transform you and us to really shape the way we pray, live, love and live this week. So, father, maybe share with us a little bit about what the gospel is from this past Sunday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the gospel for this Sunday was from Luke. It's taken from 14, 25 through 33. And I really this week I just concentrated on the first part of the gospel, so I'll just read that a little bit because I think it's good to have the context. Maybe you didn't go to mass or you just need a little bit of a reminder again, but great crowds were traveling with Jesus and he turned and addressed them. If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. And I have to say, every time that gospel comes out, people always have issue with it. Like, let's say and once I didn't cover that gospel and I remember someone at the door was really, really upset how could Jesus say this? That I have to hate my mother and my father?
Speaker 1:But we'll get into that, yes, Okay, yes, yes, awesome, well, yes, I you know. Revisiting your homily yesterday, one of the things I thought was so striking is how you started with an observation that every religion has a symbol and that, for the Christians, ours is the cross. It's not a crown, it's not a throne, but it's a cross. So we'd love to know, like why do you think that visible sign matters so much to us as followers of Jesus?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it's. It's what you're saying is how. What I was thinking as well when I started writing the homily is every faith has that symbol. That, yeah, that's what connects me to it, whether it's the Torah scrolls or the boot. You know, one of the things that's interesting is when I was a seminarian, we used to do like these field trips where we would go out and do things.
Speaker 2:And I don't know if you know, but in Coral Gables they have this Hare Krishna temple. Have you ever been inside? No, I haven't. It's a really cool large piece of property but it's open and you can just go in. And we went in at night. We didn't know it was a Hare Krishna, we didn't know what it was, we just it was very dark, there was candles everywhere. So we walked in and, uh, we're just talking normal. And someone came up to us and said shh, be careful, be quiet. Harry's sleeping. And we said who's Harry? They said Harry Krishna. I was like oh, and so we walked up towards the front. There he was, he was sleeping. Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:But every sort of every religion has that main point, but reminds the faithful this is who we are Right. And so that was the point I was trying to draw is do we as Christians really understand who we are in relationship to our discipleship, what Jesus is talking about? Unless you pick up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple, and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. It's strong Like.
Speaker 2:How do I understand that in the context of my life? You know one of the things that, as director for the office of worship here in the archdiocese, the archbishop has been trying for a while now that when parishes are renovating their sanctuary space, let's take down the risen Christ and let's put back up the crucified Christ. Right, because, like St Paul writes in his letter, I proclaim Christ, the crucified Christ, but it is through the cross that we can then find resurrection. A lot of people want to skip that, they don't want the cross and they think that, oh, but I love Jesus, I I go to mass, and why is this happening to me? Or why do I have this going on in my life? Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think too you know the cross, um, you can wear around your neck, you can put it on your wall. Sometimes, if you haven't kind of personally sat with like what the cross is for you, even like the symbol of the cross, sometimes it loses its meaning, that it becomes something like jewelry, you know, like something that looks nice. But when you read the gospel from Jesus, he's saying pick up your cross and follow me. And like you know what is he talking about. Like what is he saying Pick up your cross and follow me.
Speaker 2:And he's the only person in the entire world that's ever said that. Right, some guru, like I said in the homily, some guru will say I got, I had the enlightenment, I can tell you what you need to do. Or some great philosophers, I have the perfect words, or this teaching, then then you can have fulfillment in your life. But that's not what Jesus says. What did Jesus say? He says of me if you love me and it's so powerful, because that's the whole key right there and that's why he's saying unless you hate your mother and father, brother and sister, hate power, hate wealth, whatever it is, there's nothing, absolutely nothing in this world that can come first. No family bonds, no, nothing. Love for Jesus has to be number one.
Speaker 2:We've talked about that in marriage prep. One of the things that I tell people in marriage prep is it's Jesus first, god first, then your spouse, then your children, then everybody else. You know, I had a lady tell me she goes. She said to me. She said I can't love Jesus more than my daughter. I just I can't. I try, father, but I can't love Jesus more than my children. That's a problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think with that too is is the challenge of like do we have a personal relationship with Jesus, you know? Because if it stays distant, if it stays like a nice idea, kind of like a nice philosophy where I follow the rules, it's not about following the rules, about following a person, and I think it's really a challenge to look at. Do I, do I know Jesus, like as a person? And I think that's the beautiful part? Pope Benedict has a quote that talks about that no-transcript. These sacred relationships and friendships that we have with family, like, they're good and they're beautiful, but insofar as they lead us towards God, and that's a challenge. But I think it's a great challenge to be able to know that. Okay, if that rubs us the wrong way, then there's a more that we haven't experienced. There's an invitation to really know Jesus in a way that reorients the rest of our life, even our relationships.
Speaker 2:Exactly right. It reorients our, it puts in the proper order our loves, right? So if I place Christ first above everything else, then of course all my other relationships are going to go well. You're going to find beauty in the way you love your mother and the way that you love your spouse, and the way that you treat your neighbor and the way that you're with your, with your colleague. Why? Because I will sacrifice for this person who drives me crazy, who is on my last nerve. I will do that. Why? Because I love you, jesus, and I do it for you, jesus, not for this person that's driving me crazy. But it begins to reorient and I know what my conduct means, to how, what my conduct needs to be, because of the relationship that I have with Christ.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it makes everything then matter. I think of this story that I heard by a talk once, and they were talking about how this lady was so excited that she just got a new job. And they're like, well, what's your job? And she said that she's opening mail. And they're like, okay, like why is your job so important? And then she's like, oh, it's because it's for the president of the United States. And it's like, okay, like that's why your job is so important. But it kind of points to us and like everything we do and all these relationships have such meaning because of Jesus, and if it's rightly ordered, then everything we do matters and every relationship matters, but it's all in order to get us to Jesus, to heaven, and it gives us a freedom, I think, to enjoy the gifts that we're given and to not cling to them in a way that if we lose them we're destroyed, but to be able to see life as gift and God's generosity through relationships, when they come and they go, and life and all of its ups and downs.
Speaker 2:I think that that's what the new evangelization is. A lot of people don't understand what the new evangelization is, and I think even a lot of priests don't understand what the new evangelization is. A lot of people think that the new evangelization is going out to the supermarkets or going out to different places and bringing people, convincing them to come into church. Yeah, there's an aspect of that, but the new evangelization is really truly targeting the people who are in the pews. These are the lukewarm Catholics who beautiful they come to Mass on Sundays, if they come to Mass on Sunday. But the new evangelization is to be able to go into the people in the pews.
Speaker 2:And exactly what you were saying is do you have a personal relationship with jesus christ? And a lot of people will say I don't even know what that means, especially like like my mother's generation, like if you say that they're like I don't. I don't really understand what that means, and so one of the things that I tried to talk about in my homily this weekend is that lukewarm faith, where I love you, jesus, from a distance and I love everything about religion. I love going to mass and it looks beautiful, but I still have these views that are not really in line with what the church is teaching, or I really am not going to sacrifice or commit too much because that's too demanding and I like comfort right. And what does Christ say? I didn't come here to give you comfort right, and so but to give you greatness.
Speaker 2:Right, I came to give you greatness.
Speaker 1:Pope Benedict has a quote that I'm not. You're not made for comfort, but you're made for greatness. Right, and that greatness is actually what you're seeking in the comfort to be fully alive. But it's not through comfort, it's through picking up your cross and following Christ. I want to hit on the lukewarmness that you mentioned, father, if that's okay, where you were mentioning in your homily lukewarm faith wants blessings without surrender. Could you maybe share a little bit more about what you were talking about with that, that lukewarmness like the comfort without, like the surrender of life?
Speaker 2:Right, and one of the things that came to my mind when I was writing this was that it's faith without urgency. I have all the time in the world. I'll get to it. When I get to it, I don't really have to go to confession. There's other things that are more important, not that they're more important, but that they're more appealing, more attractive. And so the world takes a hold of you and saying look at all that I have for you, right? And one of the things that I've always tried to drive home is if you're not structured, if you don't have discipline in your life when you're, if you're not waking up in the morning, when you don't feel like waking up and doing that morning prayer, doing that morning ritual, or that they're at morning hello with Jesus, and I like to say, then you got to look at the priorities in your life, because there needs to be that urgency in. I want to save my soul, I want communion with the Lord.
Speaker 2:See, here's one of the things that I tell people like, especially in confession, is that the Lord can't give you everything he wants to give you because you're not there, you're not open, you're not willing to commit fully, you're not open, you're not willing to commit fully.
Speaker 2:And so it's, if, if it's, if you're standing on the sideline saying, oh yeah, it looks good and I will, I'll get there, and that's good, because a lot of people get to Jesus a different, but they're in motion, moving forward and not just stuck on the sideline, right. So what I meant by that was this real need for an urgency in the face, Like today, right now. How can I be one with God If I haven't been to confession? Why not? Let me be in the state of grace, let me allow that sacrament to really help me, because what happens is when you go to confession is I don't want to fall out of grace, I don't want to be ugly to this person, or I don't want to fall into this mortal sin. Because I don't want to fall out of grace, I don't want to be ugly to this person, or I don't want to fall into this mortal sin because I don't want to get out of the state of grace.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it goes with. Our first podcast was we're talking about. Striving was like a topic is like there's such a difference between kind of being complacent versus striving and that that's a huge difference. To be like, OK, at least I'm striving and moving in a direction, towards seeking faith, towards seeking prayer, towards trying to say like I want this personal relationship with you, Jesus. Um, then being on the sideline, being like, okay, I'm only going to take what's nice or what's easy or what's kind of dealt to me, Um, and yeah, we kind of do it to ourselves to to have a boring faith. Ultimately, that's what happens, you know a boring, complacent faith.
Speaker 2:The thing is, and people ask me. They'll say well, how do I heal that lukewarmness? I think the answer is return to the cross. You know, fix your eyes on the cross and really understand. Well, what does that mean? Um, and for someone, that may mean a diagnosis, an illness, it may be a very difficult spouse, it may be just an adult child that you're struggling with. Whatever it is, whatever cross you're dealing with, if you understand that it's not just suffering for suffering's sake and that suffering is redemptive, that there's not just suffering for suffering's sake and that suffering is redemptive, that there's something about suffering that really is the way, the gateway into heaven, well then, if you start to understand that, then all of a sudden you're more committed. All of a sudden you're surrendering more. All of a sudden you're really, really drawing closer to the Lord. That's what I mean by that heals lukewarmness, because now you're engaged, you have skin in the game and you're going to the foot of the cross and saying I can't do this without you. I need you, I want you.
Speaker 2:Look, this week, I'll tell you. This past week I was helping this young man who was going through some medical issues and it looked like really bad issues, we're talking something really bad. And he had to wait two weeks for some of these results to come back and in those two weeks he went through all of this scale of up and down and anger and bitterness. And but what was so beautiful when we sat and talked was at the end of that was this acceptance of the cross, of saying Lord, whatever it is, it is, and I probably, when I get the final result, I'll probably go back through this whole up and down again, but what happened at the end of those two weeks was this acceptance of surrender to say I'd want to do this with you. And there was a lot of anger, there's a lot of disappointment, like I have so much to give. Still, I want to be around, I want to be around for my kids.
Speaker 2:But the surrender in it was I trust in you and I don't want to do this alone and whatever it is, it is, but I have now embraced my cross yeah and I'll tell you I don't remember what mass it was, I don't know if it was a noon mass or at the 5 pm mass but I got choked up when I started talking because I said to the people I said, as you're a pastor right now, then it just all, it just floods my mind of all of our parishioners that are going through some really difficult moments right now that I wanted to say I didn't. I say you think you have problems. Let me just share with you a couple, like some examples of some of our, our own people who are in this community, who are in severe pain and I was thinking about you know, I got choked up because every single one of them, every single one of them, has embraced their cross and has taught me something about faith, about growth, about loving, unconditional trust to the Lord. That's the heart of what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:What's the cost of discipleship? The cross is there and that's what Jesus was talking about. It's very easy to follow Jesus when everything is great, when everything is easy. Just won the lottery. I got everything. You know, did anybody win those 1.7 billion dollars?
Speaker 2:you know, what I'm saying. It's easy when things, when life, is great and everything's falling into place, but when you're faced with some very serious issues, the question is do you get angry and there is there's, but do you walk away from him and say I don't want to, I don't want to deal with this? How do we embrace our cross?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think what you're, what you're saying, is so powerful because, um, it's not following Jesus only when it's easy and comfortable, but it's, um, knowing that embracing our crosses when they come to us as part of the Christian life and it's a beautiful part of the Christian life, not something to be afraid of, but something to know that we all have crosses, like no one can get out of it, like it's just part of the human experience that there's difficulties and sufferings, but when those moments come that we have a choice to make and Jesus is being. I think this is so crucial because Jesus is being so clear about take up your cross and follow me. So, when crosses come, what to do is actually to embrace them with radical trust that they will not destroy us. They won't bring anything but new life if we bear the cross with Christ, and that changes everything, because then you can live with this total freedom of what comes and goes in my life, like God is in control and his providential care is allowing me to embrace the ones that come and that I can actually become a saint through them. I think that perspective shift is radically different and actually we talked about this gospel.
Speaker 1:I went, got a chance to visit the woman's prison on Saturday and this was the gospel that we were talking about, and so it was so powerful. Because these women are, you know, from their different choices and circumstances, are in prison, but they have found Christ and are seeking after him now. And so this whole thing because we were talking about, like, okay, what is a cross in your life right now and they all thought about the different crosses and a lot of them are thinking about, you know, being in their situation in prison and it was coming to this deeper sense of like, embrace the cross that comes to mind, embrace it and know that God and his providential love is only going to use it to bring you to him. Like that, the cross is not an obstacle to knowing God, to knowing Christ, to having a life that's abundant, but it's actually through the cross that we receive new life.
Speaker 2:How many understand that, though, when you, when you deal with these women in prison like? How many understand that?
Speaker 1:I mean, everyone is in a different place, but it's incredible to see this renewed sense of freedom.
Speaker 2:Cause real pain pushes you to confront it more right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and this is the way in which they can experience life in the midst of being behind bars is Christ, is knowing that he's not bound by their bars. It's like the new life that he wants to bring to their hearts, to their experience, is like he's the only one that can do it, and so I think for them, I've seen incredible growth, but also, I think, just this perspective shift of like even actually is from a comment that you made in your homily like even in the midst of hell, like, say, maximilian Kolbe right, even in the midst of being um in a concentration camp, even in the midst of like a real experience of hell, like God was alive and moving if we let him do his thing. And I think for these women that's a real experience, a real challenge that continues to, you know, be wrestled with, but a real experience of that. It's through my cross that new life will come, when I follow Christ and put him first.
Speaker 2:I think it's engagement too I'm talking to the people that are in the pews. It's that, that decision of making a commitment to be more serious about your faith, life and having a good self-awareness of what's going on in your life and what is that cross and what is the suffering, and, um, because I really believe that lukewarmness is broken by feelings but by choices and I think evaluating your cross is actually like a good thing, because I think people just move through their life like oh my gosh, I can't believe this is happening, and they just like move through suffering.
Speaker 1:And I think it relates. The gospel, you know, after jesus talks about this, talks about, like the king making a plan for war, and he talks about the guy that's constructing a building. And I've always, it's always interests me to be like what is he talking about? But he's talking about the planning, being able to look at, I think, even our suffering and pain, like look at it with the eyes of faith and then make a decision of the direction ahead, with trust, because otherwise you just kind of get moved by your emotions and by the you know the flow of life. But this intentional call of Jesus to pick up our crosses, like you were saying, it's a choice, it's an embrace, like you have to collaborate with God to be able to embrace it and move in a direction that you choose To despair or to him, to new life.
Speaker 2:That's why I think that the story of and I don't I like using stories, but I don't always do stories and I think that's why the story of St Maximilian Kolbe worked.
Speaker 2:It was powerful, right, it was very powerful and, um, I think it moved a lot of people because I think in their mind's eye they can see it being played out and they know a lot. You may not know the story of St Max, manic and Colby, but you know the horrors of Auschwitz and what the Jewish people and a lot of other people. There were priests that were killed in Auschwitz. I've been there a couple times. There's a whole wall where they have pictures of priests who were, you know, who died in Auschwitz. So I think that a lot of people were able to see their particular cross in the story, in the sense that they understood that everything that he went through that towards that end was his cross and how he glorified Christ by embracing that cross, because he could have been in that starvation bunker and, like all the other men before him, where it was cursing and screaming and wailing, but what did he do? He turned it into. Okay, guys, we're going to do prayers, we're going to sing songs, we're going to do the hymns, we're going to do a rosary around the clock, we're going to invite Jesus to be in this starvation bunker with us. How powerful, and I think that that's what. That's why people thought that the story was so real in their life because they were able to say okay, my struggle, my difficulty, I'm inviting Christ to be in that, to be in that starvation bunker with me.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that I said and I talked to a young person at Mass yesterday, which is important too is that a lot of young people may not have a cross yet. Yeah, they do. Maybe it's hidden or it's nothing remarkable, but they're saying I don't have that, those struggles that father's talking about in his homily. And I say to them count your blessings. And this is a time in your life where you need to build that strong foundation, where you're building your house on stone, because there will be days when that storm comes, but you already built a strong foundation. Because if you haven't built that strong foundation, that storm or that cross comes and you fall apart. You don't have that relationship with the Lord. Or you blame God or you walk away, and then more conflict and more problems arise in your life as you're trying to deal with this other crisis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's such an invitation to realize that, you know, in different seasons of our life there's different sufferings and sometimes, like you were saying with young people, there's not these big things that they can name. But it is a time to really grow and build a strong foundation so that those storms are not felt as severely as they might be later in life if you don't have a strong foundation built. So so important, so good. Okay. So, as we're kind of wrapping up soon, father, I wanted to mention you talked a lot about some of the modern day crosses that parishioners and people carry and I thought it was. You're really bringing the message home and recognizing that we all have particular crosses and as a priest, you see so many different experiences, human experiences of suffering and of crosses.
Speaker 2:Which is beautiful, and I, you know, I teach at the seminary, I'm an adjunct teacher for the new evangelization and we talk about confessions, we talk about different models of evangelization and how do you bring people to have this experience of Christ and a conversion or a real, tangible relationship with the Lord, and one of the things that we talk about is that a lot of people are in different places in their lives, right, and so you have to, when you're talking with people, see where they're at and be able to talk with them and help them through these different difficult moments. In our parish there are lots of people with different, very strong problems. In my office, that's all I hear is problems. I would love to hear I just won the lottery, I, I just did this, or which is great People? We maybe in social gatherings, people talk about that, but mostly when you make an appointment to see a priest is because you're going through a difficulty. So it's my daughter wants to have an abortion, I want to divorce my, uh, my spouse, I, uh, my kid did this, or, uh, my child has this illness, or can you help me pray for this? So it's, it's dealing with everyday issues and problems and then you come to want to walk with them as well, and so you carry them in your heart and you carry them in the prayer. I have a list that I have in my breviary that I, of some of my parishioners, are going through some very serious problems right now, and so I have them and I am praying for them every single day, every day, because it hurts me that they're suffering so much and that they're going through this pain again, this cross that they have in their life.
Speaker 2:Um, but that's the role of a priest, and one of the things that I do is I like to walk around the University of Miami every night and I, if anybody's driving by and sees me talking out loud, it's like okay, there's probably be go out talking to Jesus. Because I have to do that. I have to during the day, all the stuff that I have carried, I have to release it and give it to the Lord. And it took me a long time to do that, because sometimes I wouldn't even be able to sleep at night because I would still be carrying the pain of someone who I was, who was just in my office crying or going through a difficult moment.
Speaker 2:But through this process of trusting in the Lord and saying these are your children. Lord, I am not Jesus, I am not the Messiah, I, I am the one. I hope to be an instrument of grace in their life. But I need to give it to you because I need to be able to get up tomorrow and help someone else. Yeah, I'll check on you. I want to know your updates. I want to be there, I want to walk with you, um, but I need to be in a place where I can help someone else and that's where I give completely, turn it over completely to the Lord.
Speaker 1:And that's where I give completely, turn it over completely to the Lord. Yeah, that's surrender, that's surrender. Praise God for the fatherly heart that you have to walk with our parishioners and with people in their great highs and lows. And maybe, as we wrap up and then this next minute or so, father, what would be some particular tips on trying to embrace that cross in a way that becomes redemptive? So maybe a few tips on, like someone that might be wrestling with the cost of like this looks scary like, but how do you embrace your own cross and begin to really trust?
Speaker 2:I would say first, understand what your cross is. A lot of people feel very frustrated, they feel overwhelmed and can't really pinpoint what that cross is. So the first step is what is that cross? Right, name it, claim it and then bring it to the Lord. And in bringing it to the Lord and recognizing this cross, your relationship begins to develop in a stronger way, hopefully.
Speaker 2:But don't be afraid to struggle, don't be afraid to be upset, don't be afraid to be angry, don't be afraid to be disappointed, don't be afraid of any of that, as long as it's this communication that you're having with the Lord, it's this friendship, it's this relationship that is, talk out loud and get it all out. Because what he wants to do is say get it out. I want to just put my arms on you and love on you, and then for us to be able then to fix our eyes on the cross and say okay, lord, I will love you, I'm not going to turn my back on you, I will trust you. Whatever it is, I will be faithful, I will will be faithful. I haven't been. Many times I have failed at being faithful, but I will try to be faithful. Why? Because I know that I have to love you about above anything and everything else in the world. That was what christ saying. Who else says that? Saying love's saying love me. If you love me, I promise you you will live with me for all eternity.
Speaker 1:What a beautiful invitation. So we hope, as we wrap up our podcast here, we hope that you've enjoyed our conversations for Heart of the Homily podcast and have perhaps received something new to bring into your week, to really be challenged, to grow in that personal relationship with Christ, and we encourage you, of course, to share it with anyone family member or friend that might benefit from our conversation today. And thank you for listening. We also, of course, invite you to visit our website, sanagustinchurchorg. Join us for Sunday Mass or any events. We'd love for you to be a part of our community and we hope to see you next week. So thanks, father.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Rach.