Heart of the Homily

Episode 009 - Podcast |Father Adam: Punk Rock, Vocation, and the Rich Man and Lazarus

• St Augustine Catholic Parish

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We sit with Father Adam to explore a winding road from punk stages to priestly vows, the miracle surrounding his father’s last rites, and the hard joy of going all in with Christ. Luke 16:19–31 becomes a mirror for desire, wealth, and a call to spiritual fatherhood.

• meaning of Priesthood Sunday and gratitude for priests
• Father Adam’s path from cultural Catholicism to conversion
• beauty as a doorway to God and daily habits of prayer
• surrendering good desires to receive a new form of fatherhood
• Isaiah 49 as courage to leap in discernment
• ordination, shared suffering, and a providential goodbye
• Rich Man and Lazarus as a warning against numbed compassion
• ordering ambition, wealth, and work to God’s glory
• celibacy as freedom for spiritual fatherhood and service
• simple steps to put Christ first and remove blinders

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome everyone to Heart of the Homily Podcast. We are grateful for you listening in, tuning in. Today is very special. We have a great guest. My name is Michelle Lopez, and our guest is Father Adam, who is our parochial vicar and UM chaplain for the University of Miami at St. Augustine Church. And Heart of the Homie Podcast, our goal is that we bring the homily and message from Sunday into the week. So from the pews to the daily life. And today is very special because we're actually looking at uh yesterday's gospel, which is from Luke 16, 19 to 31. But also yesterday was Priesthood Sunday, which happens every year, the last Sunday of September, to really um honor and express our gratitude for the great service and dedication of our priest. So I think it's very providential that Father Adam is our guest today. Uh, Father Vigo is not with us today, um, but Father Adam is here and he's actually going to share a little bit of his own story of his call to the priesthood and also the message of the gospel from this week. Um, but Priesthood Sunday, I just want to give a shout-out, thank you to all of our priests out there. Um, we are so grateful. Their love sacrifice, fatherly uh heart for their people makes such a difference in our life. So um if you weren't able to say thank you to your priests yesterday, do it today. Today's your time to say thank you for their yes to lay down their life for the good of the church and their people. So we are very grateful. So welcome, Father Adam.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you very much. Honored to be here.

SPEAKER_01:

And um, and Father, you are also uh a religious priest, so we'd love for you to introduce yourself a little bit and also the community that you are a part of.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So I belong to an order from uh Lima, Peru. It's called Pro Eclesia Sancta. And I've been serving in Miami well since July. But before that, I served in Sacramento, California. Before that, I served in St. Paul, Minnesota. We have priests, brothers, sisters, families too. In our vocation, our mission, I explained, is to help uh everyone discover their vocation to holiness, to fully desire and embrace uh that call from God that they were made for holiness, to be saints. So it's special work with the youth. Uh, as you know, I'm a chaplain at the university, so uh that's our our passion is to special work with uh young people, the youth, and families.

SPEAKER_01:

Wonderful. And the name of the order translation is Proeclis Sanctha for the Holy Church. For the holy church. Okay. Beautiful. Wonderful. Um, well, thank you for your yes to be a priest of Christ for the church and for the world. Um and like I was saying, so providential that yesterday was Priesthood Sunday. Um, so for in your homily, which uh was very special for the 8 p.m. college mass, our youth mass, um, you shared a lot about um your own vocational story and also connected it to the gospel too. So I think that would be a wonderful place to start our conversation is um Father, what was your call like to say yes to the vocation of the priesthood?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so a little side note, I I was excited about the gospel because I was already preparing a homily about the rich man and Lazarus, but I recalled a moment in last the previous Sunday when I just looked at the students and I just smiled, right? I was really happy uh to be there and be able to minister to them. So I was thinking about uh goodness, I I hope there is a time where I can share more about who I am because they only only see me uh one hour a week, some of a lot of them, and to share where I come from. I'm just normal average man. Uh and and and I looked at uh Sunday, it was pre soon Sunday, so I thought, oh, what a great opportunity to encourage vocations, talk about my own journey, my own discernment, my own call. And um, yeah, it was, I think, providential. And so I shared a little bit of my story. Uh I am from Lima, Peru. My grandparents were from Japan. And uh I was born in 1986. So growing up, I think at that point, the vast majority of uh people in Peru are Catholic, probably 90% or something. So, but I would say Catholic in name only. Uh growing up as a teenager, uh I have to say I I didn't know anyone my age that would really like practice the faith. I come from a Catholic family, but my mom would probably say, Oh, what do you say? But we didn't really live the faith. I was baptized.

SPEAKER_01:

Culturally Catholic, yeah, but not necessarily practicing in like a deeper way.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Just uh first communion, well, baptism, first communion, confirmation, and confirmation, because they told us if you ever want to get married, like you got to receive the sacrament. But I had zero desire, uh awareness of what was gonna happen. And yeah, I didn't go to church on Sunday uh as a family. We didn't, and of course we didn't pray. And teenage years, uh, 15, 16 years old, I was a punk. Actually, we I played in a punk rock band uh for a number of years.

SPEAKER_01:

Punk rock kid, then yes, okay, yeah. It's got actually kind of hard to imagine right now.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, I wish we had long hair in the one year in high school I had dreadlocks in the wow, yes, devoted at that time. It was really all about like down with uh the system and be angry about whatever, and and it was uh like yeah, it was I guess fun in that moment. 15, 16, 17 years old. The other people in the band were older, so they were already in college. You can see how like that probably wasn't the best influence for you know 14, 15-year-old man, uh kid. Um, so we were playing in in different pubs. Uh and uh but uh I'm trying to remember, it was probably 17 years old. I started to feel really empty, uh wasn't happy. But there was uh uh something that I used to do somewhat regularly. Uh my I would go to the frequently to my parents' rooftop, and I would uh just look at the sunset. Like at 6 p.m. I would go up, bought a chair many times, just sat down, smoked a cigarette, and just look at the sunset. And I was mesmerized by the beauty of it. And I so I started to think, oh man, who made this? Um, this is very beautiful, and I wonder if there's someone that you know who made it, right? And and so I think that was the beginning of a deeper quest for something transcendental, something beautiful that would never end. So the many things started to happen. Uh people that knew I played a guitar invited me to uh help in some Catholic events, so I started to be a little more exposed to the faith and helping out on retreats actually.

SPEAKER_01:

So I would Is this still with dreads? Just wanted to clear it up. Okay, just maybe getting a picture.

SPEAKER_00:

Super long hair. And I remember some of the sisters in our order say, Are you sure that guy with super long hair playing the guitar in a retreat? But anyway, um I started to pay attention to the talks, and I think God was planting seeds. Initially, I would go maybe to find you know pretty girls, you know, uh impressed them with a guitar. Uh, but God had different plants, and so there were seeds being planted in my heart. And yeah, once I connected dots, once I understood that it was always Jesus Christ that I was searching for, the author of all that beauty that I admired and everything that I longed for in life, that that like changed me completely. Um so not only did I started going to Sunday Mass, I even started going to daily mass. I was 17, I think, at that moment. Uh starting reading the Bible uh one hour every day. I still have little books of journaling, uh going to confession frequently, um, cut off like bad things in my life or bad relationships. Uh the word, not not just in a judgmental way, but just stuff that was dragging me down, right? Uh I wanted changed environment, um, praying the rosary. I started fasting a couple days a week. You know, sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to pray. I was like, the more I knew about the faith, I wanted more and more and more. I devoured the life of the saints of different saints books.

SPEAKER_01:

That's incredible. Kind of listening to your story and seeing that um like beauty was the thing that like begun this deeper desire for more and like stirring questions of the human heart about about like those existential crush questions, who are we? Who is who is this the beauty? Um and then kind of seeing like that the Lord put you around certain situations and people um to begin to answer those questions, you know, and then it being Jesus being the one in which you're kind of being drawn towards. Um was there like a particular either moment or thing that kind of helped you make that leap of faith of like really saying like it it is Christ who I'm I have acknowledged that I'm seeking and that I desire and that I need?

SPEAKER_00:

Looking back, I don't know if there was a precise moment, but I think just gra I think it was gradual, just first going to Sunday Mass, being involved with a loving, wonderful, beautiful community. There were a lot of young people because we have a we have a lay movement and it was really big in in Lima that moment. So just good, you know, people my age that would were fun. And so that also I think uh opened something in my heart. So I think it was a gradual process.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like keeping keep showing up. I think that's uh like a theme that I know um even in our previous podcast we were talking about, is like can being faithful is like showing up is half the battle of just like going and doing it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's super organic. I know it sounds weird to say, but that's how faith works based on natural law and how things have this how God has designed us, and good things in life just take time. And um, but yeah, it was little by little. Um, but then I started to feel like God telling me, You're doing good things for me, but I want your heart, I want your life. I want it all, and that was scary. Uh I even though I mean it was it was beauty that brought me to Christ, and but it was also his I couldn't understand how good someone could be. Like with all my my previous previous life of of sin and like that's that I would still be lovable, like that he would still love me no matter what, that was a new thing too. But then to take that next step to surrender everything, you know, sacrifice it all and and follow him, that was that was very scary. Uh so I I ignored it for a while. Um but it just it was very consistent, that that constant voice and it was this constant message: give your life so that others may live. Because I I I wanted to hold on to my my dreams, my desires. I wanted to get married, I want to have a family, kids, and serve the Lord that way, you know, be a saint in the world. And I I just uh it was heavy, it was difficult. To this day, I think it was one of the hardest things I had to do, to say yes to that and to set give it all to our Lord. So I shared uh on Sunday was a particular moment when I knew I had to do this, because um I'm really stubborn too. Like once I I know I have to do something, I'm gonna do it no matter what. If I cry, if it sucks, it doesn't matter. So I knew I had to do this thing. Um so I just like many times we do that, we open up the the Bible, random place. See, God, tell me something, like I'm doing this for you, console me. And it was Isaiah 49, chapter 15. Can a mother forget the child in her womb? Even if she does, I will never forget you. And so I felt like I I was suffering greatly, but I God affirmed me, He said, I am with you all the time. Like, and we cannot imagine something stronger than a mother's love in in our human experience. But God was saying, even if that would fail, like I love you infinitely. So that gave me strength to jump into the unknown. It felt like I was doing that, hoping that there was someone there to catch me, and of course, our Lord was was there to catch me. And it was, you know, the first weeks uh of religious life you go to the vitiate, is is is it's rough, it's difficult, it has to be challenging because you you learn how to live a totally devoted life to God, to pray, uh discipline, all these things. And uh there's a moment of where you kind of grieve, you're you know, you you you close that door, you know, you're not gonna get married, you're not gonna have your own family. So there's that pain there. But um I I share with the students that if I had a thousand lives, a thousand lives, I would do the same because uh you mentioned in the beginning like how grateful we are to our priests. Like I I I feel like if I had a thousand lives, it wouldn't be enough to be grateful. This is like a totally, totally undeserved gift. Like totally. And it's just and I I feel the that is the urge to share with young men, not because I want because priest the the church needs priests, but I I I really want young men to to experience what I experienced is such an undeserved gift. Um but that constant voice that I mentioned, give you a life so that others may live. It was, I think, I think it was a prophecy. Uh looking back, because when I was ordained in 2016, so next year is a big year, it turned 40, and it's 10 years in the priesthood.

SPEAKER_01:

Um wait, you're you're not 24?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, a lot of parishioners say, Why is uh an altar servant, uh servant service celebrating mass? God keeps me young so I can continue working with uh with the youth. Uh but 2016 I was ordained, a priest did it was a miracle that my father attended the ordination because I I don't honestly I don't remember ever uh seeing him going to church or praying. I just I just don't remember if he did, maybe he did it in a hidden way, but as a fan we didn't go, we'd never talked about God or anything. He was a good man, you know. He was a good man. Um he came to my ordination in 2016 and that was a miracle. And I remember he already had a little pain in in the back. We thought it was like a muscle thing. I remember he woke walked slowly. He wasn't that old, he was only 77 years old, but he was always healthy. Uh so I said, Oh, you know, maybe it's just a back thing. So I remember that. I I feel terrible sometimes when I remember that those moments because he walked slowly and I wanted to walk fast. You know, it's just slow down. And yeah, um, he was there and uh he returned to to Peru after the ordination, and he goes to the hospital because he can't breathe, the pain increases, and they discover that fourth uh fourth stage cancer, it's all over. Like, and he entered the hospital, never left. Uh, and no one knew that he was when he was at the ordination, he was already dying basically. Um, so it was difficult. Um it was difficult, and because uh it was all very fresh. The priesthood, I was just ordained and had to fly back. And uh he was the first person that I anointed, you know, and I heard his confession, which was surreal, you know. In a way, the the son becomes a father, uh, and especially when someone's dying, you become very vulnerable. You know, you see stuff and you hear stuff that none of my siblings uh um heard or or knew. Uh so that was uh a big moment. Um but I had planned the entire time to be with him. And I I I I take time with this because to me it's a miracle that I need to share. It's there's no other explanation to me. It's God's doing. Because I went there to spend last week's life, you know, with him, selling mass in the hospital room. And I after the first mass, I I started to feel pain in my chest. I couldn't breathe. Uh, and it was very weird because I've I've always been very healthy. No, no health problems, let alone breathing problems. So I told mom, let's go eat something. Maybe it's because I haven't eaten anything. It was like two or something. We went to a restaurant, remember ordered the food, and I went to the bathroom because it was getting worse. Wash my face. I said, What is this? Can't breathe. I started to panic a little bit. So I thought, let's just I told my mom, just in case, let's go to the hospital. So we'll go and my lung was totally collapsed, my right lung. And yeah, the doctors say, Yeah, you gotta stay here. So it was the first night I think I ever spent in a hospital. Uh, I spent a whole week. So I had to to put a tube. And I have like three holes over one side because they eventually needed surgery. Uh, and that was the whole thing was very scary. Uh because why they didn't explain, it was just oh, it's just they call it spontaneous collapse. I guess it happens. Um, and it happened to me. And I I was in the hospital, I had spent like a week, and I told I called my dad and said, Dad, I'm sorry, I I wanted to be with you in your last days, and but I knew like God wanted me to be with you in a different way. Because he had lung cancer. And I was in the hospital with a two in my lung, you know. He suffered way more, you know, lung cancer, and that's it's very painful. But I was there suffering a little bit, but I think God wanted me to be with him last because I planned so many things to I bought a book, I wanted to read him a book, uh, I wanted to to talk, uh, spend all the time I could in the hospital, but you know, God had a different different plan. So but the it's a huge miracle. I leave the hospital and and and and I I I go to see him uh I find a lot of time, and he's already actively dying at that moment. And I I was with uh with another who was a deacon then, he accompanied me and you know it it takes time to get out of the hospital. Uh so by but I arrived, I gave him the uh last rites, and it was it was crazy, you know. He died right there as I was as I finished the last prayer, it was like waiting, waiting. Um and I had never seen anyone die in my life. It's uh it's a surreal experience. It's it's life-changing when you actually see someone uh uh die, you know that we're not just flesh and bones, there's a soul. Um it was the first person I saw die, and and I I I just clicked, you know, that that voice that was constant in the beginning of my discernment, you have to give your life so that others may live. I believe the the first person that lived because of my ordination, because I was just ordained, uh, was my own father, you know, because you know I had never seen him go to church or pray, but I I know I gave him the last rite. I I heard his confession. Uh I don't know if he would have uh received the sacraments if his son had not become a priest. So uh to me is it's just and after that's been a miracle, I've seen so many good like God is so good. And when I was young, I couldn't understand why something could be so difficult to leave your family behind to say no to marriage, to uh and every priest has a different story, right? But mine certainly felt that way that I was like dying. Yeah, but I saw a lot of fruit because of that.

SPEAKER_01:

An incredible story, Father. I mean, just thinking about like after ordination, literally being able to witness like walk with your father and like lay down your life and being with him and then suffering with him, and then coming back to be able to pray him into heaven. Like what a what a miracle is right, like what a gift. And maybe, maybe only he would have trusted you, his son, you know, as a priest to come in at those moments to be so vulnerable and to like allow you to walk with him in that moment of um preparing his heart for the eternal banquet. Yeah, that was how powerful.

SPEAKER_00:

Very powerful.

SPEAKER_01:

And father, something that comes to mind and what you're sharing, what would be um, because you shared all these different desires, you know, younger for to be a husband, to be a father, like how have you experienced that in priesthood, or what would you do, or what's your encouragement for young men that had that same question of like, do I I have a you know, I'm experiencing a call, but those desires are good and from God. So, how are those fulfilled in priesthood differently? Because it's not a negation of them, it's not a throwing them out or we're you know, um rejecting them. So, how is that fulfilled in priesthood?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so uh every vocation, every vocation of the priesthood and the vocation to marriage in men have the same, I would say, foundation is desire to be a father. That's God has placed that there. And I believe it's only when we when we become a father, there are of course exceptions to the rule, but either when we become a spiritual father or a biological father, that's when we truly become the men that God made us to be. That's when you start to develop all your potential. Because I mean, to be a father, you have to use, and you know, raising a family so hard. Little Avila, so little princess, little angel, uh, and this is a very holy man. Um but you have to use everything you have, you pour your entire self for your children, for your family, and it's that's the same, that's the same for priests. If you don't want to be a father, that's a that's a sign that you're probably not called to the priesthood either. Because it's the same drive, you know, to be a spiritual father, to lay down your life for your flock, for your children. Uh it is scary. So the foundation uh tell young man is you gotta be a strong man, strong man, man of virtue. And that's a foundation for for both vocations, because if you don't have virtue, you're not in possession of yourself, you have you don't have self-control, and you will not be a good husband, you will not be a good father, because yeah, you're gonna um hurt others um if you're not in full possession of yourself, right? Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's um beautiful, and I think really also like clarifying that those desires are from God good and they're just fulfilled in a different way in in the priesthood. Um, and even when you shared like the mourning that you experienced when you first started formation, like it's a mourning from how it's usually looks, you know, but and then to receive the gift of this new way of life in which the priesthood fulfills those desires to be husband and to be um father.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, I will not change it for anything. You know, some people have talked about, oh well, why don't you allow a priest to get married? I will not change it. Like the vow of sale is it's a gift, it's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful gift. I know it's painful, but it gives me so much freedom. I will not change it for everything. It gives me the freedom to be a father to men and to women, to love them with a pure heart and be a true father. And it it's just such a gift. And no, it's uh and I said at the beginning, it's a it's a it's a gift that no one deserves, you know, the the priesthood. So yeah, I I hope that a lot of young men and that are heed the call, you know. I mentioned the homily too that I think it was in John Bosco that said uh out of ten single men, one has a a vocation. Imagine that if uh one out of ten men would say yes, like that would resolve a lot of issues in sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So, Father, kind of wrapping up uh in the next couple of minutes, uh, you know, I do want to highlight a few things that you said in the gospel from yesterday. Um we're looking at the gospel of Luke 16, 19 to 31. Um, and it very much touches on your vocation story even. You mentioned um that there's a temptation to calculate when following Jesus and to just go all in. So maybe could you share a little bit about maybe what that means with even like vocational or uh calling to not calculate, but to really like go all in with trust and yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I was I was praying, you know. We are encouraged to start meditating on the gospel on Monday. So you spend the whole week, holy hour in the morning, the evening. And it it is not a you know, it's just an idea that came to my mind. It's not, I guess there's there will never be a way to fully know, but I I doubt it happened this way. But I started thinking about another rich man that Luke talks about. Uh the other two other gospel writers also talk about the rich young man. And the rich young man uh had he was very wealthy, but he can encounters Christ and he cannot say no to following him because he had a lot of possessions because he was rich, and he leaves scriptures as a he's sad. Uh and I just that came to my mind. I thought, like, what if what if this same rich young man was this older uh rich man, you know? Probably not the same one, but what if you made me think because if if you encounter Christ, the living God, and you hold on to something else, there's the that that's gonna uh that's gonna affect you deeply. So I I I saw in the the rich man who he's he's a he's a glutton, he's like dining sumptuously every day, and I see it as a way to to maybe cope with uh all those bad decisions that deep wound just you know uh shut his conscience down, right? And and he's wealthy, super wealthy, and he's he cannot uh see uh human suffering anymore. That's a consequence of of putting something above uh Christ who is love incarnate. Like that's gonna affect you, and you you will not be able to love others. And uh he it's not like he didn't know Lazarus, he actually names him, which makes makes things worse, you know. He names sent Lazarus, so he he knew he was, he he knew he was suffering, and he calls Abraham father, like in his mind he was probably like like the rich young man, like uh practicing his religion. He calls him father. Like so I I I I told uh young people that with Christ, uh if you want to be sincere in your discernment, uh nothing could be above him, above your relationship with with our Lord, you gotta go, it has to be all in, all or nothing, like that great book uh Carlos Carnel Sarah wrote a bunch of years ago. Uh God or nothing. It's just because if something goes above God it would affect you. Bring some form of corruption. It will blind you to human suffering. It will blind you to real love. So yeah, encourage him. Put God always first. May He be your greatest richness in life. And the discernment will be easier. Once you start to live that way, then yeah, whatever God leads to me, that's fine.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Beautiful. Thank you, Father. What would be as we wrap up, um, your encouragement that maybe someone that's listening to our podcast might feel like they're the rich man, being able to recognize that maybe they're they're numbing themselves um with um with rich things, but not the one who is rich. And so, what would be like a few steps to begin to take off the blinders and to be able to let Christ into those places of the heart?

SPEAKER_00:

It's a great question because the student after mass approached me and asked me something similar, like, okay, so how do we approach wealth? Like, are we as Catholics supposed to like uh run away from wealth like the plague? Because, like, no, you know, but you have to know that again, if you put something above Jesus Christ, above Sunday Mass, about daily prayer, and also I told him, if if you're you're driving, if if what moves you to pursue increasing wealth is any other thing than glorifying God and building the kingdom and lift others up, that that's a bad symptom. And you're you're you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation where you might end up like the the rich man, uh totally blind to other people's suffering. And and so I would encourage them if because it's a it's a it can be a noble thing too, like a magnanimous spirit is to pursue greatness uh uh so that you can help more people. You can lift, I I was telling too, like if if you create a business and you're able to employ 100 people, like that is really good, right? And on top of that, you're able to support different ministries and you understand that everything you have is given by God to build up the kingdom, then yes, no, we we're not against wealth or riches, but we understand that if it's not pursued for the glory of God, you're putting yourself in in a dangerous situation.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah, thanks for that clarity. And yeah, possessions are not bad unless they possess you. Exactly. Riches are not bad unless they, yeah, or um take the place in the heart where where Christ alone deserves and belongs.

SPEAKER_00:

And no, like uh what's that actor? Denzel Washington, he's a great actor. He I remember this thing he said, you'll never see you'll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. Yeah, excuse me. He was trying to say you can you cannot take it. Can't take it. Cannot take it. So everything we have is to build up the kingdom. The love, the service, the good deeds that we take. But everything else stays here.

SPEAKER_01:

Praise God. Well, thank you, Father. We are um ending our podcast now. Um, it's been a joy to have you. Thank you for sharing your story, the way that God has worked in your life um so powerfully and deeply. Um, and we just thank our listeners for tuning in. Feel free to share the podcast. Um, also, this is hosted by St. Augustine Church and Student Center at the University of Miami. Um, so we invite you to join us for Sunday Mass. Check out our website, sanagustinchurch.org or Instagram and get connected to our community. Um but thank you for listening and have a great week. Thanks again, Father.

SPEAKER_00:

God bless you. Go canes.