Victory Beyond the Final Buzzer

Bishop Wall, Fr. Masters, and Mike Sweeney make their March Madness predictions and Jesus' raising of Lazarus from the dead.

Theme song: "Rock Star" by John Ehrich. Used with permission. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome everyone. Nung Chepe. Welcome to episode 24 of Berzo al Alto, Faith on the Field, a podcast combining faith and sports. My name is Father Burt Masters, chaplain for the Chicago Cubs and pastor at St. Isaac Jokes Church in Hinsdale.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Bishop James Wall, I'm the Bishop of the Diocese of Gallup, located in Arizona and New Mexico.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

And Mike Sweeney. I'm a faithful Catholic, proud father, devoted, loving husband. And I'm obviously here in spring training, uh, working in leadership with the Kansas City Royals.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

On site, uh, so you're gonna get us some great interviews there today with the guys?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

I I hope so. Hopefully, we have a bunch of guys coming to mass every Sunday. We had I think we had 18 guys coming to Mass on Sunday. It was a blessing. So hopefully, if they come by and know I'm talking to you two legends, uh, they'll come over and say hi.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

You should do some gotcha moments, just walk up, put a mic in their face. Hey. Do you love bonus footage? Exactly. Put them on the spot.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

I love it. So we're recording on uh St. Patrick's Day, uh, but we're gonna open up with a prayer. We got the green Kansas City hat uh for St. Patty's Day. But we're gonna pray uh for the intercession of our our patron, Saint Pier Giorgio Frasati. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the joyful example of your servant, Saint Pier Giorgio Frasati. Pierre Giorgio never tired of striving boldly to go higher and deeper in faith, prayer, and love. He cherished your presence in his family, friends, the mountains he loved to climb, the poor he visited, and especially in the Holy Eucharist. May we too go toward the heights of our Catholic faith, and by example bring others to your church through Christ our Lord. Amen. Saint Patrick, pray for us. All right. So uh I think on this St. Patrick's Day when we're recording this, I think all three of us have some Irish blood in us, don't we?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

We do. Bishop Wald. Grandmother's family, or mom's side of the family is from County Mayo. Ackle Island, that's where that's where they're from. My dad has summoned them too. I think they're maybe down near Cork. But uh, and most of it comes from my mom's side.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Bishop Wald, weren't you a um missionary down in Ireland for a while, like St. Patrick?

SPEAKER_01 2:43

I was in uh I for a month. I I didn't last as long as him. I I I was in the news once, yeah. One summer, well, before my vacation, I was playing parish priest back in 2019, and I was at Liz Dunvarna, which is people know it because it has the famous matchmaking festival. Liz Dunvarna, Kill Shane, and Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher were part of my parish, my my assignment. I loved it, it was great.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Beautiful, yeah. And I I did that 23andMe, and my parents always told me, you know, my mom's an O'Shea, my dad's a Sweeney, and my grandparents are McSherry and O'Keeffe. They always told me, you know, you guys, you're 100% Irish. And I did the 23andMe and I found out I wasn't 100%, but I was 99.5%. Wow. So I'm I'm about as Irish as you get. And um praise God for the it is, but yeah, I guess a lot of redheads in our family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

I saw that one of the one of the schools in Georgetown, they had the running of the redheads for St. Patrick's. It was the funniest thing. It was a video, and all the students line up and they all they all get dressed in green and they all go running.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Oh, I love it. How about you, Father Burke? You got some Irish in you, don't you? I do. My mother was a millikan, so uh my grandpa on her side uh is Irish, and then on my dad's side, Scottish and English. So all in that same region, that's where my heritage is. I think I said it, I think I did that test too. I had 1% from the Congo, I think it was. So it's uh interesting how those things show up in your ancestry. Yeah, but uh pretty much from that that part of the world. Um so today we want to, and Mike, you're on you're on site there, so we want to definitely talk about uh some spring training, and we've got the uh uh tonight when we're recording the WBC championship game between the USA and Venezuela. We've got NCAA brackets, uh men and women, and uh shout out to uh Joe Vizali is uh is becoming a friend of mine, uh good Catholic. He's a referee for the NCAA women. And so uh uh so shout out to Joe and he said make sure you include the the women in your conversations today. So I know the UConn is a huge favorite in the uh undefeated, right? 34-0 and 50-game win streak.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Uh yeah, I hear UCLA is the only one that, well, not the only one, but one of the biggest ones. Yeah, they had a chance to beat him. They've lost one game. Yeah. UConn, that is just a machine. They've got a phenomenal coach.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yeah, but uh before we get to I know last week uh to clear it up, uh MJ Mike's uh oldest place for Wichita State, and we looked it up. So they're in the American Athletic Conference, the AAC. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Any update on MJ, uh his health, and how Wichita State's yeah, so now that we know what conference he's in, right? Um he's doing really well. Um, I couldn't be more proud of him. So yeah, Michael's our big six foot eight first baseman at Wichita State. The team's playing great. I think they're maybe 16, 17, and 6. They're playing great baseball. But about three weeks ago, MJ, we were in Hawaii and he endured a pretty good knee injury. And uh kind of like uh Wally Pip, you know, he was out and a guy named Lou Garrick took over for him. Michael had a couple first basemans that have been playing lights out when he was uh on the IL. So um I spoke with him and he hasn't been playing much. He's been kind of getting scrappy at bats, pinch hit here and there. But I want to tell you about Michael. Um he says, Dad, uh, I want to show you my hat. I said, How are you doing? You haven't you haven't played? You go, you your knees feeling better? Um, how are you doing? And he goes, Oh dad, the guys that were playing when I was out killed it. They played great first base. They're they're dad, they're gold glove first baseman. And he said, Dad, they're hitting the ball really well. And he goes, Right now, I'm not playing. And he goes, but I want to show you the bottom of my hat. So on his hat it said, Sweeney A01. And I go, What is that? And he says, Dad, A01 stands for audience of one. And he said, That's something that you've always taught me. And uh Father Burke talks about it a lot. And he says, Dad, every day, he goes, I am literally the first person in our clubhouse. I work my butt off, I'm doing extra work every day. Um, I'm the last person to leave. And he goes, and during the game, I even when I'm not playing, he goes, I imagine that Jesus is above my dugout cheering me on, saying, You are my beloved son. And and I told Michael, I said, Man, uh, he goes, Dad, my goal every day is to be the best teammate I can be and work so hard. And he goes, if I play, I do, but if I don't, um, it's it's okay. And he goes, I'm just gonna pedal, sit on that back seat and pedal my heart out as as Jesus guides me. And I told him, I said, son, I've seen you hit 500 foot home runs, and I don't think I I could be more proud of you on a baseball field than what I've just heard come out of your mouth. So you ask, how's he doing? Um, he's not playing much. Um, he's getting a pinch hit here, a pinch hit there. But as far as a proud dad goes, I don't think I could be more proud of my son.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Great.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

That's cool. That could be uh a new logo for some uh swag A01. I like it. Christian swag, an audience of one. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Copyright, I call it.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Call our uh copyright lawyers and get on it. Uh started by MJ Sweeney.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

How's the knee? Is the knee knees getting better and everything?

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yeah, yeah. Thank you for your prayers, Bishop. Thank God he does not need surgery. Uh and he kind of just got a lot of therapy and he's uh he's rolling. He's he's gritty, he's hardworking, and like I said, I I could not be more proud of my son.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

That's great. Great, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

So, sticking with the baseball theme, uh, tonight, you know, we're recording on St. Pat's Day. So uh tonight is the baseball classic finale between the U.S. and Venezuela. Um I have to be honest, in the past I haven't watched this too closely uh and but I have this year, and it's so fun to see these professional ballplayers are like college guys out there. They're going nuts, uh jumping, you know, and some of them say it's it feels even more important than a World Series, you know, representing their country. So it's been great, uh exciting baseball to watch. Uh, you guys, if you had a chance to watch it, I know uh Michael uh Garcia got a big hit for um Venezuela, right, uh from the Royals uh last night.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Yeah, Mike Kell's been great, and I think we had 17 uh Kansas City Royals in the WBC this year. And I was just in the locker room talking with Seth Lugo. Remember, he played for Team Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

And his and his nickname was Cuerto Rican. And and Seth said, man, there were royals everywhere. He said, if you count the number of royals that were in the WBC that were in uh in our clubhouse last year and this year, he said it was 17 guys from currently in our organization, plus another seven who were royals even last September. So he said, Man, the the culture that we're having here in in uh Kansas City is producing some great ball players. And you know, you always hear about in in all sports, the teams that play the best, they play for something bigger than themselves. They play for a brotherhood, they play for a coach, they they play for maybe a storm that came into their lives. But you can see, like you were saying, Father Burt, when players play for their country, there's this certainly something bigger than yourself they're playing for. And it surely comes out the the WBC games have been crazy exciting. I was I was hoping for Team Italy to win last night so we can have an Italy-USA rematch, but um, see some more cappuccino shots from Vinny uh Pasquantino at the end of the dugout. But yeah, it's been an incredible run, and um, yeah, W WBC has been super exciting. Bishop Wall.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah, I I what it um I'm happy with what happened. I was rooting for Venezuela because we have a friend, Ronaldo, who who coaches for the D backs as well, and uh he's coaching with their team, and then the the USA is in it, and um, so I I was really happy, but I I I know you guys, you know I'm gonna talk about it. I thought uh Ronaldo Perdomo got robbed the other night, even though it was against us. You know, if you watch the D Backs and you know how this guy plays, nobody can work a count like that guy. He's unbelievable, and that's what he did. He was it was against Miller who was throwing flames. And uh he should have walked, he should have taken his base and they called him out. Yeah, it was too bad. And uh Verdoma's one of my favorite players, not only just because he's a D-back, because I love how he plays the game. He's a smart player, really heavy player. It's kind of like a coach out on the field. I know Lovello uses him for that. So I was I was I was bummed uh bummed about that the other night. But I'm happy that Venezuela's in the in the uh in the finals with USA.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Yeah. So 10 people see this, they'll know who who won, but we uh we don't know it at the time of recording. And yeah, I agree. Perdomo is great at uh he fought off like five 102 mile an hour fastballs, and then uh Mason threw a this curveball. I have to say live it looked like a strike because it broke a lot, but you know, on the uh you know the the screen it was it was low and he Perdomo knew it, but uh the umpire called him out. So they were they were asking about you know the uh what's it ABS? Is that what it's called?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Yeah, the automatic uh ball and strike count. Uh it would have been in those cases when your team loses, you want that to be able to be drawn upon, but uh in this case they couldn't couldn't review it. Yeah, unfortunately, Mike had some uh technical difficulties there at spring training, so uh Bishop and I are gonna uh finish off the podcast together, and Mike will rejoin us next week, uh God willing. So uh we're looking at the NCAA March Madness brackets, Bishop. Um great time of year, spring training, world baseball classic, march madness. Uh you have your team is uh not one of the number one seeds. So what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Number two seed overall, but yeah, they're they're number one in the West, and I think this is our year. I need that. I have a good feeling too. I think they're this.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

I I think they're the team. I need this, is that what you said?

SPEAKER_01 14:17

I need this, I need this.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

I I need this. Yeah, so Duke got the overall number one seed, Arizona two, and then Michigan and Florida in that order.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

It seems like most people are saying those top three teams are, you know, because Florida just got beat pretty bad by Vanderbilt, I think, in the SEC tournament.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Many's a pretty good team, too, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Yeah, and they're a five seed.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Yeah. Was it it was uh was it the semis they lost in?

SPEAKER_02 14:44

I think so. Yeah, yeah. So um hope everybody's filling out a bracket. Uh Mike and Bishop and I are gonna fill out our brackets.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Um I know I have four of them. I have four going on. Yeah, not all of them consistent, but I noticed one of the things I didn't do every year, 12 upsets of five, and I didn't pick any of them, and I and I'm a little worried about that.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Yeah. So I think uh yeah, I've done several also. I think in one or two of them I picked a 12 seed. Um, I think I have an 11 seed went in in one or two of them, but you know, and even you know, we've got the uh Miami of Ohio, who is what, 31 in one?

unknown 15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Uh their play-in game.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

It's unbelievable. They I feel so sorry for those guys. You know, they make it through the whole regular season, they get into their no, they didn't they lost to not a not a very good ball club. And right toward the end of the season, things were getting really close for them. But I don't know how you you put a team with one loss, even though it's you know, strength of schedule and all that stuff, how you make them play in. I don't get that.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

Yeah. Yeah, it'd be interesting. I know uh I was reading, I think if they win, they play SMU, or maybe they play SMU in the play-in game. But I guess SMU was favored over them by six and a half points or something like that. But it'd be great to see a team like that make a little run.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

Yeah. Um it would be.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

But I think your your conference, you've said it is the best conference in college basketball this year.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

And I think Yeah, SEC had more teams in just because they have like a million teams in their conference. And uh the Big 12, I think they're they're just they're stacked. They're so good.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Yeah. Yeah. And the Big Ten may surprise, you know. It's fun to see.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

I'm sorry, did I say Big Ten or Big Twelve? Big 12. Then you said Big Ten.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

No, I I said Big Ten.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

I think you know that they could uh they could surprise conferences have 10 or 12 in their in their conference.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Yeah, exactly. I said when when I played in the SEC, we had 10, and I think they're I don't know, 16 now or there's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

They can have their own uh March Madness.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yeah, their own field of 64. They have their own conference chant Yeah, it's so it'll be fun. Um we'll be posting our records each week and and how we're doing. Um but uh I'm trying to think if they I had any I think Vanderbilt could surprise some teams as a five seed. Uh they look good. But honestly, I haven't watched too much of the season up until the tournament season.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

I've seen a lot of Big 12 basketball, obviously, because of Arizona and and their it's some really fun ball clubs to watch. I'd be curious to see what uh Fred Hoiberg does with Nebraska this year. You know, they got on a little bit of run.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

They could they could play uh Vanderbilt in the second round, I think, four and five season. Whether it'd be second round or third round. Uh they're four and five. They'll match up at some point if they both win. Um the the Boozer twins are amazing for Duke, you know, um Cam Boozer. And it's hard to believe he's a freshman. You know, they've BYU has the freshmen and Kansas. There's some incredible uh freshman talent out there.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah. Um I think Arizona starts three freshmen.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Three freshmen? Yeah. You know, and so you wonder how they're gonna do in the pressure of uh a big tournament like this. You know, they feel good.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Feel good they won the regular season and they won the conference. Yeah, and the semifinal was a crazy game. Um Bradley hit a jumper, fallen out of bounds, and when the ball's in the air, the time ran out and they won it on a last second shot. So I'm hoping that that prepared them for the the conference. But anything can happen. You know, I always see what with the NCAA, if you have a couple really good guards and they can control pace, you can, you know, you can you can make a deep run. Yeah, it seems like yeah, guards do really, really well in the in the NCAA tournament.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

We'll see. And you see teams like uh like Gonzaga who just are so well coached and disciplined, uh they often make deep runs in this tournament too. I like I like watching teams like that that are coached really well, and you know, they may not have the the five-star talent that some of the schools have, but boy, they they play well as a team.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

So I like that yeah, I like I like basketball where uh a team, you don't have a player or two that have to get their touches. Yeah. I like it. The open guy gets the shot, they all play good defense.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Backdoor screens and you know it's a great time of year.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Princeton used to make a bit of a little run, and that was what they used to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was fun.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Screens and backdoors, uh they get a lot of like layups coming from the backdoor screen. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

So we should probably jump into uh the the readings for this coming Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah, so we're getting into uh the fifth Sunday of Lent. Uh it's the Sunday before Holy Week. You know, the the following Sunday will be Palm Sunday and and Holy Week. So this is a big, it's it's a long reading about the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and uh it's the third scrutiny for those who are will be baptized at the Easter vigil. So you want to start us off with uh what the reading speaks to you?

SPEAKER_01 21:11

I think three three three weeks, three weeks in a row. I think one of the neat things to see is we saw the woman at the well, we saw the man who was born blind, and um, and then we have this week with Lazarus. And uh two weeks ago, the woman, what does she do? Immediately goes off Samaritan, which surprises everybody, and she goes off and tells everybody, and it says that people came to believe Jesus because of her testimony. Where we have last week, we had people come to believe in Jesus because uh he healed the man who was born blind, and this he really takes it up a notch. You know, he has a man who is not just dead but really dead, and uh and and so people know that he's dead, he's healed, and he's going to be watched. Around amongst people. I mean that's just unheard of. And and I love it in that people come to believe in Jesus because of these miracles. So yeah, we we've got um so we have the this the siblings, Martha and Mary. And last time Mary was or Martha was getting things a little wrong, right? She's the active one, and um she's concerned about her sister not helping. Sounds like typical sibling, you know, uh squabble. And uh and Jesus says, you know, she's chosen the better portion. I used to have a wonderful parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle, an elderly lady named Martha, and she would always get upset whenever we did the reading about Martha. And and I said, Don't worry, she's gonna redeem herself. And this is where she redeems, redeems herself, right? So we know that uh Jesus hears that Martha that that Lazarus is ill, but he waits, so he doesn't go, right? And then eventually, you know, Lazarus dies, and uh, Jesus does go, and it's been four days since he's died. There was a belief amongst the Jewish people that um the soul remained, right? The soul remained for three days, and then after that, the soul was no longer there. And um, and so when they when we hear the fourth day, it means that not only was he dead, but he was really dead. Uh, deader than dead. And and so then Martha comes out to him and she makes this just uh amazing proclamation, you know, saying, you know, Lord, you know, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know whatever you ask from God, God will give you. So it's a it's a powerful proclamation uh of faith. And then uh Jesus says to her, you know, your your your brother will rise again. And you know, so she's thinking kind of the end time, thinking the resurrection. Yes, Lord, I believe that you're the Christ, the Son of God, who was coming to the world. And um, and so uh it's just a beautiful proclamation that she makes um in Jesus and and in his power. Um I I one of the things I thought was neat that uh during the pontificate of Pope Francis, you know, we always have the feast day of St. Martha, which I believe is July 29th. And uh Pope Francis said, All right, let's let's bring the siblings in here. We already had a little sibling rivalry over who's doing all the work, anyways, and so let's bring all of them in. So now it's the feast day of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, which I think is cool. We got them, we got them all um uh contained within this. But you know, Jesus allows this to happen, he knows that he's going to raise him, and the reason is for the glory of God, and so that people can come to believe um in his power to save. So it's also a little precursor to the resurrection, too.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Yeah. Yeah, thanks for for sharing that uh um some of the things that uh struck me. Um you love is ill. And so normally we say the the beloved or the one Jesus loves is John, right? The beloved disciple. But he loved Lazarus also. And you know, in this story, Lazarus represents all of us. And uh, you know, when we're ill, and I'm talking spiritually and physically, you know, Jesus, uh the one you love is ill. Think about you know uh Jesus thinking that way about you. You know, we're we're sin, we're sinners, we're spiritually sick. Master, the one you love is ill. And how much the Lord loves us. And as you said, he waits two days. Make sure everybody knows that, you know, if you think about it, if somebody came to you and said, Your loved one's dying, we're not gonna wait two days, but he does it intentionally to show that he's dead, but this is to show his glory, you know, and um much like you know, last week in the Man Born Blind, they say, Who sinned? Yeah, his parents or this man? And Jesus says, Neither, but it's this is to show the glory of God. So Jesus knows what's gonna happen, and uh um that it's very intentional. He talked about the growing faith of Martha. She eventually comes around to you know, saying, much like Peter's confession, you you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and and so uh the Lord wants to elicit that growing faith in us that He can do anything, uh even uh overcome death.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

It's much like a like a petrine um uh proclamation, right? But it's also like a Thomas the Apostle, right? A Thomas the Apostle um confession. Um this is the and this one too, Thomas makes a great little line, we'll essentially go wherever you're gonna go. Very courageous line in this one. Uh, you know, he he's um Thomas doubting Thomas, but he makes a courageous line in this gospel passage. But um, yeah, so there's there's these moments, and Thomas makes one, Peter makes one, and Martha makes one. Powerful proclamation of who Jesus is.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

Yeah, like you say, you know, they they're just coming from uh, you know, they wanted to stone Jesus in this area, and Jesus says, I want to go back there. They're like, you want to go back to the place where they were gonna stone you to death? And yeah, as you say, Thomas, let us go to die with him. Like, Lord, I'm willing to go with you. Uh Martha, yes, Lord, I've come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world, much like uh Peter's confession of faith. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

That's a lot that she said. That was powerful.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

And then we have this Jesus weeps, you know. Um, I think this is so important because often when we are hurting, the enemy wants us to believe that God has abandoned us.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Because he knows that if we push Jesus away, we're gonna be more isolated and more susceptible to his wiles, you know. But I always tell people when when we're weeping, the Lord is weeping with us. You know, he doesn't want sin and death and suffering in our lives, but it's a part of you know, free will. And uh he weeps with us. He we hear the compassion. We also hear in this story, it says twice that he was perturbed. You know, it's a it's a very descriptive word. You know, he's perturbed that the people are weeping. He's like, you know, almost to say, like when remember when Philip said, Jesus, just show us the Father. And I can imagine Peter Jesus and Philip, I've been with you for three years, and here again they're like, they don't get it, and he's perturbed. Um and then he weeps, and uh and then he says, you know, come out. Just two words. Lazarus, come out. And because he's the word of God, he is God. You know, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Jesus was that word that created the universe in Genesis. Now he's the word of God incarnate, and he has authority over everything, including death itself. And so when he says come out, you know, Lazarus comes out, you know, he's bound by the burial cloths. And I remember in seminary they were saying, you know, this is symbolic of what sin does to us. We're bound. We're kind of we we can't really do anything. And Jesus, through confession, says, come out. He wants to free us from our sin. And also he wants to free us from death itself. And so it is a powerful story as we're leading up to Holy Week and Jesus' passion, uh, death, and resurrection to show us that He has He has ultimate authority, everything, even death itself.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Yeah. Yeah, I I I was reading one quote from Augustine that talks about the weeping and it says Jesus weeps uh to teach us to weep. So, you know, one of the things we should we should weep over is our own sin, right? That's that's actually something that that we should um do. Um but the other thing I was thinking about, uh St. Paul's letter uh to the Thessalonica uh Thessalonians, he's he says that um when you weep, weep like people who have hope. So, you know, if somebody has died, if we're mourning, when you mourn, um we want to weep like people who uh who who have no hope. We don't want to weep like people who have no hope. We don't want to weep like people who don't believe in the resurrection, but we want to believe uh we want to be pull of great hope and we want to um weep um trusting that death does not have the final answer, but that Jesus has has the final answer. And we see it in it in this gospel passage too, but we're really gonna see it on on Easter Sunday, right? When we find the empty tomb. Um, yeah, I think, you know, if we think about having lost a loved one, you and I, you've lost both parents, you know, I've lost my father. Those are really very difficult times in our life, and we've talked about those before. But um, even in the midst of that sadness and that weeping and that mourning, what carried us through is our our faith in Christ carrying us through, you know, knowing that this wasn't the end, this was only a new beginning.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Yeah, often at funerals I'll talk about the we can grieve and be sad and be hopeful and joyful at the same time, you know. Yeah. And that in our humanness to be sad of the loss of this loved one, and we should weep and grieve as as uh St. Augustine says, Jesus does it with his friend. Um, and we can have that hope in eternal life that we will see them again, that uh you know they're they're going to that place where there's no more suffering, where eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, but God is ready for those who love him. And uh so we're we're gearing up for the the holiest of weeks in the church. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Yeah, we're we are um so I know you do what did you do? Do you do your Chris Mass on Tuesday of Holy Week? Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 33:26

We do uh enjoliette Monday of Holy Week.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Monday, okay. That's our long-standing tradition. Because we have such we have such, you know, we're 55,000 square miles, and so we do ours on the Thursday before, for pastoral reason due this Thursday before um Palm Sunday, and then we do a day of prayer and recollection. And you've come out to speak to that before, and Bishop Conley, and then this year we have Archbishop Paul Cochley, our good buddy, who's also the president of the USCCB, and the Archdiocese of Columbus City. He's coming to speak to our priest there this year. So he'll be he'll be with us this year for our Chris of Mass, which will be really exciting. But yeah, this is this is gearing us all up for the holiest of holy weeks, which is a looking forward to it. I I was I'm preaching, been preaching at parish mission, and one of the things I talked to people to do today, I said, I said, let's um let's make this the best holy week ever. And it was great to look out and see all these people smiling and nodding their heads in agreement that they were they were all geared up. So I think that's good. Let's let's be intentional about this and make this the best holy holy week ever.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Yeah. Yeah, with God's grace to um Yeah. I always say that the best litmus test lit litmus test of our faith is is love, charity. And uh, you know, the goal is Easter Sunday and beyond that we love more than we love today. And whatever we're doing for our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, that it may they move us toward love, not just oh, look at what I'm doing for Lent, and then I'm just gonna stop it all on Easter Sunday.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

Um, white knuckling all the way through Lent and then like, all right, I'm going back to that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

Yeah, so I uh Janine knows uh my assistant who's amazing. Um no meetings unless it's an emergency and holy week. It's a it's a week where we really just try to spend time in prayer and and reflection on you know what this is all about, that our God died for us and rose to new life. Yeah. So and tying this all together, your chrismass next Thursday is opening day for the Cubs. And so our good friend, uh hopefully Trevor uh Williams will be, he's been rehabbing from an arm injury last year. Hopefully he'll be coming to Chicago uh and maybe going down for that opener, maybe to see Trevor and then see the Cubs play.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

So that'd be great. When he last time we went to see him, we were driving down there and it got rained out.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

And uh we went and had lunch with him, and we're all excited to go see him throw, and it got rained out.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Yeah, I remember that. Bishop, will you close us in prayer and a blessing?

SPEAKER_01 36:38

In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

unknown 36:41

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Well, Saint John Paul from the window of heaven, grant us your blessing. Bless the church that you loved and served and guided courageously, leading her along the paths of the world in order to bring Jesus to everyone and everyone to Jesus. Bless the young who were your great passion. Help them dream again, help them look up to the heavens again, to find the light that illuminates the paths of life here on earth. May you bless each and every family. You warned of Satan's assault against this precious and indispensable divine spark that God lit on earth. Saint John Paul, with your prayer, may you protect the family and every life that blossoms from the family. Pray for the whole world which is still marked by tensions, wars, and injustice. You opposed war by invoking dialogue and planting the seeds of love. Pray for us so that we may be tireless sowers of peace. O Saint John Paul from heaven's window, where we see you beside Mary, send God's blessing down upon us all. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Amen. The Lord be with you and with your spirit.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

Amen. Thank you, everybody, for listening. Uh, we'd invite you to make comments in our comment section. Why don't you put your this week put your pick for the championship uh in the NCAA brackets? We'll see uh what everybody thinks out there, and we'll be checking back on those as the tournament goes on. And uh please like, subscribe, and share this podcast with friends and family who'll enjoy it. And as St. Pierre Giorgio Frasati reminds us the higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ. So keep striving verso alto in your faith and pursuits. And until next time, God bless you.