Verso l'Alto
Welcome to Verso l'Alto, Faith on the Field Podcast. Join Fr. Burke Masters, priest of the Diocese of Joliet and chaplain to the Chicago Cubs and Bishop James Wall of the Diocese of Gallup, while they explore the Catholic Faith through Scripture, the saints, and the thrill of sports.
Verso l'Alto
Mercy, Madness & the Masters
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Bishop Wall, Fr. Masters, and Mike Sweeney talk baseball and golf, discuss the role of father in a family's faith life, and explain the significance of Divine Mercy Sunday.
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Theme song: "Rock Star" by John Ehrich. Used with permission.
Welcome everyone to episode 27 of Virtual Alto Faith on the Field, a podcast combining faith and sports. My name is Father Burke Masters, the uh pastor of St. Isaac Jokes Church in Hinsdale, Illinois, and Catholic chaplain to the Chicago Cubs.
SPEAKER_01Mr. James Wall, the Bishop of the Diocese of Gallup, located in the states of New Mexico and Arizona.
SPEAKER_02And Mike Sweeney, proud husband, father, a Catholic, and I work in leadership with the Kansas City Royals. So I am in Des Moines, Iowa, working here, doing some leadership with our AAA baseball players.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Love to hear more about what you do, Mike, with them. So let's begin in prayer as we always do. 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 Pierre 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. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Didn't we just have his day? Wasn't his birthday? Didn't we just have Frasi's birthday?
SPEAKER_00April 6th, yes, on Monday.
SPEAKER_01I wanted to watch you get confused. Wait, what? The reason I you know this, and that's why I brought it up. And you're like, that's why coffee is such a great thing.
SPEAKER_00Stumped by the bishop. Yeah. The reason I was aware of that is our new, newly formed Knights of Columbus Council is named after St. Pierre Giorgio Frasati. And uh this was his 125th birthday, I believe. I think that's right. Our hundred and yeah, I'll look that up. Um and uh our council was founded on his birthday, so um we're hoping to form men after his heart of yeah, being a man of God, a man of service, uh, a man of sports and the outdoors, and that's why he's you know the patron of one of the patrons of this podcast, because he he was a man's man, uh, but also just totally devoted to God. Died at the age of 24, like many saints, Teresa of Lesieux, uh, and thousands of people showed up at his funeral uh because of the people that that he had served, the poor that he had served, that nobody was aware of. So uh he didn't he didn't do it in a ostentatious way, just quietly served, which is awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, his face is his feast day, is it is it July 4th? Is that his feast day? Does that sound about right?
SPEAKER_00I think that's right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So we'll have a big year this year. His his feast day, 250th anniversary of our country, all kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, get fireworks on the birthday. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Um let's let's talk about so we're recording this on Wednesday of Easter week. So how was your how was your holy week? The Trituum, Easter Sunday, and what we're celebrating for these eight days. Uh uh Bishop It was good.
SPEAKER_01We had um um you know, beautiful Holy Thursday, um you know, Mass of the Lord's Supper Institution of the Eucharist, institution of the priesthood, we had the Mundatum, the washing of the feet. Uh Friday we had uh a beautiful Good Friday liturgy at three o'clock, which is the traditional time. And um, you know, say the Lord hung on the cross from noon to three. And um our our rector of a cathedral, he does this every year, it's beautiful. He he chants the gospel. It's not easy to do, but he does such a very nice job at it. And then Saturday evening, uh the vigil um, you know, we do all the readings, and we had uh I want to I want to say we close to 30 people that we brought into the church and more than 20 through baptism. So it was like it was a great night. Wonderful, wonderful night. I got to bed about 12 30 in the morning, but it was it was worth staying up late for it. Yeah, it was great.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. And for for me guys, it's uh I'm gonna it's kind of a public confession. So typically on Easter, the Easter Trudewim. You're gonna need it. You're you're gonna need it, and you could hit me with a good um uh a really good um yeah, penance, a really strong one. But typically on Easter, it's a time for worship of our Lord, and we stay home, we go to the Easter Trudewim, you know, celebration, the three-day prayer. Uh, we usually drive up and have a um a big picnic or a barbecue with all my brothers and sisters with my parents, and it's this awesome, like four-day um prayer, three-day prayer culminated by a fourth day of joy. And as a father, there there are two kind of two easy options to do in today's world. Number one is to unplug my family, um, move to a Catholic um little bunker somewhere, uh, get a sprinter van and uh and and just unplug from the world. Uh the other kind of lure for some parents today is to unplug from your faith and just chase youth sports around and you know, kind of just say, I'm all in, I'm gonna help my kids get to the college they want and achieve their dreams that they want through athletics. But I'm kind of in this term I'm called like in the tension. Um I was told by I have we have two daughters, as you guys know, Fiona and Quinn, who are playing volleyball. And my beautiful bride told me, honey, um, over Easter weekend, uh the girls have a tournament in Las Vegas. And I'm going, oh no. Like, are you kidding me? Like, we're not going. Like, yeah. And uh she said, Well, honey, unfortunately, like, like, yeah, I'm with you. I don't want to be in Vegas. But my point is, is uh we we have a friend in our men's Bible study that has a house in Vegas, and he said, Hey, you don't need to stay on the strip. If you want to go to Vegas for your daughter's deal, they're getting ready to play in some national thing, and it's their dream right now to be like their mom, play college volleyball. You know, you can make a holy time of it. So, make a long story short, what did I do? We were gonna drive to Vegas on Thursday evening, and I said, you know what? Before we do that, we're gonna celebrate Holy Thursday Mass. So we did. Uh, we go home, we packed up the car, and the kids getting ready to charge, and we said, Hey, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna stop at church and adore Jesus and the Holy Eucharist. We're gonna spend time in adoration. And that made us get to Vegas about two in the morning. So, you know, we get up Friday morning, there's chaos going on, and I said, You know what we're gonna do, babe? We're gonna go down and there's confession at the shrine. So our whole family went down, all the kids, Shah and I. It was awesome. Um, good Friday service that evening. We went to the Easter True to him Mass Saturday night, praying the rosary together as a family. And to make a long story short, we were driving home uh Monday from Vegas, and Shara said, honey, when I had heard that we were going to be in Las Vegas for Easter weekend, I thought it's gonna be an absolute disaster. And she said, but honestly, that it's probably my favorite Easter we've ever experienced as a family. You know, uh the guys in our men's group, we did a 48-hour water fast. So there was a uh attention and a prayer of you know, those 48, 50 hours between Holy Thursday and after the Easter True to him Mass Saturday night. Um, but there was this beautiful pouring of God's grace into my family. Even though there was chaos with volleyball, I told the girls, you know what, the highlight of our weekend is gonna be worshiping Jesus. We're gonna be celebrating. And that that Saturday night after the Easter True to him Mass, I said, you know what? We're gonna go uh get a big table at this good Italian restaurant. We're gonna we're gonna celebrate with Easter joy. And so I publicly confess that going to Vegas on Easter weekend was everything I preach against. And yet I thought I felt the Holy Spirit saying, Go, go, but be holy, you know, leave your family. And uh by God's grace, it my wife and kids said it was the best Easter of their lives. Not not because Easter was um the worship of Christ was removed um by things of this world, but it was by God's grace, I led my family in proper worship of Christ. And I can honestly say, as we drove home from Vegas Monday night, it was the most Christ-centered Easter that we'd ever have, and it was all by God's grace. So um I'll take my penance, but uh, but God showed up in a beautiful way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it sounded like you had to be very intentional about it, which is great. And they have a they have a wonderful archdiocese up there. The Vegas was just made an arch um diocese, and they have a great archbishop, um, Archbishop George Thomas, really good man. And it's uh actually the church is exploding in the archdiocese of of Las Vegas, really a lot of growth, which is great. I'm sure you're not the first first person to roll in there at two in the morning, too. I'm sure you're not the first person.
SPEAKER_02How about you, Fellon Burke? How was your Easter?
SPEAKER_00Well, no, I I was just gonna say, I don't think you need penance. I think people need to hear that, Mike. That so many people listening may have just gone to Vegas and partied and just forgot about, you know, uh Holy Week and you made the best of it. You know, you honored your daughters in their tournament, but also honored God. And uh that's real life, you know, and I think that's those are the kind of decisions people have to face on a regular basis. How am I gonna truly make God the center of my life? Remember that righteousness, things in right order. Um yeah, here it was great. Uh we had full church throughout uh holy week and highlight of 46 people coming into the church Saturday night, uh, 4,000 people plus on Sunday morning, and um yeah, it was just a a great week. Uh I'm still a little uh tired after because you know on Thursday night we go visit seven churches, so that was an after midnight night, and Saturday night was after midnight, and uh I'm I'm not a night owl, uh so uh early morning, so but my my heart is full. And uh as we know, we celebrate the octave of Easter, eight days like it's Easter Sunday, and then a whole 50 days of the Easter season. So we'll get more into that at the end. We're gonna talk about how we cap off this octave of Easter with Divine Mercy at the end. But uh let's let's get into sports. We want to cover uh the final four, like going on, what's going on in the world of baseball, and then of course, uh the tournament, golf tournament named after my family. What's that?
SPEAKER_01The masters. We don't have to talk about the final four. Let's just skip over this.
SPEAKER_00So let's start there. Uh Mike, you're you beat me by a point in our brackets. Uh you get the crown.
SPEAKER_01Running through you. I get the belt.
SPEAKER_00We'll have to get it get a traveling trophy here uh for March Madison. Bishop Wall had started out 18-0 with the uh uh the Wildcats. Uh finished in third place in our brackets.
SPEAKER_01And last. Go ahead and say at last. I finished in last place.
SPEAKER_00Third place out of three. But uh yeah, the Michigan Wolverines uh pull through. So any thoughts on on the final four games?
SPEAKER_01I you know, I missed I missed the the game on Saturday night, and and on purpose, I went down to the cathedral an hour early, so I wouldn't see anything about Arizona, Michigan, and I wouldn't have that as a distraction for the for the vigil. So I just completely ignored it, took off my Apple Watch, didn't have my phone near me, and so I didn't find out about the game until about midnight. And uh, all right, we were looks like we were never really in the game. And uh, but boy, they I I uh that coach is something else. You know, he took a couple years ago, he took Florida Atlantic to the Final Four. He's at Michigan now, and he's on top of the world. Dusty May, he's a he's quite the coach. Yeah. He has some heavyweights coaches, you know, going against uh Danny Hurley, too. Those that was quite the final.
SPEAKER_02And I heard one of the pivotal players, I was driving home from Vegas on Monday in the final. So I talk about distractions. I had enough distractions between volleyball day and being in Vegas, but man, we had a beautiful, a beautiful time. So I I actually didn't watch any of it. The last two minutes we listened to it on the radio right after praying the rosary, as we were coming into San Diego on the drive home. And I was rooting for Yukon just because of their faithful Catholic coach, but I had heard a really cool story about the coach at Michigan, uh May, is it Bishop?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, Dustin May.
SPEAKER_02Dustin May. That he there was this kid uh seven foot three or something from uh he's an international star from Spain, and he came over to UCLA and they the coaches there really didn't do use him well and kind of suppressed him. They were really hard on him, and he he said, I'm out, and he transfers to Michigan and ends up being maybe the leading scorer in the final game or one of the top leading scorers. So I just think it's cool to highlight leadership. And yeah, I was reading for Danny Hurley in UConn uh for many reasons, but to to hear about the leadership of Coach May, uh taking a kid that's been kind of beat down for years and to to raise him up. And I I thought that was really cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I didn't I wasn't able to watch much of it either, being that it was holy Saturday night, and then uh Monday night we have a uh a large group be formed in our parish and and uh it was good to sacrifice that. Honestly, I didn't didn't miss it. Um you know when you're doing God's work, I'm sure if my favorite Mississippi were playing, I probably would would have been missing it. Uh but um yeah, yeah it's good to see uh I was pulling for UConn myself because of Danny Hurley, but it seems like Michigan might have had the best team.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I watched it with my my 87-year-old mom. She watched the entire game and she was she was dialed in the whole game. She was rooting for Michigan. Uh out of nowhere. I have no idea why. Yeah, all of a sudden she's like, I I want Michigan to win. I I have no idea why. But uh she you know she was she was dialed into the whole game.
SPEAKER_02What a mom you have.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's what happens when you marry a channel.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was gonna say, you should share. Your mom was not a sports fan, right? And she married a football coach.
SPEAKER_01Not at all. She was in the high school band, and she said, you know, the only time the only time she ever knew anything went well was or what you know for their team, um, was when they scored a touchdown, and somebody would tell her, Oh, we have to play the fight song. She was completely, she goes, she loved it for the social aspect. And yeah, she just and all her kids ended up playing sports. Her husband was a coach, and so she's kind of had to, yeah, she's had to learn to do it. But um she could take it or leave it. It's really funny. She sometimes we're up watching a baseball game, we watching the Diamondbacks, and I look over her, and there she is, she's got a book in her hand, and she's just reading away. But she just more of a social event for her than anything else. Cool. That is a cool.
SPEAKER_00How about uh uh in the world of baseball? Any any news uh newsworthy events uh this week? Any surprises? Or I know the Cubs had to put a couple pitchers on the DL and Kate Horton out for the season, so that's gonna be a tough blow to whenever you lose a key guy in your in your starting five. That's a that's a rough rough thing. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02I was excited to see the Dodgers are hot, you know. They think they have five or six come from behind wins. They have the best record in baseball. But the the story that I'm really excited about, I'm cheering for those Royals. They're they're off, they're playing about 500 ball right now. They're winning some games, losing some tough ones, but they're they're playing good baseball, and and the pitching has been solid. But uh, we we talked about leadership a lot on between the three of us. And uh to see uh Tito, former University of Arizona Wildcat, uh Terry Francona taking over in in um Cincinnati as a Reds leader, and I think they have the second best record in baseball. They're they're leading their division. So uh I love seeing stuff like that. You know, a guy coming in, changing the culture, and um it shows the way they're playing ball right now.
SPEAKER_01He yeah, he there a lot of people are predicting them to go a long way this year. And uh because they're they've they've got they got the talent, they've got some number of players, but they haven't been able to put it all together. But it looks like he's got them in going in the right direction. Yeah. We can't we just can't get over that that hump.
SPEAKER_00What's up, Father Burke? You you're you said you're in uh in the Des Moines, so tell us a little bit about what you do for the Royals, and uh you have one of the best jobs in the world, I think. Uh I do. I think people be interested in it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I'm I'm here, I mentor the guys. So we we got a game uh right right outside my hotel window here in about three hours. So my job is to mentor the players on and off the field. So it could be talking to them about hitting or fielding or mindset. I'll be in the dugout with them during the ball game. But this afternoon after the game, I'll be taking some of them off campus to a dinner. Uh get to talk to them about life, talk about the faith, and just you know, try to mentor them. But before I um before I conclude on this, I came in last night a day early and before leading the Royals players and offering leadership uh to them. And there's a ministry here that started two years ago. It's called Forge. Uh, there's a guy that was a focus missionary named John Bishop. Not he's not a bishop like you, Bishop Wise, although I was telling him all about you last night. Um he has a PhD in um theology. Brilliant, brilliant Catholic man, written a couple books, and he was working with Focus for a long time. And he said, you know, um, for those that don't know, Focus is a fellowship of Catholic University students. So it's a ministry that really puts the the fire of our faith into the hearts of these collegiate um uh uh young men and women around the around the country. And he said, Look, I love doing that, but the statistics show that yeah, it's important to bring the faith to the college kids because a lot of the kids are losing their faith at that time. However, the greatest kind of battle in today's world is the battle of the home, and it starts with the men. Uh men are losing their faith and leaving the faith at record numbers. So he said, I want to start a ministry that we want to pour into the men. So two years ago, we started this in Des Moines, Iowa, and uh he had me come in last night and speak. It's a really cool thing. It's called Forge, and they have a men's uh ministry where they talk about accountability. They get guys in small groups, they meet twice a month um in small groups, groups to of six to 10. And then once once a quarter, uh the group will go out and have a men's night and have a cold drink and watch a ballgame together. And um, and every quarter they'll have a speaker come in. And I go, how's the ministry gone in the last two years since you started it? He said, We have 90, we have 90 small groups of men ranging from six to 10 guys, and now different areas of the country are subscribing to it, and we're going through really good content, Catholic content. We're getting guys to confession, guys are praying the rosary together, and and guys are having deep rooted Catholic Christian relationships that are pointing people, pointing men to lead their families properly to heaven. So I wanna I wanna say a shout out for uh John Bishop and the ministry called Forge. I'm gonna bring, I'll be bringing Forge back to San Diego. Super cool. Ministry, uh bringing men together to grow in holiness, and then sending them back home to lead their families to heaven. It's super cool.
SPEAKER_01It's great. It's great to hear. I like kind of taking that model of focus and it taking it into another realm. And and uh and the one of the things you see this great multiplication of disciples and discipleship in in focus. It sounds like that's what's happened with these guys too. Yep. Great.
SPEAKER_02He's had a kind of a knockoff on Dr. James Dobson's focus on the family. And he said, Look, I'm this is like focus for the fathers. And he said, because if you get the fathers, if we get the men living their faith, and this is for any men that are watching this, uh, you know, if you can get the men, the kids are gonna follow the men. That's what statistics show. Even if your mom's a saint and she's living the faith, like Bishop Wall, you know, your mom's a saint, my mom's a saint, but a lot of the kids are gonna follow the the father's footsteps, and if we can get the men, we get the whole family.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's amazing to see that. I'm sure they have a website. Dad goes to church, the high percentage of the children going to church and practicing their faith. Um, if the mother goes to church and father doesn't, that really decreases, you know, not to not to slam the ladies or anything, but it really does. It's uh really at an Ephesians 5, right? Yeah, and that spiritual head of the household.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and the um the the setting was super cool for men. So he said they meet once uh once a quarter, they'll meet at a bar. So it's kind of like theology on tap. They had we had a private room. I'll share you, I'll share the picture with you guys. Maybe um Suzanna, Suzanne can share it with our viewers, but it was just like a little pub that had string lights hanging from the roof, chairs were set out, there's a screen in the back, and guys are having a cold drink and and talking about how we could be the men that God has called us to be, um, how we can get to confession, how we could start reading holy scriptures and what it means to be in a small group of men that we're gonna get beyond new sports and weather and have the type of friendships that when we're going through tough times in life, they're gonna be there for us. When someday when we die, those are gonna be the men that are gonna be carrying our casket because literally these men are helping us get to heaven. So it was it's something that I was super inspired by. I I hope I was inspiring to the 200 men that showed up last night, but I I walked away really inspired.
SPEAKER_00That's great. Yeah, we're you know, we started this new Knights of Columbus Council, and we want to form the men, and this they could be this could be a good source of uh formation. And I know the Knights of Columbus have some great videos out there too. Uh and uh what's the um the article that um Bishop Olmsted wrote on Into the Breach. Into the breach, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's an I think it's an apostolic letter to the men in the Diocese of Phoenix. It's a great read. Very, very good read.
SPEAKER_02A must read for men if you haven't read it yet. Bishop Olmsted, who's uh Bishop Walls, one of his heroes and kind of predecessors, just an incredible man of God. Uh, I was so blessed to be with him recently, and just man, he's one of my heroes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, me too. Yeah, me too.
SPEAKER_00Great resource. Um, do you Mike I don't have did you ever come across um the writer and uh I think he's on MLB also, John Paul Morosi? Do you know that name?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, actually just got off an interview with him about two minutes before we started our uh podcast this morning. He said to say hi to you. He's making the rest of Wall. Uh he told me that he was on the phone with you yesterday, and he's doing a big article on you know Catholic, the mass in Major League Baseball. And I sent him that really cool picture of you and Bishop Wall on the field. Um, so hopefully he inserts that in the magazine.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Yeah, I was really uh impressed by him, and uh you know, he says he's he looks for a Catholic church when he's on the road, and uh so uh yeah, shout out to John Paul Morosi and the work that he does and being a witness to the sports world about his faith as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's kind of cool. We got we got John Paul Morosi. Uh we got John Paul Morosi as a writer, we got Mark Wegner um as a major league baseball umpire that started a Catholic ministry that you know we we help out in supporting that. And I was telling John Paul Morosi, the the sports writer, he's like, What are some of the cool memories that you have, you know, celebrating mass with other brothers in the faith? And I said, you know, hearing Bob Shepherd, uh, the voice of God, they called him the the announcer that would say, now batting number two, Derek Jita. Jita, number two. Uh I heard him lecture at Yankee Stadium. I heard the great Vin Scully lector. Um, you know, today's reading, the first reading is a letter from St. Paul to the collagen. And I'm like, oh, this is this is Vince Goli lecturing. And uh, and then and then hearing great guys like Bobby Witt Jr., the face, one of the faces of baseball lecturing at Kaufman Stadium. I just told him how cool it is to have mass at the stadium. And one of my favorite memories, we had one of the first masses ever celebrated at Fenway Park, and it was with Sean Casey. You guys know the mayor. And uh literally, it was like the book, I got my Bible here, it was like the book of Acts. It was me, Sean Casey, and Father Paul O'Brien. And uh Father Paul O'Brien's this young priest from Boston, and we went in some closet or like a small room that was probably built in like 1902. And I was thinking, man, you know, Babe Ruth might have come in here and smoked a couple of heaters and had a couple shots of whiskey before a game. Uh and here we are celebrating Mass. So, yeah, John Paul Morosi is going to be coming out with a big article on the Catholic Mass in Major League Baseball. And those are a couple fun stories that came up.
SPEAKER_00That's fun. Yeah, we'll we'll let everybody know when that comes out. Uh uh, but I was I was impressed by him. I have to share, you know, I sure good news about Mississippi, and then we had a we had a tough weekend this past weekend. We got you know, we swept Ole Miss at Ole Miss last week. Oh, there's the killbell. Is this the right time? Uh yeah, so the the other Bulldogs, George the Georgia Bulldogs swept us at home uh this week. So um tough weekend, but uh we were ranked four, and Georgia was ranked five, and uh Georgia took us three close games at in Starkville. So now we drop to number nine, I think. Uh so just a little update on college baseball. Um and and then finally, it's a big week uh for sports. Maybe the the highlight of golf, uh the Masters tournament is this weekend. Uh, you know, my last name is Masters, and so I always joke with people that this is named after my great-great-grandfather, and they they get you know excited. My god, not maybe, I don't know. Maybe I don't know where the name came from, but uh uh you know we're we're picking we're picking our winners here. Uh speaking of Vegas, I don't think people are taking our picks to Vegas, uh better to save their money. But uh any any thoughts?
SPEAKER_01And we we just uh bishop, you were sending us some uh that's what I'm I I was I was going with Scheffler, but now all of a sudden I'm going with Cameron Young. That guy goes to Mass every Sunday. And why is that? Because he goes to mass every Sunday and intentionally about it. So that's why I was mentioned earlier with Mike his trip to Vegas and his Catholic faith was very intentional. There's a great video that's going around, and he talks about you know, they no matter what, they they go to mass, he goes to mass as a family uh on the on the tour, and that's that's great to see. You don't always see that, and so it's it's great to see, and it's great to hear somebody so public about it, too. So, Cameron Young, that's my pick for the Masters this year. He's gonna win it on Divine Mercy.
SPEAKER_02I like that, Bishop. Yeah, for me, um, Bishop Wall sent me a little reel or a video of of Cameron Young with his family, and I'm just looks like an awesome guy. So, yeah, he's he's on my leaderboard, but I'm gonna be rooting for Gary Woodland. Um, I know we had talked about it briefly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, another good guy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah he uh he had come out recently, he had a brain tumor. Um, after the surgery, he battled a lot of mental illness and PTSD, and he he came out very publicly and shared very humbly about the cross that he was asked to carry and the storm that he was in. And he found this kind of this beautiful, peaceful way to him. And he just won last week's tournament, and now he's getting ready for the masters. So I'm I'm I'm rooting for uh Cameron Young, but also Gary Woodland. It'd be neat to see some of these heroic men of great virtue um continue to be put on the on the pedestal.
SPEAKER_00Two two great stories. Yeah, so I I'll go on a different route. Uh a root for those guys for those stories for sure. Um and you know the the easy way to go is Scotty Scheffler, he's the favorite. But uh something tells me, I don't know why, but I'm I'm yeah, he's another good Christian guy. You know, he's had ups and downs, uh, as we all do, and uh, but he seems even when he makes a mistake, he stands up and claims it, and I think that's a great example for us. Um but uh I think Bryson uh Decembe is gonna take the masters this year. Rory McElroy is trying to uh be the first repeat winner since Tiger did it in 01-02, so very tough thing to do. Just like in baseball, tough to be repeat uh champions. I imagine golf's even more difficult. There's so many good players out there.
SPEAKER_02I like it. Double or nothing on who uh who wins uh the masters. There we go. What did we're up? I already know what we're betting, but double or nothing. I think it's a cup of coffee or something.
SPEAKER_01Double or nothing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Burke doesn't drink coffee. Can we say something about the next time we're together? Uh we're buying dinner. I can't remember what it was.
SPEAKER_01I think there's a dinner in there. I think this is coming from me. We're going to like Jack in a Box or something.
SPEAKER_02That's right. Bishop and Bishop said it. Father Burke doesn't drink coffee, so let's let's get that one out of the bat.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that that's that's there's no incentive for me to win a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01We'll go to eat crispy burger. That's what we'll do when we're in Syria.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, shout out to Crispy Burger. Amazing burgers. So uh, right before we get to Divine Mercy Sunday, uh I think Bishop or Mike, Mike, did you send us the graphic on all of the diocese with the numbers of people coming into the church? Uh so you know it's it's become a national story. It seems like it's the story out there right now that everybody I I saw, I think it was on CBS, they introduced the story by saying, and surprisingly, you know, the Catholic Church is growing. And uh, you know, I think we got to get that word out. And I keep thinking as we're going through the Acts of the Apostles now during uh the Easter season, you know, to think big. You know, we had 46 people this year, which is big, but you know, they're pulling in 3,000 a day back in uh the time of the Apostles, and you know, we've become like a post-Christian culture. There's a lot of people that need the gospel, and um I think the Holy Spirit's doing something very powerfully right now in our country and and in the world.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think you know it's interesting too. A lot of people will say, Well, you know, I want to get back to the I want to get back to the the church in the time of Jesus. Well, we're members of the church in the time of Jesus, right? Jesus established you know the the church 2,000 years ago. Here Peter and Ponus Rock would build my church, gates of the netherworld shall not prevail. And so that we believe that apostolic succession builds all the way up to today. You know, where where Peter is, and the successor of St. Peter right now is Pope Leo the 14th. Where Peter is, there is the church. And um so if you want to look at you know what the what the church was uh devoted to you know in the Acts of the Apostles, you'll find those very same elements today in the Catholic Church because that's the same church.
SPEAKER_02I love that. I don't know if you guys saw um Pastor Francis Chan um somewhat recently came out and and he's he's written many many books, sold millions of copies, and he had you know tens of thousands of people coming to each service that he was preaching at. And he came out and it went viral amongst Catholics and Protestants. But he said, I never knew it that for the first 1,500 years of Christianity, every Christian in the world believed in the true presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, and at the center of every church was Jesus fully present in the Eucharist. And he said, What sadly, what happened with the Protestants, he said, was we replaced Jesus at the center of worship with a man that we said, you need to go study in a library for 25 hours a week, and then you need to come up here and preach a sermon for an hour. And he said, You know, people in our church, we follow Piper, we follow MacArthur, we follow Chan, you know, all these guys that we follow. And he said, uh, sadly, we have placed ourselves at the center of worship on that stage. Rather, we have an altar, right? Because of the sacrifice. But he's like, we need to get back to putting Jesus in the center of worship. And I think his words have really echoed through the Protestant world of for the first 1500 years, everyone in the world that was a Christian believed in the true presence of Jesus. And you know, there's this, I think, a magnetic pole of Christians coming back to, yeah, the I think the Protestant church is beautiful. Um, the music is great, the the preaching is great, but there's only a so far of depth that you can worship our Lord in without the fullness of the faith that was given to Peter to lead our Holy Catholic Church. And if you're absent of the Holy Eucharist in worship, I believe that you're you're absent of about 90% of what God has given to us to keep us you know connected to the vine. He He gave us our the Holy Spirit, yeah. He gave us the Holy Spirit and baptism and the Eucharist to feed us, and without the Eucharist, man, I I don't know how I'd live. Yeah, yeah. So I think that's what's contributing. Contributing to these record numbers of people coming back to the Holy Church.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think uh yeah, studies are showing people are looking for the truth, you know, and the full truth, as you're talking about, that dates back to Christ that doesn't change. They're looking for stability and uh in a very unstable world. That's the church. Um, they're looking for community, and of course, different parishes have different cultures, but I think we can do a uh we can always do a better job of you know building up community. And um, what was the the last thing? They want a deeper relationship with Christ. And so um I'm encouraging all of our people, invite people to church. You know, sometimes people are almost embarrassed to be Catholic, and I'm like, this is the church, as we're saying, that Jesus founded. It has it has the fullness of truth, it has the Eucharist, all the sacraments, um beauty, you know, the three transcendentals, right? Uh goodness, uh beauty, and truth. And you can find all that in the Catholic Church. And I think that's the Holy Spirit's moving in a very powerful way.
SPEAKER_01I was at a buddy of mine's parish a few weeks ago to do a mission at Field for our Diocese. And they get on the on the so three masses on the on, they have a vigil and then two on Sunday morning, and they get 5,000 people a week. Wow. And at Easter they did 9,000, a little over 9,000 people. And they had about a hundred people, I think maybe even a little more, come into the church at the vigil. Really impressive. Saint St. Thomas More in Glendale, Arizona. Yeah, places on fire. Yeah, they're doing great. Yeah, really. Shout out to Father, Father John Eric doing a really, really good job.
SPEAKER_02That's super cool. And I heard something really encouraging on the Texas AM campus. Um, my daughter Makara has a really wonderful friend that's going to school there. And he he said that the Easter Vigil Mass was over four hours long, or it was almost four hours long. And he said it with joy. It wasn't like, oh man, the longest. He said it was awesome because almost 500 college students came into the church at Texas AM. And he was a he was a sponsor for one of uh one of the young uh new Catholic Christians in the world. So a shout out to uh Ryan George at Texas AM. So proud of your son. It's it's really cool that you know the college campuses are turning to Christ too. Not not just in Major League Baseball, but man, uh college campuses are turning to Christ, especially that at AM. That's super cool.
SPEAKER_01You know, I I heard something recently. This is from my rector, Father Mitchell Brown, at my um, they were doing a uh show on the on the um on the trituum, and I'm I'm a bit of a Tolkien nut, I love J.R. Tolkien. And um he was saying, you know, in the in the Tolkien Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, you have what they call the Ents, E-N-T-S. Those are the trees that talk, and they they kind of move slowly and they speak slowly. And they say that when they uh are saying something very, very important, their speech even gets slower. And he said, you know, then they said the most important thing they say is they say their name. And that takes them the longest to say, because it's the most important. So you think about at the Easter Vigil, we have all these readings, beautiful, beautiful readings of the church, and we have this the longest liturgy of the year. And he said, What the church does at the Easter Vigil is the church speaks her name. And uh Tolkien was a very devout Catholic, and and even said that the the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a Catholic work. But I I I love that that that that that slowly speaking, uh meditative speaking. Um and uh the church church really does speak her name in a beautiful well way at the Easter vigil.
SPEAKER_00So as we move to the uh end of this week, uh the end of the octave of Easter. Uh so we again we celebrate this these eight days as if it's one day, it's Easter Sunday. Um and uh we have in 2000, uh Pope St. John Paul II named this uh feast day Divine Mercy Sunday based on the writings of uh St. Faustina Kowalska. We had the Bishop and I had the opportunity to visit her convent in in Poland uh last year, and uh it's it's based on you know visions that she had and the Lord Jesus speaking to her about how incredible God's mercy is, and it's appropriate on this Sunday because you see in the readings, you know, the mercy of God on display. So, Bishop, you want to kick us off?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so this is a one this is a neat reading, for lack of a better word, in that um, you know, what we we have this is where Thomas gets his Saint Thomas gets his nickname, Doubting Thomas. Um, but it's also of the day. So, you know, when that when our Lord first appears to them, that's the first day of the week, it's the day of the resurrection. Thomas isn't there. They tell Thomas about it. Thomas is like, I don't believe it. And you know, you can you can imagine that too, because Thomas was called by Jesus, he walked with Jesus, he ministered with Jesus, he followed Jesus, he learned from Jesus, but he also knows that he was he was uh crucified. And so then they they share this with him. So then we have the next week, and that's the exact day that this this feast day is on. And so that's when you have uh Thomas and Jesus gives him the invitation to you know place his hands in the wounds. And I love this in the scripture passage because it doesn't say that he does place his hands in the wounds, it doesn't say he does or he doesn't, but what it does say is that he gives this great proclamation, some of the most powerful words ever, my Lord and my God. So not only is he you know he knows that he's the Messiah, but he knows that you know at the heart of the gospel message is Jesus is Lord. I heard Ralph Martin say that one time, and then um and my God too. So he speaks of of Jesus' uh divinity. So that's I think one of the really important things to happen. So he gets kind of a like a Martha rap, you know, Martha doesn't choose the better portion, but later on she says, I believe. I believe that she gives this great proclamation after the death of her brother Lazarus. But with Saint Thomas, you know, he says something that nobody else has said. My Lord and my God, he's the first to say it. And a lot of times people will quietly say that at the elevation at Mass, you know, when our Lord is elevated in the Eucharist. So I think that's one thing it's important for us to look at. The other is, and this is Divine Mercy Sunday, and this is also, when you look in the scriptures, this is where we get the sacrament of mercy, right? Whose sins you forgive are forgiven. Those you held bound are held bound. So this is a memorization verse for Catholics. Because people will say, Well, why do you go to a priest to go to confession? Can't you go straight to God? Well, we go to a priest to go to confession because Jesus instituted this sacrament. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven. Those you held bound are held bound. So it also, and that that passes along through the church to this day, it also points to the fact that a judgment call has to be made. You know, I have the ability to be able to hold something bound or to or or to release it, right? To forgive it. And um and so the only way we can do that is if we hear it. You know, we it has to be a spoken confession and it has to be a heard confession. But it always goes it goes back to Jesus. And you know, and look, we were we were talking uh uh about that that minister that said for the first 1500 years everybody believed in the true presence. Well, for the first 1500 years, everybody believed in the sacrament of reconciliation, penance, confession. And then all of a sudden you had some of the you know Luther and Swingley and Calvin and some of these reformers come through and all this and also you know said, I think I know better on this one. And they they moved people away from that. But this is a divinely instituted sacrament. You know, just like the Eucharist, right? Take and eat, this is my body, take and drink, this is my blood. This, you know, whose sins you forgive are forgiven, those you held bound are bound. This is a divinely instituted um sacrament. And Thomas points that out by saying, My Lord and my God. So in that very same gospel passage. So it's uh it's Divine Mercy Sunday, it's the day when we receive the sacrament of mercy, which is reconciliation, penance, confession. And then it's also the day we get this beautiful proclamation uh from Saint Thomas, my Lord, my God.
SPEAKER_02Wow, beautiful. That's your homily for uh Divine Mercy Sunday, Bishop. I love that.
SPEAKER_01The one place I was pastor when I was Phoenix in Phoenix, the Diocese of Phoenix, was Saint Thomas the Apostle. So I love this, absolutely love this. This um I love this saint, I love this gospel. I get really excited about it, as you can see. And it's a memorization verse, too, for also you know, for Catholics, that's really really important to remember. You know, like Matthew 16 for the papacy, John 6 for the Eucharist, John 20 for the sacrament of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Bishop. That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you might have a non-Catholic friend say, Why do you go to a priest for confession? And you can start with John chapter 20, and uh you know it's it's right there, John 6 for the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_01Uh Jesus said so, yeah. And then the papacy, Matthew 16, Jesus said so. Yeah, yeah, and and and there, and Jesus never said something where you could say, well, he wouldn't go, oh let me take those words back, right? Right? Remember at the end of John 6, you know, um, where some good some of the disciples go away, right? Um, to whom else should we go, right? Lord, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I love yeah, I love uh uh St. Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles that you, he's talking to the Jewish leaders, you put him to death, the author of life. And the same word we get authority uh and author, you know, he's the one that created everything by speaking. And then so he has authority over everything. He's the author of life and he has authority, and so everything he says happens. And uh he gave he gave his apostles the authority to forgive sins. And I love the word mercy. You know, mercy is forgiveness when when punishment is due, you know. Uh so we've all been on the the receiving end of being hurt, and so we can hold a grudge, we can want punishment, but mercy is saying, I forgive you. We've also been the ones who have sinned gravely against God, and you know, we don't want we don't want justice then, right? We want mercy. And so Jesus wants to pour out his mercy on us, and then he wants us to share that mercy with others, not to hold grudges, not to um, you know, that that old saying, uh, unforgiveness is like drinking poison, expecting it to hurt the other person. So having mercy, receiving mercy and giving it away is such an integral part of who we are as as Catholics and as Christians. And uh I'll talk about one line and then hand it on to Mike. I love the line, just peace be with you. You know, so this is the first time Jesus has seen his followers after his crucifixion. They all scatter except John, Mary, and Mary Magdalene. And he could have come in there ranting and raving, like, where were you guys? You know, you abandoned me in my hour of need, and his first words are, peace be with you. Wouldn't it be amazing if if we did the same thing for those who have heard us, you know, instead of you know coming at them and holding grudges, like just as the Lord has forgiven me, I forgive you. Peace be with you, and what a different world we would live in. Mike?
SPEAKER_02Beautiful. Thank you, Father Burke. And yeah, we're on day four of the Easter Octave, and in the gospel reading, we've heard, you know, the disciples, they're they're going through a storm. They've seen their savior, the one that claimed to be God, to be muted, you know, mutilated, uh, just brutally murdered. And um, and then they see him rise from the dead, and they're, I mean, they're kind of freaking out. You can only imagine the emotions that they must have felt during um the holy week, right? Seeing our Lord come in on a donkey and the laying down on the palms, and then him being arrested and betrayed. And we all know the narrative, but in the last few days, we've heard, like like Father Burke just said, peace be with you. We heard it two days in a row. Do not be afraid. And um, for me, I think it's it's an awesome image of Divine Mercy Sunday. And I'm gonna borrow a page out of my my good friend Tim Van Dam. Uh, he's in our men's group back in San Diego, but he goes to the Eucharistic adoration every Friday at noon, and he walks in, and there's this beautiful big um divine mercy image, and and he says, either I do or I don't, like literally out loud. And and I'm like, What are you saying? And he says, at the bottom of the image it says, Jesus, I trust in you. The five words. And he goes, I I literally say, either I do or I don't. I say it to Jesus, and I go, you know what? You know, I'm I'm going through, I know we're all going through storms, right? Father, bishop, we all have stuff that we're going through, kind of like the disciples, but it's no, it's great, those five words that we're gonna see at the Divine Mercy Sunday as we look at that image. Number one, who we who the name, Jesus. Um, what does Jesus mean to us? And then we're gonna put, you know, we're called to put our full trust in him. So, yeah, in light of all the storms going on in my life and the chaos with trying to be a good dad and a good husband and working, being away from my family, um, I acknowledge Jesus. I can't do it without him, but I do put my full trust in him. Um, it has been a really tough time for me as a father, but I find peace and I'm not afraid because I hear the words of Jesus and and your homilies and words from Bishop that are encouraging me through the storms of life. Don't be afraid. And may the peace of Christ be with us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was thinking that that um in the scripture it talks about you know on the on the day of the resurrection, they were they were in the room, the doors were locked for fear of the Jews. So there's an there's an honest fear there in that what happened to our Lord, because they're the closest followers, could happen to them as well. And so um, you know, what dispels fear um but but love, right? And who is who is God? God is love, right? And um, and so Jesus comes in the midst, and you say that he doesn't give a word of condemnation or anything, he he gives a word of of love, right? A word of peace. And the peace of Christ is deep, lasting, enduring, different from this world. Umly Jesus can give it to us and nobody can take it away. And I think that's when we have those really difficult times, picture ourselves like the the disciples in the upper room uh for fear, you know, with that fear, but also realize that Christ is always with us, that peace of Christ is always with us, no matter what is going on in our lives.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Amen. It's one of those days where we can receive what's called a plenary indulgence to recite the Divine Mercy chaplet, receive communion, pray for the Pope, go to confession within, they say within 20 days on either side of the feast day. And what that means is, you know, when you go to confession, your sins are forgiven, as we hear in John chapter 20. Uh, if you get if you receive absolution from the priest, you're receiving it from Jesus. Um but there's what's called the temporal punishment due to sin. So, for example, in your human relationships, if you say something really horrible to your spouse or a friend and you ask for forgiveness, they can forgive you, but there's still some lasting effect of what you said. That's the same thing in our relationship with God. There's a lasting effect of our sin on our soul. That's the temporal punishment due to sin that can be wiped away on days like this with the uh plenary indulgence. So I encourage you to find a place to, you know, pray the Divine Mercy chaplet, pray for the Pope, receive Holy Communion, and go to confession. And it's not a magic pill, but what it is, it's it's meant to really prepare your hearts to be open to the grace of God. And uh that's the whole purpose of this feast day. And I know John Paul II is a hero to all of us, and it's it's it so interesting. He died on the eve of this feast day that he instituted five years prior to his death. No coincidence.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Loved it.
SPEAKER_01April 2nd, 2005.
SPEAKER_00And speaking of John Paul II, Bishop, would you uh close us with a prayer to our other patron besides your Giorgio Frasetti? Sure.
SPEAKER_01The name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. O Saint John Paul from the window of heaven, grant us your blessing. Bless the church 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 are 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 oppose 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. The Lord be with you. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
unknownAmen.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, Bishop. Thanks, guys, for uh great show. Please leave your comments uh in the comment section. We do read those and respond to those. Please like, subscribe, and share this uh podcast with friends and family who may need to hear it. And as St. Pierre Giorgio Frasati reminds us, the higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ. Keep striving verso l'alto in your faith and pursuits. And until next time, God bless you and happy Easter.