Invitation, Imitation, Celebration

A discussion on supporting kids in sports, World Cup predictions, and the meaning behind Jesus' use of yokes and burdens.

Catholic Sports Camps: https://www.catholicsportscamps.org

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Chepe, welcome everyone to episode 39 of Versual Alto, our Faith and Sports podcast. My name is Father Burke Masters, pastor of St. Isaac Joges Church in Hinsdale, Illinois, and Catholic chaplain to the Chicago Cubs.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

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

SPEAKER_01 0:24

And Mike Sweeney. I'm a former Major League Ball player, but I'm just a Catholic dad. I'm a Catholic husband. Um, and I'm out here in Atlanta, Georgia, at a big baseball tournament coaching my son's travel baseball team.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

And we'll get that uh update uh after last week. So let's uh let's pray for one of our patrons, Pier Giorgio Frasati. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the joyful example of your servant, Saint Pier Giorgio Frasati. Pier 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. Amen. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. So as we dig into our sports, you know, we want to talk about the World Cup and we have a little Wimbledon and baseball. Mike, you were sharing last week, Donovan was going through a little tough patch, but uh you've got a you've got an update. I know people were uh commenting on it uh last week.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah, so you you guys all heard the story of the listeners about kind of that windshield time home. I'm just trying to encourage him. Where do you want to eat? I'm honored to be your dad. And then the coach calls and says, Man, I'm sorry I had to yank him out of the game and embarrass him and ashamed him. And uh and then that spurred a conversation, like, well, what do you that wasn't me having a conversation, what do you want to do about it? And he's like, Dad, uh, can you can we stop at a park on the way home and hit me a bucket of balls? He said, I'm I'm never gonna make a bonehead play like that the rest of my life. And uh so over the last couple weeks, he's we went to this big tournament in Georgia. It's called the WWBA put on by perfect game, has over 400 teams here, and it's kind of like the premier tournament for 17U baseball in the country. And um, the highlight of my trip, I gotta tell you, before we get into the baseball, um, Saturday night, we go on our Mass Times app, and I said, Hey Donovan, you got a teammate of yours, Andrew Jimenez, uh just made his confirmation. We should invite Andrew and his dad to join us for Mass tomorrow. And he goes, Dad, no, he goes, we gotta invite the whole team. And he goes, the more guys we get to mass, the more guys we get to heaven, Dad. And he goes, uh he goes, Dad, the guys love you. He goes, every night after the games, you'll give a recap of the players of the game, you'll tell them the schedule for tomorrow, what uniform we're wearing, and you'll leave them a Bible verse. And he goes, Dad, the guys love playing for you. And he goes, the more guys we can get to heaven, the better, dad. So uh the highlight of my whole trip was Sunday morning. Got three or four of his teammates showed up. The parents are still sleeping up in the room, and they showed up and went to mass with me and Andrew and his dad, and me and Donovan. And we crawled into a pew in Atlanta, Georgia. And it was so awesome just being a conduit of grace to the kids that we lead. And it was really cool because Andrew's dad, who's a wonderful devout Catholic, said, He's like, Thank you for leading me. He said, You know, when I'm we're traveling all over the country, my kids committed to a D1 school, and it's uh it's hard sometimes to get to Mass. And he said, All it took was you to invite me. And he's like, My my wife called me in tears back home when I sent her a picture of us going to mass. So it's just been a it's been a glorious week here in Georgia. But you know, you guys heard about DJ, right? My son Donovan, he um, you know, got removed from a game, didn't get a bat, you know, just kind of the last guy in the team. And I've been there. Um, but now he's earned his way. Um, he's batting right in the middle of the order. He's batting, I think he's over 500 in this national tournament. And the team is now in the semifinals. And earlier today he hit a big grand slam up into some trees, and he's hit a bunch of balls off the fence, and yesterday hit another home run, and he's just he's just beaming with joy. And he's like, Dad, he's like, You're the greatest coach in the world. And he's like, I'm so he told me this today. He's like, Dad, we the boys played three games and they won them all. He said, Dad, like, I love playing baseball for you. You make it so fun, you encourage us, you're so positive. So it's it's just been a really good week as a father. Um the parents know out there when the kids struggle, we struggle. When they carry a heavy cross, we help carry it with them. But um, you know, to see a kid that struggled so much, and now he's feeling a little bit of wind in his sail, just from an encouraging father. On that windshield drive home, it wasn't berating or you know, yelling at him. It was just like, hey man, I love you. Like, what do you want to do about it, bud? And to see him now, he's one of the best players on his team, and they're one of the final four teams in this 400 team tournament. So they're playing football tomorrow. So it's been a it's been a beautiful week, Father Burke and Bishop Wall. And you know, during the week you guys were texting me, how's Donovan doing? And getting to send you guys the videos. Um, maybe Suzanne can share a couple of those with our our listeners. But thanks for being my my wind and my sail. You two, you two are such an encouragement to me. So that's that's been my week. How about how about you guys?

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Think about Barnabas, right? The son of encouragement. Uh yeah. Bishop, how's your week been?

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Uh just usual stuff. Nice thing is my mom's here visiting, so my mom's up for the week, which is nice. So I get a I get to hang out with my mom. So yeah, we're we're uh we're we're doing stuff that 88-year-old Catholic women like to do. That's what we're doing. So we're having Bunko Rosaries. Yeah. Having a lot of having a lot of fun. It's just always nice to have her up here. And she gets to escape the the the uh the temperatures down in Phoenix. So the weather's here. I mean, we were sitting outside last night, had a fire going. That's the kind of weather we have here.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

So it was really nice. Next explain that because when people here in New Mexico, everybody I know in the Midwest we think, oh, it's got to be really hot there. So explain the elevation of uh Gallup.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Yeah, so it's southwest, so it's dry. It's very dry. As we always say in Phoenix, it's the dry heat, which there is something to that. Uh but the my house sits at 67, 6,702 feet. That's how high I am. So we're we're up pretty high. Probably a little warmer than uh Flagstaff, which is 7,200 feet. So the the the temperature's nice, but in the winter time it gets cold and down to zero and below, and it snows and all that all that stuff. So yeah, it's yeah, the temperature, the weather here is uh is gorgeous in the summer. It's really nice.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah, it's it's great seeing your relationship with your mom. You know, uh she's four and a half hours away in Phoenix, you make that drive a lot, and uh being uh you know, a priest, it allows us to be able to really connect, I think, in a special way with our our moms. And I love the story of your mom was pregnant with you when you she and her dad and your dad became Catholic.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

So Yeah, she was. I'm the first cradle Catholic. Bishop Olmsted famously said this at my my ordination. So I asked him to preach my ordination. He was one of my co-consecrators. As a bishop, and yeah, as a bishop, and Bishop Olmsted said that I was I was conceived a Protestant and born a Catholic.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Oh, Bishop Olmsted's the greatest.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

That's that's a classic. Coming from him, it's even funnier.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

It is. Oh, the place just absolutely lost it.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. Yeah, we uh how about you, Father Burke?

SPEAKER_01 8:31

How has your week been?

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yeah, it's been good. Um uh it's heating up here for Chicagoland, it's in the mid to high 90s and probably 100% humidity. So it's like walking into a sauna as you walk outside. So uh I'm taking our our staff to the Cubs Padres game tomorrow night. Uh get to see our friend Craig Stammon. And uh it's supposed to be 92 degrees at 6 p.m. It's gonna be uh a steamy one. So they're it's getting close to breaking some records this time of year. So uh we thank God for air conditioning because it's just sweltering. It's very different than the dry heat in Phoenix and and Gallup. So it's hot.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

That's a nice thing about the D Bax stadium. They have a roof and they have air conditioning. So in the middle of the winter, you just sit there and it's just beautiful. It's gorgeous. Yeah, it's really nice. Or the windows, middle of summer, sorry, middle of summer. Yeah, it feels like the winter on the inside.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

We were mentioning uh before we went on, uh people may be wondering who's that Jersey behind you. So this is uh Mike, Michael McGreevy. Uh he's a young Catholic guy that pitches for the St. Louis Cardinals. Uh he's having a uh he's had some good outings this year, and we got to meet him at our we have an annual retreat in in California in November for Catholic Athletes for Christ, and just uh a great young man. And so uh this is a jersey that he sent me that we're gonna raffle off for our our Catholic baseball camp that's coming up at the end of July. That Mike uh helped get started, and uh we're we're continuing his legacy here in in the Diocese of Joliet, trying to bring uh faith to young people through the great game of what's your what's your quote, Mike? Uh telling the greatest story ever told.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah, using the greatest game ever played to share the greatest story ever told. So, yeah, using sports as a way to share the gospel, and you know, it's a joy to do it. And hey, a segue. I know we're gonna jump into sports and you know, and then going into the readings for the upcoming Sunday, but um, you you both were instrumental in me and Shara having a chance to have a private audience with the Holy Father. I don't know if you saw the viral uh news that happened, so I'll I'll go backwards. So we're in spring training, uh, former catcher for the Chicago White Sox, AJ Pierzinski series sees me. And AJ was known in baseball not as a choir boy or not as an altar boy. And but he's a good man. He's a really good man. He's a good man. And uh he says, Hey, swings, he's doing his podcast there, and all the players are going on. Hey, I heard you had a chance to meet the Pope. How the heck did you get have that happen? And I said, Well, I got a couple of good friends, Father Burke, Bishop Wall, and and then Ray McKinnon, Catholic Athletes for Christ. And he said, Well, my wife Lisa and I, we're going to Rome, and we're gonna be going in um the month of June. And uh, I was wondering if you can hook me up. Hook you up with what? He's like, Man, hook me up to meet the Pope. And he's like, you know, he's a big White Sox fan. So, anyways, I don't know if you guys saw, but um, AJ had a chance. He talked about generosity and love. I told AJ, he's like, What do I wear? Where do I get there? So I told him, wear your white socks-colored suit. I mean, look good. And I was like, AJ, this could be a chance in your life where Christ truly calls you and your wife and your whole family back to him. And I was like, my encouragement, get up, go to confession, go to mass, go um, go receive the sacraments. And AJ actually told me, Father Burke, that he's been to Mass at your church a couple times with family, and it really encouraged me. So he went and I said, uh, he said, I got a special gift that I want to give to the Holy Father. And he said, Our Holy Father, he was at game one of the World Series. He goes, one of the cameras caught him cheering on as we won the the world the game one of the World Series, and he said, I have that last out from the out of game one of the World Series. He goes, It was a strikeout, I put it in my back pocket. He goes, I want to present that ball to the Holy Father. And I'm like, Are you serious? So it went viral. AJ and his wife Lisa got to present the ball. And, you know, what sometimes what appears on the outside, you know, AJ didn't have an alter boy's reputation in baseball, but his heart is gold. He and Lisa have been married 25 years, they have great children, and he does truly live uh love our Lord and profess his Catholic faith. So AJ was sending pictures to us from Rome and to Ray McKenna at Catholic Athletes for Christ, saying, you know, it's one of the greatest moments of his life. So any uh maybe Suzanne can put a link out there to AJ, some pictures of AJ meeting the Holy Father and presenting him that Game One Baseball from the World Series. It's a great picture. Yeah, great.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

It'd be great to maybe have him come out to our retreat in November and uh share the story and just be around uh that that group of guys. That'd be great. Yeah, he's very good friends with Mark Iozo, who Bishop and I know uh here is a parishioner, and uh seen him here at Mass, and then uh they've golfed together at the invitational here at one of the golf clubs. So uh we had fun. We were talking about it last year. He's like, I need to I need to get over there and see the Pope, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

So super cool. Uh yeah, it was just neat, really neat. AJ has become a good friend and you know, wonderful Catholic man, and it's neat to see his faith coming alive uh with an interaction with with the Holy Father.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah, that's great. Um looking at uh another sport, maybe that we didn't grow up playing, but uh has become big big news. Uh we're hosting the World Cup, and uh everything I'm reading is viewership is up, attendance is up, I mean the stadiums are packed, going crazy. Uh it's been gonna be interesting to see how they play during this heat, you know. But uh big news today, we're recording this Monday night that uh Germany, one of the favorites, uh went down the machine uh German machine, yeah. Paraguay. So uh um one of the one of the big ones is has tumbled, and let's see if the the United States can make a deep run in the World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yeah, it went it went into extra time or over time, I guess. I don't know exactly the terms that they use. But then it went into penalty penalty kicks, rounds. I think they call each kick a round or set of kicks, they call it a round. And uh and then they got to five and they had to go more. And and um uh Paraguay, they made theirs and and um and uh Germany. German guy, I think he kicked it high. I don't think it got flocked, I think he kicked it high. Yeah, it was something else. But they thought they won because in the 90-something minute they they they got a goal. I think it was a header, a beautiful shot. And you know, they they look at everything now and all that the technology that they have is just incredible. And I guess it you know, I I re I went and celebrated mask, I thought it was over, and then I came back and the game was still going, or the match was still going. And uh so cool. Yeah, and so yeah, product wise, so yeah, pretty neat.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

By the time this airs Wednesday night, United States will have already played, so uh we uh I don't know I don't know if we want to make any predictions here because uh we we we don't know a lot about soccer.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

That might help us.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Uh yeah, Bosnia.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

I'm rooting. That's what we play.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yeah, okay, and I'm rooting for U.S. and I I think I told the viewers a few weeks ago I was able to get Father Martin and Father Claude, my Argentinian, the Miles Christie Priest out in California, got him tickets to go out to Kansas City to watch Messi um score his hat-trick in in game one of uh uh FIFA for Argentina. So that's my sleeper team, but I'm I'm all in on the stars and stripes. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Yeah, Messi had six goals. Six or seven? Six got six goals, seven in a row, seven matches in a row. He set a goal in FIFA. I think that's what it was set a record. But that shot was incredible. The goalie, there's not there's nothing he could do.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah, amazing. Yeah, he is 37 years old and still dominating uh the sport. And uh he's very vocal about his Catholic faith as well. It'd be it'd be great to get him on on the podcast uh after the after the World Cup. So if anyone has any. He did. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

And he did it right. Sometimes the guys are like, that's not right.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Swatting flies.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Yeah, you could tell. You could tell he did it right.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Something too, uh on a side note of the World Cup is I've I've really enjoyed watching these videos of people from other countries who are coming to the States and they're saying, gosh, in our country, we we heard the United States was XYZ, but it's none of those things. This is the greatest country ever, and it's so good to hear from other people. And you know, we have people here in our own country that you know are saying we're the worst country ever. Like people are dying to come to this country. So I think it's it's really good timing for our country as we're approaching the 250th anniversary to see, you know, we have we're the best country in the world, and uh um let's not take it for granted and let's you know, we're not perfect by any means, but boy, there's uh there's more people knocking on the door to come here than there are people wanting to leave. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yeah, the timing's great. So uh uh real quick before while we're on the 250th uh anniversary, we we mentioned offline, do you remember what you were doing 50 years ago in uh 1976 at the uh bicentennial? Um I I don't, I mean, I was 76, I was nine years old. I all I remember are the quarters collecting the you know the uh collectible quarters that had every state uh in 1976. Do you guys remember that?

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, the bicentennial year, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Yeah, but I don't remember much about the celebration 50 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

I I remember the uh I remember there were a bunch of a few things I remember. They had this thing called the freedom train that uh I remember when we were in whatever grade I was in, fifth grade, maybe fourth, fifth, and uh we went down to the state capitol in Arizona and they had all this just stuff, all kinds of memorabilia celebrating the 200th anniversary of the country. It's really fun. But what I did on the actual day was I was in uh Ventura uh County. I was in Ventura with my aunt and uncle, and um it was uh we went to a Baptist celebration of the of the 200th anniversary, and out a picnic. It was a lot of fun, and they just it was just all the traditional hot dogs, ice cream, apple pie, the whole thing. And uh, but the thing that stands out as me the most was I went to visit my grandpa in the hospital who was dying. So the last time I saw my grandpa, who I absolutely adore, and uh his his first name is John, my middle name is Sean. That's where that comes from, comes from my grandpa. So I remember celebrating the 20th anniversary and how much fun that was as a nation. But I also was I was so grateful. The most important thing is last time I saw my grandpa, yeah, he's a good man.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

That's beautiful. Well, I know my I know my grandmother, I shared about her a few uh episodes ago. She's uh almost 97 years old, and um she said she's she can't wait to celebrate the 4th of July and on the 250th anniversary of our country, and then she wants to go be with our Lord. So my my grandmother, she prays three rosaries a day. She's the most holy woman, the heart of our family, the the the conduit of grace of faith into our family tree. And um, yeah, she is such a such a cool gift. But going back to 1970, I was only three years old, so I was probably eating a hot dog, eating some watermelon, and certainly stuffed my face with some apple pie, but I have no recollection of my three-year-old uh self at the 4th of July.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah, yeah. One of the things we're doing for 250, you know, uh the bishops have offered different things, you know, and consecrating, you know, our country to the sacred heart of Jesus. And uh they've also put out uh 250 hours of adoration for this anniversary. And so one of the things we're gonna kick off this weekend at our parish is uh we're gonna we're coming up to uh the hundredth anniversary of our parish in four years. So we're thinking about time capsules and things like that. So for the from July 4th until the end of July, we're gonna put a uh leatherbound book in our adoration chapel. And anyone who prays a holy hour and prays for our country, just have them sign their name. And uh, you know, it'd be a way of keeping track of all the people who are praying for our country. On this anniversary. And then on July 31st, we're gonna have an outdoor adoration here to kind of you know and encapsulate everything and really celebrate uh this this great country. And it's really cool because we started a new Knights of Columbus Council here. Most guys ever to sign up uh in the history of the Knights at one time. And you know, the fourth degree knights, the their focus is patriotism. And so, you know, our faith and patriotism are not you know mutually exclusive. It's you know, Jesus says give to God what belongs to God and you know, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and so um so that's one of the ways that we're gonna be celebrating the this anniversary here at our parish. It's awesome. Yeah, great.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

I'll be in Kansas, I'll be in Kansas City at Bobby Witt Jr. bobblehead doll. Bobby Witt Jr. bobblehead doll day at Toffin Stadium. So yeah, a good a good Catholic, John Waffin. They call him the Duke. He looked like John Wayne. And uh he's going into the Royals Hall of Fame. He was in the Royals organization for over 50 years. He was a manager for the Royals. He played a wonderful Catholic man. Um he's gonna be inducted in the Royals Hall of Fame. So my entire family and I are gonna be in Kansas City and yeah, really patriotic um event, fireworks at the K. I'll get a bobblehead doll, Bobby, and another wonderful, faithful Catholic. So it'll be it'll be a great, great day for me and my family to be together.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

If you're able to get an extra couple, uh send us. I'll send them in.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

I'll get them for the podcast. We can put them in the back.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

I'll put them right behind. Yeah, I've got some uh I've got some bobbleheads uh here in my my office. I love bobbleheads. I've thought about that, you know, in church. People love to come for giveaways like uh ashes and palms. Palms? We should have like bobblehead bishop wall day and uh pack pack the church.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Uh let's go. Yeah, the the first 2,000 people into church. Exactly. Uh bobblehead doll, Bishop Wall. I'm in. I'll fly out, I'll fly out to Chicago for that, Father.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

There we go. I promise you I will. Giveaways pack them in. Let's do it. Um and then one last thing before we did dive into the scriptures as a follow-up to last week, and we interviewed uh Caroline Dolhyde. Uh she unfortunately lost that first match in singles, uh, first match back after lung injury. Uh, but she's gonna be playing doubles this Thursday, July 2nd. Uh, so you can be checking in with her. Uh and doubles is where she's always excelled. So let's see if she can uh uh put a run in at Wimbledon this week.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Yeah, Caroline, she's been up in the top ten doubles in the world. So let's let's hope and pray. We reminded her, you know, she's on the podcast last week. Hey, with God, all things are possible, and let's go shock the world. You have Christ, you have the Holy Eucharist living in you, the Holy Spirit. Like, why not you? So we're we're praying for Caroline.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah. Yeah, she's been in the finals, I know, in doubles there at Wimbledon, and it's pretty cool seeing them play in center court. Uh uh yeah. So Carolyn, go get them. Anything else before we dive into the readings?

SPEAKER_01 25:24

No.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

I know we've had we've had uh draft days and hockey and uh basketball, basketball.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Uh super happy about the Phoenix Suns drafted Coa Pete from University of Arizona, and from Chandler, he's a local boy. He's he stayed home, he didn't go to one of these big academies, played at, I think he played at Perry High School, four state championships. And then he's he went to University of Arizona, we got to the semis this year, and uh then he gets drafted by his hometown team by the Phoenix Suns.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

It couldn't have worked out better. I was so happy. And we traded up in order to get him. I was really excited when I when I heard that news.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

So and you just traded for uh bridges too, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:09

We did, yeah. So that's another another big trade. And uh I don't think they're done. I think they're we're getting into the signing period too, which will be fun. See what happens. Awesome. It's like monopoly money. Some of these, when they say he signed for this much money, I was like, is that is that real? Is that real money?

SPEAKER_00 26:28

40, 50 million dollars a year. It's uh play money. I always like to break it down per day or per game, and like, wow. Or make it more in three hours than I make in a year, you know. Yeah, yeah. So switching gears, uh, let's look at we are moving to the 14th Sunday in ordinary time. Remember, ordinary doesn't mean just normal. We're counting the weeks between the Easter season and Advent, and we're going through the public ministry of Jesus. Um, and so we're in year A, so we're working our way through the Gospel of Matthew this year. So, Bishop, you want to kick us off?

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Yeah, this this might be a gospel that's familiar to a lot of people outside of Sunday, because this is a gospel passage that a lot of times you'll hear at funerals, right? You know, Jesus gives us these lines, and I'll talk about that in a second, but what happens is we're privileged to be able to see and hear Jesus praying to the Father, this holy conversation, right? So we're privileged to be able to see that. We see that in the Garden of Gethsemane as well, when he says, I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for all you've hidden these things from the wise and learned, you have revealed them to the little ones. And uh in the in the very first reading uh from Zechariah, it also talks about we've got this prophecy about uh the king will come humbly uh on a donkey, and what he'll do is he'll bring peace. Jesus says, My peace is not as of this world, right? His peace is deep, it's lasting, and it's enduring. So it's a it's pointing toward to Jesus', we know his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. But but in this one, we also are are privileged to see, and we've seen this the last couple weeks, um, the divinity of Jesus. Because, you know, he says, Um, all things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him. So we're we're getting this glimpse of the central mystery of our Catholic faith, which is the most holy trinity, um, one God, three persons. And so we're getting a glimpse in that. We're getting a glimpse into the divinity of Jesus. You know, Jesus isn't just uh isn't just the Messiah, he's not just a prophet, but he's also the Son of God. And um, and so that's the first part of it, and then the next part, I I this is I just think one of the neatest things. Jesus says, Come to me, you all you who labor in our burden, and I will give you rest. And he says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. So the people would have understood what a yoke was. A yoke was a you know a wooden contraption or a beam that they would place over the shoulders of two uh beasts of burdens. And so, say if you had two animals that were equally matched, that they would they would pull equally. But maybe if you had a maybe a larger and a stronger one, and maybe a smaller and not so strong, then that larger one would would take that, take a little more of the uh the burden. And so what Jesus is telling us is you know, we don't have to do this alone. But we come to him and yoke ourselves to him, and he carries, he carries the burden. He he's the one that that that that makes it light, uh, makes it light for us. And uh I love he also goes in, he says it's um we can learn from him, and that's another way a young animal would learn from an older animal on how to how to maybe plow a field or whatever it was that they were doing. But we will we learn from Jesus if we yoke ourselves to Jesus, and then then he says, I'm meek and I'm humble of heart. And um and so you know Jesus is he's he's he personifies humility, and so we want to make sure that we're learning uh that humility from Jesus because uh that's all that that's the most important of all the virtues is um Bernard of Clairvaux famously said the most three the three most important virtues in the life of the Christian humility, humility, and humility, right? And then he thought he says, My yoke's easy and my burden is light, because he he carries the weight for us.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah, made me thinking I'll let Mike tell the story. We were giving a talk uh to the varsity Catholic on this verse. Uh so Mark, I'll let you tell the tell the story.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

So uh you want me to you want me to jump in, Father Burke?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Yeah, jump in there.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

So Father Burke and I were gonna talk about this particular verse. Is it I think this is it Matthew 1129 or 2911?

SPEAKER_00 31:23

1129. 1125 to 30. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Yeah, 1129 and 11, 29, and 30 are the two verses I really highlighted. And Father Burke and I were gonna talk about what it meant to be yoked to Christ. And um, so I said, Father Burke, I'm gonna look online and try to see if I can find one. So I found some farmer out in the middle of Illinois. He had a real yoke, about it was like 500 bucks. I said, Hey, uh, I'll I'll give you 500 bucks cash. If you could drive it to Father Burke's uh house and drop it off for him. So he's like, Okay. I don't know how a farmer talks in Illinois, but but he did it. And Father Burke drove this yoke. It's huge. I mean, like you said, it's it's made for like two oxen. And um, Father Burke and I gave this talk about what it means to be yoked to Jesus. And it was really cool. I have a I have a pastor friend in Kansas City, and in the entrance of his church, he has an actual yoke, and he wears we, you know, a lot of us wear crucifixes on our chain. He wears a yoke on his chain, and he said, it's a daily reminder that I need to surrender, I need to die to myself and be yoked to Jesus. And it's the first time I'd ever heard anyone ever speak about a yoke. And when I came to study it in Matthew 11 and about the early church, that um, you know, that the two oxen that were um yoked together, oftentimes they would take one that was more mature, wide, learned in the plowing of the field, and they take one that was younger, spry, kind of making crooked lines. And after a while, after being yoked to the older one, the younger one would be begin to not only work like the older one, but it its mannerisms, it would take on the mannerisms, it would take on the eating habits, the communication habits, how it smelled. Um, and it would soon it would become the one it was yoked to. And when I read that, I go, bingo. That's what we're called to do. We're called to die to ourselves every morning, yoke ourselves to Jesus, read the scriptures, pray in the rosary, going to Mass, receiving Jesus, truly receiving him in the Holy Eucharist, and then going out and wanting to becoming become like Jesus. And the last thing I'll I'll tell you, um, when we're yoked to Jesus, we could become this person that we only dreamt of becoming. And how do we do it? Well, um, there was these two farmers and out up in Canada, and I read this and I go, bingo, there it is. This is how when we yoke ourselves to Christ, we could become the man or woman that we've always wanted to be, that we thought we could never become. And these two farmers, they yoked these two, or they they had a polling contest, wanted to see who had the strongest ox. And the winner, his ox pulled 8,000 pounds, and the second um place ox pulled just under 8,000 pounds. So they all the farmers got together, they said, let's yoke our oxen together, first and second place, and let's make some wagers on who can get closest to see how much weight these two can pull together. And I and simple math is around 16,000, right? 8,000 and close to it. But these two oxen, when yoked together, they pulled over 26, I think it was 27,000 pounds. Mathematically, it's a miracle. And I thought, you know what? When we yoke ourselves to Jesus, we can soon become Him. We could become the mathematically like mind-boggling equation of like, yes, we can become like Christ when we die to self and yoke ourselves to Jesus on a daily basis, and he lives within us, and he can we can soon become like our savior. So just something cool. And um, Father Burke, that was a huge yoke that I I left at your house. But uh anything you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_00 35:15

So it I left it in my office in the diocese, so it's it's at the diocese of Joliet. Uh, if we ever need the uh the yoke, I should go get it for this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Uh yeah, it'd be it'd be a good one for your for your homily father, but it's showing it's showing huge.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Yeah, if you think about it, yeah. Christ, if if Christ is all powerful and we yoke ourselves to him, then we can do anything, you know?

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Yeah, Philippians 4 13. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Yeah, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I love that that image of we start to take on the characteristics that he has, and we start to, you know, it's like I always say, like couples who are who have been married a long time, you know, they start to look alike, they start to talk alike, they finish each other's sentences, they walk alike. And I said, that's the goal of the Christian life. The more we spend time with Jesus, especially in adoration, we start to, you know, think like him and take on his mannerisms, and we start to finish sentences like this is what Jesus would say because we know the scriptures so well. Um the the other part Bishop mentioned there too is the uh come to me, all you who labor and are burdened. You know, I think of as a pastor, um, how many people are burdened. I used to think everybody else had a perfect life and only I was struggling, you know. Then I realized there's no perfect marriage, there's all struggles. Mike, I shared the story this weekend about uh you and Shara, and uh when I shared that Shara said it was a two and a half, there was a gasp.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

I know I I listened to the video. I watched, I watched the live stream, yeah. Actually, I had a few of your parishioners reach out to me and say it was it was a great homily, and they're like, a two and a half, your wife thought? I'm like, hey, she was being honest, but praise God, you know, we looked ourselves to Christ and we we took off. But keep going, Father Burke. Your homily was incredible.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

You're a nine, nine out of ten now for the last 15 years. Amen. Yeah, so you know, if you're having a tough marriage or maybe somebody's sick in your family, or there's financial struggles, you know, the tendency, especially for men, is we want to carry it ourselves. You know, we don't want any help, we don't want anybody to come around us. Dr. Bob Schutz calls this ungodly self-reliance. Whereas when you know he talks about the tree of life, which is what we want to be in, and then the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which bears bad fruit, this bears good fruit. And at the root system of the tree of life, the good tree, is this total dependence on God. It's yoking ourselves to God. And when we do that, we can bear good fruit, not because of us, but because we're yoked to Christ. That the tree of the knowledge of good and evil bears bad fruit, and at the root system is what he calls this ungodly self-reliance. We cut ourselves off from God and from others. We try to carry the burden ourselves, we try to fix it ourselves, and it just manifests itself in anger, resentment, all of these negative things that we don't want. None of us want, but it takes humility. Bishop, you mentioned the greatest virtue is humility. Um, you know, scripture says the greatest of these is love, and I would venture to say we can't get to love without humility, because love is willing the good of the other person, and if I'm full of pride, I can't even think about somebody else. I'm thinking about me. So I I'm not gonna argue with God, right? Because love is the greatest virtue. Humility is the pathway there, and so if we um where was I going with that? I was talking about humility and uh keep going ungodly self-reliance. Yeah, so it takes humility to to say to a brother, gosh, I need your help. Takes humility to say, Lord, I I can't do this. You know, I I need you to help me carry this. And so I want to encourage all of our listeners who I know you're struggling with something because we all are. I I am, and we all are, and the tendency is to cut ourselves off and try to do it ourselves, and it doesn't work. Come to me, all you who labor and burden, and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Turn to the Lord and turn to a friend. And if you don't have that friend, pray pray to God, God send me a brother or a sister in Christ that can, you know, uh help me on this journey uh to the Lord. Get off my soapbox.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

I love it. That was incredible. I saw something else, one little thing on this this yoke thing. I was just doing a little more reading on it, and and um when you know, they talk about being easy, right? And um when with the yoke, the a master craftsman would make the yoke to fit the animal. So that, you know, because we're all different, right? We're all we're all different. And um they would make it to to fit the animal, so it wouldn't it be chafing, it wouldn't be uncomfortable, and all these different things. And you know, Jesus is the master craftsman who who offers us that yoke. That's why he says, Come to me. He invites all us. And the yoke that he's offering to us fits us perfectly. We're all different, but it fits us perfectly, so that we can yoke ourselves to him and and and we can do all things through him who strengthens us.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

I love that. Yeah, and and I when I gave that talk with Father Burke, there were three things that I challenged the young uh Catholic student athletes is um like Bishop just said, it it is an invitation. I think it's four or five times in that those verses, it's an invitation, not just once, on a daily basis. So I I shared number one to accept the invitation. Christ is inviting us to be yoked to him with our struggles, with the heavy crosses, with the suffering. Yeah, I'm I'm just like Father Burke. We're all going through something. And then after we put on the yoke of Christ, we begin the imitation. Uh we begin the imitation of Jesus because we're walking with him. We're not alone, we're not isolated and allowing the devil to fill us with lies. We're we're we're walking with Christ to the new freedom that he's providing for us. And then if we continue to do that on a daily basis, that humility is gonna lead us to go into confession. It might be the uh sacrament you've been away from for years, going back to daily mass, going in adoration. And then you begin the imitation of Jesus. The more you become like him, and the more fruit you're gonna bear. And and and then lastly, you await the celebration. You know, my grandmother I talked about, almost 97 years old. There's no doubt that she's awaiting the celebration of eternal life because she is living a life in union with Jesus, being yoked to him for the last 96 years of her life. And uh, that's the fruit of being yoked to Jesus, is you await the celebration of eternal life with joy. And um, yeah, that's just something that maybe our listeners can enjoy tonight.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

That could be my three-point homily this weekend. Invitation, invitation, imitation, and celebration. There we go. Bingo.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

That's cool. I I as Mike was talking, I was thinking about the classic by Thomas Akempis, Imitation of Christ. I love that. That that is that's a timeless work. Yep, that's and uh maybe that might inspire some of our listeners. If you've never read it, I'd highly recommend it. It's a it's a timeless work.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

Isn't that the second most read work after the Bible?

SPEAKER_02 43:02

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

Yes, yeah. Yeah. That's that's impressive.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Well, that uh I think that seems to be a good place to to stop. There's a lot of I I've got a lot of uh notes. Mike, I can't believe you remembered your three points from a talk like that had to be 10, 12 years ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Well, it's it's kind of weird because sometimes when your senses are elevated, you know, there were 20,000 college kids there and a bunch of student athletes that we spoke to. And you know, sometimes, you know, you guys can remember a football game, Bishop Wall, Father Burke. You can probably still remember what the smell smelled like when you hit that walk-off grand slam. And I can remember at bats, you know, like weird. I, you know, I saw a guy actually in uh in this tournament in Atlanta. I faced him. I can still remember the pitch sequence from an at-bat 15 years ago. And it's just the same way when your senses are heightened, I can still remember the three points that I made, whatever, so many years ago. So it's it's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

That is cool. Bishop, can we ask you to pray and give us a blessing?

SPEAKER_02 44:17

Absolutely, absolutely. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. So, St. 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 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. Amen. The Lord be with you and with your spirit. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Amen. Thanks, everybody. Um, put your comments in. We we read all of them and we'll respond. I also uh our catholicsportscamps.org if you're interested in joining us for the baseball camp. We also have uh hockey and pickleball, softball. So come join us at the uh toward the end of July. And as St. Piero Giorgio Frasati reminds us the higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ. Keep striving verso elto in your faith and pursuits. And until next time, God bless you. U S A, U S A. U S A.