Father Dom's Homs: Set the World on Fire

James Caldwell: This is The Manly Catholic, the podcast that calls you out of the shadows and into the fight. Here we forge men into warriors for Christ, husbands, fathers, and leaders who refuse to kneel to the modern world's lies. No more passivity, no more excuses, no more lukewarm faith. This is your battle cry, your call to arms. The time for weakness is over. It's time to fight. Welcome to the Manly Catholic. Let's get to work. Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Well, all throughout the country, we have all the Catholic schools getting ready to kick off this upcoming year. And it's always an exciting time and a privilege here at this wonderful parish as the school begins to enter into their school year. And so as the parish kind of awakens and comes out of its summer slumber, teachers coming into the school and the kids getting ready to go to school, and it's an exciting time because now the parish. Becomes even more alive, and we get to hear the kids running through the school and get to visit the kids in the school, and it just brings a level of excitement. We have all our programs beginning to take off through faith formation, all the ministries getting ready to enter into their year of the wonderful things that they bring, and everything comes alive here. And it's just as I reflect on our readings today and also the past. couple Sundays and we'll we'll get that to the a a little s a little bit here. I'm just filled with Thanksgiving and gratitude for this for this place and all of you and the wonderful things that happened here and all the people that put forth effort into making this such a a wonderful place. And so as the school year kicks off and the kiddos come to school and let us pray for another great year at this at this wonderful parish, our wonderful family community. Let us pray for for protection and and openness to the Holy Spirit. Ready for a wonderful year here. Well, every school year we have a theme for the kiddos. This comes from this year's theme comes from St. Catherine of Siena. She says, Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire. Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire. She doesn't say, be whatever you want to be. You have to put God at the center of our lives. And so this is the theme that the kids are going to be entering into through the school, and so can we as well. Recognizing and reminding ourselves that God needs to be the center of our lives. And and and our readings today remind us of that. Last Sunday's readings as well, and the Sunday before that. And I just kind of want to bring all those readings together for this homily. So buckle up, it's gonna be about three hours long. No, come back, come back, come jump jumping. Maybe a couple minutes longer, but Especially our gospel today. This is one of my favorite gospel readings. This gospel brought me into the Catholic Church. Along with the help of St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who died in the year 109 A.D. in his writings, pointed me towards a Catholic Church to be sure, but it was this gospel that pulled me into the Catholic Church, and I'll talk about that briefly as I end the homily with this gospel. And as I reflect on that quote by St. Catherine of Siena, be who God meant you to be, you will set the world on fire. It reminds me of what our readings have been unpacking for us: the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. When we have these virtues, Christ sets our souls and our hearts on fire. That radiates from us. And then we can set the world around us on fire, our family, our friends at work. And then if those people are on fire for Christ, they do they can do the same things as well, the people around them. And then if enough people are on fire for Christ, we can set the world on fire, and that's exactly what Jesus wants, isn't it? In scripture, we hear that He wants to come to the world and ⁓ He wishes how it was on fire. Faith, hope, and charity, we get to look at again. And we know that there are three theological virtues we get at baptism. Baptism is such a great gift. It's such a wonderful, beautiful revelation of our Heavenly Father to how much He loves us. Because in baptism, original sin is wiped away. The church calls baptism the primordial sacrament. Primordial is an ancient word. It takes you back to the beginning of all things. And it is a primordial sacrament. Because when we focus on baptism, it needs to take you back to the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden because baptism undoes that. That's powerful. We always need to remember that as we thank the Lord for our baptism every day. That that washes away original sin and undoes the fall of Adam and Eve and the garden, all the chaos and disorder. God had a plan, and baptism is the beginning of that for all of us. And so we thank the Lord for that. And in baptism, as we know, we receive the great gifts that we don't earn or work for or buy. And they're infused in our soul: faith, hope, and charity. God teaches us most basically that faith. Is not necessarily a feeling or an ascent to a God that you have met might have made up in your mind that you worship. Faith is an intellectual ascent to the one true God. Faith is knowing God, his statutes, his laws, his commandments, his decrees, all of his teachings in his Catholic Church, doctrine and dogma, staying away from mortal sin. Faith is knowing God. And when you know God, it moves you to the next virtue, which is hope. Hope, according to the Catholic Church, the catechism, is wanting heaven, hungering for heaven with Christ above all things. That is hope in its most basic form. When you have these two things, faith and hope, you're going to love. And that's called charity. Charity is sacrificial love. We look to the saints for that to give us an example. We look to Christ on the cross, dying, God in the flesh, who didn't have to do it, but he did it out of love. That is charity, and that is a sacrificial love that brings us out of our selfishness to be selfless to other people, and that's what gives us peace and joy as we sacrifice our lives so that others can be sanctified. And the sacraments in the Catholic Church, confession and the Eucharist and our confirmation unpack the potential of our faith as we journey in this program life from this world to the next. Thanks be to God. And we have had characters. In our readings, these past three Sundays, who show us faith, hope, and love, and trust in the Lord in the midst of storms. So let's just do a recap as as we travel through these readings again. So two Sundays ago we had Elijah in the cave, and then we had Peter walking on the water. And if you remember, Elijah's on the run, he's being chased by by Jezebel, the queen. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and their military are chasing Elijah because he's the last prophet of God and they want to kill him because they don't want to follow God. And so Elijah's on the run and he's all alone and he's he's scared and he encounters the Lord and the Lord says, Go to Mount Horeb and go into the cave. Come to the front of the cave, and my presence will pass before you. And so Elijah does that. Well, we know the rest of the story. There was a wind, a powerful wind that can crush rocks. There was an earthquake. That could completely destroy everything. And there was an all-consuming fire that you just couldn't stop. And like I said in the homily two weeks ago, one may think, ⁓ look at this power. God must be in this power because it's so terrifying and uncontrollable. In fact, I want this power in my life. I want control and domination. I want the potential to destroy. So people will bow before me. And God says, I'm not in any of these things. When Elijah hears the Lord in the small whisper in the silence of his heart, that is the Lord. And he covers his face with his mantle. He goes into cave to pray, to give honor to God. Well, his faith is strengthened because now he knows who the Lord is, not in any strength in worldly things, but in the silent whisper that gives him power above all things, coming to know God in his heart, accepting him. That's faith. Well, his hope is enkindled because now he desires to follow God in a deeper way. He desires heaven to be with him, because we know that in eight fifty BC he was taken up to into the heavens in a whirling wind and a fiery chariot. He hungered for heaven so much, that's his hope. Well, his charity was increased too because he became more selfless because he went back to the northern kingdom by himself, boldly proclaiming God's commandments and laws and converting many people back to the faith. That day we got to look at Simon walking on the stormy sea as well. Well, he sees the Lord from the boat that's being swamped by waves. He can't control it. The world is destroying him and everyone else in the boat. They see the Lord and in Peter, knowing the Lord in his faith, he says, Lord, I want to come to you. That's crazy. Who says that? If it if it were me in the boat. I'd want to stay in the boat and say, Lord, I want you to do these things for me. Do these things for me. I want to be in control. Do these things for me, Lord. I want you to calm the storm so I'm not afraid. I want you to calm the wind and the waves. And then I want you to get in my boat. I want you to do all these things for me. Well, he doesn't do that. Peter doesn't want that. Jesus is about to unlock the faith and the hope and charity in Peter that he never thought was in him, and it took a storm to do it. Peter went out on the stormy sea. He left the boat. He was doing what Jesus wanted. Him to do, and because of that, in the storm, all this faith, hope and charity, was unlocked and brought forth within him. And it took a storm to do that, like Elijah. Well, his faith was increased because he knew he was the Messiah. He knew God. His hope was increased because he fell in love with our Savior. And his charity was increased because we know that not shortly after this, he'd be crucified upside down as our first pope in Rome. Saying, I'm not worthy to be crucified right side up like Christ. And the Romans crucified him. He shed his blood in a selfless way because he had charity. Last Sunday, which is a kind of provocative gospel. Jesus and his apostles are in Gentile territory. They're having a meal. And a Canaanite woman, a Gentile, who's not supposed to be around Jews, with such strength and conviction comes to Jesus because she loves deeply. She loves her daughter who's possessed by demons. And she knows that Jesus can heal her daughter. And the apostles see her and sh they say to Jesus, Send this woman away. She's bothering us. Jesus, do you want us to send this woman away? And the woman approaches the table where they're eating, and Jesus turns to her and says, It is not right to take food from the children and feed it to the dogs. Whoa. Jesus said that? Well, it was a it was a conversation between him and and the Canaanite woman. He he knew the power. And the faith in this king and woman that she wouldn't run away or be disrespected. Because you can imagine, before Jesus even finished that sentence, she jumped right back at him and said, Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the master's table. And then Jesus says something that I can't find anywhere else in Scripture to someone. He says, ⁓ woman, great is your faith. Jesus doesn't call her an animal anymore, but woman. Woman is a very important word in sacred scripture. Well, it increases her faith and her hope and her charity. And because of her faith, her daughter wasn't there. Because of her faith to Jesus, Jesus heals her daughter. Our faith in prayer can heal other people, can save people. Our prayer and fasting, don't forget that. That's why we pray and fast for the world. And that power is displayed in that conversation between Jesus and the Canaanite woman. In all actuality, Biblical commentators more point more powerfully to the apostles that this story was for them because the apostles wanted to send her away. And Jesus is saying to his apostles, guys, it's time to wake up. I'm not going to be that king you think is going to destroy the Roman Empire, reign as the king of Israel, as the most powerful nation in the world. He says, That's not the king I am. You need to wake up because this Gentile woman, I love her just as much as I love you. And you'll see with the church, we're going to go to the whole world. That's the kingdom. So it increases the apostles' faith, knowing God, their hope, loving God, and their charity. Because most of the apostles die for our Lord. As we look at our gospel today, once again we see the faith of Peter. I encourage you to read our first reading today from the Old Testament and then read our gospel. Read them a couple times. You'll be illuminated because you're gonna make connections between the guy whose name started with a S. What was his name? Shinezareb Shebna. Shebna was the master of the palace, just like Jesus is the master of the kingdom. He gives keys to Eliakim, the steward of the palace, just like Jesus gives keys to Peter, who's now going to be the steward of the palace, our very first Pope. This is very important. And this is what brought me into the Catholic Church. Once I recognize this in an unbroken line of succession, from Peter to Pope Leo today. I was like, I have to be in the Catholic Church. There's no other church. And so that was one thing this gospel did for me. But read those two together and you'll see that connection. Has any of you ever been to Caesarea Philippi in northern Israel? Like on pilgrimage or anything? Nobody I've been there a couple times. It's a beautiful location. A long time ago the Greeks set up a temple there to the demonic god Pan. And there were a lot of Israelites who were accepting and adopting this. So the temple was fully functioning. And at the bottom of the temple was a huge, huge rock, but it was all carved out. And at the bottom of the temple had their altar, and underneath that was this pit that they said went to the netherworld. This is where they threw their sacrifices in to appease the gods in the netherworld. So Jesus brings his apostles up to this temple to pan. And he says, Who do people say that I am? Well, there's all kinds of guys getting it wrong. Peter says, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus in front of this temple to pan, this big rock, says, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. But my Father in heaven, Peter, you are rock. And he's probably pointing to that temple to pan. Peter, you are rock. And on this rock, I will build my church, meaning he's gonna conquer all pagan temples that belong to Satan. And it's gonna be on Peter, our first pope. He's gonna build his church. And he says, I shall give you the keys to the kingdom, like Eliakim. I shall give you the keys to the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail. And he's pointing to the pit. You see, the gates of the netherworld, they're not going to prevail. So now you have nothing to fear. Follow me, and nothing will touch you. On you, Peter, I will build my church. Whose church? God's church. How many churches? One church. That's important. Peter's faith was strengthened again and he was prepared to receive the the the beginning of the papacy and And he's a great saint. His faith and his hope and his charity was strengthened. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against us. That means we're on the offensive. As far as I know, gates don't really attack people. Unless you're racing your brothers and you turn a corner and you run into a gate. That's a different story. But that means we're on the offensive gates. The netherworld? Us attacking with love, peace, hope, faith, charity. So, what a blessing today that we get to soak in these scriptures. Thank the Lord for this beautiful parish. Thank the Lord for the witness of Elijah and Peter and the Canaanite woman and the apostles. So let's ask the Lord to continuously increase and release the potential of faith and hope and charity that we have in us so that we can be like Christ and we too can become what God wanted us to be and set the world on fire. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Brothers, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If the show's add value to your life, I'm going to ask you to do three things. Share with a brother who needs it, leave us a review, and finally support the show so we can keep fighting. Links are in the show notes. We'll see you next week.