hom 5th sun easter

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. In the of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Well, as we celebrate this fifth Sunday of Easter, we're reminded once again that we are still in the time of Easter. And what are we focusing on during this time? The power of the resurrection. Whereas St. Paul says in the Greek, the dynamite of the resurrection that destroys the empty tomb, that destroys Satan, that destroys death. And then that gives us great hope. We know that the resurrection is something that we live in and through every single day. We cannot forget that as Christians for that is the impetus of our faith in Christ. And that's what Jesus talks about in our gospel today. In the very first sentence, he says something transformative, peaceful, full of joy. He says, do not let your hearts be troubled. That should really kind of perk us up a little bit and grab our attention deeply. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Well, how do we not let our hearts be troubled in the craziness of our lives? Well, he goes on to say as he finishes the sentence, you have faith in God, have faith also in me. That's it. We have faith. There's a deep connection with the faith that Christ is talking about with his triumph over death. The resurrection as we know is a reality. It is something that actually happened in history. It changes everything, everything. And so as we have been praying in and with and through the power of the retchion throughout this Easter season, the resurrection, gives us that faith because now we don't fear anything. Well, we're gonna experience troubles in our life. That's for sure. And we know that the laws of physics and time and space and the laws of corruptibility will eventually get the best of our bodies. But we don't fear that spiritual death because that's what God conquered. And that's what gives us great faith. That's why we need to pray with the resurrection and in the resurrection and through the resurrection every day, because that increases our faith, because we don't fear. We don't have hopelessness. And now we have freedom and we have peace and we have joy. And that's how important faith is. He goes on to say, Christ says, in my Father's house, there are many dwelling places. And then that dovetails into our other readings. Four in our second reading from our first Pope, Pope Peter, what does he say? He says that we are living stones. Built up into what? He says this, beloved, come to me, a living stone rejected by human beings. So he's talking about Christ. Come to Christ who is a living stone, rejected by human beings, rejected by this world because he doesn't fit into our world. He sanctifies it with us. but chosen and precious in the sight of God and like living stones. Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices accepted to God through Jesus Christ. We have to pray every day. that gives us strength. Because it brings us to a deep relationship with our Lord and other people because we are the mystical body of Christ. What a gift. That's why the sprinkling rite is so important during Easter and the beginning of Masses because it reminds us of our baptism. And our baptism is absolutely important and a great gift by our heavenly Father. He loves us so much that he baptizes us into a life with him. Bringing us into the mystical body of Christ, that spiritual house, and you are all living stones. Participating in the corner stone, which are interlocking stones in the corner of the edifice that give it strength. So these words also come to mind during our readings today as we're talking about living stones and building and God building a home for us in heaven. Integrity, synergy, strength, firm foundation. And these all make sense to me, especially if any of you have worked or working in construction, that has been my whole life. Ever since I was eight, nine years old, started in metal fabrication. I was out in Colorado for a number of years building custom homes as a framer. And all that makes sense. We know that a house built on solid rock, a house built on Christ and nothing else will withstand any storm. A house built on sand. Meaning you put yourself at the center and not God. When the winds come, because they will, the house will collapse. So we have to build our house on solid rock. Baptism brings us into that. And the sacraments give us the strength to do that. So our readings today are all about building and strength in and with through Christ. In the construction industry, we need blueprints properly detailed. properly engineered. All the pieces need to come together properly to build a structure that will provide a form of usage, but also safety and protection. And if the blueprint isn't followed, if the wrong materials are used and installed in an improper way, not following engineering protocol, then we have destruction. It doesn't work. It's the same with the mystical body of Christ who is us brought together as living stones through Jesus Christ, built as a spiritual house. so that we can have peace and joy and then go out to the world and then bring people in to that home with the resurrected joy that you now have, that light you bring to the world. That's the adventure of our life. That's what gives us peace and that's what gives us meaning. So as we enter towards the end of our Easter season, journeying towards Pentecost, the descent of the third person of the most holy Trinity, We still ask the Lord to give us the strength to remember the resurrection every single day. And I'd like to end today with this reflection that I've shared with you before about the dynamite of the resurrection, the power of the resurrection and how it needs to be instilled in our minds, our bodies and our souls every day to pray in and with and through the resurrection that destroys death and brings us peace, and joy. It's more than just the one and done thing. And again, this reflection comes from a deacon friend of mine in the Ukrainian Catholic Church. His priest wrote this reflection. I'd like to end with this again. He says, in focusing on Holy Week, the Triduum, we rush through Holy Week. We weep at the cross on Good Friday. We rejoice at midnight when Christ is in the tomb. And then we say, Christ is risen. And then almost quietly, We return to our routines as if something beautiful has just simply passed, as if the Eastern resurrection were the conclusion of just some sacred story rather than the beginning of a new life. But the Holy Gospel does not begin with an ending, but it begins from the very first page with the Holy Resurrection. In the life of the Church, everything flows from the empty tomb. Every Sunday is the Easter celebration. Every divine liturgy of the most holy sacrifice of the Mass is a living encounter with our resurrected Lord. The Church does not say at the end of Mass, is finished, go in peace and just walk away. No, our Church through Christ, proclaims that, yes, he is risen and at the end of mass, he invites us to begin again and bring that light to the darkness of the world. And yet, how often do we treat the Easter celebration of the resurrection as the closing chapter of our traditions? Simply lighting our candles, exchanging greetings, attending the services, but leaving unchanged. We hold on to our fears, our habits, our brokenness. Is this the stone? We're never really rolled away. We celebrate the resurrection outwardly, but inwardly we sometimes remain in our dark tombs. And the truth is this, that the resurrection is not the end of something, it is the beginning of everything. Christ rises not simply to be remembered, but to live. He rises so that our despair may become hope, our wounds may become healing, our darkness may be filled with the light of Christ. He rises so that we may also rise and live with new thoughts, new choices, new beginnings. The resurrection is not behind us, but it is always before us, our new horizon. Every day is now an invitation to live as resurrected people, to forgive when it is difficult, to love when it is inconvenient, to trust when it feels impossible. So my dear friends, let us not leave the joy of the resurrection at the doors of the church. Let us carry it into our homes, our struggles, our daily lives. Because in the risen Christ, nothing is over. Everything has just begun. In name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Brothers, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If the shows 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.