Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast, where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord. Mary set out and traveled to the Hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. How many of you in your work life, or perhaps in organizations you belong to, love to participate in process.
Wow. Just like last night. Oh, we got one hand. Of course, Dick would feel that way.
None of us particularly like it. I can remember my first year of priesthood, we had a conference, and there was a priest psychologist that was giving us a talk. And he uses an example, the coming of the fullness of the kingdom. The Lord will look at those people. Welcome, good and faithful servants. Welcome to the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The rest of you break up into small groups.
That's kind of what it's like. Well, if you don't like process, let me give you a little recommendation.
You probably don't want to work for the Catholic Church.
We love process and we love programs.
And in recent years, there have been no more programs set up in the church than for evangelization, spreading the good news to people and how best to do that. And all of these programs have one thing in common. They may work for a little bit, they may make a little bit of a difference, but as time moves on, their effectiveness wanes. It disappears. Nothing good continues to happen. And I think the reason for that is they're always based on some kind of a gimmick, if you will, or a hook, when really the only hook that works is the one John the Baptist, still inside of his mother's womb, did.
For the scripture says he leaped for joy. Right.
There was something about knowing the presence of Christ in his midst that made him joyful even in that early stages of his life.
And if we want to evangelize, there's not one theological argument, there's not one scriptural quote.
There's literally nothing that will evangelize more than simply being a person of joy. And I'm going to tell you why.
A few years ago, we were all trying to stay away from each other, right? Nobody wanted to get sick, so everybody was keeping their six foot distance.
But when you are joyful, people want to catch it. They want to get near to you. Because joyful people attract others just by their presence.
And negative, angry, crabby, I might be the exception.
People tend to have more gather around them. They want to be a part of it, they want to catch it. Because deep down, even though we may not always realize that the one thing we desire more than anything else is to be full of joy.
Because joy allows us to overcome any struggles we have. Joy allows us to always remain full of hope.
And joy always reveals to us the presence of God. We say joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
People want to catch it.
So if people see us as joyful, they're going to want to do what we do.
They're going to even want to come with us and pray. Because at its heart, that's what we're about.
So if we want to evangelize, that's the way to do it. That's the way to do it. That lasts. That's the way to do it. That truly is fruitful. And all of these programs may have an effect, but they don't do what joy simply does. And why is that?
Because joy is truly from the Holy Spirit. And God's guidance is always better than anything we can come up with. Any program, any process, the Holy Spirit leads people to be one with us as long as we allow that joy to shine.
