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. Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John Glory to you, O Lord Jesus said to his disciples, if you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate to be with you always.
The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot accept because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him because he remains with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you in a little while. You will no longer see me, but you will see me because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in Me, and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me, and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and reveal myself to Him.
The Gospel of the Lord Pray to you, Lord Jesus Christ, in order to not appear boastful or arrogant, because I would never want that to happen.
I've never shared this with you, but I actually have two master's degrees besides the one. I have my Master's of Divinity, which led to priesthood. I have one that is even more specialized and in fact only a few are granted in our country every year, and it's one that by and large feels pretty useful. I have a master's in sarcasm. I don't know if you knew that or not.
And in having that degree I occasionally get into a bit of trouble and on one particular day many years ago, I was talking to an adult formation group and a lady in that group asked me why I am Catholic and digging into my degree in sarcasm.
I replied back, it's an accident of birth.
And she was quite taken aback and I could see it by the look on her face.
So I told her why and fleshed it out for her a little bit.
I said the reason I am Catholic is because I was born into was just who I am.
My parents were Catholic. We were involved in our parish from the very beginning. I cannot remember anything else.
It's the same as the fact that I was born into the family I was born in.
I didn't choose them, but I'm a part of them.
That doesn't mean I am not happy. That doesn't mean I am not rooted in it. But it was an Accident of birth.
Much like 60 years of being a Lions fan. It hasn't always been pleasant, but I was born into it. In fact, I tried to follow other teams, especially when I was a teenager. Why am I putting my effort into this? Didn't work.
I always had to come back to who I am.
Well, that's what being a Catholic has been for me. It is who I am.
I don't have a choice. It's just kind of in my DNA.
Well, in the Gospel, we have the disciples clearly a little bit nervous, wondering what's going to happen when Jesus is no longer with them.
And it makes them more than a little scared, because they've learned from him. They saw him teach. His words rang true. They saw miracles performed. They saw God's love and mercy poured out upon the world, and it changed them.
And they were having a hard time ever imagining him not being with them, which is why he talks to them in this way, saying, don't worry about it.
I am going to be with you in ways you do not yet understand, but I am going to be there, and I am never going to leave you alone.
You can take confidence in that.
He is part of who they are.
He is part of who we are.
And no matter where we go, no matter what we experience, even no matter how much we may turn away, that presence never walks away from us.
Sometimes it's so close we can't even see it because it's so deeply inside of us.
And it's that presence that should let us know beyond any shadow of a doubt that we are deeply and profoundly loved, that we are cared for, and that in the deepest truth of human history, no one can take that away from us.
He wanted his first disciples to get it because he knew they were going to struggle.
But he also wants you and I to know it.
Because no matter what, no matter how scared we may be, no matter how alone we may feel, we're never alone.
He's truly one with us.
