May 16, 2023 • 15 mins
Deacon Tim's Homily from the 6th Sunday in Easter on May 14th, 2023.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:21):
God who loves me will keep my word says My Lord, and
my PA will love him, and we willcome to Him. God
Tim Stout (00:53):
the Lord be with you.
And with a reading from the holyGospel according to John, glory.
Jesus said his disciples, if youlove me, you will keep My
commandments. And I will ask theFather, and He will give you
another advocate, to be with youalways the Spirit of Truth, whom
(01:14):
the world cannot accept, becauseit neither sees, nor knows him.
But you know him, because heremains with you, and will be in
you. I will not leave youorphans, I will come to you. In
a little while the world will nolonger see Me. But you will see
(01:38):
me because I live, and you willlive. 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, andobserves them is the one who
(01:59):
loves me. And whoever loves me,will be loved by My Father. And
I will love him and revealMyself to him. The Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
(02:33):
Unless you've been living undera rock for the last three
decades, the world we live intoday is a lot different than 30
years ago.
We are a polarized society thatis typically at least today
defined by two words, liberal orconservative.
(02:55):
Those two words frame everythingthat occurs in public.
Don't believe me? Turn on yourTV, read the Internet, or
attempt to have a conversationabout current events with the
people around you. It isn'talways said but it's implied.
And the undertones are alwaysthere. Immigration, abortion,
(03:23):
inflation, pandemic transgender,just saying those words, starts
your mind moving in a direction.
By the way, the church itself isnot exempt from its list of
polarizing topics and words.
(03:46):
Senate sexual abuse, gaymarriage, even Pope Francis in a
world where our technology hasadvanced so far, where our
communication and access toinformation is lightning quick.
(04:09):
Our society and our culture isin chaos. We are inundated with
violence, hate disrespect, andnews that you're not sure if you
can believe we used to call thatback in the old days spin. Now
we just call it fake news. Andhere's another newsflash that
(04:33):
didn't start with Donald Trump.
Interestingly enough, this week,I was away for a leadership
retreat at work and thisdiscussion actually came up.
There was a debate about whereit all started, and what the
root cause of this chaos trulyis. And it was during that
discussion that I latched on toone proposed cause and you may
(04:54):
agree or disagree, but hear meout. Ever since the boomers and
these current generations, and Iinclude myself in one of these,
I'm not sure which one though,Gen X, Gen Z millennials, and
the newest one I had to look up,it's called Alpha. I think we've
lost our ability as a whole. Noteveryone, but as a whole, we've
(05:22):
lost our ability to thinkcritically. And when I say think
critically, it starts withlistening. To really hear a
viewpoint, evaluate thedifferent arguments and question
and evaluate the worthiness ofthe words for themselves. You
(05:43):
know, this ability, thistechnique, it used to be taught
in schools. It's calledphilosophy. Logic, argument,
reason, philosophy. And for themost part, you would be hard
pressed to find it taught in ourschools today, specifically, not
(06:03):
in high schools, you may find itin secondary education, as
electives are that one person inthat one class that has a degree
in philosophy? Not in thepriesthood, though. But the lack
of philosophy. It's affectingall of us. And you may be
wondering, why are you talkingabout philosophy today? And why
(06:26):
is that affect the state of ourculture, and our society? And my
answer is simple. Love. Today'sGospel puts one word front and
center, a word that is complex.
The word that is debated, a wordthat has started and ended wars,
(06:47):
and a word that our God commandsus to pursue. Love. And
according to the church, it'salso the purpose of our lives.
For those of you listening tothe Catechism in a year, with
Father Mike Schmitz, you've gotto go all the way back to day
one. You see, the church thinksit's so important that the
(07:12):
Catechism starts with a purposeof life, which is for man to
seek God to know Him and to loveHim with all his strength. But
what does that mean? When youhear Jesus say, If you love me,
you will keep my commandments,or you read in the catechism and
know the purpose of life is tolove God. What goes through your
(07:33):
mind? Is it the love? Is it theaction of loving? Or is it the
commandments? The things thatdefine the way we should live? I
want to go back to philosophyand the purpose like just for a
minute, one of the things I liketo do when I'm having
conversations with people,especially people I don't know
(07:53):
very well. And I think theconversation may go a little
deeper, I asked the question,what do you think the purpose of
life is? Like, liked thequestion for two reasons. One,
because it helps me to get asense whether the person is a
Christian or not, without askingthem, do you believe in God? And
second, I get a sense if they'veever studied philosophy, or have
(08:16):
ever been challenged to thinkcritically. And I've heard a
whole lot of different answers.
But I can tell you without anydoubt, the purpose of not life
is not pleasure. It's not tohave a good time. It's not to
make the most money. And it'snot to be famous. And it's a
tough question to ask,specifically, depending on where
(08:40):
someone lives. And what I meanby that is where they live
mentally, spiritually, and yes,even financially. And sometimes
it's even an harder question toanswer. Because if it was easy
to answer, we wouldn't need asavior. We definitely wouldn't
need a church. See, that's whyGod sent Jesus to this earth,
(09:04):
the world for God, how to live,and how to love. And it's a
predicament in which we stillfind ourselves today. You see,
God in his infinite wisdom, gaveus a Savior. And our Savior
established His church. AndJesus left us with the advocate,
(09:28):
the Holy Spirit. And throughthese three gifts to Savior, the
church and the Holy Spirit. Godhas given us a foundation has
given us support and has givenus a great example, to know what
we need to do to come to knowHim and to love Him. And we all
fail at it. If you're like me, Ido it every day. I consider
(09:55):
myself a subject matter expertand how to sin But I know that
because of Jesus and the gift ofHis life on the cross, through
that gift, we are able toreceive forgiveness, the
forgiveness that we need tostart fresh when we all fail at
loving God, and those around us.
(10:20):
And through the gift of the HolySpirit, we are able, hopefully,
to better navigate the world inwhich we live. This advocate
Jesus tells us will help us torecognize help us to see not as
the world sees. But as Jesussees. And then we get the
(10:41):
greatest gift, we get to knowwhat the Father looks like to
see God. Because God is love,and we see love around us, we
see love in the people that weencounter. You know, Jesus
established this church to helpus on this difficult journey.
(11:02):
And the church has been helping,helping lots of people for over
2000 years, helping us to figureout how we love one another.
What that means, helping us toknow right, from wrong, helping
us to know the truth. And it's atruth, the gospel against us
today, the world doesn't accept,because it doesn't see or know
(11:26):
Him. And so that brings us backto those commandments. If you're
like me, you're trying to figureout is it the two commandments
is that the 10 commandments,which which ones are is Jesus
talking about today. The two arepretty simple, right? Love, love
God and love your neighbor, the10 commandments on the stone
(11:50):
tablets and the subsequent tothe rules and laws established
by the Church throughout thecenturies. They're all
connected. And we should focuson the two had minimum.
Love God, and love yourneighbor. Because all the other
commandments, they all arecontained in those two. When we
(12:13):
are unsure of how to lovesomeone, we can dive deeper, and
ask the church for help, whetherthat's the person sitting next
to you in the pew, maybe it'syour pastor, maybe it's a
support group. Maybe it'ssomebody in the Knights of
Columbus, all of theseresources, all of them are put
in place by a church, and aspirit that loves you. And that
(12:36):
spirit wants to guide you toeternity with God. And while the
church over the years has hadits fair share of scandals, it's
still the Church that Jesusestablished a church and a
structure to help us to thinkabout our lives, to think about
our choices day in and day outthe situations that we're in,
and it gives us a resource tocontact when we are unsure. The
(13:01):
church helps us recognize truth,through its structure through
its catechism and yesterday,it's canon law, yes, through its
commandments. And again, whilethe church may not be perfect,
it's here to help us. It's hereto assist us in being the best
people we can be. We have a Godthat loves us unconditionally, a
(13:25):
God that is merciful and a Godthat is forgiving. And we can
only see that and experiencethat through his church, through
its sacraments, and yes to thepeople sitting next to you. And
through that we become equippedwith what we need to come to
know and love God, that one trueGod that wants us to be with him
(13:46):
in eternity. So I offer youthese three things to consider.
To help us all follow Jesus'scommandments. First, come to
church, and fight someone tocome to church with you be with
a community of believers. We arecalled to walk with each other,
(14:06):
to encourage, to help aid tolisten, to care, to support and
just to love. It's here that weexperienced the true love of God
through the cross of JesusChrist celebrated on this altar
and that love reflects back outon all of us. All of us gathered
here tonight to study yourfaith. If you only come to
(14:29):
church, one hour a week andthat's that's your faith. Try a
little harder. Pick up a book,read the Bible. Maybe listen to
a podcast there's a few goodones out there catechism in a
year is a great one. You don'thave to listen to it every day.
You don't have to read everyday. Take your time. Commit the
(14:50):
30 minutes a week. Only throughstudying, discerning about our
faith can we know the truthbehind it? teachings of the
Church. And lastly, pray. Prayto God that He will accompany
you will strengthen you, andwill open your eyes to His
(15:11):
truth. The truth is taught bythe church for 1000s of years.
Your prayers will lead you to adeeper love of God into your
neighbor. And so on this sixthSunday of Easter, go forth.
Love, as Jesus taught us to byfollowing His commandments, and
(15:32):
being a source of love, and abeacon of hope to those you
encounter. God bless
God who loves me will keep my word says My Lord, and
my PA will love him, and we willcome to Him. God
Tim Stout (00:53):
the Lord be with you.
And with a reading from the holyGospel according to John, glory.
Jesus said his disciples, if youlove me, you will keep My
commandments. And I will ask theFather, and He will give you
another advocate, to be with youalways the Spirit of Truth, whom
(01:14):
the world cannot accept, becauseit neither sees, nor knows him.
But you know him, because heremains with you, and will be in
you. I will not leave youorphans, I will come to you. In
a little while the world will nolonger see Me. But you will see
(01:38):
me because I live, and you willlive. 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, andobserves them is the one who
(01:59):
loves me. And whoever loves me,will be loved by My Father. And
I will love him and revealMyself to him. The Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
(02:33):
Unless you've been living undera rock for the last three
decades, the world we live intoday is a lot different than 30
years ago.
We are a polarized society thatis typically at least today
defined by two words, liberal orconservative.
(02:55):
Those two words frame everythingthat occurs in public.
Don't believe me? Turn on yourTV, read the Internet, or
attempt to have a conversationabout current events with the
people around you. It isn'talways said but it's implied.
And the undertones are alwaysthere. Immigration, abortion,
(03:23):
inflation, pandemic transgender,just saying those words, starts
your mind moving in a direction.
By the way, the church itself isnot exempt from its list of
polarizing topics and words.
(03:46):
Senate sexual abuse, gaymarriage, even Pope Francis in a
world where our technology hasadvanced so far, where our
communication and access toinformation is lightning quick.
(04:09):
Our society and our culture isin chaos. We are inundated with
violence, hate disrespect, andnews that you're not sure if you
can believe we used to call thatback in the old days spin. Now
we just call it fake news. Andhere's another newsflash that
(04:33):
didn't start with Donald Trump.
Interestingly enough, this week,I was away for a leadership
retreat at work and thisdiscussion actually came up.
There was a debate about whereit all started, and what the
root cause of this chaos trulyis. And it was during that
discussion that I latched on toone proposed cause and you may
(04:54):
agree or disagree, but hear meout. Ever since the boomers and
these current generations, and Iinclude myself in one of these,
I'm not sure which one though,Gen X, Gen Z millennials, and
the newest one I had to look up,it's called Alpha. I think we've
lost our ability as a whole. Noteveryone, but as a whole, we've
(05:22):
lost our ability to thinkcritically. And when I say think
critically, it starts withlistening. To really hear a
viewpoint, evaluate thedifferent arguments and question
and evaluate the worthiness ofthe words for themselves. You
(05:43):
know, this ability, thistechnique, it used to be taught
in schools. It's calledphilosophy. Logic, argument,
reason, philosophy. And for themost part, you would be hard
pressed to find it taught in ourschools today, specifically, not
(06:03):
in high schools, you may find itin secondary education, as
electives are that one person inthat one class that has a degree
in philosophy? Not in thepriesthood, though. But the lack
of philosophy. It's affectingall of us. And you may be
wondering, why are you talkingabout philosophy today? And why
(06:26):
is that affect the state of ourculture, and our society? And my
answer is simple. Love. Today'sGospel puts one word front and
center, a word that is complex.
The word that is debated, a wordthat has started and ended wars,
(06:47):
and a word that our God commandsus to pursue. Love. And
according to the church, it'salso the purpose of our lives.
For those of you listening tothe Catechism in a year, with
Father Mike Schmitz, you've gotto go all the way back to day
one. You see, the church thinksit's so important that the
(07:12):
Catechism starts with a purposeof life, which is for man to
seek God to know Him and to loveHim with all his strength. But
what does that mean? When youhear Jesus say, If you love me,
you will keep my commandments,or you read in the catechism and
know the purpose of life is tolove God. What goes through your
(07:33):
mind? Is it the love? Is it theaction of loving? Or is it the
commandments? The things thatdefine the way we should live? I
want to go back to philosophyand the purpose like just for a
minute, one of the things I liketo do when I'm having
conversations with people,especially people I don't know
(07:53):
very well. And I think theconversation may go a little
deeper, I asked the question,what do you think the purpose of
life is? Like, liked thequestion for two reasons. One,
because it helps me to get asense whether the person is a
Christian or not, without askingthem, do you believe in God? And
second, I get a sense if they'veever studied philosophy, or have
(08:16):
ever been challenged to thinkcritically. And I've heard a
whole lot of different answers.
But I can tell you without anydoubt, the purpose of not life
is not pleasure. It's not tohave a good time. It's not to
make the most money. And it'snot to be famous. And it's a
tough question to ask,specifically, depending on where
(08:40):
someone lives. And what I meanby that is where they live
mentally, spiritually, and yes,even financially. And sometimes
it's even an harder question toanswer. Because if it was easy
to answer, we wouldn't need asavior. We definitely wouldn't
need a church. See, that's whyGod sent Jesus to this earth,
(09:04):
the world for God, how to live,and how to love. And it's a
predicament in which we stillfind ourselves today. You see,
God in his infinite wisdom, gaveus a Savior. And our Savior
established His church. AndJesus left us with the advocate,
(09:28):
the Holy Spirit. And throughthese three gifts to Savior, the
church and the Holy Spirit. Godhas given us a foundation has
given us support and has givenus a great example, to know what
we need to do to come to knowHim and to love Him. And we all
fail at it. If you're like me, Ido it every day. I consider
(09:55):
myself a subject matter expertand how to sin But I know that
because of Jesus and the gift ofHis life on the cross, through
that gift, we are able toreceive forgiveness, the
forgiveness that we need tostart fresh when we all fail at
loving God, and those around us.
(10:20):
And through the gift of the HolySpirit, we are able, hopefully,
to better navigate the world inwhich we live. This advocate
Jesus tells us will help us torecognize help us to see not as
the world sees. But as Jesussees. And then we get the
(10:41):
greatest gift, we get to knowwhat the Father looks like to
see God. Because God is love,and we see love around us, we
see love in the people that weencounter. You know, Jesus
established this church to helpus on this difficult journey.
(11:02):
And the church has been helping,helping lots of people for over
2000 years, helping us to figureout how we love one another.
What that means, helping us toknow right, from wrong, helping
us to know the truth. And it's atruth, the gospel against us
today, the world doesn't accept,because it doesn't see or know
(11:26):
Him. And so that brings us backto those commandments. If you're
like me, you're trying to figureout is it the two commandments
is that the 10 commandments,which which ones are is Jesus
talking about today. The two arepretty simple, right? Love, love
God and love your neighbor, the10 commandments on the stone
(11:50):
tablets and the subsequent tothe rules and laws established
by the Church throughout thecenturies. They're all
connected. And we should focuson the two had minimum.
Love God, and love yourneighbor. Because all the other
commandments, they all arecontained in those two. When we
(12:13):
are unsure of how to lovesomeone, we can dive deeper, and
ask the church for help, whetherthat's the person sitting next
to you in the pew, maybe it'syour pastor, maybe it's a
support group. Maybe it'ssomebody in the Knights of
Columbus, all of theseresources, all of them are put
in place by a church, and aspirit that loves you. And that
(12:36):
spirit wants to guide you toeternity with God. And while the
church over the years has hadits fair share of scandals, it's
still the Church that Jesusestablished a church and a
structure to help us to thinkabout our lives, to think about
our choices day in and day outthe situations that we're in,
and it gives us a resource tocontact when we are unsure. The
(13:01):
church helps us recognize truth,through its structure through
its catechism and yesterday,it's canon law, yes, through its
commandments. And again, whilethe church may not be perfect,
it's here to help us. It's hereto assist us in being the best
people we can be. We have a Godthat loves us unconditionally, a
(13:25):
God that is merciful and a Godthat is forgiving. And we can
only see that and experiencethat through his church, through
its sacraments, and yes to thepeople sitting next to you. And
through that we become equippedwith what we need to come to
know and love God, that one trueGod that wants us to be with him
(13:46):
in eternity. So I offer youthese three things to consider.
To help us all follow Jesus'scommandments. First, come to
church, and fight someone tocome to church with you be with
a community of believers. We arecalled to walk with each other,
(14:06):
to encourage, to help aid tolisten, to care, to support and
just to love. It's here that weexperienced the true love of God
through the cross of JesusChrist celebrated on this altar
and that love reflects back outon all of us. All of us gathered
here tonight to study yourfaith. If you only come to
(14:29):
church, one hour a week andthat's that's your faith. Try a
little harder. Pick up a book,read the Bible. Maybe listen to
a podcast there's a few goodones out there catechism in a
year is a great one. You don'thave to listen to it every day.
You don't have to read everyday. Take your time. Commit the
(14:50):
30 minutes a week. Only throughstudying, discerning about our
faith can we know the truthbehind it? teachings of the
Church. And lastly, pray. Prayto God that He will accompany
you will strengthen you, andwill open your eyes to His
(15:11):
truth. The truth is taught bythe church for 1000s of years.
Your prayers will lead you to adeeper love of God into your
neighbor. And so on this sixthSunday of Easter, go forth.
Love, as Jesus taught us to byfollowing His commandments, and
(15:32):
being a source of love, and abeacon of hope to those you
encounter. God bless
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