January 20, 2025 • 50 mins
In this episode of The Heart of Fiat Crucified Love, Dr. Mary Kloska reflects on the readings from the First Sunday in Ordinary Time -where we hear about God's Fatherly love in creating and naming us, in protecting us and calling us to a vocation and in filling us with the gifts we need to fulfill that vocation. We then hear about Jesus' love for us as the Divine Bridegroom Redeemer and how He provides for us, purifies and perfects us and unites us to Himself. And lastly we reflect on the Gospel reading of the Wedding of Cana that shows Our Lady's important role in our salvation as well as foreshadows our call to the heavenly Wedding with God in eternity.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to WCAT radio, your home for authentic Catholic programming.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to the Heart of Fiat crucified Love.
Today we are going to talk about that God, the
Father's love and Jesus's love for us as a savior
and as our spouse. So I want to base it
off the readings that we had at Mass today, and
(00:27):
I was just going to do like a gospel reflection
like I do sometimes, but I thought, I think I
can get a whole podcast out of these readings. It's
very beautiful to really stop and to think about that
love of the Father that created us, and the love
of the Son that not only redeemed us, but then
wooed us back to himself so that we'd accept that redemption. Right. So,
(00:55):
I haven't played guitar in a long time. I grabbed
out the song Jesus He Loves Me. I'm gonna try it.
I'm not using a microphone to record this because lately
the sound's actually been better just on my iPhone, So
I hope this is true, and I'll try to do
(01:20):
this song. I kind of change it up a little
because I don't want YouTube to get mad at me
if it's too like exact. Then they don't like it.
They think I'm copying somebody. Right, So we're gonna do this.
We'll say a prayer, and then we'll talk about these
beautiful readings and the name of the Father and the
(01:42):
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen, Come, Holy Spirit, fill
the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us a
fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, and we
will be recreated. And thou shalt renew the face of
the earth.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I was lost, I was in chase. The world had
a hold of me.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
My heart was stone.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I was covered in chain. When he came for me.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I couldn't run, couldn't run from his present, couldn't run,
couldn't run from his.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
D gee sauce.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
He loves me, he loves.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Me, he is for me.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
Jesus, how can hippy that he loves me, he is f.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Me.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It was fire deep in my soul.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I'll never be the same. I stepped out of the
dark into the.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Line when he called my name.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I couldn't run, couldn't run from his presence.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I couldn't run, couldn't run from his.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Old geez sa.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
He loves me, he loves me, hes f me, Gesus,
how can Hippy that he loves me?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
He is for.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
Harmy.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
He holds a stars and he holds.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
My heart with healing hands.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
The behave Scotts.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
The rugged Cross where he died.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
For me, my only hope, my everything, Gesace, he loves me,
he loves me, He is for Harmy. Gesu, how Canhippy.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Ready loves me?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
He is for me?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Sweet Jesus, we thank you for your powerful love. We
thank you for coming to earth to save us, to
wrap us in your wounded heart, to change us, and
to enlighten that path for us to get home to heaven.
(05:36):
We ask for the grace to live as authentic children
of the Father, as your beloved brothers and sisters. And
we asked our lady, who is the most perfect follower
of your heart, to pray for us. Hail Mary, full
of grace. The Lord is with thee Blessed art thou
(05:58):
among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Jesus,
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now
and at the hour of our death. Amen, in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen. I want to just pull up
(06:19):
the readings here from today. They spoke so profoundly to
me when I read them at Mass, and I think
that God has a deep message for each one of
us through what he said. You know, in the first
reading Isaiah sixty two, I love Isaiah sixty two. You
(06:44):
hear about the Father's love. You hear about Jesus's love.
There's all these promises, and I just kept reflecting on
like trinitarian love, right, and the goodness of the Father
in his creation of us, in his protection of us,
in his filling us with all of these different gifts
(07:07):
like we heard about in the second reading today, right,
and his promises to us and his plans for us.
And then to hear about the gift of his son
sent to the earth to woo us, to betrothe us
to himself, to marry the divinity to the humanity through
(07:32):
the incarnation, and to really embrace us as that bridegroom savior.
And then how you as you reflect on this gift
of our sonship and daughter hood, daughtership and right our
(07:56):
being children of God. You can tell it's time, telling
it's late and I'm tired. You can tell that God
didn't just stop there, but then he wanted, you know,
a continued intimate relationship with us, and to show us
that spousal love and to provide for us, not only
(08:19):
to point us to heaven, but provide for us along
the way everything we need to get there. He gives
each one of us a name that contains our our
mission call from him, and he gives us a vocation,
and then he gives us what we need to fulfill
that vocation. And when there's a lack, he gives us
(08:42):
promises of provision. And it's really just magnificent to see
the love of God woven throughout our lives, especially because
of the give difficulty of life the side of eternity.
Everything was easy, his love just wouldn't be as brilliant
(09:03):
because it wouldn't have to be as brilliant. But because
of the fallenness of humanity and suffering and sin and
our struggle and our life fight to follow him, it
makes it all so much more beautiful, right, And his
heroic sacrifice to save us on the cross is so
much more beautiful than if it was easy. And his
(09:27):
surprises come at the last minute to make sure that
we can do what He's called us to do, and
his creativity in reaching us, even if our own sin
has fallen away or through other people's sin, we've been
knocked off the course. Right. God is such an artist,
He's so creative in his work with us, and he's
(09:51):
trying to create a masterpiece of love. Right. In the
Song of Songs we read where God speaks to the soul.
You know, you are all perfect, there is no blemish
within you. And in Ephesians we read about being washed
(10:11):
with the Word of God, which is Christ. Right, He's
a word incarnate so that there would be no stain
or blemish within us. Right. I mean he's talking about
husbands and wives, but Christ is like the eternal breadgroom
of humanity. Right. He takes a stance as as the beloved,
as the wife, and the whole, the whole way this,
(10:36):
you know works out is mysterious and and we could
spend centuries meditating on it, as all of the saints have.
But you know, so often in today's world people miss
these readings at Mass. They miss the contemplative aspect of it, right,
(11:00):
They miss, you know, the importance of stopping to really
dive deep into the mystical contemplative graces that God is
giving to the church today through these readings. So that's
what I kind of like to do. I'm not sure
i'll speak a whole hour on it, but we'll do
what we can. So the first reading, I mean, the
(11:23):
title of that section of Isaiah says, the bridegroom rejoices
in his bride. Right, we're speaking about the love and
yet the first love, Pope John Paul the Second wrote
in his Theology of the Body, and I think I've
repeated this before another podcast. When I was my doctoral thesis,
I touched on this. But the love, the original love
(11:45):
that God had for humanity was not espousal love. It
was a fatherly love, right, because it was a love
that had to create us. A father creates, and when
God created each one of us, he gave us a name.
And names are significant. Right. We look at the first
(12:08):
name given in Genesis, where Adam names Eve, and she
means the mother of the living. Right, And as you
look at some of the names given in the Old Testament,
oftentimes children were named for their meaning of the name. Right,
(12:28):
And Jesus is given to us as the savior. Right,
and our lady was called to be the star and
to be consecrated bitterness. Right, Mary means bitterness sometimes, and
it kind of foreshadowed her her role as co redemptrics,
(12:49):
as the woman with the seven swords through her heart
and standing at the foot of the cross, who would
then conquer all suffering with her son in love. And
we look at our own names. I don't know if
parents always recognize the importance of the names given to
their children. I believe that providence works even through the
(13:11):
ignorance of people. So oftentimes you'll meet someone with a
name and the parents don't even know why they name
their child that, but you look up the meaning and
you see why God determined for them to be called that. Right.
So God gives us a name and it creates us. Right,
(13:36):
let's take I have a nephew named Matthew, and the
name Matthew means gift of God. It's one of my
favorite names. So imagine you have Matthew, and every day
you call to your child, Matthew, Matthew, you're calling gift
of God, gift of God, gift of God. Right. The
vocation of every child named Matthew is to truly live
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that giftedness of God, to be a gift of God.
To his family and to the world. Michael, who is
like under God. Right, if somebody is named Michael, then they,
through their own humility are called to proclaim the greatness
of God and to defend him. Right, Benjamin, I think
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means beloved or something like that, tenderhearted or beloved one,
and they are called to show that aspect of God's
reality to the world. Catherine means pure. So every time
you say Catherine, Catherine, you're calling that child to live
that great purity of the divine love of God right
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in the midst of the world. It's so beautiful, and
so God gives us a name. But then also we
have a name that will be given to us in
heaven revelation. It's really beautiful to think about, what would
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the Lord speak to you to give you life into eternity.
What would that kind of name mean? What would it mean?
In my imagination, I think about how it's him calling
each person, the billions of people, trillions probably that have
(15:29):
ever lived. He calls each one in love by a
different name, a unique name. It's so incredible, and we're
given this, this name to accomplish the vocation we are
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created to live. God creates each human soul with a purpose. Right.
None of us are purposeless, each one. When God created
us and placed us in the womb of our parents,
he had a plan, and all of our lives he's
clearing away, you know, the rubble and everything to get
(16:10):
us to follow his plan. And some people hear the
call early, and they follow fully and they fulfill His
will right away. Others might, you know, not hear him
because of the sin of other people who cover up
their ears, right, children who are raised outside the faith,
or maybe they've left the church or something, so it's
(16:30):
hard for them to hear God. And so he continues
to fight to call these people home to him, and
many times on their deathbed they're called back home. They finally,
at the end, fulfill the vocation they were created for right,
which is to be true children of God, sons and
daughters of God. But in the midst of the world,
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even if you choose to cooperate with God, your whole
life to follow is his call. To live this vocation,
You're going to be fought against by three things. The
world right, worldly, worldly temptations, worldly values, right, the devil
(17:18):
who concretely exists and wants to pull you away from God. Right,
So I'll try to confuse you, I'll try to distract you,
and your own self, your own flesh, your own fallenness,
can pull you from that path. And so God sends
out like this mighty warrior to defend you. He wants
(17:39):
to defend you from the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and he wants to place you in a place where
you can bloom as this beautiful flower for him. Right.
And you know, sometimes people might think they want one
thing in life and fight for it and fight for
(17:59):
it and fails, and it fails and you find yourself
over here. It's because the Lord is protecting you, right,
It's because he wants you to flourish in his own
way and not through you know, your own ambition or
things like that. And so God is always fighting for you,
and he might sometimes feel like he's fighting against you,
(18:21):
but it's not. He's doing it so that you can
be consecrated to Him and he wants to establish you
in a place where you can grow to be that
great saint for him. Right. It may be a physical home,
that might be a convent. It might be you know,
more of a mission that you feel more you know
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attracted to a particular mission than a physical location. Right.
But he has a home for you in this world,
and the home is in his heart, but he he
locates it somewhere different, right, for each one of us,
and at different times of our lives, it might be different. Right.
You know, you might have been married and your home
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was your husband, and then he died and you felt homeless,
not just because you didn't have a home, but because
you didn't have your husband. And then he might call
you to something different, and you find your home, you know,
more deeply, within the walls of your parish. Or maybe
in another marriage, maybe you'll be called to a convent,
maybe you'll be called to a work, maybe in one
(19:25):
of the homes of your children that you'll go to
live in. So the Lord, though, always wants to establish
us in his heart and in a particular place on
earth where we will be able to fulfill the will
that he has for us. And this is a place
that will help us to bear fruit and give life
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to the world for him and with him. And it's
a gift of his love. Just like he created us
in love, and he gave us a name, he gave
us a mission. He gave us specific gifts. I'm going
to read here in the second reading. You know some
of those gifts that might be present within your heart
so that you're able to fulfill your vocation. But then
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He also has a place, a particular time, and a
place and a work for you to do to fulfill
his will, and then he calls you home. It's interesting
how you know some people are put on earth for
just a snap of time. You think about a miscarried
baby that brings new life into the womb of their
mother and into the family of his brothers and sisters,
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and yet God takes them even before they take a
breath of air. But it's because their mission and their
giftedness to the world has been fulfilled. And then you
have people who live to be one hundred years old,
and they might not even know a whole lot about
(20:54):
God or Jesus, and yet God uses them where they
are with their lives admitted knowledge as instruments to help
fulfill the will of God in other people's lives right
and to become more and more like the people He
created them to be. Right. And God always wants souls
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to come to know Him with their mind and to
know Jesus and to enter the church and do all that.
But because of sin and the brokenness of the world,
some people don't ever really hear the clearness of that message.
And yet God's fighting for them too. Right, he wants
all of us to be saints. So let's read here first.
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We'll start with Isaiah. Oh, no, okay, the computer went out.
That's okay, it's back. About Zion. I will not be
silent about Jerusalem. I will not grow weary until her
integrity shines out like the dawn. He fights to make us,
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to make us authentic versions of ourselves to be. They
have integrity right to who He created us to be.
And until he can recreate us to be those saints,
those authentic saints, until we're shining with his brilliant light
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with nothing to black it. Right, then he will fight
for us. Right, He won't be silent, he won't grow weary.
He will until her integrity shines out like the dawn
and her salvation flames like a torch. Imagine that God
is fighting for your salvation, and your salvation is like
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the flame of a torch. The holier you become, the
more brilliant of a light you become to other people
in this world. The nations then will see your integrity,
and all the kings your glory. Right, you will be
called by a new name. Imagine that, once you fulfill
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the purpose for which God created you, and you were
born into heaven, all see the truth about you. Right,
you can't hide anything from them. And if you've lived
a holy life, it's shown forth brilliantly. After your death
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and you're crowned by a new name. You're given that
new name, that eternal name, that holy name of love
that the Lord has kept sacred for you, the one
which the mouth of the Lord will confer. The mouth
of the Lord cannot say anything that is evil. Only
love can come forth from the mouth of the Father.
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And the words that come forth from the mouth of
the Father are the words made flesh. Like Jesus is
the word. So as he is speaking us forth into eternity,
he's doing it through Christ. Saint John says that right
we were created in Him and from Him, and through him,
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you are to be a crown of splendor in the
hand of the Lord. That's our vocation, each one of us.
We're all called to live a different style of life.
We're all called to live with different gifts, and yet
each one of us is to be a crown of
splendor in the hand of the Father, just like our
lady in the magnific God, to magnify God, to glorify
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God in everything. We're created not only to be a crown,
but a princely diadem in the hand of God. Right,
think about how brilliant a jewel shines in the sunshine,
and as we are lifted up to heaven, we're called
to shine like that. But the light is not coming
from the jewel. The light is reflecting from the sun
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off the jewel to give forth its radiance, to make
it beautiful. It's the sun that makes the jewels so beautiful.
And so we're called to be like that. In the
hand of the Lord. We're called to be docile enough
to allow him to recreate us to be holy. And
Isaiah goes on and says, no longer are you to
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be named forsaken or your land abandoned. Right sometimes on
earth it's hard to follow the Lord. Sometimes on earth,
troubles come and we feel forsaken or abandoned by God.
And yet when we cooperate with His grace, when we
allow him to create us, recreate us, redeem us, espouse us.
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Then nothing about our lives can be forsaken or abandoned.
We're accepting that gift of salvation. Instead. People will look
at us and see His light in us, and they
will say, my delight, and to our land. Wedded. Everywhere
we go with our bodies doing what He's called us
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to do, people will see the presence of Christ the bridegroom.
They'll see the presence of Christ wedded to us as
his wife that he wants to be faithfully present to
to never leave. Right. If you've ever seen old couples
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in love, like wherever the woman is tripping along, the
man's right there with them. I was talking to some
elderly friends tonight and they was telling about some friends
of theirs who she became He was ended up in
the wheelchair, and she's deaf now, and and her husband
didn't couldn't take care of her, but didn't want to
leave her, so he moved in the nursing home with her. Right.
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Love binds two people as one. Well in this way,
everywhere we go, Christ the bridegroom comes, and when we
live a holy docile life. According to his will. Nothing
divides us from Him. So people look at us and
they say, wow, that soul is wedded to God. For
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the Lord takes to light in you, and your land
will have its wedding.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
If a bride and a groom come to live in
a place, then then the place becomes consecrated as a
and you can see that divine spousalship lived out there, right.
And so our homes, when we live that kind of
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an intimate holy relationship with Christ, our homes become the
place of the divine wedding. Our churches become that. Wherever
you go in life, when you're living the will of God,
holding the hand of Christ, accepting that call and that
name the Father gives you, accepting the love of the Redeemer,
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you make a place of the divine wedding. Right, and
we'll talk about the wedding that Canaan, how that reflects
this heavenly wedding that we're called to. Like a young
man marrying a virgin. So will the one who build
you built you wed you your builder will become your beloved,
(28:31):
your husband.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Think about it. You see in that line so clearly,
how God the Father is building you he's creating you.
He's the one that made you from nothing, who filled
you with gifts, who gave you a call. And then
he comes to wed you, to marry you as your spouse,
as he recreates you in Christ, and just like a
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bridegroom rejoices to be with his bride. So your God
will ever rejoice in you. Have you ever thought about that?
When you do the will of God, when you love
him more than anything or anyone or even yourself. Right,
when you put God in that first place and you
have a fiery love in your soul for him, you
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give him joy. What kind of God allows his creature
to be the source of his joy? And yet when
you fulfill the will of God, your God will rejoice
in you. You get him that much joy. And the
response for your psalm is proclaim the wonders of the Lord.
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Among all the peoples, sing to the Lord a new song,
sing all the earth, and bless his name. What's the
song that you sing to the Lord? Right, he's rejoicing
in you. He's probably singing a song in your soul,
whether you are paying attention or not, And he's calling
(30:06):
you to sing a new song to him. What is
it at the beginning of this year that the Lord
is calling you to do new? Think about it. In Revelation,
Jesus says, I make all things new. God always not
only did he create us in an incredible way, He's
always renewing us. He's always calling us to something new. Right,
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What is it that he's calling you that's new? And
the Psalm goes on and says, proclaim his help day
by day, tell among the nations as glory and his
wonders among the people. The Lord doesn't leave you alone
to fulfill his will. He comes and he gives you help,
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not just once, but day after day, breath after breath,
moment after moment. He wants you to lean on him
like a crutch to help you when the burden is
too heavy. He wants you to not only accept his help,
but proclaim it. Tell the world the wonders that he's
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done for you. Give the Lord, you, families of the people,
Give the Lord glory and power, the glory of his name.
When you proclaim what the Lord has done in your life,
in your creation, in your redemption, in your call, in
your perfection. Right as he's purifying and perfecting you, you're
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not glorifying yourself. All of that action is that by
God you're given great glory to the Father. And this
is the worship that the Lord is asking of it, says,
worship the Lord in his temple, O earth, tremble before him,
proclaim that God is King, and he will come to judge.
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As people, we're called to a constant life of worship.
Every breath, every movement of our hands, every blink of
our eyes, everything we do is a form of worship
and prayer and praise to the Father. When we offer
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it that way. You know, it's hard for us to
do that in the world anymore because it's so loud
and there's so many distractions. I am blessed to live
alone in a house without those distractions, with no TV,
no radio, so that as I'm going among the day,
you know, along the day, and when at least i'm here,
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I can form that habit of doing everything in union
with Christ for Him as a gift of worship. Try it.
Try it this lent if you don't want to right now,
or try it on Sundays, just have like a no
screen day, turn off everything, have your family live in
that natural silence of His love. And of each other,
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and offer what you do. You're sleep if you're tired,
you're cooking, if you are making a beautiful meal for
your family, whatever it is, focus on doing it as
an act of worship day after day for him, proclaiming
his glory. It's his glory that allows you to do
what you do, to live the way you live. It's
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even his glory that allows your death at the end
of your life that bursts you into heaven. God never
calls you to something without giving you the gifts to
live it. And I think there's a temptation in the world,
especially where people on social media or things like that,
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like watch each other's lives too much because then they compare.
There's like a temptation to compare right, and people lose
them and other people right. But God gives us gifts differently,
and we're not called to compete with other people. We're
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called simply to discern what the Lord has called us
to do in life, you know, keeping our eyes on
our own homework right, not looking at other people's too much,
and to accept the gifts He's given us and to
use them fully in order to fulfill his will and
to glorify him and to praise him and to thank
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him for those things. The gifts in the Church are innumerable,
and yet in One Corinthians we do get a beautiful
list here of some of them. You can think about it.
What is it that God's called you to do? And
what are the gifts He's given you. There's a variety
of gifts, but always the same spirit. There are all
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sorts of service to be done, but always to the
same Lord. Right, We're all called to something different, working
in all sorts of different ways, in different people. But
it's the same God who's working in all of them.
The particular way in which the spirit is given to
each person is for a good purpose. One may have
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the gift of preaching with wisdom, giving him by the spirit.
Another may have the gift of preaching instruction, given him
by the same spirit. Another may be given the gift
of faith, given by the same spirit. Another again the
gift of healing through this one spirit. One the power
(35:41):
of miracles, another prophecy, another the gift of recognizing spirits,
another the gift of tongues, and another the gift of
interpreting tongues. Some may be given the gift of prayer,
Some may be given the gift of understanding, some may
be given the gift of writing, some may be given
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the gift of peace. All those are the work of
the one God and the same Spirit, who distributes different
gifts to different people just as he chooses. So it's
important for us to take time to hear the voice
of the Father, creating us and calling us to hear
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what gifts he is asking us to allow him to
pour out within us, to take some time to reflect
on that spousal love Christ has and not only naming us,
but drawing us to himself, to recreate us, to rejoice
(36:47):
with us and in us and through us. This is
what it means to go through the process of becoming
a saint. It's a process of accepting that love of
God first a father, then is espousal redeemer. And we
think about all of this, and what do we say.
(37:09):
It's the same words from the Gospel proclamation. Here speak, Lord,
your servant is listening. You have the message of eternal life.
How often do people like turn on the news? They
want to hear what's going on and where's it going on?
And everybody wants to know what's going on everywhere in
the world and in everybody's home. But God wants us
(37:31):
to focus instead more often on Him. Instead of you know,
looking at what Katie Kuric has to say in something,
Let's look at the Father speak, Father, your servant is listening.
Not only do the words of God tell us what's
happening or what will happen in our lives, what He
wants to happen, but they're efficacious in themselves. They give
(37:55):
us the grace to fulfill what he's telling us to do.
What is it? Your words have the spirit and the
power of life within them. And so when God speaks
to us and calls us to something, he's infusing us
to have that grace to follow him. All of this
(38:17):
can be seen beautifully in the Gospel of the Wedding
at Cana and the Father. What this gospel does is
it's a it's a like a pointer that points us
to the heavenly wedding. Right, It's a sign or a
(38:37):
symbol that reflects to us something that God wants to
do in our lives through something that actually happened to
other people when they were on earth with the man Jesus. Right,
there's like two levels to the story of the wedding
at Cana. First, there's a level of what's going on
in the historical context, and yet there's a second level.
(39:01):
It's what the Lord is spiritually, interiorly speaking to each
one of us. And of course God never leaves us
alone to figure all this out. He places here in
the middle of the story his mother, his mother, who
was the instrument for him to come to us from heaven. Right,
she came through, and he came through our lady, and
(39:25):
she is also the instrument through which he comes to
us in a spiritual way. She, like a good mother,
cleans out our ears and the ears of our hearts
so that we can hear him, and helps us when
it's dark by holding our hands to follow his way right,
to encourage us. She sees our needs, and she asks
(39:47):
and prays to him for provision when we feel like
we're lacking something we need to do as well. And
so it says there was a wedding at Cana and Galilee,
and the Mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his
disciples had also been invited, And when they ran out
of wine, since the wine provided for the wedding was
all finished, the Mother of Jesus said to him, they
(40:11):
have no wine. What a beautiful story. If our lady
was at a physical wedding on earth and saw them
run out of wine and went to her son and
pleaded for help in this physical situation, how much more
is she is gazing on us from heaven, seeing the
(40:33):
divine wedding that we're being called to, that we're entering into,
Seeing that divine call to each one of us to
become the saint and the spouse of Christ, seeing what
we're lacking to fulfill that right without us even having
(40:56):
to ask, she goes to Christ and asks for what
we need, for provision so that we can complete this
wedding with his heart. She says, they have no wine.
Very often, when I'm struggling and I really need something
in life, I find myself praying that Mary go to Jesus, say,
(41:17):
you know, she has no money. Why do I need
money so that I can fulfill His will and what
He's asked me to do right, whether it be pay
my bills so that I can live the contemplative life,
or to provide you know, the books that I need
to to the persecuted church, or to be able to
you know, buy clothing for these foster babies that come
(41:39):
here with nothing. But she'll go to him. She'll say,
you called her to do this, Now she has no money.
Help her. Maybe you're sick, and she'll go to Jesus
and say, they have no health. Maybe your vocation is
to be sick or to suffer, but you're discouraged. She'll say,
you know they have no strength. Their faith is waning.
(42:04):
Maybe you can't figure out something and you need help
with your discernment, maybe in a spiritual way, maybe in
some other decision. And she'll go to Christ and say,
they're alone, they have no spiritual direction, they have no help.
Send them someone. Maybe you have a family and you're
trying to provide for them and you can't find a
(42:26):
good house that's big enough and with the right amount
of you know, for the right price or something. And
she'll go and she'll say to Christ, you know they
have no home. Help them. You call them to be
this family, you call them to be open to life.
We never have to fear that the call of God
is too great for us, because we have his grace,
(42:49):
we have his love, and we have His mother to
intercede for us. She not only looks and sees what
we need now. She looks at her past and sees
what other people have done. Maybe you're wounded, maybe you're sinful, maybe,
and she pleads for that. You know, they have no forgiveness,
Get them to confession, they have no repentance. You know.
(43:09):
Maybe there's people you know who left the church, Our
ladies praying for them harder than even you are. She
looks at her future, you know, she sees what's coming
and the struggles that are coming, and she prays for
us now, pleading, and sometimes the answer seems to hesitate
from the Lord. Woman, why turn to me? My hour
(43:32):
is not yet come. Maybe it's premature for the Lord
to answer her prayer. And yet she goes on in faith.
She trusts, she trusts his timing, and she trusts his love.
His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you.
(43:53):
She said that because she knew that he would come
up with a solution. And that's what he says to us,
She says, to us, do whatever Jesus tells you. Fulfill
that vocation to what you've been called, follow that name
that he has given you, use those gifts, continue on
(44:14):
this path that he's given to you, and trust that
he'll provide. And so they take the stone water jars
and they fill them and they bring it to the
head steward and it's wine. There's a miracle. Jesus takes
something ordinary like water, and he makes something extraordinary like wine.
(44:38):
And later, before he gives his life on Calvary, he'll
take something ordinary like wine, and he'll turn it into
his blood, which is a living blood, a living river
of love that we receive in the Eucharist, that flows
through us, and that recreates us, and that unites us
to him, so beautiful. Our call to the divine weddings
(45:03):
starts here in the story. And all he wants is
for us to go to him and to give us
our broken humanity, to say, you know what all I
have is Mary Klaska. You know it's nothing special, there's
nothing so great. You know. I'll give you my attempts,
(45:26):
you know, lengths coming up and the Nash Wednesday they
always sing that word song ashes. Right. We offer you
our failures, We offer you attempts. The gift's not fully given,
the dreams not fully dreamt. Give our stumblings direction, give
our visions. Wider view for an offering of ashes is
(45:50):
an offering to you. We're ashes right from dust. We
came into dust. We will return all God wants us
to give ourselves. And if you feel like all you've
got is a bunch of failures, give him your failures,
give him your attempts. I always make a joke that
I'm on my tombstone. They'll put Mary Klaska. She tried
(46:14):
so often. I try so hard, and it doesn't necessarily
work out the way humanly that we would hope. And
yet that's all he wants. And he takes that humanness,
just like he took the wine at water and turned
it into wine, and then he took wine and turned
it into blood. He takes our humanness that we give
(46:35):
to him, we consecrate to him. He gives our desire
and our intention to live authentically as children of his father,
as he called us to be, and he pours out
his redemptive love on us, his blood, and he recreates us.
And it's enough, it's enough to carry us into heaven
(46:59):
for all eternity. Besides our lady, no human being on
earth was perfect. And yet there's many saints in heaven.
They got there because not because they were perfect. But
because they offered everything they were to the Lord and
(47:22):
allowed him to use it, to recreate it, to anoint it,
they allowed him to wed them in their humble poverty,
and they sought to fulfill his will by accepting his love.
(47:43):
And so tonight that's really the message that I want
to share with you, and I encourage you to go
back and to reread these readings from today. They're so profound.
Not only are they profound at the beginning of the year,
right when we are doing something new, when we have
(48:03):
to enter into take a step back to reflect on
who God created us to be, how he wanted to
redeem us, how he's wedding us in love, and also
like what he's calling us to do. But they're very
important for us to remember as we start to prepare
for heaven now. Right, so they're important when we reflect
(48:25):
on the temporal time on earth, but also when we
think about our eternal life. If you could just take
ten minutes and to reflect on what it means to
be created by love, for love, to be redeemed by love,
(48:46):
to be called by love, to be protected by love,
to be provided for by love, then all fear would
be cast out of your life, and you would find
a new strength. You would have a new light to
see God's will, a new strength to love and to
(49:06):
fulfill it, and it might just be enough to carry
you all the way to the end. So that's what
I encourage you to do tonight, to take some time
to reflect again on these readings and what is it
specifically that the Lord is speaking to your heart through
all of us. Glory be to the Father and to
(49:28):
the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was
in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world
without end. Amen, Allelujah.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Hello, God's beloved. I'm Annabel Moseley, author, professor of theology
and host of then Sings My Soul and Destination Sainthood
on WCAT Radio. I invite you to listen in and
find inspiration along this sacred journey. We're traveling together to
make our lives a master peace and with God's grace,
(50:02):
become saints. Join me Annabel Moseley for then Sings My
Soul and Destination Sainthood on WCAT Radio. God bless you.
Remember you are never alone. God is always a feel.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Thank you for listening to a production of WCAT Radio.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Please join us in our mission of evangelization, and don't
forget love lifts up where knowledge takes flight.
You're listening to WCAT radio, your home for authentic Catholic programming.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to the Heart of Fiat crucified Love.
Today we are going to talk about that God, the
Father's love and Jesus's love for us as a savior
and as our spouse. So I want to base it
off the readings that we had at Mass today, and
(00:27):
I was just going to do like a gospel reflection
like I do sometimes, but I thought, I think I
can get a whole podcast out of these readings. It's
very beautiful to really stop and to think about that
love of the Father that created us, and the love
of the Son that not only redeemed us, but then
wooed us back to himself so that we'd accept that redemption. Right. So,
(00:55):
I haven't played guitar in a long time. I grabbed
out the song Jesus He Loves Me. I'm gonna try it.
I'm not using a microphone to record this because lately
the sound's actually been better just on my iPhone, So
I hope this is true, and I'll try to do
(01:20):
this song. I kind of change it up a little
because I don't want YouTube to get mad at me
if it's too like exact. Then they don't like it.
They think I'm copying somebody. Right, So we're gonna do this.
We'll say a prayer, and then we'll talk about these
beautiful readings and the name of the Father and the
(01:42):
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen, Come, Holy Spirit, fill
the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us a
fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, and we
will be recreated. And thou shalt renew the face of
the earth.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I was lost, I was in chase. The world had
a hold of me.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
My heart was stone.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I was covered in chain. When he came for me.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I couldn't run, couldn't run from his present, couldn't run,
couldn't run from his.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
D gee sauce.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
He loves me, he loves.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Me, he is for me.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
Jesus, how can hippy that he loves me, he is f.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Me.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It was fire deep in my soul.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I'll never be the same. I stepped out of the
dark into the.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Line when he called my name.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I couldn't run, couldn't run from his presence.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I couldn't run, couldn't run from his.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Old geez sa.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
He loves me, he loves me, hes f me, Gesus,
how can Hippy that he loves me?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
He is for.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
Harmy.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
He holds a stars and he holds.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
My heart with healing hands.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
The behave Scotts.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
The rugged Cross where he died.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
For me, my only hope, my everything, Gesace, he loves me,
he loves me, He is for Harmy. Gesu, how Canhippy.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Ready loves me?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
He is for me?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Sweet Jesus, we thank you for your powerful love. We
thank you for coming to earth to save us, to
wrap us in your wounded heart, to change us, and
to enlighten that path for us to get home to heaven.
(05:36):
We ask for the grace to live as authentic children
of the Father, as your beloved brothers and sisters. And
we asked our lady, who is the most perfect follower
of your heart, to pray for us. Hail Mary, full
of grace. The Lord is with thee Blessed art thou
(05:58):
among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Jesus,
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now
and at the hour of our death. Amen, in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen. I want to just pull up
(06:19):
the readings here from today. They spoke so profoundly to
me when I read them at Mass, and I think
that God has a deep message for each one of
us through what he said. You know, in the first
reading Isaiah sixty two, I love Isaiah sixty two. You
(06:44):
hear about the Father's love. You hear about Jesus's love.
There's all these promises, and I just kept reflecting on
like trinitarian love, right, and the goodness of the Father
in his creation of us, in his protection of us,
in his filling us with all of these different gifts
(07:07):
like we heard about in the second reading today, right,
and his promises to us and his plans for us.
And then to hear about the gift of his son
sent to the earth to woo us, to betrothe us
to himself, to marry the divinity to the humanity through
(07:32):
the incarnation, and to really embrace us as that bridegroom savior.
And then how you as you reflect on this gift
of our sonship and daughter hood, daughtership and right our
(07:56):
being children of God. You can tell it's time, telling
it's late and I'm tired. You can tell that God
didn't just stop there, but then he wanted, you know,
a continued intimate relationship with us, and to show us
that spousal love and to provide for us, not only
(08:19):
to point us to heaven, but provide for us along
the way everything we need to get there. He gives
each one of us a name that contains our our
mission call from him, and he gives us a vocation,
and then he gives us what we need to fulfill
that vocation. And when there's a lack, he gives us
(08:42):
promises of provision. And it's really just magnificent to see
the love of God woven throughout our lives, especially because
of the give difficulty of life the side of eternity.
Everything was easy, his love just wouldn't be as brilliant
(09:03):
because it wouldn't have to be as brilliant. But because
of the fallenness of humanity and suffering and sin and
our struggle and our life fight to follow him, it
makes it all so much more beautiful, right, And his
heroic sacrifice to save us on the cross is so
much more beautiful than if it was easy. And his
(09:27):
surprises come at the last minute to make sure that
we can do what He's called us to do, and
his creativity in reaching us, even if our own sin
has fallen away or through other people's sin, we've been
knocked off the course. Right. God is such an artist,
He's so creative in his work with us, and he's
(09:51):
trying to create a masterpiece of love. Right. In the
Song of Songs we read where God speaks to the soul.
You know, you are all perfect, there is no blemish
within you. And in Ephesians we read about being washed
(10:11):
with the Word of God, which is Christ. Right, He's
a word incarnate so that there would be no stain
or blemish within us. Right. I mean he's talking about
husbands and wives, but Christ is like the eternal breadgroom
of humanity. Right. He takes a stance as as the beloved,
as the wife, and the whole, the whole way this,
(10:36):
you know works out is mysterious and and we could
spend centuries meditating on it, as all of the saints have.
But you know, so often in today's world people miss
these readings at Mass. They miss the contemplative aspect of it, right,
(11:00):
They miss, you know, the importance of stopping to really
dive deep into the mystical contemplative graces that God is
giving to the church today through these readings. So that's
what I kind of like to do. I'm not sure
i'll speak a whole hour on it, but we'll do
what we can. So the first reading, I mean, the
(11:23):
title of that section of Isaiah says, the bridegroom rejoices
in his bride. Right, we're speaking about the love and
yet the first love, Pope John Paul the Second wrote
in his Theology of the Body, and I think I've
repeated this before another podcast. When I was my doctoral thesis,
I touched on this. But the love, the original love
(11:45):
that God had for humanity was not espousal love. It
was a fatherly love, right, because it was a love
that had to create us. A father creates, and when
God created each one of us, he gave us a name.
And names are significant. Right. We look at the first
(12:08):
name given in Genesis, where Adam names Eve, and she
means the mother of the living. Right, And as you
look at some of the names given in the Old Testament,
oftentimes children were named for their meaning of the name. Right,
(12:28):
And Jesus is given to us as the savior. Right,
and our lady was called to be the star and
to be consecrated bitterness. Right, Mary means bitterness sometimes, and
it kind of foreshadowed her her role as co redemptrics,
(12:49):
as the woman with the seven swords through her heart
and standing at the foot of the cross, who would
then conquer all suffering with her son in love. And
we look at our own names. I don't know if
parents always recognize the importance of the names given to
their children. I believe that providence works even through the
(13:11):
ignorance of people. So oftentimes you'll meet someone with a
name and the parents don't even know why they name
their child that, but you look up the meaning and
you see why God determined for them to be called that. Right.
So God gives us a name and it creates us. Right,
(13:36):
let's take I have a nephew named Matthew, and the
name Matthew means gift of God. It's one of my
favorite names. So imagine you have Matthew, and every day
you call to your child, Matthew, Matthew, you're calling gift
of God, gift of God, gift of God. Right. The
vocation of every child named Matthew is to truly live
(13:58):
that giftedness of God, to be a gift of God.
To his family and to the world. Michael, who is
like under God. Right, if somebody is named Michael, then they,
through their own humility are called to proclaim the greatness
of God and to defend him. Right, Benjamin, I think
(14:22):
means beloved or something like that, tenderhearted or beloved one,
and they are called to show that aspect of God's
reality to the world. Catherine means pure. So every time
you say Catherine, Catherine, you're calling that child to live
that great purity of the divine love of God right
(14:45):
in the midst of the world. It's so beautiful, and
so God gives us a name. But then also we
have a name that will be given to us in
heaven revelation. It's really beautiful to think about, what would
(15:06):
the Lord speak to you to give you life into eternity.
What would that kind of name mean? What would it mean?
In my imagination, I think about how it's him calling
each person, the billions of people, trillions probably that have
(15:29):
ever lived. He calls each one in love by a
different name, a unique name. It's so incredible, and we're
given this, this name to accomplish the vocation we are
(15:49):
created to live. God creates each human soul with a purpose. Right.
None of us are purposeless, each one. When God created
us and placed us in the womb of our parents,
he had a plan, and all of our lives he's
clearing away, you know, the rubble and everything to get
(16:10):
us to follow his plan. And some people hear the
call early, and they follow fully and they fulfill His
will right away. Others might, you know, not hear him
because of the sin of other people who cover up
their ears, right, children who are raised outside the faith,
or maybe they've left the church or something, so it's
(16:30):
hard for them to hear God. And so he continues
to fight to call these people home to him, and
many times on their deathbed they're called back home. They finally,
at the end, fulfill the vocation they were created for right,
which is to be true children of God, sons and
daughters of God. But in the midst of the world,
(16:54):
even if you choose to cooperate with God, your whole
life to follow is his call. To live this vocation,
You're going to be fought against by three things. The
world right, worldly, worldly temptations, worldly values, right, the devil
(17:18):
who concretely exists and wants to pull you away from God. Right,
So I'll try to confuse you, I'll try to distract you,
and your own self, your own flesh, your own fallenness,
can pull you from that path. And so God sends
out like this mighty warrior to defend you. He wants
(17:39):
to defend you from the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and he wants to place you in a place where
you can bloom as this beautiful flower for him. Right.
And you know, sometimes people might think they want one
thing in life and fight for it and fight for
(17:59):
it and fails, and it fails and you find yourself
over here. It's because the Lord is protecting you, right,
It's because he wants you to flourish in his own
way and not through you know, your own ambition or
things like that. And so God is always fighting for you,
and he might sometimes feel like he's fighting against you,
(18:21):
but it's not. He's doing it so that you can
be consecrated to Him and he wants to establish you
in a place where you can grow to be that
great saint for him. Right. It may be a physical home,
that might be a convent. It might be you know,
more of a mission that you feel more you know
(18:41):
attracted to a particular mission than a physical location. Right.
But he has a home for you in this world,
and the home is in his heart, but he he
locates it somewhere different, right, for each one of us,
and at different times of our lives, it might be different. Right.
You know, you might have been married and your home
(19:02):
was your husband, and then he died and you felt homeless,
not just because you didn't have a home, but because
you didn't have your husband. And then he might call
you to something different, and you find your home, you know,
more deeply, within the walls of your parish. Or maybe
in another marriage, maybe you'll be called to a convent,
maybe you'll be called to a work, maybe in one
(19:25):
of the homes of your children that you'll go to
live in. So the Lord, though, always wants to establish
us in his heart and in a particular place on
earth where we will be able to fulfill the will
that he has for us. And this is a place
that will help us to bear fruit and give life
(19:46):
to the world for him and with him. And it's
a gift of his love. Just like he created us
in love, and he gave us a name, he gave
us a mission. He gave us specific gifts. I'm going
to read here in the second reading. You know some
of those gifts that might be present within your heart
so that you're able to fulfill your vocation. But then
(20:08):
He also has a place, a particular time, and a
place and a work for you to do to fulfill
his will, and then he calls you home. It's interesting
how you know some people are put on earth for
just a snap of time. You think about a miscarried
baby that brings new life into the womb of their
mother and into the family of his brothers and sisters,
(20:33):
and yet God takes them even before they take a
breath of air. But it's because their mission and their
giftedness to the world has been fulfilled. And then you
have people who live to be one hundred years old,
and they might not even know a whole lot about
(20:54):
God or Jesus, and yet God uses them where they
are with their lives admitted knowledge as instruments to help
fulfill the will of God in other people's lives right
and to become more and more like the people He
created them to be. Right. And God always wants souls
(21:15):
to come to know Him with their mind and to
know Jesus and to enter the church and do all that.
But because of sin and the brokenness of the world,
some people don't ever really hear the clearness of that message.
And yet God's fighting for them too. Right, he wants
all of us to be saints. So let's read here first.
(21:38):
We'll start with Isaiah. Oh, no, okay, the computer went out.
That's okay, it's back. About Zion. I will not be
silent about Jerusalem. I will not grow weary until her
integrity shines out like the dawn. He fights to make us,
(21:59):
to make us authentic versions of ourselves to be. They
have integrity right to who He created us to be.
And until he can recreate us to be those saints,
those authentic saints, until we're shining with his brilliant light
(22:19):
with nothing to black it. Right, then he will fight
for us. Right, He won't be silent, he won't grow weary.
He will until her integrity shines out like the dawn
and her salvation flames like a torch. Imagine that God
is fighting for your salvation, and your salvation is like
(22:44):
the flame of a torch. The holier you become, the
more brilliant of a light you become to other people
in this world. The nations then will see your integrity,
and all the kings your glory. Right, you will be
called by a new name. Imagine that, once you fulfill
(23:05):
the purpose for which God created you, and you were
born into heaven, all see the truth about you. Right,
you can't hide anything from them. And if you've lived
a holy life, it's shown forth brilliantly. After your death
(23:26):
and you're crowned by a new name. You're given that
new name, that eternal name, that holy name of love
that the Lord has kept sacred for you, the one
which the mouth of the Lord will confer. The mouth
of the Lord cannot say anything that is evil. Only
love can come forth from the mouth of the Father.
(23:49):
And the words that come forth from the mouth of
the Father are the words made flesh. Like Jesus is
the word. So as he is speaking us forth into eternity,
he's doing it through Christ. Saint John says that right
we were created in Him and from Him, and through him,
(24:16):
you are to be a crown of splendor in the
hand of the Lord. That's our vocation, each one of us.
We're all called to live a different style of life.
We're all called to live with different gifts, and yet
each one of us is to be a crown of
splendor in the hand of the Father, just like our
lady in the magnific God, to magnify God, to glorify
(24:41):
God in everything. We're created not only to be a crown,
but a princely diadem in the hand of God. Right,
think about how brilliant a jewel shines in the sunshine,
and as we are lifted up to heaven, we're called
to shine like that. But the light is not coming
from the jewel. The light is reflecting from the sun
(25:04):
off the jewel to give forth its radiance, to make
it beautiful. It's the sun that makes the jewels so beautiful.
And so we're called to be like that. In the
hand of the Lord. We're called to be docile enough
to allow him to recreate us to be holy. And
Isaiah goes on and says, no longer are you to
(25:25):
be named forsaken or your land abandoned. Right sometimes on
earth it's hard to follow the Lord. Sometimes on earth,
troubles come and we feel forsaken or abandoned by God.
And yet when we cooperate with His grace, when we
allow him to create us, recreate us, redeem us, espouse us.
(25:50):
Then nothing about our lives can be forsaken or abandoned.
We're accepting that gift of salvation. Instead. People will look
at us and see His light in us, and they
will say, my delight, and to our land. Wedded. Everywhere
we go with our bodies doing what He's called us
(26:12):
to do, people will see the presence of Christ the bridegroom.
They'll see the presence of Christ wedded to us as
his wife that he wants to be faithfully present to
to never leave. Right. If you've ever seen old couples
(26:35):
in love, like wherever the woman is tripping along, the
man's right there with them. I was talking to some
elderly friends tonight and they was telling about some friends
of theirs who she became He was ended up in
the wheelchair, and she's deaf now, and and her husband
didn't couldn't take care of her, but didn't want to
leave her, so he moved in the nursing home with her. Right.
(26:56):
Love binds two people as one. Well in this way,
everywhere we go, Christ the bridegroom comes, and when we
live a holy docile life. According to his will. Nothing
divides us from Him. So people look at us and
they say, wow, that soul is wedded to God. For
(27:18):
the Lord takes to light in you, and your land
will have its wedding.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
If a bride and a groom come to live in
a place, then then the place becomes consecrated as a
and you can see that divine spousalship lived out there, right.
And so our homes, when we live that kind of
(27:45):
an intimate holy relationship with Christ, our homes become the
place of the divine wedding. Our churches become that. Wherever
you go in life, when you're living the will of God,
holding the hand of Christ, accepting that call and that
name the Father gives you, accepting the love of the Redeemer,
(28:07):
you make a place of the divine wedding. Right, and
we'll talk about the wedding that Canaan, how that reflects
this heavenly wedding that we're called to. Like a young
man marrying a virgin. So will the one who build
you built you wed you your builder will become your beloved,
(28:31):
your husband.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Think about it. You see in that line so clearly,
how God the Father is building you he's creating you.
He's the one that made you from nothing, who filled
you with gifts, who gave you a call. And then
he comes to wed you, to marry you as your spouse,
as he recreates you in Christ, and just like a
(28:58):
bridegroom rejoices to be with his bride. So your God
will ever rejoice in you. Have you ever thought about that?
When you do the will of God, when you love
him more than anything or anyone or even yourself. Right,
when you put God in that first place and you
have a fiery love in your soul for him, you
(29:22):
give him joy. What kind of God allows his creature
to be the source of his joy? And yet when
you fulfill the will of God, your God will rejoice
in you. You get him that much joy. And the
response for your psalm is proclaim the wonders of the Lord.
(29:45):
Among all the peoples, sing to the Lord a new song,
sing all the earth, and bless his name. What's the
song that you sing to the Lord? Right, he's rejoicing
in you. He's probably singing a song in your soul,
whether you are paying attention or not, And he's calling
(30:06):
you to sing a new song to him. What is
it at the beginning of this year that the Lord
is calling you to do new? Think about it. In Revelation,
Jesus says, I make all things new. God always not
only did he create us in an incredible way, He's
always renewing us. He's always calling us to something new. Right,
(30:31):
What is it that he's calling you that's new? And
the Psalm goes on and says, proclaim his help day
by day, tell among the nations as glory and his
wonders among the people. The Lord doesn't leave you alone
to fulfill his will. He comes and he gives you help,
(30:51):
not just once, but day after day, breath after breath,
moment after moment. He wants you to lean on him
like a crutch to help you when the burden is
too heavy. He wants you to not only accept his help,
but proclaim it. Tell the world the wonders that he's
(31:13):
done for you. Give the Lord, you, families of the people,
Give the Lord glory and power, the glory of his name.
When you proclaim what the Lord has done in your life,
in your creation, in your redemption, in your call, in
your perfection. Right as he's purifying and perfecting you, you're
(31:35):
not glorifying yourself. All of that action is that by
God you're given great glory to the Father. And this
is the worship that the Lord is asking of it, says,
worship the Lord in his temple, O earth, tremble before him,
proclaim that God is King, and he will come to judge.
(31:56):
As people, we're called to a constant life of worship.
Every breath, every movement of our hands, every blink of
our eyes, everything we do is a form of worship
and prayer and praise to the Father. When we offer
(32:16):
it that way. You know, it's hard for us to
do that in the world anymore because it's so loud
and there's so many distractions. I am blessed to live
alone in a house without those distractions, with no TV,
no radio, so that as I'm going among the day,
you know, along the day, and when at least i'm here,
(32:40):
I can form that habit of doing everything in union
with Christ for Him as a gift of worship. Try it.
Try it this lent if you don't want to right now,
or try it on Sundays, just have like a no
screen day, turn off everything, have your family live in
that natural silence of His love. And of each other,
(33:04):
and offer what you do. You're sleep if you're tired,
you're cooking, if you are making a beautiful meal for
your family, whatever it is, focus on doing it as
an act of worship day after day for him, proclaiming
his glory. It's his glory that allows you to do
what you do, to live the way you live. It's
(33:27):
even his glory that allows your death at the end
of your life that bursts you into heaven. God never
calls you to something without giving you the gifts to
live it. And I think there's a temptation in the world,
especially where people on social media or things like that,
(33:50):
like watch each other's lives too much because then they compare.
There's like a temptation to compare right, and people lose
them and other people right. But God gives us gifts differently,
and we're not called to compete with other people. We're
(34:12):
called simply to discern what the Lord has called us
to do in life, you know, keeping our eyes on
our own homework right, not looking at other people's too much,
and to accept the gifts He's given us and to
use them fully in order to fulfill his will and
to glorify him and to praise him and to thank
(34:33):
him for those things. The gifts in the Church are innumerable,
and yet in One Corinthians we do get a beautiful
list here of some of them. You can think about it.
What is it that God's called you to do? And
what are the gifts He's given you. There's a variety
of gifts, but always the same spirit. There are all
(34:53):
sorts of service to be done, but always to the
same Lord. Right, We're all called to something different, working
in all sorts of different ways, in different people. But
it's the same God who's working in all of them.
The particular way in which the spirit is given to
each person is for a good purpose. One may have
(35:17):
the gift of preaching with wisdom, giving him by the spirit.
Another may have the gift of preaching instruction, given him
by the same spirit. Another may be given the gift
of faith, given by the same spirit. Another again the
gift of healing through this one spirit. One the power
(35:41):
of miracles, another prophecy, another the gift of recognizing spirits,
another the gift of tongues, and another the gift of
interpreting tongues. Some may be given the gift of prayer,
Some may be given the gift of understanding, some may
be given the gift of writing, some may be given
(36:03):
the gift of peace. All those are the work of
the one God and the same Spirit, who distributes different
gifts to different people just as he chooses. So it's
important for us to take time to hear the voice
of the Father, creating us and calling us to hear
(36:27):
what gifts he is asking us to allow him to
pour out within us, to take some time to reflect
on that spousal love Christ has and not only naming us,
but drawing us to himself, to recreate us, to rejoice
(36:47):
with us and in us and through us. This is
what it means to go through the process of becoming
a saint. It's a process of accepting that love of
God first a father, then is espousal redeemer. And we
think about all of this, and what do we say.
(37:09):
It's the same words from the Gospel proclamation. Here speak, Lord,
your servant is listening. You have the message of eternal life.
How often do people like turn on the news? They
want to hear what's going on and where's it going on?
And everybody wants to know what's going on everywhere in
the world and in everybody's home. But God wants us
(37:31):
to focus instead more often on Him. Instead of you know,
looking at what Katie Kuric has to say in something,
Let's look at the Father speak, Father, your servant is listening.
Not only do the words of God tell us what's
happening or what will happen in our lives, what He
wants to happen, but they're efficacious in themselves. They give
(37:55):
us the grace to fulfill what he's telling us to do.
What is it? Your words have the spirit and the
power of life within them. And so when God speaks
to us and calls us to something, he's infusing us
to have that grace to follow him. All of this
(38:17):
can be seen beautifully in the Gospel of the Wedding
at Cana and the Father. What this gospel does is
it's a it's a like a pointer that points us
to the heavenly wedding. Right, It's a sign or a
(38:37):
symbol that reflects to us something that God wants to
do in our lives through something that actually happened to
other people when they were on earth with the man Jesus. Right,
there's like two levels to the story of the wedding
at Cana. First, there's a level of what's going on
in the historical context, and yet there's a second level.
(39:01):
It's what the Lord is spiritually, interiorly speaking to each
one of us. And of course God never leaves us
alone to figure all this out. He places here in
the middle of the story his mother, his mother, who
was the instrument for him to come to us from heaven. Right,
she came through, and he came through our lady, and
(39:25):
she is also the instrument through which he comes to
us in a spiritual way. She, like a good mother,
cleans out our ears and the ears of our hearts
so that we can hear him, and helps us when
it's dark by holding our hands to follow his way right,
to encourage us. She sees our needs, and she asks
(39:47):
and prays to him for provision when we feel like
we're lacking something we need to do as well. And
so it says there was a wedding at Cana and Galilee,
and the Mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his
disciples had also been invited, And when they ran out
of wine, since the wine provided for the wedding was
all finished, the Mother of Jesus said to him, they
(40:11):
have no wine. What a beautiful story. If our lady
was at a physical wedding on earth and saw them
run out of wine and went to her son and
pleaded for help in this physical situation, how much more
is she is gazing on us from heaven, seeing the
(40:33):
divine wedding that we're being called to, that we're entering into,
Seeing that divine call to each one of us to
become the saint and the spouse of Christ, seeing what
we're lacking to fulfill that right without us even having
(40:56):
to ask, she goes to Christ and asks for what
we need, for provision so that we can complete this
wedding with his heart. She says, they have no wine.
Very often, when I'm struggling and I really need something
in life, I find myself praying that Mary go to Jesus, say,
(41:17):
you know, she has no money. Why do I need
money so that I can fulfill His will and what
He's asked me to do right, whether it be pay
my bills so that I can live the contemplative life,
or to provide you know, the books that I need
to to the persecuted church, or to be able to
you know, buy clothing for these foster babies that come
(41:39):
here with nothing. But she'll go to him. She'll say,
you called her to do this, Now she has no money.
Help her. Maybe you're sick, and she'll go to Jesus
and say, they have no health. Maybe your vocation is
to be sick or to suffer, but you're discouraged. She'll say,
you know they have no strength. Their faith is waning.
(42:04):
Maybe you can't figure out something and you need help
with your discernment, maybe in a spiritual way, maybe in
some other decision. And she'll go to Christ and say,
they're alone, they have no spiritual direction, they have no help.
Send them someone. Maybe you have a family and you're
trying to provide for them and you can't find a
(42:26):
good house that's big enough and with the right amount
of you know, for the right price or something. And
she'll go and she'll say to Christ, you know they
have no home. Help them. You call them to be
this family, you call them to be open to life.
We never have to fear that the call of God
is too great for us, because we have his grace,
(42:49):
we have his love, and we have His mother to
intercede for us. She not only looks and sees what
we need now. She looks at her past and sees
what other people have done. Maybe you're wounded, maybe you're sinful, maybe,
and she pleads for that. You know, they have no forgiveness,
Get them to confession, they have no repentance. You know.
(43:09):
Maybe there's people you know who left the church, Our
ladies praying for them harder than even you are. She
looks at her future, you know, she sees what's coming
and the struggles that are coming, and she prays for
us now, pleading, and sometimes the answer seems to hesitate
from the Lord. Woman, why turn to me? My hour
(43:32):
is not yet come. Maybe it's premature for the Lord
to answer her prayer. And yet she goes on in faith.
She trusts, she trusts his timing, and she trusts his love.
His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you.
(43:53):
She said that because she knew that he would come
up with a solution. And that's what he says to us,
She says, to us, do whatever Jesus tells you. Fulfill
that vocation to what you've been called, follow that name
that he has given you, use those gifts, continue on
(44:14):
this path that he's given to you, and trust that
he'll provide. And so they take the stone water jars
and they fill them and they bring it to the
head steward and it's wine. There's a miracle. Jesus takes
something ordinary like water, and he makes something extraordinary like wine.
(44:38):
And later, before he gives his life on Calvary, he'll
take something ordinary like wine, and he'll turn it into
his blood, which is a living blood, a living river
of love that we receive in the Eucharist, that flows
through us, and that recreates us, and that unites us
to him, so beautiful. Our call to the divine weddings
(45:03):
starts here in the story. And all he wants is
for us to go to him and to give us
our broken humanity, to say, you know what all I
have is Mary Klaska. You know it's nothing special, there's
nothing so great. You know. I'll give you my attempts,
(45:26):
you know, lengths coming up and the Nash Wednesday they
always sing that word song ashes. Right. We offer you
our failures, We offer you attempts. The gift's not fully given,
the dreams not fully dreamt. Give our stumblings direction, give
our visions. Wider view for an offering of ashes is
(45:50):
an offering to you. We're ashes right from dust. We
came into dust. We will return all God wants us
to give ourselves. And if you feel like all you've
got is a bunch of failures, give him your failures,
give him your attempts. I always make a joke that
I'm on my tombstone. They'll put Mary Klaska. She tried
(46:14):
so often. I try so hard, and it doesn't necessarily
work out the way humanly that we would hope. And
yet that's all he wants. And he takes that humanness,
just like he took the wine at water and turned
it into wine, and then he took wine and turned
it into blood. He takes our humanness that we give
(46:35):
to him, we consecrate to him. He gives our desire
and our intention to live authentically as children of his father,
as he called us to be, and he pours out
his redemptive love on us, his blood, and he recreates us.
And it's enough, it's enough to carry us into heaven
(46:59):
for all eternity. Besides our lady, no human being on
earth was perfect. And yet there's many saints in heaven.
They got there because not because they were perfect. But
because they offered everything they were to the Lord and
(47:22):
allowed him to use it, to recreate it, to anoint it,
they allowed him to wed them in their humble poverty,
and they sought to fulfill his will by accepting his love.
(47:43):
And so tonight that's really the message that I want
to share with you, and I encourage you to go
back and to reread these readings from today. They're so profound.
Not only are they profound at the beginning of the year,
right when we are doing something new, when we have
(48:03):
to enter into take a step back to reflect on
who God created us to be, how he wanted to
redeem us, how he's wedding us in love, and also
like what he's calling us to do. But they're very
important for us to remember as we start to prepare
for heaven now. Right, so they're important when we reflect
(48:25):
on the temporal time on earth, but also when we
think about our eternal life. If you could just take
ten minutes and to reflect on what it means to
be created by love, for love, to be redeemed by love,
(48:46):
to be called by love, to be protected by love,
to be provided for by love, then all fear would
be cast out of your life, and you would find
a new strength. You would have a new light to
see God's will, a new strength to love and to
(49:06):
fulfill it, and it might just be enough to carry
you all the way to the end. So that's what
I encourage you to do tonight, to take some time
to reflect again on these readings and what is it
specifically that the Lord is speaking to your heart through
all of us. Glory be to the Father and to
(49:28):
the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was
in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world
without end. Amen, Allelujah.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Hello, God's beloved. I'm Annabel Moseley, author, professor of theology
and host of then Sings My Soul and Destination Sainthood
on WCAT Radio. I invite you to listen in and
find inspiration along this sacred journey. We're traveling together to
make our lives a master peace and with God's grace,
(50:02):
become saints. Join me Annabel Moseley for then Sings My
Soul and Destination Sainthood on WCAT Radio. God bless you.
Remember you are never alone. God is always a feel.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Thank you for listening to a production of WCAT Radio.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Please join us in our mission of evangelization, and don't
forget love lifts up where knowledge takes flight.
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