One of my brother priests, he used to be a chaplain for the Navy Seals, and he’s such a great dude. Let’s just say he is pretty large. He has biceps as big as my face. He was in a war torn country celebrating mass for his Navy Seals. As he’s celebrating mass, an explosion happens outside of the tent. The priest dives for cover. As he looks up, he notices all of the Navy Seals are still kneeling in the dirt praying to the Lord. One of the Navy Seals gently looks at the priest and he says, “Father, keep pressing on.”
Here’s the Gospel today where Jesus says, “Perseverance will secure your lives.” No matter what sufferings, no matter what trauma, no matter what we experience in this life, with Jesus Christ, we can persevere to the end. The Navy Seals of Catholicism are the saints. You look at any of the saints’ lives, they persevered in the midst of sorrow, suffering, trauma, addiction, sins. With Jesus Christ, they persevered, and so can you. Only with Jesus, only with his grace.
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Done or Half-Baked
So, the bottom line is that you are never a done muffin. You are always half-baked. In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” He doesn’t say to the scribe, “You made it. You did it. Success.” He says, yeah, you’ve said all the right things, but still, you have some work to do. Still, I want to go deeper with you. This is the beautiful reality that Jesus…
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Pentecost
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Let Jesus Clean House
This happens in professional sports all of the time. A team is on a losing streak. The owner is not happy. And so the owner brings in a new coach to clean house. In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus enters the temple and cleans house. He is not satisfied with his home being violated. The crazy thing is that we are also a home for Jesus. We also have a temple within our hearts for the…
