Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #207 02282026: Be Not Afraid: Deacon Al’s Heart News and Lenten Hope

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Good News #207 02282026: Be Not Afraid: Deacon Al’s Heart News and Lenten Hope · Catholic Spirit Radio

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  Welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost
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  teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in their
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  lives, and it's a place where your questions about faith and religion can be answered.
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  And now, here's your host, Deacon Al.
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  Good evening, and welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  I am Deacon Al Lundy, a permanent deacon of the Peoria Diocese,
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  and happy to have you here with me on Catholic Spirit Radio every Saturday and
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  Sunday evening from 8 to 8.30.
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  It's been an interesting week, and we'll get into that in just a moment.
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  I should say that Good News is a program about good news, the gospel of Jesus
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  Christ, and we look at the readings from this weekend's Mass and give a little
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  reflection on it and talk about how it affects us in our life today.
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  So my week, where to start? It has been a busy, busy week.
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  I have bird feeders. I love the outdoors and I love outdoor animals.
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  I get, now I'm not really what you would consider out in the country.
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  I'm in a subdivision, the north end of the town.
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  And I get in my backyard, I have a camera that clicks on with motion, right?
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  So I get possum and raccoon and rabbits at night.
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  You know, you kind of expect that. But lately, I've had coyote in my backyard and fox in my backyard.
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  A few times, I mean, a couple times a week, a fox walking through.
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  A couple of them because they're different sizes. So I know I have at least two.
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  And there's at least two or three coyote because one's really big.
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  The others are kind of small. But one is, hopefully, they're eating rabbit.
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  Hoping because that's the bane of my existence as a gardener are the rabbits.
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  And I'd like them to go away. And having a couple coyotes wander through at
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  night would maybe not decrease the population, but dissuade them from hanging around would be fine.
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  So I'm enjoying all the wildlife, but the birds, they have been voracious.
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  So I have a number of bird feeders. I have one, it's a large tube.
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  It holds about, I don't know, eight, 10 cups of bird seed, right?
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  In the last four weeks, they have gone through 50 pounds of bird.
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  In one feeder, 50 pounds of birdseed.
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  Now, luckily, I can pick it up pretty cheap, but 50 pounds from one.
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  I have four feeders and good grief, 50 pounds of seed.
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  So it's like I'm constantly, I just refilled it. I filled it two days ago and
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  I just refilled it again today.
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  And my gosh, and birdseed is not inexpensive, but I love, I mean,
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  I get a huge variety of birds.
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  So i really enjoy it but
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  50 pounds of bird seed so what
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  else is going on so we we got a new night table next to the bed right and we
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  bought it online and it comes disassembled easy to assemble comes with instructions
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  everything you need it's like i don't know 36 parts to put this thing together.
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  It reminds me when my son was young, and we bought him a tricycle for Christmas, his first tricycle.
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  And the instructions were evidently written in a foreign country by someone
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  not really good at English.
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  And I'm going step by step. I'm being really careful. I'm going step by step
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  through the instruction book.
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  And I get to one part, and it gives this whole series of things to do.
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  And I did that. And it just didn't look right. It just wasn't working.
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  And the next line I read is, but before you do that.
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  And I, what do you mean? You had me do like these five steps.
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  This is, but before you do that, do this.
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  So I had to take everything apart and go back and do that one.
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  So it was just crazy. Well, this nightstand has no instructions.
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  It has illustrations.
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  Now, I don't know what this illustrator was drinking, but my goodness,
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  it had to be really good stuff.
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  This is some of the worst illustrations I have ever seen in my life.
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  So you're just guessing as to what goes in, and the parts are all alphabetical.
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  But they're handwritten, they're hand-drawn letters. And so you really can't tell.
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  There's some of the letters that look an awfully lot alike.
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  And it was just, it took my wife and I probably three hours to put this little nightstand together.
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  And what really worries me is from the same company, I have a dresser coming.
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  And yeah, it's like, again, like 36 pieces. And I have a feeling that the same
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  guy on the same drinking spree probably did the instructions.
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  So we were laughing today as we tried to finish this thing up,
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  what it's possibly going to be like to do an entire dresser now.
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  So that's just some of the stuff going, okay, we have time. I'll tell this story.
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  So guess what, John? I have a heart defect.
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  I had no idea. It turns out it's congenital. I've had it since birth.
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  I had no idea. Now I had to contact my brothers to tell them so they can go get checked out.
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  I had to call my son and tell him so he can go get it checked out.
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  And had no idea. I got a bad valve, right?
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  And got to swallow a camera the other day just to prove that I had a bad valve.
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  And I do have a bad valve, John.
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  And it's, I'm not scared. I must say, I'm not happy about it.
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  But I'm not scared about it. You know, God's will be done.
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  And if this cup could pass me
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  by, I wouldn't mind that. But if this is the cup I have to drink of, fine.
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  I'm not really worried about what comes next. If anything comes next, if.
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  But there's going to be surgery, evidently. Hopefully not the big surgery.
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  Hopefully a more minor surgery is going to be able to fix this particular problem.
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  But yeah, so I've been taking a bunch of tests for the last couple weeks to
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  see just what the situation is.
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  And it's a problem. It's called BAV disease, bicuspid, which I thought was in
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  the mouth, bicuspid aortic valve disease.
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  So your valve to your aorta has like three little leaflets that open and close
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  as part of the valve. I have two.
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  And because of that, my heart, my whole life has been inefficient.
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  And I never really realized that.
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  Yeah. So it's caused some other
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  related complications. But the root cause seems to be this BAV thing.
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  So I find out Tuesday what they're going to do about it. And I'm hoping they're
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  going to be able to do this.
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  Medicine just amazes me what they're able to do in modern medicine.
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  Just absolutely amazes me.
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  The things they can repair and the way they can repair it. I mean,
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  I remember as a kid when they did the first heart transplant.
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  I distinctly remember the news of that and how amazing that was.
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  I mean, now they're doing bypass surgeries and all kinds of wild stuff.
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  So with this BAV thing evidently this is the one where they take a pig's valve
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  and they now this is not the technical explanation this is kind of a layman's
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  explanation of it they take a pig valve and which is.
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  Tricuspid, just like mine should be but isn't, and they can fold it up,
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  and they can start down in the leg at the femoral artery, and they can pass
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  this up through the femoral artery all the way up to the aortic valve and unfold
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  it and come back out again,
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  and it takes about an hour.
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  And you're in the hospital overnight, from what I understand,
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  and you're home the next day.
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  It's called a TAVR, I believe it is, a process that they'd use.
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  Something aortic valve replacement, right? And they do this at a hospital.
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  I'm sure they do it at several hospitals. Around here, they do it in Peoria.
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  And it is so popular.
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  And this problem I have isn't the only thing that causes these bad valves,
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  but it's so popular that on Tuesdays at this hospital, that's pretty much all they do.
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  It's this one process. People wind up all day long getting this process done.
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  And it's like an hour in and then they watch you overnight and then they send
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  you home. And I just think that's incredible.
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  God created such a magnificent machine in the human body and such great wisdom
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  that he's allowed us to have to care for it.
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  I had a surgeon tell me one time, I thanked him for saving my mother's life
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  in a very tricky surgery, and he said, oh, I don't save lives.
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  He says, God saves lives. I send bills.
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  So I like that attitude in a surgeon, that he has recognition for who the real healer is.
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  So that's been my life. The birds and the nightstands and the wacky heart.
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  So if any of you are dealing with any of those issues, my prayers are with you,
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  especially if it's a health-wise.
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  I pray that God's will be done. I don't know what that will is. Only God knows that.
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  But I will share with you the words of Christ that He says so often, be not afraid.
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  Be not afraid. There are worse things in the world than meeting your Savior.
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  So, just be calm and be faithful and do the best you can to keep those around
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  you calm and comfortable.
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  And I hope things go well for you, but most of all, I hope God's will for you be done.
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  With that, we will take a break for just a few words from some of our friends.
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  And when we come back, we'll be looking at the readings from the second Sunday
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  of Lent. You're listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  Stay tuned. Good News will be right back on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  ICatholic Mobile,
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  Welcome back to Good News. I am Deacon Al Lundy, and you're listening to Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  If you have questions about your Catholic faith or about Christianity in general,
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  we invite you to drop us an email here at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.org,
• 11:51
  and we'll be glad to answer your questions on the air.
• 11:55
  This last Sunday, got to attend a rite of sending at the cathedral at St.
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  Mary's in Peoria for our diocese.
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  And wow, I was floored.
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  I was there because I'm a sponsor for a friend of mine who's coming into the Catholic faith.
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  Wonderful man, and his wife is coming in as well. I've known him,
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  gosh, probably 30 years since I was friends with his dad.
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  And so I knew this young man when he had just gotten out of college and have gone to him.
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  He's a physician, been going to him most of my adult life and most of his adult life as well.
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  But they're coming into the Catholic Church. So we had a special rite of sending
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  at the Mass at our home parish.
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  And then we all go to Peoria where they are received by the bishop,
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  called by name and received by the bishop.
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  How many just from the Peoria diocese, And I know that we broadcast into other
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  dioceses that are larger than Peoria.
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  And so folks of you who are listening in the Springfield diocese,
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  you're going to say, oh, that's all?
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  Because Springfield had even more than Peoria did. Rockford may have even had more.
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  I don't know, but I was really impressed with Peoria's number.
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  Last year, we had 340 people enter the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Mass diocese-wide.
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  What would you guess for this year?
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  900? I wish. That's more like Springfield did.
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  680. So twice, twice the number. I think we can do 900 next year.
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  I wouldn't be surprised.
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  And most of these are young people.
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  I was so moved and so excited by the number of college kids coming into the faith.
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  I didn't keep count, but I would guess just from Newman at the University of
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  Illinois, there were over 60.
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  Yeah, and then ISU, Newman had, I think, a couple dozen.
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  A lot of young people. Our parish has 13 coming into the faith,
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  and we have another parish in our town that has 30.
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  So, I mean, that's just such a great sign, and so many of them are young.
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  I'm so excited to see that there's a real resurgence of faith.
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  And talking to some friends of mine who are ministers in some of the Protestant
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  faiths, they're seeing the same thing.
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  They're seeing a lot of young people who were nuns. They didn't practice anything.
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  Turning towards the Christian faith. And that is just so exciting to see.
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  So, if you're not sure, if you're starting to wonder about your relationship
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  with Christ and what it is and what you want it to be, contact your local parish.
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  Talk to a priest or a deacon about what you're feeling.
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  And hopefully, the Holy Spirit is working on you, and that's why you're interested.
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  We'd be happy to talk to you and help you sort out your feelings and find a
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  path towards Christ that's right for you.
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  And I have to believe that's through the church that Christ started, the Catholic Church.
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  So, I just wanted to share that because it was just really neat to see.
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  Our readings for this Sunday, the second Sunday of Lent, come from the book
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  of Genesis, and then from a letter from Paul to Timothy, and then the Gospel
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  of Matthew. The first reading from Genesis, I'm sure you're familiar with.
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  I think the gospel reading, you're probably very familiar with.
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  It's one of the most well-known ones, I think.
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  It's the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop.
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  But the first reading, again, from Genesis.
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  All our readings are basically about transformation, about being changed by
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  an experience with Christ.
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  The Lord said to Abram, go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your
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  father's house to a land that I will show you.
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  I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name
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  great so that you will be a blessing.
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  I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.
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  All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.
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  And Abraham went as the Lord directed him. The word of the Lord.
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  So here's another, here's a transformation.
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  Abram, who's about to become Abraham.
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  Abram is living in the Chaldeans, the land of Ur, and is pretty comfortable.
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  Ur is a pretty blooming community.
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  It's very modern compared to some of its surrounding communities.
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  It's a big metropolis of trade and worship, but unfortunately not a worship
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  of God, but a worship of a moon god named Nana.
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  And that was not what Abram was into. Abram was a descendant of Shem, son of Noah. Yeah.
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  And just like Noah and his family, Abram and his family were followers of the one true God.
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  And so they were kind of uncomfortable in this land.
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  And so Abram's father said, let's pick up and go. Let's move.
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  And at this time, Abram was probably close to 70, 75 years old.
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  And they walked 600 miles along the Euphrates River to a new territory.
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  And it was in that territory that God came to Abram and said,
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  I want you to leave again and we're going to take you even further to a new
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  land where I'm going to establish you as the head of these many tribes,
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  make you a father of all these nations.
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  And Abram, out of his trust for God, said, let's go. Do with me what you will.
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  And Abram was changed. He went from this just a very kind of small fish in a
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  big tank to a big fish in an even bigger tank.
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  And he was transformed. He was changed into one of the great fathers of the
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  Jewish faith. And the 12 tribes came from Abraham and spread throughout the Middle East.
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  So, a lot of great biblical figures came from Abraham.
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  So, that's our first reading. It's all about trust and transformation.
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  The second reading for this Sunday was a letter from Paul to Timothy,
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  and Paul writes, Beloved, bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the
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  strength that comes from God.
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  He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works,
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  but according to his own design, and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus
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  before time began, but now made manifest through the appearance of our Savior,
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  Jesus Christ, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light
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  through the gospel, the word of the Lord.
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  So, pretty quick little reading there from that letter.
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  But again, it's about transformation and trust.
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  We have Paul reminding Timothy that he's been changed through Christ,
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  through Christ's passion,
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  resurrection, has changed basically everyone, and has changed all the Christians
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  that Timothy is leading now within his little region that Paul's left him in.
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  And reminds him that this is Christ's doing, not Paul's, that Christ is making this happen.
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  And it's through Christ that death has been destroyed and we've all been transformed.
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  We've all been made immortal again.
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  And he does this through the light of the gospel, through the good news of Christ.
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  So transformation and trust still carrying through this whole weekend.
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  The reading from the gospel according
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  to Matthew, again, is something that most of you have heard about.
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  And I want you to keep transformation and trust in mind here.
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  This is about the transfiguration of Christ in front of Peter, James, and John.
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  And when we talk about it too often, it's focused just on the change that Christ went through.
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  But I want you to think about it from Peter, James, and John's standpoint.
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  They're transformed by what happens on this mountain.
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  They're completely changed.
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  So the gospel goes, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother,
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  and led them up a high mountain by themselves. and he was transfigured before them.
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  His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
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  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with Jesus.
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  Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, Lord, it's good that we're here.
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  If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.
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  And while he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,
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  and from the cloud came a voice that said, This is my beloved Son,
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  with whom I am well pleased.
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  Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid.
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  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, Rise and do not be afraid.
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  And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw that no one else but Jesus alone.
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  And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them,
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  Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the
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  dead. The Gospel of the Lord.
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  So a lot of things to consider with this reading. First of all,
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  why Peter, James, and John? Why did he select those three?
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  Well, this is Jesus' inner circle. And, you know, it's not that unusual.
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  Most rabbis would have a number of followers that they would be teaching,
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  teaching them to be like the rabbi, right?
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  Because that was the whole point of a rabbi having disciples,
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  was not only to teach them what he knew, but to teach them to live like him.
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  And Jesus, being a rabbi, was doing the same thing. And most rabbis would have
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  an inner circle of three disciples.
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  Well, so does Jesus.
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  And it's Peter, James, and John.
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  And what I find interesting is the amount of trust that Jesus has in them.
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  We talked in previous readings about trust in God and the trust in Christ, God incarnate.
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  And now we're looking at Jesus' trust in them.
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  Jesus entrusts Peter as being the vicar of his church, being the steward of his new church.
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  He trusts John to take care of his mother after his death on the cross.
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  And he trusts James to be the first martyr of the apostles.
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  Now, it happened about 10 years from this point, but James was the first to
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  give his life for the gospel, the first apostle to give his life.
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  So you have three people who Christ trusted with his ministry.
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  And we see this in more stories than just this. When Jesus went to the house
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  of the scribe to raise the young girl from her deathbed, who did he let in the house with?
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  And besides the father of the young girl, he took Peter, James, and John.
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  When Jesus went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest on
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  Holy Thursday, who did he take with him to pray, take further up the mountain?
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  He took Peter, James, and John. So these are his best friends.
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  He cares about these people deeply.
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  And we see that in once they hear the voice of God and they're frightened,
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  Jesus doesn't try to overwhelm them with his power and authority.
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  Instead, he goes and gently touches them and says, don't be afraid.
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  Everything's okay. I'm here.
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  So he's befriending them. He's comforting them.
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  Why do you suppose he took them up the mountain? Why did he want these three
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  to see his transfiguration?
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  Well, his death's about to come. We're just days away from the passion.
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  He wants his best and closest friends among his disciples to really understand who he is.
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  And so he displays himself in all his glory as God so that they can see this isn't just a rabbi.
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  This just isn't a wise person. This isn't just a leader of a new movement.
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  This is God incarnate, and he wants his friends to understand that.
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  So he does this really out of friendship and trust. Why does he tell him not to tell anyone?
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  I always thought that was interesting. Tell no one of the vision until the Son
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  of Man has been raised from the dead. Why is that?
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  Well, once he's raised, then the other disciples will have a better understanding.
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  And they'll have a lot of questions.
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  And now Peter, James, and John can help kind of fill in the blanks to complete
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  the resurrection story for the others.
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  But can you imagine if during the short time between now and when Good Friday
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  comes, if Peter, James, and John had run around telling everybody what they
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  saw, what do you think the Pharisees would do to Peter, James, and John?
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  They would have a very short life, and that's not what Jesus needed of them.
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  That's not what he wanted of them. That was not their purpose.
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  And so he kept them quiet to protect them.
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  And that, again, it's a show of great love and concern. We have a God that loves
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  us, but we also have a God who changes us.
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  Every time we encounter Christ, we are changed.
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  Sometimes we're changed a little. Sometimes we're changed a lot.
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  But you can't come into an encounter with Christ and not be changed.
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  I was changed when I was 13 through an encounter with Christ.
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  I see people changed all the time in OCIA, in the Order of Christian Initiation
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  for Adults, the people who are entering the church between now and finally at the Easter Vigil.
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  I've seen, over the months, huge changes in these people.
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  I take part in Curcio, and every Curcio weekend that we have,
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  I see the Holy Spirit working in huge ways in people, great transformations.
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  I've seen people change their religions because of their encounter with the Holy Spirit.
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  I've seen people leave their jobs because of their encounter with the Holy Spirit.
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  I've seen people become better parents, better spouses, better employers through
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  their encounter with Christ.
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  So, this Lenten season, I want to encourage you to seek out an encounter with the living Christ.
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  And the Church gives you so many ways to do that, besides just the Mass,
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  which is the primary way to encounter Christ in our lives.
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  There's the rest of the sacraments. Through all the sacraments,
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  you gain God's grace. You gain a share in the life and the love of Christ.
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  So, I encourage you to make full use of the sacraments, especially right now.
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  Eucharist and confession, anointing of the sick. These are all very,
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  very important during the Lenten season.
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  Participate in Stations of the Cross. Pretty much every parish right now throughout
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  Lent is going to be doing Stations of the Cross, a beautiful sacramental.
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  I invite everyone to take part in that and to really grow in a,
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  close, personal relationship with the passion, the death, and the resurrection of Christ.
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  Pardon me, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, acts of charity.
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  These are all ways of having a transformative experience through an exposure
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  reunion with Christ our Lord.
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  So that's my take on this weekend's readings.
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  I hope you have a wonderful Lent. I hope you have a meaningful encounter with Christ in your life.
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  And may Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to
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  everlasting life. Amen. God bless.
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  Questions to Deacon Al at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
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  That's goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
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  Deacon will answer your questions about faith and religion.
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  Thank you for listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.