Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #220 070426: Faith, Freedom & Fireworks

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Good News #220 070426: Faith, Freedom & Fireworks · 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, permanent deacon of the Peoria Diocese,
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  here to talk to you about the good news of Jesus Christ Through the Gospel,
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  we'll be looking at the Mass readings from this Sunday, the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
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  We do this program every Saturday and Sunday on Catholic Spirit Radio from 8
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  to 8.30, so thank you very much for joining us.
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  This is the 4th of July weekend, Independence Day.
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  Congratulations to everyone for surviving 250 years of the American Revolution
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  and wonderful things happening throughout our history.
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  It's a wonderful country. We are absolutely blessed to be Americans and to live in this country.
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  I know that's not always a popular thing to say nowadays.
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  For those of you who don't feel that way about your country,
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  I feel very sorry for you. I really do.
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  This is a beautiful nation.
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  It's filled with wonderful people.
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  We are the most generous nation on earth.
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  A good example is what's going on in Venezuela right now after the earthquakes,
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  the aid that we're giving there, the aid that we've given to India and Chile
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  and all sorts of other countries that have had major disasters.
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  The United States is almost always the first to be there with food and medical
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  equipment and rescue equipment and expertise, even moving equipment to rebuild
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  roads and bridges and homes.
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  We do more not only for our own citizens, but for the citizens of the world.
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  And that's a real testimony to who we are as a people and as a nation.
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  And that deserves to be celebrated each and every year.
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  But certainly on our 250th, I mean, when you think about the history of other
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  countries, we're young. We're infants.
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  At 250 years, I mean, there's homes. I have a sister-in-law from Warsaw.
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  Their homes in Warsaw are older than that.
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  You go to a church that's 250 years old, they consider it new construction.
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  They really do. It's amazing where we've come in 250 years.
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  Both socially, economically, architecturally, technology-wise.
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  This has been an amazing, an amazing moment, 250 years moment in human history.
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  And we should be very proud of that, and we should be grateful people,
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  truly grateful that our forefathers developed a political system,
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  a social system such as this.
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  And yeah, it has some wrinkles. It had some wrinkles when it started,
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  and it has fewer wrinkles now.
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  But a lot of our problems, I really feel, come from ingratitude.
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  We have a lot of people that just really don't appreciate what this country has done for them.
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  I'm still, I think it was my father who told me, name me one other country where
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  hundreds of thousands of people a year risk their lives to get into,
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  You don't see people risking their lives to get out of this country unless they're
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  running from something, like the law.
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  But you don't see people fighting for their lives to get into Russia or into
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  China or into Korea or even into France.
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  You don't see that. This is the only country, the only country in the world,
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  where people by the tens of thousands would do anything to get in and to be able to stay here.
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  And yet we have people who are fortunate enough to be here who don't like it, just don't like it.
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  And I'm not going to be one to say, well, if you don't like it, leave.
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  But I will say, if you don't like it, learn.
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  Go study, really study the history of this country.
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  The Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S.
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  Constitution, these are works of art.
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  These are just incredible documents and structures to a society that no other
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  country has anything like this.
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  And it's easy to complain about it if you don't really understand it.
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  So, a great thing to do this Independence Day weekend is go learn about this country. Go study it.
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  And I would hope you would develop a different appreciation and a better appreciation,
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  over to what we have out of the goodness of God.
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  Because this is too amazing of a place for mankind to have done on their own.
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  If you read these documents, these early documents, you'll see that there's
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  a guiding hand behind this.
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  And if you read about what it took for us to get to where we are today.
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  This has never been duplicated anywhere else in the world.
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  And yeah, it deserves fireworks. It deserves partying.
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  You know, throw some burgers on the grill and invite the friends over and be,
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  grateful for the community you live in and the rights and the freedoms that
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  we have as Americans. So God bless the USA.
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  I hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day weekend.
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  Go out and celebrate and take some time this weekend to head to church and get
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  down on your knees and thank God for the gift of the United States of America.
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  Okay, with that, I'm going to go light some sparklers while you listen to these
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  few messages, and then we'll come back with the readings from the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
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  You're listening to Catholic Spirit Radio, and this is Good News.
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  Stay tuned. Good News will be right back on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 6:48
  Congratulations to Heather Rankin, who has decided to pursue a degree in nursing.
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  The downside to that news is that she is leaving Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  So now Catholic Spirit Radio is seeking someone for the new full-time position
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  as Director of Events and Outreach, or as I like to say, Director of Excitement.
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  As you've heard, Catholic Spirit Radio is hosting their 15th anniversary pilgrimage to Wisconsin.
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  Golf, food, and prizes. Sign up at kofc15175.org.
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  This is Father Pete Jankowski from the National Shrine of St.
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  Anne in St. Anne, Illinois. Anne is spelled with an E.
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  Join us at our 146th annual St. Anne Novena and Feast Day at the country's oldest shrine.
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  7 p.m. on-site and online masses will take place from July 17th to the 24th.
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  On saturday july 25th we celebrate a traditional mass in latin and procession at 6 p.m.
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  And on july 26th we celebrate masses at 9 a.m in english and 12 noon in spanish,
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  all with a procession of the relic saint anne's is located at 230 north 6th
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  avenue in saint anne illinois,
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  contact us at 815 427 8265,
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  or on the web at www.stannes.org.
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  And welcome back to Good News. I'm Deacon Al Lundy.
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  Always a pleasure to speak with you. If you'd like to talk with me,
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  you can do so through email.
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  We have a little email bag here, and you can send in your questions about Catholicism,
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  Christianity in general, or it could be things you like, things you don't like,
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  things you don't fully understand about the Church.
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  We'll be glad to answer them here on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  Something that's been asked of me just the last couple days,
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  I've gotten more than one email, actually five or six, from friends and parishioners.
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  SSPX is back in the news. And it's not very good news.
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  This is a movement within the Catholic faith that has been in and out of trouble,
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  with various popes throughout the last, oh, 20, 30 years, and they're back in the news again today.
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  It turns out that they have again ordained, or I think it's within this last
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  few days, ordained bishops without the permission of the Pope.
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  And say what you want about SSPX or about their liturgical activities—,
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  But Jesus was very specific in how he left the operation of the church,
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  his body on earth, how he wanted that managed.
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  And he left that in the hands of his apostles, bishops, and Peter,
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  and Peter's predecessors. I'm sorry, his, yeah.
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  So anyway, that's the popes. So the bishops and the popes, the magisterium,
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  they're in charge of choosing bishop candidates and ordaining bishops.
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  That's within the pope's purview. And this is not the first time that this SSPX
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  movement has ordained their own bishops,
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  nor the first time that their illicitly ordained bishops have ordained priests. Right.
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  Jesus on the crucifix prayed that we should all be one, as he is one in the
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  Father and the Father is one in him.
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  Jesus prayed for unity within the whole church, all churches,
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  being one church, his church.
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  And for the members of SSPX to do this is illicit.
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  It's against the founding rules of the church. it's against the operations of
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  the Catholic faith, it sows disunity.
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  Whether you like the people they choose or not isn't the problem.
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  The problem is a matter of unity. We can't all be one if we aren't all following the same rules.
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  And for that reason, that's the only thing that turns me off about SSPX.
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  There's some things liturgically that I can get behind and say,
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  okay, I can see why you would feel that way. I can see how the early church,
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  some of the teachings of the early church support that, and that's fine.
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  Do those things that are right, but that doesn't give you the authority to do things that are wrong.
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  And they just, as I say, they sow a lot of disunity within the faith.
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  And I think that hurts all of us, and it hurts the body of Christ.
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  So my prayer would simply be, I view them as the prodigal son.
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  I think the last few popes have been extremely patient with the members of SSPX.
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  They've given them a lot of leeway. They've cut them a lot of slack.
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  They've tried to draw them back in when they need to draw in.
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  And they haven't fully excommunicated anyone yet.
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  And I don't think they want to. That's not.
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  The—they did a little this morning, but I haven't read the article yet from
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  the Vatican to see how many of them were excommunicated.
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  But I think there were some reins pulled in on.
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  But I think the nature of the church overall is come back.
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  It's not that we want you to go away. We want you to come back,
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  just like the father of the prodigal son didn't wash his hands of his son and
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  say, well, the son is worthless.
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  I don't want him back. Instead, the father was out every day watching for his
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  son's return, desiring the son's return.
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  And it finally happened through the grace of God and a change of heart of the son.
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  And I'm praying that that's what happens with the leaders of SSPX,
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  that they have that necessary change of heart to come back to the body of Christ, to the loving Father.
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  So we'll see where that goes, but those are the kinds of things you can ask
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  about. Feel free to write in.
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  Our email address is goodnews at catholicspiritradio.org, and we'd be happy,
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  to take your questions on the air.
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  All right, we're heading into the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
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  this Independence Day weekend.
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  Our readings are from the Prophet Zachariah.
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  A letter from St. Paul to the Romans, And then we're still doing the gospel,
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  according to Matthew as part of cycle A, which we are in this year.
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  So our first reading from the book of the prophet Zechariah,
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  one of the 12 minor prophets of the faith.
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  Thus says the Lord, Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem.
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  See, your king shall come to you, a just Savior is he, meek and riding on an
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  ass on a colt, the foal of an ass.
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  He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem.
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  The warrior's bow shall be banished, and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.
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  His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.
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  Beautiful reading. And if you think about it, an astonishing prophecy.
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  Zechariah lived 600 years before Christ.
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  And what you're reading about is the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem.
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  The daughter of Zion, daughter of Jerusalem.
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  He's speaking about the coming of Christ.
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  He talks about coming in, riding on an ass, on a colt, on the foal of an ass,
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  just as the New Scripture Testaments tell us.
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  Banish the chariot from Ephraim, the horse from Jerusalem. The warrior's bow shall be banished.
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  Shall proclaim peace to the nations, which is exactly Christ's ministry,
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  was to separate love of God from your worries about slavery to other nations, to Egypt, to Rome,
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  to any of the other nations that Israel had fought against for centuries.
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  Because it's not those human issues that are our greatest problems.
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  Our greatest enemy is sin. Nothing that goes on within our lifetime forced upon
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  us by others, by the slavery to others, is as damaging as our slavery to sin is.
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  And so Zachariah is foretelling the coming of our Savior, of Jesus Christ,
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  and that this is not going to be a Savior who comes to destroy,
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  but a Savior who comes in peace to save.
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  Our second reading comes from Romans, a letter of St. Paul to the Romans.
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  Paul writes, Brothers and sisters, You are not in the flesh.
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  On the contrary, you are in the Spirit. For if only the Spirit of God dwells
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  in you, whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
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  And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
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  the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies
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  also, through His Spirit that dwells in you.
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  Consequently, brothers and sisters, we are not debtors to the flesh,
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  to live according to the flesh.
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  For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
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  But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
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  you will live. the Word of the Lord.
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  Paul is talking here largely about baptism, about the Spirit of God coming inside us, dwelling in us.
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  And through that Spirit, we come to an understanding of Christ as God,
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  Christ our Savior being one in God, God incarnate,
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  And that if we believe in God, if Christ is in us, we're not controlled by the world around us.
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  Very much the same that Zachariah was explaining.
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  We are people of the Spirit. We are people of Christ and not of this world.
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  We're in this world, but we're not here to be controlled by this world.
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  Our responsibility here is to be Christlike, which means to be loving,
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  to be forgiving, to draw others to the truth of Christ.
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  So much of the world around us is based on pleasures, on desires,
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  on greed, or lust for power, or possessions, and that's completely the opposite,
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  of where we are led to through the life of Christ.
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  It's about wanting what's best for the other person.
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  That's what real love is. It's about, and what's best for the other person is
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  a relationship with God.
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  What could possibly be better than to help someone else get to heaven?
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  What else could you want for them? I mean, wealth isn't lasting.
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  Possessions aren't lasting.
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  Lust isn't lasting. The only thing that has any real lasting power,
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  any real lasting value, is a life in Christ.
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  No one can take that from you. It can never wear out.
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  It's something you can always have if you want it, but you'll only want it if
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  you've accepted Christ into you as part of your body, as part of your mind and
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  your heart and your spirit.
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  And so that's what Paul is welcoming us to through our baptism.
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  In the reading of the Holy Gospel, according to Matthew, we find in chapter 11,
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  At that time Jesus exclaimed, I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and
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  earth, for although you've hidden these things from the wise and the learned,
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  you've revealed them to little ones.
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  Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to you by my Father.
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  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son.
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  And anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him.
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  Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
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  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart,
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  and you will find rest for yourselves.
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  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The Gospel of the Lord.
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  I find the last line really interesting, my yoke is easy and my burden light.
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  What is an easy yoke when you say a yoke is easy?
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  Well, if you go to the original definition, the original translations of the
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  Greek scripture, an easy yoke is one that was custom made to be fitted to the oxen.
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  They didn't just take any old curved piece of wood and throw it on the shoulders
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  of the oxen to pull their load, their workload.
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  It was custom-made, shaved to fit the shape of the muscular structure of that particular oxen.
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  So every oxen had their own yoke to wear.
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  God gives us a yoke, a burden, based on what we can carry, based on what talents,
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  He's given us in our individual creation.
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  We are each made to serve Christ in a particular way, for particular purposes.
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  Our yoke is easy. It's custom-made for us. It's handmade by God for us to pull
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  the load that God intends us to carry.
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  Some of us carry our heavy loads than others, and that's okay.
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  That's what we were created for.
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  So when Jesus says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light,
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  He only gives us what we can handle in our lives.
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  And sometimes it may seem like a heavy load, but it's never anything that's too much for us.
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  And a large part of that is we're not yoked on our own, we're yoked with Christ.
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  And so He carries this load with us. So whatever your issues are in this world,
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  whatever your problems are, know that you're not carrying this alone.
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  That if you are with Christ, he carries this with you. And he talks earlier on about the children.
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  God keeps children very close to him throughout Scripture.
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  You'll find references to coming to God like a child.
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  And that doesn't mean without knowledge. It doesn't mean with.
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  The naivety of a child. It means with the innocence of the child,
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  with the trust of a child.
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  A child is devoted to the parents because he realizes the importance of the
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  parents in his well-being, in his life.
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  We need to approach God in the same way, by rather than being independent and
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  say, well, I can do all this by myself, to realize that anything we do,
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  we do with the help of Christ.
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  We do through our relationship with Christ.
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  And so we should look at Christ.
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  As a shepherd, as a father, as a figure who's there to care for us and help
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  us with our burdens, and help us through our joy, help us through our successes,
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  help us through our failures.
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  That's what a parent does. He stands behind you no matter what happens in your
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  life. A good parent will always be there to love you.
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  Christ offers us that same forgiveness and love.
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  We only need to open ourselves up to Him, just as Paul said, just as Zachariah said.
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  It's all about opening yourself up to the love of Christ.
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  So for this week, and actually for the next three weeks, Jesus is going to be
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  talking to us about the characteristics of heaven. What is heaven like?
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  And so today we learn that heaven is a place of rest, of comfort, of.
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  Of tranquility through our relationship with Christ.
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  Keep that in your prayers this weekend. Head to church. Thank God for being
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  part of such an amazing nation as the United States of America.
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  Happy 250th to the USA, and may Almighty God bless you, protect you from all
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  evil, and bring you to everlasting life.
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  Good night from Good News and Catholic Spirit Radio. You've been listening to
• 25:18
  Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost teens to
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  better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in your life.
• 25:26
  Submit your questions to Deacon Al at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
• 25:31
  That's goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
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  Deacon will answer your questions about faith and religion. Thank you for listening
• 25:39
  to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.