Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #218 062026: Good News: Faith, Floods, and Finding Peace in the Cross

Transcript

Good News #218 062026: Good News: Faith, Floods, and Finding Peace in the Cross · Catholic Spirit Radio

• 0:00
  Welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost
• 0:04
  teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in their
• 0:09
  lives, and it's a place where your questions about faith and religion can be answered.
• 0:14
  And now, here's your host, Deacon Al.
• 0:17
  Good evening, and welcome to Good News. I'm Deacon Al Lundy,
• 0:20
  permanent deacon of the Peoria Diocese, speaking with you on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 0:26
  We talk about the good news of Jesus Christ, the gospel of our Lord,
• 0:29
  every Saturday and Sunday evening here on Catholic Spirit Radio from 8 to 8.30.
• 0:34
  Happy to have you with us. First of all, let's talk about the weather.
• 0:38
  That's always a fun thing to talk about here.
• 0:41
  What is it? Weather in Illinois, if you don't like it, wait 10 minutes, it'll change.
• 0:45
  And wow, sunny and hot and before then flooding and winds and tornadoes and,
• 0:53
  we had a lot of tornadoes uh last couple days a lot of tornadoes,
• 0:58
  and luckily we didn't get a tornado we had a little wind damage some some branches
• 1:03
  down and things so the most fun we had was so our basement
• 1:07
  we've got a window well that's an egress window right it's a room that could
• 1:11
  be turned in at someday into a another bedroom so it's got this egress window
• 1:15
  deep very deep window well.
• 1:17
  And my wife wandered downstairs to check on some things during the storm and
• 1:22
  comes back up and says, you better come down.
• 1:25
  So I go down to the basement and the window well, you look through the window,
• 1:29
  and it's about 10 inches deep in water.
• 1:32
  Now the sill of the window is about five inches above the gravel bed.
• 1:36
  So I've got, I got a good 15 to 18 inches of water in the window well that's not going anywhere.
• 1:44
  Well, the water table was just so high. There was just no place for the water
• 1:47
  to go but to start filling up the well.
• 1:51
  And now it's starting to leak around the sill into my shop.
• 1:57
  So now I have to get tools and things, power tools up on blocks to keep them
• 2:01
  from getting rusty. A couple projects I'm working on here to get those up on blocks.
• 2:07
  Now I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of all this water,
• 2:09
  and it's gushing now through the corners of the window well.
• 2:13
  It's just gushing into the basement.
• 2:16
  Well, I have, I think, ah, I've got a submersible. I'll drop a submersible into
• 2:21
  the well from the outside. We'll pump that water out.
• 2:25
  So it's an egress window. So in our brilliance.
• 2:31
  Our effort to be secure, we put a locking cover on it.
• 2:37
  The locks have to be removed from the inside of the well.
• 2:41
  So the only way I can get the submersible in, well, I have two ways.
• 2:46
  I can break the lid and drop it down. I wasn't going to do that.
• 2:50
  Those covers are not inexpensive.
• 2:53
  So I have to open the window. I have to open a window that's already got water,
• 2:57
  coming up 10 to 12 inches into the window.
• 3:00
  And I have to open that up. So I've got tools and things in the way.
• 3:04
  So I had to stand in front of the window, unlock it, slide it open,
• 3:09
  and just let this water just gush over me as it flooded my shop.
• 3:15
  But then I could put the pump in and start pumping out the, well,
• 3:19
  because it was coming in really fast.
• 3:21
  But anyway, it was a mess. And I thought, you know, it's funny when it's your
• 3:26
  mess, you always think, oh, this is, oh, this is, oh.
• 3:30
  And you forget about other people have bigger messes. I mean,
• 3:33
  this is a minor thing, a little bit of mopping, a wet vac, you know,
• 3:37
  a shop vac, and we clean things up, kind of short order.
• 3:40
  But the, and the tree, luckily the boughs that fell on the deck didn't do any
• 3:45
  damage to the deck, thank you God.
• 3:48
  But it took a while to saw them up, but it could have been worse.
• 3:51
  Could have, it didn't break any windows, didn't harm the house, didn't break the deck.
• 3:56
  Just a couple of good-sized branches that had to be sawed up and taken to the curb.
• 4:01
  And then you see the pictures the next day of the tornado damage to some of
• 4:05
  these towns. And oh my gosh, it's, it's incredible what nature can do.
• 4:10
  The power of a tornado is just, it is, it is wild.
• 4:15
  I had some friends that were, remember when Washburn, the town of Washburn got hit?
• 4:19
  Washington, Washington got hit. I forget, that was just before COVID-19.
• 4:25
  2012? That was a big, that was a big tornado.
• 4:29
  Went around the church, went around two churches, completely skirted two churches,
• 4:34
  had a line right at them, and then went around them and picked up on its previous
• 4:38
  trajectory, which amazed me. But a friend of mine's house got hit.
• 4:43
  And what was really weird was he had a very large SUV parked in his driveway.
• 4:48
  And when they came out after the, storm, the SUV was gone. I mean, gone.
• 4:55
  But two houses down, when his neighbor went out to their garage to check on
• 5:00
  things, the SUV was inside the garage, upside down on the neighbor's car.
• 5:09
  The tornado lifted the roof, lifted the truck, lifted the roof,
• 5:16
  dropped the truck down into the garage and drop the roof back down onto the garage.
• 5:23
  That's crazy. That, I mean, go out to your garage and find somebody else's car
• 5:28
  parked upside down on your car and the roof is still there. And you think, how did this happen?
• 5:34
  Yeah, but it separated the roof and then dropped it back down and just put the
• 5:37
  car just perfectly inside. That's just, that's wild.
• 5:42
  So yeah, if you had some of that tornado damage, very sorry.
• 5:46
  I hope things heal well for you. I hope No one was hurt from the reports I got.
• 5:51
  I saw I didn't see anyone severely hurt by the storm. Just a lot of damage, a lot of damage.
• 5:57
  So I hope you're all doing okay, and I hope you get your home back in order, in short order.
• 6:06
  Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet week.
• 6:10
  Our priests in our diocese, our priests have been out of town since Monday.
• 6:15
  They're at a retreat. They're in Lake Galena.
• 6:19
  Oh, my. Is it Lake Galena? No, Lake, help me out here. It starts with a G,
• 6:24
  Lake, I want to say Galena, but it's not.
• 6:27
  Oh, that's terrible. Now I can't think of the name of it. Geneva.
• 6:30
  Thank you. They're in Lake Geneva for their retreat. Yeah. Oh, yes, yes, yes.
• 6:35
  They're probably golfing or something. No, they just had a retreat of the whole diocese.
• 6:41
  Our Bishop Tilka decided to take all the bishops. He didn't take his deacons.
• 6:46
  We're all still here. Yeah, I mean, we're his deacons.
• 6:51
  But he took all the priests, and they went off for a four-day retreat.
• 6:54
  They get back tonight as we speak.
• 6:57
  And so we've had a lot of just in our diocese, we've had a lot of daily services,
• 7:03
  communion services, but no masses.
• 7:05
  We have a couple of retired priests who hung around and did masses at a few
• 7:10
  of the churches. But most of our churches either had no mass or had a communion service.
• 7:15
  And so it would be nice to have—we miss our priests. It'll be nice to have them back.
• 7:20
  And fortunately, we didn't have anyone who needed emergency sacraments.
• 7:25
  So that was good. But we did—we had one—I think we had one retired priest here
• 7:30
  in town to handle five parishes in case anything came up. And as far as I know,
• 7:35
  he wasn't called upon, which is good.
• 7:38
  Yeah, so it's going to be nice to have our priests back. We miss them,
• 7:41
  and we'll be back to normal as of tomorrow with our daily Masses and our weekend Masses.
• 7:47
  We're in ordinary times, so nothing really big going on. People are getting
• 7:51
  ready for picnics. A lot of parish picnics are going on or about to go on.
• 7:56
  Our parish has one coming up end of July. So it's just a nice social time of the year.
• 8:03
  Families are on vacation, and things are pretty quiet. It's nice to have quiet time.
• 8:09
  That's one of the reasons why we have Ordinary Time, to give us a break from
• 8:13
  the big holidays, the big feasts of the church, and be able to just focus on
• 8:20
  our studies and on our personal growth,
• 8:22
  time to evaluate and meditate.
• 8:26
  And that's part of what our readings are going to be talking about today.
• 8:30
  So we'll get to those in just a little bit. I hope you've had a good week.
• 8:36
  And just remind you that if you do have some issues, don't blame God. Call God in for help.
• 8:44
  God never leaves us. Usually when we're having problems, it's because we wandered
• 8:48
  away from Him, not He didn't wander away from us.
• 8:51
  So if you have things going wrong in your life because of the storms, the bad weather,
• 8:56
  whatever, a good time to call upon the strength of the graces of your sacraments,
• 9:02
  and ask God for His continued help and support, and you'll get through this.
• 9:11
  It's just stuff that breaks.
• 9:14
  The most important thing is your relationship with Christ.
• 9:17
  That's what really counts because that's the eternal life.
• 9:22
  Reward. Everything else is,
• 9:24
  just stuff, and we can do without stuff sometimes, and it won't hurt us.
• 9:30
  So, hold on to the faith. Hold on to your prayers.
• 9:34
  Hold on to your radio station. You're listening to Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 9:37
  We'll be back in just a few minutes with more good news. Stay tuned.
• 9:41
  Good news will be right back on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 9:44
  Congratulations to Heather Rankin, who has decided to pursue a degree in nursing.
• 9:49
  The downside to that news is that she is leaving Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 9:54
  So now Catholic Spirit Radio is seeking someone for the new full-time position
• 9:59
  as Director of Events and Outreach, or as I like to say, Director of Excitement.
• 10:04
  If you have plenty of enthusiasm and organizational skills waiting to be used
• 10:08
  in a faith-filled environment, check out the details in the Job tab at catholicspiritradio.org.
• 10:14
  Attention, lady and men golfers! The Monsignor Ketchum Memorial Golf Outing is August 20th.
• 10:19
  Sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, number 15175. Golf, food,
• 10:23
  and prizes. Sign up at kofc15175.org. Can I ask you a question?
• 10:31
  Are you encountering adversity in your life?
• 10:35
  Are you carrying a heavy cross?
• 10:38
  Is your cross a serious illness? A broken relationship? The loss of a loved one?
• 10:45
  Financial, mental, emotional, physical, spiritual.
• 10:51
  Yes, crosses come in many forms, and crosses are difficult.
• 10:57
  They can be very heavy. They can be overwhelming. Is your cross crushing you?
• 11:05
  Do you feel at times like you cannot even breathe? Well, I know,
• 11:10
  I know, I know a little bit about the cross.
• 11:13
  And I want to assure you that our Lord Jesus is with you and he knows everything about your cross.
• 11:22
  As a matter of fact, he went before you when he hung and bled and died on the cross for you.
• 11:32
  Well, the world is being redeemed through the cross.
• 11:37
  As difficult and painful as our crosses may be, it is a great privilege to be
• 11:45
  given the gift of the cross in our lives.
• 11:50
  Listen, there is one thing we will not have in heaven.
• 11:53
  And that if it's possible to have nostalgia in heaven, we will have nostalgia
• 11:57
  for this. And that is the redemptive and purifying crosses we were blessed with during our lives.
• 12:06
  Yes, the cross is literally joined to God.
• 12:10
  Jesus, God, and man allowed himself to be nailed to the cross.
• 12:17
  And if we want to be one with Jesus here on earth, we need to allow him to pull
• 12:23
  us up on the cross with him.
• 12:27
  Because in a real sense, that is where he is at and that is where we will find him.
• 12:34
  We can only really see the world for what it is through the view from up on the cross.
• 12:43
  Yes, it is there that we learn to love everything and everyone from the cross
• 12:51
  because God is love and he is one with the cross.
• 12:58
  Yes, Jesus died once, rose, and is seated at the right hand of the Father in
• 13:02
  heaven, but he is mystically
• 13:04
  still on the cross, redeeming the world through his mystical body,
• 13:10
  the church, and that is you and that is me.
• 13:16
  And don't forget that the cross leads to the resurrection.
• 13:21
  I'm Jim Littleton, formingfaithfulfamilies.com.
• 13:26
  And welcome back to Good News. I'm Deacon Al Lundy.
• 13:30
  If you have a question about Catholicism, Christianity in general,
• 13:35
  we'd be happy to try and answer your questions for you.
• 13:37
  We have an email address of goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.org.
• 13:44
  I think both of them work.
• 13:46
  And you can write us, and we'll be happy to answer your questions on the air.
• 13:50
  And of course, if I don't have the answer, I'll make one up.
• 13:53
  So it works out fine. No one's complained so far.
• 13:56
  Now, and we're heading, well, this is the 12th Sunday of ordinary time.
• 14:03
  And the first reading is from Jeremiah. Jeremiah is my favorite of the prophets,
• 14:10
  only because what a tough guy. Poor Jeremiah gets beat up a lot.
• 14:16
  I mean, he has a lot of problems. People didn't like him. He had a tough message to deliver.
• 14:20
  And it seems everywhere he went, Jeremiah gets beat up.
• 14:24
  And we talked about this just before the break. When things are rough,
• 14:28
  call on God. Well, that's Jeremiah in a nutshell.
• 14:32
  And so, we hear that in this first reading, which is from chapter 20 of Jeremiah.
• 14:37
  And he writes, I hear the whispering of many, terror on every side,
• 14:43
  denounce, let us denounce him.
• 14:46
  All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
• 14:50
  Perhaps he will be trapped. Then we can prevail and take our vengeance on him.
• 14:55
  This does not sound like a guy having a good day. Even his friends have turned against him.
• 15:00
  His enemies have been after him for a long time. He gets chased through the
• 15:04
  wilderness. They're always trying to beat up on Jeremiah.
• 15:07
  Simply because they've all gone the wrong direction.
• 15:10
  And God sent Jeremiah to him to say, don't forget who's been helping you since the time of Moses.
• 15:20
  Who's kept you under his wing and protected you from all your enemies?
• 15:24
  And yet you've turned away now, and you're worshiping all these false gods.
• 15:28
  And he sends Jeremiah in to straighten everybody out.
• 15:31
  Jeremiah doesn't want to go, and he pretty much makes him go.
• 15:36
  And now everybody's after Jeremiah.
• 15:38
  So, then he says, Jeremiah adds, But the Lord is with me like a mighty champion.
• 15:45
  My persecutors will stumble. They will not triumph.
• 15:48
  In their failure, they will be put to utter shame, to lasting,
• 15:52
  unforgettable confusion.
• 15:55
  O Lord of hosts, you who test the just, who probe the mind and heart,
• 15:59
  let me witness the vengeance you take on them.
• 16:02
  For to you I have entrusted my cause. Sing to the Lord. Praise the Lord,
• 16:07
  for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked. The word of the Lord.
• 16:14
  So when things are at the darkest for Jeremiah, he doesn't take revenge himself.
• 16:19
  He doesn't attack his attackers.
• 16:22
  He runs from them. He tries to hide from them, tries to let things cool off.
• 16:27
  And instead he calls on God and says, I'm doing your will. I'm counting on you to take care of me.
• 16:34
  And you see all the things that I'm doing. You know the truth.
• 16:38
  You know who I am and what I'm doing for you.
• 16:42
  But he says, but let me see this vengeance take place.
• 16:47
  Let me live. What he's actually saying is, let me live long enough to see my
• 16:52
  persecutors be persecuted.
• 16:56
  So, we'll see where that goes in the next chapter, but it works out pretty well
• 17:00
  for Jeremiah for the most part.
• 17:02
  Our second reading is from Paul to the Romans, and Paul writes,
• 17:07
  Brothers and sisters, through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death.
• 17:12
  And thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned.
• 17:17
  For up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law.
• 17:23
  But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin,
• 17:28
  after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who is to come.
• 17:33
  But the gift is not like the transgression. For by the transgression of the one, the many died.
• 17:42
  How much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man,
• 17:46
  Jesus Christ, overflow for the many? The word of the Lord.
• 17:51
  So, what Paul's pointing out here is that death entered the world not through,
• 17:57
  any doing of God, but through our own sin, through human sin.
• 18:01
  That's what brings actual death. We were created in the goodness,
• 18:05
  the likeness of God. We're meant to be eternal.
• 18:09
  And so, we believe that we will be if we follow Christ.
• 18:13
  But we were designed to be an eternal being.
• 18:17
  It was through our disobedience to God that sin took over, and part of that
• 18:24
  punishment of sin was we lost that eternal life for a time being,
• 18:29
  and we're made to suffer here on earth.
• 18:32
  But God didn't leave us alone. He had a plan from the very beginning.
• 18:38
  If sin and death came to mankind through one man, through Adam,
• 18:44
  then salvation was going to come to mankind through one man, through Jesus Christ.
• 18:50
  So that's been God's plan from the very beginning.
• 18:53
  And Paul is pointing out to these new Christians in Rome that this is all taking place for their good.
• 19:01
  And that, yes, all men sin, we're broken, but yet God loves us so much that
• 19:09
  He sent His Son, God incarnate, as a gift to us to offer us salvation.
• 19:17
  And He's urging them to follow the teachings of Christ, to accept that wonderful gift.
• 19:25
  I find it interesting that he talks about, through the pattern of the trespass
• 19:28
  of Adam, who is the type of one who is to come.
• 19:32
  A type in scriptural language, a type is a precursor.
• 19:38
  Just like Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea is a type of baptism.
• 19:44
  Leaving slavery of Egypt, new life through passing through water.
• 19:49
  That's what baptism is. We leave the slavery of sin, and we gain new life in Christ through water.
• 19:56
  And so, the Old Testament is filled with these types, these symbols of what is to come.
• 20:03
  What happens in the Old Testament is then perfected in the life of Christ in the New Testament.
• 20:11
  In our gospel, according to Matthew, this comes from Matthew chapter 10,
• 20:16
  Jesus said to the twelve, Fear no one.
• 20:19
  Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.
• 20:25
  What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light. What you hear whispered, proclaim housetops.
• 20:31
  And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
• 20:36
  Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
• 20:41
  Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the
• 20:46
  ground without the Father's knowledge.
• 20:48
  Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
• 20:51
  So do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.
• 20:56
  Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
• 21:02
  But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father. The gospel of the Lord.
• 21:09
  So this was almost written for Jeremiah, going back to our first reading.
• 21:14
  Jeremiah is afraid, he's got people chasing him, they're out to kill him.
• 21:20
  He's hesitant about spreading God's message because it's just making people angry.
• 21:26
  And now Jesus is about to send the disciples out on their mission and their
• 21:32
  ministries, and he's kind of preparing them for the same thing that Jeremiah
• 21:36
  ran into they're going to run into.
• 21:38
  Not everyone is going to like their message.
• 21:41
  Not everyone is going to be open to the gospel.
• 21:44
  And so Jesus is assuring them, don't be afraid. these people cannot do anything
• 21:50
  to you but take your life.
• 21:52
  So what? I can give you a new life. I can give you an eternal life.
• 21:56
  So don't be afraid to share my message. What I'm telling you now,
• 22:00
  tell everyone, and don't be afraid of the repercussions because I'm with you always.
• 22:06
  You know, a couple sparrows that would be used if you were a pauper,
• 22:11
  if you were really, really poor and it was time to make sacrifice at the temple,
• 22:14
  you would buy a couple of small birds, a couple sparrows or a dove.
• 22:19
  And that was the cheapest acceptable sacrifice you could purchase.
• 22:24
  And it didn't cost much. So they gave everybody a chance to make some kind of a sacrifice.
• 22:30
  And he's saying now, even though they might not have monetary value,
• 22:36
  look at how valuable this life is to me, and all life is valuable to me.
• 22:40
  And if a bird has value to me, think how much more value you have.
• 22:45
  The bird can't preach my word to others, and you can.
• 22:49
  So, he's assuring the disciples that they'll be protected by Christ,
• 22:55
  not necessarily protected from death. Most of the apostles were martyred.
• 23:00
  So, they weren't protected from a mortal death, but what they were protected
• 23:04
  from was an eternal death.
• 23:06
  And that's what protects us. We have a loving God that protects us from an eternal
• 23:11
  death if, as he says, we acknowledge him.
• 23:16
  If we ignore Christ, he's going to ignore us.
• 23:20
  It's back to this message of you reap what you sow. Whatever you give in life
• 23:26
  is what you're going to receive in the next life.
• 23:29
  So your dedication to Christ in
• 23:31
  this life will be returned in Christ's dedication to us in the afterlife.
• 23:39
  So there's nothing to be afraid of. The worst thing that can happen to you in
• 23:42
  this life is that this mortal life be taken away.
• 23:46
  But there's so much more to life than what we experience here on earth.
• 23:52
  There's an eternal life, a glorified life in heaven with Christ that awaits
• 23:58
  all of us if we stay dedicated to Christ's love.
• 24:03
  And that's a great message. And yes, you are worth more than a couple of sparrows.
• 24:09
  So have faith and show that faith through the love that you show to others.
• 24:14
  And it doesn't have to be some grandiose, you know, you don't have to be an
• 24:19
  apostle. You don't need to become a bishop or a priest to carry out the love of Christ.
• 24:26
  Your ministry, your mission that you receive from your baptism is to love God
• 24:30
  and love others. It's really that simple.
• 24:33
  And to love others doesn't take huge heroic acts.
• 24:37
  Small acts of love, just like the small life of a sparrow, are just as important.
• 24:43
  God sees every detail of your life, and each one is taken into account.
• 24:50
  So seeing a sick friend in the hospital, knowing that an elderly neighbor needs
• 24:56
  help, just getting the garbage cans out on garbage day, and you do that for them.
• 25:01
  Those simple acts of love are important.
• 25:04
  They all add up and they all have an effect on our relationship with Christ,
• 25:09
  So, I guess what I'm leaving you with this week is look for those opportunities of small acts of love.
• 25:18
  How can you show God your appreciation through acts of kindness to others,
• 25:23
  not just your friends, not just to your family, but to people who just need kindness?
• 25:28
  Whether they show kindness to you or not is irrelevant.
• 25:32
  It's about how you live your likeness in Christ in your everyday life.
• 25:38
  That's what matters most. And that's the good news of Jesus Christ.
• 25:44
  May Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting life.
• 25:50
  Amen. You've been listening to Being Catholic with Bob Johnston on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 25:54
  If you'd like to contact Bob, email bob at catholicspiritradio.com.
• 26:00
  Again, that's bob at catholicspiritradio.com. Catholic Spirit Radio relies on
• 26:05
  your support to bring programming like this and EWTN 24 hours a day.
• 26:09
  Please help keep Catholic Spirit Radio on the air with your generous support.
• 26:13
  Donate online at catholicspiritradio.com or send a donation to Catholic Spirit
• 26:18
  Radio, 108 Boykins Place, Normal, Illinois, 61761.
• 26:23
  That's Catholic Spirit Radio, 108 Boykins Place, Normal, Illinois,
• 26:27
  61761. Catholic Spirit Radio is a 501c3, and all donations are tax-deductible.
• 26:34
  Thank you for your support of CatholicSpiritRadio.