Fr. Dom's Homs: Every Breath is a Gift: Why God Fights for Your Soul

James Caldwell: This is the Manly Catholic, the podcast that calls you out of the shadows and into the fight. Here we forge men into warriors for Christ, husbands, fathers, and leaders who refuse to kneel to the modern world's lies. No more passivity, no more excuses, no more lukewarm faith. This is your battle cry, your call to arms. The time for weakness is over. It's time to fight. Welcome to the Manly Catholic. Let's get to work. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, as I reflect on our readings today, there's one word that comes to mind and it's it's gift. Gift. It reminds me of a story I I've shared with you before. I'd like to share it again. It's something that I re I recall from from time to time. And then I'll I'll tie the rest of the readings into the word gift. I had a friend. And yeah, she was she was coming into to her faith. She was coming into a relationship with with Jesus. And so she was moving out of a place of darkness and and into light and and there was a lot of healing along the way as as well. So I I had a privilege of journeying with her for a little while during this time. And I was I was coming into my my faith as well, too. And she she loved doing this this activity or this this thing during Christmas and She would she would buy Christmas gifts and wrap them up and put them in a bag and and then she'd go to a poor person's house from her church that that she knew and she would put the gifts on the door and knock on the door or ring the doorbell and then and then run away. You know, just these free gifts. That's what she would do. And she loved doing that. And then remember she stopped at one house. It was like the last house and and the last bag of gifts and she ran up to the house in the dark in the snow and set it on the the the the porch and rang the dou doorbell and and ran back and then you know she got in the car and she's just weeping. She's she's just bawling. And I said and I said, What's what's wrong? Why why are you crying? Did did they did they yell at you? Did did they sick the dogs on you? It's like, what's going on? Why are you crying? You you did something good. And she sh and she says, I just feel so good. And we were both like, Yeah, that's that's Jesus right now. Because 'cause you you did something good. You just you just gave these gifts. And it and it reminded me of of of a piece of of scripture you know you know so well probably where we're where we hear in in the old testament. God loves a cheerful giver. Yes. God loves a cheerful giver. And and and she was so full of of of cheer, she was she was weeping and it was just always a a powerful moment for me to to reflect on and asking myself too, is it's like Do I do I do I do I feel that way? Do I do I have that desire to want to be selfless and to sacrifice in that way? And it kind of hit me as no, I I'm not. But it was a witness to me. It's like, yes, I I want to do that. I want to do that. And I started doing little things like that as well, too. And it just feels so good to give, doesn't it? When someone doesn't ask for something and then you give. It it just it feels so good to do that. And so so the word gift has been on my mind as I go over these readings because our readings are filled with that as well, too. And it and especially where we find ourselves in the liturgical calendar. We as Catholics, what makes us Catholics is we are very liturgical, we can't forget that. We have a very powerful liturgical calendar that guides us every single day throughout the year. And that is a gift in itself, because it keeps us rightly ordered. To the church, rightly ordered to God, because we're always in a position to celebrate. We know that every day is a gift, every breath's a gift, every heartbeat's a gift. And the church is a gift. The liturgy is a gift. The very mass that we celebrate here is the most powerful prayer in all the universe. And that is a gift given to us by God. We enter into the mass is not a human construction. I talk about that a lot. We need to understand that as Catholics. Everything in God's church through Jesus Christ is a gift in its set in itself. We may find ourselves in ordinary time in the liturgical calendar. But we always have to remember too, like what great celebrations did we just come off of? We can't forget that. Another great gift we celebrate is the church always designates months to something very special. And the month of June is dedicated to what? The month of June is given to what? Always has been and always will be the most sacred heart of Jesus. That's it, nothing else. What a gift that is. The sacred heart of Jesus is a great gift. So the church is reminding of us this month. This is what we celebrate. Well, what did we just come off of these great celebrations that were that were gifts? Corpus Christi, the body of Christ, the Eucharist? Talk about Jesus Christ's most sacred heart. We get to consume that in the Eucharist. That in itself is a gift, a gift where our Heavenly Father is saying, How much more can I love you? Let me love you. And that transforming power of receiving the Eucharist, and then we become more and more like Jesus, the great gift giver. God loves giving gifts. And all we do as children is just say, Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I love you too. Well, then we we celebrated the the Holy Trinity. what a display of who God is. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus says to his apostles about who he is. The prophets longed to see what you see, but they didn't see. And that's specifically the Trinity. This is here, I this is who I am, God fully revealed to us. Me and nothing more. This relationship of transforming power, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the divine Trinity, that's a great gift for us for us as well, too, because we're created in that image, aren't we? In the Holy Trinity. And then the ascension, we celebrated the ascension. That's a great gift for us as well, too, because that represents Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, taking what? Taking his resurrected body into heaven. Using his flesh, his holy flesh, to unlock the doors of heaven. For us, so that our flesh one day can enter into the glory of God in heaven. That is a great gift. We can't forget that. Well, the resurrection, Easter, 50 days of celebrating, God conquering death, something that we can't do, that is a great gift as well. Now, what are our responses to these great gifts? Well, even the time of Lent, 40 days in preparation for. Easter, that's a great gift in itself because the church allows us an opportunity to dive deep within our souls, our minds, and our hearts, allowing God to cleanse us of our sins. Lent reveals our sins and our fallen nature and the need and the hunger for Jesus in our lives, and then opens the possibility for another gift, the great sacrament of reconciliation, where Jesus Christ wipes away your sins. Even in the most my most favorite time of the year, Christmas and Advent. We celebrate the birth of God, the Virgin Mary, Mary being a gift. All the angels and saints celebrating that great birth. Saints are a gift, angels are a gift. Even if we backtrack further from the birth, we celebrate the great Annunciation where God took on flesh in the womb of Mary. And these are great gifts. And we as Catholics, because we're liturgical, we recall these things. We never forget these things. If we do, we cease to become Catholic. And these are all great gifts. And as we look at our readings today, we see that even in our second reading from Saint Paul, Saint Paul is such a great writer. In just a matter of five sentences, he he outlays the economy of salvation from Adam and Eve to the resurrection of the second Adam, Jesus the Christ. But did you did you catch this? There was there was one sentence. If I could find it. here it is. He says, but the gift, there it is, the gift. The gift is not like our transgressions. Right? So he's pointing to Jesus. He's pointing to Jesus. This is the gift. This is the one who died for us. And he says, He is the most gracious gift. He goes on to say, this gracious gift is the one man, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. So powerful is Jesus Christ. We know that in Scripture, Jesus even says that I am the way to the Father. Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. He is the gate to our Heavenly Father. And He's reminding us how much, how, how, how hungry are we for Jesus Christ to have in our minds and to have in our souls. And to walk a life of Jesus Himself, the great gift giver. Even in our gospel today, Jesus says something profound, and we've heard it so many times before. Towards the end of our gospel, Jesus says, He says to us, do not be afraid. Because you are worth more than many sparrows. And you think to yourself like a bird? Like that's it? Like, can I be like, you know, worth more than like a bag full of diamonds or or all the gold in the world? I mean that's pretty cool. And so I did a little digging in the word sparrow, and I was like, Well, I wonder if this is any other translation the Hebrew, the Greek, Latin. So I went to the Greek. And the Greek word uses a different word. Kind of the same thing, but it's it's little bird. Little bird. So I did a little bit more digging. In the context of which Jesus uses the word sparrow, or in the Greek little bird, it means sacrifices that only the poor could bring to the temple because you could buy little birds in the market for the holy sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Rich people had like calves or ox or even middle class doves, but sparrows. were small little birds that you could buy for pennies and you could offer that as a sacrifice. So that represented simplicity. That represented humility. See, when we're simple and we're humble, that's when Jesus can work through us. Because we've let go of everything else in our lives, all the idols, you know, our desire for lust and power and pleasure, money, all these things. But when you're simple in your heart and you have humility, that is the sacrifice of all sacrifice, that is a little bird. And so Jesus is saying, You are worth more than all the treasures in heaven. Amazing. Finally to to to end, one of my favorite pieces in scripture I say that a lot. I really like scripture. One of my favorite pieces in scripture in Jeremiah. The Lord is with us like a mighty champion. Our Lord is a mighty champion, not some weak made up God, the only God. Pure power and creative potential. Created you and me in his own image, and he fights for us. The only thing we have to do is we just have to let him in. So as we celebrate this great mass today and receive the most holy Eucharist, let us allow God to come into our hearts. To fight for us like a mighty champion in the name of the Father, and the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. Brothers, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If the shows add value to your life, I'm going to ask you to do three things. Share with a brother who needs it, leave us a review, and finally support the show so we can keep fighting. Links are in the show notes. We'll see you next week.