Unveiling Christianity
These conversations at Holy Family Parish in Parma, Ohio seek to encounter and share the beauty, goodness, and truth of God and the Church.
Unveiling Christianity
"Reflecting on Easter and Mission"
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Parish Mission w/ Deacon John Green and Carolyn Green - https://share.google/1zQJXRqXX0iq3J4r0
Music Copyright: https://artlist.io/
Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Unveiling Christianity. I'm Father David. I'm Marturnus. Happy Easter to you all, right? Absolutely. At this point, uh, this will be firmly uh in the Easter season. I think we did our last episode on holy Saturday, so it may or may not have been Easter for people. So here we are. How's Easter going for you, Mark?
SPEAKER_01It's uh going good. I am uh I've I've turned my attention to what we talked about last uh last podcast of just enjoying the season and rejoicing in the season, and uh so far so good.
SPEAKER_00So far so good, right? A few days in already. So yeah, it was great. We talked about uh yeah, our game plan was uh instead of prayer fasting in almsgiving, it was prayer feasting in almsgiving, if you will, right?
SPEAKER_01I did return to pistachios, but I didn't overindulge, and we did talk about that too. Yeah, feasting is different than uh overindulging. Gorging. Gorging, I like that word. There you go. So I returned in in modesty to my pistachios, which I did give up for Lent. Oh, there you go. Uh that was good. Uh some of the things I talked about um kind of continue to remain the same. I I talked about maybe trying my best to uh keep a couple of things that I did in Lent going forward, like an uh extra mass, not extra, but uh a weekday mass or two. And then I also uh said I was gonna start reading Acts of the Apostles, which I did, and that's that's been uh very rewarding. So how far have you got so far? Um a couple of chapters, and I didn't know if I was even going to bring this up because I'm not quite sure. You you mentioned last podcast to do what I was suggesting and then just see where the Lord takes you. And for whatever reason, I ended up in the book of Ezekiel. Oh, I have no idea why wandered into Ezekiel. I don't know. I was drawn to it now. I'm stuck there, so I am doing pretty good with Acts of the Apostles, but Ezekiel, as you know, was a very interesting prophet, and it it it is cool. So I don't know where that's gonna take me, so that's yet to be determined.
SPEAKER_00But is there anything particular that spoke to you about Ezekiel?
SPEAKER_01I hope the opening of that book is well, I remembered chapter 37, the whole bones in the intra valley kind of coming coming together. But um the the opening of that book is like stunning. His his call is like whoa, because he actually sees God come with the cherubim and the cherry. I mean, it's it's it's pretty cool. But I don't know where that'll take me, and I say that's yet yet to be determined. So some things change, some things I just went with the wind.
SPEAKER_00Wandering through the Bible, you know. Well, that's that's a good thing. I think that is um I was reflecting on that. So uh yeah, Easter week and everything, the octave, having a little bit of time for rest. So I was able to uh I was able to get away a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I heard you went away, but no one no one really knew where.
SPEAKER_00So but I couldn't I couldn't hide the evidence.
SPEAKER_01I'm I I'm looking at him right here and I told him you cannot hide a suntan. So he he wasn't around here.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I did uh I did wander south uh a bit down to uh Florida and actually uh went on a went on a cruise for a couple days. Very cool. So with uh celebrity. It was pretty fun. Uh first one I did last year and everything is uh it's considered the the Paschal cruise, if you will.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I I like it. I like it. It was good.
SPEAKER_00It's like a holy week and Easter and everything, and Lent was all really beautiful, but it's uh it's also a lot. So it's good to have some some downtime and some rest.
SPEAKER_01So I think I think that's amazing. I think that's amazing. And there's no reason to hide the tan. It looks good on you.
SPEAKER_00Oh well, there you go. Yeah, getting just getting ready, you know, for and it was nice because it was it was relatively warmer when we got back.
SPEAKER_01So well, you're tanned a lot. I've I remember you from last summer. You're outside a lot, and you're outside. Slovak, you know, the old Slovak skin, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm Croatian, but I mean I tan very well too. I'm German and Croatian, I tan very well, and people always ask me, where have you been? And I'm like, Outside? You're playing Frisbee Gall. Well, yeah, that's true. Yeah, it's like I didn't go anywhere, I just went outside.
SPEAKER_00But no, but I just I I think of that because there was one day we were walking around, and it was just having the freedom to wander is really restful and really like I don't have to be anywhere around to do anything. I think that was a moment I was like, ah, we are celebrating Easter right now. There you go.
SPEAKER_01And and we that was part of our rejoicing and and uh enjoying this the season. So that's good. That's very good. Thanks for sharing that.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So but we're back, uh we're back to the parish and excited to dive back into all that's going on. So yeah, so with that, we have uh Easter. You know, Easter is 50 days and everything, and we're just kind of reflecting on even more, just like entering into the season the past couple homilies uh in the daytime I've given. So it's actually actually the apostles now in in the in the readings, the first the first readings during the week. During the week, yeah. So just kind of following the apostles around as they're doing stuff and kind of shared with the kids on Monday, you know, like how do we enter into Easter? How do we be an Easter people? First inviting the Holy Spirit. So, you know, they were coming up against uh issues, you know, just with the Pharisees and things with proclaiming Jesus and all this stuff. They're coming up against resistance. And what they did was they called upon the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit came inside of them and in a sense gave them the boldness to speak uh all that they were meant to speak. Right. And then the next day was um that they you know took all the resources and they felt called and inspired to kind of share them all in common so that they would you know share with the poor and things, and it was a sense of you know, what are we willing to let go of you know in our lives? You know, so are we willing to let go of uh our resources but also our time, our our planning, our our events. You know, if God's filling, if God's calling us to do something, are we willing to let go? And a sense of you know, maybe a metric of discipleship, you know, uh uh a measure of how we're entering into this Easter season is you know, are we willing to let God guide us and are we willing to let go of certain things, you know.
SPEAKER_01One of the main things that I'm I started reading X uh myself is they they let go of their fear. And uh, you know, they preached Christ crucified, and and that that was a bold message to preach. So I think a lot of what I have to do is let go a lot of my fear and uh and uh just kind of follow where he's leading me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, so maybe in addition, entering into this this Easter season, you know, how often are we calling upon the Holy Spirit intentionally in our lives and then evaluating those things that we're called to let go of? So in order so that we can follow God, not to simply just to continue to let go of things and it's painful and whatever. Yeah, and then with that we had uh Divine Mercy Sunday too, right?
SPEAKER_01That was that was beautiful. I I just wanted to share my my experience with that. It's uh we had Divine Mercy Sunday, which is uh is the end of the Yoctave. It's it's a special Sunday, this uh second first Sunday after Easter. And uh we had a very beautiful prayer service and uh did the rosary and we did uh exposition, we did benediction. It was just it was just beautiful. But um one of one of the things um that that struck me is with Divine Mercy is it's kind of a two-prong approach. You you you you need to ask for it, and uh you also need to give mercy. And and there was a line in your homily that was so beautiful that I actually prayed with it for the last two nights, and I probably will continue. Uh, father's uh reading he chose was the prodigal son, prodigal father, whichever way you look at it. But he he he made this comment that that God's embrace is like the father's embrace to the son, and God has like two basic, basically he's hugging you with two arms, and one is an arm of providence, which is um, and I'm gonna paraphrase what you said, I probably won't get it exactly the way you meant it, but one arm is providence, which is no matter what you do, uh God's never going to, you can't do anything that's going to uh drive you away from God. God's always gonna be there for you uh providentially, and then the other arm is is forgiveness because we do stumble uh on occasions. So that that embrace from God is providence and forgiveness. And I I I pray that I just meditate on that at night. Yeah. Beautiful. It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00No, you you articulate that really well.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I I thought about it and prayed about it. So that's amazing.
SPEAKER_00Oh, praise God. No, I think it was uh it was just kind of an image that came to me because you have the prodigal son, yeah, and like he's coming back and he's been away and all this guilt and shame, and he's rehearsing all the stuff he has to tell the father, and which is like a further rejection because he wants to come back as a as a servant and not a son. But then uh yeah, the father sees him from a long way off, uh runs out to meet him and embraces him. And I just feel like that that hug would have been so profound and and reconciling in and of itself. It just you know, hugs are are are great, you know. We we hug each other as human beings. It just it conveys this sense of I'm with you and uh it's joy and rejoicing and whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01If it's forgiveness or whatever, that hug is is a is an act of rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, for sure. And yeah, I mean I think just uh in prayer it just kind of came to me, you know, just an you know it's just the only thing the the things that I'm kind of dealing with in life and all that stuff, and you know what do I what do I seek? You know, what what am I looking for in and the Lord's embrace? Right providence and mercy, you know, that that He's He is with us and guiding us, uh whether we fully realize it or know it or not. But like if we're striving to be faithful, that God's gonna be providential, He's his He's gonna be with us, and then Yeah, and then in the times that I I don't follow Him or the times that I screw up, you know, there's there's mercy that it's not the end of the world, even if we make the wrong decision or we you know uh do whichever that it's it's not the end um and because God wants to receive us back. So that's and that's the good news, right?
SPEAKER_01That that is and that and that second the second prong I I mentioned on Divine Mercy is uh is uh showing mercy. Obviously, we need mercy from God, and that's a huge, huge part of it, and that was a huge part of the day.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01But it also ends with with uh with showing mercy to others. So there's there's an act that we have to to play out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, it was a beautiful prayer service. And uh yeah, just really grateful to all those who made it possible and attended, and certainly the Mattises and the Gindras who've been doing it for a long time. So and uh Mark Walker too.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's right. Mark Walker. Yeah, no one can pray a rosary like Mark Walker. No, he's he's he's bold. It's a beautiful, bold statement, and I think the rosary should be. Yeah, but the rosary was once described to me as as a weapon. It's it's uh it's it's it's a a weapon that we have to uh to combat uh all the evil out there and and uh turn to turn to Mary, and he is a great uh warrior in that respect.
SPEAKER_00Prayer warrior for sure. Yep. Yeah, we need more more prayer warriors here in the parish. Yep. So it's good. Well, great. Uh so with that, we wanted to kind of transition just to a little conversation. We talked before about uh, well, we went through uh Holy Week and kind of all those things and talked about Easter and all that, and then I think it's really providential, if you will, for us to now talk about and reflect back upon our parish mission with uh Deacon John Green and his wife. Uh and uh it was really a great evening uh and he his topic was living deeply uh in a shallow world. So that we're called to live deeply. And I think that's to this ties into the Easter season, which we're called to live uh deeply, namely with the Holy Spirit and you know, uh in our hearts, not just kind of on the surface level. And the main uh scripture verse that he used was from the prophet Micah. So Micah chapter six, verse eight. And this was uh I don't forgive me, I I don't remember the exact how this verse came to him, uh but it was he he heard it earlier in his life and it was really impactful because he was wondering just how am I supposed to live? How am I supposed to be, you know, what am I supposed to do, especially in just regards to life and faith and everything. And then this verse came to him, he and it says, You have been told, O mortal, what is good and what the Lord requires of you. So if you're asking a question like, what does God want of me? God, what does God require of me? The answer is is this only to do justice and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God. Pretty simple, right?
SPEAKER_01It's very, very beautiful. It's amazing that that he did that. He is he is the most amazing person. When he started off, it's all about attitude a lot of times. And he started off the evening uh with a line, I don't know if you were gonna get to it, but I'm I'm I always jump ahead a lot. But um, he said, Um, we are in the springtime of evangelization. And I thought, for for so many people out there who think, you know, well, we're the world is just in the in the winter of this down downward trend. But his attitude of being we're in the springtime evangelization, he quoted John Paul II uh 50 years ago at calling for a new evangelation, evangelization, but somehow he he did it, and he I didn't really understand where he went. He was born in a very affluent family, but ended up in the streets of New York helping people. And it's like, what happened there? How did he get it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there was more of his story, I think, to be to be shared. He didn't go uh deeply into that, but exactly. Yeah, but he so yeah, he had a kind of an upheaval in life, uh, just in a sense of you know, just his plans. He really let go of of of where he was at. Right. And really followed the Lord, yeah, to the streets of New York City, uh caring for for people. I believe he has a book uh called Street Walking with Jesus. Yeah, he mentioned that. He mentioned that, yeah. So so that's his book, and kind of the maybe the more of the story uh is is there. But yeah, I think, you know, so he's really took this the sense to heart of like doing justice, loving goodness, and walking humbly with God, that this is being about mission and about evangelization, uh, that we do these things for our own sake, but for the sake of other people, and just wanting to give back what he had been given in in the world, uh in you know, in life. And so, yeah, caring for the poor people of New York and doing a lot of ministry there with his wife. Uh, I believe it's still ministry still still operational and everything.
SPEAKER_01Right. But but it was in a huge way. I mean, he he described some situations where they were all like nearly like dangerous situations that he and his wife were in, just helping these street people. And it was like he had some calling, and it was probably it had to be more than just reading Micah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, somehow God got a hold of him and like Mother Teresa, too, you know, um, you know, seeing Jesus in them. Yeah, you know, that they are persons in the in the image and likeness of they're persons in the image and likeness of God. And you know, I think he had the question of like, you know, why not me?
SPEAKER_01He he asked that.
SPEAKER_00You know, why why am I in the position in life that I am, and why is this person in the position that they are? Obviously, we can go into a lot of conversation about you know economics and politics and all those things, but but there's there's a sense, like ultimately, like deeper, like why, you know, why is the case that my life is this way? And and his response, I think I think the response that he heard was just because of love, right? Because this is an opportunity to to to share what I've given you and and to love this person. And and there's a great grace to to have resources and a comfort in life, but then ultimately that those are not just for us. So we're called to yeah, to share and to evangelize and and not just keep to our comfort zones and not just to keep to uh what we're used to and everything, right? And so yeah, it was stepping out and doing justice, caring for those people uh around us, uh to loving loving goodness and then walking humble humbly with God. It's not about it's not about us and not about all of our power and plans and and this and that, but we're we're given to be so we can be stewards.
SPEAKER_01So well, what struck me and on the drive home, I I thought of this a lot. I mean, his story is remarkable, and he is a great missionary, and and he and he he stood up and he he he went and answered God's call. But as I was driving home, everybody, everybody has work to do, everybody has their own mission. Right. And and my my hero, uh John Henry Newman, basically said, God, God's committed some work to me that he has not committed to any other person. And I that always struck me. And and it's our job, I guess, it's our mission to find out what that is. And somehow, and it went without saying how he really found out what his mission was and why he ended up there. But uh, it's all of our job to kind of ask God. You ask for mercy, ask God, what is it you want from me, just like Micah did.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, and I think that's uh that's a key. And I was I was gonna bring this up. He didn't talk about this intentionally in the talk, um, but there's a as a phrase, uh it's three words it's relationship, identity, and mission. Any sense of what do you think that means? Well, um relationship, identity, and mission.
SPEAKER_01You have to uh have relationships with other people, you have to know who you are to know where you're going.
SPEAKER_00That's just uh Yeah, no, it was good, yeah. Yeah, in a sense, and I think this would be a part of his talk, but even you just mentioned it, like it's just a sense of he had a relationship with God that through prayer he realized his mission. Okay. So our you know, our identity, who who am I, right? That's a question we all have. But how do we know that? Ultimately we're gonna know it through relationship, right? That we're sons and daughters of the Father. And but as we press into that relationship and we and we know that's true in the depths of our being, and we have this exchange between God and us, you know, through prayer, we can then stand in that identity and then we can move into a mission from that place. Rather than oftentimes the temptation for us, especially in the modern world, is to reverse the order. To run off and here's my mission. To put mission first, to put my define myself by my activity.
SPEAKER_01That's a great way to look at it.
SPEAKER_00And then, you know, relationship with God would come would come later. But uh essentially, am I putting my identity in in who I am or or what I do? You know, and and as mission as missionaries, you know, it's not just activism, you know, it's not just about their doing it's not just about going out there and doing good things, it's about living with the Lord. I mean walking humbly with God, you know, doing you know, having that relationship that we're fostering each and every day through the prayer and the sacraments and spiritual reading and all of these things and the saints and then from there we can know our mission and have the grace and the courage to to step into that. So, um but it comes from a deeper place, and I think that's that's what he was getting at with his life. And yeah, I mean he was called into that mission uh in New York uh because he was rooted in a deeper faith and a deeper relationship with the Lord. Right. You know, and um yeah, I think when we have Christians that are doing that, they're living deeply with the Lord, and then their mission flows from that, that just gives the faith that much more uh power. There was a quote I thought of with um you know Paul the Sixth, Pope Paul VI. He said, Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers. And if he does listen to teachers, is because they are witnesses. But you know, the the world wants us to uh really be living what we're what we're proclaiming is true, right? And I think that's yeah, even in the Easter season, seeing where is there inconsistencies with what I believe and how I live, you know, and asking the Lord to to bridge that gap a little bit. Yeah, to bridge that gap a little bit. And and or and or talking to the Lord about like why is that? You know, why why why do I struggle with this and inviting grace, you know, into that so that we can be not just um teachers, in a sense, not just members of the church, but also ultimately witnesses, which is uh what we need and what the what the world needs. So we'll uh include a link to the to the mission uh on this on this podcast and the notes and everything, so you can take a look at it. And uh his wife Carolyn uh played some beautiful music as well that complimented uh went along with what he was he was sharing with us in regards to discipleship and evangelization and and all that too. So uh we can't really uh we we can't really uh reduplicate that here. So we'll uh point you to the point you to the talk to to listen there.
SPEAKER_01So I highly recommend you watch it if you haven't uh haven't already. That's right.
SPEAKER_00All right. Uh with that, let's jump to our gospel for this weekend. So it's gospel is the third third Sunday. Third Sunday of Easter. Pretty crazy, right? Is it? It is. Yeah, third Sunday. It is the third Sunday. Correct. All right. Let's pray. In the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. Reading from the Holy Gospel, according to Luke.
SPEAKER_01Glory to you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, What are you discussing about as you walk along? They stopped, looking downcast. One of them named Cleopus said to him in reply, Are you the only one are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken plate taken place there in these days? And he replied to them, What sort of things? They said to him, The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a mighty prophet in word, indeed in word, before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel. And besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body. They came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels, who announced that it was that he was alive. Then some of those who with us went also to the tomb, and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see. And he said to them, Oh how foolish you are, how slow of heart to believe all of the prophets spoke. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him and all the scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression he was going on farther, but they urged him, Stay with us. For even it is nearly evening and the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them, and it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, he said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, Were not our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us. So they sent out at once and returned to Jerusalem, where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, The Lord has been the Lord truly has been raised as it appeared to Simon. Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way, and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Anything strike you about.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna give you my patented word. There's three things, but I know I only have to pick one. Yes, but there are three three things that well, I'm I'm gonna pick two because one's really easy and quick. Um so they went out at once and returned to Jerusalem. This goes back to this urgency that I I that I feel when I'm in the Easter season. Yeah, you you you want to get to it, you want to go to it, you want to celebrate. And they uh they returned at once. But the one thing that really struck the one line here is um he gave the impression he was gonna go on further, and they urged him stay with us. So they asked him, and and it fits in with a lot of what we were talking about with mercy and divine mercy. They asked him, stay with us, and that's when they found out who he was, when he stayed with them and broke bread.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And they found out who he was.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, no, and that in that sense too, you know, they're walking away from Jerusalem, right? Right, they're walking a away from the place of encounter and mission and all of this stuff, right? And they're kind of abandoning faith in a sense, right? They're moving away. Uh, but then what happens? Jesus meets them, they encounter him, and then that sends them back into the mission, right? So relationship, identity, mission, they realized not just who Jesus was, but also who they were in that midst. And then they invited him back. So yeah, yeah, I'd reflect on that and even just the um you know, just walking with Jesus, you know, what is what does that look like? In the same image of like uh being uh embraced by the Lord, you know, the prodigal son. You know, just you know that experience of walking with Jesus and sharing with him the things that are on your heart. You know, what is that what is that experience like?
SPEAKER_01You know, the the other line they said our hearts were burning when he was talking with us. I mean they when he was revealing the scriptures. Our hearts were burning. I thought that would be an amazing, amazing feeling. And you know, we can have it, just walk with him.
SPEAKER_00Right. All right. Well, what's uh oh any uh any prayer intentions?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm going to pray for um all the little babies out there who are going to be baptized very soon. I know a couple of them that are coming up this weekend, one personally and one through a friend. Um, that God uh enters their life in that baptism, that the Holy Spirit comes to them in that baptism, and that they they become uh uh profound followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Great. I'm gonna offer prayer for Deacon John and his wife, you know, just for their continued ministry, the fruitfulness there. And um, uh Deacon John works with uh the Evangelical Catholic, so it's a national organization uh that helps to create missionary disciples, you know, kind of within the church. So uh just pray for them and uh the work of uh Evangelical Catholic. So all right, let's pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Good and gracious God, heavenly Father, we just give you thanks and praise uh for this Easter season, this time of resurrection, of your presence, of your mercy, of your province, of your providence. Be with us today, and still within our hearts uh courage and enthusiasm for encountering you, uh, for following you, and for giving witness to you. We give you thanks and praise. Uh, we entrust our lives and our hearts uh and our parish to you. We ask this all in your name, amen. Amen. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. All right, everyone. Continue having a good uh Easter, and we'll catch you next week.