Bringing Jesus with Us Daily: A Homily with Fr. Dom (4th Sunday in OT)

In this episode, Fr. Dom reflects on the importance of doing the will of the Father. He begins by rehashing the beauty of the sacrament of First Reconciliation and Catholic Schools Week. He emphasizes the significance of following the daily readings and how they lead to the Sunday Mass. He then explores the theme of the will of the Father through the examples of St. Francis de Sales and St. Paul. He highlights the importance of humility as the antidote to pride and encourages listeners to not be anxious but to trust in God's love and protection. James concludes by urging prayers for Catholic schools and teachers.

Takeaways

• Follow the daily readings to deepen your understanding of the will of the Father.
• Humility is the antidote to pride and allows us to do the will of the Father.
• Do not be anxious, but trust in God's love and protection.
• Pray for Catholic schools and teachers to guide the next generation in doing the will of the Father.

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Transcript

James Caldwell (00:00.262)
Welcome to the Manly Catholic. In this podcast, we will inspire, challenge, and equip all men to become the men they were created to be. Join us as we journey together to become the best versions of ourselves and strive to change our communities one man at a time.

Father Dom (00:22.254)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Good evening.

So I'm coming off of.

Four hours of confession today, a total of four hours. Earlier today we had first reconciliation, and so we had six priests here. So we heard two hours worth of confessions, and then I had confessions earlier later today before mass. So I'm kind of tired right now, but it's a good tired giving myself to the Lord, and I've always loved first reconciliation.

These children who have been preparing for the sacrament is coming in and meeting Jesus. And it's just wonderful to see that. And so we pray for them today and we acknowledge their achievements in a more deeper entering into Holy Mother Church where they're now even ever more deeper coming into the church in terms of receiving graces, preparing for the Eucharist, and then confirmation. And these are our little children today.

We also celebrate Catholic Schools Week as well. So there's much to celebrate about today. And so when we look at our readings today, when we look at Deuteronomy, when we look at our letter from Corinthians, when we look at our gospel today from Mark, we're reminded of many things. But one thing that kind of sticks out in my mind is the will of the Father. The will of the Father.

Fr. Dom (02:00.926)
Something that's important for us to do on a weekly basis, some of us do this, and it's quite easy to do, is that we follow the readings of the day. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Because every week the church puts before us a series of readings that lead us to the holy mass in which we celebrate on Sunday. And so the readings build off of each other.

And if you've never done that, I highly encourage you to every day look at the daily readings, read them. And then look at our Sunday readings and read those. The daily readings for Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, because they're just not hazardily put together. All the readings are leading towards the readings in which we hear today.

And if you did any of the readings this past week, you will clearly see what I'm talking about. The church wants us to focus today on the will of the Father. In Tuesday's gospel reading, we see Jesus teaching, then someone comes to Jesus and says, your brothers, your sisters, and your mother are here. And then Jesus says something quite peculiar. He says, those who do the will of my Father,

They are my brothers, my sisters, my mother.

And later in the week we celebrated some powerful saints. One of them was Saint Francis de Sales. He died in 1622 and he was in France. He became a bishop. And he was in a point of history in Europe where it was an absolute spiritual disaster for the coming off the heels of the Protestant Revolution. And so we're.

Fr. Dom (03:58.166)
St. Francis de Sales, now Bishop in France, where he finds himself is surrounded by Calvinism. And he preaches like no other in that area. By the time he dies, he converted 72,000 Calvinists back to Holy Mother Church because he did the will of the Father.

Fr. Dom (04:21.938)
Next we celebrated the great conversion of St. Paul, my most powerful saint and role model, outside St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch. And so we read his conversion story. St. Paul, who was breathing murderous threats against the people of the way, our first Christian brothers and sisters.

Some of them were murdered, some of them were put in prison. He had murderous threats, and then what he encountered the risen Lord on his way to Damascus what completely transformed his life. He encountered Jesus.

He said yes. He was transformed and renewed and forgiven. And he went a completely different way, the way of the Lord. And he was a great converter of souls in the building of the church and Gentile nations, wasn't he? Great apostle to the Gentiles. And what was he doing? He was doing the will of the Father. So that leads to our readings today. When we look at Deuteronomy, we clearly see.

that this book is laying out before all the Israelites that your heavenly father is the one true God. There are no other gods before you. They don't know anything about the salvation of the world with Jesus Christ but it is prophesied in our reading today that our Lord will send someone who will speak for Him and speak with authority. Speak with the words of salvation.

And he's telling his people, you have to do the will of the Father. You have to follow our Lord and Savior. You have to follow the one true God. And he ends our reading in a quite peculiar way. Says those who speak on behalf of the Lord, but do not follow the Lord, they shall die. And then we say. Praise be to the Lord. It's like, what? Well, what they're saying is those who do not have God speak on behalf as if they are God with pride.

Fr. Dom (06:23.424)
They're killing their soul. That's how dangerous pride is. But see, when we do the will of the Father, we're filled with humility. And that is the antidote to pride.

And then as we look at our reading from St. Paul to Corinthians, oh, the first sentence is absolutely powerful and it rings true for all of us today. Do not be filled with what? Anxiety. Do not be anxious. I'm gonna say that again for you. Do not be anxious. You are loved. You are protected.

and you have the strength to do the will of your Father. And St. Paul illuminates that quite powerfully. Well, his whole life illuminates that, and we know that. Read his epistles. Be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. We have to do the will of the Father.

And then when we look at our gospel today, we see what Deuteronomy was prophesying. Here is God in the flesh, Jesus, our Lord and Savior. There is no other way to the Father except through Jesus Christ. And here he is, and what is he doing? He's speaking with authority, and he's teaching, and he's casting out demons.

Do you know how many demons were cast out today with four hours worth of confession? A lot.

Fr. Dom (07:56.418)
We have to do the will of the Father. How powerful is that? Well, in Matthew, Jesus says, not everyone who calls to me, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven except those who do the will of my Father. All right, Father Dominic, we've heard it. You said it six times, the will of the Father, what is it? Well, if you would have paid attention to one of our gospel readings, it was either Wednesday or Thursday. Jesus says that the most important commandment is love.

That's the will of the Father. To love is, I love you, he says. There is no greater love than this than to lay down your life for your friends. Love is not letting someone do what they want, when they want, however they want, with whomever they want. One of the most grievous things we can do in our secular culture, the golden calf, the most gravest sin that we can do is say to someone that you're sinning.

You need to repent. How dare we say to someone that they're wrong? But we're supposed to do that as Christians. That's laying down our lives for our friends. That's the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Council the doubtful, admonish the sinner. These are the things we have to do for the will of the Father. Luke says that those who say they love our Lord but do not follow His commandments are a liar and the truth is not in them. Doing the will of the Father is following His commandments.

And when we submit to the Lord, that is sometimes very difficult. And now there it is, there's pride. There's pride. We give that over to the Lord. That's why we have confession that strengthens us, that humbles us so that we can bend our knees to the one true God, do the will of the Father. And then that's when we'll find peace, joy, happiness, consolation. That's when we'll be free of anxiety and we have nothing to worry. Great readings today.

And as we celebrate Catholic Schools Week, let us pray for our Catholic schools. Let us pray for our teachers. For they are in the trenches as well. Pray for them that they do the will of the Father and they mold the little minds towards God and God alone. That they model what it looks like to do the will of the Father and to teach the truth of the Catholic faith with doctrine and dogma.

Fr. Dom (10:24.854)
the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, the four last things, the five precepts of the church, that there is heaven and that there is hell, that baptism saves you, that Jesus loves us, that he built the church for us to have an intimate relationship with him through confession and the Eucharist. Let us pray for our teachers and our Catholic schools, not only in our diocese, not only here for OLC, but around the world.

to form our next generation of minds that will put God first in everything they do so that when the little ones become doctors, lawyers, architects, politicians, priests, religious, whatever, construction workers, that they will be Jesus Christ in the holy Catholic church wherever they go. That, my brothers and sisters, is the will of the Father. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

James Caldwell (11:23.746)
Thank you all so much for tuning in to another episode of The Manly Catholic. If you have not already done so, please hit that subscribe button wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss a single episode. It will also help grow the show and reach as many men as possible. We truly think this podcast can change families and help men to change the world. Thank you again so much for tuning in and God bless you.