March 23, 2025 Homily: Fr Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03let me begin with a question Steve Jobs
2. 0:06once
3. 0:07asked a question that pretty much
4. 0:09changed the
5. 0:11world back when computers were giant
6. 0:15machines locked away in
7. 0:17Labs jobs and his friend Steve wnac had
8. 0:21a
9. 0:22vision to build a personal
10. 0:25computer for ordinary people to have
11. 0:28access to
12. 0:31they offered their invention to
13. 0:32companies like Atari and hulet Packard
14. 0:36and they were all turned
15. 0:37down still they
16. 0:40believed eventually jobs approached John
17. 0:43Scully then the president of pepsicola
18. 0:47he wanted him to join
19. 0:49Apple to help him lead the company into
20. 0:52the
21. 0:53future Scully declined twice actually
22. 0:58but jobs didn't give
23. 1:00up he came back one last time and asked
24. 1:03him a question that no one
25. 1:06forgets he asked him do you want to
26. 1:09spend the rest of your life selling
27. 1:11sugared water or do you want a chance to
28. 1:14change the
29. 1:17world that one question Scully pulled
30. 1:21Scully out of
31. 1:23comfort and into something
32. 1:27greater and I Think Jesus is asking us
33. 1:29to the same question this
34. 1:32Lent today's reading give us two
35. 1:35powerful readings two powerful images
36. 1:39two
37. 1:40trees two very different
38. 1:44encounters first The Burning
39. 1:47Bush Moses is wandering through the
40. 1:50Wilderness when he sees something
41. 1:53strange a bush is on
42. 1:55fire but not burning up it's not
43. 1:59destroyed it's
44. 2:01radiant and it's there not in the temple
45. 2:05but in the desert that Moses hears God's
46. 2:08voice for the first
47. 2:10time God says take off your
48. 2:14sandals this is Holy
49. 2:17Ground what's striking is that God's
50. 2:20present doesn't consume the bush it
51. 2:23lights it up it transforms
52. 2:27it this is God's
53. 2:30nature he's not like the gods of
54. 2:33mythology who barge in with destruction
55. 2:36and demand
56. 2:38sacrifice our God is
57. 2:41different he Reveals His name as I am
58. 2:45Who
59. 2:47Am something that we need to think about
60. 2:49and reflect God doesn't fit into a
61. 2:54box he's not one being among many other
62. 2:57beings
63. 3:00he is being
64. 3:02itself existence
65. 3:05itself which means he doesn't compete
66. 3:07with us he completes
67. 3:10us the closer he gets the More Alive we
68. 3:14become the more we surrender the more
69. 3:17ourselves become like
70. 3:21him I love this quote from St aronas
71. 3:24have used it many times the glory of God
72. 3:26is the human person Fully Alive
73. 3:31alive and lent is the season to let God
74. 3:34make us fully alive
75. 3:37again if we but
76. 3:40dare in the gospel Jesus tells a
77. 3:44parable a man plants a fig
78. 3:47tree he comes back three years in a row
79. 3:50and still no
80. 3:52fruit he says cut it
81. 3:54down but the gardener pleads with him
82. 3:58please and let me dig around it let me
83. 4:01cultivate the
84. 4:03soil give it more
85. 4:06time but you see this isn't about
86. 4:09farming it's about you and
87. 4:12me this is a standard Trope in
88. 4:15theological literature in Israel the
89. 4:18tree that does not bear any fruit is
90. 4:21like the moral person that produces no
91. 4:24spiritual
92. 4:26fruit I always like to say that every
93. 4:29person every single person in God's
94. 4:31economy has a mission to be a conduit of
95. 4:34God's grace in the
96. 4:36world planted in
97. 4:39God connected to
98. 4:41God think of Jesus when he tells us I am
99. 4:45the vine you are the branches you are
100. 4:47connected to
101. 4:49me we're grafted
102. 4:52on we're meant to bring forth fruits of
103. 4:56Love Peace compassion Justice
104. 4:58nonviolence
105. 5:01notice how this should be
106. 5:04effortless the closer God gets the More
107. 5:07Alive we
108. 5:10become here is the mystery of sin the
109. 5:14Myster in Latin for the mystery of
110. 5:18evil when we resist the invasion of God
111. 5:22we when we prefer to go our own ways to
112. 5:26do our own
113. 5:28prerogatives it's a narrow conception of
114. 5:31freedom from Adam and Eve this has been
115. 5:34the basic form of
116. 5:37sin It's My Life on my terms many times
117. 5:41but the result of this is
118. 5:45lifelessness lack of
119. 5:47Life the result of this is depression
120. 5:50anxiety
121. 5:51overwhelming sense of where we are a
122. 5:55life going nowhere to use Dante's
123. 5:58language is to be lost alone in the
124. 6:02woods that is the tree that bears no
125. 6:06fruit few weeks ago we had an image from
126. 6:09Jeremiah that says the cner is like a
127. 6:11tree planted in the desert it's a
128. 6:14similar image
129. 6:16here in Jesus's Parable The Gardener
130. 6:19says sir leave it for this year
131. 6:23also I will fertilize it I will
132. 6:26cultivate the
133. 6:28ground and it May bear fruit in the
134. 6:31future but he goes on to warn that if no
135. 6:34fruit the tree will be cut
136. 6:37down here again is a nod for
137. 6:42urgency we are the fig
138. 6:45trees we've been planted we've been
139. 6:49watered we've been given
140. 6:51time we've receiv received Grace
141. 6:55sacraments the Scriptures prayer
142. 6:57community
143. 6:59and the question is are you bearing
144. 7:03fruit or are we just standing still
145. 7:07exhausting the
146. 7:09soil the Fig Tree is a
147. 7:12warning but also it's a great sign of
148. 7:16Mercy Jesus is the
149. 7:18gardener he's saying let me work with
150. 7:21your heart let me cultivate your heart
151. 7:25let me wake you up because there is
152. 7:28urgency
153. 7:30we think we have
154. 7:32forever but we
155. 7:34don't Grace has an expiration date not
156. 7:38because God gives up on us but because
157. 7:41we can become
158. 7:43numb
159. 7:46complacent we can either
160. 7:49wither waste away our lives selling
161. 7:53sugared
162. 7:56water so what does what's the takeaway
163. 7:59this lent and if you haven't been good
164. 8:02about your lent and absorb observances
165. 8:04start
166. 8:06today let God set you on fire like the
167. 8:10burning bush let him dig around the
168. 8:13roots of your heart like the Fig Tree
169. 8:16let him ask you that same question do
170. 8:20you want to spend your life selling
171. 8:22sugared water or do you want a chance to
172. 8:25change the
173. 8:27world CU most of us will say
174. 8:30settle we will drift go through the
175. 8:34motions check the boxes we
176. 8:39survived but I'm here to tell you we
177. 8:41were made for
178. 8:43more we were made for fire we were made
179. 8:47to produce lots of fruit we were made to
180. 8:51change the world maybe not on a grand
181. 8:54scale but you were called to change the
182. 8:56world in your orbit in your family and
183. 9:00your friends and your people that you
184. 9:02associate with does your witness the way
185. 9:06that you live out your Christianity does
186. 9:08that Inspire
187. 9:11anyone lent is that time to stop
188. 9:15drifting to stop playing
189. 9:18small to let God in fully completely
190. 9:22without
191. 9:24fear so what will it be sugared water or
192. 9:29holy
193. 9:30fire going through the motions or
194. 9:33changing the world you
195. 9:35orbit because this is the moment and
196. 9:38there is
197. 9:39urgency let this Lent be the turning
198. 9:42point take off your sandals this is Holy
199. 9:46Ground Step Into the
200. 9:49Fire and become fully alive in Christ
201. 9:53amen am