Sept 29, 2024 Homily: Fr Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03with God sin never has the last word
2. 0:08that's a theme for this Sunday I'm going
3. 0:11to repeat it again I want you to listen
4. 0:13with God sin never has the last
5. 0:18word I was commenting on that yesterday
6. 0:21I was invited to one of the small groups
7. 0:23that's doing their Bible study and I was
8. 0:26explaining to them the way to understand
9. 0:28the Old Testament
10. 0:31is by understanding that it's a story of
11. 0:35a covenant with
12. 0:36God ratified with his
13. 0:40people and how the people again and
14. 0:43again over and over Sinn and broke that
15. 0:47Covenant with
16. 0:49God and turning away from God the people
17. 0:52suffered
18. 0:54terribly but each time they decided to
19. 0:56turn back to him God was there
20. 1:00eager to reestablish his Covenant with
21. 1:04them
22. 1:05again until finally in his greatest act
23. 1:09of mercy God sends his son to establish
24. 1:13the definitive Covenant to his in his
25. 1:16own blood through the sacrifice upon the
26. 1:18cross a sacrifice which we make present
27. 1:21and represent to the father at every
28. 1:25Mass so you see sin never has the last
29. 1:31word with
30. 1:33God today in this powerful reading from
31. 1:36the gospel of Mark Jesus speaks in a
32. 1:39very strong language to
33. 1:42us about the reality of sin about sin's
34. 1:46consequences and the tremendous price he
35. 1:49paid on our behalf to forgive
36. 1:53us the tendency especially today is to
37. 1:57downplay sin
38. 2:00to desize ourselves to it it's not
39. 2:03really a big
40. 2:05deal no one's really watching
41. 2:10me to behave as if God doesn't exist or
42. 2:14if if it's not that big of a
43. 2:18deal well I want you to look at the
44. 2:22crucifix he didn't suffer was not
45. 2:25sacrificed on that sin for no reason for
46. 2:28no big deal
47. 2:30the crucifix reminds us of the reality
48. 2:32of sin and its
49. 2:34consequences but at the same time when
50. 2:36we look upon that crucifix we see
51. 2:39God and we see that sin does not have
52. 2:43the last
53. 2:46word I want to tell you a story about
54. 2:48this young man in 2003 in the beautiful
55. 2:51but desolate mountains of the
56. 2:53Southeastern part of Utah a 7 a
57. 2:5727-year-old mountain climber named Aaron
58. 3:01Ron made a desperate
59. 3:04decision an avid Outdoorsman Aaron was a
60. 3:08rock clim was rock climbing one day when
61. 3:10his right arm got trapped under a
62. 3:14boulder a boulder they say estimated
63. 3:17about 800
64. 3:18lb he saw immediately that he was in
65. 3:22great danger deep
66. 3:24trouble unable to budge the Rock at all
67. 3:27Aaron took out his pocket knife and
68. 3:31chipped away at the Rock for about 10
69. 3:34hours managing to produce only a small
70. 3:37amount of
71. 3:39dust obviously this was not going to
72. 3:41work was not going to be able to free
73. 3:44his
74. 3:45arm days were passing no one knew where
75. 3:48he was even worse his family and friends
76. 3:50were used to him going off for days and
77. 3:53not reporting
78. 3:55back they weren't looking for
79. 3:58him with his arm still wedged beneath
80. 4:01the enormous Boulder Aaron recorded a
81. 4:03video message to his parents saying
82. 4:07goodbye at the end of the several days
83. 4:10with no food or
84. 4:12water however Aaron made a remarkable
85. 4:16Choice Aaron decided to amputate his
86. 4:20right arm right then and there in order
87. 4:23to save
88. 4:25himself that's exactly what he did using
89. 4:28his pocket knife
90. 4:30knif and this amazing display of courage
91. 4:33and determination he cut off his right
92. 4:37arm and after he was finished he applied
93. 4:39a tourniquet to his arm he repelled
94. 4:43nearly 70 feet down to the floor of the
95. 4:45canyon then he hiked five miles
96. 4:48Downstream where he finally encountered
97. 4:51some hikers who rescued
98. 4:54him Aaron
99. 4:56made the obviously excruciating decision
100. 5:00to amputate his right arm in order to
101. 5:03save his
102. 5:05life it's an amazing story you could
103. 5:07read about it or there's a movie you can
104. 5:09watch it it's called alone in the
105. 5:12wild you could read that story together
106. 5:15with Jesus's words in the gospel today
107. 5:19if your hand causes you to sin cut it
108. 5:21off it's better for you to enter into
109. 5:23life main then with two hands to go into
110. 5:27gehenna what a stark DEC
111. 5:30ation if your hand causes you to sin cut
112. 5:33it
113. 5:35off Aaron certainly made that choice to
114. 5:39sacrifice his arm in order to save his
115. 5:43life because you see there are choices
116. 5:46that need to be made in
117. 5:49life choices that determine our
118. 5:54destiny of course Jesus is using
119. 5:56Hyperbole and metaphoric language to
120. 5:59describe the terrible reality of
121. 6:02sin don't go chopping off your hands or
122. 6:06gouging out your eyes but sin comes from
123. 6:09within
124. 6:11us when we in our thoughts and our words
125. 6:15and in what we do and what we fail to
126. 6:19do we prefer to do our own will than the
127. 6:22will of the
128. 6:23father and when we rebel against God and
129. 6:26His holy laws we get into trouble
130. 6:32but what is it exactly that Jesus is
131. 6:33saying
132. 6:35here through the use of his graphic
133. 6:38metaphors his message is simple sin is
134. 6:41real you can't downplay
135. 6:44it and anything in our life that is
136. 6:47leading us to sin from the little things
137. 6:50from The Little White Lies to the
138. 6:52gossiping to the cheating to watching
139. 6:55things that we shouldn't be watching
140. 6:57whatever it is
141. 6:59it is real and if it's causing you to
142. 7:01sin you need to get rid of it you need
143. 7:03to cut it
144. 7:05off at whatever cost get rid of
145. 7:09it he's reminding us of something very
146. 7:12beautiful that as Christians we're on a
147. 7:14path with Christ to eternal life I like
148. 7:18to say that we live on this Earth for
149. 7:20three
150. 7:22days and as St Paul has said to us Eye
151. 7:25Has Not Seen Ear Has Not Heard nor has
152. 7:28it so much much dawned on us what God is
153. 7:31readying for
154. 7:34us for those who love
155. 7:36him eternal life is the greatest
156. 7:39possible thing that can happen to us
157. 7:42it's been given to us through the death
158. 7:43and resurrection of Christ Jesus reminds
159. 7:46us of that and he tells us if anything
160. 7:49puts that at risk you need to get rid of
161. 7:53it thanks be to God sin doesn't have the
162. 7:57last word
163. 7:59in every age the church has been the
164. 8:01beacon of God's mercy and has raised up
165. 8:04holy men and women to bring that Mercy
166. 8:07to people in a very concrete
167. 8:10way I want to share another short story
168. 8:13with you about St euph
169. 8:15frus uh
170. 8:17pelleter certainly some someone that we
171. 8:20haven't heard often about she's known in
172. 8:23her native France but she should be
173. 8:26known
174. 8:26more St euphrasia grew up in France
175. 8:30during the years after the French
176. 8:32Revolution when the church was severely
177. 8:36persecuted despite the age of 18 she
178. 8:39joined a religious order Decor uh
179. 8:41dedicated to working with Street women
180. 8:44as well as those women who were abused
181. 8:47homeless and they also worked with
182. 8:49delinquent
183. 8:51girls she later formed her own religious
184. 8:54order known as the Good Shepherd sisters
185. 8:57and her order grew rapid rid L she urged
186. 9:01her sisters to bring God's mercy to the
187. 9:04lost they didn't preach to them but
188. 9:07rather they helped them they tried to
189. 9:09normalize their lives her nuns educated
190. 9:13them prepared them for a productive work
191. 9:15and provided them with religious and
192. 9:17moral guidance she worked tirelessly
193. 9:21bringing God's mercy until her death in
194. 9:251868 she was canonized as Saint in 1940
195. 9:28and by then near nearly a 100,000 girls
196. 9:31had gone through her orders program and
197. 9:34over 10,000 sisters had dedicated their
198. 9:37lives to Bringing God's mercy to
199. 9:40society's
200. 9:42outcasts today there are about 150 homes
201. 9:45of Charities run by the Good Shepherd
202. 9:48sisters and they continued their good
203. 9:50work in over 60 countries all from one
204. 9:54woman who was motivated by God's mercy
205. 10:00our Lord today gives us a healthy
206. 10:01reminder of the reality of
207. 10:04sin and also of the great Destiny which
208. 10:07we are called
209. 10:08to we're also reminded of God's Great
210. 10:11Mercy for those who seek
211. 10:15repentance Aaron Ralston certainly made
212. 10:18that choice to sacrifice his arm in
213. 10:21order to save his
214. 10:25life because you see there are choices
215. 10:27that need to be made in our lives
216. 10:30choices to be in the right
217. 10:33narrow to be right with God to seek
218. 10:37Holiness those choices determine our
219. 10:42destiny there's one thing we need to
220. 10:44remember today to remind ourselves of
221. 10:47and to tell others who are not here with
222. 10:49us it's simply this with God sin never
223. 10:55has the last word mercy does amen