Sept 7, 2025 Homily: Fr. Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Every religion in the world has a
2. 0:03symbol,
3. 0:04a sign at the center of worship that
4. 0:08tells the world what they stand for.
5. 0:11If you step into a Buddhist temple, you
6. 0:14will see Buddha there seated in silence.
7. 0:18A reminder that the path is about
8. 0:20detachment and interior calm.
9. 0:24If you enter a Jewish synagogue, you
10. 0:27will see the place of honor given to the
11. 0:29Torah scrolls
12. 0:31kept in a sacred cabinet called the
13. 0:34Aaron Hakodesesh or the Holy Arc.
14. 0:39That space proclaims to every visitor
15. 0:42that the word of God at the heart of
16. 0:44every Jewish man and woman is faith and
17. 0:49life.
18. 0:51And then if you step into a Christian
19. 0:53church anywhere in the world, you will
20. 0:56see not a throne, not a crown of glory,
21. 1:00or even a book of the Bible enthroned.
22. 1:04What you will see is a cross.
23. 1:08At the very center of our faith is not
24. 1:10glory, not triumph, not comfort, but the
25. 1:14cross,
26. 1:15the place of sacrifice.
27. 1:18Why?
28. 1:20Well, for us, because the resurrection
29. 1:22means nothing unless we first pass
30. 1:25through the cross.
31. 1:27We are not about suffering for
32. 1:29suffering's sake. But Christianity does
33. 1:32not escape suffering. It transforms it.
34. 1:37That's why Jesus speaks so starkly in
35. 1:39today's gospel. He says, "If anyone
36. 1:42comes to me without hating father and
37. 1:44mother, wife and children, brothers and
38. 1:47sisters, or even his own life cannot be
39. 1:50my disciple.
40. 1:52Whoever does not carry his cross and
41. 1:54follow me cannot be my disciple."
42. 1:59Of course, he's not telling us to
43. 2:01despise our families. He's not telling
44. 2:03us to hate anyone. He's saying nothing,
45. 2:07absolutely nothing, not even the most
46. 2:09sacred bonds of family, not even wealth,
47. 2:13not power, not even life itself can come
48. 2:17before him, before a relationship with
49. 2:21him.
50. 2:24It's not vague spirituality.
51. 2:28It's a breathtaking claim that one no
52. 2:32other teacher in history has ever made.
53. 2:36A guru might say, "Listen, follow this
54. 2:39path. If you follow this path, I will
55. 2:41teach you some great things." Or a
56. 2:44philosopher may say, "Adopt my teachings
57. 2:47if you adopt them."
58. 2:50But what does Jesus say? Love me.
59. 2:54love me more than anything else in the
60. 2:57world.
61. 2:59And if he who if if he is who he says he
62. 3:03is,
63. 3:05then there's no middle ground.
64. 3:08The book of re revelation warns the
65. 3:11church in Laosia.
66. 3:14He says, "You are neither hot or cold
67. 3:17because you are lukewarm. I will spit
68. 3:19you out of my mouth."
69. 3:22Lukewarm Christianity admires Jesus from
70. 3:25afar
71. 3:27but never really follows him to the
72. 3:29cross.
73. 3:31Lukewarm faith wants blessings without
74. 3:34surrender.
75. 3:36And yet surrender is exactly what he's
76. 3:38asking for. Carry your cross and follow
77. 3:42me.
78. 3:44So what does that look like for us?
79. 3:47While for some it's persevering through
80. 3:51great illness
81. 3:54without losing one's faith.
82. 3:57For others it's forgiving when
83. 3:59forgiveness seems impossible.
84. 4:03Resisting bitterness or praying when
85. 4:06prayer feels dry or you're not in the
86. 4:08mood to pray.
87. 4:11And for some it means giving up
88. 4:12everything.
89. 4:15There's a new film that will be out
90. 4:17soon. It's called Triumph of the Heart.
91. 4:20It's about the life of St. Maxmillian
92. 4:23Kobe. It's going to be released, I
93. 4:25think, September 12th. I'll be going on
94. 4:27September 18th. It's a Thursday night if
95. 4:30you want to join me there.
96. 4:33But with that film in mind, let me tell
97. 4:36you what it what it means to carry your
98. 4:40cross by using St. Maximleian KBY as an
99. 4:43example.
100. 4:46St. Maxmillian Kobe was a Franciscan
101. 4:48priest who was imprisoned in Ashwitz
102. 4:51during World War II.
103. 4:54Life there, as you know, was a cross.
104. 4:58Hunger, forced labor, brutality.
105. 5:02Yet, Kobe became a beacon of hope for
106. 5:05everyone there. whispering confessions,
107. 5:09sharing his meager food with others,
108. 5:12reminding those that even in hell, God
109. 5:15was present.
110. 5:18One day, after a prisoner escaped, the
111. 5:20guards chose 10 men at random to die in
112. 5:24a starvation bunker.
113. 5:27One of them, a husband and father,
114. 5:29collapsed in anguish, shouting out,
115. 5:32"Please, no, I have a wife and I have
116. 5:35children."
117. 5:38And in that very moment, Kobe stepped
118. 5:40forward, removed his cap, and said to
119. 5:43the commander, "I am a Catholic priest.
120. 5:47I do not have a wife or children. I will
121. 5:50take his place."
122. 5:52The guards agreed. It was probably the
123. 5:55very first time that anyone had
124. 5:57volunteered to die
125. 6:00in that underground bunker.
126. 6:03Something miraculous happened. And all
127. 6:04of this are firsthand testimonies.
128. 6:09Where there's usually cursing and
129. 6:11despair,
130. 6:12there was around the clock prayers.
131. 6:15Where there was wailing, there was song.
132. 6:19Colby led the men in hymns and rosaries
133. 6:23until
134. 6:25they were would die one by one.
135. 6:28After two weeks, only Kobe remained
136. 6:32gaunt
137. 6:34but prayerful, unbroken.
138. 6:38The guards became unpatient and they
139. 6:40ended his life with a lethal injection.
140. 6:45Kobe's cross was no metaphor.
141. 6:48It was hunger. It was thirst,
142. 6:50humiliation,
143. 6:52and ultimately death.
144. 6:54Yet, it did not destroy him. It
145. 6:57transfigured him.
146. 7:00His cross became Christ's cross, and his
147. 7:04death became love's triumph.
148. 7:07The man he saved lived to see his wife
149. 7:10and children again. And the church
150. 7:12proclaimed Kobe a saint, a martyr of
151. 7:15charity, a witness that to carry the
152. 7:18cross is not to be crushed, but to
153. 7:21become Christ for others.
154. 7:25And here's the astonishing part. The man
155. 7:28whose life Kobe saved, Francescus
156. 7:32Joshke,
157. 7:33lived many more years. He returned home
158. 7:36to his wife and children. He's not he
159. 7:39never stopped telling the story of how a
160. 7:41priest had saved his life.
161. 7:45And in 1982 when Pope John Paul II
162. 7:48canonized Maximleian KBY there in St.
163. 7:51Peter's Square, Francescus was there,
164. 7:55an old man standing among the crowd
165. 7:58giving testimony simply by his presence.
166. 8:03Can you imagine what it must have been
167. 8:05like to look upon the altar that day and
168. 8:08know that you were alive because another
169. 8:11man had carried your cross for you.
170. 8:16Kobe's sacrifice was not just
171. 8:18remembered, it bore fruit.
172. 8:21Reminds us that when we embrace the
173. 8:23cross, it does not end in death.
174. 8:26It leads to resurrection, to hope, to
175. 8:29life renewed. Not only for us but for
176. 8:32others.
177. 8:34Now most of us will not be asked to lay
178. 8:36down our lives in some dramatic
179. 8:39martyrdom.
180. 8:42But every single one of us has a cross
181. 8:44to carry. Some of those crosses may be
182. 8:47very heavy.
183. 8:49Sometimes those those crosses may be
184. 8:51hidden or just ordinary.
185. 8:56the daily burdens, the disappointments,
186. 9:00the wounds that we carry in silence,
187. 9:02those are real crosses.
188. 9:05And I must tell you as your pastor,
189. 9:08my heart is never far from some of our
190. 9:10parishioners who right now in this very
191. 9:13moment are carrying extraordinary pain.
192. 9:18Their crosses are immense.
193. 9:21Sickness,
194. 9:23loss, financial problems, heartbreak,
195. 9:26personal life or death struggles.
196. 9:29Struggles that would crush anyone.
197. 9:33I think of them every day. I pray for
198. 9:35them every day. It breaks my heart to
199. 9:38see their suffering.
200. 9:40And yet their faith humbles me. Their
201. 9:44courage reminds me and it should remind
202. 9:46all of us that the cross is real and it
203. 9:50is present here among us today. So the
204. 9:55question comes to us today as urgent as
205. 9:58it was when Jesus was giving this lesson
206. 10:01back 2,000 years ago.
207. 10:04Will you follow him only when it's easy?
208. 10:08Will you walk away and blame him when
209. 10:10things get rough? Or will you follow
210. 10:13only when it costs nothing?
211. 10:16Or will you go in allin loving him above
212. 10:20all else, carrying whatever cross he
213. 10:23places on your shoulders?
214. 10:26Do not misunderstand me.
215. 10:29The cross is not about despising one's
216. 10:32life or one's family. It's about loving
217. 10:36Christ first and above everything and
218. 10:38anyone
219. 10:40so that you may love your family, your
220. 10:42friends, your world more fully in him.
221. 10:46It's about ordering your loves in in the
222. 10:49only way that leads to life.
223. 10:53The world doesn't need polite admirers
224. 10:56of Jesus. We have enough secret service
225. 10:59Catholics. We don't need enough anymore.
226. 11:02It does not need
227. 11:04it does not need Catholics who are half
228. 11:06in and half out. Lukewarm faith. The
229. 11:10world is starving for witnesses. Men and
230. 11:13women who burn with the fire of Christ's
231. 11:15love that are able to say, "This is what
232. 11:17Christ has done in my life, and I want
233. 11:19to share it with you."
234. 11:23The cross is not a symbol of defeat. It
235. 11:25is a sign of victory. It is not despair,
236. 11:28but hope. It's the way that we embrace
237. 11:31it. It's the way that we're able to
238. 11:34carry it.
239. 11:36It is the door to eternal life.
240. 11:39So today, my brothers and sisters, stand
241. 11:41before the cross.
242. 11:44Look at the cross with fresh eyes.
243. 11:48Look at the corpus of Jesus on that
244. 11:51cross. hear his voice still echo and
245. 11:54say, "Whoever does not carry his cross
246. 11:57and follow me cannot be my disciple."
247. 12:00And then
248. 12:02let your heart answer him with
249. 12:04everything it has to say, "Yes, Lord, I
250. 12:08will follow you.
251. 12:10Yes, Lord, I will carry my cross. Yes,
252. 12:13Lord, I love you. I will not turn my
253. 12:16back on you. My eyes are fixed on you
254. 12:20because you are my savior, the one I
255. 12:23love above everything else. Amen.