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Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

Incredible Stories!

Homily originally preached on August 30, 2020
by Monsignor Deering

 

Incredible Stories!

 

We just finished our 2nd week of Catholic School and things are going so very well!

God has richly blessed us with safety and success for all our Students and Faculty!

 

I did get one call though from one of our Kindergarten Teachers who was concerned about one of her Students. She said that while little Janay was doing very well in many ways and seemed very smart ... she was a little concerned that

Janay was telling the other kids some incredible stories … stories that Janay seemed to believe in … and that the other kids were starting to believe in, too.

 

So I went over and had a little talk with Janay.     I said:

Janay, I have an incredible story for you.”    and she looked at me with a big smile.

 

I said, “ Last Sunday, right after Mass started and I’d finished praying the Opening Prayer, the back doors of the Church swung open and in came a 7-foot grizzly bear. He came right up the center aisle onto the altar with his nails out and was just ready to take a swipe at my throat when a little brown dog ran right up behind him, jumped on his back, knocked him down and knocked him out and dragged him right out of the Church.        My life was spared by a little brown dog.”

 

And I asked her, “Do you believe that?” And she said, “I certainly do.”

 

So I said, “Janay, why in the world would you believe an incredible story like that?”

And she said, “Cause that was my dog!

 

Do you believe incredible stories?

Do you share incredible stories?

 

Well, believing in and sharing incredible stories is the basis of our readings today!

 

Our Gospel begins w/ Jesus telling Peter and the Apostlesan incredible story.

 

He says that He will suffer greatly at the hands of His own peoplebe killed

and on the third day be raised from the dead.

Now that’s an incredible story!

 

Who is this going to happen to?         Jesus … who just a few moments earlier

had been identified by Peter as the Christthe Son of the Living God.”

 

So how incredible it had to be for them to hear that Jesus would suffer and die.

 

Peter had to be wondering, “Am I supposed to believe this incredible story?”

And this moved him to question the story, saying,

God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”

 

You know, one of my Gramma’s regular expressions was “God forbid!”

How often I’d hear her say, “God forbid this or that should ever happen.

And now I know where she got it from ... she got it from St. Peter,

who used it in response to hearing Jesus’ incredible story.

“God forbid that this should happen to you!”

 

You see, the very idea that Jesus would have to undergo humiliation, and suffering and death at the hands of the Jews just didn’t mesh with Peter’s understanding of what it meant to be the Messiah ... the Christthe Son of the Living God!

 

Peter’s outlook was a worldly one.

But God’s outlook was an other worldly one.

You see, God didn’t send His Son to be a success ... in this life;

God sent His Son ...  to win for us ... Eternal Life.

 

And the way that God chose to do this was by establishing a new focal point …

namely The Cross!

 

Our previous pope ... Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI said this:

“The Cross forces us to look upon the fact that we are loved by God.”

And in this way, “The Cross becomes a new center of gravity.”

    It becomes a sign … not of death but of life not of punishment but of love.

 

Who would have ever thought that the eternal redemption of man

would be accomplished by the death of the Messiah on a Cross.

Now that’s an incredible story.

 

Peter couldn’t accept this; so he tried to protect the Lord from suffering and dying.   

  Which is why Jesus took the occasion to call him an obstacle to God’s plan!

 

Imagine that! This is the same Peter that Jesus had just selected

to be the cornerstone of His Church!

 

Remember from last week’s Gospel, from Matt. 16:16  where Jesus said,

“You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.”

 

And now in Matt. 16:23, Jesus rebukes him as a stumbling block to God’s plan! Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.

Peter goes from being a cornerstone to a stumbling block just like that!

 

Why? Jesus tells him, “You are not thinking as God does, but as human beings do.”

Peter wasn’t ready yet to accept Jesus’ incredible story of suffering, dying& rising

… but eventually he came to believe and share this Incredible Story!

 

 

Thankfully today, some 2000 years this side of the Resurrection,

we’re able to understand why Jesus had to suffer and die.

 

We know that Jesus, who is God, was the only one capable of satisfying

the Divine Justice of God and making atonement for the sins of man.

 

So by offering Himself up to death,

Jesus won the Father’s forgiveness for the sins for all people, for all time!

 

That’s the Incredible Story of our salvation!

 

Do you know the story?    Do you believe the story?    Do you share the story?

 

During my 3rd year of Seminary, one of my assignments was to teach Religion to Juniors at the local High School. And I always marveled at the way that my classmate, Peter, could share the story of salvation.     He was very good!

He knew the story, he believed the story and he shared it well.

 

How about you?

Do you know the story, believe the story & share the story of Salvation in Christ?

 

All of us can share the Story ... each in our own unique way!

 

How?          Well it begins with lighting a fire in our soul.

 

I like to imagine the soul that we receive from God at conception to be like

a new unlit candle that is just sitting there inside of us ...

 with its wick standing tall, ready and waiting to be lit.

In this way we might say that we are predisposed to radiating light from the Soul.

 

Then in Baptism, the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence inside us ...

and the wick of our candle is lit by ... the fire of God’s love.

 

And each and every time we receive God’s Holy Spirit through the Sacraments, such as Holy Communion and Reconciliation, the flame burning in our soul

is fanned to a greater and greater intensity!

 

The Prophet Jeremiah uses the same imagery of fire when he describes how he felt when he tried to hold back from speaking about God. He says,

Then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones;

I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.”

 

And it reminds me of what Pope St. John Paul II said 20 years ago,

 “Those who come into genuine contact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves,

                                      they must proclaim Him.”

 

 

You see, once you feel the love of Christ in your heart, there’s no way in the world that you can keep it in.     You just have to share it with those around you.

That’s God’s designthat we seek Him … so we experience Him

… and are moved to share Him in an ever-increasing way!

 

This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.   But it’s not always easy to do.

 

Jeremiah warns us of this by sharing his experience as a prophet:  

“The word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day.”

Not everyone wants to hear the Incredible Story of God’s love ... we’ll be rejected.

Yes, following the Lord means nothing less than carrying a cross.

Jesus Himself carried a Cross and as His followers, He tells us we must do likewise.

 

Today He says,

“Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”

 

You see, it’s through the trials and tribulations of life that we come to appreciate God’s plan for the salvation of the world and for our personal salvation.

 

Now unless we believe in the Lord’s incredible story,

unless we believe that we can have Eternal life with Him ... by following Him

we’ll never be willing to deny ourselves and to carry our cross to His glory.

 

Which is why God gathers us together each week … to remind us of the Story.

 

He wants us to realize that there is no treasure on earth that compares to ...

God’s incredible promise of Everlasting Life with Him in Heaven.

As Jesus says today,

“What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”

 

St. Paul also guides us of this today in his letter to the Romans writing, “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

 

Paul is declaring that attachments to anything in this world are going to take our focus off of the real goal, which is union with God in Heaven.

 

Which is why we need to keep our focus where Pope Benedict indicated ...

the Cross has become the new center of gravity.”

The Cross reminds us of what God did for us ... that we are loved by God!

 

The Cross was a part of Jesus’ incredible story! While at first it seemed like a setbackthe Cross was the key that unlocked the salvation of the world.

 

The cross will be a part of our own incredible story for while it may bring us reproach and derision in this life… it is the key to winning ... Eternal Life.

 

If you believe the Lord’s incredible story of how His Cross won salvation for all,  

   then believe the Lord’s incredible story of how carrying your own cross ...

and following Him ... will bring about your personal salvation.

 

Like Janay, I hope you believe in incredible stories ...

for the story of salvation is an incredible story!

 

And like Janay, I hope you’re willing to share incredible stories?   

for that’s God’s desire …

that every one of us would share the Good News of Salvation with everyone else!

 

Remember how Janay’s Teacher felt ...

 that Janay really believed in her incredible stories?

 

And remember the effect that had on the other children ...

that they were beginning to believe in her incredible stories!

 

Well, if you really believe in Jesus’ incredible story ...

... then you too can have a great effect on others …

leading them to believe the incredible story of salvation too!

 

When I asked Janay why she believed in my incredible story of a grizzly bear,

her disarming answer was ... Cause that was my dog!”

 

So, when others ask you why you believe in Jesus’ incredible story of salvation,

let your disarming answer be ...  Cause that was my Lord!”

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