 Oh it is so good to be here brothers. The eternal eschatological Jubilee prayer. There's so much that can be said, so much that could be said. I would love to have Dr. John Perg's come up here and and teach us a little bit more about the Lord's Prayer and all that light and I don't I don't pretend to be able to compete with St. Cyprian who's been leading us into a deep a deep understanding of each of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer in the office of readings. But I think there's one thing that strikes me in that I hope follows the flow of the graces that we've been receiving over the course of this week and perhaps in a special way what we heard this morning from sister. When I was studying in the seminary we had a wonderful Jesuit Bishop, Bishop Attila Mikloshezi, the Shaz we called him. He was the Bishop of all ex-patriated Hungarians throughout the world and so he maintained his position on faculty at the seminary and taught systematic theology. And there's so much that he said that I remember and has influenced me so deeply but I do remember one thing that that struck me in a particular way. He said the beginning of the creed contains two words that never went together in the ancient world. And so to hear them in the ancient world was almost scandalous, scandalous even to the Jews. Father Almighty. What in the world do those two things have to do with each other? To the ancient mindset they almost seem to be in separate categories, separate worldviews. But here they are right next to each other. It really is an astonishing thing that if we take the time to think about it that the blessed one, the thrice holy God who holds the universe in being at every moment of its existence who in fact conserves it by recreating it from second to second. That if he stopped thinking about it it would disappear and he would be none the poorer. The infinitely powerful God. That even the destruction of a supernova or even the big bang is a firecracker to him. The universe which is millions of light years across. Light traveling at 300,000 kilometers per second taking millions and millions and millions of years is less than nothing before him because he's not just bigger, he's infinitely bigger. And everything that's beautiful in all of creation is just a tiny hint of his beauty. Because he's not just more beautiful, he's infinitely more beautiful. Isaiah gives us a glimpse into the majesty of God. When he said that even the seraphim, the burning ones, the angels closest to him, they're on fire from the presence. Thomas Aquinas tells us that if you and I were to see a seraphim unless by a special grace of God we would be convinced it was God. So why everybody's doing face plants in the book of Revelation before these angelic beings. And what are they doing? They're looking at the Holy One, crying out every moment a new revelation of his glory, a new revelation of his being, a new fulfillment of everything they are, such that they would burst apart if he didn't hold them in being. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. This God is infinitely powerful, infinitely beautiful, infinitely good God. Is my Papa, my Abba? That is a term which is scandalously intimate. If you've ever been in that part of the world and seen a little child look up at their dad, Abba. I remember once at this very conference Francis Martin, Father Francis Martin talking about that was the day when he was in the Holy Land and he saw a little child look up at his dad in a store and go Abba. He said I understood the Gospel. It all came clear, the infinitely holy God. The God who is so holy the Jews would not pronounce his name because to pronounce his name is to invoke him and that is no small matter. That is an awesome thing to invoke the name of the Holy One, Papa, which of us in a moment of fear or fright or need as little children and climb on our dad's laps and throw arms around his neck and know we were safe. I know everything was going to be okay. This is why we have confidence. This is what Jesus won for us through him and with him and in him to you God our almighty Father in the glory and the unity of the Holy Spirit. It's the whole movement of our life. It's the whole movement of who we are as sons, as priests, as deacons. This is what Jesus won for us. The terrible, the awesome and terrible God, my Abba. This is why we have confidence. It's one of the reasons I took St. Therese of Lisieux as one of my patrons of my Episcopacy, in fact in my pectoral cross along with a chip of the bone of St. Clement of Rome and a piece of the habit of John Paul II, my hero. I've got a small piece of the hair of hair from Therese of Lisieux because she taught me confidence. She says we're to have a confidence in the Father to the point of audacity. Wow. Those are strong words. In fact, she says even now I'm extemporizing it here, but even if I committed all the greatest sins imaginable, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to run to the Father. Why? Because all of that sin just qualifies me for divine welfare because she knew that he was love, that he ached, he yearned, he even bled so that he could wash all that away. As John Paul II said so powerfully in Toronto at World Youth Day, we are not the sum of our failures. We are the sum of the Father's love for us. She understood, don't ever be afraid to run to the Father, God the Father of mercies, who through the death and resurrection of his Son has poured forth the Holy Spirit upon us for the forgiveness of sins. My Abba, who is more anxious, John Vienny tells us, St. John Vienny, to forgive our sins that a woman is to carry her baby out of a burning building. I'm no Greek scholar. I had to learn about as much as you did in the seminary, but I remember the word parisia, the word we translate confidence, were to have confidence. And the word really means to speak to someone as such close friends that there is complete and absolute freedom. There is no need to withhold anything. There is no need to be guarded, but to speak freely from the heart the fullness of truth. Oh, he knows anyway. Who are we kidding? I used to tell the seminarians what I was in formation work, you know, so often our prayer is Lord, you are awesome. You are beautiful. You're wonderful. You're great. You're, you know, like praise has its place. But even when we're in our personal prayer, we're speaking about him in elevated terms and that happens after you take Christology. Oh, you who are one person in two substances. And very often the Lord is saying, come on, come on. Here's your prayer. And here's what's really going on in your heart. Lust, anger, unforgiveness, self doubt, self hatred, grinding around inside of us. And we're talking at this level. That's not prayer. That's prayer. Lord, Lord, I need you. Abba, Abba, Abba. It's so important to remind ourselves of this brothers again and again and again and again. I was a pastor. I was a parish priest. As a university chaplain, I understand. I understand how it grinds. How it weighs. How this just doesn't let up. You get tired. You get jaded. You get frustrated. All the lies begin to speak to you. All the ways that we fall short begin to add up in our hearts. And we begin to think, oh, the Lord is disappointed in me. The Lord looks at me with sadness. It's a lie, you know, it's a complete and utter lie. Brothers, it's so easy to fall into what Saint Paul calls living under condemnation, which is trying to earn God's love and approval even through holy things. The truth is we can't earn God's love and approval. But the good news is we don't have to because he did it. He won God's love and approval for us. And because of his work, we are holy and righteous in his sight, even in our struggles and our weakness and our brokenness. He looks on us with such tender love. Jesus won it for us. And when we keep this in mind, it prevents us from falling into discouragement, which don't forget Saint Ignatius says is more dangerous than sin. If we sin, but we have hope, we go to the Lord. He forgives us. We're restored. We move ahead. But if we're discouraged, we stop going to the Lord. We have to hold these truths deep in our hearts. We live under the new law of love. Oh, that peace in the Catechism is pure gold. Now, do we try to live the commandments? Absolutely. Do we try to live perfection and charity? Absolutely. Do we fall short again and again and again? Absolutely. Which is precisely why he gave us the sacraments of healing. But the point is our motivation is different. Now I'm not trying to earn God's love and approval. I know it's been one for me. Now I'm just returning love for love. You have loved me. Awesome. Holy Father with an infinite love. And now I'm going to love you and return to the best of my poor feeble ability. And I know you receive every act of it with a heart filled with love and pride and gratitude as he looks upon us and sees the saints we will someday be. Amen. I had a seminary in one say in his personal prayer in his lexio divina and I just thought it captured it. He was feeling so broken and so weak and he's just crying out to the Lord. I'm a jerk. Lord, I'm a wretch. And he heard clearly in his heart the Lord say, yeah, but you're my jerk. You're my wretch. You're my son. Brothers, to be effective priests, we have to come to the Lord first as sons, first as sons. The world, the flesh and the devil are trying to tell us who we are and their liars. It is the Father who gives identity. It is the Father who speaks our identity into us and it is His voice we need to hear. It is His voice we need to surrender to. It is His voice that we need in the depth of our being. I want to finish this homily by praying together with you the prayer of abandonment to St. Charles de Foucault. I'm going to pray it slow. I encourage you just to close your eyes, bow your heads, to imagine yourself in the lap of the infinite, all holy, terrible God who is your Papa, your Abba with your arms around his neck. Father, I abandoned myself into your hands. Do with me what you will, whatever you may do. I thank you. I am ready for all and I accept all. Let only your will be done in me and in all your creatures. Oh, I desire no more than this, oh Lord, into your hands. I commend my soul. I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands without reserve and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.