 I want to start off by turning to one of my, probably my greatest hero. I have a feeling he might be a big hero for some of you, John Paul II. Do you miss JP too? Don't you miss him? Every time like it's May and it's his birthday or in October when it's his feast day, I just, it's like, I just feel like, oh, I miss dad. You know, he's just, he's such a great spiritual father. He's just so encouraging in this secular age where there's so many troubles in the world, so many troubles in the church. He just stood up and had great confidence in God. And I want to take us back to 1978. Do you remember 1978 when he first was announced as Pope? I mean, he shocked the world being the first non-Italian Pope in over 450 years. And that was quite surprising. But this morning, I want to reflect on something that I think may be even more surprising. I want to think about his opening words as Pope when he had his installation mass and he gave that first homily there at that mass. Do you remember what he said? He could have talked about so many things. He could have talked about the threat of nuclear war. He could have talked about world peace. These were things that were weighing on people's minds and hearts in the late 1970s. He could have talked about poverty. He could have talked about the breakdown of marriage and family life that was happening all around the world. He could have talked about the crisis and catechesis, passing on the faith, orthodox Christian doctrine. He could have talked about the many problems in the liturgy. He could have talked about the many moral problems and the attacks on human life. So many things JP2 could have talked about in that opening homily. But instead, while he will go on to talk about all of those things, on that opening homily, he focused on something that spoke directly to the hearts of modern men and women, particularly modern men and women living in a secular age. Do you remember those opening words? Be not afraid. Be not afraid. I remember last year I was looking at some old videos of JP2 and he said that not just then, but many times about his pontificate. I was watching one video of him when he came to Los Angeles in the 1980s and you just see this man full of confidence in the Lord and he says, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. And like he just says it, I'm like, I'm not afraid. I trust you. Because he had such confidence in God. This is a man you know that is so formed by the gospel, such a believer and he gave us confidence in the midst of a very dark world, in the midst of so many things that could cause discouragement. He said, do not be afraid. Now, what I want to think about this morning, I want to think about how these words apply to our particular time because why did he focus on that? Again, he could have talked about many things in that opening homily, but he focused on this. Why? Because we live in a secular world and a secularism pushes God out more and more. We become or really think we become very independent. We're very self-reliant in this modern age. We don't think we really need God in this modern secular world. And if I'm very independent, self-reliant, I don't think I need God, then everything's up to me. I have to manage everything. I have to manage everything in my career and in my finances and God providing for me and for my health and for my family and for my kids and I have to control everything. I think that all my happiness, my security in life depends on me. That's the lie that the devil loves to get into our hearts. And this can creep into the hearts of even good Christians. Just living in this modern day and age, we're so easily ready to forget what Jesus says. What Jesus says the night before he dies in John chapter 15 verse 5, without me, you can do only about 90%. I think that's what Jesus says. Is that what Jesus said? Without me, you can get about 50% done in life. So you need me, I'll get you to the finish line. No, that's not what he says. He says, without me, you can do nothing, nada, niante, absolutely nothing. Every breath of my life is dependent on him. Every hope, every dream, everything I need in life, most of all, my eternal life is completely dependent on him. Without me, you can do nothing, he says. But in a modern, secular age, an age that pushes God to the side and I forget how dependent I am on God, what happens is that I have to be dependent on myself. And I become like Martha who we're celebrating today. I become anxious and worried about many things. And this can creep into the heart of many good Christians, Catholics who may go to daily mass, may go to Bible study, may go to adoration, might even come to a Steubenville conference. Do you ever get anxious? Do you lose your trust in God? Do you find that sometimes it's hard to trust God, to put everything in his hands? How about you? I want to ask you this personal question as we begin here this morning. What's troubling you right now? You came here to this conference from all different parts of the country, some of you overseas. You came here with maybe something weighing on your heart. What is that? I want you to pause for a moment. What is that? What is it that's troubling you? What is it that you're worried about? What is the burden that you're carrying right now? Maybe there's something that you haven't completely surrendered to the Lord? You haven't completely entrusted to him and you're worried about it? Here's what I want you to do for a little opening exercise here. I want you to close your eyes for a moment and just imagine if JP2 was still alive and you had the unique opportunity to go to confession to him or to spiritual direction with him. So this picture is just you and JP2 and picture him looking at you and you're telling him that thing that you came here with, that thing that you're troubled by, that thing that you're worried about, that thing that you're anxious about, whatever that is could be something at work, something with your family, one of your kids could be something at your parish, maybe a health issue with yourself or someone you love, financial stress, a certain relationship. What is that thing? Just imagine you're telling JP2 about this. You're pouring your heart openly. You're telling him about what you're so troubled by and then imagine him looking you in the eye and saying those words, be not afraid. Be not afraid. Open wide the doors to Jesus Christ. Let's pray in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we live in a very anxious age. Young people especially today are suffering from such anxiety, depression, pressure, finding their identity, finding their security, striving to find their security and performance and how other people view with them. But it's not just young people, heavenly Father, we know that many of us adults, we struggle with this. We don't trust you like we know we should and so we find ourselves anxious and worried about many things. Father, we believe in you. We know that you're trustworthy. We know that you have a marvelous plan for our lives but we pray today that you may help us to surrender ourselves to that plan, that we may follow you and give you everything and maybe live deeply in your peace and we turn here to Mother Mary, she who lived constantly in your peace, keeping and pondering all these things in her heart. We ask her to pray for us as we together say, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. St. John Paul II, in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we've been looking at the theme of the Jubilee year and especially yesterday morning we heard from John and Mary about the Old Testament background of the Jubilee year and this whole week together we've been really zoomed in on Luke chapter 4, that opening homily if you will, that opening sermon Jesus gave, which really is kind of programmatic for the entirety of Luke's gospel. It gives you a sense of not just that one moment but of what were the kinds of things Jesus was preaching all throughout Galilee during his opening of his public ministry. And one thing that that's beautiful to see is in Luke's gospel you see that some of the language that's used in the Jubilee year, especially about release, the release of the captives, that the release that Jesus wants to give us in this new Jubilee year of the new covenant era is not just released from physical captivity, he talks about being released from things like illness. You'll see him when he's healing someone. It's cast in the light of Jubilee year release. This person is being released from this illness, this suffering, this physical suffering that's been weighing them down for years. We see it also is released from spiritual illness, a spiritual kind of liberation, where we see when demons are being expelled or even forgiveness of sins. In fact, the our father prayer, the Lord's prayer is like a Jubilee year prayer, where we're not just praying for just forgiveness. So I hope I'm pardoned by that judge up there. He just pardons me. No, no, it's more than that, that we're released is actually the language in Luke's gospel. So there's so much in Luke's gospel about this today. This morning, what I want to talk about is another thing Jesus wants to release us from. He wants to free us from all those anxieties of this world, the anxieties that happen when we forget that we are dependent on God, that we have a loving, trusting father, and we focus on ourselves. I want to start with a reading from Matthew's gospel. So Scott had mentioned that we're going to be looking at the year of Matthew coming up here soon. And from Matthew chapter six, right there in the middle of the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew chapter six versus 25 through 34, we hear what Jesus tells us, and this is what some of the themes that JP two often echoed. I'm going to read a few lines from Matthew chapter six. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, how you'll pay for your mortgage, your kid's education, the virus. Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. He goes on in verse 28, Jesus says, why are you anxious about clothing? He goes on and he says in verse 31, therefore do not be anxious saying what shall we eat, what shall we drink, or what shall we wear for the Gentiles seek all these things. And your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom and his righteousness. And all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow. We'll be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day. So much in here we can unpack from these lines here. Just notice how he says the Gentiles, they're anxious about all these things. And that makes sense, right? If they don't really believe in a loving God, the Father that has a plan for our lives, in his providence, he cares for us. If they don't really believe that, of course they're going to be anxious because they think everything depends on them. So when we find ourselves anxious, it's a sign that we're not living as disciples. That we're living more like the Gentiles do. Another thing he says is that that your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. So it's not bad to have concern about these things. It's not like your Father doesn't want to take care of all those things you're anxious about. It's just that he wants us to surrender them to him and trust that he will take care of it. He knows you need these things. Trust that he's going to take care of you. And the only way we can really live life well and in God's peace is if we seek first the kingdom. If we seek first, we put God first in our lives, then God will take care of everything, all these things that we may need. So to start off, I would just want to highlight about how we need to have genuine concern. So anxiety is not, you know, imprudence. You don't have to have an akuta matata, spirituality. You know, it's kind of, okay, whatever's going to happen in life. No, no, no, God wants us to be virtuous, prudent human beings. He wants us to use our mind. He wants us to think our decisions through, to make wise decisions. This is what prudence is all about. Stephen Covey would call it in his famous book on the seven habits of highly effective people, beginning with the end in mind. He just stole that from Aquinas and Aristotle. But the idea, you begin with the end in mind. What is the goal? What do I want? You know, so what am I trying to do with this business I'm starting? I have a business plan. I got to think it through. I can't just go, I'm going to just start a business. It'll be really fun. I have to have a good plan, good prudence. How do I raise my kids? What kind of life do I want for my kids? Do I want them to just have lots of activities and not miss out on anything? So they have every advantage to move forward. Is that the kind of life I really want for my kids? Or is there something more I'm looking for? So I begin with the end of my think, what kind of life do I want for them? And then how do I build that life now? So it's good to have genuine concern to use our minds to think things through about our finances, about how to advance our career, how to provide for our family, how to raise our children well. It's good to have concern for my parish. It's good to have concern for my country. Good to have concern for the church that this is all a part of prudence. But anxiety is something different. Anxiety is when I lose my interior peace, when I have that interior agitation. Anxiety is never from God. Jesus says in Matthew 6, 25, do not be anxious. I think about St. Paul in Philippians chapter 4, verse 6. He says, have no anxiety about anything. Having genuine concern, prudence, thinking things through. That's good. That's virtuous. That's holy. But when I lose that interior peace and I find myself agitated, worry, anxious, that's not from God. That's the devil rattling us. I like to think in my life, like when I notice that agitation, it could be about something going on with one of my kids. It could be something going on at work, something going on in the church. And I can find that lack of peace. I like to think of it as like the check engine light going off. You know that sinking feeling when you're driving and all of a sudden you happen to notice that light? And then this is one thing I don't know why. Anyone that works with cars, maybe you can tell me, why doesn't it make a noise? Our cars can do everything. Our phones can do everything. And so something like when that check engine light goes on, it's really small. And I'm going, has that been on for a week? I don't know. But in any case, the light goes on. And as soon as I notice it, I realize, oh, I got to take care of the car. I got to get this into the shop. I got to have my mechanic do a diagnosis, figure out what's going on. What do we need to do to set the car right? And the same is true for my soul. Whenever I notice that interior agitation, that interior stress, that anxiety, that's a sign something's off. My priorities aren't right. I'm not looking at the situation the right way. I'm not really trusting God. That God, the Father is going to take care of me. He's going to take care of the situation. Now again, I want to be clear. It's good for me. Like if I have a little stress, I'm not talking about that. Oh, I got to get this done in this deadline, a little bit of stress or I'm like, oh, I'm really sad about that. Like those, that's human. There's a disappointment. You're sad about it. That's human. It's when I find myself crushed by that disappointment. When I become discouraged, which means losing your virtue of courage. Things life is hard. There's going to be suffering in this valley of tears, but when I lose that interior piece, that's a sign something is off. And I've got to go back to God and set things right. St. Thomas Aquinas points out that at the heart of this lack of, the part, the heart of this kind of anxiety is a lack of trust in God's providence, where I'm putting more trust in myself than I am in God. And I want to talk about three ways we all fall into this just as Christian disciples were fallen human beings, but especially in this secular age, where we think we're very self reliant and we can fall into this trap as good Christian. I want to talk about three main ways we do it. I'm going to talk about, first of all, how we sometimes are too attached to things that we want in the present. I'm going to secondly talk about how we have many fears about the future, but we also have many fears, regrets, regrets about the past. So that's what we're going to look at here. That's my outline of what we're going to cover. So first of all, I want to talk about the present. It's been fun that this summer, I've been going back, I teach one of my favorite classes to teach over the years has become a spiritual theology class that I teach where we go through the writings of the saints. And I've always loved St. John of the Cross, but I've gone back and reread him this summer a little bit more. And St. John of the Cross is intimidating. Has anyone ever tried to read St. John of the Cross? I mean, it's intense. You know, he's like, don't desire anything. And if you want the possession of all, desire the possession of nothing, if you want to be all, be nothing, nothing, nothing, nada, nada, nada. And you're like, Oh my God, I'm going to go back over here and just try to say my prayers. It's kind of intense. But his whole spirituality of the nada of like, not being attached to things. I don't want us to think of it as like cold-hearted, rigid self-control, self-denial. I'm just going to deny all desire, like the renunciation of all human desire. No, no, no. In 30 seconds, John of the Cross of Spirituality is all about how we have amazing desires. He describes them as infinite caverns in our soul, these infinite caverns that have capacity to know and to love God, the infinite one. So the deepest desires on our soul are for God. But what happens is, we get too attached to, I got to have this relationship. I need to live in the city. I need to have this kind of house. I need this kind of position. I need this title. I need this many likes on social media. There's all these things I'm trying to settle to satisfy me. So I'm not really aware of the deepest desires on my heart. And many good Christians, he says, they grow in prayer. They start really growing in the spiritual life, but they plateau and they never go deep with the Lord because of all their attachments to things of this world, even things that aren't bad, but they keep us from being in touch with those deepest desires. It's kind of like, I think about, you know, my kids maybe, they love ice cream. Do your kids love ice cream? My kids love ice cream. If I ever need to bribe them, I get ice cream. You know, so, okay, kids, we're going to do this big project all day. Oh, no, but there's ice cream halfway through. Oh, okay. You know, they love ice cream. You know, and I remember when I first brought my family, I'm half Italian. And years ago, I had a sabbatical and we went to Italy for about a month to live near my relatives. And I remember trying to get them to try gelato. And they were like, Oh, I don't know. We just want ice cream. And I just knew once they taste gelato, they will never want to eat their Dairy Queen ice cream again. Have you ever had gelato? Anyone had gelato? Okay, you know what I'm talking about, right? Gelato, we could say is almost an eschatological experience, almost a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, right? Right? You know, and once my kids, I got them gelato, they were definitely, they didn't want to go back to Dairy Queen. I mean, their hearts were blustless until they rested in gelato. It was incredible, you know. But this idea that there was a greater, a greater delight, a greater sweetness that they had never experienced. But once they experience it, then they don't want to go back to the little self-serve ice cream. And the same is true. So many of us Christians, we live on, we try to find our security, our happiness, our identity in things that just aren't going to satisfy us. And we're not aware of those deeper things in our heart that we're really longing for. And so the idea of being detached from things in the present, again, isn't like a cold-hearted rigid, I'm detached, I'm really growing in the spiritual life. It's more like a lover. Do you ever see a young couple fall in love? So my wife and I, you know, we do a lot of mentoring with a lot of the young focus couples, they're getting married and things. It's just a lot of fun. But you just see when they, when they fall in love, they just want to be together all the time. In the Sri family household, we're going to have our first wedding this December. My eldest daughter is getting married. So the first Sri wedding, that's great. I'm excited. And I remember she, you know, when she first started meeting this guy and going on dates, you know, she's getting to know him, but very quickly after like date number one, she just wanted to be talking to him and spending time with him. And she's spending, you know, a little less time with her friends, a little less time with the family, a little less time with her own things because she wants to be with him. That's what happens when you fall in love. You start saying no to other things because you want to be with your beloved. And so the idea of detachment isn't again, this rigid self-control. I'm going to repress all my desires. No, it's about allowing the deepest desires to come so that we can be with our beloved, our Jesus. And so here's what I want to share with you about this. So this idea is of being detached, purifying our desires. When we are attached to our will, this is what I want. This is my plan for my family. This is my plan for my career, or this is the comfort I want, or the pleasure I want, or the position, or the prestige I want, whatever it is. Then what happens is, if I'm too attached to those things, I'm not able to receive God's love and peace. I'm going to be agitated because I think that's what will make me happy. I've got to have a platform. I need to be able to speak to more people. I need to get a promotion at work, and I need to get this title and this recognition, or I need this other possession or the latest iPhone. I keep thinking like, these are the things that are going to make me happy. And when I do that, I'm going to be anxious. The analogy St. John of the Cross uses is of our hands. He says, we want to have our hands open, our hands open to receive, to receive what God wants to give us. But the problem is, when our hands are full of all these things we're trying to hold on to, I want this in my life, and I want this in my life, and this over here, when I'm the one in control wanting to hold on to these things, my hands aren't open to receive. It reminds me, this happens often in our household, my wife may have one kid in her arm, she's coming in and she's got groceries in the other hand, and then one of the other kids goes up and goes, hey mom, here, can you hold my soccer ball? She's like, she can't, your hands are full. When our hands are full, we can't receive. And so when we cling to things that we think we need to be happy, when we're grasping after something, I just need that one more thing and then my hands aren't open to receive what God and His providence wants to give me. That could be a certain plan I have for my life, a certain dream, maybe it's praise, maybe it's acceptance, maybe it's a certain relationship, maybe it's my health, maybe it's a certain comfort or another possession. You know, I think about it, I was just talking to one of the focus missionaries just earlier this week, and she was describing about her role as a leader and how she wants to lead. She goes, I noticed this tendency, and it's just something I'm really working on, do I rise and fall dependent on how other people around me view me, how they respond to me, how they respond to my leadership? Do I rise or fall interiorly? Am I happy? Oh, everyone likes me or, you know, or, oh, I had to like challenge, manage this person and correct them on something and now they don't like me, then do I get worried about, like, am I too dependent on what others think about me? Is that where I'm finding my security? When we cling to things, our hands aren't open. This is what St. John of the Cross says, some Christians do not stay empty so that God might fill them with His delight. Their hands are already full and they could not take what God was giving. What are you attached to? What is it that you're clinging to? What is it? I just, I have to have this. I need this to be happy. This has to happen. If this doesn't happen, my world will just be miserable. If we have that narrative in our head, that's not from God. That's the devil getting you to settle for lesser things. I think we have to be like Jesus in Luke chapter 23 on Good Friday, the last word from the cross. What does Jesus say? Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Father, into your hands, I trust you. Jesus surrenders. He breezes last. He entrusts himself entirely to the Father. He breezes last. He's going to die, but he has total confidence that the Father is going to raise him on the third day. Do you have that confidence, the Lord? Can you say, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. When I do my Rome pilgrimage, I love, the first place we always go is St. Peter's, mostly because your jet lagged and you need to be highly caffeinated and you're looking around at so many cool things. It's so fun to see so many things in St. Peter's. But when we leave St. Peter's, there's this depiction of Mary's assumption. It's one of my favorite depictions of Mary's assumption because it's actually not the assumption itself. What happens right when Mary breeze her last, which is the biggest tradition in the church, is that Mary breeze her last and then she's assumed. What you're doing is like, in most of the depictions of Mary's assumption in Rome, are you seeing Mary being pushed up in the clouds and there's all these angels pushing her up and there's all these angels receiving her and there's trumpets and harps and everyone's all excited. This is one second before that. One second before the triumphant assumption, you see Mary breathing her last and letting go and it's a very simple depiction. She's just like, like this. She's just falling and you see her. She's just letting go of life, surrendering and she's just falling and then in the upper corner of the picture, you see the angels rushing down, they're coming down to get her. But I love that image because we want to be like Mary. Mary was a faithful disciple from the very first fiat all the way to this moment at the end of her life. When she breeze her last, what is she doing? She's entrusting herself like Jesus on the cross into your hands, Father. I commit my spirit and she just lets go. She lets go of all the burdens of this world, all the cares as well and she just trusts everything, her very being to the Father. She lets go and literally the picture just shows it's like she's falling and if we were just watching, if we didn't see the angels, we'd be like, oh no, Mary's falling. I got to catch her but she lets go because she knows she's going to be caught. The angels are going to bring her up to heaven. What is burdening you right now, that opening little reflection I gave you? What is it that you are worried about? What is it that you're anxious about? Say to the Father, Father, into your hands, I commit this. Let go like Mary and trust that the Father is going to carry you. In our day and age, I want to highlight this point because in our day and age, we're so easily just clinging on to things. I need this. This has to happen. If this doesn't happen for my kids, if this doesn't happen in my career, I'm just not going to be happy and it keeps us from having those open hands to receive what God wants to give us. What God wants to offer is always so much better, so much more beautiful, so much bigger than anything I could come up with on my own. But we live in a day and age, especially within Christianity, where many good Christians today are getting only a partial gospel. There's a great scholar at Notre Dame, Christian Smith, a sociologist who's done a lot of work on the younger emerging generation. And he talks about how they have a certain kind of belief, but it's not true Christianity. It's dressed up like Christianity. It looks Christian. They talk about Jesus and they talk about the Bible and they may pray. He calls it moral therapeutic deism. I'm not going to get into all of what that means right now, but I want to talk about the therapeutic part of this. And in my work and young people, I just see so many young people today. They may go to mass, they may go to a daily mass, they may go to adoration, they may participate in a small group and they really do love Jesus, but they're being lied to by a half truth gospel and they're being told that Jesus is like your therapist. Jesus is there to solve all my problems. He's there to make me feel good about myself. He's there to help me fulfill my dreams, fulfill my goals, fulfill my plans. I was just talking to some leaders in other seminaries. They're seeing this in young seminarians where they'll spend their holy hour not praying and doing lexio divina, but like kind of going inside and just looking at their feelings and what, you know, how they feel good about themselves. Oh, Jesus could do to help them on the inside. Don't get me wrong. God wants to do those things too, but there's so much more. And so many young people today, especially being told that's what yep, that's what the Catholic faith is about. It's there to help you feel more peace, to feel more happiness, to feel better about yourself and to help you fulfill your dreams and your goals. Think about this. At the Annunciation, there's Mary in the middle of her day. Is she going around saying, man, I hope I can become the mother of God. That's my dream. Please help me to become the mother of God. And then all of a sudden an angel appears and fulfills her dream. Is that what happened? No, she's just, you know, living life and all of a sudden the angel appears and calls her to do this thing that's really hard. I mean the angel has to say, the Lord will be with you, which you know from scripture is biblical code for God asking you to do something really difficult. That's what happens over and over again in the Bible from Moses to Joshua to Gideon to the prophets, to David, whenever they're being called out of their comfort zone to be a part of God's plan in some big significant way, they're going to be stretched like never before. They're going to have to rely on God like never before, which is why God or the angel will say, the Lord be with you. So when Mary hears those words, she's not like, oh, cool. My dreams are going to be fulfilled now. No, she's freaking out, right? What does the Bible say that she was greatly troubled and she considers in her mind the greeting and the angel has to say to her, do not be afraid. Now I want to talk about the difference between Mary and us because that initial feeling of being troubled, that's human. If all of a sudden a big lion were to jumping through this auditorium here, we should all be greatly troubled. It's not human to go, oh, just a lion. I trust in God. No, I got to run. I got to get out of here, you know. So that's a human response. The question is, what do we do with those fears? Mary was not someone that allowed herself to be controlled by her fears. Mary rose above those emotions. She turns them to God. In fact, Pope Benedict talks about how in Luke 129, when Mary, it says Mary considered in her mind the greeting. The word for considered, the Greek word there, is the word where we get in English, the word dialogue. And Pope Benedict reflects on this and points out how it's the idea that Mary remains in dialogue with God. There's an angel appearing to her and offering a startling message. There's something troubling on the horizon. She's troubled by it, but she doesn't allow herself to be a slave to those fears. She dialogues with God. She just talks to God, okay, God, what is it that you're asking of me? What is it that you're trying to teach me? What is it that you're trying to show me? She's talking to God about it. And that's one of the key things we want to do when we find ourselves agitated. We're nervous. We're afraid. What we do is we, instead of talking to God, we have this interior monologue going on. Is that what we do? Oh, what's going to happen? What are they thinking of me now? Oh, that was so embarrassing. I'm really worried about this. And how will this work out? I'm not talking to God. I'm talking to myself. And when I do that, the devil's laughing. He's like, oh, I got him. And it just makes me more anxious. We want to be like Mary and entrusted to God. But Mary gives a great fiat at the end of this. She says, be it done unto me according to my plans. Is that what she says? Be it done unto me according to my dreams. Is that what she says? No, no, she says, be it done to me according to your will. She surrenders to the Father's will. She trusts the Father's will more than her own plan. But when we cling to our plan, we're agitated. Oh, it didn't work out. It didn't work out the way I wanted. Same thing. Jesus, in Gethsemane, the night before he dies, Matthew chapter 26 tells us he prays that prayer three times. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass. It was going to be intense when he was facing. And he acknowledges this is going to be really, really hard. If it's possible, let this cup pass. In his humanity, he's expressing the pain and the suffering that he sees on the horizon. But in the same breath, because he's not just human. His human will is perfectly united to the divine will. He trusts the Father. He says, not my will. May your will be done. Notice what Jesus is asking us to do with the models of Mary and himself to surrender to the Father's will. It's great to have plans. It's great to have dreams. It's great to think things through. We should do that. But not every desire comes from God. Where human beings were fallen. And I want to, I want to make, I know myself. If I'm always pursuing my plan and everything, it's not going to go well. I'll cling to it pridefully. I'll think this is what I need. And I need to learn to surrender. Jesus is inviting us to surrender our entire lives. Jesus didn't say, pick up your dream and follow me. Jesus said, pick up your cross and follow me. But young people, especially today are being told, no, Jesus is just there to solve my problems, to help me feel better about myself, to fulfill my dreams, fulfill my plans, to make these things work out for me. We have to realize when I do that, I will be very, very anxious because I'm not really trusting God as my Heavenly Father. I'm using God to achieve what I want. And that will leave me very self-reliant and anxious. All right, let's talk about the future. I remember when we had our first baby, this is the one that's getting married. I remember like in those nine months leading up to that, I was all excited. We really wanted to have a baby and finally we conceived. We're so excited. But there was another part of me going, wow, my life is about to change, to change dramatically. My wife was just teasing me about this last night. Remember when you did? And so in those nine months leading up to it, I'd be like, okay, wow, well, this is the last time we're going to ever do a vacation, just a relaxing vacation. This is the last time you and I are going to get to go out for dinner. It's just like this, honey. And this is the last time I'm going to be able to stay up really late and read. It's the last time I'm going to be able to get this writing project in. I was like, all nervous. I mean, I'm getting clear, we were so delighted to have a baby. But it was a part of me nervous about, I don't know what being a dad is going to be like, what all the demands are going to be and what the change that's going to mean for our marriage, for my career, for the things I like to do. I just was a little nervous about it. And my wife is so good for me because I need someone like her. She's someone that's such just great peace and confidence in God's providence. And she always says, you know, I don't want to play the what if game anytime. I'm like, Hey honey, what if this happens? And she's like, we're not playing the what if game. And what she did way back then when we were about to have the baby. And she's done many times. There's a little quote from a book that she uses for prayer. You may have heard this book called in conversation with God. It's like a five part series as reflections on the daily mass readings. And anyway, there's a wonderful quote. And I'm going to paraphrase the idea. It says this, if you worry about the future now, you don't have the grace to deal with that now. But if the thing you're worried about might happen in the future, you'll have the grace. God will give you the grace to deal with it at that time. But right now, you don't have that grace. So if you're anxious right now about these things that might or might not happen in the future, you don't have the grace to deal with it. You're just making your life even more complicated. You're going to go into a downward spiral. You'll be even more anxious. And so we should trust that God will provide for us in the future, even if my worst nightmare comes true, that God's going to give me the grace to deal with that. I think here about, I don't know if you ever came across the spiritual writer. She was Jewish. Eddie Hillsam. She was thrown in the concentration camps, but she kept a diary. And in fact, it's interesting, even though she's a non-Catholic writer, she appears in Magnificat a number of times. She's a wonderful writer. I recommend her works. Eddie Hillsam says this about, she even quotes this line from Jesus that we shouldn't be anxious. And the troubles of today are enough for us today, sufficient unto today. We don't need to worry about the things that might or might not happen in the future. She says, we have to fight them daily like fleas, those many small worries about tomorrow. For they sap our energies. So picture, we have fleas all around. That's what those worries are. We have to fight them. Get rid of those fleas. They sap our energies. We make mental provision for the days to come and everything turns out quite differently. Sufficient unto the day. The things that have to be done must be done. And for the rest, we must not allow ourselves to become infested with thousands of petty fears and worries. So many motions of no confidence in God. That's what that is when we have those fears. There's those check engine lights. Those are motions of no confidence in God. I motion not to have confidence in God. That's what's happening when I lose my peace and I fall into that anxiety and have all these worries. Ultimately, we have one moral duty to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace and reflected toward others. So I think there's a great scripture passage to keep in mind in this point. We use this a lot in focus. Romans 828. St. Paul says in Romans 828 that we should not be so anxious about the things in the future. That we should trust that in all things, in all things, God works for good in those who love him. Do you really believe that? Do you really believe in the depths of your heart that in all things, God works for good in those who love him? In all things, no matter what's happening right now in your life, no matter what might happen in the future, do you really believe that in all things, God works for good in those who love him? Do I really believe that even this is really hard, this is difficult? Do I really trust God's providence that God can use this difficult thing I'm facing right now to bring about some good, some good in the world, some good in me, or what if my worst nightmare comes true, the thing I'm really worried about, do I believe even if that happens, God's still in charge. If in his providence he allows it to happen, he can bring some good out of it. It might be hard, it might be painful, but maybe he's going to teach me to grow in patience through this, or maybe he's going to teach me to grow in humility. Maybe I'm a perfectionist, I'm used to finding my identity and getting everything right, and if that happens and I fail, I can grow in humility. That's good for me. It's going to be painful to fail and to be embarrassed, but it's good for me to find my identity not in having everything packaged up and really nice and perfect. Maybe God's going to allow me to experience some suffering so I can learn to rely on him more. Maybe God allows me to experience this pain, this heartache, so I can have compassion more on others that suffer so much more than I do, but do I really believe that God in his providence, if he allows something to happen, can use some good about this to bring some good in my life and in the world? We talk about what does it mean to be a true disciple? You have to be orthodox, you have to follow the doctrines, you have to believe in the church, to believe in the sacraments, to believe in the real presence of the Eucharist, but I would also say, my dear friends, as disciples, a real test, am I really growing in faith, is also, do I really believe Romans 8 28, that in all things, no matter what's happening now, no matter what might happen in the future, do I really believe in all things? God works for good and those who love them because if I believe that, I will not be anxious. No matter what comes my way, I will trust and have confidence like John Paul II. Do not be afraid. I will have confidence in God's plan in my life. Now there's another thing that may happen. We may fall into the trap of being anxious in regretting the past. Maybe it's something we said. Maybe it's something we did. Maybe it was a decision we made. We go, oh, that was a really bad decision. Maybe it's how we treated someone. Maybe it was a failure we had, an embarrassing moment. Maybe it was a mistake in parenting. If I had a chance to parent that child all over again, I would have done it differently. Maybe it's things, not that we did, but something that happened to us. What do we do with the past? The past can weigh us down. It can make us sad, sorrowful. It could make us, we were constantly replaying that in the power. I can't believe I did that. You ever do that like you say something, oh, why did I say it that way and you just keep replaying it over and over again? That's what the devil wants because he doesn't want us to live in the present. He wants us constantly either worried about the future or anxious about the past, regretting the past. We can't change the past. The only thing we can do is name it. That happened. I said that. I failed. I dropped the ball there. I can, I name it. I accept it. I surrender it. I entrust it to the father into your hands. I give you this father. And I trust that in his providence, God, I trust that you can use this for some good. There's some good that you maybe are inviting me to grow in patience. You're inviting me to grow in humility or greater trust, whatever it is. I trust that even that bad thing that happened, even my sin, I think about St. Paul. St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 talks about how he had this sin and is thorn in his side and three times he's begging God, get rid of this, please. And God just comes back and says, no, my power is going to be made manifest in weakness. Why did God allow Paul? It's not that Paul, he wanted Paul to sin, but God can use that even Paul's weakness there, his thorn, his sin for some good to keep him from being proud. Paul, the amazing apostle Paul is having all these visions. It's easy for him to be too elated about himself to think, hey, I'm really pretty awesome. And this weakness over here, God can use it to keep him grounded, to keep him humble. In closing, I want to give you a few practical points here, a few things to keep in mind. How can I practically grow in trust? Because again, the root cause of our anxiety, I want to be clear by the way, because I'm not talking about clinical anxiety and depression and things like that. I'm talking about the normal anxieties that we have here, but there are many people on our age that have much more serious issues. And they need counseling. They need spiritual direction. They probably need both. Grace builds on nature, get a really good therapist, get some good spiritual counseling, go to adoration. Those things are definitely needed. But I'm talking about the normal stuff that we all struggle with. If I want to grow in greater trust and my lack of trust in God's providence is the root of this anxiety, how do I do that? First couple things. First is to remember when we entrust something to God, when we surrender it to God, we don't lose anything. I think here Pope Benedict, when he was installed as Pope, he remembered JP2's words. On the day of his installation in this homily, he echoed JP2's words. Listen to what Pope Benedict says. He says, Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that he might take something away? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life beautiful? And he says, No. If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. So he's going to echo JP2's words here. And he says, I say to you, do not be afraid of Christ. He takes nothing away. He gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundred folds in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ and you will find true life. God doesn't want to take things away, but he doesn't want us to cling to them. He wants us just to surrender them, to entrust them, to put them at his feet. When we're too attached and cling to something, I'm going to be anxious because I got to control and manage it. Second point, whatever we do or whatever we don't surrender is going to cause unnecessary stress and worry. Whatever I don't surrender, I feel like I have to manage. Third point, this is from St. Therese and many of the saints, what displeases God most is our lack of trust. We can think of, oh, what displeases God most is when I do this and I do this. But many of the saints say it's when we don't trust God. I think about this in my own fatherhood, like when my kids, they make mistakes, they hit their brother, they steal something, this just happens. But where my heart's broken the most is when my kids don't trust me. And I tell them, trust me, don't do this. And they're like, Dad, no, you don't know what you're talking about. I want to do my own thing. When they don't trust me, that's relational. It's not about just breaking a rule. It's breaking the relationship. They don't trust me. That's what St. Therese and other saints say. Lastly, bring God's word. Bring God's word into whatever is troubling you. Have something from Scripture like Romans 8, 28, and all things, God works for good in those 11. So when you notice that check engine like going off, you notice yourself anxious, you arm yourself with God's word. Or something like Psalm 46, verse 10, be still and know that I am God. Or maybe something like from Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. When we have the arrows of God's word to point at our anxieties, that's, it's the devil who wants to rattle us. We want to arm ourselves with God's word in order to maintain our peace. And so on this great feast day, let us think about Mary and Martha. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus to rest in his peace and not be worried and anxious about many things. Amen. Thanks so much and God bless you all.