 David said one thing I ask of the Lord this I seek And my guess is if we're thoughts think about it this this whole idea about one thing, right? What is that one thing that the Lord is asking of each one of us? David's was there is one thing I love David first off I love David because he was great what David did he did big He loved the Lord big he sinned big he repented big David did it all and the thing is is even with everything that he did We still have a positive feeling towards David if we think about all the horrible things he did There's something about grace working in somebody's life that moves them and changes them and transforms them So David could say there's just one thing I want and I want to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Which is not a bad deal a man I mean think about that to be able to imagine ourselves dwelling in the house of the Lord and what that's going to be like We're talking about it the other day and the Scripture reminds us that no mind can imagine No ear can hear or see or anything like that about what the house of the Lord is going to be like But I agree with David that that's where I want to be a man That's what this is all about This is supposed to be leading us to the house of the Lord if that's not the path you're on if that's not the direction You're going if what you're doing right now is not leading you to dwell in the house of the Lord for the rest of your life I suggest you get on a different road amen David says one thing one thing I like Is to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life That was his one thing What's your one thing That one thing that you desire I was praying and thinking about that one thing in the scene from a movie came back to my mind And it was a movie city slickers Classic movie I'm sure Actually, I'm always really careful about doing things like this because like there could be other scenes in the movie that are Just like totally awful. I was doing one youth conference in this this scene from Braveheart Let's just say they started the clip about 10 seconds too early. I Had to apologize to a lot of parents, but let's just show that that clip from city slickers Do you know what the secret life is? No This your finger one thing just one thing that's great, but What's the one thing? That's what you got to figure out So that's what we have to figure out. It's funny if you go to the comments on YouTube under the clip The second comment is it's Jesus. I mean, that's the one thing. It's Jesus. Okay. I get that But what is the one thing what does it look like for us one of the things? I love about my nieces and nephews and kids in general is they're able to really single be singly focused like when they make up their mind on something they want to do they do it and I remember there's a occasion My niece and she's now 30 something now but at the time she was maybe six or seven years old and I was coming home and I was gonna take her to the movie oh crap Little mermaid. I think it was little mermaid. Who's who's the little princess in murmur. Is it Ariel? All you guys are like, I don't know and all the all the grandmothers out there the mothers out there know exactly So she was all excited so whenever we talk on the phone She goes like Uncle Dave when you come home You're gonna take me to the movies that we're gonna go to the movie and she's all excited and every time we're on the phone She sent me these little things through her dad these little clips of the pictures of the movie and all that So I come home and she's excited we get together the day I go and I pick her up And we go to lunch and we take her to basically ice cream and just let her eat whatever she wants And we drive up to the theater when I first get to the theater I'm a little anxious because it's a lot of people there So I walk up to the theater and we go up to buy her two tickets and she's almost crying She's so excited and I say two tickets for the little mermaid and the lady says we're sold out This is why you don't have children, right? Exactly. So I Explain to a six-year-old girl They're sold out, right? It's like, well, Uncle Dave you promised you promised you'd take me to Sierra So later that started bargaining bargaining people. It's like I'll give you $500 for your seats. All right She could go by herself. I don't even I don't even want to see this movie honestly, right? The sense of being single-minded that we have What's that one thing for us? I was amazed and obviously the the answer to this is Jesus But we're going to talk about what does that mean? But I'm amazed at the number of people their one thing ought not be their one thing that one thing that motivates their life How many people if you're honest you're you're largely motivated by fear You do things or don't do things because you're afraid You're afraid what might happen You're afraid what could happen You're afraid what people would say Afraid what your parents would say afraid what your kids would say afraid what your spouse would say They were motivated by fear Remember number years ago. There was a guy and he was motivated by a secret Something awful that happened to him when he was a little boy from some neighborhood kids And that secret motivated every part of his life He would go on and he would tell the story he was in high school And in high school he was doing this lab It was some science lab and there were a couple of guys that were across the science room across the classroom And they were laughing and in his mind had no no connection to reality But in his mind they were laughing because they knew what had happened to him when he was a little boy No no touch with reality, but that's what he believed He literally walks across the classroom starts a fight with these kids gets expelled I mean his life becomes this profound mess ends up in Reno Messed up alcoholic and he encounters Jesus And it changes his life And he would begin to share about that time when he was no longer going to be bound to that secret And he would stand up and he would give talks at retreats was working mostly with young people And this thing that he was afraid of anybody finding out he would actually talk about Because it wasn't what motivated his life anymore That had changed What motivates your life? What's that one thing and I'm sure that it probably changes and there are different things but But what I want to talk about is is this mission Yeah, if we're going to be following Jesus if we're going to be faithful to him What's that one thing that's absolutely necessary that each one of us is able to embrace or else it's not going to be possible I want to suggest and it's a word that I don't think we generally like What I want to look at this morning is that that one thing is obedience I hate obedience Right, you know Even that word we just need to find a different actually I was wrestling with the word. I love the word faithfulness I love faithfulness, but there's a difference between obedience and faithfulness faithfulness is a reflection on how obedient we are And the reality is is I think we've always had a hard time with obedience And the first night The p was talking about adam and eve and adam and eve are in the garden And there's just this beautiful image of abiding with the lord The scripture says that adam and eve were walking through the garden in the middle of the day that were naked with the lord Everything is just wonderful. There's there's no sense of problem or pain or struggle or to air anything like that And the lord says to them, I think this is profoundly beautiful. You are free And then we ought to continue to reflect and think about that the lord created adam and eve created all of us in freedom And he says you are free. You're free to do whatever and to do whatever He's created us that way. You are free to eat of any any fruit. Just not this one tree Do you ever find that on on fridays during lent you crave a hamburger? Even though you might not have had a hamburger in like six weeks, but that friday during lent, right? You just why because We just don't like to be told no You can eat of all of I mean this tree is no different than this tree. Just Don't eat of this one What does eve do? Adam's over praying is rosary Actually Actually Actually adam shouldn't have been adam should have been there No serpent should be able to approach a man's bride without him being there in front of him amen And adam and eve and you and I let's not kid ourselves Eat of the fruit and what happens because of their disobedience and this is the same in my life today What happens because of their disobedience number one? They lose union with god They had union with god they were walking in the garden in the middle of the day naked And they were okay with that And the first thing they do is they cover themselves And then they hide from him can you imagine? Actually some of you can Being afraid of god I mean the image are so stark walking in the in the middle of the day with the lord hand in hand peace joy presence right and then next covering themselves hiding And this is remarkable god says where are you? Telling you if it was me i wouldn't come looking I wouldn't have come looking but the reality is we pay attention to the scriptures So oftentimes the scriptures are a story about god looking for us and this is ridiculous again. I wouldn't go looking It's a lot like my mother when we were little We were playing hide and go seek in the middle of the day when mom was just going crazy because she had six kids And she says let's play a game and say that's great mom. Let's play hide and go seek Okay, you guys run hide and be as quiet as you can all right and i'm gonna come looking for you It's like this is great. So we love we run and we're hiding it's like Okay, be quiet be quiet and just like Ten and she's Still not looking Mom is awful at this game right An hour and a half later. It's like and you go in and she's having her coffee. She's oh you guys God comes looking for us all right. So the first one we lose is we lose union with god to their shame When we're disobedient we lose union with god and we we are we're filled with shame they cover themselves They don't even want to be seen by him Such as the nature of disobedience And finally death Death death enters the equation death in our soul death in our spirit Hope peace joy and literally death Death separation from god Adam and Eve didn't or couldn't or wouldn't Be obedient, but honestly we're not that different We're not that different there's occasion with my little niece and and I just love the fact that my niece is a nephew They get to tell stories about them because I never did anything bad. So I have to be able to look at them So this is the same niece who comes home. This is great She comes home from school one day and she was on the bus And she was sitting in the front seat next to the bus driver and and she always sat in the back of the bus Always sat in the back of the bus. So when she comes off the bus my sister says, you know Molly I'll throw her under the bus. Molly. Why were you sitting next to the bus driver? She goes, I don't know I don't know. I think maybe he wanted to get to know me better And then she says or I got in trouble for spitting out the window, right I'm not I'm not sure which one it is But anyway, she she had done something and my mom says to her might she had done something wrong And my mom says, you know molly don't do that and molly says you're not the boss of me Right to which my sister said molly everybody's the boss of you, right? Everybody's the boss, but we don't like that I mean the reality is is we don't we don't outgrow that we do not like to be told what we should and what we should not do But I suggest that one thing that I want to reflect on the one thing I invite you to think about the one thing I invite you as you leave today to reflect and pray and go before the lord is Are you are we? Obedient because it's at the heart of the spiritual life We take a look at at why it is that we're supposed to be obedient And I think one of the struggles we have is it's hard to be obedient to somebody. We don't know It's hard to be obedient to this kind of this vague power or or Something that's going to restrict us that's out there, but I suggest something changes when we become in love with someone That that that is ultimately obedience there's something about being obedient just because you're told to do okay fine But there's something profoundly different about being obedient because we love we find in the scriptures in john 1421 it says whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me Brothers and sisters our ability to be obedient to the lord is directly connected to our love of him Don't tell me you love god and you're not obedient to him I can't say that I love him and I give my life to him if I'm not being obedient to him Scripture goes on and says what the heck was that awkward I don't know it just like came from Oh, he probably was john bow you john and I were this is this is the problem about being around for too long john and I were roommates together in college And the problem is is I can't talk about anything he did because it's now confessional and he could say anything so My life is so complicated Okay, so scripture says whoever loves me will keep my word This is just phenomenal whoever loves me will keep my word And my father will love him and he will come to him and make our dwelling with him Whoever does not love me does not keep my words whoever doesn't love me is an obedient Yet the word you hear is not mine, but that of the father who has sent me We show Our love in our obedience Our love by how obedient we are to him I mean The worst thing I hated the thing I hated to hear from my mom and my dad when I was young Was I'm so disappointed in you I mean occasionally I went and I did something really stupid and I came back at home and And moms are just so good at this She was sitting in her bed and she was kind of sitting it up and there was a light little candle off to the side And my mom's got ms. So her rosary beads were always really big So she had this big rosary over her lap and she's praying rosary and tears I think she'd probably sprayed herself with bottled water But like tears just going down her cheeks and it glistened in the candlelight and I walk in and she's like I'm so disappointed in you, right If I didn't love her Or if she didn't love me and somebody said I'm so disappointed in you. It's like I don't I really don't care what you feel or what you but But because she loves me and I love her To hear that I'm disappointed in you It just breaks my heart, right That there's something that changes about obedience and our desire to be obedient When we know that we're loved when we know that the one who is asking something of us loves us And we show our love and our we show our love for god by our ability to be obedient of what he asks of us If I think and reflect about the vast majorities of the problem in the church that we experience It's because men and women haven't been obedient Haven't been faithful Haven't lived the gospel haven't been faithful to the teachings of the church It seems to me that it continually comes back to obedience And we find that in the scriptures that that if the foundation of our walk with Jesus Is one of being obedient to what he asks of us matthew 7 24 to 27 Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them Will be like the wise man who built his house on rock The rain fell The floods came The winds blew and buffeted the house But it did not collapse it It had been built soundly on rock And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them who is not obedient to them Will be like the fool who built his house on sand The rain fell the floods came the winds blew And it buffeted the house and it collapsed. It was completely ruined Marks for everybody mark Bart Sarah Pete all spoke of the winds that are buffeting this house We can look around it's not hard for us to see it It's everywhere In this house this house that we call the church or this house that we call me the temple of god the winds and the storm is buffeting And we have to ask ourselves. What is the foundation that we're being built on? And jesus says if that foundation isn't him In his teachings and being faithful to that it will be destroyed now i am confident and this is important I am confident that this winds and the storms and the gates of hell will never prevail against the church You know, there's been a lot of negative things about the said to the church We've given lots of reasons to say negative things I suppose but she's still the bride and she is still beautiful and she is still worth fighting for amen And the church as the church will always be obedient individuals may not be obedient, but the church as the church was promised The question we ask ourselves is what does it look like for us to build our foundation to be obedient to jesus? particularly in the little things I think a danger that we have is we compare ourselves to other people When we talk about how faithful we are to the lord and how obedient we are to the lord and how good we are to the lord And all these kinds of things we compare ourselves to the person down to the street. It's like well, I'm not as bad as that person Right, so i'm doing i'm doing pretty good. I mean if we think of a scale of one to ten and obedience I'm a solid eight because they're a six So it's just i'm glad i'm not them, right? The problem is is that well the measure with which we compare ourselves ought not be our neighbor ought not be our spouse it ought to be jesus Right, he's the one that I compare myself to And the reality is in the light of that There is always greater room for me to give and present to the lord greater obedience To what he's called us to It's one of the reasons I love the wedding of kena. It's the fourth chapter of john and it's just such a beautiful I love the fact. I love love love being catholic. Amen I love being catholic. Yeah, it's it's interesting. I've been able yeah I've been able to travel a little bit and you can go to the various countries and you can tell the countries that have Kind of this catholic personality this catholic spirit. I mean go to spain or go to it'll are there struggles a mess Yeah, of course, but they're also in the midst of their mess. They're having a glass of wine. All right That's a good thing brothers and sisters, right? Right. That's a good thing That's a good thing, but I love the wedding at kena I just love the fact that the first miracle that jesus does is let's uh, let's get some wine, right? We've got a major party if you've not seen the chosen of the episode. Yeah, the chosen is really really beautiful But the episode the episode of the wedding at kena is really beautiful this one I can't remember which of the disciples is dancing and he just doesn't dance very well And they say jesus can you do something for him? He goes I can't even help that, right? Right, but I love the reality that in the midst of this they're having a big party and jesus's first act is To be able to change water into wine But what I love the text where they say where mary says do whatever he tells you I mean when I die if they put as a friar I know exactly what they're going to put on the gravestone because they except for my name They put everything is exactly the same, but I would love it if they actually put on my gravestone. He said yes Because that's what I want. I just want to be able to say jesus. I said yes to whatever you asked of me And I love that text from mary. She says do whatever he tells you do whatever he asks of you At the heart of this brothers and sisters is a is a spirit and a part of us that wants to be obedient to whatever It I mean the craziness that there is whatever Jesus asks of us And that's one of the reasons I love about being a franciscan is because we have in the saint st Francis who was willing to look like a fool for whatever it was that jesus asked Right and we think of the saints and the bernadette and lords who's who's like just kind of Getting going through the mud and through the dirt because she said that there was going to be a fountain there The living water that would come forth and how foolish she must have looked like And we have a history of saints that look foolish because they were going to be obedient to jesus And I want to guarantee you to the degree that you will be obedient to jesus You are going to look like a fool and you are going to separate yourself from the world The scripture says why does the road that leads to hell and most people choose it But narrow is the road that leads to life and few people choose it and it's difficult and brothers and sisters being obedient To jesus is the narrow path and it's difficult and few people choose it and we live in a world today That will point you out because you're choosing to live differently Amen And you will be mocked And you will be called names that will use words like bigot closed-minded hater homophobic Because we're being faithful to jesus i want a coin of phrase a word and it's called catholic phobia Or a cathophobe and a cathophobe is an individual who believes just because I follow jesus that I hate people that don't And it's not true And we can be faithful and obedient to the teachings of jesus and the teachings of the church And still love And still care amen but I guarantee you That the world will hate you if you're obedient to jesus And that's okay, and that's okay Obedience ultimately brothers and sisters is difficult If it was easy to obey Or it is easier to obey to do the things that I want to do Dave why don't you take a week and go to the Caribbean? All right if I must right? I love what colby said maximillion colby He speaks about obedience. He says in order that obedience be supernatural It must not proceed from reason But from faith If my obedience and we're going to talk in a moment how jesus's obedience was supernatural if my obedience from is Going to be supernatural. It can't just be because I figured out this makes sense If if if my obedience demands that I have this always this intellectual exercise that says okay. Yes, this makes sense to me I'm going to do it Colby says it's not supernatural. It's not grazed It's just the flesh for me It was last spring And coven was crazy You know and I think at times we we are very critical of Everybody both sides everybody because nobody knew what the heck was going on And I remember the day that the bishop called me and he said Dave We it was funny because that this is awful. All right. I admit this Other diocese were closing the things down and our diocese closed things down later But I sent the email to the bishop thanking him for not closing things down With the feeling that he would probably have to do it in about a week And I remember the call and he said, you know, we can't have public masses anymore. I never imagined As a priest That I would not be able to celebrate mass with the congregation and never crossed my mind But I also remember actually in this field house on this stage 25 years and nine days ago I knelt down in front of the bishop and I promised I would be obedient And I promised I would be obedient And if I'm only obedient when I feel like it or when I like what they're being said What grace is there in that pagans do that? And I will say that that that six weeks that we were having no public masses was Was in one way it was profoundly difficult and troubling and just a time of suffering But in a way that I can't explain there was a unity to Jesus that I had never experienced before This closeness This intimacy We've got to be able to be obedient especially in times that it doesn't make sense You know bishops have a role that I firmly believe the worst job in the world right now is being a bishop It's just it's horrible somebody. It's like You know when you're a bishop, it's like do not curse me, right? But this this sense that we have I mean one of the things I was giving a talk and I was talking about the bishops And somebody came up to me afterwards and they said why would you talk? Why would you listen to what the bishops are saying? Because i'm catholic And as soon as we're beginning Yeah, as soon as we begin to pick and choose brothers and sisters were Protestant As soon as we pick and choose it's like i'm gonna listen to this or the other the thing that people come to me And they say you know, well, I know the bishop said this but I read this blogger Where I saw this youtube It's like yeah, I remember a person who used to post he posted 95 theses We called him Martin Luther he posted it on a door in a church in vettemberg and he got a lot of followers And where's that led us? I recall bob rice tells a story about his pastor a number of years ago And his bishop was really progressive and really liberal and and this his pastor was really conservative and And somebody came up to me and he was kind of kind of baiting him He said well, you know, what do you think about your bishop and all the things that he's done? And this this priest said my bishop He's he's my bishop I would lay down my life for my bishop Because I don't agree with everything he does and I don't agree with everything he writes, but he's my bishop And I will lay down my life for him Brothers and sisters for too often we have spoken about cafeteria catholics And then we pick and choose My experiences in the last 15 or 20 years the tides have turned We have to ask ourselves Are we willing to be obedient and I go back to what colby says That obedience at the heart of it when it becomes supernatural is when it is preceded by not by reason but by faith When I was a postulate one of the professors I had was talking about struggles that he had with the church Or struggles that he had with individuals in the church And he said there has to be some place some time Where I bow my head And I submit to obedience And I suggest that at that moment It's what separates us as catholics and as christians And we define ourselves that what we're going to do Is we are going to be obedient as jesus was amen Because that's fine Talk is cheap Talk is cheap matthew 21 23 Not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven But only the one who does the will of my father in heaven Many will say to me on that day lord lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name and then I will turn and I will say solemnly I never knew you Depart from me you evil door that is one of the scariest scriptures in In the entire but it scares the crap out of me Like jesus am I doing what you want am I being obedient to what you're asking of me Because I can give all these talks and I can do all these things and I can say how great you are and how wonderful And I can look so reverent and holy But jesus says that person won't necessarily enter the kingdom of god only the ones that are who are obedient Will enter the kingdom of god One of the things that I love is that obedience allows us to be able to see god do really cool things Right Peter Get out of that boat And he just begins to walk upon water I mean, I would love to if I just like walking right how cool is that that this these people got to see Literally, peter walk on water because he was obedient You know, I know people who have done things that have been kind of crazy or seemed kind of crazy And then you look back and it's like by your obedience. That was really amazing And thank you for letting us to be a part of that and thank you for letting us see that I think sometimes by us not being obedient we we we inhibit the lord from doing the great work that he wants to do And when we submit ourselves and we said jesus i'm going to be obedient to whatever it is that you ask of me Even though it might look foolish and even though intellectually it may not make sense But I trust in faith that you're going to do great things and people begin to walk on water Amen, I think that's what the lord wants us to get out of the boat and walk on water Now one of the dilemmas and one of the struggles is and we hear it all the time Is that jesus wouldn't ask something of me that's so difficult We particularly hear this common in the in the younger population today And it's often revolved around our moral teachings Jesus would god wouldn't ask something of me that is so difficult I think of the rich young man in the 14th chapter of luke Runs up to jesus. So what do I have to do to inherit eternal life? This is what you have to do Sell all you have and follow me You can't do that. It's really sad scripture. He walks away. He says his face fails. He walks away sad Now what jesus doesn't do is ah, I didn't think that was going to be so hard I didn't think you being obedient to what I was asking was going to be so difficult. So come back here. All right What do you want to do? You don't want to sell all your I'm not going to ask something difficult of you What do you want to do to inherit eternal life? Okay, do that Right, that's fine Go ahead and do that. He asked profoundly difficult things of us There was a quote that I read recently and it's about this whole woke population that that's spiritual but not religious And one of the person says we don't want to reject religion outright But we don't want to be restricted by it So what they're saying is that they want to create a god in their own image who does not place any boundaries upon them Let's be clear When jesus asks difficult things as it relates to obedience We hear in hebrus 5 8 Son though he was he learned obedience by what he suffered And when he was made perfect He became the source of eternal salvation For all who obey him Son though he was he learned obedience from what he suffered You know, we think a lot about jesus's suffering and i'm gonna talk about it in a moment, but just Think about this we we think about the suffering and the passion But think about the suffering that jesus experiences all the time, but particularly experienced that We all know The suffering that we experienced by loved ones who turn away from the lord Who walk away from him My guess is we all have somebody in our life and our family that's done horrible things And we see that and in that helplessness and saying i know that your life could be different if you would just do that There's a suffering in that and jesus Jesus continues and suffered because of that he looks at me and he says dave if you would just do this differently And out of his love for us Yeah, he suffers He learned obedience by what he suffered Our salvation brothers and sisters come about because of jesus's suffering I take profound consolation In jesus's time in the garden Where jesus was being asked to do something Profoundly difficult And what i love about this is jesus didn't like just walk up there. It's like yep. Yep. Here we go Right here actually right here would probably be better. How let me help you out, right? I mean we have this we have this image of Of jesus and he's struggling and he's wrestling with this I read an article one time The compared and contrasted socrates death who goes through his death and he drinks very very courageously the hemlock and he drinks that and And jesus suffers. He says i don't want to do this And he goes back to the father and he says if there's any other way Come there's got to be another way. Let's let's talk about this And he goes back to his friends and he says can't you just stay awake with me just Just for a moment just I love the reality that jesus was wrestling with what the father was asking of him And he says if there could be any other way Think about it just another day There's got to be something else we could do here And then he says what I hope I can say Not my will but yours Not not why and I know that what you're going to ask of me and I know that what you're going to ask of other people is difficult But it's something that jesus said jesus isn't going to ask anything of us that he hasn't done himself His obedience Cost him his life And I can't say that that's ever happened to me At the occasion a number of years ago to go to china and I was dealing with this one gentleman and he told me the story of his uncle And his uncle in the 50s was arrested and he was put in prison And the guards were continually saying if you just renounce your faith We'll let you go free and it's like i'm not going to renounce my faith. I'm a catholic christian and i'm not going to renounce that So day after day after month after year would go and they would say if you just renounce at you So one day had literally been in prison for years one day said okay You just had enough Said enough I I don't believe it and they were they were faithful to him. They said okay. You can go home So this guy goes home, but he didn't exactly think through his entire plan because he goes home and his family says to him It's so great to see you and they've given him hugs and how wonderful it is and then they asked him Why did they let you out? He hadn't thought that through And he had to tell them why they let him out of prison So what does he do? He goes back to prison the next day And he renounces his renunciation And they killed him this person's uncle is a martyr Because he was obedient to jesus I spent some time in iraq with the caldian community in march Amen And I asked one of them. I said what was it like And they talk about what it was like under isis and what was going on there and I asked the bishop I said how many priests do you know that were killed that were martyred and you started Being in iraq and listening to them talk about being disciples of jesus is really different than what we experience here Right obedient to death What's it cost us What's it cost us we have got to remember brothers and sisters That the obedience our salvation comes about Through jesus's obedience to the father And it's going to be the same for me and it's going to be the same for you To be obedient Even unto death and there's some teachings that are harder and more difficult than others And we can't just pick and choose which one we're going to abide by So when jesus says in matthew 544 But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of the heavenly father That this is a commandment that we have and then we've got to be obedient We have to be obedient to loving our brothers and sisters and to be obedient to loving our enemy I love what sarah was talking about yesterday. She was saying that god what we have is he's got a bunch of children In god's world there aren't enemies. There's his kids We create enemies, but god doesn't create enemies And brothers and sisters what should make and should mark the catholic church is different is our ability to love Our ability to love those people that we disagree with to dialogue to engage to talk to be present We've got to be if we as the body of christ don't love well Why do we expect anybody else to love well amen? And it has got to be for that person. We have got when jesus says love your enemy. Who is that person? That person that you just can't stand that commentator on tv or those people right those people Those are the people that jesus commands us to love And we have to ask ourselves am i obedient to i'm obedient to this i go to mass every sunday But i'm not obedient to this because those people drive me nuts And i can hate them because they're not living the way they should live Right Love your enemies. It will be what marks us as a catholic christian community I mean you look at some of the stuff online and some of the blogs and youtube's it's like If this demonstrates faith if this demonstrates charity, I don't want anything to do with that The reality is we are the greatest scandal in the church. It's not the people who don't believe it's the people who profess to be catholic and christian Because we can't be obedient to love amen Yeah, we clap but it's really really difficult amen Jesus says love as I have loved you to the point of death Bart last night talked about the church being the body of christ And then we need to look differently in the world I recall one of our alumni she was out. She's a nurse and she was working in a hospital And they just mentioned her that that she the way she treated one of these patients He said, you know, how is it that you there's something different about you There's something different about the way you care for them They said how is it how is it that you do that and she said one simple answer. She says I've been loved much If we want to transform and change the world we have got to be able to engage and love That's what's going to change those people's heart Not our hate not our condemnation amen she's Okay Matthew 18 Peter approaches asking lord If my brother sins against me how many times must I forgive him as many as seven times jesus answered I say to you Not seven times, but 70 times seven times. Can I be obedient to that? That individual Who just drives me create the individual who's hurt me and not just the individual who's hurt me in the past But the one who continues to hurt me can I forgive them Seven times seven times bear in mind brother and sisters that there is a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. We are commanded to forgive And that's a question of the heart. It's an act of the will. It's a decision I forgive why because jesus has forgiven me and jesus says in the scriptures if you do not forgive your brother I can't forgive you So we need to be obedient to forgiveness. It's a question of the heart. It's a decision jesus. I forgive so and so Reconciliation is different. I used to think reconciliation was possible reconciliation is between two people and both people have to be desirous of reconciling That's hard. It's not always possible Forgiveness is always possible Take a blank piece of paper and at the top of it write their name and say I forgive you for And just fill it out And just keep on writing Jesus commanded are we obedient? Jesus says in the scriptures in matthew 28 19 go there for make disciples of all nations Baptizing them in the name of the father. We are commanded to make disciples. Let's not overthink this Let's not make it more difficult. Go and develop relationships engage people talk to them share with them your story make disciples amen Finally an example of obedience This is the year obviously of st. Joseph And I was really pleased when the holy father chose to make this year a special focus of obedience of st Joseph and as I was praying and reflecting it seems to me Uh, Joseph was an obedient follower The holy father said in his document on st Joseph he said in the first dream the angel helps him resolve his grave dilemma Do not be afraid to take mary as your wife for the child conceived in her is from the holy spirit She will bear a son and you are to name him jesus For he will save his people from their sins joseph's response was immediate When joseph awoke from his sleep he did as the angel the lord commanded him obedience made it possible for him to surmount the difficulties and to spare mary In every holy father we're going to say in every situation joseph declared his own fiat Like those of mary in the enunciation and jesus in the garden at gesemini In his role as the head of the family joseph taught jesus to be obedient to his parents In accordance to the father's command I love this again going back to what colby said colby said that it doesn't always make sense But we're obedient imagine the may our blessed mother you are going to be with child And it's going to be the power the power of the holy spirit that makes sense Yes, all right, and then joseph it's like okay joseph this guy is confident in his dreams. Okay I've got weird dreams. All right, but joseph has his dream. It says don't worry. This is why it's happening What does joseph do it says if we go to the scriptures, it says immediately at night Right when they went to egypt immediately at night He was obedient And took jesus and his wife to egypt I I found myself reflecting on this this relationship between joseph and jesus joseph was his dad right joseph was his Abba his papa And joseph jesus learned obedience because he watched joseph. I'm sure jesus said okay. Tell me the story again Well, you were born and I had this dream and in this dream an angel said to me Take you to egypt. That is so weird. So I spent three years in egypt Yeah, you spent a couple years in egypt. That is so weird, but the reason you did this is because the angel said to do it Yep Jesus grew up watching his daddy Be obedient to whatever. I mean this doesn't make any sense But he learned obedience from watching his father And one of the things that I loved about joseph was that he sees that a part of obedience is acceptance and the holy father would go on to say He said often in life things happen whose meanings we do not understand and our first reaction is frequently one of disappointment or rebellion Joseph set aside his own ideas in order to accept the course of events And the mysterious as they seem to embrace them and take responsibility for them And make them a part of his own story Unless we are reconciled with our own story We will be able to take a single step forward For we will always remain hostage to our expectations and the disappointments that follow Joseph in the midst of circumstances that he didn't want he didn't ask for he couldn't imagine Was obedient to what god asked him And because of this he formed jesus Who would remember who would pay attention who would watch And it ultimately invited him to be obedient to what the father asked of him And let's not lose sight that the only reason you're sitting here and i'm sitting here is because he was obedient obedient to what the father asked Just one thing Just one thing What's your one thing?