 So I feel like Mary always, or Martha, sorry always gets the bad rap, right? She's like busy and it's like almost like Jesus doesn't quite scold her but like says that you chose poorly. But perhaps a question would be who are you? Are you Mary? Are you Martha? Are you Lazarus? And you can decide which way Lazarus is okay? Because we didn't actually talk about that gospel today. It was the other option. Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. But we know that all three of these are always together in the gospels. And I think that each have something to share with us. We're here for defending the faith conference. And I got to tell you honestly that kind of concerns me at times. Because when I was in the parish ministry I had a couple of people that you know thought they were great apologists but really what they were were people with sledgehammers trying to knock the faith into you over the head. And to me that's just like scary. And that's where Lazarus, Martha, and Mary teach us something today. So we're all called to be people, resurrected people, people filled with life, people glorifying God. And so often it's easy for us I think or at least myself to follow into that trap of being like Martha where we've got to do all kinds of things that we want everything perfect and you know just exact. But we're also called to sit at the foot of the master. To be able to listen to the Lord. To be taught by our God. Could I help earlier kind of in the back listening a little bit to Dr. Mary Healy and just kind of wondering. I wonder if that was what it was like for the disciples. To just be at the foot of Jesus and he's teaching them and their hearts are constantly being stirred up and filled with excitement filled with enthusiasm opening themselves to that truth that the spirit of God is upon them as that spirit of God is upon you and upon me. But the question becomes then how do we respond to that spirit? And that's where our first reading today gives us some real insights. Right because we know if we're not motivated out of authentic love then we can't share the faith. If we're not motivated out of love for Christ Jesus it's going to be really hard to sit at his feet and listen to his voice and be taught by him and even harder at times to be reproached when we're wrong in our approach. But if we don't have love for the Lord we can't even serve because then we only become self-serving. And the last I checked you and I were not the God of the universe. And so all three of these people teach us something about our faith and how appropriate as we started off this conference that you would come and we would come together to the altar of the Lord to be nourished and strengthened to open our hearts to the word of God to allow that word to penetrate and even prick our hearts at times. Not that we would be wounded but that we'd be raised to newness of life that we would be restored and set on fire to be empowered and commissioned to go forth and proclaim the gospel. And whether we realize it or not and whether we like it or not we are constantly proclaiming our gospel some form of the gospel with our lives. You walk into McDonald's to order a happy meal if you get a happy meal and you're proclaiming some sort of gospel with your life. If you go in there kind of go come on it's lined so long what's wrong with these people why isn't milkshakes working right? You've been there. Then we start sharing some sort of gospel and if we wear anything that shows that we're Christian that message starts to become confused for others. And if we walk in and now you're at Chick-fil-A and even though they're really fast outside the inside it just happened to be backed up. You can tell me what my summer has been like right? I don't need that very often okay. But again how do you approach this situation? Are you able to approach it recognizing the dignity of the person before you? Being able to love on them accept them where they're at even if they've had a bad day or they haven't? Or are you like adamant that no I should have things my way right now instantly. Come on I got other places to go people to see the word of God to share with others. It's happened hasn't it? And do you see where the confusion begins to come in? That we profess one thing with our hearts. We come to the Lord. We sit at His feet. We say Jesus I love you unconditionally. I want to serve you and then almost instantaneously something trips us off and we start becoming like Martha. Like Jesus come on tell my sister to start doing something. What's wrong with her? My brothers and sisters the expectations that we put forth on others and the presumptions that we make might become our own downfall in being able to love people where they're at. And it is only by coming to the altar it is only by coming to the feet of Jesus and listening to Him that we're going to be able to grow in that charity in that love that He has given to us first in that love that actually allows us to continue in existence in that love that we actually desire to see multiplied a hundredfold in the faith of others. And so how appropriate that we start off with Mass and perhaps how appropriate that we have these three saints to be able to reflect on this day. And one last thing I want to challenge you at. The danger perhaps of coming to Mass and we just we know what to do because we do it so often. And I want to ask you what is the intention that you're offering this Mass for. Maybe you find yourself like Martha all the time running in your head spinning so fast trying to take children all over the place or grandchildren. Maybe your intention is Lord help me to slow down to be able to hear your voice to be able to choose the better part at this moment. There's probably a few people here that all you do is sit down and listen and the Lord's inviting you to actually take greater action. Maybe that's your intention. Maybe for some of you either you or someone you know you think is practically dead or spiritually dead when the gifts are possessed from the back. You're going to invite you to intentionally kind of with your mind with your heart put your intention in that procession and let it come to this altar as myself and my brother priests call down the Holy Spirit upon the gifts and they become transformed from bread and wine into the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ. Don't think for a moment that that same Holy Spirit doesn't desire to transform the intentions that you bring. You know that same Holy Spirit doesn't desire to transform your life. That we would all become more conformed into the presence of Christ. For only then will we be able to go for it. To love each person that's before us. Only then will we be able to go for it and truly share the gospel of Christ. Defend the faith out of compassion, out of mercy, out of truth. Recognizing the incredible gift that God has given to you and to me.