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12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Fr. Chad VanHoose, Associate Pastor

Show Transcript

a few weeks ago I practiced one of our Great American traditions channel surfing it was at the end of a long day are first in the office actually and I didn't have energy for anything else so I go back to the rectory crash on the sofa I just needed some veg time so I'm flipping through the channels and I stopped on a show that I remembered from my youth apparently it's rebooted on an program it's called Fear Factor can you probably know it so here's the premise if you don't there's these contestants and they can week after week doing really disgusting fearful things usually involving cockroaches can spiders and insects eating really gross Foods so they stretch themselves push themselves to do these things in order to conquer Their Fear and then the winner of the competition every week here's these iconic words from the host clearly fear is not a factor for you  the outside of the gist agrostis of the show and actually a good premise even the Greek philosopher Aristotle would agree with the premise of this show Aristotle lived 400 years before the dawn of Christ and he taught a lot about virtue and specifically the virtue of Courage will look at Aristotle said with every virtue there are two competing vices so with courage that lies in the middle the mean that we should aim for its between the vice of timidity and the vice of rashness and Air I would say each of us has a natural tendency towards one of these vices either timidity or natural tendency or ankle mission to rashness and he said how do we correct this how do we aim for the middle the courage that save us wants to express well we need to bend ourselves stretch ourselves so that we hit that middle and we even need to overcorrect ourselves to do it imagine your that you're a metal bar and you're bent towards one these vices you need to be bent even passed the middle so that you'll land in the middle of Courage brothers and sisters today we here in the gospel Jesus has some strong words for us He commands us to do something not once not twice but three times Jesus says in the gospel do not be afraid fear not this is a great command for us and we can take great solace next and then at the end of The Gospel he gives a promise  if you acknowledge me before my heavenly father I will knowledge you to my heavenly father but if you deny me before men I will deny you before my heavenly father  that first parts of great promise if we acknowledge our Lord before men he'll acknowledge us but the second part is quite a warning if we deny our Lord before men he will deny looking at these vices and this virtue of Courage I think most of us have that tendency towards Manatee we let our fears we let our insecurities guide us instead of living in that virtue of courage know maybe I'm wrong maybe some people here have them or tendency towards rashness in evangelization in Mission maybe some of you here knocking on neighbors doors in the middle of the night just ready to acknowledge our Lord maybe some of you are traveling to really dangerous places to acknowledge the Lord I would bet that you're like me and that you have this tendency toward timidity towards fear and brothers and sisters what must we do then to aim for courage we need to and ourselves we need to stretch ourselves past our fears but not even leave it there we need to do our certainly but we need to ask the help of almighty God as we Bend ourselves stretching ourselves that we might what's the name of the Lord we ask for God help as we do it  now this is even challenging for me powder Chad Catholic priest I don't always have that Readiness to share the gospel that Readiness to pledge Christ and even before I was a priest I was a missionary I've knocked on doors I've had really difficult conversations that stretched me past my comfortability yet it's still not easy for me I need to continue to stretch myself and can can you to ask for the help of God I'll give you a recent example you may remember that this past week all the priest from our diocese addled to Rochester we were having our assembly that we had every other year so one evening after a long day I was tired what was ready to rest to veg again so Father Tim and I spend some time with another friend of ours father Nick a priest who was chain with us so we decided let's just have some down time some relaxation so the three of us are gathering together just relaxing talking about what Caprice talk about how's your assignment what's Mass been like how's your pastor  all those things that new priest like to talk about bashful hiding when we are talking about but we're young man sits near us he wanted to relax too so we noticed that he sits next to us or near us but we keep talking you know we're not here to evangelize this is our down time this is not a convenient time so we kept talking and the more we talked the more the holy you're it tricked me in my conscience saying why don't you talk to that young man why don't you acknowledge me before young man  I kept looking over it and I could tell he was listening to us he was even chuckling at some of the things we were saying so fine I step out in faith and say okay love you and ask the young man where he's from what he's doing in Rochester and it started a really good conversation we actually knew some of the same people by chance he was in Rochester to apply for a nursing job Mayo Clinic and I tell him I was a nurse before I entered Seminary so we're talking about nursing we're talking about priesthood we're talking now the Lord eventually we asked him if he'd like to go for a run in the morning we are going for a run up the hill he said sure So he even go what's for a run with us the next morning and I'm able to link him up to a Catholic parish in Rochester that this might be his new home and so I was able to point to a parish  and you're not going to believe it when I tell you this man's name his name was hey Zeus Jesus Jesus came and sat in the midst of Father Tim father Nick and me who could have thought it this story turned out great we weren't persecuted for our faith there weren't any hardships but it took me stepping out in faith and doing that uncomfortable thing bending myself stretching myself past my fear pass timidity and it took me listening to the Holy Spirit pricking my conscience inside of me and brothers and sisters this is what it takes each of us this is the call of every Christian to acknowledge our Lord to acknowledge Him to your name to your workplace to those around you so I encourage you to stretch yourselves to bin yourselves past what is naturally comfortable for you and think outside of the box think about may be hosting a barbecue this summer block party at your home invite the priests we'd love to come invite your neighbors think about how the Lord wants to acknowledge Him before your co-workers before family members why would we do this well first the Lord Kansas to he says acknowledge me and I will acknowledge you but also look around this church it's pretty full but there's room there's room in your pews today for more Sons and Daughters of almighty God there are people at Lifetime Fitness this morning there are people doing plenty of other things but they're not here there's room for more in this church more importantly there's room for more in the house of God in those Halls of heaven so we need to invite people in and when we will be blessed I've been reeling in the joy of having that conversation with hazeus all week when we share the Christ Susan my device with others when we acknowledge our Lord to another we have abundant Joy even if it doesn't go now the Lord gives us a consolation that we have done the right thing that we've done that good hard work you come to the altar today and has the gifts are brought forward I challenge you to think of someone by name think of a brother or sister and a co-worker who you are being stretched to acknowledge Christ to bring that person by name as the gifts are brought lower today so that your heart would be stretched open and as we do this let us ask the Lord for his grace for his timely help  that we were here at the end of our Lives those consoling words from our lord well on good and faithful servant clearly fear is not a factor for you

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