Starting with the Conclusion
Good morning, everyone.
Well, my dear brothers and sisters, I’m going to start this homily with the conclusion.
Okay?
With the conclusion.
Because I tried to give this homily yesterday and it didn’t go good.
Didn’t go well.
So, the conclusion.
God loves us just the way we are, but he loves us even more than that.
God loves us just the way we are, but he loves us even more than that.
And so he pushes us, he challenges us, so that we can not be the best version of ourselves, no, but to be another Christ, to be like his son, to be more like Christ who is honorable, virtuous, loyal, faithful, loving, compassionate, kind, merciful, generous, and not necessarily glitzy or showy or popular or good-looking or adventurous or romantic.
And this is the good news.
What God loves in us, what God wants from us, is the same thing that everybody wants from us and that everybody would love from us.
That’s the good news.
And you can be confident that having that loyalty, that honor, that virtue, that love, those values, those morals have a place in this world.
And if God loves them, you can be sure other people will love them.
Okay, that’s the conclusion.
A Wedding Story and the Temptation of Self-Doubt
Yesterday, I did a wedding, and this is one of those that I will never forget, because when I met this couple, their first date was just amazing.
So they met, they had their first date in 2021, and they went to the Blue Goose Cantina.
Blue Goose Cantina.
And he arrived before she did, and he told me that I was waiting for her, she arrived.
I said, this must be her.
I saw her, she saw me, and as soon as she saw me, she turned around and left.
Can you believe that?
I mean, just imagine, right?
Imagine, just like you’re, you know.
So, of course, what’s the first thing he thinks?
The first thing that he thinks that we all think, especially teenagers, what’s wrong with me?
Because every teenager thinks that they’re not the best looking or the most beautiful person, every teenager, and every adult.
We’re the worst critics of ourselves.
You know, we can’t imagine someone loving us so much that they want to spend their life with us.
We can imagine someone saying, you’re not that good.
We can imagine people dumping us.
We can’t imagine people wanting to be with us.
So, of course, that’s the first thing, right?
That temptation that I’m not good or I’m not good enough.
And that’s what he thought, it was obvious.
She turns around.
Of course, it could never have been the Blue Goose Cantina, ugh, forget it.
Could never be the place, right?
This is a true story.
Of course, that never entered his mind, that it was the Blue Goose Cantina.
Or, well, what’s wrong with her?
What’s wrong with her?
It’s always what’s wrong with me.
Can’t be what’s wrong with this person.
Do you want to be with a person that only cares about your looks?
Or only cares about, you know, you sweeping them off their feet or whatever?
Is that, is that what you’re looking for in your life?
So, well, it turned out that she turned around to go back to her car so that she could get her mask because it was 2021.
He was wearing a mask and she didn’t have her mask.
She left it in the car.
That was it.
But in that short period of time, all these things are going on in his brain.
And then here they are.
They end up falling in love and being with each other.
And so this is something that we have to be very careful of.
And that we put it in its proper place.
It’s not about glitz.
With God, it’s not about glitz.
It’s not about popularity.
It’s not about looking great or, you know, being rich.
None of that.
The First Reading: How We Treat the Downtrodden
In fact, in the first reading from the book of Exodus, you shall not molest or oppress the alien.
In other words, the downtrodden.
The one that’s going through tough times.
You’re not going to oppress them.
For you were once aliens yourself.
In other words, you could be in that same situation so easily.
And you shall not wrong the widow or the orphan.
And if you do, I will kill you.
That’s what he says.
And God is not talking figuratively like a mother.
I’ll kill you if you go out there, right?
No, this is like, I will be so upset with you that I will kill you.
Can you imagine?
Like, what is God saying?
This is important to me.
This is important to me.
How you treat your brothers and your sisters is important to me.
Especially those who are going through tough times.
How you treat them is important to me.
And if you don’t treat them right, I will kill you.
What We Love in the Lord
I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, Lord, my strength.
What does that mean?
I love you, Lord, my strength.
Is it, what is it that the Lord loves in us?
And what do we love in the Lord?
What do we love in the Lord?
What do we love in the Lord?
We love the Lord because He never breaks His promises.
Never.
Did you ever wonder why the apostles stayed with Jesus after He was beaten and killed, crucified and buried?
Do you ever wonder why did they stay in the upper room waiting for the Lord to appear?
Instead of saying, guys, no, He’s not going to appear.
Why did they stay there?
Because Jesus never broke a promise.
Never.
No, I am staying here for three days until He shows up because that’s what He said He was going to do.
And we love the Lord and they love the Lord because He never broke His promises.
And if you’re married, no, let’s not, we won’t go there, we won’t go there.
If you’re dating, if you’re dating someone and they can’t keep their promises, that’s a sure sign.
It’s time to say goodbye.
Keeping your promise is what we all want.
Someone that tells us the truth is what we all want.
Honesty, integrity, loyalty, fidelity.
The Second Reading: Be Imitators
Be imitators in the second reading from St. Paul Thessalonians.
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake and you became imitators of us.
These Thessalonians, I don’t know if they were rich, they were poor, they were popular, they’re famous, they were nobodies, they were somebody, but no matter what happened, when the disciples began to preach to them, they began to imitate them in their piety, in their prayer life, in the way they dressed, in the way they presented themselves, and they liked it.
It didn’t become weird anymore.
You don’t have, but this is the thing, you don’t have to look like, what’s the word?
You don’t have to look, you can look stylish, you can look beautiful, you can look elegant, but it shouldn’t be that what defines you.
In fact, it’s great to be able to combine the two together.
There’s nothing wrong with wearing a Ralph Lauren polo or driving a Mercedes or a BMW, there’s nothing wrong, but integrity, honesty, loyalty, fidelity, that’s what we all are looking for in our life.
And whatever the disciples were doing at the beginning, people wanted to imitate them.
So don’t be afraid if you’re the only one praying before your meal in high school or in college or at work, be imitators of us, be imitators of the Lord.
The Greatest Commandment: Balance
Teacher, what is the greatest commandment?
And this, I mean, I’ve been reading this this whole week, and then when the deacon read it, boom, it dawned on me something new.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
Okay, why all this?
Why doesn’t he just say you’ll love your Lord the Lord with all your life?
Well, because he wants to make it clear.
I’m not looking for an intellectual faith.
I’m not looking that you can be the wisest person, the most beautiful orator.
I’m not looking for that.
And I’m not looking for that you’re just a heart, all heart, romantic, sweep me off the feet, tell me you love me, right?
Make me feel loved.
All this romantic, no.
Mind, muscle, heart, soul, everything.
In other words, balance.
Balance it.
Balance it.
Ulysses Grant and Julia
There’s this beautiful, there’s this beautiful, do I have my phone?
There’s this beautiful letter.
You know, I told you I’ve been reading the book on Grant.
Ulysses S. Grant, 1,000 pages.
I’m at page 503, 503.
But there’s this beautiful letter.
So Grant, Ulysses S. Grant, commander, general, he’s becoming world famous.
Like he’s becoming popular.
Everybody loves him.
Everybody thinks he’s the greatest.
His wife, Julia, she has cross eyes.
So his wife is cross-eyed.
In fact, every portrait she ever took in her life was always sideways so that you could never see that her eyes were crossed.
She wasn’t the most beautiful woman, physically speaking.
Even her sister says it.
But then one day she writes to her husband and says, I heard about a procedure.
Imagine, 1860s.
Imagine what procedure.
Imagine.
I heard of a procedure that might be able to fix my eyes.
Because she says, because he says, she said, you’re becoming a great man and I’m such a plain little wife.
And he replied, what in the world would put such a thought in your head, Julia?
Why are you getting, and she writes, why are you getting to be such a great man and I’m such a plain woman?
I thought if my eyes were like others, I might not be so very plain.
And then he wrote, did I not see you and fall in love with you because of those same eyes?
I like them just as they are.
And now remember, you are not to interfere with them, they are mine.
And let me tell you, Mrs. Grant, you had better not make any experiments as I might not like you half so well with the other eyes.
And I never did, I never did it.
A man of loyalty, of conviction.
What God Values
So my dear brothers and sisters, what is it that God values in us that we imitate his son in being honorable, loyal, faithful, compassionate, generous, giving?
And that will win out in the end because what God values, people value.
Amen?
