Finding God In Our Hearts with Msgr. Don Fischer

Gospel Matthew 8:28-34 When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?" Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine." And he said to them, "Go then!" They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district. Reflection At the end of time, when the kingdom has come, evil will be destroyed. It's called the Kingdom of heaven. But in this reading, you see a statement by the demoniacs, that this is not yet the time for them to be destroyed. So they need to live, and the only way evil lives is when it enters into someone or something, and its essence is to destroy. When evil goes into the swine, they immediately destroy themselves. This frightening image of evil may be the reason why the people from the town wanted Jesus to leave. It's a frightening thing to deal with the reality of evil, but it's real. Closing Prayer Father, redemption means that you have freed us from the power of evil. Help us to have confidence in dealing with this power. Most especially though, give us the assurance that we will never be destroyed by this power. If we turn to you. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Gospel  Matthew 8:23-27 As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us!  We are perishing!" He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?” Reflection It's hard to believe in the impossible. But the thing about Jesus and his experience on this earth with other human beings is that they had such a hard time grasping the power that he had, the wisdom, the goodness. And that same gift is our gift. We are asked to be like Jesus in this world. Help us to get past the doubts. Help us to believe in all that we can do, filled with His Spirit. Closing Prayer Father, awaken in us an awareness of the beauty of your strength flowing through us. Your Holy Spirit in us, affecting the same things that you effected in this world. Bless us with this gift. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Gospel Matthew 8:18-22 When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other shore. A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.” Reflection Jesus is always asking us to go further, to think more radically. He's going to cross to the other shore. And yet he makes clear that when someone wants to follow him, it's not about a place, it's about a mystery. The mystery of God in Jesus, God in us. Closing Prayer Father, the mystery of the Trinity, the fullness of who God is, his essence of what Jesus was drawing people into. He wanted them to experience the fullness of the father that he himself experienced. Bless us with an ability to see all that God truly is. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

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Gospel Matthew 8:5-17 When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully." He said to him, "I will come and cure him." The centurion said in reply, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven, but the children of the Kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." And Jesus said to the centurion, "You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you." And at that very hour his servant was healed. Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him. When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases. Reflection Jesus encountered over and over again rejection, rejection and rejection from those engaged in the temple and in the system that the temple taught people to be a part of. But here we see the beauty of what Jesus is really about. He's here to give life to those who care. And we have in the centurion a man who comes forward, a general of the Roman army, and he’s worried about his servant, not himself, and he asks for healing for someone else. And he knows that Jesus can do it. And Jesus is so struck by his faith. He's never found any faith like that in all of Israel. It's a beautiful image of how miracles work, how healing works when we care deeply for one another and long for one another to grow and change, and invite God to bless those that we care about and bring them into fullness. That's the Kingdom of God. That's the work we have before us. Closing Prayer Father, relationship with you is not just about us. It is about those you have shared with us, our family, our friends, our circle. Help us always to invite you into the role of using us to be healers of those that we love. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]