Joel challenged us tonight to recognize that holiness isn’t about being perfect; it’s about saying yes to the invitation for a journey. When we say yes to the journey, we manage to find God in the unexpected. Think about monumental moments in your life – did you expect those to happen? When did you meet your best friend? Did you know they were going to be your best friend when you met them?
Archbishop Carlson began his homily by reminding us that the God who has invited us here for the Eucharist is the same God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the saints. That same God most likely touched many of our hearts and souls this weekend. He also placed prayers and goals on our hearts, but we are not able to achieve those goals alone. We need each other. We need to be bold and inspire hope in one another by how we live our lives because none of us need to walk alone.
Nic woke up the teens this morning with a very interactive reading of 1 Corinthians 12. He had them respond with a specific action for key words in the scripture. They would stand, clap, stomp and yell out as they heard the scripture and responded to their cues. After the lively reading of the scripture, Nic reminded the kids that they all have a part to play as members of the Body of Christ. And then he asked, “Are you willing to finish what you started this weekend?”
“I know what God started, He is going to finish. But some of us are great starters but we aren’t great finishers,” Nic admitted. We can have a great momentum coming out of a weekend like this, with a lot of good intentions, and then we gradually lose our excitement. When things get rough, we tend to abandon our plan.
Brian asked all of our attendees tonight to get out of their comfort zone. That being said, it’s hard to ‘jump’ to God when you’ve been dropped a lot. It can be hard to believe that God cares about you. When you’ve been broken enough, the enemy likes to try to convince you of three things:
You’re alone
You are unloved
You are unlovable
If you live within these lies the enemy can control your actions.
For a lot of us, it’s much easier to remember the things people have said negatively about us or the times we’ve feel like we’ve been dropped. In those moments, we don’t want to jump or be open. We can sit here tonight and pretend our lives are perfect, but let’s be real with ourselves.
Fr. Martin began his session on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory by calling up a volunteer from the crowd and asking her if she is “saved”. “Raise your hand if you think this teen is saved,” he asked the crowd. He was impressed when only a few hands went up. Then he asked if she was redeemed. Many more people raised their hands. He nodded and then clarified, “We are all redeemed, but we are in the process of being saved.” Jesus died on the cross and paid the price for our sins, but we could still reject Him.
What happens when we die?
Our lives are brief compared to eternity. So this is what we should remind ourselves when we have to make the sacrifice to choose what is good and pure and holy. When we die we all have the immediate judgment. At the end of all time, Jesus will come back. There will be no more confusion about Jesus and there will be a final judgement.
