Welcome to the Catholic influences podcast where we go deeper into Sunday's gospel reading to help you influence the world for Jesus. I'm Danny Sullivan. I'm father Rob Galea and this podcast is presented to you by fig ministry
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the third Sunday of advent and beautiful time of joy. And for me, I think the joy and the highlight of my week is that I finally am back in my home territory. I'm back in Australia after, I think it's been like 1213 weeks traveling to and from America and , and Europe. Although I love my travel, but it's so good to be home. Good to have you home a bit. I'm a bit grumpy.
I'm a bit groggy, so I'm not, not, not much company around around the office right now, but also you are happy to be home in a different way.
Yeah , I have a new house . It's very exciting. I don't know. I love decorating. I love interior design, so I got to do that with a whole new building and it's a bigger house. Uh, yeah. Yeah, it is bigger a little bit. Um, but it's just nicer. I'm still renting, but it's like a close walk to one of my favorite cafes and a few different supermarkets. So it's good. You have a garden? I do. Um, I also have a tendency, I think last year and this year combined, I've killed almost 20 cactuses .
Oh yeah. I'm not a green thumb. Um, so I , I have a garden and I'm very concerned about that. I've been truly hot . How do you kill a cat? Well, the problem was in 2018 I loved too much. I gave them too much water and too much attention. And then in 2019 I was like, okay, I can't love them as much. And I think I stopped them. Well, I thought it's impossible. It was impossible. I like to take a photo of your garden, right ? Oh my gosh . It's so embarrassing by my front door.
I just have a pot plant graveyard.
Well, take it . I thought before at least it would be something decent. And then we'll say it's either before and after .
No , there's just an Aster . Oh my goodness. Yeah. I've got other skills. I can put a couch in a pretty location.
Yeah. Very nice . Look the photos you have on your personal Instagram. Very nice. It makes the house look really nice. Yeah , we'll couches . They don't die. So there I can deal with them. Oh , that's good. And that's a nice cozy place. Okay, so let's go into the gospel. This son , third Sunday of advent. We talk about joy. We've been lighting advent candles, which have been the first two weeks have been about,
yes , the first few weeks were about hope and then the second one was prophecy . And then this week we have a pink candle all about joy Gardetto goddaughter . God , that is Sunday. Are you gonna wear pink this Sunday?
We don't have ours . We don't have Rose vestments in our, in our sacristy we in our church. So some churches have, yeah, I should go and borrow stuff . You don't happen. Have any duty. Okay. So , but this is a beautiful time because it's a time of Jenny . So you start week one where we journey this purple candle, which is penance, sort of preparation. Second week, Ben and spread duration . Third week is actually a time of joy.
It's a break almost of a penance, but it's a time to remember, Hey, we are soon approaching a time of extreme joy. But joy, let's explore a little bit about what joy actually means. And the third Sunday of advent, we're talking about joy, but there's a very Soto , so to speak, and joyful gospel, very much about suffering and pain and anxiety and and imprisonment. And all of a sudden this in this place of joy and we have suffering.
Let's , let's talk and explore this a little bit as we read through the gospel. So this week's gospel comes from Matthew chapter 11 verses two
two 11 now when John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, are you who is to come? Or shall we wait for another? And Jesus answered them. Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is here . Who takes no offense to me.
As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to behold a Reed shaken by the wind. Why then did you go out to see a man dressed in soft robes? Behold Lowe's who were soft robes are in King's houses. Why then did you go out to see a prophet? Yes, I tell you. And more than a profit, this is he of whom it is written.
Behold, I send my messenger before I face who shall prepare their way before they truly, I say to you, among those born of women, it has arisen. No one greater than John the Baptist. Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Let's see. So this is , um, it's , it does allude to joy, proclamation of the gospel button. Then you come to this place where , um , in context where we have this guy John the baptizer, John the Baptist in a, in a place of prison, in a place of, of um, isolation. Now think about this guy. This guy was a guy who was always out in the wild when the breeze on his face, you know, out in the wilderness open space. All of a sudden he's in this confined space because of something he did.
And it was because of something he chose to do. He was someone who spoke, was outspoken. So to the point where he was imprisoned for it. And this , the story is that, as you know of Herod, and he goes to the, there was King Herod who went to his, his brother, I think it was. And as he went to visit his brother, he started to flirt. He started to seduce his, his sister in law. He started to seduce her .
And all of a sudden , um, she , um , falls in love with him and he takes her home and then he divorces his wife and all of a sudden now they're in this place, they're married and the wife has nowhere to go. And it's was quite tragic. It's really messy. It is. Exactly. It's messy. But all of a sudden this guy, John the Baptist was the only one who started to speak out against this corruption against this, this evil.
And, and so because he was an outspoken person, they imprisoned him and they put him in prison. And then even in prison he kept on pestering them saying, Hey, you're doing wrong. Change, repent, turn away from sin and believe in the good news. But they wouldn't. And to the point where all of a sudden they wanted to have his head removed . The, the sort of, the new wife wanted to have his head removed to keep him silent.
But the question I ask is why that he keeps speaking, he could have just been quiet, you know, just shut up John, John and just, just be quiet. You sort of, you could save yourself, you could be free soon. But he continued to speak out for justice, for, for holiness. And the thing is why , how did he find that strength? I don't know if I would have that strength, you know, to, to continue to, to speak out truth, even knowing when my life is at risk.
And I think that's something that is really hard in our lives in this modern day and age as well, to speak the truth. Um, whether that is in person with your friends, with your family. But then how much harder would that be when John the Baptist was there in prison and he knew that his life was at stake and he still chose to speak it. But then obviously he heard about Jesus, he'd heard about the things that Jesus had been doing , um , via his disciples or however he heard that.
So he was also probably sitting there going like, if this is the Messiah, the one who I've been proclaiming is going to come who I'm speaking out about, why is he letting me stay here? Like , why hasn't he come to kind of tell me that he's here and get me out of this place? That's what I would be questioning in that situation. So his day
in prison and he's risking his life and his thinking and there's this Jesus outside just talking to the poor and the healing people and doing good things. But what about me? And this is the , I think sometimes when people speak out truth and there's a, a sort of, we're facing an injustice and sometimes we think this is not fair, this is not fair. Um , that we have to go through suffering and go through pain. But I just want to say a word about , um , speaking truth.
You see the , I think if you look up the Catholic world today, I think it can be one of the most cruel places you can imagine. Like even being a Catholic, I love being Catholic, but mans for example, on Twitter there's so much cruelty. There's so much people speaking out, yes, truth but without loves and people putting other people down and destroying other people. And they do that. And this is not what John the Baptist did you see, he spoke out truth with love.
He spoke our truth because he wanted to save the soul of this person. But sometimes people, I for example, people who attack others because they are seeing liturgies celebrated in a way that they don't like or they don't understand or they see people reaching out to , um, refugees and things. And then they, they bring out this hate and this anger towards them. This is not, this is not what the John the Baptist did. John the Baptist spoke out with love. He spoke out with truth.
And I think that's brings about a sense of joy, it seemed, because I think we misunderstand joy. There's a big difference between joy and happiness. You know, happiness is an emotion, but joy is an understanding and knowledge that God is with me in spite of the difficulty, in spite of the anger, in spite of the, the, the desperation.
And I think this is one again, all of the things that we can see that, that John the Baptist, even though he wasn't happy, even though he probably was angry and he was wondering where God was through all of this, he deep down knew, knew that God was with him. And that's where he found the strength to continue to proclaim the truth, even to the point where he was ready to lay down his life for, for, for this truth.
Yeah. So he, that joy came from like, he knew that, he knew that. He knew that what he was doing was right. It was proclaiming the truth. He was proclaiming that with love. But then even with that, he knew that joy wasn't a feeling. It was a state of being. Happiness can come and go, but joy and joy rooted in Christ is, you know, something that is hard to change. And as it said , um , further in the gospel, like did you behold a Reed shaken by the wind?
But you know, John the Baptist, his faith wasn't, you know, being shaken by this. But he still had his doubts and he voiced those doubts, which is something that we're allowed to do. Like if, when we have doubts, we can go to people with those, we can speak them out into the light. And I think that helps us. You know, it kind of helps us mature in our journey as Christians to grapple with things and to struggle with things. And then you know, that that joy doesn't have to waiver.
The happiness might and those feelings might, but just the doubt doesn't mean that we're not joyful, that we're not proclaiming truth.
And we all go through doubt in a C I just did an interview , um, I think it's with the ABC , um , television. And one of the questions they asked me when I was sitting down is that they said, look, you're a man of faith. You're a person who has faith. So I'm sure you don't have doubt, do you? And I started to think, I started to think, wow, that's so crazy that someone would think just because I have faith that I don't have doubt. I have a lot of doubt.
You know, when people are going to, they're martyred . And when people are laying down their lives and , and John the Baptist was there, he went through doubt. You went through a time where he thought, is this worth it? You know? And he sent a messenger to Jesus saying, are you the one? Is it worth me being in this prison cell right now? Or should I just lay it all down and just say, I'm sorry, and just walk out. And we all go through doubt.
And I think anyone who has the gift of faith is doubt is inevitable. We're going to go through time . So we think, is this worth it? Is it worth being Holy? Is it worth holding onto this? Is it worth believing in Jesus? Because sometimes it is easier not to believe in Jesus. It is easy. I start to think, man, how much easier it would be at times. Most of the time I don't, but at times I think how much easier it would be if, if I didn't believe, because life would be simpler .
I could do what I want whenever I wanted. But the thing is I , I cannot because I know that you, like you said, I know that I know that Jesus is there. I just, do you ever go through doubt ? Do you ever have doubts yourself?
Yeah, I go through dad's a think it would be more scary if I didn't, if I didn't have doubts, I would start to doubt that in a way. Um, I , I guess something that I've struggled with a lot is as you're saying like this, the Catholic world , um, it can be when not spoken the truth with love can be a really scary place and that's not , you know , question like why, why bother being Catholic?
Like I, I look at other churches and I think, you know, they have a really great hospitality ministry and their young adult ministry is really good. Like, why don't I just go over to that one? But then yeah, it comes down to knowing that the truth of the Catholic church , um, is the truth. And I can't walk away from that even if I struggle with some Catholics.
Yes. And I'm sure like in evangelical churches, which I work with a lot, they have their own doubts as well and their own struggles with their within, they're going to find that wherever you go, what is it like, you know, the church isn't from perfect people. No one goes to a hospital when they're , well, yes. So it doesn't really matter what church you're in, you're always going to struggle with different things about it. But yeah, I mean, yeah, doubts. It's normal.
And I think talking about that is important.
Yeah. And I, I, one of the things I've heard as well is that if you ever find the perfect church, stay away from it because you're going to make it imperfect the minute you walk in. We're all imperfect them . We all go through struggles and we all going to hurt other people. Um , but the thing is, again, coming back to John, the baptizer who found his joy, who found his strength even to endure through his doubt, through his suffering, through his pain.
And this is what the third Sunday of advent is. It's a , that's a time saying, keep holding on. Hold on. But hold on. Knowing that Jesus is going to be with you through the suffering, through the pain, through the difficulty, and he's going to give you joy. A joy is an understanding that I'm going to be with you. And Jesus sends the message back through to his disciples and says, Hey, don't tell him about what I'm saying, but tell him about what you see the fruit of what you see.
And again, he's coming back to that fruit, which one of which is joy, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. The fruit of the Holy spirit. And this is the thing is, is that , you know, you are a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus. You know, you are under the anointing of the Holy spirit. When you see the fruit.
It's not about what you say, but it's about being able to have joy and peace and to be able to be kind and good and gentle and faithful and been self-controlled even when everything is against you. And I think this is one of the beautiful things that this Sunday we , we get to experience. We get to experience this, this joy and understanding that we're going to struggle, but we can still maintain God through the struggle.
Um, I quite Duane for every week of this advent series, we're going to look now at a Saint , an activity and a prayer just to help us, you know , hashtag how to advent I guess , um , help us journey as a community through this time of preparation , uh , with joy, which is something that we're really focusing on this week as a church and the joy of what we are preparing for and what we are waiting for then is the birth of our Lord.
Um , so an activity this week , um, that we can all do in a different way around the world is bringing joy to others with some kind of act of service or charity. So this might be something like helping out at a soup van with, you know, in your local community , uh , having a coffee with your neighbor. I know that Christmas can be a really lonely time of year, especially for the elderly. So if you have a old neighbor or at a nursing home nearby, go and just spend time with people.
So just being generous with your gifts, with your time, and bringing this joy that we are experiencing in this time of advent, particularly this week three , um, to other people. Is that no father robe ? What's something that you might be able to do an act of service this week?
Well, I suppose my act of service I'm thinking of this one is to maintain joy through my diagnosis . You know, I this week and we are at a big youth festival. I'm speaking to 7,005 to 7,000 teenagers in Perth. And um, I , I'm so glad and grateful that I get to do that, to serve these young people, to be present to these young people.
And so I think this is what I'm going to do to make a decision to be joyful to those around me, to serve those, even though I am tired, even though I am weak, even though I'm weary and that maintain joy, find joy, knowing that Jesus is with me through this.
Yes . Which leads us to someone else who is with you through this. Our Saint of the is Mary , um, mother. Oh Jesus. Hopefully we can all as a community pray for her intercession this week as well to help maintain that joy. I just think that, you know, she would have been heavily pregnant , um, and traveling and just trying to, you know, get back to Bethlehem for the census and how can you even kind of comprehend what she was feeling.
And yet she knew that this was such an incredible gift , um, that she had the privilege to bring the Lord into this world. And you know, I'm sure she would have done that with great joy even through all the suffering and tiredness and FIA as well. So we will pray for her into session this week. And so maybe what we can do is to pray together as we do that as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace.
What is blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and death. Amen. So that wraps up week three of advent on the Catholic influences podcasts . We really pray that going forward into this week, it can be a time of joy and preparation. Um, and please be in touch with us . I was thinking as I was preparing for this podcast, I love all the different images of Mary and baby Jesus.
So if you've got a beautiful image of your culture, wherever your country is that you think maybe we haven't seen in Bendigo, please send it to us by email. So podcast at fig , ministry.com or on our website, fig ministry.com, forward slash podcast or even on Instagram. So Catholic influences underscore or fig ministry, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. So yet, be in touch with us. Please subscribe . Share this with your friends, anyone that you want to journey through advent with.
Um, but yeah, we love hearing from you and we love your feedback. Thank you for listening. God bless you and continue to journey throughout this advent with joy. Wayne .