Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey guys, I'm about to head to the funeral of a baby, little Margaret, so say a prayer for that. Family friends of ours and related through my daughter in law and Margaret, they saw while she was forming in her mama's womb that her skull wasn't forming fully. So they knew she would die and you know, a lot of people would just end the life of that baby prematurely.
And they wanted to. And by the way, if you've ever had an abortion, especially in a situation like that, come back to the Lord and go to confession and get that off your conscience and get it right, okay?
Because Catholics don't do that, Christians don't do that.
They wanted to give this baby as much dignity as possible.
And they knew she was going to die. And it might be a couple days, it might be a week, it might be an hour, it might be a few breaths, but they wanted to make sure it happened with as much dignity given to her as possible. And the doctor said this is for him, changed how he approaches this kind of thing. Just seeing how they went through it with so much faith and focused on the life, however brief, of that child.
But little Margaret was born and just had a few breaths.
It was just enough time for mom and dad to look at her and say how much they love her and baptize her and she will be with the Lord forever.
And they always have that memory of that moment with her, but more of the enjoyment of her presence with them in heaven forever.
And guys, this drives something home for me. A funeral like this, a funeral where the casket is so small.
It's that all of our lives from the grand perspective of eternity, are incredibly brief.
Whether it's 90 years or a few breaths, when we all look back from the vantage point of billions of years from now, it's all going to look like a few breaths. That's it.
And Jesus in the Gospel on Sunday talks about fear.
Now listen, most of our fears are centered around preserving the enjoyment of our few breaths.
And we hear Jesus telling us not to be afraid countless times because he's telling us, don't worry, don't worry. I think part of the reason he says don't worry isn't that he's not going to let us suffer in life, because we certainly all do. I mean, he was talking to his apostles who died gruesome deaths because they were his followers. He knows we will suffer in this life, but he's saying don't worry because this is over in the blink of an eye. And the pain, whatever it is, no Matter how bad it is, it's just going to pass like poof, like that. And then it's gone.
It's just gone.
But there is one fear he does tell us to have, and we have to pay attention to this because a lot of us forget this, because not all fear is bad.
He says in the gospel, don't worry about those who can kill your body. And he's talking in the context of, look, they're going to persecute you.
Be afraid of the one who could throw body and soul unto Gehenna where there's eternal suffering. See, there is an actual good fear. And it's the fear that's centered not around preserving the breath, but preserving the billion years that follow.
Whether your breath is literally a few breaths or 90 years, think about the billion years that follow. And guys, I think we overlook fear of that because we don't want to scare kids in catechesis.
But hell is very real, and our actions here now have eternal consequences.
And the ideal which we should hold up before everybody who's following the Lord that we're all supposed to grow into, the ideal is that we love Jesus and love people around us. And that love be our primary motivator when it comes to acting rightly, living a moral life, being representative of Jesus Christ in this brief breath of a life that we all get. That's the ideal. But there are times in the walk of a disciple where you're not there.
And thinking about hell is actually a good second motivator, not only to preserve your eternity, but to make your life here and now better.
I mean, there were times when dating my wife.
Dude, we wanted a white wedding. We really did, and we got one. Praise the Lord by his grace.
But temptation can be so intense that in the moment of temptation, I'm not always thinking. I wasn't always thinking back then, Lord, I love you so much. And I love her. I want to preserve her dignity. Those thoughts weren't all present to my mind.
A thought that might have been present to my mind in some moments of temptation was, I don't want to commit mortal sin. I don't want to fall into grave sin. It's hard to judge if you're in mortal sin.
But I don't want to go. I don't want to play with fire. And I love her too much to have her play with fire. I'm not going to ask how close going to get you to the edge of a cliff. I want to ask how close going to get you to Almighty God and to the life that you were made for. But, guys, the Lord used fear in some of those moments to keep us awake and alert and doing the right thing, which doesn't only bless us for eternal life.
It set us up more for marital success in this life.
And he knows that. And that's why he gives us these warnings. That's why the Church has such clear teachings around so many things.
There's times where in the process of conversion, I'd wake up to the fact that, whoa, this sin I'm committing, this could have eternal consequence.
And fear of that eternal consequence was the only thing that drove me in the right direction. So not all fear is bad, and our Lord is clear of that. And one of the great tools to overcome, to overcome fears is to pit the bigger fear against the smaller fear. Sometimes you might be afraid of.
You know, maybe there's a friendship in your life that's leading you in the wrong direction. You might be afraid of, what will this person think or how will this person feel if I take a step back from this friendship? Okay, that's a valid question, but your fear is centered around the breath and not the billion years.
Step back, think, who will I be forever?
Who will I be? I mean, heaven and hell aside, your friendship might not be leading you to grave sin. Maybe your friendship is leading you to be half the person that you're born to be.
Step back and ask the question, what will this friendship make of me 10, 20 years from now?
Or my legacy or my eternity? Who will I have become because of this friendship? And let fear of getting halfway to what God called you to be be the bigger fear that drives you to do the right thing.
But this applies to every area of our lives, guys, if you want to make a change, maybe think fear, fear the thing that won't become of you if you don't make that change. And that will help you overcome the momentary discomfort, that one breath discomfort, and push through the greater thing. And our Lord brings that in the gospel, where he tells us, don't fear people who can harm your flesh. Fear the one who can throw both body and soul into Gehenna.
The context for that is fear of the right thing when it comes to spreading the gospel. Because far too many of us guys, we keep our mouths shut and we don't say the truth. We don't let people know that we're Christians because we're afraid. What will they think? How will what we're saying make them feel?
I'm not saying to be a jerk to people, guys, or to be insensitive. You should be aware of what people are feeling. But don't ever let that hold you back from speaking the truth in love to someone who desperately needs to hear it.
But it holds us back.
What will the person think about me? How will they judge me?
Might I have an awkward conversation? How about we fear the right thing? Instead of fearing what someone might think about us, what a person might think about us, let's fear what God thinks. Because that reading lands. It drives home to a very poignant line. If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Heavenly Father.
If you acknowledge me before men, I'll acknowledge you before my Heavenly Father. Don't fear the discomfort of the moment.
Fear the discomfort of that eternal moment. Fear the right thing.
Little baby Margaret, I know you're with the Lord ask you to pray for us that we'd have the courage and the right priorities to make our lives about the right things. And that we fear the right things and not have all our fears drive to simply self preservation, but to being true disciples of our Lord who lay down his life because he feared the loss of us more than the pains of the cross.
Thank you Jesus for loving us. In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you friend.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: And God himself will always be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. And there shall be no more death or mourning or willing or pay for. The older order had passed away.
