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Welcome to Unpacking the Mass with Keith Nestor. On this podcast, we dig into the week's readings for the upcoming Sunday for the Catholic Church so that when you go to Mass, you are ready to hear what God has to say to you through the Scriptures. So grab your Bibles and let's get digging. Hey, friends. Welcome to Unpacking the Mass. My name is Keith Nestor. I'm so glad you're here with me today as we're going to dig into the readings for the second Sunday of Lent. And I hope your Lent is going well. And by well, I mean that I hope. It's really hard, but really awesome at the same time. We don't want to have the situation where like, oh, my Lent was easy. My penance was nothing. I didn't struggle at all. We don't want that, but we also don't want it to be. Man, it's impossible. I can't get through this. I'm miserable. Why did I do this? You know, remember, all of these things are a means to an end. They're not the end in and of themselves. The end is Christ. The end is holiness. The end is repentance. But so often we get so focused on the fasting or whatever it is we gave up for Lent, that becomes, in essence, really our idol. And it's just like, all right, we're going to focus on that. Don't focus on that. Just when you give up something for Lent, give it up. And that means not just not having the thing or whatever, but it also means not obsessing about it. Quit obsessing about your desire for chocolate or alcohol or whatever it is that you're not doing. Stop thinking. Put it out of your mind so that you can focus on Christ. All right, soapbox over. I hope we enjoy today's readings. I know I did. I looked at this earlier this week and was just blown away at how God challenges us. He doesn't call us into a life of ease and comfort and quote, unquote, safety. He calls us to places that we've never been, into things that we've never imagined so that we can become the people he's created us to be. And. And this is the key. Bless others through us. You'll understand in a minute. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I pray, Lord, for every single person right now that's watching or listening to unpacking the Mass, that their Lent would be going exactly the way you have it planned. But Lord, I know that we all fail. Certainly I do. Give us grace. Help us to get back up on our feet. And to be open to receiving what you have for us. Wherever that may take us. We pray these things in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, my friends, do this. Genesis, chapter 12. This is our first reading, and it reads this way. Now, the Lord said to Abram. Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house. To the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And. And him who curses you, I will curse. And by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. So Abram went as the Lord had told him. And Lot went with him. Our second reading comes from St. Paul's second letter to young Timothy, chapter 1, verses 8 through 10. Do not be ashamed then, of testifying to our Lord. Nor of me, his prisoner. But share in suffering for the Gospel, in the power of God, who saved us. And called us with a holy calling. And not in virtue of our works, but in virtue of his own purpose. And the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago and now has manifested through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel and our Gospel From Matthew, chapter 17, verses 1 through 9. And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his. His brother. And led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun. And his garments became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with them. And Peter said to Jesus, lord, it is well that we are here. If you wish, I will make three booths here. One for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. He was still speaking when, lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were filled with awe. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, rise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. So from our first reading, we see the call of Abram. And God calls him to go somewhere. To a place that he's Never been before. A place far off. And he gives him this promise that he's going to make him into a great nation. And through him, all the nations of the world will be blessed. And whoever blesses him will be blessed. And whoever curses him will be cursed. Now, what is this talking about? Of course, Abram is the father of our faith. Father Abraham had many sons, right? And of course, through Abraham comes the nation of Israel, and through Israel comes Jesus Christ. This is the blessing for the world. Now, obviously, there were people who believed that this blessing meant that they were special, that they were above other people, that they had something that other nations didn't have, and it was for them. Paul talks about this, of course, In Romans, chapter 9 verses, or in chapters 9 through 11, how the blessing was given to bless the world and how God has not forsaken his people, but that we who are not Jews by birth are grafted into this promise because of Christ. So the promise given to the children of Abraham, we are the true children of Abraham who. Who are in Christ. That's the key. You might look at this. Oh, man. What about me? I wish I was part of that blessing. Guess what? In Christ you are. But this didn't happen because Abram just received some knowledge. No, he had to go to a new place, go to somewhere that was unfamiliar to him. And he did. Now, this promise that God gave to him seemed unlikely at times because remember, Abraham was. Abram was an old man when God called him. And the promise that his wife Sarah would give birth to a son, they thought that was hilarious because she was so old. And if you remember the story, they doubted God's promise. So Abraham took matters into his own hands and had relations with his wife's servant, Hagar. And that, of course, led to disaster. See, when we hear God's voice, oftentimes we want to make that plan come to fruition so we can take matters into our own hands and say, oh, well, God wants this. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. But we have to remember what it means to wait on the Lord. Sometimes we become impatient because we want God's plan for us to be fulfilled. So there's this tension of being willing to move, but not to far. Sometimes I think that we can fall into one of two camps that must be avoided. Camp one is to hear the word of the Lord calling us somewhere and being afraid and saying, no, I'm not going. That's not for me. Call somebody else. And we are afraid because maybe we're afraid of ourselves, but maybe we're also afraid that we'll mess up. So we say, oh, God, pick someone else. But the other trap we can fall into is. Is to hear the promise of God, the word of God, and then just run full steam ahead without stopping and waiting on Him. And then we can make decisions based on our own wisdom. And we can even fall back on the promise that God gave us as though that were some sort of guarantee that we can't mess it up. Friends, it doesn't work that way. To follow God means that we respond to his call and at the pace that he sets for us, not the pace that we go ahead. So we can't lag behind and we can't run ahead. Which one of those traps are you more likely to fall into? I can tell you, for me, it's almost always the second trap. I'm a goer, man. I like to do things. I like to get out there and to me, to stand still and wait is really hard. So if I have a sense that God's calling me to do something, my gut reaction is, ready, fire, aim, and then usually apologize. But what I need to learn to do is wait on the Lord and all that. Maybe you're that way too. What's the lesson for us? To be patient and trust. That's me. Maybe you're the other one, though. Maybe you're the person that is like, oh, man, I'm just too afraid. God's calling us this lent to go to places that may be unfamiliar to us and do it at his pace. Now, why? It's for his blessing through us to others. Remember that all these things are not about us. Sometimes we can get hung up on that and those two traps will correspond to it. So some of us might say, oh, well, no, I don't need anything. I'm not important. I'm a loser. I'm not good. I'm not. Whatever. I know people like that, that they don't do what God's called them to do because get focused on themselves and their own weaknesses and their own inadequacies. And so they make it about themselves. But I also know people who are like, hey, I'm awesome God. I got this. You just chill up there in heaven or go deal with somebody else who's worse. Because, yeah, I know what you want from me. I can do this. I'm just going to take the ball and run with it. Both of them are bad and can lead to destruction. We have to do is remember this relationship with Jesus that He's called us into is that exact thing. It's a relationship. And it's not about us in and of it. Like, that's not where it stops. It's what God wants to do through us to others. But if we make it all about us, then we stop. So the person who is. Who is afraid to move is not realizing that the call and the gifts of their life are not just for them, so that they can just sit there and. And wax in their holiness, Right? Because if they do that, they're not getting out there and blessing others. Whereas the other person who is like, it's all about me and what I'm gonna do, what I'm gonna do. They may try to go out and do things for people, but if they don't have the power of God behind them, then they're gonna be a disaster. Friends, we have to remember to follow God is that relationship. And it's a daily relationship. It's not you get your marching orders and go. It's walk with Christ. All right? And that's what Abram did. And of course, we all know what happened. Ultimately that led to Christ and the blessing of all the world. Friends, we're all here as Christians because Abram was obedient and went, God called him and he answered. That's so important, my friends. Now let's look at our second reading. This is important, too. St. Paul is telling young Timothy to bear his share of hardship for the Gospel, Share in the suffering, in the power of God. Another translation says, but bear your share of that who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of what he wants to do through us. We've got to remember that, my friends, bearing our share of the suffering. This is important. What is your share? Right? What is the share that comes to you from following Christ? And the more you follow him, the more that is going to invite some of that suffering. Because the world's not going to cheer you on. It can be difficult. Do you complain and throw a fit? Oh, it's so hard to fast. Oh, it's so hard. Or people don't like me, or someone's mad at me, or I didn't get invited to this, or I'm persecuted or whatever. I'm not downplaying any of that. I'm just saying that to follow him is going to lead you to a certain amount of suffering. And like St. Paul says to Timothy, you're going to have to bear your share of that, not with grumbling and complaining. But with Thanksgiving, remembering what has happened before us, what Christ has done for us, and what others have done for us. That's why I love the saints so much. These are men and women who bore not just their share, but others share for the suffering of suffering, for the gospel. And they didn't complain. They didn't grumble and shake their fists at God saying, how could you do this to me? I thought if I followed you, everything was gonna go great in my life. I thought if I did the right things, then good things would happen to me and bad things wouldn't. You see, a lot of people think like that. But if we think that way, if we operate like that in our faith, then what we've proven is that we never really truly loved God. We just loved what we thought God would do for us if we did some things for Him. It's not how it works. Your relationship with God, like St. Paul said, is not built on your good works. He didn't do that for you in virtue of your good works. He saved you while you were still his enemy, while you were still a sinner. That's when he gave everything to you. And what we do as a response to that never obligates him to do anything for us, because he's already done it. He's done the most important thing that could ever be done. And if he doesn't do a single thing that you want him to do in your life from a worldly perspective, but he saved you, then that's everything. Do you believe that? Do you act like that? Do you pray like that? Or is it all about the circumstances and what you want him to do for you? And believing that if you just are a good little boy or a good little girl, then you'll get on the nice list. God is not Santa Claus, my friends. He's not keeping track of who's naughty and nice and giving good things to the nice list and bad things to the naughty list. He's given everyone the best thing, which is a chance at salvation by the grace that he's given to us. And what we do with that never was the cause of what happened. We got to remember that what we do with that, it doesn't negate what he's already done. It just negates whether or not we participate in it, my friends. So stop thinking that we can obligate God to serve us when the reality is we're going to have our share of suffering for the gospel, and we must bear it with strength that comes from God, not our strength. Now remember, this is hardship that comes from the gospel he's talking about, not just regular hardship that comes because of our sin. Sometimes our hardship in life is not from the gospel. It's from our lack of following the gospel. And we have to submit that to the Lord and accept the consequences of our sin and bear that suffering, you know, but when we have suffering that comes from the gospel, then we have to have that strength, my friends, just like St. Paul said. And do not be ashamed then of testifying to our faith. All right, let's look at our gospel readings, right? The transfiguration. This is powerful stuff, you know, why is this in the Bible? People wonder that sometimes. It's a weird story, isn't it? Because Peter, James and John get up, they see this incredible vision and what happens? Peter wants to hang out. He just like, hey, this is good for us to be here. Let me just build some booth. There's some tents so we can just stay here forever. I can relate to that. Can you imagine wanting to be anywhere else after you've seen this and be like, lord, just kill me now. This is the ultimate mountaintop experience. But Jesus doesn't show this to Peter, James and John as though this was the end. He doesn't say, alright, guys, we're here. You made it up the mountain. Now let's just camp out. Let's just stay here. No, my friends, this mountain, by the way, is an important mountain for Abraham as well. Read back in Genesis, you know, this is an ancient mountain, right? And I believe maybe someone will correct me on this. I know that there were some pretty powerful things. I don't think this is the. This is Mount Tabor where this happened. Where he was going to sacrifice Isaac was the Temple Mount, right? But all of these places have significance. Okay? So here's what you got to remember. You're going to get called up the mountain at times in your life. Those are experiences that we're grateful for. I've had many of them where I just feel like, lord, okay, can it get any better than this? You've shown me this greater revelation of who you are. Can I just hang out here and never leave? But what was the call? Jesus is like, all right, no, we gotta go. You guys have a mission to fulfill to bless the world, to bring to fulfillment the promise that was made to Abram. These guys were going to carry through with that promise to go and bless the world. Remember what happened to Pentecost? Peter shares the gospel to the nations in a language he doesn't even Understand, that's the fulfillment, my friends, and it continues to this day. But those guys needed to see this so that they could remember it when times got tough. Sometimes we have to remember those mountaintop experiences when we're in the valleys, when we're suffering, when we're discouraged, when we're struggling, when we don't know that we can make it any longer. We can sometimes look back on those mountaintop experiences. Not so that we can go, oh, God, why did you make me leave? But so that we know that bearing our fair share of suffering for the gospel leads to blessing and reward and that God is with us. That's so powerful, isn't it, to think about. We never know when we'll need to look back on what God has shown us. You know, I was having a pretty stressful day recently and was a little bit discouraged. And I watched back an older episode of Unpacking the Mass because if you haven't realized this by now, we're, you know, year A that we're in right now. This. That's already. We've already done that. So I'm going back and looking back at old episodes now from, you know, two years ago and going, yeah, that's what we talked about. And I looked back at an episode from a couple years ago that was we were on the road and we were in the van and it was awesome. It was amazing. And I could just see in myself in that recording how full of joy I was to be out there. And it was amazing. You know, a little discouraged at times lately with a few things have nothing to do with this, but one of the things was, you know, just so powerful to remember being on the road and in those places. And I could see that. And you know what? I gave thanks to God for that. It took me back to those places where I was encouraged and full of excitement. And I think sometimes we have to do that. We have to remember that. I love the old saying, never forget in the dark what God has shown you in the light. That'll get you through these tough times, that'll get you through your share of suffering for the sake of the gospel. And I wonder about Peter, James and John after they had been with Moses and Elijah and Jesus, and he had shown them that when they were getting ready to lead the church and all these men suffered greatly if they ever looked back on times like the Mount of Transfiguration and other experiences where they saw Jesus do miracles, where they saw him raise people from the dead, they were there when Lazarus walked out of the grave, Jairus daughter and all these things, if they ever thought back to those moments when they were with Jesus, because I'm sure they missed him. If you think about it, there were years of their lives ahead of them without him. And I wonder if when they were in their jail cells or out on the road in poverty or beaten from other people who were opposing them, if they thought back and they remembered those good times with Jesus and they were given strength to move forward because they recognized that even though they had left the mountaintop, that he was still with them in the valley. That's really the lesson for today's readings, is that God calls us to these great things that are going to take us out of our comfort zone, out of the places that are familiar to us. And yes, we will have to bear our fair share of suffering, but God will also give us those moments of glory so that when we get out into the world, we can be strengthened by them. We don't just stay on the mountains. I know we want to. I know we can dream about what that would be like. But God's got a blessing to give to others through you out there. That's so important. When I get discouraged, when I get frustrated or tired or, you know, just restless at times, sometimes I'll look through the comments on these videos or other videos and I'll see how this work is a blessing to other people. And I'll think to myself, you know what, God, you've allowed me so many mountaintop experiences, I can weather some storms. If what you're going to do through this work is going to bless somebody else friends, it's not about us. You know, people sometimes say, oh, you know, what's it like being Catholic youtuber and all this kind of stuff. And what, like, it's some big, I don't know, prestigious or, I don't know, glorious thing. I was talking to somebody about it last night who was like, what's that like to, you know, make these videos and have thousands of people? You know, the reality is, when I'm sitting down here in my studio, like I'm doing right now, I'm looking at a camera. I'm in here by myself. So sometimes it feels like, well, does anybody even know? Is it, you know, and you get to that point where you're just like, hey, I'm trusting God with all of this, that what he's going to do through it is going to help somebody. One of the best comments I think I ever saw recently on I can't remember if it was one of these videos or one of my interviews. But this. This person said, keith, you're bringing me back, back to my faith. And I know it's not me, right? But that's what they said. And I thought, boom, that's it, man. What about you? What has the Lord called you to do that? Maybe you're a little discouraged. Maybe you've been doing it a long time and you're just kind of tired and you're. I don't know if this is helping anybody or do it. Maybe it's something so simple. Maybe you're the person that goes to the church and unlocks the doors, turns all the lights on. Or maybe you go out and serve the homeless or volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul center. Or maybe you're one of the volunteers that goes and helps with the youth group kids. God bless you, by the way, or whatever it might be. Maybe you just like to get on YouTube and send encouraging comments to people and pray for people. And you wonder sometimes, Lord, is this even worth it? Follow God and say to him, lord, I am here to be a blessing to whomever you want to bless through me. And I'll go anywhere you want by your strength and by your power. That's the lesson today. If you do that, friends, he will bless others through you. And what you realize after you've been doing this long enough is that's the greatest blessing for you as well, friends. That's powerful stuff here on Unpacking the Mass. And I'm praying for each of us that we have those mountaintop experiences. They're amazing, but that we recognize that to come down from the mountain is not to come down from glory. It's to take that experience out into the world to be a blessing to others. May God give that to each of us as we continue through Lent and continue to be used by God. Avoiding the traps of just staying comfortable and still also avoiding the trap of just running ahead of God and, you know, making a big mess. May he guide us daily into his will for us that we might, through his glory, by his power, be a blessing to others. Thanks for watching, my friends. I look forward to being back here with you next week. And if you missed last week, friends, take a look right here. There's going to be a link up here for you to get on board with all the previous episodes of Unpacking the Mass. So make sure you check, check out those as well. Take care, everybody, and God bless.