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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. So I'd invite you to join me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, open our ears and our hearts to your word. Today we claim the promise found in the Book of Isaiah that whenever your word goes forth, that it will return to you as intended, Lord, that it will not come back void of your purpose. So, Lord, let our hearts be open, willing and ready to receive what you would speak to us today through your word. We pray these things in the name of the Father and the Son and. And of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, friends, we are deep into Advent, and it's very exciting. We're seeing what the Lord's plan is for the world and for our lives. And we begin from the book of Isaiah, chapter 61, with our first reading. And this is a reading that is given to us from the perspective of the Messiah, which is so cool because this is written hundreds of years before Jesus was would come to the world. But here we have the words of Isaiah, speaking in the first person from the perspective of the Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and. And the day of vengeance of our God. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My whole being shall exalt in my God. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. Wow. Pretty incredible words that we see from Isaiah here. And we see and hear the mission of the Messiah, which the Messiah means literally anointed one. And we see what that looks like. Now, I like the. The translation that we're using here, which is the RSV ce, the right standard version, Catholic edition. And it says that this Messiah will bring good news to the oppressed, but the nab says glad tidings to the poor. I like the. The version we're using a little bit better, because oppression is really not about how much money you have. You know, oppression is about being denied freedom. And these are the themes of the readings for this week. We're going to talk a lot about what it means to truly be free. See, oppression is about being controlled. And Jesus comes that we can be free. And as he says, whom the Son sets free is free indeed. So if you need freedom from oppression, turn to Jesus, and we're going to look at each one of these things that the Messiah is appointed to do here. Just briefly, I love how it says that, that he has come to bind up the brokenhearted. So he's come to bring good news to the oppressed and to bind up the brokenhearted. Let's talk about what that means for a second. Psalm 34 says, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. And I like to think about that. God desires to heal the brokenhearted. And I know that's a pain that many of us have gone through. You know, you know what it's like to be brokenhearted. It feels like nothing that you can do in this world can make you feel better. When you're truly brokenhearted, no amount of distraction can take away that pain. You can do your best to numb yourself to that pain, but what can actually heal that pain? Some people say, well, it's just a matter of time. But a lot of people also understand that time, in and of itself, can't really offer healing. It can only offer another level of distraction. But our Lord has come to bind up the brokenhearted. And I like that imagery. Think about your arm being broken or your leg being broken, and it's without foundation anymore because it's been snapped. When someone binds it up, it's bringing it back together in a healing way. And sometimes our hearts, because of things that happen in this world, become broken. He's come to proclaim liberty to the captives. Release the prisoners. And I want you to think about what enslaves us now. The Israelites would have assumed, you know, hearing the words of Jesus later on, that this would have meant freedom from the Romans. But Jesus had something better in mind. Freedom. Not from political oppression, but from sin. It's interesting that in our culture and society today, it seems like individuality and autonomy is the most important Thing to everybody, Just get out of my face and let me do what I want to do. This seems to be what everyone's most concerned with in life. And yet, as free as we are in our society, we are also the most addicted, the most depressed, the most angry, anxious, and the most hopeless. Friends, we have to understand what freedom is all about, because freedom from sin is what Christ has done. But sometimes we seek freedom from one thing by simply being enslaved to another. We switch taskmasters around. You know, I might be someone who's addicted to alcohol, but I quit drinking and instead I started using, using marijuana, or I quit eating too much and started smoking, or I quit X and grabbed Y. You know, we kind of go through life, don't we? Oftentimes switching taskmasters thinking that if I can just find the least evil master, I'll be okay. People think that freedom means the ability to do what you want to do. But what we're going to talk about is something deeper than that, because I'm going to advocate that following Jesus is really the only way to experience freedom. Now, some people think that that's a contradiction. They say, keith, wait a minute. People who are following Jesus or religious, whatever, they're not free. They've got all these rules to follow. So don't tell me that Jesus came to make me free, but yet now you got to follow all these rules. Isn't that a contradiction? Is it like a bait and switch? Well, here's what I want to say about that. Freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want. Think about that. You know, it sounds good. But if you think that freedom is about doing whatever you want, you're shortsighted. If that's your definition of freedom, then what you're really doing is you're saying, I want to be able to choose whatever's going to enslave me. See, freedom to do whatever you want isn't real freedom. That's just another form of slavery. Real freedom is being able to live according to the purpose for which you were made. That's huge. God has created you for his purpose and for a relationship with him. And sin and fleshly desires take us away from that purpose and renders us captive and unable to live out what we were created to do. That's the whole purpose of sin and death is to take you away from God. So you were made for this. And God has said real freedom is being able to do what you're supposed to do. But we think that freedom means being able to do whatever we want. But here our Problem is, my friends, is our desires aren't taking us toward God. Our desires are taking us towards sin. That's why we need Jesus to not just redeem us from the wrong things that we've done, but to renew our minds, restore our hearts, and give us the desires to follow God. That's real freedom. Real freedom isn't just getting never to do what you want. Real freedom is when you want God. Because now you can do what you were created to do. And that's what Jesus has come to give you. And this is cause for rejoicing, my friends. God clothes us in salvation and freedom. We're going to talk more about this, so let's look at our responsorial psalm. It's actually not a psalm this week. It comes to us from Luke, chapter one, and it's the words of our Blessed Mother. My soul rejoices in my God. My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed. My soul rejoices in my God, for the Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. My soul rejoices in my God. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. My soul rejoices in my God. The Blessed Mother, of course, is an incredible example of how to connect what is happening with Isaiah's prophecy with what she's experiencing. Notice that she's already claiming this. He is doing this, and she is rejoicing. Now, does Mary have a worldly life that's awesome and full of comfort and wealth? No. Does she have the American Dream? No. She doesn't have so many of the things that we seek. And yet she has it all. Because she has Jesus, my friends. And when you have Jesus, you realize that all this other stuff that you chase in life becomes a taskmaster and you're not free. The Blessed Mother was free to rejoice because she recognized her true freedom and it was found in her Son and in her Lord. All right, let's look at our second reading from the book of 1st Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 16 through 24. St. Paul writes these words, rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. For you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this. Rejoice always. St. Paul says. Now this isn't a pep talk, my friends. This is a command. And I think a lot of people say, well, what's the will of God in my life? I want to do God's will. You ever say that? And we think about that from a standpoint of circumstances and decisions that we make. And that's all fine and good, but we also have to remember the will of God is for you to rejoice in all things, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks in all circumstances. Those three things right there, that's God's will for you in no matter what circumstance you're in. To rejoice always, to pray without ceasing and to give thanks. Start with that. If you're a person who's seeking the will of God in your life, and we all should be. If you're saying, God, what do you want me to do? What should I do? Start with this, because we know this is the will of God no matter what. Do not quench the spirit. St. Paul says, refusing to rejoice is part of quenching the spirit. If you're a doom and gloom kind of Catholic, then you're quenching the spirit, my friends. At the same time, you're to abstain from every kind of evil. See, we tend to think that these things all sort of are related, that if you're a holy person, then you're supposed to be solemn and serious and all of that, which means, like, you don't ever laugh and have fun and have joy. And you see people like that, sometimes you go into mass, and sometimes it seems like. And I'm saying it seems like the holiest people are the ones that are, like the most grumpiest because they're not to be bothered by other people. They're there and they're just like, oh, Lord, I'm here to pray for you. And I just can't wait to. To suffer and have all this pain and, and. And just be, you know, all about my own little prayer life. And that's great. But I think the holiest people are the ones that have the most joy. See, you can have both. You can have reverence and sorrow. Even for sin, and a recognition of what Christ has gone through for us. And you can have all of that, that solemn spirituality that I'm talking about and the reverence that we all want to have. You can have all those things and have joy. You can do both. You're supposed to do both. But sometimes it feels like, well, no, the joyful people are the ones that are, like, in sin. No, the joyful people are the ones that are most connected to our Lord. So I just want to encourage you, you know, just be joyful. Rejoice always. And that means that you can be happy, you can be smiling. Well, joy is not happy. I get all that. But you, you can still be happy. You can have the countenance of a joyful person and practice your faith and offer your sufferings to the Lord and all of those things. You don't have to be a doom and gloom kind of Catholic. See, joy and holiness go together. And I don't know why this seems to be such a struggle for us. My wife was telling me the other day that there's a particular person in our parish that she says, well, when I see this person, this person's always smiling, always full of joy, and always excited to be at Mass. And I was thinking about them like, yeah, that makes every. Lifts everyone up, doesn't it? You know, versus the people that you walk in and you look at them and it's almost like, you know, someone kicked their dog before they got to church and they're just so upset and whatever. Like, I don't get it, man. This is my own personal soapbox, I guess. But, you know, I've seen this happen. I've gone up to people and talked to them in church, like, expecting that they're going to tell me that they just lost a close relative. Because when I've seen them in Mass, they're just so, like. They just look like they're filled with so much sorrow. But then they get in the parking lot, they're like, oh, hey, how's it going? Like, what? Why can't we have joy all the time? Right? Well, because I'm in a bad spot. Hey, I get it. But the Bible says that we're to rejoice in all things, that we are to pray without ceasing, and that we're to abstain from every form of evil. You know, if you're lacking joy in your life, perhaps there's some evil that you're not abstaining from. Perhaps there's some part of you that's still connected to some sort of slavery. And maybe you need to really experience true freedom from the Lord. But remember, freedom isn't about indulging your flesh. Freedom is about desiring God. See, when you desire to gratify the desires of the flesh, remember what the. What the Bible says. Those desires are contrary to the desires of the spirit. If you walk in the spirit, you will not gratify those desires of the flesh. And that's what's going to bring you joy. The Holy Spirit walking with the Lord. Are you getting this theme that we're seeing in the readings here? See, this is the lesson from the Blessed Virgin Mary. But this isn't the work of our righteousness. It's the work of God in us. That's what she says. The Lord has done these things for me. This is what he's done for me. Friends, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is the doctrine of what God has done for Mary. Now the Protestants look at us and they think that we get this all mixed up and they're like, well, don't you realize that Mary needed a Savior? Yes, we realized that Jesus saved Mary. It's just that he saved her at the moment of her conception. He is her Savior. I rejoice in God, my Savior. He's done these things for me. Absolutely. That's why she's filled with joy, my friends. It's the work of God in her life. And it can be the work of God in your life, too. That's what we're talking about here, my friends. All right, let's look at the gospel. We're going to talk about another one who has experienced freedom from the junk of the world. We're talking about the coming of John the Baptist. So our gospel comes to us from the Gospel of John, chapter one, and we're going to start with verses six through eight. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. Now we're going to jump down to verses 19 through 28. This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, I am not the Messiah. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? He answered, no. Then they said to him, who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I Am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah nor Elijah nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptized with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal. This took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. God sends people to prepare the way. And this was John the Baptist. Now, why? Why did God do that? Well, because it was his will, that's why. And that's the great thing about John the Baptist is he knows who he is in the will of God. He knows his place, and he knows who God is, and he knows who he's supposed to be. And he doesn't desire anything more. Now, my friends, this is what freedom looks like. You know, John could have made himself the point. He was a popular person. He was a controversial person. He. He could have had a lot of people who followed him, and he could have increased his own prominence and platform. But what did he say? He would also say, he must increase. I must decrease. John recognized that even though he could have used his role to enrich himself, he was free from those desires and was able to be who God made him to be. See, John comes as the one, as the prophet foretold, who would prepare and make the way of the Lord. And my friends, this is something God is still doing. He's called each of us to prepare the way of the Lord in the lives of those around us. We all have a ministry that's kind of like the ministry of John the Baptist, to show people what it looks like truly to desire God more than anything, to speak the truth, and to recognize that everything we do doesn't point to ourselves, but rather points to Jesus. That was John's role, my friend. And that's what real freedom looks like when you're free to not have to promote yourself or to not have to increase yourself, your own prominence or what other people think of you, your own worldly sense of accomplishment. Friends, John was poor in. In the desert, wearing clothes made of camel's hair. He ate wild honey and locusts. He wasn't some guy living high on the hog like the religious leaders of his day. His prominence didn't come from what the world thought of him. It came from his freedom to do what God had called him to do. And he didn't attach worldly success with that kind of freedom. And that's why he was so awesome, man. Don't you want to be like him? What would your life look like if you were free to follow Jesus without having to think about, well, what's best for me? What about all my stuff? What about all my goals? What about all my ambitions? What about all my. My fleshly desires? Friends, we have to think about that. The Lord has come to preach liberty to the captives. So I want to leave you with just a couple questions here today with unpacking the mass. First of all, what are you captive to? What desire in your life is controlling everything and keeping you from the Lord, from God's plan for your life? What does it look like for you to give that over to the Lord, to say, God, I don't want to live in bondage to this anymore. The second thing I want to ask you is what's keeping you from rejoicing? What's keeping you from being able to rejoice in all circumstances? If you say, well, my circumstance is keeping me from rejoicing, remember what St. Paul said, the will of God for you is to rejoice in all your circumstances. So there's no circumstance where he says, oh, well, you can't because of that. So why do we? What is it that's keeping you? Be real about this, friend. Really think about this and dig into it. This is what I want you to ask the Lord to do in your life today. Maybe this Advent season is about you truly learning how to rejoice. The third thing I want to leave you with is how could knowing your place and role in the kingdom bring you freedom? Think about that. Think about our Blessed Mother. What was her place and role in the kingdom was to bring Jesus into the world. And she does so in humility, in poverty, in suffering. Right. A sword shall pierce your heart, but also in great joy. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. He has done great things for. For me, friend. That's her role. The role of John the Baptist was to be the one who prepared the way of the Lord. And he ultimately would lose his head over the whole deal. But he still rejoiced. He knew his role. He must increase. I must decrease. I'm not worthy to even untie his sandals. Think about that. All these people thought John was a great teacher and came to him. Jesus said that among men born of women, which I guess that's everybody, right? There's been none greater than John the Baptist. But he also said, whoever is Least in the kingdom is greater than John. Why? Because John prepared the way and we get to walk in it. And that makes us great. That's our role, my friends. It's in relation to our walking in the path that John prepared. Because Jesus is the way, friends. If we can truly grasp that and understand that, then we can have that freedom. Then we can have that rejoicing. That's my hope for each of us today, my friends. That's my hope for myself. Whenever I start to feel anxious, whenever I start to feel worried or freaked out or I see a lack of joy in my own life, I try to not focus on what's going on around me in the moment. I try to remember what he's already done for me and what he's already done for you. Because the reality is what he's already done for us, no matter what's going on in our circumstances, it should give us cause for incredible joy. Because he has clothed us in righteousness and salvation, my friends. And because we have that, because we have him, we have everything. Thanks so much for joining me here on Unpacking the Mass. Let's close with a quick prayer. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, bring us that joy. Bring us that freedom. Only in you will we find it. Forgive us for exchanging one taskmaster for another, Lord, when what we really need to do is give everything, even our desires, over to you. So come into our hearts and transform us. Renew us, remake us. Conform us to your likeness. We pray these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Friends, thanks so much here for joining me here on Unpacking the Mass. Once again. I'm going to leave you with a message about our sponsor from Exodus 90. I hope you'll check this out. And thank you for joining me here. I look forward to being back here with you. See you next week for unpacking the Mass. Take care my friends, and God bless. I want to talk to you about a new sponsor of our channel. Exodus 90 is a men's discipleship intensive designed to help you take your faith to a new level. It's a 90 day journey through the book of Exodus, diving deeper into understanding the similarities we share with the ancient Israel and finding our path to freedom from our own modern pharaohs holding us back from true unity with God. Things like the over consumption of social media, numbing your problems with alcohol, pornography or binge watching tv. Our culture today has no shortage of pharaohs and idols that keep us stuck in old habits. But Exodus 90 offers you a way out. 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