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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. So thankful to have you joining us here as we study the readings for the upcoming week's Sunday. And this week we are continuing in Ordinary Time, which I know some people are like, what does that mean? Like this? Not as exciting as other times? No, that's not what it means. It just means we're not in a particular liturgical season, like Advent or Lent or something like that. So Ordinary Time doesn't mean like subpar. It just means that we're rolling. And in some ways it allows us to live in the sense of just the kind of the momentum that was given to us in Advent and in Christmas. Now we're in that. So think about that, because today's readings really are about maintaining something very important, the light that we're all called to live in. We all understand that we're called to move out of darkness into light. But is that a one time thing? Is that something that you do? You flip a switch or God flips a switch and that's it, you're just done? No, my friends, today we're going to look at what it means to stay in the light. And what we're going to discover is that isn't a one time thing either, because what we're going to learn is that the light isn't static, it moves. And if we want to stay in the light, we need to move with it. So let's go ahead and pray and then we'll jump into our first reading. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, you are light. In you there is no darkness at all. So may we stay in your light. May we recognize what that means and how light will guide us. Lord, so help us as we stay in your light to stay with others as well. In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, Amen. Our first reading comes to us from the book of Isaiah. And you're going to see in your readings it'll say chapter eight, but in what I'm pulling out, it says chapter nine. That's just a difference in the numbering between how Isaiah is numbered, in which translation you use. Might have this be chapter 9? Verses 1 through 4 versus chapter 8 through 9. 3. I'm going with the RSV as I do here on unpacking the mass, even though I know in mass they're using the nab, but it's the same words and it reads this way. But there will be no gloom for her that was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased its joy. They rejoice before thee as with joy at the harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil for the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder. The rod of his oppressor thou hast broken, as on the day of Midland. Our second reading comes to us from the book of First Corinthians, chapter one, verses 10 through 13. And then verse 17. St. Paul writes these. I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross be emptied of its power. Wow. And then our gospel, from Matthew 4, verses 12 through 23. And it reads this way. Now, when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he went and dwelt in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned. From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. As he walked by the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. And he went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people. All right, my friends, so this is really cool here. I love in the Scripture, first of all, where we see the prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilled in the new. And sometimes we have to do some investigative work on that and figure it out. Other times it's just boom, right there. And this is one of those times when it's just right there. Now, what was going on in Isaiah was God was warning the people that they were going to be invaded, and they were invaded by the Assyrians as a punishment for breaking God's laws. But yet, even in God's punishment of them, even in this darkness that was coming, was a promise that light would come. And how ironic is it that Christ comes in that same way into that place? That's where he begins, my friends, is powerful. God's promises will be fulfilled. And yet there are these moments where darkness comes, because sometimes our sin leads us there. We'll talk about that. Other times, we find ourselves in darkness not of our own making. But either way, there is a promise that God has a plan to draw us out of that darkness into light. And that's what we see in our first reading, this promise already given. And sometimes for us, we have a tendency to look at our darkness, and maybe we don't know what to do with it. We all want to come out of it. But yet, as we also see in John's gospel in the first part, men love darkness rather than light. Sometimes people are afraid to leave their darkness for a variety of reasons. Now, some people, it's pretty easy to see, and maybe you've been there at one time or another in your own life with this. But sometimes we don't want to come out of that darkness because we're ashamed. We know what we're doing, we see what we're doing, and we don't want to be exposed, so it's easier to do that. Have you ever withdrawn from people or seen somebody withdraw from people because they're ashamed? That happens in the church world sometimes, doesn't it? Certainly had my share of that. Where you have people that are super involved in ministry or in the work of the church, and then out of nowhere, they just fade away. I had a good friend of mine years and years ago when I was a youth pastor, he was so involved. His wife was involved, his kids were involved. He was at everything. He would do anything that needed to be done, and he loved it. His life was transformed radically. He. And he was so involved in the ministry and in the church, and everything seemed to be going great. And then I noticed there were just some weird things starting to happen. There was some conflict that I would see between him and some other people, or he seemed to sort of hedge his involvement a little bit until one day he just stopped showing up. And, you know, when I'd reach out to him, he would just did, you know, back in. Back in the day, this is before cell phones, but completely ghosted me. Wouldn't return my calls, wouldn't talk to me. And then I found out that he had decided to leave his family, and he walked away from his faith. He walked away from his family. And get this. When things got back to him that we were looking for him, he started badmouthing us. And quickly he was like, oh, it's your fault, It's Keith's fault, It's the church's fault, it's the youth group's fault. It's all this stuff. But the reality is he was living a life of darkness. He had wandered back into the darkness. And then later, as things developed, you know, he let it be known that he was just full of shame. He was full of shame. Sometimes when we get exposed, we're full of shame. And sometimes we wander back in that darkness. We don't want anybody coming around us. Because here's the thing. You gotta remember, my friends, to be in the light, you can't hide. And that can be scary. How many of us have ever been overcome with shame and we've decided that it's better to withdraw and try to hide. I had another person do the same thing to me once, you know, kind of a similar situation. But some things came out about her life and about what she was doing in her marriage and stuff like that. And, you know, it was no big deal. Wasn't that big a deal. And we talked through it a little bit. And I remember she said to me, well, you won't see me at church anymore. And I remember saying, why? And she just goes, well, because I can't show my face around there if I know that, you know, you know that I have these problems or whatever. And I remember thinking, if you only knew. We've all got problems, you know, none of us are perfect. None of us can stand in the light and go, yeah, look at me, I'm great. But you see, that's one of Satan's tools that he will use against us, is he will convince us that it's better for us to remain in the darkness. He'll do that. He'll say, oh, well, if people really knew you, if they knew the real you, they wouldn't like you. Have you ever felt that way, man? I know I have. I often feel that way. It's amazing. You think to yourself, well, if people really knew that you weren't this perfect person that they. That you think that they think you are. Here's the truth. Nobody really thinks that anyway. That's the reality. We put that on ourselves sometimes. And we project this sense of who we think we want to be or who we want to be. And then we try to live up to this false standard that the truth is nobody else really is holding us to that standard except ourselves. Everyone knows that. Everybody's got junk. And when Christ gives us the invitation to move from darkness to light, he's promised that that light is a cleansing light. It's a revealing light, but it's also a cleansing light. And as we follow that light, we move from darkness into light. And we move from sin into purity, into holiness. But we don't start there. We have to keep moving. That's the key. And the devil does not like that process in our lives at all, does he? So what will he do? He will use fear, he will use shame, and he will use, you know, all like, bitterness. Because, let's face it, another reason that sometimes we want to stay in the darkness is because we're mad. We're mad at what God's done. We're mad about something that happened to in us. Now, some of the times, the darkness is manifested in things that we do. And then sometimes it's manifested in things that have been done to us. I knew a man once who went through an unspeakable tragedy. And in his unspeakable tragedy, he had a moment where he cursed God. And I remember talking to him about that. And I said, man, that's really hard. He said, yeah, I just couldn't believe it. So I cursed God and Then I remember saying, well, what are you going to do with that? He says, oh, I feel I have to repent of that and come back to God. And so he did. But I know others who have gone through terrible tragedy and they've cursed God and they've stayed there, or someone has done something to them. I mean, we all know the stories, don't we, of someone who was abused or mistreated by someone in the church, perhaps. And that has been the reason why they've wanted to stay out of the light. Because they could say, well, because this thing happened to me, I can't come into that light. So it's like you have fear, you have shame, and you have bitterness that will keep you there. But what Christ is wanting to do in our lives is to remove all of that and to call us from darkness to light. And I think this year is the key for you, isn't it? Because one of those three things can be at play here. Fear, like, what's going to happen to me if I follow the Lord. We'll get to that when we talk about the Gospel a little bit. Shame, oh, look at me, what I've done. And bitterness. Look at what's been done to me. Which one of those three do you wrestle with the most? If you have the courage to tell us, hey, let us know in the comments. And whichever one of those is the thing that you're most struggling with is probably where you need to shore up your defenses, because that's where you're going to be attacked. And one of the best ways that you can shore up your defenses is to know this. You don't do this alone. That's why St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians here is so important. And what is he talking about? He's talking about unity and community. Unity and community. Right. Common unity. That's what community is. Right. And what does he say about that? He says that we need to have that. But in order to have that, we have to be on the same page. We can't be at each other's throats. I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus, that all of you agree and there'd be no dissensions among you, but you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. This is huge because sometimes to be in the light, we think that that's like this private thing. And. And we think that we can be in relationship with God and that we can have his light and yet be closed off to other people. Friends, we have to Understand this. To be in the light of Christ is to be with others is to be in their light as well. But every time that we divide ourselves from one another, people, it's as if we put these blinders on and we just say, okay, I want to, like, follow this light, and I'm going to do this now. Yeah, I can see that light. But there's other light around me that I'm missing, and there's other things around me that are going to help me, that if I'm dividing myself from others, in some ways, I'm closing myself off from light. And Jesus says that's not how it's supposed to be. Because his light is not a pin spotlight on you, it's a wash of light. And it illuminates not just you, but everything around you. And if we're called to be in community, then we've got to share that light. We've got to live in each other's light because the light of Christ reflects off of us onto one another. And. And sometimes when I'm struggling with my relationship with God, it's that light that's bouncing off other people that's going to help me. But I can't do that if I'm in constant bickering and dissensions. And that was happening already in the early church. People were saying, hey, what kind of guy are you? Who do you follow? I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Peter and all great guys, by the way. But what St. Paul was trying to tell us is, look, ultimately we don't follow the light of Paul or the light of Peter or the light of Apollos. We follow the light of Christ. And all Paul and Peter and Apollos are. Are instruments used by God to reflect that light in various ways. And Paul even says, look, the way that I reflected is different. I wasn't called to baptize. Some people get hung up on that. All of them. Why wasn't. If baptism was so important, then why was. Paul was saying, that's not his principal mission. He's an evangelist to the Gentiles, right? So. And what does he preach? Christ crucified. So he's basically saying, look, I'm called to preach the gospel. I love this. Not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. He's saying that, look, Jesus doesn't need me to be cute and clever and engaging and, you know, optimized. He just needs me to preach the truth. He will do the work. We gotta always remember that, my friends. So the light that we need to experience is a light that is found in community. And I think sometimes we have to remember that, because a lot of times we'll say things like, well, I love God, but I hate all the other people. One of my buddies who's a pastor, him and I have had this long running joke and we'll say things like, or he not me anymore. But he would say, he'll still say things like, well, I love being a pastor. Ministry would be so great if it weren't for the people. And, you know, you think about it and you go, yeah, I completely understand that. Because people are hard. It's tough. People are tough. Sometimes we get on each other's nerves, we offend each other, we ignore each other, we hurt each other, we abuse each other. You know, what are various ways? And I'm not saying that's good. I'm just saying that's the nature of human relationships is they're rooted in selfishness. Oftentimes. And even in the church world, people are hard. I remember talking to somebody one time, they're like, oh, I just wish I had more friends. I wish I had more friends. And the pastor of the church I was at the time said, why? Friends are just people to get mad at eventually. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying we don't need friends. But sometimes we can get so frustrated with one another that we just go, nope, I'm done. I'm just going to wall myself off and practice my faith alone. That's not what we're called to do. We're not called to do that. Now, maybe you're called to be like a desert father or some kind of cloistered person, but I think generally speaking, that's not really what we have to deal with. We need the light of other people. We don't experience Christ's light in a vacuum. We experience it together. Now, let's talk about our gospel here and what that has to do with this. I think it's interesting because, you know, of course we see the fulfillment of the first reading here. The land of Zebulun, the land of Natalia, towards the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, right? And this is where Jesus is coming from. And he's walking by the Sea of Galilee, and what does he do? Right? He's preaching the kingdom and he's telling, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's an invitation to move from darkness into light. And then he sees Peter and Andrew and this incredible call to discipleship, this incredible call into light, into mission. But what does that look like? What did it look like to them? What does it look like to us? Well, to them it looked like, hey, here's the light now, let's go. That's what it looked like. It wasn't, hey, Simon, Andrew, I want to just tell you some stuff. So you have this incredible knowledge. That's the world's understanding of enlightenment, isn't it? Enlightenment is all about just acquiring knowledge or some sort of self actualized way of thinking. That's not God's way of enlightenment. The world's way of enlightenment is about knowledge. God's way of enlightenment is about relationship. That's important relationship with God. To be enlightened, to be receiving the light of God is a call to relationship. It's a call to that light. But that light is not a static light, it's a moving light. And if you want to stay out of the darkness, you got to get moving. He didn't just say to Peter or Simon at the time, and Andrew, let me give you some truth now. Just stay put in your life and do what you were doing, it's all good. No, he said, here's the truth, come follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And they had to make that decision right now. And that wasn't a one time decision though. Every day they had to wake up and decide, are we going to follow him to where he's going today? Because Jesus didn't just sit in a room somewhere and pontificate and hand out knowledge. No, he was on a mission, my friends. The light of God is a moving light and if you want to stay in it, you have to get moving too. Too oftentimes we just want to get the knowledge and then sit there and then all of a sudden we're like, what happened? It's not how it works, my friends. Enlightenment when it comes to our faith is about relationship, not specifically or strictly knowledge, my friends. It's not about the stuff we know and the stuff we do. It's about being with Jesus. So keep that in mind, my friends. Keep that in mind. And Jesus starts where the darkness had reigned. And what does he do? He brings truth. But notice this repentance is required to walk in that light, to move from darkness to light. You've got to repent. He doesn't say, oh, you're good, let me just add some knowledge. He says, no, you got to repent. You got to change your thinking and change your Behavior and follow me so God can bring you out. But you've got to be willing to follow. You got to be willing to follow. So how do you stay in the light? We've talked about what it means to come out of the light. How do you stay in that light? First thing is this. Believe God's promises. That's number one. The people in Isaiah were in trouble, man. The warning was coming, but God already had a plan. You might be in trouble. God might be warning you, but he's going to make a way for you to get out of it. He has made a way for you to get out of it. You've just got to believe that. There's that. It's possible some of you think you're too far gone. That's where the shame comes in. You go, oh, I can't possibly come out into the light because of my shame. You got to believe God's promise of what is his promise to you. That you can be restored. That you can be forgiven. That you can be reconciled. That you can be redeemed. It's done, friend. You just got to walk in that light. Don't let that shame keep you down. Believe God's promise. Believe the prophecy that those who have walked in darkness will see a great light. The light has come. He's called you out of it. Stop disbelieving him. Stop thinking that it's not for you. Stop thinking that you're not good enough, or that whatever you've done in the past is too great, or whatever's been done to you is too hard, or that it's too scary. No. Believe in God's promise, my friends. Believe in God's promise. And then number two, let go of your fear, shame and bitterness. Those three things, man, they're light killers, aren't they? Let go of those things. What does that look like? How do you do it? Is it about feeling? No, not really. You might say, well, I'll do that when I stop being afraid. No, that's not how it works. Remember when you were a little kid and you wanted to jump off the high dive? I mean, I'm Gen X, so this is probably a thing, but when I was a kid, you go to the community pool and they had the, you know, the diving board. They had the low one and then the high one. And I remember looking up at that high dive thinking, oh, that's so cool. You could, like, do flips off it and stuff. But then when you get up on top of there and you're standing there, you Might as well been on Mount Everest. And it's scary, it's intimidating. And I remember quite a few times going up to the high dive, walking out and just being so terrified and just walking back. I can't do this, I can't do this. I can't do this. But then there's that moment in your life when you finally decide that, look, I gotta just jump. And it's not because you stopped being afraid. You don't stand up there, go, oh, you know what? I've never done this before, but it's not scary to me. No, it's when you do it anyway. And then what happens? You jump and then you go, that was awesome. You didn't wait for your fear to disappear. You jumped anyway. Friends, think about that with regard to your faith. Too many of us are like, oh, I'm so afraid to follow Jesus, like Peter and Andrew, you know, I'm so afraid to follow him. What if he called, calls me into something difficult? What if he calls me to say he's going to, but I'm afraid? That's okay. Don't let your fear control you. And what you'll discover is once you've overcome that, then you just, boom, you're off to the races. You don't think it was scary for Simon and for Andrew to leave their father and their nets and take off and go? Of course it was, but they did it anyway. So you got to let go of that fear. Now, let's talk about the shame for a second. Do I even need to? Do you even. Do you believe the promises of God now? This time to step out and just admit it, right? The best thing that you can do when it comes to shame is just go, yep, I am a worthless sinner. I have fallen away from the Lord. I have terrible things in my past. Maybe I have terrible things in my present. And just agree with that. Don't be like, oh, no, no, no. Like, try to. No, just admit it. Be real about where you are, but then come to God anyway. Be like that tax collector who beat his breast, said, lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Did he have shame? Yeah, but did he let it keep him from the light? No. Be like Zacchaeus who climbed up to see the Lord. He knew he was a horrible guy and the Lord came to him. He didn't try to pretend and try to hide and try to act like, you know, it wasn't him. Don't make excuses, but don't hide either. And of course, the bitterness, what does it mean to Let go of that. Hey, it's found right there in the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Whatever's been done to us, friends, we've got to just be willing to, to give that to the Lord and step into the light anyway. And if there's something in your life that's difficult, that isn't the result of something somebody did to you, maybe it's just a situation, you blame God for it. You know what? Get real about that. Bring that to him as well. So don't let those things keep you in the darkness. Let them go. Fear, shame and bitterness, friends, they are light killers. Light killers number three. Stand in the light of others. Hey, you're going to need it. You're going to need other people and their light. Remember, we're called to be in this community. We're not called to have dissension. We're not called to be on our own little islands. We're not called to be in our own little silos. We're called to have that light wash over all of us and to help each other in that. And if you want to stay in the light, sometimes that's so critical, isn't it? Because you might be tempted to run back into the darkness. But if you have others around you who can help you, whose light can be an inspiration to you, that's why I love the saints so much. The saints are those examples of people who had that light from Christ that just radiated in them. And when we feel discouraged and when we feel ill equipped, we can look to them and their light can reflect Christ light, right? It bounces off them and it can help us as well. That's important. And then number four, lastly is this. Keep moving. Keep moving with God's mission for the church. Look where God is moving and get involved. Think about that statement. A lot of times we want to just do something for God. Hey, I want to like start this thing or be a part of this thing, or, you know, do this or whatever, create that or, you know, innovate this. And that's all fine and good. But sometimes that can get really tiring and sometimes it can be more about us than God. The light is moving. Figure out what God is up to and get involved. You want to stay in the light. You're struggling. Go to the church and get involved. Say, where is the work of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven being preached and where is it happening? Where is it going? And then get involved in that don't just try to do it all on your own, friends. It's so important. Andrew and Simon were called to be a part of a movement. And that movement had a mission and a purpose and that purpose and mission. We talked about mission last week. That mission and purpose became their mission. They didn't go, well, here's what I'm trying to do, you know, let's go this way, shine the light over here. No, they said where is the light going? And they got in that. That's an important distinction, isn't it my friends? Sometimes we're like, all right, God, I want to go do this thing over here. Shine your light over here so I can see you, you know, show me the path over here. That's fine. But you can get very frustrated if you do that. The better way is to look at where the light is already going. What's it, what it's doing, the path that it has, cut through the darkness, follow it. That's the key, my friends. You do that this year, I promise you, you're going to soar in your faith, stay in the light, stay with others and follow where it's going. Understanding that the light isn't about knowledge or some sort of self actualization. It's about a relationship with Jesus. You do that, man. Get ready. Nothing will be able to stop you if you're in his light. Good stuff. My friends, thanks so much for joining me here on Unpacking the Mass. And once again if this has been helpful to you, I invite you to share this with other people. Remember that whole thing about community. Maybe this is a way for you to have community studying this together. That's why I love what we get to do here as we do this even online. Because we can have community online. I love that we can do that. So maybe share some encouragement with other people in the comments we what this has meant to you or look for someone who is in need of some help or intention and offer up your prayers for them to be that light for others as Christ has been that to you. That's part of what that means, to stay in that light, my friends. And I know that you're going to do that. I can't wait to be back here with you next week, my friends. I'll see you then. Take care and God bless you.