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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. Today we're looking at the readings for the fourth Sunday in Lent. Just one more Sunday, and then Palm Sunday is here. And I hope that it's been amazing for you. Today's readings are going to talk about whether we are chosen or how we are chosen by God. God's choice versus man's choice and our response to those choices. We all love the feeling of being chosen, don't we? If you were like me and not super athletically inclined to. You had a lot of insecurity or fear when you were a kid in gym class when it was time to choose teams for things, because you were often chosen last. I remember when I was a new kid in a new neighborhood moving into this town, and all the neighborhood kids were gathering outside and we were going to play, I don't know, some game. And I remember they lined everybody up, and it came time to pick teams. And not only was I picked last, I wasn't even picked alone. I was so small that instead of. They didn't even, like, view me as a complete pick, so I was attached to somebody else as, like, a package deal. I remember they said, yeah, you, Keith and this other kid. I can't remember his name. You guys, you know, together you might equal one. So we're going to package you together. I remember that. You know, there's always anxiety around being chosen, isn't there? I remember another story quickly, I tell you, you know, when our son Drew applied to be on American Ninja Warrior and getting the anxiety of, will he be chosen? Will he be chosen? And there were two seasons, actually three seasons when he was chosen. It was amazing. And the anxiety of that. But then there were other seasons where he wasn't. We think about that, and the reason why it's such a big deal is because we assign value to ourselves based on what other people choose us for. And in today's readings, we're going to look at two people who are chosen. One who is chosen for something that the world would look at and say, that's awesome. I would love that. And another who the world would look at and say, man, you got a raw deal, but in God's economy, it doesn't work. That way in God's economy, we're chosen for the exact right thing for us. And if we can embrace that, then we can rejoice. So we're going to look at that. So our first reading comes from the book of First Samuel, chapter 16. And we're going to be looking at when King David was chosen. Let's read it together. But before we do. Almost forgot. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you for this season of Lent. And as we reflect today on the choices that you have made about us, may our hearts rejoice and may we accept with humility and even joy what you've chosen us for, Lord. Whether we can, from a worldly perspective, view it in a good way or a bad way, Lord, in your economy, it all works to the good. So we submit ourselves to you today in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right. I can't forget to do that. Our first reading from First Samuel, chapter 16, it reads this. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons. When they came, he looked at Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. And Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here? And he said, there remains yet the youngest. But behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he comes here. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. And the Lord said, arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Our second reading comes to us from the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 8 through 14. St. Paul writes these. For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things they do in secret. But when everything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it is said, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. Awesome stuff. All right. Our Gospel. It's an amazing story. From John, chapter 9, verses 1 through 41. Buckle up for this one, my friends. As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. We must work the works of him who sent me. While it is day, night comes when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, saying to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back, seeing the neighbors. And those who had seen him before as a beggar said, is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, it is he. Others said, no, but he is like him. He said, I am the man. They said to him, then how were your eyes opened? He answered, the man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight. They said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, he put clay on my eyes and washed. And I see. Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such things? There was a division among them. So they again said to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? He said, he is a prophet. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the Parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered, we know that this is our son, he and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know. Nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him. He is of age. He will speak for himself. His parents said this because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he is of age. Ask him. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give God the praise. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I know that though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you too want to become his disciples? And they reviled him, saying, you are his disciple. But we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, why, this is a marvel. You do not know where he comes from. And yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. But if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born in utter sin, and would you teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And having found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you. He said, lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Jesus said, for judgment. I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard this, and they said to him, are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. Wow. Powerful stuff. Friends, I want you to think about something. What makes someone a great leader, specifically a great king? Now, we might think about this and go, oh, a Great king would be someone with an incredible intellect or wisdom or the ability to negotiate or all kinds of, you know, qualities like that. But for Israel, remember, one of the. One of the key needs that they had was a warrior because they were being attacked all the time. So, of course, when. When Samuel is coming before these sons of Jesse and he sees Eliab, the first one is tall and muscular. You know, think, this guy's jacked. He's got to be the king. And he keeps going down the line. But what does the Lord say? Nope, not this one. I've rejected him. Who does he choose? The one who wasn't even allowed to come to the table. The one who wasn't even brought out. Sure, he was ruddy and handsome, but I'm guessing he was kind of small. Maybe that's a good thing, right? And yet God chooses David. And of course, we know that David would indeed become a mighty warrior, but he didn't come across that way at all. We have to think about that. Jesse didn't even bring him because he thought, there's no way. And here's the lesson. The world may pass you by, but God just might have a plan for you. That the world would say, you could never do that. Kind of interesting. God chooses whoever he wants, and we can't always make sense of that. Why would God have chosen David? I bet hardly any of us would have chosen David when you're looking at these other sons standing there before him. But remember, God does not judge based on physical appearances. What does he judge? He judges the heart. Isn't that amazing? He doesn't pick based on what the world says. Now, here's what I think is interesting, too. Sometimes we see people being chosen for things, and we can go, man, I want to do that. I want to be chosen for that. But remember, what we do to be chosen has a lot more to do with God than us. Now, I agree that there are some things that we can do to be prepared to be chosen. I think we need to do that because God judges based on what's going on in your heart. So think about this. If you want to be chosen by God for something amazing, then work on your heart or let him work on your heart. It's not completely arbitrary, is it? God's will for us works with our personal faith and personal holiness. So you can't just sit back and go, well, I guess God's chosen me for amazing things. I can just do whatever I want to do. It doesn't work that way. I can just completely disregard The Lord, I completely can be evil and immoral. Now, what's interesting is David himself would go on to be evil and immoral. So we're not talking about perfection here, but what we are talking about is a willingness and an openness to embrace what God's choice is. And sometimes that's hard for us, too. We see in our gospel another man who is chosen, too, you might say, what are you talking about? Yeah, I mean, this man who was born blind, have you ever thought about him as being chosen too? And we might see that and go, well, I don't know. I mean, the Pharisees certainly did. They thought he was chosen for calamity. Why? Because of his sins or the sins of someone else. Remember the question who sinned? That this man be born blind, himself or his parents? Because they had this view that God would punish people and punish their offspring because of their sin. So what that would do would be this. You'd see someone in a difficult spot, and you would automatically assume that it was their fault, that they're getting what they deserve, that whatever calamity has befallen them, even if it was something they were born with, that either they did something to deserve it, or their parents did something to deserve it. What kind of way to look at the world is that? And yet I think sometimes we can fall into that trap, can't we, my friends? Have you ever done that? Seriously, like, you look at somebody who's in need or in a rough spot, and you say, well, I'm sure they got there because of their choices. They made their bed, they need to lie in it. They, you know, put themselves in that position. It's their fault. And we say those things really in order to get ourselves out of doing anything to help them. And the truth is, sometimes that stuff might not be so far off. I mean, let's face it, sometimes choices that we make lead to results that are bad. If I go and rob a bank and am apprehended for that and I wind up in jail, I can't be like, well, who sinned? This man be put in jail, you know? No, it was just, you know, I don't know. No, you can look at that and you can go, that's the fruit, you know, that's the deeds of darkness that St. Paul was talking about in the second reading that we have to watch out for. So the second reading is really a way to help prepare you to be chosen for God's purpose and to accept that purpose. Even if the world says that doesn't make sense. Sometimes the world is going to look at what doesn't make sense and say to somebody, I can't believe you were chosen for that amazing thing. You don't deserve that. And sometimes the world's going to look at people in a bad situation and say, I can't believe God did that to you. You don't deserve that. Think about both of those scenarios. And there may be times in our lives where both of those things happen to us. There may be times in our lives when. When God just picked you to do something and you go, I don't know why I was put in that position. I don't know why I was the one that was there to do that particular thing. And it was a good thing. Rejoice. You know, some people, when they get those compliments, have you ever complimented somebody on, you know, some talent they have or some accomplishment that they did, and they just go, you know, it's, you know, no, no, no, no, no. Sometimes you're like, wait a minute, God put you there. I'm not saying you're amazing. I'm saying God through you is amazing. Sometimes we have to remember that when we downplay what we've been put on this earth to do, we're not living up to God's choice. For some people, God has chosen them and they just don't want to do it. I mean, imagine if David was like, I don't want to be the king. I'm not going to do it. That's too much work, too much responsibility. Think about that. He was displeased with Saul for what he did. You better believe he would have been displeased with David, too, if he would have rejected God's choice. Because that's the point of this whole reading today. Do not reject God's choice for your life. What has God chosen for you? I know that's a tough. Can't even be a traumatic thing to say because you might say, wait a minute. Are you telling me, Keith, that that horrible thing that happened to me when I was a kid, maybe I was abused by somebody? This, that, that God chose that? No, that's not what I'm saying. Not everything that happens to you is like that. But there are some things in life that God chooses us for that at the time, and maybe even for a long time, we don't get. We don't understand. And from a worldly perspective, it might look terrible, but God has a plan. I mean, think about this man born blind. Jesus himself said it. No, he is not in this predicament because of anything he did or anything his parents did. Why is he in this predicament? What did Jesus say? He said that God's glory might be revealed through him. Would you be okay with that choice? Would you be okay with years of blindness if it meant that God got to be glorified through you and that you got to have an encounter with Jesus just like that? I'm here to tell you, I don't know this guy, obviously, but I would bet that, Lord willing, we get to heaven someday, we can hang out with him. And you asked him, you had the chance to ask this man, would you have rather been born like everybody else, being able to see with your earthly eyes and never had this encounter with Jesus, or would you rather have been the guy born blind and healed by Jesus in John chapter nine and had that encounter? I bet you anything he wouldn't have changed it for the world. He wouldn't have changed it for the world, my friends, because his suffering led to God's glory and it led to a powerful encounter with Jesus. Now, here's what I want to talk about. God's choice and your choice, because you have a choice. Maybe you're suffering that you're in right now, you can't understand it. You're like, it doesn't make sense. I didn't do anything to cause this. It just happened or whatever. God, what are you doing? I guarantee you, for years, this man probably prayed that prayer. God, what are you doing? I guarantee you his parents probably said, why was our son born blind? We don't understand. God, please heal him. And for all of that time, silence until the day Jesus showed up. And when he did, he takes the natural, the mud, the spittle, and he does something supernatural with it. I love it. Friends, when you give your life to Jesus, you are embracing his choice for you. And if that's a choice to put you in some prominent role or in something that the world says that you're not qualified for, don't listen to the world. Give thanks to God and do your best in that role. Choose that. Choose to respond to his choice. And yet if he also chooses some kind of suffering, something where the world looks at and says, how could that happen to you? You didn't deserve that. God must hate you. Reject that choice and choose to give glory to God. Choose to offer your suffering to him. Because think about that. That's a pretty powerful choice, too. Which one was easier? You know, honestly, I think it was easier to be King David than to be the guy Born blind. And I know King David had a lot of responsibility and a lot of stuff, but, I mean, hey, let's face it, feels pretty good to be chosen, to be elevated even with all of that. But I think that the man born blind in some ways, and I know David is a man born after God's heart. I know all that. All right, just hang with me here. I think in some ways, this man's choice, I don't want to say was better or worse, but I will say this. I think it's more relatable. I think it's more relatable because not all of us are born and chosen to be the king of Israel, but almost all of us have some kind of suffering that wasn't the result of our sin or somebody else's sin. It's just something that happened in life and in that moment. Maybe God chose that for us because there's something in that that can bring him glory. But in order to recognize that, you have to make this transition, as St. Paul said in the second reading, from darkness to light. Because remember, in the darkness, you don't see what's going on. You don't understand. You're only able to see and feel like in the worldly sense, because all you can't. You don't have eyes to see, right? But when you're following Christ now, you have the opportunity to see the way he sees and be aware of things that he's aware of. And remember that God doesn't choose based on the outer appearances, but based on the heart. And we have to understand, too, we can't choose for ourselves based on the outer appearance, but based on God's glory. That's important, my friends. And it's hard. Maybe you're in the midst of a suffering right now and a trial right now. It's difficult. I know of some very painful trials right now that some people are going through. And you can look at God and go, what's up with this? Where is this suffering coming from? Why am I here? You know, who sinned? Did I do something to deserve this? What's going on? And just maybe Jesus is saying to you, no, your suffering is not the result of your sin. Maybe there's a way that. That suffering can bring glory to God. Because I will tell you this, I know it's hard to imagine that because it makes God seem cruel sometimes, if you think about it. But I don't think that that makes him cruel. I think that that brings meaning and power in a way that goes beyond any of the worldly things. And in some ways, this is incredible freedom. And it's incredibly healing because we can recognize that the most painful thing about our suffering is when we feel like it has no point. You can endure all kinds of suffering if you understand that there's a purpose behind it, if there's a good behind it. But if there's just nothing there, then it's tough to endure. I heard the story yesterday of a man. I think I heard that his cause for canonization might be open. I wish I could remember his name, but maybe you'll know who I'm talking about. He was the. He was the. I think he was a farmer or something. He had a son with down syndrome who fell into. He fell through an old septic tank lid and he fell into this pit of, you know what's inside septic tank, and it's toxic fumes that will kill you. And his son fell through this. And without even hesitating, the man jumped in. And he knew time was short because these toxic gases were going to be fatal. And he reached down and he pulled out his son and he pushed his son out of that pit. And before anyone could come and rescue him, he passed away. I mean, can you think of a more, you know, just awful way to die? I mean, what a terrible way to die, in the bottom of a toxic septic pit. And yet I guarantee you that man would choose to do that a hundred times out of a hundred in order to save his son. And as he was dying, I guarantee you he knew that that suffering had meaning because he used it to save his son. He chose that suffering to save his son. Think about that. Think about the choice God made for his son. So if we start to want to get mad at God for the choice that he made that caused your pain, think of the choice he made to cause Jesus pain. He chose that. And Jesus accepted the choice. Who sinned? That this man might be crucified. Answer all of us. All of us. But that was chosen. That God might be glorified and that we might be saved. Make that connection, my friends. Make that connection. Be like Jesus. Offer up your choice, God's choice, for his purposes, and not only will you find healing and meaning, but you'll have an encounter with Jesus that you never would have had before. And that's worth any suffering. My friends. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. You might not see that comfort on this side of the earth, but when you stand with Jesus and he comforts you, this man was comforted blind, his whole life comforted by the healing power of Jesus. He will do that for you, but we've got to respond to his choice by choosing him as well. Powerful stuff today, friends. It's great to be here with all of you guys for unpacking the Mass. Thank you so much for taking time to join me here today, my friends. And if you have been needing to get caught up, I'm gonna put a card right up here that you can just click on that playlist and watch previous week's episodes to get caught up. Hey friends. Next week, fifth Sunday in Lent, last one and then we're into Palm Sunday. Can you believe it? It's almost here, friends, and I hope it's going well for you and and I thank you for taking time to join me here. Hey, do me a favor. Make sure you subscribe to this YouTube channel if you're watching on YouTube and if you're listening on a podcast to follow, subscribe like and please leave a review. We would really appreciate that letting other people know to watch Unpacking the Mask too. And of course share this episode and maybe invite somebody with you next week to unpack the mask with you. Thank you so much, my friends, for being here. Take care and God bless you.