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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, and today we are looking at the readings for Divine Mercy Sunday. Easter is here. We are in that season, and we're going to say it once again. If you didn't miss it or if you didn't catch it before. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. And we could say that every Sunday, because every Sunday is a little Easter. We come together to celebrate the resurrected Lord, the Lord's Day. This is when the church met to worship Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. And today on Divine Mercy Sunday, of course, you know, you want to go and go to confession, you want to have Holy Communion, you want to pray the chaplet, you want to pray the rosary, you want to meditate on the mercies of God and how God's love has poured out upon you. We got to go to Poland about a year and a half ago to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in. I think it was in Krakow, or was it in Warsaw? I can't remember the name of the town. It was amazing, though, I'll tell you that right now. We were all over Poland. It was incredible. And I'm pretty sure it was in Krakow. And, man, Saint Faustina is awesome. And we're so thankful that we have so many great saints in the Catholic Church. We're going to be looking at what the early church looked like today. When we get into our readings in the Book of Acts, which is pretty much my favorite book of the Bible, that's not a gospel. I just love seeing how the disciples carried out the mission that Christ gave them. And we're going to see what made the church so effective and attractive in a world that was completely against Christianity, because that's really what mercy is all about. Mercy is about God stepping into darkness with his overwhelming light to share the gospel with a world that desperately needs to hear it. So let's pray, and then we'll jump right in. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are risen and that you are with us, that you have a plan that you will accomplish through your church, that it began right here in the Book of Acts as we're going to see. And it continues to this day. And that you have given us the tools that we need to come to you, to be reconciled to you, to have our sins forgiven and our hearts restored by your incredible divine mercy. We pray these things in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, my brothers and sisters, let's look at our first reading from the Book of Acts, chapter 2, verses 42 through 47. And it reads this way. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread. And the prayers and fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Our second reading comes from the book of 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 3 through 9. And it reads this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven. For you, who by God's power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. In this you rejoice. Though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, which, though perishable, is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen him, you love him, though you do not now see him. You believe in him, and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith, you obtain the salvation of your souls. In Our Gospel, from John 20, 1931. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors were being shut, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. And Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Now, Thomas, one of the 12 called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in the hands the print of the nails and place my finger in the mark of the nails and place my hand in his side, I will not believe. Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not be faithless. But believing, Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing and that believing, you may have life in his name. All right, my friends, let's take a look at these incredible readings. The early church. Everybody always wants to be like the early church. I remember when I was a pastor, books were written about this. Churches were formed based on the idea that we're going to be a church like the early church. And I think that's great. I think that's fantastic. But what I can confess to you is that I rarely saw any churches that looked like this. I rarely saw any churches that said they were founded on the early church, where everyone came together and provided for one another so that everyone had everything in common and where people were willing to lay their lives down for the gospel in everyday life. Where church wasn't just something that you went to or something that you attended or a part of your life. No, being a part of this Christian community was everything to the early church. And I don't see that very often. I see a lot of people who want to go to church and give their time and get a little blessing out of it and then go on and live their lives and do their thing. And then we all sit around and we go, why don't we see the miracles like they saw in the early church? Why don't we see the growth like we saw in the early church? Well, probably because we don't behave like they behaved in the early church, you know, And I think that's something to think about. Now, of course, looking at church history in the early church was a big part of why many of us became Catholic, if we're converts. Because when we look at not just what the early church did, but the way they worshiped and what they believed, we see that the early church was the Catholic Church. Now, I know people go, what are you talking about? The early church looks nothing like the Catholic Church. I mean, the Catholic Church has all of these buildings and all of this opulence and, you know, all these rules and regulations and offices. And you're telling me, I mean, I've been to St. Peter's you're telling me that was what the early church looked like? Well, of course not. That's not the claim. The claim is not that the Roman Catholic Church 2000 years later looks like a church that was formed together in an illegal setting where people were just beginning to believe and understand. There was. There was no history of that. There was no, well, here's how we've always done it. No, it was just beginning. So then what do you mean? How can it be the same? Well, because, friends, think about it like this. An acorn starts out small, but inside that acorn is contained everything for a giant tree to grow. And when you see a giant tree that has grown, has been nurtured and fed and taken care of and it's grown up, you'd be blown away to say, well, that came from this. But it did. The early church was not meant to be this snapshot in time in terms of the function of the church and the way that it looked from the outside. Of course not. What did Jesus say? He talked all the time about, like, a little mustard seed growing and becoming a great plant and fruit being born. Friends, the church should grow. It should look different, it should evolve, it should progress. Yet the fundamental elements of what it is are there. And if you look at the theology of the early church, that's what I'm talking about. What did the early church believe? What was it like? And if you start digging into that, Got news for you. If you're not Catholic, you're going to be really challenged with some of those things that you see. For example, what did the early church believe about baptism? The early church 100% believed that baptism was regenerative, that it wasn't a. A symbol, and that it was something done to infants as well. A lot of people come along these days and say, no where in the Bible does it say you baptize your babies. You know, well, look at what the early church did and you'll see it there. Of course we do see in the Book of Acts entire households being baptized. But if you can find early church fathers and the practice of the early church where they just treated it like it was a symbol, you're not going to find that the same thing with the Eucharist. The Eucharist was always viewed to be the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was tremendously revered. But yet today in many of these so called early church churches, it's the last thing you see. I went to one that claimed to be like the early church and they only celebrated communion maybe four times a year. What about authority? If you look at the early church, you see a structure of authority based on the apostles. You don't just see a bunch of people running around with a Bible going, well, this is what I think it means, I'll start my own church. That's not what you see, my friends. So when we dig into this, we have to recognize that the church that we are in now is Catholics. It is the same church. It's just grown and developed over time. And that's a good thing. I mean, can you imagine if as the church was growing, someone was like, hold on a minute, what are you doing? We can't do this. If we go from 120 to 3,000 to 10,000, things are going to look different. What are we supposed to do? Well, we're supposed to grow and fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And that's going to make things look different. And as the church grew and as it became more established and as its influence spread. Absolutely. And as it began to convert the world, you better believe it was going to look differently from the outside. But at the core of it, it's what we see here. So what did they do? What were these people all about? What did it say about them? It says they devoted themselves. To what? To the apostles teaching. That's the first one. Okay, let's talk about that. What is the teaching of the apostles? I just mentioned some things that we need to keep in mind. If your teaching doesn't go back to the apostles, then it's not the same church. This was one of the arguments that the early church fathers and even some later church fathers would make when different heresies would arise. Augustine, for example, would talk about to different heretics. Trace back your beliefs all the way back to an apostle. We can do that through our bishops. The same with men like Saint Irenaeus of Lyon would trace their teaching, and they would challenge these heretics to trace their teaching, and they would show their lineage that goes back to the apostles. You see, people come up with new things all the time. But the question is, can you trace that back to the church of the apostles and to their successors? Now, I know some people go, they jump all over this, oh, well, what about the Assumption of Mary? Where do you find an apostle? Say that the claim is never that everything that you find in the Church was specifically and explicitly taught by an apostle that we have in writing. That's not the claim. The claim is that everything we believe as Catholics has its foundations in apostolic teaching and in the history and tradition of the Church. That's the claim. And you can do that. It doesn't mean it was fully formed at the time of the apostles. They were working things out. They were considering things and growing in the faith. We see that in the book of Acts. Can you imagine at the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, when the decision came to do what they needed to do with the Gentile believers, if someone said, hold on a minute, we can't do this. We're sola scriptura. We don't have the authority to make a decision here based on what we're dealing with. Imagine that, my friends. See, the reality is Jesus intended it for it to function this way because he knew that the world would need it. We'll get to that in the gospel in a minute because we're going to see something amazing in there. So they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, not just to some newfangled interpretation that everybody came up with. It doesn't say anywhere in the Bible that the early church was just a bunch of people sitting around with their Bibles or whatever going, what do you think this means? I don't know. What do you think it means? I don't know. What do you think it means? I know people say, oh, the Bereans, they checked with the Scripture. Okay, great. But it doesn't mean that they formulated new doctrine based on what their own interpretation was and that they could contradict what the apostles taught. They devoted themselves to that. And if we want to be part of the early church, we have to do the same. If we want to be part of this teaching, we've got to devote ourselves. But what does it mean to devote yourself? Well, first of all, it means that you don't get to pick and choose what you're going to follow. There's too many people, even Catholics, who like to say, well, I follow the apostles teaching when it makes sense to me or when it lines up with what I think. No, they were devoted to it. That means that they didn't put boundaries around their obedience or around their acquiescence to the doctrines. They simply said, this is what is being taught. We're devoted to it. We got to do that. My friends, if you want to see the Catholic Church grow, then the first thing we have to do is be devoted to the teaching, not trying to find ways around things as we often do. It also says they were devoted to the fellowship, right? What's that? That's the community. To coming together, to recognizing that their social fabric was rooted in this Christian community. Now, it doesn't mean you can't have other friends outside of the church, but the core of your life needs to be the church. And the people that you lock arms with the most need to be fellow believers, my friends. And you've got to be devoted to that fellowship. That means if someone in your fellowship has a need, you've got to be there for them. That's important, isn't it? And we saw that played out in the life of the early church. They brought everything and had it all in common. There wasn't anyone who went without. Why? Because they were all rich? No, but because they all shared. Were they communists? You know, I'm not going to get into that. It's not about politics. It was about love. And in the early church, this fellowship was so important because there weren't other ways in society that Christians could function apart from persecution. So they had to stick together. They had to band together and take care of one another. And that's what we did. Are you devoted to the fellowship, or are you just showing up going, hey, what's in it for me? Or are you just showing up going, hey, I did my time, now get me out of here. I don't want to deal with anybody. No friends. They were devoted to that, to the breaking of bread. Now, we know what this means, right? The early church, Fathers Justin Martyr, others talk about this as the Eucharist. This is a euphemism for the Eucharist. People say, oh, is it just meal? They're just getting together and breaking bread. Well, I'm sure they did that. But this also is talking about a liturgical sense. The breaking of the bread was euphemism for the celebration of the Eucharist, to which even, you know, again, read the Didache, read just a martyr. The bread becomes the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they were absolutely devoted to that. And the prayers. The early church was a praying church. They had to be. And we need to be as well, my friends. That's what we have to do if we want to make this happen. And look what happened as a result of all of this. In an environment that was so hostile to the faith. People were attracted to it. People were blown away praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Can you imagine? Why doesn't the church have favor with all the people? I know we're supposed to be hated, right? Oh, everyone hates. But how do you square this? How can the church be hated and yet have favor with all the people at the same time? Well, it's simple. They might not understand the doctrine, they might look at you and be against you, but people can still be attracted to the behavior of the Christians. They can still be attracted to this community that isn't afraid to stand up, that isn't afraid to be devoted, that isn't afraid to be countercultural. The problem that a lot of people have with the Catholic Church and with any church really in particular or not in particular, is that we're wishy washy, right? And this is Catholics, Protestants, you name it. The church, especially in America, is so wishy washy, you don't know what you're going to get. And I mean, I understand, like you leave the bounds of the Catholic faith, you're going out into a wasteland with, you know, you might get some good ones, you might get some bad ones. But within Catholicism, we need to be 100% hardcore to the bone when it comes to the practice of our faith. Not compromising, not being wishy washy. And we think that's going to turn people off, but the reality is it will turn people on. Because people are looking for something transcendent. They're looking for something otherworldly. They're not looking for just a watered down version of what they already have. And this is the big problem that the mainline Protestant denominations will never understand. They keep dying because they think that if they become more like the world, then the world will embrace them. But what you have to remember is you cannot mix the gospel with the world. You only water down the gospel. You bring the gospel to the world. Think about that. You don't mix the two together. You bring the gospel to the world. But oftentimes, especially in the mainline churches, they want to try to figure out a way to synchronize these two things. Together so that people in the world are going to be like, oh, wow, they're just like us, friends. They don't care. I used to talk about this all the time back in my Methodist days. And it was amazing to me how these people thought that somehow if we made our church more, you know, culturally relevant and more culturally appealing, and we caved on our doctrine and we became so affirming and welcoming and all these things with relation to what's going on in society and that all of a sudden, now all these people who hate God are all of a sudden going to, like, break the doors down to our church. It doesn't happen that way. It only turns people off because they don't even see courage. Friends, we have to stand strong with the gospel, and it can't be watered down to try to please the world. It has to be brought to the world in a way that will transform it. And that's the power of the gospel, my friends. We see that in the second reading, of course, the power of the Gospel. By his great mercy, we have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Friends, that's our hope. Our hope is in Christ raised. And what he has given to us can never be taken away from us. If we stay in a state of grace, it's kept in heaven for you who by God's power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. You want to stay saved, you want to stay in a state of grace, then don't lose your faith. You got to keep your faith. Keep your faith strong. We fall away because we lack faith, my friends. Even St. Thomas, right, doubting Thomas, what did Jesus say be believing? Thomas's faith was like, you know, I don't believe this. I don't believe this. And what did Jesus do? Did he curse him and he walked away? No, he came to him and he proved himself to Him. We'll get to that in a second. But think about this from your perspective, my friends. Jesus is calling you to believe in him without even having seen him. And he says you're blessed if you do that. Friends, our faith has to be powerful and it has to be strong. And the beautiful thing is it can be when it's rooted on the resurrection of Jesus, which we absolutely know happened, my friends, you can get through these various trials as Peter talks about. They're going to come if you live that countercultural life, if you live that, that, that lifestyle devoted to the apostles, teaching to fellowship, to break into bread and to pray. If you do that in this world, yes, even though people are going to be blown away and lots of people will be attracted, there will still be some and there will be some trials. There'll be some that oppose you. And it's going to be hard. But you got to stand firm in that, my friends. That's going to prove your faith and the genuineness of it, my friends. More precious than gold. I love that it's tested. Just like gold is refined and tested. Friends, we're going to be tested. We're going to be refined and proven to be faithful by the grace of God, my friends. All right, let's look at our gospel and talk about this for a second. Now, a couple of things that happen here. It's so interesting, you know, Jesus coming to them. The doors were being shut. Why? For fear of the Jews. He'd already been. He'd already been risen. They'd already heard the news, and yet now he shows up and they're still afraid, proving them that he is the resurrected Messiah. And I love what he says. Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Then he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. And here we go. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Now people are like, why do you want to confess your sins to a priest? Where's that in the Bible? Right here, my friends, because this is where we understand the sacrament of confession. Christ giving this authority to forgive and retain sins to the apostles, which is given also to their successors, the bishops, and then to the priests. It's powerful. But wait a minute, I thought it was finished, right? You ever hear someone say that on the cross, didn't Jesus say, it is finished? So why do we need to forgive sins? There's all kinds of crazy things that can happen when you don't follow the apostles teaching, but you just grab random verses and do your own thing with it. But when you follow the apostles teaching, when you understand what Christ was doing here, you recognize that he gave the apostles this ability because we were going to need it. Divine mercy, friends, given to us through the apostles. And when we come before the Lord through the sacrament of penance, reconciliation, confession, and we stand in the stream of this authority, friends, it's a beautiful thing. Now, people like to get worked up about this sometimes and say, well, that's not what that means. I always love that. And I always ask, okay, what? You tell me, Mr. Smart Guy, what did this Mean, and they'll say things like this. Well, you know, when the apostles preached the gospel, they declared the forgiveness of sins. Okay, first of all, it doesn't say that at all. For all the people that are all sola scriptura. And just, you know, the Bible says this. Well, it doesn't say what you think it says when you say that. But ask them this. Okay. If the apostles don't have the authority to actually forgive sins, you know, or through their preaching that forgives sins, and that's meant for everybody, Right? Some people say that too. They'll be like, oh, okay, well, that's meant for all of us. We can announce that. Okay, well, can we announce that your sins are not forgiven? Can they do that? Can we do that? Because I've heard people say that too. Oh, it's about preaching the gospel or it's about, this is what we all can do. Well, I've never met anybody who says that. No, you have the authority to retain sins. Other than Catholics, I never met any evangelical walking around who would tell people that, I'm sorry, we've decided that your sins aren't forgiven. And anyone would take that seriously. I mean, I've heard wacko like, cult like people do that. But where does that authority come from apart from this? See, my friends, we got a lot of things we have to deal with when we look at the Catholic faith and we look at the teaching of the apostles. And this is a teaching the apostles. So get to confession, of course. Divine mercy Sunday, there's grace available for you. Get there and receive absolution. This is the most beautiful thing. When you can hear from the priest, your sins are forgiven, I absolve you in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Knowing that this authority has come down from Jesus, that's powerful. Because apart from that, we're sort of just, like, hopeful. I hope that worked. This is the guarantee, my friends, if we approach him with sincerity, we will be forgiven. All right, now let's talk about Thomas for a second. I kind of already brought him up, but what do you think of this guy? Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and place my finger in the mark of the nails and place my hands in his side, I will not believe. I mean, other disciples were telling him, we saw him. He's like, I don't believe this. Can you imagine? What's his deal? And I think to myself, if I was Jesus, I'd probably chastise him. But that's not what Jesus does. Jesus and John records this Jesus says, okay, here it is. Do what you got to do now. Stop having unbelief. Right? Do not be faithless, but believing. And that is great advice. That's a great command from Jesus to all of us because at some point in time, maybe each of us is going to have that moment where we go, unless I see X, Y or Z, I will not believe. Now we don't really have an excuse to do that because this already happened. Thomas hadn't seen the risen Lord yet, and Jesus came to him. He had an encounter with him. And I pray that we could each have an encounter with the risen Lord as well. And remember this. You say, well, it'd be easy if he showed up and put my hands in the marks or my hand in his side and my fingers in the marks of his hands. But what does Jesus say? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. You have the potential to be more blessed than even Thomas. So powerful, my friends. So take him at his word and be blessed. Put your faith in Christ. That's what this is all about. Now, of course, I love what John says here, starting at verse 30. Now, many other Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing may have life in his name. So right away we see John saying, everything that Jesus said and did is not written down. So of course that opens the door for things that the church would believe that that weren't written down. You know, for example, St. Paul says it is more blessed to give than receive. And I believe he's quoting Jesus and that's not in the Gospels anywhere. So clearly there are some teachings of Jesus that were floating around that didn't get written down. I'm not claiming to have a list of them, but this idea that everything that we believe must be written down exactly like this or that. Oh, why are there all these discrepancies between the synoptic Gospels and John? You know which one's right and how do you. Contradictions. People are always talking about that. We get to remember the reason why this was written wasn't to give, like from John's perspective, a line by line linear account of everything. Some timelines are different in the Gospel of John versus the other Gospels and that's okay. John is making a theological point with what he's writing. He's not trying to give you linear history, so he might group things and put them in different places. Like when the temple was cleansed or was Jesus crucified on the Passover or the day before the Passover, things like that. Now, you can look up some of these things and see how these things can be explained, but they're not contradictions because you gotta understand, this is what he's trying to do. He's making a theological point with what he's saying. And what is the purpose that you might believe. Now why would John do this if it were a lie? What did he have to gain if this were all a lie? What happened to this guy? Did he live a life of worldly power and prestige and wealth? No, he was the last surviving apostle. And his life wasn't very easy. They tried to kill him by boiling him in oil. And he survived. They banished him to Patmos where he wrote Revelation. He had a tough life. He certainly wasn't some warlord of early, you know, or ancient life because of his teaching about the resurrection of Jesus. No, he believed what he wrote. He believed it with all his heart. He put his life on the line and he wrote this document so that you could put your life on the line for it too. He knew it was true and they all did. And, and it is, my friends. So be believing, don't be faithless. Be devoted to the apostles, teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Know that your inheritance is in heaven waiting for you, that you'll be refined even through some tough times. But it's going to be okay. And when you need mercy because you failed, God has provided a way, provided a way for you to receive it through the ministry of the apostles, friends. So get to confession, get to mass, read the teachings of the church, be devoted to them. Make this the year that you are like the early church, that you're going to stand strong and you're going to see favor. You're going to see even more people coming in as you stand strong and show them what a difference it's made for you. I can't wait to walk through it with you. My friends. It's going to be an incredible rest of the year as we move into this season and the upcoming seasons and I want to thank you for taking time to join me. If you need to get caught up in unpacking the mask, there's going to be a card right up here. I invite you to subscribe to this channel and if you're listening on a podcast, please leave a five star review or follow or like whatever you have to do and keep spreading the word about unpacking the mask. My friends, it's been growing like crazy this year and I'm really excited. I'd love to see us hit 10,000 views every single week or listens on this on this podcast. And I think we can do it. By God's grace, let's get more people on board with having ears to hear and hearts to hear by going through the readings ahead of time and unpacking the mask. Thank you for your prayers and for being here. Take care and God bless you.