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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. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Welcome, my friends, to Unpacking the mass for Easter 2024. I want to say welcome to our new brothers and sisters in the faith who have gone through their processes, have joined the church. We're so thankful if you're watching this before, welcome home. If you're watching it after, congratulations. Either way. So thankful. It seems like this year in particular, I've become acquainted with quite a few people who are coming into the church, and we couldn't be more excited. I couldn't be more excited to welcome you as brothers and sisters in faith. And I know that you are in for the adventure of a lifetime, my friends. But that's true for all of us. And here's the thing that you need to remember. Your journey has not stopped. It's only just begun. Someone should write a song about that. But it's true. Sometimes we go through these long processes to get somewhere, to do something, and we think when we arrived, okay, that's it, we're done. When you become Catholic, that's just the beginning of this incredible adventure that you're going to go on. I. I know for my own self. When I became Catholic, I had no idea what was in store for me. I knew it was going to be amazing. It's been better than I could have ever expected. So welcome. Welcome home. So glad that you are here with us. And for all of you, my friends, welcome to Unpacking the Mass, where we walk through and dig into the week's readings for the upcoming Sunday. And of course, this week is the super bowl for all Christians everywhere. The Easter Sunday, friends, the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we love you, we praise you and we give you thanks for our brothers and sisters who have come into the church here this weekend. And, Lord, for those of us who have been on this journey and are still discovering the beauty of your church and the fullness of the faith, we thank you. Thank you for rising from the dead. Help us never to be people who take that for granted or who just act like that's not a big Deal. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. And that's ultimately our theme for the day, is how the Resurrection reframes our lives. And we're going to walk through these readings and then I'm going to share with you some things at the end that are going to help you. Before I do that, though, if you do me a favor and please subscribe to this YouTube channel. If you're watching on YouTube, I would greatly appreciate that many of you that watch Unpacking the Mass are not subscribed. It doesn't cost anything, and it really does help the channel out. So I pray that you would just please do that and, and I hope that you'll stick with us. A lot of people came into Unpacking the Mask during Lent this year, which is very exciting, but I'm kind of bracing myself for the inevitable drop off, which I really hope doesn't happen. I hope that we continue to see God move in our lives to the point where we would want to grow and continue in this. So don't plan on going anywhere. Stick around. Unpacking the Mass is something that you need all throughout the year. On that note, we're going to jump into our first reading. It comes to us today from the Book of Acts, chapter 10. I love this. And it reads this way. And Peter opened his mouth and said the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. How he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil. For God was with him. And we are witnesses to all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And they put him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him manifest not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. To him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in his name receives forgiveness of sins through his name. What's so amazing about the Book of Acts is seeing the very human disciples work through all of the implications of not just the Resurrection, but the Ascension. Because the Resurrection vindicated their faith. But after the Ascension, now they had their mission. And what we see in Acts chapter 10 here and in Other places is the preaching of the Gospel in light of the historical reality of who Jesus is, what he has done and why that matters. And that's the point. There's a lot of things you could do on Easter Sunday. I've done these in the past to talk about, for example, the apologetic aspect of that. How do we know Christianity is true? Easter is the key. Because if Jesus Christ had hasn't been raised from the dead, then as the scripture says, our faith is in vain. Our preaching is useless and our preaching is in vain, friends, we don't have a useless faith. Christ really did rise from the grave. That's what Peter's preaching about. We could talk all about that. We could also talk about all of the implications on Judaism and this new grace that has come in the light of the Holy Spirit in the church. We're not really going to do that either. What we're going to talk about mostly today is how this affects each of us on a personal level. How do we frame our lives around this truth? You know, Peter is a great example of this. Someone who went from betraying Jesus, from not even knowing him, right? Denying him to. Now he's standing before all these people proclaiming the gospel. He didn't go back to being a fisherman. He didn't say, well, that was a fun three years. Now I guess we just go back and have some great stories to tell. No, his entire life, all of the apostles lives were changed forever because of this. And the world continues to change because of this. My friends, the resurrection is not the end. It's a new beginning. And make no mistake, it is the proof that Jesus is who he says he is. Our psalm today is from Psalm 118. The responsorial is this. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Let Israel say, His steadfast love endures forever. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. And this is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. Our second reading is from Colossians, one of my all time favorite epistles in the New Testament. Chapter 3, verses 1 through 4. St. Paul writes these amazing if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. We could just shut down unpacking the Mass after that. I mean, he unpacks it for us, right? But we've obviously got some more ground to cover with the Gospel here. But, but think about what that means. We identify with Christ in his crucifixion. Remember in Galatians 2, St. Paul says, it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I have been crucified with Christ. But he says we also have been raised with Christ. And because we've been raised by Christ with Christ, our mindset can't be the same old mindset, my friends. We got to have a different mindset. We'll talk about that after we read the Gospel today too. From John, chapter 20, verses 1 through 9. Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. And so she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. Peter then came out with the other disciple and they went toward the tomb and they both ran. But the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying and the napkin which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Incredible. I love that Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb while it's still dark outside. Why is she there? I mean, didn't she think to herself, maybe this whole thing was a mistake, he's gone. But you see, her love for Jesus caused her to remember that even when things were in the darkest place, that her love didn't die. She wanted to go and take care of him and, and she had to know that there was a great stone there. I mean, she was there when he was buried. So what was she going to do? Go to the grave? Have you ever wondered about that? I have. Like, why did she bother going? It's not like she can get inside. This great stone was there. She just wanted to be as close to him as she possibly could. And that's how it manifested itself. It's interesting. You know, the other night we had just finished up with Our Rosary Crew 4 year anniversary livestream and it was an incredible night to celebrate four years of praying the rosary every day with this, with the crew. And we finished up and we had dinner and I don't know, something hit me. I just, I was just like, okay, I was, my heart was a little bit heavy of all the needs and all of the. And just rejoicing, but also just knowing what people are going through. And I just said to Stella, I'm like, I just feel like I need to go to Adoration right now. And she was like, well, I'll go with you. So we drove down to an adoration chapel and just spent, you know, 45 minutes there with the Lord. And there was really no, you know, that wasn't part of our, our normal routine. We used. We go on Fridays. So what was that all about? I, you know how it is. Sometimes you just want to be with Jesus and of course they're in adoration, we're with him. And I think Mary was sort of ready to present that type of love to Jesus, even though he was going to be behind a stone dead in a tomb. Sometimes the power of love causes you to do things that appear to be irrational. And that's okay. When you love someone, you'll do ridiculous things. When you love someone that you just want to be with them, you, you'll spend money on tickets or you'll drive long distances or you'll make whatever happen, happen just to be with that person. Are we the same way with Jesus? Mary Magdalene shows us what that looks like. She wasn't just going to go back to her old life, her old way of doing things. She was like, I don't know, I'm all in on Jesus and I don't understand this, but I love him. So she goes to the tomb. But what she finds there is something different, isn't it? It's amazing what happens. Absolutely incredible. And we know from other texts what happens when she encounters Christ there. It's beautiful, isn't it? When he calls her by name and she recognizes him and just. Just. Oh, she goes to grab him and he says, don't hold on to me. I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go and tell these guys what's going on. But the desperation. They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. Friends, think about that. That kind of desperation is what needs to drive us now. Does that desperation end when we realize that he's risen? It shouldn't. We should continue to be so in love with Jesus that we do whatever we have to do to be with Him. That irrational love. And when I say irrational, I don't mean. I don't mean foolish. I just mean it doesn't make sense. We're so devoted to the Lord that we are willing to sacrifice. We're willing to reorient our lives around Jesus, who we cannot see. Like the disciples did. Remember what he told them? He said, blessed are those who haven't seen, and yet they still believe. Friends, that's us. That's our goal. Does our life revolve around this message? It needs to, my friends. Easter needs to be the center of our lives. Because in Easter and in the resurrection of Christ, Jesus separates himself from every other religious figure or spiritual guru that's out there in the world. Everyone who's come before him or come after him. He's separated from them all. Not just because of the words that he's spoken, but but because he rose from the grave. All of these other teachers are in the ground. But Jesus alone has risen, my friends, proving that he is the son of the living God. He's conquered death and the grave. So does your life revolve around this message? Or have we fallen into this trap that we see so often in, especially in the Western world, in our plush, comfortable society, where Christianity has been reduced to nothing more than moral therapeutic deism, where we believe that there's a God out there somewhere. And because of that, we want to live good moral lives. And practicing our religion makes us feel good. Is that all it is to you? Or is there more? To Mary Magdalene, to the mother of our Lord, to the disciples like Peter and Paul, it was everything to them. When St. Paul encountered the risen Christ, it changed everything about his life. Friends, when we encounter the risen Christ, it must change everything about our lives as well. Brothers and sisters who have come into the Church, this is the beginning of your new life. It doesn't look the way it did before. It it shouldn't. You're different. You've been raised with Christ into new life. What does that look like? One of the answers is to be found in another passage I want to read to you from First Corinthians, chapter 15. And then I'll unpack this just a little bit, starting in verse 51. Listen to these words. St. Paul says, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on it immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of God, forasmuch as ye shall know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now, the last verse there is the key. We're going to get into that. But I got to say something else about verse 54 and verse 55. Now, some people read these verses, they're like, oh, he's talking about the rapture. No, he's talking about the second coming of Jesus when. When the resurrection of the dead takes place and our mortal bodies that are lying in the ground are reunited with our souls, unless we are, you know, still alive when that happens. And what does that mean? It means that the same resurrection that happened to Jesus, that resurrected Christ, and there's other places in the scripture that talk about this. It's going to happen to all of us, my friends. Our future is not to rot away. We will be changed. This moral body will put on immortality. I think that's what's so cool about incorruptibles. It's like a window into this reality, my friends. The incorruptible bodies of the saints. Look that up. It's pretty amazing. But, you know, I've been to, obviously, a lot of funerals, done a lot of funerals when I used to be a pastor. And there's this verse in here that you hear sometimes. Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is Thy victory. And I want to point out something that is helpful when you're going through this level of grief when you've lost someone, you know, death still hurts, doesn't it? Death still stings. And sometimes we quote this verse and we go, hey, wait, you shouldn't be upset about death right now. Understand? This is talking about what will happen. Then shall be brought the pass to pass. The saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. This hasn't happened yet for all of us. Death still hurts us, my friends, but the pain of death is different now because we look forward to what is coming. This day. We when it will be completely destroyed, completely conquered by Jesus Christ is the first fruits from among the dead. But we will follow him in this resurrection. But for those of us before that happens, friends, understand, we still grieve, but not as the world grieves, with no hope. We have hope and we look forward to this day when we can say in the resurrection, death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Christ shows us in he goes first into this. Now, I said that we were going to talk about verse 53 because this is all, or verse 58, because this ultimately is the key to the question I asked earlier in unpacking the Mass. How is your life different because of the resurrection? And this is what you need to take from this. This is what we all need to remember because we can't turn Easter into just another religious holiday that we celebrate and go, well, that was fun. Now I can go back to eating whatever I wanted to eat. I can go back to drinking whatever I want to drink. All my Lenten fasts are done. Exodus 90 is done. All those things. Woo hoo, party time. Friends, we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, but it needs to have an effect on us. But what kind of effect will it have when we read in this text, he says, therefore, my beloved, be ye. And then he gives us three things here. The first one is steadfast. Be steadfast. What does that mean? It's talking about perseverance. Be a person of perseverance. Because why? Because we know what the stakes are. We know what matters. We know this truth can change lives. But we also know that we live in a dark world that likes to push aside the things of God. We know that we still have flesh that tries to tear us down. But because we see the result of faithfulness, we see the result of what happens when you die in a state of grace and in friendship with God. This resurrection is going to be for you. Don't quit. Don't give up. There is an end to this and it's an awesome end. Don't lose it. Be steadfast. I'm not here to argue about theology and all that kind of stuff, but why do we need to be steadfast if it's all. If it's all finished? And I know Jesus said it's finished, but he wasn't talking about your work. He was talking about his work. We still have to live into it. We still have to cooperate with it. We still have to bear fruit. We have to be steadfast. So don't let yourself fall away this year. There will be plenty of opportunities for for you to fall away and lose this incredible reality of the Resurrection because life is hard and the world stinks. Don't let it happen to you because he has risen. You. Be steadfast. Be steadfast. Persevere. Because we know what matters. Be perseverant Catholic. I know I'm talking a lot to the new Catholics today. They need to hear it. So do you, though. So do I. There'll be plenty of opportunities. You're going to get frustrated. You're going to look around and see garbage in the church. You're going to see things in your parish you don't like. Your priest is going to make you mad. Some other Catholic's going to make you mad. I'm going to make you mad. Whatever it might. You know what? Yes. Don't let that take you away from the faith. You're going to look at yourself and you're going to fail. And you're going to be like, man, I tried so hard. I did all this work and I'm a total loser. Be steadfast. Don't quit. Don't give up. Number two is this. He says, be steadfast. Unmovable. Boom. I love the unmovable. The Resurrection proves that Jesus is real and true. And because truth is unmovable, you and I must also be unmovable. Those who live by that truth must not be flowing back and forth, wishy washy in our faith. Like the book of James says, double minded in all that we do, we've got to be unmovable. My friends, we stand on truth, not on preferences or opinions, but on truth. Christianity is not a matter of personal preference or personal opinion. It's a matter of historical truth that matters to you and that truth doesn't change. So you must never change. You must never compromise. When I say change, I'm talking about in your faith. You can grow. I'm not talking about not developing or growing. But you don't become a Christian and then go, all right, I tried that for a while now I think I'm going to be something else. No, you need to be unmovable. And the way that you can be unmovable is to stand upon the words of Jesus, on the truth of his resurrection and on what he said, and to let the power of the Holy Spirit indwell you and through the sacraments, receive the grace that you need. You've got to do all these things so that you can be unmovable because the world is going to try to move you. The world is going to try to knock you off of that. Your flesh is going to try to knock you off of that. The devil is going to try to knock you off of that. And. And if you stand against those things in your own strength, in your own power, just because right now, at this point in your life, it works for you, you're gonna move because at some point in time, your feelings are gonna change. At some point in time, your excitement is gonna wane, your enthusiasm is gonna fade, but the truth does not. Don't build your life and your faith on things that can be destroyed. Just like Jesus says, don't put up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Now, we always think about money and stuff like that, but I want to talk for a second about what it means to build your faith on things that are going to fade away, too. Things like how awesome the preaching is at your church. It's great, but what happens if they move your priest and you get somebody that's not as great? Is your faith going to fall apart? Things like you have a great group of friends at your parish and in your church, maybe you've got an awesome men's or women's group or whatever. You've got this incredible community around you. Well, what happens when you move away? Is your faith going to fall apart? You're really excited right now because you've just found, like, this group of people online that you're connecting with, and all of the things are great and it feels good. Well, what happens when you encounter the dark night of the soul, or when somebody offends you, or when the Pope says something that you don't like, or some YouTuber says something that you don't like, or you'll watch a debate and the guy who's not Catholic makes some good points. Are you going to lose the faith? Be unmovable. The resurrection doesn't change. Build your life and your faith on the truth, the fullness of the faith the sacraments, friends, they don't change. The teaching of the Church does not change. That's why many of us became Catholic, because we were sick and tired of every denomination we were a part of, being so movable. I know I was. That's why I'm here. My denomination was moving every time I turned around, and I'm like, this can't be the truth. Friends. Be unmovable in your faith. Even if everything else around you seems to be going crazy. You stand firm. Be unmovable. Never compromise. Number three. Number three, he says. Be steadfast, unmovable. And check this out. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. See, that's what I'm talking about. You didn't become Catholic to be a lazy pew sitter, to just sit back and do nothing and go, yep, I'm here. Good to go. Checked my little boxes, got my sacraments, punched my card. Now I guess I can just chill like everybody else. No way. Friends. There's a group of people that do that. Don't be one of them. There's a group of cynical people who are tired and frustrated and cranky, and they don't want to do anything because they say, well, we already did our. Our duty. Don't be one of those people. Be the first person who's ready to step up and go what needs to be done. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Wake up every day and say to Jesus, what have you got for me today? Where can I be used by you today? Keep my eyes open, Keep my ears open. I don't want to be idle. I don't want to be. Be worthless. I don't want to be a faithless servant. We know what happens to those guys, right? Jesus talked about that. I don't want to be that unfruitful, wicked servant who. Who took this opportunity to be Catholic and buried it in the ground because he was afraid he was going to mess it up. I think this is just me talking. I think Jesus would be more pleased with you if you stepped out in faith and made a bunch of mistakes and then you had to go back and apologize and clean up your mess than he would be if you just sat back and did nothing because you were afraid that you wouldn't be good enough. That's not the way that God operates. Look at these apostles. We read Peter's stuff, right? Well, we also read in Galatians where St. Paul opposes him to his face. Because even Peter wasn't always living up to the things that he was teaching. Friends, none of us are going to do this perfectly. It doesn't say, be perfect in everything that you do because you're awesome. No, don't put that pressure on yourself. But what he does say is this. He says, your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Did you hear that? Even your mistakes, even when you mess up, that's not in vain. But always be abounding. Make it your life. Don't try to fit serving God into your life. Make serving God your life. This has become so real to me through ministry. And I'll tell you what, there's nothing better to do with your life than have it revolve around the Lord and the work of God and serving him in whatever way he calls you to. Now how that works out in your life, I couldn't tell you. You've got to work through that with the Lord. You've got to see where he puts you and minister in the ways that he's called you to minister and operate within the gifts that he's given you. You don't just imitate somebody else. You be you. And you don't have to conform yourself to what everybody else is looking like or thinking like or talking like. You be who God made you to be, my friend. But be so in the Lord and watch how he uses you. Yes, our lives are different because of Jesus, but we're still us and he's called us to serve Him. One of the things I love about the Catholic Church is how different we can all be and yet be so unified. We're not all called to be carbon copies of each other. And I love that I have freedom and so do you to be the person that God made you to be. You don't have to fit into this little box of what the world says that you're supposed to be. Lots of Christians live in that world. You know, you see that in different, different expressions of Christianity. People all look exactly the same. You know, you go to some non denominational church and everybody's wearing the same outfit. You go to this over thing, you know, everybody looks the same. And I know we all have our different cultures and things like that, but I remember going to a church one time and it was like, oh man, this is the church for the, the cool hipsters. I gotta dress like this. I gotta, I guess I gotta get some skinny jeans and, and a flannel and a scarf. You know, maybe this was 10 years ago or whatever. Friends, you can be you, but always abound in the work in the Lord and He will use you in powerful ways because we know what it means to lay up those treasures in heaven. We're going to be steadfast, we're going to be unmovable, and we're going to always be about that. Friends, that's my hope for all of us. Whether you've just joined the church or whether you've been a Catholic your whole life, these are the same principles, my friends. Our lives must be different because of the Resurrection. We live because he lives, my friends. Take that and own that this year. And I really hope that you stick around next week for unpacking the Mass. Don't check a box and say, all right, I did that. Now if you're sick of unpacking the Mass, you want to do something else, that's totally cool. But don't let your pursuit of the Lord end with the end of Lent, my friends. Make it just ramp up to experience what God has for you. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Thank you so much for joining me here. I'm so proud of all of you and so thankful for the opportunity that we have each and every week to do this. If you'd like to support the work of my ministry down to earth and what I'm doing, please consider joining our locals community. It's not expensive to be a part of that. You get to decide how much you want to give to that or give nothing. You can join for free, but if you want to interact with the community, then you know, we just ask that you prayerfully make a make a commitment of support each month for that, but that's up to you. Do whatever God tells you can find the link in the description. And we of course have the Rosary crew things on YouTube. There's stuff everywhere. Whatever we can do to be helpful to you. That's really why we're doing this and we're so thankful that you've gathered together with us. If you are listening on a podcast, do me a favor and give this a five star review. If you're on YouTube, please make sure you like and subscribe and share. And I look forward to being back here with you guys next week for unpacking the Mass. Take care my friends and God bless. He is risen. He is risen indeed.