← Unpacking The Mass
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Friends, the holidays are coming up and we're all thinking about what we're gonna buy for our family and friends. Well, the Catholic Woodworker has you covered with Black Friday pricing all month long. You don't have to wait until Black Friday or Cyber Monday, and you don't have to spend those days sitting on a computer screen or going to a store. To try to find the greatest deals, go to TheCatholicWoodWorker.com check out their special Black Friday pricing all month long. It's absolutely amazing. These guys do incredible work. You know that we love them. They and I think you will too. So check out thecatholicwoodworker.com for Black Friday pricing all month long. 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. Before we begin this week's episode of Unpack the Mass, I just once again want to thank you for supporting this podcast through your prayers. And as we approach the end of the year, we are going to be doing something very special for you guys. Giving Tuesday is coming up. It's December 2nd, and we, along with our good friends at the Catholic Woodworker, have an incredible giveaway promotion that we're going to be doing. It's our special Rosary crew official rosary made by the Catholic Woodworker. It's called a protector rosary. This thing is awesome. We've been using this. They made this for us for about a year and a half now, I believe something like that. And these are excellent rosaries. I absolutely love them. And the Catholic Woodworker has decided to help us with our support communities by providing 50 of these rosaries for anyone who would become an annual donor to our ministry for the minimum amount of $100. So $100 for the whole year. And you can do that in one of three ways. You can do that through our website, which actually there's four ways because you can send it a check, or you could donate with a credit card through our website. Those are tax deductible donations, by the way, through the website. Or you could join Patreon, that's one of our support communities that focuses on content. Or you could join Locals, which is another support community that focuses on community. So they're all different ways to help us out and give. So anyway, if you join for an annual donation of $100 or more. You will get one of these rosaries. You got to pay for shipping. They'll contact you and talk to you about that. But, man, what an incredible blessing. I mean, the rosary itself, these things sell on their site for 70 bucks as it is. So if you want one of those, hey, friends, the first 50 people that sign up will be eligible for that, and that's going to start December 2nd. It's going to run through the end of this calendar year. So I really appreciate that. Again, we're trying to really grow our support communities this year, and we're so thankful to our friends at the Catholic Woodworker for helping us out. So check them out as well. They got a lot of great stuff coming up. Black Friday, they got a ton of things, so make sure you check them out as well. But we are jumping into the solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, which is the last Sunday in our liturgical year of the Year C. And one of the things that I've done to help organize unpacking the Mass a little bit better is I created a playlist on my YouTube channel for each liturgical year. So you can see Year C, you can see Year B. And we're going to be starting Year A. Now, the truth is, if you go back and look, we started in 2020 unpacking the mass, you can find all of those things there. But this is just going to keep it organized a little bit more. And by the end of Year A, we will have every video of every liturgical year, of every liturgical day, weeks, I should say. Not every day. Good grief. Haven't done daily Masses, but every Sunday will be on there. And that'll be kind of cool to have that. So. So anyway, we're trying really hard to keep things organized for you guys and do a good job with that, but we're gonna look at the readings today. Let's jump in with the Word of Prayer before we take a look, my friends, and wrap up Year C. What an amazing year it's been, huh? Let's begin. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. We thank you, Lord, for all that you've accomplished through unpacking the Mass this year, Lord, for the growth that we've experienced. And we pray, Lord, for those who are wanting to connect with the Word of God, that they would remain committed and consistent to studying your Word so they can hear what yout would speak. Lord, you are the King of the Universe and the King of our hearts. We pray these Things in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our first reading comes from the book of 2nd Samuel, chapter 5, verses 1 through 3. And it reads this way. Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, behold, we are bone. We are your bone and flesh. In times past when Saul was king over us, it was you that led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, you shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be a prince over Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. Our second reading is from Colossians, chapter 1, verses 12 through 20. And it reads this, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities. All things were created through Him. And for him he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And then our gospel today, my friends, comes from Luke, chapter 23, verses 35 through 43. And the people stood by watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, he saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar and saying, if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly, I say to you today you will be with me in Paradise. True freedom is to do God's will. It's not to do whatever our flesh desires. But yet, as men, we are constantly being pulled in all sorts of different directions as so many things in the world try to enslave us. But through Christ, we can find freedom. And I'm here to tell you, there's been nothing more helpful in my life as a man than to go through Exodus 90. It's a powerful experience that we go through with other brothers, my friends from all over the world. We start January 5th, but you can get involved even now. There's an incredible advent challenge coming up. And I know you might be thinking cold showers and disciplines. That sounds pretty tough. It is. But you know what? You need to be pushed. I need to be pushed. And Exodus 90 is a fantastic way to do it. So go to exodus90.com and you can sign up for 14 days for free, my friends. Check it out. I promise you, you won't regret it. Push yourself this year into Freedom with Exodus 90. Now, when it comes to our first reading, it's pretty interesting to look at this idea about the kingship of David, because up to this point, there was only some of the nations of Israel, or tribes of Israel, that that recognized David as king. But now everyone is coming together and recognizing him as the king of Israel. So a couple things about David and his kingship. The kingdom that David has is about bringing the people back to God. If you remember, there had been evil kings in the nation of Israel who had taken the people away, and David was here to bring them back. And we understand now that, you know, David is called a man after God's own heart. He's a special guy. And of course we know that this covenant that God makes with him, his kingdom, will have no end. Now, David was not born into royalty, but was chosen by God because of his heart. And of course, you know, we'll see some things about David. He's a fearless warrior who defeats Goliath, not a perfect guy. We remember his sins, but he loved God with all his heart. And, you know, we're going to talk about some of the promises that God makes about the kingdom of David. But the first thing I want to do is take us a little bit further into Second Samuel so we can see a little bit more about this. We were in chapter five, what we just read, but if you look over in chapter seven, we can see a little bit more about what God says will happen to King David and the kingdom of Israel. So I'm going to start at verse eight, here in chapter seven. And read this to you. Now then tell my servant, David, this is what the Lord Almighty says. I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel, and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you when your days are over and your rest with your ancestors. And you rest with your ancestors. I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood. And I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever. Now, what is he talking about here? He's talking about King Solomon, David's son, of course, who's going to be the one who builds the temple. And he's going to talk about this establishment of his kingdom. But then, of course, he's going to move into this idea that there's always going to be a descendant of David on the throne. So there's this prophecy about the temple being built, which wasn't built by David, remember, but built by Solomon. And then there's this prophecy that he will forever have a descendant, which, of course, this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the son of David. Remember, we call Jesus that. It's one of his titles. And we have all these other prophecies from the Bible that talk about his kingdom will have no end. For unto us a child is born, a son is given. What do we say? And the kingdom will be on his shoulders. Friends, we know that this is ultimately about Jesus, who is the king of kings. And this covenant that is made is an everlasting covenant. Now you might say, well, wait a minute, weren't there times in history when Israel doesn't have a king? And what about now, Right? Like, who is the king of Israel at this point in time? We have to remember, my friends, Jesus Christ is the king of Israel and the king of the world. And what did Jesus say? He said, my kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. He says, if it was, my servants would fight, but my kingdom is a heavenly kingdom. Now, I know there are lots of people out there that are into Bible prophecy that look at this and they go, oh, well, there's different interpretations of all of this. And people will say, no, the kingdom of Israel will be re established. And eventually there's going to be like, all the tribes are going to come together and these different things. Friends, here's the thing that we have to remember. God fulfills his promises. And in the book of Romans, St. Paul talks about how they will eventually one day be brought back and will recognize Jesus Christ to be their king. But in terms of like the nation of Israel that we have today existing on the planet, that's not what he's talking about, my friends. Jesus Christ is, is the fulfillment of this promise. And his kingdom has no end, my friend. We are his kingdom. And as we're going to see in our other readings, of course, we've been brought into the kingdom not because we were born into royalty, but because we've been adopted into his family. We were reborn into Christ. And that's what we looked at in our reading from Colossians. One of my favorite passages of all time, my friends. And what a powerful text that we see here that reminds us that we are part of his kingdom. We've been transferred. I love how it says that. Transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And reading this text is awesome because it shows us the nature of who Christ is, His eternal nature. And it shows us that he is before all things. And it's interesting because people say things like, well, you know, Christianity developed the, you know, the dogmatic view of Jesus like the 4th century or whatever, you know, at the Council of Nicaea where they declared him to be, you know, eternal. Well, friends, we see this right here in the scripture. He's not an enlightened teacher. He's not just some guy who figured it out. No, my friends, Jesus has always existed. And I love what it says here. He is before all things, the image of the invisible God. Not just a man, but he holds all things together. My friends, we recognize this. We also see things in John chapter one. In the beginning was the Word. And the word was with God, and the word was God. Friends, we understand that there's no debate about who Jesus is in the church. We see that he is the king who makes peace by his own sacrifice. He is a king who doesn't coerce his subjects or dominate them, but rather he sacrifices for them and invites them into his kingdom. This comes through the forgiveness of sins. In him we have redemption, my friends, Jesus Christ, he's got to be your king. So that's what you got to ask yourself today. What does it mean? That he is your kingdom or that he is your king? Now, what I think about when I think about this kingship is recognizing that to be invited into Christ's kingdom has nothing to do with whether or not he's the king. Some people say, well, you know, I look at him like just, you know, a nice religious teacher. You remember when Pilate was talking to Jesus, he's asked, what kind of king are you? And Jesus says, not the kind that you're thinking of. That's my paraphrase. Because Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. Otherwise my servants would fight and they would come and. And destroy all of you. Remember, Jesus could have ended all of this stuff with his persecution by Pilate and the Jews at any second. But that was the point. He's the kind of king that lays his life down for his friends, and he invites you to be part of his kingdom. The issue isn't whether or not he's the king. The issue is whether or not you are part of his kingdom, my friends. And that's a choice that you have to make. Remember, no one is born into that. We're adopted into it. We're reborn into that, my friends. And that's what this day is all about. The privilege and honor to call Christ your king. And that's what we have to think about, my friends. That's what this day is about. That's what this understanding is about. Because we all live according to someone's kingdom, don't we? Someone is your king. Some people say, oh, I don't follow anybody. I do my own thing. You know, I'm my own whatever. Well, yeah, okay, so you might be your own king or your own queen, but the reality is you're either in darkness apart from Christ, or you are in light with him. Those are the two kingdoms. There's not this plethora of kingdoms out there. Ultimately, it might look like that, but the reality is there's ultimately two kingdoms. The kingdom of darkness, which is every kingdom other than Christ. And then there's the kingdom of light, which is only found in Him. So if you want to throw in with all those other kingdoms or make up your own, you can do that. But you'll be in darkness, friend. The only way to have light is to be part of Christ's kingdom. That's the only way, my friends. But when you recognize this, what does it mean? What does it mean to be part of his kingdom? It means that he's everything. You don't get to do it your way, my friends. Christ created you, and just as we read, you were made for Him. And if you deny his purpose in your life, then you're living not according to light, but darkness. But Christ, through his sacrifice, through baptism and faith in him, you've been transferred from darkness into light. So how does it look like? What do we do to live in this kingdom? You know, is it all about, well, I just go to the right church or I'm the right kind of person? No, my friends, it's complete submission and obedience and faith in Him. That's what we see as we look to our gospel, right, to respond to Jesus. We see this picture of these two guys, you know, the rulers, of course, are sneering at Jesus. Oh, well, let him save himself. He saved others. Can he save himself if he's the chosen one of God, right? They're going to jeer at him and mock him, but even in their mocking him with that inscription, right, we see that as true, don't we? Now, let's think about this Jesus. Is he wielding a sword? No, he is submitting himself. And yet at the moment on the cross, the moment that he is being killed and being crucified, he has submitted himself to the rulers of this world that we might be redeemed. And this is not the way that kings operate in this world, is it, my friends? People are looking at him and going, what are you doing, man? If you really are the king, then you should be doing things differently. We got to be careful about that because sometimes we can fall into that trap. If you're really the king, you should do things differently. You ever say that to God? If I was in charge, it'd be this way or I don't know why God doesn't do things that way. If I was God, it would look a lot different. Friends, we have to remember, we can't second guess God. We can't armchair quarterback God. We obey God and submit to him. And what's interesting here is we see, like this, beautifully displayed in the Responses to Jesus. Of the two thieves on the cross with him, we have the one thief. Okay, let's just hold on. Before I get there, let's talk about what these guys have in common. They're both being crucified. They both deserve it, okay? We all know that. Here's the other thing. They both want salvation. They both want salvation. The difference is, get this. One seeks salvation according to the kingdom of the world. The other seeks salvation according to the kingdom of Christ. If you look at the thief who rails against Jesus, what does he say? Hey, if you're so great, then save yourself and us too. Get me out of this. Let's have, like, salvation from this experience on the cross, which I can kind of understand that he wants to be saved, but he's not thinking about eternal salvation. He's thinking about the kingdom of this world. Save me from this moment of death, this difficult situation. And the other thief, though, he wants salvation too, but what does he say? He doesn't say a thing about, hey, get me off this cross. He says, when you come into your kingdom, remember me. That's a powerful, profound statement, isn't it? Because what he's recognizing is that Jesus kingdom is not about this world. It's not about avoiding suffering and death here in this life. It's somewhere else. And he recognizes that Jesus is. Has a kingdom, and he wants to be a part of it. And he recognizes that it has nothing to do with avoiding suffering in this life. Boom. You know, people give this guy a hard time, don't they? They treat, oh, you know, what about the thief on the cross? He didn't do anything. Remember, You've heard that argument a million times. I made a video about it. But people say things like, oh, well, to be a Christian, you don't have to do anything. You don't need to do a thing, because the thief on the cross didn't do anything and he was saved. And I'm like, what? You don't think the thief on the cross did anything? He certainly did a lot, didn't he? He did more than most of us could ever hope to do, right? I mean, we, by God's grace, hope to do that. But what did he do? He acknowledged his sin and in the midst of great suffering and pain, turned to Jesus, acknowledging him as Lord and asked for mercy. Friends, that's the Christian life, isn't it? To acknowledge Jesus as Lord and to ask for mercy, that's all he could do. And it was everything. You might say, well, he didn't get baptized or he didn't give to the poor. You know what? He did everything that he could do. I guarantee you this, if he had the opportunity to obey Jesus in another way, he would have done it. And that desire, that willingness to offer everything that he has to the Lord, I'm telling you right now, that so pleased God that Jesus said, today you'll be with me in paradise. So don't come at me with that. Guy didn't do anything. He did everything, my friends. He did everything. What about you? What do we do? See, we say, well, you know, because he didn't do more than he could because he was nailed to a cross. I don't have to do more than that. No, friends, see, now you're taking the kingdom and putting it on yourself. You're deciding what you get to do and what you have to do. We don't get to make that decision, friends. Jesus makes that decision. Unless we don't want to be part of his kingdom. You want to live according to the kingdom of the world and put your focus there. You know, so many of the Israelites, that's what they did. They were like, well, what's our kingdom going to look like? You know, you're going to restore us. You're going to, you know, you're going to reign from this temple and defeat our enemies. That's what they were looking for. But Jesus was the fulfillment of this Davidic kingdom that will have no end. And how do we know that? Because what do we talk about at the, you know, the week's readings for Lateran? We talked about how the temple was going to be destroyed. The temple was coming down, my friends. Or maybe it was the week after that. Yeah, the temple was coming down, my friends. Jesus wasn't saying, hey, I got to figure out how to work in this temple environment and this kingdom that you guys understand. No, he said, this is all coming down. We're not worried about that. We're not focused on that. What I'm focused on is a kingdom that's not of this world. It's a kingdom for eternity, and you're a part of it if you choose to be. If you're transferred from light to darkness, my friends, we have to think about that. We have to think about that. What will we do? What will we do, my friends, I don't know about you, but I don't want to live, you know, this worldly kingdom. I want to turn to Christ and I want to remember, like, for example, when we pray, the sorrowful mysteries, the third sorrowful mystery The Crowning with Thorn. I talk about this in my book, Unpacking the Mysteries of the Rosary. Shameless plug. Check that book out. On page 86, I have some notes where. Where it talks about this. This interaction between Jesus and Pilate, my friends. And I think that there's some powerful stuff there that we need to look at when we consider this authority that Jesus brings to us, my friends. He loves us, and he's called us to be part of his kingdom. But you have to decide. Which thief on the cross are you going to be? Because let's say you don't get to pick. Oh, I don't want to be the thief on the. You're a thief on a cross, friends. We all deserve that because of our sin. We are guil. It's one of those things that I think, man. It's so powerful that God did this, because really, it forces us to decide who we're going to be like. Are we going to be like the thief who just wants Jesus to fix his problems here on Earth? Or are we going to be like the thief who says, hey, when you come into your kingdom, Lord, remember me. I don't know about you, friends, but that's what I want to be. And I don't always pull that off perfectly. Lord knows I still struggle with that. Lord knows that there are days when I'm just like, hey, you can fix this problem I'm having. So why don't you? You know, if I were God, if I were the King, I'd do it this way, friends. No. May the Lord forgive us. This entire year that we've been studying the Scriptures has been about ultimately two things. It's been about faith in Christ and who he is and what he's done for us. And it's about our response to that. That's why the Church walks us through these readings every week and really every day. If you want to dig into the daily readings to take us on that journey that we might understand who God is, that's what that reading in Colossians is all about. The image of the invisible God, friends. He's before all things, and he holds all things together. We need to understand who he is, and then we need to respond in faith and obed. That's what we're called to do. I love that the Church gives this to us as the bookend of our liturgical year. We're going to start in Advent preparing for his coming, and we're going to end the year declaring Christ is King. And that's really what our Life should be, isn't it? We should begin our lives just like preparing and we should end our lives declaring. Preparing. Declaring. I like that. That's kind of cool. So what does it look like for you what does it look like for you to end this year with that stamp? Boom. Christ is king. And maybe you've. You've messed up. Lord knows I have. Hey, friends, we get to start all over again next week. It's a brand new start. God's grace is new every morning. And we're going to jump into it together. So I would challenge you to make the commitment. Say, I'm going to. I'm going to be in here. I'm going to watch every episode of unpacking the Mass. You know, I'm going to get caught up on the ones I missed from this year and I'm going to jump in to next year and hang with it the entire way. Because God has a plan for you as your king. He's made a covenant, he's made a promise, and he's invited you to be a part of it. Friends. And his kingdom will have no end. The kingdoms of the world are going to fall apart based in darkness. But you've been invited into the Kingdom of light with a king who is a good king, a king who doesn't rule with an iron fist and coercion and manipulation and exploitation, but a king who lives to sacrifice, who lays his life down for his subjects, who fights for his people and protects them and loves them. That's your king. My friends, thank you for joining me here on Unpacking the Mass this year. I say this week today, but this whole year. I know some of you have been with us every single week. Thank you for taking time to do that. I pray that it's been helpful and fruitful. If it has, once again, please consider supporting us. You know, again, you get the Catholic woodworker rosary if you become an annual donor of $100 or more. Locals, Patreon, the website, all the stuff's in the description. Just pray about that, you know, and if you can't do that, it's okay. Unpacking the Mass is free. We don't. We're never going to put this behind a paywall. But, you know, help us with that, if you don't mind. It would be greatly appreciated. We love you guys. We thank you. And we know that as we step into the next year, God's got a great plan for us as we move into year A. Can you believe it? It's going to be awesome, and I look forward to seeing him back here next week for a new liturgical year of unpacking the Mass. Take care, my friends, and God bless.