Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. Monsignor Fisher is a Catholic priest, a member of the Diocese of Dallas, and founder of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a nonprofit in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to to enriching your spiritual journey. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. This program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com Good morning.

Today we celebrate the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Opening Prayer Almighty and ever living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpassed the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. A Reading from the Old Testament from the Book of Habakkuk first chapter, second, third verse in the second chapter, second through the fourth verse how long, O Lord? I cry for help, but you do not listen. I cry out to you violence, but you do not intervene.

Why do you let me see ruin? Why must I look at misery, destruction, violence are before me. There is strife, clamorous discord. The Lord answered me and said, write down the vision clearly upon the tablet so that one can read it readily, for the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment. It will not disappoint if it delays, wait for it. It will surely come.

It will not be late. The rash one has no integrity, but the just one, because of his faith shall live the Word of the Lord. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. A Reading from the New Testament from the Second Letter of St. Paul to Timothy 1, 6813 Beloved, I remind you to stir into faith the gift of God that you have through the imposition of hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and love and and self control.

So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor to me a prisoner for his sake, but bear your share of hardships for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God. Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, the Word of the Lord alleluia Verse the word of the Lord remains forever. This is the word that has been proclaimed to you. The gospel for this Sunday is taken from St. Luke, 17th chapter, 5th through the 10th verse.

The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. The Lord replied, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you. Who among you would say to your servant, who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, come here immediately and take your place at table? Would you not rather say to him, prepare something for me to eat, put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished. Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?

So should it be with you when you have done all you have been commanded. Say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done what we were obliged to do. The Gospel of the Lord Satan SA as long as I can remember, I could never understand that story in Genesis of that tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of good and evil and desire of human beings to want to know what’s right and what’s wrong. And this creature, this strong, powerful creature, saying to them, I know you were told not to do this, but really God wants you to do this because he does want you to know what’s good and what’s evil. And that’s a hard argument to work against.

Of course God wants us to know what’s right and what’s wrong. But does he? The problem is to know what’s right and wrong would lead a human being to judge most everything as right or wrong. There’s the problem. It’s taking this mysterious world that God has created for us, this mystical experience of our living on this earth with God dwelling inside of us and reducing it to some. Something as simple and binary as either we’re doing what’s right or we’re doing what’s wrong.

Either what’s happening is right or wrong. Either God is there or he’s not. It’s so dangerous and we still fall into that trap. Religion falls into it all the time. It’s so interesting to listen to different denominations of Christianity and see how different they are as far as what is right and wrong. And the more they stress the thing that’s right over what’s wrong, you know, they drift further and further away from something that is so important to hang on to.

It’s the subject of this Set of readings. A thing called faith. What do you believe? What do you believe in? So the first reading is interesting because it’s complaining about things being wrong. It’s about complaining about the fact that the world is in such rotten shape and there’s violence everywhere and pain and suffering and like, okay, God, you’re the God that takes care of your people.

That’s the right thing to do. And now here we are, wallowing in pain and suffering. That’s the wrong thing for us. We shouldn’t have that. So what’s going on? What’s wrong?

I mean, this is wrong. Where are you? Fix it. You know? And the Lord has such an interesting answer to Habakkuk. Well, to the people.

In the book of Habakkuk, it’s this. Realize something. Write it down. Write the vision. The vision is what you need to hang on to. Not judgment of what’s right and wrong, but the vision.

If you see the vision, then you’ll be okay. So what’s the vision? It’s a thing, the vision. What I believe it is, is what do you understand this God to be about? What do you understand your role here on this earth? What is the vision of this whole thing?

I mean, it’s interesting. If you have a project, you have a plan, right? Well, a vision is. Light is different than a plan. Plan is you have. You know what you have to do.

You know what you need to do it. You need the time to do it. You do it and it’s finished. Pretty simple. But a vision is connected with something more mystical. In fact, we would say a vision is something that comes from something other than the logical brain.

It comes from some supernatural force. And I wondered myself, as I read this reading, what is my vision of my God, my church, my faith? What do I believe? And it was interesting what came to me because I have this vision that we’re here because that was what God wanted us to do. It’s his plan. It’s his idea, okay?

And he’s a loving God. So I know that somehow in all of this, there’s something good happening. And then I think about the evolution of human beings. And I realize, okay, it seems that there is in this vision of who we are and who God is, there is this progression of understanding and growth and change. So we’re moving, we’re changing. We’re not the same.

The consciousness that we have now is radically different than what we had at the time of Adam and Eve. Start with that. And 100 years ago, a thousand years ago, we’re different. So something is moving. There’s something happening, something is becoming. And in my vision of that, we’re becoming more and more who God intends us to be, more like Him.

And then how does that work? Or what’s. What’s our part in it? Well, it seems to me that if we reduce religion to rights and wrongs, do this or don’t do that, there’s not much going on in terms of a vision. But if we imagine that the promise of God is that he wants us to participate with him in a process that he has created that ultimately will bring about something wonderful, we’re participants in this work with God, not just the receivers of it, but we work with Him. My vision is that we have a God who is good, who is drawing us to something even better than we have now.

It’s a long, slow process. And we’re not just simply sitting back and receiving it. We’re invited by this mysterious thing called incarnation, that God is going to dwell within us like he dwelt in Jesus and then with him in us. We do this work together and we build this thing, this kingdom. It’s a movement from slavery to something better, to freedom, to wholeness. Okay, so the vision is there’s something big going on that we participate in, and it’s mysterious, it’s moving in the right direction, but it’s impossible to judge whatever is going on as helping or hurting.

That’s where we get in trouble. Oh, that’s good. Oh, that’s bad. That’s a set for. That’s step four. That’s ten steps back.

Don’t judge. Don’t use your mind. Use your imagination. Imagination. This is really big, big work, and every single person is a part of it. So we go back to the ordination rite that we started in last week’s second reading with Timothy being given this priesthood, this work that he does, and it’s called a flame, a fire, a passion inside of him.

And so he’s saying, you know, believe in it, do it. Bear your share of the hardships of the gospel. You know, it’s not going to be something that is like, you come onto the scene, everybody’s not so good. They get better. Because every talk you give, they get better. And then everything works out, and then everybody cheers and we’ve created the kingdom.

No, nothing that simple. So those of us who are asked to work in this process that God has in mind for this world, we have to have something. And it’s the vision. We have to have a sense of what’s really happening. But then more than along with the vision, we have to believe in it. Absolutely believe in it, have faith in it.

So that’s what the gospel is about. We turn and we see that the apostles are worried about. Maybe they don’t understand the full message and maybe they’re doubting. Maybe they’re wondering if this whole thing is going to work. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be with Jesus for three years and watch his amazing response. Watch the amazing response from people who just thought he was so incredible and so wonderful.

And they were so excited about who he was and what he could do. And then on the other side was the institution seething and burning with anger and resentment that he was taking away something that they thought they owned, something they were in charge of. He was taking away their power, inviting them to participate in a power that was beyond the institution. But there was a gift from the God who created them. God living inside of them. It was terrifying to those people who were in charge.

And so they struggle like we all struggle, every one of us. So what is his response to the question? When they say we can kind of get this, but increase our trust and increase our belief. What they’re really asking for is help us to see the vision, help us to surrender to it, Help us to stop judging it. So I said, if you have faith, it’s not about whether you believe a lot or a little. The vision is sort of true or sort of not.

We do that a lot of that. I do a lot of that. Yeah, it’s working sort of. I think. No, you either believe it or you don’t. And if you believe it, you have incredible power.

Why, he would give an image of the power of faith that you can move mountains or rip a tree out of the ground and plant it in the ocean like impossible things. That’s what he’s trying to say. If you believe you can do the impossible, what is. So what is the connection between belief and the impossible? It’s because the mind. The mind is logical.

The mind makes logical decisions. The vision is based not in logic, but in a paradox, in a very mysterious thing. I mean, a God who loves and who. Whose love shows its expression of love is taking care of us, freeing us from enemies and doing all that. And then he just lets enemies come and crush us. And he does all this stuff.

And you’re saying, wait a minute, wait a minute. Well, maybe if I did, maybe it’s because I don’t do enough. Well, if I did more, if I was more perfect if I did everything right, then he would take care of me and it would be. That’s logical. Do good and you get good. No, you can be the most loving, caring, saintly person and suffer horrendous things.

So, come on, it doesn’t make logical sense. What are we supposed to do? And. And I love the. The image. I mean, it’s believe, but just believe.

It’s your job. It’s your work. It’s not extra work. It’s just part of the work. I mean, it’s just. You have to hold this vision in front of you every morning of your life and say, all right, here I am.

I’m here to do whatever I can. I want to make a difference in the world. I’d like people to feel something from me that’s comforting. If I. I have. I don’t want to lose compassion or empathy because of the people who treat me the way they shouldn’t.

And then I want to continue to have empathy and compassion for people who, in the eyes of the world, don’t deserve it. I want all that. And it goes beyond our human nature. It takes us to another level. And so I make this decision to believe that’s what’s going to happen today. And when I do that, I’m just doing what I’m supposed to.

I love that. And why. That strikes me as so wonderful. I mean, all the struggle, all the confusion, all the stuff, God is looking at you and say, well, I mean, that’s what we do here. That’s. That’s what you’re up to.

That’s what I expect you to do. Trust and believe. When every five of your body says, something’s wrong here. This isn’t right. This is wrong. Get over it.

I think it’s interesting that there’s one image of the kingdom that is in another passage of scripture where the owner of the house who represents God, when. When he welcomes you in, he sits you down and he feeds you and he nurtures you and he serves you. Yeah, we have a servant God. That’s true. We also have a God whom we serve and who. The service to this God is not something that is simple or easy or about using some kind of logic.

Why is it that logic is so helpful when we can say, what’s our motive for going to church? Or what’s our motive for believing? If I look at myself, I’d say, looking back on my life, I’d say, well, you know, you’re a priest and you think, well, I have special Special favors. I mean, I gave my life, right? So I should expect good things. And the better I work and the harder I work, the more love I will get from God.

I certainly know that’s one of my shadows. My personality is. I’m always with people. And I think, well, if I do really good things for them, if I please them, if I tell them things that they want to hear, they’ll love me. That makes logical sense. Doesn’t.

Does to my mind. But what about reality? Do people really want people to tell them what they want? Do people really want you to knock yourself out, to please you without thinking about your own needs? No, it’s much more mysterious. The vision is more than just pleasing people.

The vision is deeply hidden in all these things you might call a paradox. They don’t make logical sense, at least to one way of thinking. So I go back to the promise that was given to Timothy at his ordination. It’s a beautiful thing he’s saying. You know, Timothy, you’re given this vision. If you hang on to the vision, the vision has an effect on you.

And it’s not that you can understand everything. It’s more like you surrender to something. And when you have this capacity to surrender, you are strong and you’re loving and you’re wise. Love. Wisdom goes way beyond logic. It’s from the heart.

Love is being there, knowing that you have a lover inside of you who longs to love the people around you through you and your personality and who you are. And you’re strong. You’re not in need of some comforting realization or some comforting thought that I’ll endure this because something wonderful is coming. Yes, in a way, that’s true. But there’s something about surrendering to the way the world is and an acceptance that is just okay, this is my work. It’s so different than doing it thinking I’ll get a bigger reward when I die.

So it’s about acceptance. Accepting something, belief. Belief in something. What? Your vision of this world. And where do you get that vision?

From the God inside of you. From the God who wants to reveal who he is to you. Not always from books or from homilies or from teachings. But trust in the vision being given to you by a God who lives inside of you and then writes it somewhere. And where it is is on your foreign closing prayer. Father, your gift to us is a life beyond our imagining.

One day our eyes will be open. We’ll see how and when we’ve tended your flock, how we’ve made sure your crops grow. They’re fruitful. But before that moment, strengthen our faith, keep us close to the vision, remind us over and over again of your love and your mysterious ways. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show.

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Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios. Copyright 2020.