June 21, 2026 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Deacon Bob Hardy)

Deacon Bob's homily on the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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A collection of homilies and liturgies from St Patrick Catholic Community in Scottsdale, Arizona. We are Christian disciples in mission.

Host: 00:01

Welcome to Saint Patrick Catholic Community Podcast. We're glad you're with us.

Deacon Bob: 00:11

Well, here we are at the start of summer in the valley of the sun, complete with the rising triple digit temperatures and the national holiday. Would those who are fathers here please raise your hands. Awesome. Happy Father's Day to you all. This holiday didn't reach official US status you know until the April 4 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed it into law.

Deacon Bob: 00:49

An earlier version of this holiday, which honors the mothers of this country, was signed into law and became official under President Woodrow Wilson on 05/09/1914. So the mothers were recognized for their contribution to the world fifty eight years before the fathers became official. And looking at the situation, that seems only fair as mothers put in eight to nine months of labor in distress that a man isn't required to. That sums up the holidays as both being very important, an important aspect of the institution of marriage. Speaking of that institution, our cultural paradigm of marriage has evolved almost in a complete circle in the past century.

Deacon Bob: 01:53

A hundred years ago, a marriage united a man and a woman in a relationship where the man went to work to support the household. While the woman stayed at home and took care of the house, the children did the household chores and saw to it that everyone was fed a proper amount of food so they could sustain life. Today when people marry, usually both spouses have careers. They maintain to achieve an acceptable standard of living. This change demands and a woman's duties from their duties into shared duties, including raising the children that were God's gifts to them.

Deacon Bob: 02:45

I do believe that families today are better off for that. When Carol and I were married, we were both teachers and we taught until the family came along. We have three daughters and two granddaughters. The family of six women has been a very special benefit to me in two ways. First, I have spent my entire adult life surrounded by beautiful women.

Deacon Bob: 03:16

Second, I haven't had to make a personal decision in fifty eight years. In today's gospel, Jesus talks about the changing paradigm of the religious beliefs of that era. He talks to his 12 disciples and says, fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed. No secret that will not be known.

Deacon Bob: 03:49

What I say in darkness, you speak in light. What you hear with whispered, you proclaim on the house tops. Good news from Jesus is to be delivered by his followers to everyone. Now that message has been delivered to us here today and it applies to us just as it did to the original evangelist. Through our baptism, we are now the disciples charged with delivering the Lord's original message of salvation, the good news that Jesus brought to us almost two thousand years ago.

Deacon Bob: 04:32

That's not an easy task in today's world looking at world news world news delivered through various media points out the needs for some really good news to come about. These things just seem to be a mess all over the place and one wonders what can I, as an individual, do about this? The probable answer is nothing. The highest level where these decisions are enacted is unobtainable to almost all of us. But, on the family level, or neighborhood level, even the business and community level, the answer is the opposite.

Deacon Bob: 05:21

We can accomplish a large amount of change, heartfelt change on those levels. We can achieve a positive change in the people that we mingle with daily, especially in our families and friends. This year so far we have baptized a lot of children here and it seems that a good portion of those baptized are young babies with first time parents. Based on my parenting experience and that of many of my friends, there are a few ideas I'd like to share with the first timers. Now a newborn baby may look a lot like they are in a world of their own, but they become aware of the world they now live in rather quickly.

Deacon Bob: 06:14

The sounds, the touchings, the conversations they hear, which they do not understand. All of those they store in their memory, And as they grow, they learn to associate certain things, felt or heard, with a feeling that comes from whether it makes them feel good or feel not so good. It's the start of the process of growth in their mind and in their soul. Both of those two entities need to be fed daily to foster that growth. That's why starting to talk to them about the Christian values of our faith makes sense.

Deacon Bob: 07:01

Of course, they don't understand. But if spoken in a pleasant, loving way, it produces a good memory. Done on a regular basis, it will provide the foundation they need for their growth cycle. The key takeaway is to feed their soul every day as we feed their body when they are tiny infants and young children. Prayer can come into play when they start to verbalize for themselves.

Deacon Bob: 07:37

We hear many different stories from people communicating on how praying as a family has helped their family grow through the years. It has given their children strength in their beliefs. A major part of the workings of fatherhood and motherhood deal with the growth of the family, the physical and the spiritual growth. It can be a thing, a tiring, and even a hard work to give your children the tools they need so they can step into the existing world as citizens on their own. The disciples of Jesus did not realize what they were getting into when they signed up with him.

Deacon Bob: 08:28

We too probably did not really realize what we had signed up for when we married the love of our life. And the road got a little bumpier when the role of father and mother entered the situation. Fortunately, by living our lives as best we can in a Christian environment, each of us and our families can navigate through our lives with our eyes on the goal of meeting our creator someday. A long time ago when I was starting to explore my religion, I attended a seminar at a Trappist monastery. The topic was the approved works of Thomas Merton, was a Trappist monk himself.

Deacon Bob: 09:16

And one of those was a prayer he had written which touched me enough that I have prayed it every day since. It begins like this, my Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Prayer continues with a discussion of wanderings in life while trying to follow the teachings of Jesus.

Deacon Bob: 09:51

And it ends with this. Therefore, I will trust you always, though I seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. That final sentence sums up our lives. He will never leave us to face our perils alone.

Deacon Bob: 10:29

And it is the same promise our Lord made to the apostles when he sent them out, just as they completed their task of spreading the good news. So we now pick up that challenge in our life. Thank you, fathers, for the major role that you play in our journey through life. God bless you.

Host: 10:59

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