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A collection of homilies and liturgies from St Patrick Catholic Community in Scottsdale, Arizona. We are Christian disciples in mission.
Welcome to Saint Patrick Catholic Community Podcast. We're glad you're with us.
Speaker 2:Dylan Cooper is a speaker who's lived his entire life in the state of Wyoming. His main topics are helping people change their assumptions. He had a lot to say because he's talked to a lot of tourists that go to Yellowstone National Park. And so he had a lot to say this past week about a 65 year old grandpa named Carl with his grandson who happened to be there. A cameraman caught the situation where Carl and his grandson are about a 100 yards away.
Speaker 2:25 yards is what rangers would say would be safe, but the camera angle doesn't show that. It seems like it's up close. A white pickup happens to go in between the bison rolling on the ground and grandpa, and he starts honking the horn to get the bison to move out of the way. Needless to say, the bison is upset, and he chooses not to go after the white pickup. Instead, he sees grandpa over there.
Speaker 2:Grandpa immediately tells his grandson to go in a different direction to keep him safe, And the bison goes after him and attacks him. Eight feet in the air, he's flung. Some of you might have seen that that big picture wearing some suspenders, and he's all kind of out. He's fine. He's recovering and all.
Speaker 2:But what Dylan Cooper said is that one of the sites he went to, there were 46,000 comments being negative about grandpa. What a fool. What an idiot. He should have known better. He was too close.
Speaker 2:All the comments that talked about. And yet Dylan Cooper said, one, he did everything right. The cameraman, the rangers, and fellow campers said, he didn't do anything wrong. He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, but the pickup truck really didn't help. People making assumptions who were not there, who look at a different angle.
Speaker 2:And you know what was really happening is that the weeds were blind them to look at really what was going on. Today's gospel, Matthew chapter 13, is the parable of the wheat and weeds. And as you heard, you saw that the servants see that the weeds and wheat are growing together. And they asked the master, shall we pull out the weeds? Because that's the normal thing to do.
Speaker 2:You're gonna choke off the weed, and for some reason, the master says, no. We'll wait until harvest time. Jesus does that on purpose to show what God is like to everyone. He is patient, and God waits till the last minute for any person, sinful, evil, no matter who they are, God wants them to change their hearts. And that's the purpose of the gospel, to show what God the father is really like.
Speaker 2:I think what happens sometimes, and the gospels may be trying to tell us something, that you and I rush to judgment and have our own assumptions, and what we need to do is to push the weeds aside and see what is really there. Here's what the gospel is addressing your life and mine these past few weeks. Who here has not been the receiver of someone's anger? Who here has not been the receiver of someone's impatience? Who here has not been a receiver of someone insulting us?
Speaker 2:Whether with harsh words, with anger, with belittling language. Hi, my friends. That's part of relationships and part of life. But here's where the gospel might challenge us, is that maybe rather than labeling everyone as weeds because of what you did, we're just gonna label that to you. Maybe what the gospel is inviting us to is to push the wide what beside the weeds and see what's really going on.
Speaker 2:If you and I just took sometimes, some of the time, to see what's happening, what's behind anger? Sometimes it's fear. And sometimes that fear is unreasonable, and sometimes that fear just covers everything. For others, when they are impatient, maybe someone struggling with disappointment in their life or a loved one's life. Maybe for others who are using insulting language and all, maybe there's a stress, a loneliness, maybe taking care of a family person, maybe serious health issues that don't bring out their best.
Speaker 2:And I think what the gospel's inviting us to do, instead of just labeling and saying, you're that way, call them weed. Rather, it's asking us to push aside and see what is really going on. For Jesus, people see a tax collector and yet Jesus sees what? A disciple. People see a sinner and yet Jesus sees someone still created in the image of God.
Speaker 2:Others see a criminal being crucified next to Jesus on Mount Calvary, and yet Jesus sees faith and paradise. So the gospel is not saying that we are okay with people's poor behavior. The gospel is not saying, oh, just overlook that because they have a right to do that and you just have to bear it. That is not what the gospel is saying. We still call out people out for poor behavior, but the change has to happen in how you and I respond because that's what we can control.
Speaker 2:That maybe pushing those weeds aside, we can have a better understanding, maybe see beyond, find out what's really happening, and maybe ourselves practicing patience. Because here's the thing, when you and I act inappropriately, when you and I express anger to anyone, too impatient, when we are insulting, when we are mean spirited. We don't want people to identify us solely by that mistake because here's what we believe, we are more than just that mistake. We are more than being an angry or impatient person. We are more than someone who had a really bad moment, and we don't want to be defined as a weed.
Speaker 2:And so this week I ask you, throughout the week, you and I will still encounter and be recipients of anger, of impatience, of insult, and poor behavior. What weeds are you gonna push aside? What things will you see better? Because 46,000 people saw exactly what happened to grandpa, and they had nothing nice to say about grandpa. An idiot.
Speaker 2:A fool. He should have known better. He did it all wrong. And yet, the cameraman, the rangers, fellow campers said, no. He did the right thing.
Speaker 2:Changing our assumptions is what we're all invited to do this week.
Speaker 1:This has been a Saint Patrick Catholic Community podcast. For more of our shows, go to our website and click Saint Patrick's Studio.