Speaker 1: Welcome to Saint Patrick Catholic Community podcast. We're glad you're with us.
Speaker 2: A lot of leaders work with people who are familiar with PR work. In other words, if there's something important of a new program, a new idea, or sharing what will be built or what will be new, These PR people will tell the leaders of groups, of countries, of organizations, you need a good background. What's your backdrop? And so for some, if they're starting, they may find a big ship behind them, or big buildings, or a big mountain if it deals with the environment. So there's always something in the background to give a visual.
That's what's happening in today's gospel. Jesus goes to a city, an area named Caesarea Philippi. It is a place of power for religion and politics. Caesarea Philippi is named after Caesar, and there are many people who would say that Caesar is divine. But it also is the place and hotbed of pagan gods worship.
All the temples there worship different gods. So Jesus, through Matthew, chooses a rock cliff to stand in front of. That's his background, talking to the disciples. And in that are niches of devotions to pagan gods, all through that whole background. And then the belief was that Caesarei Philippi on that cliff there, it was the entrance into the underworld, the netherworld.
And so here is Jesus asking the question, who do people say that I am? What are you hearing? And then after those answers, he goes deeper and asked his disciples, but who do you say that I am? Wow. The disciples have a lot of choices.
Lot of voices and a lot of gods want our thing. They want our loyalty. They want our trust. Trust. They They want want to to do us us to to get get power.
Power. And so we got a lot of gods to choose from. There's a lot of choices. I don't know. Wow.
Too many choices. And yet, what does Peter do? Says something that all of us are really familiar with. You are Christ, son of a living God. And, of course, he's affirmed by it.
Think about the Caesarei Philippi in our lives today. So many choices we have, whether we see Christ as our savior, whether we wanna live fully discipleship or not, there are so many choices. The pagan gods, the pagan voices that talk about what? Being successful. Being successful is the core of happiness.
Consumerism, saying the more we have, the more we should be fulfilled and happy. Because these things bring us joy and comfort and stability and security. Politics can be that false god, a pagan god that says, salvation is won through winning. The more we win in politics, the more we gather power. And social media is the way that says, if I'm going to be found worthy, if I have some self worth, I gotta have a lot of followers, like, or people tell me what I need to hear.
There are so many voices, so many ways of people wanting things from us. And our sister, Philippi, is here tonight that all of you have chosen for whatever reason, good or struggling, to come to mass tonight. And you've heard the message then, what are you going to choose? Here's the thing that Jesus says that's amazing to the people. The gates of hell will not prevail against this rock, against my followers.
Remember, the church likes to use this as a power thing sometimes, and it says, the Catholic church will never prevail. And it's true because that's our theology. But you're the church, and I'm the church. The church isn't building with the Vatican or clergy. It is all of us.
And then what God is saying that against evil, against the gates of hell, you and I will not be overcome. And this is amazing because the entrance behind Jesus is into the netherworld, into the underground. They must have been blown away. You you mean you're more powerful than going through that cave into that place of evil and darkness? And that's what Jesus says.
And so our choice then today is, do you believe that that God is more powerful than hell itself and than any evil? You and I build our lives on things that are temporary, of the things that I mentioned, and yet, when real life situation comes, those foundations fall apart. You begin to ask questions now, or as you get older or wiser, that success isn't the foundation that will be the fulfillment, that social media, that politics, that consumerism isn't there, especially when the gates of hell are at our doorstep. Death, grieving, the loss of dignity, the lack of love, health issues. All those things will crack our foundations that aren't based on God.
And so tonight, you're here. And I wanna ask you, how's your discipleship doing? Do you take it seriously? I think at times we struggle and we go, I wanna be spiritual, not religious. How is that commitment?
Spiritual will mean I'm gonna do things on my way, in my matter, in my opinion. And you know who was a failure at that? The rock. Peter. If you read the verses later on in Matthew here's gospel, he what?
He says, I will not allow you, the messiah, to suffer. And what does Jesus say? Get behind me, Satan. So if Peter, who is the rock, still fails, so will we. But the thing that makes Peter the rock is not his strength, but his trust.
His trust. All of us have the decision to make the trust. And so how are you doing against the gates of hell? How are you doing against evil right now? What kind of evil are you dealing with?
Some of you will see the news and go, this is evil. Some of you might be experiencing evil things or have in the past that are unbelievable, that are uniquely your story. How are you dealing with the evil of everyday life that is not part of God's plan? And really, tonight is the invitation to take more seriously our faith. Many of us just are sliding by.
You know, as soon as I get old enough, I'm gonna stop going to church because it's boring, and I get nothing out of it. And yet, where else are you gonna hear the words, the gates of hell will not prevail against it? You will not fall short to evil. And yet we go, that's not enough. We like what's behind you, Jesus.
Give us what's behind door number two. We'll take that. So are you serious about your faith or not? Because Jesus is very serious. The gates of hell will not prevail against what you and I will experience every day in our lives, but you gotta make a choice.
We all have our own Seserai Philippi, and behind us are many false gods to adore, to follow, to love, to be loyal, and trust. And that's why Jesus is telling all of you tonight, who do you say that I am?
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.