Catholic TV Mass Online September 29, 2024: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Ariel Orozco Parish: St. Charles Choir: St. Charles TEXT FROM THE HOMILY It is better to enter to heaven maimed than to go to hell whole. Five years ago I had the great opportunity of walking a pilgrimage in the northern part of Spain. And it is about 500 miles starting from the Pyrenees mountains all the way to Santiago de Compostela which is in the farthest west end of Spain. And along the way you are given a passport, a pilgrim's passport and every village, every town that you go along you get it stamped and that's how they make sure that you are actually walking the way. It is a really powerful experience. However, there's always the clever pilgrims, I should say "pilgrims" because they find a way to cheat the system. For instance, there was a man from a different country who really had beer for breakfast, for dinner, and lunch and what he did was he would sleep in until he got kicked out of the hostel and then he would go to a bar and start his day not with coffee but with a beer. As expected at the time, about 12 when the heat is scorching, he would call a cab and then drive to the next town over, drink another beer and then keep going all along the way. First you have to have a lot of money to do that. And then once in a while we would get together for dinner he would say, you know why are you guys walking? It's like look at all pain, all the blisters, all the injuries. You can simply call a cab. Nobody will notice. Well here's the thing. The last day, it was about a hundred degrees, this is day 28 for me. I got shin splints, my feet are hurting, I'm just exhausted and I'm ascending the city of Santiago de Compostela and as you ascend the city you get to this massive cathedral square and thousands upon thousands of pilgrims gather in that place. And there are two types of pilgrims. And usually you can tell who is who. There are those who cheated and there are those who are real pilgrims. How do you know the difference when you end a pilgrimage and you truly walked on it, it has a lot more meaning. It's life giving. And we recognize that in one another because those of us who actually walked were sobbing, embracing one another because we understood the pain. Hence the glory that we experience at the end was far greater. The gentleman who was in the bar in front of the cathedral having another beer. A little angry, empty, he knew what he had lost. I tell you this story because in a sense captures our gospel today. He was in a way, cheating the system. And sure he made it to the end without pain or anything but he didn't get the glory of heaven. A foretaste of the glory of heaven made it to the end whereas those of us who did we understood. And some of us were embracing one another even though we didn't know our names, we didn't speak the same language. But was so powerful was that we know we didn't cheat. And it's precisely the rewards of having fought or having stuck together in this journey. That's a great analogy for the spirit life. In the spiritual life you're going to lose a limb so to speak. We are going to be hurt. But when we go to heaven even if we are disabled, figuratively speaking, we'll be far better than going into hell with our whole body. Amen Entrance: O God Beyond All Praising Text: Michael Perry, 1942–1996, © 1982, The Jubilate Group (admin. Hope Publishing Company) Tune: THAXTED, 13 13 13 13 13 13; Gustave Holst, 1874–1934 Psalm 19: The Precepts of the Lord Tune: © 2004, International Liturgy Publications Preparation: Act Justly Text: Based on Micah 6:8. Text and music © 2011, Bernadette Farrell. Published by OCP. All rights reserved. Communion: Love, Burn Bright Copyright © 2014 by GIA Publications, Inc. • All Rights Reserved Sending Forth: The Spirit Sends Us Forth Text: CM; Delores Dufner, OSB, © 1993, The Sisters of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, MN. Published by OCP. All rights reserved. Music: Carl Gotthilf Gläser, 1784–1829. Mass Setting: Mass for Sister Thea Bowman Text: © 2010 ICEL Music: Mass for Sister Thea Bowman, Aaron Mathews, © 2021 GIA Publications, Inc. Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591. www.HeartoftheNation.org