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Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast, where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.

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Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to the Lord. The 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. And because Christmas was just falling a couple of days later, as soon as that penance service was done, they were going to take all the Advent stuff out and start decorating for Christmas, which is a pretty big job to get a church decorated for Christmas. And they only had a couple of volunteers show up. And he walked into the chapel at this particular parish to ask, because there were about seven or eight people in there at prayer. And he said, folks, we could really use your help if you'd willing to come and help us. And they said, oh, no, Father, we can't. We're praying. And he walked out grumbling, and I think loud enough that they probably heard him and said prayer, and then put it whatever expletive you want. Why don't they do something once in a while? And while that probably wasn't the best thing to say, there was still a hint of truth in it. And the hint of truth can be seen at the Ascension. It would have been easy for those gathered together to simply stare off into heaven and spend all their time in prayer, because this Jesus, who they put all of their faith and trust in, physically wasn't with them anymore. And they wouldn't have known what to do except for the fact of what he taught them, that prayer, which is what they experience being in his presence. But what they were going to experience now in a different way always is meant to lead us to action, to a change in the way we live, to the way we interact with our brothers and sisters. Prayer is never meant to be the end. It's meant to be that conversation, that relationship we have with God that changes who we are. So in turn, we can be different with one another, we can be merciful. And loving and compassionate and understanding. And it didn't take the early church very long to figure that out. Well, that's our task as well, to be a people both of prayer, because that's how we learn and grow. And also a people of action. That we alleviate suffering when we see it, that we offer forgiveness and mercy to those who need it, that we model a love that's already been shown to us in Christ.