Latest / Padre Alberto (Father Albert) / GOD CALLS US

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GOD CALLS US · Padre Alberto (Father Albert)

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  Jesus said I give you a new commandment that you love one
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  another. Now you know it isn't a
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  suggestion, it's a commandment. It's a hard one and Jesus always
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  complicates everything. Have you noticed that?
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  Because it wasn't just enough to say love one another.
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  Look what he does now. Just as I've loved you, now you
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  have to love one another. He gave it all out of love.
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  And then that's even more complicated than that.
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  It says this is part of our Christian identity.
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  It says by this everyone will know that you are my disciples
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  if you love one another. Wow.
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  So when I was a teenager in 1986 and I was discerning this whole
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  thing about going to seminary, lots of people told me not to do
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  it. But I went to see a movie.
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  It was a different kind of movie.
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  It was a movie simply entitled Mother Teresa 1986.
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  Think I was a sophomore junior in high school and the movie was
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  created by a bunch of phenomenal BBCUK documentary folks that the
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  best of the best Sir Richard Attenborough, you know, that
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  gentleman Iverton, Sir Richard Attenborough narrated it and the
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  movie starts like this. There's a light in this world, a
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  healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may
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  encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this
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  force when there is suffering too much pain, but then the
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  spirit will emerge in the lives of ordinary people who hear a
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  call and answer in extraordinary ways.
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  I don't want you to think that I memorized it the first time I
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  saw the movie in 1986. It's just that I've watched that
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  movie at least 25 times. It's the most complete
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  biographical movie of the life of someone who really had a huge
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  influence on my life. You know how you're a teenager
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  and you've got heroes? My teenage hero was definitely
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  Mother Teresa. Now, Mother Teresa, you know,
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  there's something a lot of people don't know, spoke from
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  the pulpit at Trinity Cathedral, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.
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  And I don't know how she did it because Theresa was about this
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  tall. But she got up there and spoke
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  because they had a huge Roman Catholic event at the Hilton
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  across the street. And Archbishop McCarthy at the
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  time called Bishop Scofield, the second Bishop of Southeast
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  Florida, and said, Bishop, can we borrow the cathedral so that
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  we have enough room for Mother Teresa?
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  Because the Hilton ran out of room.
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  So people cross the street into Trinity Cathedral.
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  You know, it's over there by the army.
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  You know that. You know, that beautiful area.
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  There's a beautiful Marriott over there, by the way.
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  And they all went into the Trinity Cathedral, packed
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  standing room only. And little Mother Teresa went up
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  there. Now, I always really looked up
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  to her and you would say, well, what does this little nun have
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  to do with a vocation of a parish priest?
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  Well, I'll tell you, Mother Teresa was very, very different.
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  She went into the convent because she heard a call and she
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  went to Ireland to teach rich girls.
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  Really, it was a rich girls school.
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  And she was there. She was faithful.
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  When I was 15 years old, I used to go to this man's alma mater,
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  to the Jesuit house near Belen High School.
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  And I really like the Jesuits a lot.
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  I like their intellectual thing. I like their missionary thing.
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  I like them a lot. But I said to the priest,
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  listen, Father, let's be honest. Can you promise me that if I
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  join this order, if I become a Jesuit, that I'm not going to
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  end up teaching rich kids the rest of my life?
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  Every wealthy boy in Miami goes to Berlin.
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  Captain 30 Sanchez says he was not in the wealthy crowd.
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  But believe me, those kids, he says he was an exception.
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  Those kids are rich. And I said I don't want to be in
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  rich boys school. I want to do everything.
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  I want to be a Paris, Greece. I want to work with the youth.
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  I want to work with this one. I work with.
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  No, Albert, if you end up here, you're here in Miami, you'll end
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  up at Berlin. I'm like, ain't for me.
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  But Mother Teresa's vocation, which is much more important
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  story than mine, she was in Ireland.
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  She was minding her own business, doing what God told
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  her to do, right. And one day on retreat, she's on
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  a train ride, and she looks out into the horizon and realizes
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  God's calling me to something more.
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  And so she goes in the 1940s, Milan, you don't know about this
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  because you're a young man from this time, but a nun, a woman to
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  leave the convent, go out into the streets of Calcutta and the
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  slums wasn't allowed, man, not at that time.
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  But she did it anyway, turned her habit, basically a sari, an
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  Indian sari into a habit, the little cross here, and started
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  picking up people on the street. And I want to ask you a
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  question. What motivates people to do what
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  they do? What motivates people to listen
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  to God's call? What is it really?
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  One day Mother Teresa, who lived from 1910 to 1997.
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  Remember, she and Princess Diana died a few days apart.
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  And they are actually good friends because they were
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  working together on AIDS, charities and things throughout
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  the world. There's pictures of them just a
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  few days before their mutual deaths.
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  Mother Teresa of Kolkata is tending to the poorest of the
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  poor, and she happened to cross or come across a man who was
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  lying in a gutter very close to death.
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  He was filthy, he was dressed like in a little rag.
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  There were flies swarming all over his body.
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  And immediately Mother Teresa grabbed the man and embraced
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  him. And she began to softly speak to
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  the man and to pick out the maggots that were on his flesh.
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  Picking out the maggots, a passerby walked and some of the
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  Teresa's lady. I wouldn't do that for
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  $1,000,000. And Mother Teresa, who had a
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  great response to almost everything and she was funny and
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  she was quick. Mother Teresa turned and looked
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  at the guy and said, Neither would I, neither would I.
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  What motivates people to do what they do?
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  Jesus said love one another. Just as I have loved you, you
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  also should love one another. You know, I was in the middle of
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  that discernment process to enter the seminary.
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  I see this movie of this woman and everything about her,
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  everything about the way she responded had to do with the
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  love of Jesus. Everything they would, they
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  criticized her like you have no idea.
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  They said, oh, you know, why are you going to go over there to
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  India? There's barely any Christians
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  there. They're all Hindus.
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  And I said, I don't care what they believe.
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  I know what I believe. I see the face of Jesus in every
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  human being. I see the image of God in every
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  human being. That's love, love one another,
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  just as I have loved you. You know, I thank God for the
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  courage and the freedom that that little nun in Ireland had
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  to move on to a deeper call, something different than God was
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  asking her to do, to serve the poorest of the poor, that she
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  had the courage to do that, the freedom to do that.
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  And you've heard me say this before.
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  You know, fear paralyses people, but by God's grace and will
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  respond to God's grace, God gives us the strength of
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  stamina, everything you need to do what God's really calling you
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  to do. So I thank God everyday because
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  these hymns, by the way, these hymns that are in there that
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  we're singing today, I chose every hymn you're singing today.
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  I never, ever asked, do I ever choose a hymn?
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  I let you guys choose a hymn, yes or no.
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  My choir directors know I give them the freedom to choose their
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  hymns. Whatever you want, you, you, you
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  look at it, look at the lectionary, you decide.
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  But today I had to choose the hymns.
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  Did you hear at the beginning? Hast thou not seen how all thou
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  needest hath been granted in what he ordained?
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  God's plan is the perfect plan. If you would have told 26 year
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  old Albert that he was going to be an Anglican priest 30 years
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  later with a wife and four children.
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  My dog is our fourth child. He actually takes more attention
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  than the other 3. Einstein, another Albert, seek
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  ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
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  things will be added unto you. By the way, that Hallelujah,
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  Hallelujah. That's how that same movie ends.
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  You got to watch it. It starts with those horrible
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  images of poverty, hunger, famine, children in
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  concentration camps. Remember it was the 40s, it was,
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  it was a tough time. It's all in black and white,
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  that whole beginning with that narration.
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  And then it goes into colour as Mother Teresa's face comes up.
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  And then it ends with that same Sikhi first Hallelujah, of
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  course, Amazing Grace. It's all Amazing Grace, isn't
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  it? None of us are here alive and
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  well, doing what we do without God's grace, am I right?
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  It's all Amazing Grace and God is so good, isn't he?
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  God is so good. I wonder if we are able to taste
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  and see the goodness of the Lord.
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  And when you sing it today, I want you to think, Do you taste
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  and see the goodness of the Lord in your life?
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  Can you savor the goodness of God?
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  That's what we're called to savor the goodness of God.
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  How? How good God has been to us.
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  Whatever plans you made for your life, God has bigger and better
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  plans than you can imagine. And God is always going to give
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  you more than you can imagine. And trust me, God will take care
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  of you. God will take care of you.
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  God is faithful to his promises. We fall short, we fail.
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  We are not able to ever outdo him in generosity.
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  But God will take care of you. And so I've got to be honest
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  with you, 30 years seems like a long time, but it's not.
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  You know, 30 years ago, I was 20 minutes.
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  That way I could throw a rock from here.
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  St. Clemens in Fort Lauderdale.
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  And I remember my first few days as a priest.
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  True story. I looked like an acolyte.
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  Milan, I look like you. Not as tall, of course, but I'm
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  walking in the parking lot. Father.
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  Father. Father.
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  And you just keep walking. And then after a while, it was
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  like, wait a minute, you're a priest and she's calling you.
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  Oh, hi, ma'am. How are you?
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  It's funny, right? I had no idea she was calling
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  me. But you know, every day has been
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  a blessing. Every Eucharist, every baptism,
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  every wedding, every funeral, every opportunity to bring God's
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  Word to places I never imagined. I never, ever looked to work in
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  television or in radio or write columns in the I never expected
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  to do any of that. God did all that.
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  And it's funny how within your call, God gives you other calls,
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  right? And so you've got this call and
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  then, and then God just keeps on adding.
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  God never subtracts. God always adds.
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  God always gives you more. And the problem with God, I've,
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  I've, I've got this figured out. God knows what you're capable
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  of. And if you're capable of more,
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  he's going to give you more. But we have to make sure we do
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  is that we, we listen, we listen to the call of God.
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  Where's God calling you to serve?
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  Because God could be calling you to something new, some new
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  ministry, some new thing that you don't know about, that you
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  don't see yourself in that ministry right now.
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  But God may be calling you to that.
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  So we've got to listen to God's call because ultimately we're
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  called to love the way Jesus taught us to love.
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  And that's a lot. We have a lot to do.
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  And I just praise and thank God for my mother, my father, all
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  the people who taught me how to love God.
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  So many people, I can't even tell you.
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  And the great example that I've received from all of you, I
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  thank God for you because the priest is nothing without the
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  congregation. The priest is nothing without
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  God's people. So I want you to know that while
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  Mother Teresa is definitely a big role model for me, my
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  biggest role model for people sitting in the Pew like you.
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  And I thank God for all of you and for your faith and for your
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  response to God's call in the name of the Father and of the
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  Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.