Become Who You Are
What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? What is my true identity? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness, joy and peace? How do I find love that lasts, forever? These are the timeless questions of the human heart. Join Jack Rigert and his guests for lively insights, reading the signs of our times through the lens of Catholic Teaching and the insights of Saint John Paul ll to guide us.
Saint Catherine of Siena said "Become who you are and you would set the world on fire".
Become Who You Are
#628 The Power of Reading Scripture in A Digital Age: Healing and Rewiring Minds Using Lectio Divina
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Young men are rising up and searching for the truth in a world that has consistently lied to them. Despite growing up in a toxic culture and relentlessly bombarded with digital distraction, they're discovering something profound: Scripture offers the authentic guidance, healing, and path they crave.
In this Episode Deacon Greg Ferrell joins Jack to explore how daily Scripture reading, using an ancient technique called Lectio Divina, can transform lives and rewire minds damaged by cultural toxicity.
The Claymore battle plan—a systematic approach to spiritual formation—places significant emphasis on spending 15-30 minutes daily with God's Word, particularly through Mass readings that connect Old and New Testaments into a cohesive narrative of salvation.
Their discussion reveals practical wisdom for approaching Scripture: finding quiet space away from distractions, calming your mind, and approaching texts with an open heart asking "What does God want to show me?"
Discussion Questions:
How can understanding scripture transform lives?
How does writing your thoughts down help solidify insights from scripture?
Why are Personal Relationships vital for sharing faith?
What is Lectio Divina? https://jp2renew.org/2025/02/05/lectio-divina/
Listening is key to understanding God's message?
Download the Claymore battle plan and begin your own journey into Scripture. Whether you're a young person seeking truth or someone who loves and guides them, these practices can transform your relationship with God's Word from obligation to life-giving encounter.
Contact Jack: info@jp2renew.org
Follow us and watch on X: John Paul II Renewal @JP2Renewal
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It's going to take men, young men. They're standing up right now. They're coming back. I think what they're seeing, deacon Greg, is that they've been lied to. They've been lied to about so many things and they're saying what is the truth? What is the truth?
Speaker 2:So many of them have been exposed to hardcore pornography, you know as I held that little boy in my arms and looked into his face, I realized you've got to give him something, I've got to pass something on to him so that he can face the world, face the challenges of the world and do a good job of it.
Speaker 1:They have to realize temptation is not a sin, but temptation is an invitation to prayer. Jesus himself was tempted, we know that, right, it's what you do. But temptation is an invitation to prayer. Jesus himself was tempted, we know that, right, it's what you do when you're tempted. Huh, well, that's where Claymore, that's the battle plan, that temptation is like a warrior coming at you with a sword and you better react, right. And so we react by opening ourselves up to prayer.
Speaker 2:That's one of those truths that comes from the church is that for real, honest growth you've got to be challenged. You know you've got to be willing to accept a challenge. And challenge and being able to overcome challenge builds strong men. So many younger folk right now that seem very fragile.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Become who you Are podcast, a production of the John Paul II Renewal Center. I'm Jack Riggert, your host, and I'm here with a good friend of mine, deacon Greg Ferrell. Deaconacon. Thank you so much for taking the time. My pleasure love to be here.
Speaker 1:So, deacon greg I, I asked him to come on the show because a part of claymore and I'll just hold up that this battle plan again. Everybody's aware of this by now. You can download this at our website jp the numberreneworg. Just go to top hit resources. This will be in the show links. Download this.
Speaker 1:And it's the battle plan for these young men and everybody that loves them, deacon Greg. So it's not just going out to these Gen Z young men, but fathers, brothers, sometimes their spouses, girlfriends, maybe the girlfriend they'll meet someday in the future. Whatever it is, it's going to take men, young men. They're standing up right now. They're coming back. I think what they're seeing, deacon Greg, is that they've been lied to. They've been lied to about so many things and they're saying what is the truth? What is the truth? So many of them have been exposed to hardcore pornography and, in fact, 100% of the young guys that we're meeting today, they've been brought up in the most toxic culture possible, and we've unpacked this all in the past. So I'm not going to do it now, but just to say, in spite of all that and this is what's really inspiring to me they're saying there's got to be something more. There's got to be something more, and so what we do with Claymore, deacon Greg, is, as you know, we're walking and discipling each other, helping each other walk along these paths. You know, and it's a systematic way, it's an outline, a systematic way Within that, there's one thing that they do in the morning for spiritual formation they drop through their knees before they look at those terrible phones that, of course, can be used for good also, but before they look at that phone, they drop through their knees, they open up their hearts, along with our Blessed Mother. Let it be done to me according to your word Open up their heart.
Speaker 1:The second thing is they're praying with temptation. They have to realize temptation is not a sin, but temptation is an invitation to prayer. Jesus himself was tempted. We know that. Right, it's what you do when you're tempted, huh? Well, that's where, claymore, that's the battle plan. That temptation is like a warrior coming at you with a sword and you better react right. And so we react by opening ourselves up to prayer and the next thing they get up off their knees and they love the next person. They see an authentic love, a Christ-filled love.
Speaker 1:Well, the second part is where we're going today is to read Scripture 15 to 30 minutes a day. Where we're going today is to read scripture 15 to 30 minutes a day. What we suggest to them is to read the mass readings for that day, even at night, if they want to read them at night for the next morning, whether they're going to have a chance to go to mass or not, just to read those readings. And what it's doing, it's rewiring their brains, it's healing them. Right, they're really discovering that the truth can really heal, how it's true, good and beautiful.
Speaker 1:Well, you do such an incredible job, deacon Greg, with homilies, with bringing this word out.
Speaker 1:When you give a homily, it's just really good. And I wanted you to talk to these young people and everybody again that loves them, what your process is, because you write these wonderful homilies and I know that you must be meditating on that word in a beautiful way, and so just to help us kind of get through what's a good way for these young people to read scripture, and so that's one of the tasks for today. And the second one why don't you tell our audience a little bit about you, and how do you decide to be a deacon? You're married, you have children. Tell us a little bit about that. And then, what inspired you? Because it's important for all of us and these young people that are coming back into the church. They're not always sure why, they just know something's wrong, but that's an encounter that we all do that in our own different ways, don't we? We all encounter Christ as a person, and in this AI world, man, it's nice to encounter an actual person, right? So, hey, I'm going to throw it in your lap.
Speaker 2:Sure, as far as the path to the diaconate, it's kind of a lifelong process. It started as a child, going to Catholic school through fourth grade and always having this openness to the faith right. There were times where my relationship with God was not great or I ignored him, but I always knew he was there. I always knew that there was something that he was calling me to. Didn't know what it was, of course, when I was a kid, but as I got older, especially when my first child came along, you know, that can be such a momentous thing, a life-changing thing for a person. You know, as I held that little boy in my arms and looked into his face, I realized I've got to give him something, I've got to pass something on to him so that he can face the world, face the challenges of the world and do a good job of it, you know.
Speaker 1:So the thing that came to me you know, keep that thought, but that's a pretty profound thing you just said. You know, when I'm out speaking to fathers, you know one thing we try to. You know, we have this program called Love Ed and it works with fathers, with their young boys, and this is something I bring up, deacon Greg, that you know what are we passing down? What legacy are we passing down to them? Because these boys are, whether you know it or not, they're looking up at dad, aren't they?
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And if we pay attention as a father, we also have a desire to look back at them and, like you said, pass something down. And then we say, well, what do I have to pass down like something that's going to be profound? Well, you find out what, greg and you're probably going to get to that, and I interrupt, it's just such an important point, I didn't want it to go past people.
Speaker 2:It is an important part and I praise God and thank God that my father felt the same way Much easier for me to do that for my son. So you know the faith. I realized that the faith, what I had been taught as a kid, it stood the test of time. It stood the test of time. You know the beauty of what the church taught, the truth of what the church taught. Time and time again you know I would say, hey, I don't believe this, what the church teaches about this or that or the other thing. Then you learn more about what the church teaches and you realize it's true and it's always a fulfilling experience to find them out. But you know, as I got older I realized I didn't know my faith well enough to really pass it down to my son in a meaningful way. So I had to grow in my faith. You know that's one of those things. That is a challenge, you know, because it does take time, it takes commitment, it takes a certain attitude and a certain amount of humility to realize that you really don't know that much. So coming to that realization spurred me forward to take the next steps in my faith journey.
Speaker 2:Another important, pivotal part of that is my wife. My wife, she's a devout Catholic and she was there to support me. She was there to egg me out. This is one of the stories that I like to share, that you know. I was talking about my CCD education, my faith formation education as a kid, and I said you know, it really didn't help prepare me to be a faithful Christian man as well as I thought it should, christian man as well as I thought it should. And I'm pretty sure the Holy Spirit was talking through her when she said, well, why don't you do something about it? And it was that moment that I realized I am being called to something. So I started teaching seventh grade faith formation to teaching seventh grade faith formation and if you want to get yourself thrown into the fire, start teaching seventh graders, because mostly they don't want to be there.
Speaker 1:So it was a challenge. No, I was just thinking that when you said that, yeah, I did kind of the same thing, yeah, not easy.
Speaker 2:It's not easy, but it really challenged me and I think that's one of those truths that comes from the church is that for real honest growth you've got to be challenged. You know, and you've got to be willing to accept a challenge and challenge and being able to overcome challenge builds strong men. Challenge builds strong men. So many younger folk right now that seem very fragile and I think a big part of that is they just haven't been challenged, they haven't learned to overcome adversity and things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the other thing that they've been told, deacon Greg, is that this is normal, this weakness is normal, this giving in to your temptations is normal. These seventh and eighth grade boys that we meet, you know, the one thing they really want to hear is the truth. And they don't even realize it, you know, they're so insecure in their own way that they act up and stuff. But if they get to know you as a man especially and you're speaking the truth they'll come around. And so I want to encourage anybody that's thinking about spending time with seventh or eighth graders, certainly in high school.
Speaker 1:I remember the first time that I was going to do a retreat for high school kids and we had a young girl working for us that set it up and she said Jack, can you help with the boys? And I said no, and I had been speaking about theology of the body and all this stuff for many, many years, but to older people, college age students and and beyond. And I said no, and she goes why not? I said because I was a 16 year old boy, you know. I said I, I'm not, you know what. I listened to, this stuff I don't know. And she talked me into it and I said, okay, I'll do it, but I'm going to speak the truth. I said I'm not pulling any punches here. I said I don't have time for that and I don't know how to talk wishy-washy. And I had the best time, greg. I had the best time with those boys, and it wasn't instantaneous. It took us a little time to get to know one another, but when they understood that we were speaking the truth, that's important. So thank you again for saying that. It's two things.
Speaker 1:I grew, just like you said. I challenged myself, right, and I had to be pushed, just like you did. But I challenged myself and I learned wow, this is not only doable, this is some beauty coming into my life. And then it was reciprocated by those boys, right. So here we are at a time where we're talking to mostly, I would say, 17 and 18-year-old men and up. And so how do you approach this, deacon? Greg? In your own life, you were looking for something more, and obviously you find it through the church, you find it through Christ. You must have found it through Scripture, though, too, because of the way you know you give homilies. That doesn't just come out of an emptiness, the way you do it. So how did you approach Scripture?
Speaker 2:One thing I noticed about Scripture through the whole faith journey, you know, is that sometimes we think about Scripture as just sort of a book about the past. But I realized very early on I recognized as I was reading Scripture and so on, that the people back then in the Old Testament, the New Testament, were really not that different from them. You know, we have different technology and that sort of thing of course, but the problems they had you know the relationships they had, the enemies. You know they're constantly fighting and getting in trouble and all of that sort of stuff. But all of the people in scriptures are very human. All of the people in scriptures are very human and it's the story of God's interaction with those people, everyday people.
Speaker 2:You know the apostles, those guys were just normal guys, fishermen, whatever it is. They were doing, and Jesus talked to them, they had an encounter, but then they had the courage to say yes and to enter into this relationship with Christ. That's the key to everything is entering into this relationship. But it begins with a yes Mary's yes, peter's yes, everybody's yes. Abraham's yes goes all the way back.
Speaker 2:There's always a yes involved, there's a reaching out from God and there's a response and the things that happen in everyday life are very much connected to God. Everything is connected to God. Everything is connected and that's really the key to all of it is this inner connectedness between the past, the present, the future, and that focal point is God. So when I read scripture, sometimes I put myself in that situation because it's a relatable situation. Sometimes I just open myself up and say to God what is it you want me to know, what is it you want me to do? And you know, sometimes when we read Scripture we're worried about our minds wandering. But I think sometimes that's God actually taking us on a little bit of a journey to show us something that's interesting, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know and that happens to me all the time when I pray my mind might wander a little bit, but I've recognized it, especially the ones that lead me to the deeper insights. I recognize it as God taking me by the hand and on a little bit of a journey.
Speaker 2:But the key to that is being open to it. The key to it is being in the right disposition for it to happen. If you're just reading the scriptures and you're just trying to get through it, it's just another task to finish. You know it's not going to be that meaningful. But if you calm yourself, if you calm your mind, if you open yourself up to the Holy Spirit and you say what is it you're trying to show me, you know it's amazing what happens.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's, you know, for people that are new to reading scripture. What a beautiful approach, right? Look, I'm going to read scripture for 15 minutes at first. You know that's part of our daily Claymore spiritual formation, greg, 15 to 30 minutes. But let's say I'm new to it, I'm in a hurry and I got 15 minutes. Well, you're going to have to slow down a little bit, is what you're saying.
Speaker 1:You know, approach this before you open up that scripture. So I kind of just kind of calm down and I get is there any any particular way for these young guys that you might say this is how I did it. I, you know, through breathing, through whatever, I find a quiet room. I mean, what would be a good setting for somebody just new to this saying Deacon, greg, I only got 20 minutes. I'm going to read for 15 minutes. I'm going to take a couple of minutes to calm down here. What would be a good way to kind of open myself up, like you said, to the Spirit and what God wants to talk to us about? What does he want to say to us?
Speaker 2:For me, getting my mind calm. It's not always easy. You know there's a lot of things that happen in life that kind of get your brain spinning and so on. But taking a step aside from that, putting yourself, like you said, in a quiet room, getting rid of the distractions you know, sometimes it's like if you're doing the Scripture readings on your phone there's a lot of temptations there to just sort of pop open a different app and see what's going on out there.
Speaker 1:Or running some banners running across, you know you've got to get rid of those in a way, you know when you're reading.
Speaker 2:When I use my phone I use the app from the USCCB. You know it's clear, it's clean, it's got a nice calendar and it's always accurate as far as the readings of the day. So I use that particular website. But calming yourself the breathing, like you said, if you can take some deep, deep breaths and just let it out slowly you know those breathing exercises out there that help really kind of calm the mind and help set aside the distractions that are running through your mind, that's really key your mind. If you're reading scripture and you're thinking about what's going on at work or school or whatever your situation is, it can be distracting and you might miss things.
Speaker 1:And that's not God pulling you out of, you know into a story, is it? I mean, you have to be able to discern those things that when you're, you know you said earlier about, sometimes you'll let yourself go with the story, but this is a story God may be taking me into and this is just a worry that I brought in because I got to do this later on and so one you need to get back to, this calmness and this frame of mind, and the other one might be God calling you into. So this is a great journey, isn't it? I mean, very interesting might be.
Speaker 1:God calling you into. So this is a great journey, isn't it? I mean very interesting. And you have to be open. You have to be starting to use your faculties to say, okay, who's speaking to me now?
Speaker 2:And we know the evil one's out there too, so we got to be a little careful. The thing that's very helpful is to actually study. It's amazing, when I go to write a homily, I do a lot of study. I look, I see what's been written about it, you know, you know you, you see it from somebody else's perspective. That has, uh, a deeper understanding of how scriptures are connected. And oh, you got one of those.
Speaker 1:yeah, that's, yeah, that's great this is a great bible and it for exactly what you're saying yeah, it's, it's a, it's a good bible.
Speaker 2:um, and I use other sources too. I've got some books that I look at, so I'll just look up that scripture reading, see what they say about it, and sometimes I make a connection that I haven't seen before. It might be a historical connection. It might be some deeper theological meaning to that Bible that I would have missed on my own.
Speaker 1:All those links are in that battle plan. There's a link to the USCCB there, there's a link to the Magnificat, which is another great way to read Scripture, and there's also one for the Halo app and the Halo app I like for young people sometimes too, even though the USCCB is free. Let's always keep that in mind. The Magnificat costs a few dollars, not much $20 for a year if you do it digitally. The Halo app is a little bit more, but it gives you those reminders and if you need those reminders, at least when you're starting out with scripture, it's a good way to do it. But anyways, you can access scripture. And so you're calming down, you're bringing the scripture in front of you and I know you have a homily coming up right Now. Yeah, we may not get this out before Saturday, but regardless, what is that scripture? So you open it up, you're going to read it first, right, you're going to see how that's speaking to you or what you're learning there, and then what comes next?
Speaker 2:I look for connections between like if it's a daily homily the first reading and the second reading. I might go to my sources and see if there are some things that scholars say that are helpful. You know, because part of the family is being able to teach something right? So there might be interesting things in there that I've missed. And then I do that walk with Christ. I say what are you trying to show me? Where in my history is there a connection between this reading and that garden from my life? I think we forget that the story of salvation didn't end with the book of Revelations. The story of salvation is being written now and we all have a part of the story.
Speaker 1:Certainly, we have a part of it for our own life, don't we?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everybody that comes into this world. Deacon Greg stands before that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we have to decide, and so that's what we do. When we fall on our knees, we're deciding. And now we're journeying into this story. We decided to go okay, I'm looking and I want to get deeper into that person of Christ and to this whole family that God brings into this salvation history. And I open up the book and I read something. I see how it's touching me.
Speaker 1:What you're talking about now is really, you know, I'm meditating on it. You know how is it affecting me, what is it saying to me? And I'm learning too, right? I mean, how exciting is this? We're learning a lot of things. And then we're really opening ourselves up to prayer. And what is that like when we open ourselves up to prayer?
Speaker 1:And I know you're already touching on all of this already, so it's not like these all have to be totally specific items, but again you're making an association with maybe something that happened in your life, something new that's sparking it. And also you said earlier that you're bringing maybe the first and second reading in together and, just again, for people that are new, the beauty of what Deacon Greg is unpacking. We're bringing the Old Testament. This is the Catholic teachings every single day. If you go to daily mass every day for three years, essentially you've read or heard the whole Bible Old Testament, psalms, new Testament in three years and it's really a powerful thing. I learned so much over the years. So you're going to get Old Testament, you're going to get a Psalm, you're going to get the gospel. You might get a letter or so in there, but the church is linking them together and telling a cohesive story.
Speaker 2:But the church is linking them together and telling a cohesive story, yeah, and also, when you start reading that, the Mass changes too. So much of the Mass comes from Scripture and you get familiar with Scripture, you start recognizing parts of the Scripture showing up in Mass, and Mass is really kind of the scripture showing up in mass and mass is really kind of the the scripture come alive. And it's amazing to me after learning about scripture, after getting really deep into it, how much more the mass meant to me when I realized that it's all attached to scripture, it's attached to the past and it's attached to the future the Mass. If we really truly understood what was going on in the Mass, it just becomes a whole different paradigm.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful connection. We forget about that and I think, especially if they come from a Protestant background, they don't realize that that Mass, what's unfolding at that Mass, is actually in Scripture. In fact, I remember Scott Hahn. When he came into the church he was a convert and when he came back in he was studying Greek and Hebrew and the biblical languages and he was sitting in the back of a mass, very uncomfortable in the back of a church, while mass was going on. He had no idea what was going on. He was studying the book of Revelation at that time and translating it. All of a sudden, it dawned on him that what was happening on the altar was in the book of Revelation and that's what got him started to come in. So, yeah, so thank you for making that connection.
Speaker 2:And if you look at, if you look at scripture, if you look at Jesus when he taught, it was more. He wanted to connect with people on a human level, you know, bring the truth of God's love into people's lives. Sometimes we try to overcomplicate things. I don't want to be a downer on theology, but because I love it.
Speaker 1:No, but you're right. I mean, Jesus walked into the story and he didn't try to tell us everything he knew. He tried to relate to us. You're exactly right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he told parables, you know, he told stories that people could relate to. So what I'm thinking about? A family I'm looking for those relatable thoughts and ideas and situations so that people can enter into that relationship with Jesus, with God. For me it is so helpful to write it down. You know, I know writing is not a big thing for a lot of people. It wasn't for me, you know. I never I didn't write much until I started going through deconformation and was required to write for homework and then also for analytics and so on. So it was difficult at first. But it's kind of like exercise, you know. You start it, it's difficult at first, but then your body gets used to it and it becomes easier and easier.
Speaker 1:For people that are listening today journal this a little bit. You know, when I'm reading scripture to Greg's point, it's not just if you're writing a homily or presenting this, but have that frame in your mind, like if I was going to share this and with Claymore you could be right, because this is a discipleship program and also what struck me. So I had a journal since I was in high school, and a journal is not a diary. A journal is just something. When something touches you, and it's a big deal, a lot of times I'll just jot down a note or two, because it cements it, doesn't it, deacon Greg? And if we can articulate it, even to ourselves, then something happens to our hearts. Right Words are powerful. The word that we're reading is powerful, and also our words to translate it. So thank you again for making that connection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the writing it down is a challenge but for me it helps me, like you said, articulate what it is that scripture reading means. But it's also the mission of every Christian is to share that gospel, is to share the story of Jesus, his resurrection and ascension, the kerygma right To share the truth of our Christian faith with others, not because we get some sort of bonus for bringing in the most people, but because it's an act of love. It's the greatest act of love that we can do. And being able to articulate it, being able to articulate the kerygma, that story of salvation, that the beauty of God's love for us is powerful, is part of why we're here, part of our mission, part of why we're here, part of our mission. And it can be difficult. There's obviously a lot of times that people aren't interested in our story or the faith in general.
Speaker 1:What makes it interesting is the way you write a homily, deacon Greg, because we're telling our story, too a lot of times, and how that person of Jesus Christ and the gospel touched us, and when I'm speaking to a young person, I don't sound I hope I don't sound like I'm preaching to them, because a good homily is telling the story again. You know, it's not like I'm looking down at this crowd, like I said in front of me, and trying to tell them how much I know. It's this relatable story where people are leaning into the story. Tell me more. Tell me more. Something touched my heart.
Speaker 1:See, this is the power of Jesus Christ that I think we forget sometimes. He touches hearts, and you're right, some people are going to reject it and walk away. It's going to happen. At other times, though, I'll be listening to some young guy talking to me and I'll start to say well, let me tell you something that I know from the gospel. What do you think about this? Because you just told me your heart, I'm going to share this. It's powerful, it's really beautiful it is powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me that writing it down thing, as you said before, it sort of solidifies things and gives you the words to to use when talking to other people. Um, but it's also the other part of it is is actually, when I do a homily, I'm preaching to myself, not just the people out there and in the in the congregation. What I'm doing is is trying to affect my own life, like finding parts of me that need to be fixed, finding parts of me that could be better than less Christ like than I would like. So it's about effecting change in my own life and it's a beautiful way to do it the journaling and then going back to it on occasion. You know, I go back to my homilies sometimes and I realize, oh, I'm not really living up to what I preached, and that's a humbling experience. I found through my life that there are a lot of fumbling experiences, so, but it's one of those things that jesus preached about over and over again is humility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we all need to be humble, yeah, and I think this leads into, uh, the last point that I want to.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you about your homily for for is contemplation, because this is this humility, right? So you know, we've read it, we've meditated on scripture a little bit, like we talked about, we pray about it. You know, god, what do you want to say to me? You know, and give me the wisdom maybe to talk to somebody else, or just to learn this in my own heart, to help me change, to be a better person.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, I have to be quiet a little bit so that when that 15 minutes of reading scripture for these young guys is finished, don't just get up and run. You know, you got to sit there just for a minute, you want to talk just for a minute or so, and we don't have a ton of time because I want to get to your, I want to get to a little bit about what you might talk about on Saturday, but just that sitting there and listening now, because this is a dialogue with God, isn't it? You know, I'm praying, I'm listening, and when I'm praying, I'm kind of talking to God in essence, you know, and now I'm listening right away to the response, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a conversation, and part of a conversation is listening, and that's one of those things that I think is a great thing to learn listening. Well, just in—. Your wife would appreciate it, wouldn't she?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I found that when I learned to do this in Scripture and reading Scripture, I also made the connection a little later that I need to do this at home.
Speaker 2:Listening is huge. You know, people want to be heard and it's not so much God wants to be heard as much as we need to hear what God has to say. So if we can get out of our own way and if we can open ourselves up to it and listen, you know, and sometimes it is he takes you on that walk and you see things from your past that apply to the scripture reading and where you might have messed up or, you know, it might be that you did something wrong and Jesus is trying to show you how much he loves you and how much he wants to forgive you. And you know, and it's, and it's that moment. It's like having a girlfriend or a wife. You know it's. If you don't spend time in that conversation, your relationship just withers and dies.
Speaker 2:If there's not that communication. Communication is like the lifeblood of a relationship.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about this Saturday. So what did you pick out for your homily for Saturday? And again for people listening to this, I may not get this out before this Saturday, but it doesn't matter. So we'll have to reference that scripture that you were reading, deacon Greg.
Speaker 2:Sure. So the scripture reading is the fourth Saturday of Easter, so that particular set of readings is going to be from the Acts of the Apostles and then from the Gospel of John.
Speaker 1:And what date is Saturday? Just for people. Sometimes they don't listen to this for a couple of weeks, greg, because they didn't run into it, somebody just turned them on to it. So what's the date? Because if they wanted to go back, they can always go back and actually read that scripture. Yeah, so it's May 17th. May 17th, okay, yep, so from the Acts of the Apostles and from the Gospel of John.
Speaker 2:So the Gospel of John is about this interaction with one of his disciples, and Jesus is talking about a profound truth about who he is. He's talking to Philip, his apostle, and there's some question about who Jesus is. So Jesus is trying to clarify things with them, and one of the questions that he asks Philip is have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, philip?
Speaker 2:And that's like a penetrating question and it's a question that's not just asked of Philip, it's asked of all of us, you know he's. It kind of gets back to that other Bible reading where Jesus says who do you say that I am? It's perhaps the most important question that we have to answer as Christians. So that's what really stuck out to me is this kind of not really knowing who Jesus is, and it doesn't just apply to Jesus, it applies to everybody that we meet. God asks us to love him With all of our being. He asks us to love each other as ourselves on a personal level, getting to know them somewhat intimately. You know like I know my wife better than anybody else and she knows me better than anybody else. So that's the part of that gospel story that stuck out to me and what I based the homily on.
Speaker 1:So let's dive into that. Homily, we've got about five to 10 minutes left here and I'd really like to hear that, homily. And the good news is, deacon Greg, is, if they don't get a chance to hear this ahead of time, so you'll still be preaching this for the first time on Saturday, so you don't have to worry about everybody hearing it already. Right, this is what I really love about what's going to come up. We set the stage now, deacon Greg, and now you did all those things that we talked about, and now you say, okay, now I'm going to give you some feedback on how this affected me. So this is very exciting for me actually to hear how you put this together. So thank you for being willing to share this. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you. All right, lord Philip had wondered how he felt when Jesus reprimanded him for not knowing who he was after being with him for so long. It brings to mind a similar experience I had back in the 1990s. I had a customer that I had. Back in the 1990s I had a customer that I'd been working with for years and thought I knew pretty well. He was a retired guy and he would come into the shop each day and pick up his mail and the way he shuffled around reminded me of the oldest man character from Tim Conway from the Carol Burnett show. Anyway, he was always getting these letters from scammers telling them if he sent in a few dollars he could claim the $25,000 prize that he had won, or, if you read the small print, the cheap costume jewelry prize. Well, he always received the jewelry.
Speaker 2:I felt bad for him, but he kept doing it. I was ashamed to say, but I did not have a very high opinion of his intelligence. One day I was talking to him about the job I had a few years before, which was repairing computer hard drives. I assumed, because he was old and it was the 90s and he didn't seem very sophisticated that he wouldn't know what a hard drive was. So I explained it to him in what was probably a condescending way. That was when I found out that in fact he had retired a few years earlier as the vice president of a well-known international electronics company. He knew what a hard drive was and how it worked electronics company. He knew what a hard drive was and how it worked. Then he told me more about his past, how he had been a lieutenant in the Airborne during the latter part of World War II and that his team had jumped into the Philippines and liberated American POWs that were being held by the Japanese. He had risen through the ranks to become a colonel and eventually left the military for the corporate world. It was a humbling experience, but knowing more about him and his past upended what I thought I knew and changed my perception of him, just like knowing the truth about Jesus changed Philip's perception of him.
Speaker 2:Knowing who he is means that he could be confident. Jesus is speaking the truth when he says whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these. It certainly helped Paul and Barnabas in our first reading. Without recognizing Jesus for who he is, they never would have been able to endure the abuse and rejection that they went through. It gave them the courage to keep going and to speak boldly.
Speaker 2:Knowing who Jesus is well, that's the key to everything. We can't truly love someone deeply unless we know who they are. We can't truly trust someone completely unless we know who they are. If we truly know Jesus, if we can love him deeply, if we can trust him completely, then some pretty awesome things can happen. If we can do this, then, like Jesus, god dwells within us and our desire to do the works of the Father becomes our purpose in life. Of course, it's not just Jesus that we need to get to know better. We need to get to know the other people in our lives better, so that our perception of who they are comes a little closer to the truth a lesson I learned from an old fellow much wiser than me. When we understand each other better and when we're in sync with Jesus and God dwells within us, then what Jesus says in that last line of the gospel reading becomes a promise that can change the world. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it, wow that was beautiful.
Speaker 1:It was beautiful as you're talking about this. You know there's so many things I could comment on, but one of them is kind of how I started the show with all this AI and all this way to distort people. Right, I could take your face or mannerisms, I can actually put different words in your mouth and put you on a screen, but when you meet someone face to face, like you're describing and I think this is going to be more and more important, deacon Greg, to be open to these conversations you know you see so many of these. You know radicals out there and all they do is shouting and yelling and never listening. And here, you know you're inspired by Christ, because a lot of times you'll walk in and it's in the back of your mind or in your heart. You know at least being open to situations. And so, as this man started to speak and you start to listen, you know what a beautiful gift you were given and, of course, you've just given us the same gift back to us. But this is a beautiful thing, my point being, I think these face-to-face interactions, speaking the truth, listening, bringing the gospel in and the gospel is shared mostly person-to-person, isn't it, deacon Greg. I mean, I could blast a podcast out all over and people might be interested, right, and come into the story, and that's what we hope Podcasts out all over and people might be interested, right, and come into the story, and that's what we hope.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, it's about discipling another person. See, this is what we're talking about, that I can talk to somebody on the phone, and that's a good thing. I can write them a letter. I think that's an awesome thing, right, we can really speak to each other. But somehow, when we meet in person and we touch hands and we're looking into each other's eyes, this is what Christ wants with us in our own hearts and then to see this, like you said, in our neighbor and the people that we meet and we bring this love story and it's interesting, isn't it? It's so beautiful and I think it's going to get more and more important.
Speaker 1:Again, isn't it kind of wild how we went in a circular thing? All this technology comes in. We have FaceTime we could do this together today, which is really a beautiful thing, but I'm looking at just you and listening to just you and there's something powerful. Nobody can change that, nobody can twist and distort it, because I'm sitting here right controlling my computer here, but even when you and I, when I see you at Mass so just Deacon Greg Ferrell is at St Gall with me in Elburn, illinois and when I see him, when I shake his hand, when he preaches a homily and I listen, this is a very powerful movement, and so I'm going to throw this in your hands for any parting comments and then wrap it up and thank you so much for taking the time to share your gifts.
Speaker 1:You really have some incredible gifts and it started, I know, in humility with you. I think I know you enough of a person and your dad and mom, I know, and what you said earlier, this beautiful flow from them. They passed something on. Now you're passing something on and for all of us, now we're taking this gospel in and now, hopefully, we're passing it on to whoever we meet, wherever they are, and I'll let you close Whatever's on your heart, deacon Greg. What's?
Speaker 2:on my heart is when I was going through deacon formation and I had to go to Rockford for classes and sometimes I would go to Denny's to have something to eat before going to class and I was reading, reading the Bible, getting ready for my class, and the waitress said to me so tell me, why should I read the Bible? And if, for most, I choked, I didn't know what to say, why should I read the Bible? And if, for most, I choked, I didn't know what to say? Why should I read the Bible? And I never want to be in that position again where I can't give a reason for reading the Bible.
Speaker 2:You know, and knowing what I knew about her which was very little, but some, knowing what I knew about her which was very little, but some I could have told her about the beautiful love story that it is, that it's about God pursuing his people, us, with all of the fervor of an entranced lover. So it's this beautiful love story and we have a part to play in it, and that that scripture, uh, really brings that alive. And that you know. If, if you ever want to know what your purpose is, if you ever want to know why you're here, uh, you can find the answer to that in scripture um and that's my parting thought.
Speaker 1:It's a love story and I agree with you 100. You know when, when we walk into a, a church, church, and especially a Catholic church, where we have a corpus on the cross, and you look up, that's a telling a love story, isn't it? It looks like a pain story, but this is a love story because we know love is to give. The highest form of that is to give your life for another. But we do that as husbands and if you're not married, you still give it to the next person. You see, right, give yourself away.
Speaker 1:John Paul would say to young people, single young people 15, 16, 17, 18-year-olds, young people, you know that your life has meaning to the extent that it's given away as a gift to others. You'll find yourself when you give yourself away and that's a beautiful way to end it and a way to get out of myself and reduce anxiety, to reduce depression, reduce all these things, isn't it? Get out of our own way. You said that earlier. Get out of our own way and let Christ in so that I can become the better lover that he is. Deacon Greg, you're such a joy. Hey, thank you again for taking the time. We really appreciate it. That's my pleasure, and may God bless all of your listeners. Can you give us a quick blessing? That's something I should have remembered, and thank you for reminding me right there. Sure.
Speaker 2:May Almighty God bless you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy.
Speaker 1:Spirit.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you, Goodbye everyone. Thanks for joining us today.