Monday, 25th Week in Ordinary Time September 24, 2023

Father Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for Monday, 25th Week in Ordinary Time September 24, 2023, Luke 8:16-18
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092523.cfm

My Two Dads

When I was five or six, my Dad added a bathroom to our house. He had the foundation completed, and the brick was about three feet high. He told me not to play there, but did I listen?

He went into the house for lunch and left his tools out. So, I remember jumping off that three-foot wall and thought it was the neatest thing, maybe because Dad told me not to play there. I climbed this little tree and cut my leg on a limb coming down.

It put a hole in the inside of my upper leg. I didn’t scream or cry because I didn’t want to get into trouble. I walked into the kitchen, past my Dad like nothing happened, and got some mercurochrome and gauze, but it wouldn’t stop bleeding.

Blood was everywhere. To make a long story short, I told them I cut myself, and they took me to the emergency room. Six stitches later, I had to tell them what happened. I knew I would be in trouble, so I told them I cut myself on a chisel until he found the blood on the tree.

He sat me down on his lap, told me to look in his eyes, and said, “Son, you never have to lie to me. “We never have to have secrets”. I put my arms around him and cried and cried and cried. I remember him holding me tight, rocking me in his lap until the last tear was soaked in his T-shirt. That day, my Dad became my best friend, and he still is; God rest his good soul.

“Nothing is hidden that will not become visible, and nothing is secret that will not be known and come to light.” Jesus gave us His Father; that day, His Father revealed Himself through my Dad. We all need that father figure through whom our Heavenly Father reveals Himself.

Gospel Challenge:
If you have any secrets, no matter how far back they go, open the door to that secret in your heart and go to your Father in confession. Tell him the whole story and be free to let your heavenly Father put his arms around you and love you back into His good graces.

He can turn something so wrong into something so good.

Ignite the Fire

Fr. Rick Pilger, I.C.

Pastor

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