come to me

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Heart In Heart

14th Sunday In Ordinary Time

Fr. Mark Gatto

Preached: July 5, 2020

Do you know what is the hardest thing about preaching?  It is when I begin looking at the Scripture readings for Sunday and I feel like the Lord is speaking directly to me, confronting me with my sins and failings!  When I realize I need to preach about something that I am struggling to live in my own life.

One Desert Father used to say, “The person who teaches others by actions, not by words, is truly wise.”  The longer that I have lived as a priest, the more I realize that my parishioners and people I meet in this life are usually holier than me.

The little old lady at Mass each morning, with no theological studies, but the heart of a child resting in the arms of a loving parent.  A Christian from another church who does not share the Sacraments we have, but who is deeply united to Jesus.  The non-believer I meet, who does not believe in God but is so humble and has a concern for the poor and needy.  So many other examples I could give.

We come to Faith, come to God, not by deep studies, not by extensive reading, not by my great effort.  We come to God when we have a heart of an infant, turning with trust to the living God.

Jesus says, “Come to me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.”  We simply have to have an open heart ready to go to the loving heart of God.

Who do you go to when you are struggling in your life?  If you were in a difficult moment in life, who is the person you would naturally go to?  This is a glimpse of how we are received by God.  The Church is also called to be the arms of Jesus saying, Come to me.  Our parish should be a community in which all people hear, “Come to me.”

Each one of us as disciples of Jesus need to be with others in such a way that they hear those words of Jesus, “Come to me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.”  To be people that others feel they can go to with trust.

Jesus reveals the heart of God.  A gentle and humble heart.  A God we can turn to no matter what is happening in our life.  We go to God not through our great effort and intelligence, we go to God with the heart of an infant, to be embraced in the heart of God.

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