Podcast | What It Would Take To Believe In The Resurrection (Episode 82)

Welcome to Heart of the Homily Podcast.

My name is Michelle Lopez.

I'm one of your hosts.

I'm here with Father Rigova.

How's it going, Michelle?

Happy Easter.

Happy Easter.

He's risen.

I beat you.

He is risen indeed.

Amen.

Well, what an incredible tritium.

Wow.

And Easter weekend.

I'm sure you're exhausted, but probably like super pumped at the same time.

I'm tired, but I have to tell you, I am so pumped because the overwhelming response and the feedback and how people were just reacting to all of the liturgies, how they were really able to engage, connect, um, enter into um, I think more than in any other time of my priesthood.

I had told you, I think a couple podcasts before, I had said that this had been a really good Lent for me personally, and it was true.

And even Holy Week was hard, but so fruitful.

That's awesome.

Wow.

Even Good Friday, the amount of hours we sat here, 11 priests were here hearing confessions on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Yeah, it was like a grace bomb going off at St.

Augustine with the confessions, the liturgies, the Saturday.

Close to a thousand people.

It's amazing.

That's amazing.

It's incredible.

Christ is alive.

Yeah.

People are hungry.

They want to be right with God.

They they're listening, they're paying attention.

They're it's almost like when you have the okay, what are the tools?

Like, how do I apply this?

How do I make it stick?

Right?

How does it cut to my heart?

So it's not just, oh, this is a nice story.

Oh, that was a good homily, or that was a good gospel, or this is a great liturgy.

No, no, no.

How does it cut directly into your heart?

So you're saying, wait, I can't live the same.

I gotta, I wanna be part of this, right?

And I think that that's what a lot of people are experiencing, where they're saying, I want to be part of this.

Which is so beautiful because this is this this past weekend is the weekend where the story makes all the difference.

And like we're brought into the story through our baptism, we renew our baptism.

Right.

We become this story becomes our story.

It's who we are.

This is this is the week.

Yeah.

Well, like the Easter vigil says, this is the night, right?

This is the night.

And um, wow.

So Well Father, I I wanted to say all all the work that you've put into your homilies this past couple of days, just thank you because I feel like what you were saying um just now, the homilies have been an opportunity to bring a familiar liturgy deep into the heart in a new way.

Um, and we're kind of focusing on looking at Easter Sunday.

Um, we're we're looking at the question, why what would it take you, what would it take for you to believe?

And I think that question that you started with was very profound and it really made it personal.

Um, what were you hoping that people would confront within themselves with that question?

Yeah, that's a good question.

Um a lot of work this past week with all the different homilies, but I think that that's true to all the priests who are out there and and who are celebrating the holy week, the tridum, and um and it it's it's um it's a labor of love.

It's it's not easy.

I enjoy it personally.

It's a struggle that you sit in front of the computer and you're like, what are you gonna say?

What are you gonna say that you haven't said?

Or but even I amaze myself, right?

Um sometimes I'll write something like that did not come from me, which is scary, right?

Like, that's the moment that you understand that it's not you, yeah.

And hopefully people are not coming to hear me.

People I hope that it's that they're coming because the Holy Spirit is really at work and they are being fed, right?

And so when I started writing that Easter Sunday homily, because I did the Sunrise Mass was a little bit different, they're all almost connected, right?

So it's like the same theme throughout, but they were just tweaked a little bit, like the Sunrise Mass was Easter Vigil was different, Sunrise Mass was different, and then uh the Sunday homily, and they're all there on um in the archives, you can listen to them.

But um I wanted to start off with a question that should be or at a lot of times is the question that a lot of people struggle with.

Does God exist?

Or maybe not, maybe they they understand or know on some level that God does exist, but or maybe they they their question is uh where is God in my life, or I don't feel God?

Is God real?

Is uh so many questions on so many different levels, and they're all pretty much existential in the sense of who am I?

Where did I come from?

Do I belong?

All of these really tough, beautiful questions.

But I wanted to start with a very strong question is what will it take for you to actually believe that this happened?

Because if you get to a point where you say, Well, absolutely, I believe that this happened, well, now it demands of you a huge response, right?

You just can't sit back and say, Oh, well, that was a nice story, and uh, that was isn't that Jesus a nice guy?

You know, he went around doing so many nice things for so many people and all the miracles and all the stories and all the teachings, and he lives in our memory.

How wonderful! And there's people that that can treat Jesus almost as a nice fairy tale, a nice story that someone told once, and uh, but that is not really in our human history in flesh and blood.

And um, so that's where it all began.

It's like, all right, let me kind of not shock you, but from right from the onset to get you to think in in a different way on Easter Sunday.

Yeah, and really going from, like you're saying, admiring Jesus and knowing about the story and making it like, but do you believe that a dead man walked out of this grave?

Like that even like framing it that way, like wakes you up a little bit.

Where it's like, do you can you put your life on that?

Yeah.

And I don't think a lot has been done on post-resurrection Jesus.

And I think that there, that's the success that um, or not the success, but that's the what Mel Gibson is trying to do in the new film that he's putting out, which is that that time after the resurrection, before the ascension.

And I think it's gonna be fascinating.

Because if you read the Acts of the Apostles, you read the Gospels, you read some of our church fathers, there were hundreds of people who gave testimony, who saw him at different places, who had uh a meal with him, who sat and talked with him and had encounters with him.

I'm talking hundreds, right?

And you have to really think about that, that this person who was dead and now is not, and is now out there talking to people and having encounters, and and that must have been just mind-blowing.

It is no wonder that it takes people from I'm kind of scared, I want to be around him, I want to do this, I wanna to boldly proclaiming him on the street.

Yeah, absolutely.

Right?

Because when Pentecost comes, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit, that is where it really takes off, right?

So the birth of the church, but how beautiful how Jesus prepares it.

I will leave and I will send you the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But before he leaves, he says, I want you to make sure that you understand that the resurrection took place.

Yeah, yes.

Right.

And and that's such a a great question that you propose on Sunday.

And then even for our listeners right now, like if we're honest with ourselves, do we really believe that Jesus rose from the dead?

And or do we just appreciate like the idea of like, oh my gosh, yeah, yeah, if God came, he would have wrote like, do we really believe?

And then it kind of goes into what you mentioned in your homily about that the resurrection disrupts our routines, our assumptions, and our personal narratives.

Um, and I thought that was really impactful, recognizing that um Easter doesn't work, the resurrection doesn't make sense unless we're allowing it to like interrupt us a little bit, to wake us up to the more that Christ is opening up to us.

That's a good point.

I I hope that people meditate on that and reflect a little bit because Easter has to interrupt.

Easter has to interrupt because it's not just one day that uh oh, it's a nice uh, you know, you dress up the children nice and you wear a nice suit.

Maybe you come to Mass, you have a nice meal at your home, and you celebrate the resurrection.

No, Easter interrupts because it is how we should live, right?

We're Easter people.

We are people who need to be proclaiming the charygma the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ.

This is huge, which is interesting.

I think I feel like people are people are kind of more um, it's more easy to be like, yes, Jesus' passion and his death, but then the resurrection.

Like the resurrection is like essential, but it's not talked, or I don't know, there's kind of like a it's uncomfortable.

It's uncomfortable because it's so hard to believe.

And I think that that's what happened to all the apostles.

No one was expecting a miracle.

Even Jesus said, I will, I and on the third day I will rise up again.

And they I wonder what they were thinking.

They was like, okay, that sounds good, you know.

Tear down this temple and I will raise it back up in three days.

And you're like, okay, you go, Jesus.

Yeah, right?

Because it's so hard to you are absolutely dead, right?

Yeah, and you just walk out of that tomb.

And one of the things that I wanted to focus on was that the tomb, the Jesus did not need to roll back the stone.

He didn't need to.

We're talking about someone who walked on water, right?

Walked through doors.

So he doesn't need to bust that that stone and roll it away, but he did for us.

Yeah.

Because we needed to see the stone rolled away.

We needed to be able to step into that tomb to look at that tomb and see that is empty.

Why?

Because something you just mentioned a little bit ago.

If Jesus did not raise was if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then let's just pack it all up and go home.

Because our faith, the hinge, it's everything is on that premise.

Easter is that this man walked out of his tomb.

And I think about you know, that speaking into our life today, where it means like whatever is dead because of Jesus can come back to life.

Exactly.

Like we cannot just settle for like like you were talking about kind of like the story that we usually go with in our life that can be a story of darkness or thinking that you know things of the world have the last say.

But really, like what you're saying is like the resurrection has the last say, like nothing that died because of Jesus has the potential to come back to life.

Like that's the resurrection power.

And that's a powerful um way of looking at all that because one of the things in in the feedback and some of the comments that I've heard recently is that that that's exactly right.

A lot of people are living in a tomb, right?

They're living in the cave, they're going through a lot of heartache, they're going through difficulties, they're going through struggles, and so they walk around and they live their life in that cave.

And they desire for the the stone to be rolled away.

They want to be out in the light, but they don't know how to do that, or they get this disillusioned, or uh they don't have the strength.

And so it's safer to live in the tomb, it's safer to live in darkness.

But what I'm seeing now is people are saying, no, I choose a light, I choose to be interrupted, I choose to change my schedule, change my routine to include God in a more pronounced way in my life.

And that that's huge.

That speaks volumes of because that's what's happening here.

And I see it firsthand, and I'm talking to people.

People are saying, no, I want to change my life, I want to do things differently, I want to go to confession.

I can't tell you how many people in confession say, I haven't been to confession in 20 years, I haven't been in confession in 10 years.

I went to confession because you know, you were preaching about I need to go to confession, that I can't just confess to Jesus in the mirror.

People are listening.

Yeah, there's a hunger.

People are desiring to be out of the tomb.

And so this is not a self-help uh therapy session at church.

This is no, this is we're talking transformation.

The faith is absolutely different.

Now, that I'm not knocking someone going to uh counseling or therapy.

I think that's great.

A lot of people need it, let me tell you.

But what I'm saying is that can only take you so far.

Jesus Christ can really heal at the core root of what's going on in your life.

Yeah, and it's um like you were saying, I think what always strikes me is that it's in the tomb that the resurrection happened.

And so I think about like even all these things that we carry around or these places of questions or darkness, like very much in them is where the light begins to shine.

Like it's in them.

It's not like you have to get rid of them or hide them, but like in the tomb itself is where the resurrection begins.

Yeah.

And like if we let Christ like have it happen there, you know.

Well, think about it.

If you're going through a very hard time in your life, you're going through a difficulty, and you decide to step into the light, or you decide to just pray a little bit more, or come to daily mass, or come to Sunday Mass, or do your prayers, or you do something small, right?

And you're you're making a step forward, one foot in front of the other.

That there right there is resurrection.

Doesn't mean you have it all figured out, doesn't mean that you feel 100%, doesn't feel that you you're joyful dancing and doing cartwheels.

That's not what I'm talking about.

What I'm talking about is letting that light of resurrection just enter a little bit.

Yeah, let that stone just roll away a little bit.

It'll eventually roll away, but one step in front of the other.

Yeah.

So something from your Humbly Father, you were talking about, um, kind of what changed the disciples, like the transformation of the disciples as evidence of the resurrection.

Would love to you for you to share a little bit more of um kind of what you thought about their their testimony that speaks to like this being real and this being like for us too.

Yeah, that I that's always so fascinating.

And and one of the reasons why I love listening to the Acts of the Apostles.

And when I hear people ask, or they'll ask, they'll ask me, I want to start reading the scriptures, I want to start reading the Bible, I say, start with Acts of the Apostles or start Luke Acts, like start with Luke and then go into the Acts of the Apostles.

But it's you see that courage, and hopefully when you're reading this, it's not some nice story again.

It's you're you're reading testimony, right?

So if you go to the beginning of the gospel of Luke, it says, I am witness to these events.

I'm writing down this so that you understand that I am a witness to what actually happened, factual information that happened.

And so if you if we really understand what all of the these disciples went through and how the transformation that they did, right?

Because even in the homily, I mentioned that these were broken men.

These weren't courageous men, these were broken men.

And and that's good news for us because we're all broken, right?

And um, and and so how does that how do they go from being afraid, uh locked up behind uh closed doors, just fearful that the Roman authorities are going to be knocking on the door at any moment or busting it open to arrest them?

How do they go from that, just fear, to courageously proclaiming Jesus Christ in the streets and converting people and healing people, and and and they're doing it all in the name of the risen Christ, right?

In the name of the risen Christ, I I proclaim to you good news.

And that's where we have to really analyze it and study that that that's that's the transformation where they went from disbelief, struggles with faith, human frailties, and and whatever it is, to absolutely this is who Jesus Christ is, and this is what he's done in my life.

Why?

Because the the power of the resurrection was so intense and so earth-shattering, right?

Even with earthquakes and everything, but um that it transformed them.

Yeah.

So I was reading an article today there on the on the whole uh the shroud of Turin, and it's saying that the power of that that shroud is not earthly.

It came from the resurrection.

There's a priest uh who's in Rome who does these talks around the country.

I'm gonna invite him to come and he's an expert on the the Shroud of Turin, and uh I want him to come and talk to us about that, about the power of the resurrection.

So stay tuned.

We're gonna invite him to come out and and maybe do a couple of nights here at the parish.

That's awesome.

Because then I think about um even all the people that received sacraments this past weekend, the week before when we were preparing for the rite of the sacraments.

Literally, what you said in the your homily is what I told them, which is guys, remember, like the power of the resurrection, like the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the spirit that you're receiving when you're receiving your sacraments.

I love that.

And like contemplating that though, like that's what we renew on Easter.

Like for those of us that are already baptized, like we're renewing that, like the power of the resurrection, like our baptism like raises us from the dead, you know, and like restores us and renews us.

Um, so it's absolutely a hundred percent.

The the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that is available to you, the exact same power.

That's crazy.

That's crazy.

And really, like it's something to to pray about and to say, like, Lord, I want to believe that.

I want to step into that in a deeper way.

I want that active in my life in a deeper way.

Um, which reminds me of something that you mentioned.

You said, if Christ is risen, your past is not final.

And I thought that was really beautiful because I feel like that's um an invitation to know that um our story doesn't end with with like I don't know, our wounds or our our sufferings, but like And that's a sad thing.

A lot of people live like that.

They they think that their identity is their mistake or their or their failings or whatever it is, or that their sin or their habit or the way they act, that that's who I am.

That that's I can't separate myself from all of this that I've done.

And that's not Easter.

That's not what the resurrection is, and that's not what we're called to.

And and so when you come to learn that Christ comes to free you, to transform you, not to keep you in that same tomb, but to resurrect with him, um, it's a liberating experience, especially when you go to confession and you're able to really give it to the Lord and understand that either God is God and that God exists, and He has and He He either has the power to forgive or He doesn't.

And he is God or He's not God.

And so when you come to that realization, again, going back to the question at the beginning of the homily, is if you believe right that this actually happened, then it just changes everything.

It changes your whole way of looking at life, looking at your own faith life, looking at and how you are to continue on.

Um, so yeah, it's it's Easter, that's why Easter is so powerful because it should build upon the rest of the year.

Um, and hopefully it gets you excited to learn more and study more, maybe join a Bible study.

Read the Acts of the Apostles.

You've had a great experience this Easter, you had a great experience this tritum.

Well, read the Acts of the Apostles slowly.

How did this come about?

Like, how does this happen?

Today, in in the got in the readings, uh, the people are hearing all this and they're witnessing all this, and they're saying, Well, okay, what are we to do with this?

And what does Peter say?

He says, repent and be baptized.

Sometimes we we think that repent is like this bad word that's like, oh, it's so complicated.

No, no, no, it's it's come to the Lord, turn, change your ways.

That's beautiful.

And um, something within your Hamily Fathers, you you you kind of um spoke to specific groups of of parents, young people, those grieving, doubting.

Um would love to hear like what was the inspiration for that?

Because I know all those different kind of groups of people um were profoundly moved that that you invited them to come into the resurrection in a new way.

Yeah.

Well It's beautiful because it's what I I've been hearing through confession, through spiritual direction, through just casual conversations is where you have parents that are very tired, that have adult children, or even high school children, or children that are are are problems right now, or that the family life is hard, or that the marriage is having its issues, or whatever it is.

And some parents are so frustrated and so at their wit's end that they're saying, Is this worth it?

Does it all does it does it even matter?

And and so when I was writing the homily, I was meditating on this, I said, I want to mention to them that in light of the resurrection, keep going.

It does matter.

And what you're doing is huge because you may be suffering now, but the glory on the other side of that empty tomb is just waiting for you.

So struggle, struggle, be be an athlete.

You know, athletes uh condition themselves and they they they go through a lot of pain, but why?

Because they see the end result and and what they're capable of.

And that's the same thing with resurrection and what it teaches us.

So I wanted to make sure to give a word to to parents and grandparents who are struggling.

The day-to-day, the the the how hard it is.

And then also to young people and college students, I am so impressed by the amount of young people that are coming to master year, even young families and uh even single uh young adults, they desire they're hungry, hungry for for newness of to be made new in Christ and to follow him and to live differently.

And so I said to them, God is creating you for more, for greatness, where this world is saying, you're a piece of crap, just follow along, get in line, don't make too much noise.

No, God is calling you to be great, calling you to more.

Don't settle.

But what does that mean?

That means follow him, be right with him.

He, you know, you know right now what are those behaviors, what are those um things that you're doing in your life, those habits, those sins.

You know what is what disappoints the Lord, and also what draws you, gets you right back into that tomb.

You know what it is.

Start changing it.

Beautiful.

So good.

So, Father, as we kind of start wrapping up here, um, you also did kind of an invitation, um, kind of like inviting people to make this their home, to show up on Sundays.

Would love some closing thoughts just on anyone that might be listening, and maybe that they came to Easter Mass because that's the the once or twice a year that they come.

Um, but what would your invitation be for them to um to not just make this a yearly occurrence, but something where they commit to in a deeper way?

Well, that's what I um that's what excites me the most.

It's um I just went to lunch today with someone who uh is just starting to come out to St.

Augustine.

He had his best friend come out to St.

Augustine, and um it's what's exciting to me is one foot in front of the other.

Just make a small commitment, pray a little bit more, say a rosary, form a Bible study, make a men's group, a small group, a woman's group, people that'll hold you accountable, people who are like-minded, people who want to walk in the ways of the Lord.

I promise you, if you do this, you're gonna find fulfillment, you're gonna find the grace to continue to stay in the straight and narrow, and you're gonna be a much happier person.

And so my invitation was come to mass, come next Sunday, and then come the next Sunday, because faith is not formed in one Sunday, it is formed in a community, it is formed in a community who is is is wanting to go out on mission and to serve the Lord, to know the Lord, to love the Lord.

That's how you're gonna save yourself.

Yes, ultimately, save your soul for salvation, but save yourself right now from a lot of heartache, from a lot of, and you may be going through all two struggles and frustrations, but it's because of Jesus Christ that your life is gonna be that much not easier, but it's manageable and and where you find the peace and the joy to continue and to bring others to know Christ because we want to be able to share what what is what has Jesus done in your life.

But just to wrap up, I I love that people are coming back to mass and that want to get engaged.

But I would say to you, I would say to you, don't get overwhelmed one foot in front of the other.

Don't go crazy, start small and build, but stay connected.

Those things that were are gonna nourish your faith, keep you excited, keep you pumped, join a community that will love you and will walk with you.

So beautiful.

Um, and to close out, Father, it's something you said at the end.

I just have to highlight because I thought it was so good.

Um, that because of the resurrection, that the best is yet to come.

The best chapter of our life is still to come.

Could you just comment on like what that means and how to invite our listeners to really step into belief with that?

Absolutely.

I believe that.

I believe that when you give your heart to Jesus Christ, when you convict your heart to him and you start living in the ways of the Lord, you feel on fire.

You feel like you're excited.

You want to share the faith, you want to do, you want to go out on mission, you want to help others, you want to, you're just you can't contain it.

And so it's on the other side of that empty tomb.

Let the fire catch you, let it set your heart on fire, convict your love to the Lord, and I promise you, as I've been saying, and Michelle's been saying, it's gonna change and it's gonna bring a lot of fulfillment, love, and joy in your life.

So good.

So thank you all for listening.

And I think just an invitation is um, you know, I think in your own life of prayer, like, have you been able to say, like, Jesus, I believe that you have been raised from the dead?

And I know for myself, like, I feel like I had those moments in prayer where I said that like in an intentional, personal way, not just attending mass and hearing it said to me, right, but saying it in my own heart.

And I just invite our listeners, if that's maybe something you've never done before, is to sit in prayer and say, like, Jesus, I believe that you have been risen from the dead, that you've come out of that grave to be able to say that in a new way this week and let the Lord do something new in your heart so that you truly know that that best chapter of life is beginning to unfold more and more deeply as you grow in belief.

Beautiful.

I love it.

That's what it's all about.

Well, if you've been are if you're enjoying these podcasts and daily homilies, I invite you to spread the word.

Be on mission.

Let others come to know Jesus Christ and know him, to love him and to serve him.

And so if you find these podcasts and homilies useful, spread it.

We'll see you next week.

Happy Easter.

Happy Easter.