Father Mark Nolte - July 19

St. Philip Catholic Church: Good morning everybody. We have any gardeners here. Raise your hand. Anybody gardens? Do you tolerate weeds in your garden? Who tolerates weeds in their garden? Raise your hand. Okay, I I did some YouTubing this morning. A little research because I'm not a gardener. And this guy was saying that not all weeds are bad. I'm like, gosh, that destroys my homily today then. I all weeds f for the purpose of this homily, all weeds are bad. Okay, just There are bad ways and I understand there are some they serve their purpose. But Jesus in the gospel today, once again this Sunday, he's speaking in a parable. He uses parables to help us, those who are open to his spirit, to understand the deeper mysteries of God and his kingdom, to help us understand the very nature of God, who God is, and Jesus, who is the word made flesh, who's come to reveal the Father in the flesh, something of the nature of God and we see in Jesus. The readings today, including the gospel, all have to do with revealing to us God's nature that God is patient and merciful and lenient and forgiving. We all even our response towards you hear all these adjectives of who God is. This is who God is. Why is that important to us? Because sometimes our image of God is way off. God used to be for me a very Harsh, judgmental, get her done, and do it right, God. Anybody ever had that kind of God? My dad, God rest his soul, was a German Catholic. I'm not I don't mean to pick it on the Germans, because not all Germans is but he wanted everything in order and there was no tolerance for anything that didn't belong where it needed to be belong, right? Especially weeds. He owned a restaurant and he had us kids or ten kids. And he made us go out in that parking lot, well, not us, me and a few others, to and pull up the weeds in the parking. He had a big parking lot. We had to go around and pull up weeds in 115 degree weather. I grew up in Arkansas. I used to hate pulling I hate weeds. I could be walking by your house and it it's not even my house. If I see weeds in your garden, I'll probably run up there and pull up. Cause I just I mean, I was even checking the plants out today. There are there any weeds? No, there's no waits, thank God. He's not gonna punish me. But that's how that's how I tend to look at God. It's like everything's gotta be in order. He's not very patient. I gotta get it done, and I gotta get it done now. My God, my dad was a good man. I I love my dad. So I'm not picking on him, but that's probably how he grew up too. Everything had to be, he wasn't real patient. So it's taken me 66 years to learn some patience, and I got a long ways to go. Anyone got a long ways to go when it comes to patience? How many of you this morning on the way to church have already lost your patience? Raise your hand. Okay, everybody just raise your hand. Everybody just get your hands up. Yeah. Father Mark, I lost my patience before even my feet hit the floor out of bed. I already lost my patience with my husband or my wife, whatever, right? Or the kids losing their pay because sometimes we pick on the kids. I'm gonna pick on the parents. You know, kids have to be patient with the parents too. So today's readings, they're teaching us tolerant, they're teaching us the patience and tolerance of God. Look how patient God is. Look how patient God is with this world. Have you ever wondered, God, do you see what's going on down here? Would you do something? How many of y'all have ever thought that way? yeah. hello. A little bit of evil down here, could you kind of just weed it out? How many of y'all said that? Just pull up those weeds and we'll all be happy. And Jesus says, they even said in the gospel, they said, You want us to pull up those weeds? He goes, No, leave them there. Really? No, leave them there. I'm going to teach you patience. I'm going to teach you tolerance. In the end, at the final day of judgment, then I'll take care of all this. I'll divide the lambs from the goats and the wheat from the weeds. But right now, I want to teach my people what love is. St. Paul says, love is patient, love is kind. Right? So God's teaching us by by teaching He's teaching us to l live in a world that has fallen and He's teaching us to learn to live in the midst of evil. And teaching us tolerance with each other, with each other's weaknesses, right? And it all starts right in our homes, right? With our spouses, our kids. I don't know how my parents sit with 10 kids. I mean, I'd they just I mean they lost their patience a lot, but they got through it. Well, they got through it because of him and their faith, right? So Jesus teaching us patience. Why is he so patient with our world? Why doesn't God do something? He does do something, but he does it through us. We keep looking to him to fix everything. He says, I want to fix it, but you got to cooperate with my grace. In when I was in religious life, there were people in the community who drove me crazy, and I'm sure I got on some of their nerves. In any family, any community, any pl workplace, there's gonna be those individuals who are gonna test your patience, right? And you don't even have to leave your home to find that. Because when I hear confessions, the most common confession I hear is, Father, forgive me, for I've sinned, I lost my patience the other day. I yelled at my kids or my wife, my husband, whatever. It's so hard to be patient. It's only by the grace of God that we can be patient. And why is patience so hard? Because it requires humility. It requires that something in me has to die. There's something in me and in you that has to be crucified. And every time I choose to be patient and just zip it up. And not put my hand up with other fingers down with the middle one up in traffic. I'm just not gonna go there. I'm gonna humble myself. I know this lady in front of me is doing about 30 miles an hour in a 70-mile-hour zone. And we're on a highway. And I can't pass right now. So praise you, Jesus. Thank you for this little lady in front of me who I want to scream at right now, but I'm not gonna do it. Because that's not who you are, and that's not who I am. I'm just gonna thank you, Lord, for putting her in front of me to slow me down and to teach me a little humility. Lord, thank you for my husband who drives me crazy. Thank you for my wife and my kids who make me want to scream sometime. Lord, you're teaching me patience, but more importantly, you're teaching me what it means to love. St. Paul says, love is patience. He's talking about God. And the way I know I'm growing in holiness, in virtue, is through patience. I've become a lot more patient over the years, but I I still got a lot of work to do. Any of y'all ever feel rushed? How many of y'all raise your hand if you feel rushed? You feel yeah, as a priest when I'm doing the mass, sometimes there's a part of me that says, Let's go. Get her done. People gotta get out of here. They gotta they gotta get to breakfast. I can hear my dad, I can hear my dad and my my dad still lives up here. Like, let's go, son. Let's get her done. 20-minute mass. You've already preached too long, go to sit down. And when you're swinging that incense, let's get her going. Speed it up. And I just look up and say, Dad, you're in heaven. You're not supposed be doing that. So these readings today are all about. Teaching us how to grow in holiness, teaching us the importance of patience and tolerance with the people in this world that we have to live with, with people in our homes. But it starts with me learning to be patient with myself, with my own weaknesses, my sinfulness, because I know he's patient with me. In our community, our religious community. The people that got on your nerves, we had a joke in our community, we called them saint makers. Yeah, she's a or he's a real saint maker, meaning he's really testing my patience. And you see, God likes to give tests. He's a teacher. God likes to give tests. He wants to see if you're gonna pass that test. So what he does is he puts you in situations in life that your patients are gonna be tested. And he wants to see if you're gonna pass the test. Are you going to get angry and fly off the wheel? Are you going to just say, Nope, Lord, I give you that anger? I choose to forgive them. I choose to slow down and do 30 in the 70 mile hour zone. I choose to wait wherever you want me to wait. And that's how we grow in holiness is we imitate him. We choose, because it's a choice. I choose to be like my Father in heaven. I choose to be like Jesus, who is patient. And merciful and kind. So wherever it is for you, where do you struggle with patience? Who do you struggle with the most? Who are your saint makers in your house? And some I always like to say that 'cause I always like to look at spouses going You're a real saint maker, you're gonna get me to heaven because you're driving me crazy. Yeah, so that's why in the in the parable today they say, can we just pull up the weeds? Can we just weed out all these problems? Not right now. We're gonna take care of those problems by you being patient. Go look up the word patient. It comes from a word that set me that means to suffer. See, we don't like patience because there's suffering involved. There's something in me has to die. So at every mass, all the things, all everywhere you've been s we're you've been tested this week, you see, patience involves suffering. Our kids, our spouses, our parents, our coworkers. Cause us suffering. They cause us to slow down, to bite our tongue, to die to ourselves. They're suffering in that. And so, Jesus, I just offer you all my suffering. We'll just do that right now. Close your eyes. Jesus, it's been a rough week. I just offer you all the ways you have allowed me to be tested. All the ways I have failed that test and I lost my patience. I offer to you, Jesus, on the altar today, all the ways that you've asked me to suffer, to die to myself, to my pride, and to my impatience. Jesus, I want to be more like you. I want you to take over my life. I need more of your love, more of your patience. Come, Holy Spirit, and just Take over my life. And give me your patient and loving heart to all those I will encounter today, especially those I find most difficult. Amen.