Cross Catholic Outreach

Tonight, we celebrate the mystery of God.

Three persons in one, and more.

I think we all know the closest star to the earth is the sun, 93 million miles away.

The second closest star, Alpha Centauri, four light years away.

That is, if you travel at the speed of light, 186,000 miles a second for four

years, you'll get there.

If you do the math, it's more than 23 trillion, not billion, trillion miles.

And there are billions of stars just in our galaxy.

It is said that to go from one end of the galaxy,

the Milky Way, to the other end would take 200,000 years traveling at the speed of light.

A couple years ago, there was an article where they discovered a black hole

that had opened, Much like Mount St.

Helens exploding in 1980, this black hole exploding 390 million light-years away.

Now, it's four light-years. It's 23 trillion miles. 390 million light-years.

And the crater of this black hole could take 15 of the Milky Ways in a row right there.

And God is greater than all that how do we comprehend this God it's not just

three in one it is so much more,

Maybe that's why our Lord came to us as a baby,

to be hugged, to be fed,

to be loved, to let us know that the best way to know, to understand this God

is not with the mind, but with the heart.

And not only that, as we well know, he came to us.

In a cradle, a feeding trough,

to let us know that he would be our bread of life, to let us know as well that a way to know him,

is to feed one another as he feeds us.

Indeed, he said as much the last time he got together with St.

Peter three times, he asked him, Peter, do you love me?

And in response to Peter's, yes, I do.

Our Lord said, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my family.

If we truly want to know the mystery of God, the mystery of this Trinity,

there's no better way than to love one another, to feed one another.

I've come begging this weekend because our Lord's family, our family, is dying of hunger.

And more than that, I've come begging because it is our Lord who is dying of hunger.

He said to us in very clear terms, speaking to you and me, if you want to be

with me for all eternity,

if you truly love me, here's the test.

I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink.

When, Lord, when?

Whatever you did it to the least of my little ones, you did it to me.

I'm my stole some. You have commented

on it already. There are faces of children from around the world.

It is the face of Christ in children around the world.

I got this a couple years back preaching in Norco, California.

The pastor was at Mass and he said, you can't tell stories of children and not

have a stole to go with it. So he gave me the stole.

After all the Masses, I think I had eight, four in English, four in Spanish.

I gave it back. I thanked him. He said, oh, no, no, no, you keep it.

And so I have it and I treasure it.

I have seen our Lord done of hunger in children in too many places.

In Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas. What does a mother do when her

children come crying because they are starving and she has no food to give them?

She gives them what they call good, good bread. It isn't.

It's mud cakes that she has made.

She adds a little bit of salt, puts it in the sun to dry, and this is what she

will feed them just so they will have something in their empty bellies.

I tasted one of these out of curiosity. Didn't eat it, just tasted it.

You could add all the salt in the world.

Mud is mud. I have seen our Lord die of hunger in children in Manila,

the Philippines, Guatemala City, Managua, Nicaragua, Tegel, Sigapa, Honduras,

and I'm sure in many other large cities that I've not visited.

Right there in these large cities are mountains.

But you will never see these mountains in a travel brochure because these are

mountains of stinking garbage.

And the word stinking doesn't even come close to describing the stench,

the awful stench that literally takes one's breath away. It gagged me.

I could not breathe. I had to force myself to walk with our brothers and sisters,

and I did, because I wanted to accompany them, to pray with them,

to offer some words of hope.

As I walked with them, I could not believe how many actually live on these garbage

dumps night and day, including children who should have been in school, a playground.

Nope, they don't have that luxury. Day in and day out, they scrounge around

trying to find food in the stinking garbage.

I have seen our Lord die of thirst in children.

In Ethiopia, where I went to help open an orphanage, and in Guatemala,

where I was last year, visiting some of our mystery sites, in both places,

walking with moms and children,

carrying plastic jugs to go and retrieve water. In both places.

We walked and walked and walked till we got to some muddy streams,

swamps, really, and that was the filthy water that they brought home to drink, to cook with.

Isn't any wonder so many, especially children, die from diarrhea, from cholera.

The number one cause of death among the poor all over the world, the lack of clean water.

Every two minutes, a child under the age of five dies from drinking unclean water.

At Cross Catholic Outreach, it's our mission, it is our dream to help transform this harsh reality.

One of our projects, we call it Water for Life.

We want to drill hundreds of wells, especially in countries that suffer from

perennial drought, such as Eastern Africa and elsewhere.

The wells are not cheap, $5,000 per well.

But each well will provide clean water, life-giving water to a whole village

of hundreds, maybe more, for 20 years, maybe more.

Not a bad investment. Thanks to you and good people like you, we're on our way.

Thanks to you and good people like you, we have built homes,

clinics, schools, orphanages, churches, chapels for thousands upon thousands.

Last year in Guatemala I celebrated Mass at least once a day from village to village to village.

Because our brothers and sisters, like you, like me, hunger not only for material

food, they hunger for this spiritual nourishment.

Thank you for making it happen.

One of the greatest joys I've experienced is when I visit the schools and orphanages

that we have built, that we support, and to see these children at play, singing,

laughing, learning, learning about life, learning about our faith,

to see the joy in their eyes, to know that they will have a better tomorrow, a brighter future.

It has filled my heart with joy. Thank you. And yes, we work with their parents

as well, to give them some job skills or some poultry, some goats,

some pigs, something to raise so that they can provide for their families.

Thanks to you and good people like you we work miracles truly but without you cannot do a thing,

i come begging in the hope that you will open your hearts and help us to make

more life-giving miracles happen. What do you have to do?

Well, thanks to Kyle, there are some brochures next to you.

Grab one if you would. I'm not going to walk you through it.

I simply want to point out a couple of things.

When you open it.

You will see a pie chart, such a simple thing, and yet it speaks volumes.

That pie chart tells you, we believe in transparency.

We believe in telling you where your money goes.

Please, never give your money to anybody, not even to a priest in church,

unless you know how much of your contribution actually goes to the poor.

About 95 cents of every dollar. You should know that.

There's a place for prayers. I hope you pray for us. Know that we will pray for you.

Give us your name. Give us the name of the person you want us to pray for.

Whatever your intention may be, you will be in our prayers all year long.

Different ways you can make a contribution. You can do it once. You can do it monthly.

There's a perforated line down the middle.

The two parts separate. The part with the picture of these two beautiful kids,

this holy nun, that is an envelope.

Please take a brochure. Take as many as you like to share with family and friends.

Please put something in the envelope. We do not take a collection.

So if you want to help us make a miracle happen take it home read it pray about

it make your decision you can mail it in and you don't need a stamp.

You can also use a qr code some of you are pretty good at that uh if you do

let us know that it's from saint anne so that father dowid can get credit for your contribution,

or you can give it to me on the way out.

There are also a couple of baskets back there. You can just drop it in the basket.

The other part tells you a little bit more about who we are.

It says we're a Catholic ministry.

We are, and we're proud of it. About two months ago, I was in Canton, Michigan.

My brother Knights had their shirts on, and on the back it said, Catholic and proud.

We are Catholic and proud. The Vatican has asked us to partner with them in

responding to the needs of the poor. We're proud of that.

Our board of directors, all bishops, we're proud of that too.

There are some suggestions in here, just suggestions.

You know your situation better than we do. If you can do one, great.

Whatever. Thank you.

It may require a sacrifice, but, you know, a sacrifice is an act of love.

What better way to more and more come to know our Lord, our God?

I'd like to make a suggestion, if I may. If you can, I would ask you for a donation of $100.

That's a lot of money.

Perhaps less than what you spend for your cable. I don't know. It's still a lot.

But for a contribution of $100, you can make a life-giving miracle happen.

For a contribution of $100, you can give life to our Lord and some hungry child for a whole year.

Can you imagine feeding someone day in and day out for a whole year for just $100?

If that's not a miracle, I don't know what is. And for that same hundred,

you give them the clothes they need and the education they need so that they

can transform their lives.

If you can do it, please do it. If you can do more, do more.

I've seen all kinds of incredible contributions just in the last few months.

And I've been doing this for years now.

Two people, one in Kirkland, Washington,

one in Vancouver, Washington, came to me after Mass they actually had coffee

and donuts I was in the donut line they came to me and said Father, I have an IRA,

I'm going to make a QCD to cross Catholic a qualified charitable distribution.

$100,000,

I was preaching in Bedford, Texas. A woman called me midweek and said,

Father, I heard you speak at St. Michael. Your words touched my heart.

I'm sending you a check for $50,000 to cross Catholic.

I got a letter from a dear friend, a Dominican nun in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

She said, Frank, my brother just died, left me $30,000. I want you to have it.

I called her and said, Joellen, I'm so sorry about your brother.

I will have him at mass tomorrow.

What would you like to do with the 30,000? We can build some homes,

drill some wells. She said, Frank, it's your money. Do what you like.

We drilled six wells in Zambia in her brother's name.

Not everybody can afford 100 or 50, or 30, or even 5,000.

But each of us can afford to give our best to our Lord, who gave and gives his all to us.

Do whatever you can to give life to our Lord and to yourself.

I leave you with our Lord's own five-finger plea.

You did it to me Think about it Pray about it Thank you and God bless you.