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Set the World Ablaze

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“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!” -Luke 12:49-50

I can still distinctly remember standing in my scout uniform at attention while the casket of President Gerald R. Ford passed by. The faces that day were a mix of honor, sorrow, and patriotism. I remember the flag waving in the breeze and even at a young age, I knew that this day was important. I was blessed to be able to attend the funeral of a past president as a Boy Scout. This was one of those times we all experience where we have an urge to change the world, be better than we are, or to fight for a noble cause. It was a tangible moment that I can remember made me want to do something big.

Another such moment came when I walked across the stage at graduation. My parents brimming faces and those of my friends, most of which never thought I would actually graduate, and the feeling of accomplishment took me over as I knew I was made for something great.

The most recent time that this inner pursuit took me over was on my wedding day. As I saw my bride walking down the aisle, I knew I wanted to be the best man I could be for her. I wanted to fight as hard as I possibly could to be my best self for my bride.

Fast forward to today and these beuatiful readings. Jesus says it very; clearly, he has come to set the world on fire, and he wishes it was already blazing. Then he mentions the importance of baptism. While all of these moments I recounted were very special to me and changing points in my life, none are so important as the day of my baptism, when I became part of God’s family.

I think it is hard, especially for cradle Catholics, for us to remember our baptism and the power we still receive every day from God. This day should make us want to fight the good fight and run the race. It should make us want to set the world on fire. But fear, despair, loneliness, the day to do of life, and time seem to erode the power of what happened so many years ago. It’s as if God’s grace was on a timer, and every day, the sand comes closer and closer to running out.

Though it can seem this way sometimes, it couldn’t be further from the truth. We need to realize and claim the power that we received on that glorious day when we were made new. We need to remember that it was on that day that we were called to be witnesses to the Gospel and share the love of Christ with the world. It was on that day that we started our journey to sainthood.

So here is my challenge to you. Look up your baptismal records and figure out when exactly you were baptized. Then pray to God and ask him for the grace to always remember that beautiful day and to thank him for the grace he has given you ever since. And finally, let’s all ask God how he has chosen for us to set the world on fire. We all make up a different ember in the fire of faith, what does your ember look like and have you made sure it doesn’t go out? The world needs your light.

From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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From Death to Life

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When reading the book of Genesis, I try to put myself into the perspective of Adam and Eve. Here are two people who had a perfect love with God and each other, they had no suffering, pain, despair, anxiety, stress, loneliness, sin, and the list goes on. They also had no concept of death. We hear in Genesis that God commands them not to eat of the tree, or they will surely die. But imagine what that would have been like for Adam and Eve to hear. They didn’t have an experience of death; they had nothing to compare with it. All they knew or could theorize is that death is the opposite of what they had. It was unknown.

This is taken further in that after the fall they realized they were naked and hid. They hid for many reasons, shame, embarrassment, fear, confusion, but it’s clear that they were now afraid they would use each other. In the beginning, human beings acted only one way, out of love, but now there is a fear of use. This fear came through the rupture between body and soul. After all, what is death besides the soul leaving the body? In the beginning, Adam and Eve could look and see the whole person in all it’s glory, body and soul, after the fall they look and conceal themselves out of fear that they will no longer see a person, but just an object. Not as someone but as something.

All of this is set up in Genesis, but how does it relate to today’s first reading? Well, Adam and Eve changed the course of human history, and death has entered the world. So what’s the cure? If death happens in the body, then there must be some way for the Divine to literally enter into the human experience to transform what was tainted by sin and resurrect it. There must be some way for God to become flesh.

Thankfully, unlike Adam and Eve, we now know the answer is Jesus taking on our bodies, taking the human body to the most extreme and terrible suffering imaginable, conquering it, and rising. Giving death the proverbial kick in the face on Easter morning.

Relate this to the readings of the day. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained. We are perplexed but not driven to despair. We are persecuted but not abandoned and struck down but not destroyed. This is such a beautiful paradox that just like Christ, we must suffer for a time to live for all time. Our bodies are dying more every day to get closer to life.

Last week one of my dear friends passed away in a car accident, and everyone in our community was rightly emotional at the loss of such a good person. But in the back of our minds, we couldn’t help but proclaim that his death, as evil and tragic as it was, was the next step in his journey of life. He loved rock climbing, and as our priest so eloquently put it in his homily, he has now reached the peak. The climb was treacherous at times, it was uncertain, it was scary, but death was not the end, the height of the climb was new life.

This week, I am reminded in quite a tangible way of the beauty of what Christ has done for us. God created us good, sin entered the world and brought death, God became man and took on death, and in rising conquered it once and for all. I can’t help but smile as I write this and think of 1st Corinthians where we hear, “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”

As the Catechism puts it, “The flesh is the hinge of salvation. We believe in God who is the creator of the flesh; we believe in the Word made flesh in order to redeem the flesh; we believe in the resurrection of the flesh, the fulfillment of both the creation and the redemption of the flesh.”

So let us grieve when we are confronted with death, as is right to do, let us affirm that death is not a good, but let’s not believe the lie that death is the end. Thank you, God, for dying so that I may truly live. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Tell Your Story

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“Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD swept the sea with a strong east wind throughout the night and so turned it into dry land. When the water was thus divided, the children of Israel marched into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.”

Such a nice story, so evident the power of God thousands of years ago, I wish his power didn’t fade over time. Ever felt this way? Well, God’s power was there way back with the Israelites, but today, he clearly isn’t as powerful or doesn’t care as much about us. Obviously this is not true, but I think we start to have these thoughts in our minds because we don’t often share how the Lord works in our lives.

We may be afraid that if we share how God has worked in our lives we will be made fun of, or we may have a sense of false humility where if we talk about what God has done through us that somehow we will take credit for it. I want to renounce these thoughts as the lies they are.

The reality is that God could have chosen any number of ways to free his people, he chose Moses. He could have chosen any number of ways to feed the poor in Calcutta, he chose a short and frail sister. He could have chosen any number of ways to free Russia from communism, he chose St. John Paul II. He could have chosen any number of ways to free us all from sin, he chose his son.

God works through human beings and though he doesn’t need us because he is all powerful, he has chosen to need us. He has chosen the human person as a tangible way to transmit his love to the world and that means that your life has prupose, has meaning, you are important. He chose you.

With that importance comes power. When we start to realize how God wants to work in our lives and how he wants to communicate his love through us we need to ask and believe that he will do what he says. Let’s not fall into the common trap of believeing that God wants to speak powerfully through others but not through ourselves.

We can all think of a time when God has worked in our lives and I invite you to share that story. When I was younger I fell asleep reading a prayer book and the lamp I was using fell into my bed and caught it on fire. Long story short, the whole mattress was burning but I didn’t wake up. Finally, my parents came running into the room screaming and I jumped up and ran away from the bed without a single mark or burn. The prayer I was reading was the St. Joseph prayer which promises that anyone who reads this prayer will not be burned in any fire. God works and has power. Your story may not be as intense or dangerous, but God works through us and in us. What is your story? I invite you to listen to this video by Jon Foreman. It is a phenomenal video about the importance of story. It is a little long but I promise it is worth it. Once you have watched it, share your story with someone else of how God has touched your heart. The world needs to see the power of the Lord, and they are shown that power through you.

From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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My Burden is Light

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The headphones go in, the music or Netflix goes on, and for just a while we can forget that we are human, that we have responsibility, so much so that we call it vegging. The height of the human experience after a long day of work is acting more like a vegetable than a human.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that people don’t work hard. My life is very busy between work, home life, and teaching classes at our local church. Lots of people have sports or study. Many people in our community are hard working farmers. Our burden is often heavy.

But what do we do to help us with that burden? In today’s Gospel Jesus is calling us to rely on him. He is calling us to trust. Something my wife and I have been working on lately is praying more instead of watching another episode on Netflix. Have you noticed how the shows that are being made up aren’t even that good anymore, but we watch them for hours and at the end we realize we didn’t even care for it.

Now I am not saying get rid of your Netflix or stop flipping through social media. What I am saying is that we need a better awareness as a society of what actually matters. Jesus is reaching out to give us his peace and love and often times we push him away with our headphones and tell him to take the back seat. Imagine if when we were stressed or worried or had the obstacles of life pile up on us leaving us exhausted, that instead of vegging out and forgetting our humanity, instead embracing the humanity of the ultimate human. Letting Jesus into our hearts and from there finding rest. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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The Sky is Falling

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Warm ash falls from the tops of buildings as the brightest light imaginable makes our pupils dilate to the size of a pen head. There is a heat that can only be described as that of a blazing furnace built for forging swords of old. This sounds like the opening paragraph of a book about the end of the world, but really it’s just me imagining what the end of the world might be like.

There is a lot of talk today about the end of the world. As our culture seems to deteriorate more and more we can’t help but wonder where all of this is going and how fast. The optimist in me immediately reminds myself that there have been many times that cultures have thought the world was ending, but it didn’t. Whether the end of the world is near or not, a question that we just don’t know the answer to, I think our response to the world today should be one of optimism.

It is easy to look around and feel like the sky is falling around us, but the Gospel today reminds us that, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.”

Today in the Church we could look at the situation and get depressed about the slew of people leaving the Church but what is that going to get us? Instead, the Gospel reminded me today that I am one of the disciples. I am called to go out during this time where the harvest can be so abundant, but I need to go and till the soil. I think that is a call for all of us.

I am reminded of that iconic scene from the Lord of the Rings:

“Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam: I know.
It’s all wrong
By rights, we shouldn’t even be here.
But we are.
It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.
The ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger they were,
and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy.
How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened.
But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass.
A new day will come.
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Those were the stories that stayed with you.
That meant something.
Even if you were too small to understand why.
But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand.
I know now.
Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t.
Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

I don’t know about you but that scene gets me amped up. I get excited that every person I meet is another chance to share the love of Christ. I get excited that there are people out there who really want to know the truth and I can present it to them. I get pumped about learning new things about my neighbors and entering into their experience.

The point is that we are all called to be disciples and to till the soil. When we think about the daunting task ahead of us do we fall into despair and immediately think about the end of the world or do you think more like Sam? I pray that I can be a Sam. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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The Wedding Feast

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I absolutely love when God’s love and our relationship with him are described in wedding terms. I especially love when those terms include food. Think back to the most delicious wedding reception you have ever attended. For me, it was my own. We found a place to cater our wedding that had the absolute best wedding food I have ever had. We had pulled pork sandwiches, chicken teriyaki skewers, and fancy mac and cheese. Instead of dry chicken and boiled vegetables, we had comfort food specifically because we wanted people to enjoy it and have a really good time.

The beauty of food is that it brings people together. We all have a favorite family recipe that we love to bring to events or family gatherings. We all have that Aunt or Uncle who is so good at cooking that they could start their own restaurant. We just celebrated the 4th of July. Have you ever noticed that every major holiday has a feast as the hallmark of the celebration? We come together around food.

It is no different with our communal relationship with Christ. The Mass is people from all different backgrounds coming together and sharing in a meal, but this meal does not leave us wanting more or hurting from overeating. This meal gives us eternal life. St. Francis de Sales once said, “When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth’s sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food.”

Jesus is our food and we can experience him here and now, but we also long for the fulfillment of the wedding feast of the lamb, we all long for heaven. Or at least we should. As Christians, we should groan in hunger for our future heavenly feast. If we don’t then perhaps we should fast more. This is something I want to do more in my life. Fasting allows us to feel hunger, and that hunger can remind us that we hunger to be perfectly united with God.

As we all rest from eating during the holiday, let’s try to make one tangible decision to fast in the hopes that we will be reminded of how much we hunger for God. This could be as simple as giving up salt on your meals for a week or something bigger like fasting every Wednesday and eating nothing but bread and water. You know where you are at in your relationship with God. What is going to help you take the next step towards God, the next step closer to the wedding feast where we will no longer hunger or thirst? From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Longing for Spiritual Food

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God communicates in different ways to different times, but the core message remains; a message of love. In the Old Testament God the Father spoke to the Prophets, in the New Testament the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and after the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles at Pentecost the Holy Spirit has been guiding us and the Church ever since.

Though we can see these real examples of each person of the Trinity working in specific times of history, every person of the trinity is present with us all throughout our lives. One of my favorite parts of the Catechism is where it says, “God is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.”

Our destiny is to share intimately in the relationship of God, but that destiny starts today. We can start to enter into that relationship here and now. The Father loves us and we can experience him through our prayer. The Son loves us through the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Spirit loves us through the Sacraments and our openness. We do not have to wait until the end of our lives for our destiny to start to become realized.

I like to think of this in relation to food. I love cooking and I love eating so most of my analogies are food based. Haha. Think of eating your favorite food. You have the taste and goodness of it instantly, but you don’t experience the fullness of it until it has been digested and used for energy. In the same way, we can taste the love of God in a very real way here on this earth, and we long for the fullness of that love to be realized at the end of time.

One time when I was on a work trip we stopped for dinner and I had these bacon wrapped dates that changed my life forever. Ever since tasting those delicious little pieces of perfection I have longed for the day when I can get back to that restaurant and try them again. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we treated our relationship with the Trinity in the same way? That we tasted God every week in the Mass and then longed for him until we could receive again. With this mindset, Mass stops being a chore and starts becoming something we look forward to every week, the same way I look forward to getting back to that restaurant. But the food God gives will give us eternal life. I know I can be more aware of this in every moment of my life.

One of the most helpful things I have heard about the spiritual life came from The Wild Goose Series. Fr. Dave Pivonka encourages us to simply say, “Come Holy Spirit,” throughout the day. This helps us not only to experience the love of God but also to help us be aware that we should long for the day when we are united perfectly with God in heaven. He longs to be united fully to us. Let us hunger for the same. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Love One Another

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Perhaps the most quoted Gospel of all time shot off the page to me with new meaning as I sat in Mass on Saturday evening. We have all heard, love one another; that’s like the basics. Have you ever let something so simple lose its weight because of its simplicity?

Our priest took this familiar passage in a bit of a different direction that made me think. He said if we all acted like we were supposed to, the whole world would be converted. After all, everyone will know we belong to Christ because of our love for one another. These are words directly from Christ himself.

It really made me think. Have I done this in my life? I know I’m supposed to love God and love my neighbor, but has my love for others been a beacon that lets people know who I belong to? I hope it has.

How about you? Has your love been infectious to the point that a total stranger knows who your savior is? Again, these are the basics. People sometimes complain that homilies are too often about loving others and not about morality. This may be true at times but look around you. The fact that the whole world isn’t converted means we still have not grasped the basics.

We can all love better. That’s just the simple reality. I love the teachings of Saint John Paul II because he really set up a major shift in thought from objective truths to personal experience. He did not get rid of the objective facts but brought us to them through our own personal experience. We know God is love because we have experienced it. This is a model of evangelization that I have found very effective. Until someone experiences love it is hard to talk to them about the objective truths of morality, but once love is experienced, morality starts to make sense, it wells up from within as opposed to being edicts forced from without.

Doctrine and dogma have their place, but we have not even begun to grasp the basics. We need both. This is my challenge this week and a good reminder as I sat there in front of the Eucharist. We should always be living in such a way that people know we are Christians by our love, and it shows through our moral actions. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Does this Shock You?

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In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus giving one of the hardest teachings in the bible. He is explaining the teaching of the Eucharist, that bread and wine really are turned into his body and blood. When the disciples try to understand this with human reasoning, they fall short. They can’t understand what Jesus is telling them. And then Jesus says these important words, “Does this shock you?”

I think this is so beautiful. Whenever we are met with misunderstanding or confusion it’s typically because we have human reasoning. This can get us pretty far, but the inner truths of God cannot be fully explained by human reason alone, we have to ask for the supernatural virtue of faith.

Now faith doesn’t mean just blindly following things we cannot understand. Faith and reason are interconnected, but when we have doubts or struggles with a teaching of the church, or with the church in general, we must ask God to enlighten our intellect to be able to see that which is not obvious to the human person.

If the disciples in the Gospel had asked for this grace they would have seen with new eyes and not left Jesus and returned to their old ways. Even the apostles struggled with this, but their response was different. Even though the supernatural mysteries of God confused them, they said, “Where else would we go?”

When problems arise in the Church, when human beings seem to try to take us down, when moral teachings are difficult to live, we need to ask for faith. One of the main areas to receive this grace is through the Eucharist. This teaching that was so hard for the early disciples to believe is the very teaching that gives us the grace to believe it.

The Eucharist is the source of our faith because it is Jesus’ love active here on this earth. Next time you have a doubt or concern or problem with something in the Church, go to the Eucharist and rest in his love. It is the Eucharist that allows us to say, “Where else would we go?”

Here is one of my favorite songs, that explains how Peter denied Jesus and doubted his love. Let us all pray that when we are put to the test we are able to believe through the supernatural gift of faith.

Contact the Author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Abundance

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Faith- what’s the first thing that pops into your mind when I say that word. Faith! How about Church? What’s the first thing you think of? How about rules? What comes to mind then?

We are all at a different place in our beautiful journey to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that beats and burns for love of us. I know sometimes for me my faith can seem stagnant or centered around study. I love theology so I actually enjoy a super dry theological teaching, but if I never get beyond the teaching to the person than the study of God ends at study.

I know for some today their immediate thought of the Church is broken or wounded. We are going through a time of purification to be sure. Some people have a faith where it’s all about the laws and rules. Many need this structure, but if it stays at the level of rules, as opposed to the rules guiding you to the truth, then relationship doesn’t form as easily.

I think the same question could be asked of the Apostles in the Gospel today. If we were in that boat with them thousands of years ago what would they have said? At this point, they have the Holy Spirit and are preaching the love of Jesus with passion, but they still can’t even begin to grasp the true love of God. He doesn’t just want them to have a faith built on rules or study, but a faith of abundance.

He wants the laws to lead us to fullness just like the rules in a sport allow you to experience the fullness of the game. He wants us to obey his teaching, and experience a heart the bursts just like that net thousands of years ago. He wants us to trust and experience the depths of true love.

When was the last time you were bold and asked God to fill you to the brim with his grace? When was the last time you obeyed the teachings of Christ and were brought deeper into an understanding of his love and goodness? So now stop and actually think about it. It’s easy to read a blog. It’s harder to stop for a second and allow the words to lead to deeper reflection. Where is your net today? Are you full, is your net rotting from sitting in the sun without use for too long, or is your net bursting at the seams? This Easter season is the perfect time to ask for the grace that comes from the resurrection.

“Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” -St. John Paul II

From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Contact the Author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Faith in His Mercy

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Today is one of my favorite days in the liturgical calendar, Divine Mercy Sunday, and the readings paint a beautiful picture for how we should receive the mercy of God. These readings are largely based on signs, cures, miracles, and wonders that impart God’s grace on the person.

This is what we would call a sacrament, a physical sign of an invisible grace. Here in the Gospel, we hear Jesus implementing the sacrament of confession. He gives the power to forgive sins, to impart the grace of God on his people, and to restore them into his life. This may have been a little easier to understand if we were actually there, but sometimes we feel like St. Thomas who has trouble believing in something he cannot see. We don’t trust that God would forgive us because of all the things we have done wrong. We maybe don’t feel worthy of forgiveness and mercy.

This is why Jesus instituted the sacrament of confession. He knew we would struggle with things we cannot see, so he gave us a physical way that we can see and be assured of God working, that is through the priest. What happens in confession? We go in, we tell our sins to the priest, and then we say an act of contrition and are forgiven with words spoken. Of course, God can forgive us in any way he chooses, but he CHOSE to do it through the sacrament of confession. He chose to use a priest as a physical sign of his love and mercy.

I remember confessions where I have been scared to death, I remember ones that have been life-changing, I remember ones that I have felt the same afterward, but the thing that was the same with all of them is I had an actual sign and assurance that God did forgive me. I can trust in his words that he gave us so many years ago.

Below is a prayer that has helped me so much to prepare for confession. If it has been a while for you, I promise you won’t be sorry if you go. Jesus is waiting in the person of the priest to give you a physical sign of his real forgiveness. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

“I glorify you in making known how good you are towards sinners, and that your mercy prevails over all malice, that nothing can destroy it, that no matter how many times or how shamefully we fall, or how criminally, a sinner need not be driven to despair of [God’s] pardon. It is in vain that your enemy and mine sets new traps for me every day. He will make me lose everything else before the hope that I have in your mercy.” St. Claude de la Colombiere

Contact the Author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Love Revealed and Made Real

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I have been writing a lot about marriage in my posts recently, partly because I was recently married and the realities and beauties of marriage are fresh in my mind and experience, but also because marriage is the sign Saint Paul uses in Ephesians to explain the relationship between Christ and the Church.

This analogy can go both ways, in looking at a proper and holy marriage we see a sign for the relationship between Christ and the Church, and if we look at the relationship between Christ and the Church, Christ giving his body for his bride on the cross, we see an example of what a holy marriage should look like.

This sign, the cross, is what Satan will try to attack vehemently because it reminds him that he lost. Satan knew on Easter morning that Christ conquered sin and death, he literally rose above it. The only thing that Satan can do now is try to attack the sign of Jesus’ love that he showed 2,000 years ago. But the cross was not just a sign of his love. It was not just a revelation of God’s plan, but a realization of it as well. God’s plan was revealed on the cross and made real on the cross, in the sense that redemption is now a reality in all of us.

So it is with the sacraments of the Catholic Church. When Christ ascended into heaven he sent the Holy Spirit to be with us through the seven sacraments. These sacraments are not just signs of God’s love to his people but they also give grace. They not only reveal God’s love but they make real God’s love. They go beyond the sign to change reality itself.

Now think back to marriage. We hear in scripture that the two shall become one. This verse does not mean man and woman literally become one body, for they are still separate. If the husband dies, the woman remains. So they are not biologically one, or one in their being. But they are morally one, meaning that their thoughts, wills, and actions should form a oneness so they are no longer “me and you” but “we”.

However, the primary end of that “we” relationship is where two bodies create one. This happens when a man and a woman become a mother and father. Their bodies unite in such a way that a new creation is made that is of both the man and the woman.

Why is any of this important to Easter? Well, on Good Friday we just experienced Jesus giving up his body for his bride the Church in such a real way that Christ becomes the father and the Church becomes the mother of a brand new creation, through baptism.

“Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.” -2 Corinthians 5:17

What Christ did on the cross allows us to not only enter into a “we” relationship with Christ but to be born again through this relationship. His love is not just revealed, it is made real. It is revealed and realized through the sacraments. With this realization comes responsibility. Now we can no longer use our humanity as an excuse for sin. “Well, I am only human.” It is precisely because you are human that sin should no longer hold sway in your heart because Christ has made you a new creation. So go praise the Lord this day. Thank him for his love. Take that love out to the world. Soak up the graces of the sacraments. Be a sign to the world of the love of Christ. That is exactly the sort of thing a human would do. A human who has been redeemed. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

“For we are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.” -St. John Paul II

Contact the Author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.