“Why does this generation seek a sign?”

Let’s take a look at it.  Let’s just say to teenagers, why do you teenagers seek a sign.  You believe in the Gospel? How much do you believe in the Gospel?

You want to get married but my generation waits until they’re 28 yo to get married.  You want to give your life to something meaningful, but everyone has failure to launch.  I want to talk to you about becoming a nun, about becoming a priest.  Like God isn’t calling you? Many of my generation and below me went and got degrees, but then because work was hard they switched degrees and got a Masters in something else.  We start working in one place and then move to another.  We don’t stay with a company for very long because we have FOMO of living over there.  We get sad because we look at what all the other cool people are doing online and think, man my life is boring. We see the smiles and the bodies and the adventures of how good other people have it and we become depressed or envious.

We pray and we pray, “God, send me a sign, let me know your will!!!” And then He tells us and we say, “Send me another sign just to be sure!”

What we should be asking is, “Lord, thank you for letting me know, now give me the courage to say yes!”  And that is what Confirmation is.

The Sign of the Fleece

33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.

Judges 6:36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

We are half hearted creatures you and I. We want to follow Jesus, but we get scarred.  We would rather sit and argue with God, just like the Pharisees rather than follow Him.

We are like Cain from the first reading, “You shall become a restless wanderer on the earth!”  Yep, we deserve it, sure, why not? But then we say the same thing as Cain, “My punishment is too great to bear!” And the Lord even blesses Cain when we know, Cain doesn’t deserve it.

So this is how I see it, since my baptism God was calling me to be a priest.  I didn’t realize it.  I wanted to play baseball and then get married.  My mind was focused on this.  God took away baseball.  Fine, I started working, but my relationships never worked out.  The call to priesthood was there but I never even explored it.  I just kept trying to date someone new and go to parties and meet people.  It wasn’t until I started teaching Catechism that I started to pray! I read St. Augustines Confessions and it blew my mind! I read the New Testament, my God! How beautiful and amazing you are.  I went to youth Conferences, I went to Panama and recently just got back from SEEK in St. Louis.  The Church is on fire,  but I didn’t just have to get to know Jesus, I had to learn to love Him from the heart of the Church!

I’m a priest and I struggle to get my holy hour in each day.  Why? Because I get tired and the couch is just more comfortable than the floor in my chapel.  I could read…but the book is way over there and plus, reading is hard!

So, what I can tell you is this, we do our best to listen to the Lord and then do His will, today’s reading finishes with, “Adam again had relations with his wife,

and she gave birth to a son whom she called Seth.

“God has granted me more offspring in place of Abel,” she said,

“because Cain slew him.”

And this is what it means to be a parent, to keep loving and keep giving life even though the last time was really hard and there is so much pain and suffering in having kids.  Good, this is what marriage is, keep on loving and stay in the fight with your spouse, never give up and give life! And this is what it is to be a priest and a nun, where every moment of your day is consecrated to God and we keep walking and moving in faith, trusting in him and not in our own strength.

It is good that we are here.  We know very little, but we learn how to trust much.  I’m your priest, but I want to be your saint.  You are my little brothers and sisters, my children even, I want you to be holier than me, that you get started on your path to holiness earlier than Fr. Ted and I did, that you may convert this pagan world that we live in.  Because if not you, than who?