Fr. Dave Tomaszycki Podcasts

Fr. Dave Tomaszycki is a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit, and currently serves as weekend help at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Parish in Farmington, Michigan.

Goodbye, Shrine! 06/23/2025

The Eucharist, What it Costs Us 06/23/2025

The Holy Trinity, and Marriage 06/16/2025

The Holy Spirit 06/09/2025

The Ascension and Hope 06/02/2025

Unity with ... ? 05/26/2025

To "Be" 05/19/2025

Peace and Right Order 05/12/2025

Moving to St. Peter's in Mount Clemens 04/28/2025

A Tribute to Pope Francis 04/28/2025

A Tribute to Pope Francis Sunday of Divine Mercy, Year C Sunday, April 27, 2025, 9:30am A Tribute to Pope Francis Intro: • Good morning! ◦ Great to be with you! • As you all know, Pope Francis passed away this past Monday ‣ (All us priests look forward to catching our breath on Easter Monday… and then the Pope passed away) • It’s fitting that Pope Francis passed away right before Divine Mercy Sunday ◦ I think the strongest theme throughout his papacy—and his episcopacy—was mercy • His episcopal motto was: miserando atque eligendo, “having mercy, he called him” • He called mercy “Jesus’ most important message” (The Name of God is Mercy, 5) ‣ Every 25 years, the Church has a Jubilee Year (right now, we are in the middle of the Jubliee of Hope) • But sometimes, the Holy Father thinks there is a theme that is so important, that it can’t wait until the next quarter of a century ◦ So, back in 2016, we had an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy ‣ The Holy Father just couldn’t wait to ask the faithful to encounter the Lord’s mercy • I was in Rome when Pope Francis became Pope ‣ I was actually in the square • (That story???) ‣ For the first few years, I actually read everything he said (eventually, I couldn’t keep up anymore) ‣ I met Pope Francis a couple of times ‣ And I was ordained a priest during the Extraordinary Jubliee of Mercy ◦ So, today I would like to tell you about Pope Francis—do a “tribute” to him—and in doing so, we will work our way to the theme of Mercy: Body: 1. Pope Francis: • Again, I read everything he said, for two and a half years ◦ Literally thousands of pages ‣ Printed it all out, killed lots of trees ‣ …and then the Pope came out with his encyclical on the environment, so I had to stop printing them all out ◦ I know his thought very well ‣ …and I also know that he drove a lot of people nuts… especially Americans! • So, let me try to explain Pope Francis to you, and maybe it will help us to understand what he was up to for the last dozen years: • First and foremost, Pope Francis was not American ◦ America is a powerhouse in the economy ‣ But money is the currency of the world, not the currency of God ◦ America only has about 4-4.5% of the world’s souls ‣ (And most of those souls are not even Catholic) ◦ So, we alway have to be very careful not to twist the Holy Father and his thoughts into an American way of thinking, and place American labels on him • So, first and foremost, Pope Francis is not an American, and therefore he doesn’t think like an American • **Secondly, Pope Francis is a Jesuit… and therefore he doesn’t think like anyone! ◦ When I was in seminary here at Sacred Heart, I had a Jesuit for a couple of classes ‣ The first week of the first class, he just asked questions all day: • “What about this, what about that?” ‣ The next week, he would ask questions all day ‣ A couple months into the class, someone raised his hand and asked: “Father, you keep throwing all these questions at us, are we ever going to get to the answer?” • “Yes, of course we will!” ‣ Next two months, nothing but questions • Asked again: “Are we going to get to any answers.” ◦ “Yes, last class.” ‣ Show up for the last week of class, question, question, question! • At the very end of class, Father said: “And the answer is Jesus Christ on the Cross!” ‣ We all said, “That’s it?!!! 16 weeks of questions, and then we spend at most 5 minutes on an answer?!” ◦ So, I told that story to a group of priests, and one said: “That’s a Jesuit for you. He’s more interested in the question than he is in the answer.” ‣ ***Honestly, that is Pope Francis, a Jesuit • He is more interested in the question than he is in the answer 2. Culture of Encounter: • And there was a point to this ◦ Pope Francis was trying to get us to encounter ◦ He was trying to create a “Culture of Encounter” • I’ll explain this in Fulton Sheen terms: ◦ Archbishop Fulton Sheen would talk about outer truths and inner truths ‣ An outer truth, is something outside yourself, something you set out to master • 2+2=4 ◦ I can get that ◦ I can “master” that • You can count up the pews in this church ◦ You can master that, but it’s probably not going to change your life ‣ **An inner truth, on the other hand, is that which comes inside, and masters you • That should be God… but we have to encounter Him ◦ Often, when we get the answer, when we figure something out, when we “master” something, we go: “Okay! Got it!” And we move on ‣ But questions are funny things • You have to wrestle with them • They kind of force you into an encounter ◦ Pope Benedict wrote how in our technological world, we are so used to mastering everything, that we just cannot stand being mastered any more ‣ Back in the day, people had to be more humble • A couple hundred years ago: ◦ You wouldn’t know if a hurricane was coming ◦ Even if you did know, you wouldn’t be able to escape it ◦ And there wasn’t much you could do to defend yourself from hurricanes (you lost your house and all your possessions) ‣ That hurricane had it’s way with you, “mastered” you! • Today, to a large extent—not completely, but to a large extent—we have mastered even hurricanes ‣ (We know when they’re coming, we can run from them, and we can build buildings that can withstand them) ‣ We are so used to mastering everything, and then we encounter God—Who cannot be mastered… He is the Master—that we don’t even know how to encounter Him any more ◦ Pope Benedict saw all this as detrimental to the faith, our ability to have faith, our ability to know the loving God ◦ Pope Francis saw this too ‣ And that’s why he wasn’t afraid of a little confusion ‣ He wasn’t afraid to throw out a question, to get people wrestling, get people encountering • Pope Francis was trying to encourage a “Culture of Encounter” ‣ ***A culture of encountering real things: Mainly God, and each other ◦ Pope Francis became Pope on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 ◦ On Thursday, March 14, we had our weekly formation meeting at the seminary ‣ The priest who ran that meeting has since gone home to God • He was old, in poor health, and he may have been wider than he was tall ‣ And he told us all how he had sat in his room and watched it all on TV • He told us that he could see it better, but we had a more real experience ◦ We were there in person • Pope Francis, many times, critiqued how we are always on our phones ‣ He’d talk about how sad it was to see a family at a restaurant, but they’re not really together, each one is on his or her phone • That destroys a culture of encounter ◦ He critiqued how crazy people were about their pets ‣ He named himself after St. Francis of Assisi • The Franciscans are known for their love of animals • Pope Francis loved animals too, but he pushed back many times on how people treat their animals like human beings ‣ One time, as the Holy Father was greeting people, a woman asked: “Will you bless my baby?!” • Pope Francis lit up: “Oh yes, of course!” ‣ She grabbed the “baby,” turned back around, and it was a little dog! • Pope Francis chewed her out: ‘That’s not a baby, that’s dog! There’s starving kids all over the world, and you’re treating that dog like a baby. There’s naked children all over India, and that dog is wearing clothes!’ ‣ **It’s a grave poverty how our culture is moving away from having children, and replacing them with pets • You can “master” a dog ◦ You can’t “master” another human being ◦ You have to encounter him ◦ Pope Francis was very critical of this gender ideology stuff going around: ‣ For a number of reasons • One, because it starts getting away from nature, and denying reality • And, once our reality has been denied, we start loosing the culture of encounter (once there is no reality, there is nothing to encounter) ‣ Last year, on March 1, Pope Francis said: • “I would like to highlight something: it is very important for there to be this encounter, this encounter between men and women, because today the worst danger is gender ideology, which cancels out differences. I asked for studies to be made on this ugly ideology of our time, which erases differences and makes everything the same; to erase difference is to erase humanity. Man and woman, on the other hand, stand in fruitful ‘tension.’” ‣ So, Pope Francis pushed back on all this gender ideology stuff, but from the angle of encounter • Men and women are different ◦ Those differences are good, and lead to a “fruitful tension” ◦ When men start fleeing their masculinity, and women start fleeing their femininity, it’s going to “erase humanity” ‣ The self will be destroyed, and there will be nothing left to encounter 3. Encountering God / Mercy: • So Pope Francis was all about encountering, that “Culture of Encounter” ◦ Encountering real things ‣ Each other ‣ And particularly encountering God, and most especially, encountering God in His mercy ◦ Again, his episcopal motto was: miserando atque eligendo, “having mercy, he called him” ◦ During the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis came out with a book: The Name of God is Mercy ‣ And I really like the title • It’s not just that God is merciful • God is Mercy ◦ Mercy is God’s identity ◦ When you encounter His Mercy, you encounter God ◦ And when you encounter God, you encounter His Mercy • Pope Francis says: “The message of Jesus is mercy. For me … it is the Lord’s strongest message” (ix). ‣ Which only makes sense • Jesus didn’t come to condemn us ‣ We were already condemned ◦ If Jesus wanted to condemn us, He just wouldn’t have come at all • The whole reason Jesus came was to save us… to save us from our sins ◦ Jesus came out of mercy and for mercy ◦ One of Pope Francis’ most common lines—which I find very helpful myself—is: “The Lord never tires of forgiving: never! It is we who tire of asking him for forgiveness” (xi). ‣ That bears repeating! “The Lord never tires of forgiving: never! It is we who tire of asking him for forgiveness.” • Most of us bring the same sins to confession month after month after month! ◦ Don’t stop! ◦ Don’t give up ◦ The Lord never tires of forgiving! ◦ Another great line: “God forgives not with a decree but with a caress” (xii). • God’s a hugger! ‣ My Grandpa Tomaszycki was a good hugger ◦ He just gave the best hugs! • What do you think God’s hugs are like? … ◦ When we come to Confession, God forgives us with a hug ◦ Pope Francis gives a definition of mercy—which I find surprising, even a little bit strange: ‣ Mercy means: “opening one’s heart to wretchedness” (8) • We don’t deny our sins • God doesn’t deny our sins ◦ But He opens His heart, and we can hand over our wretchedness, and He takes us in and heals us ◦ Pope Francis was asked why humanity is in such need of mercy, and he answered: ‣ “Because humanity is wounded, deeply wounded. Either it does not know how to cure its wounds or it believes that it’s not possible to cure them” (15). • I think we all fall into these doubts: ‘Will I ever really be healed? I mean really?’ ‣ Martin Luther actually thought that humanity was irredeemably broken • He said that mankind was like a pile of dung • Jesus sprinkles grace—like snow—on top of you, and He accepts you into heaven, kind of begrudgingly, like snow covered dung ‣ As Catholics, this is not what we believe • We believe in Redemption ◦ We believe that Jesus is not only our Savior, but also our Redeemer ‣ And He redeems us through mercy ‣ **Have you ever noticed, that throughout the Gospels, no one ever stays dead in the presence of Jesus? • Every time a dead person is presented to Jesus, life enters into him … ◦ Our sins, our wretchedness, they kill us, they bring death • That’s what sins does! • (Don’t ever belittle the seriousness of sin!) ◦ That’s why we need to go to Confession, and go to Confession often ‣ That’s where we encounter God’s... /episode/index/show/frdave/id/36337665