Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Today is the memorial of Our Lady of Loreto.
Loreto in Italy is the place where there's a shrine, and in that shrine is the house of Our Lady from Nazareth where the Annunciation took place, where the Word was made flesh.
This shrine has an amazing history, too lengthy to tell in this short homily, but an amazing history of how archaeology indicates that this house now in Loreto, Italy, is indeed from Nazareth, is indeed the house of Our Lady, and an amazing history also which shows that there was a human intervention in transporting that house from the Holy Land to its current location in Italy.
There was some human help in saving it from destruction by the Muslims, but that human event, that rather, that human effort was insufficient.
There was also a divine intervention, an angelic intervention in transporting that house, and it was transported in stages.
There was also a divine intervention.
Angels helped to move it, and this synergy, this working together, heaven and earth to save the house is part of its amazing history.
You can research it yourselves.
Don't wanna make this homily too long.
But the spiritual takeaway, the very brief spiritual takeaway, it's amazing how in God's divine providence, this house, this relic, has been preserved.
And again, we don't know exactly how God did it, how much was human, how much was divine.
Exciting history there.
But God's preserved this house, and we can still venerate today, and the saints have done so.
And why is this amazing?
Because nothing on this earth lasts forever.
The present moment just lasts.
We don't even know what the present moment is.
St. Augustine wouldn't be able to tell us.
But the present moment doesn't last forever.
No place lasts forever.
No person lasts forever on this earth.
And yet, certain times and places, nevertheless, are so important that God preserves them to remind us that, again, though the present moment is so fleeting, yet it affects all eternity.
The present moment, although it's so fleeting, nevertheless, affects our whole eternity.
Obviously, the word becoming flesh happened in an instant.
The angel appears to Our Lady.
Our Lady understands, consents.
The word becomes flesh, and time goes on.
And yet, that moment, that instant changed all of history.
God becoming man, that union of humanity and divinity.
In an analogous way, every time God intervenes in our life, that changes history.
That changes our life forever.
That affects our eternity forever.
So the takeaway is the importance of living in the present moment.
Every time and every place in our life, every time and every place that God intervenes has its impact for all eternity.
We cannot waste the present moment.
How we live this Mass affects our eternity.
How we receive communion in this Mass affects our eternity.
How we spend our day after Mass affects our eternity.
Every present moment is important to God.
It should be important to us.
God never forgets any of His interventions in our life.
Every one of them, again, is in His memory for all eternity, forever.
So let's not waste the present moment.
Like our Blessed Lady, it's always be attentive to God.
It's us to respond to God when He intervenes and make the best of each of those moments that God gives us and miss none of them.
Praised be Jesus and Mary