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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Kylie (L), Fr. Mitch (C) and the Immortal Mark Hatmaker (R)
PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Kylie Hatmaker and her husband Mark (see pic on right). The brain tumor Kylie dealt with a few years back is growing again. Kylie is Mark’s primary co-conspirator, best friend, power animal, goddess, gourmet chef, pistol-packing bodyguard, and hoochie-coochie dancer in residence. A finer lady you’ll never meet. God give her strength, we pray thee, Amen.
Mettle maker #451: Constitutionals? Why?
Many signups in the distance learning program have questions about the requirement to perform two constitutional fitness routines each week, such as:
“I do CrossFit. Does that satisfy the constitutional requirement?”
“I’m a powerlifter. Do I still have to do constitutionals?”
“I run 20 miles per week and go to the gym three days a week. Why do I have to do constitutionals?”
You have to do constitutionals because fitness isn’t transferable across domains. Marathon runners don’t get ready for marathons by jumping rope or working the heavy bag. Athletes perform poorly outside their primary domains.
First and foremost, constitutionals educate martial movements. But they also improve proprioception and other bio-motor abilities, including strength, flexibility, coordination and balance.
Fighters gotta fight. So yes, they’re required. If you can stack them on top of your current routine, do that. If you don’t have that much energy, you’ll have to jettison some other part of your fitness regimen to make room.
Try the Constitutional in the video above, and let me know how it goes.
Want to get fit and learn Rough ‘n’ Tumble self-defense? Sign up for the Rough ‘n’ Tumble Distance Learning Program today!
Holy Eucharist is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy Eucharist, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent 3/30/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: Joshua 5:9a, 10-12, Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 World English Bible
1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him. 2 The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”
3 He told them this parable:
11 He said, “A certain man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them. 13 Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. 14 When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. 17 But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.” ’
20 “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate; 24 for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the servants to him and asked what was going on. 27 He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’ 28 But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and begged him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’
31 “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ ”
There is certainly nothing at all wrong with having a practical and pragmatic view of materialistic concerns. Where we get into trouble is when we begin to apply materialistic practicality to spiritual matters.
Any sensible economist will tell you that scarcity is proportional to value. The less there is of something, the more valuable it becomes. When the Ford Maverick pickup truck came out, there were so few of them available, and manufacturing was so backlogged, that the selling price was 40% more than the sticker price. If there too much money in circulation, the value of a dollar plummets and inflation results. This is law of supply and demand. All of this is common sense.
But it is a great mistake, and very damaging to the spirit, to imagine that God’s love is a finite resource, or a commodity like corn or diesel fuel, that goes up or down in value depending on the amount in circulation. This is essentially the way the loyal son is thinking in the parable of the Prodigal Son which we read today. He treats his father’s love as if it is a commodity. He feels that if his father loves his reckless brother, somehow his father’s love for him is lessened. It is as if his father has somehow put too much love in circulation.
But God’s love is infinite, because God is Love and God is Infinite. In the parable, Jesus puts the following words in the father’s mouth: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.” The father in the story is our Heavenly Father. He makes it clear that his love for the reckless son takes nothing from the loyal son – he says, “all that is mine is yours.” It’s just that he is so happy when a sinner returns to him in repentance that he and all the heavenly host rejoice!
The loyal and righteous who have been faithful to Christ to the best of their ability even from their early youth only do themselves a disservice when they pollute their hearts with resentment and covetousness and begin to think that they are somehow better than those who have been lost and recently found. All of the baptized faithful are members of God’s mystical body, are a part the blessed company of all faithful people, and are heirs through hope of his everlasting kingdom, by the merits of the most precious death and passion of his dear son.
God’s infinite love permeates all of creation, fills it up with life and light and righteousness, warming our souls like the sun warms the earth. All we need do is seek his face and return to him with a contrite and repentant heart and we can receive that love in limitless measure.