What’s the weekly mettle maker? Training tips and educational information in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? According the American Heritage Dictionary, mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Mettle Maker #339
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Self-Defense: This is the fourth week of the month, which means our focus is weapons — so try this on for size. Set a timer for 2:00 rounds, no breaks, and get after the following weapon command and mastery session. Round 1, standing strikes vs. heavy bag with max power. Round 2, sit-up and strike the bag from the ground. Round 3, Push-ups with weapon in hand, Round 4, Get-ups with weapon hand switch between each, and Round 5, grounded strikes from your back, all-in (that is, kicks and punches included). Repeat until you’ve had enough. If at any time during the session you drop your weapon or touch yourself with the business end, there is a 50 Push-up penalty. Walking stick not your weapon of choice? Sub in your pet mock weapon — wooden tomahawk, escrima stick, wooden knife, etc. Want more practical martial arts instruction? Click here to sign up for the 100% free Heritage Self-Defense Distance Learning Program.
140 calories of food. Two slices of wheat bread = 140 calories. 2 eggs = 140 calories, 2 nectarines = 140 calories. 1.4 tbsp of butter = 140 calories, and 2 ounces of lean roast beef = 140 calories.
Fitness: Let’s talk about diet and weight loss. Talking about diet can be like talking about politics: no matter what you say you’re guaranteed to make half of your audience angry! Well, I’m going to tell it to you straight despite the risks. Diet affects your long term health in numerous ways. Eating too much salt can spike your blood pressure, too much sugar can lead to insulin resistance, not taking in enough fiber isn’t good for colon heath, not getting enough Vitamin C can give you scurvy, and so forth. But in terms of how much weight you lose or gain based on your metabolic demands, 2,000 calories a day of pure fast food is no different than 2,000 calories of grade-A, organic, gourmet food. When trying to lose weight, calorie count is far more important than your exercise routine. Many people think they’re going to lose weight if they eat “healthier” (whatever that is) but the reality is, a 1,000 calorie salad has the same impact on weight as a 1,000 calorie bacon cheeseburger. By all means try to make informed, intelligent decisions regarding diet and long-term health. But, if you’re trying to lose weight, ya gotta watch the calories first and foremost. Want to learn more about diet and weight loss? Looking for help with a weight loss or fitness program? Click here to sign up for the 100% free Heritage Fitness Distance Learning Program.
Outdoor skills: Pay attention to your environment. You never know what you’re going to encounter. Many times I’ve been camping with people who said things like, “Why are you hanging your food? There are no bears in these woods.” Two which I reply something like, “Then I wonder where that giant pile of scat filled with fur and berries came from?” You might assume, if for example you live east of the Mississippi, that you’re not going to encounter a mountain lion while hiking. But, as reported in the NYT, “numerous cougar sightings were reported east of the Mississippi River last fall, encounters that have become more frequent in recent years. A trail camera glimpsed one in northern Minnesota, for instance, while authorities captured another in Springfield, Ill., after it had made its way there from Nebraska. Yet another was fatally struck by a car on I-88 west of Chicago.” Pay attention! Interested in a free outdoor skills distance learning program? Check out our free programs here.
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Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, 1/22/23 – Archdeacon Mitch
Readings: Is 8:23—9:3, Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14, 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17, Mt 4:12-23
Matthew 4:12-23 World English Bible Catholic Edition
12 Now when Jesus heard that John was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
toward the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
16 the people who sat in darkness saw a great light;
to those who sat in the region and shadow of death,
to them light has dawned.”✡
17 From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
18 Walking by the sea of Galilee, he† saw two brothers: Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.”
20 They immediately left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them. 22 They immediately left the boat and their father, and followed him.
23 Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. 24 The report about him went out into all Syria. They brought to him all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and torments, possessed with demons, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them. 25 Great multitudes from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.
You know, I have four kids, all grown up now and living on their own. But when things go wrong, when they are deeply saddened, they come home. Sometimes for a day, sometimes for a week. They need that security. They need to regroup. And that’s what Jesus did. When St. John the Baptist is arrested and thrown into the Black Fortress of Machaerus, Jesus goes home to Nazareth.
But you know, after they regroup – after they eat some home cooking and get some fatherly and motherly advice from my wife and I – my kids realize they have to go back to their lives, back to their jobs and their lives, back out into the crazy world and continue the adventures that are their lives. And so, Jesus leaves home and goes to Capernaum, a bustling city of the gentiles sitting right on a trade route, modern and eclectic, on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. And there he starts his mission in earnest, finding his first disciples.
Did this literally happen? I believe it did. But I also believe that this is a metaphorical story. As St. Paul says in today’s epistle reading, we must be careful about getting so wrapped up “human eloquence” – that is, human literal interpretations and the people who offer them to us – that we lose sight of the Cross and empty the Gospel of its deeper meaning.
So, I think this section of Matthew is a philosophical lesson as well. It’s about how we think, and solve, and fix problems. When we get shocking, unexpected news – like Jesus findout his beloved cousin has been thrown in prison – it shatters our worldview. We don’t know what to think or do anymore. So we retreat to the familiar – we go home to familiar places, familiar ideas, and familiar solutions. But in the end, in order to solve a new problem, we need new information and a fresh perspective. We can’t stay home. Literally, like going to Capernaum of the gentiles, or to a new intellectual place, like a reading a new book, talking to new people, considering new perspectives. We have to swim in a different sea of ideas.
The Gospels repeatedly refer to the lake adjacent to Capernaum as the “Sea of Galilee.” But it’s not a sea. It’s a big lake. It’s fresh water. The gospel writers weren’t stupid, they knew what it was. They called a “sea” on purpose. Because “sea” is a bigger word, a richer word. We cannot see into the depths of the sea. There can be good and bad in the depths – there can be a great catch, or a sea monster. The weather changes rapidly on the sea. We might have a pleasant day of sailing, or we might be shipwrecked. We could have a pleasant swim, or we could drown.
And so, along the edge of the sea – walking on the edge of the safe and familiar and dangerous and mysterious – Jesus finds and calls his first apostles. Jesus himself is on the cutting edge, breathing new and fresh ways of seeing and thinking into the old ways of the Hebrews. And from there he goes on to heal the sick and cast out demons.
Like Jesus, we can’t stay home when things go wrong. We must have the courage to go to new places and cast our nets into the seas of discovery and innovation for fresh perspectives. And, if we carefully integrate what we draw up with our familiar, time-tested wisdom, we too have the hope of solving great problems and making new and very important friends.
† 4:18 TR reads “Jesus” instead of “he”