Latest / The Catholic Current / Novel Prophecies Pt. 2 - Solovyov’s “Short Story of the Antichrist” (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) 7/24/26

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Novel Prophecies Pt. 2 - Solovyov’s “Short Story of the Antichrist” (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) 7/24/26 · The Catholic Current

0:00
This is The Catholic Current with Father Robert McTague.
0:06
Very blunt formulation that J.F. Powers often used was God doesn't like crap.
0:10
Like, it's got to be sort of, uh, yes, he said it,
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not me. So I'm just— but this idea that it has to first of all
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be good fiction, and then we'll talk about, you know, its other merits.
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But if you— if it doesn't work on that level of craft and, and form
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and plot, then it won't work on a theological
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level either. Praise be
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Jesus Christ. This is Father Robert McTeague of the Society of Jesus, your daily host
0:37
for The Catholic Current, where we bring Christ to the world and the world to
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Christ. You're listening to us from the Station of the Cross Studios, your local radio
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station, the iCatholic Radio mobile app, and we proclaim the fullness of
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truth with clarity and charity. As always, let's start with
0:51
prayer. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Almighty God,
0:54
through the intercession of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, we ask that you pour forth your
0:57
Holy Spirit upon us, a spirit of discernment that might hear your voice
1:01
and obey your command. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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Amen. Well, friends, as you're listening to this, assuming the world is still here
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by then, it will be Friday. And you know what that means.
1:11
Fridays on The Catholic Current, we have Let's Talk About This. We walk through a
1:14
complex issue together. We are in part 2 of an ongoing
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series called Novel Prophecies.
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I'll be reviewing some novels, some Christian,
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some not, that had a very interesting look
1:29
at the future and even our future. And you know
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me, I'm a dark-brooding, melancholic Irishman with a apocalyptic imagination,
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so this is just grist for my mill. I've been
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trying to do these in roughly chronological order. I started off
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with The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K.
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Chesterton, and I was going to go next to Robert Benson's book
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Lord of the Worlds. So Chesterton's book came out in 1904,
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Benson's book in 1907, and then I had a little memory
2:04
jog. There is a brief book by the Russian Vladimir Oh
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God, mean Russian names. Solovyov. There we go. Vladimir Solovyov.
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That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Called A Short History of the Antichrist.
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On the one hand, it was published in 1900, the year the
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author died. It wasn't published in English until
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after the Chesterton novel, so it's still roughly in chronological
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order. I'm going to try to do these every week, so every now and again
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there's going to be an intervention And I try to do these in chronological order.
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Sometimes I might need to read a shorter novel first. But why,
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why am I doing this? Well, I think,
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you know, surprise, living in a fallen world, we're living in, in dark and challenging
2:47
times. I think there's something really special
2:52
and significant about the darkness and difficulty of
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our times. And I can absolutely nerd out and put
3:00
on my professor hat and walk you through it line by
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line, footnote footnote, and it
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would all be true, but it wouldn't necessarily make for great broadcast
3:12
experience. So we're going to do it through the medium of story.
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I do hope that you'll read along with me as I present these books.
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I, I'm not a speed reader, but I had to learn how to read and
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digest quickly. It was a survival skill in school, and I'm
3:30
gonna try not to give spoilers. So let's talk a little bit about
3:34
the significance of these novels coming along at
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the very beginning of the 20th century, you know,
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almost a generation before World War I. I mean,
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World War I was a game changer. It was, it was an inflection
3:50
point. We're still living with the consequences of
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World War I. But in the late 19th
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century, you've got political revolution,
4:02
Darwinism is moving to the center stage,
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Marxism is, is asserting itself.
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Uh, the church has some difficulties. You've got great,
4:12
great figures like Leo XIII and Pius
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X, uh, stepping up to the microphone and teaching
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with clarity and authority and conviction and without ambiguity.
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Um, without ambiguity.
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Uh, and by golly, we, we need that. And there were some prayerful,
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thoughtful souls who also had the gift of artistry.
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And they were saying, you know, I think the world we're living in
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is lying to us. And there's certain
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susceptibilities of human nature, the propensity
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to what Saint Ignatius would call pride, riches, and honors.
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And the devil may dress in a different costume at each age, but he
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is busy. And so the illusion of the
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1890s beginning part of the 20th century was,
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my goodness, we've got progress, we've got electricity,
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we've got the steam engine, we've got revolution, we've got democracy,
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science. You know, the church is on the ropes. We're exploring
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the world, we're exploiting the world. It's gonna be
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good. And we're proving that we don't
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need God. And we don't need the past.
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And we don't need tradition, and human
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beings and their technology are seizing the future
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by the throat, and we're going to write the
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story from now on. I forget which thinker
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of around that time said, you know, the, the role of science and
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technology is to call upon nature, to make nature sit
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up and beg like the trained animal that we're going to make it be.
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And some sensitive souls said,
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this is a really bad idea.
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The future is not going to be good if we leave God
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out. Okay, that's not really a stretch.
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But they also said, the future is not going to be good if you
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leave the past out, if you leave out
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heritage and sacred tradition.
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And one of the difficulties, temptations that
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we're living with today is we seem to be keen on erasing
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the past, whether it's tearing down statues or,
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you know, Amazon deciding that it's going to delete certain things from
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your Prime Video account or your Kindle account because
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reasons, or give you expurgated versions of
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all the books that you paid for. I'm really keen on,
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you You got to have physical media that you can hold on to. So into
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all that come prayerful, intelligent,
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sensitive souls like Chesterton and Robert Hugh Benson
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and Vladimir Solovyov. Now, he died at the age of
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47, which from where I'm standing is,
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uh, is pretty darn young. Uh, he was Russian,
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born in Moscow, had a brief flirtation with materialism
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and atheism and so on. Had a conversion while studying
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philosophy, right? So that's a good thing. Became interested in poetry and mysticism
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and, uh, and so on. Died at the age of 1900.
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And so he, he talked about,
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um, he wanted to work towards, uh, unity,
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but not kind of this, can't we all just get along? We're all,
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you know, different roads up the same mountain. You know,
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that's syncretism and indifferentism, and that has been condemned
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by the Holy See. But it's really— no, no, being really
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truly working towards being united in Christ.
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He emphasized the work of divine wisdom using the Greek word Sophia.
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And he, typical of an Eastern Christian— very
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roughly, the difference between Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity is this:
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Western Christianity emphasizes the
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work of Christ as salvation, saving us
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from sin. I'm a sinner. I'm all about that.
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That's fine. The Eastern churches, Eastern Christianity
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talked about apotheosis, divinization,
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that while remaining human and maintaining your identity
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as a unique individual, you somehow become incorporated
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into the divine life of the Trinity. Uh, Saint Irenaeus
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said somewhere— I don't have the reference at the moment— uh,
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well, 2 things. He's most famous for the glory of God as a man fully
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alive, yes, but he also said that you
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are meant to become as divine by grace as Christ is by nature.
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So the paradox is that in a certain sense we get to have kind
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of our own incarnation, that, you know, the Word was made
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flesh and dwelt among us, true God and true man. Uh,
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he offers us kind of the process in reverse. We were truly human will
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have a share in divine life. And that's
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what Savolyubov wanted for human nature. He wanted a reconciliation
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between East and West. He wanted the reunion
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of all Christians. Happily, he also argued for the limitation on
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state power. Yay! He wanted a serious non-relativist
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ethics, and he thought that human arrogance,
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human pride, human ambition made us
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susceptible to the lies of the
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devil. And that's why he writes his, uh, a short story
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also called A Tale of, of the Antichrist.
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And one of the reasons significant is that towards the end of this series,
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we're going to be reading some novels from Michael O'Brien, and especially
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in the novels Father Elijah and Elijah in Jerusalem, it's very,
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very clear that O'Brien read, uh,
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Soloviev's Little Tale on the Antichrist.
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Friends, here's what I find fascinating. These, these novels that were written well
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over a century ago, a century and a quarter ago,
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have lots to say about our own here
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and now. They're saying, look, the devil doesn't change and human
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nature doesn't change. Our circumstances may change,
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but here's how we've been lied to in the past Here's how
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we're being lied to in the present, and here's how we're likely to be
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lied to in the future. And the future that
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they're talking about is in fact our
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own present. With that in mind, let's turn to the story
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itself. I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTeague, your host here every day of The Catholic Current.
11:01
Remember, our rallying cry of The Catholic Current is Christus Mundo, Mundus Christo—
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We are on a Friday. Let's talk about this. We're in
12:58
part 2 of our ongoing series, Novel Prophecies.
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We're looking at a short story of the Antichrist by Vladimir Solovyov.
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I think I mispronounce that Russian name every time I
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mention it, so I'll have to be careful. So what's the story about? You can
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probably get it online in a PDF form. It's, it's only about 53
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pages. It'd take you about an hour, uh, to read
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it. It's not that hard. I, I do recommend it. It's set
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into the future, into the 21st century. There's been a
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series of horrible wars. There's been political upheavals.
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Someone gets the bright idea of uniting Europe into a
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single federation and depending upon international
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institutions to bring about lasting peace and material prosperity
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and humanitarian ideals and global cooperation
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and brotherhood and fraternity and integral development.
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Does any of this sound familiar? Does any
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of this sound, you know, Agenda 21,
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United Nations, the year 2030,
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uh, senedality.
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Sounds kind of familiar to me. And eventually we,
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we meet the, the Antichrist, and he's not
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some horrific boogeyman,
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right? He doesn't have fangs and points come
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out of his head and a sharp tail. He doesn't wear a red suit.
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He is, um, he's suave, he's sophisticated,
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he's, he's educated, he's of uncertain origin,
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very well respected on, on the world stage, and he's sometimes referred
14:40
to as the Superman. Now when
14:43
you hear Superman, maybe you think of DC Comics and truth, justice, and the
14:47
American way, but no, but the Superman is from the German
14:51
Übermensch, from Nietzsche, philosopher Nietzsche.
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Übermensch means the beyond man. So Nietzsche said
15:00
the trouble with most of human history, especially as it has
15:04
been infected by Christianity, he says, is that you've
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got, um, man trapped in a
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nature and natural law with well-defined
15:16
and limited sense of good evil.
15:21
And he claims that Christianity, with what he calls its womanish
15:26
virtues of meekness and mercy and so on,
15:29
holds man back. So he wants to break down all the
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bonds, all the barriers, all the limitations,
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and be a man beyond man— Superman, Übermensch— of
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what we ordinarily thought that men were capable of. And that
15:45
is the Superman. Eventually he's going to be the new world
15:49
emperor, and he's the Antichrist. And he's
15:53
brilliant rather than barbaric. He's cultured, he's philosophical, he's handsome,
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he's charismatic, uh, he's committed to peace. He seems like a really
16:01
decent guy. And he lays out this program called
16:04
The Open Way to Universal Peace and Prosperity.
16:08
Well, gosh, who doesn't want universal peace
16:12
and prosperity, especially if, you know, You're going to
16:16
be in charge of it. And what he talks about sounds an awful
16:20
lot like something that was produced by the UN, a group of
16:23
NGOs, and a synodal study group.
16:27
So universal peace, there's going to be equality, there's going to be abolition of
16:31
poverty, advancement, tolerance, humanitarianism,
16:35
etc., etc. What's not to like? And he
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is But his most significant feature,
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according to the author, is that he loves himself.
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He loves himself. Let me read to you from page 10.
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Conscious of the great power of spirit in himself,
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he was always a confirmed spiritualist. Remember our friends who
17:00
are not religious but spiritual? Well,
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that's this guy. His clear intellect always showed him the truth of what
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one should believe in, the good, God and the Messiah.
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Well, okay, then we get to the first paragraph of
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page 10. He says, in those he believed,
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but he loved only himself. He believed
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in God, but in the depths of his soul, he involuntarily
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and unconsciously preferred himself.
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He believed in good, but the all-seeing eye of
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the Eternal knew that this man would bow down
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before the power of evil as soon as
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it would offer him a bribe.
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Not by deception of the senses and the lower passions,
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not even by the superior bait of power,
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but only by his own immeasurable self-love.
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And because of his self-love,
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he is going to claim that he's going
18:10
to do better by humanity than Christ himself. You know,
18:14
it was popular, especially in the '60s and '70s, to say, you know, Jesus was
18:18
a great teacher, even the greatest teacher, but he was one great
18:22
teacher among many, but he's certainly not, you know, the Christ and divine and so
18:25
on. But look at the bottom of page 11.
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He says, this man, the Antichrist, the, the Superman,
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the world emperor, This man justified his selfish preference
18:37
of himself before Christ
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in yet another way. Christ, he said, who preached and practiced moral
18:46
good and life, was a reformer of humanity,
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whereas I am called to be the benefactor of
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the same humanity, partly reformed and
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partly incapable of being reformed.
19:03
So he's saying, look, sure, Christ was a nice guy, great teachings,
19:07
etc., etc., but you know, he talked about sin and
19:12
the cross, and you know, that can be
19:15
a bother. So we're gonna do better. So we're gonna have all the nice stuff
19:19
about love and brotherhood and justice and
19:24
peace And we're going to leave out the
19:28
cross. Now, this is where the spirit of Fulton Sheen
19:32
would raise up and say, see, I told you, I told you, I told
19:36
you this was coming. I told you in the '20s and '30s and
19:40
'40s that this was coming, that the, the West, the decadent
19:44
West, the former Christendom, would have Christ without the cross,
19:47
and the East, the Soviet Union, communism would
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have— whereas we had Christ without the cross, they would
19:55
have the cross without Christ. They would have suffering but
19:58
without redemption. So listen to what he says.
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He says, I will give everyone what they require. As a
20:05
moralist, Christ divided humanity by
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the notion of good and evil. Let's stop for a moment. It was
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the philosopher Nietzsche who wrote up about the Übermensch,
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the Superman, that we would move beyond good and evil.
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In fact, he had a book by that name. He said, I shall unite humanity
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by benefits which are as much needed by good as by evil people.
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I shall be the true representative of that God who makes
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his sun to shine upon the good and the evil alike, and who makes
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the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust. Christ brought
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the sword, I shall bring peace.
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Christ threatened the earth with the Day of Judgment, but I shall
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be the last judge. And my
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judgment will not only— will be not only that of justice,
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but also that of mercy. The justice that will be
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meted out in my sentences will not be a retributive justice,
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but a distributive one. I shall pledge each person according to
21:09
his deserts and shall give everybody what
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he needs. Where have we heard this before?
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You'll own nothing and be happy.
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We're gonna give you stuff. We're gonna give you things.
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We're going to give you all the things.
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And that becomes rather attractive,
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because who doesn't want free stuff?
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And he talked about a utopia,
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an ideal place, which is— he says,
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here is a scheme which is not a dream. Uh,
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he says, I have come in
21:53
the name of the Father, that you accept me. Another will come
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in his own name, him you will accept. That's the warning from Christ.
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And the Antichrist says, I will be agreeable to
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all, because I'll give you what you want,
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and I won't ask you whether or not you should be wanting what you want.
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I'll give it to you precisely because of what you want.
22:21
I'm not a big fan of Stephen King as a person.
22:24
I've never read any of his books. I've seen a couple of movies based on
22:27
the books, and I remember the movie Needful Things where
22:31
the devil visits a small town in rural Maine. Not surprising,
22:36
but it's played by the actor Max von Sydow, and he's brilliant.
22:41
And he goes through the town and he finds out
22:44
what people want and he gives it to
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them. And with one exception, they all
22:52
want things that they shouldn't have. And when
22:56
they finally get what they want, it all goes sideways and turns violent.
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And the only person he can't corrupt is the
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sheriff, because the sheriff is
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content. He doesn't want things that
23:13
he shouldn't have.
23:17
In my book Real Philosophy for Real People, I talk about rightly
23:21
desiring what is rightly desirable.
23:24
St. Ignatius Loyola, in his First Principle and Foundation, said, man is
23:28
created for the praise, reverence, and service of God, and thereby save his
23:32
soul. And he said, therefore, it doesn't matter— long life, short life,
23:36
rich, poor, sickness, health.
23:40
What matters is that you attend— you attain the end for which you were
23:43
made. So you judge everything in this world in
23:48
terms of whether or not it's good for your salvation. And what
23:51
this guy is saying, you judge everything in this world in
23:55
terms of whether or not you want it. And if
23:59
you want something, he says, let me help
24:03
you with that. There's a brilliant,
24:06
brilliant play, and I'm blanking on the playwright's name now.
24:10
It's called The Iceman Cometh. And there
24:14
is a salesman, I think he sells pots and pans. He's a legendary
24:18
salesman, the best salesman ever. And somebody asks him,
24:22
what's the secret to your salesmanship? And he goes, well,
24:25
I find out something that,
24:28
uh, Eugene O'Neill— that was it, thank you, Mr. Engineer. He says,
24:32
I find out something that the customer wants to believe about himself,
24:36
and I convince him that I believe it, and he feels so
24:40
grateful that he's— he feels obliged to buy something from
24:44
me. So that's the work of the Antichrist and the devil, to find out something
24:48
that you really want, whether you should want it or not. And then he
24:52
offers it to you. That's terrifying. I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTeague,
24:57
your host here every day of The Catholic Current. After the broadcast today, go to
25:01
thestationofthecross.com, get our resources list, download our audio as podcast.
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Wherever you can find audio, you can find us. Follow us on your favorite platform,
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write a 5-star review. We need to attract the attention of the listeners so these
25:12
conversations get the attention they deserve. Everything you need to take us to
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your family and friends who give to you you. Together, let's take it around the
25:19
world. We can do it with you. We cannot do it without you.
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Let's do this good work together. Let's make a choice to be
25:25
so much more than merely relevant. Back in
25:29
just 2 minutes. Please do stay, stay with us.
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Praise be Jesus Christ. This is Father Robert McTeague of the Society of Jesus,
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Support us at thestationofthecross.com. On this Friday,
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let's talk about this. We're in part 2 of my ongoing series
26:59
Novel Prophecies. We're reading A Short Story of
27:02
the Antichrist by Vladimir Solovyov.
27:06
And, uh, what do I want you to remember from this? I think the
27:10
insight of the early authors we're looking at— Chesterton this week,
27:15
Savolyov this week, uh, Robert Hugh Benson a week
27:18
or two after that— are all saying the same thing.
27:22
Human nature doesn't change. The devil doesn't change. Our circumstances
27:27
may change, and the enemy is always offering us
27:30
pride, riches, and honors. And it may be dressed up in a
27:34
new way, but the game is always the same— to lead us away
27:38
from God. And I want to read the stories with you you to say,
27:41
hey, you know what? People were in danger back then.
27:45
People are in danger now. Christ remains faithful.
27:51
Let's act accordingly. And one of the
27:55
things that stood out for me as I read this little, uh, short history of
27:58
the Antichrist— and you really need to read it, it's 53 pages, take an hour
28:02
to read, hour and a half tops— and, um,
28:06
you know, and I It took me an hour and a half, and I was
28:08
writing in the margins and underlining a lot of things. So you can definitely do
28:12
this. What stood out for me was a lot of the language of
28:16
the Antichrist sounded very familiar.
28:20
It sounded very United Nations, NGO, World Economic
28:24
Forum, Bilderberg Group.
28:28
And candidly,
28:31
it sounded like a lot of the phraseology that we
28:35
hear from the enthusiasts of synodality.
28:41
So I just want to
28:45
suggest that we keep our guard up. Okay,
28:49
let's go to page 22. This is part of the program
28:55
of the Antichrist, the Superman,
28:59
who describes himself as the new lord of
29:03
the world, a kind-hearted philanthropist,
29:07
And he's, you know, and he's got his universal program
29:11
for, for peace and prosperity and so on.
29:15
And he— we read this: But
29:19
what was more important than these details, the most fundamental
29:24
form of equality was firmly established
29:28
among humankind, the equality of universal S-A-T-I-E-T-Y.
29:36
Universal satisfaction, universal fullness.
29:40
He says this took place in the 2nd year of his reign.
29:43
Social and economic problems had finally been settled.
29:47
But if satisfaction is a question of primary importance for the hungry,
29:52
the satisfied ones crave for something else.
29:55
Even satisfied animals usually want not only to sleep
29:59
but also to play. The more so with humanity,
30:03
which after post panem, post bread,
30:07
craved for circuses. The Emperor Superman
30:12
understood what his mob wanted. I think what
30:16
he'd say today was, everyone gets free microwavable food and
30:21
everybody gets free Wi-Fi, and what
30:24
can be better than that? That the emperor is
30:28
not only offering bread and circuses,
30:31
he's making sure that everybody gets
30:35
the same amount of bread and
30:39
circuses. This is the politics of
30:43
envy. Not only the question
30:47
of why does someone have more than me and why
30:51
do I have less, and there can be a variety of answers to that question,
30:55
but rather making sure that everybody has the same,
30:59
pulling people down to our own level.
31:03
I'm fuzzy on the details, but I remember reading a
31:07
story of a study that was done. Supposing you go to work and
31:11
your boss says, hey, I'll give you $100,000 free
31:15
and clear, tax-free, for nothing,
31:19
on the condition that everybody else in the company gets
31:23
$200,000. So you could have where everybody
31:27
has more than you, or everyone gets nothing
31:30
just like you, and those are the only options. And an alarming
31:34
amount of people with a spirit of resentment and
31:38
envy said, well, I'd rather that everyone have nothing than
31:42
anybody else have more than me. And that attitude of
31:47
comparison and envy and resentment definitely
31:52
opens spiritual doors that really, really should remain
31:57
closed. So the Antichrist is
32:01
giving out his program of everybody living
32:06
happily ever after, and they're going
32:09
to have a big meeting, and they're going to talk about how
32:13
wonderful the Superman, the World Emperor, the Antichrist really
32:17
is. And they even have an anthem,
32:20
the international hymn of the empire, called March of
32:24
Unified Humanity, which I suppose can
32:29
be, I'm told, rather freely translated
32:33
in Spanish as Todos, Todos,
32:37
Todos. And what he asks
32:42
of the world— what does he want from all
32:45
this? He says, I wish to receive from you only
32:50
your inner heartfelt recognition of myself as
32:54
your sole protector and patron.
32:57
Let those here who recognize me in their hearts and consciences as
33:02
their sole protector stand up See,
33:07
he does want to replace Christ.
33:11
He's going to be the one who is
33:16
the benefactor of humanity.
33:20
He is the one who will save us from ourselves.
33:24
He will be the one who will give us what we really want.
33:30
And He is terrifying because
33:36
he is so seductive.
33:40
He's so reasonable. He's not a boogeyman.
33:44
I'm going to ask Mr. Engineer to find a book.
33:48
It may be out of print, but we'll see if we can put it
33:52
in the show notes anyway. And I believe it was called Behind
33:56
the Glittering Mask or Beyond the Glittering Mask.
34:01
And it tells a story, if I recall correctly, I read it many, many years
34:04
ago, of a biology professor who falls asleep in
34:09
his study. When he wakes up, he sees a polished man in a
34:12
suit and a man in a white robe,
34:17
and it turns out it's the devil and Saint Michael,
34:20
and they're both going to make their case for loyalty.
34:26
And the man is very, very suave.
34:30
He's very polished. He's definitely a, you know,
34:34
um, a GQ kind of guy.
34:37
He's manicured. He's combed. There's not a hair out of place. And as
34:41
time goes on, the different masks
34:45
are removed until eventually you just have
34:49
this drooling, raging, slime-covered demon
34:53
yelling, we are Moloch! We are Moloch.
34:57
Give us your children. And that is
35:02
looking beyond the glittering mask.
35:06
And so what we have here is the
35:09
Antichrist saying, I'll give you
35:13
all these good things. I mean, this is right up there
35:18
with our Lord in the temptation of the desert being being
35:22
shown by the devil the kingdoms of the world.
35:26
All these are mine,
35:30
and I'll give them to you on the condition that you
35:34
worship me. And of course, the, the short
35:38
answer to that is, you know, no, you know,
35:42
definitely get behind me, Satan.
35:46
And what Savoyev wants to argue for is that
35:49
what is necessary is what he would call
35:53
a reconciliation of all Christians.
35:57
Doesn't go into a lot of details, but in the final confrontation,
36:02
the Pope is there representing Rome,
36:06
there's the Patriarch of the Orthodox representing Constantinople,
36:11
and then there's a German biblical professor from the University of
36:14
Tübingen who is representing Protestantism.
36:19
And in the confrontation of the Antichrist, they all kind of come come
36:23
together and, and unify. That would be
36:26
a very wonderful thing, but it's
36:30
very clear in a Catholic view of ecumenism,
36:35
it's not dialogue for its own sake, and it's not just you do you,
36:40
but it is a homecoming to Rome.
36:45
It is a reunification.
36:49
And that is something that we would do well to pray for.
36:53
And so again, not— don't want to
36:57
give anything away, spoiler alert, but let's just say the final conflict
37:01
comes and things look really, really bad for
37:05
the home team. And this is on page 48.
37:09
The author writes, the nocturnal darkness was suddenly
37:13
illuminated with brilliant light and a great sign appeared
37:17
in the heavens. It was a woman clothed
37:22
in the sun, with the moon beneath her feet and a wreath of 12
37:26
stars on her head. The apparition remained immovable
37:30
for some time and then began slowly to move
37:34
in a southward direction. Pope Peter raised his
37:38
staff and exclaimed, here is our banner!
37:42
Let us follow it. And he walked after that apparition,
37:46
accompanied by the old men and the whole crowd of Christians, to God's
37:50
mountain, to Sinai. So we're
37:54
still praying for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
37:58
We are still waiting for the woman,
38:01
the mother, who is destined to
38:05
crush the serpent under her heel.
38:09
And here's the thing that's interesting is in the novel
38:13
this is being recounted as a story and someone
38:16
is reading the scroll and he
38:21
points out that this is something that cannot be changed.
38:26
He says, well, there will be some clatter and fuss on the stage, but the
38:30
whole drama is written to the end and neither actors nor audience will
38:34
be permitted to change anything in it. Uh, the future really
38:38
is in God's hands. And in this series of,
38:42
you know, novel prophecies, I will absolutely not give a
38:45
timeline or a timetable or the day or the hour. That's known only to our
38:49
Heavenly Father, right? The Yeshua is
38:52
coming. The future is coming. The fulfillment is
38:56
coming. The triumph of the Immaculate Heart is coming.
38:59
What matters to us is whose side
39:04
will we finally be on and
39:08
how many will we bring with us? Saint John
39:12
Vianney said whether a priest is a, a sinner or a saint,
39:16
whether he goes to heaven or hell, he will bring 1,000
39:20
souls with him. Friends, if it were up to me, I would be disconnected.
39:24
I'd be sitting in my corner with my fountain pens and just writing and writing
39:28
and writing and every now and again publish something and sign my name.
39:31
Take responsibility for my writing. But I show up at a microphone every day,
39:35
and God help us, from time to time show up at a camera too,
39:38
because I want to bring more souls with me into heaven.
39:43
Christ our Lord, Christ our true King,
39:46
Christ our crucified, risen, and reigning, and returning
39:50
King calls us now to our Father's house
39:54
where already a banquet is prepared It is
39:58
our only true home. I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTeague,
40:01
your host here every day of The Catholic Current. You want to stay with us
40:04
for the rest of the hour. Coming up next, weekend readiness, reviewing the headlines
40:08
of the week in light of the upcoming Sunday scriptures so we'll be all prayed
40:11
up for Sunday Mass. Be part of the conversation, follow what we're
40:15
following by following us on Gab. That's gab.com.
40:19
The channel is The Catholic Current, and you can influence the conversation,
40:23
contact us at thestationofthecross.com/askfather.
40:28
Let me know, are you reading these books? Are you planning to?
40:31
What novels do you think I should have on this list for this
40:35
ongoing series called Novel Prophecies? I want to know.
40:38
Contact us, please, stationofthecross.com/askfather.
40:42
Back in 2 minutes. Please do stay with us.
41:01
Have a question or feedback about today's episode? Want to
41:05
suggest a guest or a future topic? Go to thestationofthecross.com/askfather
41:12
and help influence the conversation.
41:20
Praise be Jesus Christ. This is Father Robert McTigue of the Society of Jesus,
41:23
your daily host for The Catholic Current, where we bring Christ to the world and
41:26
the world to Christ. You're listening to us from the Station of the Cross Studios,
41:30
your local radio station, the iCatholic Radio mobile app, and we proclaim the fullness
41:33
of truth with clarity and charity. Well, friends, it's the last
41:37
segment on Friday. You know what that means? You and me, weekend readiness.
41:40
Looking at the headlines of the week in light of the upcoming Sunday scriptures,
41:44
so be all prayed up for Sunday Mass. In God's providence, I'm recording
41:47
this before Friday because I've got a minor road trip
41:52
that I, I need to take. So if there are dramatic things that have happened
41:56
Friday morning as you're listening to this, Friday afternoon, and I don't talk
41:59
about it, it's because in, in my timeline it hasn't happened
42:03
yet. Welcome to the multiverse. What are some of the stories
42:07
that I'm following? Villanova University, the the alma
42:11
mater of the former Robert Prevost,
42:15
now known as Pope Leo XIV,
42:18
has a new Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal,
42:23
and it's going to be conferred on October 13th by
42:27
the Pope himself at Castle Gandolfo at
42:31
a Laudato Si' conference.
42:35
So Uh, that's exciting. You should look for yourself at Villanova
42:41
University, uh, see what it's known for,
42:45
uh, look at faculty relationships, and look especially
42:49
to their advertisements for the month of June.
42:53
As a Jesuit, I'm also aware that St. Joseph's University, in the tradition
42:57
of the Society of Jesus, is also in Philadelphia. And back
43:01
in the day, at least, St. Joe's students
43:05
used to wear t-shirts and had bumper stickers said, friends don't let friends go
43:08
to Villanova. So there is that. There is
43:12
some controversy about the notorious Father
43:16
Rupnik, who's undergoing a canonical trial for absolutely unspeakable
43:21
crimes that I can't even say out loud because I'd wash my mouth
43:24
out with soap and want to go to confession afterwards. There was some rumor that
43:28
he was being acquitted of it, at least of the violence aspect of it.
43:31
The Holy See says that's not true. Uh, we'll wait and see,
43:36
uh, on that. The New Jersey governor amounts— admits that
43:40
6,600 non-citizens registered to vote and 400
43:45
of them cast ballots. Well, gosh, I wonder how that happened.
43:49
I wonder who they voted for. And I want
43:53
to know how it is that they're announcing it
43:57
now. And not before?
44:01
So that becomes, uh, an interesting question.
44:05
Um, some good news for a change, and we're going
44:09
to link in the show notes, an off-duty North Texas firefighter saves 3 children trapped
44:13
under a boat on the 4th of July.
44:16
So that is, uh, that is a, a very good thing.
44:20
Uh, Jason Horn, thank you for saving those 3 children.
44:24
God bless you for your, your courage and, and your generosity. Let's look
44:28
at the scriptures for this week. Again. If you're following the Novus Ordo calendar of
44:32
the Pauline Rite, we're looking at the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
44:36
Lectionary 109, and the Gospel is
44:40
from Matthew 13. And he talks
44:43
about the kingdom of heaven's like a treasure buried in a field. It's the
44:47
pearl of great price. And when I hear that parable,
44:51
I think of a song. It was written in the '40s
44:55
and immortalized by Etta James. In 1960,
45:01
1961, and it's significant for me for sentimental reasons because that
45:05
was the song that my sister and her great husband Nick danced to
45:09
at their wedding back in 2005.
45:13
And the song was At Last. And you know,
45:17
they don't write them like this anymore. Let me just
45:20
read you a few lines and then you compare it with popular pop
45:25
tunes, especially things that have won Grammy Awards.
45:28
At last my love has come along, my lonely days
45:32
are over and life is like a song. At last the
45:35
skies are blue, my heart was wrapped up in clover the
45:38
night I looked at you. I found a dream that I could speak
45:42
to, a dream that I can call my own. I found a thrill to
45:46
press my cheek to, a thrill that I've never known.
45:49
You smiled, you smiled And oh, and then the spell was cast,
45:53
and here we are in heaven, for you are mine at last. They used
45:57
to write songs like that and then sing them and make
46:01
them popular, and I would like to go back to
46:05
those kinds of days. Now here's a question for you.
46:09
Stand outside a parking lot on a Saturday evening or a Sunday morning
46:14
and watch the people arriving almost late
46:18
or somewhat late to Mass,
46:22
dragging themselves into church,
46:26
and then towards the end of Mass running out like
46:30
the building was on fire and they had someplace really
46:33
important to go to. And just ask yourself,
46:39
is this the behavior of people who found
46:42
the pearl of great price? Are these the
46:47
people who have discovered
46:51
a treasure for which they've sold all else? Let me tell you a story.
46:55
Past couple of Holy Thursdays— excuse me, Easter vigils—
46:59
I've had the great privilege of celebrating Mass at the vigil
47:03
at the cathedral, then going back to a convent where I would transfer
47:07
the Blessed Sacrament from the altar of repose into the main altar
47:12
of the tabernacle there in the convent chapel.
47:17
And these sisters could not wait.
47:23
They drove like their van was on fire from the cathedral to
47:27
the convent. They got there before I did. They had the doors open
47:31
and the lights on. I step into the sacristy, they assaulted me
47:35
with the vestments and shoved me out there because by golly,
47:38
they wanted to be with their Lord.
47:43
They wanted to be with their beloved,
47:48
and they had missed him. And the way that I describe
47:51
this community is they love our Lord so much— hear me out, try to
47:55
imagine this— they love our Lord so
47:59
much that they want to worship
48:03
him. Let me say that again. They love
48:08
our Lord so much that they want to worship
48:11
him. So if they tell me that their treasure,
48:15
their pearl of great price, is Christ the Lord, I'm ready
48:19
to believe them. And if they tell me the Eucharist is the source and summit
48:23
of our lives, I will believe them because they act
48:27
that way. And they act that way consistently.
48:32
And so that's my question for you. If someone watched
48:36
you to go to Mass on Sunday,
48:39
would they detect any eagerness,
48:43
any sense that you were going to the source and summit of your lives,
48:47
your treasure? Now, in fairness, some of you might have
48:51
to worship at St. Typical's where the music is indifferent and the preaching
48:55
banal. And the behavior is scandalous, and I get
48:58
that, and my heart breaks for you because I've been there myself.
49:03
But really, friends, we need to have an examination of conscience,
49:07
at least for Sunday worship. Is there any indication
49:13
that the day is more to us than merely last day of the weekend or
49:18
get ready for Monday day? Is there any
49:22
indication that As we go to prayer,
49:26
or we go to confession, ahem,
49:30
or a holy hour, or the rosary,
49:34
is there any indication that we have found a
49:37
treasure for which we would renounce all else?
49:43
And if not, why not, and what could we
49:46
do about it? And if the answer is yes,
49:51
I know that Christ is my treasure.
49:55
Thanks be to God, and pray mightily to
49:59
be a good steward of that grace. May God's holy name be praised
50:03
now and forever. I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTeague, your host here every
50:06
day, The Catholic Current. Join us on Monday for another lively episode of The
50:10
Catholic Current. Great topic, great guests, great conversation, because that's
50:14
how we roll here at The Catholic Current. And the Station of the Cross,
50:17
because we strive every day, each and all of us, to be so very much
50:21
more than merely relevant. After the broadcast today, go to
50:25
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50:29
Wherever you can find audio, you can find us. Follow us on your favorite platform,
50:33
write a 5-star review. We need to attract the attention of the listeners so
50:37
these conversations get the attention they deserve. Through the
50:40
intercession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son,
50:43
and Holy Spirit. Go in peace, and please do pray for me, for I am
50:47
a sinner.