Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 154: Love of Friends, Enemies and Self
Transcript
- 0:59Hey, y'all, welcome to today's show. We'll pick back up on radio
- 1:03replies where the priests are being questioned about the translation of Peter has the Rock
- 1:11on which Christ founded his church. And yesterday we went through all the questions
- 1:18about the different languages used in the Bible and translations of the Bible, and
- 1:23how the Aramaic that Jesus spoke made absolutely clear that Peter is the rock.
- 1:32Jesus changed his name from Simon to the Aramaic word for rock, which is
- 1:38Kepha, which translated into Latin is Peter. They covered how it is actually
- 1:47Peter, not his profession of faith, and that Jesus didn't say like,
- 1:52you're the little rock, Peter, but I'm the big rock. No,
- 1:55he actually said, Peter, You're the rock upon which I'll build my church.
- 2:00Whatser says, if you became an atheist, would you still say that
- 2:02if the New Testament were true, the words cannot mean anything except the Catholic
- 2:07interpretation, And they, of course answered yes. And the person asked,
- 2:10did the early fathers interpret the text as you do? And they answered they
- 2:15were morally unanimous in that interpretation. We see whose rationalizing tendencies well known that
- 2:22he was a rationalist or an atheist who actually took the time to study church
- 2:28history and development of doctrine. Wrote the Confession interpretation was proposed by some fathers
- 2:34in the view of the moral application, and has been resurrected by Protestant exeguts
- 2:39in polemic interests. But if one takes the historic text of the Gospels,
- 2:45it is only a subtle distinction doing violence to the text. Even where the
- 2:52official head of the church conferred in Matthew sixteen eighteen, surely it has been
- 2:58withdrawn in Matthew sixteen twenty three, where Christ said to Peter, get thee
- 3:02behind me, Satan. This is another thing. Products since will question you
- 3:07about and I've actually covered this before, Let's see what the priests have to
- 3:10say. The fact that the office was not withdrawn is clear from the latter
- 3:15words of Christ to Peter and do thou being converted conform confirm thy brethren Luke
- 3:22twenty two thirty two, and again from the commission to feed the whole flock
- 3:27given to Peter after our Lord's resurrection, as recorded in John twenty one fifteen
- 3:32through eighteen, prompted by the love and reverence for Christ, Peter had a
- 3:37protest that Christ ought not to suffer, and Christ would have been the first
- 3:40to appreciate such motives. However harsh the English may be, Christ actually will
- 3:46really replied gently, as if to say, Peter, you do not yet
- 3:49understand the plan of God. You are letting your human affections sway your judgment.
- 3:54But such thoughts are opposed to my vocation. Get THEE behind my safe,
- 3:59get THEE behind me Satan. The word satan is not used personally here
- 4:02as of the devil, but in the sense of adversary. See Satan actually
- 4:06means adversary, and Christ intending merely I cannot accept the natural promptings of your
- 4:13affections for me, no withdrawal of the offices involved. Firston says I don't
- 4:18see how all this affects your claims for the pope. Where's the connecting link
- 4:23between Christ promised to Peter and the city of Rome. The answer the connecting
- 4:28link is the fact that Peter journeyed to Rome and died there as a bishop,
- 4:31as with universal jurisdiction of the whole Church. So another thing prosdents will
- 4:36tell you, Saint Peter was never in Rome. Actually, both Christian and
- 4:42Roman historians record his crucifixion upside down, his martyrdom in Rome. There's constant
- 4:51Christian history of where they gathered his bones and put it and will hid them
- 4:58for a time and then build a small church over the them, which is
- 5:01now the great Basilica of Saint Peter's. And in fact his bones are under
- 5:08the very altar in Saint Peter's basilica. They answer, you may have heard
- 5:14that stated, but you have never heard any proof advanced in its favor.
- 5:16It is simple history that Saint Peter went to Rome about forty three a d.
- 5:21Went back to Jerusalem after a few years for a short time, and
- 5:25then returned to Rome until his death. Saved for very short absences, he
- 5:29died about the year sixty seven. During the reign of Nero Popeists wrote about
- 5:33one a D. Peter came first by salutary preaching of the Gospel, and
- 5:40by his keys opened the city of Rome's gates to the heavenly kingdom. Lanciani,
- 5:45the imminent archaeologist, wrote, the presence of Saint Peter in Rome is
- 5:47a fact demonstrated by beyond a shadow of doubt, by purely monumental evidence.
- 5:55Person says, I want proof outside of your Catholic tradition. Does scriptures say
- 5:58that Saint Peter was in the protest to say everything has to be recorded in
- 6:02the Bible. They won't believe it, as if the Bible is a history
- 6:05book or a newspaper. They answer, Catholic tradition is not a mere matter
- 6:11of rumor and report. It is down in black and white and documents as
- 6:15historical as any other documents beginning from the year ninety seven, with the declaration
- 6:19of fact by Clement. It would not matter if scripture did not give the
- 6:24evidence on this point. However, it does. Peterson's his first epistle with
- 6:28the words the church which is in Babylon, salutes you, and so doth
- 6:31my son Mark. All reputable scholars admit that the first Christians called pagan Rome
- 6:36Babylon on account of its vices. Saint Peter therefore was writing from Rome.
- 6:43Saint Paul wrote to the Colossians from Rome, sending the kind wishes of Mark
- 6:46and also indicating Mark's presence in Rome. Person says, of course, as
- 6:50a Catholic, you have to try to prove it, and they answer,
- 6:54the point is, have I succeeded in doing so. Anyway, Not only
- 6:58Catholics admit the fact. No single writer ever denied it until the thirteenth century.
- 7:02Then it was denied by the Waldensians. Heretics had a purpose in view,
- 7:08yet who could produce no evidence that he died elsewhere. The Waldensis an
- 7:14odd little Protestant sect who were essentially kicked out of the mountains of Italy for
- 7:24well being early Protestants, and they were considered to be disloyal to the Italian
- 7:30government by the Italian king, and so he kicked him out. They settled
- 7:34in North Carolina and put on an absolutely heretical and somewhat blasphemous play every year,
- 7:44claiming that they're the true Christians, that the Catholic Church is awful,
- 7:49that there's no pope, and that somehow they were prevented from having the Bible,
- 7:55when actually there were vernacular Italian German different as I discussed yesterday, translations
- 8:03of the Bible approved by the Church in their area, and they could have
- 8:05read them if they wanted to. Truth is, the Waldensians were mostly illiterate.
- 8:11Now they have this play where they say that Catholics chained up the Bible
- 8:13and would allow everybody to read it. In fact, if you drive through
- 8:16Valdi's North Carolina, go see billboards with the Bible with a big lock and
- 8:22chain on it. Well, you know, before Gutenberg, a Catholic invented
- 8:28the printing press to mass produce the Bible, which still wasn't really you know,
- 8:31mass produces. We know it. You could print one page at a
- 8:35time. I mean, it would take forever just to make one Bible.
- 8:39All bibles were handwritten, and in modern value, I mean they were so
- 8:43rare and scarce that just an average Bible that would have been in an average
- 8:48Catholic perish would have been valued at over fifty thousand dollars, and it would
- 8:54have been the only Bible in that entire probably within one hundred mile radius,
- 8:58right, because it took so long for people to copy them out by hand.
- 9:01And people especially Pagans, non believers, especially in Germany, in Italy,
- 9:09which was not necessarily unified country. There are all these little provinces,
- 9:13and you had various warlords and such. They would raid churches and steal everything
- 9:20of value in them, and that included like the golden chalices and such,
- 9:24and crosses, crucifixes, but especially bibles, because those Bibles were worth really
- 9:31more than anything made of gold in the church. And so yes, they
- 9:33were chained. They were chained keep them in the church. That wasn't chaining
- 9:39them to keep someone from reading them. Anyone who was literate could ask the
- 9:43priests to come in and the priests would say, yeah, you know,
- 9:46read the Bible and we'll discuss it. Right, They were chained to keep
- 9:48people from stealing them. You remember when we used to have payphones. I
- 9:54know this before a lot of y'all's time, you know, but in my
- 9:56childhood, well through my teens, before cell phones became ubiquitous, we went
- 10:01to payphones, and the phone book was chained to the payphone so no one
- 10:07would steal it. It wasn't to keep someone from getting access to it.
- 10:11It was to ensure everyone had access to it. Regardless, you're talking about
- 10:16a time far before universal literacy. The priest may have been the only educated
- 10:22person in the entire village, maybe a priest and a doctor the only literate
- 10:26people who could actually read. So the fact that the bibles, I mean,
- 10:31they made this claim that the church wouldn't let them have a Bible,
- 10:35Well, the church did say, you can't have a fake, erroneous Bible,
- 10:39by a bible that tells you that when Jesus said don't swear lets,
- 10:45you're yesbs and your nose me knows means you cannot enter into a contract to
- 10:50buy or sell property or a marriage. A lot of these fringe Protestant groups
- 10:54this time said all marriages were invalidated because one couldn't swear anything or a military
- 11:01service, but especially for the king, like in the area where the Waldensians
- 11:07were. Their unwillingness to swear allegiance to his government made them traders, and
- 11:15he expelled them from the country. Well anyway, so the Waldensians were the
- 11:22first to advance the idea that Saint Peter was never in Rome. And they
- 11:26were fairly illiterate, uneducated people who were led astray by charismatic, heretical preachers.
- 11:35And they say that no other place has ever witnessed this honor with no
- 11:41other place has ever disputed this honor with Rome. In other words, no
- 11:43other country has ever claimed that Saint Peter was buried there, you know,
- 11:48I mean the relics of all the saints are preserved, especially the apostles.
- 11:52Wycliff Luther and other Protestants took up the Waldensian assertion think he had a good
- 11:56argument against Rome, but enlightened protests scholars today are ashamed of such an argument,
- 12:01with all the avance against it, and a shame that it should have
- 12:05ever been used. Cave a Protestant writer says that Peter was in Rome.
- 12:11We fearlessly affirm with the whole multitude of the ancients. Dean Milman admits the
- 12:18fact is incontestable. Doctor Larder, in his History of the Apostles and Evangelists,
- 12:22says that is the general, uncontradicted and disinterested testimony of ancient writers.
- 12:28Protestant Wiston, in his Memoirs, remarks, it is a shame for any
- 12:33Protestant to have to confess that any Protestant ever denied it. So we'll leave
- 12:39that one there, and we'll go ahead to the Claus Barago's exhaustive Catechism of
- 12:46the Catholic Church. And we are continuing on the topic of love of neighbor.
- 12:50And now we get into a nice, pleasant topic of love of one's
- 12:54friends. We call those men's friend, we call those men for whose principles
- 13:01are the same as ours, and who cherish mutual goodwill, mutually support one
- 13:05another, and hold confidential intercourse with one another, confidential conversations. In other
- 13:11words, those whose principles are the same soon become friends. We like what
- 13:16is like. Friends cherish more kindly feelings toward one another than they do the
- 13:20world at large. They are one heart and one soul. Saint Jerome compares
- 13:24friendship to a mirror which presents a faithful image of the object before it.
- 13:30If one who stands before a mirror laughs or moves his head, the image
- 13:33of the mirror does the same. His very wishes and dislikes seem to be
- 13:39shared by the image in the mirror. So it is with friendship. Trifling
- 13:41differences do not deserve to dissever it, tear it apart. In other words,
- 13:48they rather clinch it more firmly. The smith sprinkles water upon the fire
- 13:52to fan the flame. And a town that has been reconquered is garrison wrongly.
- 14:00The one that has which has never been lost to the crown. Friends
- 14:03support one another. Pytheus and Damon were intimate friends. One of them was
- 14:09sentenced to death by Dionysus the Tyrant. He asked permission to go to Rome
- 14:13and said his affairs in order. His friend, meanwhile acting as a hostage
- 14:16for him, prepared to die in his stead. He did not reappear at
- 14:20the appointed time. The hour for his execution struck, but the condemned man
- 14:24was not there yet. His friend persisted that he would come, and so
- 14:28he did. The tyrant admired their mutual devotion and pardoned the one under the
- 14:33sentence of death. David, the son of an ordinary citizen of Bethlehem,
- 14:37and Jonathan, the King's son, made each other's acquaintance in camp, and
- 14:41finding in each other kindred souls, they formed a close friendship. When when
- 14:46Jonathan heard that David's life was sought after, he could not eat for anxiety
- 14:50on behalf, on his behalf, and when he had to part from him,
- 14:54wept bitterly. That's first King's twenty twenty four, and I guess it's
- 14:58twenty eight, No eighteen one. Sorry. Friends hold confidential intercourse with one
- 15:03another. They conceal nothing from one another when the door. When the door
- 15:11of a room is open, you can see all it is in it.
- 15:13So friends disclosed to one another their inmost soul and reveal their secret heart.
- 15:18Christ communicated many mysteries to his disciples. Friends are consequently candid and open hearted
- 15:24to one another. They tell one another their failings. Thus, Christ warned
- 15:28his apostles with their faults. For instance, he exhorted them to cultivate a
- 15:31more childlike spirit. Matthew thirteen eighteen three. I mean I'm a bit dyslexic,
- 15:39and I'm kind of inverting things today. Sorry. Saint Gregory the Great
- 15:43used to say, I only count those as my friends who have the generosity
- 15:48to point out my faults to me. Those only are true friends whose friendship
- 15:54is based upon principles of religion. Friendship, like a building, must rest
- 15:58upon a solid foundation, and only when this salvation is the fear of God
- 16:03and the love of God will the structure of friendship stand firm. If it
- 16:07is based on wrong or selfish motives, it is founded upon sand. One
- 16:11who is the enemy of God cannot be a true friend to his neighbor.
- 16:15He only loves his friend, to write, who loves God in him.
- 16:18According to Saint Augustine, when seen in the bend of the ocean, coral
- 16:23appears to be like a bush of a greenish shoe, without any special beauty.
- 16:27But when taken out of the water, it becomes bright red and hard.
- 16:32So friendship acquires its brilliancy, its beauty, its solidarity when it is
- 16:36elevated into the atmosphere of divine love. That's according to Saint Francis, to
- 16:40soul, those are false friends whose friendship rests on principles that are reprehensible.
- 16:47They ruin one another body and soul, and forsake one another in time of
- 16:49adversity. False friendships are those that are formed merely for the sake of pleasure
- 16:56again or some bad purpose, or between men who need one another's assistance in
- 17:00perpetrating some dark deed. Thus, Judas made agreement with the high priests against
- 17:04our Lord, and Pilot and Herod were made friends on the occasion of his
- 17:10condemnation. False friends are only steadfast so long as they need each other.
- 17:15It's reference to Ecclesiastes six and seven. No. Ecclesiastes six, it says
- 17:25seven seq. I guess he's saying a sequence beginning at verse seven. Okay.
- 17:30When Judas, in desperation took the money back to the chief priests with
- 17:34self accusation, they spoke as if they knew nothing about him. What is
- 17:38this to us? Look thou to it Matthew twenty seven to four. False
- 17:44friends act like the swallows. As long as it is warm here, they
- 17:47stay happily in this country with us. But as soon as they feel the
- 17:51inclement weather winter approaching, they take flight to a sunnier climb. Or they
- 17:55may be compared to bees, which fly away from a flower when they have
- 17:57sucked all the honey out of its cup. They are like a reed which
- 18:02breaks when one leans on it. The Romans choose to say, as long
- 18:07as thou art happy, that will have many friends. But as soon as
- 18:11adversity ever takes he thou wilt find thyself alone. Misfortune is the test of
- 18:15true friendship. It is not wrong to have friends and to love them more
- 18:19than other men. For Christ had friends whom he loved with special predilection.
- 18:23Our Lord loved all men, but he loved his disciples best. He called
- 18:26him his friends, his children, and treated them with familiarity and confidence.
- 18:32Among his disciples, John was his special favorite, and next to him he
- 18:34loved Peter and James. These three were with him on the most memorable occasions
- 18:40of his life on Earth, on Tabor and Alvet We are told also that
- 18:44Jesus loved Lazarus and his two sisters in John eleven five. We know that
- 18:48God shows special predilection and confers most graces on those who are most like him
- 18:53and who love him most, And we therefore are warranted in doing the same,
- 19:00in loving and trusting those in whom we find a similarity of taste and
- 19:04affection for ourselves. The need of friendship is implanted by the Creator in every
- 19:10human breast. It is a great happiness for us to have true friends,
- 19:14for they add greatly to the enjoyment of life and preserve us from the dangers
- 19:18of soul and body. Blessed is he that findeth a true friend. That's
- 19:22Ecclesiastes twenty five twelve. A friend makes our life much pleasanter. His sympathy
- 19:26increases our happiness and makes our afflictions easier to bear. Saint Augustine says,
- 19:32there is no more salutary balm for our wounds than the consolations of a friend.
- 19:37Just as a stick is not broken readily if bound up with others,
- 19:41so we are not as soon cast down by calamity. If faithful friends are
- 19:45at hand to succor us. A true friend is like another guardian angel.
- 19:51No defense is so efficacious as that which he affords us. Nothing can be
- 19:56compared to a faithful friend. No weight of gold and silver is e equal
- 20:00to his fidelity. They that fear the Lord shall find him. Ecclesiastes six
- 20:03point fifteen. Alexander the Great, on being asked where his treasures were,
- 20:07pointed to his friends and said, those are my treasures. True friendship does
- 20:12not cease at our death, for charity never falleth away. First Corinthians thirteen
- 20:18eight. Those who have been real friends on earth will see and love one
- 20:21another in heaven, Christ promises. Christ promises his apostles that they shall be
- 20:26with him in heaven. John seventeen twenty four. False friends re cursed one
- 20:33another after death for having been a cause of sin and unhappiness to one another.
- 20:37One that must not be rash in forming friendships, nor must one do
- 20:41wrong to please a friend. David complained, the man in whom I trusted,
- 20:45who eat my bread, hath greatly supplanted me. And that's in Psalms.
- 20:52Holy scripture also warns us to try a friend before taking him, and
- 20:55not to trust him, readily. Ecclesiastes sixty seven. Judge of him as
- 21:00much by his words as by his deeds. And if he asks you to
- 21:03do evil for his sake, answer him, as the Greek answered the friend
- 21:07who wanted him to swear falsely in his interests. I am only thy friend,
- 21:11in so far as I do not lose the friendship of God. The
- 21:15friendship of God is indeed worth more than any human friendship. Likewise, we
- 21:21have the commandment to love our enemy. We call him our enemy who hates
- 21:25us and who seeks to do us harm. Saul, for instance, was
- 21:29an enemy of the Christians. Those alone can said to be to have love
- 21:33of neighbor who love their enemies too. A big fire is not extinguished,
- 21:37but increased by wind. So the love of one's neighbor, if it be
- 21:40real, is not destroyed, but deepened by affronts and offenses on the part
- 21:45of others. If we only love those who love us, we cannot look
- 21:48for any great reward Matthew five point forty six. We love our friends for
- 21:52our own sakes, but we love our enemies for God's sake. We ought
- 21:56to love our enemies because Christ commands it. He says, love your enemies,
- 22:00Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute
- 22:03and caluminates you. Colluminates you calumny you know, speaking against you Matthew five
- 22:11forty four. Christ has given us the most striking example of the love of
- 22:15our enemies, For on the Cross he prayed for his enemies, and in
- 22:18the garden of Olives he healed the servant whose ear Peter had cut off.
- 22:22Our heavenly father himself says this example, for he makes his son rise upon
- 22:27the good and the bad, and reigneth upon the just and the unjust.
- 22:32He who loves his enemies therefore is like to God. He is a true
- 22:34child of his Father in heaven. Matthew five forty five. Another reason why
- 22:38we ought to love our enemies is because he is also made after God's image,
- 22:44and as an instrument of his hand. Our enemy has made it for
- 22:47God's likeness. The king's effigy stamped upon the coin as equally deserving of respect.
- 22:52Whether the coin be of copper or gold, So we are bound to
- 22:55love and honor the image of God. Whether the man who bears it be
- 22:57vicious or virtuous. It is not the sin, we love, but the
- 23:00sinner man is God's work. Sin is man's work. Therefore, says Saint
- 23:06Augustine, love what God has made, not what man has done. We
- 23:10ought also to love our enemy, because God uses him as his instrument.
- 23:14Evil men, unwittingly to themselves, are instruments in God's hands. As the
- 23:18physician employs the leeks to draw the bad blood from the veins of the sick
- 23:22man and effect his cure, so God employs our enemies to remove our imperfections.
- 23:27Saint Gregory, because corner is Saint Gregory the Great, the evil shape
- 23:32the good is the file and hammer shape iron. They are also they are
- 23:36to them as the plow to fallow ground, says Saint John Christossum. They
- 23:41are moreover of service to us by acquainting us with our faults and giving us
- 23:44an opportunity of practicing virtue. Enemies are like bees. They sting, but
- 23:48they produce honey. When calumny assaults, you console yourself with the thought that
- 23:53it is not the worst fruits at the wasp devour. Finally, remember that
- 23:59no enemy can really injure one who loves God, for God makes all hostile
- 24:03designs work to the good of his own people Romans eight twenty eight. This
- 24:07exemplified Joseph's life. The truth will teach you to bear up against persecutions.
- 24:14The love of our enemy has shown in this that we do not revenge ourselves
- 24:17on him, that we return good for evil, that we pray for him
- 24:21and forgive him willingly. We ought not to revenge ourselves on our enemy.
- 24:25David gives us a beautiful example, for he twice had the opportunity of putting
- 24:27his persecutor, King Saw, to death, and on neither occasion did he
- 24:32do him any harm. Our Lord, when he was reviled, did not
- 24:34revile again one Peter two twenty three. Once when Christ was not received in
- 24:40a Sumerian village because he was a Jew Samaritan villager, I should say the
- 24:45apostles were desirous of revenge, that they wanted to call down fire from heaven.
- 24:48But our Lord rebuked him, saying, you know not of what spirit
- 24:52you are Luke nine fifty five. Vengeance belongs to God, not to us,
- 24:59Romans twelve nights. We ought to suffer wrong rather than take revenge.
- 25:03We are told to him that striketh the on one cheek to offer the other.
- 25:07Luke six nine, be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by
- 25:11good Romans twelve twenty one. Avenge yourself, as the saints did, by
- 25:17returning benefits for evil done to you. Such vengeance is divine. Saint Stephen
- 25:22prayed for his murders. He was more grieved for the harm they did to
- 25:25themselves than for the injury they did to him. When the apostle James,
- 25:29the Bishop of Jerusalem, was thrown down for the pinnacle of the temple,
- 25:33he raised himself up on his fractured needs to pray for his murders. We
- 25:37should also be ready to forgive our enemies. King David forgave Semi when he
- 25:42threw stones at him and cursed him that second King's sixteen ten. To do
- 25:48good to one's enemy is proof of great magnanimity. He that does not revenge
- 25:52himself on his enemy, or who even confers benefits upon him, puts his
- 25:57foe to shame and pacifies him, and will be rewarded by God. Whereas
- 26:02he who hates his enemy and revenges on himself commits a sin. David,
- 26:07by sparing Song two on two several occasions, mollified and touched him to such
- 26:12a degree that he shed tears. First Kings twenty four seventeen. Blessed Clement
- 26:18Hoffbower, being abused by a woman in the streets of Vienna, went up
- 26:22to her, picked up a handkerchief that she had dropped, and spoke very
- 26:26kindly to her. She was covered with confusion and hastily withdrew. Just as
- 26:32the bore worm, soft as it is, works its way through the hardest
- 26:37of wood, so a conciliatory spirit overcomes the bitterest enemy and courses calumnate calumniator.
- 26:45That's a hard word to say. By conferring benefits on your enemy,
- 26:48you will keep coals of fire upon his head Romans twelve twenty. That is
- 26:52to say, he can no more resist your kindness than he could burning coals.
- 26:57Thus we are taught to be gentle and peaceable. He who does not
- 27:00revenge himself would be rewarded by God. David Borseemii's curses, patiently saying,
- 27:07perhaps the Lord will look upon my affliction and render me good for the cursing
- 27:11of this day. Second King's sixteen twelve, shortly after he won a signal
- 27:17victory. It is difficult to you to pray for your enemy. But the
- 27:22greater your self conquest, the greater would be recompense. According to Saint Augustine,
- 27:26to revenge one's self is a sin. He who does this is like
- 27:30the bee, which revenges itself by stinging, but in doing so dies.
- 27:34Besides, it is a foolish thing to revenge one's self. It is like
- 27:37the dog who bites a stick with which he is beaten. For we forget
- 27:41that our enemy is but an instrument in God's hand. He who forgives his
- 27:45enemy will obtain forgiveness of sins from God. But he who will not forgive
- 27:49his enemy will God will not forgive. To forgive one's enemy is a work
- 27:55of mercy and the greatest of all almsgiving, says Saint Augustine. If we
- 27:59forget give others, we can ask pardon for ourselves, As is expressed in
- 28:03the fifth petition of Our Lord's prayer, God shows mercy to him who willingly
- 28:07forgives his brother. He who does not forgive his brother brings down upon himself
- 28:12no blessing. When he repeats to our father, Christ says, if you
- 28:17will not forgive men, neither will your heavenly Father, forgive you your offenses,
- 28:21Matthew six point fifteen. Remember the parable of the unmerciful servant Matthew eighteen
- 28:26twenty three. We are not merely to forgive seven times, but seventy times
- 28:32seven times. And finally, we will wrap this section up with the topic
- 28:38of the love of one's self. Among all classes of men, each one
- 28:44is his own nearest neighbor. Consequently, every man ought to love himself.
- 28:48We had to love ourselves because God wills it. Furthermore, because we are
- 28:52made after God's image, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and are called
- 28:56to eternal felicity in heaven. Is God's will that we should love ourselves.
- 29:00For our Lord says thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, And these words
- 29:03he declares our love. That the love of ourselves is to be the rule
- 29:07and measure of our love for our neighbor. When first to love God,
- 29:11says Saint Augustine, Then to love thyself, then thy neighbor as myself.
- 29:15God has not given us a special command to love ourselves, because every man
- 29:19does this in virtue of the natural law, and it is contained in the
- 29:22commandment to love one's neighbor. We aught besides to love ourselves, because we
- 29:27are man for God's image. If we are to respect God's image in our
- 29:30neighbor, nay more and our enemy, we must respect it in ourselves.
- 29:36Since then we love ourselves for the sake of God. It stands to reason
- 29:40that right love of one's self increases in the same proportion as the advancement and
- 29:44the love of God. We must also remember that we are brought bought with
- 29:48a great price. You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver,
- 29:52but with the precious blood of Christ one Peter one eighteen. We also
- 29:57have a high calling. You are destined for eternal felicity. Saint Gregory the
- 30:03Great thus beautifully expresses it. Recognize thy dignity, Old Christian thou art made
- 30:08a participator in the divine nature, a member of Christ's body. Remember that
- 30:14thou hast been wrested from the powers of darkness and destined to share in the
- 30:18glory of the Kingdom of Heaven. Consider also that the Son of God was
- 30:22made man for us and became our brother. That thus we have been made
- 30:26children of God one John three to one. That the Holy Ghost dwells in
- 30:32us First Corinthians six nineteen, and that the angels minister to us Hebrews one
- 30:37fourteen. These are all motives impelling us to love ourselves. Wherefore, as
- 30:41the love of one's self is in reality the love of one's neighbor applied to
- 30:45one's self personally, to love oneself is equivalent to esteeming oneself at one's true
- 30:52value, a matter of reason, desiring one's own good a matter of affections,
- 30:56not injuring, but doing good to oneself in will and in action.
- 31:00This is the right self love, in contradistinction to the false love, which
- 31:04manifests itself in arrogance, conceit, discourtesy, license, et cetera. The
- 31:10true love of oneself shows itself herein that we strive to attain that which will
- 31:15procure our real happiness, first and foremost our eternal felicity, and then such
- 31:19earthly things as are conducive to the attainment of that eternal felicity. The true
- 31:23lover of himself acts according to Christ ammunition seek he first the Kingdom of God
- 31:30and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you Matthew six
- 31:33thirty three. He will provide for his health, his clothing, etc.
- 31:37But without undue solicitude. He is wanting in love of himself, who only
- 31:41strives after earthly possessions, and heeds not his eternal happiness. Likewise, he
- 31:47who despises things that are helpful to the attainment of eternal happiness. A great
- 31:51number of mankind regards self, not God, as their final end, and
- 31:55earthly riches not as a means to our attaining eternal happiness, but as a
- 31:57means for gratification the senses. Therefore, they take delight in earthly things such
- 32:02as honors, riches, dignities, et cetera, and are not willing to
- 32:06give them up for God's sake. Such love of one's self as a spurious
- 32:09love. It is selfish, self seeking. He who prefers what is temporal
- 32:15to what is eternal is his own enemy, for he will only enjoy a
- 32:19certain measure of happiness for a short period, then he will be unhappy forevermore.
- 32:22They that commit sin and iniquity, or enemies to their own soul.
- 32:25That's from Tobit twelve ten. How many resemble the miser, and the Gospel
- 32:30said to himself, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take
- 32:35thy rest, eat, drink, and make good cheer to whom God said
- 32:38thou fool this night? Do they require thy soul of thee? And who
- 32:44shall these things be which thou hast provided at s Luca twelve, nineteen twenty
- 32:50What doth it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffer the
- 32:52loss of his soul? Matthew sixteen twenty six learn says Saint Augustine, to
- 32:58love thyself not by loving thyself. On the other hand, those do wrong
- 33:01who despise those earthly things which promote their spiritual good, for by doing so
- 33:07they show contempt for their eternal salvation. What must one think of a man
- 33:12who does not provide for his own maintenance, who rashly endangers his life,
- 33:16or even puts an end to it by his own act. All right,
- 33:21y'all, we'll wrap it up there. We have gotten through this section of
- 33:22love of God and neighbor, and next time, probably tomorrow, we will
- 33:28start on the Ten Commandments. So y'all have a great evening. Hopefully I'll
- 33:32talk to yamorrow. Remember the words of Saint Padre Pio. Pray, hope,
- 33:37and don't worry