Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 182: Sin

Transcript

Show 182: Sin · The Uncensored Catholic

0:41
Speaker 1: The f A. Hey, y'all, welcome to today's show. You
1:03
may have noticed it's been several days since I've been
1:06
put you to a podcast, and you probably know why.
1:10
We got hit real hard with the hurricane in western
1:12
North Carolina and internet and power of and sketchy. It's
1:17
just been really difficult to get things done. So things
1:21
are getting a little more back to normal now. It's
1:23
been about two weeks and I'm going to pick up
1:26
where we left off. We'll start as usual with the
1:30
radio replies, and this time the questioner who is questioning
1:35
the priests about the papacy seems to have a real
1:38
problem with Italians. I think sounds like an English guy
1:41
to me. He just doesn't seem to like Italians very much.
1:44
But he says, it is a well known fact that
1:49
all real missionary enterprise is carried on by Protestants of
1:52
England and America. And I say that is untrue. For
1:55
over three centuries, Protestantism could not inspire the thought for missions.
2:01
And it's actually true. Okay, so Protestantism is around five
2:04
hundred years old. For the first three hundred years, there
2:09
were really no such thing as Protestant missionary activities. That's
2:13
only really a phenomenon of the last two hundred years
2:16
or so. Catholic Church has been around for two thousand
2:20
years and has been conducting missionary activities from day one.
2:24
They say the Catholic Church was missionary from the very
2:26
beginning and has ever retained that characteristic. In any case,
2:31
where are the English and American Protestant missions in Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Russia,
2:37
et cetera. Do not these Europeans deserve the truth the
2:40
Catholic Church is in all countries. Versus says, I don't
2:45
agree with foreign missions at all. It is better to
2:47
leave the natives as they are. The missions do more
2:50
harm than good, causing physical suffering and mental distress. And
2:54
if you go to college these days, that's exactly what
2:56
you'll be taught. It's absolutely untrue, and they answer it.
3:00
Our opinion cannot avail against Christ's command to the Church
3:03
that she must go to teach all nations. Christianity, in
3:07
its true form of Catholicity, gives many help to the
3:12
attaining of eternal salvation, and it is certainly better to
3:16
have those helps than not to have them. Any harm
3:19
which seems to follow missionary enterprise is due to the
3:22
vices of so called Christian traders and adventurers, to the
3:25
introduction of false forms of Christianity, or to the mistake
3:29
of well meaning men, but it is never due to
3:32
spreading the spreading of Catholic doctrine. As such Pagan and
3:37
even cannibal tribes noting the beneficial effects of the coming
3:40
of the Catholic missionaries again and again sin requests that
3:44
they too may receive a priest to teach them, and
3:48
the person says, in the name of Catholicity, you often
3:51
point out that your church exceeds all others numerically, but
3:54
that only does prove your case. Christ said that Christ
3:58
said that he scarcely exp back to find faith on earth.
4:02
And they said, Christ said that his church would teach
4:04
all nations and go to the uttermar most parts of
4:07
the earth, the tiniest of seeds, going into a great tree.
4:11
His words, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he
4:14
find think you faith upon earth refer not so much
4:17
to the numbers as to the quality of belief, as
4:19
context shows, and he is referring to special conditions which
4:23
will prevail towards the end of time. When the charity
4:26
of man shall have grown cold Matthew twenty four to twelve.
4:30
The text in no way suggests that the body of
4:32
believers for all ages will be necessarily small. Christ said,
4:35
though the person continues, fear not little flock. And they answer,
4:39
the Church was a little flock at the time Christ spoke,
4:42
for it was the ceiling, It was in a ceiling stage.
4:45
But even the vast grown tree can be called a
4:48
little flock. The Catholic Church is little and despised by
4:52
worldly minded men because she consists chiefly of the poor
4:55
and despised. And it is always little in spirit, insisting
4:59
upon humans in accordance with Christ's words. Unless you become
5:03
as little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
5:06
And I think, finally we get to this person's real problem.
5:10
And they say, the Catholic Church preaches democracy. How many
5:13
non Italians have become pope? And they say, the Catholic
5:17
Church preaches not democracy, but Christian doctrine. In any case,
5:20
democracy has nothing to do with your question. Democracy suggests
5:24
that the lower classes are equally considered as the so
5:27
called higher classes, and as far as the papacy is concerned,
5:30
democratic principles are observed. Pope Leo the thirteenth was a
5:34
prince by blood, whilst his success for Pious the tenth
5:38
was the son of a poverty stricken farmer. And the
5:42
person says, how can you call your church Catholic when
5:45
all your popes are Italians? And they say, Catholicity is
5:51
not measured by the nationality of a given pope. The
5:55
church numbers some four hundred million. If all Italians in
5:59
the world old died tomorrow, there would still be three
6:01
hundred and fifty million Catholics left. If this vast church
6:05
becomes an Italian because we happen to have an Italian
6:08
pope now, then it was the Jewish. Then it was
6:11
Jewish when Saint Peter was Pope and English, when Hadrian
6:14
the fourth was Pope and French under the French popes.
6:18
And the person says, must not the pope always be Italian?
6:21
They say no again. Hadrian the fourth was an Englishman,
6:25
Martin the fourth was a Frenchman, Zachary a Greek Gregory
6:29
id Assyrian, Hadrian the sixth a Dutchman. The present pope
6:33
happens to be Italian, but the cardinals could quite easily
6:36
elect an Englishman next time? Should they think fit? And yeah,
6:40
we haven't had an Italian pope in quite a while,
6:43
I mean in my lifetime. I mean, well, the earliest
6:49
Pope I remember is Pope John Paulus, the second of it.
6:53
You know, obviously he was pope from most of my childhood.
6:56
Now I think there was one pope before him. I
7:00
don't remember because I was too young and I was
7:02
a Catholic and we didn't pay attention to such things.
7:04
But of course he was Polish, and then Pope Benedict
7:07
sixteenth was Bavarian German, and Pope Francis's where is he
7:14
from Argentina? I think maybe, But it's interesting. One of
7:18
the biggest objections of especially English Protestants, is that somehow
7:25
Catholicism is Italian in nature. And it's funny. It reminds
7:31
me of one of my favorite old British sitcoms. I
7:34
guess this one was from the nineties, not that old,
7:37
you know. My favorite British sitcom was actually Last Summer Line, which,
7:40
of course, you know, the English make fun of me
7:41
for because they think it's like an old folk show.
7:43
But I mean I've watched the show for like thirty years.
7:47
I know every episode by heart. It's like the English
7:50
version of Andy Griffith or something, you know, I can
7:52
put it on. It's peaceful, the I like the characters.
7:54
It's funny and actually it looks a lot like the
7:58
mountains of North Carolina, Yorkshire, a lot like where I live,
8:01
except you know, right now we're underwater. That doesn't really
8:04
happen in Yorkshire. But anyway, there's a great show. If
8:08
you've never seen it, do trying to find it. It's
8:11
called My Hero and it was just sort of a
8:12
goofy little sitcom of the nineties, and it was about
8:16
this superhero, you know, from another planet and he's played
8:19
by an Irish actor. I think his name is Ardoll
8:22
o'hannlin if I remember correctly. Anyway, more recently he's been
8:26
on Death in Paradise and various other shows. But he
8:30
gets this notice from the you know, Interstellar Council or
8:35
whatever that you know, Earth has gotten too bad. They're
8:37
going to destroy the Earth. So his wife is human
8:40
and he tells her and she's like, you've got to
8:42
do something to stop it. So, you know, kind of
8:44
like who was in the Bible lot, you know, a
8:47
lot that went and said, if I can find one
8:49
righteous man, will you not destroy the city. Well, he
8:51
goes to the council and says, if I can find
8:52
one redeeming quality in humanity, will you not destroy the earth?
8:56
And they say, yeah, you know, you've got a couple
8:57
of days to do it. So he goes around together
9:00
if as it comes back and he says, goodn'tshen it.
9:03
I've found one place the constin will not destroy it.
9:06
She says, Oh, that's great. Where is it? It's Italy.
9:08
Oh that's nice for the Italians. Well, really it is
9:12
a lovely country. But they're horrible rude people. You know.
9:16
That's sort of like the the English conception of Italians,
9:21
and they not only just shared by the English. I
9:25
love Italians. I have many Italian friends. In fact, probably
9:29
my best friend is a beautiful young bay named Melissa
9:33
who lives in Italy and Umbria. Her family owned cheese
9:39
businesses there for generations and she's had enough run ins
9:44
with the mafia and corrupt court systems. She absolutely hates
9:47
Italian She's you know, Italian, multi generational, and she thinks
9:51
Italian are the most rude, corrupt people on the face
9:53
of the earth. So you know, I'm probably sure they're
9:57
not any worse or any better than anybody else. But
10:00
we'll get on too, Father Sparago's exhaustive catech at some
10:04
of the Catholic Church, the explanation, and we'll start a
10:08
topic that is not much discussed in our churches these
10:12
days and really should be. And of course it's sin,
10:16
and it's gonna be I guess a three parter on
10:18
this one. I'm going to keep them brief, you know, really,
10:21
I want to try to do this more, especially when
10:24
i'm reading, for like for Father Sparago's book or something,
10:28
keep the reading to be about fifteen twenty minutes. You know.
10:31
I'm kind of a I'm kind of different when it
10:34
comes to the way I read books. I'll grab a book
10:36
and maybe read a few pages and then get in
10:40
bed at night and thinking, well, I'm going to read
10:41
a couple more pages and end up sitting up to
10:43
like four or five in the morning and reading one
10:45
hundred or two hundred pages. It's really not the best
10:49
thing to do in spiritual books, I believe. Thomas Kempis
10:52
and Saint Francis desal both cautioned that when you're reading
10:58
a book, you know, whether it's a Bible, whether it's
11:00
a book written by a saint, whether it's a you know,
11:02
the Catechism and official Catholic book. Read a couple of
11:05
pages and really meditate on it, you know, pray about
11:08
it and think about it, and take things sort of
11:10
in bite sized chunks. So I'm going to try to
11:14
do that, and I think this one, you know, we'll
11:16
get into the first part of it today. I should
11:18
be able to finish one part today, and God willing,
11:21
if the power stays on, maybe next week we can
11:23
finish this this segment. He said. He who wittingly and
11:28
willingly transgresses one of God's commandment is guilty of sin.
11:32
Adam and Eve in Paradise transgress the commandments of God.
11:36
They knew it well, and no one, not even the serpent,
11:39
compelled them to violate it. Thus they command a sin.
11:42
The commandments of God are principally the Ten Commandments and
11:45
the precepts to do works of mercy, besides all other
11:48
precepts and enjoined upon us in God's name. The commandment.
11:52
The commandments either enjoin or prohibit some act. Therefore, they
11:56
are divided into sins of commission and omission. Of course,
11:59
it means what you do and what you should have done,
12:00
and you failed to do it. As the divine law
12:03
is for the safeguarding of the majesty of God and
12:07
for our own welfare or the good of our neighbor,
12:09
we sin in transgressing that law, either against God or
12:12
neighbor or ourselves. Sin is nothing else but the revolt
12:17
against and disobedience to God. The sinner throws off the
12:21
yoke of God, saying I will not serve. And that's
12:24
let's see. We just quoted Romans or reference Romans four
12:28
point fifteen, one, John three point four, and Jeremiah two twenty.
12:33
He attacks God. He would fain destroy him, that he
12:36
might no longer see and punish his transgressions. When we
12:40
commit sin, we take up arms against God. We crucify
12:43
again the son of God Hebrews six six, by making
12:47
the Redeemer's blood of no avail. The malice of the
12:49
sinner pains our Lord more deeply than all the sufferings
12:52
of his passion, just as the loss of his wages
12:55
is more grievous to the working man than all the
12:57
toil he has gone through. It would be of anyone
13:01
in the world to offend an individual on whom his
13:04
whole future happiness depended. But how more foolishly do we
13:10
act when we make him our enemy, whose aid is
13:12
indispensable to us in all things, at all times, and
13:16
on whom our eternal salvation depends. If your life was
13:20
in another man's mercy, would you venture to insult the man? Remember,
13:23
your existence depends entirely upon the will of God. It
13:26
hangs as a threat, as by a thread. At any moment,
13:29
he could cast you back in the nothingness whence you came,
13:32
and yet you do not fear to provoke his anger.
13:36
Miserable mortals that we are, we cannot tolerate the slightest
13:39
indignity offered to us by our fellow men, who are
13:42
our equals, And yet we ourselves show the utmost disrespect
13:46
to the Lord of Heaven. It is not counted as
13:49
a sin if we commit an evil action of the
13:51
sinfulness of which we are ignorant through no thought of
13:54
our own, nor if our will does not consent to
13:57
the evil deed. Noah's intoxication was guiltless because he was
14:01
not aware of the inebriating qualities of the wine. If
14:04
one eat meat on Friday forgetting that it is Friday,
14:07
it is no sin. But it is quite otherwise if
14:10
in consequence of a long continued habit of sin, one
14:13
fails to see the guilt of the action, or if
14:15
one's ignorance of its sinfulness is due to culpable negligence.
14:19
It is one thing, says Saint Gregory, not to know,
14:22
and another to wish not to know. For he who
14:24
closes his eyes that he may not see the truth,
14:26
that is a despiser of the law. Those who in
14:30
the present day avoid hearing sermons will have no excuse
14:34
before God. We do not commit sin so long as
14:37
we do not consent to what is evil. The early
14:40
Christians had incense forcibly thrust into their hands that were
14:43
compelled to cast it upon the altar. Were they to blame.
14:46
Evil thoughts are suggested by the devil. But if we
14:49
do not consent to them, we commit no sin, anymore
14:52
than we are responsible for what we do in our dreams.
14:55
We should not allow these thoughts to disquiet us, but
14:59
simply put them up of our minds. But actions done
15:02
without our will most certainly are sinful. If we are
15:05
to blame for the cause of those actions. The misdeeds
15:09
of a drunken man are unquestionably sins if in any
15:12
way he foresees them as a consequence of his intoxication.
15:16
In other words, in this case, the guy knows he's
15:20
not just having a couple of drinks. He knows he's
15:22
going to get drunk, and then, for instance, he knows
15:24
he's going to get in a car and drive and
15:26
put other people's lives in danger. That's actually a mortal
15:30
sin right there. Drinking alcohol not a mortal sin, and
15:37
unintentionally having one or two too many, unless it's a
15:40
habit would be at most of venial sin. But then
15:44
putting someone's life in danger and knowing you're going to
15:47
do it beforehand, that compounds it, and that's certainly mortal.
15:52
Sin is in its essence and essence and unlawful. Turning
15:56
toward the creature and turning away from God on a
16:00
venture says that turning toward creatures is the source of
16:03
all sin. Early creatures are only the means for the
16:07
attainment of everlasting felicity, that's happiness. By the way, they
16:11
are in no eys the final end of man. It
16:15
is with them, as with drugs use in moderation, they
16:18
can be beneficial. Of course he means pharmaceuticals. He means
16:22
medicines used in moderation, they are beneficial, but used immoderately, immoderately,
16:28
they are injurious and a hindranced in the way of
16:31
our salvation. Therefore, God only allows us to use creatures
16:35
within a certain limit, and in fact, only in so
16:38
far as they are necessary or helpful to our eternal happiness.
16:42
For instance, he permits us to take such nourishment as
16:45
is needed for the support of nature, but forbids excess
16:48
in eating and drinking. He permits us to have possessions
16:52
of our own, but not to take which belongs to
16:54
a neighbor. He who uses creatures to a greater, greater
16:58
extent or otherwise than God or Danes, doing violence to
17:01
the creature Romans eight twenty two, wanders away from God,
17:05
and from his final end he prefers transient joys to
17:09
eternal bliss. That's from the Book of Wisdom two to
17:11
one through nine. And as I always say, if you
17:14
have a Bible that does not contain the Book of Wisdom,
17:16
you have a fake, fraudulent and counterfeit Bible, and you
17:19
need to get rid of it and get a real Bible,
17:22
i e. A Catholic Bible. Thus, if a child, thus
17:26
I child, if a lump of sugar a piece of
17:28
gold be offered to him, will choose the sugar. The
17:32
sinner forsakes God the fountain of living waters and digs
17:35
himself broken cisterns that can hold no water Jeremiah two thirteen.
17:39
Sin is a species of idolatry. The sinner worships the
17:42
creature in place of the Creator. His sins is his God.
17:46
By sin, man becomes a servant of the creature. He
17:50
becomes dependent upon creatures. He is like a fish caught
17:52
upon a hook and held fast by it. Whosoever committed
17:56
sin as the servant of sin John eight thirty four,
18:01
he is worse than a servant, for a servant can
18:03
run away, but the servant of sin cannot escape from sin.
18:06
He carries it with him wherever he goes. Sin is
18:10
the only evil upon earth. It robs man of the
18:13
supernatural beauty of the soul. It makes him resemble the devil,
18:17
and brings misery upon him even while he is on earth.
18:21
Sin is the only evil in the world. Remember, God
18:24
create all things and call them good. Yes, all things
18:28
created by God are good. It's only through our free
18:32
will that can do bad. We mortals are accustoms regard
18:37
the sufferings and contradictions of this life as evils, whereas
18:41
they are graces in reality, since far from separating us
18:43
from God, they bring us nearer to Him. Through sin,
18:47
man becomes worthless in God's sight. Through sin, he who
18:51
is made of nothing returns to his original nothingness. Saint
18:54
John Christosum says, many consider eternal damnation to be the
18:58
greatest of all evils, But for my part, I always
19:01
assert that to offend Jesus is a far greater evil.
19:06
Sin is a greater evil than the annihilation of the world, nay,
19:09
of millions of worlds with countless inhabitants. An interesting way
19:14
of saying it. One wonders, did Father Spirago believe in aliens?
19:20
I mean, you just said millions of worlds with countless inhabitants.
19:23
Did he think there were such? I don't know, you know, Oh,
19:27
alien questions never really interested me. But I figure if
19:30
they're out there, they're out there, and they haven't bothered
19:32
us yet. I don't figure they're going to bother us
19:34
in the future. But now that's me a very common
19:37
sense kind of person. Father Sparago is a brilliant man.
19:40
He was very knowledgeable with sciences and such, and maybe
19:43
he speculated such. I don't know, I'm only speculating now.
19:48
He may have just been making an analogy of sort,
19:51
expanding upon, you know, a bit of an exaggeration. We
19:54
could say sin is the only real disgrace. When it
19:59
was said to Saint Francis Xavior, the Apostle of the Indies,
20:03
who bore the title of Apostolic League, that it was
20:05
a degradation to him to wash his own linen, he replied,
20:09
nothing to grades the Christian except sin through the supernatural beauty.
20:15
Through sin, the supernatural beauty of the soul is lost.
20:18
As a white robe is soiled and stained if it
20:20
comes into contact with the mud of the streets. So
20:22
the soul loses her supernatural beauty, which consists in sanctifying grace,
20:28
and contracts a hideous sin through the inordinate love of creatures.
20:31
On someone observing Saint Francis Chantal when she was nursing
20:36
a leper, that she might easily take the disease. She answered,
20:39
I fear no leprosy, but the leprosy of sin. Sin
20:43
renders men like the devil. Sinners are imitators and followers
20:46
of the devil Wisdom two twenty five. They are made
20:50
one with him by sin. He that committeth sin is
20:53
of the Devil first John three point eight. They even
20:56
become his children in sin. John five ten. The Lord
21:00
said to the pharisees in the temple, you are of
21:03
the Father, your devil, and the desires of your father
21:06
you will do. John eight forty four. Sin makes some misery.
21:11
Sin makes the misery of the man, even while he's
21:13
on earth. If the heavenly bodies forsook their orbits, they
21:17
would be dashed to pieces. If the train becomes sur rail,
21:21
a catastrophe ensues. So God's rational creatures, the human race,
21:26
are overtaken by disaster if they transgress the law of God,
21:30
the law that he has laid down for them. The
21:32
center rebels against the rulers, the rules of his own reason,
21:36
the rules of society, the rules that govern the universe.
21:39
For this he has to endure the reproaches of conscience,
21:44
the penalties of the law, and the chastisement of God.
21:48
All right, we will wrap it up today here, right here,
21:53
and y'all please remember to pray for the folks in
21:56
Florida that are dealing with a hurricane right now, and
21:59
continue to pray for us in western North Carolina and
22:03
Tennessee and Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia. We got hit
22:08
really hard, We got you know. The weather forecaster is
22:14
predicted like maybe five inches of rain over a really
22:18
a forty eight hour period. As it was moving through,
22:21
I moved through quicker and dropped over thirty six inches
22:24
of rain and the rivers rose thirty feet and the
22:28
devastation is indescribable. So if y'all please pray for us
22:33
up here, and pray for the folks centen in Florida
22:36
and of course into the Wars and you know Ukraine
22:41
and Russia and Israel and Palestine and Lebanon and all that.
22:45
You know, it's there are a lot of people suffering
22:48
out there right now, big time, big time. But yeah,
22:51
we'll pick up on this and try to finish it
22:53
up next week. Have a good one. Remember the words
22:55
of Saint Padre Pio, Pray, hope, and don't worry. And
22:58
I'll talk to you next time.