Latest / The Catholic Current / Novel Prophecies Pt. 11 - Lewis’ “Perelandra” (Fr. Robert McTeigue) 10/9/26

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Novel Prophecies Pt. 11 - Lewis’ “Perelandra” (Fr. Robert McTeigue) 10/9/26 · The Catholic Current

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This is The Catholic Current with Father Robert McTague.
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So, very blunt formulation that J.F. Powers often used
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was, God doesn't like crap. Like, it's got to be sort of— he
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said it, not me. So I'm just— but this idea that it has to first
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of all be good fiction, and then we'll talk about, you know, its other
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merits. But if you— if it doesn't work on that level of craft and,
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and form and plot, then it won't work
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on a theological level either.
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Praised be Jesus Christ. This is Father Robert McTague of the Society of
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Jesus, your daily host for The Catholic Current, where we bring Christ to the world
0:41
and the world to Christ. You're listening to us from the Station of the Cross
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Studios, your local radio station, the iCatholic Radio mobile app,
0:48
and we proclaim the fullness of truth with clarity and charity.
0:51
As always, let's start with prayer. In the name of the Father, Son, and the
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Holy Spirit. Almighty God, through the intercession of Saint Ignatius Loyola, we ask that you
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pour forth your Holy Spirit upon us, a spirit of discernment that might hear your
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voice and obey your command. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy
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Spirit. Amen. Hey friends, here it is Friday. You know what that means here at
1:10
the Catholic Current. You and me, let's talk about this, walking through a complex
1:13
issue together. You want to stay with us for the whole hour because we end
1:16
up with Weekend Readiness, reviewing the headlines of the week in light of the upcoming
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Sunday scriptures. So we'll be all prayed up for Sunday Mass.
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We are in part 11 of our series
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called Novel Prophecies. Mr. Engineer and I were just
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talking before going on the air about the series has passed by very quickly,
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and thanks be to God. Your responses have been very positive,
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and I'm encouraged that you're encouraging me to continue.
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Just to set the context, when I talk about novel prophecies,
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we're not talking about me predicting when the world is going to come
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to an end, or what is a more effective way of praying
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for the sweet meteor of death to take us all out of our misery.
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That's not what I mean. It's reviewing literature, and I'm
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trying to do it in chronological order to show that very
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smart, thoughtful people, some of them prayerful and good Christians and Catholics,
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had some things to say about the human condition in
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response to the divine nature and giving
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us a way of interpreting our own here and now,
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because the here and now changes a lot.
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I remember talking with my mentor who was born in 1901,
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died in 2002, and he goes, you said, you have to understand, I said,
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my day, you know, uh, electricity was still a novelty
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and, uh, You know, we didn't even have radio back then.
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We barely had typewriters. Now here we are with computers and television
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and this, this new thing called, called the internet. And now
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we're trying to read it in chronological order just to show that there is,
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is a persistence in human nature and
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divine nature, and there is a prescience in
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some thoughtful authors. We saw this with E.M.
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Forster with his short story published in 1909
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where I think he was called The Machine Stops,
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where I think he foresaw the internet and mechanization
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and etc., etc. Now we're looking at the trilogy,
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the science fiction trilogy by, uh, by C.S.
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Lewis. The first volume was called, uh,
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Out of the Silent Planet. We're looking at the second volume today,
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which is called Perelandra. And I want to set this in
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the overall context of the trilogy. C.S.
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Lewis is talking about original sin And he's also
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talking about what happens when innocence is confronted
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with temptation. And this is—
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it's a challenge to read this book because it's
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so poignant, because the planet Paralandra, which we learn later
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is just another name for Venus— the main character of the story, his name is
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Ransom, and he's a philologist. Is this
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a type of Tolkien? That's an interesting question. And he meets
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a woman who's kind of the Eve of Venus.
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And his nemesis is, you know, someone who tortured
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him and abused him in the first volume, comes onto the planet of Perilonda,
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meets Eve, and tries to corrupt
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her. So you see kind of this ongoing seduction
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of innocence. And it just makes
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your skin crawl. And I think one of the reasons it makes your skin crawl
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is when we realize that we ourselves negotiate
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with our own sin. So when you see Ransom
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witnessing the, the new Eve, or the Eve
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of this planet, better said, being enticed,
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giving an open ear to temptation,
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you want to yell, don't do it! Don't do it! He's lying!
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He's, he's overpromising! He's underdelivered. I've seen how
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this story— you're gonna hate it. Don't listen to it. Ah,
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and yet, and yet, when we
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negotiate with our own sin,
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the tempter sounds mighty reasonable.
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We're just gonna listen. We're just gonna hear what he has to say
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as we stroke our thin chin thoughtfully.
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It's easier to do that when you have a beard. My experience.
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So, and you've heard me tell the story more than once, I'm sure, if you're
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a regular listener. When I was a little boy, say about
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3 or 4 years old, and I wanted an extra cookie or something that I
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shouldn't have, and I was gonna play it, I crawled up into Mommy's
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lap and I batted my big brown eyes and I said, Mommy,
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please, can I have that extra cookie?
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And she looked down at me thoughtfully and she smiled and she wagged her
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finger and And she said in Italian, quando la diavola la carezza,
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vuole l'anima. When the devil caresses
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you, he wants your soul.
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I was 4, and that's how my mother was talking to me.
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Mom was no joke, but she was right.
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We are being contested for,
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and because we're wounded by original sin,
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Our intellect is darkened, our will is
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weakened, and we're predisposed to hear
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the lies of the enemy. And after
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a certain point, you know the whole Charlie
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Brown thing where Lucy's holding the football and Charlie Brown
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is gonna kick it, and this time it'll be different, and he runs to kick
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the ball and she always pulls it away and he ends up hurting himself.
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You know, speaking as someone who's been a sinner as
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long as he can remember, why do I
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fall for it?
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And also, as someone who's been hearing confessions for almost 30
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years, I know how temptation works.
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I know how we sinners cooperate
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with the liar to make the lies sound plausible.
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Because we want what the lie promises.
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And friends, maybe I'm getting old enough, or maybe I'm getting too old,
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but it's just so clear to me,
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sin is just so boring.
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It's just the same damn thing over
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again. It doesn't take you anyplace good.
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It leaves you feeling hollow, empty,
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fooled, ashamed, angry.
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And yet we keep falling for it. And you know, if you've raised kids— I
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was visiting with some friends on travel a few weeks ago, and they have a
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little boy who's 4 months, and they've got the most adorable 3-year-old imaginable.
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And they are utterly resolute
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about maintaining the innocence of their children.
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Absolutely rightly so, because you
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want to spare them the bitterness, the disappointment,
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the shame of recognizing that
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you fell for the apple again.
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Again. So let's get a little bit into the
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novel and how it works. The narrator is C.S.
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Lewis himself. And he's been invited to see his friend,
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Dr. Elwynn Ransom, the philologist, who happens
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to be our traveler going to the different planets
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and so on. And he's going to help him get to the planet Perelandra,
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which turns out to be Venus. And then
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when Ransom comes back, he's going to tell C.S. Lewis the story
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about what happened in Perelandra. And so on Perelandra,
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he meets the Green Lady, Tinderell,
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and she's kind of the Eve of the planet, and she's
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unfallen, she's innocent, she's beautiful,
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she's unselfconscious, she's incapable
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of fear or vanity or false modesty,
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and she is just amazing to be with. And Ransom says,
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oh my gosh, I want to protect this. And then here
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comes the bad guy,
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his enemy, Weston, who is also the bad
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guy in the first volume as well. And Weston gives
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himself over to evil. He becomes
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the Un-Man, and he is trying
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to talk the new Eve, the Green Eve,
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out of cooperating with the Creator.
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And it's chilling and it's disgusting because
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you realize that that lying snake, you know what
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he's up to. You see the mess he's gonna make on
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another planet and make it more like Earth.
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And then you realize, oh my gosh, I've fallen
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for that lie. Too, again and again.
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And then your blood runs even colder when you realize,
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oh my goodness, I've been the near occasion of sin
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for others. I've not only cooperated with sin,
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I've been a recruiter. And that
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is a horrifying experience, which is something we'll talk about in
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the next segment. I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTeigue, your host
11:03
here every day of The Catholic Current. Remember, our rallying cry here at The Catholic
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Current is Christus Mundo, Mundus Christo. Bringing Christ to the
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world and the world to Christ. We do it because our Lord says so,
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Back in just 2 minutes. Please do stay with us.
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You're listening to The Catholic Current with Father Robert McTague
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Praise be Jesus Christ. This is Father Robert McTague of the Society of
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Jesus, your daily host for The Catholic Current. Where we bring Christ to the world
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and the world to Christ. You're listening to us from the Station of the Cross
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Studios, your local radio station, the iCatholic Radio mobile app, where we
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programs that defend our Catholic faith. We are in part
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11 of our series Novel Prophecies.
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We're making our way through the sci-fi trilogy by C.S. Lewis.
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We're into the second volume now called Perelandra,
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and the whole trilogy, as I said before, is a meditation on
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original sin and what happens if someone unfallen
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encounters original sin. So, so in the novel,
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the innocent Eve of the planet of Perelandra
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is confronted by the bad guy Weston, and The protagonist
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Ransom is horrified as Weston
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gets this innocent woman, uh,
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Talyndral, to consider disobeying the
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Creator. And he's yelling at her, don't do it, don't do it,
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don't do it. You know, Eve did it on our planet and we never
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got over it. It was, it was a mess. It's not worth
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it. Don't do it. And so Weston,
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representing the liar— he's here called the Unman— says,
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what? But if you disobey the Creator, you know,
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really amazing stuff will happen.
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You know, because on earth you had what Saint Augustine called the felix culpa,
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the happy fault, because the— as
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a result of disobedience, we had the Incarnation, and,
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you know, the Word became flesh. So really it's the
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smart move. It's the net— it's the— it's a net gain,
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a net positive to sin. I said, well,
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gosh, well, how do you argue, uh,
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against that? And, uh,
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so listen to what C.S. Lewis writes. So this is Ransom,
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the hero, the good guy, visiting Perelandra,
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talking to the innocent Eve of that planet.
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And regarding the liar Weston, it said, hey, good things
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will happen if you sin, because when Eve and Adam
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sinned, we ended up with the incarnation. So he says this:
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listen, lady, there's something he is not telling you.
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All this that we are now talking about has been talked before.
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The thing he wants you to try has been tried before.
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Long ago, when our world began, there was only
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one man and one woman in it, as you and the
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king are in this. And there, once before, he stood
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as he stands now, talking to the woman. He found
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her alone, as he found you alone, and she
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listened and did the thing the Creator had
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forbidden her to do. But no joy and splendor
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came of it. What came of it I cannot tell you because
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you have no image of it in your mind. But all love
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was troubled and made cold, and the
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Creator's voice became hard to hear, so that wisdom
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grew little among them. And the woman was against
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the man, and the mother against the child.
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And when they looked to eat, there was no fruit on their trees.
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And hunting for food took all their time, so that
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their life became narrower, not wider. Oh my
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goodness. And that's where we have to admit
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that evil does not wish us well. We come back to
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what my mother said, when the devil caresses you, he wants your soul.
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And so we are being contested for
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We are in a spiritual battle, and that
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spiritual battle is what real life is.
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All this stuff on the surface, all this busyness,
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this is the realm of common experience. The real
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stuff is the spiritual battle,
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and we're being contested for. And you know,
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as we said before, being good is hard. And that whiny voice
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that says, being good is hard, quit it. That's the deadly sin
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of acedia, sloth. That's the type of sadness that
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Aquinas said leads us to regret that it's a struggle
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to be good. And it's a struggle to be good because of original
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sin. Before the fall, being good was,
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was natural. It was intuitive. We didn't even have to
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think about it. And look at where we are now.
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So Ransom is saying to the innocent woman,
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don't fall for it. Don't disobey the Creator. And he said,
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I can't go into detail as to how horrible sin is
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because right now you can't even imagine it.
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You can't, because sin would be
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unreal to you. And so Weston,
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the tempter, says, ah, he's, he's twisting the story.
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You know, uh, there was kind of a happy ending here
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on earth, so just do it and disobey the Creator,
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and all these wonderful things will happen. And, and the most convincing
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lies are the half-truths.
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So Augustine does cry out, O felix culpa! Oh,
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oh, happy fault! Oh, sin of Adam, by which we, we received
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a Savior! So how does Ransom explain this to the innocent woman?
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He says, I will tell you what I say. Of course
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good came of it. Is the Creator a beast that
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we can stop his path, or a leaf that we can twist his
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shape? Whatever you do, the Creator will make good
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of it, but not the good he had prepared
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for you if you had obeyed him.
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That is lost forever. Ever. This is something
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that, that I want to reflect on. I talked last episode
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about the preternatural gifts, the good gifts beyond
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nature that were part of our inheritance that
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was lost with original sin. So instead
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of nature plus, we got nature, and we got nature wounded,
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kind of nature minus, if you will. So sure,
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we ended up with the Incarnation and the Savior, etc., etc., but we
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still didn't have all the good that God had
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originally intended for us.
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We cheated God out of that
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unique level of the enjoyment of his good creation by
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disobeying. Let that sink in.
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So he continues, he says, you would not have the good prepared
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for you if you had obeyed him. That is lost forever. The first
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king, Adam, and the first mother, Eve, of our world did
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the forbidden thing, and the Creator did bring good
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out of it in the end. But what they did
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was not good, and what they lost
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we have not seen.
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And there were some to whom no good
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came nor ever will come.
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So there are some in this
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life who really are lost.
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Now remember, friendship with God before
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the fall, that was our birthright.
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That wasn't even second nature to us. That wasn't
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hap— that was as natural breathing,
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and we did violence to that.
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Think of the horror of that. Think of the injustice.
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Think of the malice, the wickedness at
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rejecting the right,
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wise, and provident order of God's
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good and creation. And now,
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rather than friendship with God being natural,
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almost inevitable, if you will, we have
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to take up our cross and enter through
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the narrow gates, having followed the bloody footprints of
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our Savior. Enter through the narrow gate, our Lord
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says. Only few will enter. Many are
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called, but few are chosen.
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Broad is the way that leads to perdition.
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So in other words, right now, the world
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we live in now, God is not
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the default value. We have
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to choose that, aided by grace.
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We have to fight for it. Aided by
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grace. So, this is what concerns
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me very greatly, friends, that the cult
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of self-esteem would have us believe that
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the only thing you need to do to enter heaven is die,
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and that a funeral is a canonization service,
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that we have a celebration of life And
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that somehow real life is living
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the life that we ourselves want and choose.
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That real life is about pursuing pleasure
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and possessions. And somehow,
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sorta kinda vaguely in
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the background, like some faded
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smell of incense, We have Christ our
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Lord, who's kind of our religious mascot,
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our complaints department when things don't go our way,
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but mainly our— the guarantor
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of our self-esteem.
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And I don't think we have a sufficient sense of horror
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and revulsion for how violent and
23:19
ugly and unjust sin really
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is. And just as, as you would be appalled
23:29
by the loss of innocence of your child,
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shouldn't we be appalled for ourselves as well? Let me
23:35
add this before our break. There's a new story recently,
23:39
horrifying story. Some 6-year-old kid
23:44
brought a gun to school and shot his
23:47
teacher. And there's body cam footage
23:52
of this 6-year-old kid screaming
23:56
obscenities at another teacher and
24:00
the police. And he's screaming at the
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police, you want a piece of me? You want a piece of me?
24:08
I don't care if I go to jail, followed by another
24:14
stream of obscenities. How did a child
24:19
A child who is 6 years old
24:25
becomes so bitter, so angry,
24:29
so vulgar, so defiant,
24:33
and so violent.
24:37
A child who should still be young enough to believe in Santa Claus
24:42
and the Tooth Fairy, How much
24:48
neglect did he suffer to
24:51
lose that much innocence so quickly?
24:56
Something worth thinking about, isn't it? I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTeague,
25:00
your host here every day of The Catholic Current. After the broadcast today,
25:04
go to thestationofthecross.com, get our resources list,
25:07
download our audio podcast wherever you can find audio. You can find
25:12
us. Follow us on your favorite platform. Write a 5-star review. We need to attract
25:16
the attention of the listeners so these conversations get the attention they
25:19
deserve. Take us to your family and friends. Together we'll take it to the whole
25:22
world. We cannot do— we can do it with you. We cannot do without
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you. Let's do this good work together. Back in just 2 minutes. Please do stay
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This is the Catholic Current from the Station of the Cross Catholic
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26:53
We are talking about novel prophecies. We're in part 11
26:56
of the series. We're in volume 2 of C.S.
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Lewis's Space Trilogy. This is called Perelandra,
27:03
and the whole story arc has to do with original sin,
27:08
innocence, and temptation. And the main character
27:12
Ransom wants to confront Weston, who's the bad guy who's trying
27:16
to tempt the Eve of the planet
27:19
Perelandra. And finally God says, you gotta
27:23
confront him And it can't just be with words and arguments,
27:28
because he can argue with you till you
27:31
collapse. You have to confront
27:36
the evil with your whole being, which includes physically.
27:40
And this sets us up really for Christ
27:45
crucified. He had to defeat evil
27:49
in the sacrament of his body. So he,
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uh, Ransom does that, suffers terribly, and he comes
27:57
back with a wound in his foot that doesn't
28:01
heal. I'm going to talk about more of that in a moment,
28:05
but the, the bad guy is defeated. Uh,
28:09
the king and the queen of the planet reunite. They meet up with the Creator,
28:14
and there's kind of a great celestial dance. There's a
28:18
vast liturgical hymn of praise, and it gives thanks
28:23
for the harmony, order, and providence of the Creator
28:27
all across creation. And so there's images
28:31
of tapestry, things coming together, there's harmony, there's a great symphony.
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I've talked about that last week, about the harmony of, of the spheres.
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And one of the images that really sticks with me regarding sin is
28:43
that each person in creation has a role to
28:47
play, has a note to sing in the grand symphony,
28:50
and we're cheating God if we don't
28:54
sing our part. And that stuck with me. So I want to reflect
28:58
a little bit more on the ongoing wound of
29:01
Ransom because that actually plays— quite a spoiler alert—
29:05
in, in the next volume, the, the finale, uh, called That
29:08
Hideous Strength. And so why does Ransom have that wound
29:12
in his foot that can't be healed? Well, It's a reminder of
29:16
the Incarnation that yes, there is a spiritual
29:20
battle, but it's a battle that extends into
29:25
flesh and blood as well.
29:29
And so our healing is effected on
29:33
the cross in the broken body and obedient spirit
29:37
of Christ our Lord. And just as Christ
29:41
bore the wounds of his passion and his resurrection,
29:45
this character bears the mark of his struggle against evil,
29:50
and that is kind of a representation of his— the
29:54
redemptive work of the Creator. And remember, the first volume
29:58
is called Out of the Silent Planet, and the— that's
30:03
Earth, and Earth is the silent planet because under the tyranny
30:08
of the fallen angel, Earth is kind of quarantined,
30:13
and Earth is not— and man are not creating
30:16
their notes in the great cosmic symphony.
30:20
And also, main character Ransom
30:24
throughout the trilogy struggles with feelings of inadequacy.
30:29
He says, look, I'm an academic, I'm a philologist, I'm not a
30:33
warrior, I'm not a hero, I'm out of my depth. I'm physically broken.
30:37
I'm human. I'm small. We're dealing with cosmic forces.
30:42
What the heck? And he realizes finally that he's the
30:45
hero of the story not because of his own strength, wisdom, or goodness, but because
30:50
of the providence of the Creator. And so
30:54
if we fight this, it's not going to be redemption as
30:57
a magic trick, but there is going to be a
31:01
real sacrifice, and that's going to leave a mark.
31:05
Now, I've been thinking, why do
31:09
we fall for it? Why do we repeat our same sin?
31:13
Mr. Engineer, some years ago I wrote an article for Alatea about
31:17
why we repeat our sins, and in your kindness, please, would you find that and
31:21
add that in the show notes? Um, why, you know, why do we
31:25
do this? Why do we do this? Well, I want to address that question in
31:29
light of the the life and work of Saint Bridget
31:33
of Sweden. You know, we celebrated her feast yesterday in the church,
31:37
and I preached about her. And she was
31:41
an amazing woman. You can talk about her for days. She was a
31:44
great mystic, and she spent a good deal of her life
31:48
contemplating Christ crucified and called
31:53
us to have a spirit of reparation and to
31:57
offer companionship to Christ crucified in the
32:00
loneliness of his suffering, and that the consolation
32:04
that we can bring him is a real lively
32:09
contrition, not just a, a remorse that we got
32:12
caught or a remorse that sin has
32:16
consequences. She writes this: a single
32:20
tear shed from true contrition over
32:25
the passion of Christ weighs more heavily before
32:28
God than all the gold of the world.
32:33
A single tear is treasured
32:37
by Christ, a tear shed
32:41
in contrition. So putting aside ourselves,
32:47
what reprobates we are, putting aside the
32:51
anguish of the consequences of our own sin,
32:55
but to go to Christ crucified who bears
32:59
our faults and says, I'm sorry that
33:04
I did this to you. I'm sorry that
33:09
my sin cost you so
33:13
much. I'm sorry that I
33:17
did this you.
33:21
I'm sorry that I've slapped your love
33:26
in the face. I'm sorry
33:29
for you that you have to
33:33
go through this because of me.
33:40
What if we really prayed that way?
33:44
Well, how do we get there?
33:48
Well, we would need some stillness. We would need
33:52
some silence. We'd need some solitude.
33:57
And we need a whole lot
34:01
of honesty. And one of the reasons
34:05
why I think the flashing devices we all carry with us,
34:09
like a life preserver, is because it's an
34:12
instrument of infinite distraction.
34:17
And if we're thoroughly distracted, we can't know ourselves,
34:20
and we can't know ourselves before Christ.
34:25
And, you know, Saint Bridget, before she was the
34:29
founder of a religious order, you know, she was
34:32
a queen. She was a traveler. She moved in high
34:36
places. She had responsibility. She had stuff to do. She had a family.
34:41
And yet she made a commitment to spend
34:45
time with Christ and him crucified. So she
34:49
writes this in her journal: Christ spoke to my heart and said
34:53
these words to me: I loved you so much
34:58
that I chose to be suspended on the cross,
35:02
wounded and bleeding, rather than lose
35:06
you forever. That's what Christ our
35:10
Lord said to Saint Bridget. That's what Saint—
35:14
that's what Christ our Lord says to you and me. The difference
35:18
between you and me and Saint Bridget of Sweden is that,
35:21
number one, she listened, and number
35:26
two, she acted accordingly.
35:29
You know, I've offered many Masses at Saint Typical's.
35:34
And God forgive me, but my perception was that a lot of people
35:37
really didn't want to be there and seemed indignant
35:41
that God had the temerity to interrupt their weekend.
35:46
And so when God Almighty brings the broken body of
35:50
his Son, the Christ, before us, the sorrowful
35:54
mother standing behind him, and he cries out to us,
35:58
you are worth my Son. It seems
36:01
to me we sinners, myself included,
36:05
all too often respond with, is this going to take
36:09
long? We to whom God Almighty
36:13
has said, you are worth my Son, seems to me, myself included,
36:17
can scarcely bring ourselves to say, you are worth
36:21
my time. So if we
36:25
decide to listen to Christ,
36:29
to behold Christ crucified, to see the consequences and
36:33
price of our sin, and then reform our lives
36:37
accordingly, there's going to be resistance. There's going to
36:40
be pushback. Remember, Saint Ignatius Loyola said nothing
36:44
good can be done, uh, without the world being set in
36:48
an uproar and hell's legions roused. So Saint Bridget said this:
36:53
He said, do not fear the contempt or mockery of the world.
36:57
Fear only that you might turn your back upon
37:01
the truth which has been revealed to you by
37:04
Christ. So the truth revealed to us by Christ
37:08
crucified is that sin is a
37:13
horror, a horror that requires
37:17
that we have a Savior. Because we cannot save ourselves,
37:23
and the best we can do is worship the crucified and
37:28
thank him with a tear or two.
37:33
Saint Bridget was stern stuff.
37:36
She was no joke.
37:39
And the novelist Sigurd Undset wrote
37:43
a biography of her. She was Swedish herself. She wrote this:
37:47
Bridget of Sweden was carved from the tough granite
37:52
of the north, realistic,
37:55
practical, and unyielding.
38:00
Yet her heart was completely consumed by
38:03
the fire of divine charity.
38:08
Tough granite of the north. She was, we say in Latin,
38:12
she was a mulier fortis. She was no joke.
38:16
She had to get things done, yet she
38:20
had amazing charity, starting with compassion
38:25
for Christ crucified, which we— which would
38:28
result in not only prayer and penance,
38:32
but profound acts of charity. As queen,
38:37
she made it her business to wash the feet of
38:41
the poor. You can't fake that. So what does this have
38:44
to do with all of us? As I'm reading with you
38:48
these great stories that we are in fact in the middle
38:53
of a great cosmic metaphysical spiritual
38:57
drama where we ourselves are the prize.
39:01
We are being contested for.
39:05
And so what we do and what we fail to do
39:09
matter. What we say and fail to say,
39:13
that matters too.
39:17
And we are loved.
39:20
We are loved to the point where the Word became flesh and
39:25
shed his last drop of blood
39:29
for us, breathed his last breath of life
39:33
for us, defeated death for us.
39:39
And all we have to do is have
39:43
the good sense to receive the gift and
39:47
cling to it. So let's
39:53
have the good sense to meet Christ and be able to say,
39:57
I did not waste your blood. I'm Jesuit Father
40:01
Robert McTiger, host every day of The Catholic Current. You wanna stay with us for
40:04
the rest of the hour? Coming up next, Week in Readiness. You and me reviewing
40:07
the headlines of the week in light of the upcoming Sunday scriptures,
40:10
so be all prayed up for Sunday Mass. After the broadcast today,
40:14
go to thestationofthecross.com, get our resources list, download our audio as
40:18
podcast. Be part of the conversation, follow what we're following by following
40:22
us on Gab. That's gab.com.
40:26
The channel is The Catholic Current. You can influence the conversation,
40:30
contact contact us at stationofthecross.com/askfather.
40:34
I'd like to hear from you. Have you read C.S. Lewis trilogy before? You're reading
40:38
it now with us? Let me know. Back in just 2 minutes. Please do
40:42
stay with us.
40:58
Have a question or
41:02
feedback about today's episode? Want to suggest a guest or
41:06
a future topic? Go to thestationofthecross.com/askfather and
41:13
help influence the conversation.
41:21
Jesus Christ. This is Father Robert McTeague of the Society of Jesus, your daily host
41:25
for The Catholic Current, where we bring Christ to the world and the world to
41:28
Christ. You're listening to us from the Station of the Cross Studios, your local radio
41:32
station, the iCatholic Radio mobile app, and we proclaim the fullness of
41:36
truth with clarity and charity. Hey friends, here we are, the last segment
41:40
of a Friday. You know what that means, you and me? Weekend readiness, reviewing the
41:43
headlines of the week in light of the upcoming Sunday scriptures so we'll be all
41:47
prayed up for Sunday Mass. Well, what's going on
41:51
in the world? Well, people are still killing each other in
41:54
Ukraine and the Middle East, and it doesn't seem like it's going to
41:58
end anytime soon, unfortunately.
42:01
In France, you've heard some mainstream news reports
42:05
about students rioting because of budget
42:10
cuts, and my goodness, it is a whole lot
42:14
more than that. In brief, the sources I'm reading tell me
42:18
that it's leftist organizations goading youthful—
42:23
here I choose my words carefully— youthful misunderstanders
42:27
of the religion of peace, also known as newcomers,
42:32
also known as cultural enrichers, also known as
42:36
members of the gorgeous mosaic of diverse— of
42:39
diversity, you know, diversity which is our strength.
42:43
Is setting firemen on fire and setting teachers
42:48
on fire and beating up policewomen
42:52
as they are very kinetically thirsting for justice.
42:57
It's starting to spread to Belgium. Things are really getting
43:00
out of control in France, and I know it's making Britain
43:04
anxious, so we have to deal
43:08
with that. 2 recent, uh, 2 city councils that
43:11
had opening prayers, uh, offered to
43:15
Satan, uh, one in Iowa and, and one in Washington
43:19
State, because nothing says inclusion like having
43:23
prayers offered to, to Satan. Uh,
43:27
the, uh, in Rome, the 10th anniversary
43:31
of Amoris Laetitia is being celebrated by
43:35
people from all over the world invited personally by the Pope
43:38
to talk about— not, not to evaluate Amoris
43:43
Laetitia, heaven forfend, but rather,
43:46
rather to talk about how it can be further implemented.
43:51
A Dominican sister, I'm forgetting her name at the moment, but she is president of
43:55
the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, who said,
43:59
uh, our Lord's encounter with— was it the Phoenician
44:03
woman or the woman at the well— was a form of flirting.
44:07
So there's that. Where do we go
44:11
from here? There have been a number of copycats to the Lindsay Clancy
44:15
murder, their moms harming or even murdering their children because,
44:18
you know, reasons. And we're told we have to shut up about
44:22
women murdering their children because hormones. And at the
44:25
same time, we're told to shut up because giving hormones to young teens
44:29
because of transgenderism is okay and doesn't
44:32
lead to violence. Mm-mm-mm. And finally, because we
44:37
always try to have a good news story here, there's a dad
44:40
who had a very serious brain injury who
44:44
lost the ability to walk. He was able to recover the ability to
44:48
walk unaided, and there's a heartwarming video of him
44:52
walking by his kids and the kids realizing it and get very excited.
44:55
So there are good things. That are happening. With that in mind, let's turn
44:59
to scripture. If you're following the Novus Ordo calendar of the Pauline
45:03
Rite, we're looking at the 28th Sunday in Ordinary
45:06
Time, Lectionary 142. The first reading is
45:09
from Isaiah 25, and my skin
45:13
crawled as I read the opening sentence. Well, why is that,
45:16
Father? Listen to this: On this mountain, the Lord of hosts
45:20
will provide for all peoples A feast of rich food
45:24
and choice wines, juicy rich food and pure choice wines. Well, look,
45:27
I'm in favor of food and wine, especially if the
45:31
food is, is rich and pure and the wines are a choice.
45:34
God knows. But please, dear God,
45:38
I'm on my knees begging you, if you're part
45:42
of the music ministry of the church,
45:45
please don't let your brain do this.
45:48
A scriptural reference to food and drink, that means we have to sing 5
45:53
rousing choruses of Table of Plenty. Please do
45:56
not do that. Don't take the hashtag
46:00
approach to selection of music for worship.
46:05
Don't do that. Sing anything else but,
46:09
or nearly anything else but, Table of Plenty just because
46:13
there's a reference to food in scripture. We deserve better than
46:16
that, and God does too. So just stop it. Let's jump
46:21
ahead to the Gospels from Matthew 22, and this
46:24
is the parable of the wedding feast
46:29
of the king's son, and people go
46:32
out into the highways and byways, and a lot of
46:36
folks just blow the king off.
46:41
He is enraged by this because
46:46
he's, you know, some ignore the invitation, went to his farm and other his business.
46:50
The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
46:54
Well, you know, remember Saint Ignatius Loyola said nothing good can be
46:58
done without the world being set in an uproar and hell's legions
47:02
roused. And when people bring the gospel
47:06
and invite people to Christ, some people get really snotty about it.
47:10
So listen to this. Our Lord says, the king was enraged and sent
47:14
his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
47:19
My, my, my. And he says, the feast
47:23
is ready, go out and bring people in. And then the one guy shows up
47:27
at the wedding feast not wearing his wedding garment. And paraphrasing,
47:31
the king says, what the heck? And the guy gets thrown out. Many are invited,
47:35
but few are chosen. We really do have to respond to
47:39
Christ, and we have to respond to Christ on
47:43
his terms and not ours.
47:47
We have to respond to Christ by taking up our cross,
47:51
following in his footsteps, and entering through the narrow gate.
47:56
We have to respond to Christ on his terms by
47:59
spending ourselves loving God and loving
48:03
neighbor. And that is so very,
48:07
very different from the Catholic self-esteem movement,
48:12
the I'm Catholic, I guess movement, which is so popular among my
48:16
students. It's so very different from the
48:20
I have to give God an hour of my time and put a couple bucks
48:23
in his tip jar so I can renew my anti-hell insurance for the week
48:28
subscription model. Remember what I talked
48:31
about Saint Bridget of Sweden earlier
48:35
in the hour? Our Lord loved
48:39
us so much that he was willing to be stretched out on the
48:43
wood of the cross for us and be drained of his last drop
48:47
of blood. And how do
48:51
we respond to that?
48:56
Are we really sure that we're
49:00
doing something other than sleepwalking through life and sleepwalking
49:05
our response? I jotted
49:10
down a quote from Perilanda that we were talking about earlier in the hour,
49:14
and there is something very interesting.
49:18
There's a line here where Lewis writes, He said, say a child's
49:23
prayer if you cannot say a man's.
49:26
And there is a child's prayer full of wonder and innocence and
49:30
trust. A man's prayer, I think,
49:34
comes with some hard-won, honest experience
49:39
that sin is deadly and grace is free,
49:43
but it's never cheap. And we have
49:47
an obli— an obligation towards gratitude that
49:51
a child can't yet understand.
49:56
May God's holy name be praised now and forever.
49:59
I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTague, your host here every day of The Catholic Current.
50:03
Join us on Monday for another lively episode of The Catholic Current.
50:06
Great topic, great cast, great conversation, because that's how we roll
50:10
here at The Catholic Current. Every day where we strive so
50:13
very much more to be more than merely relevant.
50:18
After the broadcast today, go to thestationofthecross.com,
50:21
get our resources list, download our audios, podcasts.
50:24
Wherever you can find audio, you can find us. Follow us on your favorite platform,
50:28
write a 5-star review. We need to attract the attention of the listeners so
50:32
that these conversations get the attention they deserve. Take this
50:36
to your family and friends. Together will take it to the whole world. The intercession
50:40
of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, may Almighty God bless you, Father, Son, and Holy
50:43
Spirit. Go in peace, and please do pray for me, for I am
50:46
a sinner.