Latest / The Catholic Current / More Warnings From Fulton Sheen (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) 7/10/26

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More Warnings From Fulton Sheen (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) 7/10/26 · The Catholic Current

0:00
This is The Catholic Current, with Fr. Robert McTague.
0:05
I remember asking Cardinal Arince, who is the only living father of Vatican II now,
0:11
I think at the age of 93, but I asked him one time,
0:15
what would be the reaction of the average bishop from Vatican II
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walking into the average American church on a Sunday morning,
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and it would be holding the liturgy, and he said they would die of cardiac arrest.
0:27
I feel that way anyway, and I wasn't even at Vatican II.
0:34
Praised be Jesus Christ, this is Fr. Robert McTague of The Society of Jesus,
0:38
your daily host for The Catholic Current,
0:40
where we bring Christ to the world, and the world to Christ.
0:42
You're listening to us from the station of The Cross Studios,
0:44
your local radio station, and the iCatholic Radio mobile app,
0:47
where we proclaim the fullness of truth with clarity and charity.
0:51
As always, let's start with prayer.
0:53
In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
0:55
Almighty God, through the intercession of St. Ignatius of Loyola,
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we ask that you pour forth your Holy Spirit upon us,
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a spirit of discernment that may hear your voice and obey your command.
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In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
1:07
Well, here it is, Friday at The Catholic Current, friends.
1:09
You know what that means, you and me.
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Let's talk about this. We'll walk through a complex issue together.
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Fulton Sheen is going to be beatified in September in St. Louis,
1:20
and so I've decided from time to time I'm going to look at his work.
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Now, everybody loves his videos, and Life is Worth Living.
1:28
His TV work is amazing.
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His sermons preached on Good Friday are amazing.
1:35
But I'm going to go old school.
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I want to focus on his written work.
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He wrote a lot.
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And I think especially his earliest work is worth looking at very carefully.
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He's obviously a great writer.
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He's a highly cultured man, a highly educated man.
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His books are accessible.
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I'm going to be referring to a book he wrote here called Moods and Truths.
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It was published in 1932 as a sequel to the book we've spoken about earlier
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called Old Errors and New Labels.
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So this is kind of a sequel.
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It's only 165 pages.
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I read it in one sitting at a coffee shop over a cup of coffee.
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It's a quick read, but it's a very rich read.
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And part of me is just tempted to just read the whole book out loud.
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I don't think we're allowed to do that.
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I think Mr. Engineer would probably pull the plug if I tried.
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That having been said, it was also a poignant read for me
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for a number of reasons because the things he says with absolute Catholic certitude
2:48
seem to have, how shall we say this gently,
2:52
a different status in the minds and hearts of our brothers and sisters in Christ,
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the synodalists.
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Let me give you some examples.
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Fulton Sheen says,
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The Church will always be hated by the world for many good reasons,
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and one of them, a source of hatred, which is a badge of honor for the Church,
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is that the Church will never ever compromise on the indissolubility of marriage.
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We are the last institutions that will not yield on this issue.
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Hey, Fulton Sheen, you know what's happening in October?
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They're going to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia,
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and they're going to discuss what the Spirit is saying now about marriage.
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Now, what he says about marriage, Fulton Sheen says,
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And another reason the Church will always hate us
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is because we will never ever compromise on the issue of birth control.
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We are the last major institution that will not yield.
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Well, a lot of water over the dam since 1968 in Humanae Vitae, Your Excellency.
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And then also regarding ecumenism, what he says in the 1930s about ecumenism.
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As he was writing that book, I think there was just a completion.
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I think it was in Chicago.
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There was a meeting of the Worldwide Congress of the World's Religions,
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and Fulton Sheen boasted,
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And not one Catholic representative attended that meeting of the World Congress of the World's Religions
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because, rightly so, we are the single Church Christ founded,
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and we will gladly talk to other religions but only to convince them to become Catholics.
4:49
Suffice to say that that mood has shifted, that train has left the station,
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and now it's dialogue, dialogue, dialogue to the nth degree,
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and a woman claiming to be the Archbishop of Canterbury got the royal treatment in Rome.
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So things have changed since 1932, since Fulton Sheen wrote this book.
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Now here's the question. Since 1932, has human nature changed?
5:23
Has Christ changed?
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With that in mind, and mindful of the fact that one of the synodal study groups
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was talking about really changing the hierarchical nature of the Church,
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I want to read to you some quotes from Fulton Sheen from Chapter 5.
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It's called The Freedom of Authority.
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And man, oh man, he saw a lot of this coming.
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Fulton Sheen writes this.
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I wish I could do, I wish I was a great mimic and I could do a convincing Fulton Sheen voice,
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but I can't, but I'll do my best.
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So this is from the first paragraph, Chapter 5.
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Stevenson once said that not on bread alone doth man live, but principally on catchwords.
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And I think by catchwords here, he means slogans, or we would say now, memes.
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He goes on,
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High-sounding phrases often go rattling by like express trains,
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carrying the burden of those who are too lazy to think for themselves.
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Among these phrases or catchwords, there was none in the field of religion
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which has greater modern appeal than the one that says,
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the modern man wants a religion of the spirit, not a religion of authority.
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Years ago, its popular expression was that we must be free from the slavery of Rome.
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Today, it is more direct.
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No Catholic can be free because he is bound by law and authority.
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So this is how Fulton Sheen kicks off this paragraph.
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And I know that recently, the powers that be have found the cudgels of authority,
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in light of what took place in Switzerland about a week or so ago.
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But otherwise, yeah, not so much.
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So he, Sheen, wants to set out three propositions.
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He says, first, the necessity of law and authority.
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Second, obedience to the highest law and authority constitutes freedom.
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And thirdly, obedience to the law of the church is thrilling and romantic.
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And regarding the first, the necessity of law and authority,
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he says, public opinion is the common stock and thought and sentiment
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created by the human society and the realm of religion outside of the church.
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It is practically always a compromise.
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And he says that the church must not compromise.
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He says this, modern religion affirms just as much of spiritual and moral truth
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as in a given condition will keep society together, just so much and no more.
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It affirms not the whole law of God, but extracts from it.
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And only those extracts which seem to be most useful for social purposes
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and of which society itself will approve.
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And this is where he starts throwing knockout punches.
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He says this, for example, at the present time,
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it dilates on the Sermon of the Mount, but says absolutely nothing about the Last Judgment.
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It quotes, behold the lilies of the field, but never the text.
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What exchange shall a man give for his soul? Pow!
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And he talks about the importance of not compromising with the world.
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He writes this, religion thus compromises or strikes an average
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between what is good and what is bad.
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It approves Christ only as much as Christ approves it.
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It accepts his teachings and his authority only in as much as its maxims and opinions
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approve those teachings.
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What that means for the synodalist is we will endorse Christ to the degree
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that he conforms and validates to our lived experience.
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He goes on to say, hence the problem confronting the religious man of today
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is not whether he will obey or disobey law and authority,
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but which of the two he will obey, namely the authority of public opinion
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or the authority of Christ and tradition.
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And all thinking men, as a celebrated English essayist has put it,
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want a religion today which is right not when the world is right,
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but is right when the world is wrong.
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I believe he's quoting Chesterton there.
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And friends, this is so very important.
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There are so many people eager to rush to the microphone
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and apologize on behalf of the church.
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Many years ago as a young priest I went to a worldwide meeting of Catholic ecumenists,
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and I still remember vividly the leaders of this conference.
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Now, I was ordained about two weeks, and everyone else was older than me,
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and I was told by the leader of this conference that what the world needs to do now
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is to learn to sit in silence at the feet of the world's religions.
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That is something that Fulton Sheen would never say.
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That's certainly not anything that I can say,
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and I certainly can't think of any saint who would agree with that.
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Now, here's my question for you.
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The most ardent advocates of synodality that you know,
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do you think they would agree with the assertion
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that what the world most needs to do right now is sit in silence
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at the feet of the world's religions?
10:58
I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTague, your host here every day here at The Catholic Current.
11:01
Remember, our rallying cry at The Catholic Current is
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Praise be Jesus Christ.
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Here we are, Friday, let's talk about this.
12:57
We're talking about more warnings from Fulton Sheen,
13:01
referring to a book he published in 1932 called Moods and Truths.
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And I think, I'm going to go out on a limb here,
13:10
that you will view synodality differently if you treat yourself
13:15
and read this book.
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It's only 165 pages.
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I read it in one sitting in a coffee shop.
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It's not that hard.
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I'm going to refer to Chapter 9, The Curse of Broadmindedness.
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A common trope, a common theme, a common slogan,
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what Fulton Sheen would call a catchword or a catchphrase,
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is spoken often by even senior members of the Catholic cadre,
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of the people who should really know better club.
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And it goes something like this,
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nobody has a monopoly on the truth.
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Well, number one, that's a meaningless statement.
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Number two, you haven't presented anyone
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who said he has a monopoly on the truth.
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But there are very true life-saving, soul-saving things
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that the Christ of God entrusted to the one church he founded,
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and we heirs of that deposit of faith have a profound obligation
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before God to hand on that deposit of faith intact.
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And we will not enjoy heaven if we fail to do that.
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I cannot think of any saint or council
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that would disagree with that statement.
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So let me just begin to read a little bit from Chapter 9 here,
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and then offer my own take on what Fulton Sheen says.
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Fulton Sheen writes,
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The Catholic Church intolerant.
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That simple thought, he goes on, like a yellow fever sign,
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is supposed to be the one solid reason
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which should frighten away anyone who might be contemplating
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knocking at the portals of the church for entrance
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or for a crumb of the bread of life.
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When proof of this statement is asked,
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it is retorted that the church is intolerant
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because of its self-complacency and smug satisfaction
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as the unique interpreter of the thoughts of Christ.
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Sheen goes on,
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Its narrow-mindedness is supposed to be revealed
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and its unwillingness to cooperate effectively
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with other Christian bodies that are working for the union of churches.
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Within the last ten years,
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two great world conferences on religion have been held
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in which every great religion except the Catholic participated.
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The Catholic Church was invited to discuss
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the two important subjects of doctrine and ministry,
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but she refused the invitation.
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My goodness, how times have changed.
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That is my observation.
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We seem to be very enthusiastic,
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not just to get along,
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but to even change in light of what other religions claim.
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So Sheen takes us to the arrest of Jesus
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and his meeting with Annas, the high priest.
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And he talks about the confrontation
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between Annas and our Lord.
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And he answered Annas, he says,
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I have spoken openly to the world,
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and in secret I spoke nothing.
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Why do you ask me?
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Ask them who have heard me,
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that what I spoke to them.
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Behold, they know the things which I said.
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So he's saying, look, Annas,
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you're implying by your questioning that I'm not divine,
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that I'm just the same as the other rabbis
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going up and down the countryside,
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that I'm just another one of Israel's prophets,
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and that I am at most only a man.
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I know that you would welcome me to your heart
16:57
if I would say that I am only human.
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And then Fulton Sheen puts these words
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in the mouth of our Lord.
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But no, I have spoken openly to the world.
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I have declared my divinity.
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I say unto you, I have exercised the right of divinity,
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for I have forgiven sins.
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I have left my body and blood for posterity,
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and rather than deny its reality,
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I've lost those who followed me
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who were scandalized at my words.
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He's referring to Gospel of John chapter six.
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Sheen goes on putting these words in our Lord's mouth.
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It was only last night that I told Philip
17:31
the Father and I are one,
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and that I will ask my Father
17:34
to send the spirit of truth to the church.
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I have found it on Peter,
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which will endure to the end of time.
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Ask those who have heard me.
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They will tell you what things I have said.
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I have no other doctrine than that which I declared
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when I drove your dove hucksters out of the temple
17:53
and declared it to be my Father's house.
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That which I have preached,
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that which angels declared at my birth,
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that which I revealed on Tabor,
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that which I now declare before you,
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namely my divinity.
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And if your first principle is that I am not divine,
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but I'm just human like you yourself,
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there is nothing in common between us.
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So why askest thou me
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to discuss doctrine and ministry with you?
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Pow!
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Fulton Sheen knew our Lord.
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He knew the scriptures.
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He knew the saints.
18:28
He knew sacred tradition.
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He knew what the church has always taught.
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And I think he would say that from moment to moment,
18:37
even now,
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our Christ stands before Annas and Caiaphas
18:44
and Pilate and the mob.
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And Christ's answers never change.
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Let me read to you from the next paragraph.
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And some brute standing nearby,
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feeling himself the humiliation of the high priest
18:58
at such an uncompromising response,
19:00
struck our blessed Lord across the face
19:03
with a mailed fist,
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drawing out of him two things,
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blood and a soft answer.
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And this is my favorite line of scripture.
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If what I say is false, produce the evidence.
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But if what I say is true, why hit me?
19:19
Sheen goes on.
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And that soldier in the courtroom of Annas
19:22
has gone down in history
19:24
as the representative of that great group
19:26
that bears a hatred against divinity,
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the group that never closed the hatred
19:31
in any intellectual language,
19:33
but rather in violence alone.
19:36
Because remember, friends,
19:37
if God is God, then we are not.
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If God is God, then we are not.
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If Jesus of Nazareth is Son of Mary and Son of God,
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if he is the Christ of God,
19:51
then he is and must be and always will be
19:54
and can only be King,
19:58
King above the state,
20:01
King above the party,
20:03
King above the ideology,
20:07
and his sovereign will is above our rebellious will.
20:12
And when we have been infected,
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when we have been infected
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with that hell-sourced spirit of rebellion,
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and that rage says,
20:24
non servium, I will not serve,
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which is the opposite of the Marian declaration,
20:31
let it be done unto me according to thy word.
20:34
When we say no to the word of the Father,
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our response must be hate,
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and it must be rage,
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because like fallen Satan,
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we know that Christ cannot be defeated.
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And if we build our kingdom in this world,
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it will come to an end.
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And if we build our life on possessions and power,
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we know, like everyone else,
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we will die paupers,
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because there are no pockets in a shroud.
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And if we have any sense at all,
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if we pay any attention to the natural law
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inscribed in our heart by God at all,
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we will know, we will know
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that the only thing we bring with us into the nest life
21:25
is our character, is our virtue.
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And as C.S. Lewis says,
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anyone who's tried hard to be good
21:32
knows how hard it is to be good.
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And we can have virtue,
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lasting virtue,
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only with the help of God's grace.
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So we either worship God and find our freedom and our joy,
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or we choose idols
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and condemn ourselves to a misery
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that begins in this life
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and doesn't ever end in hell.
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Those are our only choices.
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And there are people throughout history,
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and even as I speak,
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there are people who tell us,
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no, no, no, there is a third way.
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It doesn't have to be Christ or the world,
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the flesh, and the devil.
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It doesn't have to be Thomas, Aquinas, or Nietzsche.
22:21
It doesn't have to be heaven or hell.
22:24
We can have Christ as our enthusiastic mascot
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as we are chaplains to the NGOs of the world,
22:32
redistributing the wealth of others
22:35
after we take our cut for administrative purposes,
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don't you know?
22:39
And the world is going to like us and applaud us.
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And we'll acknowledge how wise and good
22:49
and tolerant and broad-minded
22:52
and welcoming and nonjudgmental we are.
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We will have the gold coin of Caesar,
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and we will have the applause of the jesters.
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And even if we have both without interruption,
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we will not take them with us into the next life.
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We will take with us the consequences
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of having chosen for or against Christ.
23:22
Fulton Sheen was a prayerful man.
23:25
He was a cultured man.
23:26
He was a learned man.
23:28
He understood human nature,
23:30
and he understood human history.
23:34
And my fear, my lament, my grief, my heartache
23:39
is that we are living in a time
23:40
when senior Catholic cadres of the
23:42
People Who Should Really Know Better Club
23:45
would tell us this time it's different.
23:50
We can decide for ourselves
23:53
what the Spirit is saying now and anew.
23:59
And we don't need to submit ourselves
24:01
to discipline or doctrines.
24:05
And we certainly don't need to submit ourselves
24:09
to the cross, and we need not view this world
24:15
as the veil of tears.
24:18
We're told there is a third way
24:21
where we can have our heaven on this earth,
24:25
and this earthly heaven will be the work of human hands.
24:30
Friends, this is just the Tower of Babel all over again.
24:36
This is the proud offering of Cain
24:39
rather than the humble sacrifice of Abel.
24:43
We already know how this story will end
24:47
if, God forbid, we choose to sign our name to it.
24:53
Please, dear God, let's make better choices.
24:57
I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTague,
24:58
your host here every day of the Catholic Current.
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Here we are at the last segment
26:49
of our first episode of the Catholic Current.
26:52
Here we are at the last segment of a Friday.
26:54
Let's talk about this.
26:55
We're talking about more warnings from Fulton Sheen.
26:58
We're making our way through a book Sheen published in 1932
27:03
called Moods and Truths.
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And just as I was getting ready
27:06
to record this last segment,
27:09
Mr. Engineer was a witness to this.
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A friend of mine forwarded me a notice
27:14
from the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
27:18
There's an article by a woman who's a theologian
27:22
who claims that Genesis does not actually contain
27:26
a devil and original sin.
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All right, with that in mind,
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let's turn to chapter 12 of Moods and Truths
27:35
by Fulton Sheen called The Ignorance of the Learned.
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Now, when people start making smart-mouth remarks
27:42
about academics and learning and book knowledge, et cetera,
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for me it rings more true
27:48
if the person has a serious education.
27:53
Otherwise, you're just mocking things you don't understand.
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So Fulton Sheen had a doctorate in philosophy
27:58
from the University of Leuven in Belgium,
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which at the time was one of the most prestigious
28:03
Catholic universities in the world.
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Several years ago it announced,
28:08
yeah, we're not really quite so Catholic.
28:10
We're just gonna take Catholic out of the title.
28:12
It'll be fine.
28:13
And then he got a very, very distinguished
28:16
post-doctoral degree in philosophy.
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So he was a genius.
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So I'm just gonna read to you from some of chapter 12,
28:24
The Ignorance of the Learned.
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And I want, as you hear it, think of this person,
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this theologian, writing not just on a subway wall
28:35
or a bathroom stall, but rather is writing
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in basically the official newspaper,
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the Vatican, L'Osservatore Romano,
28:42
that the idea of the devil and original sin
28:45
isn't really part of what Genesis means.
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Fulton Sheen begins,
28:49
Four judges sat in judgment against the Lord
28:52
and Savior of the world,
28:53
and they condemned him to death
28:55
on contradictory charges.
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He was condemned for being too dogmatic before Caiaphas
29:01
because he enunciated the doctrine of his divinity.
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He was accused of being too undogmatic before Annas
29:08
because he refused to make any pronouncements
29:10
concerning his doctrine and his ministry.
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He was accused of being too worldly before Pilate
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because he was perverting the nation.
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He was accused of being too unworldly before Herod
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because he refused to do the worldly thing
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and perform a trick of magic to gain his release.
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Sheen continues,
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Too dogmatic, too undogmatic, too worldly, too unworldly.
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Men could not agree on why he should die,
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but they did agree that he should die.
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Where find a fitting punishment
29:42
for one condemned on contradictory charges?
29:45
The only fitting death
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for one condemned on contradictory charges
29:48
is not scourging nor stoning,
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but the crucifixion.
29:54
For on the cross,
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one bar is at variance or contradiction with another.
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And I know Fulton Sheen said later in life,
30:03
Our Lord died on a cross, not on a fence.
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Now listen to this.
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I just wanted to underline this whole page.
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And so the king is sent to his death
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for a bed, a cross, for a pillow, a crown of thorns.
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And lest his hands and feet should slip out,
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they tuck them in with nails.
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The king is hanging from a peg.
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I, more than a king, truth, justice, mercy, God.
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And the three great civilizations of the world
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saw him hang and suffer and die
30:33
for he was crucified in the language of Hebrew,
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Latin, and Greek.
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And the civilizations of Jerusalem, Rome, and Athens
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in the name of religion, law, and morality,
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in the name of the good, the true, and the beautiful.
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Jerusalem was the city of religion
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and it condemned the one who brought it religion.
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Latin Rome was the city of law
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and it condemned the law maker.
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Athens was the city of morality
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and it condemned the sinless.
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Think of the education you have to have
31:08
to be able to write a paragraph like that.
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He continues,
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Representatives of each of these civilizations
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pass beneath the banner of the cross
31:17
and hurl the challenge, each in their own language.
31:20
Come down from the cross and we will believe.
31:23
What happened in those terrible moments of hate
31:25
was not something that would pass into history
31:28
as did the battle of Marathon.
31:30
What was happening was the first scene
31:32
in an abiding drama,
31:34
the curtain of which will not ring down
31:37
until the crack of doom.
31:40
It is now the mystic Christ, or the church,
31:43
which is hanging on the cross.
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And today, just as 20 centuries ago,
31:48
she is being crucified in the modern civilizations
31:51
of Jerusalem, Rome, and Athens
31:54
in the name of modern religion,
31:57
modern law, and modern morality.
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So says Fulton Sheen.
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And I have to ask you, in light of these words
32:07
from this prayerful, learned, holy man,
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how might he and how might we
32:14
evaluate synodality?
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Let's continue with Fulton Sheen.
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And modern religion marches beneath the cross,
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looks up to the church crucified thereon
32:26
by an unbelieving world.
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And who is there who has not heard the marcher say
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at least a thousand times,
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come down from your belief in infallibility.
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Come down from your belief in the primacy of Peter.
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Come down from your attachment to the divinity of Christ.
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Come down from your devotion to the Virgin Mary
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and the saints.
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Come down from your belief that you are
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the one true unique spouse,
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the church of Christ.
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Can you not see that there are other crosses
32:55
in Calvary besides your own?
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Come down and we will believe.
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Friends, this is devastating to read
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because now those who walk by
33:06
the crucified church
33:09
are not just scoffers
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and atheists and agnostics
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and Marxists and Freudians
33:18
and Bolsheviks,
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but rather they are members
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of the people who should really know better club.
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Members of the Catholic cadres
33:29
of the people who should know better club.
33:32
God help us, even senior Catholic members
33:37
of the people who should really know better club.
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They too are asking us
33:44
to step away from the primacy of Peter,
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the divinity of Christ,
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the uniqueness of the church of Christ.
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Sheen continues.
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And next, modern law,
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modern in the sense that it is broken with Christian tradition,
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takes its stand beneath the cross
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and who is there who is not already familiar
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with its taunts and pleadings?
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Come down from your belief in the law of eternal justice.
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Come down from your belief in hell.
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Come down from your belief that the laws of Christ
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are more sound than the laws of the state.
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Come down from your belief in the law of mortification.
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For who is there in the pagan world
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who wants your penance and your suffering?
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Look to the sorry end it has brought you now.
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Come down from your cross and we will believe.
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So even now, friends,
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even among the Catholic cadres
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of the people who should really know better club,
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perhaps, just perhaps,
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even among the strongest advocates of synodality,
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we are asked to take away eternal justice,
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take away hell,
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take away the rights of Christ the King over the state.
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Even now.
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Continue reading Sheen.
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And finally, the third of the enduring civilizations,
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the teachers of modern morality,
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advances beneath the same cross.
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And who is there living in this great era of carnality
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who has not heard their taunts a thousand times
35:21
as they sneer at the church?
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Come down from your belief in the sanctity of marriage.
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Come down from your belief in virginity and celibacy.
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Come down from your age-long opposition to divorce.
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Come down from your opposition to sex
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when all the world is mad about it.
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Come down from your opposition to birth control.
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Can you not see that the acids of morality
35:46
have eaten away your age-old morality?
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Come down from the cross
35:52
and we will believe.
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Friends, as I was reading this in this coffee shop,
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I wanted to overturn a table
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and say, stop what you're doing,
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turn off that music,
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and listen to this.
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And let's fall on our knees and cry out,
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Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
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But the horror as I see it,
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and please do correct me if I'm wrong,
36:18
contact me at thestationofthecross.com
36:20
slash askfather.
36:21
Say, no, Father, you're wrong.
36:23
There are no members of the People
36:25
Who Should Really Know Better Club
36:27
who are asking us to reconsider
36:30
the teachings on marriage and family.
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October will be the 10th anniversary celebration
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of Amoris Laetitia.
36:38
We'll see.
36:39
Let's go back to Sheen.
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But the church does not come down,
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though 10,000 times 10,000 tongues
36:45
are loud in their pleading,
36:47
it does not come down
36:49
because Christ did not come down.
36:51
It is easy to step from great heights
36:53
when the world scorns,
36:55
but it is the sign of a martyr
36:57
to die for an ideal.
36:59
It is easy to come down
37:01
and follow the world,
37:03
but it is noble to remain suspended
37:06
and draw the world to himself.
37:09
It is human to come down.
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It is divine to hang their friends.
37:15
Please buy this book and read all of it.
37:18
Let me continue at Sheen.
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But will there never be a reconciliation
37:23
between the world and the church?
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Must the one always be hanging on the cross
37:28
and a parent to feed,
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and the other walk in the earth
37:31
and a parent victory?
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Ah, there is the possibility of reconciliation,
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and it resides in the words of forgiveness
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pronounced the first time
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by our blessed Lord on the cross
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and now repeated for the thousandth time
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by the church on its cross.
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Friends,
37:51
this is hard.
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Again, it's not secularists.
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It's not just sectarians.
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It's not those who don't believe
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in the Christ of God.
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It's not those who reject the Trinity.
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It's not just arrogant academics.
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I hear from many people all over the world,
38:17
clergy and lay,
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and they tell me,
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Father, I'm afraid that it's other Catholics
38:25
who are telling Christ and the church
38:29
to come down.
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I want to be wrong about this.
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Please let me know if you think I am.
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Let me read just a few more sentences
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before we run out of time.
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Sheen writes,
38:46
And he quotes our Lord saying,
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If you had been of the world,
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the world would love its own,
38:53
but because you are not of the world,
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I have chosen you out of the world.
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Therefore, the world hateth you.
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Remember, the servant is not greater
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than his master.
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And Sheen says we must be hated
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even as Christ himself was hated.
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We must be abused as Christ himself was abused.
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We must be prepared to be told again and again
39:13
that we are ignorant
39:14
because we do not know
39:15
that modern psychology has disproved the soul
39:18
that we are benighted fools.
39:20
Because we do not know
39:21
that higher biblical criticism
39:22
has destroyed the authenticity of scripture.
39:24
That we are narrow minded
39:26
because we do not accept
39:27
the unmoral interpretations of God's law.
39:30
That we are a race of darkened minds
39:32
because we do not know
39:33
that evolution has proved original sin to be a myth.
39:37
That we are ignorant
39:38
because we do not know
39:39
that science has dispensed with providence
39:42
with God and with Christ.
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Oh friends,
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I have so much more to say about this.
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Please do read this book
39:52
and then make a holy hour of reparation for me
39:57
and for all those
39:58
who even now seem to be asking Christ
40:01
to come down from the cross.
40:03
I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTague,
40:05
your host here every day at The Catholic Current.
40:06
You want to stay with us for the rest of the hour.
40:08
Coming up next,
40:09
Weekend Readiness.
40:10
You and me reviewing the headlines
40:12
of the weekend line
40:13
of the upcoming Sunday Scriptures.
40:14
So we'll all be prayed up for Sunday Mass.
40:17
Be part of the conversation.
40:18
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40:19
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40:21
that's G-A-B.com.
40:24
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40:26
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40:28
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40:30
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40:32
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40:34
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40:35
especially for this episode.
40:37
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40:40
Back in just two minutes.
40:41
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40:44
Music.
41:00
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41:02
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41:04
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41:07
Go to the stationofthecross.com
41:10
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41:12
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41:15
Music.
41:20
Praise be Jesus Christ.
41:21
This is Fr. Robert McTague
41:22
of the Society of Jesus,
41:24
your daily host for The Catholic Current,
41:26
where we bring Christ to the world
41:27
and the world to Christ.
41:28
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41:29
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41:30
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41:32
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41:33
where we proclaim the fullness of truth
41:35
with clarity and charity.
41:37
Here we are,
41:38
the last segment of our Friday.
41:39
You know what that means,
41:40
Weekend Readiness,
41:41
me reviewing the headlines of the week
41:42
in light of the upcoming Sunday Scriptures,
41:44
so we'll be all prayed up for Sunday Mass.
41:46
We started off with another set of warnings
41:48
from Fulton Sheen,
41:49
this time from a book he published in 1932
41:52
called Moods and Truths.
41:54
In the last segment,
41:55
I read to you from a chapter
41:57
where he was talking about,
41:59
on Calvary and Good Friday,
42:00
all the different people
42:02
who told Christ to come down from the cross
42:04
and he refused.
42:06
Then throughout history,
42:08
people are asking the Church
42:10
to come down from the cross.
42:13
The Church, who wants to remain
42:16
with her crucified Lord,
42:18
is viewed as foolish
42:20
in the eyes of the world.
42:22
We are told that we are ignorant
42:24
because we're not doing
42:25
what the cool kids do.
42:27
There's a paragraph here
42:28
that's a real punch in the gut
42:30
that I want to read to you.
42:32
Sheen writes,
42:33
Yes, we are ignorant,
42:34
ignorant of the false wisdom of the world,
42:37
ignorant of the wisdom of the age,
42:40
ignorant of all that false wisdom
42:42
which would blind us
42:43
to the enlightening truths
42:45
of the Eternal Son,
42:47
ignorant of modern pagan ways.
42:49
Oh, Holy Father in Heaven,
42:52
we thank Thee that we are ignorant,
42:55
ignorant of those things
42:57
which keep us from Thee.
42:59
It is not the wisdom of the world
43:01
that saves, it is ignorance.
43:04
So let's go on.
43:05
Sheen says,
43:06
Hence there is not a loyal Catholic heart
43:08
in the world,
43:09
kneeling at the foot of the cross,
43:11
that is ignorant of the reason
43:13
of all forgiveness,
43:14
and from such a heart
43:15
comes this plaintive prayer.
43:17
Let me read to you this prayer.
43:19
Oh, Jesus,
43:20
I do not want to know the world.
43:23
I do not want to know
43:24
the pride of the world
43:26
which crowns Thy head with thorns.
43:28
I do not want to know
43:30
how nails of selfishness are driven,
43:33
nor how the spear of bitterness is launched.
43:37
I do not want to know
43:38
how snowflakes are hammered,
43:40
nor who turns about the Arcturus.
43:43
I do not want to know
43:44
the length of this great universe
43:46
and its expanse and light years.
43:48
I do not want to know
43:49
the breadth of the earth
43:50
as it dances about the chariot of the sun.
43:54
I do not want to know
43:55
the heights of the stars
43:57
as they glitter about
43:58
the day's dead sanctities.
44:01
I do not want to know
44:02
the depth of the sea
44:03
nor the secrets of its palace.
44:06
I am willing to be ignorant
44:08
of all these things.
44:10
I want to know only one thing,
44:12
and that is
44:14
the breadth and length
44:15
and depth and height
44:16
of Thy redeeming love on the cross.
44:20
Sweet Savior of men,
44:22
I want, dear Jesus,
44:24
to be ignorant of everything in this world,
44:26
everything but You,
44:27
and then,
44:28
by the strangest of strange paradoxes,
44:31
I shall be wise.
44:34
So with that in mind,
44:35
let's turn to the Lectionary.
44:38
If you're following
44:39
the Novus Ordo calendar,
44:40
the Pauline Rite,
44:41
we're at the 15th Sunday
44:42
in Ordinary Time,
44:44
Lectionary 103.
44:47
The prophet Isaiah says,
44:48
Thus says the Lord,
44:50
He says,
44:51
My word shall not return to me void,
44:53
but shall do my will,
44:54
achieving the end for which I sent it.
44:57
And he sent his saving word
45:00
to illuminate and save us,
45:04
to liberate us from the world,
45:06
the flesh, and the devil,
45:07
and to prepare us
45:08
for perfect glory
45:10
and the happiness of heaven.
45:12
And the wisdom of the world says,
45:14
No, we have a better deal.
45:18
And the wisdom of Christ,
45:19
which is foolishness
45:20
in the eyes of the world,
45:22
returns to Christ crucified.
45:26
Let's turn to Romans 8.
45:27
Romans 8, St. Paul says,
45:29
I consider that the sufferings
45:30
of this present time
45:31
are as nothing compared
45:33
with the glory to be revealed for us.
45:37
Friends, I think,
45:39
especially now,
45:40
we're called to undergo
45:41
a crucifixion
45:43
to be a sign of contradiction.
45:46
We are living in such strange times.
45:51
We're told we can't really be sure
45:53
who is faithful,
45:54
who is not,
45:55
who is to be condemned,
45:56
who is not,
45:59
who is reverent,
46:00
who is not,
46:02
who is in union with Rome,
46:05
and who is not,
46:06
who stands on the rock of Peter,
46:09
and who does not.
46:11
It is a very confusing time.
46:15
We're told again,
46:16
and again, and again,
46:17
if we just add more water
46:18
to the broth,
46:19
if we only become
46:21
more like the world,
46:23
the world will like us,
46:26
and what can be better than that?
46:30
Recently, someone sent me
46:32
an Instagram video,
46:33
God save us,
46:34
and it was a deacon
46:37
in a church
46:39
wearing his vest,
46:41
so he had it on his alb,
46:43
and his stole,
46:44
and his sanctuary,
46:45
and he had in one hand
46:46
a therable for incense,
46:48
and in the other hand,
46:51
he had a saboreum.
46:53
Please dear God,
46:55
it was empty,
46:56
and not full of consecrated hosts,
46:59
but in any case,
47:00
he was filming this inside a church,
47:02
presumably in the presence
47:03
of the blessed sacrament,
47:04
and he was just making a joke
47:06
to be clever and funny.
47:09
See how hard we're trying
47:11
to have the world like us?
47:13
Isn't that great?
47:15
What can be better
47:16
than the world liking us?
47:20
I don't want to be
47:22
a part of that effort.
47:24
I don't think you do either.
47:26
I think that's why you keep
47:27
coming back here,
47:28
the Station of the Cross,
47:29
because here you can find
47:31
a sane and sober voice or two,
47:34
and look at the world,
47:37
and evaluate the world,
47:39
in light of what the church
47:40
has always taught.
47:42
And yes,
47:43
there's nothing new
47:45
in observing that we're walking
47:47
mourning and weeping
47:48
in this valley of tears.
47:50
It is nothing new
47:51
that is hard to carry across.
47:53
It's hard to walk
47:55
in the bloody footsteps of Christ
47:57
and enter through the narrow gate.
47:59
It is hard.
48:01
And this is why
48:03
we need each other.
48:05
We need to encourage each other.
48:08
We need to pray for
48:10
and with each other.
48:12
We need to intercede
48:14
for those who do not yet know,
48:17
and we need to make reparation
48:20
for those who did know
48:23
and who need to come back.
48:26
Look, friends,
48:27
I'm a sinner.
48:28
I'm nobody special.
48:30
I need militant intercession
48:33
constantly.
48:35
But as I get older,
48:38
I just find sin
48:40
really boring,
48:43
and I find the blandishments
48:45
of the world,
48:46
the flesh and the devil,
48:47
really boring.
48:49
It's the same old
48:52
you-know-what
48:54
over and over again.
48:58
And it's only
49:00
the offer of Christ
49:03
who says,
49:04
follow me.
49:05
That's the only thrill.
49:09
That's the only excitement
49:11
that I'm interested in,
49:14
is to get to know Him
49:16
in the hopes of becoming like Him,
49:18
in the hopes that someday,
49:19
when I face my judgment
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before God Almighty,
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our Heavenly Father will see
49:25
and love in me
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what He sees and loves
49:27
in His only begotten Son.
49:28
So I work for that.
49:29
I pray for that.
49:30
Pray for me
49:31
as I do pray for you.
49:35
I'm melancholic.
49:36
I'm gloomy.
49:38
That's not good for me.
49:39
It's not good for you.
49:41
So let's ask for the grace
49:43
to be happy warriors,
49:46
to be grateful fools for Christ,
49:50
knowing that for His faithful,
49:52
Christ our Lord will share His victory.
49:55
May God's holy name be praised
49:57
now and forever.
49:58
I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTague,
50:00
your host here every day
50:01
at The Catholic Current.
50:02
Do join us, please, on Monday
50:04
for another great topic,
50:05
another great guest,
50:07
because that's how we roll here
50:08
at The Catholic Current
50:09
and the Station of the Cross,
50:11
where we strive to be
50:12
so much more than merely relevant.
50:15
After the broadcast today,
50:16
go to thestationofthecross.com,
50:18
get our resources list,
50:19
download our audio as podcast,
50:21
or if you can find audio,
50:22
you can find us.
50:23
Follow us on your favorite platform,
50:25
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50:26
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50:27
of the listeners
50:28
so that these conversations
50:30
get the attention they deserve.
50:32
Take us to your family and friends.
50:33
Together, we'll take it
50:34
to the whole world.
50:35
With the intercession
50:36
of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
50:37
may Almighty God bless you,
50:38
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
50:40
Go in peace,
50:41
and pray for me,
50:42
for I am a sinner.