Latest / The Catholic Current / Novel Prophecies Pt. 10 - Lewis’ “Out of the Silent Planet” (Fr. Robert McTeigue) 9/25/26

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Novel Prophecies Pt. 10 - Lewis’ “Out of the Silent Planet” (Fr. Robert McTeigue) 9/25/26 · The Catholic Current

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This is The Catholic Current with Father Robert
0:04
McTague. One of the reasons we read these great stories is
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because it can expand our moral imagination and help
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us to expect more of ourselves and one another, of God. The key thing about
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literature in general, it shows us not merely who we are,
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but who we should be and who we shouldn't be. I can't remember who it
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was who said, I read the newspapers avidly, it's my only source of continual
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fiction. If you want truth instead
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of fiction, don't read the newspapers, read the great novels.
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Praise be Jesus Christ. This is Father
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Robert McTaggart of the Society of Jesus, your daily host for the Catholic Current,
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where we bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ. You're listening to
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us from the Station of the Cross Studios, your local radio station, the iCatholic
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Radio mobile app, where we proclaim the fullness of truth with clarity
0:51
and charity. As always, let's start with prayer. In the
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name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Almighty God, through the intercession of
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Saint Ignatius Loyola, we ask that you pour forth your Holy Spirit upon us,
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a spirit of discernment that might hear your voice and obey your command.
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In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Hey friends, it's Friday here at the Catholic Current. You know what that means,
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you and me together for the whole hour. We start with, let's talk about this.
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We walk through a complex issue together. By popular demand,
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I'm coming back to this series of novel prophecies.
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We took a little break for a while, and then I was on
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the road. I was in Washington, D.C. at the Catholic University of America,
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where I am a 3-time alumnus, the very fine Catholic Art Institute was
1:35
hosting its annual conference, and the topic was
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Redeeming Culture: Beauty as a Path to Evangelization.
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And I gave a talk called The Scandal of Mediocrity
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that was video recorded as well, and it should
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be up and available online in a matter of days. And once it is,
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I will make sure that, uh, the technical crew gets that
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out to you. Uh, giving all glory and honor to God, the talk was very
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well received, and I really do suggest that you watch
2:06
all of the talks because they were edifying, they were informative, they were a lot
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of fun. I met great people, and I have to say that it is
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really uplifting to know that there are people who
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are deep in the faith who are absolutely committed to making excellent
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Catholic art. And I have to say, I felt really out
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of place because you had architects and sculptors and painters and
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woodcarvers and musicians, and then
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there's me. I mean, I can't draw a straight line with a ruler. I can't
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carry a tune in a bucket. I've never really made
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anything, certainly not anything beautiful. And, you know,
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I'm, I'm just a words guy. And word
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guys, we have a place to play in Catholic beauty and
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excellence as well. And at the risk of appearing to put myself in
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good company, there are some very fine Catholic and Christian
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word guys as well— Tolkien, C.S. Lewis.
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And I want to shift our attention to C.S.
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Lewis for a while. You know, back in the late '30s,
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early to mid-'40s, he did a trilogy, a science
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fiction trilogy, which I'm sorry to say I've
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never read. And so on the airplane, because I did a lot of
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flying in the past several days, I made my way through 2/3 of the
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trilogy. I'm down to the last volume, about a quarter of the way into
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that now, and we're going to go through those together
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for the next few weeks. And the first volume in his trilogy is called Out
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of the Silent Planet. It was written in the late 1930s,
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and the 3 books together form
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a theme. And I, I want to summarize it this
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way: it has to do with original sin and
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what difference does it make when
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you cooperate with God's design and
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what happens when you don't. And what happens if you see
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that the ripples of those choices expand out across the
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cosmos. And it turns out in the grand scheme of things,
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humans are kind of jerks. They really
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messed things up for everybody else with their rebellion against God,
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the Creator. So I want to talk a little bit about original
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sin. And, you know, there's lots of good stuff that you can read about
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it. And there is this notion that somehow
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original sin means we get blamed for someone else's screw-up.
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Give an example. My dear friend when I was an undergrad,
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Mark Maciej, God rest his soul, talked about he had 2 uncles
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and they were identical twins. And one was just, you know, a regular
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kid and he would go to school and so on. And the other twin uncle
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was very sickly and couldn't go to school. And one day
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the healthy twin comes back from school and his father starts
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beating the daylights out of him. I said, Dad,
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what's going on? I just got back from school. What the heck? And he said,
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well, you know, your uncle broke a lamp and,
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you know, someone's got to get punished for it, and I can't beat your brother
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because, you know, he's sickly, so I got to beat you.
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So that doesn't seem right. An example
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from my mother had told me. She was the oldest of 8 kids. My very
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Italian grandfather came home late from work, and they used to keep a radio up
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on a shelf in the hallway and let the kids fall asleep listening to the
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radio. And one evening, the kid— the cat knocked
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the lamp— knocked the radio off the shelf.
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And he comes home from work and says, hey, who broke the radio? And they
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said, Papa, it wasn't any of us. It was the cat. And he goes,
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well, none of you lie to me. Everybody line up to get hit because
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you're not owning up to who broke the lamp. So there are people who think
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that original sin as something like that, and that's not quite right.
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We have to understand God's purposes for creating
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and what it means to create. Now, create doesn't mean to make
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stuff. It doesn't mean to, you know, I made the cake from scratch,
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and I said, well, no, no, you didn't. You made it from pre-existing ingredients.
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To create, I mean, to really create ex
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nihilo out of nothing is an absolute
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infinite action. In fact, while I think of it,
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Mr. Engineer, there is a little book called The Gift:
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Creation by philosopher Kenneth Schmitz.
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It's part of the Aquinas Lecture Series from Marquette
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University, published in the 1970s.
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Could you find that and add it to the list, please? And then a book
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by Glenn Tinder, Glenn with 2 N's, called Against
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Fate: An Essay on Personal Dignity. Both of those books have to do
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with creation and what it means to be created.
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So if creation is an infinite act of
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power, that means you have to be an
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infinite being. You have to lack no
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perfection, including no lack in goodness and
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wisdom. So if you create, it's not like making
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a tool that you find useful because
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God doesn't need anything.
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And so, when God creates, he has no
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good reason except absolute sheer
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generosity. God creates us
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in his image and likeness. In other words, we are
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rational and free, and therefore moral,
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and he, because he is supremely good, he wants
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what is best for us. And what is best
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for us is him. So he puts
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us in a world where we can make moral choices and
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share in his joy of love and
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be kind of a sub-creator of other moral agents.
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And this seems like a pretty good deal. And so we have
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bodies and we have an immortal soul and we
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can make good choices. Our intellects can know the truth.
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Our will can choose the good, our hearts
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can delight in what is beautiful,
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and, you know, what's not to like?
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Well, being free and
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being finite is always a risky business,
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and the enemy who hates God
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decides to spitefully continue
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his rebellion against the divine order by
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enticing us to sin,
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and that's going to have all sorts of horrific consequences.
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Now, in the time we have left, you remember Satan was
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a fallen angel, and why is it that we can
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sin and repent and and the fallen angels,
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the demons, can't? Well, angels are pure
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intellect, and they have infused knowledge
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from God, and they don't exist in time.
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So an angel is able to see
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the full consequence of his rebellion
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and then still chooses it.
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That closes off the possibility of repentance.
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Whereas for a human in a body with a limited intellect,
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learning through time, you can say, oh my
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gosh, I didn't think it would be like this.
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I want to come back to God. And God
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allows that But there are consequences
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for those choices. There are disorders in the cosmic
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order that God made that have to be
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remedied, that require human
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cooperation, but also require
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divine intervention and divine elevation.
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So when we sin, this idea that we're breaking some
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stupid arbitrary rule is just pathetically
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infantile and inadequate. And so original
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sin has cosmic,
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metaphysical, moral consequences.
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And that's why C.S. Lewis wrote the trilogy, which we'll talk about more
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in the next segment. I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTeague, your host here every day
11:13
at The Catholic Current. Remember, our rallying cry at The Catholic Current is Christus Mundo,
11:17
Mundus Cristo, bringing Christ to the world and the world to Christ.
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We do it because our Lord says so, for the greater glory of God,
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the love of our neighbor, and the salvation of our own soul.
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After the broadcast today, go to thestationofthecross.com, get our
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resources list, download our audios, podcasts. Take us to your family and
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friends. Together we'll take it to the whole world. Let's do this good work together.
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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 McHague of the Society of Jesus,
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your daily host for The Catholic Current, where we bring Christ to the world and
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the world to Christ. You're listening to us from the Station of the Cross Studios,
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your local radio station, the iCatholic Radio mobile app,
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Cross Catholic Media Network. By subscribing to iCatholicMobile, you help fund
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programs that defend our Catholic faith. We are in our series
12:56
called Novel Prophecies. We're up to part 10, C.S.
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Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet, which is the first volume in
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his science fiction trilogy. The overarching story of
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the whole trilogy is original sin. What happens
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if you have it? What happens if you don't? And what happens if
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those 2 groups meet? And for those of us who are sadly
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no strangers to original sin, what should we do about it? So I
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started talking about how God's creation is good.
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He could make it only for the sake of love because
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he is the supreme being, and only supreme beings can
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create out of nothing. And we owe him respect
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and trust and worship. And that's just at the level of nature.
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We're not even getting into the level of grace. And so I want
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to make a distinction between natural,
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preternatural, and supernatural. Now, natural comes
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from not to, you know, you're kind of born that way, you know.
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And I think better said, to be conceived that way and also created
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that way. So, uh, I am created
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with a purpose. Saint Ignatius Loyola called it the, the, um,
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first principle and foundation that I am to,
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uh, I'm made for the praise, reverence, and service of God, and thereby
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to save my soul. In Baltimore Catechism, uh,
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made to, to know God and serve God and
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love him and enjoy forever in, in the next.
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And along the way, so nature has to be distinguished
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against the artificial and also against the unnatural.
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So the people say, oh Father, you know, why, you know, why does the church
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have such an animosity to artificial contraception. You know, you have
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artificial lighting. Well, it's— the artifice isn't the problem.
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I mean, I, I wear glasses for reading. I,
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I have a light on for reading that is artificial. It's not the light of
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the sun. So the artifice isn't the problem. Why do you use the
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Greek word telos? T-E-L-O-S.
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That means ultimate purpose or end. And so if something
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is natural, it must— it is
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most itself when it achieves the
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telos, the aim, the purpose for which it was made.
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So I am to live and die in such a way that
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I can enjoy the presence of God forever. That is natural
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to me. That's what I was made for. Human sin
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broke it and required a supernatural intervention,
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which we'll get to more in the moment. What about unnatural?
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That which is contrary to nature. So if that is— if
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what is morally good helps me fulfill my nature,
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my natural end, my telos, we can
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say that is teleological. If something harms
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my nature, is contrary to my nature,
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is dehumanizing rather than humanizing,
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unfulfilling rather than fulfilling,
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takes me away from my telos,
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you know, teleological, but rather takes me away, that is,
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disteleological. So that which is contrary
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to nature, that which is unnatural,
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is morally evil. So we have natural
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gifts. I can know what is true.
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I can choose what is good. I can delight in what is beautiful.
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And then the Father said there are preternatural gifts,
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endowments that elevated the human condition beyond
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its natural capacity but without making it divine.
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And so as a result of original sin,
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those gifts that we should have received
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we didn't get. For example, immortality.
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So before the fall, man was exempt from death,
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and so death entered the world as the result
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of rebellion. And then there was the preternatural
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gift of impassibility. The body wasn't subject
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to, to disease or decay. And then here's
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what's really important for us for the moral life. Integrity.
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Integrity means a perfect ordering of
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the appetites. So, I need food, so I'm hungry.
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I need water, so I'm thirsty.
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So, in my book, Real Philosophy for Real People, when I talk about
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the moral equation, I talk about rightly desiring
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what is rightly desirable. So, I want what I need,
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I want what is good for me. I want it in the right
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amount. I want it in the right way.
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And I don't want anything else.
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Now, that means if you've got
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the preternatural gift of integrity, life is pretty peaceful.
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You want what you should have and no more.
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So if you, if you say, if you know that, you know, one drink
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is enough for you, one and done, the bartender says, gentlemen, another you're
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gonna say, oh, no thank you, and it's not gonna be a problem for you.
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It's not gonna be a conflict for you because there's a
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harmony between your appetite and your reason.
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I would like to be able to live that way, but that
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was one of the gifts that we lost. And we also lost what
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was called infused knowledge. We had a natural
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wisdom that helps us to see, oh,
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I'm created for the praise, reverence, and service of God. I should
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act accordingly. With infused
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knowledge, I don't have to subject
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myself to trial and error.
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I wonder what happens if I do this? Oh, let's not
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do that anymore. You know, how bad is a hangover really?
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Now you know. So in other words, you— I'm
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sure you've heard, I'm going to modify this, you know, fool around
19:27
and find out. So the fool around part didn't
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happen because of the preternatural gift of
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integrity, and the and find out part didn't
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happen because of infused knowledge.
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Now we break all of that.
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Uh, with original sin. And so now I'm
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subject to death. I get sick, I get tired, I age, I decay.
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I want things that are not good for me. I want things
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that God has forbidden. I want things in the wrong time,
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places, circumstances, amounts, etc., etc.
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And I gotta learn things the hard way. That's pretty
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miserable. And in that state, with my appetites
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disordered, my will weakened, my intellect darkened,
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I can't be the friend of God that
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God intended me to be. I'm a
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mess and I'm in rebellion, and the only way
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to work all that out is through divine
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intervention, and that's the work of sanctifying grace.
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So, yes, Father, but Aren't we talking about a novel here?
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Aren't we talking about C.S. Lewis's science
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fiction trilogy? And the first volume in the trilogy is called Out of the Silent
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Planet. And the, the main character, his name
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is Ransom. And Ransom is a philologist.
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He's an expert in the study of languages,
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just like his best bud J.R.R.
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Tolkien. Coincidence? You decide. So long story short,
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Ransom gets abducted to another planet because
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reasons. I'm trying not to do a spoiler here.
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And along the way on this planet, he meets 3 other
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types of species, which are number one,
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not human, number 2, rational,
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number 3, have free will and are therefore moral, but they don't
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have original sin. So they
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don't do immoral things, they don't do unnatural things,
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they don't do dysteleological things. Then a handful
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of humans show up, and guess what? They make a mess of
21:44
everything, because no matter where you go, there you are.
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And if we bring our fallen nature to any other context, we're gonna
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do damage. And so Lewis writes this book,
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you know, in addition to telling an enjoyable story And
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it's a very English story, which is okay because some of my best friends are
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English, you know. He makes it clear that fallen human
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nature is just an accident waiting to happen,
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and he makes clear that fallen human nature is
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just the human bull in the cosmic china shop,
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that humanity is at odds with the
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rest of creation, with the rest of the universe.
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Because of the fall. And humanity,
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because it's fallen, has a desire to
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consume beyond reason and to
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abuse without justice or right.
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And the other intelligent races in the cosmos
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don't like that. And there is a spiritual
22:54
dimension as well. It's— you can tell that
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C.S. Lewis takes angelic natures very seriously,
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and he's read the early fathers and the medieval doctors
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and so on where they talk about how different hierarchies
23:12
of angels have influence in the rest of creation,
23:16
and where the rational moral agents in other planets
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know that and cooperate with that.
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Humanity writ large, fallen man, man the jerk,
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he makes a mess of things.
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So, the question comes, how do we fix it?
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And spoiler alert,
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we can't, for all sorts of reasons.
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First of all, we finite moral agents
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have offended the Supreme Being, the infinite God, infinitely, because he's infinite. So we've
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committed an infinite injustice which cannot be ignored.
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Humanity has incurred a debt it cannot pay. Human has to pay
24:06
it, but we need a human who's also infinite and divine and good.
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And so that's why we need the Incarnation. This is why the Word became
24:15
flesh to remedy the mess that human-made—
24:19
human beings have made of creation and the God-man
24:23
relationship, and then has to teach us
24:27
to act rightly with others so that we become
24:32
not only his companions but his battle companions
24:36
and his instruments as well to spread his
24:40
healing good news that the disorder in creation
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and the disorder in ourselves can, with God's
24:49
grace and a whole lot of effort on our part, be remedied.
24:53
What happens when we say yes, and what happens when we say no?
24:57
That's what we'll look at in the next segment. I'm Jesuit Father
25:01
Robert McTeague, your host here every day of The Catholic Current. After the broadcast today,
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go to thestationofthecross.com, get our resources list, download our audio,
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relevant. Back in just 2 minutes. Please do stay with us.
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Praise be Jesus Christ. This is Father Robert McTeague of the Society of Jesus,
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Here in the Catholic Current, we engage issues seriously and faithfully, and that
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intellectual freedom exists because we are listener-funded. Support us please
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at thestationofthecross.com. Here we are on a Friday Let's
26:55
talk about this. We walk through a complex issue together. We are in
26:59
our ongoing series called Novel Prophecies. This is part
27:03
10. We're looking at C.S. Lewis's book Out of
27:07
the Silent Planet, which is the first volume in a science fiction trilogy.
27:11
And I thought it would be useful to talk about the
27:15
title of the book, Out of the Silent Planet. What does that mean? Well,
27:18
in the, in the old school cosmology The,
27:23
the ancients talked about the harmony of the spheres,
27:28
that as the planets moved through space,
27:32
there was a kind of music. Now, I'm not a music guy,
27:36
and I'm not a numbers guy. I'm a word guy. But I'll tell you,
27:39
I recently saw— this was the presentation for the Catholic
27:44
Art Institute where I was speaking last week— and the presenter,
27:47
who is an architect, talked about the objective nature of of
27:52
beauty. And all of the
27:56
classical and medieval and even modern commentators talked about
27:59
beauty in terms of harmony and proportion, and there's the golden mean
28:03
and the golden ratio and so on. And so he showed us
28:07
pictures of classical statues and buildings and so on,
28:11
and then he would highlight these different shapes and, and the
28:15
relation to one another. And these shapes had ratio and
28:19
proportion which could be put into number,
28:23
and that number put into music, so that classical
28:28
beautiful statues and buildings had
28:32
harmonious tones. There were buildings
28:35
that presented chords and symphonies.
28:38
And then you look at this postmodern schlock and dreck
28:43
I won't mention a certain cathedral except to say that it's in Los Angeles.
28:47
It was disharmonious. It was just, you know, the cat walking
28:51
on, on the keyboard. And so, out of the
28:55
silent planet indicates, from C.S. Lewis's point
28:59
of view, in context of the story, was that all the other planets
29:02
were guided by and guarded by angelic
29:07
beings that help the planet and those living
29:11
on the planet to be in harmony and to contribute notes
29:15
to the grand cosmic symphony,
29:18
honoring the composer and conductor, God Almighty.
29:23
And Earth was considered the silent planet because we
29:27
didn't show up with our notes. We didn't
29:31
contribute to the harmony because of our rebellion,
29:34
because of our sin. And gosh,
29:37
I, I just found that fascinating and, and amazing.
29:42
And I, I could all sorts of nerd out about how this
29:45
relates to the Trivium and the Quadrivium and so on, but I'm gonna,
29:49
I'm gonna take a deep breath and contain my,
29:52
my inner nerd because there's someplace where I want to go with,
29:56
uh, with the story. So the main character Ransom,
30:00
he figures out that fallen human beings really are
30:03
awful. And they really do make a horrible mess
30:07
wherever they go. And we really, really do
30:12
need a Savior. We need
30:16
a Savior. And C.S. Lewis said,
30:20
you know, original sin is a dogma for which there is so much
30:24
obvious empirical evidence.
30:28
It's really obvious that we want things wrongly, or we want
30:32
good things the wrong way, and we're willing to be horrible
30:35
to each other, and we're willing to slap a holy God in
30:39
the face and say, my will be done. And the only way
30:43
to make it right— the first breakthrough is that
30:48
the unspeakable injustice of sin has to
30:52
be remedied. The remedy for the disobedience
30:56
of man with the infinite debt it incurs
31:01
is an act of human obedience with infinite merit,
31:05
and that is the sacrifice of the God-Man, the Word made flesh,
31:09
Son of God and Son of Mary, on the cross at
31:13
Calvary. So the only act of
31:17
worship worthy of the name is
31:21
Christ crucified, made present
31:25
again in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And then we
31:29
make the offering of our pitiful, broken lives by
31:33
piggybacking on the sacrifice of Christ crucified,
31:37
so that our Heavenly Father looks at us and sees and loves in
31:40
us what he sees and loves in his obedient
31:44
only begotten Son. So that's why
31:48
worship is so important. That's why the
31:51
Mass is indispensable. This is why
31:55
our Lord told us to baptize all nations,
31:58
not to dialogue with them, but to baptize
32:03
them and to teach them everything he
32:08
taught us. We used to know that.
32:12
We need to know it again and then act accordingly. So now
32:16
the penalty has been paid, the gates of heaven are open, but here's
32:20
the thing. We have bodies and we live through
32:25
time, and we don't have those swell preternatural
32:29
gifts of integrity and infused knowledge and so on.
32:32
So now we have to live and die as saints.
32:36
We have to master our own flesh to
32:41
say no when it wants wrongly
32:44
or it wants wrong things. And we've got
32:48
to train our bodies and our appetites to rightly
32:52
value what is rightly valuable, to rightly desire what
32:56
is rightly desirable. And that
33:00
involves struggle. And we live in a
33:04
context dominated by the world, the flesh, and the devil.
33:07
God made the world good. So when I talk about the world in the
33:11
St. John sense of the world, We're talking about worldliness,
33:16
creation, and rebellion against God. And when we talk
33:19
about flesh, I don't mean the Word made flesh and dwelt among us, but in
33:23
the Pauline sense of the fleshly desires, the irrational,
33:29
and rebellion against human good and divine command.
33:33
And all that needs to be harmonized,
33:36
reordered, and the devil doesn't
33:41
want that. Saint Ignatius of Loyola said, no good
33:44
can be done on earth without the world being set in an uproar
33:49
and hell's legions roused, to which I say amen.
33:54
And so one of the things that we see play out in the rest of
33:56
the trilogy, and the thing that we see playing out in our own lives every
34:01
day, is that the world, the flesh, and the devil want
34:06
us to repudiate grace and continue to rebel
34:10
against nature and nature's creator.
34:14
And when we say, no, I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to
34:18
rebel against God, I'm going to embrace nature
34:21
and grace and teach others to do the same,
34:25
then we have enemies on our
34:28
hand and we are in a fight for bodies
34:33
and for souls. But Father,
34:36
this is hard.
34:39
Quit it. Remember I've told you before,
34:42
when we hear that whiny voice, being good is hard,
34:46
self-esteem, let's just be synodal,
34:50
right? That whiny voice, that's acedia.
34:54
That's the deadly sin of sloth. That's that kind of worldly
34:58
sadness Aquinas warns us against. It's the sorrow
35:03
that being good is hard. So we're in a war,
35:07
and why can't they just leave us alone? Well, they can't, because if
35:11
they left us alone, we'd convert the world. And don't forget, Satan hates us and
35:15
doesn't want anyone to be a saint because
35:20
he hates God. He wants us ultimately to
35:24
reject the First Commandment. And the most reliable
35:28
way of getting people to reject the First Commandment is not theological
35:31
argument, but through our appetites, through rebellion against
35:36
the Sixth Commandment. So we have a relentless
35:40
fight on our hands. And when I think about that,
35:43
I think about Juan de Nocer Cortés. He was a 19th
35:47
century Spanish diplomat, and I'm going to ask Mr.
35:50
Engineer to find some of Cortés's books
35:54
that are available online to put in the show notes. He's very clear
35:58
about, we are in relentless combat until we stop
36:02
drawing breath. Cortés says this, he says,
36:06
don't tire yourself in seeking a place of
36:10
security against the chances of war, for you tire
36:14
yourself in vain. That war is extended
36:18
as far as space and prolonged through all time. In eternity,
36:23
alone, the country of the just,
36:26
can you find rest, because there alone there
36:30
is no combat. So says Juan de Nostro
36:34
Cortés. Now notice he speaks of eternity as the
36:37
country of the just.
36:41
Well, by golly, we better live and die as saints.
36:45
And the way that we show that we're ready to face God and live is
36:49
to prove that we've been in combat,
36:53
fighting to protect his virgin bride, the church, and fighting for
36:57
the rights, the rights of Christ the King.
37:02
Let's read again from Cortés. He says, there is no man
37:06
who is not a combatant in this hot contest.
37:10
In this warfare, all men born of women are soldiers.
37:15
And don't tell me you don't wish to fight, for the moment
37:18
you tell me that You are already fighting.
37:23
I love this guy. I love Juan de Nosa Cortés.
37:27
And he makes it clear that we've got to fight. We've got to
37:31
fight to win. And we're in a fight. We're gonna get
37:35
hurt. Listen to this. He says, but do not
37:39
imagine that the gates of eternity shall be opened for you
37:43
unless you first show the wounds you bear.
37:47
Those gates are only open for those who
37:51
gloriously fought here the battles
37:55
of the Lord. So says Juan de Nocer Cortés.
38:00
There's not a lot of reference to dialogue or
38:05
self-esteem or accompaniment.
38:10
They all have their place, But they have their
38:14
place within the context of a
38:18
cosmic, metaphysical, moral,
38:21
spiritual drama of warfare.
38:26
And we brought that war upon ourselves when
38:30
we chose to sin. And the
38:34
only remedy for sin is Christ
38:38
crucified and risen.
38:41
We succeed or fail to the degree that we allow
38:45
ourselves to be washed white in the blood of the Lamb.
38:49
Friends, there are so many people leading lives of quiet
38:53
desperation. It doesn't have to
38:57
be that way. It doesn't have to be
39:00
that way. I'm going to ask Mr. Engineer to throw into the show notes a
39:03
poem by William Wordsworth called The Conscience of
39:07
the Happy Warrior. You need to read that once
39:10
you're done listening to, to this broadcast. Let us work together
39:15
to be happy warriors.
39:18
Christ the King gives us the dignity
39:22
of fighting at his side and sharing
39:26
in his victory, his glory, and his joy.
39:30
We Catholics have a good reason to live
39:33
and a good reason to die. What sane person
39:39
could not give himself to that absolutely and
39:42
completely and irrevocably?
39:46
Let us gather beneath the banner of Christ
39:51
the King, and his banner is the cross.
39:55
And let us be happy warriors,
39:58
glad crusaders, for the greater glory of God,
40:03
the love of our neighbor, and the salvation of our own soul.
40:07
Jesuit Father Robert McTeague, your host here every day at the Catholic Current. You want
40:10
to stay with us for the rest of the hour. Coming up next, Week in
40:13
Readiness, you and me reviewing the headlines of the week in light of the upcoming
40:16
Sunday scripture so we'll be all prayed up for Sunday Mass.
40:20
After the broadcast today, go to thestationofthecross.com, get our resources
40:24
list, download our audio podcast. Be part of the conversation.
40:28
Follow what we're following by following us on Gab. That's gab.com.
40:34
The channel is The Catholic Current. Influence us. Contact us at thestationofthecross.com/askfather.
40:40
Back in just 2 minutes. Please do stay with us.
40:59
Have a question or feedback about
41:03
today's episode? Want to suggest a guest or a future topic?
41:07
Go to thestationofthecross.com/askfather and
41:12
help influence the conversation.
41:20
Praise be Jesus Christ. This is Father Robert McTeague of the Society of Jesus,
41:23
your daily host for the Catholic Current, where we bring Christ to the world and
41:27
the world to Christ. You're listening to us from the Station of the Cross Studios,
41:29
your local radio station, the iCatholic Radio mobile app, and we proclaim the fullness
41:33
of truth with clarity and charity. Here we are, the last segment of our Friday
41:37
on the Catholic Current. You know what that means, you and me, week in readiness,
41:39
reviewing the headlines of the week in light of the upcoming Sunday scriptures.
41:43
So be all prayed up for Sunday Mass. Just a reminder that
41:47
I'm going to continue with my series on novel
41:51
prophecies, uh, looking at Catholic and not Catholic
41:54
futuristic and dystopian literature to glean lessons for our
41:58
own time and place. We've just done volume 1 of C.S.
42:01
Lewis's science fiction trilogy, and next week is
42:05
going to be a little bit different, uh, by popular demand, or so
42:09
I'm told. You're going to be able to not only hear but see
42:13
me and my colleague Joe McClain.
42:17
And we're going to be on the air 2 hours every
42:20
day this coming week. And we're going to make sure that you get all the
42:24
links to that. Check your email, etc., the website and whatnot,
42:27
because Joe and I are going to have a good time talking
42:31
about what's going on in the world. We're going to smash furniture. We're going to
42:34
pound the table. We're going to yell. I will probably wave my hands. So you
42:38
don't want to miss that. So where are we in terms of what's going on
42:41
in the world. Well, by the time you hear this,
42:44
Fulton Sheen will have been beatified, so there
42:49
is that. Another American Catholic has been elevated, as they say,
42:53
to the dignity of the altar. And, uh,
42:57
someone who's a very earnest devotee of Fulton Sheen wants
43:01
to get a first-class relic. If you know how to do that, please let me
43:05
know. But in terms of what's going on in the world, you know, same stuff,
43:07
different day. Ukrainians and Russians are killing each
43:11
other. Iranians and their neighbors are blowing each other's stuff
43:15
up. The entire planet is spending more
43:19
money than it has again, but this time it'll be
43:23
different. And for my friends in Great Britain,
43:27
the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who is a Catholic,
43:30
by the way, I think probably as Catholic as
43:35
Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi, or Catholic.
43:39
He's announced the creation of a National Center for Information
43:44
Defense, and then they spell it wrong,
43:46
but basically it's George Orwell's Ministry
43:51
of Truth. You're going to be protected against disinformation
43:55
that comes from the enemy, and you're going to
43:59
be protected against campaigns that are distorted and
44:03
untrue. Well, gosh, you know,
44:06
a government who collects money at gunpoint is going
44:10
to have a Ministry of Truth to protect us from what the government thinks we
44:14
shouldn't hear. What could possibly go
44:18
wrong? What could possibly go wrong?
44:21
A Spanish— excuse me, a Polish surname is crossing
44:25
my mind, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
44:29
So yeah, things look kind of bad. On the other
44:32
hand, there is good news. Uh, Mr. Engineer and I searched
44:36
mightily for some good news. We found good news in the Liturgical Arts
44:40
Journal. This is from September 23rd,
44:43
uh, and there is a new church that has just been built
44:47
by Baker Architects in Jackson, Missouri. And guess what?
44:51
It looks like a church. Can you imagine? It looks like
44:56
God Almighty wants to be worshiped there by Catholics. That's what it looks like.
44:59
So a round of applause for everyone With that in
45:03
mind, let's turn to the scriptures. If you're following the Novus Ordo
45:06
calendar of the Pauline Rite, we're looking at the 26th Sunday in Ordinary
45:10
Time, Lectionary 136.
45:14
And I want to focus in on the Gospel itself,
45:18
and this is from Matthew chapter
45:22
21, verses 28 to 32. And unless Mr.
45:26
Engineer protests, I'm going to read the whole Gospel passage to you.
45:29
This is from Matthew. Matthew writes this: Jesus
45:33
said to the chief priests and elders of the people, what is your opinion?
45:36
A man had 2 sons. He came to the first and said, son, go out
45:40
and work in the vineyard today. He said in reply, I will not,
45:43
but afterward changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son
45:47
and gave the same order. He said in reply, yes,
45:50
sir, but did not go. Which of the 2 did
45:54
his father's will? They answered, the first.
45:58
Jesus said to them, amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes
46:02
are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you
46:05
in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him. Tax collectors
46:10
and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not
46:13
later change your minds and believe in him. So that's from the Gospel
46:17
of Matthew. And what that puts in mind— I remember when my niece
46:22
Tegan was 3 or 4,
46:26
and setting out— we're setting out the Christmas ornaments. And my
46:30
sister has some of my parents' Christmas ornaments that they bought when they were married
46:34
in 1951. So that's 75 years old. And they're very delicate.
46:39
And they're bright and shiny. And you can imagine a 4-year-old
46:43
munchkin sees the array of bright and shiny and
46:46
fragile and wants to run at them with open hands.
46:51
And my sister said to her daughter, Teagan, sweetie,
46:54
please step away from the ornaments. And Teagan
46:58
looked at her mother, my sister, very brightly and smiled, no thank you.
47:02
She was very polite about it. And so my sister,
47:07
her mother, said, Teagan, sweetie, please listen to Mommy. Step away from
47:12
the ornaments. They're very fragile. And she smiled
47:16
and and cheerfully said, no thank you. So she
47:19
was very polite and also very disobedient.
47:23
A more kinetic maternal intervention was required,
47:26
and wackiness ensued. And so that got me to thinking about
47:30
the parable today. You know, who did the right thing? The son
47:34
who said no at first and repented and did the right thing, or the
47:38
one who said yes and, and didn't repent? I think
47:42
there needs to be a third category. The one who says
47:46
yes and sort of kind of appears
47:51
to cooperate but not really,
47:54
I think that person may be in the most danger because he convinces
47:59
himself he doesn't need to repent at all because he hasn't really
48:03
rebelled. I'm sure you've heard me tell this story before. I was a new priest
48:06
preaching a parish mission. It's time for confession, and this woman comes
48:10
to me and says, well, you know, Father, I have confession in 17 years,
48:13
but it's okay because I'm basically a nice person.
48:18
Well, if you think you can skid on confession for 17
48:22
years because you're basically nice, I don't know what it's going
48:25
to take to realize— to help you to realize the danger that
48:29
you're in. Friends, think back to what I said early in this broadcast.
48:33
We are being contested for
48:38
Our souls, our immortal destinies,
48:42
are at stake.
48:45
The world, the flesh, and the devil hate you and me and everyone
48:48
we love and hate God above all.
48:52
And if they can't bully us into betraying
48:56
God, they'll try to seduce us into betraying God
49:01
and to also kind of— here I'm going to mix metaphors— pull the wool over
49:05
our eyes. So You know, I am basically nice.
49:09
And you know, Father, I don't really have to go to confession. I mean,
49:11
come on, it's not like I've murdered somebody, am I right? See how
49:15
it goes? So rather than saying, Christ my King not
49:20
only commands me, he's won my heart,
49:23
I look at what Christ offers and I ask, how can
49:27
a sane man not want this?
49:31
And I look over my shoulder at my past and I really realize how
49:35
easily I can become weak and stupid.
49:38
And that's why I cry out to the Queen of Heaven, all the angels,
49:42
all the saints, and the eternal— the, uh, the entire company
49:46
of heaven— and say, have mercy on me, a sinner.
49:50
Intercede for me. And let's bring everyone
49:54
together on the pilgrim's path to healing and salvation.
49:59
May God's holy name be praised now and forever. I'm Jesuit Father Robert
50:03
McTaggart, your host here every day of The Catholic Current. Do join us next
50:07
week. We're going to have a very special treat for 2 hours, audio and
50:10
video. You can see for yourself I am not kidding.
50:14
I have a face that was made for radio. Uh, Joe McClain
50:17
and I are going to have a lively conversation. We're going to talk about how
50:21
you can help us to continue our good work. We're going
50:25
to be throwing furniture, we're going to be throwing words, maybe be throwing punches,
50:27
but in any case, you don't want to miss it. Through the intercession of Our
50:31
Lady of Mount Carmel, may almighty God bless you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
50:34
Go in peace, and please do pray for me, for I am a sinner.