Latest / Claymore: Become Who You Are / #369 Making Sense of "Woke;" A Tale of Two Cities
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Welcome to the Become Who You Are podcast, the production of the John Paul two Renewal Center. I'm Jack Ri , your host, and as always, I am so delighted you're with me. I am out west , uh, as you know, I'm based , uh, outside of Chicago, but I'm visiting , uh, my son and his family out in the , uh, out in Colorado. And it's really nice. We're up in the mountains and we're gonna spend , uh, I'm gonna spend at least another week, week and a half up here, do some recording, some writing . Uh , I'm literally looking out of , of a , of a huge, a big window and , and , uh, in the studio here. And it is just gorgeous. The Rocky Mountains are just, we're on a mountain and then a , a dip, and it goes up on the other side into even a higher mountain with snow on the top. And I'm looking right at that. It's really beautiful. I've been out on my bicycle riding these mountains, and it's a little . It's a little rough getting out on a bicycle when you're not used to riding , uh, you know , uh, in the mountains. And also the air is very thin up here, we're close to 10,000 feet. And so it , it , it's taken a little, getting used to, but , uh, every day that I've been riding gets a little bit better. And so I'm really enjoying that. So, anyway , say glad you're with me. Today, we're gonna be talking about making sense of woke a tale of two cities. This is important to talk about because , uh, as you know , uh, the dividing line here, the division between , uh, here, here's the tale of two cities. The city of man is, is a world , uh, built without God. We've thrown God out, and this is the world that we live in today, especially here in the United States now, and in most of, of , of Western civilization. And this , the city of God, of course , uh, which St . Paul would call life in the Spirit. So these are important to , to see, because there's so many currents coming at us , so many currents of evil that I think it's very important to put a big framework around it. So I want to kind of go above the trees and look down and see where this , how the story's unfolding and , and try to make sense of it all. So , uh, anyways, making sense of woke a tale of two cities. Woke is the world Life in the flesh is St . Paul called it , uh, a World Without God. St . Augustine would go on to refer to it again as the city of man. The gospel then is life. St . Paul called , uh, called it Life in the Spirit with a Capital S , life in the Holy Spirit. And , uh, Saint Augustine would call that the city of God. In fact, he wrote a book that took him 13 years. I'll talk a little bit about that , um, as I go along here. And , uh, and I'll probably do a series here, a little series on this, because again, it's very important because we're getting in conversations with people all the time. And , uh, so let , let me just get a little opening here. And so here you have it , two opposing sides that really puts a framework around everything that's going on today. And that in the sense all comes back to Adam's fall from Grace and the Garden of Eden , uh, that is told in the first, very first book of the Bible. Jesus told us in the beginning, right? Go to the beginning and see what this was supposed to be like. It's important for us to understand that model and what it was supposed to be like before the fall. And God made everything, and it was good. And then the , he comes to the sixth day and the crown of creation, being, of course, our first parents, Adam and Eve, and then he said it , and this was very good. And then here we go. Then we had the fall already in Genesis three, the serpent , uh, is tempting eve. And after Eve explains to the serpent that God said, you know, don't eat from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, otherwise, you can eat from anything else you want here. Everything is yours. Everything is a gift, but you just can't change what is good and what is evil. In other words, you can't call good evil and evil good. This cosmos, this whole world that I created for you to dwell in has meaning and purpose to it. It has truth. It has goodness, it has beauty, and you are all part of that, you know? Um, and so Eve gets tempted, and right away the serpent lies to her. And he says, all of you eat from that tree. You certainly will not die. Which of course, is a lie, because along with that sin of rejecting God, death did enter into our world. He said this. He goes, no, God knows. Well, at the moment you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you'll be like Gods who know what is good and what is evil. Welcome to the, to , to the world after the fall, and human beings have been spreading this lie and living this life throughout history. And not to be outdone. So-called modern man, our world, right? Who , who, who in many ways is the most barbaric of all people that have ever lived. For example, more human life has been destroyed in wars alone in the 20th and the 21st century than all the other wars combined throughout history. And not to be outdone, that number of , of deaths and war pales next to the human life, destroy , destroyed by abortion. And yet, even with that, evil continues to accelerate today, what do we hear? We hear that the life inside a womb is not a baby. That marriage is meaningless. There is no truth, only your truth or my truth. We have gotten to the point that a biological man, this is how crazy it's come, can become a woman. How? Just by thinking it is because I feel like a woman, then I am a woman, and on and on, in fact, try to help someone in this condition with a , you know, some type of a , a , a mental , uh, health issue, obviously. And you could be arrested. It's insanity, isn't it? This is woke. Woke is the new version of, of the old one, Genesis 1.0 in the very beginning. And Genesis, don't forget, soon after the fall, Cain kills his brother Abel. And in chapter 11 of Genesis, we hear the story of the House of Babel men already building an earthly city without God woke is simply the latest version of the very same rejection of God. So, buckle up and get ready for today's episode. These conversations we can have with relatives and friends , uh, about what's going on in the world. You know, we can get into these , uh, rapid holes, right? And , uh, and , and then we really miss the meaning and purpose of our lives of the big picture. So I think it's important, again, to talk about this. A young woman that I know relative of , uh, of mine, actually a mother of two , uh, I'll call her Martha, for the, the sake of , uh, , uh, of not exposing , uh, uh, her, she recently wrote on social media, and my wife brought this attention to my attention. She said , uh, uh, this was right away when Pride Month kicked off. And she said, this pride month is here. Uh , here is hoping all of you trans phobes are uncomfortable. And I'm just thinking to myself when I heard that, you know, he , you know, does she have any idea what she's saying? This is a mother of two in general. She's caring person, you know, I mean, you know, she's gone through her sheer of , uh, hardships , uh, earlier on in life. She bought into the lie of, of the sexual revolution, just like we all have. I mean, this is a , this is some heavy burden. So again, my heart goes out when I'm speaking about these things. Uh , you know, Jesus always called us to love everyone. And so what's the difference between our attitude, a Christian attitude , uh, and and someone like this who's calling me, say, or you or any of us, transphobes or haters, because we , uh, we , we have a , a biblical or a Christian perspective on again , uh, on, on childhood innocence, on marriage, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so this is very disingenuous, you know? So I would ask , uh, this, and I, and I plan to ask her, when I see, you know, what is a trans phobe , what is a hater in , in your mind? Because I know I do stand up for , uh, uh, for children's innocence. I do stand up for the , the child in the womb who has no one else to , uh, protect him or her. I do , uh, stand up for stolen innocence, and what's happening to children who make it through the womb and are actually allowed to be born in , in , in this world, and what we're doing to them. Someone , uh, who is pro reality then, is that, is that a , a trans phobe? Is that what that means? Or , or a hater? Uh , you know , uh, someone who stands up for children, someone who wants to protect them, you know, they're suffering so much mental illness. Young people are, but there's, there's more. Way more. We're actually attacking their bodies too, with , uh, cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers before that, certainly bodily , uh, muta , uh, mutilations. So if there's an enemy in the world and he wants to take down humanity, what would he do? He would destroy the child first in , in the womb, the most vulnerable and innocent among us. And we allow this to happen. In fact, we, we push for the rights to allow this to happen. And then if they make it through the womb, we're gonna , we're going to render them infertile. So there's some real damage going on here. And I, and I, and again, don't get this confused with , uh, your , uh, neighbors who are gay, living down the street or whatever, you know, I can have a glass of wine and talk to them and, and actually become , uh, friends with them. I'm not gonna go along, of course , uh, I don't agree with , uh, uh, with their lifestyle perhaps. But , uh, you know, at the end of the day, they're , they're adults. And, and I'll allow God to judge them. We stand, have to stand up for our faith, though, and especially make sure that the truth is proclaimed the gospel. So claim at least to young people so that they have choices to make. You know? So to call , uh, to blanketly refer to anyone who does not embrace the alphabet ideology , uh, as a trans phobe or hateful, again , is disingenuous in the least. You know, we have lost our collective minds. And to simply point out or not go along with this insanity , uh, that a man can become a woman just because he feels this inside , uh, or vice versa, gets you labeled with, with this vire and hatred, it's really something, you know, for , we live in an age of the , the dictatorship of moral relativism, a people and a culture that no longer knows its roots. So it has no idea where it came from in the beginning, as Jesus pointed out, and doesn't know that model, and so has lost their vision for where they were going. We have no idea where we're going. So what we're unmoored from all that is true, good, and beautiful, especially the truth, the goodness, and the beauty of authentic love. What does that mean? We are experiencing the demise of what Catholic social teaching , uh, caused the three necessary societies, and the three necessary societies are marriage and the family. It's the pillar of society and civilization take that away, and there is nothing here to talk about. And then of course, you have the church, and you have the Christ, the bridegroom, which is really , uh, one great sacrament. Uh , a man and a woman. A woman and a man , uh, Jesus, the bridegroom with his bride, the church, the church with the bridegroom. And this tells one , uh, one story, one connected story in the beginning. And then of course , uh, the third part of this, the third necessary society, is how we organize ourself out in the culture. You know , uh, politics or pol uh , polity , uh, we would call that. And, and so, you know, how we organize civil and, and , uh, and our political laws , uh, are , are just system, are a way to bring , uh, you know, prosperity to all . Well, this all comes out of , uh, the teaching from the church and, and the auth , uh, natural law of , of what's going on in the family. Now, the , the popes through the years would say that if you , uh, if you twist and distort any of those necessary societies , uh, there'll be, there'll be damage done to humanity. But right now, we're seeing the demise of all three. We're seeing the attack and weakening of the church , uh, from the inside and on the outside, we're seeing the same thing with marriage and the family. And, and we're also seeing this from a political standpoint, where we're legislating laws that protect only those who what would want to kill and maim and destroy. It's amazing with all the problems facing our families , uh, the churches , uh, the nation as a whole, that Joe Biden is just recently hung out with sex addicts who expose themselves right on the White House lawn. You know, again, you know, you can say anything you want about that, but, but there's just the human dignity involved here, right? There's just the standard of, of the way we present ourselves. You just don't take your clothes off in , in , in front of television that's go around all around the world. I mean, where's our tastes? We're civilization, right? Of course, you know, and , and somebody would do that. Are they worried about childhood innocence or protecting right childhood itself? I mean, they don't care. Of course, when you look at, at Joe Biden's actions over the years and the , and the , and , and Hunter Biden's laptop, you could see why, you know, there's no, this is the dictatorship of moral relativism. It doesn't matter. We just do whatever we can get along with, you know, our enemies , uh, have to be just licking their chops at this insanity and lack of morality and simple human dignity as we go around the world telling people how to live. I mean, you know, what a , what a hypocrisy. And then, you know, something like the Dodger Stadium today , uh, which as I'm recording, this is June 16th, Friday, June 16th. They have a celebration coming up, mocking Catholics and the religious to think that baseball was not too long ago, the American pastime. You know, Catholic Christians recognize today that this date in June, well , first of all, the month of June is the sacred heart of Jesus, but today is the solemnity of the sacred heart of Jesus. This day was picked out on purpose. I'm sure during this time, we call to mind Christ's love for us, which is visible in a special way in the image of his pierced heart. Think about the , uh, the, the, the , uh, image of the divine mercy where Jesus' heart is pierced and all comes blood and water. And we pray that our own hearts might be conformed to his calling us to love and respect all his people. This is the city of God that, that , uh, Jesus came into reign this year. Now on June 16th, today, the day of the solemnity of the sacred heart of Jesus, the Dodgers, a professional baseball team, has shockingly chosen to honor a group whose lewdness and vulgarity in mocking our Lord, his mother, and concentrated consecrated women. Nuns cannot be overstated. This is just offensive and painful to Christians everywhere. It's blasphemy. It's been heartening. Uh, there was a letter , uh, from the , um, I, I'm in , uh, in the Denver , uh, or in the , I I'm in the , uh, I guess it's the South Colorado , um, diocese. But anyways, we , you know, the , uh, in Denver and Colorado in in general have some incredible , uh, bishops, very strong bishops. And they wrote this letter. And in that letter said, it's been heartening to see so many faithful ca Catholics and others of goodwill stand up to say what this group does is wrong, and it's wrong to honor them. We call on Catholics, they said in their letter to pray the litany of the sacred heart on June 16th. So, at Mass this morning, I was in , uh, in , in a town here in this beautiful, we had this beautiful mass today, and it was just so uplifting to hear these people praying the litany of the sacred heart , uh, before we started mass offering this prayer of an act of a reparation for the blasphemies against our Lord that we see in the culture today. And so, again, you know, you take God out though, and this is what happens. You get Joe Biden , uh, with , with , uh, you know , um, uh, you know , just this lack of morality, you know , and , and right on the White House lawn, you get the baseball teams doing this. You know, this is just incredible. Like, if you know just a normal person with a family, especially with kids, you know, like this, like Martha, who I just mentioned, you would think that if nothing else, they could see that this is not good for marriage and the families and for their children to see, but yet they don't see it. It's amazing, right? So , uh, in that letter on June 16th, the Catholic Church celebrates this li the sacred heart of Jesus. And in the letter it said, most Reverend Timothy , uh, lio of the Archdiocese for the Military services, and he's also the President of US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, and , uh, Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles have called on Catholics to pray the litany of the sacred heart and make a reparation, an act of offering again , uh, to the Lord, the intents of repairing the spiritual damage inflected by sin, right? So, but here , here's the, here's . I just wanna point this out. You know, Cardinal Timothy Dolan right now, he's gonna stand up, you know, they're the , the , some of these shepherds, you know, and , and not all of them , but so many of them, they're leading from behind, you know , uh, is about as far back as you can. So it's the la again, that we're pushing this. And then finally they see the laity , uh, stepping up to the plate, and they go, oh my gosh. You know, what are we all doing here? You know? Well , you know, it was wasn't long ago. You see Timothy , uh, Dolan , uh, walking in pride parades and doing all this stuff and embracing this, you know, he, yeah , he's just leading from so far behind, you know? So when that happens, an evil is allowed to come into the church , uh, when the voices of the shepherds are, are , uh, are silenced, and now he's gonna leave from behind. You know? I mean, even though I think that , uh, the Reverend Timothy , uh, broo of the archdiocese for the military services, and I didn't realize until I'm reading this now as president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, that's a good thing. I think he's been pretty strong. I don't know a lot about him, but I think he's been pretty strong , uh, throughout the time. So anyways, hey, the list goes on and on, and on a daily basis, I get so many emails, and I assure that you do, too, that you can't get up. You, you can't keep up with the evil. You know, I , I , I live in Illinois, you know, we're in the belly, the beast. Every day we have new laws being pushed on us. It's almost like evil just wants to inundate you with so much that you throw up your hands. And we would accept what, except that God is behind us , you know, God is behind us . We're in its battle with God. All we have to do is keep our own heads on straight and just live out the gospel. What's the solution? I am, you are, you know, there's gonna be millions of us. We, we, we don't wait for any leaders to come. You know, we all gotta stay up. We all gotta stand up for our faith . And , uh, and , and that's , there's no other solution to that. Allow God to be pour himself into you sacraments and prayer , uh, and , and then go out into the world. You know, I always say this , uh, easy plan to share with your friends and your children, et cetera. You know, before you look at that phone in the morning, drop to your knees and just say, let it be done to me, according to your word. We just kneel there with our blessed mother at the Annunciation. Then throughout your day, as you're tempted, open up , uh, any temptation that you have, just open that up. Use it as an invitation to prayer, to open that up, and to go right away to to God. Temptations not a sin. Don't forget that we're gonna see tempt. We're gonna be inundated with temptations as we go around , uh, in , in today's culture. And then finally, become a person of love, because God is love. So, when I love Martha, no matter what she says, you can call me a hater or trans folk , whatever. Again, all that's, you know, what , what she means by that. I have no clue, I guess at the end. Um, but some kind of mixed up , uh, empathy and compassion she has, I guess, without really understanding anything . You know, when you come into the world with no moral , uh, compass, no moral base, you're not reading scripture, you're not going to mass, you're not receiving the sacraments. You know, the , you can become very dark. You know, your mind can become very dark. And, and at the end of the day, you know, we're called to love those people. So that's the good thing for us, is as Christians and Catholics , uh, you know, we can go on to, to love people, but we have to point out the sins. We're not here to judge the heart of the sinners, but we have to point out the sins, because when we don't, you know, they're all condemned to , uh, to eternal death. I mean, you know, we're, we're called by Christ to share the gospel. This is what we do, right? So anyways, this list, like I said, goes on. I get so many emails, you can't keep up with the evil. So what's going on here? Why is it important to the state? Right? To , to all the way up to the Biden administration and beyond. And these large corporations, now, the Dodgers, but you know, the s and p 500, so many of them are all going woke. You know, look what happened to Budweiser, and you go, why would they do that? And then you've got target stores, and you've got other stores. They , they're just, you know, they're not stopping. And why do they all wanna get in on the action and promote the L-G-B-T-Q-I-A-S-S double spirits now, I guess it is, plus ideologies. So let's define them. Okay? Let's define the LB GT Q-I-A-S-S plus ideology. The umbrella term, we , we can just use is , is simply theory. It's, it is one of a number of neo Marxist spinoffs of the classic Marxism, which in turn is simply Karl Marx's spinoff of the original fall of Adam and Eve, one that seeks to build a manmade utopia, the city of man, by destroying the present. You know, Marxism is always like that, destroy whatever is out there today. And so we'll build back better. You hear this over and over again. This is Joe Biden and the, and the, and the G seven, you know, the World Economic Forum, right? Causes the great reset. Well, this is the Tower of Babel . It's never worked, not even once, but has only brought unspeakable human carnage. And these new spinoffs, you are even bringing more carnage gender. So think about this. A Marxism is what it's, it's an economic model, originally, an economic model on the surface, but there's all kinds of evil currents going on underneath it. You know, Marx , uh, himself said he's an atheist, and he's given him soul over his soul, over to, to Satan, you know, so he knew what , what he was doing here. But anyways, at the end , uh, or , or , you know , when you look at, at , uh, at the classic Marxist model, you think of an economic model bourgeois against the proletariat. We gotta always have an oppressor and the oppressed, right? So the oppressor are the business owners. The oppressed are the workers. And so that's, that's, so if the state could come in, if Karl Marx and his people can come in, and then they get these two fighting, and they come in with the solution, right? And so we're gonna tear down everything else, and we're gonna big build back better, but we're gonna do it without God. We're gonna, we're gonna usher and then utopia. But we know how to do it, guys. Hey, give us, give us the power. We'll do it for you. Well, utopia, it's interesting, isn't it? Utopia, the etymology of that word comes from the, from the , uh, from the Greek, Utopus and Utopus . You know what that means? Nowhere, no place. The etymology of u uh , of utopia is no place or nowhere. This is, they're all on this broad highway that Jesus talks , uh, going no place and nowhere, it's never worked. Not even once, but it's only brought, again, unspeakable, human carnage, and these new spinoffs again. So what do we get? Then? We, you know, John Paul II said this , uh, early on when he was still in Poland, in the , in the Nazis, and then the communists came in and he said what they communists could not do in Poland, which is take down, again, two of these necessary societies. So they took down the third, right? The political life there , the way they organize themselves, they took that structure down and, and ushered in communism. But the two pillars at the bottom, the other two necessary societies, marriage and the family and the church, they went underground, but they still survived because they were too strong. And Poland, their faith was too strong, and they, and their love for marriage, and the family was too strong. So, John Paul said, what, what the communists could not do in Poland, the sexual revolution, the cultural revolution from the fifties and the sixties , uh, and also what we're seeing now is this techno economic model that would take down the culture. And he, and he saw that, that's where his theology, the body came in, and a lot , uh, so many of his other teachings. So what do we have then? So when the Marxist , uh, the Marxist came into the United States, they said, well , the middle class , just like Poland was too strong. They, you know, and even more in the United States, because we had this American dream that the proletariat, the , the , uh, the worker could become the business owner . So we had no problem with that. You know, we were free to, to use our creativity and our ingenuity to build our own businesses and stuff. A marriage and a family was very, very important. And we were a Christian nation at that time. So what did we, what did , what did they develop? They developed all of these other critic , what they call critical theory, look for an oppressor and oppressed, and we'll do that. So then we have, well , race, race is something that you can't get rid of, right? You can't wash away somebody's skin. So critical race theory, the oppressor against the oppressed, right? A gender theory, you know, so man against woman , and then all of these other L-B-G-T-Q, whatever. And then we turn that into sexual identity politics that we're seeing today. So, all of this accelerates this destruction. And as incredible as it is, after a world just witnessed the mass slaughter, listen to this of a hundred million human beings to Marxist ideologies, and the dictators that implemented this madness, a hundred million of their own people in the 20th century. And if this wasn't enough, we have the resurgence of socialism and Marxism coming right here into the United States, and our young people are voting for this. It , it's, it's astounding, really, if you think about it, you know, and then it's manifested in our schools and in our corporations with diversity, equity, and inclusion , uh, C-R-T-C-E-I, which is a corporate equity index, and I won't get , go into all those, but they're all using these gender ideologies and CRT critical race, and these are all divisions, all ways to divide us up. And , uh, and , and the way it's working is , is astounding. So we have the deep state, you know , uh, the deep church, and they've so , so much harm to families, marriages that are being re imaged . And as a result, so many families and marriages have become quite dysfunctional now, and young people are growing up, and it's dysfunction. So if you have people growing up, again, with no faith and, and no stability, no foundation, they can just get blown around by the spirit of the age. And of course, th this , uh, communism, again, when I got back to John Paul's work, they , they're gonna attack marriage and the family and the church, and they're gonna take down two of those three necessary societies. They've already taken down the third one. And we're seeing this in the United States being pulled down. So right now in the United States, we're seeing the demise of all three of those necessary societies. Even one of those could be critical. When you throw out , uh, all three of 'em , this is gonna be very, very destructive to the human race. And, and you have to wonder if people who go along with this, like Martha , uh, my relative are naive, you know, or what the Marxist would just call a useful idiot, a useful idiot is a , is a term that they just, they use until they don't need you , uh, anymore, but you're just spout off this propaganda and , and , uh, or , you know, or are they lacking? Again, this moral foundation is just blown around by the spirit of the age. And the only way to find that out is, is by asking these questions, you know, or are , are they grown up alone? Or , you know, the people that you're talking to and looking to find a family substitute somewhere because their own family is dysfunctional and broken. Uh, you know, young people have been hurt. You know, there are 60 million survivors of , uh, of , uh, a childhood sexual abuse. 60,000,001 out of every four young girls today has been sexually abused by the time she was , uh, 18 years old. One out of six boys today. So there's a lot of hurt, you know, and, and if the state can come by and become daddy state to them, you know, they can be tempted. You know, they can be tempted if Adam and Eve could be tempted in the Garden of Eden. Think about these people when they see , uh, you know, these injustices around them. So there's no meaning and purpose, and regardless of just how warped these young people's ideologies , uh, and what they embrace may be, you know , uh, you know, you just, your heart has to go out. And I think it's important we have these dialogues with people , uh, even though , uh, sometimes it'll help and sometimes it won't. Right? Now , finally, there's countless sexual predators and porn addicts and human traffickers who are there for hedonistic pleasure, or for money and for power. You know, lust has been released, you know, and , and Satan has been released, and evil has been released right into their own hearts. And so we have to stand up and protect them, because when , when you don't stand up for young children , uh, in the womb, first of all, but if they make it out of the womb, you know, they're more, they're very vulnerable and very innocent. And, you know, we have to stand up. We can't let , uh, uh, sexual predators and porn addicts and human traffickers, and these people, I don't care, you know, if they're just naive, like I said, useful idiots, or they really , uh, are drinking the Kool-Aid, they're still damaging our children with all these ideologies. You know, we've created a society where many cannot imagine not lusting anymore. It seems impossible to people. As I'm talking to 'em , you know , the threefold concupiscence that I've spoke about , uh, so many times from St . John is alive and well , we're disconnected from the vine, you know, as Jesus would talk about, you know, we, we disconnected from the vertical, and we, we exist then in the city of man. And the city of man , uh, lives on a horizontal plane in this two dimensional space. So you , you know, when you have some morality in your heart, you, you kind of are pushing down your passions and desires, and, and you try to speak about it, but you don't really have the power and the plan to really go out there and really make a change. You know, because these , this is, we're , we're fighting evil. We're not just fighting against other men. You know, as St . Paul would say, we're, we're fighting against the principalities and the powers of the world. You have to see that when you go out into the world, and you can't be afraid to stand up, because really what you're standing up is for what's true, what's good, and what's beautiful. And that means with God, you're with God. See, we've never experienced true freedom for which Christ has set us free in this 2D world. It takes this 3D, right, this vertical plane. And when you think about it, right in the middle of the horizontal and the vertical crossbeams is, is Jesus Christ hanging there? He's the hinge of all of this. If you take God out, the one who brings life, eternal life, and the power, you know, Jesus didn't come for sin management, he came with power. And so, if we take God out, we easily become prey . We use these tools in this high stakes game of eternal life or death. That's what we're talking about here. You know, we are working out our eternal , uh, salvation here, our eternal destiny . So let me, as I wind down here, let me remind my relative and maybe yours. You know, you did not create the universe. You're not the author of this larger story yet, what's so amazing is you were so full of pride, P-R-I-D-E, this is pride month. Well, the first , uh, the , the , the , the first of the 70 deadly stents is what? Pride, what did , what did Satan have at the tree? Pride, you know, and, and so what are one of those , uh, of the threefold concupiscent I just mentioned? Number one is pride. And then you have the concupiscent of the flesh, right? These lusts that come out even into your body. And , and then concupiscent of the eyes. You see , you look into the world and you wanna grasp and take all of this that God created good and gave us for free, right? These are all gifts. Now we wanna grasp and take, because we're trying to fill the infinite desires of our heart in this finite world, instead of sitting back and allowing God to fill , fill this . So remember again, this is pride month that you believe that you have the authority, the power to create yourself and your own image and likeness, and to demean others as haters, demean anyone who does not go along with this DEIA tolerance, you know, they always hear about tolerance and their most intolerant people , uh, you know, on the planet, right? Calling somebody haters, you know, I mean, it is a Christian. Would I call somebody a , a , a hater because they didn't follow Jesus Christ? No. Right? So she, this girl, I think would even call herself a Christian. But if you say you believe in God, then is it a subjective God, not the God who is true, good and beautiful, not the God of , of love. You're seeking to , to create God in your own image, just like you can say a a man and a woman can, can, can , uh, can create their own image themselves, right? This is pride month. And in pride month, we create God in our image. You know, God is like , uh, pretty much like me just a little bit more. He thinks like, I think he does . Well, I don't think so, my friends, you, we have church leaders today. You know, they're , they're to blame as well as , uh, uh, parents . We're all drinking from the same Kool-Aid, aren't we? No roots, no objective truth. The world is defined by my subjective thoughts. You know, how absurd, you know, and more, you're not even creative enough , uh, Martha to come up with your own plan, but being spoonfed down to the slogans you're using trans phobe , uh, homophobe haters, you know, I mean, did you come up with this? No, you're just mimicking, right? Like a useful idiot. You know, of the evil of the world, you know, you will not die. You will be like gods right? And you can decide what is good, what is , uh, evil. So even your feelings, your thoughts, they're not even your own. They come to you from social media, from schools, from woke pastors. It's sad. In the beginning, Jesus said , uh, it was not so. So as I kind of wind down here, Bishop Sheen, Fulton Sheen said it so well, only those who live by faith really know what's happening in the world. The great masses without faith are unconscious of the destructive processes going on because they've lost the vision of the heights from which they have fallen. So remember that as you're talking to people, they've actually lost the vision or never had the vision of the heights from which they're fallen. It's important that we have patience. We show kindness and love and bring the gospel message to them. You know, the default position of humanity without God is sin and death. The city of man, Christ came to set our freedom free so that we could find the truth, choose the good, and so be redeemed, and then saved, right our yes to his great act. Jesus said before he left, and he's talking to his , uh, disciples, and this is just before Jesus gave up his life for, for all of us to free us from slavery, of sin and death, and from divisions and all these divisions that we're talking about here. Jesus came to unify , uh, to unify us. He said that they will all be one, as you and I father are one. And before he left, he said to his disciples, when they were asking him questions on how they find the path, and he said, I am that path. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me and where I am going. Then he would say, 'cause he's getting them ready , uh, for him, his passion, death, resurrection, and then his ascension into heaven. And he said, where I'm where I'm going. You cannot come, but you shall follow afterward. I'm making a place for you, but let me leave you with this. A new commandment I give you that you love one another, even as I have loved you. So this is why we have to love Martha and all of these people, because God is love. It's in our love that we enter into and manifest God's love into the world. This is what we're called to do. This command I give you, huh? Love one another. And then Jesus said this, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before. It hated you. If you are of this world, the city of man, if you are of this world, the world would love its own. But because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. It's amazing, isn't it? The God of love who came into the world for us to bring us back into eternal life. Eternal love is hated for bringing that eternal life into the world, into this dark and sinful world. So as followers of Jesus Christ, the woke of the world then will hate us too. This is why Martha, whether she knows it or not, can call Christians transphobes or haters, whatever that means. Martha is caught up in an eternal struggle between the forces of the city of God and the powers of principalities of this world. After the fall, the city of man woke is the world. What the woke have chosen , uh, chosen regardless of their intentions, is to dwell in darkness, to live the illusion of a world utopia. That though it never comes for the dirty little secret, is that utopia again means no place, nowhere. You are choosing a life again, whether you realize it or not, that leads to nowhere here on earth, but leads to eternal damnation in the very near future. TikTok , our life will be over in the blink of an eye, yet in this short time, right our to poor lives, we're called to make up our and , and , and make a choice. Our eternal destinies are made here on earth. You know, I'll follow up on Monday and dig, dig a little deeper for it's important again to understand just how , uh, immense and, and, and providential this battle that's raising around us , uh, is. But let me end with John 16 and the encouraging words that Jesus shared with his disciples just before he was arrested by the woke, in quotes of his day, he knew that they , his disciples would be fearful as as he was arrested and he would be beaten and then hanging on a cross . He knew they would lose faith. He knew that they would run away. And he said this to them, the hour is coming. Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered every man to his home and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone for the father is with me. I have said this to you that in me, you may have peace in the world, you have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. Hey, God bless you. I'll talk to you on Monday. See you everybody. Thanks for joining me. Bye-Bye.