Latest / Claymore: Become Who You Are / #723 In the Beginning: Awe, Wonder, and a Cosmic Explosion of Love. ACT Four

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#723 In the Beginning: Awe, Wonder, and a Cosmic Explosion of Love. ACT Four · Claymore: Become Who You Are

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Claymore Become Who You Are podcast.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm Jack Riggert, your host.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you're with me.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: The world needs your help.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Men all around you need your help.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Let me point out an obvious fact.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Obvious fact number one, we'll call this one.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: The default position of a person, a body and a soul without grace is sin and death.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: That, my brothers, is just a reality.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Look around you.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: So many people are like zombies.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: What's a zombie?
0:30
SPEAKER_00: The walking dead, bodies without souls.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: They need to be saved.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: They need to be redeemed.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: There's so many people out there that are hurting right now.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: The only power that can save them is the gospel.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: Remember that Jesus didn't come for sin management.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: He came with power to infuse us with grace, which is the very participation in the life of God.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Union and communion with God.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: In fact, God wants an intimacy with you that sounds too good to be true.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: But in fact, it's the very logic of the gospel.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: If you listen to the gospel, you're going to hear Jesus say, I thirst.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Come and see, what do you seek?
1:10
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking to you.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: He's asking you to come in to union and communion with him, with an intimacy, with an encounter with him.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to enter into the very awe and wonder of that.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: Here's obvious fact number two.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: There's no knight in shining armor, riding in on the great white stallion, some hero coming in to rescue any of us or any of the people that you see, any of the zombies walking around.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: There's no hero in government.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Who thinks that some politician is going to come riding into this young person's life that you see around you or the dysfunction and marriages and the families and rescue them?
1:48
SPEAKER_00: You think the Pope is going to drive up in the Pope Mobile outside your house, come in and help your hurting brothers and sisters or your own heart?
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Or the pastor of your local parish, is he supposed to come in and sit down with your family every day?
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Reach out to everybody?
2:02
SPEAKER_00: No.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: But there is a hero in the story.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: And if there's always been a hero in the story if you understand that, and that hero is you.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Saint Catherine of Sienna said, Become who you are, and you would light the world on fire.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: St.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Athanasius, an early church father and a doctor of the church, said the Son of God became man so that man could become like God.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: So unite yourself to Jesus Christ.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Pick up that Claymore sword and go out and share Claymore militant Christian soldiers for Christ with others, just in your circle.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Whoever God puts on your path today, that's all you have to do.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to change the world.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're only the messenger.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: Be united to Jesus Christ, especially in the Eucharist, but in prayer every morning.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: And then go out and then be that.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: This is not brain surgery, right?
2:52
SPEAKER_00: When enough of us realize this is the very meaning and purpose of our lives, the two great commandments.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Be filled with divine life and love, and then go out and love others.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Go out and spread this to your neighbor.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: Then love and truth will again reign in this world and in our country.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Without it, it won't.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is a dark time, and we're called to be that light, but too many people are not picking up that light and just letting people stay in their dysfunction.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: By now, if you've been following us, you would have read or downloaded the Claymore Battle Plan outline that can be easily accessed at Claymore Militas Christie.com and then ordered your Claymore Battle Plan handbook.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: They should both be in front of you.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Here you go, right?
3:41
SPEAKER_00: You should have the outline on one side and the book right next to it.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: And then between these two, you're gonna have the whole formation program.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's not brain surgery, it's all laid out, but what's missing is you, that that person in between, the hands on the gospel from one person to the next.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of us have to get our hearts back, so you got to do that first.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Then so let's talk about how do you do that, right?
4:11
SPEAKER_00: From the Claymore battle plan outline, this is just a six-pager.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: You can read it right on our website.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: I I suggest you download this or send me an email and I'll send it uh to you along with a wristband and some other things.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Take a look at our website.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: There you're gonna find the Claymore 10-minute morning uh ritual.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: It's a prayer ritual.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: It's a must.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Knees before the phone, always.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: Don't let this lust and selfishness of this crazy broken world come rushing in on you before you've gone down to your knees and do that 10-minute Claymore morning ritual.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: And then sometime during the week, read just one act and they're very short.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: You guys that have this know that there's 52 acts in there, really one for each week of the year.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: But they're very short, like an article with QA afterwards.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: Just read one of those.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, we call them acts because they're little action-oriented, but they fill your heart up.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: And then um go out and share that with a brother.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Share this because this has to be relational.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus always sends us out two by two.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: God will put somebody on your path.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, you guys listening are on the Claymore Militus Christian team.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: And if you're on the A team, that's a 10-5 training system.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: 10 minutes in the morning, the Claymore morning ritual, boom, and then five minutes in the evening, or sometime during the day.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: I like to do it right before I go to sleep.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Read one act every day from the Claymore Battle Plan Handbook.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: It's a short read.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: In 52 days, you'll have laid out a whole formation program.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: If you start now before summer, June 20th or 21st would be summer, you'll be done.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: Well before that already, you have a total formation program.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Your heart will be changed, you'll understand marriage and the family, how to restore the culture and the country.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: You have a foundation that all of this craziness, all this noise that comes in, you'll be able to see it and put it in the lens and be able to discern what's right and what's wrong.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: And well before that, you'll be sharing this already with with your brothers and sisters, and you'll find, you'll find your heart is changed.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: You're a different person.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh when Christ comes in, you're a new creation, you're a new humanity.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And that alone, that witness out in the world, people will say, Well, what is it about that guy?
6:35
SPEAKER_00: What is it about you?
6:36
SPEAKER_00: And start asking your questions.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: God will put people on your path.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: You'll see.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: It's only when you enter into the awe and wonder, and that's Act 4 today.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're going to be discussing.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, betish is the book means in the beginning.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: That's how the whole Bible starts.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: But, anyways, awe, wonder, and a cosmic explosion of love.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of confusion today about our bodies.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: In a landmark medical malpractice case, 22-year-old Fox Virian was awarded$2 million after suing her psychologist and plastic surgeon.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: At just 16 years old, she underwent a double mastectomy as part of a gender transition.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: The jury found that her providers rushed the process in only 11 months from her initial social transition while ignoring her serious mental health issues, including she had anorexia, depression, she had other comorbidities.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, they they just they just overlooked all that and said, you know, you're confused about your body in essence.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: And you need to at least consider transitioning.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, this young girl, Varian, who has since detransitioned, which means, you know, she she got off the puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, so she's coming back, but they already mutilated her body.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: They already gave her a double mastectomy.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: She argued that proper screening and informed consent were not followed, leaving her with permanent harm.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: This is a 16-year-old girl.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: This is to believe, and think about this, of all of this gender confusion and all of the attack we've done on their very bodies for these young people, this is believed to be the first time a detransitioner has won such a case before a jury.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: The verdict has already prompted major medical organizations, including the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Medical Association, to recommend delaying these types of surgery on minors until adulthood, citing insufficient evidence that the benefits will outweigh the risks.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: And all this time we've been telling they've been telling us the opposite, that your child can harm themselves, will commit suicide if you don't let them transition from a boy to a girl, a girl to a boy, et cetera.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: Now, these uh Society of Plastic Surgeons, American Medical Medical Association, well, they see the suing coming in now, right?
9:06
SPEAKER_00: So, ooh, we got to protect ourselves here, huh?
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Maybe these aren't right on minor, minor children.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: What kind of a culture are we in?
9:16
SPEAKER_00: And these young people are suffering.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Legal experts say this victory could open the door to many more lawsuits from detransitioners, increasingly increasing liability pressure on gender clinics and potentially reshaping how youth gender medicine is practiced.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the attack?
9:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, if a child makes it through the womb today and they're not aborted, and before they even get a breath of fresh air, we go after them and we will render them sterile, if possible, on uh puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and then actually mutilate their bodies.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: We are living in a sick culture, and everybody's covering up for that.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna play you a clip.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so when we get to uh Act 4 today, we're gonna clear up some of that confusion from a biblical perspective and the insights of John Paul II.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: This is spiritual warfare on the very body itself.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, no wonder these young people are walking around like zombies, bodies without a soul.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine the confusion that they they're in?
10:23
SPEAKER_00: They have no idea that there is this is a spiritual warfare between good and evil going on.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: And so if they're uncomfortable with their bodies, what happens?
10:31
SPEAKER_00: What are they told?
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in the wrong body.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna clear that up.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: But before I do, let me play you a clip from the reporter on this case.
10:41
SPEAKER_02: In Illegal First, a jury in New York awarded a 22-year-old woman$2 million in damages over her gender transition surgery that took place when she was a teenager.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: The plaintiff accused her psychologist and plastic surgeon of violating standard practices in their fields that led to her receiving a gender transition double mastectomy that she feels left her disfigured.
11:03
SPEAKER_02: Benjamin Ryan wrote about the first malpractice verdict against providers of gender-affirming care for minors for the free press.
11:09
SPEAKER_02: He was the only reporter to attend the entire three-week trial.
11:12
SPEAKER_02: We should note Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, owns the Free Press.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: For more on this, Benjamin joins us now here in Studio 57.
11:20
SPEAKER_02: He is an independent reporter who covers youth gender medicine, including on his substack.
11:24
SPEAKER_02: So, Benjamin, let's go ahead and talk about the verdict itself.
11:27
SPEAKER_02: What stood out to you about the jury's reasoning here?
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's hard to know exactly what they were thinking, but what they were convinced by was that the psychologist and the plastic surgeon didn't communicate well with one another.
11:39
SPEAKER_01: And the psychologist in particular was faulted for being sloppy and essentially being rushed in his care of this girl.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: It was only about 11 months between the time where she first socially transitioned at the age of 15 and a half, and she ultimately had her breasts removed at age 16 and a half.
11:55
SPEAKER_02: What do you think that this verdict will mean for future lawsuits of this kind?
11:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, I've certainly spoken with other litigators, other lawyers in this field, and they do feel that this will embolden others to join the field.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: Others have been waiting on the sidelines.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: So there are about 27 other similar cases that I've been able to tabulate.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: Some of them run into statutes of limitations where there's a short period of time after which you can file a lawsuit.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: But there's one coming up in Missouri in August, and also very big one.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: Chloe Cole, probably the most famous detransitioner, her trial against Kaiser Permanente will be in California in April.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: What was it like in the courtroom?
12:31
SPEAKER_01: It was very powerful.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: I think in particular, we've heard a lot about this talk about suicide, about that these treatments and surgeries prevent suicide.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: And to hear this mother to say that she was opposed to the surgery from the start, that she was browbeaten by the psychologist, in her words, to ultimately consenting, even though she never wanted it.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: And then we heard from Dr.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: Lauren Schechter, and he's the head of gender-affirming surgery at Rush University in Chicago.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: And he said he's also, by the way, the president-elect of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: And he said that these surgeries are not suicide prevention.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: So that was a very powerful moment.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: As we get back, did you know there's only one reporter, and he's an independent uh reporter that is following this case?
13:16
SPEAKER_00: Now you would think it would be huge that this is the first time that we know that a detransitioner has won a major court case,$2 million court case.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: I I can't hardly believe that that as I'm sitting here talking about this, that this could actually be going on.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: But what happens?
13:33
SPEAKER_00: The mainstream news reporters, where are they?
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, they're in general, they're what?
13:37
SPEAKER_00: They're just talking heads, sadly.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: We saw this during COVID.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's saying the same thing, remember?
13:44
SPEAKER_00: This is a real spiritual battle.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Instead of sitting and journeying with them like a therapist used to do and saying, hey, speak to me, I'll speak and journey with these people, help them out of their unbrokenness, what happens?
13:58
SPEAKER_00: It the law was even changed to do what?
14:01
SPEAKER_00: To affirm them.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that a therapist could do in many states and communities, and I know these people, these therapists that are trying to help, but they have to they have to be very careful because if they don't just affirm them in their mental illness, in their uncomfortableness with their bodies, instead of saying, let's help you get to wholeness, what happens?
14:22
SPEAKER_00: They have to affirm them in their mental illness.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: This only happens with our sexuality, a twisting and distorting of what God uh creates good.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: So what happens?
14:33
SPEAKER_00: These reporters allow a system that preys on young people for money, uh, mutilates their very young, immature bodies.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: If you think back to Act 3, we address this and called it the banality uh of evil.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that?
14:50
SPEAKER_00: The banality of evil.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Go back and listen to that.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: Click a uh clip of uh Brett uh Weinstein with uh Tucker.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've normalized sin in this world.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: This is the world that you came into.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: This is why Claymore Militus Christie is so important to get back to the truth of things.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: There's 60 million adults walking around that have been sexually abused as children.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: Add to that the dysfunctional families are growing up without a mother and a father in their home.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: Add to that pornography, drugs, alcohol, gambling, so much more.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Is it any wonder when a child begins going through puberty, you know, at around 10 years old or so?
15:30
SPEAKER_00: And beyond that, as they go into adolescence, that just about all children would be uncomfortable with their bodies.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Who wasn't?
15:38
SPEAKER_00: When I'm speaking to people, I'll ask them, I said, go back to when you were 10, 11 years old, starting puberty.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Who wasn't uncomfortable with their body?
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Now they're told that maybe they're in the wrong body instead of saying, this is a natural thing, this is what's happening to your body, this is the beauty of our sexuality.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, why don't we do that?
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Parents themselves are confused about this today.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: They were never taught in many cases.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: So Satan himself has captured the institutions.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: And remember that the institutions, the deep state we talk about, the deep church we talk about, are made up of who?
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Who what is the deep state?
16:15
SPEAKER_00: The deep church, it's it's people, it's bureaucrats, pencil pushers.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: Go back to Act 3, you'll you'll understand this.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: At its core, these evils, like almost all evil in the world, is manifested by those who are cooperating with evil, with Satan himself.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're in a spiritual battle, and like all spiritual battles.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: This one begins on our knees in prayer.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: That's why we go to our knees before the phones.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: That's why Claymore Militus Christi always begins, guys, with just two asks.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: When I meet somebody, right, that's there or know somebody that's hurting, I just say there's two asks.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Knees before the phone.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Start the Claymore 10-minute morning ritual because you need to make the vertical connection with God Himself.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Go right to the source.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Open your heart up.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Even if you don't understand what you're doing at first, that's okay.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: God understands that He'll come to meet you.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: You just got to open up a crack.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: And then, number two, read and meditate on one act from the Claymore Handbook for men in spiritual warfare, which is all of us.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Finally, for us that are getting our hearts back, understanding this formation.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: We're being formed, we're being a new creation in Christ.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: Even in the beginning, as we start to go out, pay attention because Jesus tells you to go out and share the good news, the gospel, the person of Jesus Christ.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: We're only the messengers.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't have to solve all their problems, you're just a messenger.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Let Christ be the light that has overcome the darkness.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: So let's get into Act 4 here.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, awe, wonder, and a cosmic explosion of love.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: The first panel of the triptych, this is called.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: A triptych.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: This is a three-paneled work of art, if you've ever seen it.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, artists sometimes will carry it folded up, and then you open these three panels up, and this tells the story.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: So just give you a little bit, and I'll get more into what that triptych is.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: And John Paul wrote his theology of the body is this triptych in the beginning before sin, and then you have the fall, and then you're going somewhere.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Those three panels.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: So the human body, John Paul II said, with its sex.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is we're starting to get into Act 4 here, right?
18:30
SPEAKER_00: You can read this right from the handbook.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: So the human body with its sex, its masculinity and its femininity, created male and female, seen in the very mystery of creation, is not only a source of fruitfulness and procreation, as in the whole natural order, but that your body with its sex, created male and female, contains from the beginning the spousal meaning of the body.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
18:56
SPEAKER_00: That means the power to express love.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: We are entering a journey that spans this act and then the next two.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: So this is four.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: It'll also include five and six.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: Those are the three panels.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Today's panel one.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: And John Paul again described these three stages as a triptych.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: And a triptych, again, is a work of art, most often a painting composed of three panels placed side by side.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: Each panel stands on its own as a work of art.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Yet only together do they reveal the whole meaning of the work.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: The term comes from the Greek triptych trypticos, I think is how you say it, meaning threefold.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: In the theology of the body, Saint John Paul II uses the structure to present his threefold vision of the human person.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: First, original man, humanity in the beginning before sin, when Adam and Eve lived in innocence and communion, fully reflecting God's image through the spousal meaning of their bodies.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: God is love, and so we're called to reflect God's love into this visible world.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're created.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: The second uh panel of this triptych we'll touch on next week, in the next act, if you have the book, just read the next act.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: The second is historical man.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Historical man is the human condition after the fall, where sin enters into our history, love becomes contested, distorted, wounded, confused.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this just an acceleration of that original sin?
20:29
SPEAKER_00: The third, eschatological man.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: That means our ultimate destiny, where we're going, where the where Jesus Christ's resurrection restores and elevates human dignity in eternal communion with God.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just say this about eternity.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we think, you're talking about heaven someday when I die.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, no, no, no.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Eternity doesn't mean tomorrow.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: Eternity means forever.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: When you start to aim and you start to see where we're going, you realize that we now are already eternal beings, destined for eternity with God.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: I become a new creation when I open myself up to that grace today.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, now, as we're looking at this triptych, God's original plan for love, the battle within your heart after the fall, and where God's plan is leading you.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: This is the full arc of human history.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Today, we return to the beginning.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Your heart, my heart, were wired for something real, something true, good, and beautiful.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: This is this is not more information we're talking about today, is it?
21:32
SPEAKER_00: It's the DNA that flows through us.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: It's the way we're created.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: This is not mere emotion.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: It's woven into your very being.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: The philosopher Plato called this desire that we have in our heart for something more.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: It he called it eros.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: It's entering into this sensual, you know, uh understanding of the spousal meaning of the body, that we're called to to be union and communion is a is a desire to live.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Love and be loved.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: It's not to use somebody, it's to love and express love.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: In a world drowning in moral confusion, cutting through the noise is not about learning new information.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: It's about reconnecting with that deep yearning placed into your soul by God.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: We all long for truth and we all long to love and be loved.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself now points back to the beginning to recover this truth.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: When he's questioned about divorce in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 19, he's questioned about it and he replies, because they say to him, you know, what about divorce?
22:40
SPEAKER_00: What about all these breaks?
22:42
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Ah, it's because of the hardness of your heart that even Moses allowed you to divorce your wives in the Old Testament.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: But from the beginning, it was not so before sin, he's saying.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisees pressed Jesus, asking whether divorce is lawful.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not argue on their terms.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he directs them back to God's original plan before sin.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and the two shall become one flesh?
23:14
SPEAKER_00: What therefore God is joined together, let no man separate.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: When they object again, Jesus repeats the point.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: He says, Sin explains the concession in the Old Testament that you can divorce your wives, but it does not define the truth.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: So this is your roadmap, brothers.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: God's design for love is written into your body as a man before sin distorted it.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: So my sexuality is this offering of myself to my spouse, my wife.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: My wife perceives that love and so beautiful and profound it could come out in the form of a child, right?
23:54
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is pointing us back to Genesis, right?
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Betesheet in the beginning.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: That's how the whole Bible starts.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, the earth was a formless wasteland.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Darkness covered the abyss, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: Just read right very the beginning of the Bible.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: Then God spoke, and light pierced the darkness.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Didn't I start this uh episode today saying that this is the gospel?
24:18
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the one who pierces the darkness.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: There's a meaning, a purpose to all of this.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: And so God came over the waters and the light pierced the darkness.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: And what did God say?
24:28
SPEAKER_00: God called it good.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Why?
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Because He is good, He is love.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Over five days, God forms a masterpiece.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: Remember the six days of creation, seven days really, but He rested on the seventh days.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: So six days, He's forming a masterpiece.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: The earth is filled with life, order, and beauty.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: As vegetation springs forth and create and creatures, creatures multiply, creation itself bears the mark of God's goodness and generosity, prepared as the setting in which the divine love story is going to be revealed.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, on the sixth day, God pauses, almost pulls into Himself.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Creation reaches its summit.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Something's going to happen.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Scripture slows as if inviting us to watch more closely.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: God speaks not in command but in communion.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: And he says this, let us make man in our image after our likeness.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: In this deliberate act, God creates man and woman, not merely as individuals, but as a community of persons, masculinity and femininity.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Man is made into two kinds, right?
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Male and female, and becomes a visible sign of divine love, reflecting in a human and embodied way the eternal self-giving exchange of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: In man and woman, God projects his love into the world, not as an abstraction, but as a living image capable of communion, fruitfulness, and gift.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: God creates man in a unique way.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: And he says this, God's speaking to himself.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Fifth day, everything's beautiful, set up for a wedding feast.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: He pulls back, like taking a selfie, and he says, Let us make man in our image after our likeness.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: And then he flips the selfie because he wants to bring this love story into the visible world.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: And he uses us to do this.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: So God created man in his image.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: In the divine image, he created them.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: How?
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Male and female, he created them.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: God blesses them and commands them to be fruitful and multiply, join in marital union, bring more eternal beings into the world.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: God allows us to co-create and bring eternal beings.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: This is the first truth about you.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: You're not an accident.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: You're created in the image of God.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Your masculinity is not arbitrary, it's a sign of God's own life, self-giving life.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: He initiates the gift of life.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: That's what a man does.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Just as the Father eternally gives himself to the Son, right?
27:07
SPEAKER_00: So think about this.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: The Father turns to the Son, gives himself eternally to the Son.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: The Son receives that and returns that love.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: And what comes out of that union and communion is the Holy Spirit proceeding from their communion.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: So too, the human person is designed to be a tiny little reflection, a mirror of that self-gift.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: And John Paul II expresses it in this way: He said the human body, your body, my body, with its sex, its masculinity and femininity, seen in the very mystery of creation, is not only a source of fruitfulness and of procreation, right?
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Bringing new life into the world, as in the whole natural order.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, animals can bring new life into the order, right?
27:49
SPEAKER_00: But our bodies are different because they're reflecting the love of God Himself.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: So our bodies contain from the very beginning the spousal attribute.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
27:59
SPEAKER_00: It's the power to express love.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: Precisely that love in which the human person becomes a gift.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: And to this gift fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: We are called to love and be loved.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: I came to understand this more deeply when my wife and I welcomed our first daughter, holding her for the first time.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking down at my wife, still lying there after giving birth.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: The baby was washed up, and then they handed that little one to me.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: I was overwhelmed looking down at her.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: From our love, a new life had emerged, a third person created through us and through God.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: It was a living image of Trinitarian love, self-giving, fruitful and blessed.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: And each child of ours that followed deepened this realization.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: In marriage, husband and wife become co-creators with God.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: Their one flesh union, where the two become one, become three, a tiny reflection of Trinitarian love.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: Their one flesh union then is not just physical, it's sacred.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: It's a sacrament.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: It reflects Christ's love for his bride, the church.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: This is my body given for you.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: John Paul II states this very clearly.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: He says the body in it alone is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and divine.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: It was created to transfer into the visible reality of this world the invisible mystery hidden in God from time immemorial and to be a sign of it.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: Your body is not just flesh.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: It's meant to be a sign, a visible expression of God's love.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Created male, you are ordered toward self gift, especially in marriage, where love becomes faithful, fruitful, and free.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: This is the spousal meaning of the body.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: The world works then tirelessly to bury that truth.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Sin has been normalized.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Pornography does not reveal too much as John Paul II famously said.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: It reveals too little.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: What does he mean by that?
30:10
SPEAKER_00: It strips away the person and reduces the body to an object.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: You no longer see the person.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: Hookup culture, distorted sex education, gender ideologies echo the same lie.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Sex is for pleasure alone.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: Love has no objective meaning.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is optional.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Your body can be changed to anything it wants.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Truth is whatever you feel.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: But this is not freedom.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: It's a distortion of what God created good.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: Genesis shows us where this all began.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: The serpent tempted Adam and Eve.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: They believed the lie.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: Awe and wonder that they were living in gave way to what?
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Shame.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: That wonder gave way to fear now.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: They've hid, remember?
30:56
SPEAKER_00: They hid and put loincloths on.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: So how do you fight back?
31:00
SPEAKER_00: How do I fight back?
31:01
SPEAKER_00: First rediscover the awe.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: Learn to see again.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: Look upon a woman, upon creation, upon the Eucharist that you receive at Mass, with the wonder Adam felt when he first beheld Eve.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, remember when he said, you know, flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones, holy moly.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: He saw the beauty of her, but there was no sin in the world in the beginning, so he saw the awe and wonder of a woman reflecting the Trinitarian love and the world.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: How beautiful is that.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Second thing, guard your masculinity.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: You have to reject things to twist and distort that.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, Satan doesn't have his own clay.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: He can only twist and distort what God created good.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: You have to reject things like pornography.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, you gotta get away from that.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: You have to refuse hookup culture.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: You have to stop treating women as objects and see them as persons.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: This is very difficult.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: This is why the Claymore logo is the Claymore is a sword.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: It's a two-bladed sword.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: And one side cuts into your own heart.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: The first battle we fight is on the battlefield of our own hearts.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: And this is a real battle.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: That's why we start on our knees.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: So the third thing, pray for that strength.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Prayer aligns your heart with God's heart and his love and gives you the courage then to live in the truth.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Fourth, start right now to live the spousal meaning of the body.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're single, dating, married, or called to the priesthood, make your life a sincere gift of self.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: Will the good of another.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: Unite your love to Christ's love for his bride, the church, and he will fill you and show you the way you were made to love.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: That love then goes out and ripples out and builds a culture of life.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: As we come to the end of today's time together, I'll mention that the next acts will show you how to defend it within the family and beyond.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: So prepare yourself.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: This is your mission.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: You'll understand more as we go along.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: As a reminder, tomorrow's show follows up on this act with a discussion on what we're talking about here today.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: So tune in.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: Email us with any questions or comments, and especially stories that you like us to address and share on a future show.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: We'll never use your personal information, so don't worry about that.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: Sign up on our website, receive the newsletter, notifications about upcoming Zoom discussions, and also live events that are taking place.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: We're there to journey with you, even though you can do it just with the outline, uh the handbook, and whoever God puts on your path, you'll see as you as you go into mass and go deeper into scripture and all those other things that are coming up.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: But first, just those two asks, huh?
33:46
SPEAKER_00: Knees before the phone, 10-minute claymore morning ritual, and read one of those acts uh nightly, preferably, you know.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: And again, they're very short.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna take you five, six minutes.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: You go on our website, you'll see there's places you can sign in as this as a disciple that wants to learn more or as a potential leader, and we'll talk about those things and help you.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: Finally, this subscribe, like, and share Claymore Militus Christi with your circle.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Become a Claymore leader and note that we have special uh bundle pricing for those that are Claymore uh leaders that includes uh 10 handbooks, 10 uh battle plan outlines already printed out that you can share, a Claymore wristband, blessed miraculous medal.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: The price also includes posts, handling, etc.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: So we have no excuses.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Claymore depends on relationships.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: Men passing the gospel on to another man, another man.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: That's how the gospel has always been handed down, person to person.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Claymore provides everything you need, but one, you.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: Without you, nothing gets done, and many people will lose their souls.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: As you step into the battle and you share this with other people, it's a win-win situation.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: You win your own salvation and you win their salvation.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: The power of grace enters into the spiritually dead.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: The default position I started out with, without grace, body and the soul, the default position is what?
35:17
SPEAKER_00: Sin and death.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Now you enter a new creation.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: It's a new formula.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: A body and a soul infused with grace gives you the potential for human flourishing, the potential for human freedom.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: But what makes it efficacious?
35:32
SPEAKER_00: What infuses our hearts and lives is your action, is your action in the world.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: We are created to be to manifest good in the world.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: What you see as we've pulled back, and what's filled it up, evil is filled it up.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: We have to push back on that.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: This is our meeting and purpose in life.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: This is not brain surgery again.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: It's the two great commandments that Jesus gave us.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: Love God, love your neighbor, love God, receive and be filled with divine life and love, and then go out and be that life and love for others.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: Hey, God bless you.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Great to be with you.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: Talk to you again soon, everybody.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: Bye bye.