Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 218: Hearing the Word of God

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Show 218: Hearing the Word of God · The Uncensored Catholic

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Speaker 1: A by all, welcome this week's show. They we will
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discuss the importance of hearing the Word of God. That's
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the Bible, of course, being read in the context of
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the Mass, and it's very important because of course Protestants
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believe that Catholics aren't allowed to read or hear the Bible,
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which is absolute, outter of nonsense. It could be dispelled
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with just like one visit to a Catholic church or
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five minutes speaking to a Catholic friend, you know, or
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I don't even know. Well, I mean, you've got the
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internet these days. You could just go to YouTube and
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pull up any Catholic program, you know, whether it's a
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live Mass or a Catholic Bible study. I mean, it's
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pretty ridiculous. But anyway, we'll get into that, the importance
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of hearing the Word of God. But first we'll pick
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up where we left off with radio replies. And this
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is a very common, very very common argument by the
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supposed academic atheist or agnos. The person asks have not
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older religions spoken of gods with sons on earth? And
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the priest's answer, some of them have made uncertain and
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vague claims, but none has made any precise claim in
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the full sense in which Christianity declares Christ to have
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been the son of God. Nor is there a shred
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of evidence to show the reality of their claims vegue
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as they are. The person says, I have discovered twenty
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seven virgin born saviors in my studies of mythology, and
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they answer, you will find it difficult to name them. However,
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granting that you have read of such claims, a further
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study would allow you would show you that a critical
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and comparative examination such as Christian doctrine has had to undergo,
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leaves these mythological claims devoid of reality, whilst Christian fact
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emerges unscathed. A person says, you will not admit that
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Christians thought it fashionable to have a version board savior,
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so invented or borrowed one in desperation, and the answer
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such an admission would do violence to both reason and history.
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The invention theory supposes that the writers of the Gospel
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were liars, a theory abandoned by all the critics of Christianity. Worthwhile,
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the borrowing theory involves the old post hoc ergo propter
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hawk fallacy that one thing is prior to another does
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not prove that it is the cause of the other.
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And nowhere and Heathenism can you find a real parallel
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with Christian doctrine. Pagan mythologies are characist, chiefly by the
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complete absence of historical elements. The great German critic Harnack
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pointed out the one thing fatal to all mythological references
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or theories and intense repugnants felt. Let's see try this again.
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The German critic Harknock Harnack I Guess pointed out that
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the one thing fatal to all mythological references or theories
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is the intense repugnant felt by early Christians for everything
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connected with heathen idolatry. A profound critic, he writes, early
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Christians strictly refrained from everything polytheistic and heathen, and the
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unreasonable method of collecting from mythologies of all people parallel
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for original Christian values is valueless. And the person asks
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whence came the ancient idea of mothers and savior sons
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reconciling us with God? And the priest's answer, a belief
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in a God, a sense of sin and imagination building
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upon ordinary human ideas would be enough. To give rise
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to a mythology of the subject. Yeah, we can even
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admit lingering vestiges of the knowledge of our creation by
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God and of God primitive of God's primitive product, promise
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to put imity between the woman and Satan. But no
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mythology has produced anything like Christian doctrine. And it is
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certain that adversaries have dishonestly accredited virgin birth to ancient
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mythologies in their effort to discredit Christianity. And the person says,
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why was not or let me see, was not the
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Babylonian a starte this is how you pronounce it as
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t a r te selected as the goddess prototype of Mary.
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And they answered, no, A start or start A was
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a mythical, non historical person. Mary was historical. The legends
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concerning our Startie make her a goddess associated with all
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that is licentious and immortal immoral. The historical Mary has
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never been regarded as a goddess, and then was the
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purest woman who has ever set for on earth. And
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the guy says, I believe that the early Christians imported
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their notion of Mary and her miraculous son Jesus from
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the Egyptian Isis virgin mother of Horace, and they answer,
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even according to the primitive Egyptian legend, Isis was not
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a virgin mother in any sense of the word. Your
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theory has been explored by scholar after scholar as a parallel,
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it is altogether deficient, and your theory of connection is
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pure guesswork against all the facts. You might just as
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well point to the story of any woman who ever
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had a child in the whole of ancient literature and
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cry triumph that the Christian doctrine has been drawn from
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that source. Many people are prepared to put implicit faith
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in any guesses which which milic, militic, militant? Huh, which militate?
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I guess I suppose military. I'm not familiar with this word,
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and that's rare for me. M I L I T
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A T E. So it's from the same root as
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like military, So which fight against which militate against Christianity.
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Yet they ignore the most obvious fact in favor. They
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keep demanding evidence, yet they do not really want it
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and will accept it, and will not accept what is
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offered to them. A person says, are there not great
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similarities between the life of the Buddha and the story
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of Christ's odd Buddhism quite after Christ. But anyway, they said, no,
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Buddhism knows nothing of God in the Christian sense of
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the world. It is definitely pantheistic. It knows nothing of
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the Holy Spirit. The story of Buddhists not the story
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of the birth from a Virgin. And in any case,
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it is certain that Buddhism was not known by the
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early Christians, and the Gospel writers never heard of the traditions,
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nor have they heard of them. Could we conceive of
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them appropriating or using them. And yes, Buddhism is not
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as old as Christianity, so that is a very odd
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statement in fact. And you know, Buddhism as it comes
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from Hinduism is pantheistic. Certainly, there are certainly Chinese, especially
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schools of Buddhism that are not pantheistic at all. You
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would say they're almost not even a religion, more of
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a philosophy. But no, there's no way that could have
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impacted the apostles in the Middle East who came before
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Buddhism and would not have even like what was I say,
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not even have recognized it as a religion, at least
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in its more Chinese form now and it's more Indian
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form perhaps perhaps, but in anyway, yeah, what an odd statement. Anyway,
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The person's finally says, is there any fundamental difference between
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Jesus and Socrates, Plato, Aristotle or any other great thinker?
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And the answer there are many vast differences. Socrates and
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others taught the uncertain philosophical conclusions of their own limited
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and finite minds. Jesus taught infallible and divine truth. The
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fruit of the teaching of the philosophers is merely temporal
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proficiency in a perfect human knowledge and conjecture. The fruit
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of the doctrines of Christ is eternal happiness in themselves.
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Philosophers were men, but Jesus was God. And I think
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that's a good place to leave off for a date.
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We have to remember the statement by the Venerable Fulton Sheen,
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God Willing soon to be Saint Sheen, that you cannot
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just compare Jesus to the great philosophers. You can't well
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to the Buddha, for instance. I mean, there's no doubt
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that the Buddha who came from what was his name,
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Shaka mooney something, I'm blank, and I came from India
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and was a great thinker and a great philosopher, was
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probably very much, you know, favored by God and giving
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him a somewhat enlightened mind that would lead to a
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very peaceful philosophy which was very much in opposition to
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the Hinduism the time. Hinduism is pantheistic, and you know,
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they have gods of death and destruction and war, and
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you know, some some Hindus are very peaceful people and
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some not so much. And it just kind of depends
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on which God they favor in their tradition, not necessarily personally,
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there's no doubt that he was probably very enlightened by
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God to give to people, millions of people, a fairly
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peaceful philosophy. You know, Jesus said that you should love
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God with all your heart and love your neighbors yourself. Well,
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Buddhists don't necessarily conceptualize a god, depending on which school
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of Buddhism, they don't necessarily conceptualize a God whom they
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love with all their heart or whose commandments say try
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to fulfill. But living a very charitable, peaceful life is
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very much a part of the original Buddhist philosophy and
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that it's been a very positive force in the world,
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especially in opposition to Islam. And Islam has its redeeming
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qualities too, you know. You know, Catholic Church says that
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all religion is inspired by God, but not all of
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us get it right. In the things that we can
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appreciate in other religions and the things that are similar
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to our own, we can say we have that in common.
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And they're you know, Muslims that are very charitable people.
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They run orphanages and hospitals and help the poor. And
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that's a wonderful thing, a wonderful thing. And whenever we
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can work together on such things, whenever we can bring peace.
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It doesn't matter if the person sitting across the table
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was a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Hindu or whatever.
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If we can achieve what God tells us is right,
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bless her the peacemakers. Can we work out a peace deal?
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You know that supersedes our religious differences in that in
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that instance, feed the poor. Can we work together to
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make sure the poor have food and clothing in a
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warm place to sleep? I mean, those are things when
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we can work together, that's a very good thing. But
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for those that would say that Jesus was just a
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great thinker or a great philosopher like Socrates or something,
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or Plato, you know. Fulton Sheen said, if Jesus was
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just a man, if he was a great philosopher, if
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he would have taught this you know, wonderful, peaceful path,
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and even if everything he said was you know, very
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redeeming and really good, he would be the most evil
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man ever on the face of the earth. Now why
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would you say that, Well, it's because Jesus didn't claim
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just to be man with a philosophy. He claimed to
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be God. And if Jesus was just a man who
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claimed to be God, no matter what he said or did,
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he would have been the worst blasphemer ever Blasphema or
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whatever ever. And he led millions and millions, billions at
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this point of people astray into hell in believing them.
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So we can't accept that Jesus was just a philosopher.
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Jesus never claimed to be a philosopher. He claimed to
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be God in his philosophy. Honestly, we would find somewhat
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lacking if we were just take the words of the Bible.
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I mean, yes, there are some very profound points in
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Jesus's teaching without a doubt. But compared to you know,
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Socrates and Plato and all them, it's not as explicitly
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worked out and logical. So in terms of being a philosopher,
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we would find our Lord to be somewhat lacking. I mean,
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he's spoken parables and he didn't really explain him all
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very much. And you know, his message was pretty simple,
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except in one regard. He said, I'm God, and I'm
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going to give you my flesh and blood to eat.
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And if you do, if you believe in me, and
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you are baptized, born again through the water of baptism,
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become a member of my body, the Body of Christ.
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That's something again no philosopher ever promised or could. And
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through my Church receive the sacraments of the Eucharist and
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confession and all that we get, confirmation and everything you
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have eternal life that goes well beyond, well beyond anything.
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A Greek philosopher said anything, an Egyptian pagan, what would
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you say, there's a word for it, like the Oh, golly,
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someone who foretells the future. What is the word? Doesn't mine?
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You know what I'm saying, Well beyond anything, the Buddha
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ever said, no matter how you know, valuable and redeeming.
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I mean, okay, here's a really great example, Saint Clement
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of Alexandria. I guess he wrote somewhere in the two
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fifties or so, and he had a specific purpose in mind.
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The Gnostics were becoming major heretics in Christianity, and they
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were essentially merging Egyptian based in Greek pagan beliefs with Christianity.
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And they've said they had a secret knowledge and understanding.
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And his entire purpose in his many hundreds, if not
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thousands of pages of writing, was to say, the true
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gnosticism or true knowledge is that of Christianity that comes
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through Christ and his apostles. He wrote beautifully and an
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extreme great length. When it comes down to it, the
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true Gnostic, as he saw it, was not necessarily a
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man who turned his back on all Greek philosophy or
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on the ancient myths and legends of the various peoples
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who walked the earth, but the one who was informed
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by Christianity, who could see the heart the point, you know,
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if God inspires that religion or that philosophy, there is
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an element of truth to it. So the true gnostic
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is he put it the one with knowledge, that's from
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the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge, was the one the Christian
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whose faith and instruction Christianity informed his understanding of all sciences.
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He was into algebra, he went into astronomy. I mean,
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you know, he went into everything, every science of the
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Greeks and Romans at the time, and all the ancient
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knowledge of the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Indians. Even
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he was aware of that. He was a great philosopher,
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but philosophy was nothing more than an introduction I guess
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you would say, a preparing of, almost a tilling of
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the ground for the truth of Christianity. And if you
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can get through his stuff, it's pretty impressive. Definitely has
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given me some insights. I've been reading Saint Clement of
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Alexandria for about a good year now, you know, I've
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been working my way through the early Church Fathers as
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as far as i've gotten. They wrote a lot, They
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wrote a lot, but yeah, I'm probably I don't even know,
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sixteen hundred pages through the two thousand or so pages
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he wrote, and it's been very instructive to see that, like,
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you know, the ancient prophetess. I guess Sybil the messages
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she would give. And you know, we don't know if
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those messages may have come from demons, and they may
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have been twisted and shadowed. But demons, being once having
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once been angels, do have more knowledge than man. Sometimes
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they get people insights and for you know, for worse,
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they'll they'll give somebody a kernel of knowledge in order
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to lead them on, lead them astray, you know, like
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the like the serpent, like the devil in the garden
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of Eden. You know, surely God didn't want you not
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to eat of the tree of fruit, you know, the
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fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
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If you do, you'll be like God's right. So he
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would take those messages from Sybil and other I guess
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you would call him prophets, soothsayers, whatever. There's a word
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I'm totally missing that informed the ancient mythologies, and then
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the Greek school of philosophy, the Hellenistic schools is quite advanced.
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I mean, we're still in many ways, especially in America,
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coasting on the philosophers of Greece. Our entire system of government,
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our entire, retire civil society is basically based on Plato's
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Republican such as that, and he would explain that kernel
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of truth and then put it forth in a Christian
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context and say, this is the true knowledge, this is
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the true gnosis, this is what a real gnostic man
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would understand. And he was apparently quite successful, but the
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errors of narcissism, which were many and vast. Actually, the
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entire Gnostic school was actually begun not by a Christian
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at all, but by Simon the Magician in the Bible,
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when Saint Peter said he wanted to buy the power
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of the Holy Spirit from Saint Peter, and Saint Peter said,
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your gold, perish with you, you know, get out of here.
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He went and set himself up a competing religion entirely
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based on Christianity. He had the Gospels, he had the Hebrew. Well,
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he didn't have all the Gospels, I guess they hadn't
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been written yet, but he had enough of He had
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at least the d Daca right, and he had all
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the Hebrew scriptures. And he combined them with the legends
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and myths of Egypt and Babylon and said he was
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the Messiah, he was born of the Virgin, and he
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was God, and that's where the Gnostics school actually comes from.
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So it led many many people astray. At one point,
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many Catholics, especially in among the bishops and the heads
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of the church, were Gnostics. And of course we had
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to have a huge movement in the church to declare
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Gnostic heresies as such and remove them because it was
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really pernicious and it led to a lot of error
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that really continues to echo through Christianity today. A lot
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of a lot of Protestant stuff ends up being rooted
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in Gnosticism, which was rejected fifteen hundred fourteen hundred years
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ago by Christianity. But because they they were prolific writers,
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they wrote it down. But anyway, Saint Clement and Alexandria
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really his writings pretty darn impressive. Actually, yeah, maybe someday,
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you know, we can get into such that. I feel like,
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you know, my podcast is very plain spoken and common sense,
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and that's a little more lofty. Now. I may be wrong.
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I feel like there are other people that are better
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suited to cover topics like that, But you know, we'll
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see whatever. You know, I'll say a prayer and whatever
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God wants me to do, I'll do my best. And
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interestingly enough, I often say I can only do my best?
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Where did I get that? I mean, it's, you know,
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just a common phrase people use. First time it ever
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actually dawned on me what that means, the deeper meaning
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of it. Was actually a Buddhist writer. This was years ago,
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probably in my twenties, and it was the Dalai Lama.
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And I have issues with the Dalai Lama. I'm sure
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he's a good man. I'm sure he's a very flawed man.
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He seems to have some moral issues that are you know,
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not my business. But he seems to have a very
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charitable heart for people. Okay, so I'm gonna say I
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think he's probably a pretty good, you know, good guy
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in that regard. Maybe not so much in other regards.
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But anyway, he said all I can do is my best?
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And he said, what do I mean by that? He said,
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on the one hand, all I can do is the
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best I'm able to do in my physical capabilities as
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a man. Okay, as far as I know, the Dali
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Lama has never said that he is, you know, a
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being in carnated holy being. He seems to just be
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a religious leader. He seems to be a fairly humble guy,
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like I said, got issues was parts you know, definitely
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not a Christian and definitely doesn't share a morality, let's say,
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in all regards. But he said, all he can do
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in his capacity as a human being is what's limited
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by his human capacity, and he'll do the best in
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that regard. But secondly, he said, all I can do
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is my best. In that I have to do my best.
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I can't, you know, my own words, I can't half
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ass it. I can't slack off. That's not living up
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to what I'm called to do. So when I say
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all I can do is my best, it's not a compound.
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It's literally saying, if I don't do my best at
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the end of the day, I have to answer for it.
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When I say my prayer is a contrition and my
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examination of conscience before God. At the end of the day,
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if I haven't done my best, I believe I'm going
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to be called for on account for it. So I think,
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you know, that's not certainly not exclusively Buddhist saying by
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any means, and it's not exclusive to the Dalai Lama
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who wrote the words that I read. I think everyone
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on earth should really embrace that. When we look at
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the state of our culture and the state of our cities,
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and the state of our families, and everything seems to
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be falling apart. Well, what happened when people stop doing
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their best? They started becoming more entitlement minded, finding excuses,
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victim mentality, and it's like, you know, thug mentality being
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you know, they're not living up to being the people
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God calls them to be. And of course none of
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us are. I'm you know, I'm by no means a
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perfect person. But if I try to do my best,
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that's the best I can do. Now, occasionally someone will
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heroically do better than they can possibly do. By the
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grace of God, they would do something that no one
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could ever imagine. I'm not there yet, But if at
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the end of the day, I've done my best, then
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I have a clean conscience. So I think, you know,
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that's a really good example of how we can take
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from certain other, you know, religions and philosophies outside of
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Christianity and find that kernel of truth. I think Saint
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Clement of Alexander would be very supportive of that statement.
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In fact, I know he would. He was. He was
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really wrote exhaustively about the truth that you know Plato
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and others, Socrates and such found just through philosophy or
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the truths that were the kernel of a certain myth
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of Egyptian mythology, and how that could be used to
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inform our faith as Christians. And for him that was
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the true knowledge, that was the nosis. That was taking
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all the knowledge that God had given to people throughout
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the world for centuries and millennia, scattered throughout the world,
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and finding that colernel truth and then understanding it through
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a Christian lens. That's still a very good pursuit today,
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so long as you don't lose your way, so long
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as you hold fast to the truths of the Catholic Church.
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So all right, now we'll get into fas Farrago's hearing
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the word of God. But do be careful. One does
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have to be fully catechised and instructed in Catholic teaching,
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in the basic of Christianity, or one can be led astray.
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I mean, we can look at I don't know, maybe
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Thomas Merton, Thomas Merton, the Catholic of monk and writer
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who by the end of his life seems to have
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converted to Buddhism. I don't know if he ever did
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officially or not, but his early works were quite insightful
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and quite good, and by the end of his career
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he seems to have become essentially a neo pagan. So
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there's always going to be some danger as well. You know,
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one has to hold fast to the teachings of the
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Catholic Church, to Jesus, through the Bible and through sacred tradition,
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or one can be led astray by the Remember, all
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those seeds of truth are within husks of error, if
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you want to put it that way. Like you think
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about the seed and it's wrapped in a husk, and
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when the seed is planted, that husk rots away and
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the seed sprouts and grows. Well, you know, all those
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seeds of truth that are in non Christian religions or
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philosophies are encased with a certain husk of error. Going
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back to Buddhism again, Sidhartha Shakamuni, whatever his name was,
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seems to have been very straightforward and said in very
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common sense, fairly compatible with Christian teaching things for the
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most part, you know, I mean, his his idea that
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one had to detach from everything is somewhat compatible with
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Christian monasticism. But he takes it a little too far
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in that one shouldn't have compassion for one's fellow human being,
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but would just act out of charity by nature, you know,
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total detachment, like I don't care about anything that's going
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too far, okay, But that he was a Hindu monk
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who came up with his own philosophy, which is now
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called Buddhism, in that whatever he said that may be true,
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it's always wrapped in the husk of Hinduism, which is
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a pagan, pantheistic, in some ways, very satanic religion. And
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I don't certainly don't mean to smear all Hindus as
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being satanic. No, I mean, ninety percent of them are
29:23
really great people, honestly, I've met plenty of them. But
29:27
they have various gods, and some of them are like
29:31
I think Cali, the god of war and death, and
29:34
someone who follows that god is going to be purely
29:38
demon possessed and violent and evil and probably a serial killer,
29:43
you know, I mean, really really nasty danger. I mean,
29:46
go back and watch what Indiana Jones on the Temple
29:50
of Doom. That's what we're talking about here. Okay. Meanwhile,
29:53
they have all these other gods that are peaceful. But
29:57
you know, there's this grain of truth, truth always, even
30:01
in a husk of error and even truly great evil. Yeah,
30:07
I mean, even if you took secular philosophy. If we're
30:09
going to talk like political philosophy, go back to Marxism, communism. Yeah,
30:14
when we're supposed to care for the poor, we're supposed
30:17
to be charitable, we're not supposed to be greedy. They
30:20
take that and they take it way too far and
30:22
to the point of, you know, taking away people's property
30:25
and basically enslaving people. Was words of the state that
30:28
have to slaves, slaves that labor for the state, and
30:32
then the product their labor is taken and distributed to
30:35
people who don't work. That's there's a seed of truth
30:38
in a great husk of error and evil. Now, what
30:45
did fathers Fragos say? Hearing the word of God at
30:50
the miraculous multiplication of the lows, our Lord caused the
30:53
bread to be distributed to the people by his disciples
30:56
Matthew fifteen thirty six. And now he employs his ministers
31:01
to dispense to the faithful the spiritual bread of the
31:04
Word of God. This bread is given to them freely
31:07
Tewod Corinthians eleven seven. The Word of God is said
31:10
to be the food of the soul, because it sustains
31:13
the life and strength of the soul, as bread does
31:16
that of the body. The fathers of the Church speak
31:18
of the Word of God as food of the soul.
31:21
Our Lord himself says, not in bread alone doth man live,
31:24
but in every word that proceeded from the mouth of
31:26
God Matthew four to four. The manner in which the
31:29
Word of God acts upon the soul is by enlightening
31:32
the understanding and inciting the will to do what is
31:34
good in the darkness of this life. It shows us
31:38
the path to heaven, as the lantern enables to travel
31:41
to find his way by night. The word of God
31:44
reveals to us the stains upon our soul. As a mirror,
31:49
it shows us the marks upon our countenance. When Saint
31:52
Augustine had attended the sermons of Saint Ambrose at Milan,
31:56
he said that man opened my eyes. The word of God.
32:00
God stimulates the will to that what is which is good.
32:03
The fable tells us that Orpheus played the lyre with
32:06
such a wonderful charm the sounds he drew from it,
32:09
fascinated the most savage mortals, tame wild beasts, and even
32:13
recalled the dead to life. This is true of the
32:16
Word of God. By it, the whole nations sunk into heathendom,
32:20
degraded below the level of beasts, have been converted and civilized,
32:24
and rescued from eternal death. Saint Anthony the Hermit embraced
32:28
the life of an anchorite in consequence of having heard
32:32
a sermon of our Lord's word to the words to
32:36
the rich young man, are not my words as a
32:38
hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces, Sich Jeremiah twenty three,
32:43
tween nine. I believe the word of God strikes the
32:46
heart like a thunderbolt, the thunder of the divine menaces.
32:51
The thunder of the divine menaces awakens those asleep in sin.
32:57
Another odd use of terms, that who are in different
33:00
to their salvation. The Word of God vanishes sin. It
33:03
acts on the soul, says Saint Jerome, as a plow
33:06
and the soil, loosening and hardening the surface, rooting up
33:09
the thistles of ice. The word of God kindles the
33:12
flame of charity in the heart of man. Like fire.
33:15
It consumes the rust of sin, it promotes the gross
33:18
of virtue. Or it may can be compared to the
33:21
gentle rain that cometh down from heaven to soak the
33:23
earth and water in it and make it to spring
33:27
and get seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
33:31
One thing about fire and rust. If you have rusty metal,
33:36
sometimes you read put in fire, get it red hot,
33:38
and it will take care of the rust. Don't ever
33:41
do that with cast iron cookwar. You will destroy it.
33:45
It will turn brittle and hard, and it will turn red.
33:52
You will absolutely destroy it. Don't ever do that with
33:55
cast iron cook wear. I see that a lot. It's
33:57
just it's a real shame. But anyway, back to what's important.
34:02
He who shows indifference toward the Word of God exposes
34:05
himself to the risk of spiritual death and eternal damnation.
34:09
Just as a man who refuses to take food will
34:11
surely die, so those who do not hear the word
34:15
of God, which is food for the soul, incur spiritual
34:17
death and this life. We are travelers on the road
34:20
and dangerous journeys from time to eternity. And as a
34:23
traveler who walks by night without a lantern, strays from
34:26
the right road. So we shall not reach the end
34:29
of our journey without the light of God's Word to
34:32
illumine our mind and guide us to our final end.
34:35
The Word of God is the son of the soul,
34:37
without which the spiritual life will droop and fail, as
34:41
a nature word would if deprived of the vivifying warmth
34:44
and radiance of the sun. Hence, it is the duty
34:48
of every Christian either to hear sermons frequently, or to
34:51
read spiritual books and make a practical application of what
34:54
he hears and reads. The Council of Trent orders that
34:58
there should be a sermon in every parish church on
35:00
Sundays and Festivals, as it has long been customary to
35:04
have the sermon after the Gospel. All who go to
35:07
Mass on these days hear the sermon as a matter
35:10
of course. That's right. For two thousand years, before most
35:13
people were literate, every Catholic heard the entire Bible read
35:17
in a I guess about a three year cycle, over
35:21
and over and over their entire life. Set Mass. So
35:23
Protestants who say we're not allowed to read the Bible,
35:26
you're just plain wrong. Most people couldn't read, and it
35:30
was read to them by the one literate person in
35:33
the entire community, which would be the priest who had
35:36
gone to school. Because you have to go to school
35:38
to be a priest. You can't just pick up a
35:41
sermon and say I'm pastor Bob. You can't just pick
35:45
up a Bible, I should say, and preach a sermon,
35:47
call yourself pastor Bob. No, you'd have to go to
35:51
seminary and be ordained as a priest. Otherwise you have
35:55
no authority and have no really right to call yourself
35:59
a minister of the God Gospel. Unless you've been ordained
36:03
as a Catholic priest, you have no right to cause
36:05
yourself a minister of the Gospel. It's the bottom line.
36:09
And that's the way it's been for two thousand years,
36:11
just in the past couple hundred years. I mean even
36:13
their original Protestants five hundred years ago, the Lutherans and
36:16
the Anglicans. Yeah, they believed in seminary and ordination through
36:21
their own you know, heretical sex. Now it's just like, oh,
36:25
pick up a Bible and just so oh well, the
36:27
Holy Spirit led me to say that I think you
36:29
ought to give me a lot of money, so I
36:31
can put a lot of hair jail in my hair
36:32
and wipe my teeth and go on television and tell
36:35
you're going to be rich. Yeah, that's not you know,
36:39
I don't mean don't mean doing soult Protestants. But never
36:45
until really very recently, like the last two hundred years
36:49
or so, have people thought they could just pick up
36:52
a Bible and start their own church. Well, for the
36:56
main reason people were illiterate, They couldn't read anyway. Nothing
37:02
in the Bible tells you you can do that. Not
37:03
a single statement the Bible says, pick up this Bible,
37:06
read it. You'll understand every word, and you're ordained a
37:09
minister of God, and you can start your own church.
37:12
That is foreign and not biblical. But whatever, preaching was
37:17
the pensive, principal occupation of our Lord in the Apostles
37:20
Luke fourth forty three and Mark sixteen twenty, and the
37:25
greatest Saints have generally been able and zealous preachers. The
37:29
preach word has more force and effect than what is
37:32
read in books the Bible, History, the Lies of the Saints,
37:35
or books of meditation are much to be recommended. These
37:39
are preachers to whom we may listen any hour spiritual
37:42
books are a mirror in which we may discern our
37:45
own feelings and the virtues of which we stand in
37:48
most need. Experience shows how much good may be done
37:51
by reading them. Witness the well known conversion of saying
37:55
Nacius Loyola or Saint John column Columbinusus a nobleman and
38:02
burgo master. I don't know what a burgo master is.
38:06
I'm thinking it doesn't have anything to do with hamburgers anyway, barely.
38:10
It's from Sienna. I have no idea what that word
38:13
means burgo master. Oh well, One day, returning home from
38:17
the town council at noon, he found dinner was not
38:19
quite ready. His wife gave him a volume of the
38:22
Lives of the Saints to while away the time in waiting.
38:25
At first he threw it aside, but prevently opening it,
38:28
he read the history of Saint Mary of Egypt. It
38:30
touched him so deeply that he became a changed man.
38:34
From this fourth he led an austere and saintly life.
38:38
It would profit if we would profit by what we read.
38:41
We must read with deliberation, and not too much at
38:44
a time. That's one thing I tend to open a
38:49
book and read one hundred pages of a shot following
38:53
Father Sparago's advice, which I read, I guess about three
38:56
years ago. Now I have begun to read only a
39:00
couple of pages or a chapter a time of a
39:02
Catholic book, and I found it actually be much better,
39:05
much more informative. Yeah, it really frustrated for me. Like
39:08
pick up the complete works of Saint Francis to sal
39:12
which I believe is over five six hundred pages or something,
39:17
or the works of all the early Church Fathers, which
39:20
is something like thirty thousand pages. I don't even know.
39:22
I mean, it would take me the rest of my life,
39:25
if not two lifetimes to read all of it and
39:27
only go one chapter or like two pages at a time.
39:33
But that's what you need to do, actually read it,
39:37
put it down, think about it, pray about it. Not
39:41
my nature by any means. I was the kid that
39:45
you know, when I wanted to learn about frogs or something,
39:49
I'd go to the library and pick out check out
39:52
like twenty four books on frogs and read everything about
39:54
a frog until I was the world's expert on frogs.
39:58
And yeah, I did that kind of stuff, or primitive
40:03
camping or anything that I would get into fishing. I
40:06
can still tell you the patterns that were thought to
40:09
be ideal on bass lures, and even the way you
40:13
would paint your boat in like the late sixties and
40:16
early seventies, because I read all those books. Actually, when
40:20
it comes to religious books, when it comes to the Bible,
40:23
I always say, read two pages of a day of
40:25
the Bible, and you'll read the entire Bible in a year.
40:27
A lot of people will try to read an entire chapter,
40:30
entire book, and they burn out and they don't get
40:33
a lot out of it. So anyway, so it's really
40:35
good advice, and it's somewhat of a discipline actually, But anyway,
40:41
let's see where were we. It would yeah, read with deliberation,
40:48
not too much of the time, and above all, be
40:51
careful in the choice of books. Many books are like
40:53
fun guy which are not food but poison. Of course,
40:57
some mushrooms are pretty quite good, but some are very
40:59
very poisonous. Evil communication corrupts good manners First Corinthiums, fifteen
41:04
thirty three. Moreover, one must take a practical application of
41:08
what one hears or reads, as food only nourishes the
41:11
body when it is properly digested. So the word of
41:13
God does not profit the hearer unless it be received
41:17
in the heart and meditated upon. And as when we
41:21
have been walking in a beautiful garden, inhaling the perfume
41:24
of flowers, we like to take away with us a
41:26
few fragrant blossoms. So after spiritual reading, we should retain
41:30
a few thoughts as a spiritual bouquet to a freshes
41:33
during the day, absolutely read a page or two, and
41:36
then think about it throughout the day. They meditate on it. Basically, Unfortunately,
41:41
people do not think over what they hear read. They
41:43
are like a man who beholds his own countenance and
41:45
a glass or a mirror, and goes away presently forgetting
41:48
what manner of man he is. Jasper, I'm sir, James.
41:52
Jasper jas is his abbreviation James one, twenty three, twenty four.
41:57
This is so because either they are distracted worldly cares
42:01
the seed which falls by the wayside, or because they
42:03
are prejudiced against the word of God. The seeds that
42:05
falls upon the rock or their hearts are full of
42:09
corrupt inclinations and unruly passions. That would be the seed
42:13
that falls upon the thorns in Luke eight. To apply
42:17
the word of God to another, not to oneself, is reprehensible.
42:22
Think about that from it, remember what Jesus said, You know,
42:25
why are you worried about the speck in your brother's
42:27
eye when you don't worry about the log in your
42:29
own eye? Or to listen to a preacher as the
42:32
pharisee did merely in a critical spirit. Or again, to
42:35
refuse to obey the word of God because the example
42:38
the preacher does not correspond to his teaching. Yes, that's right.
42:44
Just as the priests sacraments are valid and his office
42:52
is valid. Even if he lives in immoral life, you
42:56
shouldn't he should be removed from the priest and immediately whatever.
42:59
But if your priest is immoral, he can still hear
43:04
your confession, He can still give you to you Christ.
43:06
He can still give you baptism and a marriage and
43:09
all that. Many of our great Christian writers, well, I
43:14
shouldn't say many. Some some of our great Christian writers
43:19
have battled mightily with temptations and flaws, and it doesn't
43:25
make what they wrote any less Vallid. We ought to
43:32
apply the sermons we hear to ourselves. Some are so
43:36
busy in apportioning what they hear to others that they
43:38
leave nothing for themselves. Is recording the life of Saint
43:41
Anthony Patua, I think that's how you pronounce it. Actually
43:46
often attend Saint Anthony of Patawa Church in Southern Pines,
43:50
North Carolina. I've never been good with that name, Pa
43:52
Da and other saints that they have. When they preached
43:58
against the follies of the day gambling in love of dress.
44:01
Men brought their cards and dice, women, their costumes and
44:03
finery and burned it in the presence of the preacher.
44:06
It was not elegance, but the truth that should attract
44:09
us to the preacher. If we listen to the simplest
44:12
discourse and a docile spirit, we are sure to learn
44:15
something of it. Others will not obey the word of
44:18
God because the preacher is not practice what he teaches.
44:21
Saint Augustine compares those who do not follow the councils
44:24
of the preacher because he himself does not act upon them,
44:27
to excuse me, two travelers who coming got a little
44:33
tickle on my throat to travelers who coming to a
44:36
wooden guide post will go no further on the road
44:39
point out to them, because the guidepost itself is in
44:42
a stationary Huh, that's interesting. So the guidepost doesn't move,
44:47
so they think it doesn't know where to tell them
44:49
to go. Huh. Okay, it sounds like an Irish parable
44:54
to me, But it's Saint Augustine, so we'll go with that.
44:57
Why would you be asking it's over there? Well, how
45:00
do you know it's over there? But I told you
45:01
it's over there. Don't you know how those things go? Anyway?
45:05
The preacher is but the instrument of which the divine
45:08
husbandman may use to sow his celestial seed. Look not
45:12
at the poverty of the vessel containing the seed, but
45:15
at the excellent of the grain, excellence of the grain,
45:17
and majesty of the husbandsman. Those who are assiduous in
45:21
hearing sermons or reading spiritual books will not have great
45:24
difficulty in attaining eternal salvation. Our Lord says, blessed. Let
45:31
me try that again. I start on the second sentence.
45:33
Our Lord said, he that is of God here at
45:35
the words of God John eight forty seven. And blessed
45:40
are they who hear the word of God and who
45:42
keep it. Luke eleven twenty eight, we delight to hear
45:45
Man speak, men speak of those whom we love. Therefore,
45:49
if we rejoice to hear of God, we must have
45:51
the love of God in our hearts. And those who
45:53
have divine charity are in the state of grace. Appetite
45:57
is a sign of health. So the desire for spiritual
45:59
nourishment is a sign that the soul is in a
46:01
healthy condition, that is, in a state of grace. I
46:04
discussed for food shows that the body to be sick.
46:07
And his taste for the Word of God indicates taste
46:14
for the I lost my place. I hate when that happens.
46:20
There we go. I just taste for the Word of
46:24
God indicates a bad state of the soul. You know somehow,
46:28
I'm your eyes go to another paragraph and you come back.
46:30
You're like where I leave off, all right? Any Way,
46:33
The prophet to be derived from a sermon is proportion
46:37
is proportioned to the enlightening grace of the Holy Spirit
46:42
presented in the hearts of the preacher and his hearers.
46:46
In other words, the more filled with the Holy Spirit
46:49
you are, the more you're in communion with the Church.
46:51
You go to confession, you receive the euchars, the more
46:55
you're going to gain from reading the Bible or hearing
46:58
a good homily or reading words of a saint. This
47:01
is why the assistance of the Holy Ghost is inked
47:04
before the sermon. It is God, not the preacher, who
47:06
speaks to the heart. And that's very true. I've recently
47:10
been having some debates discussion with Protestants, and I remember
47:14
Saint Teresa Lessou's words, it's not my job to convince you.
47:19
I tell you the truth. The Holy Spirit convinces you,
47:22
and I have to walk away. And a lot of times,
47:25
you know, my ego says, I want to argue this
47:27
person until they submit, And you know a lot of
47:31
times I really could, because I know I'm right, because
47:38
it's the Church, and you can kind of tell when
47:41
you're maybe a little more intelligent than the other person.
47:47
I have to pull myself back, pull myself back, be humble,
47:53
just give them the facts, give them a convincing argument,
47:56
take my personality out of it. Let the Holy Spirit convince.
48:00
But you know, it's not about me beating a debate adversary.
48:05
It's about presenting the facts, giving the argument, the logical
48:11
discourse of why this is true, back off, back off,
48:15
And that's a bit of humility. I am slowly learning
48:22
God willing. I'm trying. I'm trying. Yeah, I'm irish. You
48:30
know how we are. We're fighters. Sometimes you don't. It's
48:34
not up to you to fight anyway. Whoever speaks to
48:40
the heart, the preacher planteth only in water fit it
48:44
is God who giveth the increase First Corinthians three seven.
48:48
However splendid the equipments of a ship, she cannot sail
48:51
unless the wind is favorable. So it is with the preacher,
48:54
however great his erudition and eloquence, unless the Holy Spirit
48:58
imparts unction to his world, say avail nothing. An officer
49:03
of distinction, who had heard all the best preachers of France,
49:08
once went to hear the sermon of a simple but
49:10
pious village priests, the Curate to ours. Cannot remember his name,
49:16
the saint he was always called in the old books,
49:19
the cure to ours. If I ever find well, I'm
49:24
sure i'll run across. I'll try to remember to tell you. Anyway.
49:29
One of the most influential priests of his time, who
49:33
was apparently a simple but pious village priest, when asked
49:37
what he thought of the discourse, He answered, hitherto I
49:40
have only been pleased with the orator. Now I am
49:43
displeased with myself. It is said that Saint Francis Issau
49:48
converted seventy thousand heretics by his preaching. When we see
49:53
a beautiful, beautifully executed piece of penmanship, we did not
49:57
praise the pen but the hand that guided it in
50:00
like manner. It is not due to the preacher who
50:02
delivers an excellent discourse that praises due, but to the
50:06
holy ghost who speaks by his lips. The word of
50:09
God does not always bear fruit immediately. It's like the
50:11
grain of a mustard seed Matthew eighteen. I'm sorry thirteen,
50:16
which after a considerable time grew up and became a
50:19
large tree. Okay, let me step back. Here's a southern agrarian.
50:24
This furse confuses so many people. People think I grow
50:27
mustard in the garden. It just becomes maybe it grows
50:30
a foot tall eighteen inches at most. It's an herbaceous plant. Actually,
50:35
in the Middle East, in the deserts in North Africa,
50:38
there's a tree called persica. I believe it's the name.
50:41
I can't remember the Persica something, and it's called the
50:44
mustard tree. The seed looks the same as the mustard
50:48
that we grow in our gardens, the same that we
50:50
make the condiment mustard from. It is spicy, it tastes
50:54
the same, but it grows a great tree. So actually,
50:58
when the Bible says that the the smallest seed grows
51:01
into a great tree, if it is actually referring to
51:05
a tree which in the desert would give people shade
51:09
and was very well known. But anyway, that's just a
51:14
difference in the language. The Bible was written in the
51:16
language we speak now, and it confuses a whole lot
51:19
of people. I remember one time there was a girl
51:24
on I don't know a Facebook or Twitter or something,
51:27
and she's like, what does it mean, don't be unevenly yoked?
51:32
You know, in the Bible says don't be unevenly yoked? Why? Okay,
51:35
like the harness that you put across an ox team.
51:39
And she's like, I found an egg one time that
51:42
had two yolkes, but most of your eggs only have
51:44
one yolk. I'm like, okay, where we start? Where do
51:51
we start here? Okay, first of all, that's why O
51:58
k in your Bible the word is y ok Now,
52:03
let's so you know, Oh golly, sometimes you just shake
52:12
your head. But I mean, you gotta be charitable at all.
52:18
Charitable all I'm sure she's a very intelligent and attractive
52:26
young lady at every other regard. But h h reminds
52:37
you of a bugs Bunny cartoon when you know someone
52:40
just said something just ridiculous and bugs brain just starts
52:44
freaking out and he starts making all these expressions like
52:48
how do I you know? But that's that's the times
52:52
we live in. That's people don't know the difference between
52:55
yolk and a yoke. I once had a cooking a
53:00
food blog and a lady got in touch and said
53:03
her pasta never worked right. It always just came into
53:07
a clump and a ball in the bottom of the pot.
53:11
And I said, all right, we'll explain this to me.
53:14
How do you know, I have a PhD, I have
53:18
educating all this, I know what I'm doing. I'm like, okay,
53:22
with something you're doing is wrong. Explain to me how
53:27
you do your pasta. And it turns out she did
53:31
not know the difference between a simmer and a boil,
53:34
and she never brought her water to a boil. When
53:38
it began to steam and bubble a little bit, she
53:40
just dumped her pasta in and left it. And I mean,
53:43
I'm like, here's someone with advanced degrees, and I have
53:49
to teach them what it means to boil water. Yeah,
53:55
that was a bit of a revelation to me. Anyway,
54:00
it's started hearing r there, is it? Anyway, So the
54:04
mustard seed comes a large tree. Sometimes it produces no
54:08
fruit at all, and that's true. The Persica persecaria something. Anyway,
54:15
it has seasons when it doesn't produce fruit. It has
54:18
two with weather. Our Lord speaks of three cases in
54:21
which the seed perished and only one in which it
54:24
bore fruit. And when it bears fruit in the amount
54:28
it is not always the same. And in that case
54:30
he's talking about, like the seed planting fertile ground on
54:34
the path or in rocky soil. That he means it
54:37
doesn't always sprout. That's not actually bearing fruit. But anyway,
54:43
but yeah, and the one that grows in the better
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soil is gonna bear more actual fruit and seed. So anyway, y'all,
54:51
let's wrap it up here. Remember the words of Gosh,
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which pope was it Pope John the six. I'd have
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to look it up. Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of God.
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We are directed, we are instructed by the Catholic Church.
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Read our Bibles. We should know our Bibles better than
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any Protestant because we have the Catholic Church to tell
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us what the words actually mean. So always going to
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read the Bible. Remember we don't read too much at
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one time. Read it in bite sized bits, a little
55:25
each day. That's the best way to go. I do
55:28
daily reflections on the mass readings, usually the Gospel. They're free.
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If you want to sign up for those, just go
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to my sub stack books by saints. You know it's
55:39
going to take a long time of work through some
55:40
of them, but it's better to get through the works
55:45
of Saint Teresa Avilla or Francis de Salu or Augustine.
55:49
There's a big one you'll read, known for years, but
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you're going to be learned more from that than you
55:55
would in reading. You know, a whole book by a
55:58
modern writer and a mouth. Anyway, have a good one, y'all.
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I'll talk to you next time.