Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 261: The location of immortal life or the state of the glorified bodies after the resurrection

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Show 261: The location of immortal life or the state of the glorified bodies after the resurrection · The Uncensored Catholic

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Speaker 1: The Fish of b Hey, y'all, welcome to this week's show.
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We will continue discussing the end times. Today we get
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into the fourth chapter, the fourth Presentation, the location of
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immortal life or the state of the glorified bodies after
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the Resurrection. That was getting pretty deep. But before then,
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we're going to talk a little bit about the doctrine
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of purgatory. We're working through the book Radio Replies, Volume one,
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classic work in which two priests answer questions from Protestants
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and atheists and everything in between. The person says, I
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am interested in your dogma concerning purgatory. Must I be
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a Catholic before I can understand the invention of your church?
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Or I'm sorry that invention of your church? I say, no,
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you must be a non Catholic to suspect that the
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Church did invent it. The idea that there is no
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purgatory is an invention of Protestants. The Reformers corrupted the
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true doctrine, and many good Protestants, realizing this, are returning
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to the Catholic religion. Or therefore, even as I myself
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have done. Meanwhile, if I could discover or you could
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show me when and where the Church invented this doctrine.
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I promised to spend the rest of my life explaining
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the Catholic Church is a merely human institution making outrageous
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claims upon men. The person says, why make people afraid
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of such a horrible place as purgatory when you know
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that it does not exist? And the priest's answer, I
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know that it does exist. And if you deny it,
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because to you it seems a horrible place, you must
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deny Hell also because it is far more horrible. And
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if you deny Hell, you deny Christianity. And is it
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not a more horrible thought that there would be no purgatory?
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In that case you would have but Heaven and Hell
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all are not quite fit for Heaven, could not hope
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to escape hill. It is a much more pleasant thought
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that there are people not quite good enough for Heaven,
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yet not bad enough for Hell, and that these are
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set to purgatory until they are purified sufficiently for heaven.
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Person asks what is the nature of your doctrine on purgatory?
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And they answer it can be summed up very briefly.
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At death. The soul of a man, if quite fit,
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goes at wants to heaven if not quite fit, goes
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to purgatory. If quite unfit to help, the soul which
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has repented of all its sins and has fully expiated
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them in this life is quite fit for heaven at once.
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The soul which departs this life in a state of
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unrepented moral sin can never be fitted for heaven and
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goes to hell. But a soul which has sincerely repentive
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sins yet has not fully expiated them secures immunity from
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hell by repentance and goes to purgatory until he has
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expiated all its deficiencies. Person asks, does God want to
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roast you merely because you have the misfortune to be alive?
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He knows that you had no way, that you had
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no say in the matter. Let they answer, God does
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not want to roast me. It is not a misfortune
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to be alive, although it is blameworthy to have misused
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one of existence. Nor did I want to say as
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to whether I should receive the gift of existence. People
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can leave me a fortune tomorrow without consulting me. But
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I did have a say in my fidelities, to God's grace,
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and for that I am responsible and do not wish
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to excuse myself, person asks have you been so atrociously
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wicked as to deserve purgatory? And they answer, there is
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no need to be atrociously wicked in order to need purification,
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any more than there is need to be on your
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deathbed before you need medicine. But there is need to
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attain a high standard of purity and holiness before one
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could be fit to enter the glory of God's presence.
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And finally, for the day the personality, the souls of
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Protestants go to purgatory, and the priests answers. All souls,
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whether of Protestants or Catholics, or of any other religion,
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will go to purgatory if they are not good enough
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for heaven at the moment of death, nor bad enough
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for hell. Non Catholics may deny purgatory, but that makes
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no difference. It's to purgatory, all right. And yeah, we'll
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continue on this one for a couple of weeks. Purgatory
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it's a very important dogma, very important doctrine. I guess
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I should say, Uh, it's incredibly and incredible that really
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that Protestants deny the existence of purgatory. But in order
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to do so, they had to cut out a couple
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of chapters from the Bible, especially Macabee's, and misrepresent the
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words of Christ, like when he says references the debtors
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prison which you will go and you won't leave until
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you paid the last cent. But they also deny the
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mercy of God or the justice of God. You can
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go one way or the other. Either everybody goes to
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heaven because sin doesn't matter, or everybody goes to hell
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because you can't be good enough to go to heaven.
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Nowhere between purgatory is actually evidence of God's love and justice.
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So let's get all right, Let's get on with the
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end of this pres world. And the mystery is a
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Life to Come, written by Father Armagnon Le, actually taken
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from a series of lectures he gave Abound eighteen ninety
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or so. All right, the visible sky and the earth
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where we live are no more than a place of passage,
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a mobile tent pitched for a day, the preparation and
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crude sketch of a better world. The present world is
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like a workshop, where everything is inferment and labor. The
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elements break against each other and decompose to assume new forms.
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They are born swiftly along in more in mutual pursuit.
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Every creature growneth and travaileth in pain even till now ominous. Well,
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I mean, I'm trying to skip the Latin, because, as
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I've said in every show, and you know it by now,
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I'm self taught Latin. My prenctigation is not perfect, and
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I don't want to confuse people if I say things wrong.
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So I just gave you the English. Every creature growneth
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and travaileth in pain, even until now, they sigh for
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the day when freed from bondage and corruption, they will
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enter into the glory and liberty of the sons of God,
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when the Creator will renew them in a more perfect
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and harmonious order. That is why the world will have
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an end in the true sense of the word, and
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by transforming Earth and sky, this end will make the
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universe the place of immortality. One of the leading lights
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of contemporary science has spoken these sublime words. No doubt,
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the Earth and its perpetual revolutions seeks the place of
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its repose. I guess this is a guy named Leibnitz
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L E. I. B. N it Z. Never heard of him,
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but apparently he was known in the eighteen hundreds. The
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world will be destroyed and reconstructed within the space of
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time which the spiritual government deems fitting again. A writer
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of the Protestant school has said, it is probable that
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this rich variety is seeking its unity. All creatures will
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gather in a school of goodness and beauty. The flower
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of all worlds will assemble in the same garden. That's
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somebody named Herder. I don't know that person either, Okay.
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So there is moreover one of our masters sayings which
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makes this expectation a certainty. The Lord tells us heaven
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and earth shall pass, the stars shall fall from heaven,
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and the powers of heaven shall be moved. The prophet
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David had once said in the beginning, O Lord, thou
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foundest the earth and the heavens are the work of
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thy hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest, and all
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of them shall grow old like a garment, and as
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a vesture, Thou shalt change them, and they shall be
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changed from psalms. In What state will creation all creatures
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be when they have irrevocably, irrevocably broken their ancient fetters
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and matured into repose, into full and consummated life. Well,
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the earth still turn upon its axis, Will the heavenly
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bodies move along at the dizzing speed revolve around their
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sinners as they do now? Well the stars continue to
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emit only a fake, cold gleam amidst the amidst the
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immensity of space. These are grave and mysterious questions which
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it would be futile for human reason to seek to
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resolve if it were not aided by the light of revelation.
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Yet no one will dispute that this study on the
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place of immortal life and a man's dwelling place in
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the age to come is a study incomparably more serious
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and worthy of our attention than those neuro studies which
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captivate men, the sole object of which is to snatch
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from the changing ephemeral nature of this world a few
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of its vain, worthless secrets. Excuse me. Men such as
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rationalists and pantheists, who do not share our hopes, but
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who nevertheless accept immortality in a future life, do not
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know how to define the circumstances in which the spirits
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will live after death. They imagine them as useless, erratic
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figures wandering around in ethereal to find space not restricted
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to any fixed abode, like shadows, bereft of their consciousness
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and personality, immersed in that supreme being called the All
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in all, or like rivers sunk in the depths of
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the ocean. A fantastic imaginary immortality, which is simply a
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cold picture of eternal gloom, a dark dream of fate
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and nothingness. Holy Scripture contradicts all these fables and idle hypotheses.
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It teaches us that at the time of the Second
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Advent of Christ, the earth in which we live in
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the sky which gives us light, will be the scene
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of two contrasting changes. The first of these changes will
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be the complete destruction of the present physical order. Saint
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Peter says, the day of the Lord shall come as
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a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with
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great violence, and the elements should be melded with heat.
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And the earth in this visible world, once engulfed by
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the waters of the flood, is destined to perish once
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more and will be set aflame. The same cause which
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brought about the flood will produce the final cataclysm. The
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earth will be destroyed because the sins of man have
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soiled it. The elements will be entirely dissolved because, albeit
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without their own volition, they were made subject to vanity.
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The heavens will be hurled back with extraordinary swiftness because they, too,
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in the words of Job, are not pure in the
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side of the Lord. The second change, however, the total
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restoration of creation, will take place as soon as the
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ruin of the universe has been consummated. This radiant, predestined temple,
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which the Lord will build as the most striking manifestation
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of his glory, cannot be for a single moment darkened
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improfaned by the presence of the reprobate. It will be
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only when these have been engulfed in the depths of
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the earth, and with the worlds, and with the words
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and okay, skipping the Latin again, hell and death were
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cast into a pool of fire. Revelations or Apocalypse twenty
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fourteen have been fulfilled, that material creation will be set free,
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and God will proceed with the great innovation. Saint Augustine says,
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when the judgment has been accomplished, heaven and Earth will
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cease to subsist. Saint Peter, in Second Peer three thirteen
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declares we look for new heavens and a new Earth,
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according to his promise, of which justice dwelleth. The universe
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will then be subject to other laws and the sun,
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and thus heavenly bodies will no longer execute their revolutions,
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and the heavens and Earth will remain stable and at rest.
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Fault Science vainly protests against the affirmations of the sacred
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books and alleges that they are at variance with the
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laws of matter and the principles governing the elements. But
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how do we know that movement is an essential property
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of the elements and of matter. Matter and the elements
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are created for man and are only his servants and auxiliaries.
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The Creator desire to adapt them to our circumstances and
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to our mode of existence. Now, when we are travelers
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and live in an impermanence of matter, and living in permanence,
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matter is subject to alteration change. But when man comes
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into the realm of perpetual and absolute the elements we
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brought into harmony with the new life with which we
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will be in doubt, time will be no more, nor
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will there be henceforth any mutation of years and days.
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The sun shall go down no more, and the moon
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shall not decrease, for the Lord shall be under thee
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for an everlasting light, and the days of mourning shall
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be ended. Thus creation will not perish. The Temple of
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Immortality will not be an ethereal in corporal place, as
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some imagine and teach, but a material abode in city.
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Saint Anselm describes a new earth when he says, this earth,
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which sustained and nourished the Holy body of the Lord,
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will be a paradise because it has been washed with
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the blood of martyrs. It will be eternally ornamented with
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sweet smelling flowers, violets and roses, which will not wither.
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Of Paris, after declaring that the animals plant some mineral
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substances themselves will be burnt and destroyed by fire ads
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A large number of learned men among Christians consider that
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after the resurrection, the earth will be bedecked a new
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evergreen species and incorruptible flowers, and that a perpetual springtime
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and beauty will therein prevail, as in the paradise on
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which our fathers were placed. The following words of the
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prophet seem to concur with a view expressed by these
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two doctors, and send forth thy spirit, and they shall
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be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
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As for the order, dimensions, and structures of the temporal
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Temple of Immortality, Saint John depicts it for us in
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chapter twenty one of the Apocalypse. In fact, in order
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to give us a picture of such transcendental realities which
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go beyond the conceptions of our mind, he is obliged
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to resort to enigmatic images and to obscure mysterious expressions.
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To bring out the perfection harmony of this glorious city.
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He tells us that it is built entirely of polished
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hewn stones. In order to describe its richness and splendor,
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he tells us that it had a great and you
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see it had a wall great and high, having twelve gates,
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and in the gates twelve angels. In the city Liethan
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a four square, and the linked thereof is as great
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as the breadth. And he that spoke with me measured
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the wall there of one hundred and forty four cubits,
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and the building of the wall thereof was of jasper stone.
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But the city itself of pure gold, like clear glass,
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and the foundations of the wall. The city were adorned
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with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper,
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the second sapphire, the third chalcedony. I guess it's how
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you pronounce that. I have no idea what chalcedony is.
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The fourth and emerald the fifth SARDONYX also don't know
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what that is, the twelfth and amethyst. I do know
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what amethyst, and emeralds and sapphires are. Actually, in the
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mountains where I grew up, there used to be a
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great gym mind Tiffany's Jewelry Company had gem mines in
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the area, so you can actually go into creek sometimes
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and find emeralds and sapphires and rubies and all kinds
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of stuff. But which is pretty cool. They're apparently not
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of any value unless you have them cut and polished
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and actually inscribed with a serial number. So I don't know.
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When I was ten or so, I found I guess
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about a four carrot emerald, just incredible, had it cut
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and everything. But that was before they passed that law
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that said they had to put a serial number on it.
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And when I went to a jeweler years later, they
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told me it was worthless because it hadn't been inscribed.
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How crazy is that? I don't understand our government. But anyway,
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I still don't know what a sardonyx is or a chilecedony. Anyway,
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The twelve to anthysts and the twelve gates are twelve pearls.
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And yeah, I found in niceam with this one time.
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It's a really pretty stone, very purple. Anyway, one each
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and several gates was one of several pearl and the
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street of the city was pure gold, as it were
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transparent as class. All these expressions and images are to
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be understood in the figured of sense and interpreted allegorically.
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There are, however, certain characteristics to be kept in mind
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which signify that the abode of theory of the glorified
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elect will present no analogy with the places where we
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live in this world. Saint John tells us in the
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same chapter that it would be no temple for the
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reason that the all powerful Lord God and Lamb are
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themselves the temple. Nor will there be a sun or
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moon anymore, because the brightness of God is the light,
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and the emoliated Lamb of himself the lamp. We may may,
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by analogy and induction conclude that there will be no
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courts of law, because there will be no wars or strife,
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or will there be any more despots or tyrants, since
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the Lord will be the strength and the ornament of
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the inhabitants of the city water here, and he will
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ordain that they shall reign eternally, because the Lord shall
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enlighten them, and they shall reign forever and ever. Saint
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John himself gives grounds for all these various interpretations when
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he tells us in Apocalypse twenty one to twenty seven
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that there shall not enter into it anything defiled, where
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that work ath abomination or maketh a lie, and when
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he informs us in the preceding voice that the gates
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thereof shall not be shut by day, for there should
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be no night there, and they shall bring the glory
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and honor of the nations into it. What is certain
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is that everything in this city will be peaceful and
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divinely ordered. Sorrow and envy will be forever banished from it.
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For as Saint Augustine explained, sorrow and envy proceed from
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our evil passions desires which make us cover it on
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other's goods. But in the City of God, there will
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no longer be any desires, since all those that the
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elect have ever felt will be entirely satisfied. The lamb
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will quench their thirst, and streams of living water, and
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their thirst will be fully quenched. Secondly, there will be
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no such goods to covet in the Holy City. The
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goods and wealth will be none other than the God
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and Charity, who will give himself wholly to each of
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the elect, in accordance with the degree and extent of
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his merits. Thus, the totality of the angels and men
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will be associated in perfect unity the virtue of him
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who is called the first born of creation, the head
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of the body of the Church, who has received the
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premissy of all things, so that God may be all
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in all. Such are the sentiments and teachings of the
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Faith and the sacred books. But from the same texts
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we have quoted, sacred theology infers and since how prominently
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applications which are equally certain and points of view that
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are just as illuminating. Theology starts from the principle that
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after the resurrection, the elements and material nature will be
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adapted to the circumstances of the glorious bodies Consequently, we
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need only recall that we are taught about the state
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of the glorious bodies for our minds to be able
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to open up new horizons and form clearer and more
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precise ideas of this palace of renewed creation, destined one
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day to be our domain and dwelling place. The first
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prerogative of which the resurrected bodies of the elect one
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enjoy will that be that of subtlety that I have
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trouble with. That word subtlety. You know, doesn't sound like
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a word I have trouble with, does it. But Yeah,
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being dyslexic, I tend to invert a few letters as
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I'm reading, and that can turn into suitability very easily.
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So subtlety. Just as the risen Lord passed through a
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tomb which was sealed the following day, appeared suddenly before
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his disciples in a room the doors of which were closed,
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so our bodies, when they are no longer composed of
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an inert and gross substance, but are vivified and penetrated
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at every point by the spirit, will pass through space
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like a ray of sunshine, and no corporeal object will
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have the capacity to hold him back. The second that
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means bodily. By the way, the second property of the
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glorious bodies will be agility or physical you can say physical, Yeah,
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all right. The second property the glorious bodies will be agility.
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They will run like sparks across the reeds. They will
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have the ability to move with the swiftness of thought itself,
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and wherever the mind wishes, the body will convey itself immediately.
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Thus our bodies will no longer be bound to earth
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by the force of attraction, but freed from all corruption gravity,
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they will spring up according to their desire. And just
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as the Lord was taken up into heaven, so shall
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we be raised up to meet him in the air,
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and we too will fly seated upun clouds. Even now,
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the present physical order offers us an image and a
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faint reflection of this new state to which our nature
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will one day be raised. Do not imponderable elements such
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as electricity and magnetism freely pass through the densest and
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most opaque substances, And do they not move rapidly and
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effortlessly through granite and metals. It will be likewise with
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our bodies. After the resurrection. Matter will no longer be
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able to stop or circumscribe them. Baseness will be absorbed
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in glory, and the tangible and the spiritual will be
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human and the divine. There will be no more disease,
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no more death, and therefore no nourishment, no procreation, and
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no differentiation of sex. I hope he's wrong about the
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no nourishment. I do like food, I have to admit,
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and heaven is also often described as the feast of
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the bridegroom or the lamb, or however, and I'm looking
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forward to some really good food and heaven. It may
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not be for the nourishments of our bodies, but hopefully
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it will be for their enjoyment. Or not, I'll take
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it as it comes, but I hope we have some
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good food in heaven and some good wine and everything
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we're promised our flesh at present week and subject to
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one thousand ailments. I mean, after all, when Jesus was resurrected,
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what was the first thing he did when he appeared
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to the apostles, I guess the second time, So not
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the first thing he did. The second thing he did
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he asked for fish and had it roasted over the fire,
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grilled fish, which is one of my favorite foods. So
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if Jesus aid for the resurrection was eating grilled fish
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with his apostles, I hope too as well. All right,
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so our flesh, at present week, and subject to one
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thousand ailments, will become impassable, endowed with strength, solidity, and constancy,
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which will free it forever from all change, weariness, and alteration. Lastly,
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the resurrected elect will possess brightness. They will be encompassed
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with such splendor that they will appear like so many suns.
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In fact, this brightness will be distributed in different degrees
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among the elect according to the inequality of their merits.
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For the brightness of the sun is one thing, that
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of the moon is another, and that of the stars
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yet another. The stars themselves different from one another in brightness.
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So it shall be in the resurrection of the dead.
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The elect who appears surrounded with the most glory will
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be the doctors. But they that are learned shall shine
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as the brightness of the firmament, and they then instruct
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many to justice as stars for all eternity. Let's see
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what's that from? It's uh, oh, Ephesians. Is that Ephesians
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no Daniel yeah, yeah, yeah, it's from I think Daniel
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twelve three, if I'm not mistaken, all right, yeah, So,
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in fact, this brightness will be distributed differently, distributing different
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degrees among the ee accuarantine the inequality of their merits
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for the brightness of the sun is one thing. Oh,
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I just read that. Sorry the elect to ok, I
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read that. See, this is why I try not to
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look at the footnotes. All right here I am caught up.
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The brightness with which the elect will be adorned will
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unceasingly casts out new reflections, increasing every moment. The glorified
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saints will eternally communicate each other the goods they possess,
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and they will reflect upon one another the streams of
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splendor which illuminate them. The source and center of the
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divine brightness will be none other than God himself, who,
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in the words of Saint John, is all light, and
25:39
in whom there is no admixture of imperfection darkness. The
25:43
vision of God, which the elect will contemplate face to face,
25:47
in its essence, will inundate their souls with its most
25:50
ineffable irradiation, and their souls, in turn will illuminate their bodies,
25:56
which will appear surrounded with as much brightness as createdature
26:00
can contain. That's not a new concept. And may remember
26:04
that you know, Moses, whenever we would speak with God
26:07
would be shining for such Lighty had to cover his
26:10
face with a veil because the people couldn't bear to
26:13
look on it. So from this entire doctrine we may
26:17
draw certain conclusions that our bodies will enter a mode
26:20
of existence utterly different from the way of life on earth,
26:24
that they will be ennobled, embellished, and transfigured to such
26:27
an extent that between this new state and the present one,
26:30
there will be, in an effi an infinitely greater difference
26:36
than between inert rock and the most brilliant sunbeams, or
26:40
between the purest gold and the foulest, murkiest slime. Furthermore,
26:45
it has written that the bodies of the saints will
26:47
be modeled and formed after the risen body of Christ,
26:51
made like to the body of the Glory of Christ.
26:54
Jesus Christ in the Eucharus gives us an image and
26:57
likeness of what the glorious bodies will be like one
26:59
day without leaving Heaven, where he is seen at the
27:02
right hand of the Father he is substantially present every
27:05
day on Earth in a thousand places. He is entire,
27:08
without reduction or to diminution, in each particle the host,
27:12
in each drop of the chalice. By this supernatural and
27:15
in comprehensible mode of existence, does he not show that
27:19
those who have launched into the New life are no
27:21
longer bound or governed by the laws of the present
27:23
physical nature, and that inert matter can place no obstacle
27:27
against the goodness and infinite power of God. As we
27:31
look over the lives of the saints, we again find
27:33
innumerable and analogies of that state to which we shall
27:37
be raised in the life to come. As soon as
27:40
the soul has soared towards God and the spirit from
27:44
above has come down to it, raising it beyond the
27:46
tyranny of the senses and the bondage of the lower appetites,
27:49
it happens that the new flesh experiences the after effects
27:52
of the new life with which the soul is endowed,
27:56
and often feels the anticipate effects of that glorious freedom
28:00
like which the children of God will enter. Saints like Teresa,
28:03
a multitude of ecstatic souls interially consumed by the fire
28:08
of the seraphim have risen up of themselves unsupported into
28:12
the air. Yes, there have actually been several documentary instances
28:16
of saints who levitated. Saint mar disciple of Saint Benedict,
28:21
used to walk dry shod over water. He walked on water.
28:24
In other words, others such as Saint Francis Xavier and
28:27
Saint a Fonsis Laguri were raised from the laws of
28:31
space and were seen simultaneously preaching, praying in town, attending
28:35
a sick person, or going to the aid of shipwrecked
28:38
men in the most distant places by location. That actually, yeah,
28:43
I guess. Most recently, I don't know if most recently,
28:46
but somewhat recently documented was Saint Peore. He was seen
28:52
in two places at once, in the choir singing and
28:55
what the chapel praying at the same time. I can't remember. No,
28:59
maybe he was going to do a duty of something away.
29:01
In several instances he bilocated, going to care for the
29:06
sick or something like that, you know, one of his
29:08
duties is a priest's both, I guess. But anyway, on
29:13
other occasions, the light which the Spirit of God has
29:16
poured to the souls of the saints become visible in
29:18
their features, their clothing, and their whole person, illuminating them
29:21
with a halo by which they appear gloriously surrounded. So
29:25
it should be for those who sow in the flesh
29:27
reap corruption, and those who sow in spirit reap life everlasting.
29:32
I'm not sure if would call it a halo necessarily,
29:35
But Father Dan down in Heartsville, South Carolina, Father Dan Papinah,
29:43
he often seems to have sort of a glow around him,
29:47
and I've mentioned him before. He's had several visions of
29:52
Heaven and spoken with angels and saints and the bust
29:55
Virgin Mary and his you know, deceased loved ones and everything,
29:58
and very very holy man. When you say someone lights
30:03
up a room seems to do it physically. It's really
30:08
hard to describe. Actually, there is yet another certain truth,
30:12
which is of faith. Then it is that once the
30:15
judgment has been completed, Jesus Christ will immediately send back
30:19
to Heaven with all his elect as escort. He will
30:22
point out to each of them the place which He
30:24
prepared for them on the day of his ascension. He said,
30:29
I go to prepare a place for you for a
30:31
dwelling place, the elect will have the im Impurian will
30:36
have the Yeah, I think that says word, the elect
30:40
will have the Impurian heaven, the one which is above
30:42
all the heavenly bodies and all corporeal visible nature. As
30:47
it is written, then we who are alive should be
30:49
taken up together with them in the clouds to meet
30:52
Christ in the error, and so we shall always be
30:55
with the Lord. Now, as the Bible makes quite clear,
30:58
that will happen after the final judge, after the resurrection
31:01
and the final judgment. That's one of the verses that
31:05
Protestants like to use to justify their heretical doctrine of
31:10
the rapture, where they say Jesus is going to call
31:13
all the Christians up to heaven before the Antichrist rules,
31:16
and the end of time not going to happen. Those
31:20
who endure into the end will be saved, and after
31:22
the final judgment, heavens and earths will pass away. The
31:26
whole bit. So does it follow that the rest of creation,
31:30
the heavenly bodies and our sub sublunary beneath the moon.
31:36
I guess yeah, sublunary. Interesting. So does it follow that
31:42
the rest of creation, the heavenly bodies in our sublunary
31:45
world will remain empty and depopulated. If this were so,
31:49
why would Divine wisdom rebuild them on a new plan
31:53
and adorn them with all the marvels of His splendor
31:56
and beauty. Saint Thomas teaches us that heaven is destined
32:00
to serve as the abode of the principal habitation of
32:03
the glorified saints. But they will not, on that account,
32:06
be motionless and restricted within a fixed place. Each of
32:10
the elect will have his throne, and they will occupy
32:12
the higher abodes and places according to their merit. But
32:15
observes Saint Thomas, the word place or locum is to
32:19
be understood rather as excellence of rank order of premissy
32:23
than an imminen sub place which will be assigned. If
32:26
Christ were momentarily to leave Heaven, the place where he
32:29
went to reside would always be the worthiest and highest,
32:32
and the other places more honorable, as they were closer
32:35
to the one occupied by Christ, and not the angels
32:38
who enjoy glory descend from Heaven and return there at
32:41
their pleasure. But it must be concluded that the temple
32:45
of Immensity will blossom forth in its fatality and in
32:49
all its brilliance before the ecstatic gaze of the elect
32:53
and that without leaving Christ for a single moment, they
32:56
will have the power to transport themselves, in the twinkling
32:59
of an eye, to the ends of the firmament. They
33:02
will be free to explore the heavenly bodies, reappear on
33:06
this earth, pass again over the scenes of their labors
33:08
and immolation. This view concurs with the text of the
33:12
Sacred Books, where they tell us that there are many
33:15
mansions in our heavenly Father's house, that the saints will
33:18
shine like stars and perpetual attornities, and that wherever the
33:22
body that is the sacred humanity of Christ shall be,
33:25
there also will be the equals gathered here. Science is
33:29
in accord with faith and helps us to form an
33:32
idea of the order, extent, and magnificence of this temple,
33:36
which will serve as an abode for renewed men. One
33:41
thing you can say about these old books they did
33:43
not use plain, simple language. I pride myself in writing
33:46
with plain, simple language, trying to avoid big words and
33:50
terms that have to be defined. It's not because I
33:53
don't know them. There are a few I've run across
33:56
today that we're a bit surprising, but because everyone should
34:02
be able to read a Catholic book and understand it.
34:05
That's really my big complaint with nine nine percent of
34:09
Catholic writers. They write books that make themselves sound smart,
34:15
or they're so used to using those words that they
34:17
don't see them as, you know, different from common language.
34:24
They write books that the common man can't understand. One
34:27
of the reasons I do this show is so I
34:29
can explain things in simple terms so anyone can understand them.
34:34
It's not an insult to anybody. It's just you shouldn't
34:37
have to be running to a dictionary or thesaurus every
34:40
time you try to read a Catholic book, and you
34:43
shouldn't have to speak Latin. It's good to speak Latin.
34:46
I'm not too bad with Latin, actually, but when it
34:50
comes to reading it, I do decently with French. I
34:53
can do a little Spanish and Italian. But when they're
34:57
just you know, words that Catholics use, it other people
35:00
don't even know what they mean. You know, the perusha
35:03
or concupiscence. Nobody knows what that means. If you're going
35:07
to talk to normal people, and try to convince him
35:10
to become Catholic or try to help them become better Catholics.
35:13
Don't you need to speak to them in language that
35:15
they can understand? I think you do. I mean, it
35:18
wouldn't do very good for me to like go to
35:22
I don't know Germany, for instance, and if everybody spoke German,
35:25
try to talk to him in English, I'd have to
35:27
learn to speak German. I just don't understand why people
35:31
who go to Catholic universities and study theology or become
35:35
priests or whatever can't learn to speak normal English. Anyway,
35:40
that's my little ramp for the day. I'll get up
35:42
my soapbox. Continuing with further Armagnon's work. In our time,
35:47
the fertile, enterprising genius of man, having explored the Earth
35:51
over its surface and in its innermost recesses, has launched
35:55
out to the heavenly bodies and bodily sent his voice
35:59
into the heavens. Le's talking about radio in Yeah, it's Latin, Okay,
36:05
arm with the most there we go. They have set
36:07
their mouth against heaven. That's swee. He's quoting there in Yeah,
36:14
I'm not gonna read in Latin. You can understand, all right,
36:17
So arm are the most powerful instruments which human art
36:20
has ever been able to construct. Contemporary astronomy has a
36:24
rewide area rent the veil of the immense expanse which
36:28
had seemed impenetrable to man's understanding, and by patient study,
36:33
analyze analysis, has marked out their shores of the starry
36:38
sky and investigated all their depths and secrets. In other words,
36:44
people invented radio and telescopes. Yeah. Now it has been
36:49
found at the present time that this Earth which we inhabit,
36:52
is only a minute atom in comparison with thousands of
36:56
millions of worlds which fill the void of the firm
37:01
I am not speaking solely of our planetary system. Everyone
37:04
knows that the Sun, which is its center, and which
37:06
invigorates us by its heat at the same time gives
37:10
us light with its rays, is separated from us by
37:13
a distance of ninety three million miles, and that its light,
37:17
which covers one hundred and eighty six thousand miles a second,
37:21
takes more than twenty minutes to reach our eyelets. Yeah,
37:26
I'd have said that in about five words. All right,
37:27
I'm getting a little tired of this. We'll get through
37:30
this chapter. I mean, it's very it is beautifully written.
37:33
I have to admit it is not only our Earth
37:36
which gravitates around the Sun, but a large number of other,
37:39
vaster and more voluminous bodies which describe orbits around the
37:44
same center, wider than the one described in the path,
37:49
in its path by the Earth, in its annual journey.
37:53
All these bodies, the map of which present day science
37:56
has drawn, and the whole geography of which it has
37:58
succeeded in elaborate with precision, are themselves mere grains of dust,
38:04
insignificant specs, by comparison with this multitude of other worlds
38:09
scattered about in the immensity. These innumerable stars, which appear motionless,
38:14
and because of their incalculable distance from Earth, seem to
38:18
us like specks of light sown above our heads, are
38:21
themselves as many suns. These suns, in turn, illuminate and
38:25
move planets and satellites at the and can they carry
38:32
along with them worlds probably brighter and more extensive than
38:35
our solar world. If we wish to compute the number
38:38
of these worlds which adorn the immensity of space, their
38:41
totality forms what is called the world of constellations. We
38:45
must remember that the naked eye can attact nearly six thousand,
38:49
eight hundred of them. Wow, I did not know that. Moreover,
38:53
as more perfect optical instruments have come to be built,
38:56
their number increases in stupendous proportions. Estimated that with the
39:01
aid of a telescope, more than twenty million could be discerned.
39:04
On clear nights. An observer who watches the firmament that's
39:08
the sky, by the way, proceeds a hazy band of
39:11
whiteness which surrounds the whole sky. By resolving the light,
39:14
it was discovered that it is formed by an incalculable
39:17
number of stars at which, at the distance they lie
39:20
from the Earth, seemed to merge and blend into a single,
39:22
continuous luminous path to the Milky Way and either way.
39:25
In other words, and by analyzing their light, it was
39:29
possible to learn the structure of these globes, the matter
39:32
of which their atmospheric mass was composed. It was established
39:36
that these fixed stars were incandescent, composed of the same elements,
39:40
and having temperatures as high as those of the Sun
39:45
which shines upon us. As for the planets, it is
39:47
known that like the Earth, they have water, air, and vapors,
39:51
and the nature of their climates has been successfully and
39:55
precisely elaborated. There is no doubt but that they are
39:59
like our sphere, dotted with continents and seas, and they
40:02
have no planes, and that their mountains are capped in
40:06
the winter with snow, and which they lose in the spring. Okay,
40:11
I don't know why he's going on a discourse about space.
40:13
I guess it was maybe a hobby of his. We
40:17
really haven't found a lot of snow and water on
40:19
other planets, but that doesn't really matter anyway. He says,
40:23
how many other mysteries there are, and the immensity of
40:26
space which our feeble minds will never succeed in penetrating.
40:31
Thus it is that science, as it advances, reveals to
40:36
us ever more the divine greatness, and bids us exclaim
40:40
with unbounded joy. The prophets, the heavens show forth the
40:45
glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of
40:48
his hands. Day to day uttereth speech, and night to
40:52
night showeth knowledge their lies. Man's domain, the magnificent temple,
40:57
destined one day to be his placable, and his palace
41:01
and habitation. Once resurrected, glorious and incorruptible, he will embrace
41:06
with a single glance the riches which fill these spaces,
41:09
and he will cover these vast distances at one stretch
41:12
with greater swiftness than life. Light itself travels over them.
41:18
And that could well be, Or it could be that
41:20
the entire heavens and Earth will pass away, and we
41:22
will have one realm of being and no longer have
41:26
individual planets and stars. So who knows. But anyway, he
41:31
says that science, which is hostile, hostile to our beliefs,
41:35
has sought to turn these considerations to account in order
41:38
to grade men and combat his hopes and his glorious destinies.
41:42
I can only figure out, you know, figure that father
41:45
Armagnon really like to look at the stars in space
41:48
and dream that one day he might be able to
41:51
travel from planet planet and explore that vast realm. Honestly,
41:56
I have never had any interest in space whatsoever. People ask,
42:00
what do you think about aliens? I think I don't care.
42:02
They haven't bothered me this far. If they're out there,
42:05
let them be, they leave me alone. I'll leave them alone.
42:09
What do you think about space trit In other words,
42:11
I say I have no worlds. I say, have no interest.
42:15
I'd rather explore my own backyard. I'd rather sit by
42:17
a creek. I'm not interested in the things that interest
42:21
Elon Musk. That's just me. I know, I'm kind of weird.
42:24
I never like Star Trek. I don't like stuff like that.
42:27
It just does not do it for me. To quote
42:32
somebody on Seinfeld, Seinfeld's girlfriend one time, it don't get
42:35
it for me, is what she said. No, it really doesn't.
42:40
I could not care less about space, never have. But
42:44
a lot of people really get into that. I guess
42:46
father Armagna was one of them. But anyway, let's go
42:50
back to what he's saying. He says he's speaking of science,
42:54
scientists of his era. He says, how can it admit? It?
42:57
Says or science that these vast fear there's inundated with light,
43:01
where the elements possess all their energy and vitality, or
43:04
black wildernesses devoid of inhabitants, while our planet, which compared
43:08
with other globes, is but an imperceptible speck, is supposed
43:13
to serve as the abode for living creatures capable of
43:15
knowing and loving. Those thousands of millions of worlds suspended
43:19
above our heads are said to be composed of nothing
43:21
but inert bodies mechanically performing the law of their nature,
43:25
or else of animals, slaves of their instincts and incapable
43:29
of knowing the hand which feeds them. With the aid
43:31
of a telescope, we can discern millions of minute animals
43:35
in a drop of water. Now I say about microscope, Actually,
43:38
in a drop of water. Every grain of dust which
43:42
we tramp under foot contains perhaps as many living, organized
43:45
creatures as there are over the whole surface of the earth.
43:48
And we are to believe that the creator, so prodigal
43:51
with animal life, was parsimonious with intelligent life. Could these
43:55
countless worlds intended to proclaim his glory be merely loires,
44:00
suspended in the void, without a spirit capable of hearing them,
44:04
and without a heart to echo them and quiver in
44:07
harmony with their songs. If then reason and every analogy
44:12
which existing things bid us conclude that life and thought
44:18
actuate all these fears. What is man amidst all these
44:21
countless beings, these races endowed like him with a soul
44:25
and body to enumerate, which defies all our calculations and suppositions.
44:30
And how can it be granted that he is the
44:33
center of all things, that it was for him that
44:35
everything was made in the final destiny of the multitude
44:38
of the creatures, Probably superior nature to himself should be
44:42
subordinated the trials and vicissitudes of the ephemeral pilgrimage which
44:46
he undergoes on earth. To make that much more plain, Scientists,
44:50
apparently in the eighteen Knights were arguing that there was
44:53
life on other planets and that Christianity couldn't be right
44:57
because for the southvation of the universe to happen through
45:06
on one race of people on Earth, from you know,
45:11
Adam to Abraham and Moses, the Blessed Virgin Mary to
45:14
Jesus himself, the entire universe hinging on the fiat the
45:20
yes of the Blessed Virgin Mary to give say yes,
45:24
I will be the Mother of God, to the crucifixion
45:28
and resurrection would be almost unfathomable. Well, we don't know,
45:37
as I said, if there's life on other plants or not,
45:39
but if there is, it's all created by the same God.
45:42
And yes, it is actually very fathomable. But you know,
45:49
they think it's pretty good evidence. So there may not
45:51
be the life on other planets. A lot of pretty
45:55
eminent Catholic scholars say that the alien sightings and all
45:59
that stuff, right, demons, I don't know. Like I said,
46:03
I don't care. They aliens haven't bothered me before now,
46:07
and I'm not expecting them to bother me next week.
46:10
If they left me alone for the last forty eight years,
46:12
so probably leave me alone for the next forty. And
46:16
I mean, if they haven't shown up here in the
46:19
last you know, a few thousand years and announced their presence,
46:22
and like some war of the world's type scenario, I'm
46:26
not expecting them to come next week. I simply don't care. Anyway,
46:32
That's just me, anyway, he says, to this difficulty, I
46:37
answer that on this question, the Church has defined nothing exactly.
46:41
The Sacred Books were not written to give soop to
46:44
our curiosity. In the account to which they give us
46:46
of creation, they speak only of two kinds of intelligent nature,
46:49
the angels and men. They were not in the least
46:52
concern to inform us of what might be in the
46:55
mineral logical structure and the qualities of the planets and animals.
47:00
Plants and animals sorry in the spheres other than those
47:03
in which we inhabit. In this matter, the Church has
47:07
not condemned any system, and the field remains open to
47:10
all hypothesis and opinion. There was a fairly general belief
47:14
among the doctors of all that superior intellects were assigned
47:18
to govern the celestial bodies. It is reasonable, I think
47:22
that the beings capable of praising and blessing God feel
47:25
all spaces, They feel all time. Thus there is no
47:28
indefinite Thus there is no infidelity to Catholic tradition in
47:34
linking the material existence of the stars to the existence
47:37
of free, intelligent beings like ourselves. The Church even gives
47:41
us to understand that they were the scene of the
47:43
first act of the providential drama of the great struggle
47:46
among the higher spirits which Saint John describes in his Apocalypse,
47:50
a struggle of which our earthly strife is a continuation.
47:53
It was in the most luminous part of Heaven, above
47:55
the most brilliant stars, says isaiahs that Lucifer tried to
47:59
set up a throne for himself from which he was
48:01
cast down. It was to the summit of this heaven
48:03
of heaven, says the Psalmist, that Jesus Christ descended. However,
48:08
if these views are only theological opinions, what must be
48:11
certain as an article of faith is that all the
48:13
stars and sun are reborn in divine blood and have
48:18
shared in the grace of the redemption. The Church affirms
48:21
in one of her solemn Hymnst. Terrapanis Astra levanter flumine flemenae.
48:27
I guess the scepter of heaven and Earth was placed
48:30
from beginning in the hands of the Son of God.
48:32
This multitude of worlds and number, as well as the
48:35
dimensions of which surpass all calculation, are only the tiniest
48:39
part of the dowry bestowed upon humanity by virtue of
48:43
its indesoluble union with Divinity above all principality and power,
48:49
and virtue and dominion and every name that is name,
48:54
not only in this world, but also other things which
48:56
is to come. And He has subjected all things under
49:00
his feet, and hath made him head of all the Church.
49:04
If you ask me why I am on the spheres
49:06
incomparably more vast and brilliant. The creators sought out the
49:09
smallest of the inhabited stars, to make it the place
49:13
of his annihilation, the scene of his labors, and the
49:17
mysteries of his incarnation and of our redemption. I shall
49:20
reply that the uncreated Word, desiring to show the depths
49:23
and excess of his love, by abasing himself to the
49:27
very extreme, surged the bosoms of his father, and from
49:30
the eternal hills, the scripture says, and without stopping, passed
49:34
through all orders of intellectual hierarchy, crossing the imperior impyre
49:39
in heaven, where the angelic nature lives. He did not
49:43
unite himself to them, and it was not in their
49:46
abode that he established his drilling place. Descending for nowhere
49:51
doth he take hold of the angels. Descending next into
49:54
the highest region of the firmament, those lit by the
49:57
great sons, He deemed them also two sumptuous and brilliant,
50:00
As is written in the Canticle of Canicals. He cometh
50:03
leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills, until he
50:06
came to the meanest thing there was to plant his
50:10
mortal footstep. To hide himself and to suffer, he chose
50:13
among all the stars of creation, one of the smallest
50:16
and most obscure, confirming in regard to the words as individuals,
50:20
these words of the Prophet raising up the needy from
50:23
the earth and lifting the poor out of the dunghill.
50:26
No doubt from the preference Christ gave to our inferior
50:29
and limited planet, and from the perpetual transubstantiation of its
50:33
material substance in the body of God, which he consummated
50:37
in the Eucharus, our earth has not acquired that pre
50:40
eminence in the physical order which the ancients mistakely abscribed
50:43
to it. Our center of the universe, as people used
50:47
to think, it is the center of the supernatural world.
50:51
It is a source, as the apostle, from which spreads
50:54
over all other worlds, the virtue which conserves and defies
51:00
deifies them. It gathers within its unity all the perfections
51:04
which compose the universe. It restores within its totality the
51:09
diversity of created existence. Through it, the heavens bowed down.
51:14
God approached this base world, and, to use the beautiful
51:18
expression of Saint Ambrose, he closed himself in the universe
51:22
as in a mantle, and became resplendent among all the creatures.
51:26
That is all we can say about the future state
51:29
of the world and its place and immortality. Of course,
51:32
we did nine tend today to describe the supreme essential
51:35
happiness to the elect which we call the Beatific Vision,
51:38
that possession of God so intimate and inherent in our
51:41
being that we shall be united to it, just as
51:44
iron unites with fire, and seeing face to face at
51:47
the source of the rays of its eternal essence, we
51:50
shall be transformed in the resemblance of its divine splendor.
51:53
That vision called eternal life, because it confers upon man
51:57
a direct and immediate sharing in the bliss of God,
52:01
is not dependent on any space or place. God is
52:05
impinite and everywhere present, just as the soul is the
52:08
sanctuary wherein it most pleases him to dwell. The angels
52:13
who assist and protect us on this earth see the
52:16
face of the heavenly Father unceasingly, and the souls of
52:19
the blessed, separated from their bodies, have the paradise wherever
52:22
they are placed, where they amidst the deepest darkness, were
52:26
they amidst the deepest darkness of the abyss God, who
52:30
possesses and completely satisfies them would not fail to inundate
52:34
them with his brightness, and the joys in which he
52:37
immerses them would not suffer any diminution. If a man
52:41
were a pure spirit, he would not need any definite
52:43
material place beyond the present life. Earth and creation would
52:47
then no longer have any purpose, and would be irrevocably destroyed.
52:51
But mankind is destined to be reborn. Whence it follows
52:55
that matter which served as its garment is also meant
52:58
to be restored in the same way as is rejuvenaid.
53:02
It's in the same way as its rejuvenaid glorified hosts.
53:06
Thus mankind is a complete body, and the whole visible
53:10
creation will be tried by fire, and they will come
53:13
out of it dazzling and purified. Just as metal is
53:16
not cast in the furnace to be consumed and destroyed,
53:18
but to come out refined and the state of pure gold.
53:21
So the conflagration which will world will undergo will not
53:25
annihilate it, but only purify it and transform it into
53:28
a clearer and purer image of the idea of God
53:31
realized in it. And I saw the Holy City, the
53:34
New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God prepares a
53:37
bride adored for her husband, And I heard a great
53:40
voice from the throne, saying, behold the Tabernacle of God
53:44
with men, and He will dwell with them, and they
53:47
will be as people, and God himself with them shall
53:49
be their God. Oh, you must not think that, because
53:53
the world ceased to turn round itself and ever revolve
53:56
around that same circle, like a slave tied to a millstone,
54:00
that in this new Earth there will be no freshness
54:02
in the air, nor verg verdure greenness in the meadows meadows,
54:08
no flower on the trees, and no water gushing from
54:10
the springs. You imagine, perhaps, that this nature, which now runs, moves,
54:14
and sees full of zest and life beneath the indirect
54:17
and partial light of our dark sun, is to remain inert, fruitlets,
54:21
and frozen beneath the direct days of God. Far from it.
54:24
The new world is a living thing. The heavenly Jerusalem
54:27
is the eternal Church, the daughter of God, the spotless
54:30
spouse of the Lamb. The Lamb, the incarnate Word, occupies
54:34
the center of its heart. It is He who is
54:36
its life, its focus as streaming water, and its ever burning,
54:40
indistinguishable torch. As for the fortunate creatures who dwell in it,
54:44
They will ever pass rapidly from brightness to brightness, from
54:48
progress to progress, from one ecstasy to another. God cannot grow,
54:53
but the creatures will always grow. Only it will bind
54:56
itself unalterably to its center through the immense love. And
55:00
this is what will be known as its repose and immobility.
55:04
What practical and moral lessons are to be drawn from
55:07
these teachings for the guidance of our lives and the
55:09
rule of our action. The first is this, and that
55:12
it is the height of human folly to become attached
55:15
to perishable and corruptible goods of this life. Wow, he
55:23
you know what. He goes on for another twenty pages,
55:27
and hm, I'm gonna have to find a good stopping
55:30
place here because I've already gone about an hour. Let's
55:32
see if I can just wrap up this this little segment. Okay,
55:37
So don't be attached to the perishable and incorruptible goods
55:41
of this life. What would you think of a great king,
55:44
one of a vast empire, who, spurning his sumptuous treasures
55:47
and the glitter of his crown, kept his eyes and
55:50
all thoughts fixed on a handful of sand or a
55:53
piece of slimes, and set his heart and all his
55:56
affections on waveringly on this base matter. The story is
56:00
told of a Roman emperor who, instead of commanding his
56:02
armies and dispensing justice, spend his time killing flies. So
56:06
it is with the majority of men called to possess
56:09
the kingdom, which encompasses the whole range of the firmament,
56:14
they excite themselves and engage in senseless fights to the
56:17
death of our objects more trifling than the flimsy webs
56:20
spun by a spider, than the shriveled grass, or that
56:25
of paltry, worthless life of the worm crawling at our feet.
56:29
The second of these consequences is that suffering in this
56:32
life is only relative. Evil there are on this earth
56:36
causes a profound sorrow of intolerable raw bruises and heart
56:41
rendering indescribable separations. History affords us with the spectacle of
56:45
mothers who, with their own eyes so their children branded,
56:48
degraded and delivered to wretches worse than demons, who torture
56:52
their bodies and strove by countless const contrivances to kill
56:56
their souls. It has portrayed the spiritual angerh worst than
57:00
torture and death which they endured. A great poet has said,
57:04
he who lives in a hovel and he lives in
57:06
a palace, all in this life suffering morn. Queens have
57:09
been seen weeping like ordinary women, and the quantity of
57:12
those the tears in the eyes of the king brought astonishment.
57:15
Yet all this heartbreak and suffering are but a laboratory
57:19
and a crucible into which divine goodness has cast our
57:22
nature in order that, like cold, black and base, it
57:25
may emerge in the form of a precious, sparkling diamond.
57:29
Jesus Christ has said, a woman, when she is in labor,
57:32
has sorrow because her hours come. But when she hath
57:35
brought forth the child, she remembers no more of the
57:37
anguish for the joy than a man is born into
57:40
the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow. But
57:44
I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice,
57:47
and your joy no man shall take from you. Thus
57:50
it is with every part of creation. It is in pain.
57:55
It sows the harvest to come amidst tribulation and tears.
57:59
But sooner or a life that will rise over it.
58:01
The sun of that other world the dawn of which
58:04
we can glimpse by faith, and that now lies buriled
58:08
and overwhelmed beneath the weight of sin and death. All
58:11
that size and pain, amidst malediction and corruption, will be
58:14
filled with light and joy, and rise up again in
58:17
the glory of boundless and endless bliths bliss. The third
58:21
consequence of our doctrine is that we must not allow
58:24
ourselves to be perturbed by the noises of social strife
58:27
and convulsions of our revolutions. All this is but a prelude.
58:30
It is the chaos which precedes harmony. It is motion
58:34
seeking rest, twilight on the move towards day. The City
58:38
of God is being built invisibly but surely. Amidst these
58:41
shocks and heartbreaking convulsions, public disasters and great scourges are
58:46
none other than the sword of the Lord and the
58:48
harbinger of his justice, separating the chap from the good seed.
58:53
Our wars, moral combats, and civil commotions hasten the day
58:57
of deliverance. When the City of God will be perfect complete,
59:00
and when the turmoil of the ages has passed, there
59:03
will come a great calm and great pacification. Then there
59:07
will follow progress in growth, the eternal dwelling places of free,
59:10
intelligent creatures, the unity which will make all people a
59:14
single soul in the life of eternal life of God.
59:16
In the light of the eternal life of God. Saint Augustine,
59:19
after his baptism, having considered in what place he might
59:22
serve God most usefully, determined to return to Africa with
59:25
his mother, his brother, and a youth named Evodius. When
59:28
they reached Ostia, they stopped there to rest after a
59:31
long journey they had undertaken from Milan, and were preparing
59:34
to embark. One evening, Augusta and his mother, leaning upon
59:37
a window which looked out over the garden of the house,
59:40
were conversing most graciously forgetting the whole past and directing
59:44
their gaze upon the heavenly future. That evening, the night
59:47
was calm, the sky was clear, of the air still,
59:49
and in the light of the moon in general twinkling
59:51
of the stars. The sea could be seen extending a
59:54
silvery azure in its waves in the distant horizon. Augustina
59:58
and Monica were seeking to discover what life would be like.
1:00:01
In a single movement of mind, they scaled the stars,
1:00:04
the sky, and every region where their bodies lived. Next,
1:00:07
they swept past above the angels and spiritual creatures, felt
1:00:10
themselves transported to the very throne of eternal wisdom, and had,
1:00:15
as it were, a vision of Him through whom all
1:00:18
things exist, and who himself always is, always without a
1:00:22
distinction of time. How did their ecstasy? How long did
1:00:26
their ecstasy last? To them? It seemed as fleeting as
1:00:29
a flash, and they felt unable to estimate storation. Having
1:00:33
recovered consciousness, and being obliged once more to hear the
1:00:36
noise of human voices, Monica exclaimed, for my part, I
1:00:39
find no more pleasure in this life, and I do
1:00:42
not know what I am doing or why I still
1:00:45
remain here. That scene has remained famous and popular. Great
1:00:48
masters have immortalized it in the masterpieces of their art.
1:00:51
The paintings and images of which they have drawn of
1:00:54
it have been reproduced a thousand times, and have left
1:00:57
vivid and imperishable this sublime episode in the life of
1:01:00
Monica and Augustine. On the following day, Monica cart an
1:01:04
illness which led to her death. In nine days. After
1:01:06
the ecstasy which had entrance and raised her above the senses,
1:01:10
she went to contemplate face to face at sovereign beauty,
1:01:13
whose radiance and image she had glimpsed on earth. In
1:01:17
that abode of blissful life which Saint Monica glimpsed, Christ
1:01:20
will be truly king, not only as God, but inasmuch
1:01:24
as he is visible in clothes where human nature. He
1:01:27
will reign in the House of Jacob forever. His ascension
1:01:30
to his kingdom will not be definitive, and the glory
1:01:34
with which she is invested at the right hand of
1:01:36
his father would not be perfected and consummate consummated until
1:01:40
he is finished laying his enemies at his feet. Then
1:01:43
all things will be subject to him, and he himself
1:01:45
would be subjected to the one who has bound every
1:01:47
creature to himself. Hitherto, Christ fought in union with his Church,
1:01:52
and was busy conquering his kingdom, whether by eliminating the
1:01:55
wicked from it or by calling to himself adjust through
1:01:57
ineffable attraction of his mercy. The kingdom in Heaven will
1:02:01
be built on a completely new foundation, and on a
1:02:04
model very different from the one which is established here below.
1:02:08
In that new life, Jesus Christ will no longer be
1:02:10
represented by a teaching church, and the elect will not
1:02:13
need to be enlightened and aided by good angels, nor
1:02:16
to have recourse to the sacraments for their sanctification. Their
1:02:20
state will be a pure, perpetual contemplation of the divinity,
1:02:23
in which Christ, the head of humanity, will bear within
1:02:26
himself to the bosom of his Father the totality of
1:02:29
its members, in order to subject them to Him to
1:02:32
whom he himself is subject. Then the son shall be
1:02:36
subject unto the Father, that God may be all in
1:02:39
all Corinthians fifteen twenty eight. There will be no domination
1:02:43
but that of one God, extending to all men, and
1:02:47
there will be one glory, the glory of God become
1:02:50
the possession of all. Just as the present life is
1:02:53
subjected to various constraints and requires for it to support
1:02:56
certain kinds of conditions of air, clothing, and food, as
1:03:00
Saint Gregory Nansianzen says, and the Kingdom of Christ, the
1:03:04
Divine vision will compensate for all these different needs. The
1:03:08
elect will find therein, although they are capable of loving
1:03:11
and desiring, It will be their clothing, their food, their drink,
1:03:14
and will satisfy all the demands of their renewed life.
1:03:17
Happy he who can forget the cares of the present
1:03:21
for the moment and turn his hopes toward this blessed abode,
1:03:24
raising himself up in thought to these high spheres of
1:03:28
contemplation and love. But, oh, my God, how far these
1:03:32
ideas are from the thoughts of most men. And where
1:03:36
is he who will even lend to a cursory attention
1:03:39
to the few things we have endeavored to stammer out?
1:03:42
The great number, blinded by their passions, consumed by greed
1:03:45
and pride, are far removed from any concern for their
1:03:48
souls and their future children of men? How long will
1:03:51
your hearts be burdened? How long will you seek your
1:03:53
sussance in lies and shadows? When will you cease imagining
1:03:58
death as a curse and regarding it is the abyss
1:04:00
of darkness and destruction. Let us try to day to
1:04:03
understand that it is not the obstacle, but the means.
1:04:07
It is the partial transition which leads from the kingdom
1:04:10
of shadows to that reality, from the life of movement
1:04:15
to the life of immutability and indefectibility. It is the
1:04:20
good sister whose hand will one day cast off the
1:04:23
clouds and idle phantoms to lead us to the Holy
1:04:26
of Holies, to certatude and incomparable beauty. Ah. Perhaps in
1:04:31
this discourse we have permitted to have an inkling and
1:04:34
glimpse of what would take place in the Lands of Glory.
1:04:37
So far as forming an exact idea of its concern,
1:04:40
we can no more do so than the person who,
1:04:43
having lived since his mother's womb in an underground cave,
1:04:46
could picture to himself the light of a beautiful day.
1:04:49
In drawing an image of the Kingdom of Christ, we
1:04:51
have been able to speak only in riddles and metaphors.
1:04:54
But these riddles and metaphors represent great and true things
1:04:58
and eloquent, infutable commentary on these words of the apostle,
1:05:03
I hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it
1:05:05
entered into the heart of man, What things God has
1:05:08
prepared for them to love him. Here speech fails beyond
1:05:13
my speech is about a fail impact beyond what we
1:05:15
have said. Reason is powerless to conceive anything. Man can
1:05:19
only believe, hope, love, and hold his peace. And he
1:05:23
said to me these words are most faithful and true.
1:05:27
That's another biblical quote we have. Let's see, that's from
1:05:31
all the apocalypse revelations as well. We have a bade you,
1:05:35
Lord God. We've spoken these things, we have written them,
1:05:38
and we have preached them. May those who have heard
1:05:41
them and we with them, by a holy sinless life,
1:05:44
obtain one day their perfect fulfillment. And I do believe
1:05:49
that is the longest chapter in this entire book. Thank
1:05:52
you for going through it with me. I know it
1:05:54
was a bit longer than we usually do or plan,
1:05:57
but it is a very rich chapter, very important to
1:06:00
do it all in one to give the full vision,
1:06:03
the full concept. Probably could have skipt all that stuff
1:06:06
about space, but hey, maybe you're into that kind of thing.
1:06:09
Maybe that really spoke to you. I don't know, Like
1:06:13
I said, never cared about Star Trek or Star Wars
1:06:16
or any of that crap. But yay, if that's your thing,
1:06:19
go for it. Y'all have a great week. Remember we
1:06:23
have a lot to look forward to in the life
1:06:25
to come. I mean, the name of this book is
1:06:26
the end of this present world and the mysteries of
1:06:28
the life to come and the day we got into
1:06:30
the life to come. So that's very encouraging, very beautiful
1:06:34
to contemplate. And you know, especially if you're going through
1:06:39
a hard time right now. I know so many people
1:06:40
are so to look forward to that it should give
1:06:43
you some consolation. Anyway, y'all have a great week and
1:06:46
I'll talk to you next time.