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Show 120: The Suffering of Christ · The Uncensored Catholic

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The f A Hey, y'all, welcome to today's show. We're going to
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pick right up where we left off last week. And you may recall that
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an Anglican was questioning the two priests in Catholic Priests, of Course, in
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the classic book, Radio replies and the person says, I know that Protestants
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are ignorant of Catholicity, but are not Catholics ignorant of Protestanism. And they
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answer very often, but there is this difference. The Catholic who does not
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understand Protestantism does not know the wrong thing. The Protestant who does not know
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Catholicism does not know the right thing. I personally know both, having been
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brought up in Protestantism, which I recounted in which I renounced in favor of
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Catholicism. And the person asks, have Catholics any advantage not possessed by good
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Protestants? And they answer all things else being equal and strictly from the viewpoint
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of the religious, Catholics have many advantages. They have the full truth,
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sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Church. The protest is except only part
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of Scripture, and have no God appointed guide. This you know comes up
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almost every day on Twitter and such, so it'll be some you know,
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King James bible thump are out there and you kind of have to explain to
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him, the words of your Bible are not accurate. Martin Luther changed the
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words of Jesus to fit his teachings, not the teachings of Christ, and
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not complete. He tore out whole books that he didn't agree with, like
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Toba and Maccabees and Wisdom and etc. They don't like that, they don't
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believe it. And you can prove. You can pull up the biblious sac
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of all Goda. I mean, you can pull up the Dewey Reems,
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which is you know, pretty much written about the same times as the King
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James, and you can show them. Look, this was the original Bible.
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This is what the Church used from the time Saint Jerome translated everything.
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You know, in the three hundreds and before the nd they just had fragments
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of the Gospels and various scriptures. But for you twelve hundred years, this
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was the only Bible there was. And your Bible isn't the same as the
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early Church, and they just closed their minds, refused to believe it.
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And one of the most ridiculous arguments is they will say, but the King
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James version says right here, it's the authorized version, And all you have
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to do is ask them authorized by whom? Well, it's the authorized version
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of the Christian Bible, by whom who had the authority to authorize it?
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Who authorized this book? Was it as an Anglican English king? Did we
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not, as Americans fight two wars to get rid of those people? Why
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in the world are you worshiping essentially an Anglican king as having the authority of
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the authority given by God to authorize any translation of the Bible. That authority
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was given by God to his Holy Catholic Church when he gave him to Saint
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Peter the keys of the Kingdom, when he said, what you bind on
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earth will be bound in heaven. Which you loose on earth will be loosened
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in heaven. When he said, those who hear you hear me, and
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those who reject you reject him who sent me. Oh, I could go
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on and on. I mean he gave full authority when he said, if
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a man would not listen to the Church, let him be to thee as
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a heathen. What church? What church was this? You know, was
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it? Saint Paul said that, I think yeah, probably, But I
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mean what church exactly were you looking to to have that authority? If it's
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any church, well the man could just go to a different church. But
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the truth is there was only one church, the one founded by Jesus,
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the one Holy Apostolic Catholic Church until the fourteen hundreds. Now, the Orthodox
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branched off, but their teaching didn't change very much, and we've stayed in
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fairly close communion with the Greek Orthodox and several other Orthodoxy at least Frank the
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Orthodox would have rejoined the Catholic Church had the Russian Orthodox not been obstinately opposed
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to it. But anyway, and that really began somewhat ever doctrine, but
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moreover language. Basically, Greeks don't like Romans, and usually vice versa.
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They're not known to speak each other's languages, not historically. Now I can't
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talk for you Romans in the modern day who you know, but historically those
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are two groups that have not gotten along very well whatsoever. As he said,
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the Protestant accepts only a part of scripture and has no God appointed guide.
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Certainly a man with full information as to the road leading to a given
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destination has greater advantages than one would defective information. Again, Catholics have more
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means of grace than non Catholics. They have the sacrifice of the Mass and
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the seven Sacraments. You may say that gives grace at times independently of the
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sacraments instituted by him for this purpose. But why should he when he definitely
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institute seven sacraments for this purpose? Baptism, confirmation, reconciliation, the Eucharist,
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marriage, Holy orders, the annoying of the sick? Did I leave
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in the out? Probably did? And even granting that he does give certain
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graces to those in good faith, those graces are not so plentiful nor of
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the same nature as the special sacramental graces. Remember, you can tell your
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Protestant friend when they tell you you must be born again, you say,
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could you finish that sentence for me? Open your Bible and was saying you
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must be born again of water and the blood. Water is baptism, the
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blood is the Eucharist. Else you have no life in you. You can
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then ask them are you baptized? Good? If you're baptized, you're part
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of the body of Christ. But can Jesus said, unless you eat my
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body and drink my blood, you have no life in you. Do you
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receive Jesus Christ in the EU Christ? And they'll say, well, we
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don't believe that's really the body and blood of Jesus. And if you're at
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a Baptist church, he may be given out grape juice instead of wine,
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even if they bother to do that Methodist Southern Methodist at least as well.
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But you say, but Jesus said, so, so is your church a
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higher authority than Christ? If so, on what do you base your belief
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on the doctrine of your man made church or on the words of Jesus Christ
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in the Bible that you venerate? If you believe in sol scripture or the
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Bible alone, you have to believe the words of the Bible. I mean,
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they will say, you get into a debate where a Protestant and they'll
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say, we believe in the Bible alone, a soul authority, and I
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quote the words of the Bible, and they'll pull up some sermon or document
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written by a Protestant minister in the last fifty years, and I just have
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to say, do you believe in reverend you know, or it could be
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a you know, a scholar or or preacher like Ralph Stanley or somebody.
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Do you believe in Reverend Ralph Stanley or Billy Graham, or do you believe
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in the Bible? And they said, well, you know, the preacher
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is teaching us what's in the Bible. You mean he's interpreting the Bible for
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you. Yes, yes, he's interpreting the Bible for us. But I
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thought you believed in the Bible alone and to read it you could understand it
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because you'd be guided by the Holy Spirit. You know, it's a very
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easy argument to take a part and then you get to the point part of
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by what authority does this man teach? He's not in the Apostolic succession,
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he was not given the keys to the of the kingdom by Jesus. By
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what authority does he teach? Well, you can take it all the way
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back to and you know, you can argue this point back to where Martin
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Luther changed the words of Jesus from you're saved by faith and works to faith
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alone. And in his own writings he said that the paper, uh,
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you know, scream and wine or whatever he said you know, probably said
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something a little more eloquent than that about his changing the Bible, and say
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by what authority did you do this? And he said, you may tell
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them by doctor Luther's authority. He was his own highest authority. He made
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himself his own God. So that's the sin of the devil. Actually,
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And yeah, unfortunately, uh, there are While there are many many good
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Protestant Christians in these Protestant churches, they are all essentially founded on a Satanic
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principle of man knowing better than God and his church. I mean to change
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the words of Jesus. I mean, if Jesus is God, what he
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said is true, you can't just change them, you know. And now
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we have many progressive Christians who say that the Book of Leviticus was misunderstood and
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we have to accept Homosexualuy, when you go to well what about when's St.
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Paul say about this? You know, neither the homosexual nor the effeminate
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show enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is abomination, and live with a
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man as with a woman. We can go down this list. Guess.
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Homosexuality was explicitly condemned in multiple places in the Bible, but it has also
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been explicitly condemned by the Catholic Church for two thousand years, unchanging and always
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will be because it's inherently disordered. There's no complimentary role between two people of
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the same sex. Opposite sexes have a complimentary role and can create life through
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their union. As Monsignor Jeffrey Ingham said, only through the union of a
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man and a woman in a lawful marriage is how it should be. But
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only through the union of a man and a woman can life be created.
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He said, through the union of a man and a man, or a
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woman and a woman, all that comes from that is death. It's a
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very good point, best stability. But hell, actually, you know,
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if they refuse to accept the teachings of Christ and his church, and it's
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not because you know, homosexual sex is a mortal sin. Actually, it's
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just it's not. It's a venial sin. It's a serious sin. It's
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a lot more serious than you know, a lot of the lighter venial sins.
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But the idea that you can say this is right even though God says
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it's wrong, well, that's actually a mortal sin. That's a violation of
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the you know, ten commandments. You know, I am the Lord thy
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God, and they shall have no gods before me. When you say you
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know better than God, you just made yourself your own God, just just
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did Martin Luther, and just says do many so called Protestant Bible scholars and
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theologians who are anything but enlightened or well educated. All right, So the
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last question this person asks you insist then that not any form of Christianity will
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do, but that you ought to join the Catholic Church, And they say
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yes. As a matter of fact, a close study of other forms will
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suggest only reasons for abandoning them, whilst an equally close study of Catholicism intensifies
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the conviction that in the Catholic Church, and in her alone, can the
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full truth be found. That was my experience. That's why I converted to
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Catholicism. I studied the Protestant doctrines and found them lacking. The more I
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studied Catholicism, the more I found, Yes, it actually does agree with
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the Bible, and yes it actually makes logical sense as well. So now
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let's turn to and there's historic evidence for it. And so you know,
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many things that Protestism lacks, there's no historic evidence for Protestantism. Some you
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know Protestant was on a forum saying the Catholic Church didn't exist until you know,
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I guess the Apostles creed was formulated. I believe in one Holy Catholic
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Church. Well, yes, it's not true. He said that Saint All
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founded all these different churches that were different denominations. The very words of Saint
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Paul of obey your bishops because they answer essentially to the Apostles, that belies
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that statement. And besides, you can't go back historically and point to a
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single church that wasn't Catholic in the first you know, five thousand years of
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the Christian Church. You go through the catacombs at Rome, you go to
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the caves in Turkey, and the old churches in Syria and all across you
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know, the ancient world, Greece, and they've all been Catholic since they're
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founding. So anyway, if we could just get them to read the d
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da Ka, the original first Christian document was put together before the Bible was
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even completed, they know, But yeah, good luck on getting an anti
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Catholic to read the d da Ka. The teachings of the Twelve Apostles all
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right. So let's see what Father Spirago has to say about the sufferings of
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the Christ another fairly unique Catholic teaching. We spend a lot of time discussing
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suffering, which is quite the opposite of the prosperity doctrine that has infected many
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Protestant churches. Point number one, On the Sunday preceding the feast of Easter,
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Christ made a solemn entry into Jerusalem and taught in the Temple during the
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days following. The church celebrates this solemn entry by blessing palms and the procession
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and the procession on Palm Sunday, in the course of the High Mass,
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the history of the passion is related by Saint Matthew, is read by the
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celebrant and sung by the choir. During the blessing of the poems the priest's
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praise that God may preserve from sin and danger those who receive these palms and
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keep them in their houses. The week following Palm Sunday is called Holy Week,
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and point number two on only Thursday evening, Christ ate the pash the
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Passional Supper, the sacrificial Supper of the Jewish Passover with his disciples and institute
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the Blessed Sacrament, and he went out to the Malavalis, where he suffered
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his great agony and bloody sweat. Before the institution of the Blessed Sacrament,
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he washed the feet of his apostles to teach his humility. His conduct in
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the garden of Gassimone was a lesson of humble prayer, conforming to God's will
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and patience under suffering. In the words of Saint Ambrose, the Lord took
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my grease on him, that he might share his joys with me. In
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many places, as the custom to ring a bell at eight o'clock in the
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evening to recall the agony in the garden, the following ceremonies are in more
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general use. The pope washes the feet of the twelve priests, a practice
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kept up since the time of Gregory the Great. The bishops and governors in
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many places washed the feet of twelve old men. During the Glory and the
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High Mass, all the bells are rung, and the priests and laity go
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to communion and to commemorate the institution of the Blessed Sacrament. The procession of
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the Blessed Sacrament to the altar of repose is to recall Our Lord's journey to
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the Mount of Olives. The stripping of the altars and the silence of the
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bells are signs of the church's sympathy with her Savior. The blessing of oils,
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which takes place in the cathedral churches, which is of ancient institution,
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suggests that Christ may have instituted some of the sacraments. At the Last Supper,
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Christ was seized by soldiers in the garden, led before the High Priest
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and condemned to death. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening of Holy Week,
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Tanabre is celebrated in the evening on a triangular frame in front of the
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altar. There are placed fourteen candles of unbleached wax and of the upper angle
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of one of white wax. The candle represents the white candle represents Our Lord,
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and the unbleached candles his apostles and disciples. At each of the intifants,
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which recur at intervals during the recital of the Psalms, a candle was
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extinguished to represent the flight of the disciples after the capture of Our Lord.
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At the end of the service, the white candle was hidden for a time
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behind the altar, a noise is made and the candle replaced on the stand,
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all signifying the death and resurrection of our Lord, with accompanying convulsions of
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nature from the court of the high priests. Christ was led by the Jews
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before Ponscious Pilot to receive ratification of the death sentence. The Jews had no
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power to put a nim one to death, so they were obliged to have
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recourse to the Roman governor. Pilot could see no reason for condemning Christ,
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and made several attempts to set him at liberty. He sent him to Herod
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and offered to give up rabbits in exchange. To enlist the sympathy of the
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Jews, he caused Our Lord to be scourged and crowned with thorns, and
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that state presented to the crowd. But they clamored only the more for the
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blood of Jesus and threatened to accuse Pilot to the Emperor. Pilot, alarmed
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by the threats of the Jews, condemned our Lord to the death of the
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Cross. The devotion of the stations of the Cross commemorates all these details of
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the passion. The distance to cavalry with some thirteen hundred paces point number three.
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On Good Friday at noon, Christ was nailed to the cross on the
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Hill of Calvary, just outside Jerusalem, and died on the cross about three
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o'clock. Cicerose our authority that crucifixion was at the time the most shameful and
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terrible of deaths, to which none but the greatest criminals were subjected. Hence
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the doctrine of the crucified was a scandal to the Jews and a folly to
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the Heathens, as it says in First Corinthians one twenty three. Yet today
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the cross is the badge of honour, worn in the crown of the kings,
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and on the breasts of men proud of and on the breasts of men
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proud of the decoration. In the words of Saint Athanasius, sin was repaired
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on the tree where sin was committed and where death began. Their life arose.
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As the Church sings in the preference to the mass. Christ was not
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beheaded nor his body dismembered. So we were that his mystical body, the
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Church should remain ever undivided. Christ bent his head to kiss Us and spread
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his arms to embrace us and opened his heart to love us. According to
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Saint Augustine, the heart of Jesus was open, and that its wounds might
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reveal to us the hidden wounds of his love for us. Saint Bernard,
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it was not the soldiers, but his love for us which knelt Christ to
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the cross again, that's Saint Augustine. During these three hours, the sun
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was darkened over the earth, though an eclipse was impossible at that time of
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the full moon. As Saint John Christossum says, the sun hid its rays
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that he might not behold the suffering of his maker. This darkening of the
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sun is mentioned by Heathen writers. At the death of Christ, the earth
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opened, rock split, the veil of the temple was rent, and many
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of the dead rose and appeared in Jerusalem. All creation was in sympathy with
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Christ, excepting man for whom Christ was suffering. According to Saint Jerome,
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these marvels CAUs many to acknowledge the Godhead of Christ, as in the case
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of the centurion, who exclaimed, indeed this was the Son of God.
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One may still see on cavalry a rent in the rock between the side of
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our Lord's cross and that of the thief on his left. Christ spoke on
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the cross seven last words. These words were, one, Father, forgive
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them. Two Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Three behold thy
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Mother. Four, My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me?
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Five? I thirst? Six it is consummated. Seven Father, into
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thy hands, I commend my spirit. The great cry which Christ gave before
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his death was a sign that he gave up his life of his own free
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will, and that he had the strength enough to go on living. The
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cross, as Saint Augustine says, is no longer the instrument of Christ's suffering,
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but the pulpit of Christ's preaching. From it, he teaches the lessons
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of love of our enemies, gentleness, patience, obedience, God's mercy,
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judgment, justice and power, the immortality of the soul. The last judgment
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in the resurrection. In many churches is the custom to toll the bells at
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three o'clock on Friday in memory of Christ's death. And since Christ crucified his
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flesh for our sins on that day, the Church has forbidden eating flesh meat.
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And you know that changed with Vatican two. We no longer have to
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eat fish on Friday or just vegetables and cheese and such a good thing to
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do though, a good thing to do that as penance, but also being
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culturally Catholic, just remembering we're not of the world, you know, we
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live by a different set of rules. And the reason it's changed is because
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for thousands of years, fish seafood was the food of the poor. Only
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the wealthy could afford cattle. Only they had enough land to well to raise
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cattle and pigs, but to hunt as well, so meat was for the
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wealthy. That all changed. I mean, in early America you'd get like
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ten oysters for a penny. Lobsters were so plentiful that they had to pass
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laws saying they can only be served to prisoners once a week because it was
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considered inhumane and cruel to feed them lobster more than once or twice a week.
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I mean, you know, wow, you know, now we're a
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nation where meat is cheap, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, even you know,
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nice steaks are comparatively pretty inexpensive, whereas seafood has become much more expensive.
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It's become gourmet foods. So, you know, the church said and also
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acknowledging that not all Catholics lived near bodies of water anymore. Traditionally, towns
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were built on you know, bays and inlets, on rivers, on lakes.
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You know. I don't even know how what percentage of America is built
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in you know, arid planes and deserts even, you know, And they
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pretty hard to get fish unless you're going to pay a whole lot for it.
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So they changed it. But like I said, it's a really good
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practice to constial abstain from meat on Fridays. On Friday of Holy Week,
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the church is in morning. The altars are stripped and the lights put out,
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and the bells silence, and the sacred ministers and their black vestments like
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prostrate on the floor in front of the altar. The celebrant praise for all
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conditions of men, even for the Heathens and Jews, since Christ died on
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this day, for all men. The crucifix is unveiled. Then the celebrant
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lays it on the ground and kisses the feet of the image, and the
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people come up and turn and offer the same homage. On Good Friday,
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there is no mass properly so called, but ceremonies are gone through with a
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host consecrated for the purpose of the preceding day. An altar of repose or
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sepulture is chosen in the church where the host is kept in the interval.
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In the evening, our Lord's body was taken down from the cross and laid
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in the grave which belonged to Joseph of Arimathea point four. During Easter Sunday,
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that is the greatest feast day of the Jews, our Lord remained in
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the sepulture. On Holy Saturday, fire is struck from flint and blest outside
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the church doors, and from this fire, the triple candle, the patial
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candle, and the sanctuary lamp are lit. Each branch of the triple candle
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is let separately, one at the door, another in the middle of the
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church, and another in front of the high altar, to represent the gradual
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development of the knowledge of the Blessed Trinity. The patial candle is also blessed
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on this day, and the five grains of its incense embedded in it to
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remind us of the wounds of Christ. The baptismal font is also blessed,
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a relic of the times when the catechumans used to be solemnly baptized and solemn
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high Mass follows. Well, hopefully it does if you go to a more
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traditional Catholic church, even norvos norvious novus Ordo. I have trouble saying that
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if the priests very devout and very solemn, you will have a very dignified
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solemn Mass. If you go to a Latin Mass, obviously you're going to
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have that solemn high Mass. Went to a what shall we call it,
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a college town hippie church one once for the Easter vigil Mass, and I
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still to this day have no idea what was going on. There was all
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kinds of singing and dancing and people running around and jumping up and down and
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guitars and keyboards and drums and all I have, and it went on for
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like four hours. I mean, it was like some kind of just weird
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woodstock hippie rock concert. So when someone says, you know, the novus
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ordo is just as dignified as a traditional Latin Mass, I have to say,
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well, it can be clothes, it never really truly will be.
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Even though you know I'm not a set of acrotists have said that many times,
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I will attend any valid Catholic mass. Because I believe in the authority
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Christ gave to his church. But no, in my opinion, the novs
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Ordo is not as dignified as or as reverential as the traditional Latin Mass.
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But if you have a good priest, and I've known some really good ones,
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really really good ones, they do everything to make it so. And
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you know, well, I wish Francis was a little more respectful toward traditional
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Latin Mass. But you know, maybe the influence of those priests, several
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of whom have been very young priests, will kind of heal that rift in
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the coming decades under a new pope. So anyway, y'all, I think
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we're gonna wrap it up there. There's probably going to be one more show
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on Life of Christ. We'll get into the exaltation of Christ, and you
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know, then we'll kind of get into the birth of the Church and all
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that. So it's all just wonderful stuff. And you know, this is
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the kind of thing you very much need to know if you if you have
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to defend your faith, if you are called on to defend your faith,
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as we all are at some point, you need to know why we believe
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what we do and why we do what we do. And you know,
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that's really why I want to share these, really, these two books with
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you, radio replies and Father Sparago's exhaustive explanation of the Catechism. They're the
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best, in my humble opinion. They are the best in my rarely humble
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opinion. Am I not humble enough opinion? They're still the best? And
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as always, in the words of Saint Padre Pio, pray, hope and
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don't worry. All right, y'all, I'll talk to you Tomar. All
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right, y'all, I'll talk to you Tomar.