The PadreCast - Faithful Catholic Homilies

Third of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed virgin Mary.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of Grace.

The Lord is with thee,

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of her death.

Amen

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters. Today, I'll be speaking to you about the third of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The third sorrow is when she and Joseph lost Jesus for three days and then eventually found him in the temple. This is, of course, the fifth joyful mystery of the rosary. I'll just read it, and this is again, it's in your bulletin. The beautiful picture on the front is of this sorrow and then there's a section, of course, to give you some direction on the specific devotion and this comes, of course, from the Gospel of Luke.

Now, his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up, according to custom and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it. But supposing him to be in the company? They went a day's journey, and they sought him among their kinfolk and acquaintances. And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously, he said to them, how is it that you saw me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? They did not understand the saying which he spoke to them, as with specifically the mysteries of the rosary. You know, we meditate on them so, so often we can become kind of a little used to them. And we don't always go deeper. We don't always really pray and try to seek the deeper mysteries that are always present. Of course, anything in regards to the word of God, there's always more to seek, always more to find, because it's not. These aren't mere human words. These are the words of God, God's Word. And since God is infinite, the truth is infinite. And so, we can always seek more of it. In this mystery, the sorrow of the Blessed Mother.

Obviously, we know the story. Jesus stuck around in Jerusalem. He didn't tell Mom and Dad. They took off and went with family in the company back to Nazareth. They go a whole day's journey and they're looking for him. They just figure, you know, Jesus is a socialite, right? He likes to go out and be with the people. He's clearly very extroverted from what they can tell so they're looking for him. They can't find him. They've been traveling the whole day. Obviously, he's not with their group. He's not with the group. He's probably still in Jerusalem. They turn around and walk another day back to Jerusalem as two days. And then on the third day, they're searching for him and eventually they discover him in the temple.

I like to think that Mary and Joseph were probably talking on the road back to Jerusalem saying, okay, where will he be if he's in the city? They probably in his mind, he was in one of two places. He was either with the poor caring for them in some way or he's in the temple because that's the house of God in prayer. I figured he had to be in one or the other. And eventually they go to the temple and there he is, sitting down perfectly fine, sitting amongst the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions. Now, as a slight aside, sometimes people will call this mystery. When Jesus taught in the temple, that is absolutely not true at all. Don't call it that. Jesus didn't teach in the temple, at least not at the age of 12. Why? Because he's 12. He was sitting among the teachers. He was listening to them and asking them questions. Now, could he have taught? Of course he could. He's the son of God. No doubt. But he's just a 12-year-old boy. That would be very presumptuous of a child to try to teach adults, even if there are children who know more than adults. You know, is it really going to go well for you if you go up to them and say, let me tell you how this is? Jesus isn't teaching now, are they learning from him? Probably because he's that wise right in He's wisdom itself, but he's sitting there listening to them. Then Mary and Joseph come up to me like, Son, what's going on? Why have you done this to us? Don't you know that your father and I have been anxiously searching for you? Now, that is, I think, a completely natural thing to say to a child that has just disappeared. Some of you have lost a child here and there at times. I remember one time we were going on some family vacation and, you know, there are 12 kids, so it's a lot of us. And we stopped, you know, use the bathroom, get some snacks. We got in the car and drove off and we go a couple of miles down the road and left one of the boys back. Mom was like counting heads. no, we're missing someone. So. Right. So, you know, as parents, when you lose a child, when they're you don't know where they are, so to speak, it's very traumatizing Immediately. What comes to your mind is all the worst possible things. And most of all, you're afraid that they are suffering, and you want to save them. You want to protect them from that.  You run and you start searching for them. And naturally you would feel a tremendous amount of anxiety until you see your child, until you know they're okay. That anxiety is perfectly normal that happened. So here are Mary and Joseph. They can't find Jesus. no. Now, what do they think was probably happening to him? One of the fathers of the church said they believed that his passion had begun. They thought that's what they were anxious about. You see, Mary and Joseph, 12 years earlier, the last the second sorrow of the Blessed Mother had already heard the prophecy that this boy, this baby at the time is going to suffer. They knew that Jesus was going to suffer. They just didn't know how and when, so they knew was going to suffer. This father said that Mary and Joseph were thinking, no, maybe his passion has begun. You can imagine the fear and the anxiety that that would provoke, and they hurry back to Jerusalem, and when they find him perfectly fine, they're upset with him.  If you found a child that was just didn't come home for a couple of days, and then you come up to them and they're just having fun. They're just, you know, having a good time, Everything's fine. Why don't you do this? Don't you know how worried I've been? That's what you would say to them. And how does Jesus respond? I'm so sorry. I didn't know it would worry you. No, no. Here is the son of God saying to them Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I'd be in my father's house? Jesus has no idea why Mary and Joseph are anxious and worried about him. No idea. Now, that's hard to understand if you don't really know Jesus. Why? Because you think as the Son of God, he knows everything, right? This is where you're wrong. Jesus has to intellect. He has a divine intellect, which knows everything. Which knew that Mary and Joseph would have been anxiously searching for him. But he's got a human intellect that doesn't know everything, which is weird, because that means Jesus doesn't tell himself everything.

He doesn't. His divine intellect does not tell his human intellect everything, which means his divine intellect allowed Jesus to not understand it, allow Jesus to not understand Marian Joseph's anxiety and worry for him. And what does he say? He's basically saying, Mom, Dad, didn't you know, this is where I'd be. He again, he doesn't understand their fear and their concern for him and, you know, that is kind of normal for children in general, isn't it? Mom and dad are freaking out because of X, Y, and Z, and you're like, Mom, dad, what's the big deal? I'm fine. Jesus is experiencing this exact thing. Now, Mary and Joseph are still not comprehending what's going on here. They don't understand. Now, in this mystery, one of the things we must pay close attention to is the anxiety that Mary and Joseph felt. You see, there are different kinds of anxiety and there are different reasons. There are different reasons for being anxious. I can be anxious because I'm going to suffer. I can be anxious because someone I love is going to suffer. It usually follows one of those two. Either I'm going to suffer or if someone I love is going to suffer.

 

Now, one of the things we notice from the Saints is that they're never anxious when they are going to suffer. Never. They trust in the will of God. They've learned to bear their crosses patiently. Whether they are suffering or know beforehand that they are going to suffer, they don't feel any anxiety. That's because they have a profound faith and trust in the Lord. Now, if you saw one of your children suffer that would cause you pain, wouldn't it? It would cause you pain. It would make you suffer. But again, this is a very important distinction. You're allowed to feel anxious for the suffering of your children or the suffering of others. But Jesus doesn't want you to be anxious about your own suffering. But what is the nature of the anxiety that Mary injuries have had? Remember, this is the immaculate mother of God, sinless and perfect, and always. Saint Joseph, great. Second greatest saint of the church. Right. Clearly profound faith in God, amazingly virtuous and holy man. Their anxiety is not sinful at all in this context, which means it had nothing to do with their suffering. They were anxious because they were concerned about Jesus's suffering. Now, what was the nature of that concern? Was it? I don't want Jesus to suffer because that's often what we think with the ones that we love, especially our children. I don't want him or her to suffer this or that. No. Again, a saint wouldn't think that a saint would not actually want their children to suffer. That's not where their anxiety comes from. Their anxiety comes from the fact that they want to be with them when they suffer. They want to be by their side. Now, we know this because Mary always perfectly conformed to the will of God would never resist or go against the father's will for her son. We know that God wants Jesus to suffer. He wants him to suffer and to die to redeem all of us. We know that is the will of God. Mary knew that was the will of God, and so she would have never prevented Jesus's sufferings. Never. The Saints say that the reason she and Joseph were anxious and rushed back to Jerusalem to find him was not because they wanted to stop his passion, because they wanted to support him, to stand by him in his passion. They didn't want him to suffer alone. This is a very important point, and this is one of the ways in which so many young people become self-centered egotists because their parents don't let them suffer. You don't punish when they do wrong, whenever they do wrong, and they could get in serious trouble. You bail them out. Now, you might think that that's a loving act. That I'm saving my child from suffering. No, that is a completely and utterly self-centered act and is never pleasing to God. I'm not saying you don't help your kids and you can get them out of what trouble you can in reasonable circumstances. But the idea that they're not supposed to suffer is un-Christian. I'm sorry if the Son of God is supposed to suffer, you think your children are any better? Any different? You think the will of God for your children is going to be different than his will for his own son? No, you've got it wrong. All of us need to suffer because of sin. All of us. And you can say, what about the little ones that are innocent? No one is innocent. Everyone has original sin, you know, besides Mary and Jesus, All of us.

Everybody has original sin. They might not have personal sin. Fine. I understand. But they are a part of this collective, sinful humanity. And if Jesus, who was innocent, had to suffer, then your little babies who are innocent must suffer too. And we need to learn to stop complaining or getting upset or angry with God because of the suffering of the people that we love. That's just a temptation of the evil one to reject the will of God. Suffering is an intrinsic part of salvation. You separate suffering. You don't have salvation, the suffering of Christ and our suffering. It's not only his suffering. It's our suffering in unity with him. And what is the greatest suffering for any parent? It's the suffering of your children. It's not your own suffering. It's the suffering of your children. Which is why that is always the greatest test that God gives to a Christian. He will take one or more of your children and he will make them suffer in this or that way. And then they'll say, do you support me? Wasn't that the test we heard in our first reading? Isn't that how God tested Abraham? The reason Abraham received the promise that he would be the father of many nations is because he was willing to sacrifice his only son. His only son because God asked of him. Imagine just for a moment, your Abraham, your old, you don't have any kids. And then, miraculously, by the grace of God, your wife gets pregnant, and you have this boy and now you have an heir, you can hand everything over to him.

Your name will be passed down. It's very exciting. You're very happy. Abraham loved this boy more than anything else, even more than himself. And when this boy was a young man, we think like a young teenager. Something like that. God says, by the way, Abraham, you know that miraculous boy I gave you. I now want you to offer him in a Holocaust.

I want you to kill him and burn him on an altar for me, for my honor. And Abraham doesn't hesitate. He doesn't say, Are you sure? God, this is what you want. I mean, you're the one who gave him to me. He doesn't tell Sarah. I don't know how that would have gone. He just takes. His kid gets the wood, the fire, the knife says, come on, son, we're going to go pray to God. And they go up the mountain. He ties them up.  He's prayer ready? No hesitation. He's about to literally cut his throat. And God's like, Whoa, whoa. Okay, Abraham. Okay, just stop. Stop. You passed. You pass the test, and then he sees the ram, and he offers that instead. The reason Abraham received the greatest promise that God had given to anyone at that time in history is because Abraham was more like God than any other man on Earth.

We know it because of his willingness to sacrifice his only son, because that is the greatest act of God, the Father. When God, the father is looking down on us and he's saying, Who down there on that little blue planet is like me. But there's only one test. Take the one you love even more than yourself and sacrifice them for me.

 

That's the test. And our lady, she passed. We know she was there at the foot of the cross. She never resisted the passion of her son. In fact, the Saints teach us that if the Roman soldiers had stopped crucifying him, she would have gone up and finished. That is the faith of Abraham. That is the love of God. Now, for some of you, I know that there are times in which you would have no problem sacrificing this or that child. So again, but generally, I'm just speaking. Generally, you won't do that, right? There's always that one at that time, right. Lord, please, I'm willing to sacrifice this one for you now, you know? But it's still the greatest test that he's going to give each one of us in one form or another. Yes. It might not be the actual death of the child, but how many times do either we or someone in our lives know someone who lost a child? That's the worst pain for anyone. And sadly, how many times do these Christians lose their faith in God at the loss of that child when in fact it should enhance their faith? It should draw them closer to God, the Father. Because who can understand their pain better than God? Who understands better the price that has to be paid because of sin in this mystery, you have Mary and Joseph. They were not resistant at all to Jesus's passion. Their desire was to go and be with him in his cross, not to take it from him. And that is one of the most important things you can do as parents for those that you love is stand by them when they're suffering. You can suffer with them, but don't necessarily take that pain away. They need it. It's sanctifying. So as you continue to pray and meditate on these sorrows of the Blessed Mother, you'll see as we go through all of them, how our Lady in such a unique way is able to not only help us experience and understand the passion of Jesus, but to respond to that passion in the most perfect way in those situations in your life in which you are anxious and afraid for your own suffering or you want to stop the suffering of your children, I want you really to pray about this. Are that what God wants? You to do? What is he asking of you? And the one that you love? Is he asking this cross, this suffering? If it is the father's will, are you going to go against it? You can always ask God for anything that you want. But you know, when we end our prayers, we in the same way Jesus taught us, not my will thine be done. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Homily begins at 15:00

Meditating on the Second Sorrow of the Blessed Mother

First Sunday of Lent

February 18, 2024 •

 

The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Seeking our Lady's Intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace.

the Lord is with thee

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

 

Good morning, brothers and sisters. So, thank you for your prayers. Thought I'd give everybody an update on my health. My doctors think it's a problem with my gallbladder. They're probably going to recommend surgery, but it's, they say a minor surgery, so it's not that big a deal. They think I have gallstones and that's why I've been sick the last couple of weeks. Just keep it in your prayers and I'll keep all of you posted. I appreciate that.

For those who weren't able to make it on Ash Wednesday, this image that I have displayed on the altar, you can go on our website and listen to that. The beginning of that homily, I explain the image. It's very beautiful and we're consecrating and blessing the image by leaving it out on the altar will do that during Lent and probably during the Easter season as well. Over the next several weeks, I'll be preaching to you about the seven Sorrows of Mary. Last week we spoke about the first of her sorrows, which is when she and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple and the Prophet Simeon prophesied that not only would our Lord suffer, but our lady would suffer along with him.

Today, in meditating on the second sorrow of the Blessed Mother, we remember her and Joseph's flight into Egypt. If you remember when Jesus was still very young, after the wise men had come to Jerusalem seeking the new King of Israel, they went to Herod and asked him where the king was. They figured the King of Israel wouldn't know where the new king is. And Herod was a little surprised by this. And he got the wise men that the scholars of the law and they told him he was to be born in Bethlehem.  He sent the wise men to Bethlehem and they found Jesus and gave him gifts. But Herod wanted to know who this Jesus was so he could have him killed. So obviously the Lord told the three wise men, the Magi and Mary Joseph, that Herod was going to try to have the child killed. And they got ready and they fled into Egypt and then Herod had all of the young boys, two years and younger, massacred in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas, just in case he thought he would have definitely be able to kill this newborn king. This song in particular is fairly obvious because here we have the prophecy of Simeon being fulfilled. Early on in the life of Christ, he's just been born.

 

He's still a baby and already someone is seeking to kill him. Mary sees at the very outset of the life of Christ this, this fulfillment. And she, as you can imagine, must have grieved very greatly that anyone would want to harm not only her baby boy, right, but the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, and Christ. We can obviously see that kind of grief and sorrow out of her love for not only God, but also her own child who just happened to be the same thing. But there was another sorrow that we don't often consider. And I want you to imagine the grief that Mary experienced when she heard about all the dozens, if not hundreds of young boys that were slaughtered because of her son. It's one thing to suffer over your child. That's in danger of suffering or death. But imagine how all these other families must have endured such agony, all because Christ was born in Bethlehem, all for that reason. Imagine the test that must have been to Mary's faith. You know, why would God allow this? Obviously, God told Joseph and Joseph got Mary and Jesus out of there. Why didn't God do that for the rest of the families with little kids? Now, Mary, having perfect faith, obviously trusted in the Lord's plan, whether she understood it or not. Now, to understand the reasons for why these things had to happen, they had to happen. They weren't optional. They had to happen to Christ. To understand this, you have to understand the entire history of God's people. Because for any true Jew, one of the greatest events in their history, both tragic and wonderful, is when in Egypt, Pharaoh had all of the sons, all of the little boys who were born of the Israelites slaughtered, he had them slaughtered because he was worried that the Israelites would rise up against him. You could let the women live, he said, but kill all the young men. Of course, that led to Moses being cast in a basket on the waters saved by Pharaoh's daughter, raised in the palace, and eventually delivering God's people through these great signs and wonders, and then bringing them through the desert to the promised land. This is the most significant event in the life of the Israelites, where God deliver them from slavery and Egypt.

Now, since the death of all these young children happened to the Israelites long ago, since they had to go into Egypt, they had to flee from Egypt. Our Lord Jesus had to experience those exact same things. This is one of the mysteries of our faith that people don't meditate upon enough. Everything that happened to the Israelite people of old had to happen to Christ, and everything that happened to Christ has to happen in one form or another to every future Christian in redeeming us. Jesus Christ conformed himself to our nature and not just to our nature as human beings, but to the very experiences that we have in our own lives. The only way the Israelites could truly accept him is that if that he himself endured everything they endured, and even more so, our Lord chose to live this life as a mirrored image of the life of His people.

To show, See, I'm one of you. I know everything that you know. I've experienced everything that you've experienced and more. And yet this same truth applies after the fact to everyone who is supposed to be conformed to the life of Christ. If you and I are to be conformed to the life of Christ, that means we're conformed to the life of Israel old because Christ was conformed to their life. This is one of the essential aspects of salvation. We see this in the lives of the saints. The greater the saint, the more perfectly their life in one way or another reflects the life of our Lord. That's why these seven Sorrows of Our Lady, which are the stars of Christ himself, are so important to us. That's why our meditations upon them are so necessary because they enable us to understand our own life. Why is this happening to me? And that's the question we ask whenever we're suffering, right? Why is this happening to me? What did I do? Well, I mean, sometimes we know what we did. We send. But sometimes you might not have done anything wrong in that situation and you're still suffering. If we are truly to be one with Christ. And that's. That's the goal here. That's the whole point of the church. And there are teachings in the sacraments that we must be conformed to every aspect of his life. There will be times in your lives, like the first start in which you'll be told that you have future suffering ahead of you. There's a cross you have to learn to bear patiently. You can do that best with our lady. She understood this well. There'll be times in your life in which your children, in one form or another, will be threatened or in danger. You have to flee from your own land, your own home job, family situation, whatever it is, in order to protect them, suffer because of that. We saw that in the life of our Lady in Christ. There'll be times in your life when your children are the cause of great suffering for others, like the loss of all of these poor children in Bethlehem. And you'll have to endure that as well. You'll see as we go through all of the seven sorrows in some form or another, how your own life will conform to them and the more you meditate upon these great mysteries, more you keep them in mind. It's not going to lessen your suffering at all. Not one iota, not one bit. You will continue to suffer just as much, but you will see that you are not alone. You'll see that this has already been done before. In the Old Testament, it was done perfectly in the life of Christ don't ever be surprised that it's in your life as well. And you won't despair. You'll have faith, you'll have hope, and you'll be able to endure whatever comes, knowing that it will pass away in the end. Ultimately, as you know, as will go through the seven sorrows, clearly death is the end of all suffering. Final thing that we must all endure at one point in this life. No one can avoid that. And yet our Lord doesn't want us to fear any suffering. That doesn't mean we run after it, you know, go out and seek suffering. That's a psychological illness. You know, you can get treatment if you have that, but it means whenever it comes to us, we should not assume that this is not part of God's plan.

That should be the assumption. God has a plan for me. And the more I can keep my mind and heart focused on our Lady and Christ and their suffering, the easier I will be to allow that grace of the Holy Spirit to strengthen me, to endure these crosses that always come during Lent. I want us to practice the creed in Latin, so we'll be reciting it during the season of Lent, hopefully. Maybe during Easter, we could start singing it. But do we have the page number for the Creed? Page 26 In the Blue Book in the St Michael Hymnals we'll do the creed in Latin, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

 

Homily begins at 

Homily-Hell

Meditating on the four last things. Of course, we started with death. It's inevitable for all of us. Last night I spoke about judgment again, inevitable for all of us. And for tonight. And tomorrow I'll do hell. And then heaven. And this is where the divide comes in regards to our own personal experiences. Everybody is going to experience one or the other, heaven or hell.It all depends on the judgment. But tonight we're going to address hell. I thought it would be more appropriate to address heaven tomorrow for the feast of or the solemnity of our patron saint, Dorothy. So there are some very clear teachings that our Lord gives about shale or the place of the dead, the damned hell, Hades. Right. Whatever you want to call it.

 

I'm just going to go through and read a few of them. But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved murderer is the young, chaste sorcerers, idle worshipers and deceivers of every sort. Their lot is the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Of course, there is referring to hell. The devil who had led them astray was thrown into the pool of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were There. They would be tormented day and night forever and ever there in hell. They would be tormented day and night, forever and ever. Then the Lord will say to those on his left, depart from you are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, the eternal fire. Jesus also says, If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gahanna, into the unquenchable fire. And lastly, thus, it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. There are, of course, many other passages, but one of the things that is very consistent in our Lord's teaching about hell is an unquenchable fire that consumes you, body, and soul for all of eternity. And that's why we often picture the devil with flames right around him dressed in red or something of that sort. So, fire, of course, is an essential element. We know. And the idea that Christ is presenting what we call or what they called shale, right. It comes from a very actual place just outside the city of Jerusalem. I don't know how many people actually know this. You can imagine for large cities or towns, they usually over the years and decades and centuries, collect a lot of trash and so one of the things that the ancient world used to do was they would have these large trash piles and they would burn them because it was the easiest way to get rid of a lot of human waste and filth and refuse whatever it was, you know, broken pottery that they couldn't use anymore. So outside of the city of Jerusalem, there was a small valley on one part, and that was the trash heap for however many hundreds of years the Jews had been living there and it was always on fire because new rubbish was always daily being thrown into it. Any time of day or night you would walk by that area. It was always on fire. There were always red-hot coals, always stench again, human waste and everything was thrown there just to consume it so it wouldn't grow too large. This was called shale, and this is the imagery that our Lord is evoking and teaching about hell, where the refuge goes to burn. That's why he's using this imagery. Now, are there physical flames in hell? We don't know. But whatever it is, it is like standing in a fire. Body and soul. Forever. Forever. Just as heaven is forever.

 

Hell is forever. It's one of the heresies among Christians that God in his mercy is going to eventually either let everybody out of hell or just blink them out of existence so they don't have to suffer for eternity. No, it's doctrine. It's the teaching of Christ that hell is forever. The demons that are assigned there, the humans that will go there will suffer forever and ever and as I think is appropriate, that should scare the hell out of you. Obviously, nobody wants that right? Nobody wants to go to a place of torment. You know, a lot of people don't realize that when somebody is either tempted or seeking or accomplishes suicide, you think they want to end their life. They want to cease to exist.

 

This is actually not true psychologically. They want to end their suffering. They don't want to stop existing. It is impossible for anyone to want to cease to exist. It's actually psychologically impossible. If you do, then there's something mentally wrong with you. We know the statement of Satan when he was cast out of heaven. I would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. He didn't want to stop existing. He would rather suffer for the rest of eternity and still do what he wanted to do than to live peacefully, forever doing the will of God. In essence, that's why anyone goes to hell. Its following that same mindset. My will over the will of God. I once heard years ago a great phrase that in the end, when you're judged only one thing will be said.

Only one thing will be said. Either God will say it, or you will say it, and that will determine where you'll go. If you say thy will, be done to the Lord, he'll be able to save you. But if he says Thy will be done to you, you are lost forever. That's really the determining factor. Are we striving to conform our will to Christ, to the Lord, or do we want His will and others around us to conform them to ourselves? This eternal punishment, I've spent years and years reading, studying and meditating on this and trying to ask the Lord to understand it. Because one of the things I've struggled with the most personally is a very simple question. If God is as good and loving this merciful as He claims to be, as we believe Him to be, how could well be a good.

You have to understand everything that God makes is good. Everything that God does is good. Even when He dams a soul to hell, it is good. That's just theologically true. How could it be good? How could an eternity of suffering in hell be good? And for years I struggled with this because I knew there had to be an answer. Not that I had to understand it, but I wanted to. And I don't know if this was an inspiration of God or if this is just me trying to figure it out on my own. But I want to share with you how I understand it. God doesn't need us. Never has, never will. We know fundamentally, He made us for our own benefit just out of his largesse, his, his love, his goodness angels, humans. He doesn't need any of us. He just wanted to create something so that it could share in his life and holiness. Pure gift. God doesn't lose anything when anyone goes to hell. This is also an important point. God doesn't suffer when anyone goes to hell. Why? Because he's not happier when anyone goes to heaven either. God is perfect and unchanging.

 

How could his happiness increase when it's already perfect? How could he suffer when he's perfectly happy? He can't. How can God? Who teaches us? Who reveals himself to us as true goodness and love and compassion not suffer over the damned? How is that possible? It's because hell is good. You can picture over the gates of hell. This place was created out of love.

Now, why might it say that over the gates of hell. And this is what I think the Lord showed me. Because for God to force any of the demons or any human who is going to be damned to go to heaven, that would be a worse hell for them. It would be more agonizing for Satan to be forced to go to heaven than to reign in a place of eternal torment. It would be worse for any human being to enter into heavenly glory than to go to hell. If that was ultimately God's judgment. Because there's only one will in heaven. There is only one will in heaven, and that is the will of God. But I want you to think in your life how many times you have encountered somebody else who had a different will than yours, and you disagreed with them because you wanted it your way and you didn't care whether they were right or wrong. We do this all the time. You didn't care whether they were right or wrong. It's just not what I want. You can see this oftentimes with children, they do something wrong. They get caught. Mom and dad say all you have to do is say you're sorry and you can have your dessert. No, they could get dessert. They could get everything they want. All of their suffering would end. All they have to do is say that they're sorry, and yet they refuse. They're willing to suffer more just so that they can do what they want. Do you think those children are any different than us as adults? Do you think we've really changed that much just after a few decades in this world? We do it all the time. How many times do I make a choice knowing it's going to cause me pain and suffering, whether it's sinful or not, just because I want it?

 

You know, I've had a problem with caffeine my whole life. It's like an allergy. And so whenever I would eat anything with caffeine or drink anything with caffeine, I'd get sick. The problem is chocolate exists. And growing up, I did not always have the strength of will to stay away from it. And I knew exactly what's going to happen when I eat it. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I didn't care. I wanted that chocolate. I was willing to take the suffering to get what I wanted and that's a small thing. You know, there was no sin in that necessarily. It didn't cause any real damage or harm to my body. It just gave me a lot of pain and made me sick. And that's just a small way in which we do this every time a creature angelic. We're not the angels and the demons are already their decision is or have already been made. But any time a human, any time they make a decision, you always have to weigh the pros and cons. Is is this worth it to me? And that's what it comes down to. It doesn't matter if it's worth it to anybody else. Is it worth it to me? And how many times have I? Have you made a decision knowing it was wrong and knowing you would suffer more because of it?

 

That is hell. That's all hell is. Did you know God did not make hell to be a place of torment. He didn't designed hell to be a place where the people that go there are the demons, and the humans will suffer just because of how he. He set it up right. God is the one who lit it on fire.

No. All hell is, is a place where the will of God doesn't exist. That's it. Everybody in hell gets exactly what their will wants. Why do you think it's a place of torment? Because most of the time, when we get what we want, we suffer. And so does everybody else. I don't think for a moment God created hell to be a place of torment. He simply gave to his creation what they wanted. A place to exist for eternity without him. We know that broke the heart of Christ. But if God the Father had a heart, it would have broken as well. But that's part of the beauty of God. He loves us so much, even after he made us and offers himself to us. All we have to do is what he made us for and what we're told. It's not that big a deal. He will reward us for the eternity. And even when we refuse again, justice demands will. You know there are consequences. But he's not going to go out of his way to. To make your life wretched or miserable. Do you really think it makes God happy when anyone goes to hell? No, because it also doesn't make him sad. God is unmoved by such things. This is a very important theological truth. God is unmoved. Nothing you and I could ever do could move God. Because if he's perfect and infinite, how can perfect infinite nature be moved in any direction? It's all worked already, everywhere. So this place that he made, it's just a place without him, without goodness and whoever goes there seeks and obtains whatever they want. Now, there are plenty of people who say, hey, that doesn't sound too bad, right? I mean, there are plenty of simple things I like, and if I can get that for the rest of eternity, I'd be okay with that. Sure. Okay. Send me to hell. But there's a very simple, obvious problem. When you ever you look at a person, especially in regards to addiction, who is getting exactly what they want, it's ruining their life. Not only do they love the thing that they're addicted to, but they hate it at the same time. Not only do they love with that thing does for them, but they also hate all of the consequences of using it or having it.

 

Whenever you study addiction, the majority of time, especially if it's a chemical addiction of any level, they say it takes the person to finally hit as they hit rock bottom before they can make the choice to begin to turn away from it. They have to lose everything, and it's devastating to see. I can't tell you how many lives I have seen go through that and yet even that is a mercy, because on some level our Lord is allowing them to taste damnation so that they can reject it and be saved every time we choose what we want, regardless of the consequences, suffering to us or suffering to others, that is hell. That's all healers and the demons and the damned humans that go their torment themselves and torment each other. There is a fascinating idea for the triad. Rebecca believes that one of the one of the qualities of Satan's damnation is that his personality was split into three squares. Personal theory. No teaching on this. But he's probably right. He believes that Satan has three personalities, basically all fractured, none of them whole. One is Satan, one is Lucifer, one is Beelzebub. They're all the same person. And the reason that this is the perfect hell for him, the perfect suffering, is because it's exactly what he wanted. He wanted to be God. I'm sorry, Satan. God is three persons. You can't do that by yourself. He didn't care. I want to be God in the justice of his torment with this fractured personality. He is exactly what he wanted to be. That's the beauty of it. God gives us exactly what we want. But if we want him above all things, then that's what we get. But if we choose ourselves before him or before others, if we don't love our neighbor as ourselves as we're taught, then we get that I truly believe the damned get everything they want and they hate it. I'll end with this. It's it’s a very interesting analogy for the difference between heaven and hell. Hell is like a great banquet with all the richest food you could ever want or imagine. Unending. The problem is, all of the forks and knives and spoons are ten feet long, and so you can't ever reach your mouth. Heaven is actually the same place.

 

A giant banquet table. All the richest foods you could ever imagine. Forks, spoons, knives, ten feet long. But everybody's serving everyone else what they want. Everybody gets what they want. In the end, that is the goodness of God. And how could a single damned soul resent God for getting what they wanted all along? They do. That's the disordered nature of evil, because when it comes right down to it, damnation is when you love and hate the same thing. But that is intrinsically contrary to God. God never loves and hates the same thing. He loves certain things, and he hates other things that are contrary to the things that he loves. Looking to your own heart, think about the ways in which you make decisions. The choices you make in this life that in essence are are small acts of damnation might not go to hell for them. They're not gravely immoral, but it's still a taint of imperfection within us. My will. I must have my will, no matter the cost. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

 

Homily begin at 15:33

Reflection-Judgment

Earlier today and last night, I spoke to you about the first of the four last things death, the first experience that all of us will share whenever the end of our life comes, whether it's the end of time itself, when Christ comes again and glory, or if it's just most likely our particular death that that individual day and the church teaches correctly, as our Lord has revealed, that there are two judgments and that's the tonight's topic. Judgment after death, every one will be judged by the king. And there are two judgments. The one that we hear today in the gospel is called the universal judgment. This is after Christ comes again in glory when he he will gather all the nations for him of all of time, and he will judge them all in the presence of all. That will be the final judgment. But we also have a particular judgment that belongs to each individual. That means when I die, when you die as an individual, you will have to go before that same judgment seat, before the king, before the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and your life. My individual life will be judged and I will receive a sentence. Now, what our Lord is telling us in this gospel is a begin a particular explanation of the final judgment or the universal judgment. But this also applies to anyone's particular judgment. It's not like our Lord is going to maybe change some of His decisions in the final judgment. There will be many souls who are already in heaven or already in hell because their particular judgment has taken place, but they will still all be gathered again at the end of time so that everyone will be judged in the sight of all. But we can still learn from this that the nature of what we would call our particular, our individual judgments. This is why being ready for death is so important, right? We need to always be ready because the moment my soul separates from my body, I will be taken before the judgment seat of God. The moment that happens, do not pass. Do not collect 200. Right. You're there and if God has anything against you at that moment, at that final moment, it will be brought forward. I thought I would begin by telling you a story.

 

Some of you may have heard this before, but I'd say I think it was maybe the second year I was ordained. I got called to the hospital and a man was dying and so I go there, I don't know this man. I just get called. I go. and when I when I get to the floor and I'm heading towards the room, there is a police officer standing outside the room. I'm like, That’s a little strange. That's a new one for me. I go inside the room and the gentleman, probably in his thirties, was handcuffed to his bed and I thought, that's another new one. Okay. So, what I realized was he was a prisoner who was in jail, but he was dying and so they had rushed him to the hospital, and he had called for a priest. And so, of course, he was handcuffed to the bed because they didn't want him trying to escape. The moment I walked into this room again, I was a little unsettled by the police guard and the handcuffs and everything. But I'm a priest. I'm here to give them the sacraments. From the moment I walked into that room and looked into this man's eyes, I could see that he was going to hell. It was obvious there was such a darkness and despair in his eyes that if he had died at that moment without the sacraments, he would have been damned. Just like that. Maybe it was the Holy Spirit. I don't know. But it was so clear to me he hadn't even said anything. All I had to do was look into his eyes. So I sat down beside him. And of course, I'm praying Hail Mary’s to myself in my head. Blessed Mother, tell me what to say. This is a strange situation. This is new for me. And he proceeds to tell me, you know, he's dying and he knows he'll be lost. He knows he'll be damned because of the evil things he's done in his life. And he's never repented of it. He's never gone to confession for it. And he's terrified. He is absolutely terrified. And I will tell you, that was an appropriate terror.

He should have been afraid and he was right. But I could see there was something deeper. There was something more, because he kept kind of furtively looking around the room. It was just the two of us. Right? The police officer was outside. There were no nurses or doctors in there. I asked him, what do you see? Then he looked quickly back at me. You could tell by his expression he was surprised that I noticed he says, there are these three dark figures like living shadows, pacing around this room I know they're waiting for me to die. That, again, was a new one for me. Never experienced that before. Still praying. Hail Marys in my own head. Blessed Mother. What do I say? I had an inspiration, and in that moment, I realized it must have been the Holy Spirit who these three demons were. I just knew and I said to him, I'm assuming that you would need to confess this, this and this pointed out the three demons connected with three specific grave sins that he must have committed in his life again, you should have seen the surprise in his face. How did you know? I don't know how the Holy Spirit must have told me, but it's just obvious to me. And he hung his head, and he was like, I don't I don't deserve to be forgiven. So of course, you don't deserve to be forgiven. Nobody does. But if at this moment right now, when God has provided to you a priest before your death, he's offering you forgiveness. Our Lord didn't have to let me be here. He could have let you die in sin. But I'm here. And he wants me to prepare you for your judgment. And I can fix this as a priest if you tell me your sins. And if you are sorry, I can absolve you and these demons will leave. And you could see the hope in his eyes. He wanted to believe me. But again, he was scared. He was very scared.  I began to help him through a confession. It wasn't a short confession. You know, he's born and raised Catholic, but a very young age as a teenager, clearly taken a bad turn in his life drugs, alcohol, all that stuff, and turned to crime and had done many, many serious evils in his life. Obviously, three in particular, those three demons that were waiting for him. And the moment I gave him absolution, that darkness that I could see in his eyes just disappeared. This peace came over him and he said, they’re gone. The demons aren't here anymore. I proceeded to again anoint him, give him the holy anointing. I gave him Holy Communion, which he hadn't received in decades and then I gave him the apostolic pardon, which is the removal of all temporal punishment due to send. Basically get out of purgatory free card. He was perfectly ready to die at that moment and go to heaven. We talked a little more. I encouraged him to pray, gave him a rosary, and then I left. Now, at the end of our life again, when it's time for our death, when your soul separates from your body, there will be people waiting for you to take you before the judgment seat of God.

 

Who these people are is dependent upon what your final judgment is going to be. For most Catholics and Christians that I've been with at their deathbed, they will often see not all the time, but most of the time they will see deceased relatives present in the room with them. Basically, our Lord, what he does is to help you pass from this life to the next. He sends your loved ones who are already with him in heaven. He sends them back to you so that when you pass, you're comfortable. You don't have to be afraid. Because I'm with family. These people know me. I remember this one woman who was dying, and she kept talking to her grandfather, who had died when she was very young. But he was very old, and she kept saying, wow, you look so young. I've never I don't remember you ever looking so young. Now, some of the family just thought she was crazy and hallucinating. But I told them, no, he's probably here right now because our Lord is preparing her for this crossing. He's showing her. You don't have to be afraid. Come to me. I will judge you mercifully. But this criminal, when he was on his deathbed, who was there waiting for him? The demons that he had served in his life. And do you know what they would have done if he had died at that moment? They would have grabbed his soul and carried it to the throne of God and say he deserves to be with us. We own him. And they would lay out all the reasons why, and then our Lord would pronounce judgment. And if that soul was worthy of damnation, he would hand them over to these demons and they would drag him to hell for the rest of eternity. It's a terrifying truth, but because of the love and mercy of God, this young man no longer had to fear his judgment. But it will come to each one of us. Now, our Lord tells us very clearly in the Gospels that the ultimate way in which He is going to judge us worthy or unworthy of salvation is not. Which are you Catholic? Are you Christian? Are you a Muslim or Buddhist? Right. Which church or denomination or religious belief system do you belong to now? How did you treat the least of my brothers and sisters? That is the final arbiter of where we end up Heaven or hell. How do you value the weakest and most lowly of persons? How have you treated them? The ostracized those that the rest of the world places no value in. Do you see their value? Have you treated them the way you would want to be treated if you were in their place? That is the final judgment for each one of us. Yes, believing in Jesus Christ is important and necessary, but our church teaches very clearly that that our judgment, if through no fault of your own, you never came to believe in Jesus Christ. But if in God's mind you had learned about Jesus, you would have been baptized. He can save you.

 

Our Lord knows everything when he judges. Again, that's an important phrase. If through no fault of your own, you are not baptized. Our Lord will do everything in His power to save you. But He will still judge you based on these parameters, as he said, separating the sheep from the goats. The goats? Where do they go? As Matthew records our Lord, saying to eternal hellfire, eternal punishment. We'll talk a little more about hell tomorrow night. But the sheep to everlasting life, to peace, joy and happiness in God's presence. All of us have sin. And unless we die right after receiving the last rites and the apostolic pardon, we're probably going to have some sins that come up during our judgment. Our Lord is merciful. He wants to forgive our sins. Look at how much he was willing to do in order to bring about that forgiveness. What would he not do to save you from the eternal punishment? But he needs to see some effort on your part. He needs to see that, at least on some level, each one of us is trying to love and not just love anybody or any way to love the way God loves. The reason our Lord judges us based on how we treat the least of the people around us is because of a very simple theological reason. Our Lord has created human beings in His image and likeness. So how you treat human beings reflects on your belief in God and your belief about human dignity. If you treat them poorly, then you clearly don't think highly of God in whose image these creatures were made of. You treat them well. You do that obviously, out of respect for God, not because they deserve it themselves. I mean, if somebody is in prison for a good reason, they should be in prison. But our Lord says, visit them, visit them. Imagine always imagine yourself in their shoes. If I was in their shoes, what would I want you to do for me? Do unto others as we're taught, as you would have them do unto you. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. The degree to which you love and show mercy and kindness is the degree to which you will receive the love and mercy and kindness of God Himself. This is what you have to know about God. He is always just. Even when he's merciful, he's always just. He says, look, I will show you all the mercy you need so that in your judgment, you need not worry. However, since he's just he demands that you then show that same mercy to others who don't deserve it. That's fair. It's a simple rule. I try to remind you all the time. You don't love your neighbor. You don't show mercy to your neighbor because they deserve it. You do it because God deserves it. He shows you love and mercy when you didn't deserve it. You have an obligation. Which means when I show mercy and love to you, it's not actually an act of mercy and love. It's an act of justice. That's one of the beautiful things about our Lord. Everything he does is just. And everything he does is merciful. It doesn't always look that way to us, but it's true. And the more we're conformed to Christ, you'll begin to see that in your own lives when you do the right thing. Because it's the right thing. Because it's just. You'll learn that that was the most loving and merciful thing you could have done. I want to read you one more passage from the Scriptures. This is an important one in regard to our judgment. Saint Paul. In his letter to the Corinthians, he tells us, quote, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw, the work of each will come to light for the day and the day is capitalized. The day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire. And the fire itself will test the quality of each one's work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss. The person will be saved, but only as through fire, but only as through fire. Whatever Saint Paul uses the word day or the day. He's always talking about the day of judgment, basically the day of death. Whether that's your own particular death and particular judgment or the final judgment, the final death of the world itself. So on the day of judgment, that's what he's saying. Again, Christians in the early world just said the day everybody knew what they meant. On the day your deeds as a follower of Christ will be judged and how will they be judged by fire? He says. Now, whether he's speaking literally in some type of mystical sense, or this is just figurative language, we don't know. But he says, our deeds will be judged by fire and the quality of your deeds, the quality of the actions you performed in the name of Jesus Christ throughout your life will be determined by what survives the flames and what gets burned up. Whenever Saint Paul talks about building, right, he's always talking about building the body of Christ because we are the living stones, he says. And as living stones, the things we do in our life either build up the body of Christ, the Temple of God, the church, or they tear it down. But if you know anything about this language and how Paul describes it, there are different kinds of building materials, right? I mean, if you're going to build a house, especially one for God, you want to use the best materials. Now, if I was going to tell you that I was going to test the construction of your house by burning it, what kind of materials would you use? You're going to use wood, straw? No way. And I huff and puff and I blow that house down and so Paul is telling you, what do you what do you aim for in the Christian life? What are the best materials that you could build a house worthy of God that would survive fire itself? He tells us gold, silver, precious stones. If you know anything about how fire works with gold, silver, and precious stones, it is it purifies them more. It makes them more precious. The longer and the hotter the flame. That's how they purify these precious metals, as we call them. You put them in the fire, in the crucible, right? That's an actual physical object that you use to put metal in and heat up until it melts. This this time of fire after death corresponds to the judgment. Now, I have a personal theory, but don't know if this is true or not, but on some level, this is what seems to be, at least in my eyes, what purgatory is like. This place of fire in the traditional imagery of the church. After you've been judged and you are worthy to go to heaven, your deeds will then be tested. Now, why is that most likely the interpretation? Well, Paul tells us, but if someone's work is burned up, meaning its wood, its straw, It doesn't pass through the fire intact, one will suffer loss. Let's say all the good things you tried to do were just tainted by selfishness and self-centeredness and complaining and a lack of virtue. Well, there may be a tiny little bit of gold and silver that will get through, but there's a lot of wood and straw there that's going to burn up. Does he say you're going to go to hell for that? No. He says that person will be saved. They will be saved, which means they have followed the Lord. They have either been baptized, striven to to to be a sheep in his flock, but only as through fire he's not talking about the damned. This fire is not going to test the deeds of those who were judged to go to hell. They don't need the fire. They're unworthy. So they're just sent down with the demons to hell. But those who are worthy by the first judgment, which is, Are you a sheep or a goat? The cheaper than going to be tested by fire. This is, in a sense, still part of your judgment. Now you've been judged as saved, so you're going to be saved. You don't have to worry about that. But there's a further judgment, so to speak. There's a further point that we have to consider. That's why I like to view this as purgatory. Basically. I've got to pass through the flame.

 

Now, I personally like to think of this fire as purgatory itself, but also as the gate of heaven. You know, traditionally we say that Saint Peter is there with the keys of the kingdom, Right? And he opens the gate of heaven and lets you in or says, No, you're not allowed and locks it on you. I like to believe that this gate is not made of precious stones or silver or gold or metal. I think it's made of fire. It's the fire of God's love. And you are worthy to enter into God's presence. But your love has to be tested. Is it pure love or is are there impurities? So you have to walk through this wall of fire. Now, anything in us, even after we've been judged worthy of salvation that is not worthy to enter heaven has to get burned up. You can't take that with you. It's not pure and holy enough in the presence of God. And so this firewall that you're going through, I like that technology example to this firewall that you're going through is going to purify, polish you up, so to speak. So that you're shiny and perfect for the Lord. If there's a lot of wood and a lot of straw in my building process, it's clearly going to take longer to burn, isn't it? The more wood or straw you have, the longer the burning process, the less you have, the faster it burns. So when the church talks about length of time in purgatory, I believe that corresponds simply to that fact. This fire, if you've got a lot of wooden straw, which you can't take with you, it's going to take a while. Church says the average length of time in purgatory is 40 Earth years. That's a long time. 40 Earth years. So that means 40 years after you've died and been judged, the average Catholic is going to need 40 years to get through purgatory. That's why we pray for the poor souls in purgatory, to get them out as quick as possible. Nobody wants to be stuck there, but the Saints even have to pass through this fire. In essence, on some level they have to pass through, at least if my interpretation is correct, purgatory. But if their deeds have already been purified to a perfect degree in this life, they don't even feel the flames, Right. They just walk right through. Not affected at all. Not slow down at all. You go right into heaven. They're good to go. Purgatory is, in fact, part of the judgment. It's important that we consider this because it's not just about going to heaven or hell. Yes, that's the big question. Am I going to be a sheep or goat? That's far more pressing than the purgatory question. Definitely. But for those of us who do strive to follow Christ, to follow his teachings, to love as he has taught us, to love right, to receive his sacramental grace, to pray, we have a greater surety that we are going to be judged as sheep. We shouldn't presume upon it. We have more surety. Now, you have to ask yourself, What kind of sheep am I going to be? Am I going to be a glorious one? Great, because I've built so much out of love for God in this world throughout my life and the things that I've done, I've done them with the mind and heart of Christ, truly selflessly enduring every cross patiently without complaint. Offering all things to God through Christ our Lord. I mean, that's a tall order, but that's the goal for us.

 

Once you've answered the question of saved or not saved in regard to your judgment, you do have to ask What will my degree be in heaven? Now, most of us will say, rightly so, that, hey, look, as long as I get there, I don't care. Right. Isn't that really the point, though? You know, if I get through the gates, eventually I'm going to be happy. That's 100% true. Definitely no doubt whatsoever. Yeah. So that's okay. However, you have to ask yourself this question when you're aiming at a target, depending upon the point at which you aim, you're probably going to miss the target a little bit at least, right? It's possible. But if you're aiming at the wrong point, what if you miss that? You miss the target altogether. And that's why the church has always used the word sin to refer to things done that are not pleasing to God. Go against nature, go against his laws and his teachings. So the word sin, as you should remember, is actually an archery term. It's an archery term. It's an ancient archery term, thousands of years old, archery. You know, bow and arrow was the first real weapon along with spears. If you want to be good at using a bow and arrow, you have to practice. They would set up a target and they'd put a middle, you know, like a dot in the middle of the target. Call that the bull's eye, right? And the goal was you aim at the bull's eye. Now, depending on how good you are, you know, you may get close, you may hit somewhere around the outside of the bull's eye. But let's say if you're not even aiming at the center, at the bull's eye, let's just say you're aiming for the edge of the target. I'm just trying to get the edge of the target, just on the target at all. Well, what if you miss there's actually a greater percentage that you're going to miss the target altogether. And guess what? Fail. You know, if if our focus if our goal if the thing we're aiming at in our lives of faith is just scraping by, just trying to just make it into heaven, you might miss the mark. You might sin with that kind of goal. then you actually don't even get judged as a sheep. You're found to be a goat and cast out. The fire is then meaningless to you in regard to purgatory. You go to the eternal fire. There's a reason that our Lord Jesus Christ sets up for us in the church. This is why the church encourages us to what?

 

To achieve or to strive for sanctity, holiness of life. Not. I'm just going to make it, you know, mediocre as long as I can skirt by the skin of my teeth. No, the higher I aim, the higher my goal in my life of faith, the more likely I'm going to not only achieve greater holiness, a greater position in heaven, but just getting into heaven. It's just the prudent judgment that each one of us should make. If just getting into heaven was the job, then Jesus wouldn't have given us all of these high expectations, like the Beatitudes, Saint John Paul, the second used to speak of this so frequently. He used to encourage us to strive for greatness, not just, okay, nice, decent, nice, barely minimal mess, but greatness. Calling us. You should want to be sick. You should strive to be a saint, even if you never get declared a saint in this world. That's okay. That is the only goal we should strive for. That's why Purgatory matters. That's why, in the end, don't just set that minimal goal in your life because, you know, you're probably not even going to hit that. It's unlikely I'm going to hit the bull's eye, but that's okay. That's the goal because that's the goal that Christ set for me. He says, Don't just strive to be saved. Strive to be a perfect saint. And that's important because on the day of your judgment, when our Lord judges you, he is not going to take you and compare you to the rest of the people you knew in your life your parents, siblings, coworkers, that that person who sits beside you at church that costs so much and irritates you. Our Lord is not going to take you and say, okay, well, you're not bad as her or you're not as bad as him. So clearly, you're okay. No. On the day of your judgment, there is only one person to which you will be compared, and that is Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father will look down on you on the day of judgment and He will look at his son. He will look at you. And then he will determine, based on how much you imitate, how much you look like, how much you have striven to conform to his perfect boy. What parent would do differently? You know, as parents, if you had a perfect child, you judge the rest of your children by that person, even if you tried not to. If you had a perfect child, you would judge all other children by this child. What else do you expect other father to do? He's got a perfect kid. So he's going to compare us to Christ himself. Every single one of us falls short in regards to that judgment. So if I'm going through life saying, well, at least I'm not as bad as him, or at least I'm not as self-centered as her, what does that matter? That's irrelevant. God doesn't care. God only cares. How do you compare to his son? And that is a weighty judgment. Because even the blessed mother herself, who was perfectly conformed to the image of her son, is certainly not equal to him. But there is something important that she shows us in her perfect conformity to Christ that in regards to degree, no one can be like the Son of God, not in regards to quantity or degree, but qualitatively.

 

She is equal to his son. Why? Because Jesus gave all of himself in love. Now that all was divine, as well as human, so infinite. Mary gave all of herself in love, comparatively small in comparison to Jesus, but it was still all of herself. Qualitatively, it was the same amount. Jesus teaches us this when he calls his apostles over one day in the temple and he says, do you see all these wealthy people putting large sums of money into the Treasury, into the Temple Treasury? You know, you can imagine the wealthy people walking up these big bags of gold and silver shaking them everybody here is dropping them loudly into these containers. Everybody see, look how virtuous they are. Look at the large amount of money they gave. And she says, no, no, don't pay attention to them. You see that old lady? You see how she walks up so humbly and drops two small coins. Smallest coins. They were like half a penny, like two small coins. Nobody even noticed her. And Jesus says she has given more than all of the others combined. How is that possible? I mean, I'm sorry. Jesus. Don't you know math? Right. Have you ever, you know, worked with money before? Lord, clearly more is better, right? That's not how God judges. God doesn't judge based on amounts is the amount that I loved. The same amount that you loved. That's irrelevant. It's qualitative, meaning these rich people that gave hundreds, thousands of dollars at a time were so wealthy that amount of money was meaningless to them is what chump change? I think they call it chump change, right? There's no big deal. This was the only money this poor old woman had, and she gave it all for those wealthy people to qualitatively equal her gift. They would have had to sell their homes, all their property and possessions, give all of it to the temple. That's the nature of judgment for God.

We don't have to worry about the quantity. God doesn't care. Don't compare yourself to anyone else in your family, at work, at church. None of those matters. It's the quality of the gift that matters based on your particular life, your circumstances, what God is asking of you, only in comparison with his only son. That is the judgment we're preparing for and I can, by the grace of God, through prayer and the sacraments, get to a point at which I can learn to give all of myself in love to God and my neighbor the way Christ does, the way Mary does. My gift may be much smaller in comparison to them, but God doesn't care as long as it's all of me.

 

When you reflect and we should do this often upon your particular judgment, whenever that may come, keep in mind the, shall we say, parameters of judgment. You need to keep in mind how you will be judged, to whom you will be compared, and what exactly Christ is looking for when he judges you. Because if you can keep that in mind each day, you're going to find it much easier to motivate yourself to love the way Christ loves.

 

Now, I wanted to wrap up tonight with a beautiful quote. Took me a little while to find it online. I didn't have time to go get it from my my own books. So many of you should know of C.S. Lewis. Not Catholic, sadly, but amazing Christian writer. If you don't know him, I'm sorry, but he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia and tons of other awesome things as well if you're familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and that's the first one and the rest of them in the last book called The Final Battle, it's a long story. I'm not going to go into it. The main characters die, and they go, don’t worry, I'm not rooting for you. And they go to Aslan's country now. Aslan in Narnia is a giant lion that can talk. He's a real person, but he's a lion. He is the embodiment, according to see us, Lewis's explanation of Jesus Christ himself. So just think. Aslan. Jesus Christ. Okay, so that means Aslan's country is heaven. The good main characters have gotten into Aslan's country, right? They were good. Aslan blessed them and rewarded them, so they get to go to heaven. All of a sudden, this soldier goes through the gates of heaven and is amazed by this beauty and glory. Now, this soldier, very importantly, is called a tell Marine soldier. Now, tell me there was another nation in Narnia, but they were the baddies. Okay, Tell Marines where were the baddies? They worship to God named Tash. He was basically humanoid with a with a with an animal head, like a bird head. And he was not good. He was a demon, but he did not inspire virtue and holiness and people. This Marine soldier had striven to follow Tash his whole life, but here he is walking into heaven and suddenly he encounters Aslan, who is Christ for all intents and purposes.

 

And this is the encounter, as C.S. Lewis describes it. And one of the most beautiful things about this imagery, this language that he uses, and this particular text helps us to see how Christ judges, especially those who do not know him by name, especially those who do not know him by name. So again, this is from the The Last of the Chronicles of Narnia, the Last Battle. This is the Marine soldier speaking. Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death for the lion who is worthy of all honor, will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the lion and die than to be tis rock of the world and live and not have seen him. But the glorious one bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash, He answered Child, all the service thou have done to Tash, thy account as service done to me. Then, by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the glorious one and said, Lord, is it then true, as the ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The lion growled, so that the earth shook, but his wrath was not against me and said It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites.

I take to me the service which thou have done to him, for I and he are of such different kinds that no service, which is vile, can be done to me and none which is not vile, can be done to him. Therefore, if any man swears by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not and it is I who reward him. And if any man does a cruelty in my name, then though he says the name of Arslan, it is Tash, whom he serves, and by Tash, his deed is accepted dust. Well, understand child, I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also for the truth constrained me. Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days, Beloved, said the glorious one, unless thy desire had not been for me, I would not have sought so long and so truly for all, find what they truly seek.

 

There will be many people you meet and know in your life that seem to serve demons because of their ignorance of Christ the Lord. Don't be afraid for them. Just pray for them. In the end, our Lord himself will judge. And that's not our job. We should be concerned only with our own individual judgment. Even the judgment of our spouses and our children is not within our power. Ours alone is our worry and concern. The rest of the world, even the ones that you love and trust them to the merciful judgment of God. As you hear C.S. Lewis put it so clearly, as long as they seek the truth, even if they never find it in this life, as long as they continue to persevere in following to the best of their knowledge, the Lord, even in their misguided on his true name, you don't need to worry for them. Our Lord desires the salvation of every one of His creatures. He desires no one to be lost. Why should I worry about your salvation when God loves you more than I ever could? Never underestimate, know, never overestimate your importance in the salvation of others. Trust me, you're far less necessary than you realize. They only need the Lord. They don't need you, your spouse, your children, your friends, your siblings, your pastor, your parishioners. They don't need you. They need Christ alone. But if us as individuals are humbly seeking our own salvation, humbly trying to follow Christ, then what you'll find is our Lord will be able to use you more effectively for their salvation. Put that in his hands. Strive for holiness yourself and the rest will be taken care of by the Lord.

Reflection-Death

The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Seeking our Lady's Intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of Grace.

The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters. As you know, this Tuesday is the solemnity of our patron saint, Dorothy. We'll have a special mass Tuesday evening in her honor. And we're having adoration. Of course, we started Friday night and it's going to go until Tuesday evening. And normally, of course, we do 40 hours, but this year we're doing over 80 hours because it's our 80th year of being an official parish and more in regard to adoration is usually better. So, I just want to begin by thanking those of you who signed up to spend time with the Lord so that we could accomplish this, but also those of you. And there are many of you who sign up for multiple holy hours. So again, thank you all very much. I was a little concerned that I was going to have to spend a lot of time in adoration over the next few days if we didn't fill up all those hours. So not that that's a bad thing. But so, because of the way in which we're preparing ourselves for our solemnity, I've decided to preach on four topics over the next few days. These are what the Catholic Church calls the four last things. Like, you should all know what this is the four last things death, judgment, heaven, and hell. These are always called the four last things, because all of us are going to experience death and judgment, and some of us will experience heaven and some will experience hell.

 

That's why the church kind of has this saying, and that's why they're often preached together. So, at the Sunday masses that I started last night, and for the two masses this morning, I'll be preaching on death. It's always the first of the four tonight, if you want to come back to church. During adoration at 6:00, I'm going to preach on judgment. Monday night we'll have masses six. I will preach on hell. And then Tuesday night for the solemnity of Saint Dorothy's, I will preach on heaven. I thought we'll save heaven to last, since that's Dorothy's feast. I don't want to preach on hell, on solemnity. So, but today I'm going to be preaching about death. And, you know, in my sermons, I often talk about death because it's something that all of us are going to experience. I can say with some confidence that I'm 99% certain in 100 years from today, all of us will be dead again. It's very possible that some of the babies may live over 100 years, but it's highly unlikely in a hundred years from today, none of us will exist in this world. That's a very important and sobering thought.

 

Now, last night at Mass and, you know, a lot of times the older parishioners will go to the vigil mass. I had to curtail that and say in the next 30 years. But, you know, they understood for the most part, I can honestly say in 100 years, all of us have will have experienced death and ultimately judgment. It is coming and on a natural level that should concern us. You know, people who are afraid of death or are afraid of suffering have a reason to be afraid of these things. Why? Because when God created human nature, when he created Adam and Eve, they were immortal, not just in their souls, but in their bodies. They could not get sick, and they could not die. Sickness and death are a direct consequence of sin. We were never meant to experience these things. They weren't made for us  and so it's obviously painful and difficult to experience that sickness and death. They always go hand in hand. However, even though on a natural level, it's understandable that we don't like these things and we can even fear these things on a supernatural level. It is irrational for a Catholic, a Christian, to be afraid of sickness or death. It is irrational. I find it to be one of the most scandalizing things when someone claims to be Christian, and yet they're terrified of death. You know why that scandalizing is? Because Jesus already conquered it. What are you afraid of? It's. This is the main message of the Christian faith. This is the gospel. Christ has conquered not only sin, but death itself and those of us who come to Christ and seek to live within his life, in his church, we share in those graces already. We know that, yes, we will die one day. But we don't have to be afraid of that because it's just temporary. Now, the main reason for a Christian to fear death is they're fearing their judgment. We'll talk about that tonight at six. But there's a very simple reason why you shouldn't fear your judgment. The sacraments. Have you heard of the sacraments? Baptism forgives all Sin removes original sin. If you commit sin after being baptized, confession or reconciliation, that removes to. What are you afraid of? Our Lord has won the grace to forgive all sins for as long as you exist in this world.

 

I often tell people, especially in confession, that there are two paths to heaven, two paths to holiness and salvation. The first is this. This is the ideal way. Never, ever, ever sin again and always do what God tells you to do. So, if you do that, you're assured of salvation. If that was the only path to heaven, give up and go home.  You know that there's. There's no hope for us. That's why we have the second path. And it's not really a separate path. It's just, so to speak, the other side of the coin. And that is if you fail in the first way, repent. That's it. If you fail in the first way, meaning you sin and you don't always do what God tells you, then repent. If you can't be perfectly virtuous and following Christ with His grace, at least be perfectly repentant and he can still save you. Again, we know this, we know this, but we don't act on it. We don't respond in this correct way. We have such weak faith that sickness and death still causes us fear and anxiety. And it's not just our own sickness and death. This even happens when we're afraid of the sickness and death of our loved ones. No, Christian has the right to be afraid of these things. Death is not our enemy. Death for us is a blessing because it is the gateway through which we go to live in heaven with God. We should be looking forward to death. We should often think about death. Remember death not only so that you're ready for it when it comes, because that's really important. But keep in mind the glory, the life that is offered to us in heaven with the Lord. When you have that on your mind, you can't. You can't fear these things.

 

Some of you know, probably many of you know I'm a huge science fiction geek, nerd. I don't know what the right term is. I love science fiction. Loved it my whole life. Science fiction, books, movies, whatever it is. Right. Love them all. You must be careful. They're not all good or moral. So, you know, be careful when you choose them. But I love Star Trek. Huge Trekkie. Okay, I'm not like the cosplay Trekkie where I get the pointed ears and go around and, you know, 99 or whatever it is but I still love just the science fiction of it. Now, in the original Trek universe, there is a race of warriors called the Klingons. Everyone loves the Klingons. They are warriors to the core. All they dream about is conquest and honor in battle. And for them, the greatest death is a death in battle. And they prepare their children from a very young age to have this goal in mind.

If you want real glory, lasting glory, you must die in battle. It's a shame for a Klingon to die of old age in later Trekkie universes. There was also another race in another galaxy, and they were called the Vashti. If you really know them, I'm impressed. Don't worry if you don't.  Really liked them because they had a lot in common as a totally different race of aliens. But again, they were very battle oriented. They were all about war and conquest. And they had a tradition that every night with their children while going to bed, they would help their children come up with a new way that they could die in battle. That's the kind of bedtime stories they had with their kids. You could get your head chopped off. Imagine that. You know, somebody swinging a sword, or you could get shot with a laser gun, right? Whatever it is each night you're putting your children to bed with the idea of thinking about their death, keeping their death in mind so that they could never fear it. Because that's an important thing about being a soldier, right? If you're afraid of death, you're not going to be a good soldier because a soldier has to approach death in regard to their occupational responsibilities. Now, I'm not saying we should necessarily follow this trend with our own children. It's not necessarily the perfect way to do it, especially when they're little. However, there's something important about that. One thing that we see in so many of the great saints is their desire for martyrdom. They don't just want to die. They want to die for Christ. One of my favorites is Saint Francis of Assisi. He always wanted to be martyred. He wasn't, but he really wanted to be martyred he got permission to go to the Middle East and to find the sultan, the head of the Muslim empire, and to preach Christ to him, to preach Christ to him, because he knew he would probably be killed for it. and that's what he wanted. So, he goes there, and he gets an audience with the sultan. He's telling them, you’re all pagans and you need to convert and come to Jesus Christ, you know, and be baptized and so he's hoping he's going to get martyred, but the sultan's not ready to martyr him, Francis says, I'll make you a deal. You build This is a true story. You build the biggest fire you can, and you choose some of your most faithful and holy imams, or like priestly leaders among the Muslims. And we will all walk into the fire together and whoever comes out alive has the true God. He actually said this, and the sultan was like, okay, I'd like to see this. We had this giant fire built. Francis was standing there waiting to walk in, but the imams that were chosen were so terrified that they ran away, they wouldn't walk into the fire and Francis turn to the Sultan. He goes, That's okay. I'll do it by myself. And he turns around and begins to walk into this this giant bonfire and the sultan sends his soldiers to tackle Francis and to drag him away. And then he has his soldiers send him away from that land. And Francis was like, why just let me walk into the fire? He goes, no, because if you come out alive, I'll have to convert. But that was the zeal that Francis had. He had he was fearless in regard to suffering and death. I'm not saying you have to be that fearless. Okay. Right. You don't have to kind of go after martyrdom the way we see some of the saints do. However, you need to be ready for it. We should always be ready. Christ, who has given his life for me, deserves at the very least that I be willing to give my life for him. I can't even think about that if I'm afraid of death. You are going to die, and many of you are going to die far sooner than you think. And for those who aren't in Christ trying to prepare themselves for death, Jesus tells you what's going to happen. You call yourself a Christian. You're not ready for death. You're not ready for your judgment. You know what's going to happen. I'm going to come to you. You will die when you least expect it. We have no excuse for not being ready to die at any moment. Jesus has warned us if we're not always trying to get ourselves ready through prayer, right through confession, then he's going to come when we're not ready. But if I'm striving to stay in the state of grace.  Going to confession, praying, especially my rosary. If I'm doing these things, he won't surprise us. We will be ready and even if something happens where it seems like, you know, we can't get sacraments like the last rites before we die, our Lord will find a way. Like he wants to save everybody. If you're trying to stay in his good graces and pray and be ready for this inevitability, he's not going to surprise you. That's why I always love this story. A priest told when I was at seminary in Philadelphia. There was a huge snow snowstorm in Philly one winter, 30, 40 years ago. And the priest, who was the chaplain of the local hospital in downtown Philadelphia, could not get to the hospital because the snow drifts between the buildings were like 20, 30 feet high. It was impossible. Nobody could even leave their homes.  He gets a call in the middle of the night is a Catholic who's dying. They need last rites. He can't even get out of his door. And he's devastated. As a priest, you want to be there, but he can't be there. And he says, I'm sorry. There's just no way for me to even get the few blocks. I can't even walk. And he just goes to the chapel and starts praying that God, you know, provide a priest. This person is dying in the hospital. Obviously, there's a lot of commotion with nurses and doctors coming in and out. And the man in the next room, an elderly man who was bedridden, he couldn't sit up even was woken up because of all of the noise and he calls to one of the nurses coming by and he says. What's going on? And the nurse said, Mr. So-and-so, you're Mr. Smith from the next room is dying. And because of the snowstorm, the priest can't come and give him last rites. And this old man, bedridden old man, says, That's okay. I'm a priest, and I always keep my oils and my stoles with me. But the nurses didn't even know he was a priest. Now he couldn't walk into the other room, so they unhooked his bed and wheeled his bed into the other room. They lined up the bed beside the dying man, and he was so frail and elderly, this priest that he couldn't even, like, reach over or sit up himself. So, the nurses had to, like, tip him over so he was close enough to anoint him. He gives them the sacraments that all of the sick, the apostolic pardon, his forgiveness sins, and within a short time that man dies. God knew the hour of death, and he knew it would happen at a time when the normal priest and chaplain could not get to the hospital. So, you know what? He arranged that a sick old priest would be assigned to the room right next door so that when the time came, this child of his that he loved would have the graces that Christ had won for him. This is one of the reasons why, as Catholics, we pray the Hail Mary prayer because what do we say at the end of the prayer? Right. Pray for us now and at the hour of our death. It's that last hour that's so precious and important. Yes, I need grace throughout all my life. But that last hour is the most important because it's that moment that determines ultimately how I will be judged. That's why praying to our lady is so important and to any of the saints and angels that they not only help us always be ready for death and judgment, but in the end that we know that Christ will be there with his his loving hand in his mercy. So, again, death is imminent, and it will be challenging for most of us in one way or another. But at the very least, Christ doesn't want you to fear it. Don't underestimate his love for you. Don't underestimate his desire to save you. But don't wait on his mercy. Seek it today. Today may be the last day. The last day of your life. In the name of the Father and of the Son. And of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Homily begins at 18:46

 

We believe in Providence, not in coincidence

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of the womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

 Amen.

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters. This past Thursday, as you know, we usually have a holy hour from 6 to 7, and once a year we choose one particular holy hour. And we did it this past Thursday to be our holy hour for life, where we come, and we spend time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We pray especially for, you know, the conversion of the people of this country and of the world for a greater love and respect for human life, the dignity of human life, right from conception to natural death. And it was really a great turnout. I was very happy to see all the families and kids here Thursday evening. And then afterwards everyone went into the hall, and they had a bunch of activities and some food, you know, for them to share so they could continue the message. But one of the nice things was this year, for the first time, we had a mobile pregnancy care ultrasound unit come. It's just, you know, huge truck thing with generators and an ultrasound equipment in it. And they came and they volunteered to do this to come. And they did free ultrasounds for any pregnant mothers here at the parish. And there were a number of ladies who got to see these ultrasounds and the kids, and the rest of the family got to see these living children in their mother's womb through the power of this this technology. It's a very special event. And it was going very well initially. And then you might have heard, but all of a sudden, the hope, all the power at Saint Dorothy's flashed off just like everything's shut down and then turned back on shut down and turn back on it, shut down and turned back on. And then it shut down and didn't turn back on. There was no power anywhere. Now, luckily, the ultrasound unit had its own power source. Right? It's, it's, it's mobile. It took care of that. There are no lights anywhere, no electricity. Like everything was shut down and I didn't think much of it, but we found out that one of the main transfer, former blue. So, some of the parishioners had seen it started sparking and then basically just kind of exploded. And obviously we you know, called the fire department and called they called the electrical company, whoever's in charge of that. And they tried to come over to fix it. But for the rest of the time that we were in the hall and that this event was going on, there was just no power at St Dorothy's. So, at some point, of course, the electrical company got here and put a new transformer in and when Meg Barrett was closing the hall after everybody had left and gone home, no one is here. Meg locks the door, and the power comes back on. So now if you know anything, Catholics don't believe in coincidence, right? We don't believe that. that's interesting. Or that was strange, how did that happen? Why did that happen? Right. We believe in Providence or what I like sometimes people say is instead of coincidence, we believe in God incidents. So why would this have happened at such an event? You know, why didn't this happen some other time during the day or night when we weren't using the church? You know, what was going on here? And it makes sense. And I'll explain why that it was probably some type of demonic entity that didn't like what we were doing right this this beautiful night in support of the dignity of life and encouraging the love of life, especially in the womb to the young children of this parish. So, they were trying to shut it down. Now, that should lead you to ask the question, how could a demon affect a transformer? Right. How does that work? You know, demons are spiritual beings. Transformers are metal and glass and electricity.  What's the connection here? Well, something that The Exorcist have taught us for the last 60, 80, 100 years is that demons have a great proclivity for technology.

For some reason, demons have a great ability to manipulate, to work in and through all technology. Anything that runs on electricity, whether it's, you know, radio, television, Internet, doesn't matter what it is. They have this unique ability now that doesn't mean there's something intrinsically dangerous about technology. Demons can technically work through any physical thing in this world. Now, we don't. We know that demons can't possess things. Demons can't possess things. They possess people, right? They can possess people. But the word that Catholics use that the church uses is demons, can infest physical things, meaning dwell in and work through. So, it's not like they're controlling your TV or your computer or the, you know, transformer out by the road, but they can infest an effect and alter it and this is something that it's important for us to be aware of and that's why I'm sure many of you have heard before that. Now, I recently heard it was Saint Catholic and Seton who initially prophesied this in the 19th century. But also, I've heard that our Lady of Fatima prophesied this in 1917 to the children of Fatima that in the future Satan would have put a black box in every home through what went through which he would speak to the people.

Now, this was, if not a century, certainly decades before the television or the computer was invented. There was not even an idea of this black box and its usefulness. They didn't even know what it meant. But clearly, our Lord, through Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, through the Blessed Mother herself, was trying to get us ready for this. I think we can assume that that would include televisions and computers because typically they're black and they're shaped like a box you know, it seems the most logical interpretation. Now, again, this doesn't mean that television, the Internet, computers are intrinsically bad. They're just tools. That's all that they are. But because of the great evil that's done with them and through them at times, the lies and distortions, the power the demons have to work through them is actually strengthened.

 

Now, how does this work? Okay. When you look at Genesis, one of the things that God said to Adam very clearly is that I give to you dominion over the earth. Dominion simply means the power to rule and govern. Mankind was given by God the power to rule everything in this world, literally the whole world. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they surrendered that dominion to Satan. This is something that the fathers teach very clearly. Basically, they hand it over to Satan by doing his will instead of God's will, their power and authority over the world. And so ever since then, for however long we've been on this planet, Satan and the demons have been in charge of the physical world. And because of their dominion that they took from us, that we gave to them. They're able to rule and affect it in a very powerful way. Obviously, that was true then. It's still true now, but it's also true when a specific individual uses an object in a in a way that is not pleasing to God, you know, against the commandments and his teachings, they are actually increasing the demonic power over the thing that they're using. Like, we know that the number one thing that the Internet is used for is pornography. That is the number one thing. We also know that if pornography wasn't used on the Internet, you probably couldn't afford Internet in your home. That's what's paying for your Internet. Now, if that's the number one tool that the Internet and radio waves and television waves and all this is being used for, it's very demonic, right and so it's not surprising that demons have a great power over things like the Internet, like computers, like televisions and so we have to be on guard and careful about these things. Again, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with having one, but how you protect yourself and your family, how you use them is very important because they're easily accessed by demonic powers. One of the things that the church teaches us to do is say certain prayers in rejection of any demonic temptation or influence that could be coming upon us or our family. And we call them cattery prayers. It's just an old Latin word. It means to avert.  Either to avert, to cast out, to get rid of evil, evil spirits in particular.

 

Now, every baptized Christian has the power and the authority to pray to prefatory prayers, you don't have to be a deacon, you don't have to be a priest, you don't have to be a bishop. You can pray these prayers any time throughout the day in your life for yourself and for those over whom you have authority. So, spouses, children, your own property. You can pray these prayers all the time. If you think, there's some type of demonic spirit or influence trying to affect you or your family or your home. And these prayers that you can go online for the repercussions. Got a great book on these prayers for laypeople. There's lots of ways you can get these prayers. But the simple way of saying a predatory prayer is this in the name of Jesus Christ, I reject and then you name the thing that you reject. It could be the demon of pornography. It could be the demon of lust or the temptation of murder. You know, you could choose any sin or any name of a demon. I'm not saying research the names of demons, but, you know, if you happen to know them, you know, you can use that prayer and if you are in the state of grace, since you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you not only have the power, but also the authority to do that and the demons must flee. They have to flee. Now, what happens if you're not in the state of grace? Well, it's the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of Christ within us, through the grace of Christ that enables us to overcome the demonic attacks in these situations. So, if I'm not in the state of grace, it's not going to work. Now, this is a problem. That's why when I fall from the state of grace, I need to rush back to confession as soon as possible and get back in the state of grace so that I can protect and defend myself and my loved ones against these attacks of the enemy. Many people often think, well, if I'm not in a state of grace, what's the point of praying at all? Right. It's not going to benefit me spiritually. I'm not getting grace for it because I've lost the Holy Spirit. So, so many people, when they're coming to me, say, you know, I keep falling to the sand and then I just what's the point of praying at that point? and this is where you make a grave mistake. You should still be praying, and you even should be using the prefatory prayers, even if you know they're not going to work. And why is this why being it so important that we do this? The church teaches us that there's a very important aspect of how the power and grace of God works in our lives, and it always works according to our nature. Our nature. Thomas Aquinas said it this way. He says, Grace builds on nature. Depending on the nature of the thing that is receiving grace or the person that is receiving grace, the grace will work in conjunction with that nature. Now we have not only sinful, sinful nature, right? Can composable nature, but because of that it's weak and it's frail. The graces that we receive oftentimes don't seem like they're working. Because you say, I pray every day, Father. You know, I've got a confession in mass, but I keep falling into sin. Well, that's not the grace is fault. That's your fault. That's our fault. And it means I need to learn to discipline my nature master and control my nature so that the grace can be more efficacious. So, the way you improve your nature is good habits and self-discipline. And the number one good habit that every believer should have been daily and frequent prayer. You see, even if I'm not in a state of grace and therefore don't receive grace in my prayers, if I'm keeping up with my prayers every day, I'm actually building a good habit in my nature and this habit of prayer makes it much easier to receive grace. Once I go to confession because I've got the habit I built up, the habit where I pray every day, whether I sin or not, I just keep praying. And prayer is so important. That's why the church says those who pray are certainly saved and those who do not pray are certainly damned. That's how important daily prayer is. If you're praying God can save you, if you're not, there is no hope for you. So, consistency, creating a habit of prayer in your daily life, whether that's the rosary, the act of contrition, whatever prayers you like, or predatory prayers, that is a very good and noble habit to have in your nature. So, when you are faithful to that and you build that up, that when you get back into the state of grace, the grace is going to work even more powerfully through you. But there's another rule to understand about prayer in general, especially directory prayers. So, the prefatory prayers are like a weapon you're using to fight off and defend yourself from the attacks of the enemy.

 

Just imagine for a moment, Let's say I gave you a sword. You've never wielded a sword before, but I've given you the sword and the shield. So, you've got these weapons of war, and your enemy is coming to attack you. But he has been wielding his sword and shield for thousands and thousands of years. He's probably better than you, isn't he? I would assume. So, you've now got these powerful weapons sharpers than his, stronger than his that you could defeat him with. The problem is you really don't know what you're doing. You just flailing around and, you know, terrified as he's coming at you. Your sword is ten times as big as his, but he's just better at it than you are. The deprecatory prayers are very powerful. They work because of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you in the state of grace. And yet if you are weak in spirit or weak in faith and not well practiced in using those prayers and trusting in the name of Jesus Christ, then guess what happens? You seem to still falter and fail. The enemy still seems to win. You fall back into sin. You can't blame the weapons that you're using. You're just not skilled in using them yet. And the adage is very true here, practice makes perfect. So just keep praying them. Keep using these prayers, keep praying all your prayers, even if they don't seem to you to be working because the more you use them, the more you pray them, the better you get at it right. Practice makes perfect and you'll get to a point in your life in which, hey, it's working now. the prayers just suddenly started working. No, they've always worked. You have just finally mastered them in a way that they're able to work through your nature even better than before. This is why these habits of prayer are so essential in the spiritual life, regardless of the state of grace, regardless of whether in mortal sin or not.

That doesn't matter. Pray your prayers. Always say these prayers. Now, in the Gospel today we have this account in which Jesus easily casts out this demon. He performs an exorcism and of course, the people who are hearing him speak are already amazed by the way he speaks. Whenever you hear in the Gospels that Jesus speaks as one who has authority and not as the scribes, what this means is that when Jesus speaks, he doesn't quote Moses all the time, or Abraham or Elijah. He simply says, I tell you, I say to you, So Jesus is speaking on his own authority with the scribes in the Pharisees would usually say, Moses teaches you right, they would quote other people. So, Moses is authority. They invoke not their own. But Jesus speaks as if he himself has authority to tell us what to do. I'm telling you; it doesn't matter what Moses said. I'm telling you to do this. Do it because I have said so. And then he proves his authority by casting out a demon. Right. That's always something concrete. You need to see that the authority is real. So, he cast out this demon in. Everybody's amazed. Like, not only does he speak with authority, but he also actually has the power and authority to do it. Now, you, as lay men and women, even I as a priest, do not have the authority to perform an exorcism that's casting out a demon, that's possessing a person. We don't have the authority to do that. But did you know you have the power to do it? Every baptized Christian who's in the state of grace has the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, which means they can cast out demons.

 

They could technically perform exorcisms, but we're not allowed to do it. I'm not even allowed to do it because I don't have the permission. Basically, I need the Pope and the bishop's permission to do that. So, I've got the power, but not the authority if I attempted to cast out a demon from a person to perform an exorcism without Bishop Julius giving me permission, the demon can laugh at me. You can't hurt me. You can't do anything. You have no authority here. Your power is useless. So that's why we should never attempt to do exorcisms. Whether we have the power or not is irrelevant. You also need the authority. But one of the things I do every week here at Saint Dorothy's on every Friday is I do the exorcism prayers from Pope Saint Leo.

Pope Saint Leo wrote the most recent version of the Prayers of Exorcism and the prayers that I say again once a week as pastor of Saint Dorothy's and the whole parish and all the land and people and families and homes and everything that belonged to it is I pray these prayers which are exorcism prayers not for people, because I'm not allowed to do that, but for every other thing. I am weekly exercising to the furthest extent of my authority, every object within the parish, every object in your home, every object that you own, and everything within the geographic area that encompasses our parish.  I always include not only, you know, fit, you know, clearly physical objects, the land, the water, cars, buildings, clothing, gasoline, you know, whatever it is, physical stuff. But I also include electricity, internet, radio waves. I include all of them because they're all physical. And again, demons they don't possess, but they can infest these things very easily and each week I do this just as a kind of a weekly cleaning of all your property and possessions in Saint Dorothy's parish. Just kind of making it a little easier doesn't mean they don't keep coming back in. Any time a human does some grave evil or sin, they're inviting the demon back in and I got to go and clean house every week, and that's okay. I'm happy to do that. But even in your own homes, you have the right and authority in your homes and with your own property. It's very important that you pray these two deprecatory prayers.

 

Parents should be doing this over their children. If you see one of your children struggling with anything, not just a sin, it could be something like depression or anxiety. In the name of Jesus Christ, I reject. I cast out the demon of anxiety from my child. You can do this again. You might not be great at it when you start, but you just have to keep practicing it and as you grow, the power begins to flow more easily through you, and you'll see the effect in your family and in your homes. That's why I like to bless or exercise bells and candles, salt, and water. Because when you use those in your home again, they cast out demons when you use them with your children. It's an old tradition that if you ever find that there's a lot of kind of angst and resentment building in the house and people are starting to get on edge and fight, you bring the exercise bell and then the demon that's associated with those evils and temptations must leave. You must leave. That's why those things are so powerful. So, it’s not just the objects that we can exercise and use, but these prayers that we should learn and always have in our tool belt ready to help defend ourselves against the constant, the daily attacks of the enemy. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Homily begins at 15:08

 

Virtue

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters. As Catholics, all of us should know the words virtue and vice, virtue having to do with good thoughts and good actions that are in right order with our nature and with God's plan and design vices or bad thoughts and bad actions that go against God's plan and design and our nature. So obviously, sin is a vice, right?  Whatever way we sin, that's vicious behavior. That's where the word comes from, from the word for vice. So in our first reading from the prophet Jonah, we hear as we know, the story of Jonah, he gets swallowed by the whale, gets spat up on shore, and then he has to go throughout Nineveh preaching that 40 days more and God will destroy you because of your vice, because of your sin, So because of your vicious way of living, you're not in conformity with God.

 

God has decided to destroy you and this city. And again, it takes them three days to walk through the city. But even at the end of the first day, everybody in Nineveh is ready to repent. They put on sackcloth, they sit in the ashes and they fast. They don't eat food and don't drink. And when God sees their change of heart, he repents of his intention to destroy them. Right? This is what it says when God saw by their actions and by their actions how they turned from their evil way He repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them. He did not carry it out. And this this is one of the essential Christian messages that it's not enough to have faith in Christ. It's not enough just to have faith. We have to act on that faith. That faith has to be put into practice in our lives by how we think and what we choose to do. And so, the life of Christ, as the church explains it to us, is a life of what we call virtue. There are many different virtues.  We have to work on all of them and grow. Some people are better, and one virtue as opposed to another. And yet some of us are weaker in one virtue or another. And so, we have to strive harder in that virtue. It doesn't matter what the virtue is. I'm not going to go into all of them today. There's too many.  So, but it's actions, right? It's actions that God is looking for from us, his people, because it's our nature. God created us with these bodies through which we live and interact. And so, if my faith, if my trust in Jesus Christ is only a matter of my mind and heart, and it doesn't do anything to change my way of life, then clearly, it's hollow, it's empty. But we live in a culture that no longer encourages virtue in its people. Right. You can call it the woke culture. You can call it the victim culture, whatever you want to call it. Instead of holding up what we call virtuous actions as the goal that all people of our society should strive for, right? Even just natural virtue, let alone the supernatural virtues.  Instead of doing that, it's lauded and praised. When somebody claims that they a victim, they see that as a mark of pride. I'm oppressed, I'm broken. That's not a mark of pride. There's nothing good in that. It doesn't mean we condemn them for their brokenness. Right? Christ teaches us we love all especially the poor and the weak and the vulnerable the most.

 

But we don't praise them for their vulnerability and weakness and vice. There's nothing good in that It needs to be repented of. And then that person needs to strive for virtue. But we don't get that culturally anymore. And so, our culture, our country, just like Nineveh, is, is on the path to destruction. Hopefully we get a little more than 40 days, you know, but in the end, you know, if we can't turn things around, then destruction is the inevitability, because Vice always requires, in the end a response from God. He has to stop it when it's so far spread throughout a country. So how do we as individuals affect the national problems that we have in this country and throughout the world? Well, that's the key. We simply do it as an individual. You just work with yourself trying to grow in virtue and with those closest to you, trying to help them grow in virtue. And ultimately, it begins at home. Right. All of you know, all of you parents in particular, how you act, how you speak at home is how you are raising your children. They absorb everything, even if you don't realize you're teaching it simply by the way you talk and act you are. And so, we as parents have a responsibility to live lives of virtue, especially in our homes. And yet that's one of the hardest places to do it, right. The people you live with usually fight with the most or most resentful of hateful towards at times disobedient to where's the virtue If you can't change your own heart with the grace of God and help to change your family, then there is no hope for this culture. Absolutely no hope. And for how long have each of us individually striven to try to grow in holiness and virtue. And yet we fail? Time and time again, it's because we can't really do it as individuals. Like we need each other to help grow in virtue. That's why Christ, in instituting his church, made sure it was a community gathered together, working together, praying together to help all of us not only repent of our sins and believe in Christ, but then, by His grace, grow in virtue.

 

So one of the things we are doing at Saint Dorothy's in union with Saint Aloysius is we're starting up a group called Fraternus  . There's another group called Fidelis that I'd like to start up to, but we don't have enough female volunteers. So, the whole point of this group called Fraternus, or the one we'll eventually start called Fidelis, is to help men and women grow in virtue.  That's it. And it's not done in any academic like setting. It's not like catechesis, right? We have to sit down, like at school and learn stuff that we know it's far more natural and practicing and conversational. They play games, they eat food together. They have a meal together, right? It's a very good environment. It's not a class, but for fitness. It's where fathers and sons work together in this program, it's a great Catholic program to help them grow in virtue. Now, we fathers clearly need to grow in more virtue, but if we grow in virtue, we can help our sons grow in virtue, vice versa with Fidelis, which is for mothers and daughters, for women, again, it's to help them grow in virtue. Because, you know, young ladies, you're going to learn to be a woman based on the life of your mother, how she lives and acts. Young men. You're to learn to be a father based on his actions and his words. We as parents have a great responsibility to strive for virtue, but we need other men to help us.  Lives need other women to help them. And that's what these groups are designed to do. You don't have to do it on your own. You're not supposed to do it on your own. We're supposed to work collectively together. So like I said, we're starting later this month for attorneys. We're not going to be able to start Fidelis right away.  We again, ladies, you got to volunteer. We need you to step up and volunteer because it's run by you, the people. Right. So the men run fraternus. The women run Fidelis. But later this month, on the 29th, on Monday, the 29th, it's going to start up at Saint Louis, just in Hickory. They have a great hall with lots of extra rooms underneath the church. If you're not familiar, just drive up there. You'll find it's easy. It's my home parish. And so for the first four meetings of fraternities is for the men and the young men. It's just basically a come and see experience. There's no commitment required. You don't have to. There's no cost. They'll feed you while you're there. It's from 6:30pm to 8:30pm on Monday nights, starting every week on January 29th and again for four weeks, or just come and check us out and see what you think. I really strongly encourage you men, either with your sons or even without your sons, right to go in and try this. I think you'll be impressed by the program, and it'll help you personally grow in virtue and lead your sons to grow in virtue again. Ladies, I need to encourage you to step up so we can start Fidelis for the ladies as well. Some of our parishioners have already been doing this at other parishes. They've been driving out to other parishes just to have their kids in these programs. And not only the parents, but the kids, them, the kids, I shouldn't say the young men and women, they rave about it. They absolutely love it. It's really fantastic. So, again, I would just strongly encourage you to consider this because how often have we failed in our lives of virtue trying to do it on our own? The whole point of this program is you don't have to do it on your own anymore. You're going to have the support of other men and young men, other women, and young women. And it's us working together to help all of us collectively grow. So again, please just pray about that. Consider it after mass today, some men will be out in the foyer to answer any questions you have about fitness.

I'm sure you can ask about Fidelis because they're similar programs. But please, you know, take a moment, stop talk with them, at least be open to the idea. Now, there is a cost in the end to pay for the program if you're joining it permanently. But if there are some of you who aren't interested in getting involved and maybe don't have any kids that you could bring, you can still come in and help out.  That's not a problem. But, you know, if you want to give a financial donation to help families and young men and women attend these things without, you know, having the burden of  the cost, I don't remember what the prices are. You can talk to them about it. There's kind of one set price yearly for the program and then you just break that down between the members.

 

But again, please consider this. It's really a phenomenal program ultimately for ourselves. It's going to take sacrifice, as we know, to grow in virtue sacrifice like the nine invites wearing sackcloth. If you know anything about sackcloth, it is very uncomfortable. You don't want to wear sackcloth sitting in the ashes. I'd rather sit on the couch. So, sitting in ashes is penitential, right? Not eating food, not drinking. That's certainly very painful to the body, you know, and lifting up my mind and heart to God in prayer. You know, it's these actions where we sacrifice things in our lives, where we actually choose to suffer the loss of good things so as to show God, we are repentant, and we do want to change our ways.  So, yes, these kinds of events will be sacrificial. Even getting up for mass on a Sunday morning, the sacrificial, you know, I mean, I'd like to sleep in too, so but when we are willing to give things up for the Lord, not only does it please him because he sees our desire, but it enables us to receive all of the graces to grow in virtue that he pours out upon us, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Jon 3:1-5,10; Ps 25: 4-5,5-7,8-9; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mk 1:14-20

Homily begins at 17:49

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Seeking a lady's intercession, let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters and Merry Christmas. Remember, we celebrate Christmas for the entire octave, and then we continue with the season of Christmas. So tomorrow I will end the octave of Christmas with the solemnity of our lady. But today the Church gives us the Feast of the Holy Family. This is the day we celebrate this particular feast. Why in particular? Because this isn't just the Holy family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, in the sense that they're the holiest family, obviously their holiest family. So, you know, you've got the son of God, you've got the immaculate Virgin, you've got his foster father, Saint Joseph, that these are like the three these are the three best people ever. Clearly, their family is always perfect and holy and they're the model for each one of our families. If we really want to be holy ourselves and have a holy family, then this is this is our model. But there's a deeper theology here, a deeper mystery that's important that we contemplate. And we need to ask the question why, when Christ came into the world did, he choose to come into the world through a family? I mean, he could have done it any other way. He's the Lord, right? He could have simply created a new body for himself, like he did with Adam. We might take some dirt, some dust, some clay from the earth, form a new body, give it a soul, and then become incarnate with it. He could have done that, but he didn't.

Everything the Lord does, everything he does, has an important meaning for us. If we can meditate and if we can learn to see it. There is a very important reason why Christ the Savior came into the world in a family. And it's for one simple reason because individual humans don't exist. We should think about that for a minute.  Individual humans, persons, they don't exist in the sense that individually, separate from all others, all human nature, all human nature designed by God, is communal, is technically familial or a family. Right? When Adam was first created and he was the only human on earth, he was lonely. He wasn't complete, he was missing something, and he didn't know what it was. Of course, he should have been lonely and incomplete because no individual can stand on their own. They weren't created to, and God made him Eve. Now he wasn't as lonely anymore. But that still didn't complete the image because the very first command God gave to Adam and Eve was fruitful and multiply. Make a family. The family, the three essential members of the family, the father, the mother, and the child. You can have more than one child, but ultimately, it's that three basic paradigms of persons. They embody God himself. They embody that's an important word embodied in their bodies. They reveal God himself. And since we know through Revelation that God is a Trinity, a trinity of persons, He's not a solitude, he's not an individual, he's a trinity of persons.

Saint John Paul the second said very rightly, that God, in the depths of his mystery, is a family. He is a family because it contains within himself fatherhood, sonship, and the essence of the family, which is love. That's what Saint John Paul, the second said. Since God is eternally Trinitarian multiple persons, then when He created us individual persons, he had to do so in a Trinitarian way because he's a trinity and so he designed the family. He designed the father to embody his fatherhood. He and he designed children to embody his son. And he designed woman to embody the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father and the Son. This is the model, the model for each one of our families and in this embodiment of that Trinitarian dynamic, that Trinitarian reality, we have God revealing Himself to us. God does not just reveal himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Yes, he does that, but the person of Jesus Christ never comes alone, right? Either He comes with his mother and his father, or he in the person of his father is the bridegroom of the church. And the church is the mother, and the people are her children. It's always trinitarian. It must be because everything in creation was designed by the Trinity himself. And you know, if you're going to make something, you're going to make it like yourself, right? If you're perfect, if you're completely perfect, then anything you would create would reflect to some degree that perfection. All persons, all persons, all human persons must embody the Trinitarian image and we can't do it alone. We can only do it as a family. That's why in every relationship we ever find ourselves, you will always fit into one of those three roles. You will either be a father, a mother, or a child. It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter whether it's spiritually or physically. And every relationship, you're going to embody one of these three roles because those are the only roles any human could ever be, because that's who God is. The Father obviously is the origin of fatherhood. The son is the origin of being a child, and the Holy Spirit is the origin of what we call maternity or love.  This is why whenever Satan wants to attack humans, he always attacks the family. Because if you can break down the family, then you can break down the image of God in his people and once the image of God no longer exists, then you can recreate it into anything that you want. You can pervert it and twist it. I recently heard and I agree completely that you can tell the health of a culture by how they treat the family, by whether they protect the essential nature and roles of the family as created by God, or whether they perverted and twisted.

 

We are so perverted as a culture that not only is the family twisted, unrecognizable from God's creation, but individuals themselves can decide which gender they're going to be. I mean, if anything is demonic, that is demonic because now creation has no meaning, embodiment has no meaning. My body doesn't mean anything because I can be a woman if I want to be. That's insane. That's insane. We are what our bodies manifest, right? Little boys grow up to be men, fathers, little girls grow up to be women mothers. There is no choice in this. Why? Because I didn't make this body. I don't get a decision and my feelings are irrelevant. I follow my creation; my creation comes from the creator. Again, you attack this most fundamental nature of human existence. The family itself. You attack the Trinity, the image of God. And this is why conformity to our nature and to the teachings of Christ in this regard is so essential to save the culture. The only way to turn this society around is to save the family. The only way and the only way most of you can save the family is if you individuals that you are fulfill your roles in the family the way Christ intends, and this is ultimately what Saint Paul is saying to us in our second reading from Colossians. He says something. He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The word of Christ, the teachings of Christ is the word. But let this word dwell in you richly. When you think of the word rich, think of abundantly overflowing, right? When we think of wealth or riches, that's what we think. It's not a little money. No, we're tons of money, overflowing money, wealth.  This is the word of Christ. He says, let it fill you and overflow and you are richly. Why? Because the word teaches us how fathers are supposed to act, how mothers are supposed to act, and how children are supposed to act.  The word is very clear. It doesn't confuse at all what we are supposed to be doing as Christians. And if this word fills me and overflows in me, then I will be trying to live that out in my life, in my family life. And if I'm following these teachings, this word in my individual life, then it will begin to positively affect the people in my family. If I'm a father, it'll affect positively my wife and my children. If I'm a mother, it'll positively affect my husband and my children. If I'm a child, it will positively affect my mother and my father. Either way, it will benefit and bear fruit in your life and the lives of that immediate family around you. And once your family becomes a holy family, then that family can go out. Once those children grow and make more holy families, then their kids can make more holy families. And then what happens over time? Couple of generations. Society is then corrected. Until the family is renewed in the image of the Holy Family, in the image of the Trinity, there is no hope for this culture. None. You should put no hope in it. But this is true throughout history, not only in Old Testament times, but even over the last 2000 years in the history of the church. Whenever society has become so perverted that it perverts the individuals that make up the family, there is no saving that society. Usually, God can do anything. But what God must do is destroy the society and then start over. I don't mean start over like he did with the flood. You know, he promised not to do that again. But whatever good people survive, the Lord recreates Holy families again and they then rebuild a new culture based again, hopefully on our Lord's design. But when Saint Paul tells us to have the Word of Christ well, as dwell in is richly, we need to study. We need to meditate on this word. Otherwise, we're going to forget in the moment our role in the family. And Saint Paul has great teachings on this in the New Testament, in particular Old Testament as well. But there are very clear teachings on how fathers should behave, how mothers should behave, and how children should behave. And he summarizes it here in Colossians quite well as Chapter three cautions Go read it. You can just memorize this stuff and then you're good to go. This is a good summary of everything God tells you to do. That's it. Okay. This is this is the summary, brothers, and sisters. We are speaking, all of us put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, be compassionate kindness, be kind, humility, be humble, gentleness and patience. Be gentle, be patient with one another, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. That means putting up with the people you live with, putting up with them, you know, being patient with them and forgiving them their offenses. When they offend you or sinned against you, always be ready to forgive.  That's a good summary of the entire Christian life. But he goes on as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do so? Why do I forgive my spouse? Why do I forgive my children and my parents? Because God has forgiven me, not because they deserve it, not because I want to. It has nothing to do with my desires or my feelings because Christ has forgiven me.

 

That is why I am compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient and forgiving with them, because Christ is that way with me. And over all these put-on loves, Paul says. That is the bond of perfection. You do these things and ultimately that will be loving. You will put love upon your life in your way of acting and let the peace of Christ control your hearts.  This is probably one of the keys to following the Word of God to following the commands of God is the peace of Christ. He says, let that control your hearts. Why? Most of us, when we sin, most of us, especially in our relationships, is because our feelings get hurt, our emotions get stirred up and we react instead of thinking and acting. But if my heart is always at peace, if the peace of Christ is always controlling it, then I never lose control. I'm always making the right decision in the right moment because I can think clearly and peacefully. But if the peace of Christ isn't controlling my heart, what happens? It gets fearful and afraid and upset and hurt. And then it inclines me to act in an imperfect and unloving way.  How is it that the peace of Christ controls my heart? Ultimately, the peace of Christ is given through the forgiveness of sin, and that comes primarily through the sacraments, baptism, and confession. You want the peace of Christ to grow up in your heart and your home. Go to confession. That's where the peace comes from. When you know that you're forgiving of all your sins, you'll be at peace when you're not at peace, probably because you've got some sins that you need forgiven to go to confession and get forgiven. Then he again goes on to say, the word of Christ may dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom. You teach and admonish one another, saying psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Again, a very good point there. The singing of songs. What kind of music do you listen to? What kind of songs do you sing in your spare time?  Not just on Sunday or during Mass? Obviously. Make sure we have good music here, you know, good songs, but are you singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs Throughout the day? The word of God tells you to. Are you doing this? no. I just turn on the radio. yes, because that's great music. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Do everything for Jesus in the name of Jesus giving thanks to God and then Paul summarizes his teaching on the family again. It's explained in more detail in other passages. Ephesians five is one. But he says Wives. What is the role of the wife? The mother in the home to be subordinate to her husband, as is proper in the Lord subordinate under the ordination or authority of another place.  Both Peter and Paul say wives obey your husbands because your husband represents Christ who is head of the church the husband is the head of the home, the head of the family. Next, he says, husbands love your wives and avoid any bitterness toward them. You know, this is really the surprising line here in the Scriptures that husbands should love their wives and avoid any bitterness towards them because in the entire history of the church and throughout the known world, even to this day, everyone has always recognized that the husband is the head of the family. It's always been known. But what hasn't always been known is that this headship should be one of love and service and not lording it over those over whom he has authority.

 

That's what Christ teaches us. There's never been a different teaching in any culture, in any religion. The husband is always head of the family, the home he always is. When Paul reminds wives to be subordinate to their husbands, they would have been, yeah, okay, fine. Yeah. That's what's expected of us. No surprise there. But the husband should love his wife and avoid any bitterness towards her that would have shocked them in another place. He explains. Love your wives as Christ loved the church. That's what that looks like. He's saying Husbands be willing to die for your wives. How many husbands throughout every religion and culture would be willing to do that? That's the surprise. Children are told to obey their parents in everything and everything. Not in some things or in most things’ children and so as long as you are under their authority, so presumably. Well, because of the laws of this country, that means if you are under their authority or even if you're 18 years old or 19 years old and they're still paying your bills or for your college, you're under their authority until you get out from under them, pay your own bills and lead your own life. Obey them in everything and everything. Absolutely everything they say. And then lastly, he ends with another teaching for us fathers. Fathers do not provoke your children. Do not provoke your children, so they may not become discus urged. We have this ability as fathers because of our sometimes-unrealistic expectations to provoke our children and cause them discouragement. We're commanded not to do this or commanded not to do this. Basically, fathers be kind, be gentle, be humble, be patient. Now, again, this is the let's call it quick and dirty summary of the Holy Family. One of the reasons we don't understand this design and why this is the only and correct way to live in the world in any type of family life is because we don't understand God. I'll just kind of try to tie it up with one more reflection based on this, why men and women are so different and why our roles in society and in the family are so different. God created men to embody again in their physical bodies to manifest his power and his authority. That's what masculinity was designed for, to represent God's power and authority.  That's why men within God's design of the family, they're the ones with the greatest power and the greatest authority. And even biologically, clearly, they have more power. Anyone who has power has authority, they go together. Whatever anybody tells you, there is an intrinsic difference between biological men and biological women. Women were designed and created by God to embody God's love and God's humility.  Now, from what we know about the Lord, what is more important to him? Power and authority or love and humility in God's own mind and teachings? Does God say I'm the God of power, I'm the God of authority? No, He doesn't identify with those attributes. He says, I'm the God of love. I am love. Which means if you had to choose between men and women who embodies God's nature and its highest perfection, it's the ladies. It's the women, not the men. So why would God put men in charge of the family when they don't embody his love in the same way that women embody it? You see, our Lord intentionally made a distinction in these two expressions. Does that mean mean that men don't have to be humble in love because they don't embody it? No, of course they must. It's part of being like God. Does that mean women don't have authority and power because they're women? No, of course they do. We're told that they have authority and power over their children, but that's not what they embody or express within their bodies, in their roles in the family. Our Lord intentionally separated these two attributes between masculine and the feminine because there is an order to reality. In order to reality, well, you get a little more theological for just a moment. Try to follow in God in the eternal God, who is the first person? It's the father. In the name of the father, he's always the first person. And the father. Surprise, surprise. With that name, right. The father of the Trinity embodies, if you will, the power and the authority of God.  Now, the son, which is the second person, is the image and likeness of the father.  On some level he reflects that power and that authority as well. But the third person, the last person of the Trinity, so to speak, is the Holy Spirit. He is the love between the Father and the Son in God himself. The third person of the Trinity is the person that embodies the whole Trinity in its most perfect way. Since God is Love and the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and the Son. That means the last person of the Trinity, again, so to speak, is the one who manifests or embodies what God sees as his greatest attributes, his love. Since that is what we know to be the truth about God. Then when He created human beings in his image and likeness, he had to embody in them the same truth and it doesn't mean that we're not all called to love. Of course, we are. That's the highest of goods. But that doesn't mean that's each of our roles. We all embody a different role, and together we complete the Trinitarian image in being a family. This is what we are defending as Catholics by our very lives. It's the truth of the trinity of our God. This is something worthy to die for, to die for Christ. Clearly, the highest of deaths, but to die for any of the truths of Christ is just as noble. For whatever sacrifice God asks of us regarding living out this truth, we need to pray for the grace to be willing to offer it. And most of the time God is not going to ask you to physically die, to embody this truth, to be a father the way God expects you to be a father, to be a mother, the way God expects you to.

 

To be a mother, to be a child, the way God expects you to be a child. But you must die to yourself, to your pride, to your way of wanting to do things. You have to die to that. That's the only way. And again, if you want to save this country, this culture, this is the way you sacrifice yourself by allowing the Word of God to dwell in you richly, to fill you up and overflow from you so that everything you do each day within your relationships is an imperfect conformity to the teachings of Christ.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

 

Homily begins at 22:26

Jesus was born

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee

Blessed art thou among women

and blessed is the fruit of the womb, Jesus,

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen

 

Merry Christmas, brothers, and sisters. In this great day in which we celebrate our salvation, our savior coming into the world, it's very important that we take time and consider the manner in which he came. Now we all know the story. Like the back of our hand, right? Jesus was born in Bethlehem, even though Mary and Joseph were living in Nazareth. The reason is because Caesar had declared a census in the Roman Empire, in order to count all of the people to accumulate the census, it was required that you had to go back to your family, your tribe's original city, and be counted there. There was a lot of traveling throughout the Roman Empire at this time, especially in Judea and since Joseph was of the House of David and David's original city is Bethlehem, here is Mary nine months pregnant, and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem. And imagine it was a, a several days journey already. And it made it even more challenging that Mary is ready to pop, as we say. They get there, and they have to be getting there probably later than the rest of the people returning to Bethlehem. It's not surprising that all of the ends, all of the spare rooms were full. Now, I just want you to imagine that your Joseph, your responsibility is to take care of the mother of God and Jesus Christ. The Son of God. Like your one job is to get them a nice, warm room where he can be born and you fail miserably, right? I like to picture him literally going from house to house. Just please. Please. My wife is ready to give birth. I just. We just need a place. Just any little corner of a room up sorrowful. Try the next house down. Right. And probably 4 hours he went on searching until finally, clearly, there's no room left some Good Samaritan soul says, well, I've got a barn in a cave out back. You know, besides the animals, nobody else is in it if you'd like.  Joseph, of course, realizes this must be the place. Clearly wasn't his plan. Right. He had no intention of the mother of God giving birth to the son of God amongst animals in the stable. It wasn't his plan. He failed at his one job and he brings them to this stable. I can only imagine the apologetic look on his face to Mary. Sorry, but you have to know something about Saint Joseph and the Blessed Mother, because they, among all believers, understood the Divine Providence. They understood that the will of God is not our always our will.  That God has plans, greater plans than we can imagine.  I know I absolutely know for certain that he and the Blessed Mother accepted this as the will of the Father. Clearly, they both did everything they could to find some room or house, and they failed. It's not like they failed because of some lack of effort on their part. They didn't even try. Their failure was part of God's plan so that his son would have to be born in a stable and laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals. It was always the divine plan. And this is a such an important lesson for us as believers as well to learn. Most of the time we don't even do our best in life.

 

But even when we do so often, we fail, and we're tempted to think God has abandoned me. Where is the Lord? He clearly can't be found here in this stable. That couldn't have been his plan. Don't underestimate God's plans and don't underestimate his providence. We who share in the life of Jesus Christ in his body, the church share in that same divine providence.

 

There are no mistakes in our lives. Not with a God like ours. We have to remember this. Knowing that helps us rejoice that even in circumstances where it seems that we've failed, we can trust that the will of God has been accomplished. In hindsight, it's obvious why God wanted His son to be born in this stable and laid in a manger. All you have to do is known a few things. What does Bethlehem mean? House of Bread. That's the name of the city. The house of bread. And what is a manger? It's a feeding trough where animals eat. And who was laid in that manger? The bread of life. All of this was planned. All of it was arranged beforehand.  Our Lord wanted to show us his humility, how much he was willing to humble himself to draw near to us. In essence, his birth in Bethlehem is a precursor to his gift of to us in the Eucharist. He becomes the bread of us mere animals. He gives us his body and his blood. And he begins to reveal this mystery from the moment of his birth.  All of this arranged by his divine providence. And if we can learn to recognize the power of the divine providence in our own lives, especially in things that we can't control, we will begin to see the works of God more clearly and understand his will for us. But it takes tremendous faith, as Mary and Joseph had. Don't worry about succeeding or failing in anything that you attempt.  Consecrate everything to our Lord and allow His will to govern, whatever happens. And from that he will bring good. Because he said to us very clearly, all things work out to the good for those who love God in our called according to His plan.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Homily begins at 39:40

His Kingdom will have no end.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

 Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters.

Usually on this fourth Sunday, this last Sunday of Advent, because Christmas is rapidly approaching, especially this year. It's just a few hours away. You know, we preach about, you know, this advent preparation, that the preparation has worked. We're about there and all that kind of decent and appropriate messaging at this time of year.  But out of, I think, more necessity. I have to change the topic of the homily today, because of all of the fear and hoopla and controversy surrounding the Holy Father's new encyclical, Fiducia Supplicans comes. We had all been following any of the supposed news or media on this topic. A lot of people have been worried and up in arms. You've even heard bishops and priests talk out against it and all of these things. And I'm here to tell you there is nothing wrong with the document. It's completely and totally orthodox. And I have been doing what it says for years. More often than not, whenever you watch the news or you know, somebody who's proposing to offer the news officially or unofficially, especially on church matters, one, you can almost never trust the title of the article or the title of the YouTube or the title of the podcast to You always have to be skeptical whenever you listen to them comment on something that the Pope has said or done or written.  There is nothing wrong with this document. It is completely orthodox. All you have to do is read it. Now, Monsignor Winslow, our judicial vicar, wrote a great article for our Catholic News Herald. You can get it online as well. It's just called Fiduciary Supplications. What is all the chatter about? And he gives a very short and clear explanation, quoting the document itself about its fundamental teachings. And this is what the document says. It says that there are two different types of blessings that the church can give, one type of blessing, the sacramental. The other type of blessing is pastoral. Sacramental blessings can only be given to those things that are either intrinsically good or, you know, natural and therefore can be blessed and made even better. For example, you bring a rosary to me, you know, basically it's some string, maybe some metal and some beads of different, you know, plastic or wood or something. And you ask me to bless it. Now it's just made of normal natural materials. There's nothing intrinsically holy or virtuous about it, but humans have created this to be a tool to help them pray the rosary, since it's a tool for that purpose and the rosary is a good thing, I can give it a sacramental blessing now. It's not a sacrament. It's a sacramental meaning. It's an extension of the blessings of the sacraments. So sacramental blessings do include sacraments, for example, marriage is a sacramental blessing, right? When a man and a woman come to the church seeking God's blessing on their marriage, they get married in the church right? They receive the sacramental blessing when a blessed rosary to sacramental blessing, where the blessing candles or bells or salt or water, sacramental blessings, because those things are either made by God or they're naturally ordered towards holy things, pastoral blessings are far more liberal by nature.  They don't follow the same type of strict regulation. What that means is if somebody comes up to me, regardless of their state of sin or not, whether they are perfectly following Christ or not, even if they're not even Catholic and they ask for a blessing, I can give them a blessing because it's pastoral. It's an act of love.  This is someone who is searching for God, who is asking for grace and intercession. How many times did Jesus Christ himself reach out to those that are morally far from him? Right. He was accused during his day, rightly so, of eating with tax collectors and prostitutes. These are people who are clearly not following God's law and covenant, and yet Jesus associated with them out of pastoral love.  Why? To condone their sin? No, to call them to repentance. This is all the Holy Father is talking about when he says it's okay to bless homosexual couples because he makes a clear distinction. You can't bring them into the church and bless their rings and wear vestments when you bless them Of course you can't do that. That's sacramental. That's wrong. That's forbidden. It's always been forbidden. But if they come to me and they're struggling, trying to grow in their relationship with Christ, maybe striving to be more chaste and to follow the gospel, and they ask me for a blessing. And it's a private little moment, maybe in the sacristy or in public.  as if it's some type of ritual, you know, asking God's blessing on their sinful relationship.  I can bless them. I always have. It's just an act of charity. Are they perfectly conformed to Christ? No, you're not. I mean, do you really want me to bless you? Only when you're perfectly conformed to Christ because that means at the end of mass, when I bless all of you, some of you, I'm not blessing. One of the things that so many in the church have constantly criticized our Holy Father about is this clearly pastoral love and zeal he has for those who are not yet following Christ faithfully and yes, he doesn't always right or speak with the clearest language. And yes, people misinterpret this all the time and use it to justify the heretical or their sinful behavior. Yes, there are bishops and priests in the world blessing homosexual marriages because of this document, but that's not what the document says. They're heretics, but heretics always use whatever they hear to justify their behavior.  Whether it says that or not, don't listen to a single bishop, priest or layperson who is claiming that there's anything wrong with any of the official teachings of Pope Francis. He has never taught heresy. And you know why? Because he's the pope. He can't. It's one of the essential aspects of the church, the gift of infallibility. To help you understand this a little better,

 

I'm going to tell you a true story. After I receive the sacrament of confirmation as a young man in the church, St Louis and Hickory continue to offer faith formation classes, kind of continuing education classes for those of us who wanted to continue to go. And I, of course, elected, you know, I wanted to continue to go and study more. The Lord and his church and her teachings and our teacher, a good man. I still know and love him very well. He asked us one day just it was only like five or six of us. He said, what would you do if the Holy Father came out and officially declared some heretical teaching as Catholic Church teaching? What would you do? And he kind of went around the room and asked each of us our opinions and views, and I was just waiting for him to come to me. I knew exactly what I would do. He got to everybody else. He comes to me last. He says, David, David, what would you do? And I said, well, I thought a lot about this. I would probably commit every hedonistic sin and desire that my heart could come up with rob banks, rape, pillage, and murder. And then if I ever got caught and arrested, I blow my brains out. Now, that, of course, put him and the rest of our little class in shock that they were a little confused why I would go to such a wild extreme. And I said, because if infallibility isn't real, then the Catholic Church is not the Church of Christ. And if the Catholic Church is not the Church of Christ, then Jesus Christ is not the Son of God and of Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, then there is no God, there is no morality, there is nothing good, there is nothing evil.  There's no heaven or hell. And who cares what I do? What does it matter? We're all just apes now. They were all surprised. But you must understand something about the most essential teachings of our faith. Something like infallible. If it's not real, then nothing else is real because it's an essential aspect. Even the words of the angel to the Blessed Mother in the Gospel today speak very clearly, in essence of this fact.  He says that your son, who will reign right on the throne of his father, David, his kingdom will have no end. Christ Kingdom is his church. It will have no end. Every human endeavor ultimately dies and falls apart. All purely earthly governments eventually fall apart and are replaced. This always happens because of sin, because of Cupid. Since the only way Christ Church, Christ kingdom cannot fall is if Christ is maintaining it with His power and one of the ways He does that is the power of infallibility. Let me explain how this works. Infallibility doesn't make the Pope say the right thing because the Pope can say whatever he wants, whenever he wants to write whatever he wants. But when he speaks officially as the pontiff on issues of faith and morals like and in this cyclical, he cannot that's infallibility. He cannot teach anything wrong, anything that goes against the church's tradition or Christ teachings. He is unable to do. He doesn't have the freedom to do so. In essence, by becoming pope, he has surrendered part of his will. And even if he tried to do it, God can find a way around that. When you look at the history, I'm sure there have been popes that had sudden and surprising deaths, you know, massive heart attack or stroke.  Why? Because they were going to publish something the next day that was wrong. He's the God of life and death. He's like, okay, it's time for you to come home. Come on, come on. You know, I got to stop this before it starts. Is Christ really the king of this church or is he not? If he is, then why are you worried? What are you afraid of? The Pope can't go against him. He cannot. It's an essential teaching of Christ. And one of those passages that so many people always misinterpret is something Jesus himself said, that the gates of hell should not prevail against you. Now, 99.9% of Christians and Catholics misinterpret this passion. They have no idea what it means because they think that means when hell attacks the church or attacks Christ or Christians, they won't prevail.  Where are the gates of hell? Are they surrounding the church? If you have a fence and a gate around your house, it's around your house. The gates of hell or around hell. They're erected to keep everybody in hell in hell. What our Lord is saying that those gates can't even stand against you, meaning you'll be able to break down those gates and, in essence, steal people from damnation. I don't mean pull them out of hell. Literally, that's not possible. But those who basically at this moment, if they died, would go to hell. His church will be able to save them before death by his power, by his teachings, by her sacraments, by her love, steal them from the very clutches of Satan himself. You see, evil can have no power over the Church of Christ, Satan, and the demons they try to infiltrate, and they do on various levels. And throughout history there have been a handful of very terrible popes. Francis is a saint compared to the bad popes, a saint. Now, he may be a saint for all I know. I don't know. But compared to them, he's a saint. Now, some people will say to me, yes, but is he the real pope? Right? I mean, come on. I mean, what if he wasn't elected rightly? I mean, what if he's not the real pope? We're all set of a contest because there is no pope. The seat is empty. They'll say, Father Miller, don't you remember reading about the conclave and how that bunch of the bad liberal cardinals got together and decided to elect him because they knew he was immoral and they kind of influenced everybody else, which is against church teaching, as if for some reason, Christ couldn't have foreseen that and the Holy Spirit couldn't have worked with that.  Again, it's such a lack of faith for anyone who calls themselves Catholic to think that God is so weak, the Holy Spirit so foolish that He can't use sinful men to bring about His will. And if you had any knowledge of church history, you could only go back a few more decades and remember how John Paul the second got elected. Because if you know anything at that time, we had plenty of liberal bishops and cardinals and the reason they all voted for him when his name came up is because they thought he was liberal, too. They thought Cardinal Voight was liberal. You know why? Because he's one of those liberal bishops who celebrates mass outside and goes on hikes and ski trips with the youth. He's got to be liberal. They thought he was liberal. Now, the conservative bishops knew he was conservative, and so they voted for him. And he got in. That's how the Holy Spirit works. And it wasn't different for John Paul than Francis. God doesn't make mistakes, not with his church, because without his church firmly established on Earth, there is no salvation for us or for anyone. We have to stop giving in to these sensational clickbait titles for articles or YouTube videos or whatever. You know, before the invention of the printing press, laypeople never got into media because the only media that really existed was books as the only media that existed before that. And the only books that existed were handwritten. Most people couldn't read and write, and almost all 99.99% of theological text were written by the Catholic Church, by her priests and by her bishops.  That was it, because they were all trying to read and write, and they were all trade theology and philosophy. And they would write the theology books, they would write the scripture commentaries, they would write these things. There weren't a lot of them, but they would do it. And the nice thing about that is whenever there was a pope, whenever there was a bishop, a priest who wrote something that was heretical or wrong, since they always had somebody above them in the hierarchy of the church, they would just suppress it. You're not allowed to copy that. You must burn it. It's heretical, it's not true. And heresy was very difficult and getting spread throughout the church during those times. But once the printing press was invented, guess what? Common laypeople realized they could make a career of this. You know, I can. I can now write books and get them published cheaply compared to handwritten ones and possibly make a living at doing this. And ever since then and this media has developed, we have now, you know, audio and visual media and all of these things, theologians, lay theologians, lay theology or scriptural, common terrorists have been trying to make a living doing this. There is a problem because when you're trying to make a living in anything in that regard, you know, books, movies, art, whatever it is, the one thing that often gets the most attention is something that's new, something that's a little different than the same old, you know, we call it clickbait nowadays. You have to find some sensational title or angle in order to get your stuff sold. And ever since then, this happened with the printing press. More and more heresies have been spread throughout the world because it's easy to do so, and because the church doesn't have as much control over the laity who write or publish as her bishops and priests.  You can't trust most of what you see, read or hear, especially if people are doing it because they need to make a living. That's one of the nice things I get paid, whether I preach the truth or not, so it doesn't hurt me. We be so careful about this. The devil is always trying to divide the church between the extremes.  Of course, what we would call liberal Catholics or conservative Catholics. You can think of that in the same sense. Politically, the demons are always seeking to divide us. If you if you hear any commentary on something the pope has said or done or written, and it doesn't bring peace to your heart and you feel resistance and that kind of intrinsic division, don't ever go back to that news site again, especially if it's Catholic.  Don't ever go back again because it's not truly Catholic. They're not truly Orthodox because no saint in history would ever recommend that a single Catholic ever speak bad about the Holy Father or think bad about the Holy Father. They would always tell you, just obey him. Don't worry, God will judge him. You obey him. That's what they would say.

If anybody else says you says otherwise. They are not one of Christ's sheep. They are not a member of his flock. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. That's what they are. I don't care how traditional Catholic they claim to be, because Jesus Christ is very clear on this point. My sheep know me. They hear my voice, and they follow me. If you cannot hear the voice of Christ through his minister, his shepherd, the Pope, then you are not one of his sheep. And you should worry about that. Our Lord will always, always speak to us through the Holy Father. We just have to learn to understand Him, right? To not judge him, and to try to look at the real underlying message, which for Pope Francis is caring for the most marginalized, the most sinful, the most broken.  His heart goes out to them. And he wants us as a church to find every way to show them love and kindness so that we can call them to repentance. Again, if a homosexual, a couple would come to me asking for a blessing, I would say, well, when was the last time you went to confession? Have you thought about confessing and, you know, praying and trying to work on keeping this relationship chaste? Have you thought about separating one of you moving out? I talked to them about that, but I'd still give them a blessing if they ask for one. Nothing formal, of course, condoning their sinful actions. That would be inappropriate. The document says you can't do that. But to extend some hand of charity and love for them as Christ did, that's what we're all called to. But there's so much fear and insecurity in so many of your hearts. And Jesus says to you the same thing He said to his own apostles, of little faith. In the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Homily begins at 23.22

The Fruit of Love

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters.

One of the things that you hear from parents all the time is that becoming a parent changed them, right? That the moment they realized that this little life had depended upon them, it placed upon them this great responsibility, and it changed them as a person. Now the change is different, or at least it happens a little differently for the mother as opposed to the father.

So, for example, I'm reminded of a story slash joke that a comedian once told about becoming a father, and he said, I wasn't really prepared for it. Like, what happens to you when you hold your child for the first time? And he goes, I'll never forget the day my first child, my son, was born. And there in the hospital I held him, and he goes, For the first time in my life, I thought to myself, I would die for him because I never would have died for anybody else before that moment.  But having this little boy, it changed me. And he goes, I never thought I could change more than that. He goes, something happened when I had my second child, something I did not expect. It was a little girl. And he said that first time I held her in my arms. He goes, I realized I was a changed man because I thought to myself, I would kill for her.  He's like, I became a murderer. You know, I'd go to jail for you.  So having children in this way changes you now, for a man, for the typical father, he must really see that child and hold that child to really be transformed in that way.  But for a mother, it happens before birth, right? The moment the mother can really experience the child growing in her womb, she is changed by it. She's altered in her perception of self and responsibilities. And she changes her whole way of thinking. Now, the man, when he the reason he can't make that change when his wife is pregnant is because he can't see the baby. He can't experience the baby. It just looks like his wife is getting a little fatter right. So, you know, he knows there's a baby in there, but he has to have that visual connection to really affect that change in his way of thinking. But mom, she experiences the child in her body in a way that no man can, can experience, can comprehend.  And because of that concrete experience, she changes as well. The way she thinks. Now, this change comes because, again, it's an alteration of perception, the way you see life, your life, your responsibilities has changed you. Now, this is important because according to the church, the greatest form of prayer is meditation. Why? Because meditation changes the way you think.  It alters your perception of reality, and it can do it for the good or the bad. If you constantly meditate upon sad, depressing, and fearful things, guess what? You're going to become a sad and depressed and fearful person. If you meditate upon good and holy and virtuous things, guess what? You're going to become a better, holier, and more virtuous person.

 

Now, what does any of this have to do with Christmas and Advent? Well, advent as a season is all about preparing for the coming of the Christ child. Right. And in essence, this this month that we spend in preparation is like our ladies nine months of pregnancy. Once she conceived our Lord in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can imagine that became a profound change in her because she went from being a woman to being a mother. And she realized that even though it was God incarnate who she had in her womb, he was going to be born a baby and dependent upon her for so many of his needs. For those nine months, you can only imagine what our lady would have been thinking about. You know how you mothers are. You like all the things you have to get ready for the baby because its baby's coming, right?  All the changes you must make to the home, all of the things you have to buy and purchase and prepare for. And our lady must have been going through these things in her mind. Now you can say to yourself, Well, yeah, but I. I'm not the mother of God. Yeah, fair enough. And, you know, I can't meditate on that the way she did. And this is where. Yes, on one level, you're right. But on another level, you're wrong. And I offer it to you this way. After our Lord gave us the Holy Mass at the Last Supper and after His resurrection, when our Lady began to receive Holy Communion, I want you to think about this. Imagine her meditation every time she received Holy Communion. It must have reminded her of Jesus being in her womb for nine months. Now, if you if you do the math, that's a lot of holy communions, like nine months of pregnancy. I don't know how many it is, but just say on average, our Lord Sacramental stays within you for about 10 to 15 minutes. So 10 to 15 minutes divided by nine months, that's a lot of Holy Communion. But for us, we have this opportunity, like our lady, to reflect in that same way. Now, again, this is easier for you mothers because you've been through this. You've experienced it. You can make that connection. But for those who have no children, or especially for men in general who can't get pregnant, I know this is a debated topic culturally right now. Let me just clarify this for all of you. Men can't get pregnant. Okay. So. Okay, good. That's over. So, you know, for those of us who can't experience that on a natural level, on some level, we need to go to our lady after we receive Holy Communion and try to meditate as she did. Now, yes. We don't have to care for Jesus in the same way that a mother or father would as Joseph and Mary did.  Right. Because Jesus was actually a little baby then, and he really needed to be changed and fed and burped and all of those things. Okay. I'm sure he was a perfect baby, but still, he needed to be cared for. And you might think, well, Father, Jesus doesn't need me. Right. He's the glorious risen one. He's already conquered sin and death. He doesn't need me in those ways. And this is where you would be wrong. Because one of the things Jesus says very clearly to his disciples is what you do to the least of these you do to me. The way we treat others, especially the weakest, the poorest, the frailest, the sick, the imprisoned, all of these, the way we treat them is how we are caring for Christ.  Because in their weakness and vulnerability, they need help. Just like a baby, just like a baby would. And so that's why this kind of meditation is important for us. And it's not just an advent meditation. We should be meditating like our lady every time we receive communion, because the reason Christ is giving himself to you, Eucharistic Lee, is so that you can bear fruit in your life just like the mother bears fruit by giving birth to her child.  That new life that's the fruit of love. And that same fruit is supposed to be born in each of our lives as disciples of Christ. In essence, all of us are called to be like the mother of God. We won't be the mother of God, but we'll be like her in this. And it all comes about through Holy Communion.  And so what do you think about after receiving communion? When you go back to your pew, kneel down, fold your hands, what do you meditate on? Again, meditation, the highest form of prayer. Because it alters you. It changes you, ideally, supposedly for the better, but it only changes you for the better if you're meditating rightly on good and holy things.

 

Thinking like our lady with our lady, just imagine men and women alike. Imagine as any mother would, you have this life dwelling in you. I recently heard another comedian say, you know, that women get weird when they get pregnant for the first time. And she said that this one woman came up to her, and when she found out she was pregnant, she started whispering all the time.

And she's like, why are you whispering? She goes Because I have a living being inside of me. And she goes, what did you eat them like, what are you talking about? You know? She is it just seemed odd. But again, that idea of it changing you, because for us, we do eat them, and we do have a living being inside of us.  Whispering kind of seems appropriate on some level. Just the quietness that helps you to really think about what's happening, what's going on at that sacred moment. And for us, it only lasts for a few minutes at a time. So yes, we don't have the nine months of meditation the Blessed Mother did. But in the lifetime of a Catholic, it's very possible you would exceed nine months of all the communions that you could possibly have.  And in that sense, again, we are being conformed as the perfect disciple of our Lord. And that perfect disciple has always been the Blessed Mother. She is the model for each one of us, men, and women alike. So please, in this communion today and in your future communions, I want you to really go to the pews. Kneel, close your eyes, fold your hands, and just imagine the Blessed Mother with Jesus growing in her womb. And in that sense, again, we are being conformed as the perfect disciple of our Lord. And that perfect disciple has always been the Blessed Mother. She is the model for each one of us, men, and women alike. So please, in this communion today and in your future communions, I want you to really go to the pews. Kneel, close your eyes, fold your hands, and just imagine the Blessed Mother with Jesus growing in her womb.

Imagine this life, and in this case, this divine life of the Lord within you, at least for the few minutes that you have Him in this sacramental way. Just meditate. Just think on that and you'll notice over time it will change you. It will simply help you to be more patient, more loving, more generous with those in need, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

 

Homily begins at 20:29

Be obedient of authority

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of Grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters. Today we celebrate the great solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the universe. It's really a beautiful title, King of the universe. And we know he is the king because he said to the apostles before he ascended into heaven, he said, you know, I go to my father and your father, and I will sit on a throne at his right hand as God is clearly king and ruler of all things.  Jesus Christ has obviously, as God has, that role, that kingship. But even as a man has been anointed and established as king over the universe, now his kingdom is established. It's done. His kingdom reigns in the hearts of those who follow him. So, it's in the church and it's in the hearts of those who follow Christ.  In a sense, it's in the hearts of the people he describes in the Gospel today. Those who care for the least of these the sick and imprisoned, the hungry, the naked, the homeless, those who take care of these kind of people, Jesus calls them his brothers. Then that means the Kingdom of Heaven is in your heart and you will have a share in his kingdom when he comes in glory. That's what it means, of course, to go to heaven. But at the end of time, when Jesus Christ comes, we know that He will judge the heavens and the earth. And the best parallel to this, that Jesus gave us in his own words was when he talked about himself as a king. He said there was this king. And, you know, he had some servants and he told them to do some stuff.  Then he went off to take authority because he wanted to reign over another place as well. So he goes, Any wars on this other nation?  As a king, he wants to rule over all things. He wants to rule over all hearts. And in the end, he will. The nature of his kingdom, though, is that initially, even though he's king and can dictate to you the rules, he doesn't.  Then he went off to take authority because he wanted to reign over another place as well. So he goes, Any wars on this other nation? As a king, he wants to rule over all things. He wants to rule over all hearts. The nature of his kingdom, though, is that initially, even though he's king and can dictate to you the rules, he doesn't. He asks. He shows you how much he loves you. He dies on the cross for you. He's like, what more could I have done for you? Please obey me. And if we freely, by his grace, submit to his kingship, if we make him our king, then he will judge us and mercy. And we will go to live and be joyous and happy in his kingdom.

 

If we don't, then what does he say he will do? Right. In the Gospels, he says very clearly, those rebellious people, I will go and crush and kill. That's what I will do to those who refuse my kingship. Again, we easily fall into this mistaken assumption about our Lord is that he's always so gentle and merciful. Everybody's going to go to heaven, or he's very vengeful.

And, you know, it's black and white with God. You know, most people are going to be damned to hell. He's both. He's not one or the other. He is both in perfect measure. He's perfectly just always going to condemn everybody who deserves to be condemned. He's going to punish everybody who deserves to be punished. He's going to damned to hell anyone who refuses his kingship.  Of course, he's going to do that. But he's also perfectly loving and merciful, which is why he gives us time, which is why he lovingly invites us to obedience as opposed to command it. You know, Saint Paul has an interesting thing. He says to one of the communities to whom he was writing one of the letters in the in the New Testament. He says to them, basically, as an apostle, as your bishop, I have the right to command you to obey me. But I would rather beg you. I would rather plead with you. Please obey me. Please. I don't want to have to command. And that's the nature of Christ's kingship. He pleads with us. He does everything in his power to convince us that he is good. And he does love us. And he'll do anything necessary to redeem us just so that we will obey him. Right. What did he say? You are. You are my disciples. If you keep my commandments, if you obey me, if you obey me.  Obedience is necessary to be a friend of God to share in his rule and His kingdom.  Now we can struggle with the idea of a kingship in a kingdom, especially as Americans. Right. Because we have this idea of governance that is very different from traditional, traditional, especially biblical governance. But we like this idea of like a democracy or a democratic republic. We get to vote, we get to elect, you know, we have different branches of government and this nice division of powers. We think that is the best because that's what we've been taught. That is the best form of government. United States has the best form of government. That's how we were raised, which is, of course, as a Christian, completely ludicrous because you would think that Jesus Christ, God would have established in his kingdom the best form of government.  You just assume his governing form would be the best and you'd be right. But does he call his church a democracy, a republic? No, it's a dictatorship. That's what you must remember. A kingship is all the power and authority of the government is in a single man, one head. Now, he will have advisors if he's wise and other people, to help him administer the kingdom, administrate the kingdom?

Right. That's what Jesus did. That's why he appointed the pope and the bishops. That's why they're there. And that's why the bishops appointed the priests.  They help them administer the kingdom. But you must understand the governance of God is a dictatorship. That's what a kingdom is. And that is the perfect form of governance, because that's what God would have chosen. Now, the reason we especially don't like dictators is because they're not always as loving and virtuous and good as Jesus, because they don't always ask you to follow the rules. They simply throw you into jail and control your lives. We have a distaste for the idea of a kingdom or a kingship who has a dictator, a single ruler who governs over all things in the kingdom. But that distaste is wrong. It's not Christian. It's not virtuous or holy. Jesus Christ is our dictator. He's the best kind. But first and foremost, he's the king. He's the ruler. Yes. The ideal of kingship that Christ shows us is one who sees himself as a servant to the people. Right. That's the idea of authority. I come among you as one who serves.

That's what he taught the Apostles. That's what the Pope and the bishops and the priests are supposed to be. They're supposed to be kingly servants. But we're still kings. Like St Dorothy's is not a democracy. You don't get a vote. Like I'm the king of this little castle. Now, I'm not the high king. The bishop Jugis is the king of the little castle of the Diocese of Charlotte.  But he's not the High King. If there's a high king in this world, it's the Pope. The Pope is the high king. Now Christ is the high king of the church. In the end, he governs all things. But the Pope is his right-hand man who uses his power and an authority to rule over his kingdom on earth. Again, this is a dictatorship now, a good king imitating Christ would do so gently and lovingly. At first, they would begin with gentleness and love and compassion and mercy. But if that didn't work, then they would use all their power and authority to crush their opponents. You know how in the news, you know, we talk about Putin and in the Russian government and supposedly he's elected and he's an elected president or official now.  He's a dictator. Right. He's the king. That's what he is. And we get up in arms when we hear that he does things like crush his political opponents. How undemocratic. I'm sorry. And how many tens of thousands of years of human society have the king crushed their opponents? It's called rebellion. It's called, you know, refusal to be obedient to the authority.

I mean, the U.S. government does that. Right. What do you think happens in every country throughout the world? You question those who govern, you get squashed. I'm not saying you can't try to rebel, but don't complain when you get crushed. It's the same with Christ. When we rebelled against him. In the end, he will crush us and cast us into the outer darkness, or there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Now, why is all of this so important? Now, a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to preach on it. Last week I wasn't here, but it worked out better this weekend. Right. A couple of weeks ago. I don't know how many of you keep up. I'd rather you not, because honestly, it just breeds confusion and people get frustrated.

The Holy Father removed the bishop of Tyler, Texas, and this was like a big controversy in the church. no. This holy and conservative bishop has been removed by this liberal and sinful pope. Scandal. Terrible. We need to riot. We need to, if not, write, protest. Go out and march. Prayer. Rosaries. God, give us a good Holy Father. That's so foolish. It's so ignorant. Anyone who would think that way has no idea who Jesus Christ is and what his church really is. Again, it's a dictatorship. Our Holy Father doesn't need a good reason to remove anyone. He's the Pope. He can just decide. I don't like your haircut. You're no longer Bishop of Charlotte, and there's no one in the church that can stop him. Now, you may say he doesn't have a good reason to remove the bishop of Tyler, Texas. Well, how do you know? Did the Holy Father tell you, his reasons? No, he did not make public his reasons. But you don't have a right to the reasons. I'm not saying it would be wrong to share them with you, but it's the same in your in your household.

 

You know, when parents tell their children to do this or that, they don't have to give a reason. It's nice if you do, but let's say you do give a reason. None of the ten times your child is going to say, I disagree with you. That reason does not follow in my head, which is why it doesn't matter whether you have a reason, because children are to obey, because you're the king of the castle.

It's a dictatorship, kids. The family is a dictatorship. Ultimately, Dad is the high king. Mom shares in that kingship. And that's the way it goes. Now, yes, God wants them to be a loving king. A loving dictator, but they don't have to be. When they spank that little bottom, you deserve it. What's the old military phrase? Thank you, sir. May I have another? All right. That's what they want from you. When they say jump, you say how high. The nature of authority, the nature of authority is very important. If we don't understand this, it's very easy for us to go against Jesus Christ himself. And so, I'm going to tell you this. Jesus Christ, the king of the church, one of the bishop of Tyler, Texas, removed. He wanted it. Why does he want it? I don't know. I'm not Jesus. He didn't tell me. I have some theories, some ideas, but. But it's speculation until the king lets me know. All I know is that he wanted it. You know. I know you wanted it because the Pope wanted it. Why did the Pope want? I don't know. He wanted it. Why does he want it? I don't know. I'm not Jesus. He didn't tell me. I have some theories, some ideas, but. But it's speculation until the king lets me know. All I know is that he wanted it. You know. I know you wanted it because the Pope wanted it. Why did the Pope want? I don't know. He wanted it. Why does he want it? I don't know. I'm not Jesus. He didn't tell me. I have some theories, some ideas, but. But it's speculation until the king lets me know. All I know is that he wanted it. You know. I know you wanted it because the Pope wanted it. Why did the Pope want? I don't know.

We can speculate. I will tell you this and I only point this out after doing my research, is that that Bishop had been disobedient to the Holy Father directly disobedient on several occasions before he was removed. And you could say, well, he was justified. The Holy Father was wrong in trying to get him to do that thing or that thing. I'm sorry. What? How do you know the Holy Father was wrong? Well, because in my mind, that's not what Jesus wants. You're the sheep. You're the child trying to tell the shepherd how to govern the flock. How many times do your own children make that same mistake against you and think they don't have to obey?

And yet God's going to punish those disobedient children just as much is going to punish you because you disobeyed. You went against the lawful authority that he has established in his kingdom, in his church, and that Bishop disobeyed the Holy Father directly even after he had been commanded to do something. If I was the Pope, I would remove him now? Yes. Are there other bishops in the world that we would like to see removed more than that, Bishop? Sure. Do I think it would be wonderful if the Holy Father removed all of them? Absolutely. But I'm not the Pope. I don't make those rules. You can't be more Catholic than the Holy Father.  

You just can't be more Catholic than him. Now, before the pope formally removed this bishop, he sent him a formal letter. And in this formal letter, he kindly requested that he resign his office as bishop of Tyler, Texas. The Holy Father made this request. Now, those of you who understand authority. Was he asking him to step down? Was he saying, would you please consider this when somebody who has authority asks you to make your bed, are they just asking, like if you want you know, if you feel up to it, you know, please do the dishes. Well, I mean, you said please, but I just don't feel like it. No. When your parents, when your priest, when your bishop, when the pope asks you to do something, it's a polite command. It's what Saint Paul did. I could command you. I'd rather ask you. I'd rather beg you to obey. The Holy Father was giving the Bishop of Tyler, Texas, a way to bow out gracefully without losing any of his respect.

That's what he was doing. That was a good thing. This is what Bishop Julius does. Our new whenever we have new seminarians, it's always at least one of them that makes this mistake. They'll get a letter from the bishop saying, I kindly request your presence at this event, and then one or two of the seminarians won't come for me to recall them. Why weren't you there? I didn't think I had to be there. Why did you not think you had to be there? Well, because the bishop just said, I request your presence. You didn't say I require your presence. Okay. Don't do that again. When your bishop kindly requests your presence. That's a command. It's just a polite way of doing it. Why? Because he's the dictator. He's the king. You don't refuse the king. You don't refuse the king anything. If you can help it. That's the same with the Pope. Honestly, I'd like to even say that's the same with your pastor. But again, supposed to be a kindly king. I request I don't command. I could not go to, you know, let God judge you in the end.

I'll just, you know, suffer the consequences. When the Holy Father asked him to step down, he was giving him a polite and gentle way of saving face. But he refused his commander. He refused his king, the representative of Christ on Earth. And what did the king have to do? What did the pope have to do? He had to formally remove him. Right. What other recourse did he have? I didn't want to do it this way. I tried to do it the nice way. You refuse the nice way. Now I'm going to crush you. And yet, is this Bishop humbly accepting this removal? No. He's still in public media, and he's still causing discord and disharmony and disunity in the body of Christ.

And he's doing it with all the most polite and gentle words justifying his behavior for this reason for that reason. Just like any child would do to justify their disobedience. And I would generally never correct a bishop. However, he has made this public, right? I must correct it because remind you, my people, that we are faithful to the Holy Father, whether I understand him or not. Why? Because we are faithful to Christ, whether I understand him or not. Why? Because he is the king. That's why he is the dictator. And we must submit to him in all things. We always have to be careful with this. Never allow this American political philosophy to cloud our understanding of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes, he is good and loving and merciful, but he is a king. And if you don't submit to that love and that mercy the way he has asked you to, he will cast you into the outer darkness. He will separate the sheep from the goats and only the sheep will share in his kingdom. The goats will suffer for the rest of eternity.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Homily begins at 20.27

 

Mass Etiquette

Have you ever wondered why we do what we do during Mass? Is it tradition or Church law?

We invite you to listen to Fr. Miller's homily on the Mass Etiquette.

 

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 20:21

Jesus call to Love | PadreCast Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The reading for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time call to love.  And in the Gospel Jesus give us The Great Commandment that will be used for our judgment.  He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and wht all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." 

 

Ex 22, 20-26; Ps.18:2-3, 3-4,47,51; 1 Thes 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40 

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 23:51

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Making the Rosary an Intentional Habit

If you’re looking to grow your spiritual self, one of the best things you can do is to make praying the Rosary an intentional, purposeful part of your everyday life. Part of that is finding a rosary you can easily bring with you, no matter where you go.

https://catholicwoodworker.com/blogs/older-posts/why-the-holy-rosary-is-important

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of Grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters. The Holy Father has asked all the bishops of the world to ask all the priests of their dioceses to preach about the synod that is going to start this week. Right. If you remember the title, it's called the Synod-on-Synod, which I think is a terrible title, but it is what it is, right. Starts this week, I believe it's on Tuesday. We of course, need to keep that in our prayers. But what is a Senate and ultimately what does it mean? A synod is a gathering of bishops usually called by the pope to assist him through advice and direction in his governance of the universal church. That's what a Senate is, an official synod. A gathering of bishops. So that's what's happening in Rome this week. There's this great gathering of bishops called by the Holy Father, and they're going to be discussing synods. Synod is the concept, the idea that you gather a group of people together to seek their advice and wisdom so that you can make the best decisions. Now, you know, there's been a lot of fear and in controversy, if you keep up with, you know, conservative Catholic news.  Everybody's terrified of the church is going to fall apart and it's all ludicrous. You got to worry about that kind of stuff. What is a synod and why is senility important? And therefore, why is the Holy Father having the synod on this at all? You must understand something about the Church of Jesus Christ. It's not a democracy. It's a dictatorship. We call it a kingdom. Meaning there is one head who rules over all with absolute power over life and death. Now his number one emissary in the world is the Pope. The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church. He does not need any advice from any bishop anywhere to make his decisions. He's got all the authority resting first and foremost with him. But is that the way that Christ taught the apostles to lead? No, of course not. What did he do at the Last Supper when he ordained them? He showed them by washing their feet. If I've come among you as one who serves, you do likewise. And so even though all the authority of Christ is centered in the Holy Father, the Popes have always led by calling synods or councils. This is where they can get advice and direction from their bishops to hopefully make the best decision for the church with of course, and then through the mind of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's just a very humble and appropriate thing to do. I mean, can one man, the pope, know everything about the church throughout the whole world?  Of course not. There’re just too many things going on. His bishops are his best advisors. But if you think about it logically, can every bishop know what's going on in all his diocese? No, of course not. Of course, he can't. He's just one bishop.

 

What does he have to do? He must call a synod of priests.

 

He gets his pastors, his priests from all over the diocese and he brings them together and he says, okay, what's going on? What do you think we need to be working on here and there? But can every priest or pastor of a parish know what's going on in all his parish? I can tell you personally he cannot.  And so, what does he do? He calls a synod of his parishioners together to advise him on different areas. You can call it a parish council or a finance council or whatever you want. But ultimately, all they are synods. It's a calling together of advisers so that the King St Dorothy's and the King. I mean, Christ may be the king of kings, but Bishop Dugas is the king of Charlotte. Pope Francis the King of the world. Christ the King of heaven and earth. Does a king need adviser? If he's a smart king. He would recognize that. But does he need advisers to make decisions for the kingdom? No, he doesn't, because the authority in power rests with him. You see, the pope doesn't have to listen to any of the bishops.  There have been heresies in the church that were so prevalent that when the bishop called a synod, most of the bishops were heretics. Study your church history. But in all this instances, was the church led astray? No. The Holy Father called them all back to repentance. You don't have to worry about any negative influence on the Holy Father.

 

You must understand this as Pope. He doesn't have the power to go against God. He doesn't. He can't. He cannot. When he took upon himself, when he I should say, when he accepted the role of the papacy after he was elected, he could have refused it after he accepted it. He basically divested himself of some of his own free will.  You don't realize this about authority. The greater the authority an individual has, the less free will they have, at least on a certain level. The Bible is clear on this. It says that God directs the hearts of the powerful and he leads them wherever he wants them to go. God does this. When you think of the heart of a person, you think of their desires, those inner movements, the things that they want, and on some level, their intentions.

 

How many times throughout the Old Testament when God was going to punish his people for their sin, did he inspire a foreign king to say, oh, look, Israel, they've got a lot of wealth and gold and we could make a lot of good slaves, Let's go fight them. Do you think that foreign King knew that the Holy Spirit was inspiring him to do that?  No. He thought it was a good idea. Or maybe some of his counselors recommended it. But in the end, when they went and enslaved the people of Israel, that was God's will. All they did was accomplish what God had inspired their leaders to do. And this is a concept that, especially in this first world country, we don't understand.

 

We think because of this perverted philosophy that we have in this country, that authority is given from below. Meaning I decide who's my president, my senator, my congressman, or we decide, at least as a group, we elect, and we empower. No, that is according to Catholic tradition and teaching heresy. It's just heresy. It's outright heresy. Why? Because the Bible is clear.  All authority comes from God above. No authority comes from below. That's like giving your children a vote. And what mom and dad decide to do on behalf of them. Is that really a smart idea? I mean, is that what you want, parents? Because if that's the philosophy of our governing, of our government in this country and we're trying to spread that philosophy to the rest of the world, why do you think the world is going to hell in a handbasket, as we like to say?

 

Yeah. Give children a vote and see how things go in your family. What is the point of solidarity if those in power, in authority don't need the advice and direction? Again, there are two things. Either a wise or holy leader would know they can't know everything. And so, he seeks advice and direction and counsel from everybody and then makes his decision.  That's the first. And the second is this. And this may be more important than many of you realize. People need to be heard. I very recently heard a quote from Martin Luther King, and he said that is it Martin Luther King Jr Junior. Yeah, I know. Was missing something. So, Martin Luther King Jr. and he said that rebellion or revolution is the reaction to a people who are not listened to. Now, why does that happen? I want you to think of it in regard to your own personal life, just you individually. Saint Paul talks about this struggle that we have within each of us. He calls it the flesh warring against the spirit. And in one place, he says, I do the things I don't want to do, and I don't do the things I want to do, like my mind, which is centered up here in my brain, which is on the top of my body called my head is supposed to make decisions for the rest of the body.

 

I'm supposed to know what is good and true and the right thing and then do it. But how often is that not the case? How often do I know what I should do? But I don't want it. And I do something different. Maybe wrong. The heart is not always in line with the head. There's not good communication.

 

We even talk about that psychologically. The idea that your heart and your head need to learn to communicate better. But something that you might not know about the heart is this. If the head is constantly trying to control the heart without listening to it, the heart rebels. I'll give you a simple example. I'm sure all of you, for the most part, have experienced at some point in your life during Lent, where you took on a penance that was stronger or harder than you could handle.  And within a week you just completely gave up. And it doesn't have to be a penance during Lenten, it could be any task. You thought, I'm going to do this, I'm going to make myself do this, and then you just pushed yourself to do it as hard as you could, and you fell apart and completely abandoned it. That is the head trying to force the heart when the heart isn't ready.

You think that's just a sign of weakness? No, that's a state of being. It's a reality. The heart is not supposed to be forced. It's supposed to be encouraged. Yes. You must discipline it sometimes. Punish it. Yes. But ultimately, you invite, you draw out. Saint Paul says this constantly in his letters when he's writing to a specific town, he says, Look like a command to you.  I could command you to obey me. I've got the authority. I'm the apostle. But I would rather encourage you and invite you. It's the same with our God. He doesn't need your opinion when he makes decisions for your life. He's God. But how often are we taught by the Saints that He wants to know what's on your mind and heart?  Not because he's going to agree with you. Because it's important that you be heard. Ultimately, that's the secondary level of Senate. As you know, in the last year, year and a half, the Holy Father has asked us as parishes to have these little meetings of the minds where you get to reveal to me all the things on your mind and heart.

And then I share those things with the bishop, and the bishop shares those things with the Pope and so on. Sometimes that's all you need to do to feel better is just speak your mind, somebody to listen to you. It's not always going to solve your problems, but honestly, it usually makes you feel better, and it calms your spirit.  If we're not humble enough to listen to one another, then eventually that simply leads to rebellion. I'm certain that this Synod is the will of God inspired by the Holy Spirit. You know why? Because Pope Francis decided on it. And he's the Pope. And if he decided on it, then it's the will of God for us. That means there's something in this, some lesson that the whole church needs to learn.  You don't have to be afraid of the heretics. You don't have to be afraid of them. Do you really think for a moment that the Church of Jesus Christ is going to fall apart? I mean, after 2000 years, you really think it's suddenly going to happen now. Our Lord has promised us it won't happen. It can't happen until he comes again in glory.  At that point, it's too late, so who cares? There's no reason to worry or be afraid. Yes, there are heretical bishops. Of course, there are. There always have been in the church. Surprise, surprise. The Holy Spirit is not going to allow Pope Francis to make any decision for the body of Christ that goes against the will of the King.

 

On some level, that's the power of infallibility. It prevents the Holy Father from speaking error in official capacity. And there are many of you who can say, But Father, what about that one time when Pope Francis said this? What about that one time when Pope Francis didn't do that? Was he speaking definitively on some issue of faith and morals?  Was he changing church? Church teaching was giving a private opinion. I mean, you can disagree with his private opinions. That's perfectly fine. Isn't everyone entitled to their private opinions? No, I don't necessarily agree with everyone's opinions, and they can share as they want. And yes, it can have certain effects in our lives. But I don't worry about those things. I don't focus on them. They're not my concern. In fact, it's usually best if you have a weak faith in this area to stay away from that kind of news, because obviously it just disturbs your faith, causes you to have worry and anxiety. If your faith is not strong enough that Jesus Christ will not let his church go astray, you need to not watch the news, read the news.  Just stay away from it. As parents, you keep your children away from certain news because you don't think they're mature enough for it. Have you ever thought that maybe you're not mature enough for certain news? But, Father Miller, I'm an adult. Yes. That's the same argument your children use. I'm not a baby, but it doesn't mean you're mature and doesn't mean you're wise. All I know is that Christ will not fail me and that his church will always be here to guide me. And all I must do is stay faithful to her by my fidelity to our Pope. That's it. I do that even if I make some mistakes along the way. God, in his mercy, will bring me back in. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 18:56

Twenty-Second Sunday Ordinary Time

The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Seeking our Lady's Intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace.

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters. I actually feel much better than I sound.  I you know, I was sick for several days. I do apologize that I was unable to celebrate the sacraments for you, but I feel fine. I just kind of lost my voice this morning. Our Lord's words to Saint Peter and the Gospel today are quite profound and we must remember that he speaks to them not only to Peter, but to each one of us. He says, get behind me, Satan, you are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. Now, if you recall in the Gospel of Matthew, right before this gospel event, Jesus had just renamed Simon Peter and given him the keys of the Kingdom and established him as the first head of the church.

 

The Pope, all the other apostles were present. Everybody witnessed. Jesus just changed his name from Simon to Peter, made him the head and then the first thing he does after this is call him Satan first. He's the rock. Now he's the tempter. That's what Satan means. We call him Satan because it means to tempt the tempter, the one who tempts Jesus says, You're an obstacle to me. Now I just made you the first Pope and now you're not even following me. You're an obstacle. You're trying to lead me away from God's plan, not towards it. Now, if the first Pope can do that, anybody can do that. And if you can imagine, if you're there at that moment, along with the apostles and Jesus turns his back on Peter and says, get behind me, imagine how painful that must have been for Peter.  I mean, we use that expression, right? You turn your back on someone. The idea that you've rejected them turned away from them. It seems very devastating, only because you have no idea what Jesus is really doing here. He's not rejecting Peter. He's still the first Pope. He went on to continue to do so and became a saint. The reason Jesus turned his back on him was he was reminding Peter; I lead you follow the same reason I have my back turn to you.  When I celebrate mass, it's because I'm leading you to Jesus. We're all following Jesus. We all are facing. Jesus is back. He's the shepherd, right? We're the sheep. We follow him. This wasn't a rejection of Peter. This was a reminder. I am the one you follow. Wherever I lead, you go. And then Jesus says so clearly. Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me and our second reading, Saint Paul, gives us a beautiful reflection on on this specific teaching of our Lord Paul's theology. Of course, the theology of Christ is very clear about the relationship between a disciple and the Lord and their suffering.

 

Saint Paul says, I urge you, brothers, and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly and pleasing to God your spiritual worship.  He is telling us that the way we worship God is by offering our bodies as a living sacrifice. He says, do not conform yourselves to this age or any age in which you live, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. The way you think needs to change. If you speak the way that humans speak, that's because you think the way that humans think.  This is why, Peter, why Jesus reprimands Peter and the apostles. He says, you must discern what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing, and perfect. And Jesus clearly gives us direction again when he says Whoever wishes to come after me must first deny himself, then take up his cross, and only then can he follow me. You want to follow Jesus, right?  Ultimately, our goal is to follow Jesus to heaven. That's where we want to get Jesus not only opened the way to heaven, but He is also the way so conformity with and through him is the only pathway to heaven.  We've got to follow him and be conformed to his life.  He says, you want to follow me? Fine. First, deny yourself.  What does that mean? At the heart of self-denial is penance, meaning giving things up that you desire, that you want self-denial as opposed to self-fulfillment. I want this so I achieve it or obtain it. If I'm not willing to do penance, mortification in my life, give up things that I want, then I am not following Jesus Christ, period.  Because you haven't even begun. Remember, self-denial is just the first step. This is why the church gives us a whole season called Lent, in which we practice self-denial. Why every Friday of the year, barring feast days and celebrities, we're supposed to be fasting from something meaning denying ourselves something that we want food, drink, sleep, warm showers, whatever it is true, Christians live a life of self-denial.  It's not like every second and every moment there are days and solemnity and reasons to celebrate. But self-denial is a natural thing for us. Or at least it should be. In fact, it must be for anyone who claims to follow Christ. But that's the first step. You're not following Jesus unless you practice self-denial. After you've gotten at least consistent about self-denial.  Then there's one more step before you're following Jesus. He say, first deny yourself, then take up your cross. What does that mean? Obviously, Jesus is referring to his own cross that he is going to be taking up very soon. And what is his cross? Every cross that comes from God, I don't think the devil wants me to talk about this.  I'm losing my voice. So, every cross that comes from God is built on the cross of Christ. And there are two sides to that cross in our Lord and our Lady revealed to us kind of the fullness of the ways in which we are going to be asked to suffer by God. All of them are unjust. That's the first rule.  The first rule of a cross is that it's not fair. It's not just you shouldn't have to suffer it. If you should have to suffer it, then it's a punishment. It's not a cross. You deserve it, right? I mean, when I do something wrong and I get punished for it, that's not a cross. I was supposed to get punished.  The whole point of the cross is that I didn't deserve this. I did nothing wrong. I was in the right and I'm still suffering. So first, it's unjust and it can be unjust in one of two ways. It can be unjust because you, the individual, are suffering unjustly or someone you love is suffering unjustly, right? Jesus. And enduring His cross was innocent, and yet he willingly endured it and carried it. He took it up himself, knowing it was the will of the father to save us from sin. But Mary, her cross, along with her son, was very similar. It was unjust and yet it was different. You see, she would have happily died on the cross in place of her son. When you love someone that much, you'd gladly suffer if it would alleviate their suffering.

 

But if she had taken away the cross from her son, we would all go to hell. You see, if Jesus had not accepted this unjust suffering, we'd be damned. And if Mary did not accept that her beloved son had to endure this unjust suffering, we would all be damned. No souls would be saved. Both the son and the mother had to accept the cross as it was within the plan of God,

 

in your own life again, look at these crosses that God asks you to bear. Are you taking them up or do you fight against them? Did you know you can always reject a cross? I mean, you might not be able to stop yourself from physically suffering it, but you can deny and reject it in your heart so that it does no good for you or anyone. It bears. No fruit provides no special graces. People waste suffering all the time. I mean, you can offer up any suffering, even the things that you deserve, but most especially those crosses that we don't deserve, those are the best. And if I were to give this homily to just any Joe Schmo and secular society, they think I was insane.  This way of thinking doesn't make sense to them. Why? Because this is the way God thinks. That's what our Lord is telling us. Whereas the rest of the world thought the way Peter thought. God forbid that you should have to suffer and die. God forbid. Not only Satan thinks that way, and yet that's the way of the world.  In fact, for many of us, right. That's the way we often think, isn't it? God forbid that I should have to suffer this that Satan, God forbid that you should have to suffer this, that Satan. That's not the way the Lord thinks. Saint Paul is right. We have to be renewed in our minds. And this isn't an easy thing. It takes time, takes the sacraments and grace and prayer. But ultimately it comes down to these three things. If you really want to follow our Lord, you begin with self-denial. Practice penance and self-denial, giving things up even each day. It could be something small. Somebody in your family wants to do something. You don't want to do it, so you deny yourself and you do it with them, or vice versa.  That last piece of cake or pie in the fridge, you know, nobody's around. And if you ate it, nobody would know. Do you leave it there for somebody else? You walk away self-denial. There are so many little ways in which we can practice that without self-denial, we'll never get to a point in which we can take up our crosses daily again.  That's the second stage. It's learning to suffer unjustly that we Christ and the Blessed Mother did. Then lastly, we do all this following Jesus. So, if you want to know if you're following Jesus, these are the two things you need to work on. If you want to know if somebody else is following Jesus, then you will see them doing these two things,

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 20:02

 

Twenty-First Ordinary Time

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace.

The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus,

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death, Amen

 

Good morning, brothers, and sisters.

 

Oh, I don't know how many of you read in the news that, uh, this coming Saturday evening at our local civic center here in Lincolnton, they're putting on a drag show. And if you don't know what a drag show is, I'm very pleased. But sadly, I'm going to have to give you some idea. Otherwise, the rest of the homily won't make much sense.

 

So, a drag show is when men dress up like women or women dress up like men and perform lewd acts and dances and songs on stage that people pay to go see. That's what a drag show is. It's disgusting from beginning to end. Uh, and I want to let you know that next Saturday, uh, right after the vigil mass, so around 6:00, I'm going to expose the Blessed Sacrament.  We'll have adoration from 6 to 9. Anyone who can come and make it, we'll just be praying, interceding for our town and our nation and all these issues that we see in the world today. There is some talk of some people gathering down by the civic center and just like praying a rosary quietly outside. I'll send out a connect the dots and let you know either way if that's going to happen.

 

A little while ago, they tried to do this in Hickory, and there was such an uproar they had to cancel it. I hope we have still another seven days. Maybe we could cancel it altogether. But this is just a good opportunity to talk about the church's teaching on sexuality and why, in particular homosexuality, transgenderism and all of these topics. These issues are wrong, right? Why they're not in line with God's plan. And the simple reason is the teaching that we have. And if you look up the catechism of the Catholic Church on the Sixth Commandment, it tells us very clear that in the beginning God made them male and female, and he told them to be fruitful and multiply. The differences between our genders, male and female and our complementarity allows for the reproducing of more human beings, more children made in God's image and likeness. That's why the family and marriage relations are based on this distinction. What happens in people and in the society, in a culture where there is homosexuality, at least if it's promoted or at this point in our country, transgenderism and all these things, the first thing you need to know is this is nothing new.

 

Like, it's not negligible. I'm not saying it's a huge percentage, but it's significant enough to be a problem and to have always been a problem since and entered the world. We can't just shrug it off as if it's not that big a deal. It is a big deal. But the church's teaching on it is very clear and distinct.

 

If you're not sure, just get your catechism. If you don't have a catechism, get a catechism right in the back. There's an index. You can look up any topic that you want. And in this topic on the Sixth Commandment, it gives us very specific teachings, beginning with paragraph two, three, three, one. I don't expect you to remember that, but church documents are always numbered by paragraph, not pages.  And in this section, it deals with our Lord's teaching on proper sexuality and relationships between husbands and wives and men and women, chastity holiness and sends against chastity. And we know from the Sixth Commandment there are many different sins against chastity, right? Adultery is a sin against marriage in the family and chastity. Right? Fornication is a sin. Lust, pornography, these kinds of things are all sins against chastity, and therefore they are disordered, and this is an important way to remember or certain word to use to remember what sin is. Sin is a disorder, meaning God has ordered creation and us to act in a certain way, to perform deeds in a certain way. And when we sin, we're performing deeds or actions or words or thoughts in the wrong way. Therefore, it's disorders.  But there is also a subcategory of sin that is. Yes. And so therefore disordered. However, it's also unnatural. And homosexuality, transgenderism. And all this falls in that subcategory. Yes, it's disordered, but it's even unnatural. Sadly, when somebody commits adultery, it's a grave sin, right? you could go to hell for that if you die. Unrepentant. But in the end, that's at least natural. It's between a man and a woman. But when it's two men or two women, you've crossed the lines of nature. And those sins are particularly problematic in a culture. This is precisely why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, where we get the word Sodom Sodomites. You can see plenty of sins of adultery. As evil as it is in any culture throughout time.

 

God doesn't destroy a nation for that. But when a culture has gotten to a point at which it has promoted unnatural, sinful acts, not just allowed or condoned, promoted, unnatural, sinful acts, eventually God must step in. And if that culture can't change, he destroys it. It's the same thing he's done for the last 10,000 years. You can study history.  These problems have existed in all cultures, and when the culture supports it, the culture collapses, implodes on itself. Usually uses some type of war or natural disaster. So yeah, get ready for that. I really don't have to worry about it too much because, you know, whenever these things happen, they always attack the Catholic priests first.  I'm going to be martyred long before any of you will be attacked.  You know, I've got it a much quicker out. I'm just saying. But we as a people, we as disciples of Christ, we must follow the church and the teachings in this regard. But we can't shirk our responsibility. Now, I'm not saying we need to go out and picket. I'm not a big fan of that kind of stuff.

 

Quiet prayer outside of a place. Good adoration before a lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Very powerful. Don't underestimate that. You know, I don't think he's the bishop there anymore. He may have retired, but in Nebraska, when I was in seminary, a lot of their seminarians were in the same class with me. And whenever an abortion clinic would open up and again, that's an unnatural sin, you know, to kill your own child. Whenever an abortion clinic would open up in this bishop's diocese, he would get donors and they would either buy or rent a room in the building above the building or across the street from the abortion clinic and set up perpetual adoration. And within one week that abortion clinic would close. That's all they had to do. There were no abortion clinics in his dioceses because every time they tried to open one, they would just somehow miraculously close it down in a week.

 

So don't underestimate the power of prayer, especially in regard to adoration. That's why we're going to have adoration next Saturday. As Catholics, we obviously have to stand against these sins as we have to do with any sin, right? The church's teaching is very clear. And remember, it matters what the church teaches, what the pope and the bishops have taught for the last 2000 years, because as we heard in the gospel, Christ gave to Peter and the apostles the keys to his kingdom, and he said, what you bind on Earth is bound in heaven.  That's a very important point. The church has clearly handed on this teaching, which comes from Christ directly to us. It has been maintained and unchanged for 2000 years and thousands of years in the Israelite religion before that. This this teaching will never change, and we can't yield on this point. However, we must have compassion on these men and women who struggle with these issues.

We must have compassion. The church is very clear on that because they are our brothers and sisters, because they also are made in God's image and likeness and that God wants to save them and heal them as He does each one of us. And when it comes right down to it, I'm no better than them, right? You're no better than them.  We might not fall into those same types of sins, but we're all sinners in need of redemption. But something I do want to share with you, kind of like as an end to this homily today, the church says she doesn't know why men and women struggle with these issues because we don't know why 100%. You read that in the catechism.  We don't know why. We just know it's disordered. It's unnatural. It's not in line with Christ plan. We need to, in a wholly and virtuous way, oppose it. But we don't know the reason why people struggle. And if you talk to them, many of them will tell you it's not a choice. I've always been this way. Now I'm going to give you Father Miller's personal opinion, and I think this opinion carries some weight because I've been working with homosexuals for over 20 years.

I've known a lot of them personally and my family, friends, parishioners, just it's long time. And I've noticed certain consistencies about their struggles and I'm going to give you my theory as to why men and women struggle with these things, even transgenderism nowadays. A lot of it is just very popular, especially transgenderism. So that's a kind of a separate topic.  It's kind of more of a father in many respects. But that aside, how can someone become confused about their sexuality? Well, we know it's not genetically designed, right? God genetically designed us to be heterosexual. Why? Because that's natural. It's the way nature itself works. But that doesn't mean disorder can't enter into nature. Right? When God made Adam and Eve, they had perfect eyesight.  I was born with bad eyesight. So, what happened? Well, that's genetics, right? Over the millennia of human existence, because of sin disorder has gone not just into our thoughts and words and actions. It's gotten into our very DNA. These disorders create bodily disorders. So bad eyesight, you know, we can get corrective lenses, but even anxiety and depression, we know has some type of a genetic connection.  That doesn't mean your body is going to make you anxious and depressed. But some people are more inclined towards anxiety and depression because of a genetic predisposition. And if the circumstantial circumstances of their life are right, then they fall into that very easily and struggle with it throughout their lives. Now, we shouldn't go around and say, oh yes, being having bad eyesight is perfectly normal and healthy.

 

 

No, you fix it or being anxious and depressed is perfectly normal and healthy. No, you fix it. You have to recognize what is healthy and what is unhealthy. Whether there is some genetic predisposition towards these kinds of sexual disorders, it doesn't mean it makes that person into that way. So, what are the factors that I'm aware of in regard to how men and women struggle with this issue?  Well, I'm going to separate them because they're very different. How men struggle and how women struggle with temptations of homosexuality and transgenderism and the issue comes primarily sorry, gentlemen, on the fathers. When young men first we're just going to deal with them. When young men are growing up between the ages of one and ten is, give or take, they are genetically designed by God to want to be like their daddies.  It's just based programing, right? Even ma'am, all mammals have that same programing. Human beings are just a bit more complicated because we have these spiritual souls. This little boy wants more than anything in the world to be like his dad, to grow up, to be the kind of man his dad is. Now, if that's a good man, then wonderful.  If it's a bad man, well, it doesn't matter. He's still going to grow up to try to be like his dad one way or another. But when a dad has either no relationship with his son during those formative years or a very bad relationship where he's putting down his son during those formative years, this creates a psychological wound in the young man, because subconsciously he believes he doesn't measure up as a man and fathers, I'll tell you the best thing you can say to any of your sons, regardless of their age, is, well done. I'm proud of you. That's the way I would have done it, because those little boys can say, oh, Dad agrees with me. Your dad thinks I did a good job and that means I'm like, Dad, the most important.  But when he doesn't get that again, this wound is very deep in him because he wants to be a man. He wants to grow up to be a man like his dad. If dad doesn't communicate that that is possible, then he must question his very being. But does that desire to be a man ever go away? Nothing psychologically that a young boy needs.  He's program said to desire that. But if he's never thought that it was possible and it's not his fault, then by the time he hits puberty, guess what happens? Suddenly this surge of hormones and sexual desire gets muddled and confused with this wound. And instead of desiring to be a man, he desires to be with a man. And this is true across the board and I'll tell you, out of all of the men I've known and worked with in this area who struggle with homosexuality, they would rather be with heterosexual men than homosexual men. And that tells me that, again, it's because it's a disorder based on their desire to be manly, but it's not their fault. It's not a choice that they made. Most of them truly are deeply wounded. And if it's anybody's fault, it's their parents’ fault. It's more their father's fault than their mother's. But mothers, you can assist in this as well. When a mother puts down the father, the husband in front of the children, especially the son consistently when she disrespects him in front of the children, this is very dangerous when she keeps them from their father, very dangerous as well.

 

Now, again, yes, issues are far more complicated than I can explain in one simple homily. My point is, especially with men, you have to remember that this is a deep wound and it's not a simple option that they made most likely from the moment they went through purging up purgatory. Puberty does feel like purgatory, doesn't it? From the first moment they went through puberty, they have felt attracted to men.  But on a subconscious level, they've always been attracted to men in the sense that they want to be a man. But because of the brokenness that they receive from their fathers and their mothers, this has become confused. Now, can it be healed? Yes. Can they find grace and chastity? Yes, of course. Now, when women struggle with homosexuality, it's a very different it's a completely different scenario.  However, it still has to do with us fathers. It's still the father's fault, primarily. Interesting. I'm not saying mothers you don't contribute. Of course, you do. You're a part of that. But it's far more the father's fault than the mothers. In both cases. You see, women are designed very different from men in the fact that they're far more relational.  They need relationships more than anything. They must have them. And again, being natural, they're inclined to seek a man in their life like their father. That's the normal thing to do. The way they see their mom and dad interact during those formative years, 1 to 10 years old, is how they think men and women are supposed to interact. Whether that's a good example or not, that's their perception. But when their father presents to them either fear or disrespect, if the father puts them down and doesn't cherish them, doesn't teach them how much they are loved a lot of times, and because of various other wounds, they cannot entrust their heart to a man. But they must entrust their heart to somebody, and the only ones left to them are women. Logically, they both make clear sense. But again, in both cases, I've seen it time and time again. I have never encountered a homosexual man or woman who hasn't fallen into these categories. There still may be things I don't know about it, but what I do know is that you and I have to be compassionate with them.  We must see that it's not a simple choice that they made. Do they need to strive for chastity? Of course, they do, just like you and I do. We all need to follow Christ and his teachings. Of course, we do. I can't condone those sins in that lifestyle, but I'm not going to condemn those people it's this struggle that we have here.  We have to stand against all sin, but especially unnatural sin, even if we're persecuted because of it. But we need to pray for the healing and the grace that's needed. And these poor men and women and even those who support them. I'm sure that many of these crazy politicians and parents and families and everything who are supporting these lifestyles and even transgenderism in children, I mean, God forbid you cross a line when you go there, but I'm sure that many of them have good intentions.  As crazy as they are, they actually want to do what's best. Now, again, good intentions aren't enough. You need good actions. You need the truth. Jesus says it's the truth that sets us free. But the truth is that this needs to be stopped and we need to stand against it. And we have to be compassionate and understand and patient and merciful with everyone who struggles with these topics in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

 

I've spoken so long, and we have to have my brothers and my sacrifice to be acceptable to God. Your life, the sacrifice, O Lord, gain for yourself of people by adoption. The one sacrifice offered once for all these so graciously on us, we've grown to have some unity and peace in your eyes, to our little boy or little more and be with you all that you are.  Thanks to all our God is truly our duty and our always and everywhere you find Lord, Holy Father Almighty. And due to the law, the rules will produce star rule for school mystery left to the law of the city, by which he has freed us from sin. And the glorious glory of being all those entering a royal for the nation of people, for your own laws that has gone blue for all claim everywhere your own lives.  You were born. You have called us out of the darkness into your all. And so with the angels and darkening you with the drones and all the and with all the rules and the followers and all that, these singing examine all of your eyes without waking up and your song and all you there for the most merciful father would make humble prayer and petition through Jesus Christ your son that you accept his offer to be offered universally for the Holy Please to grant to throughout the whole world, together with your servant, Francis Peter, our little holding on the Catholic Apostolic faith.  And for that we offer you the sacrifice of when they offer it for themselves and all for the redemption of their souls. The local council in Rome to the eternal God, living union with those for this matter, and any manner, especially the glorious and the Virgin and Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed Joseph. First about the Blessed hospitals and Peter and Paul and yours.  We ask that through their merits and prayers in all this, we may be depending on your protection and therefore Lord, in our service and your appeals delivered from the eternal damnation of different life. And those practices are pleased with this offer in every respect it spiritual and accepting that it may be coming for us. The body of your most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, on the day before, be blessed to suffer because the grandest quality is venerable and with eyes.  Your God is when if knew facts. You said the blessed growth and David, his disciples said, take this on and this is my Lord, this will be given to you in a similar way. When the supper was and he took this precious chalice, this and once more giving you thanks, you send the blessed and gave the chalice to his disciples.

 

Take this all and this is the challenge of my love before you and for the forgiveness and memory of his story of their world order. As we celebrate the more blessed, the resurrection from the dead and the glorious of your son, your servants and offer to your glorious Majesty from the gifts that you have given this cure with this belief in this spotless brand of internal and pleased to look upon these offerings with a serene and to accept as once you are pleased to accept the gifts of your servant, able to justify the sacrifice of Abraham, our father, and we all sacrifice and humble you, Almighty God gives be borne by the hands of the Holy angels in your offer on the site of all of us, in this participation that we all received in this building body. Love your soul and be filled with every grace and heavenly blessed are also, Lord your servant members of the House, the family who have gone before us with the sign of faith and best in this grand final word and all the sleep in a place of refreshment for Christ.  Our who was also your servant to those opposed to us. Some share the Holy Apostles and Stephen Matthias, Barnabas and the owners and see whether they're going on there with Christ. You continue to make all these little you sacrifice less than in the stone through him and with and Oh God Almighty fallen in the unity of the whole.  You all know, Lord, I'm goanna ask you all for the run of the Saviors come and then go on to we dare to say our other and to and from the US, from the Lord. You are doing that by the help of university, you may be always free from sensation, from all this strife. As we await the blessings of the coming of our Savior, Jesus, brought by us.

 

 

Oh, Lord Jesus Christ. Who said, You? He saw what He saw. Give you love not in our sins, but on the faith of your care and your world, who live in rain forever and never. The piece of the Lord be with you all the way. Oh, God takes away the sins of the world. Blessed call for the suffering of the light on our street and on your body, on my hands.

 

In the name of the Father,

And of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen

 

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our youtube channel. Homily begins at 23:44

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

 

Normally I do announcements at the end of mass, but this week I've got a lot of announcements to make.  I promise you just going to do the announcements now, give you a very short homily, promise very short, so you don't have to worry.  We'll just going to go through the elements because there's a lot of them.

 

Obviously, we have faith formation, registration today. It'll be after the mass in the parish hall. Please go to the ladies at the left. When you go into the hall from the church, they'll be signing up, all your children for faith formation this year. And I'm going to introduce our new DRE, who'll be replacing Meg Barrett, who served us for many, many years. Dyann Maldonado, you can meet her. She'll be there helping take registration if you want to get to know her.

 This Tuesday is a holy day of obligation. It's the solemnity of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. Mass this Tuesday will be at 7 p.m. in the evening to make it easier for you to fulfill your obligation and I'll have confessions from 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m before mass. So, again, holy day of obligation this Tuesday. If you can't get here at Saint Dorothy's, just look for masses at other parishes. The office here will be closed on Tuesday for the solemnity.

We are having a planned giving meeting with the dioceses on Wednesday. That's August 16th, 7 p.m. in the hall. Anyone who would like to either head up or be on the committee please attend. This is basically how to help, you know, make sure we're have good funds coming in to take care of ourselves as a parish.

 Our return to God group is meeting this Saturday, August the 19^th at noon, at the Old Court Square downtown. Again, once a month they meet outside, and they pray the rosary and some other songs and devotions for our country. It's really a great group. It's a great witness to the local community.  I encourage you to attend.

My email address for those who need it is on the monitor slides in the foyer. It's on our website and if you ever wanted to ask me any counselor counseling or spiritual direction questions, you can email me there and nobody else is going to read it. Don't worry about it.

Our altar guild needs at least two more people to help. Normally the altar guild is composed of ladies, but if some of you guys really like to iron and se w and do this kind of things, you're welcome to join. We just need two more people to help with the altar guild If you please pray about that. If you're interested or able, please see Yvonne Toro or Wanda Kaczmarek for more information and to sign up.

I'm also in need of money counters. I have some, but I need more. Usually, they meet on Mondays. It usually takes about an hour and a half, give, or take.  And since we have different teams, you don't have to do it every week, but it just helps us.  It's very important. I obviously prefer not to handle any of the money myself. I can never be accused of anything. I don't touch it. I just sign the checks. That's what I do. Just sign the checks. But if you're able to volunteer, please call the office and contact Alison. We will. Now, this is a special one.

We are now offering the second level of the catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. This is for ages 7 to 9.  If you're familiar, the room back there, what used to be the old cry room is where we have the catechesis of the Good Shepherd program and it's up to the age of six by far.

It is the best catechesis in the world. It's the best way to teach the faith to children of various ages. But we've only had the opportunity to have the first level. I think there are three, so that's up to the age of six. So now we're going to be starting seven through nine. It's the second level. It's really special. If you have a 7- to 9-year-old and you want them signed up, please do so as soon as possible. It's kind of first come, first serve because we can only handle so many in a class. So again, this is very special. You definitely want to have your children involved. It'll meet Sundays between the masses, as is typical for these programs.

And please grab a bulletin and read it on your way out. I'm calling it a book ten this week because it’s not tiny. It's huge. It's like packed with a lot of information. So, there's a lot of there in there to read and to catch up on, especially if you have children and faith formation.

Now, I put something in the bulletin myself, a little letter that I wrote to you, and that's why the homily can be short today, because you can just read the letter and it's going to explain everything that I'm going to summarize in the homily. So, it's always a sensitive issue to talk about loud children at mass and crying babies. Right. It's always a sensitive issue. You know, you either fall in the camp of, you know, these babies should not be in the church because they're disrupting everybody, or God doesn't care if they're screaming. He would rather than be in his house. So usually, as is true, that, you know, the path is in the middle somewhere, you know, yes if your baby is screaming, if your children are talking, please take them out, calm them down, bring them back. Okay. But I would rather than be in here making noise than not at church at all. Now, I'd rather than be in here quiet, but I'd rather them make noise than not be at church. You know, it's so important. It's so necessary. The children from the earliest ages just be used to worshiping with the whole community to be a part of the body. One of the reasons I hate cry rooms and why I was happy to get rid of ours many years ago is because you're basically ostracized, ostracizing families and these children to the cry room.  And yes, it makes it a little more peaceful in the body of the church. But that's not good. We need to be more patient. We need to be more understanding with the babies’ making noises and the little ones fidgeting and talking now and then. Now, yes, parents need to discipline them and correct them and calm them down and do what is necessary. Right. You don't want your children or your babies to disrupt everyone else's prayer. But I want you to think of the gospel today where Jesus again walking on the water, this profound miracle, and Peter at our Lord's Command, steps out of the boat and starts walking on the water towards Jesus. He is doing something that is impossible. He's walking on water. Jesus can do it. Makes sense. He's God. Peter's not God. He is doing something impossible by the power of God. So, what is he start to sink. Jesus says it's because his weakness of faith. Why did you doubt Peter? Why did you doubt? But what led Peter to doubt? It says while he was going towards Jesus, he was looking at Jesus.

 

 But then he turned his gaze. He. He looked at the waves in the wind. And that must have caused some consternation, some fear, some concern. And so, he doubted. He thought, oh, my goodness, I'm just a man. I can't do this. And he's right. He's just a man. But that's not the point. The point is, with your mind focused on Christ, you can do the impossible.

So yes, at Mass when babies are screaming, and children are fidgeting right, Yes, it's naturally impossible to focus naturally. But if you're doing your best to keep your eyes on Christ, it's not going to be much of a problem for you. So don't blame the babies. Don't blame the children. Obviously, they're babies and children. They're culpable. But don't even necessarily blame the parents of those children for your distraction. Focus harder, keep your eyes on Christ, and you can do the impossible despite the distractions. Close your eyes. Honestly, celebrating mass order in time is really nice because I don't have to look at you most of the time. So, we're doing all kinds of stuff.  That's why I always recommend for people you want to sit close up in the church. Fewer distractions. You should fight for the front pews, not the back ones. But that's another story now. Clearly, we have to do a better job of focusing on our Lord when we pray, when we worship, despite the distractions, we can't use those as an excuse and then get upset at other people.

However, we have our first reading today, which is the Prophet Isaiah going to encounter God. And we know the story well. There's this great storm, there's fire, there's an earthquake, and God is not found in any of those cacophony. He is found in the tiny, quiet voice. This is why you need to teach your children to be quiet.  That's why it's so important you practice with them not just at church but at home. How to sit still and quietly. Because if they cannot quiet their bodies, and if they cannot quiet their minds, they will not be able to hear the voice of God because God does not yell, not like me. Sometimes he whispers. And you parents, it's your responsibility to teach your children to discipline your children.  To do this. And it's not easy, obviously, when they're baby babies, you know, you just do what you can. If they're screaming, take them out, calm them down, bring them back. But by the time they begin to speak, or at least have words, at that point, you can start disciplining. And that may be a difficult concept for some of you.

Just read a couple of books on parenting. You know, talk to grandparents who done it before you and learn some lessons. And if it's just too hard to spank that little bottom, you know, because they're just so beautiful and you love them so much, just wait till you have a few more kids. You'll be spanking bottoms every day.

Okay? You know now, yes, we need to be patient and understanding. You know, consider this. If you see a Catholic parent here, especially with more than one child and the other spouse is not here for whatever reason, and they've got a crying baby or a talking child, instead of like giving them the evil stare, you know, which is completely uncalled for, turn around to say, hey, can I help? Is there anything you need? We want to make sure that no child feels unwelcome in God's house and no parent of those children feels unwelcome. It doesn't mean they don't need to discipline a little better. Again, that's between them and the Lord. But we don't want, especially by our judgment, that's our own sin. But even by any expression or word of ours, to push them away again, I would rather a crying, screaming baby be here than not here, but I would rather than be here quiet. It's just for us learning to be both patient on our end and as parents disciplining and correctly correcting and taking care of the noisy children that God has given us on our end. For more details, you can read the letter in the bulletin, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube Channel. Homily begins at 20:11

 

 

 

The Transfiguration of the Lord

The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Seeking our Lady's Intercession. Let US pray. Hail Mary full of Grace. The Lord is with the Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of the womb. Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.  Good morning, brothers, and sisters.

Earlier in this week, I was reading a book entitled The Rights and the Obligations of a Pastor. It's something the church put out just to help us pastors remind be reminded of not only what we're supposed to do as pastors, but even our rights as pastors, things that we can expect for ourselves and our ministry.

 

And one of the things that really stood out to me and during the rest of the week, the Holy Spirit continued to emphasize, was the importance of a pastor to educate his people on proper use of the media. I think it's a topic I probably don't preach on enough, but it's something most everybody struggles with to a certain extent in this day and age.  And I had forgotten that this Sunday was the Transfiguration. So, I was kind of preparing this homily in my mind. And when I realized it was the transfiguration, I realized it was going to work quite perfectly. And let me explain why. So, the media has this unique ability and whatever form you use it, whether you're watching movies, television, listening to the radio, Facebook, Twitter, what's the short video on Instagram? TickTok, tick tock. Right. Whatever you're doing, it engages you so powerfully. It's so many of your senses all at once. But that's exactly what happened at the Transfiguration like these apostles have. There was no Twitter back then. No, no cell phones, nothing. They have no idea of digital media and what it can do for you. It on radio is nothing like that.

And our Lord takes Peter, James and John up this high mountain and completely wows them. Right. He's lifted from the earth. So, he's. They're levitating. His face is transformed. He begins to radiate like the sun, and his clothes even become light as light. And, you know, then, miraculously, two dead people appear beside him in glory. Start conversing with him. This technology that we have has a similar ability. Obviously, it's nothing compared to the spiritual reality. We're thinking about today. But in a sense, that's exactly what's happening. When you can just turn on your phone and spend hours going through TikTok videos. I mean, you could spend the rest of your life just reviewing TikTok videos. I mean, there's a lot of videos out there and people are making more every day. And why is it so tempting? Why is it so easy for us to fall back on media, especially in movies, TV, radio, the Internet, Google, YouTube, all that stuff? Why is it so easy for us to fall back on that? It's because it's incredibly engaging to all our senses and faculties, so much so that we literally need to put no effort into it. It takes less brain cells to watch a video than to do almost anything else because it's an entirely passive act. The video is doing all the work for you. You don't even have to use your imagination. It's giving you the images. So, we often use this to relax. We don't have to do anything. Again, like I said, it's a very passive act and it's very engaging. It stimulates our senses, and it can give up, you know, a type of euphoria, type of high. Now, this is not sinful in and of itself, right? Take, for example, alcohol. The Bible is very clear on alcohol. If you're sick, have a little wine for your stomach. If you're depressed, have a little wine, it'll pick up your spirits a little.  You know, it's not saying go get drunk. But, you know, these things are meant to lift us up when we're down, when we're struggling. So, it's okay that we use the media to a certain extent for this reason. You know, you know how if you watch a happy movie, you feel happy at the end? Well, if you're sad, that's a great opportunity to watch a happy movie. It'll pick you up, you know, don't watch Old Yeller if you can remember that one, you know, cried every time at the end. That's not a happy movie. So beautiful movies, just not a happy movie. So, but it's not a bad thing that we have this beautiful technology and invention and art in a certain sense. Music, movies, videos that can pick up our spirits when we're down.  But if it becomes a crock, a crutch, if it becomes a crutch for us, that we can't get through difficult times without it, that we can't handle the everyday problems of life without it, that is just unhealthy. That's just unhealthy. But it's not surprising we prefer it. Think about what Peter said on the mountain today, right? He's experiencing this with James and John, this amazing glory, and he says what all of us are thinking, Lord, it is good that we are here.  Yes, this is good. And then he says, Can I make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah? Why? Because he doesn't want to ever come down from the mountain. If he can convince Jesus and Moses and Elijah to stay up there, then they can stay in this beatific vision and this glory forever. That's what he wants.  He wants this taste of heaven forever. Well, that's the same temptation we have with this media. It's so easy to ingest and it oftentimes can make us feel good. So, we just fall back on it and it becomes a crutch for us. And then we never grow in the ability to handle the real problems of life. You know, like I said, it's one thing to watch a happy movie because you're in a bad place and that can help.  It's another thing where you never deal with your problems. You just watch movies or listen to music or watch Tik Tok, whatever it is. If that's your go to for helping you resolve the emotional and mental problems of your life, you're in great danger because it weakens you. Peter, James and John would have all been happy to stay on this mountaintop, but our Lord takes them back down into the valley of life.  He says, Nope, we're not going to stay up here. This is a taste of heaven. This is what you'll get in heaven. But life is hard. Life is difficulty, you know, and you have to learn to deal with the problems of life. It's believed that our Lord gave them this vision of His glory to prepare them for his suffering.  They already believed him to be the Son of God, but to actually see that glory revealed in Him strengthened their faith so that when they were there at his suffering and death, it would help them maintain faith and get through this dark night, this rough time in their life. Ideally, it's Christ in our faith in him that's supposed to get us through the challenges of life.  But if I'm using all of these tools, this technology to be my support, then I'm not leaning on Christ. Then I'm never going to grow in strength. All it's going to do is continue to weaken me and make me ultimately dependent upon it, somewhat enslaved to it. How often do you experience the fact that you're like, you can't go a day without checking your Facebook or watching YouTube or listening to music, whatever it may be?  Again, these things are not necessarily they're not evil in and of themselves. Human invention, naturally. They're just kind of neutral. You don't need them in life, but they do make life a lot easier and to a certain extent, a lot better. I mean, you can have like thousands of songs, you know, right there at the tip of your fingers.

 

Now, obviously, I do have to speak for a few minutes at least about the fact that there are many things in this technology and in the media that are just intrinsically evil, right, that we have nothing to do with. We need to always repent of and avoid at all costs. You know, the big one is pornography of any form, right?  Whether it's visual, whether it's audio, just music, and it's the words in the lyrics, you know, those kinds of things are just very clearly intrinsically evil. But I would say there's an even more dangerous intrinsic evil in any of this social media because it's more subtle. I mean, the big obvious stuff, I mean, pretty much everybody admits unless there's something really, really, wrong with you, but it's the more subtle evil.  And it makes me think of something that the Blessed Mother said to the children of Fadiman 1917. So, 1917. This is what Mary said. In the future, Satan will put a black box in everyone's home through which he will speak to them a black box. So, nobody knew in 1917 what that could mean. And not too long after that, the television was invented and from the television it just got shrunk down smaller and smaller.  So, a phone, a cell phone is pretty much just a tiny TV with absolute access to all the information. We have still the same thing Now. Prophecy given by our lady wasn't because it's just going to be used for really obvious stuff. Satan is far more intelligent than you and I on a natural level, and subtle evil is far more dangerous than the obvious kind.  And so, it's just the small falsehoods and heresies, the tiny imperfections in stories and songs and ideas and movies that ultimately begin to influence us. Little by little. This is even more dangerous when you allow your children access to these things without parental control or oversight.  Obviously, one of the basic things we need to do with our children is not give them a cell phone necessarily. You know, again, as long as it's guarded every now and then, you can do that, not turn on a movie or the TV. That shouldn't be the normal thing that we do, exceptions to the rule. That's fine.  I mean, honestly, as a child, I somewhat resented my parents growing up because they wouldn't let us do all that kind of stuff. You know, most of the time we could only watch television on Sundays as a family, usually an hour or two of Disney. When Disney was still family. Yeah, so whole another homily, the occasional movie now and then that we would rent that they were very careful, uh, you know, about the rating and make sure they already knew what was in the movie.  We weren't allowed to have video games at home. I was so envious of my friends. Justin, I know, but I was very envious. And the normal thing mom and Dad would say is, go outside. It's nice, stay in play or go read a book. I don't want to read a book. I don't want to go outside. Right. Why?  Because multimedia is easy. It's so easy to relax, too, and to find enjoyment. And it takes no work on our part. But that's the danger in it. It's too easy to use regularly. It can't be our go to for relaxation because then it becomes a crutch, and we are never able to grow. When we look at the number one problem of our culture and all, first world cultures, right now in the world, predominantly it's this incredible access to the media.

 

24/7 and we wonder why the younger generations are growing up to have so many problems with self-discipline and self-control and conviction, how they want everything handed to them, because that's what the media does. It hands you everything you want. Your senses don't have to work at all. They just absorb. It becomes a philosophy that begins to govern the minds of these young people.  Why do you think socialism and communism is on the rise again? It's not a surprise. Makes perfect sense. It all ties back to the easy access from an early age. Parents, we have a serious responsibility with our children. I forgot to preach on this last night, but there weren't as many young parents. They were mostly grandparents last night, so it's not as big a deal.  But as a rule, parents, this is what I'm telling you. If if you give your children a cell phone, that's a big if. I'm not recommending it. I'm just saying if you do, let's just say at 5:00 every evening, you take it away and lock it away in a drawer somewhere. That's it. They don't need it for the rest of the night.  Usually bad things happen when the sun goes down. And if you don't have very careful controls, that child should never have it. And I don't care whether you trust your child or not. You know why? Because you shouldn't trust them. They're children. You say, Well, I'm a teenager, I'm a little older father. You should be trusted even less.  Think about all the trouble you get into. I trust your five-year-old sibling better than I trust you. Not because I don't want to trust you. I wouldn't trust myself at that age. I don't even trust myself. Now, why should I trust any of you? I trust the Lord. That's about it. It's about as far as it goes.  Most of us don't have the capacity to parent ourselves. That's why we need parents. But what happens when I'm grown up and I have my own house? Who's going to parent me? Well, that's the challenge when you don't have a parent to restrict your access to these things and to force you to make better choices, and when you do just out of weakness and habit, fall back into these bad habits, well, that's where you do need help.  You can't do it on your own. So, God willing, you can get some help from your spouse, from a sibling, a friend. You know, let's create a support group. One of you can invent in a media anonymous, you know, you know, you're just addicts, and you can't control it. And you meet together in groups and help each other.  Help support each other. Hey, it's not a bad idea. Maybe there's something already out there. Ultimately, we're not meant to do these things alone. Anyway, Life is hard enough. We're supposed to support one another in these things, but no child should ever be given free access to the Internet, ever. And if they're ever on a computer that has the Internet, the parents should be sitting there watching the computer with them at every moment.  It's as simple as that. There's too much danger out there. And so, I think, in my opinion, two of the greatest inventions of the last hundred years is the splitting of the atom and technology. And do you know which one I think is more dangerous? It's not the atom. Technology is far more insidious, and its use is far more subtle and damaging.  If kept unchecked. It's not bad in and of itself. Just like nuclear energy, it's how you use it that matters. So, we need to be very careful in our own lives with our own children. Obviously, we need to avoid the this clearly evil content, but we have to be even more aware of the subtle lies and deceptions that begin to creep into our mind because of the movies we watch or the music we listen to.  Don't underestimate its power. And I'll remind you of something in the early church. I think if I'm correct in this, I mean, even in the Old Testament, it was believed that Lucifer, Satan, the enemy, one of his gifts from God when he was still an angel, one of his responsibilities as the Seraphim was to direct music. And oftentimes he would be pictured with wings made of pipe organ pipes.  So, when he flew through the air, the air would pass through the pipes, and it would make sound. Now God gave him this power so that singing could be used to glorify God. But when he turned from God, he now uses this power of music to not praise God, of course, but to turn others from God and mind and heart.  So, it's not surprising that music has regularly been a tool used to draw people away from the truth. And the reason it is whether it's in a movie, a video or just a song itself, you're listening to. I mean, think about it. When was the last time you watched a video that didn't have some soundtrack in the background?  Do you know why they do that? Because it works. Music has an ability to weave through all your intellectual defenses and penetrate more deeply into your mind and heart. That's why we love it so much. It moves us. And when you add a message, even a subtle one, along with the music, the message is basically implanted in you.  And if you're not paying close attention to the words, then even though you say, oh, Father, it doesn't really affect me, right? I mean, I just listen to it because it’s good music is good tempo and beat. It makes me feel good. If you honestly believe that you are ignorant, you know nothing about human psychology and it's okay to be ignorant, but it's not okay to stay ignorant.  Don't underestimate the power of music in any form. We have to be very careful with all of these things. Otherwise, without realizing that the devil may be planting subtle seeds within us. His seeds, not those of the Lord. And whenever the Lord speaks of seeds, He's speaking of truth. Well, the devil doesn't plant truth. He plants lies. There was a philosopher. I can't remember his name, but he wrote over a hundred years ago. But he said, if you can give me all of the control of the music in a culture, I can completely form the next generation. This is all I have to do is have complete control over what music they listen to. And then I can make of them almost whatever I want.  That's the power of music. So, in all of these ways, we need to learn far more discipline. We need to restrict our own use of these tools, and that's what they are tools. We shouldn't necessarily remove them completely from our lives because it's a part of life right now. But we need to be far more prudent, far more careful, and not allow them, even in subtle ways, to draw us away from the law.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy .

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube Channel. Homily begins at 20:10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKiW-j308Ek&t=1249s