21 Sep 21 – Catechism on Mandates Against Freedom of Conscience

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name's Terry Barber with Virgin Most Powerful radio.

[2] Bishop Strickland, thanks again for joining us again to talk about our Catholic faith here on your show that comes every week.

[3] Thanks so much.

[4] Thank you, Terry.

[5] God love you.

[6] Father, Bishop Strickland, I just have to ask you, before we get into your tweets and then we talk on the catechism of the Catholic Church, we're living in a crazy world where it seems like truth really doesn't matter to a lot of us right now.

[7] It seems like the agenda is more important than what is the truth.

[8] And one of the things that happened just Friday here in our country is our president, Joe Biden, said that he's mandating vaccine mandates for all the federal employees and anybody who has 100 employees or more to make it that they have to get vaccinated.

[9] and it seems that they're forgetting about a conscience issue when we are as Catholics and other Christians and other religions that have a freedom to say no and it seems like right now it would be good to understand what the Catholic Church teaches not what Bishop Strickland or Terry Barbara teaches but does the Catholic Church have a teaching on vaccines and the idea that we can say no to it absolutely Terry and what I would refer people too.

[10] I know we usually talk about the catechism later, but because this is such a critical issue, I would refer them to Catechism 1730 and following as long as much as they want to read.

[11] Yes.

[12] But I think this will give them a lot of understanding of what the church teaches in these kinds of issues.

[13] Can in the Catechism number 1730.

[14] to 1748.

[15] Okay.

[16] It's titled man's freedom.

[17] And just canon, and really all I'd want to cover right now, because we've got other things to cover, but I think to launch it, Canon 1730, I will just read, as you usually do, but I'll read the canon, and we can talk about it a bit because that's where it comes down to how we deal with all the things that we're dealing with in the world today.

[18] God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions.

[19] God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him.

[20] Man is rational and therefore like God he is created with free will and his master over his acts.

[21] That paragraph 1730 lays the foundation for how we as moral agents are required and free in our own free will as it says.

[22] freedom of conscience being sacrosanct the most sacred of privileges of freedom that's how we need to navigate all of this mandates that are contrary to the freedom of conscience are contrary to our Catholic faith yeah contrary to what this paragraph speaks of very clearly and the rest of the paragraphs in that section really go to basic understandings that we need to be very aware of.

[23] This refers to in the book of Syrac and also Gaudium at Spes 17.

[24] This is basic human freedom, the way God created us.

[25] People need to understand than any coercion to go against your conscience against your own free will.

[26] As it says, God will that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel.

[27] And then the quote from St. Irhenius really captures it.

[28] Man is rational and therefore like God.

[29] That's, as I've said before, that's at the very heart of what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God.

[30] we are rational beings he created he is created with free will and his master over his acts to have anyone dictating to us what we should do contrary to our free will and to our free conscience decision um is wrong and we need to to speak against any mandates coming from anywhere whether it's from the leader of a nation or the leader of a church or anywhere, that we have to respect that individual freedom that God has given us.

[31] As we've talked about before, in when we talk about human rights, too many times governments talk as if they grant them.

[32] No, human rights are granted by God.

[33] and governments are expected and should be held accountable for protecting those freedoms, those human rights that are God -given.

[34] We talk all the time about the sanctity of life, the right to life.

[35] That's as basic as it gets.

[36] That's not just for the unborn, but that's for every person from conception to natural death.

[37] Every person has a right to life.

[38] and we see too many atrocities through history and in our own time where that sacred right to life is denied people.

[39] The right to freedom of conscience is very close to that right to life.

[40] The freedom to make your own choices about how you live your life, about the decisions that you need to make, what you value and what you reject.

[41] If we don't have free will and freedom of conscience, We don't have freedom at all.

[42] Wow.

[43] I wow and a wow.

[44] Thank you for saying it that way.

[45] You gave a supernatural view.

[46] But you know, Bishop Strickland, we live in a country that our Constitution says what we Catholics believe, that our rights not coming from the government.

[47] They come from God.

[48] And there are 20 states right now exploring lawsuits against the Biden administration for this outrageous vaccine mandates.

[49] And so would you agree that we Catholics should be joining the fight in the sense of legally defending our rights here in America to fight the administration regarding this mandate and take it, you know, basically lawyer up?

[50] In other words, it seems to me that all my friends that are fighting this vaccine mandate are having to get legal counsel.

[51] and I think that we need to do that myself because I think that we have to be proactive and not sit back and let it happen.

[52] Would you agree with that or do you think Catholics should just take it on the chin?

[53] No, I think we definitely need to be proactive and to really state it very clearly anytime, I mean, we're in the midst of this pandemic and yes, we need to take it seriously, people need to protect themselves as they choose.

[54] and do what they can and feel compelled to do.

[55] Everyone should be free to make those personal choices.

[56] But the mandates that I'm hearing that are trampling on freedom of conscience, free will, that's called tyranny.

[57] Amen.

[58] That's all it is.

[59] It's called tyranny.

[60] And to just roll over, there have been too many instances in history.

[61] well, people have done exactly that.

[62] They say, well, the state says this, so we just have to obey.

[63] When it's tyranny, that's not a legitimate act of the state.

[64] That's what this beautiful country is founded on is the freedom that comes from God to fight against tyranny and whatever form it takes.

[65] But yes, this is not unique.

[66] There have been pandemics plenty of times through history.

[67] that have been really even more devastating than this.

[68] And I don't in any way discount the devastation that people that have lost loved ones.

[69] I've known friends of our cathedral community here in Tyler that have died, at least according to the records that we've been that have been shared with us, died from COVID -19.

[70] It's all very mysterious and it's hard to figure out who died from what.

[71] and what the records really are.

[72] People say, listen to the experts.

[73] The experts keep changing their minds.

[74] But all of that aside, we need to stand for freedom.

[75] Just because we're in the midst of this tragic pandemic doesn't mean all the laws that have guided through guided humanity for centuries and have guided this nation for 200 plus years, that doesn't mean, oh, we're in a pandemic, so all that collapses.

[76] All the more do we need these laws to help guide us in the freedom of conscience, the ability to exercise your free will without coercion from anyone, the free will to take a medication or not, the free will to live somewhere or not.

[77] That needs to be people's freedom.

[78] And it's simply tyranny when people are told you don't have that freedom anymore for whatever reason.

[79] You can say, oh, we're trying to protect you, but we don't need that kind of protection.

[80] If we can't believe that people can make their own choices about protecting themselves, then we're in bad shape.

[81] Bishop Strickland, thank you for your clarity.

[82] And, you know, I'm going to joke with you.

[83] Not to say that this pandemic is a joke, no. but it seems like we've put this as the top thing in life and that is to avoid COVID -19 rather than avoiding sin but I see you doing just the opposite.

[84] You acknowledge it but you also say the supernatural let's you know live a life according to God's commandments so that we can get to heaven for all eternity I want to quote paragraph 1730 again at the end about man is being rational and I want you to expand that about free will because I think that's the key on almost anything in life that God the only value in saying yes to God is we have the freedom to say no. We'll be right back with more family at the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin, Most Powerful Radio.

[85] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[86] My name's Terry Barber for Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[87] Bishop Strickland just gave an outline of the church teachings regarding vaccine mandates.

[88] And he talked about the freedom we need to have free will to choose if we want, the vaccine or we do not.

[89] Either way, it's your choice.

[90] But I wanted to just, before we move on, I wanted to make this clarity of what the catechism of the Catholic Church said.

[91] And for those who just tuned in, this is paragraph 1730 of the catechism.

[92] Bishop Strickland quoted it, but this last part where it says, man is rational, therefore like God, he's created with free will and is master over his acts.

[93] And I wanted you just to elaborate again, again, how important the fact that we should have free will choosing decisions like vaccines and other things, that that is what the Catholic Church has taught for a long time.

[94] And it doesn't go by by.

[95] That's still the teachings of the church.

[96] Your thoughts?

[97] Absolutely, Terry.

[98] And I think it needs to be emphasized very clearly because, yes, we're dealing with, as we overuse the term when all of this first started.

[99] unprecedented challenges but we do have precedent of truth amen that helps to guide us in that statement which refers to saint eraneus is very significant man is rational and therefore like god what a bold statement to me but it's the truth it's what jesus christ has revealed to us we are children of god And we are meant to be in eternity with God.

[100] He is created with free will in his master over his acts.

[101] To me, that's what I would underscore in this.

[102] Master over his acts.

[103] That's what it comes down to.

[104] We can say that we totally disagree.

[105] And certainly, one person's freedom, as it begins to encroach, on another person's freedom.

[106] All of that gets complicated.

[107] But we have to go back to that basic idea that we are all masters over our own acts.

[108] That lays a great responsibility that doesn't get into directly here, but it does further on in the Catechism, to talk about the responsibility to form our conscience, to find out what is the truth.

[109] That, frankly, is hard to do.

[110] to do in our time because it gets so politicized and so many different agendas of pushing it one way or another.

[111] But what we are obligated to do is form our conscience as fully as we can and to be master over our own acts to know that we freely choose what we've decided is the best thing to do for ourselves and for all those who are dependent on us.

[112] I feel for mothers and fathers that are dealing with these mandates and they're caught in a difficult spot of feeling in conscience they can't do one or the other I mean whatever their conscience tells them I don't want to dictate that no one should but if they in conscience say I need to do this and they're being forced to do something else that is harmful to them and to their families.

[113] So we really have to go back to these basics of what our faith teaches us and to be strong in that.

[114] And any mandate that violates us being able to be master over our own acts, then we need to resist that.

[115] And we were talking about earlier, do we just, as Catholics, need to just roll over and say, well, the state has mandated this, so we've got to do it.

[116] If it's unjust, yes, we owe a certain level of respect and obedience to the state for the common good.

[117] But when it violates our own personal conscience and when it violates our ability to be master over our own acts, then we have to say no. So going back to those basic pillars on which this great nation is built and on which any free society is built is essential as we're facing all of these great challenges and people being denigrated for whatever choice they're making.

[118] That's called prejudice of whatever form it takes.

[119] If we are prejudicially treating someone a certain way because of the choice they've made, their free conscience choice, then that's where society begins to encroach on the individual freedoms.

[120] It's complicated, but it's also very simple in a lot of ways.

[121] And we have to go back to these basics that we have been hard won through the centuries.

[122] In the time of St. Arenas, a lot of this was still being worked out.

[123] That's why we go all the way back all these centuries to a man who lived almost 2 ,000 years ago in order to figure out what are we supposed to do.

[124] What is our God -given responsibility and right?

[125] We've talked a lot about that before, Terry.

[126] Yes.

[127] Having studying canon law, virtually everything in Canada law, if you have a right to it, that brings certain responsibilities.

[128] And I think we've lost a lot of that basic understanding in the current conversation about the virus and so many things that we're dealing with.

[129] We say we have a right to life that comes from God.

[130] That means we have a response.

[131] to care for that gift from God, each of us individually.

[132] I'm acting irresponsibly.

[133] If I don't take care of my own life, take care of my body, take care of my health, make decisions that are responsible, well -formed decisions, then that right to life is, it demands certain things of us.

[134] The right to a freedom of conscience demands that we form.

[135] that conscience well, that we learn the truth.

[136] And like I said already, we're living in a time where it's hard to know the truth for the person who simply says, I want to know the medical truth of what I'm dealing with.

[137] That's hard to know.

[138] Yeah.

[139] Sometimes.

[140] That's what you're obligated to.

[141] Yeah.

[142] If a doctor tells you, you need an operation.

[143] You don't just say, okay, doctor, operate on me. I mean, that's not being human.

[144] That's not acting as master of your own acts.

[145] If you're allowing a doctor to operate on you, the right to have that operation also carries with it the responsibility to know that this doctor is speaking reasonable medical truth, that he gives you some evidence that you really need this operation.

[146] He gives you the risks and the benefits that you can weigh, all of that needs to be factored in, and some complex decisions have to be made.

[147] So to act humanly is to act responsibly with the freedom that God has given us.

[148] And really, Terry, that's the bottom line that we need to emphasize in the world today.

[149] Many people don't believe in God.

[150] But that doesn't mean God isn't real.

[151] Just because, people don't believe doesn't mean God isn't the author of that person's life.

[152] We know and believe that he is.

[153] He's the author of all life.

[154] And so what we've talked about before, because of the current world that we live in, where many people lack faith, don't believe in the supernatural, it does make it more challenging for us to some degree.

[155] But we know that this life has a purpose.

[156] We know that everything, every choice we make in this life should be directed toward everlasting life.

[157] And when we live in that context, then the joys and the blessings of this world are enhanced and magnified by where we're headed.

[158] We're not just, you know, doing things here and then it's an empty void after.

[159] But we're called to a greater life than we could ever.

[160] possibly have here, that's what our faith is about.

[161] That's what we need to remember and emphasize for people who share our faith.

[162] And even for people who don't, we need to emphasize that people must be free to make choices according to their belief and according to what they know to be true, to be master of their own acts.

[163] And, you know, that's what so many of the martyrs that we talk about.

[164] Well, really, the definition of martyr is that that freedom to be master of your own acts was taken away.

[165] This person wants to continue to live, to be master of their acts and their choice to be alive.

[166] A martyr is someone who says, who is killed because they're all.

[167] unwilling to compromise that basic freedom of the free choice, their free will, to resist a certain push in order to, you know, to still be alive.

[168] And so being master of your own acts is as sacred as it gets.

[169] And that has to be put into the context of our call of everlasting life.

[170] As we've talked about before, the last canon and the code of canon law says it's all about the salvation of souls.

[171] It's my job and your job to make our choices according to the salvation of our soul.

[172] And part of that is how we treat others.

[173] So it's tied together, but we all have to make those choices.

[174] And if we're not free to, God is not going to judge us on an act that we were forced into.

[175] That's right.

[176] We're not open.

[177] We have no freedom to exercise.

[178] That's, it basically is taking away our humanity.

[179] Yeah, and well said, and Bishop Strickland, when we come back from the break, you tweeted about the exultation of the cross.

[180] You know, with how good Friday, there's no Easter Sunday.

[181] And this is a wonderful feast.

[182] It's, matter of fact, this is the day we're recording Bishop Strickland on September 14th, the exultation of the cross.

[183] It's the public veneration of the Holy Cross.

[184] It dates back to the fourth century when St. Helena, Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine, discovered it in Jerusalem.

[185] Fascinating story about that.

[186] And this feast commemorates the rescue of the Holy Cross from the Persians in the seventh century.

[187] The church has a long history, doesn't it?

[188] The church sings of the Triumph of the Holy Cross is the instrument of salvation.

[189] When we come back, I want to have, well, they can take the rest of the show to talk about the triumph of the cross.

[190] But I love this feast day.

[191] We had great readings.

[192] It really inspired me to realize the beauty that our faith comes from Jesus Christ and his redemptive suffering on the cross to open up the gates of heaven.

[193] What a great feast to have today, the exultation of the Holy Cross.

[194] and when we come back, Bishop Strickland, I hope will give us a nice teaching on why this feast is so important in our life as Catholics because, as I said, without the cross, we don't have redemption.

[195] Jesus opened up the gates of heaven, as simple as that.

[196] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Powerful.

[197] Stay with us, family.

[198] We're going to inspire you to fall deeper in love with Jesus and his church.

[199] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[200] I've got a big smile on my face.

[201] for those who are watching.

[202] It is because I love listening to a bishop who's going to teach, govern, and sanctify.

[203] He understands his role, and he's not telling me, Bishop Strickland, as important it is, put your mask on, social distance.

[204] I get all that.

[205] But, you know, I want my bishops, I want my priest to tell me about salvation.

[206] And you just tweeted the exultation of the Holy Cross.

[207] Can you share a little bit about that with us, please?

[208] well it truly is a great feast of the life of the church in september 14th an interesting thing that i just learned today i mean we can hopefully we're always learning um i'm ready because in the as you probably know the diocese of tyler like there in california there are many many different ethnic groups so really the catholic church catholic means universal it it's worldwide it encompasses virtually every country in the world.

[209] But in our diocese, we have a lot of Hispanics and a lot of Anglos, a lot of English speaking, a lot of Spanish speaking.

[210] And so today I had the mass that I do at noon here in the Chancery was in Spanish.

[211] And I found out that actually in the Spanish missile, The Feast of the Cross is May 3rd.

[212] What?

[213] And in our missile, in the English missile, it's September 14th.

[214] What I learned was that really, and it's beautiful, really, because it speaks of how ancient the church is and how universal the church is.

[215] because as I understand it, May 3rd is when, as you referred to, is when the cross was discovered in the Holy Land.

[216] Yes.

[217] According to what I was told, September 14th is when it arrived in Rome.

[218] Makes sense.

[219] You know, we're talking 7th century or something.

[220] So it takes a while to get from the Holy Land, one side of the Mediterranean.

[221] training to the other.

[222] So, at least according to what I understand, May 3rd is when it was discovered, May 14th, I mean, September 14th is when it arrived in Rome.

[223] So in the Spanish -speaking world, for whatever reason, I mean, Spain is an ancient country that was around at that time, even in the 7th century, that Iberian Peninsula and all of that.

[224] So it, I've just, find it very interesting that in the Spanish -speaking world, May 3rd, the day it was discovered is celebrated.

[225] Another part of the family says, oh, well, the big day is when it arrived in Rome, September 14th.

[226] So the church really celebrates both.

[227] Since we, in my history and celebrating here, like you talked about, the triumph of the cause, oh, that's September 14th.

[228] And then I was told by some of our Spanish priests, but the special readings come from in the Spanish lectionary from May 3rd.

[229] Wow.

[230] So we use the readings from May 3rd on September 14th.

[231] All of that to just emphasize in our beautiful Catholic faith, how important the crosses.

[232] And we've talked about that some.

[233] there seems to be some tendency, which is always the human tendency to kind of get away from the tough stuff, the hard things, and the de -emphasis of the cross, as probably we've both heard, quoted from various different sources.

[234] You don't, and I think I'll attribute it because I love Archbishop Sheen.

[235] I'll attribute it to him.

[236] If he didn't really say it, I'm sure somebody correct me, but I know that I've heard it said, and it sounds like something he would say, that you don't get Easter Sunday without Good Friday.

[237] He said that many times on his...

[238] You don't get the resurrection without the cross.

[239] That's right.

[240] And that's part of the beauty of our Catholic faith, especially all of Christian faith.

[241] But the Catholic faith is built around really the triumph of the cross.

[242] the exaltation of the cross, recognizing that Christ had to die to conquer sin and death in order to as a dead human body rise from the dead in the resurrection.

[243] So it's both, like we talk about so often, we're a both and faith.

[244] Amen.

[245] Both the death on the cross and the resurrection.

[246] That's the corigma.

[247] That's the mystery of Christ.

[248] He sacrifices.

[249] is his life, he rises from the dead to allow us to have death and sin conquered by him and the hope of the resurrection offered to us if we choose by our own free will, kind of getting back to our earlier conversation, if we use our free will to choose to follow him, then we died to our death, died to sin, and rise to everlasting life.

[250] All of that captured in our baptism, if we only choose to live our baptism for the rest of our lives.

[251] So the cross is so woven into everything that our faith in Jesus Christ means in the Catholic Church.

[252] As I referred to, I was blessed to have three brother priests from the diocese celebrating with me at the noon mass. And as I said, what a blessing that was, because for us as priest, and really for all of us, but especially for the men who stand at the sacrificial altar of Christ, take bread and wine that becomes his body and blood, soul and divinity, and the Eucharist.

[253] The cross is at the center of that altar.

[254] That is what we are commemorating in the sacrifice of the mass. Where did the sacrifice happen?

[255] On the altar of Calvary, on the altar of the cross.

[256] and the everlasting life that that sacrifice offers us, certainly is in the resurrection of the Lord that we celebrated Easter.

[257] So all of that is caught up in what we celebrated every Mass in the Eucharistic liturgy.

[258] And so it was a beautiful moment to have three priests and myself as a bishop, still a priest, there celebrating what is at the heart of our priestly ministry, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the altar of the cross that becomes the altar of the Eucharist, where all of that, all of those images and all of that meaning is caught in that sacrament that we know is not just a memory, not just, not some sort of reenactment, but in the mystery of our faith, it is all of that present again on that Eucharistic altar.

[259] And that's the power, like you were referring to, the power of the blood of Christ that is on our lips and the saints talk about our bodies becoming vessels of the Holy Spirit, vessels of that power of the sacrifice of Christ, just like I've heard it alluded to, just like the ancient Israelites in XVIote, Exodus painted their doorposts with the blood of the lamb, our lips are painted with the blood of the Lamb of God to be protected from Satan and evil and sin, that when the blood of Christ is on our lips, the doorpost of our hearts through our lips is protected by the blood of Christ.

[260] that's spiritual and that's a physical reality and that's why we are called to such great reverence for the body and blood of Christ most people are not able to receive the blood of Christ at this time but I would hope that we can see that really as a blessing ultimately in whatever way we return to a more regular reception of the blood of Christ and then I think this is pause that the pandemic has created, where I don't know of any place, where they're actually the congregation receiving the blood of Christ, maybe by intinction in some places, but that, we should pay attention to that because we were much, I'll just speak for myself.

[261] Yes.

[262] I was much too casual about having those chalices.

[263] And for a while, we didn't even call them chalices.

[264] We said, oh, receiving from the cup.

[265] Oh, yeah.

[266] We need to remember, this is the blood of Christ.

[267] This was hard one.

[268] And the one who died has just been celebrated again, commemorated at that altar.

[269] We need to be very cautious about any casual spirit that wanders in to receiving the body and blood of Christ.

[270] We need to do it in awe and reverence.

[271] And I would say even in trembling, maybe not literally, but with our hearts and minds aware, we're receiving the precious blood of Christ that was offered out of sacrificial love for all of us.

[272] This is real.

[273] And we need to be very clear using that free will that we talked about earlier to freely choose to form our conscience, confess our sins, to prepare our hearts and minds, and to walk to the altar and receive the body and blood of Christ.

[274] And let me just note, it's important for people to remember, especially at this time, that when we received, the church sorted this out many centuries ago.

[275] When we receive the body of Christ in the form of consecrated bread, we're receiving the fullness of his Eucharistic gift, body and blood, soul and divinity.

[276] So if people are feeling like, oh, I haven't received the precious blood, and too often I hear people say, oh, I didn't get to receive the wine.

[277] Let us, let this moment in history that is so confusing and so tragic for so many, let one good thing that comes from us that we never speak after the consecration.

[278] It is not bread.

[279] It is not wine.

[280] It is the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, our divine Lord.

[281] And we need to approach that altar with awe and with tremendous reverence and with a deep awareness of who we are receiving, not what we are receiving, but who we are receiving.

[282] And so let us be reminded, if we can't receive right now the precious blood, pray for the priest who have the responsibility to receive that.

[283] that they may do so more and more worthily.

[284] All I have to say is a big amen to that, big smile on my face because as I was listening, I was saying, praise God.

[285] Hey, when we come back, I have something interesting that the monks do from May 3rd to September 4th.

[286] Bishop Strickland was talking about it.

[287] I got educated on a new thing about the triumph of the cross.

[288] I'm going to share that with you when we come back.

[289] Stay with us, Stanley.

[290] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[291] I can't stop having that smile on my face, Bishop Strickland, because I love to hear about the cross of Jesus Christ, in season and out.

[292] I mean, it's just, it's a universal teaching.

[293] I learned something at Mass from Monsignor Harris, a Vatican diplomat who's retired, who says mass here.

[294] He shared with us that from May 3rd to September 14th, the monks generally would get up an hour earlier each day from May 3rd to September 14th to meditate on the passion of Christ and the cross.

[295] and I thought that was interesting and I was so inspired by that message today I said, you know, I like doing the stations of the cross you know, when I go for my walks every day, I have an outdoor station so I can do that and I love, you know, just even it's just a few minutes of meditating on the passion, but I thought about that maybe I can do some of that, maybe not a whole hour, but I could just remind myself every day and whether it's from May 3rd to the September 14th, but to emphasize the value of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, because without the cross, there's no salvation.

[296] And so thank you for your great teaching on that, Bishop Strickland.

[297] I wanted to mention that one of your tweets was about St. John Christosius, which was the 12th of September's Feast Day, and you had a great quote from the great saint.

[298] You said in your tweet that St. John Christosum says, I always say, Lord, your will be done.

[299] Not what this fellow or that would have me to do, but what you want me to do.

[300] That is my strong tower, my immovable rock, my staff that never gives way.

[301] If God wants something, let it be done.

[302] And you said, wise words from a wise man. About 1 ,500 years ago, he said that, Bishop Strickland, and it's so true today.

[303] Absolutely.

[304] And really, Terry, I'm glad you referred to that tweet because I believe we really need to seek the will of God.

[305] Amen.

[306] Every one of us, every man, woman, and child on the planet to bow humbly to God's will, as God's own son did.

[307] I mean, he models it for us so beautifully.

[308] We talk about the cross.

[309] He took up a cross because he said he understood that to be the father's will for him to sacrifice his life.

[310] And he tells us, if you want to be my disciple, you've got to follow me. You've got to take up your own cross.

[311] And so the will of God is really going back to where we start.

[312] the conversation this afternoon is that's where our free will is ultimately directed.

[313] Yeah.

[314] We have free will to choose the will of God, and we need to take that very seriously.

[315] It's worth noting, and I'm sure we both read many of the fathers of the church write pages and pages about the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father.

[316] if we think about it the only model of prayer that Christ offers in the Gospels the disciples directly ask him Lord teach us how to pray and his response is the Lord's prayer the our father and we say thy kingdom come thy will be done I really believe that that is something we need to really focus on very intentionally that we daily pray that the will of God, that each of us is living the will of God, that our world and its course and it's the church, every entity is living out the will of God.

[317] What is God's will for us ultimately?

[318] It goes all the way back to what we were talking about earlier.

[319] What is the church's purpose, the salvation of souls?

[320] That is God's will for each of us, the salvation of our souls.

[321] When we are conceived in the womb of our mother, it's God's plan, it's God's will that we join him in everlasting life.

[322] And as we've said before, fulfilling God's will is the greatest flourishing in this life, or however long that, from conception to natural death, whatever that time span is, a hundred years or a hundred days or a hundred hours.

[323] If there's no interference in that, that is God's divine will.

[324] And I had had an infant brother that died hours after birth.

[325] And that was sad for my parents.

[326] He was born before I was, so I never knew him.

[327] No one in the family really got to know him.

[328] But we have to believe that God's will is woven into that.

[329] Certainly, there are a lot of accidents and a lot of a broken world, and there are ways that we can't just ultimately say, well, it was God's will that this happened or that happened.

[330] But that's what we're called to seek with.

[331] free will is the will of God, and to trust that ultimately the flourishing of every person conceived, the flourishing of that person is what God's will is.

[332] And we judge from our time span and from all the ways that we judge created life, we don't really fully understand the mysteries of how God may take, you know, It's very sad for the family to lose an infant or a toddler or anyone, really, but especially a young child.

[333] I'm sure we both had to deal with families that have lost young children, and it's very sad.

[334] It's very hard to see that young life lost at an early age.

[335] But some of the saints didn't live much beyond childhood.

[336] so to seek God's will is the important thing and to recognize that what is God's will ultimately is that we share eternal life with him and so everything about this life should be directed toward that but we really need to emphasize as St. John Chrysostom did that's why I really like that quote and I shared it in a tweet because we need to remember what is God's will as we face all those free will choices that we have to make and certainly it's not God's will whether we have a strawberry or a vanilla ice cream cone I mean that gets silly yeah but in the the key moments of life it is God's will that we share with others it's God's will that we care for others it's God's will that we turn from sin and live the virtues of the truth that he shared with us.

[337] So we can know a lot about what God's will is, and we're challenged to make our daily choices the best we can in accord with God's will.

[338] Well, said Bishop Strickland, I want to make available to anyone of our listeners a wonderful book called Abandonment to Divine Providence by Pierre de Cassad, 17th century Jesuit.

[339] The Little Flower Love That Book.

[340] talks about God's will is manifested moment by moment as long as we're staying faithful to our duties and our state and life.

[341] He talks about the sacrament of the present moment.

[342] This is like simple spirituality.

[343] It's a short book of about 145 pages.

[344] I put it on a download for free.

[345] Yes, you can buy it at Catholic Bookstores for $30.

[346] But here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio, we're going to give it away.

[347] If you want to make a donation to help support the ministry, fine if you don't that's okay but you can do it by calling 877 5262151 and there's no expiration date called next year if you listen to a podcast and it's an old podcast i still want you to have that book it's four and a half hours of a book being read to you and it's one of those classic books it's like imitation of christ it's one of my favorite books that a jesuit gave me when i was 16 years old treat house.

[348] I'll never forget how it changed my whole perspective on falling in love with Jesus.

[349] So that book called 877 -526 -215 -1.

[350] Bishop Strickland, we have about three minutes left.

[351] You have a tweet that I love because you're always talking about truth.

[352] What is the truth about this?

[353] You said it's on September 7th.

[354] Truth wins.

[355] Let us not be passive but engage in sharing the truth in every way we can.

[356] Jesus, who is truth, incarnate, has conquered all that is false and evil, but we must choose to embrace his truth with our whole heart, mind, and soul, and share his truth by the way we live.

[357] Great advice.

[358] I know you were quoting a Fulton Sheen quote, and people can check that on on their Twitter account, but isn't that what it's all about?

[359] That's what we're here for.

[360] What is the truth about life?

[361] What is the truth about the vaccine?

[362] What is the truth about Holy Communism?

[363] Union.

[364] What is the truth about the cross, about baptism?

[365] You constantly talk about what is the truth.

[366] Is that why you put that tweet out, Bishop Strickland?

[367] Absolutely.

[368] And just to, I know you're always good about bringing up the St. Philip Institute.

[369] Absolutely.

[370] I want to hear about it.

[371] St. Philip Institute .org.

[372] You can find a lot of truth there that will help form your conscience and help you to make the free will choices to abandon your will to the will of God.

[373] God.

[374] That's our greatest flourishing, our greatest fulfillment.

[375] Wonderful.

[376] Bishop Strickland, I didn't get to the catechism today, but I'll tell you what we did get.

[377] No, we did.

[378] We started with it.

[379] That's it.

[380] I forgot we started with it.

[381] God love you.

[382] Well, I just love having this hour, because I feel like I'm a student sitting down and listening to you to talk to me about how I can fall deep in love with Jesus Christ.

[383] I have this crucifix right in my hand here, for those who are watching.

[384] and I think about this the power of the cross and I think that we just need to hear more about our Lord's passion and death I know St. Alphonseus Lagori talks about a book The Passion and Death of Jesus and I remember reading that and just going wow the great love that God has for us we just have to look at what he did for us on the cross and you know this is so important for us to meditate on that because it really shows the value of God's love for us that he would die even if we were were the only one on planet earth, he would have died on the cross for us.

[385] That's love.

[386] Yeah, I'd encourage people, speaking of books, I'm reading one, I'm reading several, but Louisa Picoretta is a mystic who wrote the 24 hours of the Passion of Christ.

[387] It's beautiful, and I'd recommend it.

[388] Good, good.

[389] Well, Bishop Strickland, how about a blessing to all of our listeners, and we'd appreciate your prayers for all of our, you know, listeners of Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[390] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for all those listening to Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[391] May we all seek your truth and have our free will protected so that we can always choose to abandon ourselves to your will.

[392] We ask this blessing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[393] Amen.

[394] Thank you, Bishop Strickland.

[395] and I want everybody, all the new listeners.

[396] We're getting many, many new listeners every week.

[397] There's lots of podcasts on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[398] If you go to vmpr .org, you can listen to all the shows and other shows like Jesus 9 -1 -1, practical apologetics, the Terry and Jesse show.

[399] Lots of good programming.

[400] Download our free app by going to vmp .org, and you can have lots of good resources there.

[401] May God richly bless our listener, and look forward to having you next week.

[402] same time, same station.

[403] God love you and your family.