23 Aug 22 – For Jesus Christ, I’m Prepared to Suffer More

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name's Terry Barber.

[2] I'm at Virgin Most Powerful radio.

[3] Bishop Strickland, thanks again for taking an hour to share the gospel with our listeners.

[4] Thank you, Terry.

[5] Thank you.

[6] And what I love about this week is you hit a lot of scriptures that are inspirational for us to live our Catholic faith with heroic virtue, because that's what we need today.

[7] and the first one that I noticed was from the prophet Micah chapter 6 verse 7 I'll read it and then you can share your thoughts on it you have been told oh man what is good and what the Lord requires of you only to do the right and to love goodness to walk humbly with your God let us seek to do what the Lord requires of us regardless of the powers and principalities opposing us.

[8] That applies so much to us today, Bishop Strickland.

[9] Absolutely.

[10] And I loved what the prophet Micah said because it's so simple.

[11] Do what is good.

[12] Do the right.

[13] Love goodness.

[14] Walk humbly.

[15] Just things that any child can understand.

[16] And we are children.

[17] Amen.

[18] In comparison to Almighty God, we need to remember that.

[19] There's too much of a tone that, oh, we're the big deal, we're God.

[20] And the prophet Micah just reminds us of those basic truths.

[21] You know, I also, when I read that scripture verse, what came to my mind was the Our Father in the New Testament about doing God's will, about just, you know, thy will be done.

[22] that when we turn our life over to Christ, you know, to the Lord, then whatever God wants us to do, we embrace that.

[23] That is our, you know, our job description to do his will.

[24] And in spite of the powers, I love what he said in principalities.

[25] I think of today in 2022, the governments around the world have been very negative towards Christianity.

[26] And what do we do as Christians?

[27] We live our faith in spite of that, meaning sometimes prison, sometimes suffering because we say we're for the unborn, and they call us bigots.

[28] They call us all kinds of bad things, and some of us have even been arrested for protecting the unborn like myself.

[29] But the point I'm making is this applies to us today in 2022, and I thank you for that tweet.

[30] The next tweet, again, from the New Testament, 1st Peter, chapter 4, verse 3.

[31] 13 to 14, you tweeted, that's a great scripture verse.

[32] Rejoice, beloved, in the measure that you share Christ's sufferings, when his glory is revealed, you will rejoice exclusively.

[33] Happy are you when you are insulted for the sake of Christ, for then God's spirit in its glory has come to rest on you for Christ.

[34] So how many of us go along in the life without suffering, Bishop Strickland?

[35] None of us.

[36] Well, Christ gives meaning to suffering.

[37] It's called redemptive suffering.

[38] And I think what that reading from First Peter reminds me of is Christ continues to suffer.

[39] He suffered for all of us for all time.

[40] I mean, that's a lot of suffering.

[41] And the blasphemies being experienced now, I mean, we're in a real battle, and more and more I'm seeing people really trying to bring the good, bring the true, bring the beautiful to the battle.

[42] But we've got to be strong and to be clear in Christ and to recognize, I mean, yes, suffering is real.

[43] as it says, when his glory is revealed, you will rejoice exultantly.

[44] And that is what we need to remember.

[45] We're even within the church, even people of faith, not just in the Gavlet Church, but all people of faith, there's a tendency to put all our eggs in this world's basket.

[46] And that is simply not what we're about.

[47] That's not what we're built for.

[48] that is going to leave us empty.

[49] And I think it leaves a lot of people empty in their faith.

[50] And they walk away because, as I was talking to somebody just this week, if we really believe what we believe as Catholics, which I know you and I do, and many do, thankfully, if you really believe, we'll be like the martyrs.

[51] We will not walk away.

[52] And you'll have to kill us in order to eliminate us because we're not going to just, there's no place else to go.

[53] And if it means giving up your life, certainly we don't volunteer for that.

[54] Life is sacred.

[55] We should live as long as we, as God gives us life and be in service to his truth.

[56] But if that life is cut short because we're speaking the truth, then that martyrdom is glorious.

[57] it's not something we seek out but the martyrs through the ages and we've talked about it many times before but that is the ultimate suffering that Christ endured he endured death but he conquered it by rising from the dead and we need to really believe that and to shape our lives around it wow well that kind of leads you into your next tweet and you know Bishop strickland this next tweet deals with Cardinal Robert Sirrah, who his books on silence, I mean the guy is known as this holy cardinal in Rome who has kind of been pushed aside, in my opinion, but he continues to speak out very humbly and you put that in your tweet, the church is the home of humble servants of the Lord, and I believe he is one of them, and he tweeted what he said.

[58] He said, I am afraid that we are tempted to build a human church according to the times and according to our ideas but the church is not ours.

[59] Can you share because I really think he nailed it in that comment?

[60] Absolutely.

[61] I mean he says a lot in those few words and to be reminded that the church is the mystical body of Christ.

[62] It's not something we own.

[63] It's not our play thing to reshape in our image, it's challenging us to be changed more and more into the image of Christ.

[64] And I know, I'll speak for myself, that that I still have a lot of work to do to be shaped in the image of Christ.

[65] And I think that's true for most of us.

[66] Yes.

[67] Honest with ourselves.

[68] maybe I'm hopefully not committing serious or mortal sins every other day, but I'm still a sinner and I'm still so easily focused on things that are not virtuous and things that are not valuable.

[69] And I think that's what Cardinal Sarah is getting at is we don't want to build a church that is hours, we want to be built into members of the church that is of Jesus Christ, his mystical body.

[70] And that means we change instead of changing the church to meet our shape and to be reshaping it according to our times.

[71] Our times are crazy.

[72] The church doesn't need to be shaped according to what's going on in the world.

[73] I mean, you just look at a few headlines and you look at, I mean, the tragedies going on and the just silly, empty, vacuous life that, I mean, if you turn on the television, I mean, vast numbers of channels, and most of them are really meaningless for anything that is really lasting and valuable.

[74] I mean, certainly, there's some good things looking at the beauty of creation, looking at the wonders of creation, but too many things are just trying to sell some some gadget or some stuff that's going to make you look younger.

[75] And it's also empty.

[76] It's also just meaningless.

[77] And we're built to have a deep and wondrous meaning in our lives.

[78] And the church is there to help us cultivate that as the mystical body of Christ.

[79] So it is such a poverty to be thinking we need to shape the church in our image according to our time.

[80] Instead, we need to look at the church of the ages, the church in her glory through the ages, proclaiming Christ and calling us to worship God.

[81] That's the purpose of the church to draw us closer to God.

[82] That is why Christ came.

[83] And to lose sight of that.

[84] And too many of us are.

[85] It's easy to lose sight of what it's all about, of who it's all about.

[86] Well, said that, made me think of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's report called the Ratzinger report back in 1985, and he said the real challenge is it's all about ecclesiology, and that's that big word meaning the church.

[87] How do you see the church?

[88] Do you see the church as the optimist club?

[89] You know, just one of many groups that come together and we decide to vote on what truth is?

[90] No, we see Christ, the church as the bride of Christ, the mystical body of Christ as the church and we see the church as the guarantee of truth when we go through the 2000 year history of the church as was in all the popes are you know confirming us in our faith and this is what the job of the hierarchy I mean Bishop Strickland excuse me but we're not here to hear your personal opinion I say that often I want to know what Holy Mother the church teaches and this catechism that we're going to get to we'll talk about that so I can see Cardinal Surrah and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger back in 85 saying the same thing.

[91] And I would also make this comment that I believe right now we're too much one with the world when it comes to population control because we're dealing with people who are four killing unborn babies.

[92] We even have people in the church saying that Hermione Vite needs to go, and that's not really infallible.

[93] That's got to be knocked off.

[94] Now, I'm not in management.

[95] I'm in sales.

[96] But when I see these things as a layperson, I see them as deviations from the appellation.

[97] apostolic teachings of the church.

[98] More when we come back with the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Powerful radio.

[99] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[100] We're going through Bishop Strickland's tweets for the week.

[101] And I just love the scripture verses he's been picking up.

[102] But I have to say every week, there's themes that you hit Bishop Strickland, the pro -life theme, protecting the unborn, the longborn.

[103] You've always talked about the Eucharist and Our Lady.

[104] and in this tweet that you sent saying that on Saturday, let us renew our commitment to the pillars of strength of faith of our Lord and Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and the Immaculate Virgin Mary.

[105] These anchors are a sure refuge in the times of turmoil and change.

[106] Mary always calls us from sin and points us to Jesus' sacred heart.

[107] And that's succinctly said.

[108] That's what the saints have all done, and we're supposed to imitate the saints, so I appreciate the tweet.

[109] Is that why you gave it just a little inspiration coming?

[110] Yeah, absolutely.

[111] I kind of figured that.

[112] And I think of what St. Paul said, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

[113] And so this is so beautiful, the Eucharist and Our Lady.

[114] Now, I have a great devotion.

[115] We're just celebrated of St. Maximian Colby's Feastay who died a martyr in Auschwitz, and he started the Knights of the Immaculata, and there's over a million or two people who are consecrated to our lady, kind of like St. Louis de Montfort's consecration.

[116] And just to get a little background, he had over a thousand men at a monastery in Poland.

[117] Are you ready for that?

[118] That's quite a Franciscan monastery when the Germans rolled in and closed it.

[119] And he just was a great saint of our time with communications.

[120] He had a radio station in Poland.

[121] He had a radio station in Japan.

[122] And it's just a great saint, but you sent this tweet that said from St. Maximilian Colby For Jesus Christ I am prepared to suffer still more.

[123] Now I mean he said this and I'll add to it and then you can say I read his book Maria was his middle name.

[124] He said there's three stages of life and he said this your first stage your formation studying your faith your second stage your vocation priest, bishop, married man, and then he said, the third stage of most of lives, most of us, whether it's you or a bishop or me as a layman, is suffering.

[125] So I just want to ask you, what made you use that quote?

[126] Because it seems like it's a constant theme in your tweets about suffering.

[127] Well, I think it's something that humanity has always tried to avoid, but unsuccessfully.

[128] And certainly we don't, we aren't called to just look for all the suffering we can get.

[129] Right.

[130] But it's going to come our way.

[131] And I think St. Maximilian Colby is a great reminder of what we do with suffering and how we are willing to embrace it for the sake of Christ and for the sake of his mystical body that we are.

[132] where suffering is a reality, Christ has shown us how to make it redemptive suffering.

[133] And St. Maximia and Colby, the famous vision that he had as a child, our lady offered him two crowns, one a white crown of white martyrdom, another red crown of red martyrdom, death.

[134] And he said, I'll take both.

[135] And he ended up living both.

[136] And both are crowns of suffering to some extent.

[137] But it's just, I think we use the word concupiscence.

[138] Suffering reminds us that the world is distorted by sin.

[139] That's what suffering is.

[140] And so that's why it makes sense that the sun.

[141] of God who came to free us from sin and death, he did that by not avoiding suffering, but going right through it, going through the heart of suffering to death itself and conquering it by his divine everlasting life.

[142] He rose from the dead.

[143] And that's the hope that we all need as human beings.

[144] I just recently saw a video of a non -believer talking about how, you know, the human population just needs to be diminished.

[145] Sometimes I've seen by 50%, this person seemed to be saying even more drastic than that.

[146] And I think that it's just a totally faithless approach to who we are.

[147] And when we do that, we're eviscerating what it means to be human.

[148] And this video was even talking about in terms of animals don't believe in God.

[149] They don't believe in anything.

[150] They don't have the capacity of believing.

[151] They are just animals.

[152] And really, I hate to tell this person, but the approach that he was sharing, reducing uses us to just animals.

[153] We're just another part of creation.

[154] And I shared with you something that somebody sent me that the quote said, you know, according to this person, the earth doesn't need so many humans anymore.

[155] It's like the earth is this entity that is all important instead of recognizing God who gave us the earth and asked us to.

[156] populate it to transform it, we're the ones created in God's image.

[157] But of course, if you don't believe in God, what image are you created in?

[158] There is no image to work from.

[159] And so we become without an image, without an anchor, without a foundation in why we exist.

[160] And it really is very sad, but it's like it is the pandemic of our time, is this lack of belief really in anything.

[161] And it, sadly, the logical conclusion of a humanity that has no belief, it's just out to get each other and destroying humanity.

[162] It's just tragic.

[163] And as we've said before, people need to wake up.

[164] Thankfully, there are many good souls believing, doing their best to live the truth that God is revealed to us.

[165] But certainly the forces in the world seem to be pushing things in the opposite direction.

[166] And they need to wake up and we need to wake up and push back, not in violence, but in faith.

[167] In the truth.

[168] And the truth.

[169] truth in calling people to really know who they are, created in the image and likeness of God.

[170] Well, said, the next tweet, I think we can recommend this, a book called He Leateth Me, because you said you just finished it off the air, you were telling me, because you put a quote here, said the book was fantastic.

[171] I want to give the quote, but I would like to have you talk a little bit about why you thought that book was so good.

[172] but here's the quote.

[173] Faith then is the fulcrum of our moral and spiritual balance.

[174] Here comes the problems of evil or of sin or of injustice, of sufferings, even death cannot upset the man of faith or shake his trust and confidence in God.

[175] His powerlessness to solve such problems will not be a cause of despair or despondency for him, no matter how strong his concern and anxiety may be for himself and for those around him.

[176] I love this last comment here.

[177] At the core of his being, there exists an unshakable confidence that God will provide in the mysterious ways of his own divine providence.

[178] That's such a beautiful statement.

[179] from that book share i mean father a bishop strickland i can't believe that quote is so um it's it's an answer to our culture right now it really is and he he goes on to say um that it's not about just saying oh well we don't do anything because it's just divine providence we cooperate with god's will We use the creative faculties that God has given us in order to address the issues in the world, but we trust in God's will.

[180] And like you said, that last part at the core of his being, there exists an unshakable confidence that God will provide in the mysterious ways of his own divine providence.

[181] And one thing that's so impressive about this book is what this is by a priest, a Jesuit priest that volunteered to go to Russia to proclaim the faith and to proclaim the gospel to teach people about the Catholic faith.

[182] And the suffering, talking about suffering, the suffering that he endured was really inhuman and unimaginable.

[183] A lot of people, and he talked about it, that a lot of the people that he was imprisoned with for years in Russia and in Siberia, in various kinds of prisons and prison camps.

[184] A lot of the people that he was with, and he talks about this in the book, they either killed themselves or simply died from despair.

[185] And his faith is what allowed him to survive.

[186] And so this is a hard one faith that he expresses.

[187] And toward the end of the book, it really, he says in powerful ways that God is love and what that really means, that God loves you and me beyond our imagining.

[188] And if we can only even work at embracing that truth, that we are profoundly loved, we exist because God loves us so much.

[189] That's what allowed him to say.

[190] survive unspeakable violence and abandonment.

[191] I mean, being locked in a tiny room with no light and really nothing in the room for literally for years.

[192] I mean, talk about going insane.

[193] Yeah, really.

[194] You would expect people to go insane in a situation like that.

[195] And the title of the book he leadeth me is really profound because that's what he came I mean of course he went in as a priest he went in as a believer but he had to fight hard to not just hang on to that belief but to deepen his faith in God and it came out much deeper and richer than the faith that he went in with wow wow and wow he leadeth me get that book folks we have one more uh quote from a tweet, and then we're going to get into the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[196] But this quote that you just mentioned reminds me, and I'll let our listeners know, I had a priest from Nigeria who was kidnapped by Boko Haran, and he talks about his ordeal and how he kept his faith during the time of his encampment and how they would try to intimidate him.

[197] And he talked about how he lived in the presence of God to survive those days with Boko Haran, and he never wavered because of his strong faith reminds me of he leadeth me's book.

[198] So this can be done even today.

[199] When we come back, one more quote from St. Maximilian Colby on the Holy Eucharist, and then we'll get right into the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[200] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Powerful radio, and I want to ask you to stay with us, family.

[201] We'll be back with more.

[202] welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour We have one more tweet and then we're going to get into the catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1996 on grace Bishop Strickland is saying in his tweet I urge every parish in the diocese of Tyler and in every diocese to work towards this goal of St. Maximilian Colby which is adoration of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist will draw us closer to him and deeper into his sacred heart and then you put Vival Christ to the Ray, long live Christ the king.

[203] And this is what St. Maximine Colby did.

[204] Everywhere he opened up a house, he wanted perpetual Eucharistic adoration.

[205] So here again, you're very consistent, Bishop Strickland.

[206] You're telling us to go visit Jesus and the Blessed Sacraments.

[207] So thank you for doing that.

[208] Sure.

[209] He's the...

[210] Source and summit.

[211] He's the Lord.

[212] And once you come to know him, your faith is going to be.

[213] to expand in ways that you really never imagined.

[214] You know, I talk a lot about the pillars.

[215] Yes.

[216] The Eucharistic Lord and the Immaculate Virgin Mary.

[217] Right.

[218] And I've thought a lot recently about the pillar, the missing pillars within the church.

[219] Yes.

[220] And within Christianity.

[221] I mean, thankfully, the Catholic Church.

[222] proclaims the role of Mary as the mother of God.

[223] We just celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[224] Many Christians don't embrace that, but we need to pray for ourselves to be more joyfully marrying, unabashedly marrying Christian Catholics, and urge people.

[225] I mean, Mary is the mother of Jesus.

[226] people have to acknowledge that.

[227] That's in scripture.

[228] But to honor her, and I've just started reading another book that is very, I've just started, but it's already deeply inspiring me to a deeper relationship with Mary because how much the Lord loves her, the Lord Jesus.

[229] She's his mother.

[230] And this book talks, about Christ really calling us not to live as if Mary is our mother, but because Mary is our mother, and to really embrace that.

[231] And it points out the very classic gospel passage that most Christians probably are aware of, and certainly as Catholics, we know what it means at a basic level, talking about when Jesus says from the cross, pointing to Mary, he says, John, this is your mother.

[232] And he says, Mary, this is your son.

[233] What this book pointed out for me, just in a deeper way to recognize that Christ isn't changing anything.

[234] He's not establishing something new.

[235] he's pointing out what was already true for Mary and for John, the apostle, who represents all of us, they were already mother and son.

[236] And that to me was a beautiful message of this book that Jesus' mother is our mother.

[237] He didn't make that happen from the cross.

[238] He was pointing out what was already true, that Mary is our mother.

[239] And certainly that is an honor.

[240] My mother's deceased, but to me, as I thought about this and read it, that is an honor to our physical, human, our biological mother, we could say.

[241] That's an honor to them to recognize that we share the same mother, our mothers and we as sons of mothers, we share the same spiritual mother with our mothers.

[242] And that, you know, it's just a profound truth that we need to share with the world for all Christians, all the baptized, really all humanity, who are called to be baptized in Christ.

[243] And I think that's the universal gift of Christ.

[244] I mean, that's why the Catholic Church is Catholic for that universal gift of redemption that Jesus Christ brings to all humanity.

[245] We seem to have kind of lost sight of that.

[246] And we certainly don't have the missionary zeal of the past where people travel across the world and risk and often lost their lives in that missionary spirit of sharing the message of Jesus Christ.

[247] But to me, the message of Mary as our mother, as always, the closer we grow to Mary, the closer we grow to Christ.

[248] She's always going to take us closer to her son.

[249] And the part of the inside of this book is to just recognize how much Jesus loves his mother.

[250] And if we want to honor him, we will love his mother as well.

[251] Can I get the name of the book?

[252] Do you have it handy?

[253] Let me see if I can.

[254] Well, yeah, next week, because that book sounds so good for our listeners, you know?

[255] It's called My Ideal, Jesus' Son of Mary by a father Emil E .M -I -L -N -E -U -B -E -R -T.

[256] Yeah, I have that book.

[257] My Ideal, Jesus, Son of Mary, by Father Emil Neubert.

[258] And I'd never heard of it until somebody mentioned it, and I said, I think I'll get that.

[259] I started reading it.

[260] Well, he's good writer.

[261] Yeah, he's beautiful.

[262] Bishop Strickland, I'm going to shift gears.

[263] Before we get to the catechism, I shared a story off the air.

[264] Hey, why don't you share it on the air?

[265] And that is, I like to give catechisms to people who I meet that are not Catholic, who have some interest in the Catholic faith.

[266] And as I was mentioning, once a month, I go and meet.

[267] up with a bunch of old guys like me that I went to high school with and they're like high school principals or they were counselors and they're retired and they're good guys and we played a lot of baseball and so we have something in common my my baseball coach in 1975 is 80 years old he comes and so it's kind of nice to talk about things and this particular Saturday the gentleman said to me Terry you gave me that catechism I'm starting to read it I've never read something so beautiful on the virtues.

[268] It's like, how did the Catholic Church come up with all this?

[269] I mean, it's like I see the footnotes.

[270] It's all scriptural.

[271] That's the most beautiful thing I've ever read.

[272] And I said, well, good.

[273] I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[274] I had to run because I had three, I think two or three funerals that day to get back to the chapel.

[275] But this Saturday, I'm going to make a big effort to meet up with him.

[276] But the point of what I'm saying is he's a non -Cathic and he sees the beautiful teachings of the Catholic faith in the catechism.

[277] And then he asked me something kind of funny.

[278] I mean, it was sad but funny.

[279] He says, Terry, how is it that the Catholic Church has these beautiful teachings, but I see the church not implementing these teachings today, like modernism.

[280] He actually knew what modernism is like it's infiltrated the church.

[281] Can you get me something on that?

[282] And you're like you say, it's the humanity of the church, no question about it.

[283] But the very fact that this non -Catholic recognizes the beautiful teachings of this catechism.

[284] It's like this is the greatest secret we have.

[285] I'm so grateful, Bishop, that you will take the time to teach from this because this catechism is instrumental in many people's lives of helping them know Christ so deeply that many of them have become Catholics.

[286] I have friends that are in jail who are now friends of mine, and it was the catechism of the Catholic church in jail, reading it, in prison, that brought them into the...

[287] the Catholic faith.

[288] So that's why it's so important to teach from this catechism.

[289] And thanks for saying yes to that.

[290] So Bishop Strickland, paragraph 1996 talks about grace.

[291] And I'll read the paragraph and you can give commentary like we normally do.

[292] Our justification comes from the grace of God.

[293] Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature, and of eternal life.

[294] That's a mouthful in the short paragraph.

[295] I think, wow.

[296] Yeah, and it's...

[297] Oh, my goodness.

[298] As the footnote says, it's basically all from...

[299] It's coming from Scripture.

[300] Yeah.

[301] From the gospel of John and from Romans and from sacred.

[302] Peter and it really it reminds us it basically defines what grace is it's favor free and undeserved help that God gives us respond to his call to basically give us his life so that we can be alive in him and know what our life is about I mean it's that's what it comes down to we can't have divine we can't be partakers in the divine nature and an eternal life without God's grace and that free gift undeserved we don't earn it but we are called to cooperate with it that is what's missing and what we were talking about earlier from our secularized world that doesn't, too often is atheist, doesn't believe in God, and that it becomes such an empty life.

[303] And, you know, the grace that is there to call us to be who we've been created to be.

[304] We're created in the image and likeness of God.

[305] And in order to fulfill ourselves, we have to follow that pattern that God has given us.

[306] So grace is what allows us to respond to that character that God has given us.

[307] Beautiful.

[308] And when we come back from the break, I'd like to define actual grace and sanctifying grace.

[309] You hear these, you know, not so much in the old days we heard this.

[310] Actual grace, sanctifying grace, what is that?

[311] And I'll just mention, we got a second here.

[312] Actual grace is when you need help from saying no to sin.

[313] That would be an actual grace to defend your face.

[314] and not compromise.

[315] Sanctifying grace is when you're hopefully in the state of grace in the sanctifying grace where you've gone to confession, to the best of your knowledge, you're not in mortal sin.

[316] God is living in you in a very powerful way.

[317] And when we come back from the break, we're going to talk more about grace and participation in the life of God.

[318] This is very rich, folks.

[319] So it's paragraph 1997, and then we'll probably get to another paragraph or two before we have to end.

[320] But this is so important to understand how the life of God works in your soul.

[321] It's the supernatural life that we're looking at.

[322] And when we come back, we'll talk more about that on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[323] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[324] We're talking about grace, how it operates in the soul.

[325] We're on paragraph 1997 of the Catholic Church's catechism.

[326] And I'll read this paragraph to you.

[327] It says, grace is a participation in the life.

[328] life of God.

[329] It introduces us into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life.

[330] By baptism, the Christian participates in the grace of Christ.

[331] The head of his body, as adopted son, he can henceforth call God Father in union with the only son.

[332] He receives the life of the Spirit who breeds charity into him and who forms the church.

[333] Wow.

[334] Go ahead, Bishop.

[335] Well, it really just in this paragraph talks about what it's all about.

[336] Grace is of participation in the life of God.

[337] And that really is awesome if we think about it.

[338] It is.

[339] It's that spark of the divine that is available to all of us.

[340] And it says, introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life.

[341] By baptism, the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the head of his body.

[342] So really what this paragraph reminds me of is that grace allows us to know who we are.

[343] to people, you know, so many people, and even people of faith, we all have to continue to grow in faith and to allow grace to work more effectively in our lives.

[344] That's why I'm so inspired by the saints.

[345] I mean, they are people that are models for us in so many different ways of life, so many different stories, so many different life situations.

[346] But what they have in common is that they learn how to cooperate with grace and to share that relationship with God, as it says, participating in the life of God, many of the saints, or really by definition, the saints do that while they're in this journey that we're part of.

[347] We can all, we're all called to be saints, and we can all do that by the grace of God if we respond the way the saints did.

[348] And, They don't, the saints, if you think, oh, well, they had it easy, virtually no saint had it easy.

[349] Some had it more challenging than others, I mean, especially the martyrs.

[350] But there are many white martyrs among the saints who suffered greatly, either physical sufferings or spiritual sufferings.

[351] I think of St. Teresa of Calcutta, known in her life as Mother Teresa.

[352] It was revealed after her death that she suffered tremendously, tremendous darkness, tremendous burden of doubt and of concern and just a darkness in her life.

[353] But in faith, she continued, and she relied on that grace to pull her out of darkness.

[354] And I think many of us were, because the world followed.

[355] Mother Teresa, St. Teresa of Calcutta, very closely in her life.

[356] And she had some great things to say and her great actions and forming the community of religious women that she did.

[357] She did some tremendous things.

[358] And I know I was really surprised to find out how much darkness she battled in the midst of that.

[359] But she kept going.

[360] And she remained a woman with great faith and really challenging the world to have a deeper faith, even as she struggled with that white martyrdom, I would call it, of deep and profound suffering.

[361] So the saints are not people that had it easy or that because they share in the life of God, like this says, that they somehow were exempted from suffering.

[362] Sometimes that very participation in the life of God, caused them to suffer deeply.

[363] That's part of the mystery that the mystery of suffering is one of the great mysteries that humanity faces.

[364] And Jesus Christ suffered and gives us some meaning to that suffering.

[365] But really this paragraph of the catechism reminds us, he receives the life of the Spirit who breeds charity into him, and who forms the church.

[366] So to be alive in in God, to be truly adopted sons and daughters of God, our father, it takes us beyond the suffering.

[367] I guess that's the best way I can put it.

[368] It makes, I mean, suffering was real.

[369] Mary suffered.

[370] Mary, the sorrowful mother, the sword pierced her heart.

[371] She knew suffering.

[372] Jesus, of course, knew suffering.

[373] the saints knew suffering.

[374] So, but they, they went through that suffering to a deeper life in God.

[375] And the great thing about suffering in this world is it's very temporary.

[376] And that, I think, is what we all have to remember.

[377] Whatever the burdens of suffering and in Christ himself suffered for a time, but it was only a temporary suffering.

[378] And as in the paragraph we read earlier, we are promised a glory and a participation in God's life that is unimaginable.

[379] And we need to hang on to that as we endure the suffering.

[380] Wow.

[381] Well, paragraph 1998 says it all.

[382] This vocation, right, to eternal life is supernatural.

[383] natural.

[384] It depends entirely on God's ratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself.

[385] It surpasses the power of human intellect will as that of every other creature.

[386] I'm sorry, Bishop Strick, and I'm jumping in on this one.

[387] I think that gentleman you quoted before the show about the earth needing less people, I think he's got this natural view that it's all about me, myself, and I, the unholy Trinity.

[388] He's forgetting God who created everything.

[389] This paragraph is so beautiful about the vocation to eternal life.

[390] Your thoughts?

[391] Absolutely.

[392] And, you know, the vocation to eternal life is supernatural.

[393] It's beyond this world.

[394] Yeah.

[395] It's on a level that without faith, without the grace that comes with faith, you know, you can't understand it.

[396] And even with faith, you can't understand it, but you can embrace it as something deep in the core of your being, you know to be true.

[397] And I go back to that, the author of the book, He Leadeth Me, because that's exactly what this priest says that he acknowledges that he's no great scholar and he's not able to put it in great words, but he knows in the very depths of his being that he is beloved of God.

[398] And that allows him to endure everything and to know that that's what we're built for is to know God and to be the children of God.

[399] The vocation to eternal life is supernatural just to repeat that and to recognize that it is God's gift of love.

[400] A lot of what I reflect on as I read that book is what John's gospel says so clearly that God is love.

[401] The very essence of God is love.

[402] A love really beyond anything we can fathom.

[403] Love itself.

[404] Jesus is love incarnate.

[405] And all of that just calls us to recognize how much potential we have as human beings.

[406] If we will bow on bended knee before God and worship him and recognize that he is the author of all that we have.

[407] He's the author of our lives.

[408] And we are called, wondrously, we're called to be his children, his sons and daughters.

[409] So we're not, you know, just subservient to God in a way that leaves us there.

[410] But if we're willing to humble ourselves before God, he causes us to be joined to his own divine life in a way that's beyond our imagining, really.

[411] And I think that that's because of the scientific age we live in, I think there's a real tendency.

[412] Even for people who are believers, we still kind of make our reference point, the ideas of science.

[413] And science wants to figure everything out.

[414] And I think that wisdom in this life is ultimately recognizing it's beyond us.

[415] That's what the wise people, the saints, and even people in the world today that have really attained real wisdom, they begin to realize it is all so far beyond us.

[416] And instead of unmotivating us, that motivates us even more to embrace what life is, what life in God is all about.

[417] You know, Bishop Strickland, as I'm listening to you, I'm going online and I see these surveys.

[418] that mankind, women, men, everyone, we have an incredible amount of loneliness in the world today.

[419] We have an incredible amount of depression in the world today.

[420] And here you are, reading from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that would give the antidote for folks to know the meaning and purpose of life, that they're not just a mistake that Mom and Dad did when, you know, whatever.

[421] And I didn't ask to come into this world.

[422] I don't have any purpose.

[423] I'm I mean, right now I think if I die, nobody would even pay attention to that.

[424] And they're depressed because they don't know they're loved by Almighty God and that their life has meaning and purpose.

[425] And the catechism of the Catholic Church is giving us the answers ultimately about the meaning and purpose of life.

[426] Do you think I'm on to something when it comes to depression, when it comes to loneliness, that people like that haven't had a catechesis on the true meaning and purpose of life?

[427] Absolutely.

[428] And we've, you know, we've failed as a church too often, and we've failed even just in human terms of really calling people to recognize what the purpose of our purpose is to be with God.

[429] You know, like the Baltimore Catechism said so simply.

[430] And I think we really need to go back to those roots and to recognize, and it's beyond us.

[431] but the seven plus billion people in the world today, and all people of all time, God wants to welcome into his everlasting life.

[432] A big amen to that.

[433] How about a quick blessing, if you could, Bishop Strickland?

[434] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for all of us that we may continue to grow in the wonder of who you are, Father, Son, and Spirit, and be guided in your grace deeper into life, to be more alive in you and the power of your love.

[435] And we ask this blessing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

[436] Amen.

[437] Thank you very much, Bishop Strickland.

[438] Folks, go to our website, vmpr .org.

[439] Listen to the other podcasts of all the other shows.

[440] May God richly bless you and your family.