30 Mar 2021 – The Downside of Socialism

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[2] Bishop Strickland, thanks again for spending this hour to share the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

[3] Thanks, Terry.

[4] Thank you for so much.

[5] Bishop Strickland, before I go into the tweets, if someone's brand new and you're watching on YouTube because we get hundreds of new listeners that way every week, I want to encourage you to go back and look at some of the other podcasts and shows with the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[6] Matter of fact, all the other shows that Virgin Most Powerful Radio does.

[7] But today, before I get into, just to set the stage, Bishop Strickland's tweets and then get right into the catechism about Scripture, I wanted to send something to you that I'm going to suggest that you tweet from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.

[8] And it seems like it was 70 years ago he wrote this.

[9] And again, we've been here before Bishop Strickland.

[10] The man was prophetic.

[11] He had such insights to what was going on in the culture.

[12] back then.

[13] Here's what he said about socialism.

[14] As men become indifferent to right and wrong, like today, we're indifferent between right and wrong, disorder and chaos increases.

[15] Well, we see that.

[16] And the state steps in to organize the chaos by force.

[17] Dictatorships arise in such fashion, such is the essence of socialism, the compulsory organization of chaos.

[18] Bishop Strickland, give me your thoughts on what Fulton Sheen said about socialism.

[19] I want to hear your response.

[20] Well, once again, the good Archbishop is prophetic.

[21] And as he speaks of chaos, Terry, that is referred to in Genesis before God brought order to creation.

[22] there was chaos and to me that's what we really have to underscore is god that we are created by god we as human beings are created in the image and likeness of god chaos ensues when we leave god out of the picture and not just leave god out but we replace the true god the one true god Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with ourselves.

[23] And the chaos really is getting quite serious.

[24] It's, you know, we've all heard the image or the idea of the fish just gradually heating up the water until it boils.

[25] One degree at a time.

[26] It seems like from what we're seeing, things are about to boil over.

[27] I agree.

[28] And where that comes from, and I'm not a prophet, as Archbishop Sheen was, but we don't have to be prophets to just, as the scriptures say, look at the signs of the times, look at the world around you.

[29] And when we ignore God, ignore sin, ignore objective truth, all the things that we see happening, chaos ensues, and that, If you could send me that quote, I'd love to tweet it because it's something we all need to reflect on because you could go turn on the news and these sad shootings that within a few days, too, in different cities.

[30] And, you know, whatever the cause, it's loss of precious human life in violence.

[31] Amen.

[32] And it's chaos.

[33] And people pointed this and pointed that.

[34] I think we just need to point at a lack of respect for life and a lack of respect for the reality that life comes from God.

[35] Man, we can't just dispose of it.

[36] All of that is what Archbishop Sheen was seeing even 70 years ago.

[37] He was, it's, you know, another image.

[38] it's like he was seeing the tip of the iceberg just beginning even before we were born.

[39] I mean, neither of us are 70 years old.

[40] We're not that old.

[41] I might look.

[42] Archbishop Sheen could see it coming.

[43] Yeah.

[44] And now where the iceberg is emerging so that it's, we have to be blind not to see it.

[45] But many people have been blinded.

[46] And like we were talking about before we started this afternoon, that people are assuming a lot that isn't the truth.

[47] A few years ago, there was a movie, All Dogs Go to Heaven.

[48] The dogs may, but dogs are not created in the image and likeness of God.

[49] I love dogs.

[50] But they are creatures that do not have the call of eternal life that we, have.

[51] Amen.

[52] Maybe all dogs go to heaven, but not all people do.

[53] God invites us all.

[54] He wants us all to embrace the life that he's given us, that he's won for us through his son.

[55] But it's up to me. It's up to you.

[56] It's up to using our free will to choose God's will.

[57] And if we don't do that.

[58] We don't just get an automatic ticket to heaven.

[59] And really, Terry, I would emphasize that it's not all about the afterlife.

[60] I mean, in the early church, the church went through sorting virtually everything out that we believe as Christians, as Catholics.

[61] Who is Jesus?

[62] Who were we?

[63] What's this life about?

[64] And early on, you can read that there were sex within Christianity that said, you know, well, we might have just, well, ended here.

[65] We've all got to just hurry up and get to heaven.

[66] That isn't God's will.

[67] And when we short change God's will for our own will, then that is not the path to heaven.

[68] We, the church, the church, learn that no, this life isn't something to escape from and to just leave behind.

[69] It's something to transform on our path to them.

[70] And so believing in the call of everlasting life is believing even more deeply in the goodness of this world, in the value of creation, in the value of every day and every moment and every opportunity.

[71] When we let go of God, we don't see people valuing this world more.

[72] We see them valuing it less.

[73] And it becomes, what can I grab for this empty life that's only this world?

[74] So believing in life eternal is the best way to transform life in this world.

[75] Well, you know, I've thought of a priest who said to me that when you sin, that your intellect is darkened.

[76] And then another priest said it this way.

[77] He said, sin makes you stupid.

[78] I thought, well, I can relate to that.

[79] And the reason is, is because you don't even see what you're doing.

[80] You're actually so much outside of what, you know, God in your life that it doesn't even cross your mind about the next world.

[81] You're just saying, what can I do tonight?

[82] that's going to make me feel good, whether it's drugs, illicit sex, or whatever you're going to do.

[83] And that's really a sad commentary on our culture, but I think that, well, here in Southern California, I see that all the time.

[84] Now, Bishop Strickland, you made a tweet that I thought, wow, a bishop is saying this?

[85] I mean, thank you again.

[86] And this is what you said.

[87] I kind of ridiculed the Equality Act.

[88] You said the so -called Equality Act, meaning it's not an Equality Act, denies that we are created in God's image and likeness and promotes the idea that we create ourselves independent from God.

[89] Yeah, we become our own God.

[90] This is false, you said, and it's destructive to the human society.

[91] Then you said this, you got political.

[92] What?

[93] A bishop?

[94] You said, tell your senators to vote a strong no on legislation.

[95] And then you said, we must speak up.

[96] And I thank you because here's the bottom line.

[97] Senior George Kelly wrote a book back in 1979.

[98] Where's the church going where its leaders take them?

[99] We look at you as a bishop as kind of like, you know, like a general and you're firing the big guns, spiritual guns.

[100] I'm not talking about military, but spiritual guns and saying, hey, stand up and we're your foot soldiers.

[101] But you know what, Bishop Strickland?

[102] I'm not going to stand up as strong unless my boss, my general, which is, you know, the bishops are successors of the apostles, are leading us to say, speak up, talk to your senators, you know, don't sit on your hinds, get up and pray and make sacrifices.

[103] All this we need to hear from guys like you, and I thank you for doing that because as a layman, it inspires me to fight harder for the fate.

[104] So give us, you know, are you, what made you speak so boldly about?

[105] this so -called Equality Act.

[106] Well, one exception that I would take in what you said, Terry.

[107] Good.

[108] I'm glad you're going to.

[109] Is talking to your senators, to me, that's not political.

[110] That's being civic responsibility.

[111] What are they there for?

[112] They're there to help shape our society.

[113] If we believe they're doing things wrong, we speak up.

[114] Amen.

[115] That's not political, in my opinion.

[116] it's just being a good citizen.

[117] A good citizen of the nation and a good citizen of the world.

[118] I mean, I don't want to beat up on you.

[119] You're a nice guy.

[120] No, no, beat up because people say every time we speak about pro -life, I get constantly, stop being politicizing this.

[121] Or I'm going to even tell you guys that are dressed like you would say giving Holy Communion to people like our president is political.

[122] You're politicizing Holy Communion.

[123] And I just keep saying to myself, Please, we just want to speak the truth.

[124] We don't care about what, you know, we care about one thing.

[125] What's going to help build up the kingdom and what is the objective truth here?

[126] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[127] I'm going to let him beat up on me on the other side of this break.

[128] I love it.

[129] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour with Terry Barber from Virgin Most Powerful.

[130] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[131] My name's Terry Barber with Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[132] I love it when the bishop says, Terry, I take issue with you.

[133] And I wish he'd do more of that because I need some correction.

[134] Bishop Strickland, we're talking about a tweet that you put out on the so -called Equality Act.

[135] I just want to give our Holy Father kudos to say, thank you very much, Holy Father.

[136] Pope Francis condemns gender theory not one time, not two times, three times.

[137] And he says the family is under attack.

[138] And here's the quote I just thank him so much for clarity here.

[139] He said, gender theory is an error.

[140] that's clear of the human mind that leads to so much confusion, the Pope said.

[141] Boy, Holy Father, a big thank you for your clarity here because that's what I think we need.

[142] So Bishop Strickland, you were saying that it's not political to make comments about telling your flock to go to the senators and to your public officials and let them know your positions on things.

[143] Is that correct?

[144] That's correct.

[145] And, you know, as I beat up on you, I beat up on myself, too, because we all get pulled into using language the way people use it.

[146] When, very often, when people hear truth that they don't want to hear, they say, oh, you're getting political.

[147] That's just the catchphrase for our time.

[148] But it's not calling your senator.

[149] he's already been elected.

[150] He's an elect, he or she is an elected official.

[151] Yep.

[152] And it's their job to represent what their constituents want, enacted as law, and how the society needs to run.

[153] So it's our job to let them know.

[154] Amen.

[155] What we believe, what we want through, yes, the political process of electing them, but then through hopefully just doing their best and our best to live and promote the truth.

[156] And thank goodness for Pope Francis, once again, repeating, I love it, that the gender theory is an error.

[157] It is false, and it is deeply destructive to human society and to the individual human person.

[158] Once again, it goes back to God created us.

[159] in his image and likeness, male and female, he created us.

[160] And we need to, that's one basic area.

[161] We talk about bowing to God's will.

[162] God created us male or female.

[163] And we should bow to that.

[164] And if there's confusion, if they're feelings that are conflicted, sure we need to love those people to support them to help them work through it but the answer is how did God make you yeah and there are only two choices male and female and so it it really the gender theory is some of what develops once we dismiss God and so then nobody made us.

[165] We just popped out of nowhere.

[166] And then, well, we don't have an image or likeness that guides us.

[167] We just create ourselves.

[168] So it's a progression of error that we're seeing take over society.

[169] And that's what the Equality Act is about codifying error into our laws.

[170] Laws should never be in conflict with the basic natural laws that God has used to guide creation.

[171] And gender theory is in conflict with natural law, much less.

[172] It hopefully will stay in conflict with our legislated law.

[173] But in a democracy, if the majority is in error, then I'm We talk about Archbishop Sheen all the time, and that reminds me of a basic statement he made that when the majority is wrong, it doesn't change the truth.

[174] That's right.

[175] And a lot of times the majority today is wrong.

[176] They're in error.

[177] We can vote in things that are simply not the truth, and therefore it's not going to be sustaining, and it's not going to help people flourish if it's contrary to objective truth.

[178] Thank you, Bishop Strickland.

[179] Thank you.

[180] Because if, in fact, this Equality Act gets through, the effect not only on the Catholic Church, but all of our brothers and sisters of Christian denominations are going to be in violation of the law when they proclaim revealed truth of the gospel.

[181] And, you know, I hope that doesn't happen, but I know what side of the fence I'm going to going to be on when, you know, that happens.

[182] I'm not going to stop preaching the gospel because a government says you can't do it because the church has been there before.

[183] Matter of fact, it's there in China right now.

[184] They're closing churches.

[185] They're persecuting guys who speak up on the faith.

[186] And, you know, we might have that persecution here.

[187] Well, you know, life is short, eternity is forever.

[188] All I can say to our listeners is this, ask for the grace to be faithful to the end.

[189] And we and look at our big brothers and sisters.

[190] We call them the saints.

[191] Man, they've done it.

[192] They've been there, done that, as they say today.

[193] So I don't, I'm not fretting over it.

[194] If God allows this to happen, then we have to deal with it and stick to our guns, literally, not figuratively, stick to our guns, meaning we've got to stick to our principles of our Catholic faith.

[195] Stick to the truth.

[196] The truth of the gospel.

[197] Amen.

[198] Bishop Strickland, shifting gears.

[199] We want to talk about our big brothers.

[200] and sisters on St. Patrick's Feastay, you tweeted that St. Patrick evangelized Ireland.

[201] Yes, he certainly did.

[202] And St. Cyril of Jerusalem fought Aryanism.

[203] And St. Joseph guarded the son of God and his mother, Mary.

[204] And then you said something about like an intercessary.

[205] You said, may these men of faith from centuries in the past inspire men and women today to be strong always.

[206] Now, what are you asking him to be strong in?

[207] To seek God's holy will.

[208] We must fight evil, he said, with what?

[209] Not with guns.

[210] We must fight evil with God's love.

[211] Those are our marching papers, man. That's our marching orders right there, Bishop Strickland.

[212] And let me just throw one more thing in.

[213] Before you answer that, tomorrow, on the Terry and Jesse show on Virgin Most Powerful, Father Charles Murr, great theologian from San Francisco, good friends of Father Fesio, he is going to do the second part of what does the fourth century and the 21st century have in common in regards to Holy Mother the Church?

[214] And the first one was a home run, and the second one's going to be a home run, so I want to put a plug in for that.

[215] So getting back to your tweet about St. Patrick and what you're asking us to do, Bishop Strick, and tell us again, why is St. Patrick such a key player for us today?

[216] Well, what I mentioned in that tweet, we just happened to have three wonderful saints, two very well -known, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, less well -known, but each of them lived in a world torn by sin and falsehood.

[217] And they faced those challenges.

[218] St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Patrick of Ireland were more or less contemporaries, fairly closehood.

[219] close in time.

[220] Of course, St. Joseph was there in the first century as the adoptive father of Jesus, but these three men, and they are just men, they're not gods, they're men, but they said yes to the will of God and made great sacrifices for that yes, and did tremendous work.

[221] And we're challenged to do the same thing in the 21st century.

[222] God's grace is as powerful as it ever was, the truth as it's true as it ever was.

[223] The light of Christ still shines brightly, even in a world that tries to ignore that light.

[224] But we as people of faith need to be joyful and strong and vigorous in and speaking against the falsehoods of our time, because they are the last voices are frankly ridiculous.

[225] They are not rooted in any philosophy of truth and any revealed truth.

[226] They are rooted in the chaos that comes from people who have lost their way.

[227] And we as Christians, we can't be quiet.

[228] We have to speak up, not in a belligerent way, not in a bigoted way ever.

[229] I mean, that's contrary to Christianity.

[230] Amen.

[231] We do those things, and we need to go to confession.

[232] We've committed sin.

[233] But speaking up in truth is the greatest charity.

[234] The greatest love, the greatest mercy, is to speak the truth.

[235] Bishop Strickland, we only have a minute or two for this segment, but there's a question that came up.

[236] One of our listeners, he's a man here in California, and he asked the question, talking about the Ten Commandments, he said, I had a situation, and I just wanted clarity on my situation here.

[237] I was outside my van putting my equipment away, and there was a man beating up on a woman here in Southern California, and it was terrible.

[238] He said he was violent with her, and I was like, stunned, what is going on here?

[239] And when he saw it, he was like, well, what can I do?

[240] and so he just continued to do what he was doing putting his stuff in and then he saw another woman screaming at him stop it stop what you're doing and i said well did you call the police you know he says no i didn't do anything and i felt like i had a sin of omission i should have at least called the police and i'm i want to know if you think i should go to confession that's his question right now to you as a bishop if this guy came to you and said i need some direction And that's what happened.

[241] What was his moral responsibility in a situation like that, Bishop Strickland?

[242] Put you on the spot.

[243] Absolutely.

[244] I would agree with his own assessment that it's a sin of omission.

[245] I mean, like we say, things I have done and things I'd failed to do.

[246] And to fail to render aid, even legally, you can get in trouble for that, which is proper.

[247] I mean, as human beings, when we see another human being threatened, we should, we may feel powerless and we may have very little power, but at least calling the police, intervening in whatever way we can.

[248] All right.

[249] When we come back, we're going to talk about judgment, hell and heaven.

[250] I've loved the four last things.

[251] And you know what else?

[252] I want to just make a plug in.

[253] I got a minute here.

[254] we never have a show without saying please get involved with 40 days for life or some pro -life group at the abortion clinic lives are being saved by going out and praying your rosary at the clinic giving women alternatives to abortion and i notice that it's a very ecumenical movement bishop strickland we have our protestant brothers right alongside of us praying at those clinics and giving people opportunities to save lives and i would encourage people to continue to do that and you know I know you're going to get people to yell at you and scream at you but think of it this way everybody if we're a Christian and we're doing out we're living out our faith the world the flesh and the devil they're not going to like what you're doing okay that's just how it works just know that that God will be with you to give you the strength to persevere because speaking up for life is the number one issue in my humble opinion that we as Catholics and Christians can stand up for when we come back another tweet regarding judgment, hell, and heaven on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[255] We'll be right back after a short break.

[256] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[257] I'm going to talk about a tweet that Bishop Strickland tweeted, but before I do that, I want to tell a quick story because stories really make it clear.

[258] I met with a gentleman today who had been in prison, and he got converted by reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the book that we're going to be going into.

[259] and when he got out of prison, he was listening to Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[260] He's a Hispanic man, and he got married outside the church, like before he went into prison.

[261] And so when he came out, he was listening, and he heard us talk about, if you're married outside the church, you should go to your parish and look at getting your marriage convalidated.

[262] And, you know, a big term, but basically get it blessed by the church.

[263] and so he called me and said I heard you guys talking about it I went to my parish and the parish said we're not doing that it's COVID -19 we can't we're closed we can't be doing things like that so I called a canon lawyer friend of mine and priest and he said oh no problem we can do that quite simple and so I put the two together they decided to have not only just a mass and they went to confession before the mass which was really a good idea the man wanted to really prepare and had a beautiful, full -blown mass and wedding with all the, you know, she was dressed in her bridegroom, was beautiful.

[264] I was there.

[265] And he came by today to just say thank you, and I didn't have to thank me. So I gave him Bishop Sheen's Life is Worth Living, and they had a four -year -old daughter who really had lively little girl, beautiful little girl, so that she got the Baltimore Catechism on DVD with Sacred Art that we published.

[266] now he's a daily listener still for the many years that he's been out of prison and he's on fire for the faith and you know Bishop Strickland when you tweet things like you're and I'm going to read that's what grabs people the fundamentals of the faith and I want to just compliment you and I'll let you get to your part but I want to compliment you because you continually hit on the basics of the faith you don't even you know you don't get really deep into hypostatic union and you know we're theology at night you know I I get all that for certain guys.

[267] But, you know, I hear you preaching, and you're preaching to the mass as Joe Sixpack, okay?

[268] The guy who's hardworking with a wife and family, and he wants to come home and know that what he's doing is important and how he's serving his wife and family is getting him to heaven.

[269] That's what he needs to know, and that's what you're doing.

[270] So here it is, the tweet you said, we are created, there it is, to know, love, and serve God in this life.

[271] so as to be happy with him in the next.

[272] That's right for the Baltimore Catechism.

[273] In fact, so anyhow, you said this, that to be happy with him and the next.

[274] But Bishop Strickland, this is not brain surgery.

[275] You're just giving us the fundamentals of why we're here.

[276] Why do you keep hitting on that?

[277] Because I just told you why I like it, but why do you keep hitting on the basics?

[278] What's your point?

[279] Because people don't know the basics.

[280] We've talked a lot about the fundamentals, and we've talked about it in sports.

[281] If you don't know the fundamentals, I'll just use the example of snow skiing.

[282] I'm no great Olympic snow skier, but I've skied a lot and enjoyed it.

[283] But you've got to know some fundamentals.

[284] I, as a young guy in college, went, and I was smart.

[285] enough because the people I went with advised me the first time I went skiing yeah it said take at least a half day lesson yeah to learn the fundamentals makes sense and it'll make it much easier you'll enjoy it more I had a friend that came the the next couple of years they had a nephew that came along with us and he said oh he'd never skied before he was athletic and he said oh I don't need a lesson I'll just get out there and ski he spent the whole morning standing up and falling down, standing up and falling down, because he hadn't learned the fundamentals.

[286] Of course.

[287] And so finally, he did take a class, and he was fine.

[288] We have missed the class in the fundamentals of faith and truth for the human family.

[289] Yeah, we have.

[290] As a church and as a society, certainly we bemoan the reality.

[291] that the church has in catechized well, but our nation, our world has not taught a couple of generations the fundamentals of being human, of living in harmony with each other, of valuing the other person.

[292] Even those who have no faith used to learn those basic fundamental truths.

[293] They are truths.

[294] And so that's why I'm the broken record that keeps repeating, because if enough of us keep repeating and enough of us start hearing these fundamentals, then we can make some fundamental changes in how the world operates.

[295] A big amen to that, Bishop Strickland.

[296] All right, here's another one.

[297] And I love what you say about the mass. I've watched a video of you saying mass, and I just got to say, it's pretty obvious you believe what you're doing, and that it's a sacred action, that it's a re -enactment of Calvary, and all the rest.

[298] So thank you for that.

[299] I have a good priest friend when I was a young man. He always said, you can tell the spirituality of a priest by the way he says Holy Mass. I think he's right.

[300] I agree.

[301] Here's what he said, Bishop Strickland.

[302] The greatest reverence to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is a soul purified of sin who receives him with a profound humility.

[303] And then you said, repent of your sins, go to confession, do your penance, and seek reparation.

[304] Then as you receive our Lord in communion, you will know how to approach him in awe.

[305] That's gold advice right there, everybody.

[306] So Bishop Strickland, again, you said this, is there a reason?

[307] I mean, is this something that you feel very strong about?

[308] it sounds like it absolutely it's the very heart of our catholic faith because it's it's christ himself that we're receiving and i think it is important terry because we hear a lot of controversy about who should receive communion and who shouldn't yeah um politicians or mainly politicians but sometimes they'll get into other public figures right and i think get what gets lost and some of that is the idea that our greatest reverence is living a holy life that we will never have the holiness in this world.

[309] God will perfect us, we believe, in everlasting life, because we have to be perfect to be in heaven, according to what Christ said.

[310] Revelation.

[311] I'm not going to perfect myself, so we count on God to do the perfecting, but we are obligated to grow in holiness, to turn from sin, and then that's the greatest reverence.

[312] If we are approaching the Holy of Holies, which we know and believe, that's what in the Jewish covenant, the Ark of the Covenant was the Holy of Holies, the presence of God, a tabernacle in our Catholic churches is the Holy of Holies and the contents of that tabernacle come to us at the altar at every mass when bread and wine become the body and blood of the Son of God so the greatest reverence absolutely and that's what I tried to say yes in that tweet yeah the greatest reverence is where our heart is amen do we believe are we seeking to turn from sin and grow in holiness and then if if that is where our heart is then like you said about how i celebrate the mass yes i i want it to be as reverent and full of awe as i can possibly do as just a sinful man that's that's very imperfect like all of us yep but If our heart is in the right place, I really believe this, and I think it's something that we really all need to pray about and focus on, then how we actually receive, whether in the hand or on the tongue, we're going to receive reverently.

[313] Right.

[314] We're going to receive with awe and with a great awareness of what we're doing and who we're encountering.

[315] so certainly it's important to receive the consecrated host with great reverence yes we need to pray about how is the most reverent way that I can receive the body of Christ but backing up from that the greater reverence I believe is having a heart that is ready to receive him right we I often mention the what we say at mass, Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.

[316] And we aren't worthy, but we have the obligation to constantly seek to grow in that worthiness.

[317] I do, and I feel compelled to share that with others.

[318] Amen.

[319] Because I've read from some of the saints that the grieving of Christ, his suffering that continues.

[320] In the great mystery of Jesus Christ, yes, his passion and suffering that we will commemorate in a few days during Holy Week, it happened at a certain place, at a certain time in history.

[321] But in the great mystery that is Jesus Christ, fully gone and fully man, the saints remind us that, he suffers with my sins and your sins as well.

[322] It's part of being the mystical body of Christ that when we turn from him in sin, it adds to that agony.

[323] It adds to that passion, his gift of himself.

[324] So we are called and challenged to do everything we can to grow in holiness.

[325] And I'll be the first to admit that I have a long way to go.

[326] me too um you know sometimes people good pious people in the church will will say oh bishop you're the holy man pray for me i am called to be holy amen every baptized person is called to be holy but it it makes me squirm a little to be called the holy man i should be yeah but i'm not comfortable with that because i know that i'm a sinner and i need to repent repent and seek that holiness and that really allows us to flourish in God's love.

[327] Well said, I just want to remind some advice that was given to me about Mass. Go to this Mass this weekend as it was your last Mass in your life.

[328] And I'll tell you what, you'll be able to focus much more on that.

[329] We'll be back with the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[330] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickman Hour.

[331] We just finished the section on tweets and comments about the culture.

[332] Now we're going to shift into the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

[333] And a couple of people have taken up my offer about free catechisms.

[334] So I'll say it one more time if you don't have a catechism and you'd like one.

[335] Call me at 877 -526 -21 -5.

[336] And I'll shoot one off to you.

[337] And what we're doing right now is we're in a section on what the Catholic Church teaches about sacred scripture.

[338] And I want to just show everybody, every section of the catechism has a section called In Brief, where it summarizes what we have already been teaching.

[339] through the catechism with Bishop Strickland.

[340] And so I wanted to hit a couple of the paragraphs that were they summarize what we believe about sacred scripture.

[341] And this is important because we need Catholics to understand the value of scripture.

[342] And before I do this, I forgot to mention with St. Joseph's Feastay, folks can get a plenary indulgence if they get to confession and say after their prayers for the Holy Father.

[343] and the usual conditions.

[344] So don't forget, you can still do that.

[345] And if it's been a while, I'm going to make a suggestion that this time it'll be Passion Week when you're listening to this.

[346] What a great time to get to confession.

[347] So if you're waiting for some knucklehead to call you on that, that's me. I'm okay on that.

[348] Go to confession.

[349] It's good for the soul.

[350] All right, Bishop Strickland, paragraph 138.

[351] It says something about the canon, about the list of the books.

[352] It says the church accepts and venerate.

[353] as inspired the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the new so when we talk about inspired word of God we've already covered what we mean by that but this didn't take place like from the very very beginning it was the what the fourth century when the church really put this all together so you know it's you had mentioned earlier in the show how the church worked out its teachings in the early part of the centuries of the church and now here in the 21st century we have 21 ecumenical councils that have met and they've all dealt with different issues but nothing has changed since that fourth century has it not i mean we still believe that this is god's word and that it's inspired to um you know for us to read and to know that the truth is there in the inspired word of god is that a fair statement Absolutely.

[354] And I think what you touch on is very important to realize if we could all go back to the apostolic times, and I often mention that we need to live like the apostles in the 21st century.

[355] I love it.

[356] Because so much of what we take for granted isn't really there anymore.

[357] Right.

[358] And the apostles didn't have a New Testament.

[359] No. None of them had what we call the New Testament.

[360] They had the Old Testament.

[361] They did have that, and they knew it well.

[362] Most of them were from the Jewish, the Hebrew community.

[363] So the church had the writings from the prophets, the Old Testament, Genesis, the Pentateau.

[364] all the books of the Old Testament as it says 46 books but they didn't have the New Testament right they were literally living the New Testament and we 21st century Christians really need to wrap our minds around that because literally St. Paul was writing letters to of various communities, like Corinth in Galatia and Rome, and those became letters to the Romans, letters to the Galatians, letters to the Corinthians, which ultimately, we believe, guided by the Holy Spirit, and guided by the community, listening and saying, yes, that resonates with, for the early Christians, that resonates with the Jesus we knew, the Jesus we heard.

[365] And then as the centuries move on, it resonates with the generations before us and what they've taught us.

[366] They did a much better job, thankfully, of catechizing than we have because the people knew.

[367] The Christians knew their faith.

[368] And they were close enough to Christ, even though after, you know, a generation, they hadn't actually seen him and didn't even know someone that had seen him.

[369] But they knew his truth.

[370] And that, really, Terry, I'm often, as we were talking earlier, and I have a great devotion to Christ's Eucharistic presence, which we all.

[371] all should because he's really there.

[372] The same Jesus that we hear proclaimed in the gospel is there present with us in the Eucharist.

[373] And the early fathers and the saints of the church have beautiful reflections on how that all works together.

[374] As we celebrated St. Joseph, I spoke about that and I had three Masses that day.

[375] Wow.

[376] A wonderful privilege.

[377] You were not supposed to have more than that.

[378] And I didn't.

[379] I only had three.

[380] But I had three masses that I celebrated, and I spoke about St. Joseph holding the Word of God incarnate.

[381] Yeah.

[382] And very likely, he would have also held the Word of God in the form of maybe the scroll of Isaiah.

[383] Yeah.

[384] We have Jesus reading from the scroll of Isaiah.

[385] and as a good Jewish father, it's very possible that St. Joseph may have shown Jesus as a boy may have been the first one to show him the scroll of Isaiah or the scroll of other writings and prophets and writings of the Old Testament.

[386] So what was beautiful to me was the reflection on the Word of God.

[387] Jesus Christ is the Word incarnate as St. John's.

[388] gospel says beautifully, in the beginning was the Word, and that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming forth from the Father in the life of the Spirit, the great mystery of Jesus Christ.

[389] And so the Word of God, for us as Catholics, we should embrace the Word of God with the reverence.

[390] And some of the saints talk about that, that every word of Scripture should be held in our minds and hearts with the reverence that hopefully we receive the incarnate body of Christ in the form of consecrated bread.

[391] So it's a great, and to me, it's one of the great images of St. Joseph to remind ourselves that he was a man steeped in the Word of God as a faithful member of the Hebrew family of the House of David.

[392] And he held the Word of God as a tiny infant, as a little boy.

[393] I mean, imagine, I remember as a kid, I used to like to ride on my father's shoulders.

[394] Me too.

[395] Hell yeah.

[396] How a kid rides on their father's shoulders.

[397] And imagine Jesus riding on Joseph's shoulders as they go off to the market or go to check one of Joseph's carpentry jobs, that's what we need to do is to make all of them much more real because it's not just, it's not making them real, it's us waking up to the reality that they were flesh and blood, human beings living in a place and time.

[398] And in the great mystery of Jesus Christ, as Joseph was maybe holding Jesus on his shoulders like any little boy and his dad, that he's also holding the eternal word of God.

[399] I mean, it's just mind -blowing, if you really think about it.

[400] Absolutely.

[401] We only have a couple minutes, but I want to just mention 139.

[402] The four Gospels occupy a central place in Jesus Christ is their center.

[403] And Bishop Strickland, maybe this isn't good, but I've been doing this for years.

[404] during Holy Week, I don't just read the passion, you know, we read it during church.

[405] But I tell myself, because I want to get familiar with the Gospels, with the four Gospels.

[406] Each year I'll try and read, and it doesn't take that long to read in the gospel of Matthew or Mark or Luke or John, but one of the Gospels, and then I rotate for that Holy Week, because I want to not just meditate on the passion, but the whole picture, the life and death of Christ, the whole nine yards.

[407] and that's something that a priest gave me as advice and I find it very fruitful so I want to recommend that to our listeners does that make sense to you to have the like make a little commitment during Holy Week to read the entire one of the four Gospels?

[408] Absolutely.

[409] To know the whole story John would be a favorite because he really embraces from the beginning when the Word was part of the creation and then becomes incarnate.

[410] But all the Gospels tell the story of Jesus Christ.

[411] Wow.

[412] Now, Bishop Strickland, we're at a time now for this hour, but I want to encourage everyone also during Holy Week, you might even pick up your catechism.

[413] And I'll tell you why the fruit is.

[414] We talk about the fundamentals of the faith, and the catechism is just that.

[415] And St. John Paul, too, in the beginning of the catechism, says this is a sure norm.

[416] So I just want to encourage all of us to be what I call high information Catholics.

[417] And I don't talk about high information about investments.

[418] I mean, many of us have PhDs.

[419] I don't.

[420] I have a PhD in common sense, and it ain't that common.

[421] But I want to encourage you to take the time to take this catechism with your Bible and look things up and study it because you might be an expert in whatever profession you're in.

[422] good.

[423] But I think it's so important that we take some time with the Bible and the Catechism together to study our faith.

[424] And I noticed during Holy Week, there's something special about that week.

[425] It's the week that changed the world, is what I call it.

[426] And this is a great time to study your faith during that week and really, you know, ask Jesus Christ for more faith.

[427] That's what I would suggest.

[428] Bishop Strickland, can you give us your priestly, but Bishop, your blessing for the listeners that God will bless their families and that they'll be faithful in their state in life.

[429] Sure.

[430] The Lord be with you.

[431] And with your spirit.

[432] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for all the work of this radio program and all the programs that are part of this network.

[433] And we ask your blessing for all who listen for a little while or listen to a lot that they may be drawn closer to your love.

[434] in life through your son and the power of your spirit and may the blessed virgin mary who said yes to the word always intercede for us in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen thank you very much bishop strickland for those who are brand new don't forget the podcast have all the other shows of bishop strickland including other shows on virgin most powerful radio apologetic shows spiritual warfare shows just go to virgin most powerful radio just go to virgin most powerful radio .org or give us a call at 877 -526 -2151.

[435] May God richly bless you.

[436] And until next week, God love you and your family.

[437] And this is signing off for Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[438] Bishop Strickland Hour.

[439] God love you.