28 Feb 23 – Can a Pope Change Church Doctrine?

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[2] And today for this hour, we're going to be talking about how to fall in love with Jesus Christ and his bride the church.

[3] How do we do that?

[4] Well, through the sacraments, through the moral teachings of the church and a lot more.

[5] Bishop Strickland, thanks again for taking time out on this Ash Wednesday that we're recording this show on.

[6] Thank you.

[7] Thanks, sir.

[8] Thank you.

[9] Talking about Lent, because this is Ash Wednesday when we're filming or doing this, you tweeted about devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus and that may our restless hearts there's a lot of restless hearts today with the world and in the church find our joyful rest in him can you share a little bit about some reflections I know you probably have done it at two or three masses today but maybe you can share that summary of what we should be thinking about for Lent well I really like that reading from the prophet Joel And that's really what I mainly talked about, because give your whole heart to the Lord.

[10] Yeah.

[11] And that's a challenge for all of us.

[12] If we claim to have given our whole heart, we probably haven't.

[13] But that's what the prophet Joel calls us to, to wholeheartedly embrace the Lord.

[14] And to do those things, rend your garments fast.

[15] Take action, I guess, is what I talked about, is to really be aware that we have to act on our faith, to treat each other.

[16] And I love the reading from this past Sunday talking about the temple, you know, that we are temples of the Holy Spirit.

[17] If we all just suddenly remember that and live that, it would make a difference.

[18] And that's what Lent's about, is going back, like we talking about, going back to the fundamentals, going back to the basics, reminding ourselves, it doesn't get more basic than you are dust and unto dust you shall return.

[19] And that's what the ashes are about.

[20] So it's a beautiful way to begin the Lenton season.

[21] And in our area, I don't know about where you are, but a number of the non -Catholic churches are distributing ashes.

[22] even though they don't aren't even liturgical but the ashes really are a genius element of one of the sacramentals of the church because it it really captures people's imagination and gets their attention and it's one of the things i've always been glad to be able to anyone can receive ashes exactly even someone who's a non -believer and it may help them to become a believer but um It's really a great day of faith, and thankfully, people still respond to it.

[23] The churches are full.

[24] Yeah, I agree with you.

[25] And what you said is so true about Ash Wednesday.

[26] You know what's interesting, too, on a side note, the Montsenor, who said one of the masses here at the chapel, said that during the Second Vatican Council, Bunini had tried to persuade the bishops that we should get rid of Ash Wednesday.

[27] I never knew that.

[28] Really?

[29] Yeah, and the Holy Father and the bishop said, oh, no, no, no, no. Because the Eastern rights don't do it.

[30] And they said it wasn't significant enough.

[31] And I'm like, really?

[32] So thanks be to God, the good bishop said, no, no, no, no. This has got to stay.

[33] This is fruitful.

[34] You know, one of the things that Father Bill Casey talked to us about, about Lent, he said that Pope Pius I said many times that the great sin of our age is, in fact, the denial of sin.

[35] And he said, it has become a dirty word that we don't want to mention anymore even from the pulpit.

[36] Well, he's right.

[37] He says, does it strike you as odd that the more sin in the world, the less Catholics, clergy, and theologians and lay people seem to talk about it?

[38] This is theological insanity.

[39] This is Father Bill Casey speaking.

[40] I happen to agree with him.

[41] He said, worse, it's spiritual suicide to deny sin.

[42] He said, there's only one thing that can separate us from God, and that is mortal sin.

[43] He said, to conceal the reality of sin is quite simply to play the devil's game.

[44] It is a fall into his trap.

[45] He says more about the examination, but I thought during Lent, Bishop Strickland, he said there's like three things that you might want to ask yourself.

[46] So this was good.

[47] He says, is there something I can do to get closer to God?

[48] Number one.

[49] Number two, is there something I can do to know God better and to love him more.

[50] Number three, is there some way I can increase my desire for prayer?

[51] Aren't those good suggestions?

[52] Absolutely.

[53] Yeah, I just love that.

[54] That's a good three steps for what Lent's about.

[55] Yeah, it's taken from his book, and it's just, he says, why you should go to confession this Lent, which I obviously go every couple weeks for me, because I'm a big sinner.

[56] But Bishop Strickland, talking about.

[57] about sin, you know, one person in my lifetime, and he was in your lifetime, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, was very straight on the power of confession, the whole issue of sin in one's life, and how to rectify that.

[58] And I have a video, see if I have time to play.

[59] Yeah, I do.

[60] I want to ask you to give a comment on it because this is Bishop Sheen's last media, like two months before he died in 1979.

[61] Remember, he died December 9th, 1979.

[62] So this is about October.

[63] And there's a host there asking him some tough questions.

[64] And I thought, wow, this is so appropriate because these same questions are being asked today.

[65] And I know you're a bishop, but so is Bishop Sheen.

[66] I'd like to hear, and I think our listeners would like to listen to, what Fulton Sheen would say about homosexual marriage or contraception.

[67] And I think it's a remarkable interview and a timely one for us 40 -some years later.

[68] Mr. Engineer, play that clip.

[69] Bishop Sheen, do you foresee in the distant future any change in the churches stand, the Catholic churches stand and certain issues today, which have been quite controversial, certainly abortion has been?

[70] Do you foresee ever any change in that?

[71] No. Not at all.

[72] No, because we have no power over the divine.

[73] law.

[74] Furthermore, suppose we did.

[75] Suppose John Paul II tomorrow said, all right, bring out your contraceptives, pull out your scalpel, unplug the children from their wounds.

[76] Marry as you please, unmarry as you please, fornicate as you please.

[77] What would be the difference between the church in the world.

[78] Wow, it's such a short clip, Bishop Strickland.

[79] I want to, I mean, he says, no power over the divine law.

[80] The church doesn't have any power.

[81] And, you know, things like you know, Mary as you please.

[82] I'm thinking that same -sex marriage.

[83] I'm thinking, you know, what he said, fornication, adultery.

[84] I mean, he was hitting all the hot topics.

[85] Yeah, and that was so long ago.

[86] He really, he's prophetic so many times.

[87] Because and really, Terry, if you think about it, He knew the truth and you just look at the truth and if you're doing something contrary to it and he could go down a list of things because he knew the truth and knew real marriage, knew the sanctity of life.

[88] And beautiful clip.

[89] I hope it goes super viral and just millions, billions of people see it because that really captures the controversy of our time.

[90] And sadly, it's as much in the church as in the culture, the church.

[91] And like you said, you might as well just shut down the church.

[92] There's not any distinction.

[93] I mean, Christ has promised it won't be shut down.

[94] But it's because it's based on divine truth, divinely revealed truth.

[95] We can't change it.

[96] We can't erase it.

[97] We can't change it.

[98] And we need to change ourselves.

[99] And that's what Lent's about.

[100] It's about saying, how do I need to change myself more?

[101] God is unchanging.

[102] God is eternal.

[103] And I know there are too many people that claim they don't believe in God.

[104] But I bet many of those, not all probably, but many, when their life is threatened, just kind of like the foxhole, you know, they say there's no atheist in the foxhole.

[105] because if your life's threatened, you're going to start saying, God help me. And we need to say it always.

[106] And what Archbishop Sheen says it just needs to be proclaimed over and over again.

[107] That's what we talk about.

[108] And I'm going to be honest with you, when I heard this on a Sunday night, I was listening to us.

[109] I'm always hearing Bishop Sheen stuff.

[110] And when I was listening to it, I said, wow.

[111] I think of the church right now, they're talking about wanting, you know, to have this senatoral way and have these ideas of having women priests or getting rid of having blessings of homosexual marriages, so -called.

[112] All the things they were saying, I'm saying, you know, I made a joke about it.

[113] I said to my wife, I said, maybe we should send this to the bishops in Rome and have them meditate during Lent what Bishop Sheen has to say.

[114] So when they meet that maybe this could convince them that they have no authority to change them.

[115] any divine intervention of any divine teachings of Jesus Christ.

[116] And I'm going to take another swing, and you can calm me down, Bishop Strickland, but, you know, the Holy Father is the vigor of Christ.

[117] He's not the superior of Christ.

[118] So that means even if the pope, like he said about John Paul 2, it applies to all the popes, though, not just to John Paul 2, Benedict, Paul 6th, Francis, none of them have the power to change divine law.

[119] Absolutely.

[120] And that's what too many aren't clear about that.

[121] I mean, people yell at me all the time.

[122] How dare you say that?

[123] Because the Pope said this, the Pope is, yes, we owe respect to the Pope, but he's a human being like all of us.

[124] He's not divine power.

[125] He has to follow it like every single human being and guide us in it.

[126] Well, said, when we come back, we got a quote from Cardinal Robert Sirrah.

[127] We need these kind of cardinals in our church because they're speaking the truth and charity.

[128] Stay with us, family.

[129] We'll be right back after a quick break.

[130] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland hour.

[131] I've got all fired up, man. And I'll tell you why, Bishop Strickland, before I go to Cardinal Robert Saraw's quote, I just think of this that the Bible is so clear about sin.

[132] I just quoted Pope Pius the 12th, but, you know, what about St. Paul's words when he says, for a time is coming.

[133] We just had this.

[134] when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachings to suit their own likings second timothy chapter four verse three the day now bishop this is what father bill case said the day now has arrived we have that today most people today see enjoyment of life as being more important than eternity that's a sad thing commentary yep and he says we don't want to hear the truth, because the truth makes us feel uncomfortable, sounds like you preaching, because the truth sometimes demands that we change our lives, our minds, our hearts, towards God, and towards others.

[135] So it seems to me that for Lent, this is the mindset we have to have.

[136] And like Bishop Sheen said, you know, we can't be one with the world.

[137] We have to be different.

[138] Yeah.

[139] Pospels different.

[140] All right.

[141] Absolutely, Terry.

[142] And Lent is an opportunity, another chance to wait up to the truth, to the divine truth, the reality that we are called to live by.

[143] And we better wake up for the consequences are going to be dire.

[144] And, you know, certainly spiritually, all we can do, all you can do, all I can do ultimately is do our best to live the truth that God has revealed to us.

[145] Like you said, you go to confession all the time.

[146] I went yesterday, you know, I need to.

[147] It's not because, as I say to people, I don't go to confession because I'm so holy.

[148] It's because I'm not so holy.

[149] And I need to humbly acknowledge that.

[150] And all of us, I mean, that's the state of humanity.

[151] We're sinners.

[152] And like you were saying earlier, when we deny sin, that is poison.

[153] And that is Satan's work to get us to think, oh, that's not sinful.

[154] not wrong as we're destroying ourselves and that is talk about pandemic the denial of sin is the worst pandemic of our time because it's destructive to humanity and it's killing them for eternity wow not just for whatever years of life they have well said we call it global warming at our particular judgment because if we're in mortal sin this is what the church teaches we go to hell for all eternity.

[155] That should scare the, you know what, out of us.

[156] It really should.

[157] But you see, we haven't been convinced, like Father said, that people don't really realize that this life is short and that our soul will live forever.

[158] And I think that doesn't believe.

[159] Yeah, they don't believe.

[160] And too many in the church, even leaders in the church, at least the way they act is they don't believe.

[161] because you can't talk about changing these divine truths and then say, well, I believe in this.

[162] It doesn't fit to get, it's not even consistent logically.

[163] I agree.

[164] Here's a Cardinal Robert Serra quote that you comment on.

[165] I said, if a man has nothing higher to look forward to than these material things, right when we were saying, he says, the whole world becomes wolfsome and empty to him.

[166] So in other words, he's like wandering around for meaning and purpose of life.

[167] That's what I get out of that.

[168] Absolutely.

[169] And sadly, too many people are there that the depression rates, the suicide rates, it indicates that.

[170] I saw something tragically from Canada saying that they're wanting to be able to euthanize children without their parents even though.

[171] Unbelievable.

[172] Which is just talking about diabolical.

[173] It's just crazy.

[174] it is crazy and you know bishop strickland talking about sin and you know and redemption it just seems that that has to get into people's heads because there was a time when people understood that you know they live for 60 70 80 years and then they're judged it just seems that in our culture now we're so titillated with things whether it's the youtube or whether it's um television entertainment sports we get so distracted.

[175] It seems like Lent is such a great time to say, hey, wait a minute, maybe I'm going to cut some of these things out that have been taking an inordinate amount of time of my life that takes me away from God, and I'm going to say, I'm going to get rid of X, Y, or Z, because I just think that this is the time to really make it happen, and Lent is a great time for that.

[176] All right.

[177] Every week you talk about a couple things.

[178] Our lady, you talk about, the Eucharist.

[179] You talk about the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[180] Yes, you did that.

[181] And the abortion as being an evil thing.

[182] You quoted this, and I think this is important because a lot of our non -Catholic friends and even some Catholics really don't have a clue when it comes to the Blessed Virgin Mary because they haven't been told about the role Mary plays.

[183] But you said this in a tweet, why do we pray the Hail Mary?

[184] Because she is the sinless woman who shows us what is possible for every human being if we turn from sin.

[185] The Virgin Mary's love of our Lord Jesus Christ is the model for us all.

[186] Let us strive to love according to her model.

[187] Mary, the sinless human.

[188] That's a good catechesis on Mary.

[189] Well, and it's important because Mary is a treasure in the church and for humanity that too many ignore.

[190] I live in a very non -Catholic area, and the other Christians in this area, they're good people, but Mary is not part of their lives, and we're blessed.

[191] some Catholics are you know don't pay much attention to Mary but it she is really the model of who we can be by the power of God it's not her merit but God's protected her from sin through her immaculate conception and she shows us what what a human being can be without sin and really in my prayer I I think a lot about the love between Mary and Jesus.

[192] And that's, I encourage people to consecrate themselves to the sacred heart through the immaculate heart of Mary.

[193] And she's always there to help us grow closer to her son because she loves him more than we can imagine because he's completely sinless by the grace of God, by the power of God.

[194] Jesus loves her as the woman who said yes to his father's will.

[195] So the love between Mary and Jesus, really, and that's what we do in the Hail Mary.

[196] We're loving her and loving Jesus.

[197] And in John's gospel, he says so beautifully that God is love.

[198] So when we are growing and their love for each other, we're growing in God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the love of the Father.

[199] So I encourage all of us during Lent.

[200] For Catholics, if you're really not that, you know, maybe just occasionally pray the rosary, I urge you to really begin to reflect on those mysteries.

[201] And don't just see how quickly you can pray a rosary.

[202] I mean, sometimes, Terry, I'll get so caught up in one decade that I never get to the end of it.

[203] But there's so much to reflect on there.

[204] It's always you can go deeper because we're talking about the incarnate love, that's Jesus Christ, and Mary, a human being, not God, but a human being loving that incarnate love beyond or imagining without the burdens and the barriers that sin create for us.

[205] Real love, not just the faith.

[206] love that is talked about so much in our world where people say oh they love each other if they're sinning together in whatever way that's not love exactly they're not loving each other if they're ignoring their eternal salvation and saying oh this feels good or this makes me feel supported that's not love nope it's fake love and there's so much fake love in the world today it we just but Mary and Jesus there the reality of love.

[207] He's love incarnate, and Mary is the human being who loves him so deeply because she's not burdened by sin.

[208] Well said, we have a couple minutes to answer this one.

[209] There's a website that I recommend Catholic Culture .org, and he used to be the editor of Catholic World Report 25 years ago.

[210] Phil Lawler, I couldn't think of the name.

[211] Phil Lawler's been on our show many times.

[212] Good layman.

[213] And you, I tweeted something about basically you're defending Pope Benedict the 16th reputation because the crux, he said, this is a shocking misrepresentation of a portrait of Pope Benedict.

[214] And your response, and I want to give the context, because I don't, I have not read the article I should have, but I didn't.

[215] But you said, the crux of the issue, one prelate challenges sinners to change their lives and enter more fully into the life of the church.

[216] That's Bishop Sheen, okay.

[217] While another wants to change not the sinners, but the church, we must hold fast to Christ in his church and be changed by grace.

[218] Now, Bishop Strickland, this is something that you quoted earlier where you, I mean, I didn't give you this yet, but Cardinal Francis George said, yes, all are welcome in the church, but on Christ's terms, not their own.

[219] So it seems like Benedict, I want to understand what was going on here because I'm not quite sure.

[220] I know there's some bishops who say the Bible is wrong or that we have to change the catechism.

[221] They're wrong, I understand.

[222] Is that what this article is about saying that we need to really be clear on what the church really teaches?

[223] Yeah, and specifically the article What is it?

[224] Sort of twist the words of Benedict to say, oh, well, you know, we don't really have to do this.

[225] I don't remember the specifics, but I would encourage people to read the article.

[226] But that's what Phil Lawler, the point that he was making.

[227] And that crux of the issue that I mentioned in the tweet is referring to the very end of his commentary on this article.

[228] That's what he said is that, you know, we have to.

[229] to be changed.

[230] We can't say, okay, God's got to change according to us.

[231] We're made in the image of God.

[232] And too many times the way the world is operating today, it's like, oh, well, if we want to believe in God, we'll make him in our image, or we'll just say we don't believe in God.

[233] It's just, it's destructive.

[234] And this article specifically was a misrepresentation of what Pope Benedict says, because he's always solid.

[235] of course people people didn't like him because he's too solid but really what what occurs to me with some of these articles that i quoted recently you just talked about cardinal sarah yeah it's prophecies are being fulfilled in our midst cardinal against cardinal bishop against bishop one contradicting the deposit of faith and one supporting the deposit of faith that's a tragic place for the world and the church to be.

[236] But we've got to hang on to the deposit of faith.

[237] Amen.

[238] He's referring to our lady of Akita in 1973.

[239] She appeared in Japan.

[240] You might want to look that one up because that's exactly the message.

[241] It's kind of a very similar message to Fatima also.

[242] When we come back, we'll have more with the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[243] Stay with us.

[244] Family, we'll be back after a quick break.

[245] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[246] Bishop Strickland and I'm going to throw you a curve because on the break I was thinking about the permissive will of God that God allows some of the crazy things that are going on that you just talked about some bishops are saying hey change the Bible do this do that how in the world of God will allow such crummy things is that it's his permissive will even when evil takes place good can come from it and I thought of what Pope Benedict, you tweeted this about how God is going to give the graces for us to be holy men and women as a response to even the corruption that goes on in the church and turn people to really be fervent because of seeing how crazy things are.

[247] I've met people like that, that they are like, forget it, I'm going to stay focused on my prayer life.

[248] I'm not even going to read these people because they just get me mad.

[249] I'm just going to live a holy life.

[250] I thought, you can't knock that.

[251] Yeah, absolutely.

[252] You know, it reminds us that, of course, we know, but God's in charge.

[253] Amen.

[254] And God's got the long game.

[255] I mean, you know, frankly, there are a lot of things that I don't understand that are going on right now.

[256] But one example of exactly what you're talking about, the terrible abuse crisis, which it, you know, was horrible.

[257] But some good has come from it.

[258] For one thing, the reality that that terrible abuse is not only in the church, but rampant in society and very often in families.

[259] Oh, yeah.

[260] But one of the good things that came from it is the inspiration of young men to say, I'm going to become a priest and really live the holiest priesthood I can.

[261] Awesome.

[262] and counteract that evil, that we have to acknowledge the evil has been there.

[263] Yep.

[264] We're all sinners, but to give in to the evil that priests did, hopefully more and more in the past, but too many in the past, but like you're saying, you know, you say, why would God permit that heaven?

[265] It's all connected to that great mystery of having free will.

[266] Amen.

[267] That's the only way we can live in the image of God.

[268] We have to maintain that free will.

[269] God could make it a much simpler world if he took our free will away, but then we wouldn't really be able to love him.

[270] You can't be programmed to love.

[271] You have to have the free choice.

[272] And so that's the great mystery that we face.

[273] But God uses even the evil things.

[274] He allows us to make free will choices that bring darkness, but also through his grace, the power of God's grace is immense.

[275] And it brings good even out of evil.

[276] Of course, that doesn't mean, well, let's choose some evil and let God do as good.

[277] We're called to make our choices according to the goodness of God.

[278] But God is all goodness.

[279] God is all love.

[280] And I think it reminds us, like I've said so many times, if the things being said, even by leaders in the church or leaders in government, if they are promoting things that aren't true, it may last a while, but eventually it's going to collapse.

[281] The truth is what's eternal, not things that are false.

[282] that's the sad thing about our government and too many governments in the world today world leaders think they can get by with lying and cheating and they may for a while corruption can get even people promoted to the highest office but eventually it all collapses and living the truth is the only thing that lasts well said i think of what fulton sheen said the only value in saying yes to God is you have the freedom to say no. He respects your free will to even do evil.

[283] Isn't that interesting?

[284] And see, but God could bring good still out of the evil things that happen.

[285] And we see that in many of our lives.

[286] Bishop Strickland, I have a priest friend from way back before he was a priest from Dunwood.

[287] His name is Father Jerry Murray.

[288] He's on the posse with Raymond O 'Royle on EWTN.

[289] Great priest.

[290] I mean, canon lawyer, military chaplain.

[291] He's the real deal, okay?

[292] I mean, and he's just a wonderful priest.

[293] And he wrote an article, and it was very strong, but I thought he did it with charity, because if I was Pope Francis and someone said to stop my madness, if I had humility, I would say, okay, what madness are you referring to so I can evaluate that in my conscience?

[294] I mean, you're doing me a favor.

[295] And what he did is he said that Pope Francis is manifesting neglect of his duty to defend the church teachings in the face of grave error.

[296] Now, he pointed out things that as a priest, you were trained that in the confessional, you don't just absolve anybody who comes into the confessional.

[297] If they're not sorry for the sin, you can't give them absolution.

[298] That's just teachings of the church, perennial.

[299] And so when the Holy Father says things like I've never not given people absolution, coming to confession, you should always give people.

[300] Well, I think Father Murray's really challenging him, and I think in a good way of many things, is saying, look, either say it clear or that's not what the church teaches, Holy Father.

[301] Please, you're bringing forth this confusion.

[302] He calls it even madness because it's confusing us, the lay people.

[303] And I might even add Bishop Strickland, that kind of stuff.

[304] can affect bishops and people and pastors to change something that shouldn't be changed.

[305] So you pointed out that Father Murray speaks, some strong statements about this.

[306] And what did you think of the whole article?

[307] I mean, I thought it was fantastic, but what are your thoughts?

[308] Well, I think that I thought it was a great article, and it reminds us, and what we've been talking, about already.

[309] Divine truth.

[310] It takes me back to Archbishop Sheen's video clip.

[311] If the best way we can love and support Pope Francis or any future Pope is to call them to that divine truth, that's the best way we can love and support anyone.

[312] So great honor to the Pope means.

[313] calling to him to the truth.

[314] And, you know, I think there are a lot of forces in the Vatican.

[315] I mean, the things that some of the Cardinals and others say that are part of the Vatican, there are a lot of pressures on Pope Francis.

[316] And that's one of the tweets that I sent recently.

[317] I said, let us, I said that for let us pray for Pope Francis, pray for the Cardinals, pray for the bishops, pray for all the priests and deacons, because if they are off the path, then the laity really have a harder time.

[318] And there are many saintly laity, and we pray for them, of course, also.

[319] They're the vast majority of the church.

[320] And we just need to remember that deposit of faith, the divinely revealed truth, and any wavering from that, the best way to love is to call someone back from that, just with your own children or your own friends, I mean, or the parishioners that I talk to, to say, oh, no, well, if you don't agree, that's okay, and you can believe things that are contrary to what the church teaches.

[321] That's not love.

[322] Nope.

[323] Let's not care for that person.

[324] No, well said, Father Bill Casey used to say it.

[325] The most merciless thing you can do is let someone wallow in their error or in their sin.

[326] So yeah, tell them the truth.

[327] And with respect, especially when I'm talking to a bishop, priest, or even the Holy Father, I do all of this out of love.

[328] I don't even, to be honest with the Bishop Strickland, I find it uncomfortable to have to say the things to bishops or cardinals or even to the Holy Father saying, look, I don't have any degrees, but I know the catechism.

[329] And that's not what it teaches.

[330] So please confirm me in my faith.

[331] Don't make it so that we're watering down or lowering bar for the faith.

[332] Thank you.

[333] Now, the last one I had before we get to some catechism for the last segment, again, Cardinal Sirrah, you always say more wisdom from his eminence.

[334] Any book that you have, I have several of his books on my shelf, but anything you can read, go to Ignatius Press to pick up a couple of his books.

[335] They're worth their gold, weight in gold.

[336] He said this, the world no longer hears God.

[337] That's pretty obvious.

[338] Because it is constantly speaking at a devastating speed and a volume in order to say nothing.

[339] Boy, is that a description of our world?

[340] I mean, I think he nailed it, Bishop Strickland.

[341] Yeah, absolutely.

[342] And his book on silence is a beautiful reminder.

[343] We need more silence because that's where we encounter God.

[344] And silence is, We love to fill our world with noise, and that shields us from having to really think about the emptiness of our lives without God.

[345] Yep.

[346] Well said, I want to remind everybody that you can listen to any of these podcasts if you're a brand new listener by going to vmpr .org.

[347] Not just Bishop Strickland's show, but all our other shows are there.

[348] And also I want to mention for men, There's a men's conference coming up, June 17th, with Jesse Romero and his brother Johnny.

[349] These two guys are like two peas in the pod.

[350] They'll fire you up, men.

[351] And if you're from a distance and you want to watch it, they're streaming on your video or on your phone, you can do that.

[352] Go to vmpr .org to sign up for that conference.

[353] And the spiritual warfare conference is sold out.

[354] But if you want to watch it from home, you can also still sign up for that.

[355] I go into vmpr .org and what we do is when we stream it you own it in other words you don't just watch it once you're going to be able to have access forever and if something happens your computer breaks okay we'll send it again to you my point is I want this in your box so that you can share it with friends and family and even consider this bringing the spiritual warfare conference to your parish via your videos because not everybody can go.

[356] We only have 700 I think people that now are coming or 650 somewhere in there but you can still watch it with Father Chad Riberger, Bishop Strickland will be there and many others.

[357] So go to vmpr .org to sign up for that.

[358] We come back we're going to go to the catechism, the way of Christ.

[359] This is a catechism put out by the St. Philip Institute and you can get that by going to the diocese of Tyler, Texas, and we're going to continue there.

[360] We're going to ask the question, how does Moses point to Jesus?

[361] I apologies in the Old Testament.

[362] Stay with us.

[363] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[364] For those who are new, we usually go through some of the tweets with Bishop Strickland, but we always try to get in some basic catechetical teachings.

[365] And why do we do that?

[366] The bishop agrees, I'm 100 % with them.

[367] people need to know the fundamentals of our faith they need to know the Bible they need to understand God's word because it's our love letter from our father and I keep saying this Bishop Strickland that God loves all of us so much that if he stopped thinking about Bishop Joseph Strickland or Terry Barber you and I would cease to exist and so we have a obligation and it's a great obligation to know God better and how do we do that a lot of times it's through our Bible, through our catechism.

[368] So this is on chapter 4 salvation history, God's plan for man's salvation.

[369] We've been going through this.

[370] And the question comes, how did God first tell humanity about the coming of his son?

[371] Oh, sorry, I just said, I made a mistake.

[372] The question is, how does Moses point towards Jesus?

[373] My mistake.

[374] Page of 13.

[375] It says, when the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

[376] God punished the Egyptians for refusing to free the Israelites by striking down their first -born son, but spared the Israelites who marked their doors with the blood of a sacrificial lamb.

[377] Hmm, interesting.

[378] Moses was then able to lead the Israelites out of slavery and into free.

[379] freedom.

[380] The Passover prefigures Jesus's sacrificial offering on the cross.

[381] That's a powerful statement right there.

[382] Wow.

[383] And the Eucharist.

[384] Just as the sacrificial lamb's blood was the sign that spared Israel and eventually led to their freedom.

[385] Here it comes, everybody.

[386] The blood of Jesus on the cross and in the Eucharist saves us from slavery to slavery.

[387] sin and brings us to freedom.

[388] Can you imagine what they just said?

[389] That paragraph, that's a lot.

[390] That's good stuff.

[391] Yeah.

[392] And really, if you look at that paragraph and think about the whole story of Moses, there's so many elements there of that it's like, I mean, really, the freedom from the slavery to sin is the precursor or the model you could say is freedom from slavery in Egypt.

[393] So the parallels just are, there are numerous parallels that help us to, I mean, like you refer to the lamb, the blood of the lamb.

[394] What do we say at mass?

[395] Behold the Lamb of God.

[396] All those images And what this, we've talked about this before, but with understanding the mass, one of the best ways to understand the mass is to look to the Old Testament, to look to the Exodus story, to look to Moses, all those different elements that were sort of the prototypes of what Christ fulfilled.

[397] And you can see God preparing the people of Israel, the chosen people, for their journey.

[398] And it really is a precursor to the journey of the people of God with Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

[399] So there's so many elements there that are significant for how we live our faith, today and significant for knowing what we have to hold on to as the truth that Christ has revealed to us.

[400] And what Moses is doing and freeing from slavery, slavery is something of this world only.

[401] Jesus takes it to the supernatural level of everlasting life, freeing us from the slavery of sin that we fell into with the fall of Adam and Eve.

[402] It really is a beautiful way to understand what our faith is about by looking back to Moses and so many of the story of Abraham and Isaac also, very much like this Moses story, is a precursor to what Jesus does.

[403] Abraham doesn't have to sacrifice Isaac because the angel comes.

[404] and holds his hand back.

[405] But God, the father, allows his own son to be sacrificed.

[406] And so the parallels are just...

[407] So I think this encourages people to study the salvation history, to study the Old Testament, so we can understand the message of the gospel more deeply.

[408] Well, typologies of Christ, I think Dr. Hahn educated me years ago on that.

[409] and this is so beautiful and I want to remind everybody I'll give anybody Dr. Hahn's course on salvation history he did back in 1990 it's like a nine -hour course he taught at Steubenville I've recorded and if you want it call 877 -526215 -1 Here's another one How does David point towards Jesus?

[410] I think we've got time to do this one God formed the kingdom of Israel around King David He formed a covenant with David He promised his kingly dynasty would reign forever.

[411] David and his kingdom prefigures Jesus and the church.

[412] I love it.

[413] Jesus is the king of kings who brought the kingdom of God.

[414] Jesus' kingdom is continued in the church, which is Jesus.

[415] The church, an invisible head, governs through the Pope and the bishops of the church.

[416] Solid teachings right there.

[417] Absolutely.

[418] Love it.

[419] Yep, you have any comment on that paragraph?

[420] Well, I think it pretty well is self -explanatory.

[421] It just reminds us that, you know, King David for the people of Israel was the king that Christ becomes.

[422] And so once again, God uses the natural world, a man, and a people, and the land even to foreshadow the supernatural world that his son brings to us where he's the king of the universe and we are the new Israel that is really invites all humanity.

[423] And I think that's an important element that we need to emphasize, Terry, the the Old Testament story David and Moses and Abraham, all of them, that was the people of Israel.

[424] The people of Israel are that type of the church and of everyone invited into the church through baptism, through embracing this life that Jesus Christ died and rose to share with us.

[425] So everything in the Old Testament is preparing human beings.

[426] and the chosen people of Israel become the new Israel, which is the church.

[427] And all are invited.

[428] But like Cardinal George said, all are invited, absolutely.

[429] But invited to be changed and transformed.

[430] Just like the people of Israel in their natural way were transformed by their encounter with God and by recognizing themselves as the people of Israel.

[431] Well, said, our last question before we get to the chapter on Jesus Christ, as how do the prophets point toward Jesus here?

[432] The prophets of Israel preached against injustice called the people to follow God's law.

[433] In their prophecy and preaching, they also foretold a coming of a Savior.

[434] In the fullness of time, God sent his only son, Jesus, who was foretold by the prophets.

[435] And what I'm excited about Bishop Strickland is next week we can get right into Jesus Christ, you know, God becoming man. And, you know, this is great stuff because we need to know these fundamental teachings about salvation history, how it ties into the New Testament, like you were saying earlier.

[436] So I thank you for having this catechism published.

[437] And for people who want to get a copy of it, they can go to the St. Philip Institute through the Diocese of Tyler, Texas.

[438] Is that correct, Father, our bishop?

[439] Correct.

[440] Okay.

[441] So that's easy.

[442] Does it through the Diocese of Tyler website or the St. Philip Institute website.

[443] Awesome.

[444] So next week we'll start in with about Jesus Christ, God becoming man. Before we end Bishop Strickland, I want to encourage people for Lent.

[445] You didn't ask me to do this.

[446] I could care less if you did because it's the truth.

[447] I want people to support the Diocese of Tyler, Texas.

[448] For Lent, almsgiving, rather than, and I'll just be honest with you, even give it to Virgin Rose powerful at this time.

[449] Give it to the Diocese of Tyler and say, this is my Lenton sacrificial offering.

[450] Just go to the Diocese of Tyler on the website.

[451] I know they have an address there.

[452] Send them a check and say, hey, Bishop Strickland, keep doing what you're doing because I keep seeing good things coming from that diocese.

[453] More people from Southern California are moving there.

[454] Why?

[455] Because they want a bishop who's going to tell them the truth clearly.

[456] And I thank you for doing that.

[457] It's not about you.

[458] It's about the person of Jesus Christ.

[459] Is that a fair statement?

[460] Absolutely.

[461] And that has to be emphasized.

[462] It's not about me or you.

[463] It's about Jesus Christ.

[464] And we need to share that good news.

[465] And one thing we've talked a lot about Lent.

[466] And sometimes people will ask me, are you supposed to be happy during Lent?

[467] Are you supposed to be?

[468] That's cute.

[469] Well, I think the gospel for Ash Wednesday really tells us The Lord says, don't look glum.

[470] Don't look gloomy if you're fasting.

[471] Right.

[472] Be happy.

[473] I mean, the happiness of Lent is being relieved of the burden of our sin and of all those things that are taking us away from God.

[474] I mean, what did the old Baltimore Catechism say?

[475] To know love and serve God in this life and be happy with him.

[476] in the next.

[477] The greatest joy, the greatest happiness is to know God.

[478] So Lent is a time, even in this world, to know God a little more deeply to study the scriptures, to study the catechism, to celebrate the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist, and to grow closer to the Lord.

[479] That's the greatest happiness.

[480] And finally, I would say, get to know some saints during Lent.

[481] Amen.

[482] Because they're happy people because they turn from sin and embraced life in Jesus Christ.

[483] Well, Seth.

[484] How about a blessing, Mr. Strickland, please?

[485] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for Terry and all of his crew and all the people involved in presenting all of these shows and all the people participating, learning and growing in the deposit of faith in the truth you've revealed to us.

[486] We ask this blessing in the name of the Father.

[487] and of the Son of the Holy Spirit.

[488] Amen.

[489] Thank you so much.

[490] And as I say, for those who want to listen to other shows with Bishop Strickland, go to vmpr .org.

[491] That's virgin most powerful radio .org.

[492] Lots of other shows there to get.

[493] And thank you for your support here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[494] May God bless you this Lent, and I hope this Lent will be the best Lent ever in your life.

[495] Thanks again for joining us here on Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[496] God bless you.

[497] Thank you.