24 Apr 24 – Strickland in the Streets, Part 2

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] Bishop Strickland will be back next week.

[2] He's traveling still, and he'll be back, so we'll take some clips from talks that he's given.

[3] We'll talk about that.

[4] He's got some powerful ones.

[5] I wanted to take its time to read the gospel for the day, John, chapter 12, verse 44 to 50.

[6] Jesus cried out and said, whoever believes in me, believes not only in me, but also in the one who sent me. And whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.

[7] And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world.

[8] Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words, has something to judge him the word that I spoke it will condemn him on the last day because I did not speak on my own but the father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak and I know that his commandment is eternal life so what do I say as the father told me the gospel of the Lord praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

[9] I think this is consistent with yesterday's gospel continuation.

[10] And again, Jesus Christ offers us eternal life.

[11] The world cannot do that.

[12] And I think sometimes we have to stay focused on what's most important, which is getting to heaven.

[13] And I think sometimes in the world, we're so focused on education, your job, material things.

[14] They have their place, but they're not the end all.

[15] So when I speak to my grandchild, children, and to my kids, I always say, what's the end game?

[16] Heaven.

[17] That's where bottom line comes.

[18] You can't take the money with you, the house, the car, nothing comes with it.

[19] So I keep that in mind when we live our lives.

[20] Now, when we come back from the break, I am going to play a clip that Bishop Strickland gave at the Sacred Art Chapel just a couple weeks ago.

[21] You're going to love it.

[22] But before I do that, I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the Assyrian bishop who was stabbed during mass by an Australian with a blad -clad assailment.

[23] He was just a 16 -year -old kid.

[24] And you see the picture, I've watched it several times, but I thought, Bishop Strickland, he put the crucifix up in his hand, and the assailant grabbed his arm and started stabbing him.

[25] And this bishop, was forgiving that assailant that tried to kill him minutes after he was stabbed and I thought well who do I know that did that Jesus Christ now I realize this is the Eastern Church not part of the Catholic Roman Catholic Church but I wish we had bishops like Bishop Marr Marini Emmanuel in our Catholic Church and I loved his name Emmanuel God is with us he I've heard on YouTube he's an outspoken bishop and I've listened enough to see that this man loves Jesus Christ in the church and that he proclaims the faith to Muslims he speaks Arabic to anyone who will listen but I would recommend I know they're going to do this now to offer better security for that bishop because he speaks so boldly about Christ and he's not going to want the security but I think us lay people are the ones who do it I mean when we have Bishop Strickland at our conferences I have policemen undercover watching every step many of them.

[26] Why?

[27] Just to present a problem?

[28] We're going to take care of it.

[29] That's our job to protect our priests.

[30] So I think this is something that sometimes we forget.

[31] And I just, to give you a little note, this young man was arrested months before in January for stabbing somebody else.

[32] And as my good friend Jesse Romero, former cop, said to me, most of the crimes are committed by felons who have already had a criminal record, 99%.

[33] So it's true.

[34] So we pray for this man, this young man, because he's obviously a radicalized Muslim who felt like he's doing favor to God by trying to kill Christians.

[35] And it's sad because he's just a young man. And I think we should pray for the good bishop for his recovery.

[36] I understand he doesn't have serious injuries because the knife switchblade when it was pushed open and it didn't open all the way.

[37] Probably saved the bishop's life.

[38] I would attribute that to divine intervention.

[39] I don't know about you, but that's how I see it.

[40] And again, we need more bishops in our Catholic church like Bishop Marini Emmanuel, who will be bold enough to speak the truth in charity.

[41] And you can go to YouTube and type his name in, and you'll hear lots of his homilies.

[42] and they're always centered on the centrality of Jesus Christ I know he has a great love for the Blessed Mother and talk about that and again I think we need as lay people to be prepared to protect our bishops and our priests so you know keep that in mind especially law enforcement people all my law enforcement people when they go to Mass they're packing and if something happened bad on the altar they're there.

[43] I know Jesse Romero's told me stories at church where people have attacked the priest and they were able to stop him because they were there in the pew.

[44] So these are the times we're living in.

[45] It's crazy times.

[46] We know about that priest in France, elderly priest who was murdered at the altar.

[47] He was like, 88 years old, couldn't defend himself.

[48] Again, radicalized Muslim who did it.

[49] Pray for his conversion.

[50] And this has happened in Mexico, not that long ago.

[51] And as my good friend Ruben Nava, who was also a fire, a policeman for 34 years, told me that in one sense, knives are even more dangerous than a gun.

[52] Because they can cut through our arteries, so fast, and you bleed out.

[53] And so I would just continue to pray, and I say pray for the protection of Bishop Strickland.

[54] He does a lot of traveling, that the angels would surround him and protect him.

[55] I really believe the angels must have protected Bishop Emmanuel because the man's switchblade didn't open up completely.

[56] And what do you attribute that to?

[57] well a chance no no chance God intervened and again we pray that this doesn't happen again in any churches but we just have to be conscious of evil and when I saw the picture of the young man smiling after he did the stabbing I'm like this guy's mentally out or he's demonic or a combination there's something wrong here and we need to pray more and more for the safety of all of our priests because they are targets especially when they preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in season and out and also I just want to remind everybody I've been that yesterday we played a lot of clips a lot of people are asking how do we get those talks by Bishop Strickland well go to Catholic R .C. and you can purchase those talks from the spiritual warfare conference and my suggestion is you show them to your family and friends bring people over for a barbecue say we're going to watch bishop strickland tonight or we're going to watch father chad rippiger or kyle clement or jesse romero dr sandoval all of them are home run talks and all you do is bring you the over, put it on, and let people watch it, and they will be touched.

[58] The message on the Spiritual Warfare Conference was very profound.

[59] Thousands of thousands of people around the world were watching it, and I believe it'll help you, mom and dad, protect your family from demonic activities because you're living the Catholic faith.

[60] And again, you can go to CatholicRC .org to pick up that.

[61] also I mentioned yesterday that Bishop Strickland will be going on a pilgrimage with us September 30th to October 4th we're going to see all the California missions not all but many of them and much more other holy places and we don't have the brochure out but mark your calendar at least September 30th to October 4th we will definitely be going on pilgrimage Mass with Bishop Strickland daily we'll have lunch we'll have breakfast we'll have dinner three meals i mean you're going to be basically getting to know bishop strickland jess romero matt arnold myself in a very intimate way because we're going to be spending five full days together sharing the gospel of jesus christ stay with us family we'll be back with more on the bishop strickland hour on virgin most offering.

[62] And now back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[63] Welcome back indeed to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[64] I promised a special presentation by Bishop Strickland on his show.

[65] And boy, here's the setting.

[66] Here at the historic Sacred Heart Chapel, we had a packed church right after the spiritual warfare conference.

[67] And Bishop Strickland talked about unite, that the church united in the Holy Eucharist.

[68] It's his homily at Holy Mass, and I guarantee it you're going to find it very edifying.

[69] So let's play the clip.

[70] If you have the feeling that you really haven't gotten in to Lent this year, well, it's a little late.

[71] But really, it's never too late.

[72] And I encourage all of us to embrace that idea.

[73] probably all of us could have done a little better at whatever we've sacrificed, whatever real decisions we made when we began this journey once again, to pray better, to pray more rosaries, to be more attentive at Mass, whatever resolutions we've made, I'll speak for myself, they haven't exactly panned out the way I would like.

[74] We always seem to fall short, but maybe there's something good about even that.

[75] To set high goals, to seek perfection, and to recognize that we aren't likely to attain it.

[76] But to keep striving, sometimes we're told that our Catholic faith, our life, our life, and Jesus Christ are approaching this Eucharistic altar is too idealistic.

[77] But brothers and sisters, if we really come to know Jesus Christ, if we really seek to enter into his sacred heart, I don't think it can ever be too idealistic.

[78] It is the model of challenge for all of us to enter into this way of the suffering servant that is Jesus Christ.

[79] Let's take just a few moments to look at each of these readings.

[80] This reading from the Prophet Jeremiah, the first reading today, begins in this way.

[81] The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah.

[82] We know that that prophecy of the Prophet Jeremiah and all the prophets is something that's sustained and carried the people of Israel throughout their history, seeking the new covenant, the Messiah, the hope for Savior that would come, that they had been promised by all the prophets.

[83] What occurs to me as we hear this reading from the prophet Jeremiah on this fifth Sunday of Lent is that most likely Jeremiah, the other prophets, and the faithful of Israel who listened to the prophets, really had no idea how wondrously God will fulfill that prophecy.

[84] Not just bringing a Messiah, not just bringing the greatest of the prophets, but giving us his own divine son, if we look at the gospel stories, and we will take a look at today's gospel reading from John, throughout the gospel, the people, and often the religious leaders themselves, are rejecting the idea of Jesus Christ as he speaks of being the son of God.

[85] I think that tells us that they had no expectation of the wondrous ways that God would fulfill his promise that we hear about in Jeremiah of a new covenant.

[86] A new covenant founded on his own son who becomes incarnate among us.

[87] The very heart of our life in our Catholic faith.

[88] Jesus Christ, the incarnate son of God.

[89] And so this new covenant is founded on the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, on his very existence.

[90] What a beautiful way for God to renew his people by sharing his own son.

[91] And if we look through the ages of the new Israel, the people of this new covenants, all too often, and it's certainly true in our time, we failed to really live and appreciate the wondrous love of God and what he offers us in his own son.

[92] So as we continue once again this Lenton journey, I would repeat that it's not too late to grow closer to this sacred heart of Christ, to resolve, even today, to spend these last days of Lent and to embrace the coming Easter season with great fervor, and to remind ourselves daily of what the prophet Jeremiah and the others of his time through the history of Israel would have been astonished to know that God fulfills his promise of a new covenant by giving us his own son.

[93] And we are blessed in our Catholic faith to know the presence of the son of God, Jesus Christ, here with us.

[94] Now in this tabernacle, and in a few moments, coming once again in a brand new way on this day, in this place, the Savior of the world comes to us.

[95] let us seek for these last days of Lent for this year, for the coming Easter season, and for every day of our lives, to embrace more fully the wonder that the Son of God dwells with us, offering always mercy for our sins that we're called to repent of and to share his life more and more fully.

[96] I believe that leads us to the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews.

[97] It begins with a simple phrase that I think is worth reflecting on deeply.

[98] In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh, that says very simply but profoundly exactly what we believe, that Jesus, the Christ, the Son, of God took on our flesh, real flesh and blood, and ultimately offered it for all of us, for all of God's people for all time.

[99] If only, we will choose to embrace his body and blood among us, his flesh.

[100] In the days when Jesus Christ was in the flesh, as we read those words, words from Hebrews.

[101] I know as a little kid, yes, that's a long time ago for me, but I remember as a little kid imagining what a wonderful gift to have been in the world when Jesus Christ walked this earth.

[102] I would imagine most of us have had that thought.

[103] Wouldn't it have been wonderful to be able to listen to him, to witness him, to see him.

[104] And I think it reminds us that in the wonder of our faith, yes, in a veiled way, but in a very real way, we know Jesus Christ in the flesh, in his Eucharistic flesh, his presence before us.

[105] And brothers and sisters, as we come toward the end of this life, let us pray for each other and for all in the church.

[106] It is a travesty that every Catholic doesn't say with a resounding amen that we believe and know that in this tabernacle and the communion in the Eucharist we celebrate, truly the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ is with us.

[107] Wow, I was there, folks, for that homily.

[108] And the first thing that came to my mind when he's preaching about the Eucharist and saying that, you know, we have the same Jesus there in the tabernacle that walked in Nazareth.

[109] It's the same Jesus.

[110] And I thought of St. Pope Paul VI back in 1965.

[111] During the Vatican II Council, he felt that he needed to intervene.

[112] And he put a document out called Mysterium Feeding.

[113] and the reason he did is because he saw what was going on at the council many of those fathers didn't make it clear what we believe about the Holy Eucharist they were ambiguous so he says gentlemen follow me listen Jesus Christ is present body blood soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist we use the term transubstantiation that's the term you need to use any other term forget it don't use it.

[114] And I thank him for that because, as you know, many of the bishops, many of the fathers of the Vatican too, disregarded that advice from the Pope.

[115] And look what happened.

[116] How many Catholics, and they see Bishop Strickland said, it's a tragedy that many Catholics don't believe in the real presence.

[117] And I've said this before when I travel around the country, I would do surveys about 90 % of the Catholics that I spoke with had no clue about the real presence of Jesus Christ and the Holy Eucharist.

[118] That's tragic.

[119] And I think that's why Bishop Strickland is so much on fire for preaching a Eucharistic revival.

[120] And I know we've talked about what he would do and a couple things he talked about was have the priest not face the people.

[121] He calls it ad orientum.

[122] That's the priest facing the altar.

[123] Does you get the priest like he's an entertainer at Mass?

[124] Let the people stay focused on worshiping Jesus Christ.

[125] And he also said receiving Holy Communion.

[126] On the tongue, kneeling down.

[127] Well, indicate to you that this is something special.

[128] Not ordinary bread.

[129] It's the body, blood, soul.

[130] and divinity of Jesus Christ.

[131] There are many other things that we could do that would bring a greater love for Jesus and the Holy Eucharist.

[132] And I think that homily said it all when he said, you know, we have to act like Jesus Christ is here.

[133] And I know my Protestant brothers who I've spoken to have said to me, if you guys really believe what you say about the Eucharist, I go into Catholic churches and I don't see that people are talking they're chewing gum they're doing all kinds of things like it's a hall if it was really Jesus Christ my Protestant friend said I'd kneel down why aren't you doing that it's got a good point let's bring back a eucharistic revival of piety all right when we come back I've got another message from Bishop Strickland that I think is very profound stay with this family you're listening to the Terry and now back to the Bishop Strickland hour yes indeed Bishop Strickland's traveling today he'll be back next week we've been playing different clips to show you what Bishop Strickland has to say about different topics this next topic is St. Joseph's model for terror of demons put your seatbelt on because this is a good talk on spiritual warfare let's play the clip Another aspect of St. Joseph that I'd like to focus on with you is that he was spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the husband of Mary.

[134] We know that that feast of St. Joseph, March 19th, is the original and beautiful feast of St. Joseph.

[135] May 1st, St. Joseph, the worker, comes later in the history of the church.

[136] But Joseph, husband of Mary, that is his claim to fame in a worldly sense.

[137] But that is not what he's concerned about.

[138] And he models for us what a real husband is about, what a real father is about, what a real man of faith is about.

[139] Whether we are biologically husbands or fathers, we all have that role of husbanding and fathering the world as men of God, is men of Christ.

[140] And we need to be strong in that and support each other in that and not allow the worldly confusions that want to blur the roles of men and women and discount the the role of men to be strong and to be leaders of their families, not in a dominating way, but in a way of service like St. Joseph.

[141] I heard recently that we need to be reminding each other as men, and especially husbands and fathers.

[142] And I consider myself spiritually a husband and fathers.

[143] So I have to take on the same responsibility of encouraging myself and encouraging others to basically say, I've got this as husbands and fathers, to know that, Making your home safe, caring for, making sure that there's healthy food and there's proper clothing, all the necessities of the bodies of your family, your spouse and your children, whatever form your household takes, to say, as men, it's our responsibility.

[144] Certainly, we need the nurturing presence of the mothers.

[145] And just like the Blessed Virgin Mary, for us and for us and for us.

[146] the Holy Family was that nurturing presence, that prayerful, loving presence, that tenderness that only a woman can bring.

[147] But as men, we need to bring that strength of saying, we will take care of whatever the needs are.

[148] St. Joseph models that beautifully as the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the husband of Mary, and the adoptive father of Jesus.

[149] when he gets the word that they need to flee to Egypt because already their newborn son of God, newly born incarnate son of God, is already threatened by the powers that be.

[150] And that threat really will follow Jesus throughout his 33 years of life in different ways.

[151] We read in the Gospels that very often Jesus was threatened with, being thrown off a cliff or being stoned with being eliminated long before he actually died on the cross.

[152] Certainly, St. Joseph doesn't appear later on in the gospel.

[153] I like to, in my own reflection, think of St. Joseph there present, that at least we know from the Gospels, that he was there for all the joyful mysteries of the rosary for the enunciation of the incarnation of the incarnation of the Son of God conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[154] Joseph was around.

[155] He's not mentioned in the visitation.

[156] And we're not sure really of the timing.

[157] But Joseph was entering the picture at least and probably already in the picture of supporting Mary as she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth.

[158] And then of course Joseph is present, supporting Mary and Jesus as Jesus as Jesus is born in Bethlehem.

[159] And then fulfilling the law in the presentation, it's Mary and Joseph who take Jesus to the temple to be presented to his Heavenly Father, as every Jewish child is supposed to be, following the law.

[160] And then, of course, Joseph is there.

[161] And Mary even refers to Joseph, your father and I have been worried as what Mary basically says when they find Jesus, there at 12 years old in the temple.

[162] Then everything goes silent as far as the Holy Family.

[163] We don't know what happened to Joseph.

[164] We don't know if he was only with him a few more years or very close to when Jesus began his public ministry.

[165] But we can be assured that as long as Joseph was there, he was the adoptive father of Jesus, the son of God, and he was the husband of Mary.

[166] caring for the home, providing.

[167] And there are different saints that have had private revelations that haven't been made part of the actual tradition of the church.

[168] But some interesting private revelations that talk about what Joseph did in the role that he played in the Holy Family.

[169] Certainly, we know that as he did when Jesus was an infant, up until the time when he he was 12 years old, we can trust that St. Joseph carried on that fostering, that adoptive father place in the Holy Family as long as he lived.

[170] The tradition of St. Joseph being the patron of a happy death is because of the presumption of what the scriptures don't tell us.

[171] There's no mention of Joseph later on when Jesus begins his public ministry.

[172] So the church has assumed that Joseph died somewhere in that time between when Jesus was 12 and when he was about 30, when he began his public ministry.

[173] And so the patron of the happy death is because Mary and Jesus were there when Joseph died.

[174] We don't know when that happened.

[175] It may have been relatively close to when Jesus began his public ministry, or it may have been much earlier.

[176] That is simply speculation, and they're different, like I said, different saints have some private revelations that they speak of in different mystical works.

[177] But we can trust that Joseph continued to live his role until he died.

[178] And that role is to be a man of faith, a husband, and a father, like so many of you are called to.

[179] So hopefully St. Joseph inspires us to do that.

[180] As I conclude, one last thing I would share about St. Joseph is to embrace the idea that he was a man of the Word of God.

[181] certainly he must have as a faithful member of the people of Israel as a faithful Jew he would have known scripture in his proper place probably not a scripture scholar but the faithful Jewish man as he was a husband and father would have known the word of God.

[182] And we can imagine and use our imaginations.

[183] I love to think of St. Joseph holding the child Jesus.

[184] And then when Jesus was older, very likely St. Joseph would have introduced Jesus to the scroll of Isaiah that Jesus ultimately takes in the temple and reads from at one point in his public ministry.

[185] I love to imagine, and it is just imagination, but I think it's founded on what we know about Jesus and Joseph and Mary and the Holy Family, but to imagine that intersection, I would say, of the Word of God, incarnate in Jesus, present in the scroll of Isaiah, and proclaimed, possibly read to the child Jesus by Joseph and Mary.

[186] We're not told that.

[187] But we can imagine, just like you as fathers, have read passages of scripture, read the Bible to your children.

[188] And I encourage you to do that, to read the Word of God out loud in your homes if you still have young children or even whatever age, if you have children at home to make that a practice.

[189] to be inspired by St. Joseph, a man of the Word, a man of the Incarnate Word, a man of the Word that is part of our tradition and our faith, the Word of God revealed to us in the Old Testament and the New.

[190] Wow, St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, pray for us.

[191] Bishop Strickland, I asked you to do that talk years ago for a men's conference, and I think I'm going to play that again in June we have a men's conference and I'll make a little plug for it.

[192] Jesse Romero and his brother Johnny Romero will be coming in June Father's Day weekend.

[193] You can go to vmpr .org to register for that conference whether you watch it on your phone or computer or physically be there.

[194] It'll be a good conference.

[195] I think what Bishop Strickland is really saying is us men that we need a model and St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, is the man that we can go to.

[196] And you think about what he did for the Holy Family is so powerful and it needed to be done at the time.

[197] He would lay down his life for his wife, Mary, and baby Jesus.

[198] And we need to emulate that in our own family life.

[199] So when we go to work every day and we unite that with the same.

[200] sufferings of Christ, we can be praying for our family.

[201] And knowing that you're working hard for mom, for the kids, and it's so different than the world who says, I'm working for myself.

[202] What happens is when you have family and you're the father, that responsibility is so great, it wakes you up to realize how important it is to model St. Joseph Terror.

[203] of demons.

[204] I want to remind you these talks we've been doing for the last two days with Bishop Strickland especially the Spiritual Warfare Conference talks are available at Catholic rc .org pick them up, send them with your family, friends, rosary group, Bible group four people need to listen to this powerful message.

[205] When we come back, I'm going to have another conference that was at Dodger Stadium with Bishop Strickland.

[206] You won't miss this one.

[207] And now back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[208] Well, I saved the best for last.

[209] Bishop Strickland is out of town traveling, so he'll be back next week.

[210] But I have a clip here of Bishop Strickland at Dodger Stadium.

[211] Well, what was he doing at Dodger Stadium?

[212] I didn't know he was a second baseman.

[213] No, he's not.

[214] What happened was these so -called perpetual sisters of indulgence they're homosexuals who make fun of the Catholic Church we're going to be honored at Dodger Stadium so we made the call Red Alert let's get all the Catholics in there and whatever priests and bishops can come and stand up and make reparation for this sacrilege well America's bishop showed up that's Bishop Joseph Strickland and unfortunately a lot of other priests and bishops didn't and I'm sorry for that maybe they were scared because that's the word I got but we sure weren't because we have to be bold about our faith so I'm going to play this clip from the Dodger Stadium rally and see if he doesn't pump you up because he pumped me up about my faith let's play the clip Viva I'm so glad that we began in prayer because that is our greatest power and that's what we were in need to remind the world.

[215] Prayer is powerful.

[216] Never doubt that.

[217] It may not be answered according to what we wish, but if we pray for God's will, we know that blessings will come.

[218] So thank you for being here for this time to pray, a time to honor Jesus Christ, to honor women who dedicate their lives to Jesus Christ and to serving his mystical body, the church.

[219] to honoring the clergy that serve, and to honoring mostly Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

[220] Brothers and sisters, we can't be shy about our faith.

[221] I often say that we need to be first -century Christians in the 21st century.

[222] If we look to them, great martyrs like Ignatius of Antioch that we read a writing of just during this week.

[223] He was ready to be martyred for Jesus Christ, like most of the apostles and so many of the early church members.

[224] Probably most of us will not be called on to shed our blood.

[225] But if we are, we need to be ready, like the martyrs.

[226] But more importantly, we need to live our martyrdom.

[227] We need to live our martyrdom.

[228] We need to to live as those ready to die and ready to live for the blood that was shed for us all.

[229] The word that has come to mind for me, I had a little travel time getting here, so I had the time to pray and to reflect.

[230] Brothers and sisters, I'd like for all of us to reflect on and embrace the word audacity.

[231] We need to be audacious.

[232] It's kind of a fancy word, but it means be strong enough to speak for what you believe.

[233] And we need to do that.

[234] Think about Jesus of Nazareth as he was baptized and began his public ministry.

[235] He did so with audacity, the audacity of calling himself the one who would be savior of the world.

[236] he was audacious enough to speak the truth.

[237] We know that he is the face of truth.

[238] And if you look at how the church began, it began with audacious faith.

[239] The disciples were told quit using the name Jesus.

[240] And many times in this 21st century, we are told quit speaking of faith.

[241] Let people believe what they want, but we cannot back down from audacious faith because Jesus Christ is savior of the world, not just of some small group of believers.

[242] Every one of us here, every person in this beautiful city, everyone who will gather at this stadium, every single one is beloved of God.

[243] and we have to be audacious enough to speak that truth not shying away not being quiet never being attacking or violent that's not what christ did but we were talking just this afternoon a group of us about the model that jesus christ gives us he shared the truth even when it was rejected The gospel makes it clear that very often people walked away when they heard this challenging, audacious truth of the Messiah, the Son of God, come to dwell among us.

[244] We need to embrace the model that Jesus Christ offers us, lovingly, clearly sharing the truth.

[245] We know that Jesus is the face of truth.

[246] is truth incarnate.

[247] The world needs to know him.

[248] There are too many within the world, and sadly, even within our beautiful Catholic faith, that is always one holy, Catholic, and apostolic, not because of us, but because God has established it so.

[249] That holiness comes from God.

[250] That apostolic call comes from God.

[251] That unity.

[252] is always in his son, Jesus Christ.

[253] We often hear about the need to be unified.

[254] Absolutely.

[255] But we will never be unified in false messages that ignore Jesus Christ.

[256] We must be people of love, but real love.

[257] We look, I know there was a cross.

[258] There has to be a cross.

[259] We look to Jesus on the cross for our image of love.

[260] it is an image of sacrificial love and truth that he died to share with us we need to look to him as our model our hope and our lord the final thing that i want to say is something that comes from the beautiful community that i'm a part of in northeast texas most are not catholic but many are believers in Jesus Christ.

[261] And they use a language that we all need to take to heart on this beautiful feast of the sacred heart to embrace Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

[262] That may not be language that we're familiar with in the beautiful prayers and traditions of our Catholic faith.

[263] And we don't let go of those, but we can bring in that wisdom of recognizing through our prayers, through the rosary, through the divine mercy chaplain, through the magnificent, all the beautiful prayers of scripture and of our tradition, we know Jesus more deeply.

[264] Brothers and sisters, I credit the Blessed Virgin Mary for giving me the strength to know her son more deeply, and I credit Jesus Christ for being here now.

[265] It would have been easy for me to turn down the invitation.

[266] and say, no, I'm busy.

[267] I need to be busy in East Texas where I'm bishop.

[268] But we need to speak to the world, the message of Jesus Christ.

[269] And we can't allow it to be shouted down by anyone.

[270] And remember, always remember, even those shouting hatred toward us are beloved of God.

[271] And what does Jesus model?

[272] Even as he dies on the cross, Father, forgive them.

[273] They know not what they do.

[274] That has to be our spirit and our prayer.

[275] So thank you for being here for this beautiful sunny afternoon.

[276] Let us pray.

[277] Let us pray for the world.

[278] Let us pray for this nation.

[279] Let us pray for our church.

[280] Let us pray for this city.

[281] Let us pray for the state of California for all of our 50 states.

[282] We need to return to truth, and Jesus Christ is truth incarnate.

[283] God bless you.

[284] Jesus Christ is truth incarnate.

[285] I love it.

[286] And, you know, I got so fired up.

[287] I don't know if you noticed, but there were Protestant ministers in the front row, and they were clapping and cheering.

[288] And I thought, well, he speaks their language.

[289] I mean, he talked to, you could see his love for Jesus Christ and our lady in the Eucharist, the sacred heart of Jesus.

[290] so powerful that we have a bishop like that.

[291] And again, I think it's important that we pray for his safety because Bishop Strickland goes all over the world right now.

[292] He's no longer the bishop of Tyler.

[293] He's been retired.

[294] But that hasn't stopped him.

[295] He's actually gotten busier.

[296] And he's going all over the world preaching the gospel.

[297] And I want to ask you if you want to join us to meet with Bishop Strickland for five straight days.

[298] October and the end, well, September 30th and to October 4th.

[299] We're going to go on pilgrimage with Bishop Strickland, Jesse Romero, Matt Arnold, and myself.

[300] And we're going to take a bus ride to all the missions in California.

[301] In beautiful places like St. Michael's Abbey, we'll have the brochure out, but just mark your calendar.

[302] And if you really want to make it, just call me on my cell phone, 6 '6.

[303] 6197 -2, 7 -8 -7 -2, I'll make a note to call you when I got the details on it.

[304] Because I know people are going to tell me, Terry, why didn't you tell me?

[305] I would have gone.

[306] Well, I know.

[307] We only have, how many, what do we have, a hundred seats.

[308] That's it.

[309] After that, they're gone.

[310] So I would encourage people not to wait on signing up for the Bishop Strickland Tour, pilgrimage, we call it reconquering the Southwest for Jesus Christ.

[311] What a great title.

[312] We're going to look at Oniprocero, the saint, and see what he did, and he did not fear for the world that was against him, and even people in the church.

[313] We have to emulate the saints today and reconquer every square inch of this world to Jesus Christ.

[314] Now, Bishop Strickland will be back next week and we miss him, but I hope you enjoyed the clips that we played the last two days.

[315] If you want to get all the videos from the spiritual warfare conference, all you've got to do is go to CatholicRC .org and purchase those on our website, CatholicRC .org.

[316] I'd ask for a blessing from the bishop, but he's not here.

[317] I would say that if Bishop Strickland was here, I'd say, what state should we be living in?

[318] He gives the same answer, yes, he does, a state of grace.

[319] And how do we do that by staying close to Jesus and the sacraments, confession, and holy Eucharist.

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

[321] Thanks for listening.