15 May 24 – Saint Athanasius: A Model for Modern Times

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[2] It's an honor to share the gospel each week with Bishop Strickland.

[3] Thank you again, Bishop Strickland, for taking time out of your busy schedule to be on our network.

[4] Thank you, Terry.

[5] Thank you.

[6] Bishop Strickland, we're going to be covering the gospel like we always do.

[7] And then we're going to talk about some really neat things that are happening, not just in the Catholic community.

[8] I'll give you one example.

[9] You've probably heard about the Amish.

[10] You know, they have 367 ,000 Amish Americans, and they're all going to be registering to vote, which is the first time they've ever done that.

[11] And the reason they're doing is for religious purposes, religious freedom.

[12] The government is coming down on them saying they can't do their farms, they can't do this or that.

[13] And they're saying, well, maybe we need to start taking accountability and responsibility and, you know, hold our government officials to some ideals that give us religious freedom.

[14] So I think that's a contribution for us because they're like us.

[15] I mean, I know people say, well, Amish.

[16] How can they be like us?

[17] Well, you know why?

[18] Because they take the word of God seriously.

[19] I've been in their homes.

[20] I've gone to dinner with them.

[21] To be honest with you, Bishop Strickland, I have more in common in some of the Amish families that I've met than some of the Catholic families who don't even believe in the Bible.

[22] If you know what I'm saying.

[23] So I just say thank you, Amish, for taking your civic duty to vote.

[24] Because when you don't vote, you don't have say in any of this.

[25] And we need more people.

[26] to do that so thank you for that good news and we've got many other things we're going to cover your tweets we're going to cover the catechism and much much more but before we do that bishop strickland each day when we have you on the air here we'd like you for it for you for you to read the gospel of the day may 15th the gospel of john chapter 17 to 11 to 19 and then give us a commentary okay i'm ready a reading from the holy gospel according to john Glory to you, O Lord.

[27] Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying, Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me so that they may be one just as we are one.

[28] When I was with them, I protected them in your name that you gave me. And I guarded them and none of them was lost except the son of destruction in order that the scripture might be fulfilled.

[29] But now I'm coming to you.

[30] I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.

[31] I gave them your word and the world hated them because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

[32] I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

[33] they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world consecrate them in the truth word is truth as you sent me into the world so I send them into the world and I consecrate myself for them so that they also may be consecrated in truth well Terry really once again the gospel of John gives us beautiful words to reflect on.

[34] Yes.

[35] And Jesus, speaking to God, His Holy Father, our Holy Father, he prays for unity.

[36] And that's one of the strongest prayers that Christ offers.

[37] When I was Bishop of Tyler several years ago, I wrote a letter and put it in the Tyler newspaper talking about the call, the prayer for unity.

[38] of Jesus Christ, because we are so tragically far from unity.

[39] Sadly, in the Christian community, all those who believe in Jesus Christ, there's so much division into different groups and different communities.

[40] And sadly, there's much division in the church, the Catholic Church, the church, the church that Christ established.

[41] But as Christ prays for them to be one, he prays for unity, I think we need to pray for and work for that unity.

[42] And he says it very clearly, how do we attain this unity in the truth?

[43] Really, what we reflected on yesterday's gospel about living the commandments.

[44] That's how we stay unified.

[45] We hear a lot about in the church about fraternity.

[46] and community and unity among the bishops.

[47] But too often, it seems that Christ is left out of that picture.

[48] We will never have unity if it's not based on the on oneness of our one redeemer, the way, the truth and the life, the one Lord, one faith, one baptism that is Jesus Christ.

[49] We'll never have unity.

[50] of any real meaning if it's not unity in Christ.

[51] And too often, it's not in the church and in the world today.

[52] But these words hopefully don't just depress us and make us see from the negative side, how far we are from that unity.

[53] But I hope that these words of John's gospel urge us on to seek unity.

[54] and to be reminded for myself, for all of us, how do we become more unified?

[55] We humbly embrace the truth that is Christ.

[56] He's truth incarnate.

[57] He's truth that walked this earth.

[58] And when we don't really embrace that truth that is Jesus Christ and humility, that's where the disunity that we see, so rampant, that's where it comes from.

[59] We all have different likes and dislikes.

[60] We all have different ideas.

[61] But the more we can focus on the one truth that is Jesus Christ, it's not my truth and your truth.

[62] It's his truth.

[63] It's the truth that is from God, the way God has created the world.

[64] Yes.

[65] We, you know, some humans don't seem to like the way God.

[66] has created the world.

[67] But the only hope for unity in humanity and in the church that Christ is established is to be, for Jesus Christ to be the principle of unity.

[68] So this gospel reminds us of that in beautiful ways.

[69] As we continue in this gospel passage, Jesus says something that I think is critically important that follows on what he's just said about being one in him, one in the truth.

[70] Jesus says, I gave them your word and the world hated them.

[71] They do not belong to the world.

[72] Right.

[73] Any more than I belong to the world.

[74] That is a critical truth that we need to remember.

[75] Jesus Christ doesn't belong to this world.

[76] He's the Lord of this world.

[77] Amen.

[78] He humbled himself to come and dwell with us for about 33 years.

[79] He lived an ordinary life, a poor life, an obscure life.

[80] And then he entered into public ministry with tremendous sacrifice and suffering, ultimately the suffering of his death.

[81] But all of that, Jesus is not of this world.

[82] He came from heaven to show us our path to heaven.

[83] But I think this is probably one of the most critical truths of the gospel that we need to remind ourselves of and that the church needs to be strong in.

[84] We do not belong to this world.

[85] We need to rejoice in the call to a different world, a different kingdom.

[86] That doesn't mean we reject this world.

[87] or in any way or abusive of this world, but we treasure this world as the path to the world where we do belong.

[88] We need to remember, as I've said before, that we are in the world, but not of the world.

[89] And that's the same thing I hear Christ saying in this passage.

[90] They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

[91] And then, really, Terry, these two lines capture what I constantly try to remind people of.

[92] They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

[93] Consecrate them in the truth.

[94] That's what it's about.

[95] If we're concentrated in the truth that is Jesus Christ that has been revealed to us, then we're going to know what Christ is said, that we don't belong to this world.

[96] We're greater than this world.

[97] We are creatures, but because we're in the image and likeness of God, we're called beyond creatures to be the children of God.

[98] And that means our home is in heaven.

[99] Our home is in God's kingdom.

[100] And that's how we have to live out, like we were talking about earlier.

[101] we don't know how long we're going to be here we could be at the end both of us and frankly i have to say terry i'm 65 i would i would say thank you lord for the 65 years me too 67 that's the same thing if it's over tomorrow or over this evening yes i still have to say thank you Lord, for everything I've experienced, for all the joys, even the challenges and the struggles, for living life for these 65 years.

[102] We need to have that attitude of giving glory to God for every day, for everything we have.

[103] When we're living in that way, we're going to live as commandments, and we're going to listen to this gospel and remember our home is never here.

[104] Our home is in heaven.

[105] well said i want to continue on this gospel we can do the whole hour on it because it's so beautiful stay with this family we'll be back in a moment and now back to the bishop strickland hour i'll tell you the gospel of john fires me up it is so beautiful bishop strickland and what you were just saying about the gospel of john 17 verse 11 to 19 i gave them your word and the world hates them because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

[106] I think Bishop Sheen's quote came from this gospel.

[107] He said this, if I were not a Catholic and I were looking for the true church in the world today, I would look for the one church which did not get along well with the world.

[108] In other words, he said it this way.

[109] I would look for the church which the world hates.

[110] And I think this is an examination for us as a church.

[111] how are we at odds?

[112] In other words, can we distinguish how we think differently with the world?

[113] And I hate to say this, Bishop Strickland.

[114] You can get me in trouble, but you can correct me. But I think that's one of the big problems in the church today is that we're afraid to tell the world basically simply that Jesus Christ is king of the universe and that every answer to our problems in the world can be solved by turning our lives over to Jesus Christ.

[115] And I think that that focus we've lost because we're replacing it with terminology that has nothing to do with revealed truth.

[116] It's just, you know, let's be all friends.

[117] So that's my take from that gospel.

[118] And I'm going to add one more thing, and you can correct me too.

[119] I'm convinced that this gospel, again, shows us the beauty of the church's tradition for 2 ,000 years about the inerrancy of Scripture, because I think that's called it into question today in the modern church.

[120] Well, you know, the gospel said that, but that was a long time ago.

[121] And, you know, we have science and we know better.

[122] Am I on to something?

[123] Absolutely, Terry.

[124] And I think it's really important.

[125] Everything you said, one thing that comes to mind is you say, oh, that was a long time ago.

[126] Yeah.

[127] Yeah.

[128] I mean, for us, a couple of thousand years, four thousand years, whatever, two thousand years for Christianity.

[129] You know, the Hebrew story goes back a couple more thousand years at least.

[130] The reality, what does scripture tell us once again?

[131] A thousand years are but a day, and a day is like a thousand years for God.

[132] God is timeless.

[133] Yes.

[134] And truth is timeless.

[135] Amen.

[136] That's what we have to remember.

[137] What Jesus Christ has revealed to us was true, long before it was revealed, was true thousands and thousands of years ago in human history.

[138] The same truth that God has revealed first to the Hebrews, to the chosen people, to the people of Israel, and then coming forth from the people of Israel, children of Israel, Jesus Christ, a Jew, but a God's son, a man and God.

[139] So I think it's very important for us to recognize the truth is timeless.

[140] That's right.

[141] It doesn't go through fads.

[142] We may treat it that way.

[143] Yeah.

[144] That's at our peril.

[145] And we're living in a time when many in the church, the word I use is cozy.

[146] Yeah, there you go.

[147] People want the church to be cozy in the world.

[148] That isn't the church.

[149] And to kind of, you know, as a starting point, use that quote from Archbishop Sheen.

[150] He says, where will you find the truth of church?

[151] The church that is hated by the world.

[152] Yeah.

[153] I think to extrapolate on that a bit.

[154] Yeah.

[155] What are indications that it's not the true church?

[156] I would say that it's cozy with the world.

[157] Amen.

[158] That the world says, oh, isn't this wonderful?

[159] All these cute little religious people that aren't going to challenge us on any of our domination of the world and all of our plans to dominate.

[160] These people aren't going to be a problem because they're very cozy with us and we're cozy with them.

[161] that is where you find something that isn't the church right jesus says very clearly in that gospel my children will be hated by this world yes that's a strong word to take it seriously and any time when you see the church compromising to be cozier with the world to be more comfortable yeah to be more accommodated to the world than we're losing what it means to be the church.

[162] Yeah, I agree.

[163] The church is not about hatred.

[164] No. But the church is hated because it brings the truth.

[165] And that's a great sign.

[166] I mean, look at the martyrs of old or the martyrs of most recently.

[167] Those people were, the world says we must get rid of these people because they're reminding us of something we don't want to be reminded of.

[168] Yeah.

[169] They're reminding us of the eternal truth that Christ.

[170] Christ has revealed.

[171] So it is critically important that we recognize that like we talked about, this passage reminds us we're not of the world.

[172] Right.

[173] The world hates the body of Christ.

[174] And we need to remember the world that we are a part of, and that's the kingdom of God.

[175] Amen.

[176] Well, I won't need you to have any comment on this story because you just gave it to us because here's a story right out of last week in the Vatican.

[177] A meeting on human fraternity seeks answers for the future but is silent about the faith.

[178] And this was a Vatican event titled Be Human Gathers of secular leaders.

[179] Now I get it.

[180] We're meeting with secular leaders and we want to try and solve problems.

[181] But in the past the church was very clear.

[182] Those problems are only going to be solved when we meet the person of Christ and implement his plan, not man's plan.

[183] I know that you agree with that, but that just came out and I say, we need to pray hard for our leaders in our church, because this story indicates to me that they were silent about proclaiming Christ to the secular world, which is contrary to the gospel.

[184] Absolutely.

[185] They're forgetting to be salt and light.

[186] Yeah.

[187] What Christ told us, again, really, Terry, I'm a simple guy.

[188] I'm not.

[189] I'm not.

[190] anything complicated.

[191] But you don't need to be.

[192] Just look at what Jesus says in the gospel.

[193] Yeah.

[194] He said, be sold for the earth, be light for the world.

[195] Having a conference and saying, oh, well, we won't mention Jesus or salvation.

[196] We won't mention anything about the faith.

[197] Why bother?

[198] That's not the church.

[199] And certainly, I mean, if a secular group wants to get together and say, have a problem solving session, go for it.

[200] Yeah.

[201] the ways that you can improve society through using, you know, science and all the things that, I mean, if it's a secular gathering, that's okay.

[202] But for the church to sponsor something and leave out Christ and his light is not being the church.

[203] I agree.

[204] It's it's a misuse of whatever buildings they use that were paid for by people of faith.

[205] Yep.

[206] Paid for because they said, oh, well, this is going to help proclaim the gospel.

[207] If they're ignoring the gospel, they need to be called on the carpet for misusing the tools, the buildings, the resources, everything that's been offered to them by people of faith.

[208] That's who pays the bills at the church is the faithful people.

[209] I love it as a layman hearing it from a bishop.

[210] This is beautiful.

[211] Now, Bishop Strickland, I have a. And I, no thing I read long ago, it says, no good deeds will go unpunished.

[212] And I say that because I read just this week that in Chicago, one of the large diocese of our country, a priest blesses lesbian and his holy spouses in a blasphemous ceremony.

[213] And then he has the goal to cite Pope Francis's document about blessing homosexuals.

[214] Now, this is a priest.

[215] I want you to pray for him.

[216] His Father Joseph Williams for St. Joseph to Paul Parish in Chicago.

[217] And the thing that I get, an irony, Bishop Strickland, is this man will do this, this priest, and nothing happens to him by saying, knock it off, what you did was wrong, stop it.

[218] No, it's business as usual.

[219] But here's the point.

[220] I have many, I can name hundreds of priests, okay, over my 45 years.

[221] priests, at least dozens, I know, personally, who have been punished.

[222] They've been removed as pastors because they proclaim the deposit of faith.

[223] And then you got the contrary of a Chicago priest who's doing something that's blasphemous and nothing happens to them.

[224] Now, I'm not getting mad.

[225] I'm just disappointed as a layperson that our religious leaders in our church aren't saying, It seems like they're talking on two sides of their mouth.

[226] They're saying, oh, yeah, yeah, that's not doing this, but, but, you know, you're okay to do what you're doing.

[227] See, I'm too simple, too.

[228] I see what was going on there.

[229] It was blasphemous.

[230] And I'm asking our leaders to be accountable to say, don't mislead the flock.

[231] Okay, now that was my opinion.

[232] Now, go ahead and correct me. I don't have to correct you, Terry.

[233] And it's not opinion.

[234] It's the truth.

[235] It is.

[236] And the sad thing is that, and I mean, I tweeted or X, whatever you say these days, but I highlighted that same picture and said, pray for the three people in this picture.

[237] Pray for that priest.

[238] Pray for these two women.

[239] Yes.

[240] Because all of them are caught in a fog of darkness.

[241] Yes.

[242] It's not the Catholic Church.

[243] And they should be, for their own sake, they should be corrected.

[244] But they are likely not going to be corrected.

[245] And it, I mean, what's, it is infuriating that because even all the explanation of the document that they would cite and say, Pope Francis said this is okay because his Vatican said this is okay.

[246] actually, the further explanation, I mean, it was, it always stayed confusing and unclear, but they tried to clarify it, but they specifically said, oh, yes, these are, these aren't liturgical blessings.

[247] What is that in the picture?

[248] Exactly.

[249] They said, oh, these blessings should be less than 15 seconds.

[250] I can guarantee that what happened in that, picture, but longer.

[251] It takes 15 seconds to just take the picture.

[252] Amen.

[253] But I mean, it's contradicting even the further explanation that they tried to put out there.

[254] Right.

[255] And, you know, what it comes down to, Terry, and I'm just going to say it.

[256] Somebody's lying.

[257] Yep.

[258] Somebody's lying.

[259] And for the faithful of the church, for any of us to just roll over and say, well, there's saying this, but doing that and contradicting themselves, that, we don't need to stand for it.

[260] We need to say, either your confusing further explanation of this document is not the truth, or this needs to be corrected.

[261] But it won't be corrected because this really points out what their intention was.

[262] Amen.

[263] Amen.

[264] Well, we'll load people into a complacency and then we'll allow sin to be blessed.

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

[266] It's A or B. I agree with you.

[267] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Power.

[268] Stay with us.

[269] We'll be back with more on Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[271] Welcome back, indeed.

[272] You know, I'm fired up and I'll tell you why.

[273] When I see things in the church that are going on where it scandalizes me, it makes me do two things.

[274] One, get down on my knees and make reparation for it, okay?

[275] Number two, pray for the conversion of our leaders that they will come back to their senses.

[276] I mean, I joke about having a Ph .D. in common sense, and I say common sense ain't that common.

[277] But when you read the Gospels, there's no ambiguity in the gospel.

[278] the ambiguity comes from man us reading it with our glasses and saying oh well what it really means is x y and z when the bible is very clear on its moral teachings all right bishop strick absolutely terian let me just add to that because christ says it in this in the gospel yeah let your yes be yes your no be no anything else is of the evil one simple Christ says that.

[279] Yep.

[280] We need to listen to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and be guided by the truth that he's revealed to us.

[281] All of this ambiguity and confusion is not of Christ.

[282] Amen.

[283] You know, I bring this story up because Alan, Mr. Musk, who's the producer of the electric car, he came out last week and said this, that we need to have more babies because the world's not going to exist if we don't start having more babies because as our population goes down, Japan lost 750 ,000 members in their country just last year.

[284] Spain, 180 ,000 because we're not having babies.

[285] Well, I just want to bring this up.

[286] I think it's clear.

[287] The church should be proclaiming this, not some businessman.

[288] So it's ironic that I hear a businessman say something that is prophetic and we're being quiet about it.

[289] So here's the story, Black Rock, which is George Soros, the CEO of him, tells the World Economic Forum last week that countries with declining populations will be the big winners, thanks to AI.

[290] And here's the question I have, artificial intelligence.

[291] They're saying, yeah, let's get fewer people so that we can just let robots and software programs, you know, do the things we need to get done.

[292] This is such a outrageous story about what I call the unholy Trinity, me, myself and I, that says, forget about the future.

[293] Let's just live like, you know, this is the only life we have.

[294] Let's make it as pleasurable as possible.

[295] Use AI, use artificial intelligence to make our life better.

[296] And who cares about who comes after us?

[297] Bishop Strickland, is that how you see that article?

[298] Because that's how I see it.

[299] yeah absolutely and it it really like you said i mean i love what you said the the unholy trinity yeah me myself and i yeah and that's really what it comes down to yeah making ourselves little gods with small g that isn't really divine at all but acting as if we're god yeah and we will like you said just create a world that supposedly gives us all the pleasures and all the joys and all the hope, all the things that we long for, that from the depths of our hearts, what do young people tell us so often?

[300] It leaves them empty.

[301] Of course.

[302] And we older people that think we're so smart and we've got it all figured out and we'll leave god out of the picture um the natural instinct of young people so not all of them some of them get carried away in the nihilism of our time but many young people thankfully their instinct god -given sense of things kicks in yes and they say this leaves me empty this leaves me with no desire to go on and sadly too many of them don't But it just reminds us, once again, from another angle of everything we talk about.

[303] It's essential that humanity wakes up to the truth of who we are.

[304] I mean, I'm reminded again of that conference you said where let's just be human.

[305] Yeah.

[306] We will never be human if we don't acknowledge God.

[307] Amen.

[308] And acknowledge that we're created in Him.

[309] his image and likeness to leave God out of the picture, we will never be human.

[310] And we will be more and more inhuman, the less God is in the world and in the culture, the more inhuman we are.

[311] And we see that.

[312] Yes.

[313] We see people doing things and getting away with things that would have been considered an atrocity years ago.

[314] And now it's like, oh, well, that's your.

[315] what they want to do or that's they have the wealth to do that or the the power to do that or whatever but that isn't being human no to be human is to be created in the image and likeness of God and to live that out and to know that this world is a pathway to the world that is our destiny you know we just have to continue to teach the truth and continue thankfully I mean, on the positive side of all this, we've both seen, there are many people that are waking up.

[316] That's right.

[317] There are people that are embracing the Catholic faith that have, as adults, have come to see how empty their lives are without God and gone on a quest.

[318] And if they honestly go on a quest to find the truth of faith, they're going to end up at the Catholic Church, not because of you or.

[319] me or any of us, but because God's there.

[320] Amen.

[321] Because his son established the truth that it's our obligation to proclaim.

[322] So we need to stay strong, stay joyful in the Lord, but take very seriously these threats to the truth that are very real.

[323] And like we're saying, the World Economic Forum thinks it can figure things out.

[324] they will leave the world devastated and empty if humanity doesn't wake up.

[325] And thankfully, many are.

[326] Many more need to wake up.

[327] Well, someone you tweeted about is a wake -up call, and its name is St. Athanasius from the 4th century.

[328] You tweeted this, may we have a 4th century faith of St. Athanasius in the 21st century.

[329] He fought the heresy of Arianism, which denies the divinity of Christ, let us fight the heresies of our day.

[330] The only thing I would change about that is I would just call it modernism because the Holy Father said that in 1910, that it's a combination of all the heresies and we have a lot of them.

[331] I think Arianism is still up in the, it's still a problem with especially the Jehovah Witnesses.

[332] But this is you said that the majority of the world was Aryan, the majority opinion is not what the church is all about.

[333] So basically, my understanding, Bishop Strickland, correct me again, but most of the bishops at that time were Aryan.

[334] Okay?

[335] Not what percentage, but over half.

[336] Is that fair?

[337] Absolutely.

[338] There's a quote, I don't remember where it comes from, but I remember a quote that said, humanity woke up or the world woke up and it was Aryan.

[339] Famous quote.

[340] I've read the same one.

[341] So here's the point.

[342] You're saying that today we have to have the faith of St. Athanasius.

[343] Now, that man was exiled four or five times from what I've read in his life.

[344] He was persecuted by the church.

[345] Now, things got better for him at the end, but he still suffered.

[346] So what I'm getting the impression from this tweet is that many of us might be called to suffer, not from the world so much but even from the church for standing up for the faith like maybe a Padre Pio did when he was reprimanded for whatever accusations, false accusations.

[347] So is that the message you're wanting to give that we have to be strong like Athanasius did in the 4th century?

[348] Absolutely.

[349] And really what comes to mind for me, Terry, is that when the church ceases to be the church, When the church becomes in the world and of the world, then those who are true believers are going to be persecuted by both.

[350] And that's what we're seeing.

[351] I mean, we see threats from our national government to those who are orthodox believers that are a threat to what we're doing.

[352] talking about.

[353] So I think we have to remember that if the church isn't being true to herself, we may be hated by the church.

[354] Right.

[355] Because she's not being the church.

[356] But we've got to stay true to Christ.

[357] Yes.

[358] Like going back to the gospel, live his commandments, remain in his love and trust that ultimately Christ Christ is vinched.

[359] Christ has conquered all that the world is throwing at us now.

[360] Christ has already conquered it.

[361] The sin and death that are rampant and many are latching onto as their religion, we've just got to stay faithful, that final perseverance that we talk about, and remain strong and to support each other.

[362] Thankfully, there are many faithful that have studied their way into the church, but we've got to stay strong for each other and with each other in the truth that Christ has shared with us, with his body and blood poured out for us.

[363] Well, said, I know you made a good comment about the First Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart.

[364] Both of us, I know, have grew up with our families having a image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and having our houses enthroned to the sacred heart, which is something I would encourage all of our listeners.

[365] All you've got to do is go online, type in devotion to the sacred heart, enthronement of the sacred heart.

[366] Great thing to do, Dad, for the family to enthrone the sacred heart of Jesus and also having right alongside the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

[367] Even liturgically, the church celebrates these feasts one after another because they have the same beating heart.

[368] In other words, Mary and Jesus go together.

[369] Can you give a little thing about, I want to plug your YouTube channel every time we're on the air, and I forgot yesterday, but how can people get your YouTube messages each week?

[370] Just go to Bishop Joseph Strickland on YouTube, and they'll find my channel.

[371] Excellent.

[372] When we come back, we're going to talk about the Holy Eucharist again, just like we did yesterday.

[373] And also, I forgot to mention the men's conference with Jesse Romero and Johnny Romero.

[374] I call him the The Sons of Thunder, June 15th.

[375] Check it out on our website, vmpr .org.

[376] Stay with us, family.

[377] We'll be back after a quick break to talk about the source and summer of the Christian life.

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

[379] Wow.

[380] Time goes by fast when you're talking about Jesus Christ and his bride to church.

[381] We're going to finish up like we did yesterday on the Holy Eucharist and talk about it because, again, I keep repeating it, Bishop Strickland.

[382] The church says the Eucharist is the source.

[383] and summit of the Christian life, and we see the statistics saying 80 % of Catholics don't even show up on Sunday for Mass. So this is why it's important that we continually catechized people on the Holy Eucharist.

[384] I've met so many people over my lifetime who have said that nobody ever told them, for whatever reason, they were in Catholic schools, and some of them didn't go to Catholic, but they never got the message about who they receive as the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ.

[385] So I'm going to repeat that until I'm, my last breath of air, Bishop Strickland.

[386] It's because it's the truth.

[387] And when you turn somebody on to Jesus Christ and the Eucharist, I'm telling you, the peace they get, they will never leave the church because there's no other church that has it.

[388] So I want to just quote the question, I have the catechism and from the St. Philip Institute, the Way of Christ's student book I have, and then have you teach us more about the Eucharist.

[389] And I'm going to presume that you're a bishop and that you cannot stop preaching about the Holy Eucharist because you would be denying Christ.

[390] Isn't that a fair statement?

[391] Absolutely.

[392] You have to.

[393] And it's the joy of sharing the greatest news that humanity has ever known, like I was talking about earlier.

[394] I agree.

[395] Here's the question.

[396] How does the bread and wine change into the body and blood of Jesus Christ?

[397] The answer?

[398] A short paragraph.

[399] To explain this, we use the term transubstantiation from trans meaning change and substance.

[400] Jesus works through the priest or the bishop to change the substance of the bread and the wine to his body and blood.

[401] this occurs when the priest or bishop says the words of consecration which are this is my body this the chalice of my blood now Bishop Strickland don't you cringe when you say mass I mean I would think I know it can become you know you do it every day but I mean to think that you the unworthy servant of Jesus Christ can take simple bread and wine and change it into you know what we call the substance changes to the body and blood of Jesus Christ it's under the appearance of bread and wine it looks like bread and wine but after the consecration it's Jesus Christ now as a layman I'm thinking that must just blow priests away when they think that you know realize what they're doing does it do that to you?

[402] Yes and it should it I mean in our weak humanity it's easy for our lives to become routine.

[403] But that's one thing that I urge priests to not allow.

[404] Yeah.

[405] It kind of refers to what you were talking about earlier.

[406] Yeah.

[407] You've probably seen hanging in sacristys.

[408] Father celebrate this mass as if it was your first, yeah.

[409] Your only and your last map.

[410] Yeah.

[411] And that's the attitude you need to bring with great humility.

[412] Yeah, that makes sense.

[413] The wonder of what we do.

[414] And that really, and it's probably as far as for priests, that's one of the best ways we can catacots.

[415] Yeah.

[416] We can tell people, by the way we say mass. Amen.

[417] I mean, I have to say, you know, because there's so much debate in the church about the proper form of mass, like Latin Mass or whatever.

[418] Yeah, English.

[419] or whatever.

[420] And the most important thing is that Christ comes to that altar in the form of consecrated bread and wine.

[421] That's right.

[422] And all of us as priests for any mass to be celebrated, I mean, you know, to me it's a travesty that I've heard of the priest in masses that would be presumed to be very reverent, but they say it so quickly.

[423] If they're getting rid of a duty that they just want to get done as fast as they possibly can, to me, that is not reverent.

[424] No. I mean, to rush through the mass in whatever language is not being reverent.

[425] And there's so many ways that we can fail as priest.

[426] And I have to humbly confess that and guard against it.

[427] We can be too focused on ourselves.

[428] Yes.

[429] We focused on the people.

[430] We need to focus on Christ.

[431] Amen.

[432] And if we're truly focused on Christ, we need to reverently approach the altar to say the Mass with reverence and with a solemnity that I don't believe what you can do if you're seeing just how quickly you can say these words in whatever language.

[433] that is not reverence and we need to we need to be reminded because the people pick up on it when when father rushes through the mass and does it as if it's just a a duty to get done with as quickly as possible instead of a glorious communion with God that needs to be celebrated the people recognize that and it telegraphs to them that the father didn't really believe this and it's not really important to him he's not encountering god almighty he's just going through a ritual.

[434] And that is devastating to the faith of the people.

[435] It's devastating to the church.

[436] We all have to develop a deeper Eucharistic faith.

[437] And I'll put myself first in line to make sure that I don't say, well, I've done this so many times before, I've been a priest, I was 40 years, and to get complacent about the wonder that we celebrate in the simplest mass, in the simplest setting, or in the most glorious basilica, all of that really ultimately doesn't matter.

[438] I mean, a beautiful basilica, if it honors God, is wonderful.

[439] But the main thing is to reverently approach that altar that is the sacrifice of Christ.

[440] And the beautiful gift that it opens a window to heaven.

[441] But I'm afraid too many times that window is opened and nobody's looking.

[442] Nobody's acknowledging it, including the priest.

[443] That is a travesty that we've got to eliminate from the life of the church because the world is devastated when the church is devastated.

[444] Well said, and this is why we here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio offer Bishop Fulton Sheen's priest retreat where he challenges our priests to do the daily holy hour.

[445] And it's free because they can download it at VMP.

[446] You as a layman listening, wouldn't it be neat to give your priest a gift of Fulton Sheen's priest retreat?

[447] It's eight or nine talks, but they're beautifully presented by Archbishop Sheen on the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Hour.

[448] And I would encourage our listeners to take advantage of us giving that away for free by going to vmpr .org.

[449] We have a few minutes left.

[450] I want to get one more question in if we could.

[451] Number seven question is, is Jesus Christ fully present in both the host and the chalice?

[452] And the answer is yes.

[453] Jesus Christ is fully present in both the host and the chalice, body, blood, soul, and divinity.

[454] See, I like that language.

[455] It's very clear.

[456] There's no ambiguity.

[457] Christ is one indivisible being so that when the bread is converted into his body, the rest of his being follows, including his blood, soul, and divinity.

[458] similarly when the wine is converted into his blood the rest of his being follows body soul and divinity this is called the doctrine of con conventions thus when we receive the euchrist under the appearance of bread in the host are under the appearance of wine in the cup we receive christ in his fullness i get so many times people ask me that if i just like for example i have an allergy i can only receive under the precious blood you're receiving fully the body, blood, soul, divinity of Christ under each whichever species you receive Jesus.

[459] And I love this catechism, Bishop Strickland, because it also gives you references to the big catechism of the Catholic Church.

[460] So I would encourage people to even look up in the catechism of the Catholic Church, the Holy Eucharist, and reread what we believe about it because it's beautifully written there.

[461] Your thoughts about how clear we must be about what the Eucharist is.

[462] Isn't it important that we use clear language?

[463] Absolutely.

[464] And it is bread and wine.

[465] Yeah.

[466] Simple unleavened wheat bread and grape wine of a certain, I think it's about 12 % alcohol.

[467] It needs to be true wine and true wheat bread unleavened.

[468] That's the proper matter of the Eucharist.

[469] I don't hear that much about improper matter being used as when we were kids it was being experimented a lot oh yeah but now it for the most part that seems to not be a big issue but to remember that proper matter and form yes the words that are spoken and I would highlight that yeah that people need to know the proper words of consecration and if they hear anything different they need to sound an alarm absolutely because it's not valid if the words, because that's the form of the Eucharist, the matter and form, in order for the sacrament to be valid.

[470] You know, there are a lot of things that are less significant that can make things illicit, which is important.

[471] But the validity question is critical.

[472] And so you have to have proper matter and form.

[473] You can't say the priest doesn't have the right to say, well, I'm going to use apple wine.

[474] because I don't like bright wine.

[475] It doesn't work that way.

[476] You can't say, well, let's use raisin bread.

[477] No, you can't.

[478] It has to be simple, basically flour and water, wheat bread, unleavened, and grape wine.

[479] Yeah, it doesn't get any simpler.

[480] I mean, the church is very clear about this.

[481] Bishop Strickland, also, I want to just mention that if people want to get your, I know they're not called tweets, it's exes, I guess, now.

[482] X, they can go on the online to get your tweets on a regular basis.

[483] So keep that in mind.

[484] His YouTube channel is bishop strickland .com.

[485] If you go to his website, you can get a click there and go right on his YouTube channel.

[486] And Bishop Strickland, what you try to do on that YouTube channel, what is it, five, six minutes?

[487] It's not a short, I mean, it's a short statement, but you usually hit certain topics.

[488] What do you actually, what do you do on that?

[489] Yeah, talk about the feast.

[490] that we're celebrating, maybe a specific saint or, you know, topics that need to be addressed that are time.

[491] Excellent.

[492] How about a final blessing for today?

[493] And thank you for doing that.

[494] Mighty God, we ask your blessing for all of us that we continue to grow, to remain in your love as your son has called us to and to grow in faith, grow in holiness, turning from sin and living the gospel.

[495] And we ask this, in the name of the Father, the Son.

[496] of the Holy Spirit.

[497] Amen.

[498] Thank you, Bishop Strickland.

[499] For those who want to listen to other shows of Bishop Strickland, go to vmpr .org.

[500] Lots of other shows are there.

[501] Jesus 9 -1 -1, the Terry and Jesse show.

[502] Lots of good things there.

[503] And I want to thank our listeners for supporting us in the mission of evangelization because we couldn't do it without you.

[504] You want to give a donation, go to vmpr .org, and may God richly bless you and your family We'll see you again next week, same time, same station.

[505] God love you.