15 Dec 2020 – The Definition of Sin and Its Kinds

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland, our welcome Bishop Strickland, and I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

[1] Thanks, Terry, I did.

[2] Excellent, excellent.

[3] Well, Bishop Strickland, today we're going to be talking about what I think is so important in today's church.

[4] And from the catechism of the Catholic Church, the definition of sin, because we've lost the sense of sin from what the Holy Fathers have told us the last 40 or 50 years.

[5] And it's really good to get back to fundamentals on what is sin and what isn't sin because in our culture, right now we seem to be justifying any action and just saying if it feels good do it but before we get into that section of the catechism we have a couple of your tweets to get to but there's one big thing that i hope i don't get you in trouble but i'm getting a lot of people emailing me they're saying things about the church that they're like come on when are we going to clean our church up i mean the the mccarrick report um they haven't read it but they've read the articles that summarize it It seems like the muck in the church, the pus, is not being called out yet.

[6] And I'll just give you an example.

[7] I will report to you that the Catalyst is the Journal of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

[8] Bill Donahue is a friend of the show.

[9] He wrote an article regarding assessing the McCarrick report.

[10] Now, I did not read 450 pages, I confess.

[11] I couldn't do it.

[12] I couldn't stomach it.

[13] But the McCarrick report has got abundant information about the Theodore McCarrick, one of the highest ranking cardinals in the church.

[14] And, you know, they came out and basically said how he got into all this trouble.

[15] But there's one thing that Bill Donah said that's an outstanding flaw, it was the refusal to interview Archbishop Carlo Vigano.

[16] and this is especially unconscionable because the report mentioned him 306 times, mostly in discrediting him.

[17] So Bishop Strickland, I don't mean to get you into trouble, I'll say it again, but we think right now that there's like a boys club going on for years in the bishopry where people just don't say anything to stay in the club and not speak the truth.

[18] So, Bishop, or excuse me, Bill Donahue is saying that this report really doesn't get to the core of the problem.

[19] So I wanted to ask you, is he on to something?

[20] Or is there, is there that much corruption that's not being, you know, addressed today?

[21] Well, I'm afraid he is on to something.

[22] And really, Terry, I take it back to, like we've talked about before, the fundamentals.

[23] Yes.

[24] I'm an ordained priest of Jesus Christ.

[25] Amen.

[26] And the fundamental work of a priest is the salvation of souls.

[27] Oh, beautiful.

[28] Calling people away from sin to live the virtues of the gospel, just like Jesus did as he walked this earth.

[29] I think that too often, the church is a huge institution.

[30] It's supposed to be in the world, but not of the world.

[31] But not of the world.

[32] And there have been times all through, even as the church was beginning, those tendencies to be of the world.

[33] But we've always got to work against that.

[34] As priests, as bishops, as deacons, as baptized laity, we need to work against those temptations to just go along with the world.

[35] And that's what a pastor needs to do.

[36] Just putting it in those terms, I don't believe that the McCarrick report, as I've said, at least it exposed some of the truth.

[37] It was a step in the right direction, but it doesn't call us as strongly as bishops and priests to simply be pastors, to be those who point out to sin and call back to virtue.

[38] We're all sinners.

[39] I'm a sinner.

[40] We all need to be called back to virtue.

[41] We're in the season of Advent, a time of repentance of sin and returning to the light that is Jesus Christ.

[42] And in those terms, the McCarrick report put out a lot of information, but it didn't really call us to simply be pastors and to acknowledge the ways that we have sinned and the ways that others have sinned and the ways that we need to be reformed.

[43] It tends to just sort of, it talks about the sins that happened, that money was given and that people were abused and all these things happened.

[44] But it doesn't get to really the point of, I mean, in confession, yes, it's anonymous to, we're really confessing to Jesus Christ, but, and we don't believe in public confession, but we need to really acknowledge how did this happen and who benefited from it.

[45] And I really, I doubt that we will ever get there, but as individual past, we need to remember that is what will bring healing to the church is to acknowledge how this mackaric phenomenon developed and how to keep it from happening again right i don't think the mccarrick report it was a step in the right direction but it didn't get us where we need to be well i have to give kudos to cardinal o 'connor who i actually met He used to record his priest's retreats in New York, maybe 30 years ago.

[46] And he was the one who talked to the enuncio in America in 1999, giving lots of warning of the elements of the moral nature of McCarrick because he was being addressed as maybe the next bishop of New York.

[47] And like I said, O 'Connor labeled it.

[48] He's very graphically, I wouldn't even want to talk about what he said because that report's too graphic.

[49] But the point of it is he understood the gravity of what McCarrick was doing.

[50] And it even shares Bishop Strickland bishops who were at dinner with other bishops watching McCarrick do immoral things to seminarians, and they just laughed about it.

[51] And I find that so reprehensible as a layman, I'm saying, get that guy fired.

[52] I'm sorry.

[53] Or go to a monastery and do your penance because we can't.

[54] have people like that and Bishop Strickland the reason I say that is because at the same time in the 1990s I saw a fallen away Catholic he was going to come he was coming back to the church as a LA cop and I was working with him I'll never forget it he caught three seminarians at a homosexual bar and he arrested them and brought them back to St. John's seminary in California and brought them to the rector and said hey these guys said they're seminarians I don't believe it.

[55] Is it true?

[56] Yeah.

[57] Well, they were doing these bad things at this, you know, homosexual bar.

[58] What are you going to do about it?

[59] And they said, oh, they've been there before.

[60] They'll be fine.

[61] Just leave him with us.

[62] And you know, that drove him away from the church, Bishop Strickland.

[63] And so here's my point.

[64] I don't need to talk about this.

[65] I don't want to talk about it.

[66] But I'm tired of people leaving the church because of scandal.

[67] And I'm really accountability for myself, first of all, and for my leaders in my church, because I'm, I think that what Volton Sheen said back in the 70s is you know who's going to save the church he said the lay people how do you do it you ask bishop strickland be a bishop strict bishop strickland we're holding you to accountability if you weren't teaching what the catholic church teaches i'm going to write you a letter all i can call you and you can say okay yeah thank you for correcting me or you know yeah you're right i was wrong and be humble about it or you can say who cares it's my personal opinion and you see those are the kind of things that are going on for decades in the church and we're just tired of it, frankly.

[68] So Bishop Strickland, I just want to say last thing on this McCarrick thing.

[69] I know it was a source of great disappointment that St. John Paul II believed McCarrick and not O 'Connor in the report.

[70] And I think it's because of where St. John Paul II came from in Poland.

[71] He came from this communist country where these kinds of accusations were made about prelates all the time.

[72] so he just assumed I'm giving him a benefit of the doubt that this wasn't true now that tells you a saint is not perfect with judgment he can make mistakes on things like that that doesn't question his sanctity it's just a question of of how he was governing that issue and so that's my take on this and I just thank you for your take on it so I won't I won't bring anything more up on it other than we'll continue to pray for clarity and charity Bishop Strickman you Absolutely.

[73] You made a treat on the 28th of November, and I love this.

[74] You say Catholics who love Christ and his bride the church should become aware of Canon 1375.

[75] It reminds us that it is a crime to impede someone from exercising ecclesiastical ministry.

[76] We must pray for any who are thus impeding, and we must seek to write.

[77] the wrong in every way we can't what are you talking about well there's there's a lot of corruption that's just what it comes down to and you know i'm just a bishop in a small diocese and i don't there are a lot of information that i get that i don't know but um there's enough noise that i hear the of priests that are sidelined because they're teaching the truth I talked to a priest in my office just today, visiting from a distant diocese, just happened to be passing through and said, Bishop, do you have any time to visit?

[78] I said, sure.

[79] But he was telling me that the congregation complained about him because he was teaching that abortion is wrong, contraception is wrong, teaching what the church teaches.

[80] Hold your thought.

[81] I want to hear this on the other side of the break about this priest who came to visit you.

[82] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Powerful radio.

[83] My name's Terry Barber, and I have the honor of doing this once a week.

[84] When we come back, we'll let Bishop Strickland tell the story about a priest who came to visit him to tell him some of the problems he's challenged with.

[85] We'll be right back much more on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[86] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[87] Bishop Strickland, you're telling us about canon 1375.

[88] It reminds us that it's a crime to impede someone from exercising ecclesiastical ministry, and that you're saying we must pray for anyone who are thus impeded, and we must seek the right and wrong in every way we can.

[89] You're talking about a priest from a far -distance area came to visit you.

[90] Please kind of just summarize and tell us that story.

[91] I'm all ears.

[92] Yeah, well, it's just one more example of too many stories that I hear similar that a priest that are sidelined because they're teaching the catechism.

[93] And I think, again, going back to the fundamentals, we need to really reexamine what we're doing as a church when a priest is doing his job.

[94] And, I mean, lay people do complain because they don't really know their faith as well as they should.

[95] Whose fault is that?

[96] Well, it's mine partially as a bishop.

[97] It's the church's fault, but it's that individual's fault also.

[98] I mean, all of us have a basic obligation to form our conscience, to learn the faith.

[99] I think, you know, as we talk about the salvation of souls, that's the very basic work that we're about.

[100] We believe in supernatural truth.

[101] We believe that we are called beyond this life.

[102] And I think we always need to remember momento mori, remember death, and remember that this life is short.

[103] And in that perspective, then isn't it a priest?

[104] job to tell people turn from sin.

[105] And these are some of the sins that the world is is caught up in these days.

[106] And for a priest to be sidelined because he's ruffling feathers and maybe wealthy donors or just loud parishioners are complaining to the bishop.

[107] I mean, it certainly happens, but we as pastors need to remember what our job is.

[108] It's not all easy to hear when we're caught up in something that is sinful.

[109] We may not want to hear that it's wrong.

[110] But out of real love, we hear a lot about love in the world today.

[111] And Christ speaks a lot about love.

[112] God is love.

[113] And real love is calling the person to the very best fulfillment of their lives possible.

[114] It's really caring for their good is really loving.

[115] And so the loving thing to do with someone who is, you know, ignoring the church's teaching and saying, you know, we're going to use contraception, the loving thing to do for a pastor is to say no. For someone who's supporting abortion is to tell them, sorry, that's contrary to the church's teaching.

[116] We don't see a lot of good examples of that, and it's sad to hear stories of priests that are sidelined, and ultimately, sometimes taken out of pastoral ministry of a parish, because the people complain loudly enough that there's a reason, found to get them out of the parish.

[117] That is really not loving those people.

[118] It may, they may be ruffling feathers, but sometimes Christ ruffled feathers.

[119] People walked away from him because of what he was teaching.

[120] And I think we have to be strong enough on the fundamentals, certainly to not push people away.

[121] We want, the truth of Christ is really attractive.

[122] but it's challenging as well.

[123] And sometimes people don't want the challenge, and that's their choice.

[124] But to water it down and to punish a priest who isn't willing to water it down really is a sad commentary on where the church is.

[125] Well, Bishop Strickland, for 41 years that I've been involved in sharing the gospel as a layman, I have seen dozens of good holy priests be taken out of ministry because they were teaching the fundamentals of the Catholic faith and I'm someone always said why don't you write a book about it?

[126] I said I don't really want to put out the bad laundry because I'm so many sad stories but the public things that I hear where good priests have come and spoken on hell the four last things and they're saying yeah they're complaints and they move them or then they make an accusation a sexual accusation and they're like what are we talking about and I think oh I have a friend who was a young priest.

[127] He just died two years ago, but he never got back into ministry.

[128] And I knew, because I was part of the investigation with the FBI, this diocese put it in, where he was accused of sexual misconduct.

[129] But the woman who accused him, I knew, and she had been in a mental hospital because she was not stable.

[130] I told the FBI agent, here I'll sign an affidavit that this is true.

[131] I know here's the hospital.

[132] I know the history.

[133] Nothing.

[134] we got that priest never got back to ministry and let me tell you something he was as orthodox as they come big football player type priest and he died outside his priesthood and it broke his heart and i just say these things because i've seen so many good priests be taken out now bishop strickland you probably aren't aware of this but for 30 years i've known father george rutler out of new york who's a famous convert from the anglican church and last week they made an accusation a security girl has made accusations it's all over the catholic media and of course the diocese take him out he's no long voluntarily he said no this is true this is false but here's the point my friend who's hiring the attorney finds out that these girls are are you ready black lives matter promoters and they were upset at father rutler preaching against black lives matter so what can they do to get rid of them, make an accusation.

[135] Now, the truth hopefully will come out.

[136] But do you understand these priests who preach the truth, they're my heroes, Bishop Strickland, because they're risking their very life and their ministry to speak the truth about Jesus Christ.

[137] So I just want to continue to say that canon, I didn't even know about Canon 1375.

[138] Well, and that's why I put it up.

[139] I mean, it's in the code of canon law, and it can, you know, and apply to various situations.

[140] I mean, you know, I don't claim to have answers to everything, but I think we need to be aware of it.

[141] And there have even been situations where bishops have, you know, been taken out of ministry and you, you know, you aren't sure.

[142] I mean, you know, the evil forces that, I mean, like you mentioned, these people from Black Lives Matter making an accusation that very well may not be well -founded.

[143] but these days an accusation and you're in trouble.

[144] Yep, exactly.

[145] Well, thank you.

[146] Bishop Strickland, I've got one more tweet.

[147] I don't know.

[148] I've never heard of this gentleman, but I want you to tell us about him.

[149] You said, I encourage everyone to read Marino and how do I say the last name, Resposso?

[150] Restrepo.

[151] Strepo story.

[152] He's been called a St. Paul for this dark time.

[153] Well, I need to hear about him.

[154] He humbly tells us that we must learn true love.

[155] for all people in Jesus Christ.

[156] And then you said a favorite quote, and this is amazing, the devil is the only one who makes us concerned about the future.

[157] I've never heard that quote before.

[158] Well said.

[159] Tell us a little bit more about him.

[160] Well, he was a very successful businessman who was kidnapped and literally went through hell.

[161] I mean, he describes a whole mystical experience, into a very devastating experience with these people that had kidnapped him and left him in a cave and he was just he almost died and through it all I mean he had been a total atheist a total non -believer and he came to faith and has some very chilling things to tell us about what he and his vision saw of hell and heaven.

[162] I mean, he saw both in his visions.

[163] And he experienced about around the year 2000.

[164] And obviously, I just read it recently.

[165] And he is in South America from Columbia.

[166] Yep.

[167] But I'd encourage people, Marino, restrepo is the name and I'd encourage people to Google him he's there you can Google him and find out a lot there are a lot of books that he's written and it was interesting with that quote because I think that can can cut both ways I mean as you think about what that quote says only the devil makes you worry about the future Christ is all about the future he wants us to follow him into a future of everlasting life, in what Marina Restrepo is saying, if we're worried about the future in this world, about how successful am I going to be, how rich am I going to be, all of those things, then the devil wants us to focus on this world.

[168] Christ doesn't want us to really worry about the future, but he wants us to seek a future of everlasting life with him.

[169] So I thought that quote kind of cut both ways.

[170] Yeah.

[171] And it's just something to ponder.

[172] Sure.

[173] Am I worried about the future in this world?

[174] Am I worried that I'm going to be considered the most successful person in the world and I'm going to amass all this wealth and I'm going to do all these things?

[175] Whatever we accomplish in this world, if it's not focused on the kingdom, it's going to turn to dust pretty quickly.

[176] Amen.

[177] I mean, a lifetime for most of us, as the scriptures say, 70 years, 80 for those who are strong.

[178] A lot of people in these days may live to be 100, but 100 years is a drop in the bucket compared to eternity.

[179] And I think that's what that quote at least encourages us to really start considering.

[180] Am I worried about this world?

[181] is that of Satan?

[182] Is that a temptation to just worry about this world instead of worrying about the eternal life that we're called to?

[183] Well, said, I want to give a good news story because we always say the hidden power of kindness is powerful before we break and then get right into the catechism.

[184] This is a story, Bishop Strickland, where two young teenagers were at a mall just having a good time, shopping, and they ended up getting one of those little toy dogs out of a machine where you try to reach it with a little claw and you pick it up and they were just playing.

[185] They got a little dog and they thought, well, that's cool.

[186] They're walking and they see a little boy about five years old holding his dad's hand walking in the mall.

[187] And they thought, why don't we give that little dog to the little boy because, you know, we're not going to do a thing with it.

[188] So when they gave it to the little five -year -old boy, the little boy says, thank you so much.

[189] He splurred it out.

[190] And then the dad started weeping.

[191] and they're going, what do you, what's, what's, what's, what, you're, you're weeping, why?

[192] What, we just wanted to give your son this, this dog.

[193] And they said, because for the last year, my son has been deaf.

[194] He had a tragedy happened dramatically, and we've had him in therapy for a full year.

[195] He has not spoken a word.

[196] And your act of kindness giving that little dog to, that little stuffed dog to my daughter, to my son broke his, of silence.

[197] And I'm just so happy.

[198] I can't thank you enough.

[199] You see, the hidden power of kindness.

[200] That's what I think is so important.

[201] We talk about all kinds of things on the Catholic faith here on the Bishop Strickland Hour, and I just wanted to tell you to tell two people that story of the hidden power of kindness.

[202] When we come back, we're going to get right into the catechism on the definition of sin, not my opinion, the church's opinion.

[203] We'll be right back.

[204] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[206] I hope that little good news story touched you to have a generous heart because I always say people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

[207] And those two teenage girls impressed me that give a little stuffed animal to a little boy that just changed his life in that family with the dad.

[208] I just love inspiration stories like that.

[209] Bishop Strickland, I've opened my catechism to paragraph 1849.

[210] This is going to be covering the definition of sin different kinds of sin.

[211] I hope we get into the gravity of mortal sin, venial sin.

[212] This is stuff that we're supposed to know as Catholics.

[213] And to be honest with you, Bishop Strickland, I don't want to get into fundamental options and all this baloney that some theologians justify are your actions.

[214] But I'm just a meat and potato guy.

[215] I want to know what the Catholic Church teaches when it comes to sin because I don't want to hear the nuances.

[216] I want to know what.

[217] clearly is taught.

[218] So I want to read this paragraph and then if you can give us a little commentary and if you agree with me, I just think sin needs to be defined because it can't be just, well, that's sinful for you and it's not sinful for me. Wait a minute.

[219] It's not moral relativism.

[220] All right.

[221] 1849 says sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience.

[222] It is a failure and genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods.

[223] It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity.

[224] It has been defined as an utterance, a deed, a desire contrary to eternal law.

[225] Okay, finally, that's pretty, you know, I mean, it's stating what sin is, but bottom line is sin separates us from God, but tell me your thoughts about the different definition of sin, because how simplified it is it for you, Bishop Strickland?

[226] what do you tell people when they say what's a sin well um as it says here i think the simplest way to say it is to act contrary to the truth there you go and i think that's an important very simple yeah but it's important to to bring that focus into it because as you're saying there are a lot of people even within the church um but a lot of people maybe the majority but the the tone of conversation in the world today is very often it kind of goes back to Pilate's question before Christ as Jesus the king of the universe is standing there Pilate says what is the truth yeah and that really is the question of our age really more maybe than even a question people assume there is no truth nothing is objectively true.

[227] It's all like you mentioned subjectivism.

[228] It's just what's true for you, what's true for me, and it's all a matter of various opinions, various ideas of the truth.

[229] And what sin, and I think that's part of the reason, like we've talked about, many people reject even the concept of sin.

[230] And there's a logic there.

[231] if you don't believe that anything is really true, then how can you act contrary to it?

[232] So it's all sort of wrapped up together.

[233] But I think that's a good definition of sin because it reminds us we, as Roman Catholics, believe truth has been revealed to us that just for example, there is one true God.

[234] We believe in the one God who is trium, Father, Son, and Spirit, the greatest mystery, love incarnate, or love in Jesus Christ incarnate, God is love.

[235] And if we accept that as truth, that there is one God, then you start being able to logically move down the road to acting contrary to what the one true God has taught us is sin.

[236] But many people, of course, deny that there is God and that there is one true God.

[237] But as Roman Catholics and the Judeo -Christian tradition, we have strong evidence that what we believe isn't just a matter of Catholic opinion, you might say, It is the truth.

[238] And there are, you know, getting down to very basic fundamental realities that I think it can start moving us hopefully into the more philosophical direction of understanding that there is truth.

[239] The reality is if, you know, I'm in a room here in East Texas, you're in a room out in California.

[240] Right.

[241] If somehow they sucked all the air out of your room or mine, the truth is we would die.

[242] Amen.

[243] We would quickly cease to be able to breathe.

[244] And without being able to breathe air with the whole mixture of oxygen and nitrogen and everything mixed in the air that we breathe, we would die.

[245] That is objective truth.

[246] We can also say, oh, I don't believe that or, you know, oh, that's just made up.

[247] But try pumping all the air out of the room where you are.

[248] You're going to die.

[249] So there are things like that that philosophically, people may argue, but I like to get down, you know, like we've talked about many times, just the basic fundamentals.

[250] And, you know, the fundamentals of physics are things.

[251] things that we can't deny if I were to run out into the busy highway behind me and say, well, I don't believe a car hitting me is going to kill me. Is that going to stop it from happening?

[252] Nope.

[253] And I think we've got to, I mean, those are kind of silly examples, but I think we've got to really think through some of those things because it can get so philosophically removed from what every kid knows you know your children growing up yeah they learn somewhere along the way that if they play with things that are sharp they're going to get cut that's right if they pick up something that's you know been cooking on the stove they're going to burn their fingers i mean we learn those basic truths and i think that we need to go back to some of those and more philosophical ways to recognize that if we do things that are sinful, that are contrary to the truth, we're going to get burned, either metaphorically or actually.

[254] But it's going to do us harm.

[255] And all the pretending is ultimately not going to eliminate that harm.

[256] Well, said Bishop Strickland, And I think of so many people who are adults who've come to me and said, I didn't really know what sin is.

[257] And now I know, I mean, I knew I had an inclination that what I was doing was wrong, but I just didn't have a real clear mindset.

[258] And so I think it's really refreshing when you go over the fundamentals of the faith when it comes to sin and also original sin, understanding all that.

[259] Because the light bulbs turn on.

[260] And I've seen people tell me, oh, I didn't know that.

[261] I'm like, really?

[262] You're 22 years old and you've never been taught about original sin?

[263] Nope.

[264] So this is why I think it's important.

[265] And those who are listening, tell your friends, like us on YouTube or, you know, Facebook, and tell your friends, because this is so fundamental that I would say most Catholics should be listening to this because they're going to learn something about their faith.

[266] Bishop Strickland, something else on paragraph 1850, he says, sin is an offense against God, against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight?

[267] This is a statement that got me. Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it like the first sin.

[268] It is disobedience, a revolt against God to the will to become like gods.

[269] Now, Bishop Strickland, I'm not going to finish the paragraph, but man, that is so appropriate today because isn't it true that in our culture right now we're denying sin and we want to be like God and decide on who lives, who dies?

[270] Am I out to something?

[271] Absolutely.

[272] Who lives, who dies, and we make up our own rules.

[273] And the reality is we can get away with it for a time.

[274] But the truth, which, you know, God is the Lord of Truth, the truth catches up with us.

[275] And I think, again, we can look to just basic human experience.

[276] If we abuse our bodies by not eating anything that's healthy ever and drinking too much alcohol, I mean, it catches up with you.

[277] We've probably both seen the sad situations.

[278] where people have been caught up in drugs and get into, you know, methamphetamines and some of the things that just are beyond being bad because they're a drug that causes, you know, our behavior to get off track.

[279] But they're just destructive to the body.

[280] It's like taking poison.

[281] And, you know, whether the person knew it was wrong or not doesn't eliminate.

[282] right the fact that that poison is ultimately going to kill them so the greatest act of love is to call people's attention to it yeah and to to remind people and let me say something that i've thought about as we've been talking that you know we live in a culture that says if it feels good do it yeah i think that what the church would encourage sort of the opposite is if it feels wrong, don't do it.

[283] Well said.

[284] And I think that for like the 22 year old, you mentioned that didn't know that was wrong.

[285] What we all need to do is to really listen to that inner voice that we have.

[286] Maybe some are lacking it.

[287] But I think most people have a basic sense.

[288] But we're told by the culture, oh, don't listen to that.

[289] Just do, if it feels good, do it.

[290] Just ignore that inner voice that says, maybe I shouldn't take this, this, because it belongs to another person.

[291] And they probably worked hard to get whatever we're talking about.

[292] We'll be right back with more on the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Power for radio.

[293] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[295] We are in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1850, but I just wanted to clarify something that Bishop Strickland talked about that I thought was beautiful in regards to, you know, sin is sin, no matter if you don't believe in it, it's still sin.

[296] And I thought of how God forgives.

[297] I went to confession just a couple hours ago before the Terry and Jesse show, I thought, oh, thank you Jesus for the sacrament of confession.

[298] But then I thought of something, and that is, God will always forgive us.

[299] So you're listening and you're going, well, God can't forgive me. Yes, he can.

[300] Now, nature never forgives.

[301] Now, and I say never, it can.

[302] I mean, Father Don Calloway, my friend who was a cocaine addict and before became a Catholic priest, he was forgiven, right?

[303] And he became a Christian, a Catholic, and then a Catholic priest.

[304] and fortunately his body was in pretty good shape after the abuse.

[305] But generally speaking, nature never forgives, but God will always forgive.

[306] Bishop Strickland, just before we go on, can you tell us a little bit about original sin and how that plays in our own life as our fall in our human nature?

[307] Well, it alludes to it in that paragraph 1850, the original sin, as recorded in Genesis of Adam and Eve, was that we, they chose to be like God.

[308] And that really, if you drill down to any sin, especially serious sin, it really always comes down to that.

[309] I know better.

[310] I've decided whatever God has said is this.

[311] is wrong, this you can't do or this you must do, I've decided to be like God and say, no, I know better.

[312] And that's what Adam and Eve did.

[313] I mean, in the, the symbolism there of the book of Genesis, the story with the serpent tempting and, you know, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

[314] And, you know, the serpent says, oh, you know, God just doesn't want you to be like him, basically but that's what what sin comes down to for all of us original sin is that tendency we call it concupiscence the tendency to sin in all kinds of ways and uh that is part of what's broken it's interesting terry how all this fits together and just as we have this conversation it makes me realize why so many in the church are so lost and so many in the world, because you don't need a Jesus Christ.

[315] You don't need a savior if there's no real sin to be saved from.

[316] I think with all of our machinations to try to convince ourselves and the world to be convinced that sin is just something that's been fabricated by, you know, the church or some, you know, group of people or whatever.

[317] With all of that, we can try to convince ourselves that sin isn't real, but we haven't managed to convince ourselves that death isn't real.

[318] I mean, we can try to hold it off.

[319] Oh, yeah.

[320] Try to have all these procedures and have all this, you know, age -defying whatever.

[321] Yeah.

[322] But we're all going to die.

[323] death is real.

[324] We haven't managed to pretend that a way.

[325] We can pretend that sin isn't real, but Christ came to eliminate both the power of sin and death.

[326] And so if we don't believe in the power of sin and death, then we don't need a savior.

[327] And so the meaning of what Jesus Christ lived, suffered, died, and rose to share with us, it begins to lose its meaning.

[328] So it all kind of fits together.

[329] And once you know and really believe that Jesus Christ is God's divine son, that he did, I mean, as we've been in Advent or preparing once again to celebrate his birth into this world, if you believe that, then you've got to start believing what he taught.

[330] thought and believing when he says, you know, repent of your sins, that we've got to take that seriously.

[331] So going back to original sin, the reason we need a Savior is because through sinfulness, through my personal sin, your personal sin, we go back to that root of original sin through our own sinful choices.

[332] right um one thing that i've reflected on recently because in confirmation it's one of the the ways it's phrased is to reject do you reject satan and his empty promises right and that is what sin it was an empty promise for adam and eve that they were tempted to to go ahead and bite this apple and that's the original sin.

[333] But every time we grasp those empty promises of sin, it diminishes us in ways that God doesn't want us to be diminished.

[334] He wants us to flourish in his love.

[335] Well said.

[336] Bishop Strickland, if we've got time, I want to get into the different kinds of sins.

[337] It's paragraph 1852.

[338] He says in the catechism, there are great many kinds of sins.

[339] Scripture provides several lists of them.

[340] The letter of Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the spirit.

[341] Now the works of the flesh of the flesh are plain, fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idoltery, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, frictions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.

[342] I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

[343] Wow, that's a list of sins and can I get any clearer?

[344] You can't get, I mean, in other words, if you're actively living this life without repentance, you're not going to heaven.

[345] So let's break that one up.

[346] Break that down, Bishop Strickland.

[347] Well, absolutely.

[348] and it looks at virtually all the dimensions of living as a human person and you know the distinction between the the more grave sins and the less grave sins is the the significance of what we're doing but one of the things that I always try to be aware of myself and to point out to others is we shouldn't be complacent about any sin.

[349] I mean, certainly, I'm a sinner.

[350] You just mentioned going to confession.

[351] I went a few days ago.

[352] And we need to constantly be aware and humbly acknowledge, yes, I sin.

[353] That helps keep us from letting those sins grow to the point that they become deadly or mortal.

[354] I mean stealing a pencil is is a would be a venial sin it's not grave matter it's not that big a deal but if we get used to stealing pencils then that can grow to the point where we're embezzling big dollars from our company or from the person that we work for So I think that once you let that that sinful activity take root, you can even rationalize it away.

[355] And I mean, we all do that.

[356] I don't think we would sin if we didn't, to some degree, rationalize that, well, in this situation, it's okay.

[357] Because, because, because.

[358] That was justified.

[359] And we have to keep coming back to, as we've talked about before, I mean, it's a tall order, but Christ says we must be perfect in order to dwell with God in heaven.

[360] I'm far from perfect.

[361] Most of us are, and we have those elements of sin that we need to root out.

[362] This listing of sins would be a good examination of conscience, which of these, and certainly some of them, you might say, thank God.

[363] I don't really have it.

[364] Like sorcery, I don't have any problem with sorcery.

[365] You know, I'm not familiar with it.

[366] I could care less.

[367] It's not a temptation for me. But for some people, it probably is.

[368] But we all need to look seriously at the list and be honest with ourselves.

[369] Bishop Strickland, I want to remind everybody your diocese website and also the Institute.

[370] Did you talk about the St. Philip Institute for a minute?

[371] because I really think it's important.

[372] You have great resources there.

[373] Sure.

[374] The St. Philip Institute, saint philip institute .org.

[375] We have a lot of podcasts talking about the challenges of living the truth of our Catholic faith.

[376] We have a lot of teaching.

[377] There's an online course for those who are interested in becoming Catholic that someone just may not even be associated with a Catholic community.

[378] Certainly, you'd be encouraged to do that, but I know there are places in the country where people can't go to a church right now.

[379] So the Institute website is a great resource if people are interested in learning about current topics and issues of that's what the podcast tend to deal with.

[380] And then just the basic teachings of the Catholic faith and instruments to to help them to learn more about the truth that that Christ is revealed to us.

[381] Well, said, and I want to remind everybody, if you want to listen to podcasts of Bishop Strickland's hour, go to Virgin Most Powerful Radio .org, you can listen to those.

[382] And also other shows, the Terry and Jesse show, basic apologetics, we have the Bar of History, lots of good programming, because at this point, if you're like in California where we're having restrictions on us, going into our churches, this is the time to get to your fingers on that computer and Google the diocese of Bishop Strickland's in Texas, Tyler, Texas, to resource those things that he's talking about because let's make use of the time.

[383] I'm convinced that you could utilize this time in a really great way to learn more about your faith and fall deeper in love with Jesus Christ and his bride the church.

[384] That's the whole point of what we're doing.

[385] Remember Bishop Sheen said it.

[386] souls are saved, everything is saved.

[387] If souls aren't saved, nothing is saved.

[388] Bishop Strickland, how about a blessing?

[389] We have a one minute before the end of the show for all of our people.

[390] Sure.

[391] The Lord be with you.

[392] And with your spirit.

[393] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for all of us, all those involved in radio and all of those listening, that during this season of Advent, we may welcome the light of your son more deeply, and that the Blessed Virgin Mary might intercede.

[394] for each of us to be truer disciples to live the truth and to repent when we fall into sin and we ask God's blessing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[395] Amen.

[396] Thanks again Bishop Strickland for the time you've given us to teach, govern and sanctify as a bishop.

[397] That's what you're doing here on Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[398] I want to thank you again for the time you spend with us.

[399] Folks, I want to remind you if you can like us on YouTube if you're listening, tell your friends about the show and about all the shows that we have here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[400] And I will just say this.

[401] Thank you for all your support in making us a wonderful radio station that teaches the faith.

[402] God love you.