29 Mar 22 – World Leaders Must Repent of Their Sins

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[2] Bishop Strickland, thanks again for taking an hour to share the gospel with our listeners.

[3] Thanks, Terry.

[4] Thank you.

[5] You've been tweeting a lot, as usual, and we're going to get to some of those tweets.

[6] Plus, we're going to open up our catechism to paragraph 1652 on marriage and cover what the church actually teaches on this great sacrament, which is really in crisis.

[7] We call a crisis of vocations.

[8] for the priesthood.

[9] But I would say this, my comment is that there's a crisis of marriage that leads to a crisis of vocations.

[10] All right.

[11] Absolutely.

[12] So let's talk to your first tweet that I want to cover.

[13] And let's just set the stage.

[14] This is a week, this is actually the 22nd of March when we're recording this.

[15] By the time this is on the air, the radio stations around the country, this will be the time after when Pope Francis consecrates the Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and also just a quick note we now know that Pope Emeritus, Pope Benedict XVI, will also join but you tweeted this I join Bishop Snyder in this call to prayer let us unite Pope Francis in praying the consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Virgin Mary I also urge all of us to join the Novena prayer that Bishop Snyder offered at the end of the attached article.

[16] So you obviously are, I think it's a great idea that Pope Francis is doing this.

[17] And I know that you and Bishop Athanasia Snyder have been on together.

[18] And he's obviously encouraging this consecration.

[19] Your thoughts about that?

[20] Well, as I tweeted, I certainly encourage people to participate and to just pray with us.

[21] I think one thing that is important to remember, it's prayer and action.

[22] Good punch.

[23] It's living our life.

[24] It's like the letter of St. James talks about.

[25] Faith without works is empty.

[26] It takes both.

[27] Yes, we have to have faith, but we have to put it into action.

[28] And part of that putting it into action is repenting of our sins and doing our best to bring a more just world about, you know, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three pillars of the Lenton season.

[29] So I think that we all need to recognize it's not just about the Pope or all the Pope and all the bishops of the world.

[30] offering this prayer of consecration, but each of us being converted and consecrated to Jesus Christ and to his truth.

[31] That's really what it's about.

[32] Big amen to that.

[33] Bishop Strickland, you tweeted something, and I know you have a deacon Keith Fortuna.

[34] He's the same deacon that I met through EWTN, maybe 25 years ago or so.

[35] He's a good man, and I understand he works in your diet, and you tweeted something that said, some would say I don't retweet this.

[36] It's too controversial.

[37] I say the stance of Cardinal Marks, and we're going to talk about what his stance is, must be opposed.

[38] Well, yeah, that is controversial, but it's the truth that should be opposed.

[39] Truth sets us free, you said.

[40] Thus, logically, false messages enslave us.

[41] We must be free from the false messages that lead us to devastation.

[42] Bishop Strickland, what are we talking about?

[43] What did Cardinal Marx say that is not true?

[44] Well, he's supporting the whole agenda that we're hearing from various Catholic leaders in Germany talking about, oh, the teachings on sexual morality are wrong, and we need to change them.

[45] And this specifically, I think, was addressing he had a mass Celebrating the LGBTQ movement or something.

[46] Yeah, he did 20 anniversary.

[47] And as we always emphasize, of course, every child of God is precious in his side.

[48] But to celebrate people who are not repenting and not turning from sin is anything but love of those people.

[49] It's wishing damnation on people, according to God's word, according to the teaching of the church.

[50] And that's what needs to be opposed is any effort to say, oh, we've had God's word wrong for all these centuries.

[51] We've got it figured out that I don't think there's much that we can say in the spiritual realm that we don't need to look back in history to get a better understanding of what God has revealed and what the truth of our faith is.

[52] because in the 21st century, the arrogance of man has just swept the world.

[53] And many people really don't know what God teaches, about marriage, about human life, about sexuality, about just a long list of things that are vital to how we live as human beings.

[54] Yeah.

[55] Well, Bishop Strickland, that brings me to an article from the National Catholic Register about Cardinal Pell.

[56] who's been on your show before.

[57] And this was 25 years ago when I met him in Los Angeles.

[58] I was asked to give him a ride and go to certain types of museums like the Norton Museum and just famous museums here in L .A. with my kids in the big 15 passenger van.

[59] We had a grand time for the day.

[60] We had dinner.

[61] And he asked me about my own cardinal here in Los Angeles.

[62] And he was scandalized that the cardinal was trying to, you know, take me out, so to speak, as a layman for speaking the truths of the gospel.

[63] It was back when Mother Angelica had her little comment about an article or actually a document that our Cardinal put out called Our Faithfully We Gather where it was questioning their belief in the real presence.

[64] It's a famous thing.

[65] I sent the article to Mother because she asked me to.

[66] I got in trouble with the Cardinal and he was just so amazed that someone would do this.

[67] He was just like scandalized by it.

[68] Well now here's 25 years later, and he's coming out and saying, I'm calling on the Vatican to correct two senior European bishops for rejecting church sexual ethics.

[69] He sounds like you, Bishop Strickland, but see, I think that it shouldn't be me calling out bishops, and I mean that as a layman.

[70] I call them out and say, just teach us the perennial teachings of the church, your eminence.

[71] That's all, with all due respect.

[72] But it seems that now Cardinal Pell is doing something that more bishops, I hope, will do.

[73] He's calling out the Jesuit Cardinal Hollerick of Lutzenberg and Bishop Vazing of Lindbergh, who have both called for changes in the church's teaching on homosexuality in recent interviews.

[74] And I just want to say this to you, and then you give me your take, but Cardinal Pell said that, you know, these guys need to just, you know, teach what they promised to teach when they were made bishops and cardinals.

[75] And he stressed that the solution is not.

[76] not to follow the changes and dictates of a contemporary secular culture.

[77] And then he added that St. Pope Paul VI pointed out many years ago in the 70s, Bishop Strickland, that this path of following the world is a path to self -destruction of the church.

[78] Now, Bishop Strickland, I'm going to be bold.

[79] You said the same thing.

[80] So here's my question.

[81] What do you think when you're a bishop of Tyler, a little, you know, it's a little diocese, And you hear Cardinal Pell, who is a prominent cardinal in the church, calling people out.

[82] Well, I applaud him because we're all shepherds.

[83] We're all ordained and made the same promise to guard the deposit of faith.

[84] And we need to do it, certainly, with respect.

[85] But what's a deeper respect than to guide someone back to Jesus Christ?

[86] Amen.

[87] There's no greater love.

[88] There's no greater respect than to.

[89] lay down your life and take someone to the truth that is Jesus Christ.

[90] So we, we all need to speak up with respect for every person, but we've, we've just got such, so many waves of falsehood and especially in the area of sexuality.

[91] I mean, we could talk about the whole rest of this hour, all of the issues.

[92] And hopefully people are aware, but we just have to turn to the Word of God, to the catechism, to the magisterial teachings of the church.

[93] Beautiful teachings, really.

[94] Yes, they're hard and they're challenging.

[95] People caught up in pornography.

[96] It can devastate their lives.

[97] It can destroy marriages.

[98] It's very much, very similar to, drug addiction.

[99] And all of that is because we are sexual beings.

[100] And it is the most beautiful aspect of us that we can, what it's called procreation.

[101] We can participate in God's creative work in the world.

[102] But sadly, we get that wrong over and over again.

[103] And that's what Cardinal Pell is pointing out.

[104] It doesn't change.

[105] We want to change everything, either change our person or change the world that we live in and mold it according to our image.

[106] We need to wake up and recognize it's already been all creation is in the image of God.

[107] We're in his image and likeness.

[108] We should celebrate that.

[109] We should rejoice in that mystery and do everything we can to live as those created in the image and likeness of God and see all of creation as a reflection of God's truth and beauty and goodness.

[110] Well, said, you have also a tweet encouraging people to listen to an audiobook, which I listened to already, and I was impressed with what they said.

[111] It's the triumph of the Blessed Sacrament.

[112] Now, Bishop Strickland, I noticed about you're willing to go out and endorse things that are going to build the body of Christ up.

[113] And this is an example of you willing to put your name and say, hey, endorse this.

[114] And it's called the Blessed Sacrament, the History of Nicola Aubrey.

[115] It's an audiobook.

[116] And it's right on your tweet.

[117] People can listen to it.

[118] It's free.

[119] I listened to it.

[120] And I was moved by it.

[121] Hey, when we come back from the break, I want to get more talks with Bishop Strickland.

[122] I have one thing.

[123] It's a teaser.

[124] I want to talk about hell.

[125] And does everybody go there?

[126] no one go.

[127] We'll talk more about that when we come back on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[128] Stay with us, family.

[129] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[130] I made a little tease before we broke for the break, and it was about hell and the existence of hell.

[131] And the reason I'm bringing this up, Bishop Strickland, there are theologians out there and church teachers that somehow think that somehow, you know, nobody goes to hell, that it's kind of like this universal salvation, that God is so merciful, we just go straight to hell, to heaven.

[132] And there's an article in Crisis Magazine.

[133] I like to endorse Crisis Magazine.

[134] I think they have a lot of great articles.

[135] And this is called Can Anyone Choose Hell by Regis Martin, who I also respect as a good theologian.

[136] And the reason I'm bringing this up is, and then I want to get your comment about the existence of hell, Archbishop Fulton Sheen said something about this when he said, if there is no hell, then there is no sin.

[137] if there is no sin then there is no judge and if there is no judgment then evil is good and good is evil so it seems to me bishop strickland from what she said that once we take hell out of the picture in other words that if everybody goes to heaven then why are we doing what we're doing why have a relationship with christ why stay in the state of grace why even try to be good if if there's no hell.

[138] Well, you said it, really.

[139] And it, it really, if there's no hell, then there's no heaven either.

[140] Yeah, good point.

[141] And if that's the case, then we're to the atheistic world that too many people have embraced.

[142] There's no right and wrong.

[143] It's all, I mean, it really, what I would hope people and you know the philosophical world has is sort of unraveled for many centuries really on these basic questions but if there is no hell yeah then logically I mean if there's no hell there's no heaven yeah there's no right or wrong right and we we diminish ourselves to just part of a chemical experiment, you might say, that we're just, we're reacting against things, just like atoms bouncing that have no intellect, no ability to choose.

[144] It's all really, Terry, I believe, and I'm no great theologian, but I do believe.

[145] And I think it's not that complicated.

[146] Certainly, God is the greatest mystery beyond anything we can ever fathom.

[147] He's beyond us.

[148] but it just makes sense that there is good and there is evil.

[149] We see that constantly.

[150] We see that happening in the world.

[151] And if all the relativism is reality, that nothing is really true, which that's contradictory to our own experience every day, we could just take one day of our life and we see, that everything isn't relative.

[152] There are truths that have consequences.

[153] And that's what holds it all together.

[154] People just don't realize when you remove God from the picture, when you remove our eternal destiny from the picture, when you become all -out atheist, then everything loses its meaning.

[155] And that sadly, Too many people are there.

[156] I don't think, I mean, I think we've talked about it before.

[157] I really don't believe deep down that there are many people that truly are just, you might say, died in the wool atheist.

[158] But it appears easier to just do it my way, like you say so often.

[159] And ignore any rules that come from God or come from anywhere.

[160] in the short term it can look easier but especially as we get older i think that's why churches tend to have older people in them and that's not just a phenomenon now but it's always been the case if anybody's in church i mean hopefully it's young people young families everyone the whole spectrum of humanity but if if it comes down to just a few you can pretty much guarantee it's going to be old people Because they've learned through life that if it's just this world, there's no meaning to it.

[161] And we know in our DNA, we know in the marrow of our bones that there is meaning, there is beauty, there is truth, there is goodness.

[162] You can see that.

[163] And I'm sure you can look at your children and now your grandchildren.

[164] And you just see the beauty of God's plan.

[165] that's what we have to embrace.

[166] And so, you know, we just have to call people away from the path of atheism.

[167] And that's really, if you reject the idea of hell or say, well, it's there, but nobody goes there.

[168] It begins to lose its meaning.

[169] Jesus Christ shows us, he's the son of God.

[170] And look how he suffered in order to overcome.

[171] sin and death.

[172] He shows us that the struggle, we may not like it that way, but it's embedded in the reality that we live, that the suffering and struggle is part of it.

[173] But it can have a redemptive aspect if we turn it to Christ.

[174] I mean, he's the Redeemer.

[175] Well said, well said.

[176] Bishop Strickland, one of your tweets, you actually are encouraging us, to have a national conversion here in America.

[177] You mentioned this in a tweet, this nation, referring to America, needs a modern -day Nineveh conversion from the highest leaders in Washington to every individual.

[178] So that's everyone.

[179] A godless nation will reap God's wrath.

[180] A godly nation will be bathed in his abundant mercy.

[181] That statement right there, I want you to break down because I really think you're, spot on there.

[182] Let us seek repentance, turn to Jesus, and obey God's commandments.

[183] If I can give a comment before you respond, this little paragraph is short, but it punches pretty hard to say, turn away from sin, repent and turn away from sin.

[184] It's kind of like perfect for Lent.

[185] So I want to ask you, when you did this tweet, break it down and tell us a little bit, you know, break it and give us an explanation on this quote well the neneva story with the prophet jona is a powerful story yep and and you could call jona the reluctant prophet he wouldn't want to do this but as we hear read the story in sacred scripture yes it it shows us it's never too late amen it shows us conversion as possible it shows us that the individual choice is what it's built on.

[186] And what inspires me, one of the inspiring aspects of that story of Nineveh's conversion, it says, the emperor heard Jonah's prophecy and put on sackcloth and ashes, an image of total repentance, pleading God for mercy.

[187] and as the gospel says, all things are possible with God.

[188] I pray for that for our president, for many of the leaders in Congress who are not following the plan of God.

[189] And they claim to be, but you've got to be all in.

[190] You can't say, oh, I believe in God, but that's just my personal path.

[191] And I'm going to support the murder of unborn children.

[192] and I'm going to support these gender, you know, confusions that have nothing to do with the gospel that's been proclaimed to us.

[193] And you can't do it.

[194] You can't have it both ways.

[195] So either you're a person of faith, man or woman, or you're not.

[196] Yep.

[197] And we need, and I'll line up and say, absolutely, as I mentioned before, Terry, I went to confession today.

[198] Sure.

[199] I'm a sinner.

[200] I need to go to confession.

[201] I need to seek to live a more virtuous life.

[202] And I try to do that.

[203] But we all need to get that reality check of a good examination of conscience and confession.

[204] And that's what I pray for President Biden and all the leaders of the nation who, and really, I mean, we have numerous leaders, including President Biden, who claim the Catholic.

[205] faith.

[206] Yes.

[207] They need to read the catechism.

[208] They need to read sacred scripture.

[209] They need to read the magisterial documents of the church.

[210] They need to know the deposit of faith.

[211] And if you do that, then a conversion, I mean, how many people have I talked to that are converts to the Catholic faith or sometimes we call them reverts that have gone deeper into the faith, have really embraced it in their own journey very intentionally.

[212] And very often that happens because they read themselves either into the church or back into the church.

[213] Reading the church fathers, I just shared something today about St. Ignatius of Antioch, a beautiful saint.

[214] He died in the early second century.

[215] He was one of the very first martyrs.

[216] And he's talking about being committed to the Lord.

[217] He's talking about the Eucharist and how we have to really embrace that.

[218] So all of us are called to conversion.

[219] And if we say, yes, I'm on the path of Christ, look to the challenge of a deeper conversion.

[220] And that's what we need to pray for.

[221] So I find Nineveh, the story there and the conversion of those people, it shows that it It's never too late.

[222] I'm sure there are people of faith that have given up on the United States and says, oh, we're just too corrupt.

[223] There's a lot of corruption.

[224] It's hard to know what is true.

[225] The media and too many, I mean, we have leaders at the very top of, you know, our government that are caught on video, totally lying a few years.

[226] ago or a few months ago saying something that there is the opposite of what they're saying now.

[227] And we just don't pay enough attention to it.

[228] For their sake, for the nation's sake, for our sake, we all need that spirit of conversion in Nineveh.

[229] And it takes the humbling of sackcloth and ashes, of a real change of life.

[230] And we need to pray for it.

[231] We need to pray for for ourselves, for our families, and for every person in the country.

[232] Well, said, I know we're coming up to a quick break, but I'm going to tie this in because LifeSight News usually takes a portion of what you've said on the radio here and puts it into an article, but it's tied into this tweet, really, because the headline is, world leaders abusing their power bring too many innocent people to damnation.

[233] Now, that's a very very very strong statement you mentioned, and you're kind of tying it into this thing about our whole nation needing a conversion.

[234] I want to ask you to clarify what you mean about world leaders abusing their power, meaning is it the president, is it other people who have a responsibility for the good of their citizenship that are bringing forth things that are undermining the Christian, Judeo -Christian teachings that are in our culture are much more.

[235] So when we come back, we'll talk about that.

[236] And then we're going to open up our catechism in the marriage section here on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[237] Stay with us, family.

[238] We're going to be back in a quick moment.

[239] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[240] And I had mentioned to Bishop Strickland about a quote he said last week, about world leaders abusing their power and bringing too many innocent people to damnation.

[241] Bishop Strickland, that's really a strong statement to say about our leaders.

[242] Who were you referring to?

[243] Is it the abortion issue?

[244] Is it the moral issues on marriage?

[245] What are we talking about?

[246] Well, really, Terry, I think it's all of the above and many different issues.

[247] It's basically world leaders buying into the relativism rather than being people who, lead in the truth.

[248] Got it.

[249] The truth is either the truth or not.

[250] Right.

[251] And leaders, by definition, need to lead in the truth and to say, oh, well, we have to be a pluralistic society and all.

[252] I mean, where has that gotten us?

[253] Certainly, the people need to be free to follow their own path, but they need to be taught.

[254] And world leaders need to be those who recognize truth.

[255] I mean, it takes us, I believe it takes us all the way back to Punch's pilot, representing the world leaders of the day.

[256] Here he is with truth incarnate that he's literally talking to.

[257] And he is leading a lot of people to damnation, Punch his pilot.

[258] And so it's, it certainly has happened through the end.

[259] ages, but we need to recognize that we tend to live, certainly in this country, but in across the world, it's like there are two different categories of truth.

[260] Oh, you have your religious truth, and then there's the truth of running the government and running the nation.

[261] That separation of truth is just not reality.

[262] right it's true it's true right if it's not it's not if it's true that saying something that is a lie is wrong then it doesn't matter the context of it it doesn't matter what sort of truth you're talking about if it's not true it's harmful and you know really i'm using the word damnation it what guess I'm getting at is that world leaders need to lead in the truth.

[263] Many people say, oh, well, the president said it's okay.

[264] I mean, many people are just sheep that don't really think for themselves.

[265] That's not just in our time, but that's through many centuries, that before we had presidents, we had emperors and kings.

[266] And people would sort of make the excuse, really.

[267] oh well you know they said it's okay and that's where um we just have to acknowledge where humanity is and we think of ourselves in this technology age so sophisticated we have so many things figured out i'm not so sure of that yeah it's the more we lose touch with basic truth the the less wise we are and the less able to really bring about the justice, peace, and goodness that God wants us to share him.

[268] Well, you just talked about basic truth, and this is something that I'm going to encourage, well, whom I'd encourage bishops, but I would encourage bishops to teach the catechism of the Catholic Church to the flock and the priests and lay people, because I believe that many people are missing the formation, the basic formation of what Catholic believe, and we have a catechism that St. John Paul 2 gave us back in the early 90s, and I want everybody to encourage everyone to own a Catholic catechism, because this is really a good source for you to get formation.

[269] And I'm under formation for the last 50 -some years since I was 14 going to daily Mass. I thought, I'm learning more about the Mass and my faith since I was 14 because I've been motivated like that and I encourage all of us because this little catechism I've met people who come out of prison where they were converted to the Catholic faith and they had a lot of time on their hands and they read the entire catechism and now I got a guy who wants to become a Catholic priest working on that now I've talked to people this catechism is gold because I would encourage people the time that you spend reading the internet or the newspaper or just listening to the news, take a fraction of that time to open up the catechism and you'll get more benefits than listening to the news.

[270] So I want to talk about marriage because St. John Paul II said it well.

[271] Back when he did a letter to the family in 1994, he said the way the marriage goes is the way the culture goes.

[272] So strong marriages, strong culture.

[273] So I'm asking the bishop, he's done this before, to teach on the sacrament of marriage.

[274] And I know the bishops had many years of experience on this.

[275] And I want to have everybody open their book to paragraph 1652 in the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[276] The title is the openness to fertility.

[277] I'll read the paragraph and then let Bishop Strickland teach from it.

[278] And you know what, folks, this is what a bishop, Bishop Strickland, sorry I'm saying this.

[279] I know you know this, but I want people know.

[280] to know that teach govern and sanctify that's the church and so if our bishops aren't teaching governing and sanctifying i'm sorry bishop strickland you're not doing your job if you're not doing that i'm a layman but because that's what the church says your job is to do so sharing the gospel with the truths of the gospel even when it's inconvenient that's part of what you signed up for okay here it comes Paragraph 1652, by its very nature, the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring, and it is in them they find its crowning glory.

[281] And there's a little section, paragraph two, is this, children, are you ready?

[282] Are they, you know, high, no, listen to the verbiage, children are the supreme gift of marriage.

[283] and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves.

[284] I can relate to that.

[285] God himself said, it is not good that man should be alone.

[286] And this is right from Genesis.

[287] And from the beginning, he made them male and female.

[288] We need to read this over and over again, wishing to associate them in a special way in his own creative work.

[289] God bless man and women with the words, be fruitful, multiply, hence, true married love, and the whole structure of married life, which results from it, without diminishing of the other ends of marriage, are directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day.

[290] Wow.

[291] Go ahead, Bishop.

[292] That's quite a paragraph.

[293] I can relate to this, though.

[294] I really can't.

[295] It says a lot.

[296] I just saw this week a quote from the late Antonin Scalia.

[297] Oh, he was a great man. That said, you should have as many children as God gives you.

[298] Yeah.

[299] And he may not have said it exactly.

[300] But the point is that we follow God's will.

[301] And what this paragraph doesn't talk about contraception, but it does begin to have the conversation there that if we're interfering with that pro -creative aspect of marriage, then again, we're moving away from the truth that God is revealed to us.

[302] And it's one of the many ways, you know, the idea of marriage, the ideal of marriage and the understanding of how our human sexuality fits into marriage, that's the only place it fits, really.

[303] Yeah.

[304] And the way are, we've just got it totally upside down in our society.

[305] If we could just have an instantaneous survey of what has been the sexual activity in humanity today in one 24 -hour period, sadly, really around the world, we would see the vast minority of acts within between a man and a woman committed in a lifelong marriage and opened the children.

[306] I'd hate to think how low that, you know, we see all these polls of popularity and opinion polls.

[307] I'd hate to see how low the percentage would be of sexual acts by human beings that fit into that narrow path.

[308] It is a narrow path.

[309] It's a challenge for an individual man. You know, we can get into pornography, men and women.

[310] Yeah.

[311] And get into self -abuse and all sorts of ways that.

[312] the sexual urge is channeled in a direction that becomes destructive.

[313] Think about how much crime, how much harm there is to the human family when we get the truth of sexual, when we get off track regarding sexuality, human trafficking, selling children, selling teenagers, using and abusing the weak.

[314] or women very often, but also young boys or even not so young.

[315] Those who are weak and powerless are often put into sexual circumstances that are abusive and that are harmful.

[316] And certainly when I say something like that as a Catholic bishop, I say, ah, you're a bunch of abusers and all this.

[317] That's just a cop out.

[318] Amen.

[319] I have to say that.

[320] Yes.

[321] we've had the terrible sins of abuse by minority of those in the church.

[322] But it's just a cop -out to say, well, I have no right.

[323] I have an obligation to talk about it just as a man, but also as a Catholic bishop.

[324] We still have the obligation to talk about the truth.

[325] And, you know, the sexual brokenness of our society is one of the critical areas that going back to that Nineveh idea.

[326] It's almost like Nineveh was next door to Sodom and Gomorrah.

[327] Nineveh made the right choice.

[328] Sadd and Gomorrah got obliterated.

[329] Well, said, we come back.

[330] We'll talk more on the great sacrament of marriage from the catechism of the Catholic Church.

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

[332] Stay with us, family.

[333] We'll be right back.

[334] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[335] We're talking about the sacrament of marriage out of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

[336] And I want to remind everybody on May 7th, we're going to have a seminar on marriage with Dr. Sandoval, Mary Barber, my wife, and myself, and we're going to have three sources to teach from.

[337] One is the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

[338] Imagine that.

[339] And the Bible and Cardinal Saraw's book, Couples, Awaken Your Love from Ignatius Press.

[340] And I believe that seminar will also include a time for confession, praying of the rosary, and Holy Mass all on one day, May 7th, starts at 9 a .m., go to vmpr .org.

[341] If you're out of the area, you can watch it on the video.

[342] So we're going to stream this particular conference on marriage, and I hope it helps you because I know it helps me. One thing I've found Bishop Strickland is as I teach, it seems to really help me when I teach something to live it better, because I really have to grasp it and then teach it and say, okay, I got it.

[343] So I don't know why that is with me, but it might be for others also.

[344] Okay, Bishop Strickland, paragraph 1653, it talks about the fruitfulness of the conjugal love extends.

[345] And that conjugal love, that's a, he said, we never talk like that.

[346] That means the intimacy of a husband and wife love, conjugal love, extends to the fruits of the moral and spiritual and super, natural life that parents hand on to their children by education.

[347] This is an important sentence right now.

[348] Parents are the principal and first educators of their children.

[349] In this sense, the fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at service of life.

[350] Wow, Bishop Strickland, let's talk about that.

[351] Well, it really talks about the importance of children.

[352] resulting from that conjugal love.

[353] And, you know, the church talks about the unitive and the procreative aspects of marital love, of conjugal love.

[354] It is, as it goes all the way back to the Genesis, the two shall become one.

[355] The man and the woman, that's why marriage is a permanent bond because the two have become one.

[356] They've united in a real way, not just in a symbolic way, not just in a temporary way, become one in the marriage.

[357] And the children are the fruit of that.

[358] So this really gets at what the role of parents are and what the place of the children in the parent's life as a couple.

[359] Parents are the principal and first educators of their children.

[360] Look at the education business in our country and really in the world.

[361] We've gotten too far away from that.

[362] I mean, you know, the recent election, there was a lot of debate about whether parents had any say over the education of their children.

[363] It's Catholic faith that they're the primary say.

[364] They have to know what their children are being taught.

[365] And they have the responsibility.

[366] That's what we tell parents at baptism.

[367] They have the responsibility.

[368] As this says, I mean, it's so often the catechism in one paragraph.

[369] It's so dense.

[370] It says so much.

[371] But this is a 1653 is a great paragraph telling parents that are baptizing a child what it's all about.

[372] The family is to be at the service of life, at the life of that child, brought into the world by God's creative action and the procreative cooperation of the parents.

[373] And then throughout, we hope the long life of that person, the parents have a role in nurturing that life until adulthood, where the story often starts all over again.

[374] It's about the service of life and recognizing that it all comes from God.

[375] Amen.

[376] You know, Bishop Strickland, as you were speaking, my children are all adults.

[377] And when they talk, I keep in touch with all my children by telephone many times.

[378] And a couple of them live close by, so I get to, you know, do kayaking with them and different things.

[379] But what really excites me is when my boys, stand up for life in their own place of business or in the culture.

[380] And it makes me feel like they got the message.

[381] And so I encourage all of us, they got that when they were children.

[382] And, you know, there's an old saying in the Bible, the way the tree bends is the way it falls.

[383] So you give them good formation when they're young.

[384] And, you know, they can say no, but many times that formation will stick with them for life.

[385] All right.

[386] here's another paragraph 1654 spouses to whom God has not granted children can nevertheless have a conjugal life full of meaning in both human and Christian terms their marriage can radiate of fruitfulness of charity of hospitality and of sacrifice wow before you answer that paragraph I have several of my friends who are not blessed with children and they were married for 30, 40 years.

[387] And what they did is they started Catholic organizations to help the family with education and formation.

[388] And I have some really good family friends that, like I said, never had children, but they have had children.

[389] Because you know what they did?

[390] They took on as a big brother, as a coach, as a teacher.

[391] They have so many more children.

[392] It's kind of almost like what a priest or a nun has spiritual children.

[393] But I've noticed that people who don't have physical children, they seem that are holy.

[394] They seem to reach out to families and to relatives and be that, you know, father figure for others.

[395] Have you found that to be the case, Bishop Strickland?

[396] Absolutely.

[397] And really, the last sentence of 1653 applies absolutely to the married couple, whether they have children or not.

[398] In this sense, the fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at the service of life.

[399] Service, a key word, life a key word.

[400] And like you said, I mean, any pastor, any Catholic probably, that's been part of a community, has known the childless couple that has done tremendous things to nurture at the service of life.

[401] And a key element, I talk about this a lot lately, but it's following God's will.

[402] We live in a time when God says let there be life and through abortion, through contraception, through all sorts of manipulations.

[403] We say, oh, not now, I'm not here, not this way.

[404] Right.

[405] We don't want it.

[406] We say no to God's gift of life tragically.

[407] in many ways.

[408] And in one of the most tragic is abortion actually murdering that life.

[409] But there are a lot of ways we say no to life otherwise through contraception and all the different ways that this marital love is not expressed in the proper way.

[410] We have to follow God's will.

[411] And kind of the flip side with technologies and with immoral choices, I mean, they're immoral, and people may not like to hear that.

[412] But if things are done in a laboratory that separate conception from the natural process, and let's say, well, it's beautiful.

[413] They're having a child.

[414] But who knows the countless numbers of children that were thrown away because they didn't quite meet the criteria?

[415] I mean, we have some strange circumstances in our world today using technology and ignoring God's plan where you literally have frozen embryos in storage.

[416] And what do you do with them?

[417] And the problem is, you know, many of them, even if they, if people said, okay, we're going to try to respect these lives, many of them will die in the process.

[418] And to just play God, these simple paragraphs remind us, when we go down that path, it's destructive in more ways than we can imagine.

[419] Bishop Strickland, Bishop Sheen's quote comes to my mind as you were speaking.

[420] He said that, and you kind of just said it when you said, I want to do it God's way.

[421] He quoted a famous song about life saying, I did it my way.

[422] and that leads to hell because our way is not God's way most of the time but the other song is I did it his way the Lord's way God's way and that leads us to heaven and it seems to me when it comes to conjugal love when it comes to marriage that it's three to get married it's my wife myself and God and when we bring God into our marriage and all these other issues of contraception you know, realizing that my salvation is tied to my wife and that when I go to give her a cup of water every morning, I'm not only serving her, I'm serving God.

[423] And I want to encourage men and women to realize that fulfilling your duties and your state in life as a husband and wife, that's doing God's will.

[424] And that's pleasing our Lord.

[425] And that is your ticket to heaven, your sanctification.

[426] with your married life.

[427] And I encourage everyone to read a book called Three to Get Married by Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

[428] Ignatius Press has it, Scepter Press has it.

[429] And I even have it on, well, you put it on cassette 30 years ago.

[430] If anybody wants to download that, I can give it to you.

[431] Go to vmpr .org.

[432] We have it on our website.

[433] At 3 to Get Married, listen to that book or go and get a hard copy and read it because it will change your marriage because what Fulton Sheen points out is it's all about doing it God's way.

[434] Bishop Strickland, we're out of time.

[435] Can you give us your blessing to our radio audience, please?

[436] The Lord be with you.

[437] And with your spirit.

[438] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for all of us as we continue this Lenton journey.

[439] Help us to rejoice that wherever we find ourselves, we can always seek repentance seek deeper conversion and trust in God's mercy to follow his path more clearly.

[440] Let us use these days of Lent to joyfully embrace the way of Jesus Christ more deeply, to trust that when we ask and humbly seek his forgiveness, he's always ready to forgive us, to welcome us back on the path of light and grace.

[441] May all the saints intercede for us, especially the Queen of Saints, the Immaculate Virgin Mary.

[442] And we ask this, in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

[443] Amen.

[444] Thank you so much, Bishop Strickland.

[445] Folks, you can get back shows by going to v .mpr .org and listen to not only the Bishop Strickland Hour, but we have several other shows that I think you'll find enlightening because the whole role of Virgin Most Powerful Radio is to help you get to heaven by the teachings of Christ in his church.

[446] We call it the perennial teachings, a departinging.

[447] positive faith that Christ has given to us to share.

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

[449] Until next time, God love you and your family.