26 Apr 22 – Why the Resurrection Is Real

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[2] Every week we have a conversation about our Catholic faith.

[3] We take many times his tweets that he sends out.

[4] We take the catechism of the Catholic Church, scripture, saints, things that help people fall deep in love with Jesus.

[5] Bishop Strickland, happy Easter Tuesday.

[6] Happy Easter.

[7] He has risen.

[8] Hallelujah.

[9] Amen.

[10] He's truly risen.

[11] Hallelujah is right.

[12] I love the Easter time because of the Alleluia.

[13] I say it loud because I mean it.

[14] And it's just so beautiful because we've had Lent and now we're celebrating.

[15] I don't know about you, but this week I took my family to a special meal just for lunch today.

[16] I said, it's Easter Tuesday.

[17] Come on, let's have a nice meal together.

[18] So we all took off and had a great meal.

[19] And it's just a great time of the year.

[20] And I wanted to ask you, Bishop Strickland, if we could.

[21] kind of look at whether you know the resurrection in other words why the resurrection is real and what the scriptures have to say and why it's so important for us Catholics and Christians in general that if Christ didn't resurrect then our faith is useless but I wanted to take the readings from today which is the Tuesday of the octave of Easter and I'm going to ask you to do the readings and then do something that you do every day, and that is preach on the Word of God and explain to us a little catechesis of how the Bible is teaching us fundamental teachings of life about why we believe in the resurrection.

[22] So the first reading is from Acts chapter 2, verse 36 to 41.

[23] I don't need to read it.

[24] I'd like to have you take it and read it, and then just do it if we were at your cathedral when you were saying Mass, and you were going to tell us about the resurrection.

[25] We're all ears.

[26] Okay.

[27] Well, for this Tuesday of the octave of Easter, Acts chapter 2, verses 36 to 41.

[28] On the day of Pentecost, Peter said to the Jewish people, Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified.

[29] Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles.

[30] What are we to do, my brothers?

[31] Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is made to you and to your children, and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.

[32] He testified with many other arguments and was exhorting them.

[33] Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

[34] Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3 ,000 persons were added that day.

[35] Really, there couldn't be anything more appropriate than to reflect on this reading from very early in the acts of the apostles.

[36] This is how the church began.

[37] And this reading has Peter pretty blunt and really, in a sense, sticking his neck out.

[38] Here it is.

[39] Peter says to the Jewish people, let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

[40] So Peter is bold here.

[41] on the day of Pentecost, he is telling it like it is.

[42] And that is what we Christians of this 21st century, we really have to have that same boldness of Peter to simply speak the truth.

[43] Jesus Christ, both Lord and Christ, the Son of God, whom you crucified.

[44] And we can get beat up, over saying the Jews crucified Jesus, they did.

[45] That's history.

[46] We do have to be very careful.

[47] Instead of what tends to happen is in today's world, and it's been happening for a long time, there's a tendency to say, oh, well, don't emphasize that the Jews crucified Jesus.

[48] And then you don't emphasize this and you don't emphasize.

[49] And pretty soon you're not emphasizing anything.

[50] Well said.

[51] when we emphasize that the Jews crucified Jesus, we, Christians, or whoever, humanity of the 21st century, we can't just sit on some high and lofty throne and say, oh, you know, the Jews crucified Jesus.

[52] They and their ignorance and sinfulness did, and we in our ignorance and sinfulness, continue that spirit of crucifixion, you might say.

[53] that tendency for humanity to reject the Son of God, to reject Jesus Christ.

[54] We can't look back at history and blame them.

[55] Yes, historically, it really happened that way.

[56] But when I sin in any way that we reject Christ today, we're participating in that.

[57] And I think this reading is an excellent reminder of what we all know that this This, as Peter says, that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucify, Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God, the Lord of the universe, is timeless.

[58] He entered into time with his incarnation, but he's timeless.

[59] So in that spirit of the timelessness of this one we crucified, we can recognize that.

[60] that with a timeless God in a mysterious way, we participate in that.

[61] When I sin, I participate in what led to the crucifixion of Jesus, a rejection of the truth, a rejection of him as Son of God.

[62] So rather than worrying about blaming somebody from the past, we need to get over blaming anyone but ourselves.

[63] and not stopping at blame.

[64] Christ didn't come so that we would blame ourselves, but he came God's eternal son incarnate among us to free us from all of that, to open our hearts.

[65] I think it's so interesting in this reading.

[66] It says that we're cut to the heart.

[67] We all need to be cut to the heart today.

[68] A conversion of heart.

[69] is what we need to do.

[70] And Jesus, I mean, Peter says, okay, they say, well, brothers, what do we do?

[71] After they're cut to the heart, they hear Peter and what he's saying.

[72] What do we do?

[73] Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[74] those words are critical for today because too many times the idea of forgiveness of sin of even acknowledging sin is forgotten when we don't acknowledge sin we take the guts of the meaning of the passion of Christ and his resurrection we neuter that we take the power out if sin isn't real then we don't need a savior, and we don't need someone to save us from the slavery of sin.

[75] We know that sin is real, maybe more real in today's world than ever before.

[76] And certainly, without having to make comparisons, we just know it's real today.

[77] There's a war going on.

[78] There is starvation.

[79] There is fear.

[80] There is violence in our cities.

[81] There are families that are crumbling.

[82] Sin is real.

[83] People don't want to acknowledge it, but whether you acknowledge it or not, sin is real.

[84] And that's part of the mystery of embracing the message of Jesus Christ, his life, suffering, death, and resurrection.

[85] We've got to embrace the whole reality of Christ.

[86] And someone I was talking to recently, we were talking about the way we grew up.

[87] And the way this person put it was sort of a cotton candy gospel, sweet and fluffy.

[88] But sin isn't sweet and fluffy.

[89] The passion of Christ isn't sweet and fluffy.

[90] And if you're left with just a sweet and fluffy approach to the message of Jesus Christ, you can understand why people reject it, why people turn away.

[91] They say, that's not meaningful to me. But the real message of Jesus Christ is challenging, is devastating, and is ugly, but it's in that ugliness that he overcomes with the light of his resurrection.

[92] So it's that dynamic between good and evil, life and death, sin and virtue.

[93] and that's tended to be blunted in our time.

[94] We need to bring back the sharp two -edged sword that St. Paul talks about, the sword that is the truth of Christ.

[95] It is a two -edged sword.

[96] It cut these Jews to the heart.

[97] Yep.

[98] It should cut all of us to the heart and say, Lord, how do I need to repent and live my baptism more fully?

[99] Those of us who have repented and been baptized, it's not a done deal.

[100] It's not over with.

[101] And any time we start thinking or living as if we can coast, that's when we get ourselves in trouble.

[102] And I think in many ways, that's the culture of the church and the world.

[103] Even for believers, it's like we have this mindset that, well, it's all been accomplished and we can just sort of coast to the finish line.

[104] we're sadly getting a sad awakening that we can't coast to the finish line.

[105] We've got to be strong, rejecting sin, and living the virtues of the gospel.

[106] Wow.

[107] That's what Easter's about.

[108] Amen.

[109] You're listening to the Bishop Stricklander.

[110] We'll come back.

[111] We're talking about the Easter Tuesday readings of the gospel and of the Acts of Apostles.

[112] Stay with us, family.

[113] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[114] He just covered the Acts of the Apostles chapter.

[115] 2 verse 36 to 41.

[116] It's Easter Tuesday.

[117] And Bishop Strickland, thanks for that catechesis.

[118] Something brought up when you were teaching us about that reading.

[119] I thought of St. John Paul 2's quote when he said back in 1995 in October at the Orioles baseball park, he said freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.

[120] And it seems to me that that's pretty much a very biblical teaching that we have to do what we ought to do.

[121] In other words, what's right and not what's comfortable.

[122] And I think that's the message there.

[123] Bishop, one more comment.

[124] Another bishop, an outspoken bishop, said something that I've given to you before.

[125] He said this because what you have been teaching us, sometimes in the church is not clearly articulated.

[126] We have people in the church who sometimes want to tickle our ears and not tell us the full gospel.

[127] And Bishop Robert Barron, who's our auxiliary bishop here in the Los Angeles Diocese, said this, and I think he's absolutely right, but he said, it's a sign of a corrupt church that stops thinking deeply about the truths of Christianity.

[128] A church that is against being precise about its teaching is a corrupt church.

[129] And I'm going to interpret it my way, then I want to hear your thought.

[130] My thought is ambiguity is not good.

[131] the church.

[132] We need clarity with charity.

[133] Am I onto something?

[134] Well, I think so.

[135] And Bishop Barron is on to something too, because as we say many times, Terry, it's about the truth.

[136] And the truth brings great challenges, but it's, it brings our salvation.

[137] Of course, we know that Jesus Christ is truth incarnate.

[138] Amen.

[139] Satan and the evil powers of the world that he is in charge of, he's the father of lies, thought that truth had been extinguished, but it's not possible, and Christ showed that it's not possible.

[140] I think the last part of the reading from Acts really speaks to all of that, John Paul's quote and Bishop Barron.

[141] It says about Peter, he testified with many other arguments and was exhorting them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

[142] Those who accepted this message were baptized, and about 3 ,000 persons were added that day.

[143] I think it's because Bishop Barron mentioned that word corrupt.

[144] Yes, he did.

[145] And we see a lot of corruption today.

[146] I think it's a reminder here we have in Acts of the Apostles as the Church is beginning.

[147] Saint Peter says, save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

[148] In a very real sense, that's the mission of the church in every generation, to be saved from the corruption of sin and evil and all the ways that humanity gets off track.

[149] We're constantly, the church and the human family, we're constantly in this.

[150] need of reform.

[151] Look at the sweep of history since those words spoken by St. Peter in every generation sense can say, we're a corrupt generation.

[152] Yep.

[153] The next one's, they're a corrupt generation.

[154] We're definitely a corrupt generation now.

[155] Where's our salvation to turn from that corruption, to hear the good news of Jesus Christ?

[156] Another thing that we talked about, a little bit before we actually started the session this afternoon.

[157] We've got to embrace this as reality.

[158] Amen.

[159] There are too many times that the stories of Jesus, and some of this goes back to some scripture scholarship, that really begin to lose faith and lose the real kernel of the corigma, you might say, of the real message for Peter And for those Jews in the crowd in today's reading, whose hearts were cut by the truth that they were hearing, it's not a nice story.

[160] It's not an image.

[161] It's not poetic ideas.

[162] It's reality that they're facing.

[163] We killed the guy.

[164] We saw him dying a cross.

[165] And you're telling us he rose from the dead.

[166] What do we do?

[167] That's in basic colloquial.

[168] real terms, that's what the Jews said.

[169] What are we supposed to do now?

[170] We killed the guy.

[171] And Peter says, repent of your sins.

[172] Even if you were one of, let's just work with that a little bit.

[173] Yeah, let's do it.

[174] Imagine that probably this crowd of Jews, they may have been there with some of the Sanadron and some of the leadership that, at least in some of the movies that are depicted as standing there.

[175] Certainly, very likely, part of the Roman idea of crucifixion was that it was a public execution.

[176] So the public was there.

[177] But imagine that maybe this is a crowd of Jews that St. Peter's talking to at Pentecost.

[178] Imagine that one of the soldiers that nailed the nails through the hand of Christ there when they nailed him to the cross.

[179] Imagine one of those soldiers is there just with his Jewish friend.

[180] They went and said, let's go and see what this guy is to say.

[181] I mean, just imagination.

[182] But imagine that that soldier who says, we not only killed him, the Jews may have killed him or the Roman, I mean, all the authorities of the day killed him.

[183] But I was the one who nailed his left hand.

[184] to the cross.

[185] And for that soldier to hear, this is what you do.

[186] You repent of your sins, which includes being the one who nailed the son of God's hand to the wooden cross.

[187] Maybe even laughing as you did so, but that same soldier can repent and seek baptism and live in the way of this Christ and Lord that Peter's speaking of.

[188] That would be very real for that soldier.

[189] It wouldn't be just a nice idea or some poetic imagery.

[190] It was reality.

[191] He knew what he had done.

[192] And let's say that he hears Peter, and he's one of those of the 3 ,000 that is saved that day.

[193] That's the kind of down and dirty reality that we're talking.

[194] talking about, where people saw this man Jesus that was jeered at, that was bloody, that was carrying this cross.

[195] They saw him die.

[196] They saw the other two, the good thief and the bad thief that died with him, saw their legs broken, saw him pierced by the soldier's lance.

[197] Every, all of that is not just a story, but it's a record of reality.

[198] We need to embrace that and challenge anyone that says, oh, you believe in a fairy tale.

[199] It's hardly a fairy tale.

[200] It's a pretty gruesome tale if you get to the reality of it.

[201] But it's so much more than a fairy tale in the truth of the good news that comes from that empty tomb.

[202] Well said.

[203] As we go on to look at the gospel, those great stories are rich with imagery as well of reality that people.

[204] people recorded because this really happened.

[205] It really did change the world, and it has the potential, by the grace of God, Jesus still with us, to change the world and to change our world right now.

[206] Well, Seth, before we go to the gospel, I love the Psalm 33.

[207] It says, the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

[208] And then this stanza really touched me. It says, upright is the word of the word.

[209] the Lord and all his works are trustworthy.

[210] He loves justice and right of the kindness of the Lord.

[211] The earth is full.

[212] And the next stanza says, see the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him upon those who hope for his kindness to deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine.

[213] And the lastanza, our soul waits for the Lord who is our help and our shield.

[214] May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you.

[215] Can you comment on that song?

[216] Because the part that I really like Bishop Strickland is all of his works are trustworthy.

[217] I just love that.

[218] We can trust that the word of God is true.

[219] Your thoughts?

[220] Yeah, I think that we do need to emphasize that where people are making claims that, oh, that work can change and you can doubt this.

[221] that isn't our faith.

[222] It's simply not Christian faith.

[223] Amen.

[224] Never has been and never will be.

[225] It is not, it's a corruption of the faith that many people have lived and died to proclaim through 2 ,000 years.

[226] So we do need to emphasize, upright is the word of the Lord and all his works are trustworthy.

[227] The son of God is trustworthy.

[228] the witness of the apostles is trustworthy.

[229] We have to stay strong in that trust and in that faith because, yes, it's been many, many centuries, but another way to look at it, Terry, to really underscore that trustworthiness that we're talking about, what else is still part of the human reality as powerfully as the message of Jesus Christ.

[230] The one they crucify.

[231] Even the Gospels record, oh, well, the story was developed with his body was stolen and the soldiers were paid off to keep that story going.

[232] All of that false news, fake news, was already there in the first century in the days following the resurrection of Christ.

[233] But the power and the truth is what we witness to.

[234] And the centuries have not been able to extinguish that light of truth, no matter how many have tried.

[235] And they're still trying today.

[236] I mean, there are people that have pledged to rid the world of the Catholic Church.

[237] And people that are Christians of other communities may not realize it.

[238] But what they're saying, what they want to do, when they say, we want to rid the world.

[239] of the Catholic Church, they want to rid the world of the name of Jesus Christ.

[240] And they know that if they were able to accomplish the total destruction of the Catholic Church, which is not ultimately an institution or a set of dogmas or anything, it's a community of believers who know who Jesus Christ is, who fully know who Jesus Christ is, and word and sacrament in all the teaching.

[241] So yes, it encompasses all that the church is, but it's not reduced to some element of an institution.

[242] It's believers.

[243] And that's why it will never die.

[244] It's because the believers, from those 3 ,000 in the reading from Acts to the ones just baptized in our cathedral this past Easter in cathedrals around the world and parishes around the world, baptisms and people being confirmed and receiving the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ for the first time.

[245] We have some new people, brand new Christians, that would be willing to die rather than to deny the Lord that they've come to know just recently.

[246] Wow, we're talking about why the resurrection is real, taking the readings for Easter 2, We'll come back with more on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[247] Stay with us, family.

[248] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[249] My joy is really strong right now because, you know, we just experienced Lent.

[250] We went through the Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday.

[251] And I'm pumped because all these readings that we had, Salvation History was brought through.

[252] And now we're here in the octave of Easter.

[253] and Bishop Strickland is going through the scriptures for us on Tuesday of Easter, Tuesday.

[254] And I was just saying, Bishop Strickland, the Psalm for today's Mass, the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

[255] You were kind of sharing your thoughts about that Psalm.

[256] Now, I know priests and bishops, you guys pray your bravery, so you've been reading the Psalms most of your life because you're in your early 60s now.

[257] and so can you give us a little bit more commentary on that psalm and then if we could be so good to go to the gospel of john after that for today's reading sure well the song we talked about the lord is trustworthy in all his works yeah the next part of it says the eyes of the lord are upon those who fear him upon those who hope for his kindness to deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine.

[258] What that talks about is that the Lord is with us.

[259] And people need to know that.

[260] Jesus, his son, is with us, really present.

[261] He promised he would be.

[262] And that's another reality that we really need to emphasize for ourselves, for our loved ones, for our communities, that Jesus is here.

[263] Jesus is Lord and as Lord of all he is with us.

[264] That needs to be a great strength for us to be aware that the Lord never abandons us and that his presence is really with us.

[265] I think a lot of people need to embrace that and really believe that because so much of the devastation in our world today with talking about people that are depressed and suicidal and their lives are a mess.

[266] If they believed that God, their creator, the son of God, the second person of the Trinity, truly loves them and truly is with them.

[267] It's life -changing.

[268] That's what these people we were talking about that entered into the church through the Easter sacraments, that's what they've come to experience.

[269] And we have to pray for them that they continue to grow stronger in faith.

[270] Too many times, even when we have those great experiences of encountering the Lord, when life gets rough, the faith can diminish.

[271] It's something that needs to be nurtured.

[272] Bishop Strickland, it reminds me now our own culture.

[273] We've gone through the COVID time of two years of people wearing masks and being fearful of getting, you know, or the virus and potentially dying, you know, 99 .9 % of the people survive it.

[274] But this fear that was given to our culture, it seems to me, has been so extreme that even now that the mask mandates being taken off for airplanes, I still hear and talk to people who are just scared to death to take their mask off because they think that they're going to die.

[275] and I just want to ask you, because this is my take, it seems that we fear the wrong things in life.

[276] I mean, if we had a little bit of fear of going to hell because of our sinfulness, then I would say that's more balance than thinking that you need to wear a mask when you're in your car alone or when you're going to take walks alone.

[277] I mean, it seems like we've forgot the meaning and purpose of life and that this whole COVID thing has been, exaggerated to a point where people's mental health has been ruined, and it's all because they fear the wrong things in life.

[278] That's my take.

[279] I want to hear your thoughts.

[280] Well, I think you're right, Terry, and fear of the Lord is something that we, it's an ancient, it's part of the Hebrew scriptures, an idea of fear of the Lord.

[281] And I think there's a lot of rejection of that in the world today, even among Christian.

[282] Oh, we're not supposed to fear of the Lord.

[283] But what that is getting at, I think, is the idea of the power that is there and the fear of the Lord to remind us of that great power and the potential that all of us have to be without the Lord.

[284] That's what the fear of the Lord should enkindle in us is an awareness that part of the way God has made us in his image and likeness, we have the free will to turn from it.

[285] And all of us do to the degree that we sin, and we're all sinners.

[286] Hopefully we keep that in minimal ways, but we're sinners.

[287] And to the degree that we sin, we're turning away from the Lord.

[288] And I think that that is really, I would say, Terry, an interesting thing to reflect on.

[289] it was fear really that caused Jesus to be crucified because they were afraid of the truth that he was living and proclaiming it was too challenging and I think that that fear is still very much with us I'm with you so fear of the Lord is an awareness of of whose creation it is and who's where we come from it's a real dose of reality, as we've talked about reality.

[290] And we should have a healthy fear of the Lord in the sense that we know his power.

[291] We know his love, but we know his power.

[292] And we know that he is the just judge.

[293] Thankfully, only the Lord judges us.

[294] And we shouldn't judge each other or judge ourselves, but we do have to fear the Lord in that sense to know that he is to just judge and the ways that we are not faithful should challenge us to be more faithful.

[295] Bishop Strickland, if we've got a segment and a half left for the gospel, could you please share today's gospel of Easter Tuesday, which is John chapter 20, verse 11 to 18 and give us an explanation.

[296] Sure, John chapter 20.

[297] Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping and as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been.

[298] And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?

[299] She said to them, they have taken my lord and i don't know where they laid him when she had said this she turned around and saw jesus there but did not know it was jesus jesus said to her woman why are you weeping whom are you looking for she thought it was the gardener and said to him sir if you carried him away tell me where you laid him and I will take him.

[300] Jesus said to her, Mary, and she turned to and said to him in Hebrew, Roboni, which means teacher.

[301] Jesus said to her, stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brothers and tell them, I'm going to my father and your father, to my God and your God.

[302] Mary went and announced to the disciples.

[303] I have seen the Lord and then reported what he had told her.

[304] So your thoughts?

[305] Well, this passage from John really captures once again the reality of the Lord who had died, who was laid in a tomb.

[306] Mary goes there to visit, as people often do, to go visit the cemetery, recently after her death, it's something that people do.

[307] Mary was going to visit the Lord who had died and been buried.

[308] I think it's really interesting, and it just, of course, makes sense.

[309] But the way Mary is approaching it, she says she doesn't know where they laid him.

[310] Of course, she is approaching the reality that he died, that he was a dead body.

[311] Dead bodies don't move themselves.

[312] And the way she speaks, where did they lay him?

[313] It's a reminder of the reality that Mary Magdalene is facing.

[314] The Lord that she had followed for so long died.

[315] Yep.

[316] And we've all experienced the death of someone, loved ones or dear friends or maybe just acquaintances and death is painfully real and that is what Mary Magdalene is dealing with and when she says she doesn't know where they have laid him it just underscores that a dead person has no ability to to move themselves or to do anything they they become a lifeless object, certainly a sacred vessel, we believe, because they were the vessel of the Holy Spirit.

[317] There were the vessel of the life of a son or daughter of God.

[318] But that dead body has no ability.

[319] And Jesus was a corpse, a dead body.

[320] And that's why Mary Magdalene is approaching the whole reality of what she faces.

[321] I mentioned that just to understand that just to understand underscore again, that his death was real.

[322] He wasn't just asleep.

[323] He wasn't just pretending.

[324] He wasn't this sort of semi -man that was really just God.

[325] It gets down to what the church, even after this, came to understand.

[326] What we know is the description, fully God and fully man. All of that hadn't been worked out yet, but this gospel really illustrates that Jesus, fully a man like us and all things but sin, he'd really died.

[327] His body had ceased to function as a living body.

[328] In dead bodies, don't get up and move.

[329] Mary Magdalene, that's the reality she's dealing with.

[330] And so we can imagine her astonishment as this dialogue where she turns around.

[331] I just love the human down -to -earth way that it's expressed.

[332] She thought it was the gardener.

[333] Of course.

[334] She thought there was a reasonable explanation for who this is standing next to her, and she didn't recognize him.

[335] Let me jump in.

[336] We're going to talk more about his last segment, The Gospel of John, chapter 20, verse 11 to 18.

[337] Stay with us, family.

[338] Don't forget, go to vmpr .org for all the different events that are coming up.

[339] The men's conference in June, the marriage conference in May. Go to vmpr .org.

[340] Check us out.

[341] We'll be back with more.

[342] Stay with us, family.

[343] family.

[344] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[345] Today we've been talking about the scripture readings for Easter Tuesday, and we're on the gospel of John chapter 20, verse 11 to 18.

[346] Bishop Strickland, can please continue in this segment on basically a catechesis.

[347] You're teaching us through the word of God, our faith.

[348] So I'm all ears.

[349] Well, thanks, Terry.

[350] And really, this is what I'm, it's all about.

[351] Amen.

[352] Everything we talk about every week comes down to the community of believers that gathered around the risen Lord.

[353] And as we know, they originally called the way.

[354] And then they were called Christians.

[355] And then later on, Catholic, which basically just means a universal movement of disciples of Jesus, those who were his followers.

[356] So it all starts with Mary Magdalene at the tomb.

[357] She goes at the end of this passage.

[358] She goes and reports everything he told her to the rest of the disciples.

[359] We know the other versions of the gospel stories where Peter and Paul go to the tomb and all of these resurrection appearances that were the reality of those in the community who had seen him die and they saw him risen.

[360] And that's what, as we started off this segment today, that's what we have to continually go back to.

[361] This is reality.

[362] And to me, what comes to mind in our time is, once again, the reality of the Eucharist and the reality of the sanctity of the life of every person.

[363] We've got to get back to reality in our world and in our church.

[364] yes it's i guess it's the human circumstance that the more time goes by and the more that happens the more it tends to dim but the bright the light of christ is as bright as ever and what strikes me in the last part of this gospel passage where that that beautiful simple dialogue she thought he was the gardener until he says her name yeah there's something very beautiful about that as well that the Lord knows her name.

[365] He knows your name.

[366] He knows my name.

[367] He knows the name of every person on the planet.

[368] He knows us.

[369] And that's what we've got to help people to realize more clearly and more deeply.

[370] There are too many people that don't know Jesus and don't realize that he is Lord of all and that he knows our names.

[371] And I also like the title that Mary Magdalene just spontaneously uses, it's probably what she called him all the time she was following him, she says Raboni, which means teacher.

[372] What do teachers do?

[373] They teach the truth.

[374] And that is, I think that's very significant for the title that Mary Magdalene uses for the risen Lord.

[375] He's her teacher.

[376] And he has taught her where her sins, where she's freed from her sins and able to be transformed in the life of Christ.

[377] It's available to all of us.

[378] Bishop Strickland, this comment at the end of the gospel says, I have seen the Lord.

[379] It seems to me to tie in with the Holy Eucharist.

[380] Here we are 2 ,000 years later.

[381] We weren't there at the resurrection, but we really can be present with the Lord through the Eucharist.

[382] Am I on to something?

[383] Oh yeah, absolutely.

[384] And that's what I was trying to emphasize also that we have to believe.

[385] He told us, this is my body, this is my blood.

[386] He tells us you must eat my body and drink my blood to have life in you.

[387] There's so many Eucharistic verses and phrases that we can turn to.

[388] But, and I'm glad you bring that up again, Terry, because in our time, the reality of the Eucharist is what connects us most deeply to, the resurrection.

[389] And if we understand the mass, the mass, every mass, whether on Sunday or weekdays, however elaborate or however simple, whatever language, whatever form, if it's the mass, the celebration of the Last Supper that we celebrate and what we call the mass, we are celebrating exactly this.

[390] The mass is celebrating Easter.

[391] The mass is celebrating the corigma, the whole passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

[392] Everything that we celebrate in the Tritome is captured in every mass. So the reality of the resurrection is in the reality of the Eucharist.

[393] So the more people that say they don't really believe in the real presence, if you keep pushing that, then they'll have to admit that They don't believe in the resurrection either.

[394] And if you do believe in the resurrection, then believe in the real presence.

[395] And just sort of playing with those words even, Terry, the Eucharist puts us in the real presence of the resurrected Lord.

[396] Right.

[397] It puts us in the real presence of the resurrection.

[398] It's the same Lord Jesus, the same one that Mary Magdalene calls Raboni.

[399] Yep.

[400] The same one that she thought was a gardener is there with us, veiled under the form of consecrated bread and wine, but really present.

[401] So I like that idea that when we are in Eucharistic adoration, we need to, with our hearts and with our minds, with our prayer, we need to let ourselves be drawn back to the resurrected Lord who died and rose.

[402] because that's what we're celebrating, commemorating at every Mass, that he died and rose for us, and his resurrected body is with us to nurture us, to become more and more like him.

[403] Wow.

[404] You know, I'm reading a book called The Catholic Mass by Bishop Athanasius Snyder steps to restoring the centrality of God in the liturgy.

[405] And some of the quotes that he's using from the fathers of the church, And it just touches me when they say that Holy Mass is the greatest spiritual treasure we have here on earth.

[406] I thought, well, I believe that.

[407] All humanity is redeemed through the sacrifice of the cross, but not everyone is individually saved.

[408] They are redeemed objectively, but subjectively only those are saved who are actually united to Christ in faith and charity.

[409] it just seems to me that if we understood the mass that you're talking about we would be blown away by what takes place the life death and resurrection of Christ I mean he points out the Holy Mass puts us in daily contact with the bloody sacrifice of the cross so the life death and resurrection is there and Bishop Strickland that's what you're teaching us here that if we understood the Eucharist we understand the mass it seems that that could renew the Catholic Church today because there's an old saying, the way you worship is the way you believe.

[410] Absolutely.

[411] And the renewal of Eucharistic faith is, I believe, the most important thing we need to do in the church and in the world because it's a renewal in the belief that Easter really means something.

[412] Easter is reality that the Son of God died and rose.

[413] Amen.

[414] That's what the mass proclaims.

[415] And again, it's not just ideas, but it's a physical presence that feeds us.

[416] Amen.

[417] Yes, it still looks like bread and wine, but it feeds us.

[418] And we've just got to help those who believe to believe more deeply and to repent more fully.

[419] As I said during this Lent that we just finished, I encourage people, to really embrace repentance, reparation, and atonement.

[420] But that needs to continue.

[421] We're not done repenting.

[422] We need to repent of our sins for as long as we're in this life until we pass from this world to the next.

[423] Then we'll have to deal with the consequences of our sins.

[424] And hopefully we've chosen enough of Christ that we can go through purgatory and be ultimately share in the fullness of the life of God that he longs to share with us.

[425] But as long as we're in this world, we need to be realistic, repentant sinners.

[426] Well, said, and you know, Bishop Strickland, what I love about this message you just gave from the scriptures is it really comes down to our free will.

[427] We have to choose God.

[428] I mean, people sometimes think that salvation is free.

[429] you know it just we just go everybody goes to heaven but you know we you and I've been talking about this for over a year and a half that it's not that simple that we have a response get god gives us an opportunity to us for us to repent and believe in the gospel but he's not going to force it upon us absolutely yeah and that's the message i get now bishop strickland we have a couple minutes left I just want to give a plug before the blessing for the St. A great Philip Institute because I like the resources you have there.

[430] Can you give us a little pitch for that right now?

[431] Absolutely, yes.

[432] The St. Philip Institute, St. Philip Institute .org is the website.

[433] There are a lot of resources there.

[434] There's a great video that we've just reintroduced that captures the whole message of what we're talking about.

[435] And the impact it has for all of us.

[436] The St. Ilep Institute really serves the Diocese of Tyler, but it's available to anyone who wants to go to the website for some great articles and great teachings, great videos and podcasts discussing the faith.

[437] And it's an opportunity to be reminded that the reality of our faith is available to all of us.

[438] And it's life -changing.

[439] We need to embrace our life in Jesus' Christ, the real presence, because he's there for each of us.

[440] Amen.

[441] How about your bishops, how about a blessing for this Easter Tuesday for all of our listeners?

[442] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for everyone participating and listening to Virgin Most Powerful Radio that they may take the opportunity to say yes more deeply to Jesus Christ, the Lord who died and rose for us all, and to trust.

[443] that his mercy and forgiveness is there to wash over us.

[444] As long as we repent, his mercy is there.

[445] We must reform our lives and turn from sin and embrace his call of love and mercy.

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

[447] Amen.

[448] Thank you, Bishop Strickland.

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

[450] Or if you would like to listen to any of the other shows.

[451] They're all there.

[452] The Jesse and Terry show, the Jesus 9 -1 -1, lots of shows that we have available here for downloads, and they're absolutely free.

[453] Also, I want to remind everybody to check us out.

[454] We've got the men's conference coming up in June with Jess Romero, and we also have the marriage seminar in May. Just take a look at vmpr .org for the dates.

[455] You can stream it, or you could be in person at those conferences.

[456] And I want to wish all of you, our listeners, a very happy, holy Easter Tuesday, and celebrate all week long that Jesus Christ has truly risen from the dead.

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

[458] Until next week, we'll talk to you soon here at Virgin Most Powerful radio on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[459] God love you and your family.