09 May 23 – Abortion Kills the Future of the World

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour here on Virgin Most Powerful radio where we talk about the cultural issues of the day through Bishop Strickland's tweets.

[1] We also teach from a catechism of the Catholic Church that is all about the meaning and purpose of life.

[2] So Bishop Strickland, thanks again for taking an hour out of your busy schedule to be with us.

[3] Thanks, Terry.

[4] Great to be here.

[5] I'm great to be here myself.

[6] But your tweets are always defending life.

[7] I always see that through your theme.

[8] I guess it's because, yeah, 60 million babies here in America have been aborted.

[9] So I guess that is, that's a good thing to do.

[10] So one of your tweets you had put out has stated that no circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever, can make licid an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God, which is written in every human heart, notably by reason itself and proclaimed by the church.

[11] I'm assuming that the Holy Father is talking about the unborn.

[12] Is that what you, is that your understanding?

[13] Certainly that's one of the main illicit things that is being promoted by so many as illicit.

[14] and we just, to me, it's really foundational to all the violence that we're seeing, all the problems, all the lack of respect for human beings, not just the respect for their life, which is, if they're not alive, they don't have anything, but just respect for persons, respect for their rights, respect for their freedoms, all the things that this country has founded on.

[15] The very best of America is respecting the rights of others, the right to free speech, the right to protect yourself.

[16] And all of those are eroding because there's a lack of just basic respect for life.

[17] Yeah, that makes total sense to me. And you know, one of the other archbishops in the United States came out and said something very similar.

[18] And I had it just here a minute ago.

[19] Hang on a second.

[20] Archbishop Roglio was telling Catholics in the military to refuse any participation in the evil of abortion because on April 28th, the U .S. Senate recently voted 51 to 48 in favor of adding abortion coverage to the Department of Veteran Affairs.

[21] And I say this because the archbishop just said this, and this is really strong, he just said it's morally repugnant and I thought of this you've got an administration right now that is hell -bent on killing innocent life and it appears to me that Archbishop Broglio is well aware of what the government can and can't do but the very fact that he's telling our president, our government that this is dead wrong seems to me like he's filling that mandate as an Archbishop Bishop, anybody in the church to speak and defend a life.

[22] And I thank him for that.

[23] I wish we had more bishops doing that.

[24] Absolutely.

[25] He and I saw Archbishop Cordione again.

[26] Yeah, there you go.

[27] Speaking up about, you know, the evil of abortion.

[28] People shouldn't, if you support abortion, you are going against the Catholic faith and you shouldn't be receiving communion.

[29] He repeated that.

[30] Yeah.

[31] And that's pretty bold after what happened with the whole Pelosi incident.

[32] But we need to be bold.

[33] We need to be kind and clear and charitable, but bold in speaking the truth, just like you were talking about earlier with what did first century Christians do?

[34] Yeah, that's right.

[35] They boldly spoke the name of Jesus.

[36] We need to speak the name of Jesus and say, the name of Jesus means that every conceived child is sacred to God, and we need to speak up for them.

[37] So I applaud both archbishops.

[38] I'm glad to see them stepping up and speaking up the way we need to as shepherds.

[39] And you know, Bishop Strickland, that inspires Catholics and non -Catholics to really recognize that we stand for something.

[40] And I really think that's important for our culture because you said this, and I think this tweet you did on the 28th of April, you said, many are understandably overwhelmed by so much evil and corruption in the world and then you just nail it you said the answer is Jesus Christ if you know him as Lord and Savior rejoice draw close to his sacred heart if you don't know him or don't believe in him I urge you to open your heart to him he calls what a great invite invite to the world to follow Christ.

[41] I say this Bishop Strickland, that, I mean, it's really quite simple.

[42] You didn't use a lot of words to say, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life.

[43] He is the answer for life.

[44] Absolutely.

[45] Well, I got to just say that I know people, we just did a catechism, our first catechism class last night, using the Baltimore Catechism 4.

[46] And these were most people who just refresh your courses, and they all said to me this, I learned so much in that two -hour class more than I got going to a Catholic school.

[47] I'm sorry to say they said these things like or I've been going to Mass for so many years.

[48] It blew me away, but it just shows why we need to be continuing to get to the catechism and to work on our fundamentals for our faith because for some reason many of us adult Catholics haven't got a very good understanding of our Catholic faith.

[49] and that affects how you believe.

[50] Because if you haven't been taught, you're kind of like, well, you're not quite sure what to believe.

[51] And I think this is why it's important to teach people the fundamentals of the faith.

[52] And I think that's what you've been doing, and I thank you for that.

[53] And you also, Bishop Strickland, here's another tweet that you called out.

[54] I mean, it's not even in your state.

[55] But, you know, we live in the United States and we've got Internet and everything, everybody's everywhere.

[56] And it's a situation where the governor, Tim Walsh signs a bill making Minnesota a sanctuary for killing babies he's basically he's having a new nickname the abortion state the Democrat governor just signed a bill making this happen and I think that your heart goes out to these guys because this is really a serious matter killing innocent life you said tragically in your tweet the devil sanctuary governor tim waltz signs a bill making Minnesota a sanctuary for killing babies and abortion this was from a life site news here's the point I don't know what capability what he knows about Christianity about anything but the very fact that he's signing bills to kill babies he doesn't realize it maybe I don't know the guy but he's participating in a very demonic act Absolutely.

[57] It is evil and, you know, we need to really be very clearly against it because there are too many people being swept into this, you know, evil attitude of disrespect for life.

[58] And the things you see are just more atrocious all the time.

[59] And we've got to speak against it because silence leaves us.

[60] complicit with what's happening.

[61] Well, I've got some good news.

[62] It's not one of your tweets, but 25 ,000 people turned out for the March for Life in Mexico City to demand an end to abortion.

[63] Most of those people, 99 % were lay people who just said, we've got enough.

[64] We've got to stop the killing of innocent life.

[65] And I'm sure this won't make it to the New York Times or L .A. Times.

[66] But the fact is, Bishop Strickland, people are beginning more.

[67] and more to speak up for the unborn.

[68] I think that's a good thing.

[69] Absolutely.

[70] Now, one of my favorite persons you tweet, and I think he's top of the list, top of the food chain, as they say, is Cardinal Robert Serra.

[71] And you mentioned this tweet back on April 29th.

[72] He said this is what the Cardinal said, the survival of the human race depends finally on the acceptance of the Catholic Church's 2 ,000 -year teaching.

[73] that the killing of unborn children is murder.

[74] Bishop Strickland, this Cardinal just, why doesn't he tell us what he really thinks?

[75] I mean, that's how serious this matter is?

[76] He thinks so.

[77] Yeah, I agree with them.

[78] That's why I retweeted that because it really, and as I've said before, it's a human civilization issue.

[79] It's not just some, oh, one more Catholic teaching, those crazy Catholics, it's about humanity.

[80] It's about human civilization.

[81] And if we keep allowing and promoting and vociferously promoting the killing of unborn innocent children, then we can't expect any life to be respected.

[82] And sadly, we're seeing that.

[83] The atrocities being committed against just people on the street is just unbelievable.

[84] And the disrespect and the last lack of valuing human life is it's really reaching pandemic proportions.

[85] It's just, it's destructive to everything that makes a human civilization work.

[86] Yeah, I agree.

[87] I agree.

[88] Mr. Strickland, I'm going to throw you a curveball.

[89] This is a lot of, this coming up this month, May and June, are lots of ordination masses.

[90] And we just saw a statistic that the average priest today in America is 33 years old, he praised the rosary, he does Eucharistic adoration.

[91] They gave all these statistics about the 473 newly ordained priests.

[92] But I know that it takes resources to form good priests, not just the formation of the theology and philosophy, but you feed them, you house them, and take care of their needs.

[93] I wanted to just make a little pitch right now, and you don't even know I'm going to do this, but I'm doing it.

[94] And that is, Have people support your fund.

[95] How can they do that, Bishop Strickland?

[96] Well, it is expensive, as people will know, that have their own children in college.

[97] Yeah.

[98] It's about $54 ,000 a year for each seminary, and that adds up.

[99] Hang on a second.

[100] I just saw this.

[101] We're going to break.

[102] Then I want to ask people where they can make a donation to the seminary fund to help us continue to get good priests.

[103] Stay with us.

[104] You're on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[105] Stay with us.

[106] be right back.

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

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

[109] Bishop Strickland, I just made a pitch saying this.

[110] I mean, I wanted to have our listeners consider seriously making a checkout to the Diocese of Tyler for helping support, I think you've got about 20 guys, 20 seminarians or so somewhere in there that are in formation to be ordained Catholic priests if God wills it.

[111] So how can they support you with that?

[112] Where can send that check?

[113] Just, you can do it electronically on dioceseoftyler .org or look on the website.

[114] The address is 1015 East -Southeast Loop 323, Tyler, Texas.

[115] Thank you.

[116] Our pleasure.

[117] We want to see good priests coming in.

[118] And I, you know, we made a joke on the air the other day.

[119] We said the Calvary is coming.

[120] In other words, the good guys are coming up.

[121] All these young priests are orthodox.

[122] to be serious about their faith and they're marrying their eucharistic i mean it's like this is exciting okay bishop strickland you tweeted on the third sunday after easter first peter chapter two verse 11 to 19 right from the bible and i know that you've been known to say this at least for me the time i've known you we got to become first century christians again well when we're reading the acts of the apostles for the readings right after easter to pentecost and the early part of the church, it really just, it really inspires me as a layman when I see how committed the Christians were in that first century.

[123] You know, when they were told to shut up and don't talk about Jesus, they said, no, we're going to continue to talk about Jesus.

[124] And if we get thrown in jail, if we get shot or whatever, get killed, we're willing to do that because we don't have an option.

[125] We must proclaim Jesus Christ.

[126] And I thought that's so appropriate for us in our culture today even.

[127] Yeah, absolutely.

[128] And as we were talking before we started the recording, I would encourage everyone.

[129] Certainly many Catholics are participating in daily mass, and we're reading through the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

[130] Beautiful.

[131] The Acts of the Apostles are the story of the first.

[132] century church just in the readings this week.

[133] I think maybe yesterday or the day before we heard that for the first time they were called Christians.

[134] Yes.

[135] And before that, they call it the life, tell people about the life and the way.

[136] And then they're, you know, after a little while, they're called Christians.

[137] Yeah.

[138] And then later on, a couple of centuries, it will become the Catholic term is used, which simply means the universal community of Christian.

[139] Yes.

[140] And, you know, those first century stories of martyrs and of, you know, teaching the faith and being opposed and being told like you just said to not quit teaching the name of Jesus.

[141] Just the acts of the apostles is full of great stories, the conversion of Paul, all the stories of Paul as he begins his ministry.

[142] Peter, you know, those great stories, they really inspire us, just like we were talking about with the saints.

[143] Yes.

[144] They inspire us to all through the ages from the first century to the 21st century, people have died for the faith that Jesus Christ died to share with us.

[145] And that is, it's inspiring.

[146] and as the church has said from those early times the blood of the martyrs is the seed of faith and it's that that reminds us what will you die for and your life in Christ is something we should all be willing to die for well said and I think that we just celebrated St. Athanasius Feastay and in the 4th century as you know and many of our listeners know we had Aryanism of heresy going on And again, looking into that time of history, I was able to confirm this with another historian that, you know, some people say 60, 70, 80 percent of the bishops were Aryans.

[147] But in fact, what was going on was, like other times of history, when the persecution came or error came, many of our leaders, the bishops were quiet.

[148] They just didn't want to speak up because there was a political price.

[149] they'd have to pay if they spoke up against Aryanism.

[150] And not that the connection, it seems like human nature doesn't change.

[151] That we, right now, Bishop Strickland, I know it would be much easier for you in the sense of the heat not on you if you didn't speak up for the unborn or you didn't speak up for the magisterial perennial teachings of the church.

[152] But you see, you can't do that because you know that's part of who you are and what you've called to do is proclaim the truths of the gospel.

[153] I'm only saying this because Bishop Athanasius, I mean, St. Athanasius seems to me to be a great model, not for just bishops, but for us lay people, too, to say, hey, if we're going to be persecuted, they're going to take our bank accounts, they're going to do this, they're going to, all these persecutions.

[154] Hey, you know, bring it on because if I die in the state of grace, that's really all that matters.

[155] I mean, ultimately, and I just want to throw one more thing at you, and I want to get your take on it.

[156] A good priest over the weekend made this comment.

[157] On your tombstone, it's going to say, Bishop Joseph Strickland, born searching such a date, and then there'll be a little dash, and then they'll say the day that you died.

[158] And the priest made a comment, everybody, look at, that's what's going to happen.

[159] That little dash is going to affect where you go for all eternity.

[160] Yeah.

[161] That's short life, no matter if you live to be 100 years old, it's nothing compared to eternity.

[162] So I'm just trying to put things in perspective that, hey, don't worry about the persecution.

[163] Worry about most of the poor, your relationship with Christ, if you are in the state of grace living in a sacramental life, you have nothing to fear.

[164] Absolutely.

[165] I think a lot of us have heard, I probably use that dash.

[166] Oh, you have to.

[167] It's a great image.

[168] And I think the, again, going back to the first century Christians, I mean, look at the apostles.

[169] Yes.

[170] They didn't always get it right.

[171] You know, they scattered when Christ was on the cross, but they came back.

[172] And I think that hopefully inspires this as well.

[173] The apostles were real people, real men failing with sins, but ultimately they were willing to.

[174] die rather than deny the faith.

[175] Not everybody was.

[176] And, you know, as you study the first century and the first couple of centuries of the church, and certainly throughout our history, but that the church had to really grapple with the people that had denied Christ.

[177] And because they were being persecuted, and they said, you're going to get killed if you don't, or you're going to, like you were saying, you're going to lose your property or you're going to lose your position.

[178] So people did deny Christ, but then they recognized that they were wrong.

[179] They repented.

[180] And the church had to really grapple with, can we welcome back these people that have apostasized who have departed from the communion of the church?

[181] And thankfully, they figured out in the mercy of Christ, yes, we can welcome them back.

[182] And that's where really the original, the origins of the sacrament of penance come from the penitentes, the penitential ones who were making amends for the sin of apostasizing, of turning from the faith.

[183] So that was happening all during the first centuries as well.

[184] It reminds us of human beings, just like us, sinners, weak and fearful at times, but strengthened in the Holy Spirit.

[185] We're strengthened in the same Holy Spirit.

[186] We're strengthened in the Spirit and the sacraments.

[187] And we have to look to them to be a model of faith.

[188] And when we fail, when we're weak, when maybe we buckle to maybe they're demanding something at work that is anti -faith or anti -Christian, anti -Catholic, maybe we knuckle under for a bit.

[189] But if we come back, we can be forgiven and strengthened to continue to live the faith.

[190] So I think the same and the early Christian saints especially can really inspire us to see the whole spectrum of human behavior.

[191] They're not always getting it right, but they inspire us, especially the martyrs.

[192] They were willing to die rather than apostasized.

[193] And that inspires us.

[194] I mean, like you're talking about St. Athanasius.

[195] He didn't die a martyr, but he was exiled, I think, four times by different emperors.

[196] He had to make a lot of sacrifices for the faith.

[197] And as you're saying, as a bishop, really, as any Christian, in our own sphere of influence, we need to speak up.

[198] If we're mothers and fathers, if we're business people, we need to speak up for the truth and not just go along with whatever the company's saying or whatever the rest of the family's saying.

[199] we've got to, even when there's resistance and sometimes real sacrifice, we have to follow Christ who paid the ultimate sacrifice of his own divine and human life for us.

[200] Well said, I wanted to read the letter, First Peter, because it's right from the Word of God, and you tweeted this, Beloved, I urge you as souljourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

[201] Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil -doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day of the visitation.

[202] Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be the emperor or as supreme, or to the governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good.

[203] for this is the will of God that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of the foolish people live as people who are free not using your freedom as a cover up for evil but living as servants of God honor everyone love the brotherhood your God honor the emperor servants be subject to your masters with all respect not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust for this is a gracious thing in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

[204] This was 2 ,000 years ago advice.

[205] How appropriate to us today.

[206] Absolutely.

[207] You know Bishop Strickland, doing the hidden power of kindness from Father LaVossoc, this is what you do to somebody who treats you poorly.

[208] You hit them with kindness.

[209] They don't know what to do.

[210] And I've seen that over and over again in my own life.

[211] and I'm sure you've had that in your own life where the hidden power of kindness is just so overwhelming to people they just don't know what to do even though if they're mad at you they just say why aren't you going to get mad at me no I'm going to love you in spite of you being mean to me yeah just a great scripture verse something that you might want to read over and over again I read it three or four times when you tweeted it and I thought man that's that's powerful stuff about especially you know the issue here I really like this that they may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day of the visitation that your goodness will shine and they're going to ask that question why is he so happy why is he so generous when you think he'd be treating me poorly like I'm treating him it's because of my faith and you could have it too all right when we come back we'll continue on these tweets with the bishop strickland hour here on Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[212] Stay with us, family.

[213] We'll be back in a moment.

[214] Now back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[215] Welcome back, indeed.

[216] I just wanted to mention some good news, and that is that 22 countries at the United Nations are united to stop.

[217] Are you ready?

[218] America.

[219] Yeah, the Biden administration from imposing pro -LGB sex education on children.

[220] And Bishop Strickland, it seems to me, again, countries, especially down in Africa, have just said, no, this isn't right.

[221] And I'm sure you agree that they need to be speaking up on this issue.

[222] Okay, we got to go ahead.

[223] Is leading this cause to, you know, to promote immorality and a denial of the sanctity of people.

[224] you know i just got this on my uh email too that our administration is giving a half a million dollars to um pakistan to help the young people understand the LGBT movement and to try to influence their young people to you know to have this attitude that it's legitimate and it's almost i mean it hurts me because when I write that check to the IRS and I see that money going to things like that, it's, you know, you can't, I can't control that.

[225] The point of it is, yeah, we're out of control on all kinds of issues and we need to pray for our leaders, not only in the church, but in the, in our government, we should, because our president is a baptized Catholic.

[226] We love him enough to be offering prayers and sacrifices because he's doing things that are just totally contrary to a Catholic and he says he's a devout Catholic.

[227] Well, I have to say this to our president, please show it because you're doing just the opposite what Catholics do in a sense of sacredness of life and morality.

[228] So that's just me as a layman, Bishop Strickland, but yeah, I need to pray more for our leaders because they're doing things that are just undermining morality.

[229] Absolutely.

[230] And pray for their souls.

[231] Yes, yeah, because they're going to be Joe Biden.

[232] You know, like you said before, the president has got no pull when it comes to his exit interview.

[233] He's like everybody else.

[234] All right.

[235] I wanted to ask you about this Eucharistic revival that the Bishops Conference approved, I guess, about a year ago.

[236] And each diocese is doing what they can to help revive the people's devotion to the Holy Eucharist.

[237] and I know you tweeted this June 9th, June 10th of 2003 you're inviting people to a Eucharistic Congress he said all are invited to seek Eucharistic Revival in the Diocese of Tyler let us use every means available to grow in faith and reverence and devotion to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ really present in the Eucharist his body bloods present under the appearance of bread and wine You know, what you just did is you just taught us what we believe about a Eucharist, and I love that.

[238] Can you share a little bit more about what your diocese is doing?

[239] Maybe we can encourage other places to follow, but I'm curious, what are you guys doing?

[240] Processions?

[241] What is it?

[242] A eucharistic adoration?

[243] I would like to know what you're doing for your diocese.

[244] Well, yes, yes, and yes.

[245] I'll leave up.

[246] Processions, eucharistic iterations, the rosary.

[247] Yeah.

[248] every way to deepen faith, because the beauty of the Eucharist is, as we know, it's the Lord himself.

[249] Amen.

[250] In my prayer, I'm constantly reminded that as a priest, what a humbling privilege it is to stand at the altar and actually hold a host, a piece of bread in my hands, and it becomes, as I say the words of the church, prescribes the words of Christ himself, this is my body.

[251] It becomes his body.

[252] The chalice of wine becomes his blood.

[253] That needs to be promoted.

[254] And that's the greatest Eucharistic revival that we can have is a deepening faith.

[255] And once that faith is deeper, then the reverence for the Eucharist grows out of that.

[256] And like we were talking about, the reverence for every person.

[257] Yes.

[258] You were saying, Terry, that and people say, well, that's not connected to the Eucharist, but really, if you think about it, and we really believe that we are receiving the Son of God, body and blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist, then that begins to change our attitudes.

[259] It calls us to live like Christ and to love our enemies.

[260] and to, you know, love and do not curse them.

[261] I mean, those who are against us, those who may say vile things to us, the Christian way is literally to turn the other cheek.

[262] And the devotion to the Eucharist gives us the strength to do that because it draws us closer to Christ himself, to the sacred heart of Christ.

[263] So the greatest Eucharistic revival is in each, person growing deeper in faith and being drawn closer to Jesus himself in the Eucharist, then that's true Eucharistic revival.

[264] I mean, we have, and I mean, it's on a smaller, on the Diocesan scale, we have the Eucharistic Congress that we're establishing the tradition of having a Eucharistic Congress every June in the second weekend of June.

[265] every year.

[266] This year we're focusing on baptism in the context of a Eucharistic Congress because the Eucharist as the church teaches us, it's the source and the summit of our life in Jesus Christ because it is Christ.

[267] It's his real presence.

[268] So a Eucharistic Congress appropriately focuses on all the sacramental ways that God's grace and life is offered to us.

[269] Really echoed what Christ himself did when he walked this earth.

[270] He's still with us.

[271] And that's what we hope to emphasize with the Eucharistic Congress.

[272] But it's an event of a couple of days, a Friday and a Saturday on a weekend.

[273] And like the Eucharistic Congress that the nation is going to have, that's a one -time event that can encourage people and maybe draw people to a deeper faith or draw people to faith.

[274] that have never believed, but we need to remember that real Eucharistic revival is in a way of life, a way of living close to Christ.

[275] And sure, we all need those moments of special conferences or special opportunities to draw us into a deeper excitement, a deeper fervor of faith.

[276] But the main thing about a Eucharistic revival is a daily living close to.

[277] to Christ.

[278] And I have to mention as well another sacrament of drawing closer to Christ in his forgiving presence in penance, in confession.

[279] And they go hand in hand.

[280] Anyone approaching the altar to receive the body of Christ, me a priest, a bishop included, we all need to ask ourselves.

[281] Have I been to confession recently?

[282] Have I humbly asked forgiveness of my sins?

[283] And if we say, well, it's really probably been too long, it's appropriate to just say, you know, indicate that you just want to receive a prayer of blessing instead of actually receiving the body of Christ.

[284] That's a great way to express our reverence for the real presence as well.

[285] Beautiful.

[286] I'm glad you're doing all the above.

[287] Wow.

[288] And I can tell you, I went to the Eucharistic Congress and Lords in 1981.

[289] And what an experience to have thousands of people having every night processions marching at night with candles and singing hymns and having the Blessed Sacrament there.

[290] It really does embolden you and your faith about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

[291] So I'm all for it.

[292] I think it's wonderful.

[293] Bishop Strickland, we're going to be going to this catechism, The Way of Christ.

[294] It's a student book, but the St. Philip Institute is part of your diocese.

[295] And I just want to encourage people to get those resources of the St. Philip Institute.

[296] Maybe our engineer can put that website up on the screen.

[297] But tell us a little bit about the St. Philip Institute of Catechesis and Evangelization.

[298] Well, it's exactly what you just said, Terry.

[299] Institute that exists in the Diocese to promote catechesis and evangelization.

[300] Certainly the target audience is the Diocese of Tyler, but it provides resources like this book, The Way of Christ, produced by the St. Philip Institute, a great way for people to review their faith or people that are interested to even just on their own study the faith or to be in a class.

[301] and study these texts that in simple ways in a question and answer format, similar to the Baltimore Catechism, to give people a chance to really learn the basics of living the Catholic family.

[302] Well, Sid, that's just what we're going to be doing in a moment here.

[303] We're going to go ahead and study the chapter six.

[304] We're on the paschal mystery.

[305] We're going to show you why it's so important.

[306] important to know these fundamentals of the faith and not only know them but to meditate on them think about them and get it in your head about what happens at mass and the beautiful mystical experience that takes place at mass every mass and I just want I can't encourage you enough that it's a lifetime occupation I'm in my 60s and I still study my Catholic faith I'm still learning and I think that this is something that we all can have, I don't think you stop learning until God calls you home because it's that kind of a relationship.

[307] Insights, reading the Bible, reading your catechism, studying it.

[308] It really keeps you focused on what's most important in life.

[309] Also, I want to, again, remind people, just before we break, the seminary fund is something that Bishop Strickland has, I say, 20 guys that are studying for the priesthood.

[310] Just go to Tyler Diocese, and you'll see their dress, you'll see how you can support that diocese, because we all want good holy priests.

[311] I mean, that's, as a layman, there's an old saying, the way the priest goes is the way the flock goes.

[312] In other words, holy priests, holy people.

[313] All right, I hear the music.

[314] We'll take a quick break, come back and start studying our Catholic faith through the way of Christ student book from the St. Philip Institute.

[315] If you do have your copy, we're on page six, question five, and we'll continue to go through this catechism because I think it's important that all of us review our faith on a regular basis.

[316] Stay with this family.

[317] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Both Powerful Radio.

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

[319] Welcome back indeed.

[320] Now we're into the catechism class.

[321] I can't.

[322] So I'm laughing because this is something so important that we've kind of forgotten in our church.

[323] Good, solid catechism.

[324] of chis in this little booklet the way of christ student book that i have in my hands is like the bishop said it's like a baltimore catechism question and answer question five how does jesus sacrifice redeem us from sin you know that's such a fundamental question you not he says this jesus is sacrificial offering is the perfect sacrifice that pays the debt man owes to god by sin we choose separation from our infinite God.

[325] As infinite creatures, we cannot make amends for our sins and restore our relationship with God.

[326] Right.

[327] Jesus offers himself on our behalf as a man and makes an infinite offering as God, which restores our relationship with God.

[328] Viewed another way at the Passover, the Israelites sacrificed a lamb, consumed.

[329] it, spread its blood over the doorpost.

[330] Check this out.

[331] During the Last Supper, Jesus transforms this passion meal by offering himself.

[332] Wow, this is just so much a sacrifice asking his disciples to consume him, making his blood the sign of the new covenant.

[333] Jesus fulfills the Passover by offering himself as the paschal lamb to liberate man from the bondage of sin by his loving obedience to the Father Christ's suffering and death also merits an outpouring of grace which is like the life of God in us that heals us of the effects of sin and elevates us to share in God's own divine life Jesus' obedience to his father's plan, undue atoms, and our sinful disobedience.

[334] Through the act of disobedience on the cross, excuse me, through the act of obedience on the cross, Jesus models perfect obedience and gives us the grace to live this life of obedience apart from sin.

[335] Bishop Strickland, that's a whole hour.

[336] yeah and it's interesting how in that last paragraph it emphasizes obedience so often and if we think about the original sin of Adam and Eve that's exactly what had to be remedied they were disobedient and I think it goes to the deep mystery of who we are as human beings and I read something I actually tweeted this article because I read an article that talked about the one crisis the church went through in the early centuries was who is God and certainly the church came out of that crisis with an understanding of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. That was a lot of the early church's struggle.

[337] Is Jesus really man, really God?

[338] And the church's answer, guided by the Holy Spirit.

[339] yes, fully God and fully man. Another crisis came with the Protestant Reformation where the question was, what's the church?

[340] And many people decided to break away from the church that Christ established and the Protestant churches began.

[341] This, the present crisis we're in, according to this article, and I agree with it, is the question of of our day is who are we?

[342] What is a human being?

[343] And we've lost sight of what God is revealed to us that we are created by God in his image and likeness.

[344] That's a human being.

[345] And when we forget that, then the disobedience that we're seeing today, the pride and the lack of obedience to God's plan for us, whether it's obedience to who we are as individuals, obedience to the gift of life from conception to natural death, obedience to how we live as either male or female, as men or women, obedience to what marriage is between one man and one woman.

[346] I mean, the disobedience is rampant in our time, really echoing that disobedience of the original sin of Adam and Eve.

[347] It so often boils down to, why are we disobedient?

[348] Because we're prideful and we want to do it our way instead of the will of God.

[349] What Christ does is reestablish that possibility.

[350] Thankfully, through his sacrifice that this talks about, he reestablishes our ability.

[351] He conquers sin and death in a real sense we can say he has conquered for humanity.

[352] the sin of disobedience, but we've all got to be obedient to God's plan and receive that plan.

[353] I'm not perfectly obedient.

[354] None of us are.

[355] We're sinners.

[356] We fail, but we can always ask forgiveness again and be renewed in that mercy and forgiveness that the Lord offers us that Christ won for us originally in what this is talking about, the paschal mystery.

[357] The sacrifice of his own life made it possible for each of us to share in the power of his sacrifice.

[358] But God leaves us, because we're created in his image and likeness, he leaves us with the free will to choose whether we will follow, whether we will be obedient or not.

[359] And foolishly, humanity is very disobedient.

[360] If you read the history of the people of Israel, they're constantly repeating that disobedience of Adam and Eve.

[361] If you read the history of the church through the ages, humanity is constantly repeating that disobedience.

[362] But thankfully, we have the solution now in Jesus Christ that He promises will always be with us because He will always be with us.

[363] And we have to make that personal daily choice ourselves to be obedient to the will of God, to God's divine will.

[364] And thankfully, we have this divine mercy when we fail, when we wander from that path of obedience.

[365] We can always return, but we need to pray and do our best to be more and more obedient so that we can be ready to leave this life in a state, of obedience, a state of grace, and be with God for eternity.

[366] Amen, amen, amen.

[367] I love it.

[368] You know, this whole idea of obedience, you know, to the word of God, that we believe, you know, that God's word is inerrant, that it's without error.

[369] And, you know, this idea that certain people in the church come up with this idea that God's word isn't true anymore in this area, I mean, that is disobedience and it's high level and I think that all of us, what you just said, we want to be obedient to God.

[370] Well, God's given us a plan, and his love letter is that Bible.

[371] And this catechism that we're going through is constantly referring to scripture.

[372] I wanted to encourage people because in the right -hand corner of the page, it says, find out more from the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[373] I just love this section because it goes into paragraphs of the catechism that ties into what they're talking about in this booklet, this short catechism.

[374] So you get to go deeper in to the faith on this, and I just think that's a really brilliant way of teaching the faith.

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

[376] I will go to one more question that they have.

[377] It's a simple one, because we've got three minutes.

[378] Where did Jesus' soul and body go after his death?

[379] That's a good question.

[380] It says, after Jesus died, Jesus's body was buried in the tomb, his soul descended into the realm of the dead to offer salvation to those who came before him.

[381] This hell was not the hell of the damned, but the abide of those who died before him.

[382] Wow.

[383] That's a question many people have asked me over the year, so I just think that that's good to have that one there, Bishop Strickland.

[384] Can we get a blessing?

[385] I didn't realize that I was off a little bit on the time.

[386] Could you give us a blessing, please?

[387] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for Terry, Barbara, and all involved in the Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[388] Guide us always in your line and grace.

[389] The Father is done in the Holy Spirit.

[390] Amen.

[391] Folks, you can get all the shows on VMPR .org's website.

[392] All the podcasts are there for Bishop Strickland and all the other shows.

[393] I want to thank you for your support here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[394] and we want to encourage you to continue to study your faith.

[395] It's a lifetime occupation.

[396] We'll be back, God willing, next week at the same time.

[397] Thank you.

[398] God love you and your family.