31 Jul 24 – How to Make Moral Choices

[0] Welcome to the Terry and Jesse show.

[1] Actually, Bishop Strickland Hour.

[2] I'm on another day.

[3] Bishop Strickland, welcome to another show.

[4] I loved yesterday's show.

[5] And we promised to everybody that we would talk about an erroneous judgment, but before we, for the catechism, but before we do that, Bishop Strickland, we have the gospel.

[6] It's a very, very short gospel.

[7] It's the last day of July, the month of the precious blood of Jesus.

[8] and it's the gospel of Matthew continuing chapter 13 verse 44 to 46 could you proclaim that gospel and give us a teaching on it please sure thank you a reading from the holy gospel according to Matthew glory to the Lord praise be Jesus Christ Jesus said to his disciples the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field which a person finds in high again.

[9] And out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

[10] Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant, searching for fine pearls.

[11] When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.

[12] The gospel of the Lord.

[13] Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

[14] Really, Terry, that everything we talked about yesterday.

[15] is what this gospel is talking about.

[16] Our Catholic faith, our life in Jesus Christ, is the pearl of great price.

[17] It's the buried treasure.

[18] And the saints inspire us, the martyrs and really all the saints, the saints inspire us to, They give us the example that once you have that buried treasure, once you find the pearl of great price, there's nothing that will pull you away from it.

[19] There's nothing that you won't sacrifice in order to maintain that treasure in your life, to continue to have the pearl of great price.

[20] certainly the martyrs by definition give up their life rather than allowing the pearl of great price to be taken from them and that's the way we need to live our faith to recognize like we've talked about so many times before yes it's a challenge we were talking about St. John Vianney, saying, if you're worried about whether people like you, don't be Catholic.

[21] It's challenging, but it brings a deeper, everlasting joy that nothing of the world can bring.

[22] I as I read this passage like you said it's just a brief few verses but it it says profound truth and reading the catechism recently it part of the catechism says that really the only And I think that that's something to really reflect on, because in a sense, that's the opposite of what Jesus talks about in this gospel passage, the buried treasure or the pearl of great price.

[23] The kingdom is the kingdom of heaven is the opposite of sin, and the opposite of what's evil in the world.

[24] But I think that we need to be reminded that the only evil in the world is sin.

[25] God created the world good.

[26] Sin came into the world through Adam and Eve and corrupted.

[27] And we still live in, it's called concupiscence.

[28] We live in a world that is prone to sin.

[29] But I think it's really good for us to remember that the only evil.

[30] is sin because, you know, things that happen, someone's in a terrible car accident.

[31] I saw one just yesterday here in Tyler, prayed for whoever.

[32] Thankfully, they already had ambulance and fire truck, you know, all the things that happened at the scene of an accident.

[33] But it looked really bad.

[34] It's a little prayer for the people.

[35] So I think people in our modern times, they tend to think, oh, that's evil.

[36] That's tragic, but it's not evil unless something sinful caused that to happen.

[37] I mean, accidents happen, bad things happen, but sin is the root of all of that.

[38] And I think that that's important for us to remember as we search for the pearl of great price and the treasure in the field, these images of the kingdom of heaven.

[39] And I know we're going to talk about this idea of making judgments.

[40] Yes.

[41] We need to make judgments.

[42] Is that guiding me to the pearl of great price, or is it taking me away from the pearl of great price?

[43] That's the judgment we really need to make.

[44] And so this gospel really reminds us of those basic things that we need to do to to live the truth, to flourish as God has created us, to flourish.

[45] And I think it's so important for us to be reminded by the Word of God, by the catechism, as you've said so many times, and I know I've experienced, the beauty of scripture, old and New Testament, but I have to say I'm most familiar with the New Testament, but any scripture, you can read it over and over again and always discover something new of the truth.

[46] Because the truth is so much deeper than any of us can really understand, we can always see new facets of the truth in a scripture passage.

[47] And so that's why it needs to be part of our prayer and part of our faith journey is reading sacred scripture.

[48] Because, I mean, these readings that come up for daily mass, I know you go to daily mass. I celebrate mass daily.

[49] And we've heard these readings before.

[50] Oh, yeah.

[51] But life circumstances change.

[52] We're in a different place.

[53] We're dealing with different things.

[54] And if we listen, we can hear.

[55] hear different facets of the truth that may very directly help us in a situation.

[56] This passage of, you know, the kingdom of heaven is like, and Jesus does that with a number of images, but today's gospel talks about it's like the treasure in a field, buried in a field, very often the treasure of our faith can get buried in just the day -to -day busyness that people are involved in.

[57] And that's why we need the day of rest every Lord's Day, every Sunday, to really, I mean, live this gospel.

[58] Look for the treasure.

[59] Look for the pearl of great price.

[60] Because other than the treasure, and I'm not.

[61] other than the pearl of great price, everything else is passing and will slip through our fingers.

[62] I mean, you know, I think we've talked about it before, but I really like carbs.

[63] You know, I have a nice car now, but, you know, and I've never really could or wanted to necessarily buy the greatest car.

[64] but I really like cars.

[65] And I saw one that, from what I understand, I forget the name of it, but it's an electric vehicle that it's sort of a branch of Tesla, the man that worked at Tesla.

[66] But anyway, that is not the pearl of great price.

[67] It's a neat car.

[68] I love the car, but it won't be long, you know.

[69] I mean, cars can be, you know, cared for and taken care of.

[70] I went to the Corvette Museum, you know, years ago.

[71] And I was surprised that I love corvettes, but people don't drive them.

[72] They're like museum pieces.

[73] They hardly have any miles on it.

[74] And that's one way to preserve it.

[75] But it's still, even if you preserve it in showroom, floor, pristine condition, it's still going to rust one day.

[76] It's not going to last forever.

[77] Only thing that lasts forever is the kingdom of heaven.

[78] And that's why the pearl of great price, if we like cars or we like gadgets or we want to make a lot of money, that's never the pearl of great price.

[79] And sometimes all of that can be what buries the treasure in the field.

[80] So we have a hard time finding it.

[81] It's buried in all the things of the world that we think are so valuable that really aren't valuable at all.

[82] Thank you, Bishop Strickland.

[83] Yeah, distractions.

[84] I mean, we can get, I like baseball, okay?

[85] And I can see, I have friends who go to sporting events year -round.

[86] Everything is all about sports.

[87] But knowing them and they're my friends, I ask, I don't want to go to too many sporting events.

[88] I'll tell you why.

[89] It distracts me from my duty to serve me. my family.

[90] Now, I'm not opposed.

[91] I've been to two baseball games this year.

[92] Okay, fine.

[93] I had my grandchildren, had my daughter, and my wife.

[94] That was fun, but that doesn't mean I live at the stadium.

[95] So this is what we call a balanced life.

[96] When we come back, we're going to talk about the formation of a conscience, and how do we do that under the mind of Jesus Christ and his church?

[97] Stay with this family.

[98] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin, most powerful.

[99] radio.

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

[101] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[102] Yes, I am a busy man. I took a break here.

[103] Bishop Strickland, I think this is really critical.

[104] The topic we're hitting right now, because you constantly talk about the truth.

[105] Even when you were the Bishop of Tyler, you'd always say, what is the truth?

[106] What is the truth?

[107] Well, how do we form our conscience?

[108] And I thought, why don't we go to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1783, and read a couple paragraphs and talk about the moral teachings of the church on conscience, formation of it.

[109] 1783 says, conscience must be informed, a moral judgment enlightened, a well -formed conscience is upright and truthful.

[110] It formulates its judgment according to reason, conformity with the true good, willed by the wisdom of the Creator.

[111] I just love that.

[112] I think that's beautiful.

[113] The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subject to negative influences like the world, tempted by sin, to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.

[114] Now, Bishop Strickland, that paragraph says a lot because we are just, we just passed a very insignificant date, July 25th, 1968, Hermione Vite was put out.

[115] And many people rejected that saying their conscience says the Pope is wrong.

[116] But this paragraph says different.

[117] Can you comment on this?

[118] Yeah, I think it really does pinpoint just those last words that, you know, to just go with like we say so often it's not my opinion not your opinion our opinion yeah we have opinions but it's the truth and when you allow your opinion to override the truth that the church proclaims you're you're going down a dark path and that's that's what we see so often and We see it with, I mean, the really challenging part of our times is even leaders within the church.

[119] There, you know, if people think there's a guarantee that because someone's wearing a collar, a clerical collar, priest or bishop or deacon, but if they think there's a guarantee that, oh, well, they're always going to lead us in the truth.

[120] They need to read that paragraph you just read and recognize that all of us are challenged to the same standard.

[121] All of us have to do the same thing.

[122] And we have to, I mean, I think one thing that strikes me as you're reading that is it takes time.

[123] You don't just go with emotions on something like that.

[124] You have to think it through.

[125] have to think, you have to pray, you have to take some time to make some decisions about what you're doing.

[126] And, you know, we're in such a fast -paced world.

[127] I think a lot of people don't take the time to make good decisions.

[128] They don't really reflect and they don't make judgments and don't bother to learn what does the church teach in a specific situation.

[129] So I think that section of the catechism is very important for us to highlight and to continue to urge people to pay attention to.

[130] Because what that's talking about is basic to living your life.

[131] There aren't many days that both of us don't have.

[132] have to make some sort of a judgment about, you know, avoiding a temptation or doing, making, speaking up for an injustice.

[133] I mean, there are all kinds of ways that we need to do this just living our lives.

[134] It's not just something that happens occasionally, but if we really listen to what the church teaches, we're constantly needing to make these decisions about what do we know is valuable?

[135] What is lasting?

[136] How do we treat each other?

[137] All those kinds of questions and we have to make the moral judgments to do it well.

[138] Well said, this next paragraph I have a little story to tell because this is so important to educate our young people.

[139] Paragraph 1784 says the education of the conscience is a lifelong task.

[140] From the earliest years, it awakened the child to the knowledge and practice of the interior law recognized by conscience.

[141] Prudent education teaches virtue.

[142] It prevents or cures fear, selfishness, and pride, resentment from arising from guilt, and feelings of complacency, born of human weakness and faults.

[143] The education of conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart.

[144] Bishop Strickland, before you comment on that, I have a four -year -old son.

[145] You met him, little beau.

[146] And I go to the park with him, and he plays at the playground, and meets little children.

[147] And he knows that one of the commandments that we've taught him on the Ten Commandments is thou shall not take the Lord's name in vain.

[148] And when little kids consistent, I could probably say 20 times, because he's sensitive to what people say, he's very conscious.

[149] And when kids say, oh, my God, he always corrects the kid who's older than him and says, you shouldn't say that.

[150] You should say, oh, my gosh, don't use God's name.

[151] name in vain.

[152] And then he says, have you heard of the Ten Commandment?

[153] He's four years old, okay?

[154] Because he's being formed as a four -year -old that you don't want to offend God.

[155] You want to do it God's way.

[156] And I just love when he does it because the kids look at him like, what planet are you from?

[157] And many times I have to jump in, because I listen to the conversations, and I say, youngster, I said, little girl, you've never heard of the Ten Commandments?

[158] No. Well, these are the commandments God who created you, gives you to be happy.

[159] And so when we do things according to God, we're going to be the happiest kids on the block.

[160] So my point to you is he's four years old, but we're trying to instill a moral conscience so that, you know, he says after we come back, I'm going to pray for those kids that they know they shouldn't do that in the future.

[161] I said, well, that's a good thing to do.

[162] Now, I'm only bringing this up because the point of that paragraph is we should start when they're young.

[163] Your thoughts.

[164] Yeah.

[165] And I totally agree.

[166] And I mean, children are built to learn.

[167] I mean, they're learning every day because every day is a new experience for them.

[168] They haven't had the experiences that older people have had.

[169] And so they're open to learning, but there's so much neglect of that parents not very parents being too busy and the schools are not teaching the way they should but you know that is one of the main things that we need to do is teach the young these basic principles and the main thing about education is teaching people how to think and I think very often and it's it's crept even into the priesthood and religious life it's like people are trained to do things but they're not educated to be able to think through whatever responsibilities they may be given yeah and you know that's it's basic to and if if you don't know how to think it's going to be tough to make the judgments that God expects of us.

[170] God has given us the ability to think, but we need to learn how to think things through logically.

[171] And part of that is knowing the truth and then being able to make judgments about the truth.

[172] So really, the paragraph you mentioned is really getting at very basic.

[173] basically what it means to be human.

[174] Yeah, that's right.

[175] What it means to use this faculty that God has given us that no animal has.

[176] I mean, there's so much respect for the animal kingdom, which animals are beautiful gift, but they tend to outshine humanity sometimes as far as how much attention they're given.

[177] and that isn't the way God designed us.

[178] I mean, we're the ones created in the image and likeness of God.

[179] We have a responsibility to be good stewards of the earth and of all creation.

[180] But if we forget who we are, and that's really what it comes down to in many ways, we forget what, I mean, what this paragraph is talking about, we failed to be able to make the judgments that we need to make.

[181] And you know, Bishop Strickland, to highlight what you just said, for years, they've done studies about Catholics and non -Catholics and their moral choices are very similar, sadly to say.

[182] We haven't done a good enough job, as you said, to teach people how to make good choices.

[183] Now, paragraph 1785 says the formation of conscience the word of God is the light for our path.

[184] So when you hear people, even bishops say, hey, the Bible's wrong.

[185] Science has got it all figured out about homosexuality.

[186] I'm sorry to have to say it with all due respect, cardinal.

[187] You're wrong.

[188] Because the Bible does teach without error.

[189] So here's what paragraph 1785 says, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice.

[190] You, me, all of us.

[191] We must also examine our conscience, before the Lord's Cross.

[192] I love that line.

[193] Go before a crucifix.

[194] We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others, and guided by authoritative teachings of the church.

[195] Your thoughts.

[196] Well, you already said it.

[197] You just have to pull it all together.

[198] And that's why I said, I think I would emphasize we need to take the time.

[199] I mean, I learned a long time ago when making those kind of judgments, it's very wise to sleep on it.

[200] Yeah.

[201] And that's because there are many times that, I mean, we can get, I think there's so much emphasis on feelings and emotion in the world today.

[202] That's certainly part of our humanity.

[203] Yeah.

[204] But our feelings and emotions need to be guided by logic and reason to think it through.

[205] I mean, you know, and sadly, we see things all the time in the news of people reacting out of emotion and sometimes even killing someone or putting someone in serious danger because they're, I mean, road rage, what is that?

[206] It's getting angry.

[207] And I mean, I've gotten angry on the road.

[208] I imagine you.

[209] Of course.

[210] especially in L .A. Travick.

[211] But, I mean, that's just a good illustration of you don't just act on the emotion of anger, but you make, I mean, even as you're driving, you may need to make some judgments about what's the proper way to handle this situation.

[212] And whatever the situation, if you just act on emotion, in a instantaneous way, very often that's going to get you in trouble and cause harm.

[213] When we come back, I'll give you what Bishop Sheen says.

[214] When you says get advice from others, get them from people who have suffered.

[215] Stay with us.

[216] And now back to the Bishop Stricklandauer.

[217] Welcome back.

[218] I love talking about what we're talking about, the formation of a conscience, because it helps me articulate how, what's the process?

[219] of making good judgments.

[220] And I know that this last paragraph it said, you know, get the advice of others and helping you guide to an authoritative teachings of the church when you make these judgments.

[221] I remember listening to Bishop Sheen, and he said, when you have a big decision to make about some choice, go to a person that's suffered greatly because they'll give you better advice than someone that's never suffered.

[222] I think that's good advice.

[223] Bishop Strickland, we're now at the point of the catechism paragraph 1786 to choose according with conscience 1786 says faced with a moral choice conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or on the contrary an erroneous judgment that departs from them we see that all the time we have baptized Catholics and high officials like President Biden he's baptized Catholic, but he's made terrible decisions regarding the sanctity of life and saying that, you know, I know what the church teaches, but I'm not going to do it.

[224] I am going to choose to promote the killing of unborn babies.

[225] That's his free will.

[226] We can pray for him, but I think that's what this paragraph is saying.

[227] Give me your thoughts on paragraph 1786.

[228] Well, I agree that forming your conscience is is a moral obligation that we all share.

[229] And how do you do that?

[230] You learn the truth.

[231] You look at the situation.

[232] You get advice.

[233] You need to, you know, again, take the time.

[234] You need to look at everything involved and make the judgment based on the truth.

[235] Again, on the truth and not on.

[236] emotions, not on feelings.

[237] I mean, one thing that it calls to mind for me is many people say love is love.

[238] But if you apply what this part of the catechism is talking about, you begin to realize that that statement, love is love is not true.

[239] And it's an empty approach.

[240] I mean, it's like saying emotion is emotion.

[241] I mean, it's not using our ability to make moral choices to look at, you know, what is real law.

[242] And love and our Christian ethic is the love of Jesus Christ.

[243] He's love incarnate.

[244] And the demonstration of love, I often, as you do, you have a. crucifix on your desk and I it's interesting because you know sometimes you know I've been in places where I've given talks and you know I'm looking for the crucifix yeah thankfully that doesn't happen in churches much anymore but even in churches it used to have them but I point to the crucifix because that is the perfect image of what is love.

[245] And so making a judgment about, is this a loving situation or not, you have to ask yourself, does it correspond with that revelation of love that Jesus Christ has given us?

[246] And God the father, God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten son.

[247] God, Father, Son, and Spirit give us an image of what real love is.

[248] And that's one of the things that we most critically need to make these moral judgments about.

[249] We need a well -formed conscience.

[250] I mean, a young couple that say, well, we love each other, so we're going to live together.

[251] That is not a good judgment for many reasons.

[252] But if those two young people are really using a well -formed conscience to make decisions, they're going to determine that the proper thing to do isn't to just move in together.

[253] But that's a very practical illustration of how this works and what we need to do.

[254] And instead, the world seems to operate with, if it feels good, do it.

[255] If it brings us pleasure, do it.

[256] Not is it the right thing to do, but is it, does it feel good?

[257] Is it pleasurable?

[258] And that is not, that's not really living as a human being, much less as a child of God and disciple of his son.

[259] Well said.

[260] Paragraph 1789 says some rules apply in every case.

[261] Number one, one may never do evil so that good may result from it.

[262] Number two, the golden rule, whenever you wish that men would do to them.

[263] Last paragraph of that one, charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's neighbor and his conscience.

[264] Thus, sinning against your brother and wounding their conscience, you sin against Christ.

[265] Therefore, it is right not to do anything that makes your brother stumble.

[266] So, there you go.

[267] Your thoughts?

[268] Not to be a near occasion of sin for someone else.

[269] I mean, absolutely.

[270] And I think for young people, especially in the summertime when it's warm, I thought about, I took the kids early after Mass just for a little quick trip because I wanted to do it between shows because I had four shows today so I wanted to spend a little time with the grandchildren right around from the church here we took them to the park and they have like a little water park and you know playground and I was I have to say this because it was scandalous a woman who was taking her son to the park to have a recreation she wasn't dressed modestly and the three men that worked for the city, I watched him.

[271] They were just looking at this girl and really sinning with their eyes.

[272] It was really obvious the comments they made, and I thought about it.

[273] I didn't say anything to them.

[274] I was with my grandchildren.

[275] I prayed for them, but they were lusting after this woman.

[276] And again, she was an occasion of sin because there's a warm day.

[277] she wasn't wearing much clothing on and these men were younger men and I thought about that this is the time this is the age we live in you know the custody of the eyes is something many people have never even heard of but there's an example of an occasion of sin that woman doesn't realize what she's doing when she exposes her body out in public when she really should be covered up but this is our culture And I think the catechism is just asking us not to be an occasion of sin for others.

[278] And that's one of the big sins that our lady of Fatima talked about.

[279] Souls are going to hell because of sins of the flesh.

[280] Your thoughts?

[281] Well, I agree.

[282] And it is something that we need to, out of love, out of speaking the truth, we need to, like you said, many people don't, that things like custody of the eyes, they'd say, what does that mean?

[283] But we need those tools to help us navigate what has always been a simple world.

[284] But when people ignore sin, it makes it even harder.

[285] And I think that that's why it's critical that we have these tools to be able to make good moral judgments because we're surrounded by people who have no idea what we're.

[286] we're talking about.

[287] But they, we all share the same obligation to live the truth.

[288] And we were talking last night at a gathering about culpable ignorance.

[289] And many people would not know what we're talking about there.

[290] Again, you have to use your brain.

[291] Yeah.

[292] But I mean, and I remember, you know, talking to teenagers and as a priest, you know, very often, and I mean, I think we're all tempted to do it.

[293] I say, oh, I don't want to know, you know, what's bad because I may have a habit that I have to stop if I find out that it's the wrong thing to be doing.

[294] But then we become culpable for choosing to be ignorant.

[295] The truth sets us free.

[296] So all of those issues begin to, really rise to the surface when we start thinking about these things, we've got to make the moral choices.

[297] And like I said, virtually every day we're making choices about what do we do, things that are unexpected, or even things, I mean, like, you know, at work, if the boss tells us to, I mean, even scripture has examples of this, but if the boss tells us to, I mean, even scripture lie on a report, we've got to make the moral judgment that that's wrong.

[298] And we can't just say, well, the boss told us to.

[299] But that too often, when people don't have these tools, even if they're good people that want to do the right thing, if they don't have the tools of thinking it through, they're kind of left, you know, just saying, well, I don't know what to do.

[300] So I'll just do what my boss says instead of having a good conscience that says nobody, I mean like one of those principles that it laid out very simply, you can't do evil to accomplish good.

[301] That's right.

[302] I mean, it may be a good thing to keep your job and to keep your boss happy, but you can't lie in order to do that.

[303] And if your boss is demanding that you lie, you got a problem.

[304] You need a different job.

[305] well said i was going to give an example but this is good stuff when we come back from the break the erroneous judgment what does the catechism have to say about that with paragraph 1790 which is really beautiful and i just want to remind everybody we're reading right from the catechism of the catholic church if you don't have a copy of the new catechism when i say new one came in the early 90s um it's set up just like the council of church Trent, Catechum, there's four sections.

[306] This has got gold when we can read from the Catechism and clearly know exactly what Christ's teachings are on these topics.

[307] So we come back, erroneous judgment.

[308] What's that about?

[309] Paragraph 1790 is where we're going to read from.

[310] Get your Catechism open.

[311] We'll be back with more on the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin.

[312] Both powerful radio.

[313] Stay with us, family.

[314] And now back to the Bishop Strickland Dower.

[315] Welcome back, indeed.

[316] I hope you're enjoying this show as much as I am, walking yourself through a moral conscience, how do we do a formation of conscience, how do we have an informed conscience?

[317] Now we're going to the erroneous judgment, paragraph 1790.

[318] I'll read, a human being must always obey a certain judgment of his conscience.

[319] if he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself.

[320] Yet, it can happen that moral consciences remain in ignorance and make erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.

[321] Could you give examples of that, Bishop Strick?

[322] Well, I mean, certainly all of us can make erroneous judgments.

[323] Maybe you've really...

[324] thought you knew what the church teaches or got some advice that wasn't right and i think as as i listened to you read about erroneous judgments i think it it demands a an attitude of humility yeah which is you know sometimes in short supply in today's world amen there it's easy to be arrogant.

[325] It's easy to say, well, I made my decision, you know, don't, you know, people even jokingly say, I've made my decision, don't confuse me with the facts, but don't confuse me with the truth.

[326] So I think when we think about erroneous judgments, it just really in a beautiful way reminds us, look, we can all make mistakes.

[327] Even when we're doing our best we may for various reasons because we didn't have the right information we had false information we um we just made a mistake but i think that we need to have the humility to recognize that and once we do recognize it we have the obligation to correct it yeah um an example that that comes to mind for me is very much part of our modern world.

[328] I've talked to many people who use contraception until they came to know the truth better.

[329] So they have made the erroneous judgment.

[330] And sadly, we have to acknowledge that many times priests and bishops encourage them and still do.

[331] And they made the erroneous judgment that this is okay.

[332] And they, I mean, you know, there are many people that have made that judgment and consider themselves to be good Catholics.

[333] And, you know, but when they realize, and I know I've talked to people that it's like, this is tough.

[334] Yeah.

[335] It's tough to change.

[336] the way you're living because you find out that you've made an erroneous judgment.

[337] But that's what we have to do.

[338] If we've been doing something that someone in authority told us was okay or was even moral, and then we come to find out that that's not true, we've made an erroneous judgment.

[339] there's somewhat diminished culpability if we genuinely did our best to form our conscience and we just weren't given the truth.

[340] But as soon as we find out the truth, we've got to revise our decision.

[341] We've got to try to remedy what was an erroneous decision.

[342] And that's a difficult position to be put in.

[343] it takes moral courage to make that sort of change of, change our decision.

[344] But that's what we're called to do and to ask God's forgiveness for any sinfulness that was there.

[345] But the culpability can be very well diminished, very much diminished when if we've in good conscience, you know, I mean, and sometimes people have told me that even on the topic of contraception.

[346] I went to a priest years ago, and he told me it was okay.

[347] And then they come to me now, and I say, I'm sorry that priest told you wrong.

[348] That's erroneous judgment that this person made.

[349] And now they need to correct it.

[350] And it certainly applies to all the kinds of situations where maybe we were informed that this was okay or we thought it was or we just didn't know that it wasn't okay and we've got to have the moral courage and the strength of faith to say I've got to I've got to change what I'm doing because this is wrong I've seen that live in person at family conferences we put on many years ago where Scott Hahn was giving his talk life giving love with his wife Kimberly and a couple that were just recently married last year or two heard the talk the husband got mad, walked out the woman came to me and said my husband didn't buy what Scott Hahn was saying but we were practicing contraception and he said I'd like to be able to have a conversation with Scott Hahn and tell him why he's wrong is there any way you can do it and I said well you ran into the right knucklehead I'll get Scott to meet with you tell your husband to come back from the parking lot because he wanted leave.

[351] So we got him to sit down with Scott and they changed their whole view.

[352] And now this was 30 years ago.

[353] They got 11 children today.

[354] Yeah, 11 children.

[355] And I didn't know that that was the couple who I visited out in Alabama years ago.

[356] And he said, I want to thank you for doing that.

[357] I did not consciously remember it was him because I didn't know him at the time.

[358] I'm not going to remember that.

[359] And here's what the story about conscience and I wanted to share, the stories you'll remember, John Paul, too, was meeting with the bishops, the adliminal visit.

[360] Every, what, five years you meet with the pope from different areas of the world, where the bishops of the east coast were meeting with the pope, and they were having lunch with the pope.

[361] He's eating soup, and some of the American bishops.

[362] Now, Monsignor William Smith told me this story that Cardinal O 'Connor tells the story to him.

[363] This was back in the 90s.

[364] And they were sitting there, and the bishops were saying, your holiness, you know, in America, we have a lot of invincible ignorance.

[365] A lot of people just don't know the faith.

[366] Surely they will not go to hell because no one, you know, they just didn't know better.

[367] And the Pope sets his spoon down and says, yes, you know, surely, you know, God will be merciful with them.

[368] But the shepherds who didn't teach them the faith will surely go to hell.

[369] Can you imagine a bishop sitting at the table and the Pope just told you, you know, if you don't give you to do your duty, and teach the church teachings, you're risking to go to hell.

[370] I like that story because he did it in a way that was, I think, informative, but I would think that most bishops heard that story would say, gee, I've been to go back home and really focus on teaching the positive faith.

[371] Have you heard that story before, Father?

[372] I have.

[373] And I think it's a great story.

[374] And it needs to motivate all of us.

[375] I mean, certainly bishops, but fathers of families as well.

[376] Anyone who has the responsibility to teach others, I mean, like you tell stories about Bo and it sounds like learning, but you have the obligation to do that.

[377] I do.

[378] It's not as strong as his father's obligation, but even his grandfather, any adult forming a child, we have an obligation to teach the truth to that child.

[379] Amen.

[380] Amen.

[381] And Bishop Strickland, I want to give a plug.

[382] I didn't do it yesterday, but today to your YouTube channel, how can people get a hold of your YouTube videos, please?

[383] It's just Bishop Strickland official.

[384] Yeah.

[385] I think it's what it says.

[386] But just typed it in YouTube if you're looking for.

[387] And so you can find that, as you know, the YouTube videos.

[388] or about six or seven minutes on various topics.

[389] I had one recently about the Eucharistic Congress about the need for.

[390] And I pray, I mean, we, I'm glad I've thought of that, Terry, because we really need to pray.

[391] I mean, it sounded like it was a great event.

[392] Yeah, I didn't, but I don't go to official things these days, but I really encourage people, all of us, whether we went or not.

[393] Let it be a moment to say, I really want to grow deeper in my relationship with our Lord and the Eucharist, greater reverence.

[394] I mean, we all need a Eucharistic revival because none of us can claim that we're there and we can coast, we're fine.

[395] Because if we're saying that, because that's not relationship with the Lord.

[396] Anytime you're in a loving relationship, it needs to continue to grow and to develop it deep.

[397] And that's what our relationship with the Eucharist is supposed to be.

[398] Well said, I'm just thinking about that and saying, yeah, this Eucharistic revival.

[399] And also I heard one of the talks, I watched a lot of them on YouTube.

[400] And that one of the priests was saying a not just a Eucharistic revival, but a revival in the confessional.

[401] And I thought, well, thank you, Father, for saying that.

[402] It's important because if we think about it, every Saturday, you're at your parish, how long is the line for confession, pretty short, right?

[403] And it's the same people going.

[404] It seems to me that that connection of Eucharist, it's the sacrament of the Eucharist, and the sacrament of penance go together, because here's the judgment thing.

[405] We talked about in brief, you know, how do we get to have a right judgment, a formation of conscience?

[406] If we don't have a formation of conscience and we don't have an understanding of sin, then objectively, I'll use the word objectively, many of us are going to communion without examining ourselves.

[407] And that's really serious.

[408] And again, our responsibility, yes, I agree, shepherds, but myself as a father and grandfather, has a responsibility.

[409] And I think that the paragraph in brief, paragraph 1798 says it well.

[410] A well -formed conscience is upright and truthful.

[411] It formulates its judgment.

[412] according to reason and conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator.

[413] Everyone must avail himself for the means to form his conscience.

[414] That means everyone, right?

[415] Everyone means everyone.

[416] Yeah, everyone means everyone.

[417] I'm glad, Terry, that you've brought up the sacrament of confession.

[418] Because if there's anyone listening to our discussion and really may be troubled because they're saying, oh wait a minute i've made some bad decisions i've made um you know i was in error yeah go to confession amen there's a remedy to all of us can make bad decisions god understands and if we ask forgiveness he's there to forgive us amen bishop striglin how about a blessing to our radio listeners please mighty god we ask your blessing for all with virgin most powerful radio and listening that we may all humbly continue to seek that pearl of great crimes that the gospel tells us.

[419] In the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit.

[420] Amen.

[421] Don't forget, all of our shows are on podcast on Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[422] If you like today's, you'll like the others.

[423] I want to thank you for supporting us here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[424] God love you.