Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:02 Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation. The name of the father and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Speaker 0 00:16 Any kingdom that's divided against itself isn't able to stand on its own. And the first Sunday of lent, the church showed us our lord struggle with the devil. It should our Lord in the situation of humble defense against the devil's temptations. So the devil was on the attack to tempt our Lord to sin. Today we see a different perspective. We see our Lord in a position of attack, which ends in a glorious victory. The Gospel begins by telling us of a man possessed by the devil. That demonic possession is a reality. Now, I know a lot of modern scripture scholars will come out and say, well, that's not true. These things don't really happen, but it's a reality. The devil stood in opposition to our lord and his mission, but our Lord cast out the devil for the man today in this gospel. And scripture says, and the multitudes were an admiration of it. So it really did happen. They believed because they saw the possessed man and because they saw him delivered and freed from demonic possession, it are those that do not see but still believe.
Speaker 0 01:39 But the devil of course tries to do his work against our Lord. He doesn't give up. The devil has to avenge himself against God, especially because of this miracle. But he also Avengers himself against human nature. I was talking to a, a a priest who is involved in an exorcism and he was telling me of a specific, a case that he was working on. And in this case of possession, the, uh, the demon spoke up through the possessed person. And, uh, one of the questions that the, uh, the priest has to ask is what is your mission? And the mission at the, uh, the Damon said was, my mission is to fight. So my mission is to fight your mission. So the mission of the devil is to fight the mission of the priest. In this case, the exorcist.
Speaker 0 02:33 Now if this demons stood up in direct opposition against this priest, how much more will he stand opposed to the eternal high priest Jesus Christ? In this opposition, that devil will stop at nothing. He'll even turn to men to get them to do the work for him. So the devil in today's Gospel presented to the minds of the Pharisees, the worst calumnies against our Lord. The is we're so full of pride and self righteousness that the devil had access to them through this vise of pride. And so they claimed he cast out devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the devils. Now this is nothing but evil. They blasphemously attribute evil to our Lord's work. They attribute Christ's work to Satan himself.
Speaker 1 03:33 Wow.
Speaker 0 03:35 Now what? Malice we see here, our Lord does a good and holy work for a poor soul by delivering the possessed man. And then he's attacked. And Columbia did for it as if he would actually do the work of the devil. But they didn't even stop there. They even went so far as to accuse our lord himself of being possessed. Now you look at all this stuff and you gotta say, you gotta be kidding me. I Lord, who's doing such good healing the blind curing the sick, preaching the Gospel to all men. He's being accused of these wicked things, but our Lord not losing his patience, being a loving and kind God wanting to educate them, but probably more the people that were around him. I Lord just use a simple logic to defeat his accusers. He says, if by the power of devils I cast out devils that I'm destroying my own kingdom, but then he says, if it's not from the devil, then it must be from God because the kingdom divided against itself will be brought to desolation destruction. And so the devil's kingdom, if he's fighting against himself, will be destroyed. But since Chiro quoting the words of our Lord or quoting is if our lord was speaking, he says, for Satan doesn't war against himself. Neither does he oppose his own accomplices, rather does he ups uphold what his, his own dominion? It follows them that it must be by divine power that I cast down Satan,
Speaker 0 05:22 but these very words are important for us to remember. A kingdom divided against itself will be brought to destruction. Whether we're talking about a kingdom such as the Catholic church itself fighting against itself or people fighting within it, or as a whole community or as a family, or even as an individual soul in the case where we're trying to worship God and man at the same time, but a soul, or excuse me, a kingdom divided against itself will be brought to desolation.
Speaker 1 05:57 But the
Speaker 0 05:58 key to overcoming this is charity or love. And scripture tells us that God is love. So for looking for God, we're looking for love. We're looking for God.
Speaker 0 06:10 Division never leads to victory. This is so important for us to remember as a family, as a community. Union is a part of charity, but that charity has to be based on the ultimate good love has to be based on the ultimate good, and that is the salvation of our souls and our love for God. How am I going to get to heaven? So Union is based on the desire to see each other in heaven. We have to love each other so much to want each other to be in heaven, even if it means saying something that might hurt somebody that leads them to the right road because it's love out of seen them in heaven. This has to be our common goal as a community, but for all the families out there has to be a common goal as a family.
Speaker 0 07:00 But as you know, charity in union involves sacrifice to some degree, but our Lord also adds that he that is not with me is against me. So in this we have to understand that to go to charity, to go to love, we have to love God as our Lord asked us, where's our Lord commanded? He said, though Shalt love the Lord your God with your whole soul, your whole mind, your whole heart and your whole strength. We Love God with all of these fully committed all in our Catholic faith is such that it doesn't tolerate indifference or mediocrity. In fact, God's love is so much that it doesn't tolerate this. All we need to do is look at the crucifixion. Our Lord was completely into this body and soul completely in this,
Speaker 0 07:52 well either with God or we were against him. It's that simple. There's no middle ground. In fact, one great spiritual writer, father, gable of Saint Mary Magdalen said, the following to not do the good we could do and ought to do is evil. No. Saint Thomas gives us an analogy a to look at this. He says that one opposite is known through the other. For instance, darkness is known through light. All darkness is is a lack of light. Well, evil is no different. Evil doesn't exist in and of itself. It's a lack of good. Evil is known through goodness. For Evil is the privation of good. Evil is not a thing that exists in and of itself. It's a defect or a failure in nature. Remember, God created all things to be good and he created everything good. He did not create evil. Sin brought that in. Once sin came into the world, darkness started to come into the, that's where we have a darkened intellect. In a weekend will God didn't create it this way. So whenever we question evil, it's not because of God, it's because of our sin. We always have to keep it in mind because the devil tries to turn it around and blame God for evil just as the Pharisees did in today's Gospel.
Speaker 0 09:14 So evil is an absence or lack of good. Therefore, if one is not doing the good that he could do an ought to do this ease and evil, whether it's an imperfection, a venial sin, or a mortal sin. So we're either with God doing good or against him doing evil.
Speaker 1 09:34 Yeah,
Speaker 0 09:34 a Catholic faith can't tolerate mediocrity. So our Lord says a kingdom divided it's against itself will be brought to desolation or destruction. That includes our community. Now, I don't just mean our community here, but all our neighbors as well. Those we work with, those that we live with and those that we associate with in some manner. We're not trying to run away from the world. We're trying to live with the world. We're trying to bring Christ to the world. This is how we prevent the destruction of the world that the world is going on right now. By bringing charity into the world.
Speaker 0 10:16 The destruction usually begins in the confines of a family or a community, so we have to help each other out. It means we have to sacrifice for one another, pray for one another and help one another get to heaven, not tearing other people down. Even if we consider them or they consider us their enemies. It means forgiving past faults. Animosities in differences. It means also not rashly judging one another, not gossiping, detracting or Colombia hitting against each other. Oh Lord says, judge, not lest you be judged. Now, how many times in society do we hear rash judgment after rash judgment? We'll even throw our own 2 cents in. We need to remember, no one is perfect. We're all trying to get to the same place so may not know it. We have to help them out. The other issues with rash judgement is that you may not see a thing properly that we're judging. There might be something that we're missing. We may think we know all the facts behind it. We're probably missing something. We always have to take that into account, pray for others and help them get to heaven.
Speaker 1 11:34 Yeah.
Speaker 0 11:35 No. When there is an evil or something that we perceive as an evil that threatens us personally or overcomes us in some way, we tend to lose our interior piece. Once we lose that interior piece, then we start to lose charity, whether it's done by own will or by our neighbor, but it often happens that we lose our peace. Not because the suffering affects us or threatens to affect us personally, but rather because of the behavior of an individual or group of people who hurt us. Whether it's something that just happened or thoughts of past hurts that continually preoccupied our thoughts. We remember this, the devil bringing these things up. We have to forgive these. We have to bring those to silence in the soul. It might even be something that doesn't directly impact us, but nevertheless it concerns us.
Speaker 1 12:29 Yeah.
Speaker 0 12:29 It could be something affecting another person, something affecting our community or the salvation of a particular person. Or it could even be a particular fault that we can't seem to conquer, but whatever it is, we shouldn't let it cause us. Discouragement. Impatience. Animosity shouldn't dwell in our souls for whatever reason. We shouldn't let these things cause us to lose peace. We should turn to God with confidence and leave all things in his hands. That's the first step. Put it in his hands and keep that into your piece. The most common tool of the devil uses to keep soles from advancing towards God and disturbing communities is to try to make them lose their peace by discouraging them, whether it's by the acts of others or even by our own faults. Yeah. The feelings that are caused by the devil are fear and anxiety, but the movements of the holy ghost to move into the Holy Spirit. Although sometimes they're very powerful and profound, they nevertheless bring peace. So first, we have to work to forgive, to be at peace, and then to pursue it, to pursue peace for the sake of our own salvation. We should never let, we should never let 'em our own failings be the cause of us losing peace. In fact, I'll read something short from the spiritual combat, uh, by Dom Lorenza Scott Poli who talks about this very thing. It says the following words
Speaker 0 14:09 as often as you were guilty of any fault, greater small, frequently rare, you should adopt the following procedure. As soon as you are aware of what you've done, consider your own weakness and humbly rehabbed recourse to God, saying to him with a calm and loving confidence that was seen. Oh my God, that I did what I could that was seen my impotence and is now has given me the grace to repent. I beseech thee to add to my pardon the grace never to offend thee again. Once you have finished this prayer, to not torture yourself with anxious thoughts on your forgiveness without further averting to your fall, proceeding your devotions with humility and ease, seeking the same tranquility and peace of mind as before.
Speaker 0 15:01 Now, these are very important words because the spiritual life grows in peace. Charity brings that peace into the world. Remember, we're all in this life together. We're here to help each other get to heaven. The devil tries to sow discord and contention in a family or a community. The peace begins with each and every one of us personally, our own pursuit of holiness and our own desire to help others. You See, God loves us and desires the good of all of us. Can I love you all as well by one desire is your salvation and my salvation as well, but this should always be our goal, to love our neighbor and desire each other's salvation as well as our own and maintaining that peace of soul because every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought unto desolation. My name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
