Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 So, uh, anybody has permission to record it. I just can't give permission to distribute it. So there, now we <laugh> got that out of the way. I just note that I saw a little article on the us department transportation, and, uh, it seems like there's 10% more, more than 10% more fatal traffic accidents this year with less driving miles. So, gee, I wonder what could be causing that since it's really sad, lot to pray for. All right. So we wanna talk about charity, the greatest virtue charity with charity. We love God because he's infinitely lovable. It's, it's a, it's a virtue. It's a, it's a supernatural virtue, which means God, places that in into us, it's something completely beyond our nature, but we love God because he's infinitely lovable and infinitely good. And he placed this ability to love him in there. And we love our neighbor because God loves him.
Speaker 0 00:01:04 So it it's not because we're attracted to our neighbor. It's not because our neighbor has, is gonna do something good for us. Our neighbor could be, uh, beating us up. Our neighbor could be our enemy, but we love him because God loves him. And so we love others for this precisely cuz of that. Frank, she had a witty way of talking about theological virtues. He said by the virtue of faith, we believe the unbelievable and with hope, we hope in the hopeless and we can hope in the hopeless and with charity, we can love the unlovable. That's somewhat flippant, but it makes a point that all these things are beyond our power is, is the BA basic point. Cuz they are beyond our power. It's something completely unheard of and unseen in the world. And it's what, what, you know, when, when it hit, for example, the Roman empire, the charity, it just blew people away.
Speaker 0 00:01:50 And people floated into the church because of the charity they saw in others. And they came into the church though. They knew it was a death sentence. If they got caught and, and the Romans didn't mess around it, wasn't this long drag out 14 appeal thing. You were dead. So it just incredible, uh, virtue that came into the world. And we, we forgot about it. Now. There's such a thing as false charity, false charity looks like charity, but it isn't. Well, for example, it's, it's like either indulgent and weakness as a kind of a false charity or a sentimentality. Uh, and uh, but it's not real charity. Uh, you can see, uh, I guess I'd, I'd say, uh, the ecumenical movement, for example, has a real problem with this because at the ecumenical movement, they want everybody to get along. But the foundation of any kind of true union in the faith is union and the faith, which is bloat.
Speaker 0 00:02:49 You know? So you have faith hope and charity. So the faith has to be, you have to agree. Christ star Lord died to give us these truths. Every one of the truths, the Catholic church teaches is worth dying for. And so we can't gloss over them or dance around or pretend they're not there and all that in some misguided effort to have everybody come together, cuz then they're coming together on a lie. And if they're coming together on a lie, that's false charity. It's not true charity at all. You see this all the time with people that are appear to be good, but they're not good in a theological sense, in a sense of charity. This is not good. This is really bad. Cuz it's betraying our Lord. We don't have the right to modify anything. The right attitude is God said it. I believe it.
Speaker 0 00:03:29 That settles it. So we don't have the right to change anything. We have an obligation in fact, to try to spread the gospel to everybody around us. But that doesn't mean we're a two by four, but that being said, this a humanism is really a false a humanism where everybody's supposed to get along and pretend that we're all agreeing on the same things. When nothing could be farther from the truth, that's a false charity. For example, we're all gonna pray together for peace and therefore abortion. And we're not well, you know, there's not wait a minute. There's nothing to pray about here. We're, I'll pray for your conversion, but I can't pray with you for that for peace because you're, this is worse than more. If that's you see its stuff like this is this false AISM would be an example of it. We have right now another phenomenon, which is kind of charity grown cold.
Speaker 0 00:04:17 You know our Lord talked about that time coming to understand this a little, but we should say that God actually uses others to show his love for us. So we learn about the love of God from others in the first place from our parents, our dad really models God, the father and our mom, the church and our lady, we get refractions of 'em through that. So, and it's less than perfect because they're obviously neither party can stand up to that, but still God is using that. Then that way that, and we're learning about that. And we begin to realize when we have, when people are loving us, our parents, then others like that, that if this person could love me so much, how much more God can love me, who is real love. This is one of the horrors of family breakups and the kind of unbelievable damage it does to people because they need that.
Speaker 0 00:05:07 It's also part of the horror of the crisis and the priesthood, the, the priesthood you have, uh, there's two different aspects of it. So if a priest, priest that's there, that that's learning to love his people. Let's just say that if he's got charity, but you know, he's not gonna show up and be the cure of ours out the gate, unless he's the curator of ours. So he shows up, but he meets his people. He knows his people. He gets to know them and they start realizing father loves us and right about then they move him and then they move the next one in and then they move him and on and on, it goes and pretty soon you've cauterized their hearts because if God loved me, who is this guy? This is a stranger. I don't get to experience that love on the other hand with the priest, if he's not careful to categorize his heart too, but you you're there.
Speaker 0 00:05:52 And you actually know your people, any, any priest that knows his people, a lot of people in order to keep going, all they need is a little kind of a, a slap on the back, so to speak, Hey, you're doing all right, how things are going. And just that little reaching out to 'em. They can take a lot, cuz they know they're loved and they know they're cared for. They start knowing what charity is because charity is not like in this world, if you haven't experienced charity, you don't really know what it is. It's just a weird word. I mean, I'm not trying to beat I Revent. And uh, and unfortunately I think a lot of the priests haven't experienced it. They're not clearly, at least in my experience because although I'm a priest, I, you know, we all need priests and you're like, holy macro, what of the things I do this I'm little right now.
Speaker 0 00:06:34 Not so much. But uh, I like to go into little cheap cafes with other precincts, cuz you can learn everything you need to know about the guy just by watching how he treats the waitress. Didn't never tell him that you just sit there because this is just a little person and you just watch how he treats the waitress and you'll know a lot about, about him, whether you really want him in your parish anywhere near your people, et cetera, because your people are little people except for the ones that aren't. But the little people are the ones. So anyway, to go back to the crisis and the priesthood without charity and the priesthood, a lot of people aren't gonna experience the love of God because they're going there and they thinking and how much worse would this homosexual thing? Where, where you have predators. I'm not just talking about hitting on the alterable.
Speaker 0 00:07:17 It's just the whole homosexual thing itself. It's all turned on in itself. They're all about themselves. They're all so broken and messed up that they can't give the love that people need and the charity they need. So you're building on a foundation. That's so broken that because you gotta be a man in the first place. Besides if you're homosexual, what kind of a, you're not giving anything up to be a priest. It's like, what is this? This is just weird. And plus you're in occasion, a sin cut by living with the other guys. So the whole thing is very, very strange and unfortunate because the charity of Christ is not experienced through that. In that situation, you might get false charity, but you're not gonna get real charity. Huh? So if people, uh, experience the love of God through others, they can start realizing, wait a minute.
Speaker 0 00:08:04 They be, they start becoming free because they realize that they can be loved in spite of themselves. Because from original, actual sin, people are gonna, even if they love themselves, it will be disordered. And it'll be a selfish self-love to start off with. They're not gonna have, uh, the kind of self-love that we're called to in the gospels, the love of charity for ourself, they're gonna have something else and it'll be selfish. But as they discover while I'm loved, you know, this person loves me in spite of myself, cuz God's using that. They'll put 'em to the test. You see this, like with couples going out, it's pretty common. And uh, there'll be some kind of a test. Other one to see if they really love them. It's just instinctive. I don't even know it's planned out. I just human beings work that way cuz, cuz they want to know that they're loved and they want to know it's not fake.
Speaker 0 00:08:55 And, and so much things are fake. And on the other hand with us, when we have charity, we can start unattaching you know, we talked about this briefly before, but we can be, we can be detaching things. We can actually love people because God loves them and we don't have the right to not love anyone. God loves. So this is why we can love our enemies. That doesn't have anything to do with liking our enemies. We love our enemies. If we, we can say a prayer like God make him happiness life for the next or God make her happiness life for the next. It doesn't matter if your passions are raging right now, cuz that act of love is in your will. You couldn't say it unless you will it. So you say, God make him happiness life next. You're loving your enemies. You're loving anybody.
Speaker 0 00:09:35 That is. But, but we're not loving to get loved in return. Obviously with our enemies. That's not the goal. We're not loving to get loved in re in return cuz we're free. We're unattached from it in that way. Cuz the love that we're loving with is love. It's charity. We, our, our language is weakness, but this love it's from God. It's not from us. That person or object is loved by God. And we're using that love that God gave us to love that person. And we know that we're loved by God and the world can't take that away. So we'd have any fear of rejection. This is my enemy who cares? He's already rejected me. I don't have any fear about that. I'm loving him anyway. Do you see that's the important thing with the charity in that way? So we love our neighbor in the context of charity.
Speaker 0 00:10:20 That's what it means. So we will what's best from what's most pleasing to God. And that's what it is. It it's not the same at all. As kindness because charity might call us to, to, to rebuke him severely. If they're, if they're doing something bad, our neighbor, cuz that'd be the charity. It also in a time like ours, you know the modern lepers are gonna be people. Uh, for a lot of us that have gotten the shot. We don't have the right to just drive all these people. Like they, they're not on the world. They need our love. They need our prayers. They need our kindness. We need to care for 'em. If they're sick, if a woman's pregnant, these kind of things, one would have to use a little more discretion because the way they're shedding. So that's a slightly different thing. But except in real circumstances like that, we have to be like mother Teresa.
Speaker 0 00:11:07 She wasn't worried that these people have something wrong. She's gonna pick 'em up and love 'em. Even if they're spiting on her and we have to have this things. So I'm a hundred percent against the shot. I couldn't be any stronger against the shot than I am. But that being said, we have to love the people and you know there, but for the grace of God go, you or I anyway. So who, who are we? We, we can say this is bad, but a lot of people have been driven, especially by fear and very horrible, horrible advice into the situation. And we just have to love 'em for where they're at and be there for 'em in that way. So with charity too, we can see this situation and the whole thing the world's going through in different light fear needs to just be driven out, but perfect Lovecast out fear.
Speaker 0 00:11:51 We're told the scriptures, tell us, and, and we're talking about charity there, but what we wanna see in all, any suffering and that's what charity gives us a power is it's actually a gift from God. It's not just a punishment. Even when it is a punishment. Sometimes I remind you of Saint Dismas. His crucifixion was the greatest gift. God could give him in order to save him. That's what he needed to do is be crucified right next to our Lord. So he could become Saint Dismas. And so that was a gift from God that God gave him. And if we see our crosses like that, then we can see our suffering is here to purify us. It's God's love working on us in a way in this life. So we don't have to go to purgatory so we can do so much good for the world.
Speaker 0 00:12:32 And if we can do that, it's gonna change us, but it's gonna change the world because everybody that starts carrying their cross, the way Christ wants us to that's the whole problem with the world is that's what's not going on. That's the only good thing that we can do with, with suffering is embrace it in, in the way that God wants us to and purify and see it as God's love and ask ourselves in prayer. What is God showing me right now? What do I need to work on? It doesn't mean suffering. Isn't suffering. I wanna underline <laugh> this, this isn't some weird Eastern technique where, where we, we get to the point where we're just passionless and everything that happens to us. You know, we're not stoic at all or, or, you know, selling some eightfold Buddhist path or whatever. It's not that at all, but we are gonna suffer when we suffer.
Speaker 0 00:13:17 But what is God showing me now? Why, why is this cross in my life? What is it purifying? What is he letting me know? I need to work on. This is really important. It's the same. We, you know, like with attacks, I'll just parenthetically make this remark with an attack. That's clearly, uh, that's clearly an attack. You can look at it and say, why was that permitted? And it's so you reflect right back on yourself and say, God's letting me know this happened, but it's showing me something I need to work on. Or otherwise this wouldn't be gone. This temp series of temptations, wouldn't be going on this attack. It's actually very, very charitable of God to let me know, oh, that's something I need to work on here. Instead of pointing our finger out at whatever it is and going, Hey, we can look at ourselves and say, Hey, that's really, that's super useful.
Speaker 0 00:14:05 Now I know what I need to work on. I was looking for it and there it is. Okay. So everybody needs to be loved. There's just a search for love, but it's all confused. And the devil has taken advantage of this to make this. I mean, basically we live in a Broel. I'm sorry to, to put it that way, but that's the state of our society, but why is it like that? It's because people need to be loved and they're confused and they think this is love. And then they keep trying all these different things. And, and somehow it doesn't work because that's not how it's supposed to work. But that being said, what they're looking for, isn't bad. The way they're looking for it is bad. What they're looking for is that love that only Christ can bring him. And that can be brought to em directly from God or through their neighbor who has true charity, who isn't looking for like that.
Speaker 0 00:14:51 Isn't looking for a quote, good time with the person is looking for that person, uh, to, to help them get to heaven in some way. So people are searching for love, even this job. Why is that? That's fear. They wanna be loved. They don't wanna be ostracized. They, they wanna be along with the group. They don't wanna lose a job, all these different things. But, uh, but somebody, if it's fear and love would take that away. So what are we called to do? We're called there among other things, you know, with charity to be there for 'em to reach out, to support, to give of ourselves the example at a natural level, tell moms, take care of babies. Especially at night, the baby just doesn't lay there and pitch a fit all night. Uh, mom's up there taking care of fussing over when she needs her sleep.
Speaker 0 00:15:37 That's okay. She's gonna take care of that baby, cuz that's what that baby needs. And if we look at people around us and it's not being unfair as having the needs, they're just not babies anymore, but they have those kind of needs too. And as you get older, you get clever at hiding the ways you need it. Basically, even though a lot of times, if you're gonna see through it, we just need to reach out just even a smile, but support and not be a discouraged when people reject it. Don't, don't be discouraged at all of that cuz they rejected Christ too. So, oh well I, I needed to be rejected today. I guess he's feeling too good about myself in the wrong way. So calling somebody up to see how it's going, cuz people are so closed in. That's another weird thing with all the, all the technological ways to get along.
Speaker 0 00:16:23 They don't actually know how to communicate anymore. I, I, I heard a really funny story from someone sitting right here years ago, it was funny in a horrible way where, uh, these two high school kids go, you know, from some small town in North Dakota, go out on a date and they thought it was a great date cuz they sat across from each other and texts seriously, you can't even have a human conversation across the table over a Coca-Cola or something. But this is where we're at and it is that bad. It's just that bad. But when she told me this, I just thought, wow, that's just, uh, that's, that's completely classic cuz it's sort of a description of our society. So just reaching out to people in a human way is, uh, I'm not saying texts are bad, but that sort of thing. I mean you're on the cross the table just say, hi smile, Adam, this is complicated.
Speaker 0 00:17:12 So how's it going? But what are we here? Our whole test is about charity. That's what it all is. Cuz when we go to die that that's gonna be the question. Do we have charity in our soul? That's the only thing that matters at then of day. You have to have faith and hope cuz they're foundational for charity. Faith is the bottom layer there. But uh, that's what the test is. That's what our judgment is on charity. That is our judgment. So once you know that, go wait a minute. This is what, how the game is scored. Why don't I try to rack up the biggest score I can before I I'm outta here? Cuz that's this we're just passing through. Like I tell people often I wouldn't wish a hundred years on my worst enemy, but some people have to live that long and that's just their cross.
Speaker 0 00:17:55 But I want outta here. But even if you were out here for a hundred years, you just say, well, God's leaving me here longer so I can do more charitable, charitable works. Okay. Whole test is about charity, but it's it is a test. Okay. So we all need, look for us. If we're gonna be charitable, we have to fix our will to the will of God. What is God's will? So we know that in all the teachings and again, I, I emphasize if you don't actually know in a situ moral situation, you just say, all right, what would be most pleasing to God over the long run or what would be most charitable? And you just run with that.
Speaker 0 00:18:35 You can't give what you don't have. Charity is a gift. We should beg for it every day. Cuz it's a gift. God doesn't owe it to us. It's a gift. So we should ask him for it and ask him for it. He doesn't owe it to us, but ask him for it. Cuz he'll give it to us. But we have to ask, we keep on asking. And as we ask, as we grow in charity, since we're on in the mystical body, these things will flow through us and into others. That's what, that's the whole goal of it. Everybody. We come in contact somehow we want to be able to pass that on and if they don't reject it and they're disposed to it, it'll go in or it'll dispose them for receiving it. But without getting all the, the underlying theology of that, we wanna have that.
Speaker 0 00:19:16 So that can flow through us. God can use us as channels of his grace in that way. So we're not doing it to gain charity. We're doing it to pour it out. In that sense. We're trying to grow in that. Now I will say something in this context a little bit more about, I mentioned the priests in the beginning and I wanna say a little bit more about it is the real, the real reason. I think in my opinion, fundamental reason for the, the, the catastrophe and the priesthood is right here at this, at this virtue. If you let's go to the formation of guys, the charitable thing to do, if, if a young man comes to a seminary and has inclinations, not towards girls is to send him home instantly. He, he shouldn't get in, but send him home instantly because he just isn't suitable material and he can get to heaven, but not acting out like that.
Speaker 0 00:20:10 But, but also not as a priest, cuz he's not suitable material. We need men. We don't need guys that are struggling to figure out what it is to be a man. That's a foundational issue. Another level of charity. That's not observed the young men that are coming in, especially now where people are so damaged should be helped very much. But if they have sinful habits that they're not over, they should be given all the help they can in the first year or so, uh, to get over that kind of thing. And if they don't, they should be invited to leave. Now there's ways of doing it. I don't wanna get in all that, but they should be told that they really have to go their director and excuse themselves. Because if you can't stay here, this is not the right job because the devil is gonna note that and it's not like, yeah, so he just needs to go do something else.
Speaker 0 00:20:58 That doesn't mean he's a bad guy. That's just a sign of it. That it's also charity is rooted in truth. So it's so UN charitable not tell the truth about what the teach in the church is. So at, at the seminary level, it should be like that. And it's so uncharitable and it's uncharitable because they call God a liar in most of the seminaries in the world, what's called scripture study because at the end of the day in scripture study, it's not really about what God's word is. It's about what a bunch of of scholars say, this, that other thing. So you're not really entering into the word of God and getting familiar with that and seeing what the fathers and saints have said about it. It's more, what do the scripture scholars say and stuff like this. So it becomes a weird academic exercise instead of a, a means of growing in virtue.
Speaker 0 00:21:43 And yet your job, your primary job as a priest is to say the office, you have to say the office and all of it every day under the pain and mortal sin, you don't have to say mass every day. In fact, during the Trium we don't get to, but that being said, uh, you have to say the office every day. And, and so you're, you're gonna be in the word of God as your primary job. And yet they distanced you. All these things have to do with charity. You should have truth theology, that's charity. And then, uh, kind of the way the church is being run right now. It's extraordinary. You talk about false charity. They talk. So from on high, we're told to company people, well, what do you mean by that? If you're telling me to take people that are, that are in serious sin and give them communion, what am I supposed to accompany to hell no priest should leave the Royal road of the cross to go down and start on the wrong road.
Speaker 0 00:22:34 What he wants to do is call everybody in, bring everybody up to fall, following Christ's bloody footsteps, not run away from 'em to go down into the gutter in that way. You wanna bring people up out of that sort of life, whatever bondage they're in the homosexuality, they're shacked up all these different things, but we're getting exactly the opposite from on high. We're getting exactly the opposite. And that really is the, the giant drama right now is, and it's at the level of charity. There's not charity. How can you have a devil worship in Vatican gardens and then March a devil image of a devil into St. Peters and then throwing it and then commemorate it on this day, last year, uh, with a, a 10 year old coin. So you had the 10 year old coin with the, with the, that patch demon, very extremely pregnant and from the Vatican a 10 year old Vatican coin and a 10 year old Vatican St. Peter welcoming the immigrant. So it's pretty obvious the symbolism of that. So this, this devil is about to give birth to a new church and St. Peter, the thing is everybody's gonna be welcome except you, of course, but I mean, this is not charitable. Why would the Vatican state issue a coin with a devil on it? I mean, that's just so astonishing.
Speaker 1 00:23:44 You can't believe it. You need to have charity. You can't have charity like that. And to sit here and slap people on the back, sign, these treaties with the Muslims and the, the masons and everybody else as if we're all one big happy family and they use all this world human fraternity, we're one big unhappy family. The only way to be happy is to join Christ and his church and be United in charity.
