Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:01 We'll just make a quick remark on today's Gospel. You have to die disciples in this little boat and they're terrified because this is a terrible storm. All whipped up. It looks like they're doing boats taken on water and they're going to sink and there's our Lord laying there fast asleep, so they wake him up and what does he say? Why are you fearful or you have little faith and then he calms the storm. Huh? This is a really good scripture for each one of us to keep close to our hearts when we're having a tough time. When life seems like we're getting overwhelmed with a storm or society's falling apart or the church is falling apart or something. Our Lord may appear to be sleeping, but he knows what's going on. He's in charge. He saw this day, we can say to ourselves, why are you fearful you of little faith and remind ourselves that our Lord's in charge. He knows what's going on and he saw this day and there's a lot of constellation. It's a great scripture for constellation. All right, let's turn to the topic the other day. A friend of mine called. He wanted to talk to me about a frustrating conversation. He just had some poor woman who just corrected him for his use of offensive language. Had he been cussing and swearing? No.
Speaker 0 01:32 Ken, what was the issue? She told him that she did not feel comfortable when he referred to God as our father. In fact, she preferred that to think of God as our mother. Yeah. She doesn't feel comfortable with the idea of God. His father. The rosary must drive this poor wound, desert, start with a sign of the cross possibles creed, our father, glory p, and then he keep referring to our lady is the mother of God. What's wrong here? This woman has a fundamental confusion right at the level of faith. Well, she, I mean, she's confused about reality, but she has a fundamental confusion at the level of the faith. Unfortunately, yes, she is the director of religious education at a Catholic parish, but she's not alone. There's a lot of these kinds of errors floating around a day and they arise from profound misunderstands, really profound confusion about the most fundamental notions of the faith.
Speaker 0 02:46 Let's take a few minutes this morning and make sure we get three concepts hammered down. What faith is what we believe by faith and why we believe it. All three of the concepts are connected, but just for the sake of a clear grasp for a better grasp on the topic with divided into three, what faith is what we believe by faith and why we believe at first, what is faith. We'll have a quick review in order to really appreciate the answer. Thanks to Adam, we're all knob. All of us are now born without sanctifying grace. We don't have the life of grace and naturally speaking, there's not a single thing any one of us can do about it and the whole problem is in order to live the life of heaven, in order to even get there, let alone to live there. When we get there, we have to have powers beyond our building.
Speaker 0 03:45 We have to have supernatural powers. We have to have supernatural life and aim that supernatural life to sanctifying grace. If we die with sanctifying grace, we can lift the life of heaven. If we die with God, we can't. It's pure and simple. Okay? We've said it before, but everyone needs to burn this into his mind. If I die with supernatural life, I can and will live in heaven. If I die without it, I can't live in heaven. The most important thing I'll ever to is die. What is this life sanctifying grace? It's a created share in God's own life. It's a free gift from God that he places into our souls and makes them unspeakably beautiful. It's absolutely priced this and it gives us the ability to live and heaven and remember, this is why God became man in order to give us supernatural life, he became in order to give us sanctifying grace.
Speaker 0 04:52 That's the whole point of the church. That's what we're here to do. The whole entire purpose of the Catholic church is to continue the work of Christ throughout time till the end of the world. Everything we're concerned with is it restoring or fixing the damage done by original sin by either bestowing grace upon souls or restoring grace to souls that have lost it. Okay? That's why we're here. So what does all that have to do with faith? When a man is given sanctifying grace, it's a new kind of life. A man has given a supernatural life and with that life, just as with natural life, there are powers associated with our natural life. We have different powers right now, hopefully most of you are listening. That's a power that you have by virtue of the fact you're live and have ears and so forth. One of the supernatural powers given with sanctifying grace is a power called faith.
Speaker 0 05:53 Faith is a power. It's a supernatural power. It's a power, a intellect that was given to us by God. God gives it to most of us when we're little itty bitty babies right at the moment of our baptism, and it's a special kind of intellectual power, a supernatural power that gives us the ability to accept whatever God says is true. That's important. We may not see how it, God says, fits together with other things that he said. We may not see how it fits together with things we've seen elsewhere, but even if we don't see how it all goes together by virtue of the supernatural power of faith, we don't doubt what he says is true because he's God. It's a supernatural power that he's given to us, that we'll never doubt him no matter what. Faith gives us the ability to say, to truly say, God said it.
Speaker 0 06:47 I believe it, and that settles it. That's what faith gives us the ability to, to really be able to say, God said, I believe it, and that settles it as the dogmatic constitution on the Catholic faith of the first Vatican council teachers and fallible he quote, faith is a supernatural virtue of virtue as a power. Faith is a supernatural virtue whereby under the inspiration and assistance of graves, we believe those things revealed by God to be true. Not because the intrinsic truth of these things has been perceived by the natural light of our region, but because of the authority of God himself revealing who can either to c and R, B to c close quote than fallible teaching. The first fad. Can Counsel now, before we go any farther, it's easy to see that faith is a supernatural power. Simple example, we all believe that there are certain men they can take a piece of bread and whisper words over that piece of bread and that piece of bread becomes a man and that man is God.
Speaker 0 08:10 Now, that's not obvious, but the natural light of reason that is not not obvious at all. We believe it because God, the God who can either receive or be deceived says so. God said it and we believe at that settles and that takes faith. That takes faith. A couple of years ago, I was talking to young boys preparing for his first holy communion. He just explained to me that our Lord is really present body. Bud saw the vanity, the most busted sack where the altar. I had this unconsecrated hose and I held it up to, I said, are you kidding me? You mean to tell me after Jesus is in this host? Yes. He says his teeth. Yes. His hair. Yes. His toes. Yes. His whole body and all this blood. Yes. He said, I said, what? How can his whole body and blood be present? And little hosts like this?
Speaker 0 09:17 And he looked at me like as a complete moron. He said, because he's God. That's a great theological answer. It's perfect. It's not obvious at all, Huh? But it's obvious this little child had the faith. Here's a priest giving a bad time seeing, you know, where are you at with this? Huh? That little boy couldn't see how it all goes together and who can, but he didn't. Uh, what God says is true because God is God. That little boy has a supernatural power to believe whatever God says he has the faith, he has the faith. Okay? So now we know what faith is. It's a supernatural power that comes from God and gives us the ability to accept whatever God says is true. Second concept, what do we believe? We believe everything contained in the deposit of faith. Okay, father, what's the deposit of faith?
Speaker 0 10:20 Deposit of faith, all those things which were handed down by our Lord to his apostles. Two, he taught, preserved and handed down until the very end of the world. In fact, this is what our Lord is referring to in the great commission, which is right at the end of St Matthew's Gospel. And if you don't know what I mean, go home today. Open Up St Matthew's Gospel and read the end of it. Okay. Our Lord says, the apostles quote, go. Therefore the all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and the holy ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And behold, I'm with you all days, even under the consummation of the world. Close quote our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's God the son. He's commissioning man. He's commissioning the apostles and what does he commissioned him to do to teach all nations all things he's commanded them and he'll be with them for all days, even to the end of the world.
Speaker 0 11:32 What are the things that he's commanded that this would include not only sacred scripture, but also sacred tradition. And we can see an absolutely essential element of sacred tradition right here in the great commission. Our Lord has commissioned teachers. He's just commissioned. The Pos, was to go and teach. What did they supposed to teach? All the things to all the nations through all time, all things to all the nations through all time. The dictionary has a word for this. I looked it up. That word is defined as being quote of interest or use to all people, including all universal close quote of interest or use tall people, including all universal, all nations, all true. Sometimes we know that word, the word that means of interest reviews to all people, including all universal. The word that includes all nations, all through Saul Times the word, and you can look it up.
Speaker 0 12:36 Prediction areas, Catholic. Our Lord established a teaching church. Our Lord established a visible Church of true teachers, established a visible Church of true teachers. The dogmatic constitution on the Catholic faith of the first Vatican council. Infallibly teach his quote so that we could fulfill our duty of embracing the true faith and a persevering unswervingly in it. God through his only begotten son founded the church and he had doubt his institution with clear notes. To the end that she might be recognized by all as the Guardian and teacher of the revealed word, close quote, God through His only begotten son founded the church as the Guardian and teacher that revealed truth so that we could fulfill our duty of embracing the true faith and persevere unswervingly in it. That's what the great commission is all about. Our Lord established a visible Church of true teachers. He did not establish an invisible church of true believers.
Speaker 0 13:55 He established a visible church to teachers and because he established a visible church of true teachers and promised to be them all days, even to the end of the world, it's easy for us to know what we have to believe. We believe all the trues which the holy Catholic Church teaches. That's what it's here to do for us. The dogmatic constitution on the Catholic faith, infallible teaching, first Vatican Council, quote by divine and Catholic faith. All those things are to be believed, which are contained in the word of God is found in scripture and tradition which are proposed by the church as matters to be believed as divinely revealed. Close quote, the first Vatican Council and later sermons looks planned on all three of those points, the scripture tradition and a teaching office of the church. But this gives us a clear enough idea for today, Huh? So what are we supposed to believe?
Speaker 0 14:49 Everything contained the deposit of faith, all those things which are contained in the word of God as fond and scripture traditionary which are proposed by the church as being divinely revealed. Last concept, why do we believe all the things contained in the deposit of faith? That's easy. We believe him because God says so. Remember that faith is a supernatural power. It's placed in our intellect by God and it gives us the ability to believe that whatever God says is true, whether we can understand it clearly or not. Here's an infallible teaching of attic. And one quote, since man is wholly dependent on God as creator and Lord and since created reason is completely subject, John Created Truth. We're bound by faith to give full obedience of intellect and will to God who reveals not because the intrinsic truth of the revealed things has been perceived by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can either be deceive, nor be to seed for faith is as the apostle Paul testifies the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not close.
Speaker 0 16:13 Quote the first Vatican Council, let's review. We've seen it. Faith is a supernatural power that gives us the ability to accept whatever God said is true, that it gives us the ability to say truly say, God said it. I believe it. That settles it. We've seen that we're bound to believe everything contained within the deposit of faith, all those things that are contained in the word of God, but they're in scripture and tradition and which had been proposed by the church as matters to be divinely believed as matters that are divinely revealed. We've seen our church Lord established a visible Church of true teachers. He did not establish and visible Church of true believers. We've seen because our lord established a visible Church of true teachers and promise to be with that church to the end of the world. It's easy for us to know what to believe. We have to believe all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches all of them to scent is just a fancy political Butley correct word for heretic and to centers I heretics and up the same place. Heretics always end up if they don't repent and it's mighty hot and it never ends, okay. We've seen, we believe these revealed things not because we can see their true with the natural light of reason, but because the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can either to c or B to c.
Speaker 0 17:48 Let's notice one more thing. We believe all the trues which the holy Catholic Church teaches because God has revealed them. We believe all the truth, whether we find them comfortable or not. We don't sit in judgment of him. The devil tried that stone and look where he wound up. We don't sit in judgment of him. He sits in judgment of us are holy. Religion is not some kind of salad bar. We take it all.
