Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:02 Our society has not reached the point where marriage, one of the most fundamental elements of our society in any society for that matter is so misunderstood that even many men of goodwill are incapable of giving a clear explanation of exactly what marriage itself is. Let that not be said of us. Let's make sure everyone here clearly understands that marriage is a contract that results in a relationship. We just saw a contract being made. Here's the exact contract, just made bikes changing vows. The traditional description of it is the man and the woman give and accept a perpetual and exclusive right for acts which are of themselves suitable for the generation of children. That's the marriage contract by validly making and consummating that contract and the two become are closely related. Each other than a father is his own son or a brother, his two zone sister and that relationship is made directly by God. The relationship is perpetual means it's last til death. It's exclusive. Only that man and only that woman are involved in, it's limited to acts which are of themselves suitable for the generation of children because they're both baptized. This is a Sacramento marriage. Wood has the added dignity of being a mutual assistance pack between Michael and Martha to help each other to know and to love and to serve God in this life, to be happy with him forever in the next, this is what marriage is.
Speaker 1 01:49 Okay, very brief explanation of the nature of marriage. Most of you have probably heard that before, but the bigger question is how do we get here? How do we get to the point? What priest actually has to spend time at a wedding explaining what a marriage is? There's so much confusion, ignorance about the fundamentals, one of which is marriage. There's so much massive confusion about marriage to the point where we now have these bizarre legislative and judicial attempts to produce new kinds of marriages as if it were possible. So today we'll sketch brief outline and really broad terms. We don't have that much time of how we got to the point where the most basic, most essential, most fundamental societal customs, traditions and practices can be so completely misunderstood that an ordinary person may be incapable of giving a clear explanation. After we see how we got there, we'll consider response. Let's get started. How many of us ever heard that saying, it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're a good person.
Speaker 1 03:06 Actually it does matter. It matters a lot. We're all going to see how much that really matters, not just in his sermon, but in real life. The current disaster has its immediate source, the teachings of a renegade priest, Father Luther, we all know him, talked about file looses attacks and marriage before divorce and marriage is permissible to some degree, polygamy permissible to some degree, marriage is a civil matter belonging to the government and the judgments concerning marriage, should it be left to the jurists. We've looked at that before. It's important to understand, but that's not what we want to look at today. Today, we want to consider very briefly fathers Luther's principle of private judgment and the effect that that has had on western civilization. The principle is easy to understand. The Bible is to be interpreted by the individual believer, so you read it, you know what it means.
Speaker 1 04:06 It's not too hard to understand. Now, once a principal like that is accepted, it has a life of its own so to speak because ideas have consequences. The principle of private judgment states that the individual has the right to decide for himself what the Bible means, which in effect means that he has a right to choose what revealed trues. He will believe in. For example, is John Six speaking about our Lord's presence, the most blessed Itzhak did our Lord really appoint St Peter the head of the church and the pistol of j Saint James is our Lord or is Saint James Really speaking about priests doing the 90 of the sick and so forth and so forth and so forth. The result, religious just religiously speaking of this principle is here for everyone to see. According to the 2001 edition of the world. Christian encyclopedia now that's a Protestant work, so this is 11 years old.
Speaker 1 05:07 They have, at that time we had over 33,000 Protestant dominations. This wouldn't include the small congregations in the house. Churches with all due respect to our friends, neighbors and relatives involved in that with it without any flippancy at all. I think it's safe to say when you have 33,000 different denominations, the only doctrine that they're only all going to agree on is that we're wrong. In other words, this principal has the effect of completely destroying any body of doctrine. This church, this guy will say this, this will say that you say this. She says that whose to say what's revealed truth and what isn't? Furthermore, completely inverts the relight relationship between man and God. It gives them individualized idea that somehow he has the right to judge, but or even an ability to judge what God has said or required and whether or not he'll accept it.
Speaker 1 06:03 Where's the correct attitude is that complete receptivity and submission to God and his holy word. Now besides the resulting religious chaos, which was already evident Luther's time and he was even complaining about himself, this principal has another very serious consequence over time. It produces an atmosphere of secularism, a sort of practical atheism in social life. What does that mean? Well, it means that if we don't actually blatantly deny the existence of God, we end up acting as if there's no god anyway. Practically. Why? Since there's no possible way for us all to agree on what God has commanded us. You say this, I say that she says this. They say that we end up acting if he doesn't exist as if he hasn't commanded anything at all. So even if we agree exists, we can't agree what he commanded. It's the practical result is he doesn't have an absolute right to tell us what to do, not simply in matters of worship and public life and politics and legislation, practical matters.
Speaker 1 07:06 It's a prescription for chaos and catastrophe and a civilization built explicitly on the Christian revelation. So over time. Then the principle of practical judgment has given rise to a dogma, the absolute independence of the individual and society from the RealD Law of God. We might call that the Dogma of secularism. Again, it's this absolute independence of the individual and the society from the revealed love God. So that's the dogma of secularism on the one hand, but it's diametrically opposed to the Catholic principle. What does a Catholic principle, the Catholic principles at the very heart of Christendom and Western civilization, the Catholic principle is that the individual and the society must be absolutely subject to the revealed law of Christ our Lord. So on the one hand we have the notion that the individual in society are absolutely independent of the revealed law of God. And the other hand we have the idea that the indigo society have to be absolutely subject to revealed law of Christ our Lord.
Speaker 1 08:11 They're absolutely opposite of each other. This is at the heart of the cultural war underneath all the battles going on right now. This is what we're all actually fighting about. The only reason things have taken so long to completely fall apart as it the people who originally became Protestant, Jen suddenly abandoned all their moral customs that they took from Chris and dumb. They continued to live for the most part in accordance with those Catholic trues and practices which they had inherited from their Catholic forefathers and precisely because this more on social patrimony of customs and traditions was still present in society. Even the Protestant revolt, Western civilization, she could still function relatively well despite the increasingly wide differences in belief among the people. All this stuff was taken for granted, but now the patrimony is gone. This great cultural war. We are engaged in all these legal battles, political movements, charter schools, you name it, everything we're currently engaged in to protect our traditional values and I want to especially include here with great praise, the great efforts done in this regard by so many of our evangelical fundamentalists, neighbors, all these battles are important, but at best they are only delaying and flanking tactics.
Speaker 1 09:36 Why? Because it patrimony is gone. It's gone. Culturally speaking, we've squandered our wealth and wild living. Let's just consider a few of the cultural customs that are based on a revealed love God, but if essentially vanished from a brave new world, no perjury, men and boys must defend women and children even at the cost of their own lives. Women must dress in a modest fashion, no witchcraft, Buddha or sorcery. No blast to me. Worship God on Sundays, no shopping on Sundays, virginity until marriage, no adultery, no perversion, no contraception, no abortion, and on and on and on. The list goes on, but the important point is culturally speaking, we've lost all these battles.
Speaker 1 10:37 Every last one of them. Well, that doesn't mean that we run up the white flag and quit fighting. Certainly doesn't mean that we can just blend in the current environment. We have to do our duty right is right. Even when there's so much wrong around the culturally speaking, we have to admit we've lost these battles. The patrimony is gone. See how far we fought from the traditional Catholic understanding. There's a body of revealed truths that we must all embrace considered an absolute gem from United States Supreme Court. It's fond of planned parenthood versus Casey decision upheld Rovey way, quote at the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning of the universe and to the mystery of human life. Closed. Cool. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe and of the mystery of human life. Here we can see where the principle of private judgment has led us. That right concretely here we can see this idea that the individual and the society are absolutely independent of the revealed law of God. Distilled into this one line at the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning of the universe and in the mystery of human life. Well, they don't mean that anyway. Just try exercising your right to find the universe and don't include the IRS and see if the supreme court backs you up.
Speaker 1 12:18 We shouldn't be surprised. This particular line is also be invoked as a basis for legal decisions to establish their legal arguments to establish these San Francisco style marriages among other abominations. So now we find ourselves fighting this militant secularism and its racing from victory to victory and it's a formidable fall. Remember that they believe that the individual in society are absolutely independent, the revealed law of God. And on the other hand, we believe that should be absolutely subject to the law of Christ our Lord. Again, it's the heart of the war we're in. For the most part, the secularism has captured the institutions, the media, the schools, the universities, the seminaries, the courts, etc. Okay, so what should we do about it? First off, we want to keep a little perspective. It's just another battle in the boy. We've been fighting for 2000 years. We're going to win. That's a given. There's no worries there. We overthrew the Roman empire, but we have to make sure that on the one hand we don't become casualties ourselves in this terrible war. We don't be Trey Christ Coveo the other side. That's on the one hand, there are a lot of casualties. Now, on the other hand, we need to do everything in our power to bring people over to our side. The stakes are eternal.
Speaker 1 13:43 So the question we need to ask ourselves now is how do we remain faithful to Christ and bring people over to our side given the current conditions?
Speaker 0 13:53 Wow.
Speaker 1 13:55 Let's get started. 1963 father Alexander Schmiemann, he's a Orthodox priest, made some very penetrating comments on the problem of secularism. Quote, secularism. His philosophy of life is taken for granted without our clergy or people even being aware of it. Secularism is not the product of any special indoctrination. It is a very way of life of American society. It comes to us by thousands of channels through schools who publicity through magazines, through all ethos of our society. He is a consistent, closed and very powerful philosophy of life within law unless it is challenged and questioned as a whole and not only cannot be overcome, but it can't even be seen and understood as something radically alien to a traditional Christian understanding. Secularism is above all an occasion of worship. It's primarily a heresy Balt man. It's an occasion of man as a worshiping being as the one for whom worship is the essential app.
Speaker 1 15:00 Close quote, secularism is above all and the location of worship. It is a heresy about man laid Abbott of Liberty Benedict Canal. Abby in southern France. Dom Gerard spoke of Man is a worshiping. Being quote man is only truly himself when he adores. Adoration is assigned by which the Creech identifies himself and performs his primary function adorations of free and loving submission of the whole being to God by which the believer recognizes his sovereign rights. God has over his creature close quotes. So secularism is primarily a hair seatbelt man. It's an negation of man as a worshiping being than occasion of man for whom worship is essential act, but man is only truly himself when he adores narrations is signed by which the creature identifies himself and performs his primary function again is a free and loving submission by which the blue lever recognizes the sovereign rights God has over his creature.
Speaker 1 16:07 Now, Dom Gerard gives us the key idea, quote, our liturgy. He speaking of the traditional mass and divine office, our liturgy is essentially about adoration. Close quote, a key feature of the traditional liturgies that they're essentially ordered towards adoration, towards expressing the subjection of the individual and the society that revealed law and rule of Christ our lord and the traditional literally has the power to preserve us in the faith. Dom true are quote, the liturgy gathers the faithful around a fixed point. It prevents the faith from sliding down the slippery slope of forgetfulness and prevents them from drifting away from the faith. Close. Cool. Don Drugs speaks to the power of the traditional liturgy to elevate on believers and bring them to the feet of Christ. Quote one enters the church by two doors, door of truth, and the door of beauty. The narrow doors that have truth.
Speaker 1 17:16 The wider door is that of beauty more than anything else. The liturgy deserves to be called the splendor of the truth. It opens to the small and the great alike, the treasures of its magnificence. The beauty of Samadhi, sacred chants and texts, candles, harmony of movement and dignity of bearing with sovereign art. The liturgy exercise a truly seductive effect on souls even before the soul perceives its influence. The beauty of the sacred right in noble souls. It elevates them by exercising over them. This tweet attraction of heaven, close quote, this attracts the beauty is so important, especially in our days when so many people are confused and dazzled by World Gone Mad. If we're really serious about lovingly submitting ourselves to Almighty God, we must express that love not just with truth, not just with goodness, but also with beauty.
Speaker 2 18:21 Yeah,
Speaker 1 18:21 and want to understand the role of literature is to express this fundamental need of adoration, proper demand, this fundamental need of the of that's just essential demand to freely and lovingly submit himself to God to visibly express that sovereign rights that God has over him. Once we realize all that, and at the same time we realize that it's essence. Secularism is an aggregation of all that. Once we receive realize both of those points, then we have the ability to place the problem of the liturgical collapse and subsequent loss of faith in the correct light. In 1963 before the class collapse, Father Schmiemann issued a prophetic warning regarding trends and liturgy. Quote something that it must be possible to find not only some kind of accommodation, but even a deeper harmony between our secular age on the one hand and worship. On the other hand, in which case our whole problem is only that of finding or inventing a worship more acceptable, more relevant to the modern man's secular worldview and such indeed is the direction taken today.
Speaker 1 19:29 He's writing in December 63 by the great majority of liturgical reformers. What they seek is worship, whose forms and content would reflect the needs and aspirations of the sick or man than better of secularism itself. Close quote, so liturgical reformers wanted to accommodate the sacred liturgy to secular worldview in order to make it more relevant. Unfortunately, they did. They introduced worship who's forms and contents would reflect the needs and aspirations of secular man. The results can only be described as a catastrophe of biblical proportions. Don Gerard speaks after the collapse quote, forgetfulness of God's transcendence has plunged the world into a tragic situation. The present world is dying because it's written itself with the supernatural. Naturalism has entered into a modern man's banner of prayer and appears under the most varied forms, arranging hunger for novelty and adaptation, invasion of modern music and vulgar language. Finally, creativity, which is one of the subtlest forms of human pride and short modern man gives into the temptation to adapt religion demand instead of doing what the church has tried to do through the ages, adapt man to religion, close quo.
Speaker 1 20:48 The point is we learn who we are. We learn what we are in front of the altered. Before the first epistle of Saint Paul was written before the Gospels of Matthew, mark, Luke, and John were written before the first theological treatise was written. All those before they were all written, we were worshiping church gathered around living God. The traditional liturgy, the church have the power to draw people to our cause and does his stay in us and the battles and even in persecution. And that's not an exaggeration. Here's what Maximus, the fifth <inaudible> patriarch, uh, Melkites, our eastern right Catholics said 1977 to the first center of bishops dedicated catechesis. And I quote the patriarch. It was a celebration of the divine liturgy. They kept the faith of the faithful intact during the centuries of the Muslim persecution.
Speaker 1 21:45 It was a celebration, the divine liturgy of St John Chris' system that kept the faith of the faithful intact during the centuries of the Muslim persecution. So what have we seen? We've seen that we're facing a formidable full Billiton. Secularism, which proclaims that individual in the society are absolutely independent of the revealed law of God. We believe that the individual in society must be absolutely subject to the real law of Christ. Our Lord. We've seen inside of the heart of the cultural war, it's underneath every battle or actually fighting Bob. We asked ourselves how to make sure we'd Maine faithful the Christ and the same time bring people to him. We sought secularism as primarily a heresy about man. Denies that worship is the essential active man. That man is only himself. Truly. When he adores, again, we've seen adoration is a free and loving submission by which the believer recognizes sovereign rights.
Speaker 1 22:45 God has over his creature in a traditional literaries are essentially ordered towards expressing that we've seen they have the power to keep the faith attack, to sustain us in the battle, to sustain us in persecution and to draw people into loving relationship with Christ to the door of beauty. Let's close. We're bout in gage and the most subversive thing possible to overthrow the regime of those who believe that the individual and society are absolutely independent of the revealed law of God. We were about to demonstrate the most efficacious manner possible, the absolute truth that the individual and the society must be absolutely subject to Christ, our Lord and his laws. We're about to do something that will strengthen and support our faith, give us strength for the battle, conformist, the true and the beautiful and the good. We can do all this. The presence of our savior and king, the presence of our lady, our Queen,
Speaker 3 23:47 and the presence of all the angels and saints. We're going to sing a song high mass. Once we understand that, we'll know exactly who and what we are actually fighting for.
