Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:00:16 Well, before we get on this sermon, I just want to spend a minute to clear up another one of these weird misunderstandings to do that. I'll just start by quoting from the Christmas book by father Francis wiser SJ. Cool. The Christmas tree is completely Christian in origin. The origin of the Christmas tree goes back to the medieval German mystery plays. One of the most popular mysteries was the paradise play, representing the creation of man, the sin of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from paradise. It usually close with the consoling promise of the coming savior and with a reference to his incarnation. This made the paradise play a favorite pageant for admin and its closing scenes used to lead directly into the story of Bethlehem. Well, the face of Adam and Eve is December 24th. So that's another reason for it. During advent, these plays were performed either in the open or in the large squares in front of the churches, inside the house of God, which is a little shocking to me, but there it is.
Speaker 1 00:01:14 The garden of Eden was indicated by a fir tree, hung with apples. It represented both the tree of life and the tree of discernment of good evil, which stood in the center of paradise. After the suppression of the mystery plays in churches, the paradise tree, the only symbolic object of the play fond its way into the homes of the faithful. Especially since many plays, it interpreted as a symbol of the coming savior falling this symbolism in the 15th century, the custom developed a decorating the paradise tree already bearing apples with small white wafers representing the whole Eucharist. Thus in Glisan, Gerry usage, the tree, which had born the fruit of sin for Adam and Eve. Now bore the same fruit of the sacrament symbolized by the wafers. These wafers were later replaced by little piece of pastry, cut a shape of stars, angels, flowers, and bells, close quote, father Francis, a wiser SJ.
Speaker 1 00:02:06 So the point is the Christmas tree has zero. Nothing, absolutely nothing to do with pain and customs. It comes to the paradise tree, a darn with apples on December 24th in honor of Adam and Eve and the mystery plays it's completely Christian origin. Uh, the custom here in America came to the States with the immigration of Germans and in, in, in, in England would cause a lot of these products and ideas come from the English to, uh, that the reactants saying it's Protestant. Cause they hadn't seen it. It came over to England, became popular after Prince Albert, when queen Victoria married Prince Albert, he brought it from Germany with him. So, uh, it has nothing whatsoever to do with paganism. Okay. That stuff drives me crazy.
Speaker 0 00:02:48 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:02:53 On this great face. The Holy family, we'll start with the teaching of Pope Leo, the 13th quote, each and every Christian of whatever sort of conditioner position in life may easily be able to have a reason and an invitation for exercising, every kind of virtue. If he turns his attention to the Holy family, indeed fathers had the most brilliant model and the watchfulness and Providence of st. Joseph mothers have example of love, reverence, submission, and perfect faith and the most totally Virgin mother of God, children still living at home have the divine model of obedience, whom they might admire worship and imitate and Jesus who is subject to Saint Joseph and our lady, indeed nothing is more salutary or useful for Christian families to think about. Then the example of the Holy family, which perfectly and completely embraces every domestic virtue close quote each and every Christian of whatever conditioner position in life may easily be able to have a reason and an invitation for exercising, every kind of virtue.
Speaker 1 00:04:05 If he turns his attention to the Holy family. Now we all know that marriage is a vocation, which is another way of saying it's a call to holiness from God to a particular couple because it's a call to holiness. The man with the vocation of marriage should say to himself, I'm going to become a Saint. And then he should be looking for the woman that can help him do just that. And she should have exactly the same point of view. I'm going to become a Saint and this man can help me accomplish that as a couple. Then they should both have the goal, not of simply becoming saints themselves, but actually if it's God's will, if they have children, they found a dynasty of saints so that everyone that's descended from them will also be a Saint that's. The whole object of the exercise and the Holy family is your model.
Speaker 1 00:04:57 Okay. So let's briefly consider the model of st. Joseph in regard to husbands and fathers, but a quick word to the wives. No elbows in the ribs, your turn is coming. Okay. The medieval French theologian, Gerson comments, Joseph knew that he was the head of Mary because the husband is the head of the wife. Nevertheless, his veneration for her was so profound that he considered himself unworthy to be your companion or even to kiss the ground in which she had Traut. And he was always on the watch to render her some service. I'll be an unrequested even as might some most devoted servant rather than spouse. And then he loved her. So exceedingly what the love, like what the heavenly spirits feel for each other. I would have rev readily given his heart's blood for close quote. So man has to take care of his wife. Do you think our lady felt safe and protected? St. Joseph was a son of David. That means he descended he's descended from the young man that went out whipped Goliath. If some of Gypson would try to mess with his wife, for his foster son, Jesus, it'd be all over with.
Speaker 1 00:06:10 Do you think our lady would ever had to keep after st. Joseph about getting something fixed or lending your hand should see need it. It's hard enough for many women not to treat their husbands like teenage boys, a husband shouldn't train his wife to be a nag. He should imitate st. Joseph and strive to be helpful before she has to ask there's one area in which this is especially true. When a man says I do up here at the alter among other things he's saying I do solemnly swear before God. And man that I'll take care of this woman, especially her emotional needs for the rest of my life. And that can be tough. It can be a real challenge for husband. It can be all wine and roses and he steps outside to get the paper. And suddenly when he's out there doing that, the planets realign themselves.
Speaker 1 00:06:58 And by the time he steps back in it's thunder and enlightening. But when he said I do, he solemnly swear before God, man, that he take care of this woman, especially her emotional needs for the rest of his life. In that regard, two quick remarks for husbands. First, keep in mind that if your wife has been at home taking care of little ones and so forth all day long, she may be wondering how you are and what's going on this and that. And then when she asks, how was your day? Unless you want a secret mission doing something for an intelligence agency. It's generally not an adequate response to say fine and flip on the TV. That's not a conversation. You're not holding up your end of the deal. Second suppose the husband is doing his best to have a conversation with his wife who telling you about emotional problems she's struggling with, but the conversation for whatever reason, doesn't seem to be going well.
Speaker 1 00:07:52 And he's left wondering quote, why does she say she doesn't want me to fix it? She just wants me to listen. And what does she tell me? You're not listening when I've been listening for the past half an hour in general. The answer is that when she's sharing an emotional problem, as opposed to say this car has a flat tire, what she is feeling about the problem is actually more important to her than the problem itself, right there. What she's feeling is the actual problem. Therefore, listening to her feelings solves the problem in that way. So what the man needs to do instead of filtering out her emotions to focus on the problem, he needs to learn, to filter out the problem. In order to focus on her feelings. After he's acknowledged her feelings, then they can focus on a solution.
Speaker 1 00:08:40 Two quick remarks regarding fatherhood fathers, with daughters, lots of hugs and affection from their dad gives the daughter the security that she needs to know that she's attractive and loved and cherished. Don't forget to tell her things like, don't you look pretty today, your daughter, and you need to treasure fathers with sons, sons need their dad's approval. How many grown men are still yearning for their father's approval? Sons need to be told and even shown what it is to be a man. And if you don't tell your sons, then our society will. If you don't tell our sons what your sons, what it is to be a man in our society will. And what is our society? Can you tell your sons? It is to be a man. We all know, according to the twisted Mo morals of our six society being manly in our society means getting drunk and rowdy and doing idiotic things and in general, and taking advantage as many girls as possible, and generally carrying on like an unbaptized Haven, which is all a loaded diabolical rubbish, teach your sons how to be Catholic men.
Speaker 1 00:09:49 There's much more that could be said if we had time, but guys ponder st. Joseph. Okay. Now, in regards to wives, mothers, let's briefly consider our ladies example of love, reverence and submission Gerson. Again, the love and reverence, which a Virgin had for Saint Joseph was such that she rejoiced to serve him as her Lord respect him as her tutor and guardian and tenderly love him as her spouse treat him with all the honor, which scripture records it. Sarah treated Abraham telling us that she called him Lord implying there by much more than the mirror words express Oh, in comparable dignity that the mother of God, the queen of heaven, the sovereign lady of the world should not distend a call Saint Joseph her Lord, truly, truly I not know which most to admire the great humility of Mary, where the sublime crasher of Joseph DUS Gerson.
Speaker 1 00:10:44 So womenfolk, you need to stop and think about what it means to be a woman, the glory of a woman. And it's a great glory, is that in some way she models herself on. She captures, she incarnates in a certain aspect. Some of the beauty of our lady, the glory of a woman is such is that those around her, see, in her refractions of our lady of this ineffable, moral beauty of our lady, and that especially pertains the impression that the wives make on the husbands. So model yourself on our lady, all you women. But if the glory of a woman is to Mahler cell phone, our lady, and so doing proposed virtue to those around her, just by the sheer force of her goodness and true femininity is a force. It's a real force. It's a recognizable for even a secular world, recognizes beauty.
Speaker 1 00:11:33 And the beast is a true story about the fact that a real woman, true femininity has on a man. It's a true story. It just doesn't have real people in it. If the glory of a woman is to model herself on our lady and thereby propose goodness to those around here, just by the sheer force of her goodness, all this virtue that people want to be proposed had proposed to them. The tragedy of a woman is to model yourself on Eve and propose something else. And unfortunately that's all around us. We're surrounded by those kinds of examples. A few quick remarks. First wives imitate our lady. Quit raising little boys to be little girls. We don't need any more. Sissified feminized males around quit manipulating your husbands. Quit humiliating your pub husbands in public quit undermine his authority in public or in front of the children and quit nagging him.
Speaker 1 00:12:35 If you have a problem with your tongue, take a lesson from the great SA Spanish Saint Saint Vincent for air he'd hand, a bottle of water. Two women would struggle with that province. Tell him when they got all fired up, they should just uncork the bottle. Take a big old swig and hold it in their mouth without swallowing. Just hold that water in your mouth and pray until the temptation to say something passes. You can't sin with your tongue. If you have a mouth full of water, you might have a big goofy look on your face for a while while you're struggling not to say something, but you pray to get control and then swallow it. I recommend Holy water. That way you get a blessing when you swallow it.
Speaker 1 00:13:15 One other principal regarding speech quote, the principal, the remembered is this. The wife should accept what her husband says is a fact, the husband must try to understand what his wife means by what she says. Again, the wife should accept it. Her husband says is a fact, the husband was trying to understand what his wife means by what he says, unless he's a hypocrite. A man generally says what he thinks own will gravely air. If she insists upon giving to his words, interpretations that he never intended. She has only to take him at his word. If she does issue, avoid uselessly, complicating their relationship and that of the family. Now, every priest has a lot of funny stories. He could tell about young brides coming in, crying, talking about what he meant about by some remark. And after you get her calm, don't he say, I'm not worried about what he meant.
Speaker 1 00:13:59 What did he say? When? Because it's more a learning experience for communication. Cause most of the fights are at the level of communication. The men tend to talk to women as if they're other men and the women checked it to talk to men as if there are other women or make these assumptions in the conversation. So they're missing each other at this point. So generally speaking, if you just take the guy, what he said is what he means. That's what he means, right? Like that the girls have a drop down menu. You know, you can say things and you can be seeing all kinds of other stuff too. We're not that complicated. We're pretty basic. Okay. So because a woman does not always see exactly what she means. She leaves a lot to the imagination. It's a happy home where the husband can read between the lines and interpret his wife's wishes.
Speaker 1 00:14:44 She should make a practice of time. Clearly your most secret desires. If she expects him to understand exactly what she wants. Quote second, sometimes a wife might complain of price that her husband never comes home unless he's had a few drinks. Now I'm certainly not implying. This is fine. But before she takes that up with the priest, the first thing she would ask herself is does he need to have a few before he faces me? His idea of femininity is especially you. His idea of beauty is especially you and most, especially your face. When he comes to the door, is he generally squeaking going to see a smiling face? Do you even make the effort to greet him at the door? Do you make an effort to make him look forward to coming home and seeing you at the end of the day, do you make an effort to produce yourself up a little bit for him when he comes home, put your burning questions aside, don't bring up any important questions until after he's been fed and a wise mother will teach the kids not to ask their father anything important until he's eaten.
Speaker 1 00:15:55 Third one, a woman says I do up here at the altar. She's saying, I solemnly do swear before God, man, that I'll take care of this man, especially as physical needs for the rest of my life. And that can be tough. Take care of a man's physical needs can be a real challenge for a wife. But when she said I do, that's what she said forth. How do you think our lady react to st. Joseph? When he asked her to do something unpleasant it's we're thinking about notice what happened during the flight to Egypt, st. Joseph tells her we're leaving. In other words, please get up and get packed. We've got to travel on through wilderness. That's crawling with desperadoes. We're moving to the most satanic place in the world, the kingdom of Egypt. And we're leaving. Now notice there aren't any issues, but lady doesn't raise her voice.
Speaker 1 00:16:43 She doesn't get discouraged. She gets up. Packs takes the baby and off they go. Our lady isn't obeying st. Joseph because he has the stronger will or because he has a more dominant personality. Our lady has a far, far stronger will than st. Joseph and a much more dominant personality. Our ladies have been Saint Joseph because he's her husband and his God given role as the husband is to lead the family and her God given role as the wife is to fond, support her husband and be helped mate, to him. One of you is going to have the stronger will. That's how it is. God knows that he made you that way. One of you is going to have the more dominant personality. God knows that he made you that way, but if you're married, it doesn't matter. Who has a strong will, who has more dominant personality, no matter who has that, the man is in the lead.
Speaker 1 00:17:37 That's how God made it. It's easy to understand. The Catholic view of marriage is comparable. The waltzing, a girl's free to say yes or no to a guy when he asks her to waltz. But if she says yes, then she actually asked to follow his lead. Yes. She may have to look over his shoulder and warn him. If he's running anything, she may have to kind of move her feet around. If he's not such a good dancer to keep him from this stepping on her feet, but she still has to follow his lead. Doesn't mean she has a lesser dignity. That's just how waltz works. If all of a sudden she starts trying to lead that it's no longer a waltz. She's just turned it into a wrestling match. And marriage is no different. There's much more that could be said if we had the time, but women should.
Speaker 1 00:18:24 Paul ponder our lady two quick remarks for the young people. First think of hock kind. The members of the Holy family were one to another in first Peter four, eight God's. Holy word tells us that before all things have a constant mutual charity to among yourselves for charity covers a multitude of sins before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves for charity covers a multitude of sins. If you want to become a Saint and the other option is not acceptable. If you want to become a Saint, a really easy way to grow in holiness is to do at least one kind thing for each member of your family every day, no matter how you're feeling or how you're feeling about them, do at least one kind thing for each member of your family every day, no matter how you feel. And you're going to grow in charity, which means you're going to grow in holiness, but imitating our Lord in this way. Second young people don't take your Holy faith for granted. Don't take it for granted.
Speaker 1 00:19:41 Our Lord tells us that the truth will set us free every day. Thank God for the gift of the Holy faith and beg him. I mean, beg him on your knees to grant you a love for and dedication for the truth. There are very, very few people that love the truth. Very few. It's a grace. You have to ask for that. Pray for that grace final thought for everyone here, take some time to ponder how the Holy family saw everything in light of eternity, how they saw each one of them understood each moment, the joys, and especially the crosses as a gift from God, pray for the grace to understand your crosses in the light of eternity. Pray for that grace. And don't let life just happen to you. Time is a raw material from which you're weaving your eternity.
Speaker 2 00:20:48 Don't waste your time. Every day is a special gift from God. It's precious. You don't get that. Many of them it's going to be over a 40. You know, it don't waste. It
Speaker 0 00:21:06 Don't waste it let's close
Speaker 2 00:21:12 Each and every Christian, whatever sort of conditioner position, life may easily be able to have a reason, an invitation for exercising, every kind of virtue. If he turns his attention to the Holy family, get serious about your holiness. Get serious about your holiness before it's too late.
Speaker 0 00:21:37 <inaudible>.
