Well, hello and welcome to no nonsense Catholic. I'm your host,
Matthew Arnold for Virgin, most powerful radio. Happy to be back in the, uh,
Virgin most powerful studios here, uh, in Southern California.
And great to have you along with us, uh, have a lot to talk about this week, um,
including 10 memorable sayings of our Lord Jesus that I think every
Catholic should be familiar with. Um, we are also,
I just wanna make mention that we are in the final three months,
the last day of the, uh,
of the first of the final three months of the, um,
special year dedicated to Mary. If you recall last year,
Pope Francis dedicated October of 2021 through October of 2022
as a year,
especially dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary and these last three months,
August, September,
and October are themselves all dedicated to the blessed Virgin.
So we're gonna, um, mention that if possible and certainly going forward. Sorry,
I wasn't around so much, uh, this month because of my health, but, uh,
glad to be back in the saddle also gotta be instituting a new and most likely,
very irregular feature, uh,
for no nonsense Catholic kind of a best and worst of the week in the Catholic
news. And I think maybe, uh, the first recipients may surprise you a little bit,
but, uh, to begin as always, we're gonna look at the readings,
the Sunday readings. Uh,
now we're doing the ordinary form readings for this week,
which began with the 22nd Sunday of ordinary time.
The overarching theme of the readings, uh,
being humility and the old Testament reading is taken from the book of crock
chapter three.
My child conduct your affairs with humility and you will be loved more than a
giver of gifts, humble yourself. The more the greater you are,
and you will find favor with God.
What is too sublime for you seek not into things beyond your strength search,
not the mind of a Sage appreciates Proverbs and an attentive ear is
the joy of the wise water quenches, a flaming fire and alms,
a tone for sins. Uh, crock of course, being one of the, uh,
seven due to canonical books that was removed from the can of scripture by the
Protestants removed from the Protestant can probably, uh, that, uh,
business about, uh, mortifying yourself and giving alms as, uh,
atonement for sins. Uh, something that Luther would not have appreciated, but,
uh,
crock the author of crock lived in at a time when the Jews were immersed
in Hellenistic culture. This is after the conquest of Alexander. The great,
and this book, the wisdom of Ben crock was written about 250 years,
uh, before Christ.
And it was meant as a reminder to Hellenized Jews that for all the
comforts and pleasures that the Gentile pagan secular
culture, uh,
could provide true wisdom consists in meditating on God's laws
and the teachings that is say the traditions of the past and the early
Christians adopted the book of crock.
They called ecclesia or Leber Ecclesiasticus book of the preacher or
the book of the church because it offered the new Christian converts.
Many of whom were Gentiles, uh,
practical advice on how to live in that secular culture without compromising
their faith just as it had for the Hellenistic Jews, uh,
centuries before Christ and, uh, um, as it can for us today.
So the wisdom offered in this passage, uh, is simple. The greater you are,
the greater your humility should be because all good things come,
not from our own strength, but from God. And now the, um,
reading from the lit of St.
Paul to the Hebrews from chapter 12 brethren,
you have not approached that which had,
could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm,
and a trumpet blast, and a voice speaking words,
such as those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them.
No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem and countless angels in festal gathering and the
assembly of the first born enrolled in heaven and God,
the judge of all and the spirits of the just made perfect and Jesus,
the mediator of a new covenant and the sprinkled blood that speaks more
eloquently than that available, uh,
in the book of Hebrews, uh, St.
Paul's writing to Jewish converts who are struggling with their new faith,
uh, emphasizing here in the book of Hebrews that, uh,
Judaism was divinely instituted that it was the true religion that it its
worship, uh, expressed the true worship, the commandments, the rituals,
the, the, um,
the words of the prophets described God's promises and pointed the way
to forgiveness and salvation, but that's, as far as it went, he, uh,
the old purpose of the old covenant was to point the way to Christ,
but when Christ came, uh, he fulfilled the law in the prophets.
He conquered sin and death and, uh,
shattered all the barriers to God and provided the way to eternal life.
But many of the Jews who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah found themselves,
uh, slipping back into their kind of old familiar routines and trying to live a
hybrid faith, right? That's where they wound up with the Judaizers,
who were saying that the Gentile convert had to become Jews before they could
become Christians. And, uh,
the message of the letter to the Hebrews is pretty simple. He he's St Paul,
he's telling them once you've embraced this covenant of grace, right?
The fulfillment of the old covenant to turn back to the,
to the types and shadows would be to show disdain for the almighty,
because the old sacrifices have been fulfilled in the blood of Jesus,
who is the true lamb of God. So in this passage, uh,
today St Paul compares the old and the new covenants, he,
he alludes to the covenant of Sinai,
right when God gave Moses the 10 commandments. And which is a,
a terrifying, I mean, it's fascinating, but it's a terrifying spectacle,
you know, with, with fire and smoke and, and,
and the blaring of trumpets and the thundering voice of God, um,
after which the people begged to hear no more directly, you know, no more,
uh, messages directly from God. They,
they just wanted it mediated through Moses. And so, consequently,
no man, or beast was allowed to so much as touch, uh, the mountain to,
to go to Mount Sinai except Moses. And even he said,
I'm terrified in trembling, but whereas, you know,
in contrast, St Paul says the new covenant is not about gloom and doom,
but this joyous celebration that the blood of able cried out for vengeance,
but the blood of Christ cries out for peace and forgiveness.
So the old covenant worship then was,
was a foreshadowing of the Christian liturgy, the, the holy mass,
which is literally heaven on earth.
And it was from this passage that we understand how every mass is attended by
the whole court of heaven. God, um, you know, Jesus,
the second person of the Trinity, the angels, the old Testament saints,
the church of the first born and the spirits of the just made perfect,
which by the way, forms the, uh,
basis for the distinction between those who go straight to heaven.
And those who only enter after a time of cleansing in purgatory,
because nothing unclean shall enter heaven and it's in holy mass that heaven and
earth meet. And that by the way is why you don't approach communion.
If you're not in a state of grace. All right. And finally,
the gospel for the 22nd,
Sunday and ordinary time taken from Luke 14 on a
Sabbath,
Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees and the people
there, and the people there were observing him carefully.
He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table, uh,
a more distinguish he says,
when you were invited by someone to a wedding banquet do not recline at table in
the place of honor,
a more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him.
And the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
give your place to this man.
And then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather,
when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you,
he may say my friend, move up to a higher position.
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.
But the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Then he said to the host who invited him, when you hold a lunch or dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy
neighbors in case they may invite you back.
And you have repayment rather when you hold a banquet invite the poor,
the crippled, the lame, the blind blessed indeed,
will you be because of their inability to repay you for you will be
repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Thus far,
the words of the holy gospel.
Now Jesus taught two lessons here first. Um,
he spoke to the guests telling them not to seek the places of honor,
because service is more important in God's kingdom than status.
And then he told the host not to be exclusive about whom he invited
because God's kingdom is open to everyone.
And it's a lesson in humility where greatness is determined by concern for
others,
rather than presuming that your position entitles you to the favor of God.
And it's a call to be humble. And how do we do that?
How do we achieve humility? We talked about this at length, uh,
last week that some people try to give the appearance of humility, right?
They try and to appear humble in order to manipulate others.
But of course that's not humility, that's hypocrisy.
And some other people honestly think that humility means putting themselves down
all the time,
but that's not right either because humility doesn't mean to denigrate yourself.
But to be honest with yourself and truly humble people compare themselves
with Christ. And when, when you hold yourself up to the image of Christ,
a as in a mirror,
you pretty quickly recognize your sinfulness and, and, you know,
your understand your limitations.
And hopefully you're inspired to seek his grace and to become more like him,
um, to conform to his image, right? The truly humble person,
then doesn't deny his gifts and strength. Rather,
he recognizes precisely that they are gifts, that there are gifts from God.
And then he puts those God given talents to work,
puts them in the service of Christ to use them as our Lord directs.
So humility,
therefore lies in gratitude to God for all the benefits that we've received and
in the imitation of Christ. And that's no nonsense. All right.
Uh, just quickly I mentioned that Pope Francis, um, called for a Marion year,
a year, devoted to Mary from October of 2021 to this October. And,
um, there's actually a lot coming up in that regard.
And I just wanted to say that, uh, in, in the coming weeks,
we're gonna put a special focus. I, uh,
hopefully each week on some aspect of these final months of, uh,
this Marion year and devotion to the blessed Virgin,
because devotion to her is a great comfort in these troubling times.
And that's no nonsense. Okay. Back with more right after this,
no nonsense Catholic on Virgin, most power for
Welcome back. Uh, you know,
when I was a young man and I mean a much younger man, uh,
maybe like 40 years ago, back in the eighties, um,
there was something of a Renaissance of standup comedy, and I really enjoyed,
uh, the comedians back in those days. Um, and, uh, you know,
it was all over TV and, and the nightclubs and so forth.
And I was working as a musician back then. And, um, and so, uh,
I'm now Catholic 20 plus years, almost 30 years and, uh,
doing this program, but I think it's funny, uh,
no pun intended that a comedian from back in those days should be the recipient
of our first ever even a broken clock is right. Twice a day award.
And, um, you know, I,
this week I read an article on life site news about committee comedian,
bill Mar, uh,
not somebody that you would think of as an award winner on a Catholic podcast,
but, you know, back in the day long before my conversion, um,
I was still pretty conservative, but I enjoyed bill Mar. Uh,
and for two reasons, number one, back in those days, you couldn't use, uh,
you know,
profanity or the kind of vulgarity that are so common these days on broadcast
television. So, you know, comedy in general will in general was more palatable.
Uh, you know,
but even though Mar was a lot more liberal than me,
um, he was among the first comedians to, you know,
make fun of the emerging phenomenon of political correctness way back in the
1980s. And, uh, you know, especially politically incorrect speech,
so called because the whole idea of, of, you know,
like speech codes and all that deserves to be mocked . And because,
you know, from his aspect without free speech, there isn't any comedy, you know,
you have to understand there's a difference, um,
between political correctness and social convention. You know, when I was a boy,
it was understood that there are certain topics that you didn't discuss in
polite company, sex, politics, religion, right.
But those taboo topics, uh, have always been the heart and soul of comedy.
You think of he young, man's famous one liner, uh, take my wife please,
or even all the way back to will Rogers when he said, um,
I'm not a member of an organized political party, I'm a Democrat. And,
uh, and you, you can imagine how many jokes, you know,
the thousand jokes that began a priest minister in a rabbi walk into a bar and
so forth. You know, humor is about kind of popping the balloon of PO paste.
It's about turning things on their head. And,
and comedy is only funny if there's an element of truth in it,
and to paraphrase GK Chaston,
it is the sign of a healthy religion or political party or social
group or whatever, to be able to laugh at itself. You know,
I come from a long line of Cowboys and I know that it is possible to cross the
line, you know, as, as my father used to say something ain't funny,
but in general, if you can't take a joke, there's something wrong with you.
And that's why so much of what passes for comedy these days is, is,
is simply not funny, cuz it's not about the truth.
It's not about the foibles of, you know, the human foils of people,
whether they're left right or center,
just a lot of vulgarity and profanity and increasingly virtue signaling,
you know, do you ever wonder why the jokes, uh, you know,
if you watch one of those late night, uh,
talk shows and the guy comes out to do his monologue and every joke is greeted
with this porous laughter and wild applause, you know, why is that?
It didn't used to be like that. And the reason is, you know,
Johnny Carson back in the day, you know,
he he's only agenda was to entertain his audience and he actually had
an audience, but uh, you know, today the, these late night talk show hosts,
don't so much have an audience as they have a tribe.
And so every piece of mean-spirited invective masquerading,
his humor has to be greeted with unrestrained enthusiasm, you know,
so that the audience can prove that good members of the tribe. You know,
it's kinda like people back in the old Soviet union who would, uh,
rather pass out from exhaustion than risk being the first one to stop applauding
for stolen. Okay. Now back to bill Mar uh,
on Friday on his program, real time,
which the successor to his previous program app titled aptly
titled politically incorrect. I'm sorry, I'm working with rented lips today.
Hang on, get a little moisture in there. Um,
he said the most controversial thing that a liberal today can say, he said,
pro-lifers do not hate women. Now,
one of his guests, uh,
Senator from Minnesota named AB Amy Klobuchar or
Klobuchar I'm, I'm sorry. I don't know how to pronounce her name. She, you know,
he said to her, I'm certainly,
pro-choice what I'm saying is you shouldn't say the other side to the other
side, you people hate women. They don't hate women.
They think abortion is murder. And if you think it's murder,
then you can't go well, except for people with a uterus, they can commit murder.
Right? He said, I don't think it's murder, but they legitimately do.
And it insults them, you know, to be told that they hate women.
And that kind of candor really is refreshing from someone on the left,
who is both, you know, pro-abortion and uh, and about atheist,
but it was intolerable to his guests.
The Senator tried to tried to throw up the,
the liberal smoke screen by bringing up the phony position of people like Biden
and Pelosi. For example, she said, uh,
there are pro-life people who have the view. That's fine.
They just don't think that they should put their views on someone else. Uh,
and Mar pointed out the obvious she said,
but you wouldn't say that about a murderer. And that's what their point is.
It's not because they hate women at which point. Uh, Rob Reiner,
actor, comedian, uh,
also a guest on the program said that pro-lifers are trying to foist a Christian
nationalist agenda on America.
Remember that abortion was illegal everywhere on the earth until, you know,
roughly 50 years ago. Uh, and Mar again, disagreed. He said,
not everyone who is pro-life is a Christian nationalist,
which is obviously true. Muslims are against abortion, and they're hardly,
they're hardly Christian nationalists. So the, uh,
I wanna just point out that, that bill Mar for all his faults, he's,
he's one of an emerging group of liberals who are refusing to get caught up
in some of the irrational sides of, of liberalism, like the,
the transgender nonsense,
because they can see that it's irrational now,
according to a live site news article. And if you, when the show gets posted,
it'll be in the show notes, you can follow the link. Um,
Mar took a lot of heat from liberals, uh,
last may because he devoted an entire segment of his show to, um,
opposing the insanity of quote unquote, gender transitioning children.
And again, any person of Goodwill should be against that last February.
He actually defended the legislation put forward by, um,
Ron DeSantis down in Florida, prohibiting, uh, teachers from teaching sexuality,
uh, teaching about sexuality to children, uh,
in the third grade and younger or younger than the third grade, you know,
as if third graders need to hear about this, you know, and,
and mark said that he understands the parents' concerns and,
and he is himself understandably,
very uncomfortable with transactivist rhetoric about protecting kids from their
parents, right, as, as any rational person would be. So,
although I disagree profoundly with bill Mar on almost everything ho host of
issues, no nonsense Catholic is awarding him.
The first ever even a broken clock is right.
Twice a day award for having the courage to go against the liberal tribe and
defend common sense regarding the fact that being pro-life does not mean
that you hate women. Okay.
And then I'm gonna take a quick drink here, wet my wet, my whistle,
not wet, but wet. And, uh, we're gonna go to our next award.
And as you know, this podcast is called no nonsense Catholic,
and there is a special word that describes the type of nonsense
that, uh, we oppose on this program. It can be found in Websters under B,
right between the words bull work and bull fi. Okay. And,
and so our next award is called the Websters has a word for it award
and the very first Websters has a word for it.
Award is being presented to Cardinal Jean Claude Hoick who will play a
central role at next year's gathering of the world's bishops for the Sy odd on
Syal at a Vatican press conference on Friday, August 26th,
Cardinal Hallick insisted that he had no personal agenda for the son Noal
process. Uh, this was an answer to a question that, uh,
somebody raised regarding comments that he made last February, wherein he said,
and I quote,
he believes the sociological scientific foundation of the church's
teaching on homosexuality is no longer correct.
Therefore, uh,
it follows logically that he must also believe that the church's doctrine on
homosexuality is itself incorrect.
Now he was sing in a different tune last Friday when he said, quote,
I fully believe in the tradition of the church and what is important.
I think in this process is not a change of doctrine,
but what is important is to listen to everybody,
to listen also to the suffering of people. I think of parents, for instance,
of people concerned and to have a change, not of doctrine,
but a change of attitude, that we are a church where everybody can feel at home.
So I am not in favor of changing any doctrine.
I am in favor for a church where really everybody can feel welcome.
Although he did add that this welcome does not mean that there cannot be quote
discussions and different positions. Now,
the elephant in the room that was not addressed. Uh,
I is pretty clear first that the Cardinal was named to an important post in the
Bishop Sinu precisely after he made his public comments against the church's
teaching on homosexuality. And secondly,
that he conflates doctrines with opinions,
a doctrine is by definition,
a teaching that must be held by the Catholic faithful.
And that includes bishops Catholics do not get to pick and choose
which doctrines they will or won't believe there's a word in Greek,
which means to pick and choose it's heresy. So, um,
and also Cardinal, Hallick never said that he accepts the church's teaching, uh,
church's doctrine on homosexuality,
but rather that he is not in favor of changing doctrines generally.
So as you know,
as though the church has the authority to change doctrines at all, however, in,
in, you know,
looked at in light of his position that the sociological scientific
foundation of the church's teaching on homosexuality is no longer correct
his call for not a change of doctrine,
but a change of attitude suggests that he's looking for a church where doctrines
don't have to, to be changed,
but they also don't have to be acknowledged if they make you feel unwelcome,
which is nonsense,
the kind of nonsense that you find in Websters between bull work. And Bullfinch,
uh,
St Paul said in the book of Romans that the pagan preoccupation with sodomy and
the dreadful spiritual and physical consequences that follow,
he said it, that that itself was a divine punishment doctrines matter
because actions have consequences. Also, if you look at the,
uh,
the summaries of the continental European Bishop's conferences that have come
in, uh, regarding the Senate auto Syal,
there's a marked divide between Eastern, uh, and Western Europe,
where doctrine is concerned, uh,
Eastern European Catholics mostly wanna see doctrine and church structure remain
intact.
Whereas some of the Western European Catholics are looking for the church to
accept divorce and remarriage so-called homosexual marriage put an end to
priestly celibacy.
And so on which to be consistent would mean the acceptance of
Catholic priests entering into so-called homosexual marriages,
not just married priests, but priests in homosexual unions,
which I fear is precisely what this is all about.
Not just listening to Catholic parents of, of homosexual children or, or,
or priests that struggle with homosexual attraction with the church does anyway,
but accepting or even celebrating that act of homosexuality.
Okay.
Finishing up with this and coming back with 10 memorable sayings of our Lord,
right after this, stay with us. No nonsense Catholic on Virgin,
most powerful radio.
All right.
To finish up with the presentation of our no nonsense Catholic first ever
Websters has a word for it award, uh, Cardinal Hallick, as I said, um,
made, uh,
a splash in the media when he said that the sociological slash scientific
foundation for the church is teaching on homosexuality is not correct or no
longer. Correct. And then Friday of last week, he says, now that he's,
uh, um, playing a central role in the, in the Sy out on Senate,
he in Europe there, he says that, um, he's not for a change with doc to,
but a change of attitude wants a church where everybody feels welcome regardless
of their, um, position or, uh,
different positions. Um, the thing is of course,
um, you know, we have,
we have a lot of questionnaires being sent out by the Bishop's conferences.
And some of them have come back with people saying that they want to have, uh,
married clergy and they want to have homosexual marriage,
which means homosexual, married clergy. I mean, that's logically,
that's what follows. And, and he, he says not a change of doctrine,
but a change of attitude, but such a change of attitude would be, you know,
it would amount to nothing less than church sanctioned, mortal sin,
which is nonsense.
That's 100% grade a nonsense. Um,
but I'm getting a final quote here from Cardinal Hallick who said,
thank you that I could clarify this, but also, which is very important.
I have no personal agenda for the Sy.
I have no personal agenda for the sin. Odd.
I have got a concrete mission by the Pope,
which is to listen and to serve. Now, if I could,
I would remind the Cardinal that he also has a concrete mission from God,
which is to teach, govern and sanctify the faithful,
not to call doctrines into question or ask the faithful what they think the
church ought to teach instead.
And so the first ever Websters has a word for it.
Award goes to Cardinal Hallick of Luxenberg. And, uh,
unfortunately the Cardinal is not here to accept the award because he doesn't
know anything about it. And that is no nonsense. Okay. Uh, moving on,
uh, as you may have deduced from today's awards, you know,
when an atheist comedian makes more sense than the Cardinal arch of Luxenberg,
we've got a problem in the church, but it's not a new problem.
Uh, the human element of the Catholic church has always been human. And,
you know, uh,
for examples just kindly consult the gospels regarding the depe betrayal and Ben
denial of Christ by, uh, Judas and St. Peter.
And naturally many will say that in a case like that of Cardinal Hallick,
that we should apply what Jesus told the apostles regarding the Pharisees,
therefore, be careful to do whatever they tell you,
but do not follow their example, but they do not practice what they preach.
And naturally it's.
It is well to always remember our Lord's promise that the gates of hell will not
prevail against his church,
but today I'd like to consider the parable of the unjust judge from Luke 18,
also known as the,
the parable of the persistent widow or the import important widow,
uh, Luke 18 one through eight. And he also,
and he spoke also a parable to them that we ought always to pray and not to
faint saying there was a judge in a certain city who feared not God nor regarded
man. And there was a certain widow in that city. And she came to him saying,
avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for a long time,
but afterwards he said within himself,
although I fear not God nor regard man yet,
because this widow is troublesome to me.
I will avenge Herles continually coming.
She weary me and the Lord said,
hear what the unjust judge sayeth.
And then he goes on to say, and will God not revenge?
His elect who cry to him day and night?
And will he have patience in their regard?
I say to you that he will quickly revenge them, but yet the son of man,
when he cometh, shall he find thank you, faith on earth.
Okay. So constant prayer to persist in prayer and to not give up,
uh, that means keeping our requests continually before God,
as we live for him day by day,
confident that he will answer to live by faith means to
persevere. Now God may delay in answering.
And we know that his delays though always have good reasons and his answers are
always for our ultimate good. And as I repeat pretty much every week now,
suffering is good for us,
for sinners as an opportunity to repent and for the just, uh,
as an opportunity for greater merit. And when we persist in prayer,
we grow in virtue, especially the theological virtues of faith, hope and love.
And obviously, uh, as our, our Lord is saying,
if a godless judge responds to this constant nagging of a widow as a person who
has no, uh, you know, uh, had no power at all in the ancient world,
how much more will a great in loving God respond to the well-intentioned and
persistent heartfelt prayers of the faithful.
If we have faith that he loves us,
we can be confident that he will hear and answer our Christ for help.
But what about that final verse? It's a dogma of the church, which again,
Catholics must believe that Jesus will come again in glory to judge the living
in the dead.
It is an article of the creed that faithful Catholics recite every Sunday,
and yet Jesus himself asks rhetorically.
But when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?
And while I was preparing these remarks doing a little Bible study,
I consulted several biblical commentaries,
four of them Catholic to contemporary into traditional,
and one of them, you know, quote unquote nondenominational, and you know what,
I didn't find a single word of commentary about this verse.
And that tells me that this is a question for each generation of Christians to
ask themselves when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?
What do you think BEIC Benedict 16th said that, uh,
he thinks the church will continue to shrink,
but the remaining remnant will be the stronger for it. Uh, presumably because,
um, you know, uh,
only those ones left will be the ones who really keep the faith.
And what we know for sure though,
is that we are closer to the day of judgment than we ever have been before.
And the closer we get the question of whether Jesus will find faith on earth
seems less and less rhetorical, and that's no nonsense.
All right. Uh, speaking of biblical commentaries, um,
one of my favorites was compiled by a,
a 19th century German Bishop named used ton.
It's called a practical commentary on holy scripture. It was, uh, tan,
put it out. I, I suspect it's still, uh, available and, um,
for the text for the biblical text, uh,
father or Bishop NT actually used father Ignatius,
Schusters Bible history. Now, you know, uh, Betty and I homeschool the kids.
And so we used Chu's Bible history with our own children for their religion
class. Uh, but, but Bible history used to be very common in Catholic schools.
And the point of using the Bible history for attacks instead of the Bible
itself, is that a Bible history, uh,
compiles the biblical story into a single chronological narrative, you know,
and if you've ever tried to read the Bible straight through, you know, that, um,
you know, the old Testament books often repeat, uh,
the same stories and events over and over again. And the gospels,
likewise have a lot of material in common, but will differ in the details.
So a Bible history is an attempt to harmonize those various accounts into
a single narrative so that you can learn the biblical story in a,
in a organic way. You know, you can encounter the characters,
understand how they fit into the big picture, you know,
in the same way that you would, if you were reading a, a novel or a, or a,
you know, a secular history. Now, 20, some years ago,
when I was working, um, with Terry Barbara here at St. Joseph communications,
we produced the great adventure, right? Jeff CA's, uh, Bible study,
which was a way of doing the same thing, only using the, the Bible timeline,
kind of as a roadmap to jump back and forth from book to book and verse to verse
to get that chronological big picture of scripture, you know,
cuz it's important to understand how it all fits together. Uh, uh,
the point of all this is that in Schuster's Bible history,
there's a chapter called 10 memorable sayings of our Lord.
And it's a collection of things that Jesus said that either aren't appear part
of that, you know, single narrative, um, structure,
or that deserves some special emphasis.
And so I wanted to share them with you today,
along with some commentary from Bishop NT and, uh, some insights from, you know,
existential insights from yours, truly an application. And no doubt,
you've heard all of these verses before,
but a solid foundation on the fundamentals, the creed,
the commandments, the sacraments, the Bible,
that's the best way to keep your faith. So with that in mind,
10 memorable sayings of our Lord,
not I'm hoping we're gonna be able to get through all 10.
Number one is John seven, 16 and 17.
Jesus said my teaching is not my own, but is from the one who sent me,
whoever chooses to do his will shall know whether my teaching is from God or
whether I speak on my own. So this is the test of, uh,
divine doctrine.
Those who attempt to know God's will and do it will know in
their minds and hearts that Jesus was telling the truth about himself,
serving God,
doing his will practicing the moral precepts of Christ will reveal that
the doctrine proposed by our Lord is, and must be divine.
Now the true faith comes to those of Goodwill. It's a gift,
you know, and those of Goodwill will also grow in virtue,
which protects and increases and strengthens your faith.
Whereas vice on the contrary,
weakens the faith even produces an aversion to the teachings of Christ and his
church might even find yourself saying that the, the, uh,
sociological foundations of the church's doctrines are no longer correct,
right. Point being it ultimately leads to unbelief and apostacy.
And also if somebody says, oh, you need to hear such and such a,
a mystic speaker or, you know,
you have to see this YouTube video about this visionary from wherever.
And you wonder, you know, is this legit? Well,
this is the test to determine if they're telling the truth,
do their words agree with the holy scriptures and the catechism and the
perennial mag of the church and not contradict them and do their words
point not to themselves,
but to Christ and to his church and to knowing and loving God and
doing his will. All right. Number two is John eight, 12.
Jesus said, I am the light of the world.
He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
In the first chapter of his gospel.
John reveals Jesus as being there at creation,
nothing was created except through him and his life brings light into the,
to mankind. And in this light,
we see ourselves as we really are sinners in need of a
savior. And when we follow Jesus, the true life,
we can avoid walking blindly and falling into sin.
He lights the path ahead of us so that we can see how to live and removes the
darkness of sin from our lives. Okay.
More on the 10 memorable sayings of Jesus.
When we come back with lots more known on tens Catholic right here on Virgin,
most powerful radio, stay with us.
Welcome back to round four on known nonsense Catholic for this week.
Great to have you with us, uh, going now, uh,
through our list of 10 memorables sayings of Jesus. We're on number three.
Jesus says, if anyone wishes to follow me,
he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. In other words,
our Lord is saying, if anybody wants to be my disciple, he must satisfy,
set aside, selfish interests,
be willing to endure whatever may come and conform himself to my example
for living and if need be to suffer and perhaps even die for his faith in
me.
So self denial it's is it's necessary for every Christian for without self
denial. There's no virtue. And our Lord himself, uh,
went before us to show us the way and his whole life on earth was one
great act of self renunciation and self denial.
And that ties in with our next verse. Number four, Matthew eight,
20 foxes have holes in the birds of the air have nests,
but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
Now Jesus used that title son of man, by the way,
to refer to himself as the Messiah, over 80 times in the gospels.
And here he is showing us his poverty, his embrace of poverty.
He was born in a stable, never owned a home of his own all the time.
He dwelled on earth. He often spent all night in prayer, out in the open.
He wandered about like a stranger living on alms. His deathbed was the cross,
which you know, on which he literally had nowhere to lay his head.
Even his dead body was buried in another man's tomb.
So it should come as no surprise that, uh, you know,
following Jesus is not always easy or comfortable.
It often entails great cost and sacrifice with little or no
earthly rewards or security just as Jesus,
didn't have a place to call home. You may find that following Christ costs you,
it costs you, your popularity, your friendships, your, your leisure time,
some of your favorite habits have to be given up.
But while the cost of following Christ is high,
the value of being his disciple is even higher.
Discipleship is an investment that lasts for eternity. And the benefits are,
as we like to say, literally out of this world, uh,
number five is Matthew 10 37.
He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
And he who loves Sonner daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Now, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't love your family okay. Far from it,
but that you should put the love of God before everything else.
And because Jesus's God and has loved us even unto death,
we in return must love him above all things more than father or mother,
more even than our own lives.
The bottom line commitment to Jesus takes precedence over everything else.
And in this next saying is also related. Number six is John 1225.
Jesus says the one who loves his life, uh, loses it.
But the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for life eternal.
So in other words, uh,
if someone loves life this life more than God who, you know,
have given the choice for sakes, God,
rather than losing his earthly life is sure to lose his life in eternity.
But he who, uh, you know,
considers life as little compared to eternal life and will give it up for
Christ's sake will certainly gain everlasting life.
Hence the church of the firstborn. Uh, and, and, uh, from,
from our gospel reading from last Sunday, you know,
the church teaches that the holy Martys pass straight to heaven without,
you know, tasting of the pains of purgatory. And then number seven.
Um, and I don't know, we may not get, uh, beyond this one today.
We may have to pick it up again next week. But number seven is Matthew 11,
verse 12,
the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by
force. Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking the same thing as me.
You're thinking, wait, what? for some context,
we should go back to verse 11. Jesus says, amen. I say to you, that is, I,
I assure you, or I solemnly say to you among those born of women,
there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist yet the one who is
leased in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he from the days of John the
Baptist,
until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it
by force. So to begin, John is, you know,
he's the last and the greatest of the old Testament saints,
the old Testament prophets, uh, but it says the,
the least of the new covenant saints out shines the greatest of the old,
because the old covenant prophets looked ahead to the new covenant,
but didn't share in its blessings.
Remember we read about John the Baptist in the gospels,
but he died before Jesus went to Calvary to redeem us.
So Jesus' contrasting the old and new covenants,
not undermining the saintly life of, of John the Baptist,
because as he himself says,
no one ever fulfilled his God-given purpose better than John.
But then that pesky verse 12 says from the days of John the Baptist,
until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take
it by force. Um, Scott, hah,
and Curtis Mitch's commentary,
the Ignatius Bible commentary says that this verse is notoriously obscure,
you know, but there are some common views, um, about its meaning. Number one,
it may be referring towards this, um, you know, vast movement toward God,
you know, that miraculous growth of the early church that, uh,
the momentum of which began with the preaching of John the Baptist. Uh,
secondly, the word violence, you know,
might be a reference to Christian aestheticism, you know, uh,
mortification and self denial, um, that those, you know, violent men,
quote unquote, who discipline themselves, you know, with prayer and fasting,
they're the ones who are gonna take hold of the kingdom. Well, number three,
he may have been reflecting on the expectation of the Jewish zealots who
believed that God's kingdom would come,
but only through the overthrow of Rome or,
or possibly the onset of the messianic woes,
which was another Jewish expectation that, uh, um, the,
the kingdom of God would only come during times of immense tribulation and
distress,
that those days would witness like masse and the persecution of the saints.
Now, in that view, John, the Baptist, um, was executed for his witness to Jesus.
He would be the first of the faithful to die, you know, in, in this,
in this time. And then, you know,
in the arrival of these days and then followed by Jesus and then his followers,
you know, up until this day. Um,
and then finally you have number four is the traditional Catholic understanding,
uh, which is that it's kind of a combination of the, of the previous ones that,
that Jesus meant that entering into God's kingdom takes courage.
It takes an unwavering faith and determination and endurance because of
the growing opposition level that Jesus and his followers,
which continues right up to this very day. Uh,
so this is a call to the virtues of temperance and fortitude, uh,
that if you wish to win heaven,
you must persistently restrain your evil inclinations, you know,
to fight against your passions,
to struggle against all external temptations and never be turned away from
what's, right, because it's difficult or because of persecution.
And that ties into the next memorable saying of our Lord number eight,
whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.
But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it for what will it profit a
man if he gains the whole world,
but for if it's his soul or what will a man give an exchange for his soul?
That's Matthew 16, 25 and 26.
It is one of my pet peeves that many modern English translations do not make the
distinction between life and soul in these verses life,
be Veta in Latin and soul, which is anima.
And so they would render verse 26.
What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world before forfeit his life,
or what will a man give an exchange for his life makes mince me to the passage
makes it, uh,
it makes it nonsense because what Jesus is saying is whoever
wishes to save his life.
That is to say his earthly life in this world will eventually lose it right
through death. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
That is if you give up your earthly life in exchange for eternal life,
with Christ, for what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world,
that's wealth, power, faith success,
but for if it's his soul or what will a man give an exchange for his
soul, you can give your earthly life in exchange for eternal life.
Uh, but if you lose your soul, it's lost forever.
It would truly profit you nothing to possess all of the power and honor and
riches possible in this world. If you injure your soul in the process,
and the church is here to remind us that all sin and especially mortal sin
does injury to the soul. And therefore, if,
if a man could gain the whole world by committing one mortal sin,
would it be of any prophet to him? No,
of course not because death would eventually take all of his worldly
possessions away from him. And then he would be punished forever in hell.
Some of our separated brethren have the motto once saved, always saved,
but Jesus says once lost forever lost,
what can a man give an exchange for his soul?
What can he do or give to redeem is sold from hell nothing.
Once your man's soul is lost, you know, once your soul is in hell,
it remains lost. Nothing can redeem it from everlasting damnation
and therefore the, the care of the soul is more important.
It's the most important business in life.
It is the one thing needful as our Lord says, all right,
I've got two more verses on this list.
I think we're gonna save them for next week. If you wanna play ahead. It's um,
uh,
gonna be Matthew 1128 through 30 and John 6 44.
So, uh, if you can remember that or write it down quickly and, uh, look,
'em up. You can, you can play ahead, but those,
we will tackle next week also gonna be doing the,
the readings for next week and talking about the month of September,
which is, um, you know, the Penn ultimate, uh,
final month or the Penn ultimate month of this special year dedicated to
the blessed Virgin. Mary.
Remember in 2021 Pope Francis declared October of 2021 through
October of 2022,
a year devoted to the blessed Virgin Mary devotion to Mary and
these months of August, which is now over today, uh, you know, where we had the,
the, uh, dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary major, which is,
you know, the great Marion shrine in Rome and more,
more popes and princes have visited that than any other Marion shrine, the 15th,
we have the assumption. And then eight days later on the Octa,
the queenship of Mary, all that happened, um,
this month and then September is, uh,
every year is especially dedicated to our lady
queen of martyrs. And you may not, uh,
realize you may in fact,
be surprised to learn that there are more Christian martyrs today.
More people are dying for their faith today, that at any time in history.
And so, uh, we really need to turn to our lady queen of martyrs.
And then of course, um, next month it rounds out in October,
uh, with the month of the holy rosary.
And we always do special programs for the holy rosary in the month of October.
So looking forward to all of that and launch more, wanna say,
thank you for your support of Virgin, most powerful radio, uh, your prayers,
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We pray for the intentions of all our listeners and especially for all of our
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I wanna say it's great to be back in the saddle and until we meet again,
make God richly blessed you and your family in
it.